The history of coffee goes at least as far back as the thirteenth century. It has been believed that Ethiopian ancestors of today's Oromo people were the first to discover and recognize the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant.The story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherd who discovered coffee, did not appear in writing until 1671 AD and is probably apocryphal.From Ethiopia, coffee was said to have spread to Egypt and Yemen. The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen.By the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. Coffee then spread to Italy, and to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia, and to the Americas.
.
Syrian Bedouin from a beehive village in Aleppo, Syria, sipping the traditional murra (bitter) coffee, 1930
The earliest mention of coffee noted by the literary coffee merchant Philippe Sylvestre Dufour[8] is a reference to bunchum in the works of the 10th century CE Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known as Rhazes in the West,[9] but more definite information on the preparation of a beverage from the roasted coffee berries dates from several centuries later.
The most important of the early writers on coffee was Abd al-Qadir al-Jaziri, who in 1587 compiled a work tracing the history and legal controversies of coffee entitled Umdat al safwa fi hill al-qahwa.[10] He reported that one Sheikh, Jamal-al-Din al-Dhabhani (d. 1470), mufti of Aden, was the first to adopt the use of coffee (circa 1454).
“ He found that among its properties was that it drove away fatigue and lethargy, and brought to the body a certain sprightliness and vigour.[2] ”
Coffee's usefulness in driving away sleep made it popular among Sufis, who used it to keep themselves alert during their nighttime devotions. A translation[11] traces the spread of coffee from Arabia Felix (the present day Yemen) northward to Mecca and Medina, and then to the larger cities of Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, and Istanbul.
Coffee beans were first exported from Ethiopia to Yemen. Yemeni traders brought coffee back to their homeland and began to cultivate the bean.[12] The first coffeehouse opened in Istanbul in 1554.[13] Coffee was at first not well received. In 1511, it was forbidden for its stimulating effect by conservative, orthodox imams at a theological court in Mecca[citation needed]. However, the popularity of the drink led these bans to be overturned in 1524 by an order of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I, with Grand Mufti Mehmet Ebussuud el-İmadi issuing a celebrated fatwa allowing the consumption of coffee.[14] In Cairo, Egypt, a similar ban was instituted in 1532, and the coffeehouses and warehouses containing coffee beans were sacked.
Similarly, coffee was banned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church some time before the 12th century.However, in the second half of the 19th century, Ethiopian attitudes softened towards coffee drinking, and its consumption spread rapidly between 1880 and 1886; according to Richard Pankhurst, "this was largely due to [Emperor] Menilek, who himself drank it, and to Abuna Matewos who did much to dispel the belief of the clergy that it was a Muslim drink."
Dutch engraving of Mocha in 1692Coffee was noted in Ottoman Aleppo by the German physician botanist Leonhard Rauwolf, the first European to mention it, as chaube, in 1573; Rauwolf was closely followed by descriptions from other European travellers.
Coffee was also imported to Italy from the Ottoman Empire. The vibrant trade between Venice and the Muslims in North Africa, Egypt, and the East brought a large variety of African goods, including coffee, to this leading European port. Venetian merchants introduced coffee-drinking to the wealthy in Venice, charging them heavily for the beverage. In this way, coffee was introduced to Europe. Coffee became more widely accepted after controversy over whether it was acceptable for Catholics to consume was settled in its favor by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the drink. The first European coffee house (apart from those in the Ottoman Empire, mentioned above) was opened in Venice in 1645.
The banning of women from coffeehouses was not universal, but does appear to have been common in Europe. In Germany women frequented them, but in England they were banned. Many believed coffee to have several medicinal properties in this period. For example, a 1661 tract entitled "A character of coffee and coffee-houses", written by one "M.P.", lists some of these perceived benefits:
Not everyone was in favour of this new commodity, however. For example, the anonymous 1674 "Women's Petition Against Coffee" declared:
Within a few years the Dutch colonies (Java in Asia, Surinam in Americas) had become the main suppliers of coffee to Europe.
Coffee also found its way to the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean known as the Isle of Bourbon. The plant produced smaller beans and was deemed a different variety of Arabica known as var. Bourbon. The Santos coffee of Brazil and the Oaxaca coffee of Mexico are the progeny of that Bourbon tree. Circa 1727, the King of Portugal sent Francisco de Mello Palheta to French Guinea to obtain coffee seeds to become a part of the coffee market. Francisco initially had difficulty obtaining these seeds yet he captivated the French Governor's wife and she in turn, sent him enough seeds and shoots which would commence the coffee industry of Brazil. In 1893, the coffee from Brazil was introduced into Kenya and Tanzania (Tanganyika), not far from its place of origin in Ethiopia, 600 years prior, ending its transcontinental journey.
