Coffee Learning: the History, legends and stories of Coffee

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The early historical records of coffee are almost zero, so those are the stories that modern people know. As for what the facts are, there is no way to know. But we can also make some guesses about those legends, after all, this is almost the only way to know and explore the truth now.

About the history of coffee development, we can understand it from several aspects.

The spread of coffee cultivation: this is the most mysterious and earliest story about coffee transmission;

The spread of coffee drinking: this is the most humane, but also the most mythical and eye-catching content;

General introductions tend to mix the spread of coffee cultivation with the spread of coffee drinking, making no distinction; this often leads many people to hear or see a lot of stories and legends, but no idea of their meaning and role in the history of coffee development.

Therefore, in order to better understand the development of coffee and coffee industry through understanding the development history of coffee, we have taken a completely different approach to summarize and summarize the development history of coffee and make different interpretations. for your reference.

The word coffee was originally called Kaffa, and later in Arabic it was called qahwah. The original meaning of the word is a kind of wine. It later became kahve. Coffee is known as cafè in Italian, café in French and Spanish, and later coffee in English.

As far as we know, coffee can be identified as originating in Africa. One of the most popular and most productive Arabica coffees in the world originates in Ethiopia's Kaffa region. It was originally a small village, but later because of the widespread spread of coffee, people paid more and more attention to the area, so later this area was named "Kafa".

There are also two types of coffee that people use to make coffee drinks, roaster coffee, which originates in Congo, and liberica coffee, which originates in Liberia. Although the price of Libica coffee is cheap, it is generally considered to have a poor taste, so few people now use this coffee to make coffee drinks. Hardly seen on the market.

1. Discover coffee

There are very few written records of coffee. So until now, some of the stories people know about coffee are limited to legends, and there is no exact written record. But because so many people remain so interested and passionate about coffee, legends and stories about coffee continue to be heard, and many people are happy to tell stories even if they are not certain.

About two of the most popular and heard stories about the first discovery of coffee are told. One is a Christian legend,"The Shepherd's Story," which originated in Ethiopia. The second is an Islamic legend,"The Story of the Arab Sheik," which originated in Yemen. These two stories represent the desire of people in both regions to think of coffee's origins as local. Because they all need coffee very much, they like it very much, and they can't live without coffee at all.

Even if it is a historical legend, we can also analyze it briefly. In particular, Arabica coffee, the favorite, originated in Ethiopia's Kafa region and later spread to Yemen. Yemen became the first region in the world to adopt artificial coffee cultivation in the face of increasing demand for coffee because of its plateau and conditions for artificial coffee cultivation. The main reason is that although Ethiopia is the birthplace of Arabica coffee, it is located in the mountains and there is no relatively flat "plateau area" at a higher altitude, so it is impossible to engage in artificial cultivation of coffee.

It follows that the story of the shepherds is possible; but coffee was known to be useful by the time it arrived in Yemen, and there was no need to discover it. But when coffee first arrived in the Middle East, locals probably didn't understand, or believe in, its effects. The chief may have been the first to discover the effects of coffee, even as a cure for certain diseases. So it's possible that the story of the sheikh was invented by the locals because they loved coffee.

(i) The Shepherd's Story

The 17th century Roman linguist Rothenelay recounts in his book the story of a shepherd named Caldi in a small Ethiopian village called Kafa, about the sixth century AD. Because he tended sheep every day, he often found that his sheep always became abnormally excited and active after eating a red berry that fell from a tree. When he told the monks of the village about his discovery, they heard about it and tried to eat it. After eating it, I found that eating these coffee berries can help eliminate fatigue, especially when I want to pray for a long time. It is not as uncomfortable as usual and can last for a long time. This excited them because they could spend longer praying to prove their devotion to God.

This is the Christian legend of the first discovery of coffee.

