Colonial Civil

Colonial Civil

Background And History Of Coffee

Of the beverages available to consumers these days, not many are as well-known as coffee. Perhaps the most effective way to obtain caffeine short of the new energy drinks currently being marketed, coffee is certainly popular in a number of places, from the home to the office, from small coffee houses to trendy eateries.

The history of coffee can be tracked for just over a thousand years, a relatively short period of time when compared to alcoholic beverages, which have been drunk since prehistoric times, and tea, which goes back more than one thousand years BC. Not surprisingly, coffee has now spread globally as a well-liked drink. A short look at the history of coffee will demonstrate how it has acquired its popularity.

African Origins

The history of coffee as a beverage started in Ethiopia some time around the ninth century. The legend is that Ethiopian herders realized that their goats became especially perky after eating the berries from a specific plant, and for that reason got the idea to eat it as a stimulant. The truth is that coffee probably had already been produced as a drink by the 9th century as a normal result of cultivation associated with vegetation. From Ethiopia, the beverage spread to North Africa, including Egypt.

Success In The Middle East

The introduction of coffee to Egypt made it accessible to ports with trade to the rest of the Middle East, where coffee became a popular beverage by the 1500s. Soon after its introduction, respective authorities put a ban on the drink due to its stimulant qualities. But much like prohibition in America, the ban on coffee did not survive and was later rescinded. At this point in history, though, tight regulations on the product were set up. Although coffee in its roasted form began to be exported to Italy and other European nations, export of the unroasted beans as well as plants was still prohibited.

Colonization and Coffee

This restrictive control over the foreign trade in coffee plants didn’t continue. This particular period in the history of coffee ended when Dutch merchants smuggled coffee seeds out of the Middle East in the 1600s, where they were planted on the island of Java, which is still a significant exporter of coffee these days and also shares its identify with the nickname for the particular drink. Oddly enough, as coffee plants spread to more European colonies, another century into the history of coffee, in the eighteenth century, the plants were smuggled to Brazil, which happens to be still the biggest exporter of coffee beans.

Coffee in America

A history of coffee in the united states follows that of early wars. Brought in there during the 1700s, the popularity of coffee didn’t take off before the Revolutionary War, when tea was scarce and the colonists turned to other drinks. Coffee yet again increased in popularity through the war of 1812 for the same reasons.

But the period when coffee drinking developed to exactly where it became an American fixture is apparently during the Civil War, when demand from customers was high enough that it came to be cemented as a drink in a good many American households. Through colonization and wars, the history of coffee generally seems to follow that of the history of people, and its widespread acceptance across the world demonstrates that it is genuinely a worldwide sensation.

America's First True Test

Background And History Of Coffee

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