• history of coffee •
(Back to Coffee)
Coffee was discovered in Northern Africa in an area we know today as Ethiopia. Legend has it that a goat herder first found the energy laden berries when he observed his goats acting unusually frisky after eating them. Monks later became the first to use the berries in water as a means of providing stimulation for prayer times.
Coffee berries were first cultivated in what today is the country of Yemen and later travelled to Turkey where coffee beans were first roasted over open fires. The roasted beans were crushed, then boiled in water, creating a crude version of the beverage we enjoy today.
Coffee first arrived on the European continent by means of Venetian trade merchants, despite criticism from the catholic church, who called it "the drink of the devil"
Coffee houses spread quickly across Europe becoming centres for intellectual exchange. Many great minds use the beverage, and forum, as a springboard to heightened thought and creativity.
Coffee found its way to the Americas in the 1700's when a French Infantry Captain nurtured one small plant on its journey across the Atlantic Ocean and transplanted it to the Caribbean Island of Martinique.
As a protest on the excessive tax on tea levied by the British crown, coffee was declared the national drink of the United States.
Espresso is a relatively recent innovation in the way coffee is prepared and it's origins date back to 1822 when the first crude espresso machine was invented in France. The Italians later perfected this wonderful machine and were first to manufacture it.
Espresso has now become such an intergral part of Italian life and culture, that there are presently over 200,000 espresso bars in Italy.
Today coffee is a giant global industry employing more than 20 million people. As a commodity it ranks second only to petroleum in terms of dollars traded world-wide. With over 400 billion cups consumed every year, coffee is the world's most popular beverage and in Brazil alone, over 5 million people are employed in the cultivation and harvest of over 3 billion coffee plants. That's one big industry and the bean espresso bar is proud to be a part of it.