(ii) The Story of the Arab Sheik

In 1258, Sheik Omar, an Arab sheikh, was banished from his homeland by his people for a crime. He had nowhere else to go and could only wander in the wilderness. After wandering for a few days, because of extreme hunger, walking is also very tired, so sit down under a big tree to rest. I sat down and fell asleep immediately.

In his sleep, he heard many birds chirping around him. After he opened his eyes, he saw many birds flying and chirping around him. He sat and watched for a long time. These birds seem to have a lot of energy, flying and chirping almost all day, and they don't feel tired at all. This surprised the chief. The chief wondered if the birds were so energetic because they ate the red berries on the tree.

Thinking of this, the chief picked up a few fallen red berries from the ground, but they were not yet rotten, and put them in his mouth to taste. After tasting it, he felt that the berries were really delicious. But after eating the red berries, he was not only less hungry, but felt that his fatigue disappeared at once. He sat there for two days, eating the red berries of the tree every day, and as a result he felt energetic every day, as if he had an inexhaustible energy in his body, and always wanted to go back to his hometown. But he wasn't sure if his people would forgive him and allow him to return home, so he had to stay here and eat the berries.

One day it occurred to him that if he shared this secret with people in his hometown, he could help many people overcome bad feelings such as sleepiness and fatigue. If everyone appreciated his help, perhaps the people back home would forgive him and let him stay in their hometown. Thinking of this, he collected some red berries that had fallen from the trees and were not yet rotten and edible, and wrapped them in packages. He walked back to his hometown.

When the people back home saw him coming, they wanted to throw him out again; but he told them that he could help them get rid of sleepiness, reduce fatigue, and restore their strength. At first, everyone did not believe him, but they did not immediately throw him out. Instead, they gave him a chance to prove it to everyone. He used the red berries he brought back to boil water for those who were sleepy or extremely tired. After drinking the water boiled by the red berries, these people also felt refreshed, fatigue disappeared, and even felt their strong bodies returning. This made everyone feel very surprised and very magical. So it was agreed that the chief should return home and continue to heal everyone with his magical berries.

This is the Islamic legend of the first discovery of coffee.

2. Coffee spread

First-time coffee drinkers may not understand why such a cup of bitter water excites people all over the world. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. Coffee is actually a very good drink, which is why coffee can spread all over the world, so that a considerable part of the world like it. In addition, coffee is not only "delicious", but drinking coffee has a very important practical effect on the human body. Although people don't say it and may not know it very well, the actual role of coffee is self-evident. It's just that the basic thing we hear most often is how good coffee is to drink. Maybe people who like coffee think that it's too practical to say the role and purpose of drinking coffee. It's disrespectful to coffee.

Coffee's world tour should be divided into two lines: the spread of coffee cultivation and the spread of coffee drinking.

Throughout history (forgive me for using the word "grand"), coffee's prosperity has always been associated with a strong, expansionary state and government. At least in ancient times. This is easy to spot with a little knowledge of coffee's history.

The simple history of coffee spread is that it originated in Ethiopia, then spread to Arabia, then to Europe, and then spread to all parts of the world. Each of these links is due to the fact that the local country is at its strongest and most prosperous. We can see this clearly from the following introduction.

(i) Aksum Empire

Aksum was a slave-owning country in north-east Africa in BC or early AD, with the capital city of Aksum (now Tigray Province in Ethiopia). It was first mentioned in the 1st century AD by an ancient Greek merchant in his Voyages around the Red Sea. During his reign (320 - 360), King Ezana conquered the Ethiopian Plateau, Meroe and South Arabia, and concluded an alliance treaty with the Roman Emperor Constantine. Ezana also converted to Christianity and introduced a new phonetic script, making the Aksum Empire the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion.

