Where does coffee come from originally?!
Where does coffee come from originally?
Answers: Where does coffee come from ?
Walk into a coffeehouse, almost any coffeehouse in the world, and you can see the same thing: A line leading up to the counter and one or two dexterous baristas smiling and taking orders for specialty coffee drinks. The steam from the espresso machine evaporates into the air. The sound and smell from a shot extraction envelops the line eagerly anticipating. And then you get your cup of coffee, that dark, mysterious brew that magically awakens senses and fuels the day. But what happens before the cup is handed to you by the trusted barista? What happens before it gets to the coffeehouse? Before it is roasted? Where does coffee come from? And what does the beginning of life look like for a cup of coffee?
The origins of our fixation with coffee lie shrouded in legend. Some of these stories are too far fetched for belief. But others have been widely accepted as true, such as the story of Kaldi, a goatherd in Arabia Felix-now known as Yemen-who one day noticed his goats whimsically prancing from one particular shrub to another, eating the plants' red berries. Curiosity got the better of Kaldi and he tried some of the berries himself. He soon found himself carousing alongside his herd. Word of this encounter quickly spread to local monks who, after some experimenting, discovered how to make a drink with the berries. The bean's reputation began to travel.
While Kaldi and his frolicsome herd might portray the first account of enjoying the berries, historical data actually suggests the true origin of the coffee plant lies on the plateaus of central Ethiopia, across the Red Sea from Yemen. Arabica coffee trees still grow wild in these parts. Legend also has it that once the Arabians became aware of the power of the coffee plant and its brew, they shunned the idea of sharing it with the rest of the world. For this reason they parched and boiled all coffee seeds or beans that left the country, rendering them sterile. This monopoly over the coffee trade, which was almost impossible to secure, collapsed around the 17th century (an exact date is not known) when a man named Baba Budan spirited seven beans bound to his belly out of Arabia and into his homeland of India. He planted them there and they grew plentifully.
The Europeans, with their insatiable desire for rare and exotic items from abroad, coveted a coffee plant of their own. The continent's upper class had already been enjoying coffee for almost 40 years, and what was once parsimoniously sipped soon became an item to be attained. Louis XIV of France (1643-1715) played a key role in obtaining a coffee plant for the Western world. The Sun King went to great lengths to procure a coffee tree, and built Europe's first greenhouse to shelter his prized possession. The tree originally came from the port of Mocha in Arabia, then traveled to the Dutch colony of Java in the Malay Archipelago, to Holland and finally to Paris. The plant Louis XIV cultivated is said to be the father of most modernday arabica coffee trees in the New World.
The agent of that dispersal was the Chevalier Gabriel Mathiew de Clieu, a Frenchman who through toil and tumble managed to bring coffee from Europe to the island of Martinique. His ship eluded pirates and was nearly sunk by a massive storm. Along the journey, dehydrated to dangerous limits, he opted to share his water with his coffee saplings. One seedling made it to the shores of the French colony. It is not known how many coffee trees de Clieu left French shores with, but this one successful plant bore hundreds of thousands of coffee plants spreading to the islands of Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, many other Caribbean nations, and even Mexico. From these substantial beginnings, the coffee tree continued to spread around the world. It went back across the Atlantic to Kenya and Tanzania, only a short distance from Ethiopia and Yemen, where, not surprisingly, it took well to the climate and soil conditions.
By the late 19th century, coffee had established itself as a highly prized commodity, planted worldwide.
Today, coffee farmers tend their crops in over 50 countries and coffee is the most heavily traded commodity after oil. Throughout the Americas, coffee is a sole source of income. Its cultivation is often a tradition handed down from generation to generation. Hawaii is known for surf, sun and Kona coffee. The big island's popularity as a vacation spot has lent Kona a near celebrity status. Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and Honduras all produce fine coffees. In South America, coffee can be found growing in Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. Brazil, which supplies the world with 35 percent of its coffee, has three major growing regions: Sul de Minas, in the southern part of Minas Gerais, an area called Mogiana and the Cerrado. All of these regions are located on the southeastern edge of the country, just under the bulb that juts into the Atlantic Ocean. The story of how coffee got to Brazil is yet another tale of intrigue.
Around the year 1727, the Brazilian emperor wanted in on the coffee industry. So he sent the charming and dashing emissary, Francisco de Mello Palheta, north to French Guiana to find seeds. The French guarded their seeds with as much pride as the Arabs before them, and Palheta had trouble obtaining his prize. But his charm won the heart of the wife of the French governor, through unknown means, and she sent him, concealed in a bouquet of flowers, all the seeds Brazil would need to create its rich coffee industry.
Specialty coffee connoisseurs generally have little interest in Brazil due to its history of growing lower quality robusta beans for blending. There are exceptions, though, and a few of the smaller microclimates like Chapadao de Ferro and Serra de Salita pull some specialty weight.
