The History of Coffee

For us Westerners coffee is 300 years old, but in the East it was widespread as a beverage, at every level of society since ancient times. The first definitive dates back to 800 BC, but already in Homer, and many Arabian legends tell the story of a mysterious black and bitter beverage with powers of stimulation. In 1000, the management of Avicenna about coffee as a medicine. And it's a strange story from the year 1400, a Yemeni shepherd who, a few goats red berries of a shrub observed, and therefore always restless and excited, reported the incident to a monk. The latter boiled the berries, and then distilled a bitter beverage, rich in starch, and able to disseminate sleep and fatigue.

But the discovery has occurred, the fact remains that the coffee plant was born in Africa in an Ethiopian region (Kaffa). From there it spread to Yemen, Arabia and Egypt, where it enormously, and was popular daily life.

In the late 1500's, the first distributor of coffee sold in Europe, so the introduction of the new beverage into Western life and custom. Most of the coffee exported to European markets came from the ports of Alexandria and Smyrna. But the increasing demands of a growing market, improved botanical knowledge of the coffee plant, and high taxes in the ports of shipment conditions, led dealers and scientists transplanted to try coffee in other countries. The Dutch in their overseas colonies (Batavia and Java), the French in 1723 in Martinique, and later in the West Indies, and then English, Spanish and Portuguese, started with the tropical belts of Asia and America to invade.

In 1727 coffee growing was started in the north of Brazil, but the poor climatic conditions gradually shifted the crops, first in Rio de Janeiro and finally (1800-1850) to the States of San Paolo and Minas, where coffee found its ideal environment. Coffee cultivation began to develop into the main economic resource of Brazil has become.

It was precisely during the period 1740-1805 that coffee growing its top distribution in Central and South America achieved.

While the coffee was born in Africa, plantations and home consumption are comparatively recent introductions. Actually it was Europeans who introduced back into their colonies, where, due to favorable soil and climatic conditions, they could thrive.

The history of coffee
The global spread of coffee drinking and cultivation began in the Horn of Africa, where according to legend, coffee trees grown in the Ethiopian province of Kaffa. It is said that the fruit of the plant, known as coffee cherries, which are slaves today in the Sudan, Yemen and Arabia, through the great gate of the day, Mocha was eaten. Coffee was certainly in Yemen of 15 Century, cultured and probably much earlier. In an attempt to grow elsewhere to prevent that by the Arabs for a ban on the export of fertile coffee beans, limiting circumvented, which was eventually in 1616 by the Dutch who brought the coffee plant to the Netherlands to live greenhouses are grown .

Firstly, the authorities in Yemen actively encouraged coffee drinking. The first coffee houses opened in Makkah or Kaveh Kanes and quickly spread throughout the Arab world is growing, as places where chess was played, gossip exchanged and enjoyed singing, dancing and music. Nothing like it existed before: a place where social and business life could be in a comfortable environment and implemented, where - for the price of a cup of coffee - anyone could dare. Perhaps predictably, the Arab coffeehouse soon became a center of political activity and is suppressed. In the coming decades, coffee and coffee houses is banned a few times, but continued to reappear until an acceptable solution was found when a tax was levied on both.

Edward Lloyd coffee houseBy end of 1600, the Dutch have grown coffee at Malabar in India and in 1699 took some plants to Batavia in Java, in Indonesia today. Word within a few years the Dutch colonies were the main suppliers of coffee to Europe, where coffee was first described by Venetian traders brought in 1615. This was a time, appeared as the two other major global hot drinks in Europe. Hot chocolate was the first by the Spaniards from America to Spain in 1528, and tea, which was first sold in Europe in 1610. At first coffee was mainly sold by lemonade vendors and was believed to have medicinal properties. The first European coffeehouse opened in Venice in 1683, with the most famous, Caffe Florian in Piazza San Marco, opening in 1720. It is still open for business. The world's largest insurance market, Lloyd's of London began, life as a coffeehouse. It was in 1688 by Edward Lloyd, the lists of the ships that his customers had insured ready to start.

The first literary reference to coffee being drunk in North America is from 1668 and, soon after, coffee houses were established in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other towns. The Boston Tea Party Of 1773 was planned in a coffee house, the Green Dragon. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of New York started in coffeehouses in what is today known as Wall Street.

