No one knows for sure who was the first to see the red berries of the coffee tree and imagine that it could be turned into an invigorating drink, which is now valued in every corner of the world. The origins of coffee are shrouded in mystery and learning about it is absolutely fascinating. That's why, by reviewing articles, documents and legends, we decided to tell you all about the history of coffee and its origins. And in the next article you will get acquainted with the history of the spread of coffee across Europe, the North and South American continents.
antique coffee vessel from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
Indeed, there are many more or less reliable and well-established stories about the origins of coffee. There are stories of a black and bitter drink that can give people energy, which Arab warriors use to gain courage in the toughest battles.
At the same time, others claim that the famous doctor, philosopher, mathematician and physicist Avicenna “invented” coffee: he allegedly gave it to his patients as a medicine already in the year 1000.
coffee plantation
Legends about the history of coffee
Another version of the story about coffee and its origins credits this discovery to a Yemeni shepherd named Kaldi, who, around 1400 (or in another version, around 500 AD), watched as his goats tasted these mysterious berries, suddenly became hyperactive.
Concerned about this behavior, he told the story to some religious ministers who, by studying and reflecting on it, realized the potential of the coffee plant.
How the Arab world discovered coffee
Will I win or will I run?
Indeed, the first person singular form of the verb “to win” looks comical in both cases. And all because in the Russian language there is simply no such grammatical form. This may seem strange, given the diversity and richness of the Russian language, but if you look at the reasons for this absence, everything becomes clear.
There is a beautiful legend among the people that “to win” is not combined with the pronoun “I”, because one alone is not a warrior: for a Russian person it seems impossible to defeat the enemy alone. But what then to do with the words “convince”, “daring” and even “vacuum cleaning”? These verbs also do not have such a grammatical form.
In fact, the reason lies in the fact that alternation occurs in the first person singular in verbs of this type. So, “to win” should turn into “I will run” (and therefore the option “I will win” disappears by itself), “to dare” - into “I will hold”, and so on. It is easy to notice that in this form these words become similar to verbs of a completely different meaning (“run”, “hold”), and grammar cannot allow such coincidences. True, with regard to the word “vacuum cleaner” the language is not so categorical: it is quite possible that the form “vacuum cleaner” will eventually become the norm. So how can I say if I don’t “win” and don’t “run”? Simply replace the verb with the phrase “I will win.”
The birthplace of coffee is Ethiopia
So, the history of coffee dates back to 10th century Abyssinia, which is now Ethiopia, where coffee beans and their main attribute, caffeine, were first discovered. But it was not until the 13th century that coffee was first roasted, allowing it to become a cultural and economic product of Arab culture.
Arabic scientific documents dating back to around 900 AD refer to a drink native to Ethiopia known as bouna. This is one of the earliest references to Ethiopian coffee in its brewed form.
Most agree that the original coffee plants were native to the western regions of Ethiopia. Coffee was recorded as a drink as early as the 6th century, used by the Ottoman Empire. However, it was in Yemen that these plants were finally grown and developed into the grains and drinks we know today.
birthplace of coffee
Where did coffee originate?
Almost immediately after the discovery of the coffee tree, people began to soak its fruits and make decoctions from the leaves and peel.
The grains, found by an Ethiopian shepherd, were brought to the Arab Peninsula. The sale of coffee came from there. The drink began to spread in Yemen in the 15th century, and another century later - in Persia, Syria, Egypt and Turkey. By that time, people had learned to roast grains.
The first coffee houses appeared in the Middle East. Since then, people began to drink coffee not only at home: they preferred to spend time drinking an invigorating drink rather than engaging in active activities. In coffee shops you could listen to music or play chess; they quickly turned into meeting places and exchange of news.
In the mid-17th century, coffee was brought to New Amsterdam, which the British later called New York.
Yemeni coffee
Sufi mosques at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula processed Yemeni coffee more than 500 years ago.
For 200 years, Yemen was the only source of coffee. This Arabic coffee was later named after the port of Mokha, which is located on the Red Sea coast, from where it was eventually exported.
Coffee plants there are still grown the old fashioned way, without the use of chemicals. Once the fruits, called "cherries", are ripe, they are picked by hand. The grains are processed dry. The fruit goes through a special period of drying in caverns, and in some cases on roofs. After the grains are dried, it is easy to separate them from the husks, then the latter are thrown away.
