On the Caffeine Trail - Part 2

In the last post, On the Caffeine Trail – Part 1, I told you how I got into the whole coffee thing in the first place, a bit about the legend of the discovery of coffee, and introduced one of our local coffeehouses:

Now:

Let’s Get Historical

Legends, such as the one about Kaldi and his goats, lead people to believe that coffee originated near the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, in what is now Yemen. This is where Europeans first found it growing. However, botanical evidence points to the plateaus in central Ethiopia, where coffee trees still grow wild amongst the giant rainforest-trees.

Kaldi’s coffee plants probably grew from seeds brought to Yemen by the Ethiopians. The Ethiopians ruled Yemen for about 50 years around 525 A.D. African cultures have long used coffee beans, but as a food rather than a beverage. They blended crushed coffee berries with animal fat and rolled it into balls that they would eat on long journeys.

It wasn’t until 1000 A.D. that coffee was used as a hot beverage. The idea caught on quickly and by the end of the fifteenth century the coffeehouse was a favored meeting place throughout the Middle East.

The spread of coffee was contained for a while because, according to legend, the Arabs were very protective of their discovery and refused to allow fertile seed to leave the country. All beans had to be parched or boiled before they were traded or sold. It was inevitable, however, that some enterprising person would find a way to sneak away with some fertile seed. That person is reputed to be a man named Baba Budan, a Moslem pilgrim from India. A story is told of how in 1650 A.D; he slipped away with seven seeds. When he returned to his home, a cave in the hills near Chikmagalgur in south India, he planted those precious seeds. It is said that the offspring from those seven seeds produce around a third of India’s coffee today.

The enterprising Dutch soon arrived in India and carried some of the descendants of those seven seeds to Java, where they established coffee growing farms. Within a few years, dozen of countries were cultivating coffee.

In 1637, the first European coffeehouse was established in England. Coffeehouses soon replaced taverns as the social, commercial, and political meeting place in England. They were known as “penny universities,” because one could discuss and learn just about anything for the price of a cup of coffee. Many businesses also sprang from the gatherings at coffeehouses, including Lloyd’s of London, the famous insurance company, which began in Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse.

The women of England were not so enchanted with this new brew. Mainly, because coffeehouses were male bastions. In reaction to this, in 1674 A Women’s Petition Against Coffee was published. Wives claimed that it was unhealthy for men to spend so much time away from the home. This proved to be an unsuccessful campaign and coffeehouses continued to serve only men. Obviously they totally missed the boat with this strategy. They should have just started the whole brew-at-home enterprise and not only encouraged the men to stay home, but enjoyed the perk of caffeine in their own busy lives!

Then in the eighteenth century, the middle class started to move back to the neighborhood tavern and coffeehouses became select clubs. Tea became popular at Court, as well as with commoners, because it was a drink women and men could enjoy together. In addition, the British East India Trading Company was profiting from trade with India’s tea producers.

Another coffee legend is the tale of the noble tree belonging to Louis XIV of France. King Louis was an ardent coffee drinker and desperately wanted to have his very own coffee tree. He called on the Dutch, who owed him a favor, to give him what he desired. In 1715, the first greenhouse in Europe was built for the King’s tree. From that tree sprung billions of Arabica trees, including most of those now growing in Central and South America.

It was Chevalier Gabriel Mathiew de Clieu, a French navel officer, looking to make a name for himself, who brought coffee to the “new world.” Through a romantic liaison with a lady of King Louis’ court, he was able to secure a coffee plant. Surviving a perilous shipboard journey to the Caribbean, the coffee plant flourish in its new home. From the Caribbean, coffee spread throughout the West Indies and Central and South America.

The American colonies favored tea until Boston threw its famous party in 1773. Coffeehouses became meeting places for the revolutionaries and coffee became the traditional democratic drink.

What’s Next

The next Caffeine Trail post, part 3, will talk about the plants themselves.

On the Catskill Region Caffeine Trail

Brewtus Roasting in Delmar, New York

Brewtus Roasting is a small batch specialty coffee roaster located in Delmar, NY. It is only about 20 minutes away from our inn and is conveniently on the route we often take to Albany. Just look for the huge image of the bulldog on the front of their building! They offer a nice menu of espresso beverages and lots of varieties of in-house roasted coffee beans sold by the bag, so that you can continue to savor their roasts at home with your own brewing set up.

Call me crazy, but I love seeing the actual coffee roasting equipment right there on display in the middle of a coffee shop. Though I made an unannounced visit to Brewtus Roasting, everything was impeccably clean and neat. I was also happy to discover that Brewtus Roasting is all about sustainability and being mindful of the how the consumption of coffee can the effect the environment. They compost the coffee grounds and all of their cups and lids are fully composable. Even the burlap sacks that the green coffee beans are shipped in is recycled by giving them away for home gardens and even beekeepers who use them in their beehives!

I enjoyed a delicious whole milk latte made by a friendly and knowledgable staff member.

Be sure to make Brewtus Roasting a stop along your Caffeine Trail.