Coffee Information

Coffee Is A Historic Beverage, And It Makes For A Great Gift


Ahhhhh, coffee... a fantastic dark beverage that wakes us up in the morning. For some of us, it keeps us up during the day, or for late night study sessions. We drink it out of habit, we drink it from addiction, we drink it for flavor; whatever the reason, it is surely a popular beverage. So where did this famed drink come from?

Coffee, for Americans, is three hundred years old. In the East it was widespread at every level of society, since the earlier era. The most notable dates point to around 800b.c. However, Homer, and according to Arabian tales speak of a mysterious bitter black beverage with powers of stimulation that could have been this drink.

About the year 1000, coffee was being used for medicinal purposes. In 1400 a Yemeni goat herder observed his flock eating reddish berries, then becoming excited and restless. After relating his observations to a monk, they boiled the berries and made a beverage that could disperse sleep and weariness. No matter how it actually was created, the fact remains that the coffee plant started in Africa, in an Ethiopian region known as Kaffa. From there it spread to Egypt, Yemen, and Arabia, where it became a part of daily life.

In the late 1500s coffee was a commodity, being sold in Europe. However, due to an increasing demand for the new beverage, and high taxes on shipping, there was experimentation with growing the crops in various other countries. Much later, around 1727 coffee growing started in Northern Brazil. By the 20th century, various forms of coffee were developed for the public.

Decaffeinated coffee was first founded in 1903 when Ludwig Roselius, a German coffee importer, gave a batch of damaged coffee beans to researchers. They developed the process of taking the caffeine out of the beans without losing any flavor. This was marketed in the 1920s.

Instant coffee was first mass produced from the invention of George Constant Washington, an English chemist living in Guatemala. While waiting for his wife one day to join him outside for coffee, he observed on the spout of the silver coffee urn, a fine powder, which looked to be the condensation of the coffee vapors. This excited him and led to his founding of soluble coffee.

In 1906 he started experiments and put his invention, Red E Coffee, in the markets in 1909. Nestle', in 1938, trying to aid Brazil with their coffee surpluses created freeze-dried coffee. Nescafe was started and first introduced into Switzerland. Instant coffee became a fad after 1956 when commercial television was the new craze.

And now in the US alone, 400 billion cups of coffee a year are consumed. Coffee is one of the world's largest commodities, second only to oil. From a remote area in Africa, to millions of shelves and homes worldwide, coffee has became a fixture everywhere.

The author has been a passionate coffee drinker for many years. She has tasted coffees from all over the world, and believes in serving and entertaining her guests with only the best.

She has catered hundreds of events and affairs and is known for her attention to details, especially regarding picking the perfect coffee.

Irene D. Hope is founder of All Special Coffee an excellent resource site dedicated to information about coffee.


MORE RESOURCES:

Telegraph.co.uk

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Independent, UK - 18 hours ago
The MP, who was hiking through jungles with a friend, was released only after he was forced at gunpoint to swallow handfuls of Coffee-mate – which resembles ...
Colombian soldiers forced 'drug smuggling' Tory to eat coffee whitener guardian.co.uk
Coffee-loving MP Michael Fabricant mistaken for cocaine trafficker Times Online
MP's gunpoint Coffee Mate ordeal BBC News
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By JANET ADAMY Wendy's International Inc. is pushing further into specialized coffee drinks with a major new coffee program in Mississippi and iced coffee ...


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"On a Sunday, we would go to the West End Coffee House, on Shandwick Place, where they would occasionally put on a jazz set and you could buy a cup of ...


Interior designer releases coffee-table book
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Slowdown forces Costa Coffee to redesign
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By Jenny Wiggins, Consumer Industries Correspondent Costa Coffee is redesigning its stores and opening drive-though cafés to encourage people to keep ...


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Southeast Missourian, MO - 10 hours ago
Jo Ann Emerson began the final day of her annual agricultural farm tour with an appearance at the First Friday Coffee inside Cape Girardeau's Show Me Center ...
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Community Coffee's Louisiana Plant Still Shut, Awaiting Pwr
CNNMoney.com - Sep 4, 2008
Community Coffee Company's roasting plant in Port Allen, Louisiana , remains without power after Hurricane Gustav struck the state Monday, the Baton Rouge ...
Lessons Learned: This Time, New Orleans VARs Were Ready CRN
Our Views: A hard hit in Louisiana 2TheAdvocate
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Coffee shop for sale
Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY - 10 hours ago
The shop sold espresso drinks, coffee, desserts and baked goods. It also served as an art gallery and had free wireless Internet for customers. ...


Coffee prices fall as dollar gains on euro
Forbes, NY - 21 hours ago
AP 09.05.08, 3:25 PM ET Coffee futures dropped Friday, as the dollar's advance against the euro sparked a broader sell-off of commodities. ...


Coffee-cocoa strike "paralyses" ICoast exports: official
Africasia, UK - 23 hours ago
Staff from Ivory Coast's coffee and cocoa marketing body BCC have launched an unlimited strike over back pay that is paralysing exports, an official for the ...

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