HISTORY OF COFFEE
Coffee comes from the Arabic word cahwe which means vegetable drink, a term that in ancient times was used to designate drinks that came from plants, coffee plants are native to ancient Ethiopia.
Although there are several legends of the origin of coffee, the most well known and accurate one, is the one that refers to an Arab goat shepherd named Kaldi. He noticed that his goats were jumping full of energy after eating the fruits and leaves of a certain bush. Kaldi tasted them and took some plants and fruits to a priest, telling him what he had felt eating them. The priest decided to cook the fruits which resulted in a very bitter drink, so he immediately discarded them and threw them in the fire, but when the fruits began to roast they produced a delicious aroma and made the priest think of making a drink with the toasted fruit.
After coffee was discovered as a beverage, it started to expand throughout the world. First to Arabia, the current Republic of Yemen, and India. Coffee was carried to Arabia by Muslim pilgrims who traveled to Mecca, which quickly incorporated into religious rituals. Coffee was not really domesticated until the 15th century, the Arabs saw some coffee balls that the African soldiers brought and wanted to know what it was, They burned the coffee, ground it and then mixed it with fat, and thus they formed balls of coffee as energy food for their war expeditions.
Considering the Muslim culture, there was a mandate that banned the consumption of alcohol and is maintained nowadays in countries of the Middle East. Others have relaxed their laws, but as a rule alcohol and Arabs do not mix, unless they are very liberal or have a lot of money, the fact is that coffee became a popular drink.
In the year 1475, the first coffee shop was opened in Istanbul Arabia, the old Constantinople. By 1510, cafes proliferated in the Middle East, these were places where people gathered to listen to music. Coffee was seen even in the mosques, since many Muslims used it to stay awake during their prayers. However in 1511, the governor of Mecca began to suspect that coffee was an intoxicating drink. Because it altered people's behavior, he met with the priests and doctors, and they ordered to prohibit the consumption of coffee, thus closing all the coffee shops. It is necessary to understand the strong cultural impact that this caused on the population, it is known that people were so used to coffee that there were Turkish laws that allowed a woman to divorce only because the husband did not give her a daily portion of coffee. This mandate became so unpopular that the intellectuals, religious populace and merchants began to protest massively, generating a series of disturbances that generated instability in Egypt.
Coffee arrived in Europe in the 17th century, thanks to Mediterranean merchants. When the drink arrived in Europe, Pope Clement VIII was advised to ban it for the same reasons that caused controversy in the Middle East. In fact, there were priests who nicknamed it the devil's brew. However, Pope Clement VIII said "leaving only the infidels the power to drink it is a shame". Then he symbolically baptized it and thus made it viable for the entire Catholic community. But the Protestants in East and West Germany banned the drink. Until the 18th century, when Frederick II of Prussia decriminalized consumption and put a very high tribute to coffee. As if to discourage the fever that was brewing. This did not prevent the first coffee shop from opening in Berlin in 1670. Previous to that, London did it in the year 1652, and Paris in 1686 ,with the famous Procopé Café that is still open to date, which has been attended by artists and intellectuals such as Voltier. In that cafe, coffee consumption was revolutionized through the use of a water filter and ground coffee.
Coffee arrived to America (Boston) in 1689. People considered it a poor replacement for alcohol. However, it became the national drink after the rebels dumped Tea into the sea, protesting the British government about the high taxes they had to pay. "You can keep the tea to yourself" they said, "coffee belongs to everyone". The United States was the coffee gateway to America. The first crops were grown by Gabriel Matthew de Clieu, a French Navy officer who was on duty on a caribbean island, Martinique.
In 1720 de Clieu traveled to Paris and there acquired a coffee plant from the royal gardens. It is not certain under what method, did he stole it, and took it with him back to the Caribbean. He put it in a safe glass box to avoid contact with salt water. But the trip was full of incidents, at least that's how he told it in his diary. First, he had to escape from a Tumbes pirate ship that chased the ship for a long time, they survived a long storm that put the delicate glass box at risk. They repelled a riot attempt on board that attempted to sabotage the bush, which happily after a very violent fight the plant survived, although one of its branches was broken. However, the worst had not happened and that is that in the middle of the ocean the ship remained immobile due to lack of wind and the potable survival water was rationed. De Clieu yielded most of the water that corresponded to him for coffee, after this long journey the coffee finally entered Martinique, in Caribbean territory. Coffee in 1726 already gave the first harvest. It is recorded that 50 years later there were 18 million coffee trees on the island.
To be fair with history, coffee had long since been brought to Sunan by the Dutch, and the first country in South America to produce coffee was Brazil. In Jamaica, cultivation also began in the 18th century. Finally, in the 19th century, coffee arrived in Colombia, initially in the department of Santander, but fell to Cundinamarca and Caldas, thus forming the so-called Colombian coffee axis at the end of that century. Coffee was one of the main components of the country's economy and continues to be recognized for its aromatic flavors and good quality.
Coffee did not take long to become part of a popular consumption that did not take long to spread throughout the world. The plant spread in the modern age, along a tropical belt where the perfect climatic conditions are to develop. But the great propagators of coffee were the Dutch, who exploited large plantations of it in their colonies in Salan and Indonesia, later taking the seeds to Dutch Guiana, Brazil, Central America, and other countries of the new world. Thus installing trade and consumption worldwide, in just three centuries this unknown infusion was known on a universal level. In the last stage of the 20th century characterized by the search for a healthier diet, coffee was identified as one of the silent enemies of health. And today its consumption is recommended in moderation. Today for its energizing effects are seen by many as a symptom of addiction, there are few people who can resist the charm and aroma of a good cup of coffee