Meanwhile, coffee had been introduced to Brazil in 1727, although its cultivation didn't gather momentum until independence in 1822.After this time, massive tracts of rainforest were cleared first from the vicinity of Rio and later São Paulo for coffee plantations.
Cultivation was taken up by many countries in the latter half of the 19th century, and almost all involved the large-scale displacement and exploitation of the indigenous Indian people. Harsh conditions led to many uprisings, coups and bloody suppression of peasants. The notable exception was Costa Rica, where lack of ready labor prevented the formation of large farms. Smaller farms and more egalitarian conditions ameliorated unrest over the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the 1930s Brazil took of as major producer of coffee leaving behind their early caffeinate yerba mate industry, that then Argentina took over.
The introduction of coffee to the Americas was effected by Captain Gabriel des Clieux, who obtained cuttings from the reluctant botanist Antoine de Jussieu, who was loath to disfigure the king's coffee tree. Clieux, when water rations dwindled during a difficult voyage, shared his portion with his precious plants and protected them from a Dutchman, perhaps an agent of the Provinces jealous of the Batavian trade. Clieux nurtured the plants on his arrival in the West Indies, and established them in Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue in addition to Martinique, where a blight had struck the cacao plantations, which were replaced by coffee plantations in a space of three years, is attributed to France through its colonization of many parts of the continent starting with the Martinique and the colonies of the West Indies where the first French coffee plantations were founded.
The first coffee plantation in Brazil occurred in 1727 when Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta smuggled seeds, still essentially from the germ plasm originally taken from Yemen to Batavia, from French Guiana. By the 1800s, Brazil's harvests would turn coffee from an elite indulgence to a drink for the masses. Brazil, which like most other countries cultivates coffee as a commercial commodity, relied heavily on slave labor from Africa for the viability of the plantations until the abolition of slavery in 1888. The success of coffee in 17th-century Europe was paralleled with the spread of the habit of tobacco smoking all over the continent during the course of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).
For many decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazil was the biggest producer of coffee and a virtual monopolist in the trade. However, a policy of maintaining high prices soon opened opportunities to other nations, such as Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Vietnam, now second only to Brazil as the major coffee producer in the world. Large-scale production in Vietnam began following normalization of trade relations with the US in 1995. Nearly all of the coffee grown there is Robusta.
Despite the origins of coffee cultivation in Ethiopia, that country produced only a small amount for export until the Twentieth Century, and much of that not from the south of the country but from the environs of Harar in the northeast. The Kingdom of Kaffa, home of the plant, was estimated to produce between 50,000 and 60,000 kilograms of coffee beans in the 1880s. Commercial production effectively began in 1907 with the founding of the inland port of Gambela, and greatly increased afterwards: 100,000 kilograms of coffee was exported from Gambela in 1908, while in 1927-8 over 4 million kilograms passed through that port.Coffee plantations were also developed in Arsi Province at the same time, and were eventually exported by means of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway. While only 245,000 kilograms were freighted by the Railway, this amount jumped to 2,240,000 kilograms by 1922, surpassed exports of "Harari" coffee by 1925, and reached 9,260,000 kilograms in 1936.
Australia is a minor coffee producer, with little product for export, but its coffee history goes back to 1880 when the first of 500 acres (2.0 km2) began to be developed in an area between northern New South Wales and Cooktown. Today there are several producers of Arabica coffee in Australia that use a mechanical harvesting system invented in 1981.
According to Marcondes, in the reputable scholarly article entitled Small and Medium Slaveholdings in the Coffee Economy of the Vale do Paraíba, 27.9% of the population is enslaved. Most of the areas in Vale do Paraíba that have larger amounts of slavery are the communities in which coffee is grown. Marcondes found in some areas that coffee holders held about 10 slaves each to grow, and this depended on the size of the plantation. Marcondes used “Almanak da província de São Paulo para 1873” to cross-examine the information she had found through her own research about slave holding. The Almanak contains a list of slavery and owners listed from the year 1873. Primarily, however, Marcondes surveyed the slave classification accounts of the areas under dispute, which contain the register number and name of the slave. Shockingly, throughout the areas there are many differentiations, in numbers of slaves and size of plantations, however, Marcondes refutes that the slavery did not change throughout the 1900s. Conclusively, it ends with the statement that slaveholdings increased, with the increased popularity of coffee and the expansion of coffee production.
