Osita Ike
30 August 2008
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"Coffee use can be traced at least to as early as the 9th century, when it appeared in the highlands of Ethiopia.
According to legend, Ethiopian shepherds were the first to observe the influence of the caffeine in coffee beans when the goats appeared to "dance" and to have an increased level of energy after consuming wild coffee berries. The legend names the shepherd "Kaldi." From Ethiopia, coffee spread to Egypt and Yemen, and by the 15th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa.
Coffee is a widely consumed stimulant beverage prepared from roasted seeds, commonly called beans, of the coffee plant. From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe and the Americas. Today, coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide.
Coffee has played an important role in many societies throughout history. In Africa and Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies. As a result, the Ethiopian Church banned its consumption until the reign of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia. It was banned in Ottoman Turkey in the 17th century for political reasons, and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe. Coffee is an important export commodity: in 2004, coffee was the top agricultural export for 12 countries; and in 2005, it was the world's seventh largest legal agricultural export by value. Many studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and certain medical conditions, but whether the effects of coffee are positive or negative is still disputed.
The English word coffee first came into use in the early- to mid-1600s, but early forms of the word date to the last decade of the 1500s. It comes from the Italian caffè. This, in turn, was borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish kahveh, and the Arabic qahwa collectively. The origin of the Arabic term is uncertain; it could be derived from the name of the Kaffa region in southern Ethiopia, where coffee was cultivated. The Amharic and Afan Oromo name for coffee is bunna. Over the door of a Leipzig coffeeshop is a sculptural representation of a man in Turkish dress receiving a cup of coffee from a boy.
In 1583, Leonhard Rauwolf, a German physician, gave this description of coffee after returning from a ten year trip to the Near East: A beverage as black as ink, useful against numerous illnesses, particularly those of the stomach. Its consumers take it in the morning, quite frankly, in a porcelain cup that is passed around and from which each one drinks a cupful. It is composed of water and the fruit from a bush called bunnu.
From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy. The thriving trade between Venice and North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East brought many goods, including coffee, to the Venetian port. From Venice, it was introduced to the rest of Europe. Coffee became more widely accepted after it was deemed a Christian beverage by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the "Muslim drink". The first European coffee house opened in Italy in 1645.
The Dutch were the first to import coffee on a large scale, and they were among the first to defy the Arab prohibition on the exportation of plants or unroasted seeds when Pieter van den Broeck smuggled seedlings from Aden into Europe in 1616. The Dutch later grew the crop in Java and Ceylon. Through the efforts of the British East India Company, coffee became popular in England as well. It was introduced in France in 1657, and in Austria and Poland after the 1683 Battle of Vienna, when coffee was captured from supplies of the defeated Turks.
When coffee reached North America during the colonial period, it was initially not as successful as it had been in Europe. During the Revolutionary War, however, the demand for coffee increased so much that dealers had to hoard their scarce supplies and raise prices dramatically; this was partly due to the reduced availability of tea from British merchants. After the War of 1812, during which Britain temporarily cut off access to tea imports, the Americans' taste for coffee grew, and high demand during the American Civil War together with advances in brewing technology secured the position of coffee as an everyday commodity in the United States.
The Coffea plant is native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia. It belongs to a genus of 10 species of flowering plants of the family Rubiaceae. It is an evergreen shrub or small tree that may grow 5 meters (16 ft) tall when unpruned. The leaves are dark green and glossy, usually 10-15 centimeters (3.9-5.9 in) long and 6.0 centimeters (2.4 in) wide. It produces clusters of fragrant, white flowers that bloom simultaneously. The fruit berry is oval, about 1.5 centimeters (0.6 in) long, and green when immature, but ripens to yellow, then crimson, becoming black on drying. Each berry usually contains two seeds, but from 5 to 10 percent of the berries have only one; these are called peaberries. Berries ripen in seven to nine months.
