Record books indicate that coffee has lived as long as the ninth century. Ethiopian highlanders were the first to toil the soil for coffee beans. Legends were formulated around these beans. There was this Yemenite Sufi mystic known as Shaikh ash-Shadhili who was said to be journeying in the lands of Ethiopia. During his accounted travel he had an encounter with goats having tremendous amounts of vigor and vitality. He saw that the goats were eating some sort of berry so he tried it himself after which he also had a refreshing moment. A goat herder called Kaldi was also part of the coffee stories in the ancient times. This goat herder was part of the legend of the dancing goats. The coffee plant was said to have originated in an Ethiopian kingdom known as Kaffa thus giving the beverage its name. The Arabs then opened their gates for world trade making it possible for these tiny delights to reach the boundaries of Africa. Due to mass-cultivation, the coffee hysteria reached as far as India and Europe.

Coffee exports from Ethiopia initially dealt with Yemen. Upon having the beans, the Yemeni were able to engage in their own cultivation. The beverage was primarily not welcomed specifically by the conservative imams in Mecca. According to accounts they were not ready to embrace the stimulating effects of coffee. Sultan Selim I along with Mehmet Ebussuud el-Imadi saw the increasing popularity of the drink and allowed for the circulation of coffee within the region. It wasn’t until the latter half of the 19th century that Ethiopians also gave coffee better regards. This was due to the fact that Emperor Menilek himself embraced the consumption of the beverage.

Coffee reached the European ports via the trades that steadily grew between the Italians and the Muslims in Egypt and North Africa. Venice was particularly the place of coffee’s birth. The merchants saw the opportunity of showing off a new product and then began selling it to the members of the rich class. Coffee’s reputation was then boosted by the blessing coming from none other than Pope Clement VIII despite allegations that it was a Muslim beverage. From then on the aromatic and invigorating effects of coffee moved wildly across Europe. The rich aroma of coffee then made its mark on countries such as England, France, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. Due in part to France’s colonization schemes, the coffee extravaganza was able to reach the homes of the American natives.

It is a fact that understanding and appreciating each beginning is a key part of living your life. The journey of coffee has come a long way. Be thankful that it has reached your very own cup.

The popularity of coffee as a drink later on spread from Ethiopia to Egypt and Yemen where they were sold by merchants. Early version of coffee had the beans directly boiled and then drank. It was in Arabia that the coffee beans were first being roasted and brewed that has become the practice still today. The popularity of this beverage soon spread to other countries. By the 15th Century, coffee drinking has spread to the rest of the Middle East as well as to Persia, Turkey and Northern Africa.

Coffee was first introduced in Europe by way of Italy. Trading between Venice and the Middle East as well as Egypt and parts of North Africa began thriving. Through this route, coffee found its way to the Venetian ports and was then introduced as a drink to Italians. From there it was introduced to the rest of Europe. Its popularity became so great that it led to the establishment of the coffee houses in Europe, the first one being opened in Italy in 1645.

Coffee then spread to parts of Asia by way of the Dutch explorers who brought with them coffee seeds that they planted in their colonies in Java and Ceylon. The introduction of coffee in North America was not as widely accepted initially as compared to other countries. It was brought along the American shores along with tea by the English colonizers. But it was tea that first became the accepted beverage. Not until the English limited the supply of tea in North America did the Americans grow to prefer coffee as their beverage of choice.

Throughout history, coffee has been a widely accepted beverage and its popularity grew due to its highly stimulating effects. It is also for this reason that coffee drinking during ancient times was widely associated with spiritual practices. Coffee drinking has since become a regular ritual among many people and its popularity seems to grow bigger and bigger everyday.

In the 1920’s, when Paris was filled with literary experts, coffeehouses were crawling with writers and poets. The Cafe La Coupole became a headquarter of sorts for some of literature’s most enduring writers such as Henry Miller, F. Scot Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Along with the surrealists, they debated and discussed arts, literature and above all, life itself.

In the 1950’s, it was the Beatniks, the motley crew of writers and artists that included literary luminaries such as William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, that filled the coffeehouses in New York’s Greenwich Village. In a magazine article, the poet Sparrow defined the group as people in shapeless clothes drinking coffee in cafes and writing in their spiral notebooks while listening to jazz. Along with their cigarettes and steaming cups of coffee, Beatniks exchanged wild ideas and stories that eventually made their way to their poems, novels and art.

In his memoir Living To Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia Marquez begins his autobiography in a coffee shop in Colombia. His mother was out in search of him and was told to look for him in a place where journalists like himself stationed themselves almost every day. Another writer who once practically lived in a cafe was J. K. Rowling who was said to have written most of the first of the Harry Potter series in a coffeehouse in Edinburgh almost 13 years ago.

Most probably, however, for these writers what’s even more addictive than the sweet smell of freshly brewed coffee is the strong kick of an idea that’s beginning to take shape in the form of a novel.

Leonard Rauwold (German physician) who gave the description of coffee after his 10-year trip to the Near East in 1583 said it was a beverage as black as ink but it could be useful to fight different kinds of illnesses most especially in our stomach.

The Middle East is a Muslim world but still coffee spread out to Italy. A thriving trade developed between Venice and North Africa together with Egypt and the Middle East. They brought many goods to Venice including coffee to the Venetian port despite appeals from different religious groups to ban the Muslim drink until it became popular all over Europe in 1600 until Pope Clement VIII accepted it as a Christian beverage. In 1645 the first European coffee house opened. The first to import coffee in a large scale in 1616 and the first to defy the Arab prohibition on the exportation of plants or unroasted coffee seeds were the Dutch lead Pieter van den Broeck who smuggled seedlings from Aden into Europe. An in 1711, the Dutch grew the crop in Java and Ceylon as well as being the first exporters of Indonesian coffee to the Netherlands. Coffee became popular in England with the effort of British East India Company and later introduced it in France, Austria, and Poland.