Yemeni coffee has a distinct taste and aroma. The complex earthy coloring of the beans often contains a hint of dried fruit, partly due to the drying method. Yemeni coffee also contains flavor notes of chocolate, cinnamon, cardamom or tobacco. The strongest of these notes is chocolate, which may explain the modern use of the word "mocha" in association with Yemeni coffee.
Coffee and knowledge of the coffee tree from Ethiopia and Yemen soon spread to Mecca and Cairo.
By the 16th century, coffee had reached the rest of the Middle East, South India (Karnataka), Persia, Turkey, the Horn of Africa (Northeast Africa) and North Africa.
Coffee then spread to the Balkans, Italy and the rest of Europe, as well as to Southeast Asia and America, despite prohibitions imposed in the 15th century by religious leaders in Mecca and Cairo, and later by the Catholic Church.
Yemeni coffee
The meaning of the word coffee
or Coffee (Coffea L.) is a genus of plants from the madder family (see). Shrubs or small trees. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs or in threes, leathery, perennial or herbaceous, entire, equipped with stipules. Flowers are in the corners of the leaves, sit in clusters, rarely solitary, white, bisexual, often fragrant. The number of parts in the calyx and corolla ranges from 4 to 9, but mostly 5. The corolla is fused-petaled with a short or long tube. The ovary is solid, round or almost cylindrical, 2-locular, contains 1 ovule in each ovule; the style is divided into 2 filamentous stigmas. The fruit is berry-shaped, with 2 seeds. There are 20 species that grow wild in hot countries of Africa and Asia. The most famous species is Coffea arabica L. A tree 6 to 8 meters high, with outstretched branches; the leaves are leathery, glossy, opposite, 14 centimeters long, oblong or ovate-oblong, pointed. Flowers in bunches of 3 and 7 in the corners of the leaves, white fragrant - quintuple; The oblong fruit is red, and at the end purple, oval, 14 millimeters long. The seeds are oblong, flat-convex, with their flat sides facing each other, on which a longitudinal groove is noticeable. Consist of horny endosperm (protein); embryo with ovoid cotyledons. These seeds are known to everyone under the name coffee or coffee. K. comes from East Africa, from Abyssinia. K. was transported to Arabia at the end of the 15th century, but it began to spread in Europe no earlier than the middle of the 17th century. Currently, it is bred in all tropical countries of the Old and New Worlds, where the average summer temperature is not lower than 14½ R. The first attempts to breed K. were made by the Dutch in Java in 1650 and in Suriname in 1718. In 1722, K. began to be bred by the French in Martinique and by the British in Jamaica. The first cargo of Javanese K. arrived in Holland in 1719. K. varieties are numerous. The lower grades are supplied by Brazil, in quantities of about half of the K. produced throughout the globe. Then come Javanese (1/5 of the total production), Ceylon (1/10). Mocha is the least traded - only about 8 million pounds, while the Brazilian variety produces more than 200 million. Mocha is considered the best, but there is no real mocha in the trade at all not available: this name refers to African, exported through Cairo. African varieties partly go through Mocha. Indian seeds are distinguished by large seeds, and mocha seeds are small. Among the American ones, Martinique and some Peruvian ones are considered the best. K. seeds, or as the Germans call them, coffee beans (Kaffee-Bohnen) contain a special alkaloid caffeine, close to the theine of tea and theobromine of chocolate, and caffeic tannic acid. K. the tree begins to bear fruit in the third year, but rarely lasts more than 12 years. It blooms and bears fruit throughout the year, but the main harvests occur in spring and autumn. After collection, the pulp of the fruit is separated in various ways from the seeds, which are dried, but this is not always possible due to the enormity of the collection; therefore, cleaning has to be done gradually, which often reduces the quality of the product. Another species of C., relatively recently discovered in Africa, namely in western: Sierra Leone, Monrovia, Angola, is C. lieberica Hiern. It is distinguished by its large leaves, twice as large as the leaves of the common K., and larger flowers, the corolla of which consists of 6 and even 9 petals. The fruits are much larger. The yield of Liberian K. is greater than usual. Currently, products of this new variety are already commercially available. The culture of ordinary K. in rooms on windows and in greenhouses works very well. It requires nutritious turf soil and moderate watering; with good care it bears fruit. See Coffee (hygienic).