Adullis was the most important trading centre of Axum: it was near the Strait of Mande, controlling shipping in the Red Sea; it was not far from the Atbara River in the west, and it could reach the middle of the Nile River in the north, so it was also a distribution center for inland trade. Iron, cotton, wine, and ornaments from Italy, Egypt, Byzantium, and India flowed into Adulysia, and gold, ivory, spices, rhinoceros horns, and tortoiseshell were shipped out. Use gold, silver and copper coins with the king's head cast on them. The Aksum people built terraces and irrigation projects, planted wheat, grapes, or herded cattle and sheep, and trained wild elephants. Skilled craftsmen cut (not build) churches and fortresses on the top of mountains, which is unique.

In the middle of the sixth century, Iran captured Yemen and Aksum was pushed out of South Arabia. In the seventh century, the Arab Empire rose and monopolized the trade routes from India to the Mediterranean Sea. Axum declined. In the 8th century, Adullis was flooded with yellow sand. Since the ninth century, Ethiopia's political center has moved southward to the area around the present capital Addis Ababa. In the 11th century, the Aksum Empire fell.

Perhaps the Aksum Empire is not mentioned in general history textbooks, so this empire did not leave much trace and declined very early, so modern people rarely know that the region was once quite brilliant.

At the height of the Axum Empire, the local people discovered coffee and began drinking it. During the half-century of Aksum rule, coffee cultivation spread to Yemen, where the world's earliest coffee cultivation began, because Ethiopia was not suitable for coffee cultivation.

The Ethiopian way of drinking coffee is probably the oldest and most primitive. People collect coffee cherries themselves, remove the peel and pulp, and remove the beans. Then fry the coffee beans in an ordinary wok, and then crush the coffee beans into powder in a jar similar to grinding Chinese medicine. Take a coffee pot, put the ground coffee into it, add cold water, and put it on the fire to boil. After cooking, settle for a while and pour it out to drink.

Although the whole process is rough and crude, and the coffee beans are not so evenly fried, this does not prevent Ethiopians from enjoying coffee. Because the country is still very poor, most people do not drink coffee every day. Coffee is often thought of on special occasions or when there is something to celebrate. And every time you drink coffee, you invite the whole village to share it.

But it is certain that the first people in the world to drink coffee were Aksum people, who are now Ethiopians.

(ii) Arab Empire

The Arab Empire (630 - 1258) was an Islamic state founded by Arabs in the Middle Ages. Since the Tang Dynasty, Chinese history books have called it the Great Food State, while Western Europe is accustomed to calling it the Saracen Empire. The conquest of Spain in 712 at the beginning of the eighth century is considered the beginning of its heyday and extends from India in the east to the Atlantic Ocean and France in the west. From Mozambique Sultanate to Caucasus Mountain in the north, it formed a feudal empire spanning Asia, Africa and Europe. The largest area reached 23.39 million square kilometers, which is the longest empire in human history.

The political and religious center of the empire was originally in Mecca-Medina, moved to Damascus during the Umayyad Dynasty, and moved to Baghdad during the Abbasid Dynasty. From the eighth to the ninth century, it was in its heyday, but gradually weakened due to ethnic conflicts and internal divisions. In 1055, the Seljuk Turks captured Baghdad. In 1258 it was destroyed by the Mongol Empire. The Arab Empire lasted 626 years.

Yemen, as a necessary route for Eurasian trade and an important checkpoint, occupied Yemen in the early days of the rise of the Arab Empire. Yemen was in fact the foundation of the Arab empire. The cultivation and drinking of coffee naturally became an asset of the Arab Empire.

Coffee not only flourished in Arabia, but also came to Europe with the footsteps of Arab armies or merchants. The Arab empires did not spread coffee cultivation on a large scale, because although they occupied a large area, coffee did not become a major trade product in the consumer market at that time. Because most of the people in the Arab Empire were slaves, they had no right or money to buy coffee and drink coffee, so coffee was only consumed by a very small number of slave owners, officials and merchants. There was no trade at all, and almost everything was available only to slave owners. Coffee is not a trade product.

