Coffee

The first recorded use of coffee as a beverage goes back to the ninth century in highland Ethiopia. According to the legend, a shepherd named Kaldi in Ethiopia noticed that his goats seemed to dance about and to have a higher energy level after eating bright red berries from the coffee plant. Coffee use soon spread to Egypt, Yemen, and Arabia where raw coffee beans were processed by being roasted and then brewed into a beverage. By the fifteenth century coffee drinking had spread throughout the Middle East and into Turkey, Persia and all over north Africa. At the end of the sixteenth century a German doctor traveling in the Near East described coffee as a drink as black as ink which is useful in the treatment of many illnesses, especially stomach disorders.

The thriving commerce between the Middle East, North Africa, and Venice soon brought coffee and coffee drinking to Venice, from where it quickly spread throughout Europe. Although there was suspicion of the drink due to its Muslim origins, Pope Clement VIII declared coffee to be a respectable Christian beverage in 1600, which decree made coffee drinking socially respectable and increased its popularity. The first coffee house in Europe opened in 1645 in Italy. Soon Dutch traders began importing large quantities of coffee to northern Europe. In spite of Arab prohibitions against allowing green coffee suppliers to export unroasted seeds or living coffee plants, in 1616 a Dutch trader named Pieter van den Broeck was able to smuggle some live coffee seedlings out of Aden to Europe. The Dutch began to grow coffee in their colonies in Ceylon and Java, and in 1711 coffee was first exported from Java to Holland. The English East India Company was also active in coffee growing and exporting at this time, and in 1657 coffee was first introduced in France. Coffee came to Poland and Austria after Turkish invaders were defeated in the Battle of Vienna in 1683 and their supplies of coffee were captured by the defenders.

Coffee came to North America with the European colonization, but it was not as successful there as it had been in the old country. The English tax on tea, which led to the Boston Tea Party and other protests by American colonists, turned America into a principally coffee drinking country. During the American Revolution tea imports from England were cut off and coffee demand increased to such an extent that the dealers were forced to hoard the scarce supply of fair trade coffee beans and to raise prices drastically. The War of 1812 also restricted imports of tea from England and created greater demand for coffee. The Civil War was fought on coffee, which became a contraband item at the frontier between north and south: illicit salt and coffee being traded for tobacco and cotton.

Today raw coffee beans are the most valuable legally-traded export item after petroleum. Fair trade coffee beans are the most important cash crop in many countries in the Third World. Over 100,000,000 rural green coffee suppliers in developing countries depend on coffee as their main source of income.

Author: Alice Lane
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Coffee has been around for a very long time, but until recently when shopping for coffee you didn’t really have that much choice. You could choose instant coffee, or drip coffee. And the only options were taking it with milk and sugar. Then suddenly the amount of options suddenly expanded. There is a lot of variety in the choices of blends, countries they are from and even style which can confuse anyone. There are also a lot of different ways to brew the coffee, from a french press to a coffee maker that makes just one cup.

Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer and has been for over a hundred years. It’s not really that amazing when you consider how big the country is, plus it’s suitable for growing coffee. Brazil produces wonderful blends of coffee which are enjoyed all around the world.

Colombia is the most famous of the coffee producer, even though it’s only the second largest producer of coffee. It makes quite a sweet light cup of coffee which is available in supremo and excelso blends. These are considered as the best coffee blends in the world.

Other than these two coffee powerhouses there are lots of other countries which produce coffee. Each one of these producers is slightly different.

Mexico produces a unique bean which makes a lovely delicate coffee which is not very acidic. These make quite a mellow coffee which is enjoyed by many people. The Cuban coffee is drunk straight down like a shot is another option.

Indonesian coffee is well known, they produce very well known aged coffee which the environment helps with. They are the fourth largest coffee producer in the world, and so they should have enough for some time to come!

Malaysia also produces coffee, they brew theirs in a muslin bag which filters out the grounds. This makes a very strong cup of coffee. Even small countries such as Thailand produce wonderful blends of coffee which can be served with ice if you enjoy iced coffee.

