Do you know the story of #coffee?
Sure you get it from Starbucks or grind it at home but its story was not as simple as farm to pot
The story involves dancing goats, Fatwa, babtization, kings, revolutions, patriotism, Beethoven
Coffee has a rich & troubling history
☕️ Thread
Sure you get it from Starbucks or grind it at home but its story was not as simple as farm to pot
The story involves dancing goats, Fatwa, babtization, kings, revolutions, patriotism, Beethoven
Coffee has a rich & troubling history
☕️ Thread
1/ 1st, the legend:
Legend has it that an #Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi witnessed his goats gamboling after eating coffee shrub’s red fruit. Perplexed, Kaldi tried the fruit himself and realized the same effect on him. A monk witnessed it & took some of the fruit with him.
Legend has it that an #Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi witnessed his goats gamboling after eating coffee shrub’s red fruit. Perplexed, Kaldi tried the fruit himself and realized the same effect on him. A monk witnessed it & took some of the fruit with him.
2/ Now, the history:
The coffee plant and fruit has been used for 1000s of years but it wasn’t until the 13 century when the beans were roasted, which sky rocketed its popularity. Coffee originated in Ethiopia but it was across the Red Sea, in #Yemen, it was first cultivated.
The coffee plant and fruit has been used for 1000s of years but it wasn’t until the 13 century when the beans were roasted, which sky rocketed its popularity. Coffee originated in Ethiopia but it was across the Red Sea, in #Yemen, it was first cultivated.
3/ It was also in Yemen that the name ‘qahwah’ was given. The words ‘coffee’ & ‘cafe’ comes from the #Arabic word qahwah. The word ‘qahwah’ was originally used for wine prior to roasting of coffee beans. Hence the name ‘Arabica’ for a coffee plant species.
4/ The Yemeni Port of Mocha (where the drink Cafe Mocha is named after) became the central hub for exporting coffee to the region and beyond. Coffee began to spread to #Mecca in the 1400s and by the 1500s it had spread to the rest of the Middle East.
5/ Coffee houses grew like wildfire (think Starbucks) in ME metropolitan cities like #Cairo, #Aleppo & #Istanbul. They were the new spot to go to for men to gather, talk, listen to poetry, have intel. convo., play chess. They rivaled religious institutions as a place of meetings.
6/ The Ban:
Religious authorities took notice of the coffee house’s popularity; they were afraid that (1) the people were spending less time in mosques and (2) that the people would cook up ideas that would eventually result in sedition. So, what was the logical action, then?
Religious authorities took notice of the coffee house’s popularity; they were afraid that (1) the people were spending less time in mosques and (2) that the people would cook up ideas that would eventually result in sedition. So, what was the logical action, then?
7/ Mecca banned coffee drinks and coffee houses in 1511 & Cairo followed suit. Coffee warehouses were raided by the authorities and the “seditious berry” were burned. By 1524, the Ottoman Empire Sultan, Selina the Grim, reversed the ban, …
8/ … hung two #Persian doctors who professed that coffee had adverse effects on health, quelled any opposition to coffee by religious and other authorities, and coffee houses sprung up again.
9/ Coffee storms #Europe
Coffee first came to Europe in 1526 via #Turks’ invasion of #Hungary but it wasn’t popular by no means. #Christians rejected the ‘devil’s drink’ because #Muslims drank it. Eventually, church accepted it & Pope Clement III babtized coffee.
Coffee first came to Europe in 1526 via #Turks’ invasion of #Hungary but it wasn’t popular by no means. #Christians rejected the ‘devil’s drink’ because #Muslims drank it. Eventually, church accepted it & Pope Clement III babtized coffee.
10/ The first coffee house in Europe opened in #Venice in 1640s, #London in 1650s, #Vienna in 1680s. Beethoven was a regular patron of coffee houses in Vienna and even created some of his best work there.
11/ Of course Europe has its own legend: it is said that Kolschitzky, a brave #Polish officer who fought the Turks at the Battle of Vienna, opened 1st coffee house in Europe. Another legend has it that 1st shop was opened by Diodato, an #Armenian spy.
12/ #England’s Charles II denounced coffee houses because those were “places where the disaffected met, & spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his ministers.” Well he wasn’t wrong, because decades later a revolution was being cooked there.
13/ It was the the #Paris’s famous coffee shop, Procope, where the #French Revolution was plotted and planned by the revolution’s architects: Robespierre, Marat and Danton
In London Petition Against Coffee was organized by women as cafes were taking much of their husbands’ time
In London Petition Against Coffee was organized by women as cafes were taking much of their husbands’ time
14/ Across the Atlantic, in #America, after the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the culture of drinking coffee started because drinking tea was becoming unpatriotic.
End.
End.
Some Current Coffee Facts
☕️ 2nd most traded commodity after oil, $20 billion annual
☕️ We drink 500 billion cups a year
☕️ 25 million people’s livelihood comes from coffee farms
☕️ There are really just 2 types of coffee
☕️ Over half of Americans over age 18 drink it
☕️ 2nd most traded commodity after oil, $20 billion annual
☕️ We drink 500 billion cups a year
☕️ 25 million people’s livelihood comes from coffee farms
☕️ There are really just 2 types of coffee
☕️ Over half of Americans over age 18 drink it
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