History of coffee

The origins of coffee

We know that coffee was being actively cultivated by the 6th century in the Yemen, although there are indications that coffee was being drunk some 1,500 years prior. There are many stories about how coffee was discovered but one popular legenf is that an Eithiopian farmer saw the energetic effects on his goats when they ate certain red cherries! Very early on, Muslims created a drink from dried coffee berries and found that it gave them increased energy. This drink became known as 'kahweh' from the Arabic word for invigorating and the Turkish word for giving strength, kahveh. These early names led to the use of the word coffee, which is now used and accepted throughout the world.

Coffee spreads around the world

Coffee has enjoyed a colourful journey around the world to become the widespread and popular drink that it is today. From being extensively cultivated in Arabia by 900AD, drinking coffee became commonplace throughout the Muslim world by 1400 - 1500 AD. The coffee was exported by the methods of cultivation were largely kept a secret. The smuggling of coffee plants to other countries, European countries colonising coffee growing regions and gifts of coffee seeds to foreign lovers (a gift to a Brazilian coast guard officer while in Cayenne, French Guyana!), all helped to increase the availability of coffee across the globe.

An example of the prolific and yet almost accidental spread of coffee is theft of a single cutting from the Jardin des Plantes in Paris,by a French naval officer. He then took the cutting to the Caribbean island of Martinique and this resulted in the island boasting am estimated 18 million coffee trees, 50 years later.

Coffee houses

Coffee houses were opened all over the Arab world and were very popular. A coffee house was opened in Paris in St Germain in 1672 and this was followed by the opening of a rival cafe in the same street, 1686. This sparked a rapid growth in the number of cafes in France with 700 being in existence by the 18th century and 3,000 by the mid 19th century

The UK opened its first coffee house in 1650 in Oxford. Incredibly, by 1675 there were almost 3,000 coffee houses in England. In recent years the number of coffee shops is enjoying a surge of popularity with will in excess of 2,200 being open.