In 1720 a French naval officer named Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, while on leave in Paris from his post in Martinique, acquired a coffee tree with the intention of taking it with him on the return voyage. With the plant secured in a glass case on deck to keep it warm and prevent damage from salt water, the journey proved eventful. As recorded in de Clieu's own journal, the ship was threatened by Tunisian pirates. There was a violent storm, during which the plant had to be tied down. A jealous fellow officer tried to sabotage the plant, resulting in a branch being torn off. When the ship was becalmed and drinking water rationed, De Clieu ensured the plant’s survival by giving it most of his precious water. Finally, the ship arrived in Martinique and the coffee tree was re-planted at Preebear. It grew, and multiplied, and by 1726 the first harvest was ready. It is recorded that, by 1777, there were between 18 and 19 million coffee trees on Martinique, and the model for a new cash crop that could be grown in the New World was in place.

But it was the Dutch who first started the spread of the coffee plant in Central and South America, where today it reigns supreme as the main continental cash crop. Coffee first arrived in the Dutch colony of Surinam in 1718, to be followed by plantations in French Guyana and the first of many in Brazil in the state of Pará. In 1730 the British introduced coffee to Jamaica, where today the most famous and expensive coffee in the world is grown in the Blue Mountains.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw the establishment across Brazil of vast sugar plantations or fazendas, owned by the country’s elite. As sugar prices weakened in the 1820’s, capital and labour migrated to the southeast in response to the expansion of coffee growing in the Paraiba Valley, where it had been introduced in 1774. By the beginning of the 1830’s Brazil was the world’s largest producer with some 600,000 bags a year, followed by Cuba, Java and Haiti, each with annual production of 350 to 450,000 bags. World production amounted to some 2.5 million bags per year.

The rapid expansion of production in Brazil and Java, among others, caused a significant decline in world prices. These bottomed out in the late 1840’s, from which point a strong upward movement occurred, reaching its peak in the 1890’s. During this latter period, due mainly to a lack of inland transport and manpower, Brazilian expansion slowed considerably. Meanwhile, the upward movement of prices encouraged the growth of coffee cultivation in other producing regions in the Americas such as Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia.

In Colombia, where coffee had been introduced by the Jesuits as early as 1723, civil strife and the inaccessibility of the best coffee-growing regions had hampered the growth of a coffee industry. Following the “Thousand Days War” of 1899 to 1903, the new peace saw Colombians turn to coffee as their salvation. While larger plantations, or haciendas, dominated the upper Magdalena river regions of Cundinamarca and Tolima, determined peasants staked new claims in the mountainous regions to the west, in Antioquia and Caldas. New railways, relying on coffee for profit, allowed more coffee to be grown and transported. The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 permitted exports from Colombia’s previously unreachable Pacific coast, with the port of Buenaventura assuming increasing importance.

 

In 1905 Colombia exported five hundred thousand bags of coffee; by 1915 exports had doubled. While Brazil desperately tried to control its overproduction, Colombian coffee became increasingly popular with American and European consumers. In 1914 Brazil supplied three-quarters of U.S. imports with 5.6 million bags, but by 1919 that figure had fallen to 4.3 million, while Colombia’s share had risen from 687,000 to 915,000 bags. During the same period Central American exports to the U.S. had risen from 302,000 to 1.2 million bags.

In spite of political turmoil, social upheaval and economic vicissitude, the 20th century saw an essentially continuous rise in demand for coffee. U.S. consumption continued to grow reaching a peak in 1946, when annual per capita consumption was 19.8 pounds, twice the figure in 1900. Especially during periods of high global prices, this steadily increasing demand lead to an expansion in production throughout the coffee-growing regions of the world. With the process of decolonisation that began in the years following the Second World War, many newly independent nations in Africa, notably Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi, found themselves in varying degrees dependent on coffee export revenue.

For US coffee drinkers, the country’s wettest city, Seattle, has become synonymous with a new type of café culture, which, from its birth in the 1970s, swept the continent, dramatically improving the general quality of the beverage. This new found 'evangelism' for coffee has spread to the rest of the world, even to countries with great coffee traditions of their own, such as Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia, adding new converts to the pleasures of good coffee. Today it is possible to find good coffee in every major city of the world, from London to Sydney to Tokyo; we are drinking more and, more importantly, better coffee.

The importance of coffee to the world economy cannot be overstated. It is one of the most valuable primary products in world trade, in many years second in value only to oil as a source of foreign exchange to producing countries. Its cultivation, processing, trading, transportation and marketing provide employment for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Coffee is crucial to the economies and politics of many developing countries; for many of the world's Least Developed Countries, exports of coffee account for more than 50 percent of their foreign exchange earnings. Coffee is a traded commodity on major futures and commodity exchanges, most importantly in London and New York.

 

Coffee

Coffee is a popular brewed drink prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called coffee beans, of the coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that grow on trees in over 70 countries. Green unroasted coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world.Due to its caffeine content, coffee often has a stimulating effect on humans. Today, coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide.

