Facts about the History of Coffee
Prepared from the roasted seeds or ‘beans’ of two main coffee plant species – Arabica and Robusta, consumption of the hot coffee drink as we know today has been consumed since as early as the ninth century upon its appearance in the Ethiopian highlands.
From its roots in Ethiopia, the history of coffee then spread to Egypt and Yemen and had reached Persia, Turkey and northern Africa by the 15th century. Following these early Muslim foundations, coffee then spread to Italy – now highly regarded for its coffee know-how – and onwards across the rest of Europe and America to become one of the most highly consumed beverages in the world.
The rise of Islam, a religion that forbade the consumption of alcohol but promoted coffee as an accepted alternative – even calling it ‘qahwa’ (the Arab word for wine), gave a considerable boost to the emergence of coffee in its widespread consumption – to the point where it was ubiquitously consumed in all coffee houses across the Islamic word.
Breaking out of Arabian monopolistic consumption, thanks to a Muslim pilgrim from India named Baba Budan who smuggled seven coffee seeds strapped to his person into India around 1650, the long-standing tradition of drinking coffee for its various pleasure as well as increasingly documented health benefits has since expanded exponentially.
Arabica coffee is the most widely preferred coffee type amongst present day consumers due to its smooth taste and pleasant aroma, with the coffee derived from the Robusta plant considered to possess a more acquired, slightly bitter taste.