Singleton, an anthropologic scholar from Syracuse University, reports that Cuba had over 1 million slaves imported to them from Africa in order to work their crops. Although the production and selling of sugar in the country began the slave holding, the presence of coffee played an equally important role in establishing slavery in Cuba. When coffee reached Cuba, farmers welcomed it. This is because Coffee required less land to grow and lacked the need for machinery to process it. The slaveholding that went on during this time was managed by a prison-like atmosphere creating much unrest and inevitable rebellions against the wealth that enslaved them. Coffee production in Cuba was short-lived due to competition with Brazilian coffee, but the slave holding with sugar was as equally prominent with coffee’s presence in Cuba, (however short-lived it may have been).
Slomkowski argues in "Chocolate’s Dark Side" that coffee and cocoa are both grown, for the most part, in developing worlds. Produced from the Cacao tree, coffee beans need a relatively hot climate to flourish, making the Central and South America’s a tremendous supplier of all things cocoa. Though, Slomkowski points out that around 70% of the crop is actually grown in Africa, under very dark circumstances. In fact the entire history of coffee has been dark. Besides the switch to growing coffee in the rainforest continuing the plight of deforestation, child labor continues to work along the Ivory Coast, performing egregrious acts unsuitable for children, and earning next to nothing in a year’s time. This corruption is due to the lack of interruption from corporations, and remains a problem to this day.
In chapter 7 from "Coffee: A Dark History", slavery’s inconceivable roots in the production of coffee, come to light through Wild’s evocative writing and serious research. The world’s second most traded commodity, otherwise known as coffee, comes to us in the form of a trading tool, an economic bubble of wealth, and something that turned into a slave’s job to grow and handle. Early eighteenth century, coffee made its first premier unto the Caribbean’s fertile soil and naturally, flourished, upholding that just about anywhere could now grow coffee. Due to the fact that the slave labor already had it’s powerful grip on the Caribbean Islands, and because of the plantation fueled economy; coffee, its production and its sale became quickly established not only there, but also everywhere. Thus, as coffee spread through the hemisphere quickly, it raised the slavery-required labor along with it. As the coffee commodity increases, so does the need for the slaves to work the crop. Coffee becomes very rooted in the newly formed America, becoming a source of power and different beverage than their forefathers in England would have enjoyed. From this however, the slave trade, slave labor, and harsh conditions on plantations, continued to grow; now, so deeply rooted in coffee, the sale and production. But with the Continental System, instated to choke off the British and allow various countries to gain control of economies but prohibiting them from access to coffee. With this shut out, coffee prices increased but the want for this delicious beverage did not lessen.
Etymology
The word "coffee" entered English in 1598 via Dutch koffie. This word was created via Turkish kahve, the Turkish pronunciation Arabic qahwa, a truncation of qahhwat al-bun or wine of the bean. One possible origin of the name is the Kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originated; its name there is bunn or bunna.First uses
There are several legendary accounts of the origin of the drink itself. One account involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Ghothul Akbar Nooruddin Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili. When traveling in Ethiopia, the legend goes, he observed birds of unusual vitality, and, upon trying the berries that the birds had been eating, experienced the same vitality. Another story involves a goat-herd, Kaldi, who, noticing the energizing effects when his flock nibbled on the bright red berries of a certain bush, chewed on the fruit himself. His exhilaration prompted him to bring the berries to a Muslim holy man in a nearby monastery. But the holy man disapproved of their use and threw them into the fire, from which an enticing aroma billowed and the holy men came. The roasted beans were quickly raked from the embers, ground up, and dissolved in hot water, yielding the world's first cup of coffee. The Ethiopian ancestors of today's Oromo tribe, were the first to have recognized the energizing effect of the native coffee plant.Studies of genetic diversity have been performed on Coffea arabica varieties, found to be of low diversity but which retained some residual heterozygosity from ancestral materials, and closely-related diploid species Coffea canephora and C. liberica; however, no direct evidence has ever been found indicating where in Africa coffee grew or who among the natives might have used it as a stimulant, or known about it there earlier than the seventeenth century.Arab world and spread to Europe
The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of the Yemen in southern Arabia.From Mocha, coffee spread to Egypt and North Africa,and by the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia and Turkey. From the Muslim world, coffee drinking spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, and coffee plants were transported by the Dutch to the East Indies and to the Americas..