Coffee beans

The energizing effect of the coffee bean plant is thought to have been discovered in the northeast region of Ethiopia, and the cultivation of coffee first expanded in the Arab world.The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen in southern Arabia.From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia, and to the Americas.Coffee has played a crucial role in many societies throughout history. In Africa and Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies. As a result, the Ethiopian Church banned its secular consumption, a ban in effect until the reign of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.It was banned in Ottoman Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons,and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe.

Coffee berries, which contain the coffee seed, or "bean", are produced by several species of small evergreen bush of the genus Coffea. The two most commonly grown are the highly regarded Coffea arabica, and the 'robusta' form of the hardier Coffea canephora. The latter is resistant to the devastating coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix). Both are cultivated primarily in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. 

They are then ground and brewed to create coffee. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways.

An important export commodity, coffee was the top agricultural export for twelve countries in 2004,and it was the world's seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value in 2005.Some controversy is associated with coffee cultivation and its impact on the environment. Many studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and certain medical conditions; whether the overall effects of coffee are ultimately positive or negative has been widely disputed.The method of brewing coffee has been found to be important to its health effects.

Etymology

Illustration of a single branch of a plant. Broad, ribbed leaves are accented by small white flowers at the base of the stalk. On the edge of the drawing are cutaway diagrams of parts of the plant.

Illustration of Coffea arabica plant and seeds

The first reference to "coffee" in the English language, in the form chaoua, dates to 1598. In English and other European languages, coffee derives from the Ottoman Turkish kahve, via the Italian caffè. The Turkish word in turn was borrowed from the Arabic: قهوة‎, qahwah. Arab lexicographers maintain that qahwah originally referred to a type of wine, and gave its etymology, in turn, to the verb qahiya, signifying "to have no appetite",since this beverage was thought to dull one's hunger. Several alternative etymologies exist that hold that the Arab form may disguise a loanword from an Ethiopian or African source, suggesting Kaffa, the highland in southwestern Ethiopia as one, since the plant is indigenous to that area.[11][12] However, the term used in that region for the berry and plant is bunn, the native name in Shoa being būn.'

Biology

Coffea and coffee varieties

Several species of shrub of the genus Coffea produce the berries from which coffee is extracted. The two main species commercially cultivated are Coffea canephora (predominantly a form known as 'robusta') and C. arabica.C. arabica, the original and most highly regarded species, is native to the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia and the Boma Plateau in southeastern Sudan and possibly Mount Marsabit in northern Kenya.C. canephora is native to western and central subsaharan Africa, from Guinea to the Uganda and southern Sudan.Less popular species are C. liberica, excelsa, stenophylla, mauritiana, and racemosa.

All coffee plants are classified in the large family Rubiaceae. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees that may grow 5 m (15 ft) tall when unpruned. The leaves are dark green and glossy, usually 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long and 6 cm (2.4 in) wide. The flowers are axillary, and clusters of fragrant white flowers bloom simultaneously and are followed by oval berries of about 1.5 cm (0.6 in).Green when immature, they ripen to yellow, then crimson, before turning black on drying. Each berry usually contains two seeds, but 5–10% of the berries have only one; these are called peaberries.Berries ripen in seven to nine months.

Coffea arabica is predominantly self-pollinating, and as a result the seedlings are generally uniform and vary little from their parents. In contrast, Coffea canephora, C. excelsa and C. liberica are self-incompatible and require outcrossing. This means that useful forms and hybrids must be propagated vegetatively.Cuttings, grafting, and budding are the usual methods of vegetative propagation.On the other hand, there is great scope for experimentation in search of potential new strains.

Cultivation

Coffee is usually propagated by seeds. The traditional method of planting coffee is to put 20 seeds in each hole at the beginning of the rainy season; half are eliminated naturally. A more effective method of growing coffee, used in Brazil, is to raise seedlings in nurseries that are then planted outside at six to twelve months. Coffee is often intercropped with food crops, such as corn, beans, or rice during the first few years of cultivation.

Of the two main species grown, arabica coffee (from C. arabica) is generally more highly regarded than robusta coffee (from C. canephora); robusta tends to be bitter and have less flavor but better body than arabica. For these reasons, about three-quarters of coffee cultivated worldwide is C. arabica.Robusta strains also contain about 40–50% more caffeine than arabica.For this reason, it is used as an inexpensive substitute for arabica in many commercial coffee blends. Good quality robusta beans are used in some espresso blends to provide a full-bodied taste, a better foam head (known as crema), and to lower the ingredient cost.

