The spread and Development of Coffee Culture (2)

The spread and Development of Coffee in Europe

From the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century, coffee was already a popular drink in the Middle East, but it was also regarded as a kind of medicine. European ambassadors and merchants in the Turkish Empire also believed that coffee was a healthy drink with special curative effects, and many positive comments helped to import coffee into Europe.

Lovov, a famous German doctor and botanist, wrote a book about coffee as early as 1582. However, it was the Venetians who first imported coffee beans in 1615.

Venice in 1645 gave birth to the first open street cafe in Europe. Paris and Vienna also followed, with relaxed and romantic French sentiment and Viennese literati temperament in their own style, which became the forerunner of the two major trends of European cafes in the future.

Before Spain and Portugal built strong fleets, trade between Europe and the Middle East was tied up by the Venetians, so historians were not surprised that the first coffee bean in Europe was brought in by the Venetians.

At that time, coffee was very expensive and too extravagant to drink. At first, it was mainly sold to European pharmacists, but it became more and more popular at the end of the 17th century. Traders who hawked lemons or herbs along the street also began to sell coffee, thus becoming the most civilian drink in Italy.

Although coffee drinks were quickly accepted, Christian conservatives complained that coffee was a "Satan drink" and asked the pope to ban Christians from drinking coffee because Muhammad forbade Muslims to drink Christian wine. Muslims replace wine with coffee, and if Christians follow suit to drink coffee, they will become Muslims.

It is said that the Roman church "Emperor Clement VIII" took a sip of coffee and said, "Wow, Satan's drink is so delicious. If it is enjoyed exclusively by non-Christians, it would not be sad. We might as well give coffee a holy name and make fun of Satan." Let coffee be the drink of Christ. "

At the end of the 17th century, many cafes appeared in St. Mark's Square in Venice, which immediately became a meeting place for ordinary people or royal aristocrats. The Caffe'Florian, a well-known cafe still open in the square, was founded in 1720, when there was no postal service, and guests always liked to entrust letters or items to Caffe'Florian, transferred by the shopkeeper, and this cafe became an important information center in Venice.

Spread and Development of Coffee in China

The history of the introduction of coffee into China is not long, and it was not until 1884 that coffee was first planted in Taiwan Province.

In the mainland of the motherland, the earliest coffee cultivation began in Yunnan. At the beginning of the 20th century, French missionaries brought the first batch of coffee saplings to Binchuan County, Yunnan Province, and began to grow coffee in the mainland.

Chinese people have been drinking tea for thousands of years. As the origin of tea in the world, people more or less ignore or despise coffee as a foreign beverage in their consumption habits and concepts. For quite a long time after coffee was introduced into China, the cultivation of coffee has not been paid enough attention by people, and the development is very slow.

In terms of natural conditions, many parts of China are very close to Latin America, South America, India, Indonesia and other places, with the congenital conditions of coffee cultivation, but the traditional culture and customs restrict the development of coffee in China.

Until recent years, as more coffee has entered the lives of ordinary Chinese people, and with the impact of foreign culture and way of life, coffee cultivation has gradually developed in China.

Now, there are considerable coffee planting bases in Yunnan, Hainan, Guangxi, Guangdong and other provinces in China, and some world-famous coffee companies, such as Maxwell, Nestl é, Colombia and so on, have set up branches in China. They not only sell coffee products to China, but also purchase coffee beans from coffee planting bases in China, which not only promote coffee sales in China, but also promote the development of coffee planting industry.