Basking in the Caribbean sun, coffee plants can be found on Jamaica's Blue Mountains. Jamaica, like Hawaii, has used its powerful tourism industry to boost its coffee's reputation. Coffee is also grown in Haiti although recent upheavals have caused many problems for its coffee growers. Across the Atlantic Ocean, in the original home of arabica coffee, the Arabian Peninsula still serves as home to some of the oldest existing coffee trees. Yemen is still growing its mocha coffee, which derives its name not from the chocolaty aftertaste often associated with it but from the ancient port of the same name that shipped it. Ethiopia's coffees are some of the best in the world and have the claim to fame as the first place coffee grew. (It was first cultivated in Yemen, as Kaldi can attest.) Ethiopian coffees, such as Harrar, Ghimbi, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe,' are known for a wide range within the winy and fruity scale of acidity. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe all grow coffee as well. The biggest tea producer in the world, India, is also in the coffee game, growing coffee plants mostly in Karnataka, a southern state. India is known for its "monsooned" coffees, which have been exposed to the rains and winds that the country weathers annually. The seasonal rain reduces the acidity of the coffee and turns the bean a yellowish color. Spin the globe further to the East and you will find the home of some of the world's most prized beans. The Malay The arabica coffee plant produces its best results when grown at high altitudes, usually in the 1500- to 6000-foot range. The cooler temperatures of these elevations help the coffee plant escape disease and encourage the bean to mature at a slower pace, improving its flavor. For example, on Mt. Kenya, where coffee grows at 5000 to 6500 feet, the plants have an advantage over coffee trees grown lower. Coffee-growing regions are also volcanic hot zones, fittingly, because coffee plants love carbonrich soils. Hawaii's Kona region, the only coffee producer in the United States, is a perfect example of the link between lava and Java.
The Central American region in particular has become a favorite of specialty coffee connoisseurs because of the flavors the area can produce. It is also a perfect cross section of how diversity can create differences in a bean's flavor. Guatemala, for example, has seven different defined microclimates. Each one of these areas, some small, some large, has a distinctive flavor it imparts to its coffee. One of the most famous, the Antigua region, is famous for sharp and clean acidity in its coffees. This acidity is the result of careful farming and countless variables that change from year to year. Its sharpness, brightness or balance can change if the soil changes, the area gets more or less rainfall, or less wind or sunshine, etc.
As a consumer, it's important to remember that coffee comes from these incredibly diverse places all over the world, and that each cup is the result of thousands of delicate properties. When sipping the specialty beverage so lovingly handed to you by your barista, try to note characteristics in your cup, try to travel back to the field it grew up in; try to imagine the farmer or workers who picked it carefully. Try to imagine where your coffee comes from. Source(s):
indiacoffee.org Ethiopia. It used to be thought to be from Persia, but now historians are almost certain it is from NE Africa (Ethiopia). It did not reach Europe until around 1600.
To the person below who said Costa Rica: Costa Rica did not start growing coffee until the mid- to late- 18th century. The Spaniards brought it over during that time, much later than in the Old World. It did become an important export crop for Costa Rica, but again that happened much later. coffee grinds how do u not no that u loser coffee can be grown in many places which is how we can have different types and tastes from what i think it comes from coffee beans The stork brought it!! Coffee comes from Ethiopia and then the plant was taken around the world even being smuggled out of countries. The legend is that Ethiopian goat herders saw their goats amped up after eating the fruit of the plants. They then made a beverage out of it and have cursed us all forever Each type of coffee has its own history. Click this link to read all about it:
http://www.coffeecakes.com/coffee-histor... Several plantations across the world including Columbia and Costa Rica.
I visited serveral while in Costa Rica this summer. Doka Coffee actually provides every single coffee bean to Starbucks. So when you drink Starbucks its Costa Rican Coffee. Coffee wasn't originally consumed in the form we know it today; as a hot beverage made from boiling water. That practice began around 1000 A.D. Until that time use of the drink was largely linked to medicinal or religious purposes by the Arabs. Soon the feeling of exhilaration from the caffeine of the drink became a sought-after side effect. A popular Arab legend tells of Sheik Omar, who experimented with brewing some coffee from raw wild coffee berries he found in his travels during his exile from Mocha. Thanks in part to the beneficial effects of the caffeine, the Sheik survives his exile and upon his return to Mocha, introduced his new way of preparing the drink.
The Arabs refined their methods of preparing the drink over many years. For over 300 years, coffee drinkers drank the grounds right along with the boiled water. Then, they began drinking the liquid alone, leaving the grounds to settle at the bottom of the cup. As methods for preparing coffee became more refined, the popularity of the drink spread first through coffee houses, known as qahveh khaneh, and then into the home where elaborate ceremonies became associated with consumption of the drink. Soon coffee had became such an important part of the lives of the Arabs that in Turkey a husband who refused to provide his wife with the drink could be divorced by her! Coffee is made mainly in developing countries and sold to the developed countries. The biggest producing countries are Brazil, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Indonesia (i think) and others. The USA makes coffee as well, but very little. The biggest buyers of coffee are USA and Germany. In the developing countries farmers are made to buy seeds and pesticides to plant and harvest them from these big national corporations. Then they national corporations buy this and sell it to their countrys. The farmers are paid only 10% of what is sold. Coffee roasters (who roast the coffee to make it taste better) and importers get 55%, retailers get 25% and someone gets the rest i think.
Its unfair, I reckon because the farmers in the developing countries are paid cheaply truely it was north africa...but more it was discovered by shepards who were watching their herds...couldn't stay awake...and noticed that members of that herd became quite active after eating the fruit of that plant/coffee beans....so by first eating the beans(cherry and all)...then later refining the process by seperating the pit/coffee bean from the fruit...then mellowing the flavor by roasting the bean....then even later grinding it....all to evolve into today's beverage....so coffee as we drink it today is evolved from north africa and the shepards and long refinement over time and in many locations throughout that area....and truely the nobility of persia were the first to enjoy this drink in a more public way to give them energy to work/play longer in any given day...then turkey....next in the refinement...eventually leading to italy ...and espresso....usually nobilty first...then more public...even today...where starbucks now represents the next generation of refinements ...adding flavors...and much more plants