However, Coffea canephora is less susceptible to disease than C. arabica and can be cultivated in lower altitudes and warmer climates where C. arabica will not thrive. The robusta strain was first collected in 1890 from the Lomani, a tributary of the Congo River, and was conveyed from Zaire to Brussels to Java around 1900. From Java, further breeding resulted in the establishment of robusta plantations in many countries.In particular, the spread of the devastating coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix), to which C. arabica is vulnerable, hastened the uptake of the resistant robusta. Coffee leaf rust is found in virtually all countries that produce coffee.

Over 900 species of insect have been recorded as pests of coffee crops worldwide. Of these, over a third are beetles, and over a quarter are bugs. Some 20 species of nematodes, 9 species of mites, several snails and slugs also attack the crop. Birds and rodents sometimes eat coffee berries but their impact is minor compared to invertebrates.In general, arabica is the more sensitive species to invertebrate predation overall. Each part of the coffee plant is assailed by different animals. Nematodes attack the roots, and borer beetles burrow into stems and woody material,the foliage is attacked by over 100 species of larvae (caterpillars) of butterflies and moths.

Mass spraying of insecticides has often proven disastrous, as the predators of the pests are more sensitive than the pests themselves.Instead, integrated pest management has developed, using techniques such as targeted treatment of pest outbreaks, and managing crop environment away from conditions favouring pests. Branches infested with scale are often cut and left on the ground, which promotes scale parasites to not only attack the scale on the fallen branches but in the plant as well.

Production

In 2009 Brazil was the world leader in production of green coffee, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and Colombia.Arabica coffee beans are cultivated in Latin America, eastern Africa, Arabia, or Asia. Robusta coffee beans are grown in western and central Africa, throughout southeast Asia, and to some extent in Brazil.

Beans from different countries or regions can usually be distinguished by differences in flavor, aroma, body, and acidity.These taste characteristics are dependent not only on the coffee's growing region, but also on genetic subspecies (varietals) and processing.Varietals are generally known by the region in which they are grown, such as Colombian, Java and Kona.

Ecological effects

Coffee and the environment

Originally, coffee farming was done in the shade of trees that provided a habitat for many animals and insects.Originally remnant forest trees were used for this purpose, but many species have been planted as well. These include leguminous trees of the genera Acacia, Albizia, Cassia, Erythrina, Gliricidia, Inga, and Leucaena, as well as the nitrogen-fixing non-legume sheoaks of the genus Casuarina, and the silky oak Grevillea robusta.

This method is commonly referred to as the traditional shaded method, or "shade-grown". Starting in the 1970s, many farmers switched their production method to sun cultivation, in which coffee is grown in rows under full sun with little or no forest canopy. This causes berries to ripen more rapidly and bushes to produce higher yields, but requires the clearing of trees and increased use of fertilizer and pesticides, which damage the environment and cause health problems.

Ultimately, unshaded coffee enhanced by fertilizer use yields the highest amounts of coffee, although unfertilized shaded crops generally yield higher than unfertilized unshaded crops—namely the response to fertilizer is much greater in full sun.[38] Although traditional coffee production causes berries to ripen more slowly and produce lower yields, the quality of the coffee is allegedly superior.[39] In addition, the traditional shaded method provides living space for many wildlife species. Opponents of sun cultivation say environmental problems such as deforestation, pesticide pollution, habitat destruction, and soil and water degradation are the side effects of these practices.

The American Birding Association, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center,National Arbor Day Foundation,nd the Rainforest Alliance have led a campaign for "shade-grown" and organic coffees, which can be sustainably harvested.However, while certain types of shaded coffee cultivation systems show greater biodiversity than full-sun systems, those more distant from continuous forest still compare rather poorly to undisturbed native forest in terms of habitat value for some bird species.

Another issue concerning coffee is its use of water. According to New Scientist, using industrial farming practices, it takes about 140 liters (37 US gal) of water to grow the coffee beans needed to produce one cup of coffee, and the coffee is often grown in countries where there is a water shortage, such as Ethiopia.

By using sustainable agriculture methods, the amount of water usage can be dramatically reduced, while retaining comparable yields. For comparison, the United States Geological Survey reports that one egg requires an input of 454 liters (120 US gal) of water; one serving of milk requires an input of 246 liters (65 US gal) of water; one serving of rice requires an input of 132 liters (35 US gal) of water; and one glass of wine requires an input of 120 liters (32 US gal) of water.

Coffee grounds may be used for composting or as a mulch. They are especially appreciated by worms and acid-loving plants such as blueberries.Some commercial coffee shops run initiatives to make better use of these grounds, including Starbucks' "Grounds for your Garden" project.