Some Basic Coffee Facts and History

As you hold the warm cup in your hands, breathing in and drawing the softly pungent aroma upwards, then sipping and savoring the brew, do you wonder how this wonderful beverage came to be? Who first thought of putting ground coffee into hot water, and why? How does coffee grow, and how does it end up in the cup? Actually, coffee has a long and fascinating history. First, let’s look at the coffee plant and process.

Coffee is an evergreen bush or tree, that yields red (sometimes yellow) fruit, known as a cherry. What we call coffee beans are actually the twin seeds within this fruit. The skin and pulp of the cherry are removed by various processes, some purely natural, some purely mechanical, some a combination. The removal and drying process greatly influences the flavor of the coffee, so that the same varietal of coffee can taste vastly different if some beans are naturally processed and others are mechanically processed. It's not so much that one method is better than another, it’s just that different methods result in different tasting cups of coffee.

Once the beans are removed from the cherries, they are known as green beans. The green beans are shipped into the U.S., where they undergo a roasting process. The roasting might take place in a mega-sized batch roaster operated by one of the commercial brand name companies, or a coffee aficionado may spread the beans onto a cookie sheet and roast them in the oven at home. The darkness of the roast also affects the flavor dramatically, and so roasting is, in and of itself, an art.

Lastly, of course, the roasted beans are ground and put into contact with hot water, to become the drink in our cup. The freshness of the roasted beans, the length of time that has passed between grinding and brewing, the quality of the water, the brewing method, and the length of time between brewing and drinking all affect the taste of the coffee that finally hits our taste buds.

So who first put water to bean, who first enjoyed the crisp, semi-sweet taste of coffee? Well, the most-often told story goes like this: Centuries ago, in Ethiopia, lived a goatherd named Kaldi. One night, his goats failed to come home, and in the morning, Kaldi found his goats dancing near a berry-laden bush. Kaldi realized that his goats had eaten the fruit of the shrub, so he tried the cherries, and soon, Kaldi was dancing too. Along came a learned man from a local monastery, who saw the goats and their goatherd dancing. The man gathered many cherries, took them home, and subjected them to many types of examination. Eventually, he discovered that removing the seeds from the fruit and boiling them in water resulted in a delicious brew that brought renewed energy to he and his fellow students.

From Ethiopia, coffee spread to Yemen, then Egypt and other nearby areas of Africa. As the French, Dutch and Portuguese established trading in Africa, they became interested in coffee. Louis XIV of France was an ardent coffee drinker, and became determined to grow his own coffee. The Dutch owed him a favor, and they finally managed to obtain a coffee tree. From the Arabian port of Mocha, across the seas to Java, back across the seas to Holland, then overland to Paris, the tree was delivered to King Louis in 1715. The first greenhouse in Europe was built for the tree. There, it flowered, bore fruit, and became one of the most famous trees in history.

About 1720, a Frenchman named De Clieu tried to convince the authorities to give him some trees to take to the Caribbean islands. They refused, he finally stole some trees, and made a very difficult voyage to Martinique. Along the way, the ship eluded pirates, nearly sank in a storm, and then, water became scarce. All but one of the seedlings died, and De Clieu even shared half of his daily water ration with the plant. His efforts and sacrifice worked, and fifty years after he brought the delicate seedling to Martinique, there were 18,680 coffee plants on the island. From there, coffee cultivation was established in Haiti, Mexico, and most of the Caribbean islands.

Other descendants of the first tree brought to Louis XIV were sent to the Indian Ocean island of Reunion (then known as Isle of Bourbon). Trees from here eventually were sent to Brazil and Mexico. In 1893, seeds from the Brazilian trees were introduced in Kenya and Tanzania, only a few hundred miles south of their original home in Ethiopia, thereby completing circumnavigation of the globe.

Practically from the beginning, coffee has brought people together in social situations. Coffeehouses were first established in the sixteenth century in Mecca, and were called qahveh khaneh. The first European coffeehouse, Caffe Florian, was established in 1720, in Venice. Coffeehouses became intellectual and cultural centers. Artists, philosophers, grassroots politicians, rebels, poets, writers, craftspeople, workers of all kinds, came together in coffeehouses. This was the age of the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, and political revolution. In Paris’s Café Foy, Camille Desmoulins supposedly made the speech that started the crowd on its way to storm the Bastille. According to Daniel Webster, Boston’s Green Dragon was "the headquarters of the Revolution."

From the 17th century forward, people have congregated, conjectured, connected and conversed in coffeehouses.  Blue Horse Coffee brings you a warm, inviting place in which to discover new experiences and new friends, savor rich aromas and pleasing flavors, and relax and renew your mind, body and spirit.

Fair-Trade Coffee

Farm-Aid is a well-known fundraising program in the United States. Each year, a marathon concert is put on in order to raise money for family farmers struggling to compete with the huge conglomerates. Over the years, unfortunately, many families have had to sell their farms, leaving behind generations of tradition. The big growers produce so much corn or hogs, for example, and can reduce expenses due to large economies of scale, that the market price of the crop can actually be lower than it costs the family farmer to produce it.

United States farmers aren’t the only ones facing such massive problems. For decades, coffee has been grown on family farms throughout Central and South America, Africa, and other parts of the world. Some of these farms are only a few acres, some are a few hundred. Whatever the size of the farm, many families now have to try to compete with some of the largest corporations/growers in the world. As the huge growers produce more coffee, the market price of coffee beans plummets. As in the U.S., the market price often falls below what it costs the family farmer to produce the coffee. Especially in third world countries (where most coffee is grown), the traditional farmer cannot compete, cannot hang on, and cannot pass on his farm to his children.

To address this problem, the concept of paying a fair price to the family farmer, regardless of the market price, was put into practice. TransFair USA is an association that controls "fair trade certification." A "Fair Trade Certified" label guarantees that farmers and their workers receive a fair price for their product; it’s that simple. Purchasers of fair trade certified coffee buy the product from farmer cooperatives that meet the criteria of the international requirements for this certification. The cooperative must be transparent (no hidden controls) and must be democratically controlled by its members. Farmers must implement integrated crop management and environmental protection plans, and through financial incentives, are encouraged to work toward organic production.

Thanks to fair-trade, farmers’ children can go to school, obtain health care, and enjoy other day-to-day staples of living. Fair-trade certification also enables family farmers to continue to practice the time-honored artisanal growing methods, handed down from generation to generation. These methods produce better quality, richer bodied and fuller tasting coffees.

Fair trade certified coffee is important, and consumer demand for it is growing. As coffee drinkers understand these issues and enjoy the flavors, more coffee-growing regions of the world seek certification. Blue Horse Coffee is happy to bring you these fine coffees, and will continue to seek expanded opportunities to do so.