Coffee is usually propagated by seed. The traditional method of planting coffee is to put 20 seeds in each hole at the beginning of the rainy season; half are eliminated naturally. Coffee is often intercropped with food crops, such as corn, beans, or rice, during the first few years of cultivation.
The two main cultivated species of the coffee plant are Coffea canephora and Coffea arabica. Arabica coffee (from C. arabica) is considered more suitable for drinking than robusta coffee (from C. canephora); robusta tends to be bitter and have less flavor than arabica. For this reason, about three-fourths of coffee cultivated worldwide is C. arabica However, C. canephora is less susceptible to disease than C. arabica and can be cultivated in environments where C. arabica will not thrive. Robusta coffee also contains about 40-50 percent more caffeine than arabica. For this reason, it is used as an inexpensive substitute for arabica in many commercial coffee blends. Good quality robustas are used in some espresso blends to provide a better foam head and to lower the ingredient cost. Other cultivated species include Coffea liberica and Coffea esliaca, believed to be indigenous to Liberia and southern Sudan, respectively.
Most arabica coffee beans originate from either Latin America, eastern Africa, Arabia, or Asia. Robusta coffee beans are grown in western and central Africa, throughout southeast Asia, and to some extent in Brazil. Beans from different countries or regions usually have distinctive characteristics such as flavor, aroma, body, and acidity. These taste characteristics are dependent not only on the coffee's growing region, but also on genetic subspecies (varietals) and processing.Varietals are generally known by the region in which they are grown, such as Colombian, Java, or Kona.
Originally, coffee farming was done in the shade of trees, which provided habitat for many animals and insects. Today, farmers use sun cultivation, in which coffee is grown in rows under full sun with little or no forest canopy. This causes berries to ripen more rapidly and bushes to produce higher yields but requires the clearing of trees and increased use of fertilizer and pesticides. Opponents of sun cultivation say environmental problems such as deforestation, pesticide pollution, habitat destruction, and soil and water degradation are the side effects of these practices. The American Birding Association has led a campaign for "shade-grown" and organic coffees, which it says are sustainably harvested. While certain types of shaded coffee cultivation systems show greater biodiversity than full-sun systems, they still compare poorly to native forest in terms of habitat value, and some researchers are concerned that the push for "shade grown" coffee may actually be encouraging deforestation in ecologically sensitive regions.
Sucrose is rapidly lost during the roasting process and may disappear entirely in darker roasts. During roasting, aromatic oils, acids, and caffeine weaken, changing the flavor; at 205 °C (400 °F), other oils start to develop. One of these oils is caffeol, created at about 200 °C (392 °F), which is largely responsible for coffee's aroma and flavor
Grades of coffee roasting range from unroasted (or "green"), light, cinnamon, medium, high, city, full city, French and Italian, the darkest shade of brown. Depending on the color of the roasted beans, they will be labeled as light, cinnamon, medium, high, city, full city, French, or Italian roast. Darker roasts are generally smoother, because they have less fiber content and a more sugary flavor. Lighter roasts have more caffeine, resulting in a slight bitterness, and a stronger flavor from aromatic oils and acids destroyed by longer roasting times. A small amount of chaff is produced during roasting from the skin left on the bean after processing. Chaff is usually removed from the beans by air movement, though a small amount is added to dark roast coffees to soak up oils on the beans. Decaffeination may also be part of the processing that coffee seeds undergo. Seeds are decaffeinated when they are still green. Many methods can remove caffeine from coffee, but all involve either soaking beans in hot water or steaming them, then using a solvent to dissolve caffeine-containing oils. Decaffeination is often done by processing companies, and the extracted caffeine is usually sold to the pharmaceutical industry.
Once roasted, coffee beans must be stored properly to preserve the fresh taste of the bean. Ideal conditions are air-tight and cool. Air, moisture, heat and light are the environmental factors in order of importance to preserving flavor in coffee beans.
Typical commercial coffee containers in which coffee is purchased are generally not ideal for long-term storage. Some newer packages contain one-way valves which allow for the release of CO2 (a byproduct of the roasting process) while preventing air from entering the bag.