During the Colonial period, coffee reached North America but was not as popular there as in Europe. The demand for coffee was so dramatically increased that dealers had to hoard their scarce supplies and raise prices in the Revolutionary War and there was also a reduced availability of tea from British merchants. After the Revolutionary War in 1812 and during the American Civil War, there was a high demand for coffee, so their primary commodity was secured in the United States.

And because of the in-demand needs of the First World countries, coffee became the primary cash crop of many Third World countries such as Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

Creating instant coffee is a simple process really. Manufacturers found out that by brewing huge quantities of fresh coffee and allowing a huge amount of water to evaporate, the result was a highly concentrated batch of coffee. Now the process does not end there, of course. Manufacturers will have to make this big batch of concentrated coffee into powder form in order to pack them and sell them as instant coffee.

Instant coffee plants use two kinds of methods to produce the instant coffee that we know today. The two techniques are the freeze-drying and the spray-drying technique. For the first method, the concentrated coffee is frozen to a temperature of about negative 40 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the water in the coffee will become ice crystals. As crystals, the water can then be removed through sublimation and what remains are the frozen granules of coffee. Meanwhile, with the spray-drying technique, the concentrated coffee is sprayed up together with hot air. As the water falls it evaporates and what falls is the powdered coffee. Take note that both processes, because of the use of extreme temperatures, results in a loss of the coffee’s flavor. But the application of extreme heat in the spray-drying methods seems to cause more loss in the coffee’s natural flavor.

Even though instant coffee began making its popularity in the 50’s, the first instant coffee was invented as early as 1901 by Japanese American chemist Satori Kato. Five years later, English chemist George Constant Washington came out with a way to mass-produce instant coffee and introduced his “Red E Coffee” in 1909. Then in 1938, Nescafe invented the freeze-dried coffee process.

After the Second World War, the National Research Corp. which during the war created a high-vacuum technology to produce penicillin and blood plasma for the military, decided to use the technology for producing powdered orange juice. Later the company which has been renamed as Minute Maid perfected the process and applied it in making instant coffee. By 1951, the instant coffee developed from this method came out under the name Holiday Brands. The instant coffee has developed into a mean cup since then.

For the uninitiated, Italy is where the coffee culture took roots ever since coffee was introduced in Europe way back in the 1600’s. It never left. Today, it is likely that one notices right away a crowded espresso bar at any Italian airport, full of people sipping espresso out of very small porcelain cups.

In every village, town or city in Italy, one instantly finds a large amount of local coffee bars. They are usually filled with people chatting about local politics and some gossip or about last night’s football game. It could be that the Italians took to coffee as culture.

With a friend or a co-worker along, an Italian has about two to three espresso runs to his favorite coffee bar during the day. Usually, it is for a quick pick-me-up just to perk him up for the moment.

It is hard to imagine Italy without coffee. It is the national breakfast. And Italy is home to all of today’s coffee drinks the world is crazy about. Coffee was not invented in Italy, but coffee culture started here. Venice was the first city where the first coffee shop, or caf‚, was established.

In pursuit of the perfect coffee, an Italian was responsible for inventing the espresso machine that would revolutionize the world of coffee drinking. He found out that by forcing hot water through well-packed, finely ground coffee at high pressure, one could extract the most long-lasting flavor from the beans.

From 1901 (when it was invented) onwards, there have been numerous technical innovations done with the machine. The result was a dark, aromatic liquid covered by a thick, creamy, reddish-brown foam called crŠme.

From then on, caf‚ generally refers to the classic black espresso, served hot in a demitasse cup. As of last count, there are around 111 types of espresso-based drinks in Italy.
Like everything else in Italy, caf‚ varies in every region.

However, everybody agrees that cappuccino is a breakfast drink.

How exactly is cappuccino made?

It is simply a blend of espresso coffee with milk or frothy cream added topped with chocolate powder. The proportions is 1/3 espresso and 2/3 froth made from fresh milk heated by steam.

How exactly is espresso made?

The perfect espresso is made with seven grams of fresh, finely ground coffee. Two tablespoons of water heated to about 194 degrees Fahrenheit is driven through the coffee for about 25 to 30 seconds at nine atmospheres of pressure.

Italian coffees use blended beans in their espressos. Arabica, known for its full flavor and low caffeine content is the main choice. However, Robusta beans are sometimes blended with Arabica. Blends from southern Italy tend to have more Robusta which makes for a stronger espresso.

In roasting, Italian coffee has a rich brown color and very little or no oil. Roasting time depends upon the blend as Robusta beans need to be roasted longer than Arabica blends. The coffee roaster makes sure that a roast should not be too long or too hot.

Most Italians finish off their coffee quickly at the bar before heading off to work. Ordering an espresso in Italy, one simply asks for a caf‚ and drinks it in two or three sips at most. Espresso is not made to be sipped casually.

Coffee is served after a meal, but not served by itself. Any cappuccino ordered after 11:00 in the morning is politely ignored, because coffee after breakfast should not have milk in it.
Aside from simple espresso and cappuccino, some varieties of Italian coffee drinks are Doppio, Ristretto, Americano, Macchiato, Corretto, and several variations of lattes and cappuccinos.

Basically, taste is what makes Italian coffee drinks stand out and hold their place in people’s minds and taste buds. The names may be hard to pronounce but each variety is an adventure to the palate.