Coffee

Where did coffee originate? Coffee lovers around the world today may be numbering in the millions, but only a small number could be fully aware on the beginnings of this well-loved beverage. The history of coffee is definitely as rich as its flavor, spanning numerous centuries and dating as far back as 6th century A.D.

The oldest coffee legend

In the 6th century AD, farmers from Yemen were already growing coffee cherries. According to legend, a goat herder in Ethiopia was bewildered to discover that his goats were showing inexplicable energy after consuming a particular kind of cherries. After this goat herder tried the berries for himself and found that he too felt a surge of energy, Muslims discovered a way to extract the brew from the cherries, transforming the beans into a heady beverage. Thus, coffee became a secret beverage of the Muslims for a while, revitalizing them even during lengthy periods of worship. When 900 AD came round, coffee was already commonplace in the entire region of Arabia. From this period until 1500 AD, coffee farming practices were still a well-kept secret, although coffee beans were already exported to other places.

Coffee invasion in Europe

Before long however, Europeans found a way to bring coffee seedlings into their own lands. By 1615, merchants from Venice were able to bootleg a coffee plant out of the Yemen borders and into Europe. This time, coffee was used for its therapeutic purposes, being sold both as a drink and as a health remedy. When the Dutch got hold of the Ethiopian territory, they were able to bring coffee plants into Holland.

When it was discovered that Holland’s climate was not conducive to coffee farming, the Dutch brought the plants to other regions. When the first coffee shop opened its doors to the public in Oxford, England by the year 1650, women were forbidden to enter the shops. It was only three years later, when a teahouse was opened, that women found a place to converge.

The love story behind coffee Arabica

A Brazilian coast guard officer found two things he loved when he visited Cayenne in French Guyana in 1727: one, the coffee and two, the Governor’s wife. It was this affection that led him to acquire a few seeds which he took back to Brazil, initiating the Arabica coffee variety production in the country. Brazil eventually became the world’s largest coffee producer in 1800.

Afterwards, coffee traveled from country to country, spreading its popularity as a principal beverage of choice. The British introduced coffee to Jamaica in 1730. In 1774, Americans expressed a predilection for coffee during the Boston Tea Party, as a sign that they are replacing tea with coffee, due to the exorbitant taxes levied on tea trading. Costa Rica acquired coffee from Cuba, and this eventually spread to Mexico. The Island of Martinique cultivated coffee in the 1700s and Hawaii in 1825.

Present day coffee and coffee houses

Coffee houses are popular in Arabia; however they are as popular in Europe as well. From the 1600′s to the mid 1900s, coffee shops had already proliferated in Paris, reaching to approximately 3,000 in number. Presently, coffee is second to oil in terms of the most traded commodity worldwide.

Yogi Shinde is the webmaster offering coffee maker reviews on various brands of coffee makers like Braun, Krups, Mr Coffee and many others, helping you find the best coffee maker to suit your needs.

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Import duty tariff

Importing starts with green coffee that is completely processed and ready for export from the origin country. Typically, shipped in 20 foot containers of 275 to 320 bags (70kb or 60kg) or less. It could also be loaded bulk, therefore enabling more beans to be shipped, lowering the shipping costs on a per pound/kilo basis.

From the USA, specialty coffees are most often purchased by importers or individual roasters via an FOB Contract. FOB (Free On Board) means that the price paid by the buyer includes all of the costs in the exporting country, including processing, inland transport, warehousing, dock fees, export fees and loading the container onto the ship. Ownership passes from the seller to the buyer once the container passes over the rail of the ship. The ships captain prepares the Bill of Lading that you will present to your bank to prove the coffee is now on the ship.

The exporter will need a bank that can handle international interbank transactions. Preferably one that is experienced in export document requirements. If not well established at this type of transaction, the exporter will not want to extend credit to any buyer, but will require payment terms: CAD (Cash Against Documents).