The earliest mention of coffee noted by the literary coffee merchant Philippe Sylvestre Dufour[8] is a reference to bunchum in the works of the 10th century CE Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known as Rhazes in the West,[9] but more definite information on the preparation of a beverage from the roasted coffee berries dates from several centuries later.
The most important of the early writers on coffee was Abd al-Qadir al-Jaziri, who in 1587 compiled a work tracing the history and legal controversies of coffee entitled Umdat al safwa fi hill al-qahwa.[10] He reported that one Sheikh, Jamal-al-Din al-Dhabhani (d. 1470), mufti of Aden, was the first to adopt the use of coffee (circa 1454).
“ He found that among its properties was that it drove away fatigue and lethargy, and brought to the body a certain sprightliness and vigour.[2] ”
Coffee's usefulness in driving away sleep made it popular among Sufis, who used it to keep themselves alert during their nighttime devotions. A translation[11] traces the spread of coffee from Arabia Felix (the present day Yemen) northward to Mecca and Medina, and then to the larger cities of Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, and Istanbul.
Coffee beans were first exported from Ethiopia to Yemen. Yemeni traders brought coffee back to their homeland and began to cultivate the bean.[12] The first coffeehouse opened in Istanbul in 1554.[13] Coffee was at first not well received. In 1511, it was forbidden for its stimulating effect by conservative, orthodox imams at a theological court in Mecca[citation needed]. However, the popularity of the drink led these bans to be overturned in 1524 by an order of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I, with Grand Mufti Mehmet Ebussuud el-İmadi issuing a celebrated fatwa allowing the consumption of coffee.[14] In Cairo, Egypt, a similar ban was instituted in 1532, and the coffeehouses and warehouses containing coffee beans were sacked.
Similarly, coffee was banned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church some time before the 12th century.However, in the second half of the 19th century, Ethiopian attitudes softened towards coffee drinking, and its consumption spread rapidly between 1880 and 1886; according to Richard Pankhurst, "this was largely due to [Emperor] Menilek, who himself drank it, and to Abuna Matewos who did much to dispel the belief of the clergy that it was a Muslim drink."
Europe
Coffee was also imported to Italy from the Ottoman Empire. The vibrant trade between Venice and the Muslims in North Africa, Egypt, and the East brought a large variety of African goods, including coffee, to this leading European port. Venetian merchants introduced coffee-drinking to the wealthy in Venice, charging them heavily for the beverage. In this way, coffee was introduced to Europe. Coffee became more widely accepted after controversy over whether it was acceptable for Catholics to consume was settled in its favor by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the drink. The first European coffee house (apart from those in the Ottoman Empire, mentioned above) was opened in Venice in 1645.
England
Largely through the efforts of the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, coffee became available in England no later than the 16th century according to Leonhard Rauwolf's 1583 account. The first coffeehouse in England was opened in St. Michael's Alley in Cornhill. The proprietor was Pasqua Rosée, the servant of Daniel Edwards, a trader in Turkish goods. Edwards imported the coffee and assisted Rosée in setting up the establishment. The Grand Cafe in Oxford is alleged to be the first Coffee House in England, opened in 1650 by a Jewish man named Jacob. It is still open today, but has since become a popular Wine Bar. Oxford's Queen's Lane Coffee House, established in 1654, is still in existence today. By 1675, there were more than 3,000 coffeehouses throughout England. Popularity of coffeehouses spread rapidly in Europe, and later, America.The banning of women from coffeehouses was not universal, but does appear to have been common in Europe. In Germany women frequented them, but in England they were banned. Many believed coffee to have several medicinal properties in this period. For example, a 1661 tract entitled "A character of coffee and coffee-houses", written by one "M.P.", lists some of these perceived benefits:
| “ | 'Tis extolled for drying up the Crudities of the Stomack, and for expelling Fumes out of the Head. Excellent Berry! which can cleanse the English-man's Stomak of Flegm, and expel Giddinesse out of his Head. | ” |
France
Antoine Galland (1646–1715) in his aforementioned translation described the Muslim association with coffee, tea and chocolate: "We are indebted to these great [Arab] physicians for introducing coffee to the modern world through their writings, as well as sugar, tea, and chocolate." Galland reported that he was informed by Mr. de la Croix, the interpreter of King Louis XIV of France, that coffee was brought to Paris by a certain Mr. Thevenot, who had travelled through the East. On his return to that city in 1657, Thevenot gave some of the beans to his friends, one of whom was de la Croix. However, the major spread of the popularity of this beverage in Paris was soon to come. In 1669, Soleiman Agha, Ambassador from Sultan Mehmed IV, arrived in Paris with his entourage bringing with him a large quantity of coffee beans. Not only did they provide their French and European guests with coffee to drink, but they also donated some beans to the royal court. Between July 1669 and May 1670, the Ambassador managed to firmly establish the custom of drinking coffee among Parisians.
