The history of coffee starts with a legend. A young Arabian goatherd sees his charges clustered around what looked like a cherry tree in a state of euphoria. Seeing that the fruit seemed to have brought this state on, he tried it himself. Thus, the first caffeine hit from coffee was recorded.
A monk spied the young man and gathered a few "cherries" as well. He tasted them, discovered the powerful reaction and brought some home to his brethren. The results: a night in which they were all wakeful and able to stay at their prayers much longer. They, of course, shared it with other monasteries.
Unfortunately, this delightful tale is not the true history of the coffee bean. It is thought to have been discovered in Ethiopia, though there is no legend to go along with it. People in Africa made something similar to a powerbar; coffee beans and animal fat mixed together in balls.
At some point, the coffee plant made it into Arabia. Around A.D. 1000, coffee was roasted, ground and brewed. At about 1300, Muslims began to use the brew to help them stay awake. It quickly became popular in the secular community. Wherever Islam spread, coffee followed.
The Arabians didn't want to give up the lucrative monopoly they had on the beans, so they rendered them infertile before shipping them off in trade. That didn't set to well with the people who were (by now) addicted. Like the silk worm, someone finally managed to slip it out of the area.
What followed was predictable. The Dutch started growing coffee in Indonesia and were very confident. Perhaps to confident. They began giving seedlings to various European aristocrats, including Louis the XIV. Again, someone wanted to start a coffee plantation, this time on Martinique. Louis XIV was *not* interested, but again smuggling took place and seedlings were secured. Then, Brazil wanted to grow coffee, which was still an expensive crop and not for the masses. You guessed it, more smuggling.
This time something unusual happened. Supply went up and prices went down. It was no longer something only the wealthy could indulge in, now *everyone* could afford a cup of coffee.
Coffee plays a role in U.S. history as well. The British brought both coffee and tea to the New World, and the people living in the colonies partook of both, depending on tastes. Taverns served coffee and tea as well as stronger brews. However, the British decided to start taxing tea imports.
The result? The Boston Tea Party. After an imported shipment of tea was dumped into Boston harbor, Americans turned resolutely to coffee. It was considered unpatriotic to drink tea. Besides, they didn't have to get their coffee from Europe anymore. They could import it just fine from South America.
Coffee was prepared in a simple fashion at first. The beans were roasted, ground and cooked in a pot on the stove (or campfire). However, that left a lot to be desired. James Mason invented the first Percolator in 1865. An electric one was developed in 1910, which made many housewives very happy. They didn't have to carefully watch over the process to prevent it from boiling over, ruining the coffee and making a mess on the stove.
So, next time you visit Starbucks, you now have some interesting information to share with the barista...
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