The spread of Coffee Culture

The spread of coffee

Introduced into the Arab world:

In 525 AD, Ethiopian troops invaded Yemen, and coffee beans were taken to Yemen by soldiers. According to records, coffee trees began to be planted in Yemen in 575 AD. Later, coffee beans were also brought to Egypt by Sudanese black slaves who were shipped to Egypt. After coffee was introduced into the Arab world, it was originally used by Arabs as a herb to treat migraines and promote digestion. Later, the Arabs invented roasting coffee beans to make a coffee drink, which conquered the Arab taste with its unique aroma and rich flavor, and the Islamic habit of banning alcohol played a role in the spread of coffee at that time. Coffee is called "the drink given by Allah" by Arabs. It is recorded that cafes appeared in Damascus, Mecca and other places in the 15th century. After the Ottoman Turkish Empire conquered the Arab world, it developed coffee into a "national drink" and developed coffee etiquette and mysterious coffee divination. Before the 16th century, coffee was regarded as a very precious drink in the Arab world, and Arabs, especially Yemen, which grew coffee, monopolized coffee production and strictly prohibited the outflow of coffee seeds and saplings.

Introduced into Europe:

The Ottoman Turkish Empire in the 16th century was the center of East-West trade. Coffee, a mysterious drink, naturally attracted the attention of East and West businessmen, who not only formed the habit of drinking coffee themselves, but also wanted to bring this precious drink back to their country. As early as the end of the 16th century, merchants in Venice, Marseilles and London began to secretly bring a small amount of coffee beans home to receive friends with coffee at home.

In 1616, Venice merchants officially imported a bag of coffee beans to Italy for the first time. Europeans covet the seeds and saplings of coffee. In 1615, the Dutch smuggled a coffee sapling out of the port of Mocha, transported to the Netherlands and planted in a greenhouse. Coffee, a "fashionable" and "mysterious" drink from the "Eastern Ottoman Empire", was quickly accepted by Europeans, and a number of cafes came into being. In the coffee shop, people can get together to talk about current affairs, politics and various topics while drinking coffee. In addition, the coffee shop has also become a gathering place for some literati and artists. Coffee has quickly spread in Europe and penetrated into people's lives.

Introduced to North America:

The earliest record of coffee in North America was probably in 1668. At the end of the 17th century, tea, cocoa and coffee were spread to North America at the same time, and tea drinking became more popular. After the famous Boston tea pouring event in 1773, coffee naturally replaced tea as the main drink.

Large-scale spread around the world:

The widespread popularity of coffee in Europe has also brought some problems. A large number of imported coffee beans have caused large foreign exchange losses, coupled with the threat of freedom of speech in cafes to the rule of the authorities. At that time, the rulers of European countries first adopted a "cost-saving" approach to close cafes and ban people from drinking coffee, but coffee and cafes have become a trend, repeatedly banned, so "open source" has become a more in line with the situation. However, the climate of continental Europe is not suitable for coffee growth, so the European empires, which are in the period of colonial expansion, began to aim at their own colonies and open up coffee production areas in the tropics of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Introduced to Asia:

Coffee saplings shipped by the Dutch to the Netherlands in 1616 could not be planted on a large scale because they could not adapt to the cold climate in the north, so the Dutch transplanted them to Ceylon in 1696 and to Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1699. Indonesia became the first country in Asia to produce coffee on a large scale.

As the birthplace of Islam, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, as holy cities of Islam, have also attracted a large number of Eastern Muslims to make pilgrimages. These pilgrims also have the opportunity to taste coffee in Arabia and repeatedly try to take it out of the Arab world. As early as the 17th century, during a pilgrimage to Mecca, Babudan, an Indian Muslim, secretly took seven coffee beans out of Yemen and transported them to southern India, where coffee was introduced into India.

Introduced to Central and South America:

In the 1820s, French naval officer de Klee transported a coffee sapling to Martinique Island in Central America, and Martinique coffee saplings were spread to Haiti, Dominica and other Central American island countries.

At the same time, coffee seedlings were spread to Cuba and Jamaica in Britain.

Coffee is grown on a large scale in French Guiana, Suriname, Haiti and other countries.

Spain grows coffee in its own territories such as Colombia and Peru.

Coffee seedlings spread from French Guiana to Brazil, where the coffee industry sprang up and became the largest producer in the world at the beginning of the 20th century.

Introduced to Africa:

At the end of the 19th century, coffee was widely grown in British colonies in Africa. In 1893, the coffee industry of Kenya, the neighbor of Ethiopia, began to develop and rapidly developed into a high-quality coffee producer.

Introduced to Hawaii:

Coffee spread to the Hawaiian islands in 1825.

Introduced to Australia:

Coffee was first introduced to Australia in the 1880s.

Coffee spread to the Hawaiian islands in 1925.

So far, with Brazil as the leader, with the Tropic of Cancer as the boundary, coffee planting territory has been formed across the east and west of the earth, stretching across the four continents of Asia, Africa, the United States and Australia.

Introduced into China:

In 1884, the British first spread coffee to Taiwan, and Taiwan began to grow coffee. In the era of Japanese occupation, coffee became popular in Taiwan.

In 1892, French missionaries brought coffee from Vietnam to Binchuan County, Yunnan Province, which was the earliest record of coffee cultivation in Chinese mainland. At present, coffee cultivation in China is mainly concentrated in Yunnan and some areas of Hainan.

The history of coffee drinking in China can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty. With the opening of the country, coffee began to appear in the eastern coastal cities. There are records of coffee in the poems of the late Qing Dynasty, such as the bamboo branch word "Kao Fei", which was popular in Shanghai at that time. Colored sugar is sweet and bitter, and westerners cook tea for each meal. In the 1920s and 1930s, some cafes have appeared in old Shanghai and Kunming. Coffee shops and cafes temporarily disappeared at the beginning of the founding of New China. After the reform and opening up, coffee has made a comeback. Since the 1980s, Nestl é and other brands have landed in China, "instant coffee" has become synonymous with coffee, and with the expansion of some domestic and foreign chain cafes in the 21st century, various star hotels have launched coffee as an important drink, which has promoted the development of the domestic coffee industry, but as a traditional tea drinking country, the quality of domestic coffee is still mixed, and the local coffee culture has not been formed. All these need to be further developed.