Have you ever wondered how the secret of coffee was discovered and just how it became

popular all over the world?

The discovery of coffee

It is not known exactly when the first person discovered the effects of the coffee plant and
brewed a drink from the berries, but there are two stories about the origins of coffee. The
first comes from an Arabian doctor called Rhazes, who mentions it as a medicine from about
900 BC. The second story is about an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi .
Different versions of both stories are told but the basic story remains the same.

HISTORY OF COFFEE
Coffee New Culture
The story of how coffee growing and drinking
This new found 'coffee culture' has started to spread to the
spread around the world is one of the
greatest and most romantic in history. It rest of the world. To those countries with great coffee tradi-
starts in the Horn of Africa, in Ethiopia, tions of their own, such as Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia,
where the coffee tree probably originated in added new converts to the pleasures of good coffee. Today it
the province of Kaffa. There are various is possible to find good coffee in every major city of the
fanciful but unlikely stories surrounding the world, from London to Sydney to Tokyo; tomorrow the world
discovery of the properties of roasted coffee will drink more and more importantly, better coffee.
beans. One story has it that an Ethiopian
goatherd was amazed at the lively behavior
of his goats after chewing red coffee berries.
What we know with more certainty is that the
succulent outer cherry flesh was eaten by
slaves taken from present day Sudan into
Yemen and Arabia, through the great port of
its day, Mocha, now synonymous with
coffee. Coffee was certainly being cultivated
in Yemen by the 15th century and probably
much earlier than that.
Mocha was also the main port for the one
sea route to Mecca, and was the busiest Coffee was first roasted in the
place in the world at the time. But the Arabs late 14th century, The earliest
method was by roasting the green
had a strict policy not to export any fertile coffee in a heavy pan over
beans, so that coffee could not be cultivated charcoal fire.
anywhere else. The coffee bean is the seed
Late last century, a new process
of the coffee tree, but when stripped of its
was introduced where beans
outer layers it becomes infertile. The race to were spun in a hot air chamber
make off with some live coffee trees or heated by natural gas, this
beans was eventually won by the Dutch in system remains the most widely
1616, who brought some back to Holland used to date.
where they were grown in greenhouses. The chemical make-up of the
coffee bean changes during the
Initially, the authorities in Yemen actively roasting process water dissipates
encouraged coffee drinking as it was in the bean and a series of
considered preferable to the extreme side chemical reactions change
effects of Kat, a shrub whose buds and sugars and starches into oils,
which give coffee much of its aro-
leaves were chewed as a stimulant. The first ma and flavor , When roasted, the
coffeehouses were opened in Mecca and coffee bean doubles in size, and
were called 'kaveh kanes'. They quickly the caramelization of the sugar
spread throughout the Arab world and turns it from green to brown.
became successful places where chess was The color and appearance of the
played, gossip was exchanged, and singing, roasted bean depends on how
dancing and music were enjoyed. They were long it has been roasted for The
luxuriously decorated and each had an longer it is roasted, the darker the
individual character. Nothing quite like the roast Coffee is usually roasted for
about 10 to 20 minutes at
coffeehouse had existed before: a place temperatures ranging from 400ºF
where society and business could be to 425ºF.
conducted in comfortable surroundings and
where anyone could go, for the price of The secret to developing the aro-
ma and flavor of coffee is found
coffee. in the roasting of the coffee
beans. The length of time, as well
The Arabian coffeehouses soon became as temperature of the roast, are
centers of political activity and were crucial in producing a quality cup
suppressed. Coffee and coffeehouses were of coffee, as well as determining
subsequently banned several times over the which characteristics will be
next few decades, but they kept reappearing. emphasized or muted. If roasting
is too short, the oils won't be
Eventually a solution was found when cof- brought to the surface and
feehouses and coffee were taxed. the coffee will have a nutty flavor
and lack consistency