Coffee Origin Jul 1

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After several years of waiting, my childhood friend, who lives in Las Vegas, paid me a visit here to Mexico. Knowing that we were going to talk for a long time to catch up on our lives, I invited him to drink a cup of coffee. We went into a coffee shop and, as we were chatting and reminiscing on youth and childhood memories, I couldn’t help wondering who discovered coffee? Why does coffee make us feel energized, alert and joyful when talking with friends? Today we are going to explore the history of coffee.

The legend has it that an Ethiopian goat shepherd felt curious when he saw that his goats got energized, jumped around and did not sleep after eating off the red fruits from a peculiar shrub. 

The shepherd then took the fruit to the monks of a nearby monastery and told them about the strange behavior his goats had, after feeding on the fruit and leaves of the shrub.

The monks were curious so they decided to toast the beans and prepare a tea with them. After drinking the tea, the monks felt more alert. So they started drinking the tea more often as they discovered that it helped them get through the long hours of evening praying.

Coffee is a plant that grows naturally in the plateau of Kaffa, in Ethiopia. But it was after the Turkish conquered the Arabia Peninsula that coffee was taken to many other countries in the form of coffee houses that offered the “new” drink all over the Ottoman Empire. While drinking coffee, people would listen to music, play chess and talk about current events and topics, so coffee houses quickly became important centers for the exchange of information.

Some people reacted to this new drink with suspicion and fear, claiming it was an  “invention of Satan.” The local clergy condemned coffee when it came to Venice in 1615. The controversy was so great that Pope Clement VIII was asked to intervene. He decided to taste the beverage for himself before making a decision, and found the drink so satisfying that he said “let’s cheat the devil and baptize this drink”.

It was Gabriel de Clieu who obtained a small plant from the King of France and brought it to the Americas, despite a challenging voyage where drinking water was rationed and he had to share it with the plant. After dealing with horrendous weather, a saboteur who tried to destroy the seedling, and a pirate attack, he managed to bring it safely to the island of Martinique. It’s incredible to think that this seedling was the mother of all coffee trees throughout the Caribbean, South and Central America.

Brazil has a big production of coffee. According to legend, de Mel Palheta seduced the coffee-coveting governor’s wife of French Guiana to get his hands on some precious seeds, which he then smuggled out of the country in a bouquet of flowers.

De Melo Palheta planted his seeds in Pará (northeastern Brazil) where they quickly thrived and started spreading south. By the 1830s, Brazil was producing 30% of the world’s coffee. After crude oil, coffee is the most sought commodity in the world.