Why Does This Plant do This?
Apr 8, 2022
THE LEGENDARY STORY OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS DRINKS
1. THE ORIGIN OF COFFEE IN ETHIOPIA (Just one of the most known stories)
The origin of coffee can be traced back to the ancient coffee forests of the Ethiopian plateau.
, dancing after having these beans that looked like berries. He decided to try some and fell in love with the effect it had on him.
A monk passing by saw this and decided to consume these beans to stay up for his prayers and soon after, other monks followed suit.
Source:
https://www.coffeecrossroads.com/coffee-history/origin-of-coffee-kaldi-and-dancing-goats
2. OR DOES THIS HISTORY BEGIN IN YEMEN?
According to this story, a Yemenite Sufi was travelling through Ethiopia and found some birds having berries from a plant (now known as coffee plant) and decided to treat himself with some of the berries. Soon he noticed the energy that kicked in.
BUT, it’s largely believed that coffee beans were brought to Yemen from Ethiopia so let's stick to that story!
Regardless, Sufis started using coffee beans to stay up for longer for dhikr which is a practice of remembering God.
Soon it became known to be consumed in Sufi gatherings where the drink would be consumed to gain a more spiritual state.
Some Yemenites also saw the opportunity to make money out of it and spread it to the Arab world through trade.
Source:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-origin-of-coffee-765180
3. ARAB’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH COFFEE
The love and want for coffee through other parts of Arab was spread within the next 100 years enjoyed by people in homes and public settings.
Soon after, the first coffee shop popped up in 1945 in Istanbul.
While people had started to enjoy coffee as a part of their regular regime, Khair Beg, the ruler at that time, wasn’t quite happy with this situation.
https://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2019/12/when-coffee-was-newly-introduced-good.html
Being the Governor of Mecca, he initially mistook coffee for wine. He later found out that coffee was being consumed EVERYWHERE.
After that people might actually conspire against him, he banned coffee from 1512 to 1524.
BUT, at that time he was under the Sultan of Cairo, who happened to be quite fond of coffee. So of course, once he found out, the ban was lifted and some say, the rule was exiled after.
Coffee soon became the ‘wine of Araby’ and muslim pilgrims from across the globe boosted its reputation while on their way to Mecca.
4. COFFEE BEANS REACH INDIA
Another interesting story to know is of Baba Budan. An Indian muslim who while coming back from Mecca, smuggled some coffee beans to India and that’s when the South Indian Coffee Cultivation really took place in 1670.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Budan
5. AN ABSURD RULE IN TURKEY?
Apparently, there was a rule on women being able to divorce men on grounds of not being able to provide enough coffee. It’s kind of true that it’s possible but it wasn’t a blanket rule. The way rulings worked with divorce was that judgments were passed by Qadi’s, by definition magistrate and judges of a shariah court. So they would pass rulings based on the teachings they had and expert opinions.
So generally the ruling was that if the man isn’t able to provide for your needs, you’re allowed a divorce. So by chain of association, coffee at one point became a very essential part of Turkish life and there could’ve been divorces that came out of it.
Read More: https://www.factzpedia.com/2020/11/in-16th-century-turkish-women-could.html
6. FROM ARAB TO EUROPE!
Coffee's history took a transformative turn as it captivated European travellers in the 17th century.
It was first introduced to Europe through Italian merchants and the Ottoman Empire. In 1645, Venice hosted the continent's first coffee house. The trend spread rapidly in England via the Dutch and British East India Companies, with Oxford opening its first coffee house in 1651.
London's coffee houses, exclusively for men, became hubs for discussions and business ventures.
Paris embraced coffee in 1669, and by 1671, coffee houses were flourishing.
In the next 30 years, coffee became a cultural staple across Austria, Germany, Spain, and the rest of Europe, though European climates posed challenges for coffee cultivation, leading to its growth elsewhere.
European Coffee Houses
One of the first accounts of coffee is known to have been in Italy back in the 1600s after the ottoman expanded their trade to Europe.
Although it is often associated as sinful given the Islamic association. As it first arrived, Pope Clement VIII was asked to denounce the drink. He refused to ban it before trying it. Once he got a taste, some quotes said.
“This Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.” And after his approval it started to spread across Europe.
However, of most places, the places it has the most interesting build up is London. The first coffeehouse opened in London in the 1650s by an Ottoman-Lebanese Jew named Jacob. With the lines “for some who delighted in novelty”
https://www.londnr.com/united-coffeedom-the-history-of-londons-coffee-houses/
But now this threatened the Monarchy at that time so Of course something like this threatened the Monarchy at the time. So King Charles II is worried that this might become a place from where the public revolted against the throne.
So around 1675 he tried to ban coffee shops stating that “have produced very evil and dangerous effects,” and were also a “disturbance of the peace and quiet realm,”
https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-coffeehouse-culture/#:~:text=King%20Charles%20II%20stated%20that,and%20in%20homes%20as%20well.
The outcry was loud.
Though by the late 18th century the British or the East India Company eventually started to invest more into the tea trade because of the colonies they had and it was more profitable. Like India and Sri Lanka.
5. THE ENTRANCE OF UNITED STATES
So going back a little earlier in the history, just for context, we all know how Europeans had fled to United States after Christopher Columbus had discovered the ‘New World’
Naturally, the food and lifestyle culture of Europe had a huge influence over America and at that time, tea was a prominent drink that was being consumed.
Coming to the 17th century, Britain had just gotten out of the Civil War and was in massive debt so it started imposing tax on the Colonists without them having a representative including the Tea Act of 1773.
This brought over the big protest of ‘No taxation without representation!’ by the colonists and led to a boycott of tea and compelled a group of Sons of Liberty on the night of December 16, 1773 to disguise themselves as Mohawk Indians, board three ships moored in Boston Harbor, and destroy over 92,000 pounds of British East India Company tea leading to the Boston Tea Party, a protest led by the Sons of Liberty in Boston.
And for the first time coffee was preferred over tea and soon became a starting point of the coffee culture of America.
6. A MODERN DAY ROMANCE WITH COFFEE
Coffee has found its way into our lives and has become an integral part of it.
It’s synonymous with having that initial interaction with someone in a romantic sense, to meeting someone for a business deal, or offering someone a beverage as a welcome to your house.
But there’s a beautiful story of love, war, greed and enlightenment that’s behind this.
Presenting us with a stark reality of the life of the people that make it and the life of people that drink it. People who make about 5-8$ a day touch the lives of people who make 5-8,000$ a day. Driving through a journey of wage gaps. From the pickers, packers, movers, roasters, baristas and the consumers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Sources for Information:
https://www.lawcoffee.com/blog/java-on-its-journey-a-history-of-coffee-in-the-u-s/
https://www.360onhistory.com/history/the-story-of-coffee/
https://wanderinggoat.com/pages/history-of-coffee
India’s History: https://coffeehunter.com/our-origins/india/#:~:text=Coffee%20was%20introduced%20to%20India,the%20Chandragiri%20hills%20of%20Karnataka.
5 times when coffee was nearly banned: https://www.ottomancoffeehouse.co.uk/blog-3/5-attempts-that-nearly-banned-coffee-in-history#:~:text=The%20Ottoman%20Empire,ideas%20and%20provoked%20social%20disorder.
Coffee as a global beverage before 1700: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/223201571.pdf
The grand coffee houses in Constantinople: https://earthstoriez.com/coffee-houses-constantinople-istanbul-history#:~:text=The%20grand%20Coffeehouses%20in%20Constantinople,coffee%20and%20narghile%20were%20prepared
Sons of Liberty:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Liberty