Coffee Culture-- the Origin of Coffee

The origin of coffee trees and coffee consumption is recognized in Africa, and there are different opinions on the specific region, but most people believe that it is in Ethiopia, an ancient civilization in East Africa. There is no agreement on the time of origin of coffee.

In the history of the discovery, origin and utilization of coffee, there is a magical story that is very popular, which I think is more in line with the truth. A long time ago, when Kaldi, a shepherd boy in the Keffa region of southwestern Ethiopia, was driving sheep through a forest, his goats ate red fruit on large bushes by the side of the road. ! Caldy inadvertently found that the goat was so excited after eating the red fruit that even the old goat ran and jumped like a young goat. The shepherd boy felt strange, so he also picked some fruits and tasted them. As a result, I became very excited and energetic, and I couldn't help dancing. Coffee (edible and refreshing) was discovered. "people call this fruit the local place name 'Keffa' ((Keffa)), which has been passed on and evolved into today's' coffee'(coffee) over a long period of time.

After coffee was discovered, people only picked wild fruit to eat at first, and then slowly began to cultivate it artificially. In the way of eating, at first, it chewed together with meat and kernel (that is, coffee seeds-coffee beans), and later improved to soak or boil the coffee fruit to drink. In terms of use, it was initially mainly used for religious activities in religious circles and for doctors to treat diseases and patients to recover. There are Christianity, Judaism and later Islam in Ethiopia-the Red Sea. After chewing coffee fruit or drinking coffee water, priests, monks and believers of all religions have the energy not to doze off during the religious ritual activities that take place all night. Patients can regain some energy by chewing it or drinking it.

The consumption and picking of coffee gradually crossed the very narrow Red Sea into the Arabian Peninsula. "Chinese Encyclopedia Agricultural Coffee Bar" and "Chinese Agricultural Encyclopedia crop Coffee Bar" say that Arabs began to plant chewing coffee in the 6th century BC, but they are not credible without examples and literature. Moreover, from the perspective of the history of social development, the Arabs on the Arabian Peninsula in the 6th century BC (if there were already "Arabs" at that time) were still in the barbaric era of primitive society. If they had already had farming at that time, it would only be possible to grow food, vegetables, and multi-purpose crops such as dates, wheat, melons and vegetables, but it would be impossible to cultivate coffee, which is a medicinal, hobby and leisure crop. Because the level of productivity at that time only allowed them to grow those crops to ensure that they would not go hungry and survive. According to the new edition of the American Encyclopedia Coffee Bar, Arabs began to grow (chew) coffee in the + century AD. Some scholars also accurate the time and place of the cultivation and use of coffee to AD, and began to plant coffee in Yemen in 2000. I think it is relatively credible to cultivate coffee in the 6th century AD. It is inferred that Ethiopians found that coffee was used for a long time before, or two or three centuries before, that is, about AD. Century. Rhazes,865-932, an Arab medical scientist in the 10th century AD 9Mel, explicitly mentioned coffee for the first time in the literature, that is, someone crushed the dried coffee fruit and fried it in water as a medicine.'

According to the Origin of Coffee, an Arabic document in the 16th century, a Muslim imam, Sheikh Omar, was convicted and exiled to Osaba from Mocha in Yemen in the mid-13th century. On the way, he saw a bird happily pecking at the red fruit on the roadside tree, so he tried to pick some boiled water to drink. The small fruit has a wonderful taste. After drinking it, drowsiness and fatigue are immediately eliminated. Omar then taught the usage of coffee fruit to some people who had just recovered from a serious illness. Omar later spread the coffee fruit and drinking usage when he returned to Mocha at the end of his exile. ! The legend of Omar's discovery of coffee is very popular in the Arab region. I think this legend indicates several points: first, Omar may have independently rediscovered the consumption of wild coffee. He may have found different wild species-cultivated species. It has been identified that there are different wild species of coffee and cultivated species developed on this basis, such as small fruit-Arabica coffee (Coffee arabica), medium fruit-top basket girl coffee (C. canephra), big fruit-Liberian coffee (C. liberica); second, Omar may be one of the first people to try to grow coffee in the Arab region; third, Omar is one of the people who promote the consumption and cultivation of coffee.

We know that agriculture in the Arab region was also relatively developed in the Middle Ages, with a large number of multi-purpose crops, dates and other crops. It is difficult for Arabs not to cultivate coffee after knowing that coffee is edible and drinkable and has wonderful effects. So I speculate that coffee, which has been sporadically and occasionally cultivated in Yemen since the 6th century, has been cultivated in the field since the time of Omar. In 1454, the Muslim dynasty in Yemen officially issued a decree allowing the drinking and cultivation of coffee. "this shows that coffee has been grown and eaten for quite a long time and has reached a certain scale. Since then, coffee has been widely grown and drunk in the vast Arab region.