Instant coffee.
Single-origin.
Decaf.
Latte.
Espresso.
Americano.
Coffee is the second most popular beverage in the world
second only to water.
In the U.S. alone, more than
450 million cups of coffee are consumed per day
but the top spot for coffee lovers in the world goes to
Finland,
where each person consumes an average of
12 kilograms of coffee beans per year,
according to the International Coffee Organization.
In fact, coffee is of such importance in human lives
that it’s even included in most military rations.
But where did our love for
this energy-boosting java juice come from?
And how exactly did it spread across the globe?
You’re watching Explore Mode
and today we are diving into the history of coffee.
The story of the birth of coffee is unclear and unverified
but it seems to narrow down to two origin stories.
On takes place in Ethiopia
and the other takes us to Yemen.
Let’s go to Africa first.
Legend says that around 850 AD in the region of Kaffa,
Ethiopia,
a young goatherd called Kaldi noticed that
when his goats ate a small red berry
they became highly active.
Intrigued, Kaldi plucked some berries for himself
and noticed that he too felt energized after eating them.
He wanted to share the effects of these magic berries,
so he took a few to a nearby monastery
but the head monk,
intimidated by their strange influence,
rejected them and threw them into a fire.
The result was a hypnotizing aroma
that captivated the monk.
So after the fire was stoked
they picked up the roasted coffee beans
that were left among the embers,
ground them and produced the first-ever cup of coffee.
Now to the other origin story.
Legend says that in ancient Yemen
there was a man called Sheikh Omar
who was famous for his healing powers.
For reasons unknown,
Omar was banished from his community
to a cave in the desert.
Hungry and desperate
Omar ate the red berries from a nearby bush
but was taken aback by their bitter flavor.
Keen on making the most out of his meager meal,
Omar roasted the beans,
ground them up and boiled them with water,
producing an energizing liquid
that sustained him for days.
When his community learned of his magical concoction
he was invited to return.
Now both of these accounts make for good stories,
but we can't know for sure if that’s how
he first cup of Joe actually came to be,
but it seems, according to historical evidence,
that the crown for the first cup of coffee goes to both
Yemen and Ethiopia.
The plant itself is native to Ethiopia,
while the first real evidence we have
of its roasting and brewing
as we consume coffee nowadays comes from Yemen.
See, early records show that during the 15th century
coffee was consumed among Muslim communities
around Yemen,
specifically the Sufis,
because it helped them stay up
for long religious ceremonies.
The coffee they consumed
was brought by merchants from Ethiopia.
During the 1600s
the beverage quickly began spreading to Europe.
The Netherlands was the first country
to open coffee plantations in Sri Lanka
in the early 1600s.
The Dutch East India Company began importing coffee
from then Java and Ceylon in 1711.
Pretty soon other European countries followed suit.
In the 1700s the French took it to the Caribbean
at the same time as the Portuguese
introduced it in Brazil.
In the Late 19th century,
the Spanish had taken it to Central and South America.
It’s no wonder that coffees from these regions are
nowadays considered to be among the best in the world
But aren’t all coffee beans the same?
Not quite.
Time for an Express Explore Explanation.
Start the clock.
There are many types of coffee beans
but the ones that are most common are
Arabica, Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa.
They all grow in what is known as The Coffee Bean Belt,
a region located between
the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer
that have the ideal climate and
temperature for coffee to thrive.
According to the International Coffee Organization,
20 billion pounds of coffee are produced
in the Bean Belt per year.
The most common type of coffee bean is the Arabica.
Historians believe it was the first type of coffee
to be cultivated as
it comes from the Ethiopian highlands.
Nowadays, 60 percent of the coffee
consumed around the world is Arabica.
It’s mostly grown in Latin America
and it’s known for its
sweet, fruity and slightly acidic taste.
However, it takes Arabica coffee plants 7 years
to fully mature and be ready for harvest,
making it pricier than its other bean brothers.
The second most common type of coffee bean is
Robusta.
This is the one you’ll probably see in super markets
and your neighborhood grocery store.
They’re grown in Africa and Indonesia
and it’s fairly common due to
its high caffeine concentration,
making it perfect for espressos
and an energizing cup of Joe.
