Coffee – It’s THE Drink of Choice almost everywhere in the world!

Are you aware that coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world?

How did coffee get this popular?

What country was the first to figure out coffee was tasty and safe for human consumption?

When was the first drink of coffee taken? Where did the first coffee shop open?

There are so many questions about coffee – the art of growing the best coffee – the art of roasting coffee – the art of brewing coffee and the joy of consuming it! It’s actually been such a long time since coffee first was consumed that no one really knows all the facts. But, there is one thing is for certain, coffee is the most consumed and likely the favorite beverage of humans on earth.

The Origins of Coffee

It looks as if the first trace came out of Abyssinia and was also sporadically in the vicinity of the Red Sea around seven hundred AD. Along with these people, other Africans of the same period also have a history of using the coffee berry pulp for more than one occasion like rituals and even for health.

Coffee began to get more attention when the Arabs began cultivating it in their peninsulas around eleven hundred AD. It is speculated that trade ships brought the coffee their way. The Arabs started making a drink that became quite popular called gahwa— meaning to prevent sleep. Roasting and boiling the bean was how they made this drink. It became so popular among the Arabs that they made it their signature Arabian wine and it was used a lot during rituals.

After the coffee bean was found to be a great wine and a medicine, someone discovered in Arabia that you could also make a different dark, delicious drink out of the beans, this happened somewhere around twelve hundred AD. After that it didn’t take long and everyone in Arabia was drinking coffee. Everywhere these people traveled the coffee went with them. It made its way around to India, North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and was then cultivated to a great extent in Yemen around fourteen hundred AD.

Other countries would have gladly welcomed these beans if only the Arabs had let them. The Arabs killed the seed-germ making sure no one else could grow the coffee if taken elsewhere. Heavily guarding their plants, Yemen is where the main source of coffee stayed for several hundred years. Even with their efforts, the beans were eventually smuggled out by pilgrims and travelers.

Coffee Shops Appear

Around 1475 the first coffee shop opens in Constantinople called Kiv Han two years after coffee was introduced to Turkey, in 1554 two coffee houses open there. People came pouring in to socialize, listen to music, play games and of course drink coffee. Some often called these places in Turkey the “school of the wise”, because you could learn so much by just visiting the coffee house and listening to conversations.
In the sixteen hundreds coffee enters Europe through the port of Venice. The Turkish warriors also brought the drink to Balkans, Spain, and North Africa. Not too much later the first coffee house opens in Italy.

There were plenty of people also trying to ban coffee. Such as Khair Beg a governor of Mecca who was executed and Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire who successfully closed down many coffee houses in Turkey. Thankfully not everyone thought this way.

Coffee Tips Arrive

In the early sixteen hundreds coffee is presented to the New World by man named John Smith. Later in that century, the first coffee house opens in England. Coffee houses or “penny universities” charged a penny for admission and for a cup of coffee. The word “TIPS” (for service) has it’s origin from an English coffee house.

Early in the 17th century, Edward Lloyd’s coffee house opens in England. The Dutch became the first to commercially transport coffee. The first Parisian café opens in 1713 and King Louis XIV is presented with a lovely coffee tree. Sugar is first used as an addition to coffee in his court.

The America’s Have Coffee

Coffee plants were introduced in the Americas for development. By close to the end of the seventeen hundreds, 1,920 million plants are grown on the island.

Evidently the eighteen hundreds were spent trying to find better methods to make coffee.

The Coffee “Brew” in the 20th Century

New methods to help brewing coffee start popping up everywhere. The first commercial espresso machine is developed in Italy. Melitta Bentz makes a filter using blotting paper. Dr. Ernest Lily manufactures the first automatic espresso machine. The Nestle Company invents Nescafe instant coffee. Achilles Gaggia perfects the espresso machine.
Hills Bros. begins packing roasted coffee in vacuum tins eventually ending local roasting shops and coffee mills. A Japanese-American chemist named Satori Kato from Chicago invents the first soluble “instant” coffee.