A. Beketov.
Coffee (hygienic). — By the name coffee we mean the beans of the coffee tree freed from the pulp, from the outer, and partly also from the inner seed coat (see Coffee; botanist). Its homeland is considered to be southern Abyssinia, mainly the lands of Caffa and Galla, from where in the 15th century. the tree was transplanted to Arabia and Constantinople. K., which began to spread throughout Europe in the mid-17th century, was exported almost exclusively from the port city of Mocha in Arabia, selling at a fabulous price - 300 francs per kilogram. Currently, coffee plantations are grown throughout the tropical and subtropical zone. Each hectare of coffee plantation contains about 900 trees, each of which produces from 2.5 to 12.5 pounds of coffee seeds throughout the year. The coffee fruit, which in appearance and color resembles a small cherry, contains two coffee beans adjacent to each other with their flat sides, surrounded by tender seed (inner) and parchment-like (outer) seed coats and fruit pulp. To clean coffee beans from pulp and shells, different plantations use different methods, depending mainly on whether they sell completely ripe beans (the best varieties) or whether they also use not quite ripe ones. In the first case, the berries that fell when the tree was shaken are dried for some time in the sun, after which it is easy to crush them and remove them from the beans; in the second case , not quite ripe berries picked Purified K. either immediately goes on sale or is left for several years in cool, well-ventilated areas for further ripening, and its weight is significantly reduced, often by a whole third; but similar, aged K. greatly benefits in quality, acquiring a particularly strong and pleasant aroma after frying. Studies carried out on the comparative weight of both poor varieties of K. (Haiti, Guadeloupe, etc.) and those with good aroma, smell and taste of expensive varieties (Mocha, Java, Ceylon) proved very noticeable gravimetric differences between them: for example, 1 deciliter Ceylon beans weigh 508 g, Java - 450, Mocha - 5*0 g, Rio de Janeiro - 522, Haiti - 642, Venezuela - 654, Guadeloupe - 660 g. Depending on the place of origin, there are many varieties of beans, somewhat different from each other, in addition to the special specific smell and taste they develop during frying, also in the color of the beans, their shape, their different length, width and thickness, and the greater or lesser concavity of the front side beans, different concavity of the grooves located on their front surface, etc. The best variety is considered to be the Arabian K. "mocha", with very small (8-11 mm in length, 7-8 mm in width and 3-4 mm in thickness) ovoid, dark yellow , with green beans that have a very pleasant aroma. consumption in various European countries is expressed in the following figures (per year per person): in the Netherlands - 7.14 kilograms, in Belgium - 4.24, in Norway - 3.45, in Switzerland - 3.01, in Denmark - 2.45, in Germany - 2.38, in Sweden - 2.39, in France - 1.43, in Austria-Hungary - 0.84, in Italy - 0.47, in England - 0.45, in Russia - 0.1 kg (1/4 lb). Possessing a strong, astringent taste and extremely difficult to turn into powder, raw coffee beans are not consumed directly to prepare a decoction, but are first subjected to a roasting process, during which, depending on its degree, more or less profound physical and chemical changes occur in the coffee beans. Taking on, depending on the temperature and duration of its action, a reddish-brown or dark brown color, K., due to the expansion of its tissues, due to the expansion of gases formed during frying, significantly increases in volume (by 1/3 and even 1/2 ), and next to this its weight decreases by approximately 17-20%. Further, along with the loss of almost the entire amount of water and sugar and the destruction of a significant part of the fiber, in coffee beans, when they are fried, special burnt substances and frying products are formed (palmitic, acetic and carbonic acids, caeol, hydroquinone, methylamine, pyrrole, etc. .), of which coffee oil - kafeol, is mainly attributed to the specific taste and aroma inherent in burnt coffee, and some are also attributed to the increase in the strength and frequency of heart contractions caused by coffee.
