What is the history and culture of coffee?

At present, coffee has become an indispensable drink in our lives, but in the long journey of looking for coffee, we seem to feel the endless romance of people's enthusiasm and adventure. How on earth did coffee, quietly grown in the depths of the quiet forest, be discovered and widely accepted all over the world? And how did it start to grow? Among the countless legends of coffee discovery, are there two great legends that are the most enjoyable? Is that the Story of the Shepherd and the Arab Monk? The former is the Christian discovery theory, and the latter is the Islamic theory?

The Story of the Shepherd

There was a shepherd in Ethiopia in the 16th century. One day he found his sheep bouncing and bouncing. He thought it was very strange. After careful observation, he realized that the sheep had eaten only one kind of red fruit. So he took the fruit and distributed it to the monks in the monastery, all of whom felt refreshed after eating it. It is said that the fruit was used as a pick-me-up medicine and was well received by doctors.

Arab monks

In 1258, Shek Omar, the chief expelled by his people for crime, was too hungry and tired to walk any longer when he wandered to Vasaba (in Arabia), far from his hometown of Mocha. When he was resting on the root of a tree, he found a bird coming and perched on the branch, singing in a melodious voice he had never heard before.

When he looked closely, he found that the bird opened its throat and made a wonderful cry after pecking at the fruit on the branch, so he picked all the fruit in the area and boiled it with water. After that, he began to exude a strong fragrance. After drinking it, he not only felt good, but also felt tired physically and mentally. So he picked many of these magical fruits and brought them soup to drink whenever there were patients. finally, because of his good deeds everywhere, the people in his hometown forgave him for his sins, let him go back to Mocha, and respected him as a "saint".

A romantic story

Coffee

Coffee atlas

One of the most romantic stories about coffee is about Gabriel Mateer de Klee, a French naval officer on the island of Matinique. When he was about to leave Paris, he managed to get some coffee trees and decided to take them back to Martinique.

That's about 1720 or I723. He may also have traveled back and forth twice, because the first inoculation did not survive. To be sure, de Klee eventually set sail from Nantes with one of the best saplings that had been carefully cared for. The saplings are kept in a glass box on the deck, which can prevent sea water from splashing and keep warm.

De Klee's diary describes how his ship was threatened by Tunis pirates and how he survived a storm. The diary also mentioned that there was a man on board who was jealous of him in an attempt to destroy the young tree and even broke a branch in a struggle. Then the boat ran aground and the drinking water could not be sufficient, so Dirkley watered the saplings with the water he drank.

About the origin of the name "coffee"

All historians seem to agree that the birthplace of coffee is Kaffa in Ethiopia, while the name for coffee comes from the Arabian "Qahwah" meaning plant drink that later spread around the world and was named after its place of origin, "KAFFA", which was not officially named "coffee" until the 18th century.

Origin

There is no way to examine the source of coffee. One of the many legends is that coffee originated in the highlands of Cafa province in southwestern Ethiopia. It is said that a shepherd became very excited and lively when he discovered that the sheep had eaten a plant, so he discovered coffee. It is also said that due to a wildfire, a coffee forest was destroyed and the smell of barbecue coffee attracted the attention of the surrounding residents. The people chewed the fruit of this plant at first to cheer them up, then baked and ground it into flour to make bread, which was used as food for warriors to improve their courage to fight.

The first cafes in the world

The world's first atlas of cafes

It was not until around 1000 AD that people began to use boiled coffee as a drink. In the 13th century, Ethiopian troops invaded Yemen and brought coffee to the Arab world. Because the Islamic doctrine forbids people to drink alcohol, some religious people think that this drink stimulates the nerves and violates the doctrine. For a time, coffee shops were banned and closed, but the Sultan of Egypt thought that coffee did not violate the doctrine and ordered the ban to be lifted. Coffee drinks quickly became popular in the Arab region. The word Coffee, which comes from Arabic (Qahwa), means "plant drink". It later spread to Turkey, became Kahve, and became the source of the word in European languages. The method of growing and making coffee has also been continuously improved and perfected by the Arabs.

Introduced into Europe

In 1570, when the Turkish army besieged Vienna and failed to retreat, a black bag was found in the Turkish army's barracks.

No one knows what the seed of color is. A Polish man who had lived in Turkey took the bag of coffee and opened his first coffee shop in Vienna. At the end of the 16th century, coffee began to spread into Europe on a large scale through Italy in the name of "Islamic wine".

Coffee was popular among the upper class of Europe in the 17th century, but the cultivation and production of coffee has always been monopolized by Arabs and is of great value in Europe. Until 1690, a Dutch captain sailed to Yemen, got some coffee seedlings and began to plant successfully in Dutch India (present-day Indonesia). The first coffee shop in Venice opened in 1716, and in 1727 the wife of a diplomat in the Netherlands Guiana (now Suriname) gave some coffee seeds to a Spaniard in Brazil, where he planted them with good results. The climate in Brazil is very suitable for coffee growth, and coffee has spread rapidly in South America since then. Coffee, whose prices fell due to mass production, began to become an important drink for Europeans, and by 1763 there were 218 coffee shops in Venice.

At first, some Catholic religious people thought it was a "devil's drink" and encouraged Pope Clemon VIII to ban it, but the pope tasted it and thought it was drinkable, so coffee spread rapidly in Europe and gradually spread all over the world in the 20th century. become an important drink.

In the sixth century, Ethiopian shepherds discovered red coffee fruit.