According to statistics, the volume of international coffee trade ranks second after petroleum products: countries selling coffee earn $2,000,000 a year. In this article, we will tell the history of coffee from ancient times to the present day.
And it all began like this. According to legend, in the year 850, an Ethiopian shepherd named Kaldim was driving goats through a mountain pass. The animals, having found and chewed the leaves of wild coffee trees, actively ran and jumped, which interested the shepherd. In a conversation about this, the abbot of a monastery learned of it and began experimenting on himself with the fruits and leaves of coffee. After obtaining a powerful invigorating result, he suggested that the monks drink a decoction of coffee daily.
A second version states that Abd al-Qadir, a Yemeni sheikh, while researching medicinal plants, particularly singled out coffee, or more precisely, "coffee foam bliss" as a source of knowledge of truth. This was written in his treatise of 1587. Since then, the drink was consumed in the sheikh's homeland for indigestion and to treat headaches.
The Complex History of Coffee in Europe
From the Middle East, coffee beans made their way to the West. Yemen began actively trading with Europeans after the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire. Educated Europeans learned about the coffee tree in 1591 from the notes of the Italian physician P. Alpini after his Egyptian expedition. In 1626, a unique drinking establishment appeared in Rome – a coffee house opened by the representative of the Pope in Iran, who admired the Iranian coffee tradition and sincerely loved this drink.
Coffee craftsmanship developed rapidly throughout 17th-century Europe, but Rome, Venice, and Marseille are considered the founders of the new service. Doctors of the time urged citizens to be cautious with the novelty, but enthusiastic residents of large cities paid no attention. The legendary Venetian "Caffè Florian" on St. Mark's Square welcomed its first visitors in 1720, and its doors remain warmly open to this day.
The attitude of authorities toward coffee in Europe was mixed. Under Pope Clement VIII (1600), his advisors nearly declared the drink "unclean" and "devilish," but the head of the church tasted and appreciated coffee, then unexpectedly blessed the drink. In England in 1675, King Charles II tried to ban coffee houses out of fear of gatherings of the discontented, but was forced to annul the Proclamation after a strong wave of public indignation.
The History of Coffee in Russia
In the first half of the 18th century, Emperor Peter I was first offered Dutch coffee. Having appreciated the drink, the emperor ordered it to be the main beverage at assemblies. During that period, Russian Old Believers saw the drinking of coffee as a "dangerous satanic innovation" from the West.
The history of coffee in Russia became most widespread in the 18th–19th centuries. Empress Anna Ioannovna in 1740 opened the first Russian coffee house under her patronage. The bohemian "Café Pechkina," which received visitors in the 19th century, became one of the cult gathering places for the "thinking" public.
And currently, the Russian Federation is among the top ten coffee-consuming countries. According to statistics, 86% of coffee imports are instant coffee.