history - food : coffee

Coffee

The coffee plant is said to originated in Ethiopia, in an area called Kaffa from which the name coffee got its name. The first definite dates go back to 800 BC but many Arabian legends tell the story of a mysterious black and bitter beverage with powers of stimulation.

Legend tells that a goat herder in Ethiopia noticed that his goats were very frisky and alert after eating red berries of a local shrub, that he also tried them and maybe even boiled them up and drank the first cup of coffee.

1st century

Arab traders brought back coffee back and cultivate the plant for the first time on plantations. They created a drink they called "qahwa"; this literally translates as "that which prevents sleep"

15th century

Around 1453 it is introduced into Constantinople by the Turks and the first ever coffee shop is said to have opened there in 1475

16th century

Jesuit missionaries first brought arabica coffee beans to the country of Colombia. The volcanic soil of the Andes Mountains, along with the mild temperatures and abundant rainfall of the Colombian topography, provided ideal growing conditions, enabling the coffee plants to flourish.

By the late 1500's the first traders were selling coffee in Europe, thus introducing the new beverage into Western life. The Dutch planted coffee in their tropical colonies of Batavia and Java, while the French planted it in Martinique in 1723 and later on in the Antilles. The English, Spaniards and Portuguese followed suit in their own colonies.

17th century

Coffee is thought to have been introduced to the 'New World' by Captain John Smith; the founder of Virginia. Some say it was much later and were introduced by Gabriel de Clieu; a French naval officer.

The first coffeehouse opens in England. One such coffee house later became the Insurancers "Lloyd's of London", as it was opened by one Edward Lloyd.

The first Parisian establishment dedicated to serving coffee is opened around 1672

With a coffee plant smuggled out of the Arab port of Mocha, the Dutch transport and cultivate coffee commercially in Ceylon of all places (known more for tea) and in their East Indian colony: Java, this being the source of coffee's nickname

18th century

In 1713, King Louis XIV is presented with a coffee tree and it is here, in his courts, that it is believed that sugar was first added.

In 1727 coffee growing was started in northern Brazil, but the poor climatic conditions gradually caused the settlers to shift their crops, first to Rio de Janeiro and finally in the early 1800's to the States of Sao Paulo and Minas, where coffee found its ideal environment.

19th century

The first espresso machine might have been invented in France at the start of the 19th century. But the first manufactured machine is said to have happened 100 years later in Italy.

20th century

The 20th century saw a major revolution in the way coffee was made and served.

• In 1901 a Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato of Chicago, creates the first soluble instant coffee
  
• In 1903 a German coffee importer: Ludwig Roselius and a tam of researchers perfects the process of removing the caffeine content from the beans without destroying the flavour. He marketed it under the brand name we still know today, "Sanka."
• In 1905 the first commercial espresso machine is manufactured in Italy
• In 1908 Melitta Bentz invents the worlds first drip coffeemaker by using blotting paper
• In 1933 Dr Ernest Illy develops the first automatic espresso machine
• In 1938 Nescafé instant coffee is invented by the Swiss Nestlé company, to aid the Brazilian government in solving its coffee surplus problem
• In 1945 Achilles Gaggia perfects the espresso machine with a piston that creates a high pressure extraction to produce the thick layer of crema that we all love today
  

The information contained here is supplied for your interest only and further research may be required. I have gathered it from many sources over many years. While I attempt to insure they are crossed referenced for accuracy, I take no responsibility for mistakes - additions or corrections are welcomed.

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