Mauna Loa produces a very sweet bean which can make quite a nice medium body drink. The Java is full of flavor and has a very rich body. The whole process or roasting, finding and filtering the beans through water to produce a drink began in the 15th century and so over time this has produced a number of delicious drinks.

The Europeans have created a number of these designs, including France who adores their café au lait, which is actually half coffee and half milk. Austria likes it two thirds of a cup dark to one third regular which is a very old fashioned and traditional coffee blend.

The Italian espressos were pioneered by Luigi Bezzera in 1901 and improved in 1938 by M Cremonesi. We should thank these people for showing us just how delicious coffee can be. If you’re not into espressos then there are still plenty of other options such as the latte and cappuccino.

Coffee is a very personal thing and I can’t tell you which one you should buy. My advice is to try a few and see which style you like the best.

Being passionate about single coffee brewer, Clinton Maxwell is writing plenty of long articles in the area. With his writings like http://www.coffee-espresso-maker-tips.com/single-cup-coffee-maker.html, he confirmed his knowledge on information corresponding to single cup coffee maker.

Author: Clinton N. Maxwell
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Did you know that the coffee plant actually grows into a tree? The coffee tree is an evergreen tree. Its broad leaves are a very shiny green with pointed ends that are sleekly reminiscent of arrowheads. Their leaves grow in pairs one on each side of their long thin branches as they flower and seed from the base of each pair of leaves growing along the stems or branches. Their tiny blooms flower into five petals with yellow stamen, as the seedpods progress into berry like cases for the seed. Inside each seed, two beans are usually found these beans are what are used to make coffee. The berries of the coffee plant can display as green in unripe berries, red in ripe berries and black of over ripened berries. The coffee plant can be rooted from cuttings as well as grown from seed and thrives best in shaded areas.

The coffee plant is native to Ethiopia then transported to Yemen of Africa. There these coffee beans were chewed raw for the extra energy that they provided the people. In Yemen Europeans found the plant as it was taken to Europe to be transplanted there. Arabians first made a drink with the green coffee beans however; by not having been roasted, the drink did not offer the brunette russet flavor of coffee, as we know it to be. The idea to roast the coffee bean before boiling it is believed to enter the picture back in the 1400s.

From Europe, the Venetian mercantile decided that coffee should be introduced to the wealthy people there and charged outrageous prices for the coffee that they purchased. Although it was suggested that coffee be banned it was however baptized by a pope of that time, coffee then gains great popularity as a good hearty drink. At that time while being introduced to the French, they upheld the brilliant Arabians for being so ingenious to have introduced the world to the strong drink of coffee and opened the first coffee house in Paris. Coffee houses have flourished since that time. Eventually, coffee made its rounds into Austria and Poland.

Introduced in the seventeen hundreds, to the new world by aid of colonial officials, coffee came to America as a high value cash crop and is today only second to oil, as a valuable trade commodity. Billions of dollars every year are in used in spending for the purchase of coffee, the world round. While a bit later the Boston Tea Party called for drinking coffee an American patriotic duty. Although the ruler of Prussia attempted to block the imports of coffee, the public outcry of injustice turned these thoughts of this around.

The year of 1886 found Maxwell House coffee to be named after a hotel in which the drink was served. The nineteen hundreds saw the introduction of the Hills Brothers packing roast coffee into tins, which were vacuum-sealed, thus bringing about the end of coffee mills and local roasting shops. The American soldiers of WWII were issued instant Maxwell House coffee in their kits of ration, while in America the widespread issue of hoarding led the coffee to be rationed.

As for coffee, Johann Sebastian Bach said it best in 1732 within his lyrical gist of the Coffee Cantata, Mm! how sweet the coffee tastes, more delicious than a thousand kisses, mellower than muscatel wine.

Bradley Thornton loves his coffee and likes to share his knowledge on the subject. One thing he specialises in is single serve coffee. Find out more by visiting the Keurig coffee maker website where you can explore the different Keurig coffee machine models such as the Keurig B50 coffee maker.

