History of Coffee: From Early Ethiopia To Starbucks Of Today

There is no doubt that drinking coffee and puffing a cigar are some of the favorite relaxation methods for many people and it is also not surprising that the history of coffee and tobacco has seen the two becoming very popular with the passage of time. Throughout times gone by, coffee has always been the most enervating beverage that has seen people feel invigorated after having had a mug full of this wonderful drink.

In fact, many people cannot imagine life without a daily morning cup of coffee and it does help them with morning functioning. However, not many may know or even are bothered by the history of coffee. Coffee is in fact rich in flavor as also very aromatic and it also has a rich history. From many centuries people have been drinking coffee and it continues to the present with unabated popularity as anyone that drinks his or her Starbucks coffee must know.

You could safely place the beginnings of coffee consumption to about the ninth century or even earlier though there is no certainty about how it has been discovered which has made the history of coffee filled with many a legend. The best known of these legends has an Ethiopian goat herder by the name of Kaldi who espied goats eating coffee berries in the Ethiopian highlands and after these goats had ate the coffee beans they seemed more spunky and alert. On trying these coffee beans himself, he immediately became more energetic and thus the beginning of coffee consumption began.

The history of coffee then sees the consumption of coffee moving from Ethiopia to other countries including Yemen, Turkey, Egypt and also Persia. This dispersal however did not immediately translate into wider usage and even in the fifteenth century Constantinople coffee drinking was actually forbidden as its stimulating effects were considered as being sinful. However, its popularity grew around the early years of the sixteenth century and the ban was lifted by the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I.

There was however further bad news as the history of coffee shows that Egypt in the year 1532 banned and destroyed coffee wherever it was found and it even spread in the seventeenth century to Ethiopia where the Ethiopian Orthodox Church also banned its consumption. The word coffee has been derived from the Italian word ‘caffe’ and when combined with Turkish and Arabic words came to mean “the wine of the bean”.

The history of coffee as far as Europe is concerned shows that it first became known in the seventeenth century where it immediately became very popular. Started by the Dutch who imported it in huge quantities from Java, coffee was well loved for the stimulation it gave and it was even considered both a luxury as well as a medicine. It then came to America from Europe, though most colonists were more enamored with the liquor that they were used to drinking rather than this hot beverage.

With the coming of the American Revolutionary War, the history of coffee took another dramatic change with American and British forces engaged in combat which gave rise to an increased demand for coffee. And, this demand can also be attributed to the burning of tea with as many as ninety thousand pounds of it being destroyed in the Boston Harbor. With coffee replacing tea, Americans soon developed a liking to it and these taste buds once awoken have not died down until the nineteenth century, and when in the War of 1812, tea became inaccessible, the demand for coffee skyrocketed which is how we see it even today.