Coffee
The coffee plant originated in Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, as it is known today.
It is said that stimulating qualities of the plant were first discovered when a
shepherd noticed that his sheep, after eating from a certain shrub, remain awake
and active all night. The shrub was the coffee plant. Legend also tells us that
the first person to drink coffee was the mufti of Aden, who in the beginning of
the ninth century heard about the stimulating bush from herdsman. Desiring to
stay awake and alert during prayers and meditation, he made a brew of small
berries of the plant and found the result very satisfactory. The use of coffee
spread from Aden to Mecca and Medina and the Middle East. By 1550 this new
beverage had reached Constantinople, the capital of Ottoman Empire, where the
first coffee house was established in 1554. The Turkish ambassador to the French
court in 1669 made the beverage fashionable when he offered it to all who
visited him. By 1671 Marseilles had the first coffee house in Europe and, a year
later, a coffee house opened in Paris. By 1683 Vienna, which is famous for
elegant coffee houses, had her opened her first one. The demand for the new
beverage prompted a Frenchman, Desclieux, to plant coffee in Martinique and
later French Guiana. From there it spread to Central America and Brazil. The
Dutch established plantations in java by 1720.
- AMERICA THE MAJESTIC
Pictorial Cook Book. Jon Tarpstra Brian Crumblehulme.