History Of Coffee

OK.  I know you wake up every morning to your favorite cup of coffee, but what do you really know about this popular drink.  Are you aware that it is one of the most popular drinks in the world?  Here's another question for you.  When was the first cups of coffee dranked and by whom?  Sit back and drink your coffee while I try to shed some light on the subject.

Some of the earliest signs of coffee on the planet was in Abyssinia which was located in what is now Northern Ethiopia.  The monks of the church in the region observe a shepard having extra energy after eating coffee beans and decided to give it a try for energy during midnight prayer.  The chewing of the beans worked for the monks and years later they starting roasting and brewing the coffee and drinking it.

Around eleven hundred AD coffee started getting more popular when Arabs started growing and consuming it.  The coffee they made was called gahwa which means to prevent sleep.  This drink soon became the wine of choice among Arabs.

After so many years of using their new drink as wine and medicine, it was later found that the same beans could be used to make a totally different richer drink which resulted in the popular custom of drinking coffee.  Overtime coffee became popular as a take along with travelers and soon made it's was around the African continent.

I'm sure you've heard of a place called Starbucks where you can go and get your favorite coffee and do a little socializing.  Well in 1554 a couple of coffee houses opened in Turkey.  These places where called the "school of the wise" and people came from all over to drink coffee and socialize while listening to music and playing the games of the day.  In the 1600s as coffee became more and more popular and continued to be introduced by travelers a popular coffee house was opened in Italy.

I know what you're saying by now.  Everyone always loved and embraced this drink.  Not really.  There were people for some reason that tried to ban coffee.  Many coffee houses were closed in Turkey due to those who were against this popular drink but that didn't stop it from being enjoyed by the masses.

There was a man named John Smith who brought coffee to the attention of the new world which resulted in the first coffee house opened in England in the early 1600's.  These early England coffee houses charged a penny for admission and a cup of coffee.  My have prices gone up since then.  In the 1700's King Louis XIV court was the first to use sugar to sweeten coffee.  The close of the 1700's saw coffee being grown in the Americas which ushered in a period of the 1800s where different methods to make coffee was founded.

Here's an interesting fact.  We've all been taught in school about the Prohibition period when gangsters where killing each other over illegal alcohol.  Well during this same period coffee sales increase.  I guess people needed something to take the edge off and coffee was there choice.  If only the gangsters of the time period could of figure this out.

Coffee has become so popular in the United States that the US imports seventy percent of the coffee grown in the world.  There is something to satisfy every coffee drinkers taste and all types of machines to make your own brew at home.  It's possible for the home brewer to make coffee that rivals any restaurant.  Science has even gotten into the coffee business by doing research on the drink's health benefits.

I hope you've learned something new about coffee while reading this article and if nothing else acquired a new appreciation for how this popular beverage came to be.