Coffee
The coffee bean was likely to be discovered by a goat farmer in Ethiopia sometime around the 9th century when his goats consumed it and refused to sleep. The local monastery made a drink out of the bean which soon spread to the Arabs and started its conquest around the world. It became a new major economy in Yemen and started replacing beer and alcohol as the most popular breakfast drink in Europe. The drink is normally brewed by mixing roasted, ground coffee beans with boiling water and stirring it. With its high amount of caffeine, it can boost your mood and refill your energy reserves.
In today's world, most people rely on coffee on a daily basis, it can boost someone's day at work or help them stay active with its generous amount of caffeine.
Coffee is a drink brewed from roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of berries from coffee plants. When a coffee berry turns red, they are harvested to be processed and dried. Dried coffee beans are roasted with varying degrees depending on the desired outcome. They are then brewed with water slightly cooler than boiling to produce coffee. Coffee is dark coloured and contains caffeine which can stimulate humans.
Coffee has a rich history, It was estimated to be the first drunk in the 15th century, but was thought to be discovered during the 11th or all the way back to the 9th century in Ethiopia, where there is also a legend when a goat herder had some bushes with the beans on them which his goats would chew on, causing them to get excited and not sleep at night. He reported his discovery to the local monastery who then made a drink out of the bean, allowing him to stay energetic during longer prayers. Soon, news about this started to spread towards the Arabs and start its journey around the globe.
Oxford holds the record for having the oldest coffee house in England. It was named the Angel and was opened in 1650, acting as a hub for news and gossip. Around the mid-1700s, Coffee quickly spread throughout after this and eventually ended up arriving in Europe. More and more of these “coffee shops” started appearing in Europe, people started replacing beer and wine with coffee in the morning, which boosted their performance at work and activities. There was also some controversy around the drink, there was a minority who hated the drink and even linked it to the devil. This went on to the point where Pope Clemente VIII was forced to intervene, but after he had a sip of the drink himself, he found the drink so satisfying that he even ordered to baptize the drink.
In the 15th century, coffee was already being grown in Yemen and in the 16th century it spread to other Arab countries. And as coffee houses began to rapidly spread, more and more people started going to them and they became a sort of central hub for most activities, such as watching and keeping up on the news, watching performers, etc.
During the 19th century, coffee has taken over most of the world and doesn't have many places left to spread. The technology surrounding the bean has drastically improved over the past 200 years, as in, the packaging, roasting, and brewing has improved. In 1818 a metalsmith in Paris invented a device that is still being used today. Not much has advanced to improve the original purpose of the device. It made its way to the states when James H. Nason patented the first American percolator.
A person named Jabez Burns invented the first coffee roaster which didn't need a fire to roast coffee. He got a patent for it and became the grandfather of all modern roasting machines. In 1871, a man named John Arbuckle made a machine that filled, packaged, sealed and labelled coffee in paper packages to be shipped. He later went on to become the largest importer of coffee in the world and had the largest fleet of merchant ships in the world, which would ship coffee from South Africa to us.
In the modern world drinking coffee has a lot of benefits, it can increase your happiness, help keep you awake and active during work or school, and a whole bunch of extra health benefits that come with it, just don’t overdose on it.
References
blog.warriorcoffee.co.uk
www.coachayers.com
www.turkishcoffeeworld.com
www.ncausa.org
www.homegrounds.co.uk
Author biography
Meekail was born in 2007 in Male’, Maldives and is about to graduate into grade 8. Currently, he lives in Male’ with his family and he likes surfing, playing Minecraft and tennis. He likes to procrastinate (at times!) and watches memes in his free time.
Cite this article as:
Mohamed Meekail Ahmed, Coffee, theCircle Composition, Volume 1, (2021). https://thecirclecomposition.org/coffee/