For coffee, the Arab Empire only played a role in inheriting and transmitting it to Europeans. Coffee production and consumption have not expanded much. But the Arabic coffeehouse was the first place in the world where coffee was served to the masses (excluding slaves, of course).

(iii) European colonists

There are two legends about how coffee spread to Europe. One theory is that the Turkish army of the Arab Empire carried coffee with it when it attacked Europe, and later left it there when it retreated after defeat.

Another theory is that Middle Eastern merchants (or Venetian merchants returning from Arabia) introduced coffee to Europe. Given the historical realities of the time, both of these statements make sense, that is, both are possible. However, the actual situation is completely unknown, and there is no need to delve too deeply.

Whatever route coffee came into Europe, it first arrived in Venice in the early seventeenth century and spread throughout Europe and the British Isles. Coffee was first sold as a drug in pharmacies in Europe, and then gradually became a cheap drink, almost the vast majority of Europeans have developed the habit of drinking coffee, especially the general public. As a result, coffee consumption across Europe became increasingly high, and demand was so great that it quickly fell short of demand. At that time Europe was in the colonial era. After the Arab Empire, European countries began to establish their own colonies all over the world. In order to meet the huge demand of European coffee market and obtain huge profits from it, the colonists of various countries represented mainly by the Dutch East India Company managed to introduce coffee to all suitable areas of the world, including Africa, Arabia, Central and South America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

At that time, coffee was widely consumed in Europe, so there was a huge demand for coffee, which fundamentally promoted the European colonists to expand coffee cultivation to all suitable areas of the world.

During the European colonial period, coffee became a commodity with huge trade volume mainly because Europe had begun the industrial revolution and developed the capital era and market economy, so coffee became a commodity for trade. The huge market demand, with the help of colonial expansion in the colonial era, gradually spread coffee cultivation to all suitable areas for coffee cultivation, and also spread coffee drinking to almost all parts of the world.

Coffee was not grown in many areas at first, and because of the huge commercial benefits coffee brings, and many countries and regions for coffee cultivation is strictly prohibited. Death sentences were even imposed on those carrying viable coffee seeds and seedlings. But huge commercial interests have induced some to risk beheadings to move coffee cultivation to areas suitable for growing coffee but not yet grown.

One of the most famous legends associated with this is that

Beautiful romantic story.

After coffee drinking spread to Europe through Arabia, coffee consumption increased and the market expanded rapidly, so people gradually realized the significant economic benefits of coffee. This led to the "romantic story" of risking death to spread coffee saplings.

Perhaps because I am a romantic person, perhaps my love for coffee is far less than that of coffee lovers all over the world, so I did not understand why people called this story a "romantic story" at first. I thought romance was always connected with love, so whose love for whom is here?

For apart from the pirates and the unfriendly passengers of the ship, there is only Captain De Klee and his coffee saplings in this story. Then this love could only have happened between Captain De Klee and his coffee saplings. After some reflection, I think that the reason why people call this story a love story is because of the love Captain de Klee showed for his coffee saplings by risking his life to protect them so that they could be transplanted successfully to Martinique.

Because I am a man lacking in romance, I read this story and find it touching, but my personal understanding of the reality is that Captain de Klee did it so that he could grow coffee on Martinique, where he worked, for export to Europe and earn a huge profit for himself. Otherwise, he would lose a great opportunity to become extremely rich by working hard in the colonies. It is important to note that the captain of the day (who, by the name of Captain de Klee, should be an aristocrat) came at most from the lowest ranks of the aristocracy, or even fought on his own, and rose from a soldier of civilian origin to a captain. Therefore, if you want to change your social status and enter the upper class, this colonial office is almost the only opportunity in your life to change your destiny.

The above is my guess, not the truth. Listen to this beautiful story.

