Can you imagine any discussion or meeting without having a cup of coffee in today’s world?
I guess no.
Coffee has become the must-have drink along with tea. The taste and distinct aroma of coffee never fail to refresh the taste buds around the world.
Over 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed per day in the world. So, you can imagine the popularity of it. But have you ever wondered how did coffee get the rank of second most popular drink and most traded commodity after oil around the world?
Please include attribution to https://tastycoffeemaker.com/ with this graphic.
Reasons for Coffee’s Global Popularity
The reasons behind such world spread popularity are actually historic. Some series of notable events aid to achieve today’s demand for coffee. Those events intertwined and reasoned the progression of coffee as a favorite drink. So, the events are as follows.
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Discovery of Coffee
Though there is no certain fact of its origin. It is said that Ethiopia (old Abyssinia) is the country of its origin. Dated back to 500 or 600 AD, Kaldi – goat herders – is the man who discovered coffee as an energy-boosting berry.
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The Arabian Peninsula
In 1000, Arab traders brought coffee to their homeland for the first time to cultivate it. Firstly. by boiling the beans, they made a drink, known as Qahwa in Arabic which means “sleep prevention”.
Later it gains popularity as the “wine of Arab” among people around the world, as they visited Mecca for pilgrimage. Apart from these, Arabian physicians and Muslim philosophers had used them in medicine.
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Discovery of Roasted Beans
During the 13th century, Turkey was the first one to find out that you can enhance the aroma of coffee beans by roasting in an open fire.
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Commercial Cultivation
Yemeni people started immense plantations of coffee in 1300 and they began to sell it to the traders of Arabia.
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Concept of Coffee Shop
Coffee was introduced in today’s Istanbul by Ottoman Turks. They opened the first coffee shop in 1453 which was called “Kiva Han”. The commercialization of coffee beverages marked its journey with fourth.
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Coffee in Europe
European travelers discover this unusual beverage in Arabia. From the port of Smyrna and Alexandria, Arabian traders sold coffee to Europe in the 1500s. Though this beverage met popularity over the continent, some reacted to it saying, “bitter invention of Satan”.
Eventually, the controversy made Pope Clement VIII give this drink papal approval in the 17th century.
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Indian Cultivation of Coffee
A thousand years of monopolistic cultivation of coffee in Arabia came to an end in the mid-17th century when a Muslim Indian pilgrim took some productive seeds to India from Arabia. Thereby, the coffee plantation started to spread.
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Escalation of Coffeehouses
During the mid-17th century in Oxford England, the first coffeehouse opened. This concept was highly welcomed and escalated throughout England. Within this century, France embraced it and the Dutch merchants started shipping coffee beans around the world.
The coffee plant eventually reached the Caribbean territory. A plantation was established in Martinique, and eventually, this has become the main source of the world’s coffee.
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The Boston Tea Party
Though there were coffee houses, tea remained the most favored one in New York. Later, a heavy tax was imposed on tea by King George III.
American colonists revolted against this and that political event is known as Boston Tea Party where they dumped British tea into the harbor in 1773. The habit of drinking tea was then replaced by coffee in America.
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Brazilian Influence
There was a surplus in coffee plantations in Brazil at the beginning of the 19th century. Because of the oversupply, there was a huge price drop, and this turned coffee into an everyday drink of commoners. Before this, as a drink coffee was seen mostly among the elite.
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The Invention of Instant Coffee
This invention adds more to the popularity of coffee. Behind this invention was an English chemical analyst. In 1906, he invented instant coffee and also generated this early mass instant coffee production known as Red E Coffee.
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Coffee’s Promotion Due to Prohibition
There was alcohol prohibition in the 1920s in the United States and it affected the booming of coffee culture. Such prohibition created huge coffee consumption and sales.
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Espresso Machine
With the emergence of the espresso machine, the beverage coffee got a new era. Dr. Ernest Illy developed this machine in 1933. The commercial vending of espresso coffee increased with it.
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Nescafé
Brazil had huge; I better say overabundance production of coffee early in the 20th century. Then the Nestlé company came up with instant coffee that was dried in freeze to help the government of Brazil in 1938. With Nestle, they mitigated their overabundance coffee problem.
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Globalization
American globalization has an impact even on coffee. They export all their culture which includes coffee drinking habits to the world. The golden period of Hollywood which is the 1920s-1940s, assisted in this globalization of coffee.
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Television and Its Impact
The emergence of television in the mid-20thconcurred with the low-cost coffee’s profuse supply. Coffee’s worldwide acceptance, instant coffee production, the renowned Nestle Company’s help to bring in what coffee is today, and making an advertisement for it add nothing but popularity.
As a result, all of it collaborated to bring the phenomena of drinking coffee.
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Starbucks
This coffee shop first opened in 1971 and continued to capture the popularity of coffee with its secretive; flavor-added coffee recipe. Now, there is Frappuccino too. Within 1998, they have opened 2000 outlets only in the US.
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Caffeine and Its Affect
The sole reason for coffee’s being so energetic drink is the presence of caffeine in it. Caffeine is the main ingredient of coffee. Who doesn’t want to be refreshed for the whole day?
To be so, coffee is a popular choice. Caffeine combats tiredness and also helps to get you focused. Such a benefit makes coffee the desired beverage for all.
Final Words
That is all from us. And, if you want to know more about any specific portion, feel free to comment and ask. Hope you enjoyed reading it over a cup of coffee. Ha-ha!
