Friday, May 28, 2010

COFFEE HISTORY

Coffee was discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. One day he noticed his goats frolicking around in an unusually spirited manner. He observed that they were also eating the berries of a nearby shrub.

Here is a time line of the history of coffee from the UTNE READER, Nov/Dec 1994, by Mark Schapiro:
Prior 1000 A.D.
Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice that they get an energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and mixed with animal fat.

1000 A.D.
Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and cultivate the plant for the first time on plantations. They also began to boil the beans, creating a drink they call "qahwa".

1453
Coffee is introduced Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world's first coffee shop, Kiva Han, is opened there in 1475.

1600
Coffee introduced to the West by Italian trader, grabs attention in high places.

1607
Captain John Smith help to find the colony of Virginia at Jamestown. It's believed that he introduced coffee to North America.

1645
First coffeehouse opens in Italy.

1652
First coffeehouse opens in England.

1668
- Coffee replaces beer as New York's city's favorite breakfast drink.
- Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse opens in England and is frequented by merchants and maritime insurance agents.

1672
First coffeehouse opens in Paris.

1690
With a coffee plant smuggled out of the Arab port of Mocha, the Dutch become the first transport and cultivate coffee commercially, in Ceylon and in their East Indian colony-Java, source of the brew's nickname.

1721
First coffeehouse opens in Berlin.

1727
The Brazilian coffee industry gets its start.

1773
The Boston Tea Party makes drinking coffee a patriotic duty in America.

1886
Former wholesale grocer Joel Cheek names his popular coffee blend "Maxwell House".

Early 1900's
In Germany, afternoon coffee becomes a standard occasion.

1901
The first soluble "instant" coffee is invented by Japanese-American chemist, Satori Kato of Chicago.

1920
Prohibition goes into effect in United States. Coffee sales boom.

1938
Having asked by Brazil to help find a solution to their coffee surplus. Nestle company invents freeze-dried coffee. Nestle develops Nescafe and introduces it in Switzerland.


1940
The US imports 70 percent of the world coffee crop.

1971
Starbucks opens its first store in Seattle's Pike Place public market.

Organic coffee.

1 comments:

Catalin B. said...

Nice work on the coffee history post. I really like it, nice details.

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