Coffee - A Brief History.

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Discovery

Abyssinia

It is likely common knowledge that Coffee as we know it was found in Ethiopia, around 800 AD. The legendary goatherd, Kaldi, noticed his goats behaving rather oddly after eating a local reddish berry, soon to become known as the "Devil's Fruit". They would become much more energetic and generally boisterous, which lead to the curious goatherd taking some and trying it.

It fired him up so much that soon he too, was dancing and frolicking with his goats. He took them to nearby monk who had witnessed this, and had also became curious as to what was causing this insane behaviour. When Kaldi explained the effect of the berries, the monk opposed their utilization and tossed them into a flame, from which an alluring fragrance surged. The cooked beans were immediately raked from the ashes, ground up, and broken down in boiling water, yielding the world's first brew of Coffee. The monks loved this newfound drink, as it tasted great and they just wanted to pray all night long.

Be that as it may, this is only one of the stories which rotate around the historical backdrop of our beloved bean.

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Expansion

Leaving Arabia

^{Image: Reuters}
Coffee stayed in Arabia for a long while and remained a mystery which Arabians were not quick to impart to outsiders. Tales be told of Arabians making exported beans infertile by boiling or parching them, meaning no coffee seed ever sprouted on soil from off the continent, until well into the 1600's, with Baba Budan.

And Into India

^{Image: Erika Schultz, Seattle Times}
Budan was an Indian pilgrim who found it upon himself to leave Mecca with fertile seed concealed on his person. His seeds bore the intitial sprout of coffee anywhere else in the world, and spurned an agricultural revolution that would soon take the European Colonies by storm.

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To the Europeans

The Dutch managed to overcome the obstacle of getting their own in 1616, spiriting an coffee plant into Europe. But it wasn't until a point in 1696 they established the first European-owned coffee farm, on Colonial Java, now included as part of Indonesia.

Business was huge and the Dutch sprinted ahead with expansion to nearby islands. Amazed and overly confident with this new magical bean, Amsterdam started giving coffee trees to privileged nobles and dignitaries around Europe.

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Louis XIV of France received his coffee plant around 1714, for Paris' Royal Botanical Garden, the Jardin des Plantes. Quite some time later a youthful maritime officer known as De Clieu, was in Paris on leave from Martinique, a French province in the Caribbean. Envisioning Martinique as a French Java, he asked for clippings from his lord's tree. Authorization denied.

During a bold and daring moonlit raid on the Jardin des Plantes, De Clieu scaled the walls around the Gardens and broke in, somehow escaping with but a tiny sprout.

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Crossing the Atlantic

^{The Brederode off Hellevoetsluis, by
Simon de Vlieger (circa 1600/1601–1653)}
It was only by chance that coffee had managed to move across the Atlantic before the 1800's, and thanks to this bold young French Naval Officer named Gabriel-Mathieu De Clieu, what was once thought to be the first crop to be grown in the Americas was established, in Martinique, albeit under an armed guard.

But it was not without peril that he and his coffee sprout made the journey intact, having barely survived attacks from Pirates and constant storms that almost sunk his ship. It's told that he even shared his water rations with the plant to ensure it's survival.

His plantation spawned some 18 million trees in 50 years or so. Its progeny would in turn supply Latin America, and fuel an economical takeover.

Recent research shows that while he may have had the most successful crop of the time, it wasn't the first. Reportedly, the French colony of Saint-Domingue had been growing since 1715. Also, the Dutch colony of Surinam was growing from 1718.

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Brazilian Boom

The main starter coffee crop in Brazil was planted by Francisco de Melo Palheta in the state of Pará in 1727. As per the legend, the Portuguese were searching for a cut of the coffee market, however couldn't acquire seeds from flanking French Guiana because of their representative's unwillingness to trade the seeds.

Palheta was sent to French Guiana on a discretionary mission to resolve a border dispute. On his way back home, he managed to smuggle the seeds into Brazil by luring the Governor's wife who subtly gave him a bunch of beautiful flowers, spiked with coffee seeds.

By the 1840's, it had taken off in Brazil's economy, becoming one of the world's primary suppliers. By the 1920's, 80% of the world's supply was coming from Brazil.

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Coffee in the Modern World.

As we have seen here, Coffee's expansion throughout the continents was mainly attributed to shady underhanded methods, theft, and sometimes just plain luck. It's been held powerfully in the eyes of religion, government, and wealthy entrepreneurs, and over the years has fueled economies entirely. Men have lived and died for it and it is even said that during the Boston Tea Party, so surely understood for discarding boxes of British tea, drinking coffee was thought of as an enthusiastic demonstration of Patriotism.

^{Image: Wikipedia}
Coffee has taken our world by storm over the last 200 years, and a lot of us in our day-to-day lives cannot live with out it. I know personally that my day starts with a very strong coffee followed by a pleasant stroll in the early morning sunshine. It's the staple of conversation, meetings, and even chance encounters. With such diversity in blends, flavours, and even ways of enjoying coffee, there's a type and taste for everyone.

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Anyway, I'm going to make a cup right now!

So what's your flavour? How do you enjoy Coffee?

Let us know in the comments below...
Thanks for reading!