Author: Bradley Thornton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Coffee is one of the oldest drinks to connect itself to a social activity, the social activity of drinking together as a group is in fact it an almost uniquely human activity, drinking is essential to survival and at one point in human history the habit of drinking together has become one of the most acceptable forms of human interaction and socialization all over the world.

The drinking of coffee together probably dates back a few hundred years ago when Muslims had started using rituals in their coffee preparation.

Almost every adult on this planet has visited a coffee house at some point of his life, even those who do not like coffee or do not even drink coffee are aware of the coffee house being a place of socializing and meeting. It is interesting that it is coffee, one of the worlds most popular drink, one that is consumed in such large quantities in different parts of the world would become a center of gathering for people.

The main quality of coffee is in its caffeine, that makes the drinker more alert and enjoy a feeling of energy regeneration and awakens, but coffee is not only drunk for the propose of keeping awake, it is consumed at all times of the day and in many cases in direct relation to a social meeting of sorts.

The coffee house can be found in most cities in the world, it is one of the truly international habits of people, and you will also find that many nations and individuals value their local favorite coffee as a national treasure, from Africa and the deserts of Arabia to the samba dancing streets of Brazil you will find different views on drinking coffee. The cultural differences between nations in the regard to coffee is intriguing, some people will say that drinking coffee with milk is feminine, others gaze in wonder when they see a full cup of coffee drank in front of them, others are installed by the fact that coffee is produced from boiling water that came out of an electric kettle.

In Europe the coffee houses became much more than just a meeting place for drinking coffee, the coffee houses became establishments by themselves, in England many of the places that sold the coffee later contributed to coffee becoming a commodity that is traded until today in the stock markets around the world. In France the coffee houses joined the leisure philosophy and combined with the world renowned deserts and cakes and in Austria the coffee houses have become establishments of unquestionable seriousness and professionalism, serving the best coffee and food with full respects to privacy and solitude of the drinker.

Today the coffee house is a much more relaxed version of the ancient coffee house, the corporate world stops for a moment when drinking coffee to enjoy the company of other people, most of them strangers that happen to enjoy a cup of coffee on the end of a working day or on their way to some other place. No matter how you examine it, coffee is still binding people together in one way or the other.

Celia Namart an avid traveler has collected her thoughts and ideas during her many travels around the world, back from a recent trip to Asia Celia writes about Coffee House and natural health remedies.

Author: Celia Namart
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Throughout all of history, coffee houses have been more than places where innocent people like you and I could get a regular caffeine fix.

Although coffee itself apparently originated in Ethiopia before the 11th century, the first coffee house known to history was located in Constantinople in 1475. I know that coffee is an important part of MY life, but in those days a wife could divorce her husband if he could not keep her properly supplied with coffee! In Turkey, coffee was normally brewed in an ibrik, a long-handled pot originally designed for brewing coffee upon the desert sands.

In the early 1500′s a coffee house was established in Vienna, Austria by the only person in town who had both lived in Turkey and who recognized the intrinsic value and potential income lurking in several bags of coffee abandoned by Turkish invaders. It seems to be about this time that the custom of softening coffee by adding sugar and cream came into practice. Value was added when coffee shops began serving pastries as well as coffee. Although some pious individuals considered coffee to be the drink of the devil, the pope who was asked to so describe the beverage in this manner was already a coffee drinker and, instead, blessed it, calling it a Christian beverage.

Although coffee houses spread through Europe, England actually got into the act through a Turkish link rather than the import of the new custom from the continent.

It was in 1652 that history records the first coffee house being founded in England by two servants of an importer of Turkish goods. They left their employer and went into business for themselves marketing the new brew at their establishment, The Turk’s Head. Coffee houses of this era were referred to as “penny universities” because of the penny that was charged for admission and the camaraderie and exchange of ideas that were included in the price.

In fact, coffee houses of that era were the mass media of the day. The free public exchange of information was actually frightening to those in power. Because of this, coffee houses in England were shut down for a while in 1675. Public outrage was so great, however, that this only lasted a few days.