The composition of raw and fried K. is expressed, according to Koenig, in the following figures: composition of raw K.: water - 11.2% or more (in dry matter), fat - 14.9%, proteins - 13.8%, sugar - 3.66%, fiber - 31.24%, caffeine - 1.34%, ash - 3.92%, hot water soluble substances - 30.93%; composition of fried K.: water - 3.19% or more (in dry matter), fat - 16.14%, proteins - 14.28%, sugar [Other researchers found even less sugar in K. (0.17% - 0.47%). The low sugar content in fried K. serves, as we will see below, a very characteristic feature that distinguishes K. from the very sugar-rich surrogates, chicory and wine berries that are most often added to it for the purpose of adulteration.] - 1.35%, fiber - 25.07, caffeine - 1.42%, ash - 3.87%, soluble substances - 30.6. As can be seen from the data given, K. gives about 30% of the substances to the hot solution; with the method of preparing coffee decoction used in the hostel, about 25% of the extractive substances are transferred into the latter; according to Koenig's analyses, in a K. cup prepared from 10 g. substances, 0.5 g is transferred. fat, 0.4 g. minerals and 0.5 g. nitrogen (from caffeine), therefore, K. should be viewed only as a flavoring substance that excites the central nervous system, and not as a food substance, as Payen, Liebig and Rohleder erroneously propagated in their time. From the experiments of Voith, Py and Gerlein, it is clear that K. does not slow down the processes of decomposition of nitrogenous substances in the body and, therefore, does not serve as a material that preserves the body’s tissues; however, when drunk, as is usually done, with milk, bread, or sugar, K. indirectly is a very good conductor of nutrients rich in nitrogen, fat and carbohydrates. Coffee’s widespread popularity is mainly due to its stimulating effect on the nervous system, due to the content of caffeine and caféol, which is why when consumed it increases the frequency and energy of heart contractions and temporarily increases working capacity, both spiritual and physical. K. differs significantly from alcohol in that the effect it stimulates is longer, and on the other hand, after the period of excitement, depression does not set in, as with alcohol consumption, which is why hygienists, not without reason, see in the widespread development of cheap coffee (and tea) shops a powerful, a good competitor in the fight against alcoholism. It should not be forgotten, however, that abuse of the drink, especially chronic, often leads to disorders in the sensory and motor areas, which is why you should refrain from using it in case of certain diseases of the nervous system (epilepsy, hysteria, etc.), as well as in cases of some heartache. It is also impossible not to warn against the use of K. in childhood. “We are firmly convinced,” say Rossbach and Nothnagel, “that premature consumption of strong K., also, of course, tea, is one of those many factors that give rise to a neuropathic disposition, and if it exists hereditarily, then contributes to its further development.” . K. is usually fried until chestnut brown (care must be taken not to overcook it); at home - in a frying pan set over hot coals, or even better, in a closed brazier; in factories - with superheated steam. To prevent aromatics from escaping, roasted beans should be kept in a tightly sealed container; It is best to grind K. just before drinking the drink, for the preparation of which the finely ground powder is doused with boiling water and infused without boiling for 5-10 minutes; with longer infusion or boiling, too much tannic acid, burnt and bitter substances pass into the solution, causing the aroma of the potion to deteriorate and weaken and its taste to deteriorate.
All kinds of dried, fried and ground substances from the plant kingdom serve as substitutes for K. (its surrogates) roots - chicory, beets, carrots, dandelion; b) substances rich in sugar - burnt molasses sugar, wine berries, Constantinople pods; c) substances rich in starch - acorns of various types of oak, rye, barley, oats, wheat, barley malt, etc.; d) seeds of leguminous plants - common peas, coffee peas (Astragalus boeticus), Chinese beans (Soja hispida), common beans, lupins or fava beans, etc., f) fat-rich substances - common walnut, as well as American, walnut, groundnut etc. Containing neither caffeine nor caféol - the two most important components of natural K. - and therefore not possessing the stimulating effect inherent in the latter on the central nervous system, K. surrogates have in common with natural K. only the ability to communicate to the prepared , after roasting them, the drinks have a certain smell, aroma and taste, at least vaguely reminiscent of K. - qualities with which an unpretentious poor person is completely satisfied in his everyday life. The widespread use of chicory and wine berries is also due to their ability, despite their cheapness and availability, to release into a hot solution a much larger amount of soluble and coloring substances (2½ times) than natural berries; The fame that acorn, barley and rye fruits enjoy among the public is explained by the special nutritional and dietary advantages attributed to them, although without any reason. From a hygienic point of view, of course, nothing can be objected to the use of various kinds of surrogates (with the exception, however, of K. from lupins, the prolonged use of which causes severe headaches), when they are sold at a cheap price and under their own name. Unfortunately, however, surrogates for K., as we will see below, are used mainly to falsify natural K., which is why acquaintance with their chemical composition, as well as, of course, with their histological structure, is interesting in itself, extremely It is important when identifying certain impurities in commercial burnt and ground K., passed off as natural. The table below shows the results of the analyzes performed by Dr. Kotsyn of both natural K. and, in comparison with it, some of the most commonly used surrogates: a sharp, as can be seen from the table, difference in the chemical composition between natural K. and the substances replacing it gives the opportunity, with the help of chemical examination (near microscopic) of a product suspected of falsification, to determine not only the nature of the impurities contained in it, but, in most cases, with greater or less accuracy, also their quantity.