A CAD transaction enables the exporter to have payment deposited into his bank account after presenting to the bank the required documents proving that the coffee purchased by the importer (buyer) meets the specifications in the coffee purchase contract/agreement. The exporter’s bank will determine exactly what documents are required.

These documents may include:

- Ocean Bill of Lading (from the freight liner after the coffee is loaded on the ship)
- Weight Notes to identify the exact content and weight of that content
- Certificate of Origin (issued by the government Customs authority in India)
- Certificate of Fumigation (if required by importing country)
- ICO Certificate of Origin (Approved by the ICO: International Coffee Organization)
- Invoice sent to buyer identify the details of the purchase and $Value.
- Packing List from seller as evidence of the product shipped.
- Other agricultural certificates as dictated in your country

Typically, the exporter will use an Export Broker in the origin country who is expert in these matters and can arrange all of the issues involved in preparing the coffee and the documents for export. If a broker is the seller/exporter, then he will handle all of the required export documentation. The buyer/importer arranges for payment, ocean freight and transport insurance. It’s also the importer’s responsibility for acquiring all import documentation and arrangement in his country.

Of course, finding buyers is the key when importing for resell. For information to identify coffee importers, office coffee service providers and specialty gourmet coffee roasters in the United States, you can purchase a membership list from the Specialty Coffee Association of America or from InfoUSA.com. You can use networking sites like, TradeKey as well.

Note: there are always risks associated with importing. Although the importer may have received samples representing the coffee purchased, in most cases the actual coffee received will match the quality grade, type and source, every coffee lot is different, even from the same region and farm.

There are a few ways to lower this risk. One is to be sure you have a “green coffee contract” modeled after the Green Coffee Association Contract Terms & Conditions. Second, be sure to get an export sample taken directly from the contain prior to its being loaded onto the ship, since once the container is on the ship ownership transfers to the importer (FOB contract terms). Finally, when you purchase is large enough, personally knowing who your buying from and even visiting the country to physically select and monitor the export process is an option.

Author, Steve Josephs is CEO of Intellidon Marketing Solutions, whose family office coffee service business, the Great American Coffee Company, http://www.GourmetOfficeCoffee.com, is a premier Specialty coffee roaster and office coffee service provider in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan business community.

Copyright 2009 The Great American Coffee Company and Intellidon Marketing Solutions, Inc.

All rights reserved. Reprints are permissible when this Copyright statement and website link are included.

Author: Steve Josephs
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Coffee has a fairly secure history when in comes to details, although there are a few controversies as to actually who was the very first to grow it. One fact that is not disputed, however, is that Arabian coffee is the finest in the world.

It is accepted that Arabia was most definitely the first country to commercialize coffee growing – so hence its name coffee Arabica. There are in excess of 40 different types of plants in the coffee family but only two of them can be used for coffee; the first being coffee Arabica and the second, somewhat inferior species, Robusta.

Variables that go into making good coffee including Arabian coffee are so many that one little alteration and it can change the quality and taste dramatically. This is one of the factors that makes coffee so intriguing and yet can make it a little frustrating when trying to find that personal perfection in your coffee tastes. There is little doubt though that you will find what you desire within the Arabian coffee selections.

Arabian coffee is such a desired commodity that it makes up for about 80% of the coffee sales in the entire world. It is somewhat harder to grow then Robusta so that partially accounts for the extra cost that is associated with buying Arabica coffee as opposed to Robusta.

Very specific growing conditions are demanded by Arabica coffee beans and where those needs are met then that’s where the most superior coffee in the world is produced. It must have high elevations for optimal growth, which is between 3,000 to 6,500. The consensus is the higher the altitude is the longer it takes for Arabian coffee plants to grow and mature. This is beneficial because it allows for a longer time for the characteristics it possesses to materialize and permeate.

Every coffee has its variations and coffee Arabica basically has three major varieties being Typica, Caturra and Bourbon has well. Although they all have the same origin, they each have subtle differences that make for different variances in the final cup. Most avid coffee lovers that really know their coffee would be able to identify these differences, but many others probably would not. There are small differences in the body and balance for example.

