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There are no solid facts behind the actual discovery of the coffee bean (What? You know who ate the first oyster?). Supposedly, a goat herder named Kaldi was watching his herd in what is now known as Ethiopia around 500 A.D. (Coffee is indigenous to Kaffa [coffee] region Ethiopia). He noticed his goats became frisky after eating “red cherries” from a particular bush with shiny green leaves on the plateaus several thousand feet above sea level. Kaldi - a logical sort - figured that if this made the goats frisky, think about what it could do for the lazy good-for-nothings back at the camp. He tried a few berries himself, and discovered that this was the drug of renewed energy! It was also the discovery of Coffea Arabica.
The Galla tribe from Ethiopia used coffee, but not as a drink. They would wrap the beans in animal fat as their only source of nutrition while on raiding parties. The local monks, being ever enterprising and a little more delicate, dried the berries and transported them to distant brothers. The berries were reconstituted in water, and the water was drunk to provide a more alert prayer session. Actually, the first drink made from the coffee tree was wine. It was made from coffee cherries, honey, and water. In fact the word coffee has its origins in an old Arabic word “Qahwah,” which means wine. It fell out of favor with the spread of Islam and its sanctions against the consumption of alcohol.
Another legend gives us the name for coffee or “mocha.” It is told that an Arabian was banished to the desert with his followers to die of starvation. In desperation, this man had his friends boil and eat the berry from an unknown plant. Not only did the broth save the exiles, but their survival was taken as a religious sign by the residents of the nearest town, the Arabian port of Al Mukkah (Mocca) on the Red Sea. The town became world famous because it was the sole source for the world’s coffee. The plant and its beverage were named Mocha to honor this event. Coffee has not shipped from Mocha in over 100 years.
Transportation of the plant out of the Moslem nations was - supposedly - forbidden by the government. The actual spread of coffee was started illegally. One Arab named Baba Budan smuggled beans to some mountains near Mysore, India and started a farm there. Early in this century the descendants of those original plan were found still growing fruitfully in the region. In 1600 AD the Dutch stole a coffee tree from the Arabian port of Mocha, Ethiopia, then carried it to the Indonesian island of Java, thus beginning the Indonesian line of (you guessed it) Java-Mocha coffees.
Coffee berries were first cultivated in what is now known as Yemen. From there, the beans found their way to Turkey, where the beans were roasted for the first time over an open fire, and the first “home brew” was created. The Turks were the first country to adopt coffee as a drink, often adding spices such as clove, cinnamon, cardamom and anise to the brew.
Venetian trade merchants got their hands on the bean and shipped it to the European continent. Many folks wanted it banned - tea - lovers all - and called on Pope Vincent III to pronounce the bean brew as the “drink of the devil.” But, remember those monks? Well, they got to the pope early on and the pope blessed his favorite drink and declared it a Christian beverage. He enjoyed it so much that he baptized it, saying “coffee is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.”
Coffee houses spread quickly across Europe becoming centers for intellectual exchange. Many great minds of Europe used this beverage and forum as a springboard to heightened thought and creativity. Just like we do today in blogs…
Follow the Coffee Timeline for more information about the history of coffee.