Between about 1720 and 1723, a French naval officer, Captain Gabriel Matthieu de Clee, was sent to Martinique, then a French colony. De Klee managed to procure a few coffee saplings before he left Paris for Martinique. To be taken to Martinique for cultivation. It is said that the first attempt was unsuccessful, so he had to go back to Paris again to find some coffee saplings and take them to Martinique.

This time it was a bumpy experience. Not only did fellow passengers destroy his coffee saplings because of jealousy, but they also broke the branches of a sapling in the fight. His ship was attacked by pirates many times, and finally because it was stranded, there was not enough fresh water, and everyone only had a little fresh water left. No coffee saplings, of course. Captain de Klee therefore had to water his coffee saplings with his share of fresh water. Because Captain de Klee had prepared well in advance, he made a glass box with holes for the coffee saplings, which would keep them warm, prevent salty seawater from splashing on them, and prevent them from bumping and damaging their branches.

This small island in Central America was once the source of Central American coffee. It was Captain de Klee who succeeded in transplanting coffee to this small Central American island, which was once rich in coffee (18791680 coffee trees were planted on the island in 1777) and introduced to Haiti, Dominica and Guadeloupe in Central America. But now the island produces very little coffee and exports mainly bananas and pineapples. The island thus bears witness to the growth and destruction of an industry.

There are some interesting things about Martinique.

Youth is the time when a man grows, but he stops growing in adulthood. Strangely enough, Martinique's inhabitants are tall, whereas visitors from abroad can grow several centimetres even as adults after only a short stay. Martinique is therefore known as: "can make people tall island." Every 10 years or so, a puzzling phenomenon occurs on the island: adult men and women living on the island grow a few centimeters taller. The average adult male height on the island is 1.90 metres and the average adult female height is over 1.74 metres. Young men on the island who are less than 1.8 meters tall will be ridiculed by their peers as "short".

This phenomenon is obviously a "boon" to people who think they are short. Martinique attracts numerous tourists each year, most of whom are short people from all over the world. Short people who come to live on this island for a period of time will grow a few centimeters for no reason, so people call Martinique "Shorty Paradise".

In fact, not only people, but also animals, plants and insects on the island have grown particularly rapidly. Ants, flies, beetles, lizards, snakes, etc. on the island have increased several times over the usual 10 years or so since 1948, especially the rats on the island, which have grown as big as cats.

Another custom of the Ferbala people of Martinique is that they never stoop. They never stoop to pick up even the most valuable items when they fall to the ground. Instead, they lean forward and pick them up with a bamboo clip stuck in their backs.

In addition to Africa and Arabia, where coffee has long been grown, coffee has also been introduced to Central and South America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. There are coffee kingdoms like Martinique, which experienced the rise, boom and fall of coffee cultivation, and Brazil, which never declined after its rise. And has always maintained the world's largest coffee production superiority.

Ever since European colonists intervened in the spread of coffee cultivation, coffee has traveled nonstop around the world. Continually expanding cultivation areas and increasing yields to meet European market demand. But the expansion also helped coffee farmers carve out a way to survive. Because some areas have few other ways to improve their living conditions except through the sale of coffee. However, coffee sales prices are being squeezed by global coffee producers, who are the bottom earners in the coffee cycle. The biggest profits are always made by importers, exporters and local wholesalers and retailers.

From the perspective of coffee cultivation, one can see that the spread of coffee cultivation is limited by planting conditions, and areas that are not suitable for coffee cultivation are unlikely to accept coffee cultivation. The areas suitable for coffee cultivation are almost always poor and underdeveloped developing areas. Many of them are extremely poor. Therefore, coffee cultivation in these areas often requires external capital support, otherwise the quality of coffee cannot be guaranteed, and it is difficult to obtain higher sales prices.

Due to the huge demand for coffee in the European market, a large number of colonies at that time produced as much coffee as possible in order to provide it to the European market. So you can get a very high profit return. At the same time, almost all coffee-growing areas of the people have also developed the habit of drinking coffee. Brazil, for example, is not only the world's largest coffee producer, but also one of the world's top coffee consumers. Certain coffees are even banned from export for local consumption. It can be seen from this that Brazilians attach great importance to coffee. After all, coffee farming is one of the four pillars of Brazil's national economy.

