The origin of coffee

The origin of coffee is as colorful as Chinese tea, and its earliest history can be traced back to Persia in 850. According to the Muslim scripture, the Koran, Mohamed fell asleep before carrying out an important task, and the angel Zebulemi (one of the four archangels of Islam that conveyed Allah's revelation) woke him up with a cup of coffee so powerful that he knocked 40 people off the horse in one breath.

Some people speculate that the "roasted grain" given to David the king of ancient Israel in the Legend of the King is coffee beans; others say that the kind of alcoholic drink Helen asked Telemakos for in Homer's Odyssey chapter 4 refers to coffee.

The history of coffee most likely began in the "Caffa" region of Ethiopia, when a shepherd noticed that his sheep developed a strange restlessness after eating the leaves and fruits of an unknown plant. After hearing this, monks from nearby monasteries made various attempts to find that baking, grinding and then flushing the seeds of the plant into drinks can keep them awake during long prayers.

It may be this property that allowed coffee to spread widely in monasteries and was brought to Yemen by Ethiopian troops in many invasions. Coffee spread to the distant holy places of Mecca and Medina, and a large number of pilgrims poured into these cities from all over the world, tasted coffee for the first time, and then brought it back to their own country, and coffee spread all over the world. Muslims are the living land for the spread of coffee, and coffee soon became a part of their lives because they banned alcoholic beverages.

It was from them that we learned the word "qahwah", meaning brew, bubble; Turks read it as "quhve"; and, of course, the copy of European pronunciation became coffee.

Our story now takes us to the early 16th century, when there were so many coffee providers in Mecca that a government official ordered cuts. Unfortunately, Satan in Cairo was used to drinking coffee. He not only repealed the decree, but also removed the position of propagandist.

In the 17th century, British women wrote a written petition against coffee because their husbands ignored them and preferred the new drink. Turkish women divorced their husbands and went to court because their husbands forbade them to drink coffee.

As early as the sixteenth century, coffee deeply influenced social customs and personal habits. Cafes have always been a meeting place for European literary, artistic and political celebrities. Voltaire claims he drinks 40 cups of coffee a day, and it is rumored that Balzac drank 50,000 cups when he wrote "Human Comedy."

The first cafe appeared in Paris in 1660 and was actively sponsored by scholars, artists and celebrities of the time, such as Rousseau, Diderot, Danton, Robespierre and so on. From these names alone, we can see what an important role cafes played in society at that time. The first coffee shop in Venice opened in 1683, and in a short time Sene grew to more than 200. In Vienna, the first person to open a coffee shop was a Polish who not only saved Vienna from Turkey, but also invented a new way to drink: filter out the coffee grounds, sweeten it with honey, and add milk. At the same time, in order to commemorate the disaster avoided, a baker in the city invented a half-moon-shaped pastry that goes well with coffee. This is what we know today as cappuccino and croissant.

Origin migration

Coffee trees were originally grown in Ethiopia, but have been monopolized by the region since they were transplanted to Arabia. during this period, cafes continued to increase demand for coffee. Some officials of the Dutch East Indies Company stole several saplings and replanted them in Ceylon and Java. "┕? Ye Mu Dong Ji? The purchase of clothes by cercariae is not only a glorious scene, but also a siren. Taunt? Abusive Wat? Skillfully measure the key to cut the chip residence?

The French did the same thing, cutting precious coffee seedlings in Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Trinidad (Latin America). The last Portuguese brought saplings to Brazil, which became the world's largest coffee producer in less than a century (it accounted for 97% of the world's harvest in 1907).

Coffee maker

In the past, the coffee brewed in the cafe was in a large container heated by a double steamer and had to be thrown away if it was not drunk within a few hours. At the beginning of the 20th century, the machine for making fresh coffee was invented: the espresso maker. This is a revolution in the history of coffee drinking. From then on, people just pour the coffee beans in, press the button, and the fresh coffee is ready. The coffee brewed with it is more fresh and stronger, and more importantly, it simplifies the coffee-making process and lays a foundation for its further spread.

Coffee in Asia

Drinking coffee has long been part of the European and American way of life. In Europe, large umbrellas in cafes dotted with sidewalks become a beautiful street view, where all kinds of people gather, make appointments, and drink espresso or cappuccinos. The trend is now spreading to Asia.

Consumption is not simply a kind of behavior, it often contains a kind of social concept. Drinking coffee is not only a pastime for Chinese people, but also includes the pursuit of an ideal way of life. On the one hand, the mass media exaggerates the European atmosphere and fashion image of drinking coffee, on the other hand, it introduces the different types and drinking methods of coffee, focusing on cultivating future consumer groups, which greatly promotes the development of coffee retail industry.

Before the introduction of espresso and drinks made from it, filtered coffee dominated the Asian market. Nowadays, in addition to traditional vegetarian coffee, such as espresso, cappuccino and Ryder, many coffee shops also offer specialty coffee, such as smoothies and mochas. For coffee merchants and coffee shop owners, specialty coffee offers greater price differentials and higher profits.

The popularity of drinking coffee has spread to many Asian countries. In many large and medium-sized cities in China, making coffee bars has become a fascinating scene of nightlife. For example, there are hundreds of cafes in a street in Sanlitun, Beijing, attracting people of all ages, levels and skin colors. Drinking an elegant cup of coffee and enjoying the leisure of life has imperceptibly become a fashion.