Austria
The real first coffeehouse in Austria opened in Vienna in 1683 after the Battle of Vienna, by using supplies from the spoils obtained after defeating the Turks. The officer who received the coffee beans, Polish military officer of Ukrainian origin Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, opened the coffee house and helped popularize the custom of adding sugar and milk to the coffee. Until recently, this was celebrated in Viennese coffeehouses by hanging a picture of Kulczycki in the window. Melange is the typical Viennese coffee, which comes mixed with hot foamed milk and a glass of water.Netherlands
The race among Europeans to make off with some live coffee trees or beans was eventually won by the Dutch in the late 17th century, when they allied with the natives of Kerala against the Portuguese and brought some live plants back from Malabar to Holland, where they were grown in greenhouses. The Dutch began growing coffee at their forts in Malabar, India, and in 1699 took some to Batavia in Java, in what is now Indonesia.Within a few years the Dutch colonies (Java in Asia, Surinam in Americas) had become the main suppliers of coffee to Europe.
India
The first record of coffee growing in India is following the introduction of coffee beans from Yemen by Baba Budan to the hills of Chikmagalur in 1670. Since then coffee plantations have become established in the region, extending south to Kodagu.Americas
Gabriel de Clieu brought coffee seedlings to Martinique in the Caribbean circa 1720. Those sprouts flourished and 50 years later there were 18,680 coffee trees in Martinique enabling the spread of coffee cultivation to Haiti, Mexico and other islands of the Caribbean. The territory of San Domingo (now Haiti) saw coffee cultivated from 1734, and by 1788 it supplied half the world's coffee. The French colonial plantations relied heavily on African slave laborers. However, the dreadful conditions that the slaves worked in on coffee plantations were a factor in the soon to follow Haitian Revolution. The coffee industry never fully recovered there.Coffee also found its way to the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean known as the Isle of Bourbon. The plant produced smaller beans and was deemed a different variety of Arabica known as var. Bourbon. The Santos coffee of Brazil and the Oaxaca coffee of Mexico are the progeny of that Bourbon tree. Circa 1727, the King of Portugal sent Francisco de Mello Palheta to French Guinea to obtain coffee seeds to become a part of the coffee market. Francisco initially had difficulty obtaining these seeds yet he captivated the French Governor's wife and she in turn, sent him enough seeds and shoots which would commence the coffee industry of Brazil. In 1893, the coffee from Brazil was introduced into Kenya and Tanzania (Tanganyika), not far from its place of origin in Ethiopia, 600 years prior, ending its transcontinental journey.
Meanwhile, coffee had been introduced to Brazil in 1727, although its cultivation didn't gather momentum until independence in 1822.After this time, massive tracts of rainforest were cleared first from the vicinity of Rio and later São Paulo for coffee plantations.
Cultivation was taken up by many countries in the latter half of the 19th century, and almost all involved the large-scale displacement and exploitation of the indigenous Indian people. Harsh conditions led to many uprisings, coups and bloody suppression of peasants. The notable exception was Costa Rica, where lack of ready labor prevented the formation of large farms. Smaller farms and more egalitarian conditions ameliorated unrest over the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the 1930s Brazil took of as major producer of coffee leaving behind their early caffeinate yerba mate industry, that then Argentina took over.
Production
The first step in Europeans' wresting the means of production was effected by Nicolaes Witsen, the enterprising burgomaster of Amsterdam and member of the governing board of the Dutch East India Company who urged Joan van Hoorn, the Dutch governor at Batavia that some coffee plants be obtained at the export port of Mocha in Yemen, the source of Europe's supply, and established in the Dutch East Indies;[the project of raising many plants from the seeds of the first shipment met with such success that the Dutch East India Company was able to supply Europe's demand with "Java coffee" by 1719. Encouraged by their success, they soon had coffee plantations in Ceylon, Sumatra and other Sunda islands. Coffee trees were soon grown under glass at the Hortus Botanicus of Leiden, whence slips were generously extended to other botanical gardens. Dutch representatives at the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Utrecht presented their French counterparts with a coffee plant, which was grown on at the Jardin du Roi, predecessor of the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris.The introduction of coffee to the Americas was effected by Captain Gabriel des Clieux, who obtained cuttings from the reluctant botanist Antoine de Jussieu, who was loath to disfigure the king's coffee tree. Clieux, when water rations dwindled during a difficult voyage, shared his portion with his precious plants and protected them from a Dutchman, perhaps an agent of the Provinces jealous of the Batavian trade. Clieux nurtured the plants on his arrival in the West Indies, and established them in Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue in addition to Martinique, where a blight had struck the cacao plantations, which were replaced by coffee plantations in a space of three years, is attributed to France through its colonization of many parts of the continent starting with the Martinique and the colonies of the West Indies where the first French coffee plantations were founded.