(iv) Spread of coffee drinking

Prior to this coffee spread history overlapped with the spread of coffee cultivation, from Ethiopia in Africa to Yemen in Arabia.

But after coffee entered Europe, Europe became the world's largest coffee consumption region at that time. Since coffee was not produced in Europe, the spread of coffee cultivation began to separate from the spread of coffee drinking methods and no longer overlapped completely.

European colonial powers after the seventeenth century not only spread coffee cultivation to all regions of the world suitable for coffee cultivation, but also brought coffee drinking traditions to all parts of the world. Whether developed Europe, rich America, backward Asia or poor Africa, there is no region in the world without the habit and tradition of drinking coffee. Even for many years, China was almost the only country in the world that did not have the habit of drinking coffee. A completely different but similar statement: China is the last coffee market to be tapped.

Here we briefly describe the history of coffee drinking. The history of coffee drinking can be divided into the following stages and ranges of use.

1. Ethiopia and Africa, beginning before the 6th century AD

The oldest and most traditional method still used today: frying beans in a pan, mashing, brewing coffee in a hot pot, and pouring it into a coffee cup.

Applicable regions: some countries and regions in Africa.

2. Arabic (Turkish), dating from the 7th century AD

The most famous and ancient method still used today: medium roast, ultra-fine grinding, brewed in a special coffee pot, ready to drink in a coffee cup.

Applicable regions: the whole Arab region and the Balkans.

3. Europe (drip coffee), beginning in the 17th century AD

Once the most common way to drink: medium or French roast, medium grind, a variety of different preparation tools to soak, filter out coffee grounds, and then pour into a cup to drink.

Applicable regions: all regions of the world except some countries and regions in Africa, Arabia, Balkans and Southern Europe.

4. Italy (Italian coffee) and other three southern European countries, starting in the 1946 s (another said that it began in the early twentieth century)

The most popular way to drink coffee in the modern world: unique coffee blend processing, deep roasting, fine grinding, infusion process with strong pressure, concentrated coffee.

Applicable areas: before 1990, only in southern European countries (Italy, Spain and Portugal); after 1990, almost all countries and regions in the world.

Along with the spread of coffee cultivation, coffee drinking spread to all coffee-growing regions. However, coffee drinking is not only in the coffee growing areas, in fact, almost all regions of the world have started drinking coffee differently, so the coffee market has expanded.

Coffee and Revolution "Business"

People always say that coffee always leads to revolution because it excites people. This is from before the French Revolution, many cafes gathered a large number of revolutionaries let people have such associations. And in many other areas there is a similar situation, that is, many revolutionaries always like to stay in cafes before launching a revolution. This seems to have convinced many that coffee somehow "caused" the revolution. However, this is a misunderstanding that confuses cause and effect.

Did coffee cause the revolution, or did revolution require coffee?

In fact, before the French Revolution, not only revolutionaries gathered in cafes, but also many poor college students and even poor professors.

Why is that?

The reason is that coffee has always been a cheap drink, whether noble aristocrats, rich businessmen, or poor workers, will drink a cup of coffee when they need it. Because coffee is not expensive, drinking one or two cups of coffee a day will not affect your life too much. Especially in cold Paris, poor students and professors, artists and revolutionaries need a warm place to read, write, or gather to discuss things, so just buy a cheap cup of coffee in the cafe, you can read all kinds of newspapers for free, and you can also have an indoor environment with a big heater, which is very worthwhile for all those who have no money to heat.

So those people go to the cafe not just for the cup of coffee, but for the warm environment. Most revolutionaries were poor, so they stayed in cafes all the time, not just for a cup of coffee. This proves that coffee is not a resource for revolution and chaos.

