Have you ever wondered how it all started with coffee? Well, it was said that centuries back, on the Ethiopian plateau, a goat herder by the name of Kaldi first discovered the potential of coffee beans. Kaldi noticed that after eating the berries, his goats became extremely energetic.
Kaldi revealed to the abbot of the local monastery about this finding. The abbot discovered that coffee kept him alert throughought the long prayer hours. The abbot in turn shared his discovery with the other monks at the monastery, and little by little, this knowledge of the energizing coffee began to spread.
Coffee henceforth started its journey from the east and reached the Arabian Peninsula, where coffee was enjoyed and savoured in the many public coffee houses — called qahveh khaneh. The native scholars also realized that consuming this beverage helped keep them awake through long study hours.
With thousands of pilgrims visiting the holy city of Mecca each year from all over the world, knowledge of this “wine of Araby” commenced to spread.
Subsequently European travellers to the Near East brought the then perceived unusual dark black beverage. Some people reacted to this new beverage with suspicion or trepidation, calling it the “bitter invention of Satan.” The local clergy condemned coffee when it came to Venice in 1615. The controversy was so considerable that Pope Clement VIII was asked to intervene. He decided to taste the beverage for himself – on the contrary, he found the drink to be exceptional that he gave it papal approval.
During the New World Era in the mid-1600’s, coffee was brought to New Amsterdam, later called New York by the British.
Although coffee started to make its debut, during this time, tea is still the favoured drink in the New World until 1773. This was when the colonists revolted against a heavy tax on tea imposed by King George III. The revolt, known as the Boston Tea Party, would shift the American drinking preference to coffee.
From then on, as demand for coffee continued to expand, there was fierce competition to cultivate coffee outside of Arabia.
The Dutch finally got seedlings in the latter half of the 17th century. Although there were failed attempts to plant them in India, but they reaped successful results with their efforts in Batavia, on the island of Java in what is now Indonesia.
The plants thrived and soon the Dutch had a productive and growing trade in coffee. They then expanded the cultivation of coffee trees to the islands of Sumatra and Celebes.
In 1714, the Mayor of Amsterdam presented a gift of a young coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France. The King ordered it to be planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. In 1723, a young naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu obtained a seedling from the King’s plant. Despite a challenging voyage, he managed to transport the seedling safely to Martinique.
Once planted, the seedling thrived, with an eventual outcome of 18 million coffee trees on the island of Martinique in the next 50 years.
Consequently, missionaries and travellers, traders and colonists continued to carry coffee seeds to new lands, and coffee trees were planted worldwide, thus increasing the coffee influence and trend all over the globe. And by the end of the 18th century, coffee had become one of the world’s most profitable export crops after crude oil.
