Coffee (A Condensed History)

According to the National Coffee Association, Ethiopian legend holds that goats were the first to discover the joys of coffee.  This occurred somewhere prior to the year 1000.  The goats did not brew up a batch of “cowboy coffee,” of course, but rather ate a bunch of the berries and then danced and bleated around the bush all night instead of sleeping.  The goat herder tending the goats, a man named Kaldi, reported this to the abbot of the local monastery and handed over some of the berries.  The abbot threw the berries onto a fire and found the scent they emitted “heavenly.”  The abbot then gobbled up some of the berries.  Next thing you know, I and my friend Sandi are totally addicted to coffee.

At this point, I cannot imagine a day without coffee.  The thought of that causes me to break into a cold sweat.

Early drinkers of coffee considered coffee a medicine.  Moreover, the Muslim regions took to coffee immediately, having eschewed wine and other alcoholic drinks.

The first documented coffee house opened in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1554.  Worldwide expansion of coffee drinking began with Turkish conquests and the influence of the Ottoman Empire.  It must be noted, however, that Sultan Murad IV, a ruler of the Ottoman Empire, attempted to ban the consumption of coffee.  He made the consumption of coffee a capital offense.  He is said to have wandered the streets of Istanbul posing as a commoner and carrying a hundred-pound broadsword.  When he found someone drinking coffee he would decapitate them immediately.  His successor was somewhat more lenient.  A first offense was punishable by a cudgeling (getting beaten with a stick).  A second offense saw offenders sewn into a leather bag and tossed in the river.

The consumption of coffee could not be stopped.  Coffee soon found its way to Europe and from there it traveled in all directions.

Today, Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world.  Coffee in Brazil owes its existence to the Governor’s wife of French Guiana.  In 1727, a certain Francisco de Mello Palheta was sent from Brazil to French Guiana to get coffee seedlings.  The French refused to give any seedlings, but the Governor’s wife—captivated by the envoy’s good looks—gave him a bouquet of flowers with coffee seeds hidden inside.

From those seeds an industry.

--Mitchell Hegman

Sources: National Coffee Association, The Atlantic, www.npr.org, www,childrenswritersguild.com