German coffee importer Ludwig Roselius turns some ruined coffee beans over to researchers, who perfected the process of removing caffeine from the beans without destroying the flavor. He sells it under the name Sanka. Sanka is introduced in the United States in 1923.

George Constant Washington an English chemist living in Guatemala, is interested in a powdery condensation forming on the spout of his silver coffee flask. After checking into it, he creates the first mass-produced instant coffee which is his brand name called Red E Coffee.

Prohibition goes into effect in United States. Coffee sales suddenly increase.
Brazil asked Nestle to help find a solution to their coffee surpluses so the Nestle Company comes up with freeze-dried coffee. Nestle also made Nescafe and introduced it to Switzerland.

Other Interesting Coffee Tidbits

Today the US imports 70 percent of the world’s coffee crop.
During W.W.II, American soldiers were issued instant Maxwell House coffee in their ration kits.

In Italy, Achilles Gaggia perfects his espresso machine. The name Cappuccino comes from the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the Capuchin order.

One week before Woodstock, the Manson family murders coffee heiress Abigail Folger as she visits with her friend Sharon Tate in the home of filmmaker Roman Polanski.

Starbuck’s Hits the Coffee World

Starbucks opens its first store in Seattle’s Pike Place public market in 1971. This creates madness over fresh-roasted whole bean coffee.
Coffee finally becomes the world’s most popular beverage. More than 450 billion cups are sold each year by 1995.

The Current Coffee Trends

Now in the 21st century we have many different styles, grinds, and flavors of coffee. We have really come a long way even with our coffee making machines. There’s no sign of coffee consumption decreasing. Researchers are even finding many health benefits to drinking coffee. Drink and enjoy!

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If there is one essential item for your main living space then it is good quality coffee table furniture. The thing about a these tables is that it is the centerpiece of so much that goes on in your household. Many a debate will be had over the table with the family. You will use it to rest your feet on and a enjoy a glass of wine (or cup of coffee) after a long hard day. You might keep some inspirational books on it that you never seem to get the time to read or you might use it to store your shoes under. Whatever you use your table for you can be sure that you want it to be a focal point of your room and you want it to compliment your room and even stand out as an artistic piece of furniture.

This kind of table is a safe piece of furniture to go a little crazy with and opt for a more outrageous designs. You can get all kinds of shapes and sizes and the fact that drinks tables are made out of all different types of materials only lends to the number of different designs and styles you can get. You could even get a coffee table that has a more bold design that stands out in your room if you so wish. This means that if all your room is black furniture and dark decoration you might want to get a red coffee table to accent this a stand out as a bit of artistic flair in you room.

Getting the right furniture can really make or break the look of your home, so make sure you choose wisely.

If you’d like to know more about coffee table furniture, please visit this great coffee table furniture site.

If you want to taste a full creamy cup of coffee then you should have a proper coffee grinder to make it possible. A coffee grinder is good item to produce creamy, clean and fresh coffee. The grinder is very advantageous for many reasons. This helps in the creation of perfect aroma, taste and freshness within a cup of coffee which is not possible otherwise. Moreover several grinders are portable items and can be moved easily from one place to another. So, you can take these grinders wherever you want.

Coffee grinders also help a lot in saving money and time. You can easily grind coffee beans at your home. There is no need to go to store and buy grounded beans. However, it is also a fact that people are more dependent on store bought items. They simply go and purchase such items without taking into consideration that how much money they are wasting. Remember, when you buy pre grounded beans from store, you have to pay some extra amount. However, if you go through the process at home, no extra expense will be wasted. And this is only possible with coffee grinders. It is also true that once you have to spend a pretty big amount but remember it will serve you for a long time.

Here I also want to mention an important thing about these grinders. Remember, grinders are a great way to produce fresh coffee. When you buy an item from store, you would be not sure about its freshness. Sometimes, grounded coffee beans in stores are very old without any freshness and flavor. They may be stored in storage rooms for several days. So, it is better to grind coffee beans at home than purchasing an old item from stores. Coffee grinders can make all this fun for you. So, taste a lovely cup of coffee with the help of these grinders.

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