The first coffee plantation in Brazil occurred in 1727 when Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta smuggled seeds, still essentially from the germ plasm originally taken from Yemen to Batavia, from French Guiana. By the 1800s, Brazil's harvests would turn coffee from an elite indulgence to a drink for the masses. Brazil, which like most other countries cultivates coffee as a commercial commodity, relied heavily on slave labor from Africa for the viability of the plantations until the abolition of slavery in 1888. The success of coffee in 17th-century Europe was paralleled with the spread of the habit of tobacco smoking all over the continent during the course of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).
For many decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazil was the biggest producer of coffee and a virtual monopolist in the trade. However, a policy of maintaining high prices soon opened opportunities to other nations, such as Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Vietnam, now second only to Brazil as the major coffee producer in the world. Large-scale production in Vietnam began following normalization of trade relations with the US in 1995. Nearly all of the coffee grown there is Robusta.
Despite the origins of coffee cultivation in Ethiopia, that country produced only a small amount for export until the Twentieth Century, and much of that not from the south of the country but from the environs of Harar in the northeast. The Kingdom of Kaffa, home of the plant, was estimated to produce between 50,000 and 60,000 kilograms of coffee beans in the 1880s. Commercial production effectively began in 1907 with the founding of the inland port of Gambela, and greatly increased afterwards: 100,000 kilograms of coffee was exported from Gambela in 1908, while in 1927-8 over 4 million kilograms passed through that port.Coffee plantations were also developed in Arsi Province at the same time, and were eventually exported by means of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway. While only 245,000 kilograms were freighted by the Railway, this amount jumped to 2,240,000 kilograms by 1922, surpassed exports of "Harari" coffee by 1925, and reached 9,260,000 kilograms in 1936.
Australia is a minor coffee producer, with little product for export, but its coffee history goes back to 1880 when the first of 500 acres (2.0 km2) began to be developed in an area between northern New South Wales and Cooktown. Today there are several producers of Arabica coffee in Australia that use a mechanical harvesting system invented in 1981.
Coffee and slavery
Singleton, an anthropologic scholar from Syracuse University, reports that Cuba had over 1 million slaves imported to them from Africa in order to work their crops. Although the production and selling of sugar in the country began the slave holding, the presence of coffee played an equally important role in establishing slavery in Cuba. When coffee reached Cuba, farmers welcomed it. This is because Coffee required less land to grow and lacked the need for machinery to process it. The slaveholding that went on during this time was managed by a prison-like atmosphere creating much unrest and inevitable rebellions against the wealth that enslaved them. Coffee production in Cuba was short-lived due to competition with Brazilian coffee, but the slave holding with sugar was as equally prominent with coffee’s presence in Cuba, (however short-lived it may have been).
Slomkowski argues in "Chocolate’s Dark Side" that coffee and cocoa are both grown, for the most part, in developing worlds. Produced from the Cacao tree, coffee beans need a relatively hot climate to flourish, making the Central and South America’s a tremendous supplier of all things cocoa. Though, Slomkowski points out that around 70% of the crop is actually grown in Africa, under very dark circumstances. In fact the entire history of coffee has been dark. Besides the switch to growing coffee in the rainforest continuing the plight of deforestation, child labor continues to work along the Ivory Coast, performing egregrious acts unsuitable for children, and earning next to nothing in a year’s time. This corruption is due to the lack of interruption from corporations, and remains a problem to this day.
