Coffee: The History of the Bean

Coffee and caffeinated drinks are the most popular drink choices in North America and Europe, but neither of these continents actually produces the grains that are used to make coffee, called coffee beans, and these beans have a long history that comes with them.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_coffee), the history dates all the way back to the ninth century after Christ, and at that time it was merely cultivated in the Ethiopian region in Africa by the highlanders, and it is said that they were the first to discover the food quality and energizing effect of the coffee plant.

Later in the fifteenth century and with the growing of merchants traveling more, coffee arrived in the northern parts of Africa and all the way to Yemen, and about a century later coffee arrived in Italy at the port of Venice from the Middle East, and from Venice it was introduced to the rest of Europe becoming an instantly popular beverage despite the bitter taste. Always according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_coffee) it became even more popular especially in the higher ranks of society when Pope Clement VIII decided to deem it a “Christian drink”, and the first coffee house opened in 1645 in Italy, and even today coffee is considered a national drink in Italy. And the first exports of Indonesian coffee from Java to the north of Europe occurred in the 18th century.

In North America, coffee arrived during the colonial period but it was not an instant hit like it had been over in the old continent. But eventually during the revolutionary war between the years of 1775 to 1783, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_coffee) the demand for coffee increased so much that the dealers were left no choice but to increases their prices drastically especially since the British had cut off tea supplies, and so the taste for coffee began to grow.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_coffee) different Third World countries have coffee as their main export product and therefore their main cash profit as it is a necessity for a lot of us in the mornings to get that jump start. Some of the main African countries that produce different kinds of coffee beans are Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda and in Central and South America some of the countries are Honduras. Guatemala, Brazil and Peru and in Asia the Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines to name a few; all these countries are very close to the Equator and they are known as the “coffee belt”.