Coffee information Coffee spread worldwide

The story of how coffee is grown and consumed all over the world is one of the greatest and romantic stories in history. The story begins in Ethiopia on the Cape of Africa, where coffee is most likely born in the Kafa region. There are all sorts of uncertain theories about the discovery of the method of roasting coffee beans. One of the stories is that an Ethiopian shepherd was surprised to find his sheep excited after eating red coffee berries. A more accurate story is that when slaves were brought from present-day Sudan to Yemen and Arabia, they ate the fresh, juicy coffee berries when they passed the island of Moka, which has the same name as a kind of coffee. To be sure, coffee cultivation began in Yemen in the 15th century or earlier.

Mocha was also an important port on the only sea route to Mecca at that time, and it was the busiest place in the world at that time. But the Arabs strictly banned the export of any fruity beans, so that coffee could not be grown anywhere else. Coffee beans are the fruit of coffee trees, but if they are peeled off, they will become sterile fruits. The competition to steal the surviving coffee trees or beans ended with the Dutch victory in 1616, which they planted in the greenhouse.

At first, Yemeni authorities encouraged coffee drinking because it was thought to be more satisfying than Arabian tea whose buds and leaves could be used as a stimulant but had serious side effects. The first cafes appeared in Mecca and were called "Kevy Canis". Cafes quickly spread throughout the Arab world and were a great success. Here people play chess, chat, sing, dance and enjoy music. These cafes are luxuriously decorated and full of personality. There has never been a place like a coffee shop before, where social and business activities can take place in a comfortable environment, and anyone can enter with the money to buy a cup of coffee.

Arab cafes quickly became centres of political activity and were suppressed. Coffee and cafes were banned many times in the decades that followed, but they kept showing up. The ultimate solution is to tax coffee and cafes.

Coffee comes to Asia

At that time, the Dutch also grew coffee in Manabar, India, and brought it to Bataville, Java, in 1699, which is now Indonesia. In the following days, the Dutch colonies became the main coffee supplier in Europe. Today, Indonesia is the fourth largest coffee exporter in the world.

Coffee comes to Europe

The merchant of Venice first brought coffee to Europe in 1615. At this time, the other two hot drinks began to rise quietly in Europe. The first is hot chocolate, which was brought to Spain from the United States by the Spaniards in 1528; the other is tea, which was first sold in Europe in 1610.

At first, coffee was mainly sold by lemonade vendors, so it was considered to have medicinal properties. The first European cafes appeared in Venice in 1683, the most famous of which was the Florida Cafe in St. Mark's Square, which opened in 1720 and is still open to commercial activities today.

Lloyd in London, the world's largest insurance market, started as a cafe by Edward. Opened in 1688, Lloyd prepared a list of insurance ships for his customers.

Coffee comes to the United States

Coffee was first drunk in North America in 1688, and soon after, cafes appeared in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other towns. The Boston riots of 1773 were planned in a cafe called Green Dragon. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of New York were founded in cafes, in what is now known as the financial district, Wall Street.

Coffee was first grown in the United States in the 1820s, a process that is perhaps the most fascinating and romantic story in coffee history.

Gabriel is a French navy serving in Martinique. On his way to Paris on a business trip in 1720, with the help of others and rich personal charm, he got a coffee tree and brought it back on the boat. To keep it warm and prevent saltwater from attacking, he placed the tree in a glass box on the deck. The voyage was full of accidents, at least as described in Gabriel's diary. The ship was attacked by Tunisian pirates and encountered a severe storm so that the trees needed to be tied down. Our hero had a fierce fight with an enemy who deliberately hurt the tree out of jealousy, in which a branch was torn off, but the whole tree survived.

The sea finally calmed down, the ship stopped, and drinking water began to be distributed regularly. Gabriel used the precious water from priority, which he used on the coffee tree, and at last the tree survived, and so did he.

Finally, the ship reached Martinique, where the tree was replanted on Pribel Island, surrounded by thorn hedges and guarded by slaves. It began to grow and reproduce, and by 1726, the first harvest had arrived. History records that by 1777, there were 18 million to 19 million coffee trees on Martinique, and a cash crop that could be grown in the New World appeared at the right time.

But it is the Dutch who really popularize coffee crops in central and southern America, where coffee is now the main continental cash crop. Coffee first arrived in the Dutch colony of Suriname in 1718, followed by the first cultivation in many parts of French Guiana and Brazil's Para region. In 1730, the British introduced coffee to Jamaica, where the Blue Mountains now produce the most famous and expensive coffee in the world. Before 1825, South and Central America were on their way to coffee. Another significance of this time is that coffee is grown for the first time in Hawaii, where it produces the only American coffee and one of the highest quality coffee.