In chapter 7 from "Coffee: A Dark History", slavery’s inconceivable roots in the production of coffee, come to light through Wild’s evocative writing and serious research. The world’s second most traded commodity, otherwise known as coffee, comes to us in the form of a trading tool, an economic bubble of wealth, and something that turned into a slave’s job to grow and handle. Early eighteenth century, coffee made its first premier unto the Caribbean’s fertile soil and naturally, flourished, upholding that just about anywhere could now grow coffee. Due to the fact that the slave labor already had it’s powerful grip on the Caribbean Islands, and because of the plantation fueled economy; coffee, its production and its sale became quickly established not only there, but also everywhere. Thus, as coffee spread through the hemisphere quickly, it raised the slavery-required labor along with it. As the coffee commodity increases, so does the need for the slaves to work the crop. Coffee becomes very rooted in the newly formed America, becoming a source of power and different beverage than their forefathers in England would have enjoyed. From this however, the slave trade, slave labor, and harsh conditions on plantations, continued to grow; now, so deeply rooted in coffee, the sale and production. But with the Continental System, instated to choke off the British and allow various countries to gain control of economies but prohibiting them from access to coffee. With this shut out, coffee prices increased but the want for this delicious beverage did not lessen.
[edit] Time Line of Coffee
- > 5 AD The coffee was discovered in Ethiopia.
- 700-1000 Coffee was first known by the Arabs as an energy drink . The spread of coffee was started simultaneously with the spread of Islam.
- 1000 Ibn Sina investigated the chemical substance of coffee.
- 1400 The spread of coffee and coffee shops rapidly in the Arabian peninsula, especially Mecca and Medina.
- Coffee was introduced in 1453 in Constantinople by the Turks (Ottoman Caliphate). Coffee shop which was first recorded there, named Kiva Han, which opened in 1475.
- 1600 Pope Clement VIII, confirmed to consider that the 'coffee culture' is a heresy, 'foreign culture' that can threaten the (infidel) and therefore sinful for those who drink it. But then he allowed if the 'coffee' into the (alternative) from the food / beverages are kosher eaten by a Christian. In that year, the coffee was brought from Mekkah to India (Asia Minor)by a man named Baba Budan when pilgrims return from Mekkah .
- 1616 was brought from Mocha Coffee (Yemen) to the Netherlands.
- 1645 The first coffee shop opened in Venice, Italy.
- 1650 The first coffee shop opened in Christian countries (Christendom) precisely in the Oxford.
- 1658 Dutch opened the first garden in Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
- 1668 coffee shop 'Edward Lloyd's' opened in London. From this coffee shop and then Edward opened the most prominent insurance companies in the world of Lloyd's of London Insurance.
- 1668 Coffee began to be known in North America.
- 1669 The coffee shop was introduced in Paris by the Turkish ambassador to the king of Louis XIV.
- 1670 London devoted to coffee. Coffee shop opened in every corner of London. Coffee was introduced in Germany. In Brazil, coffee cultivation began. Types of coffee grown is the Coffea Arabica Lind.
- 1674 Women's Petition against coffee issued in London.
- 1675 dish of tea (tea house) began to be introduced in the Netherlands. Previously there was just serving drinks beer / malt.
- 1675 King Charles II closes all coffee shops in London.
- 1679 in Marseilles, a chemist testified that French coffee is destructive and dangerous to human health.
- 1679 The first coffee shop opened in Hamburg, Germany.
- 1688 More than 800 local coffee shop opened in Soho (England). Especially by Christian refugees from the French Calvinists (Huguenots).
- 1689 typical French Café first opened, named Café de Procope, although the atmosphere of crisis after the announcement of coffee harmful to health.
- 1696 The first coffee shop called The King's Arms opened in New York.
- A Dutch citizen named Zwaardecroon, brought some seeds from Mecca to Bogor, Indonesia. And, being the most important crops in the Dutch East Indies.
- 1706 Java Coffee studied Dutch in Amsterdam.
- 1714 Java Coffee researched, by Dutch introduced and planted in the Jardin des Plantes by King Louis XIV.
- 1720 Florian stay open coffee shop in Florence.
- 1723 Gabriel du Clieu bring coffee beans from France to Martinique.
- 1727 Francisco de Ello brings coffee beans from France for planting in Brazil.
- 1730 British planted coffee in Jamaica.
- 1732 Johann Sebastian Bach composes "Coffee Cantata", in Leipzig. Kantata describes the spiritual journey as well as a parody of the fear of Germans against the rapid popularity of coffee in Germany (the German beer enthusiasts).
- 1777 King of Germany (Prussia) announced a ban on criticism and coffee, and announced as the national drink German beer Kingdom.
- 1790 British coffee shop is a typical beginning to disappear slowly replaced by a beer tavern (tavern).
- 1802 Cafe as a word that shows the place was introduced in the UK (formerly coffee house). This word comes from the French word 'café' and almost seakar in Italian 'Caffe'. Café shows a place that is a main restaurant with a menu of coffee drinks.