Composition of natural coffee and pure surrogates.
Falsification of K. is already evident in relation to beans, both raw and fried, mainly, however, in relation to fried and ground K. sold in a completely ready-to-eat form. The more often practiced, relatively innocent, falsification in the sale of coffee beans consists in a mixture with expensive varieties of cheaper ones; further, in order to artificially increase the weight of the beans, which is beneficial for traders, the latter, during roasting, are often sprayed with Vaseline, treacle sugar or other low-value substances. In order to mask beans that are somehow spoiled and have lost their natural color and consistency, the latter are shaken with lead balls or tinted with dyes that are often harmful to health. Counterfeiters even put on sale artificial beans made from wheat, barley, bean and maize dough, from which, using special machines, they prepare grains that are carefully counterfeited to look like real ones. But more often and more variedly there is a counterfeit of burnt and ground K., in which, as we have already said, all kinds of surrogates are mixed, in fried and crushed form, differing little in appearance from the real K. From the research carried out by Dr. Kotsyn it is clear that Burnt and ground chicory sold in Moscow, often under fantastic names (“amateur chicory”, “economic”, etc.), almost always appears to be adulterated, mostly chicory and wine berries, with the admixture reaching 30-70%.
Microscopic examination gives very valuable indications in recognizing the purity of K. and the content of one or another admixture in it, which is why the histological picture of both K. and the surrogates most often mixed with it - chicory and wine berries - is given here in essential features. The parenchyma of the coffee bean consists of closely spaced, thick-walled cells without intercellular spaces, the colorless walls of which have very characteristic nodular thickenings; the shape of the cells is varied: rectangular, trapezoidal, rhombic, etc. — The seed coat covering the bean, already completely erased from the surface of the burnt bean, is well retained, however, in a groove located on the flat side of the bean, from where it penetrates deeply into the bean, covering the inner surface of the endosperm; its length is about 2 square meters. see why particles of this shell are always found in ground K.; Characteristic of it are the very long (0.2-0.7 mm), thick-walled, spindle-shaped or whetstone-like clerenchyma cells embedded in it, penetrated by wide pores. — Chicory is recognized by the milky vessels contained in the inner white bark and bordering it in the phloem , with a width of 0.006 to 0.01 mm, as well as thin-walled, bundled sieve tubes; in addition, short, moderately wide vascular cells embedded in the wood, the side walls of which are lined with transverse, mostly slit-like thickenings, stand out sharply under a microscope. — Wine berries are characterized by thin vascular bundles contained in the parenchyma of their meat and considerable width (0.05 mm, i.e. wider than that of chicory) milky vessels, with clearly visible walls; further, the upper skin contains small, polygonal thick-walled cells, in many places located in the form of a rosette around the hair pit, in which hair is sometimes preserved; As for the grains of wine berries, the seeds they contain are covered with a very hard and hard shell, in which large, rounded angular stony cells protrude, with a narrow lumen and layered walls, penetrated by numerous steam channels.
Literature, König, “Die menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel” (1893, Bd. II); J. Bell, "Die Analyse und Verfälschungen der Nahrungsmittel" (Bd. I); Dammer, “Illustriertes Lexikon der Verfä lschungen und Verunreinigungen der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel” (Lpts., 1887); "Vierteljahrschrift über die Fortschritte auf dem Gebiete der Nahrungs und Genussmittel" (1887, 1888, 1889); Trillich, "Die Kaffeesurrogate, ihre Zusammensetzung und Untersuchung" (Hygienische Tagesfragen, Munich, 1889); Kornauth, “Beitr ä ga zur chemischen und mikroskopischen Untersuchung des Kaffee und der Kaffee surrogate” (Munich, 1890); Gundrieser, “On a coffee surrogate prepared from blue lupine seeds” (“Pharmacist”, 1893); M ö eller, “Microsckopie der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel aus dem Pflanzenreiche” (1886); Nothnagel and Rosbach, “Guide to Pharmacology” (translation from German, 1885); Kotsyn, “On the adulteration of coffee in Moscow” (see II and III reports of the Moscow city sanitary station, edited by Prof. Erisman).
