Series: Coffeehouse culture international Part I
CHERRY OF THE ORIENT
COFFEE: ITS ORIGIN AND RISE
Be it café crème, espresso, cortado, Kapuziner or galao. Anyone travelling in Europe who wants to find out more about the culture of a host country, what better place to start than a café. Indeed, the roots of these traditional establishments go back much further than you might at first suspect. Find out here about the origins of Coffea arabica and the onward march of the crimson cherry, which has conquered one country after the next the world over.
Beans shrouded in myth: From Kaffa or Mocha...
Many hundreds of years ago, the monks from the Kaffa province in the highlands of present-day Ethiopia would hardly have dared to imagine that the coffee bean would one day become the world's second most important commodity traded - after crude oil, that is. In fact, according to one of the many legends about the discovery of coffee, it was they who by chance (thankfully) discovered the stimulating effects of the cherry-like berries. At least, this is how the Maronite monk Faustus Naironus Banesius depicted it in his drawings of 1671.
Banesius tells of Abyssinian shepherds who seek advice in a nearby monastery regarding the unruly behaviour of their goats. Instead of sleeping, at night the animals jump about excitedly. The monks accompany the unhappy shepherds to their pasture and see the goats eating the berries of a wild tree: the coffee tree. They taste the fruit themselves and, disappointed by the bitter flavor, throw them in the fire. Soon after, the roasted beans emit an aroma which is said to have led the monks to prepare an infusion from them. Good for them, for thanks to the drink's stimulating effect, they can now say their nightly prayers bright eyed. Good for us too, because their discovery can be seen as the probable "hour of birth" of the drink which is so popular around the world today.
We know that the dark brew probably made its way to what was then known as Arabia in the early 11th century. The first written record of a Yemenite healing drink called "Bunchum" dates from this time. However, it was not until one or two centuries later that the "wine of Arabia" became popular among the public thanks to its stimulating effect. According to texts from the 15th century, it was contemporary pilgrims who were the first to spread the word about the new drink, "qahwah". Thanks to this word-of-mouth propaganda, the coffee bean entered the entire Arabian world via the cities of Mecca and Medina, finally reaching Cairo in 1510. The first coffeehouses start springing up, "Kaveh Kanes" as they were known. Yet it was also at this time that people started debating the merits of the luxury drink. A political-religious dispute spawned by these debates even went far beyond this theme: Khair-Beg, the governor of the Egyptian sultan, suspected that it was above all coffee drinkers who derided the reforms he advocated. To put an end to such "jokes", in 1511 he ordered the closure of all the coffeehouses in Mecca. However, to the joy of the coffee-lovers, his superior lifted the rash ban shortly afterwards.
The wine of Arabia: ...via Mecca...
The rise of coffee continued to take its course. In the early 16th century, Sultan Selim I, ruler of the Ottoman Empire, greatly expanded the Empire by conquering many cities and lands, including Cairo, Mecca, Medina, Yemen and Syria.
Thus, the invigorating "wine of Arabia" even found popularity in remote corners. And not least also because the consumption of alcohol was strictly forbidden to any devout Muslims throughout the Arab world.
For the Ottomans, business with the coveted beans developed excellently, until finally they controlled the entire coffee trade in Arabia, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. After all, the drinking of coffee had likewise evolved into an important part of public life; high-standing citizens took to enjoying the fine aroma together in coffeehouses. The first meeting places opened their doors in the Syrian cities of Damascus (1530) and Aleppo (1532), where people came together to take part in scholarly discussions and play games.
1554 saw the foundation of the first coffeehouse on European soil: in Constantinople, present-day Istanbul. In addition, "mokeijas" cropped up at almost every post on the caravan routes. Here, not only could pilgrims and travellers make a stop to revive themselves with a coffee, but the inns also provided overnight shelter. Whether filled with travellers, merchants, court officials or dervishes, throughout the entire Empire the coffeehouse swiftly evolved into a place of jovial, sometimes also intellectual communication. In fact, as early as the beginning of the 17th century, the drink was an integral part of daily life. A bizarre law from this period is probably the best proof of this, decreeing that a Turkish woman may officially demand a divorce if her husband refuses her coffee.
Hot Turkish drink...headed for Europe
In the late 16th century, news of the extraordinary brew spread through Europe like wildfire. Explorers and travellers reported on the strong Turkish drink which was "as black as pitch" and "especially good for the digestion". Shortly thereafter, the first merchants returned from the Orient bearing bags of beans. Even Ottoman envoys helped spread news of the aromatic drink in the West. Thus, coffee made inroads into the European royal houses and from there slowly but surely also conquered the parlours of the wealthier members of society.
Coffee consumption increased explosively, not just in the Ottoman Empire, but also in Europe. And this need had to be satisfied. Initially, no small undertaking, because the Arabian planters and traders had declared the cultivation of the tree a "state secret". At first, the diffusion of coffee and the related culture was in Turkish hands. However, no monopoly lasts forever, and as early as 1616 the Dutch are said to have succeeded in getting around the strict surveillance of the coffee plantations and circumvented the export ban. What began with the smuggling of beans ready to germinate culminated in the cultivation of coffee plantations the world over.
A great many countries have the Ottoman Empire to thank for the existence of the coffeehouse culture, which brought about the spread of the popular beans hundreds of years ago. Even Vienna, still well known today for its outstanding coffeehouses, has the course of Turkish history to thank for the fact that the drink reached Austria. For, shortly after the victory over the besieged Turks in 1683, the first Viennese coffeehouse and a traditional European future was born in the form of the "Haus zur blauen Flasche".