- 1809 Coffee was first imported from Brazil into the U.S. market in Salem, Massachusetts.
- 1820 Substance Caffeine found in coffee drinks in unison by three different studies - and, of course, each researcher was working on their own - made by Runge, Robiquet, Pelletier and Caventou
- 1822 prototype of an espresso coffee machine made in France.
- 1839 The word 'Cafeteria' was introduced as the word hybrid (combined) from eksiko, Spain and England.
- 1859 Michael Thonet's Vienna Café chair No.. 14 (bench particular coffee shop was first introduced as a 'bench suitable for use while sipping coffee. "
- 1869 Coffee leaf rust (fungus coffee) was first discovered in Sri Lanka and coffee plants in Asia.
- 1873 Coffee in bulk packaging was first introduced in America by John Arbukle.
- 1882 The New York Coffee Exchange formed.
- 1869 outbreak of a fungal disease across Asia that causes destruction of Coffea Arabica coffee manifold Lind, who was widely planted in Asia. Until this year, people started planting various kinds of coffee are numerous in the Congo region.
- 1904 espresso machine made modern by Fernando Milly.
- 1906 Brazil raises coffee prices after creating the price (exchange rate) fixed for the commodity coffee.
- 1910 Germany makes decaf coffee (caffeine in coffee substance reduction to a minimum), Dan was introduced to America by the name Dekafa.
- 1911 Coffee Traders in the U.S. to form the National Coffee Association.
- 1915 Pyrex found. First used as a lamp lighting especially on the railroad as a heat-resistant lamp cover and weather or physical impact. Start introduced as a kitchen tool, as a substitute for glass. Coffee shop using a pyrex heat resistant glass.
- 1920 coffee shop 'new' booming in America.
- Vienna Café chair No. 1925. 14 were included in the exhibition L'esprit Nouveau in France by Le Corbusier. Until 1933 this bench model produced more than 50 million.
- 1927 espresso coffee machines were first introduced in America. The first coffee shop wearing 'La Pavoni' in New York. Machine is specially designed by renowned Italian architect Gio Ponti.
- 1928 Colombian Coffee Federation is formed.
- 1930-1944 Coffee growers destroy 78 million bags of Brazilian coffee to stabilize prices.
- 1938 Cremonesi: a piston pump that can spray hot water with high speed to brew coffee.
- 1938 Nestle find instant coffee in Brazil, Nestle until now the largest producer of instant coffee in the world.
- 1939-1945 U.S. forces bring instant coffee in the war and introduce it to the world.
- 1942 People begin hoarding coffee due to wartime shortages. In England at this time coffee is rationed.
- 1946 Gaggia Factory produces commercial cappuccino machine for the first time. The word cappuccino comes from the color of Capucin Coat.
- 1948 Achille Gaggia invented the espresso coffee in bulk at Milan.
- 1952 Gaggia machines imported into the UK. In this year's coffee shop after the second world war for the first time opened in London in July.
- Espresso Bar 1953 spread all over Soho. The first time was on the road Mocha 29 Frith Street.
- 1954 restricted the ownership of some commodities such as coffee ends with the end of the second world war transitional period.
- Catherine Uttley 1957 there were 200 registered coffee bar in London. Starting a lot of coffee bars that use plastics ranging from kitchen equipment, dining, floor to furniture.
- 1960 carrying coffee bar doubled from 1.000 to 2.000 across the UK, most in the London, about 500 pieces.
- 1962 Peak of coffee consumption per capita in the United States, 3 cups per person per day.
- 1962 International Agreement on trade in coffee is made, the intent is to control prices.
- 1964 Coffee Bar dying in England, replaced by restaurants with a variety of dishes.
- 1970 Mokha cynical café closed after complaints by American writer William S. Burrough.
- 1971 Starbuck Outlet first opened in Seattle.
- 1973 Fair Trade Coffee was first imported to Europe from Guatemala.
- 1975 Brazil suffered because of failed harvests, world coffee prices soared.
- 1989 International Coffee Agreement fails to stabilize prices. In the history of the coffee trade down to its lowest level.
- 1990 Some coffee shops close due to the arrangement of space (redevelopment) in the UK. Introduced organic coffee that are excellent in the world coffee market.
- 1998 Starbucks reach 2000 Outlets in the U.S. and 5,715 outlets worldwide. Starbucks positioned itself as a coffee shop with the largest network worldwide. source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_coffee