As we, mentioned Arabica coffee can be somewhat fragile to grow, but by having these sub types developed, it has also hardened them up somewhat without jeopardizing the quality and the taste.

What it comes down to coffee Arabica is still great in its worst form but when it is prepared at its best its difficult to put into words just how superior it really is. One of the problems that can happen is if you have had the joy of getting a superior cup of coffee Arabica then go back to what you usually consume you are just not going to be happy with the brew that you have always enjoyed in the past.

For more up to date information on Coffee and all its fantastic benefits, please visit http://www.coffeebeansroasting.com.

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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.

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In this article we discuss the coffees from the Central American region.

Mexican Coffee

Mexico is the seventh largest coffee producer in the world, most of which is of the arabica variety from the southern part of the country, where it is grown by smallholders and sold on to the National co-operative.

Vera Cruz State, on the gulf side of the central mountain range, produces mostly lowland coffees, but coffees called Altura (High) Coatepec, from a mountainous region near the city of that name, have an excellent reputation.

Chiapas and Tapachula coffee is grown in the mountains of the southeastern most corner of Mexico near the border with Guatemala and has a delicate light flavour similar to the well-known Oaxaca.
Primo Lavado (prime washed) is a grade of Mexico coffee that includes most of its’ finest.
Mexico is also the worlds’ main source of maragogype beans, which are extra large and some experts consider produce the very best coffee.

Guatemalan Coffee

As the second largest producer in Central America (and 8th in the world) Guatemala is another main source of the maragogype bean.

The best Guatemalan coffees have a very distinct, spicy, and (when dark roasted), display a unique smoky flavour that sets them apart from all other coffees. They are very acidy, with the spiciness or smokiness coming across as within the acidy tones, and are medium to full in body and rich in flavour.

High grown beans (Strictly Hard Bean) grade coffees(such as Antigua) from the central highlands tend to have a rich, spicy or floral acidity with excellent body characteristic. Coffees from mountainous areas exposed to either Pacific or Caribbean weather, display a bit less acidity and more fruit.

Honduran Coffee

Honduran arabica coffee is ninth of world’s leading coffee producers, yet most of it is fairly undistinguished and is mainly used as a blending coffee.

Excellent coffees are grown here, but most are blended before export. Beans are named after the growing regions, including Santa Barbara, as well as Copan, Ocotepeque, Lempira, La Paz and El Paraiso.

Costa Rican Coffee

Costa Rica only produces high quality arabica coffee that display a full body and clean, robust acidity that makes it among the most revered of all Central American coffee.

It is grown primarily in the countryside surrounding the capital, San Jose, on rich, well-drained volcanic soil above 3000 feet.

The most famous coffees are San Marcos de Tarrazu, Tres Rios, Heredia, and Alajuela. La Minita is a well-publicized estate in the Tarrazu district of Costa Rica that produces an excellent coffee – reputed to be the most meticulously prepared in the world.

Nicaraguan Coffee

Situated between Honduras and Costa Rica, the coffees of Nicaragua display a characteristic more of the former than of the latter. They are coffees in the classic Central-American style but usually undistinguished – being medium-bodied, straightforwardly acidy, with reasonable flavour.

El Salvadorian Coffee

Despite being the smallest country on the American continent, El Salvador ranks 15th in world coffee production. This hasn’t always been the case, as political problems have regularly beset this densely populated country.

Arabica coffees from El Salvador are generally less acidic and softer than other coffees from the Central American region. The best high-grown coffees are from trees of the Bourbon and Pacamara varieties and the taste can be fragrant and complex.

Strictly High-Grown is the highest grade of El Salvador coffee.

Look out for my other articles in this series on the coffee growing regions of the world.

For more information about coffee and coffee making equipment visit http://www.cafebar.co.uk

Author: Fenton Wayne
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