Coffee beans must be ground and brewed in order to create a beverage. Grinding the roasted coffee beans is done at a roastery, in a grocery store, or in the home. They are most commonly ground at a roastery then packaged and sold to the consumer, though "whole bean" coffee can be ground at home. Coffee beans may be ground in several ways. A burr mill uses revolving elements to crush or tear the bean, an electric grinder chops the beans with blades moving at high speeds, and a mortar and pestle grinds the beans to a powder. The type of grind is often named after the brewing method for which it is generally used. Turkish grind is the finest grind, while coffee percolator or French press are the coarsest grind. The most common grinds are between the extremes; a medium grind is used in most common home coffee brewing machines.
Coffee may be brewed by several methods: boiled,steeped, or pressured. Brewing coffee by boiling was the earliest method, and Turkish coffee is an example of this method. It is prepared by powdering the beans with a mortar and pestle, then adding the powder to water and bringing it to a boil in a pot called a cezve. This produces a strong coffee with a layer of foam on the surface.
In the Far East, coffee is often brewed with tea. In China this is known as "yun yeung." These are the characters representing the female and male Mandarin duck. This is in reference to the fabled duck that finds a partner and mates for life. The idea being that "coffee-tea" makes a lovey-dovey pair, in which the flavor of each beverage blends so well with the other, the two become inseparable. The addition of tea mellows out the coffee and, consequently, no dairy products (which are not as popular in the Far East because of a greater incidence of lactose intolerance) need to be added. This coffee may be drunk with or without sugar.
The espresso method forces hot, but not boiling, pressurized water through ground coffee. This results in a stronger flavor and more chemical changes, such as a higher caffeine content. It also results in more particles in the liquid than in coffee made by an automatic coffee machine, and the resulting beverage has a thicker consistency. It has a reddish-brown foam called crema that floats on the surface. The drink "Americano" is popularly thought to have been named after American soldiers in WW II who found the European way of drinking espresso too strong. Baristas would cut the espresso with hot water for them
Presentation is an integral part of coffeehouse service. Once brewed, coffee may be presented in a variety of ways. Drip brewed, percolated, or French-pressed/cafetière coffee may be served with no additives (colloquially known as black) or with either sugar, milk or cream, or both. When served cold, it is called iced coffee.
Espresso-based coffee has a wide variety of possible presentations. In its most basic form, it is served alone (as a "shot") or in the style café américano-several shots of espresso with hot water. The Americano should be served with the espresso shots on top of the hot water to preserve the crema. Milk can be added in various forms to espresso: steamed milk makes a caffè latte, equal parts espresso and milk froth make a cappuccino, and a dollop of hot, foamed milk on top creates a caffè macchiato.
A number of products are sold for the convenience of consumers who do not want to prepare their own coffee. Instant coffee is dried into soluble powder or freeze dried into granules that can be quickly dissolved in hot water. Canned coffee has been popular in Asian countries for many years, particularly in Japan and South Korea. Vending machines typically sell varieties of flavored canned coffee, much like brewed or percolated coffee, available both hot and cold. Japanese convenience stores and groceries also have a wide availability of bottled coffee drinks, which are typically lightly sweetened and pre-blended with milk. Bottled coffee drinks are also consumed in the United States. In the states, Starbucks Coffee is now a house hold name. Liquid coffee concentrates are sometimes used in large institutional situations where coffee needs to be produced for thousands of people at the same time. It is described as having a flavor about as good as low-grade robusta coffee and costs about 10 cents a cup to produce. The machines used can process up to 500 cups an hour, or 1,000 if the water is preheated
There you are folks. Thanks to Wikipedia, you now know what it takes to give you that much-cherished, refreshing cuppa. As the number of coffee shops increase in Nigeria, I shall visit them some time in the months ahead and recommend the most interesting places to you.
As I sign off, I hereby say a heartfelt Happy 60th birthday to Deaconess Mrs. Ada Ejeh, to whom I raise my cup of expresso today. Bless you dear aunt.
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