M. B. Kotsyn.
Where did the word coffee come from?
The word "coffee" entered English in 1582 through the Dutch koffie, a loanword from the Ottoman Turkish qahwé, itself a loanword from the Arabic qahwah (قهوة).
The Arabic word qahwah originally referred to a type of wine, the etiology of which is given by Arab lexicographers as a derivative of the verb qahā (قها, "to lack hunger") due to the drink's reputation as an appetite suppressant.
The word qahwah sometimes alternatively comes from the Arabic quwwa ("strength, energy") or from Kaffa, a medieval kingdom in Ethiopia from which the plant was exported to Arabia. However, all etiologies of qahwah have been disputed.
The name qahwah is not used for the berry or plant, which is known in Arabic as bunn, and in Somali and Romo as būn. Semitic languages had the root qhh, "dark color", which became the natural designation for the drink. According to this analysis, the form qahwah (also meaning "dark-colored, dull, dry, sour") was probably chosen to parallel khamr (خمر, "wine"), and originally meant "dark".
Arab Bedouin with a cup of coffee, photo 1930
Coffee Recipes
Making coffee may seem like a fairly simple process. But every coffee recipe has its own tricks and even secrets. We share with our readers detailed, step-by-step algorithms for preparing your favorite drink, and try various options for preparing coffee - from traditional to the most exotic. We consider every cup of coffee a small miracle and are willing to experiment with proportions and ingredients. We invite you to the vast world of coffee recipes, where there is room for creativity and inspiration!
Latest articles in the section
Apr 21, 2015Coffee with lemonApr 17, 2015Coffee with halvaApr 17, 2015Coffee with pepper
Coffee and religion
Coffee was primarily consumed in the Islamic world, where it originated, and was directly associated with religious practice. For example, coffee helped consumers fast during the day and stay awake at night during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan.
Coffee also became associated with the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. Indeed, various legends have attributed the origin of coffee to the prophet Muhammad, who, through the Archangel Gabriel, brought it to man to replace wine, which was forbidden by Islam.
vintage coffee jug
Sufis in Yemen used the drink as a means of concentration and a kind of spiritual enrichment when they repeated the name of the Almighty. Sufis used it to stay alert during night prayers.
Al-Jaziri's translation of the manuscript traces the spread of coffee from Arabia (modern-day Yemen) north to Mecca and Medina, and then to the larger cities of Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Constantinople.
By 1414 the plant was known in Mecca, and in the early 1500s it spread to the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and North Africa from the Yemeni port of Mocha.
In Cairo, many coffee shops associated with Sufism have sprung up around the religious Azhar University. These coffee houses also opened in Syria, especially in the cosmopolitan city of Aleppo, and then in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, in 1554.
In 1511 it was banned because of its stimulant effect by conservative orthodox imams at the theological court in Mecca. However, these prohibitions were lifted in 1524 by order of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman I, when the Grand Mufti Mehmet Ebussuud el-Imadi issued a fatwa allowing the consumption of coffee.
In Cairo, a similar ban was introduced in 1532, and coffee shops and warehouses with coffee beans were closed.
During the 16th century, it had already reached the rest of the Middle East, the Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Empire. From the Middle East, coffee consumption spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, and from Holland, coffee trees were transported to the East Indies and America.
Similarly, coffee was banned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church some time before the 18th century. However, in the second half of the 19th century, Ethiopian attitudes toward coffee drinking softened, and its consumption spread rapidly between 1880 and 1886; According to British academic Richard Pankhurst, "this had a lot to do with Emperor Menelik dispelling the clergy's belief that 'this is the drink of the Muslims.'
Varieties of coffee
Not everyone knows that there are actually about eighty types of coffee bushes. But mainly two types are produced and consumed: Arabica and Robusta. Types such as Excelsa and Liberica are not used to prepare the drink; they are used in cosmetology and the confectionery industry.
Arabica
This variety of coffee tree is highly valued. Arabica is very famous; its bushes grow mainly on mountain slopes and require special care. Trees grow intensively and bear fruit at a certain temperature, when hot days give way to cool nights.
Arabica is often susceptible to diseases, so the grain harvest is not large every time. One bush of this species annually produces up to five kilograms of grains. Due to careful care and growing conditions, Arabica is more valued and more expensive than other varieties.