If alcohol makes people lose control and indulge themselves, coffee is a drink that makes people regain their sanity, stay awake and wise. Because coffee can not only refresh, but also improve people's reaction ability and speed, which allows people to make rational, reasonable and even very witty responses to environmental and social problems. That's the beauty of coffee.

This can be seen from the fact that during the British Industrial Revolution, a large number of poor workers drank coffee in order to work more and earn more money in order to support their families. Coffee didn't make the workers less productive, but it did make them more resilient, at least for the time being. This may be why coffee is associated with "aristocracy" and "grace."

There are even revolutionaries who see coffee as an anesthetic. Because workers become more tolerant after drinking coffee, it seems to have a feeling of anesthesia, which makes coffee drinkers work harder, harder, and even more efficiently.

These facts may be the basic reason why many companies later provide free coffee to their staff during work.

Coffee culture in the United States

In addition to its large population, the United States has become the world's largest coffee consumer market because more people drink coffee than tea. One of the best-known and most widespread causes is the Boston Tea Party.

In Boston, when the United States was still a British colony, a group of young people led by Han Kirk and Samuel Adams formed the Boston Tea Party. In November 1773, East India Company ships loaded with 342 cases of tea sailed into Boston Harbor. On December 16, 8,000 people gathered in Boston to demand that the East India Company tea ships anchored there leave port, but they were refused. That night, organized by the Boston Tea Party, anti-British crowds disguised as Indians boarded the ship and dumped all 342 boxes of tea (worth £ 18,000) on three ships of the East India Company into the sea.

The main cause here was that the British colonists helped their own enterprises (British East India Company) to dump their tea stocks into the United States, and this practice greatly hurt the interests of American tea trading enterprises.

Partly for this reason, American patriotism makes them more inclined to drink coffee than tea. This caused the coffee market in the United States to swell and greatly outstrip the tea market (in sharp contrast to Britain as the original colonizer).

When describing the characteristics of coffee drinking in the United States, ordinary books always call it "free wind." It seems that Americans are also "bohemian" when drinking coffee. That's not necessarily true. Americans drink coffee differently from other regions mainly because the cups are large and the coffee is weak. Why is that?

According to the introduction of the elderly who immigrated to the United States in the early years, Americans initially drank coffee, mainly among the general poor, at least in the largest number. Most of the people in early America were mainly penal labourers who had been sent there, and because of the Boston Tea Party, many stopped drinking tea and drank coffee instead. If it is only a small cup, it is definitely not enough to quench your thirst; if it is too strong, you will feel uncomfortable after drinking too much. So American coffee makers had to make it weaker (more water for the same amount of ground coffee) and larger (from small coffee cups in Europe to large mugs in America) in order to meet this demand.

Therefore, the reason why Americans do not follow European habits and traditions in drinking coffee is mainly because they drink coffee for different purposes from Europeans.

Through centuries of evolution, Americans have developed certain traditions and habits. Although Americans no longer have that need, habits and traditions are not so easily changed. When espresso began to catch on around the world, it was perhaps an opportunity for Americans to change their coffee drinking habits. After all, a small cup of espresso would be more acceptable to Americans if it could be made better. Then Americans will drink coffee more like Italians, in a small cup. After all, espresso coffee is too tempting for most coffee drinkers to refuse.

This custom and tradition are very similar to the habit of Inner Mongolia people who like to drink salty milk tea. When Mongols were still living on animal husbandry, they always followed horses or cattle grazing, and wherever they went was home. Since the grassland is almost uninhabited areas, most herdsmen live on barbecue. However, the traditional way of barbecue for herdsmen does not add salt, so the only way to get salt every day is to drink salty milk tea with salt, or even the only way. So I developed the habit of drinking salty milk tea. If you only take a certain amount of salt when you eat, it is not enough for people who usually sweat more and lose more salt. And by drinking milk tea to supplement salt, you can drink at any time, supplement salt at any time. Drink more of what you need and drink less of what you need. Although many Mongolians still retain their original habits, it is not impossible to change to sweet milk tea. Especially for young people.