But that also makes coffee from Robusta beans
more bitter in taste.
Liberica and Excelsa beans are grown
in certain parts of Southeast Asia
and therefore make up a really small percentage
of the coffee consumed in the world;
This also makes them pricier
than Robusta and Arabica beans.
Currently, Brazil is the world’s largest coffee exporter,
pumping out 45 million bags per year
of mainly Arabica beans.
Coffee really stuck in Europe.
The wine and beer people would customarily
have for breakfast were slowly replaced by Jitter Juice.
But although coffee has become the West’s
favorite energy booster,
people forget it was once considered the devil’s drink.
Because of coffee’s Islamic origins,
it was shunned by Christians in the West.
They were suspicious of its effects
and considered it a pagan drink.
It wasn’t until 700 years after its discovery,
when the drink began to pick up in popularity,
that the issue was brought up
to then Pope Clement VIII.
Catholic devouts were hoping their leader
would denounce the drink immediately but,
to their surprise,
the Pope took a “don’t knock it until you try it” approach
and decided to take a sip
before completely banning the so-called devil’s drink.
His verdict?
Coffee was here to stay.
But to convince his followers that coffee
would not make it easier for a demon to possess them,
the Pope actually baptized coffee beans
in order to officially pronounce them Satan-free.
And since, it’s been a coffee free for all in the West.
The first coffee houses in the world appeared
during the 15th Century in the Arabian Peninsula
and they were called “qahveh khaneh”.
Coffee houses were a place where
people would gather to play games,
listen to music or even have heated political debates.
At the same time,
as coffee grew in popularity among Europeans
during the 1600s,
so did the appearance of coffee houses there.
But unlike taverns or bars
which were the place where men would gather
to discuss politics and daily conundrums,
coffee houses were considered a space for intellectuals.
In Britain,
coffee houses were called “penny universities”
because for a penny you could get a cup of coffee
and engage in cerebral conversations
with businessmen and scholars fraternizing at the shop.
But early coffee houses weren’t open to everyone.
The British and French banned women
from entering their premises,
only the Germans saw no problem with ladies and
gentlemen taking part in discussions together.
But it wasn’t just about intellectual conversations,
many people at the time believed that coffee
was a very potent remedy for,
well, everything apparently.
Take a look at this coffee ad from 1652.
It claims coffee can treat “headaches,
the cough of the lungs,
dropsy, gout, and scurvy.”
Oh, and apparently it also helped
“prevent miscarriages in childbearing women.”
Some beverage this was.
By the 18th Century,
coffee had become THE drink in every country
it had been introduced to
but people still couldn’t get enough of the drink.
In 1901,
a Japanese-American chemist called Satori Kato
created the first version of instant coffee,
he even patented his invention in 1903
but his creation didn’t really catch on.
The mass production of instant coffee
is attributed to George Washington,
a Belgian inventor who owned production facilities
in Brooklyn, New York.
His product was called "Red E Coffee."
Instant coffee played a starring role
right at the end of the First World War.
In 1918, the U.S. military was buying
37,000 pounds of coffee per day.
And on occasions where soldiers
had no access to water,
they would just pour the instant coffee packet
into their mouths and
munch on the caffeine powder for energy.
Americano coffee was born in the Second World War
when Americans stationed in Italy
became homesick for the way they had their cup of Joe.
See, Italians had two ways of
consuming java at the time,
espresso or cappuccino.
Both of these options were too thick
and bitter for American GIs,
who were used to drip coffee.
So Italian coffee shops,
in solidarity with the coffee thirsty Americans,
began selling their espressos with a cup of hot water
for them to dilute the espresso shot.
Eventually, they began mixing water
with the espresso for the G.I.s
and began calling the drink an Americano.
Today, coffee continues to reign supreme.
The global coffee industry earns
an estimated $60 billion annually
and Starbucks alone has 29,865 shops
quenching the coffee-thirst of 78 markets
around the world.
No matter where we are from,
we can all agree that a good cup of coffee
can make our day.
And you?
How do you like your coffee?
Thanks for watching Explore Mode,
if you liked this video hit the thumbs up button.
If you want to explore even more with us,
check out the video we made on Navajo Code Talkers.
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See you next week, and in the meantime,
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