Coffee’s roots and routes

The story of Kaldi and his frisky, dancing goats may conjure up romantic images for coffee’s humble beginnings as a drink, but the overall mystique comes from a lack of hard facts rather than a rustic myth. Had Kaldi enjoyed copying the eating habits of goats – not exactly famed for their fussiness - he would have been reaching for the indigestion tablets!

Wild coffee originates in Ethiopia, and presumably the bright red cherries looked appetising in some way. It is possible that the cherries or green coffee beans were originally brewed in water without the aid of roasting, but either way it would seem very likely that it was caffeine’s stimulatory influence that drew the attention of those first sipping the brew. However, it cannot be doubted that once subject to fire or roasting, there was no turning back from the heavenly aromas that would have risen from the flames.

For Oromo Ethiopians and amongst other societies, coffee still has immense cultural and ritualistic significance. The traditional coffee ceremony has long been a means to bring people together during the day, to discuss daily events and to talk over problems.

There are strong suggestions that the mystical Sufis were responsible for transporting coffee – and its brewing secrets – across to Yemen. It was here that Arabica coffee became cultivated and traded, gradually becoming more and more popular throughout Arabia.

The value of coffee became such that trading was carefully controlled and centred on the port of Mocha, exposing the brew to those travelling the trading routes. At this time, coffee houses became prevalent in all the major Arabian cities such as Mecca, Cairo and Baghdad. Eventually the word spread to Europe, and coffee became available both in merchant cities like Venice and in the royal courts.

The next key stage in coffee’s global development was its cultivation away from the homelands of Ethiopia and Yemen. Recognising the value of the commodity, the European colonial powers sought to get their hands on seedlings – never an easy task when the Yemenis were understandably reluctant to let anyone else near live plants or seeds.

It only took a few specimens to change the face of world coffee. The Dutch took coffee to the East Indies at the end of the 17th Century, via smuggled seeds, where they began successful cultivation in colonies such as Java and Sumatra. Eventually it was the French who joined this lucrative enterprise, taking coffee to Martinique (now French Guyana) in the Caribbean.

There is a very strong link between colonialism and coffee, with all of the major colonial powers establishing coffee plantations in their territories for the benefit of their subjects back home and in the interests of trade. The Dutch planted in the East Indies (Java for one), the Portuguese in Brasil, the British in the Caribbean (Jamaica) and in East Africa (Kenya). The Spanish took coffee to Central America and it was also established in their colonies in South America, and the French also planted in areas of Africa and the Isle de Bourbon (now Reunion Island), accounting for the name of Bourbon Arabica.

In the meantime, coffee was playing a vital role in the evolution of England as a society, especially in London where thousands of coffee houses opened in the 17th century. They became centres for the exchange of ideas and debate amongst likeminded people and it is argued that this helped to bring about the industrial revolution and much of developed society as we see it today, including the banking system.

Since then, coffee become firmly embedded in the economies and politics of many developing countries, which were often reliant on the export of this cash crop, and the subsequent impact of declining coffee prices and changing global landscape in trade and politics. This has left coffee with a somewhat jaded history, which is too long and complex to detail here but well worth investigating if you have the time and inkling.