The first known public coffee houses, which weren’t that different from today’s high-street coffee shops, were founded in Arabia. They were very popular and, as well as drinking coffee, customers would listen to music, watch performers and keep up to date on the news.
Coffee’s Energizing Buzz Accounts For Its Demand
Probably the main reason coffee became so popular was because of the buzz you get when you drink it. This effect is due to the caffeine in the coffee beans.
As our cells do work they produce a molecule called adenosine. Adenosine enters the bloodstream and travels around the body until it binds to brain cells. This sets off a series of reactions to tell the brain we are tired.
Caffeine binds to brain cells in the place of adenosine. This means that when we drink coffee, the brain doesn’t get the message that we’re tired. Instead, the brain releases adrenaline, a hormone that makes our hearts beat faster, dilates our pupils and releases sugar into our blood. This is what causes coffee’s energizing effect.
Holy Land Pilgrimages Bring ‘Bitter Invention of Satan’ to Western World
Thousands of people from Europe traveled to the holy city of Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula each year on religious pilgrimages, and in the 17th century, some of them took coffee back home with them.
Again the drink was met with suspicion and fear as priests called it the “bitter invention of Satan.” Pope Clement VIII was asked to intervene, but when trying coffee for himself he found it so delicious he decided to baptize it, meaning Catholics were free to enjoy it.
Soon coffee houses sprang up across Western Europe and became centers of social activity and conversation. A number of businesses grew out of coffee houses, including Lloyd’s of London from Edward Lloyd’s coffee house.
The custom of tipping also emerged from the coffee houses of England. To make sure they were served quickly, customers would put coins in boxes labeled “To Insure Prompt Service,” or TIPS for short.
Smuggled Plants Survive Harrowing Voyage to Caribbean and South /Central America
In 1714, the Mayor of Amsterdam presented King Louis XIV of France with a young coffee plant as a gift, and Louis ordered it to be planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. Eleven years later a young naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu, stole a seedling from the King’s plant and took it with him on a voyage to Martinique, in the Caribbean.
It was a terrible journey. A fellow crew member attacked Gabriel with a dagger and tried to destroy the small plant, but Gabriel was able to fight him off. Later, pirates attempted to take over the ship and the crew spent a whole day defending themselves.
Then a terrible storm nearly sank the ship and almost all of the freshwater supplies were lost. Gabriel shared his water ration with the seedling for the rest of the journey.
A French naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu, is credited with being one of the first to introduce the coffee plant to the Caribbean Islands. Protecting the plant through many of the trials that beset passengers and crew on the trans-Atlantic voyage, when a terrible storm nearly sank the ship and almost all of the freshwater supplies were lost, he shared his water ration with the seedling for the rest of the journey.
After finally reaching Martinique, Gabriel grew the plant and within 50 years there were over 18 million coffee plants on the island. Incredibly, all of the coffee plants across the Caribbean – and South and Central America – originated from this seedling.
The resulting coffee harvests were so profitable for the French that eventually Louis forgave Gabriel for his thievery and made him Governor of the Antilles.
Rumor That Brazil’s Coffee Industry Result of Illicit Liaison
In 1727, the Brazilian government sent Colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta to French Guiana to get hold of some of the moneymaking beans. The French Governor was reluctant to give any away, but his wife was a little more generous.
Rumor has it that she had an affair with the Colonel, and when the time came for his return to Brazil, she gave him a bunch of flowers, secretly sprinkled with fertile coffee seedlings. Brazil’s coffee industry soon took off and it now is the globe’s largest producer, growing around 30 percent of the World’s coffee.
Arabica Plants Produce Best-Tasting ‘Joe’
Coffee plants can only strive in tropical climates, because they can’t survive winter frosts. There are two species of coffee plant that are used to produce all of the coffee drank today: Arabica and Robusta.
Arabica plants produce the best-tasting drinks with flavors that vary depending on their growing regions. For instance, Ethiopian Arabica beans are famous for their smooth and nice floral aroma while the Colombian Arabica beans are known for their bold flavor and walnut finish.
Arabica plants produce the best-tasting drinks but can only be grown at altitudes higher than around 600 meters above sea level. Robusta plants can grow at lower altitudes, but the better taste of Arabica beans means that around 80 percent of the world’s coffee is produced from them.
Heavy Tea Taxes Prompted American Colonists To Turn to Preference for Coffee
The Europeans first took coffee to New York (which at the time was called New Amsterdam) in the 1600s, but at first the settlers preferred to drink tea. This was until King George III imposed expensive taxes on tea, leading to a protest called the Boston Tea Party.
In December 1773, angry protesters boarded ships and destroyed a whole shipment of tea being transported to Boston’s harbor. This led to coffee becoming America’s preferred drink, and also escalated the American Revolution, eventually leading to the War of Independence, which began near Boston in 1775.
Coffee Dominant on World Market
Coffee continues to change the world today. In 1991, workers at the University of Cambridge, U. K., became frustrated at making trips to the coffee pot only to find it empty. They set up the world’s first webcam to allow them to monitor the amount of coffee in the pot from their desks and avoid pointless trips.
The World is in love with coffee with its widespread popularity as the world’s second-favorite drink, after water.
Coffee beans are now the second most traded raw material worldwide, after crude oil, with sales over $55 billion a year. With its widespread popularity as the world’s second-favorite drink, after water, and the special effects it has on the drinker, it seems likely coffee is here stay.
(Light-roast coffee may be better for you than dark-roast. A study (July 2017, J. of Med. Food) found that lighter coffee roasts had higher levels of chlorogenic acid – which acts as an antioxidant – than darker coffee roasts and that light-roast extract was better at protecting human cells against inflammation and damage.)
Dr. Arvind Dhople is currently Professor Emeritus at Florida Tech and a freelance writer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Arvind Dhople graduated from the University of Bombay and then joined Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then Asst. Professor. In 1980, he joined Florida Tech as a Professor and Director of their Infectious Diseases Lab. His specialty is microbial biochemistry and he performed research in leprosy and tuberculosis. As a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology he published nearly 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He has also served as an advisor to the World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health, German Leprosy Relief Association, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus at Florida Tech and a freelance writer.
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Publish date : 2024-08-31 17:03:00
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