From Ethiopia to Colombia, coffee has touched every heart and soul through history

You probably drink coffee every morning and maybe more than once a day. You are aware that to get to your cup, your favorite beverage comes a long way. Beans, which are coffee seeds, are planted and mature for about five years. The cherries are then processed to obtain the bean that will be roasted.

But, did you know that coffee has a great historical background as rich as its flavor is? You better keep reading to find more reasons to love it. You won’t believe how grateful you should be for goats!

The incredible coffee history

And of course, every good story starts with a legend, especially if what came next were scandal, revolutions, slavery, and colonization. Want to know how incredible coffee history is?

Thank you, goat!

Legend has it a 9th-century Ethiopian goat herder discovered coffee by accident. His name was Kaldi. He noticed that some of their goats were jumping wildly and yelling more than usual after eating red berries, know these days as coffee cherries, the actual fruit of its plant. What happened next is that he tried one himself, and felt energized quickly. Soon enough everyone else knew the treasure it was.

A trick of the Devil

Ethiopian monks try to burn those cherries as soon as they found out their effects. They believed that Kaldi’s discovery was a trick of the Devil, but once they started feeling its aroma while roasting, they changed their mind. The monks recovered the beans and ground them to make tea.

Religions around the world were generally against coffee consumption. Some of the local clergies condemned coffee, calling it a “bitter invention of Satan”. In the 1600s there was a controversy over whether or not Catholics could drink coffee, luckily Pope Clement VIII said it was okay. Thanks, Pope!

First coffee houses

First coffee houses were in Egypt, Syria, and Ethiopia. The beverage became highly popular after Ottoman Sultan’s blessing. He drunk it, and it's a universal belief that he is responsible for its general enjoyment of conversations and gatherings when brewing some coffee to share. Ottoman Sultan executed the governor of Mecca for closing down coffee houses and restored all those businesses.

Irreconcilable differences

Coffee was also a reason to divorce. Rumor has it that in the ancient Arab culture the only way a woman could legally divorce was if her husband did not provide enough coffee. If the argument was justified, she was free from that marriage.

It's expansion

When coffee found its way to Europe it was known as Arabian wine, this is because coffee comes from the Arabic “wine of the bean.” Eventually, the word became “koffie” in Dutch and “caffe” in Italy. This delicious drink was pass to the hands of the world’s soon-to-be colonizing nations: Brazil became the world’s first producer in the 1800s, at one point producing 80% of the world’s beans, followed by Colombia and Venezuela.

Isn’t this amazing? At Coffland Corp, we share with our clients and readers our love for coffee. Follow us on social media for unique information about the world’s favorite drink and contact us if you are interested in our services especially our private label products!