(7) Development of coffee in China

Thus, with the exception of Africa, Arabia and the Balkans, which were the first to drink coffee, people almost all over the world drink drip coffee most of the time (about 300 years). The exception is that southern European countries (including Italy, Spain and Portugal) have been drinking Italian-invented espresso since the 1940s. It was not until the late 1980s that espresso spread to all parts of the world due to the successful operation of Starbucks coffee in most countries around the world, including the United States. Therefore, in addition to southern European countries such as Italy, people in the coffee industry around the world began to care about and understand espresso basically from before and after 1990.

For comparison, we can see that people in the Chinese coffee industry began to come into contact with espresso and understand that Italian coffee basically began in 2000. It is only about a decade later than people in the coffee industry in most parts of the world.

Although Chinese people drink coffee very late, it does not start in the last decade or so. As the most prosperous international city with the most international exchanges in Asia at that time, Shanghai, known as Paris in the East, had a tradition of drinking coffee a long time ago. If an old man in Beijing sits in a rocking chair in his yard and may say to his grandson, "go, buy me two or two high foam", then the old man in Shanghai may sit on the sofa and say to his grandson, "go. Buy me a bag of coffee. Moreover, after his grandson bought the coffee, the old man in Shanghai would tremble and take out a well-preserved coffee pot and carefully make a cup of coffee. Then he would take the coffee and sit down again on his sofa and drink it one sip after another. From his expression, we can see that this cup of coffee not only gives him a more sober state of mind, but also simply delicious, no worse than the jade at the Queen Mother's meeting. There were people from all over Shanghai at that time, and it was a mecca for foreigners panning for gold. As a result, there are many cafes serving these foreigners and the local rich. At that time, the local poor in China did not even have enough to eat, so where could they afford to drink coffee? Therefore, coffee has really become a high-end consumption of rich people in Shanghai, and cafes have become high-end service places.

If the popularity of coffee in Shanghai in the 1930s was regarded as the first wave of Chinese coffee, then the second wave of Chinese coffee was coffee in coffee shops in newly built foreign-related high-end hotels, including joint ventures, when China first opened up in the 1980s. At that time, there were coffee services in all high-end foreign-related restaurants, including coffee shops, lobby bars and bars, as well as coffee services in some western restaurants. This is a necessary service for star hotels.

In coffee shops during this period, the types of coffee drinks were basically limited to the following two types.

Coffee, Black Coffee (black)

Coffee with milk, White Coffee (white coffee)

The names of these two coffee drinks are popular in the world in this era, and the way coffee drinks are served. Because the (black) coffee served in cafes in those days did not provide milk, if you want to drink coffee with milk, you should order white coffee (coffee with milk). It's just that later coffee shops all provided free milk, so there was no need to distinguish between black coffee and white coffee. So the names of these two histories disappear in the dust of history.

Although the coffee service at this stage is limited to a very small range, it impresses the Chinese people deeply, not only because the price of coffee service in high-end hotels is generally high, but also used to be the exclusive service of "foreign exchange volume holders (the double symbol of wealth and power)". This resonates with the nature of "coffee belongs to the exclusive service of high-end, foreigners and the rich" given to people in Shanghai in the 1930s. it further deepens the concept that coffee belongs to the service items exclusive to high-end, high-consumption, and some privileged people. Even now, some people still think that ordinary people with low income are "unworthy" to drink coffee.

After about 1997, the third wave of Chinese coffee, the coffee market close to the masses, began to rise; although the price of coffee remained high due to operational problems, anyone could enjoy it as long as they were willing to spend money. At this stage, cafes in the nascent Chinese market were initially limited to drip coffee, and then (about 2000 years ago) gradually began to introduce espresso.