The first records where coffee is mentioned
The earliest mention of coffee, noted in writing by the coffee trader Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, is a reference to the work of a 10th century AD Persian physician. Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known as the Razi of the West (Persian polymath, physician, alchemist, philosopher and important figure in the history of medicine). But more definite information about the preparation of a drink from roasted coffee berries dates back several centuries later.
One of the most important records on coffee was made by Abd al-Qadir al-Jaziri, who in 1587 wrote a work tracing the history and legal disputes about coffee entitled Umdat al-safwa fi hill al-Kahwa عمدة الصفوة في حل القهوة.” He reported that Sheikh Jamal al-Din al-Dhabhani (d. 1470), Mufti of Aden, was the first to adopt coffee (around 1454).
Coffee was also noted in Aleppo by the German botanist Leonhard Rauwolf, the first European to mention it in 1573.
Mocha coffee beans from Yemen
Coffee countries
We already know that Africa is considered the birthplace of coffee. Since there are many varieties, they are not all from Ethiopia.
Liberia is a coffee variety that was originally grown in the African country of the same name Liberia. Over time, grains of this variety began to be produced in other countries.
Yemen is considered the birthplace of such a variety as mocha. They call it that because its origin is from the city of Moha. This area is dominated by soils with a special composition, and the grains grown on these lands are moderately acidic. And the soils in American and African countries have high acidity, and the taste of the brewed drink from these grains is sour.
Coffee in Japan
Coffee was introduced to Japan by the Dutch in the 17th century, but remained a mere curiosity until trade restrictions were lifted in 1858. The first European-style coffee shop opened in Tokyo in 1888, and by the early 1930s there were more than 30,000 coffee shops throughout the country.
The introduction of freeze-dried instant coffee, canned coffee, and franchising in the late 20th century continued this trend, and Japan is now one of the leading per capita coffee consumers in the world.
Japanese coffee
Distribution in Europe
Coffee began to be consumed in Europe in the seventeenth century. The first time anyone could enjoy this exquisite drink was in 1626 in Rome. According to another version, this product appeared on the territory of European countries thanks to a botanist from Germany, Bellus.
The very first coffee shops were opened in the following cities:
- London (1652);
- Marseille (1671);
- Paris (1672).
Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, coffee was elevated to the title of the national drink of the Kingdom of Great Britain. By the beginning of 1702, there were already two thousand coffee houses in London. Women were prohibited from entering them. It was only in 1717 that the first shop was opened where the fair sex could enjoy a cup of tea. Coffee continued to be unavailable to them. This resulted in a gradual displacement of coffee. Tea took the lead.
It is worth noting that the word “coffee” was not used previously in Europe. In ancient times, this aromatic drink was called “Arab wine.”
Vietnam is one of the main coffee exporters
Vietnam is one of the main coffee exporters in the world. Arabica has been the first imported coffee variety to Vietnam since 1857. Trung Nguyen coffee is the No. 1 coffee brand in Vietnam and is exported to more than 60 countries around the world. It was created in 1996 by Dang Le Nguyen Vu.
Large-scale production in Vietnam began after the normalization of trade relations with the United States in 1995. Almost all the coffee grown there today is Robusta.
Vietnamese women collecting coffee
Coffee varieties
Currently, botanists identify more than 40 species of coffee trees. However, only two are widely used for industrial purposes:
- Arabian (Coffea arabica) - the Arabica variety is made from it;
- Congolese (Coffea conephera, otherwise called Coffea robusta) - the Robusta variety is made from it.
Arabica
The Arabian coffee tree has many subspecies, and it is its harvests that provide three-quarters of the world's total coffee production. This is everyone's favorite Arabica coffee, which has a delicate taste - sweet and slightly sour. This flavor is given to the grains by the composition of the soil in which such trees grow best - with high acidity.
Arabian coffee trees are very sensitive to climatic conditions and are susceptible to various diseases, so cultivating them is quite difficult. This explains the high cost of Arabica beans.
Robusta
The Congo tree is not as susceptible to disease and is less sensitive to environmental conditions, so it is much easier to grow than the Arabian tree. From its harvests, Robusta is produced, the taste of which is much less valued compared to Arabica. This variety is stronger and does not have the sourness characteristic of Arabica. This is why Robusta makes up only 30% of the world's coffee production, and its beans are used mainly to make instant coffee drinks.
Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world
For many decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazil was the largest producer of coffee and a monopolist in the trade. However, the policy of keeping prices high soon opened up opportunities for other countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Vietnam, which are now second only to Brazil as the world's largest coffee producer.
bags of brazilian coffee
Coffee production in Ethiopia
Despite the origins of coffee cultivation in Ethiopia, the country produced only small quantities for export until the 20th century, and much of it not from the south of the country, but from the area around Harar in the northeast.
It is estimated that in the 1880s, the Kaffa province where the plants were located produced between 50,000 and 60,000 kg of coffee beans.
Commercial production actually began in 1907 with the establishment of the inland port of Gambela.
100,000 kg of coffee were exported from Gambela in 1908, while more than 4 million kg passed through the port in 1927–1928.
At the same time, coffee plantations were established in Arsi province, which were eventually exported via the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway.
Although only 245,000 kilograms were transported by rail, this amount grew to 2,240,000 kilograms by 1922, surpassing Harari coffee exports by 1925, and reaching 9,260,000 kilograms in 1936.
coffee makers from the coffee museum in Italy
Drink or eat?
19th century - in Russia, coffee is enjoyed not only by members of the imperial family and those close to the Court, but also by ordinary citizens. The uniqueness of the process of consuming black coffee in Russia was that it was not drunk, but bitten. If you look into the works of such geniuses as Goncharov, Ostrovsky or Gogol, then their characters “ allowed themselves to have a bite of coffee . ” And, probably, at this very moment, the drink was given the status of a masculine gender, since “ coffee ” could not be classified as either feminine or neuter.
Linguists still don't understand why a word ending in " e " was defined as masculine rather than neuter. Some researchers suggest that during the time of Peter the Great, when there was a widespread Europeanization of not only everyday life, but also Russian speech, some words were pronounced in an overseas manner, but at the same time they used “ native ” word forms in parallel. That is, at that time, in the chambers of the nobility they could “ a bite ” of coffee (definitely masculine), and coffee, and kohei, and kefa, and coffee, and coffee, and the coffee we are accustomed to today.
In any case, today there are three theories why the word “coffee” is defined not by the middle, but by the male gender. According to the first, coffee as a word that came into Russian speech, either from German, or from Dutch, or from Italian, is precisely masculine in these languages. According to the second, it is a drink, and the word and concept “drink” itself is not neuter, but masculine. And finally, according to the third theory, the male gender of the word “coffee” was inherited from its predecessor “coffee”. By the way, it is Peter the Great who should be given credit for promoting and popularizing this aromatic drink. Today it seems strange to us that once upon a time someone opposed the spread of this invigorating and such an exquisite drink. But Peter the Great had to fight a fair bit with the boyars and Old Believers, who for some reason called coffee a demonic potion.
True, the magical properties of grains and grounds were confirmed by Italian witches, who used them to perform rituals to predict the future. Well, for modern people coffee is:
- a wonderful tonic drink;
- raw materials for medicines;
- component of cosmetics;
- decorative material for creating crafts;
- a way to have a great time with friends;
- one of the tools for performing magical rituals.
And, probably, of all the questions that interest the most pragmatic modern residents of megacities, this is the question, what is the “gender” of coffee? And also why is the word ending in “e”, contrary to all grammatical laws, not neuter, but masculine? Return to content
Australia harvests coffee mechanically
Australia is a small coffee producer with few products to export, but its coffee history dates back to 1880, when the first 500 acres of land began to be developed in the area between northern New South Wales and Cooktown, Queensland. Today there are several Arabica coffee producers in Australia that use a mechanical harvesting system invented in 1981.
modern coffee machines Post Views: 865
Who is this "sap"?
Errors that occur in phraseological units are also not uncommon. In some cases, stable phrases are broken intentionally, in others - out of ignorance of where the phraseological unit came from and what it means.
For example, you can often hear: “He did something on the sly.” But then what is “sap”? And why is he quiet?
In fact, there is no “sap”, but there is a phraseological unit “slyly”, and it came into our language from military usage. “Sapa” (the word is borrowed from the French language) is a hidden tunnel that allows you to unnoticedly approach the enemy or even undermine his fortifications. From this it becomes clear that doing something “on the sly” means unnoticed by others, secretly.
There are still a lot of inexplicable, at first glance, phenomena in the Russian language, amazing secrets and entertaining riddles that are worth the attention of not only philologists and linguists, but also native speakers themselves. Such knowledge will broaden your horizons and help you avoid mistakes in speech. Love your language!
