Development and change of Coffee: from Medicinal use to drinking

Development and change of Coffee: from Medicinal use to drinking

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Trace back to the source

The origin of coffee plant can be traced back to millions of years ago, in fact, the real age when it was discovered can no longer be traced. According to legend, coffee is a shepherd named Kaldi in the Ethiopian highlands. When he discovered that his sheep had inadvertently eaten the fruit of a plant, he became very lively and energetic, and discovered coffee ever since. All historians seem to agree that the birthplace of coffee is the Kaffa region of Ethiopia. But the earliest people who planned to grow and eat coffee were Arabs, and the name coffee is thought to come from the Arabic "Qahwah", or plant drink.

Early stage: medicinal, replenishing physical strength

The earliest Arab way to eat coffee was to chew the whole fruit (Coffee Cherry) to absorb its juice. They then mixed the ground coffee beans with animal fat as a physical supplement for long trips, and it was not until the year 1000 that the green coffee beans were boiled in boiling water to make an aromatic drink. Three centuries later, the Arabs began to bake and grind coffee beans. Because alcohol was forbidden in the Koran, Arabs consumed a lot of coffee, so religion was actually a big factor in the popularity of coffee in the Arab world.

16th Century: Arabian Wine

In the 16th century, coffee was gradually introduced into Europe through Venice and the port of Marseilles in the name of "Arabian wine". The custom of drinking coffee in Europe was gradually spread by Italian Venice merchants in doing business in the 17th century, and Bottegadel Caffe, the first coffee shop in Europe, appeared in Venice. Over the past 400 years, the drinking habit of coffee has not only spread from the West to the East, but has even become an unstoppable trend.

Coffee for drinking is said to have begun at the beginning of the eleventh century, and the record can be seen in ancient Arab documents. Before that, coffee beans were dried and boiled in the Arab region as stomach medicine, but it was later learned that coffee also had a refreshing effect, coupled with the strict Muslim commandments that forbade believers from drinking alcohol. Believers drank coffee juice from roasting as an exciting drink instead of alcohol, and it was said that locals knew how to roast raw beans for use after the 13th century.

The first coffee shop

Coffee was widely planned by Arabs in the 12th and 3rd centuries, and the world's first coffee shop was born in Damascus in the Middle East in the 16th century (1530). In just a few years, there were different numbers of coffee shops in more than 200 cities throughout the empire, from the ancient Constantinople to the Caucasus, from the Persian Gulf to Budapest, and the roads connecting these cities across the desert wilderness were dotted with mobile coffee tents to serve a steady stream of business travelers and troops. Coffee also spread to Europe in the same century. At that time, coffee was taken to Western countries with the Turks on a western expedition to Austria. Unexpectedly, it soon captured the hearts of Europeans. According to records, a packet of samples sent from Venice to the Netherlands in 1596 was the earliest coffee bean seen by Europeans north of the Alps. Legend has it that coffee was so rare in Western Europe that at first there was a joke that German housewives used chicken soup to make coffee. It is speculated that in the booming import and export trade of seasoning raw materials at the end of the 16th century, many coffee beans from the east began to enter Europe.

However, it was not until 1683 that the first coffee shop in Europe was opened by a Polish in Vienna, Austria. Businessmen who are proficient in Eastern European and Turkish languages, led by the brilliant Armenian businessman Johannes Diodato, not only acted as translators and guides for Austria in wartime, but also engaged in the hugely profitable coffee trade on both sides of the line of fire, meeting the needs of their own cafes, while also solving the urgent shortage of raw materials for many aristocratic and wealthy citizens' family salons. Won the attention of the upper echelons. A few years later, the coffee industry that can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys developed rapidly. most of these cafes were opened by his fellow villagers or Turks from other parts of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, naturally with a strong Middle Eastern flavor. Many street corners float out of the coffee hot smell of the narrow shop, you can also see the Istanbul coffee shop unique wall bench, open firewood coffee stove Most of the guests come from vendors, craftsmen and craftsmen who make a living in a nearby market. Technically, it's just a small, simple coffee shop. At that time, people in the middle and upper classes were still intoxicated in the closed private coffee circle in their homes, and the free citizens, who were keen on the initial economic success, became a force to influence the social and political society.

Modern Cafe

Today, people are familiar with, or imagine elegant, comfortable, pure European-style cafes with an open social salon atmosphere, about 50 years later, until the Enlightenment era of the general awakening of civic consciousness. before it really began to take to the center of life in Vienna and other western cities.