A11

Kevin Steen

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Coffee is a product as rich in history as it is in taste. Like tea, sugar, and potatoes, coffee was discovered by traders and exploited by kings to increase the wealth and influence of Europe.

Little did they know the mighty bean would become a valuable commodity second only to oil. Currently, the coffee industry employs 25 million people worldwide, including yours truly.

That's impressive, considering coffee started as just a lowly, wild bush used by the locals in the Kaffa region of Ethiopia. How far back they were making a drink from the boiled fruit is impossible to tell.

We do know that it was first popularized in Yemen at least by the 1400's. The port of Mocha was a busy place. Some speculate that Sudanese slaves may have brought the coffee with them as they were taken to Arabia via Ethiopia.

There are other legends, including these three:

An Arabian goat herder discovered coffee while watching his goats get lively after eating coffee cherries off the bushes. The goat herder brought the cherries to the local monks, who boiled them and found that the drink enabled them to pray at night.

An Arabian fellow named Sheikh Omar discovered them while temporarily exiled in Ethiopia.

The Mufti of Aden (in South Yemen) decided to try the drink after seeing his men partaking and brought it back with him.

Next came the Arabian coffee-houses, first established in Mecca and spreading to Aden, Medina, Cairo, Damascus and Constantinople. They were centers of social life, perfect for business and political debate, just as the London coffee houses would become a century later.

Venetian traders brought coffee to Europe, and the colonialism of the 17th century saw the Dutch, Italian, German and French all compete for supremacy by racing to develop plantations in their various colonies.

The Dutch were the first to succeed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and also established industries in Indonesia and South America. Today, these locations are among the top four leading producers in the world. It was not until the 1800s, ironically, that the British brought coffee plants back to Ethiopia. The country of coffee's origin is now Africa's biggest producer.

From Africa to Arabia to Europe to North America, coffee has journeyed far to make it to my shop and into your cup. In doing so, it makes the world a much smaller place.

* Kevin Steen is a true coffee lover and proprietor of Damascus Coffee House in Riverview. Do you have a coffee question for Kevin? Visit him at the shop, or call him at 855-4646.