One figure of note, Samuel Pepys, famed diarist of the era and proclaimed “right hand of the navy” noted that he often frequented coffee houses for naval news as it seemed to be more up to date and reliable than the information available to him at the admiralty. One well known coffee house of the day probably provided him with a great deal of news concerning ships and the sea.

Edward Lloyd’s coffee house which opened in 1688 (or 1687, by some sources) near the Thames river on Tower street, eventually lost its roots but became one of the most famous institutions in the world – Lloyd’s of London. This was perhaps a natural metamorphosis due to the number of seafaring men from the ships at London’s docks who found their way to Lloyd’s. Edward Lloyd, being an astute individual, as are all of us addicted to coffee, began in 1696 the practice of listing arrivals and departures of ships in addition to information received from arriving vessels about the conditions of ships and crews and conditions at sea. Eventually, so much shipping information was exchanged at the nearly round-the-clock establishment, that insurance brokers began doing some of their business there.

One of the earliest functions of the coffee houses of the past was to provide a meeting place for many, but particularly for intellectuals of each era. The combination of the exchange of ideas and caffeine proved to be a heady experience, launching careers and in some cases legends. Perhaps you have heard of Jonathan Swift, Honore de Balzac, Alexander Pope, Oliver Goldsmith, or Henry Fielding?

One source states that by the end of the 17th century, there were over 2,000 coffee houses in London alone. Although most were just in the business of serving coffee, some had unsavory reputations and customers, and more than one could have been mistaken for a brothel. They were also often the place for assignations or just plain dates.

It has been said that our modern word “tip” as in “to leave a tip” was first coined (no pun intended) in early English coffee houses. Usually a tin receptacle of some sort was marked with a sign reading “To Insure Prompt Service” (TIPS) to receive the coins of those who needed their coffee and needed it fast!

In the new country of America, the coffee house seemed to follow in the footsteps of its Britannic predecessors. One of the earliest coffee houses in America served as the founding location for the New York Stock Exchange. Of course, after the Boston Tea Party, being a coffee drinker was considered to be patriotic. Many strategies of the American revolution were born or raised in the coffee houses of the day.

A breakthrough in the history of coffee occurred when instant coffee was first successfully produced and marketed by Maxwell House in the 1950′s.

Whether instant or brewed, most modern American coffee drinkers would probably not recognize the brew of their forefathers. With a much higher ratio of coffee to water (one tablespoon to 16 ounces of water), and having been boiled for half an hour, not even the introduction of such common additives of the day as fish skin or egg shell would probably have done much to bring the taste close to a modern Starbucks mocha or latte.

In fact, the modern coffee house, typified by Starbucks or Tim Hortons might be recognized by the denizens of the past…if they were able to identify laptops as intellectual tools for research and the exchange of ideas, and cell phones as a means of conversation.

After much success in America, the modern coffee house, in the Starbucks name, image, and mold has moved westward to the East…the Far East, that is. Although coffee was not of much national interest until 1961, by the 1980′s coffee shops were quite the rage in Japan, and Starbucks opened its first store in Japan in August, 1996. Starbucks’ name recognition seems to have been its ticket to success in Japanese culture. By the time the first outlet opened, world-traveling Japanese had already had the Starbucks experience in foreign lands. The story is told that upon the opening of the first Starbucks store in Japan, the first customer, who ordered a “Double short latte!” did not speak English! As of 2003, Starbucks had 503 stores in Japan.

Starbucks opened its first store in China in 1999, and as of February, 2006, had 165 outlets, complete with cell phone carrying, laptop using customers like anywhere else in the world. I guess it’s possible that considering the history of coffee shops something besides coffee might be brewing.

Donovan Baldwin is retired from the Army after 21 years of service, has worked as an accountant, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, and instructor. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. Although primarily interested in the subjects of health, weight loss, and making money, he began drinking coffee at about age six and 55 years later, still hasn’t figured out how to stop…nor does he want to! In addition to caffeine, he is also addicted to blogging and blogs on the subjects of health, fitness, diet, and weight loss at http://nodiet4me.blogspot.com

Author: Donovan Baldwin
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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