What is the origin of the coffee?
Where does this plant that today produces the most popular drink in the world come from? Who were the first to decide to consume it?
How did it spread to various regions of the planet?
How does the fruit of a bush become the most popular drink in the history of mankind?
Brief history of coffee
The coffee plant was already consumed and known much earlier, but the first true and scientific description of it was not found until 1592, a century after the colonization of America.
It was the work of Prospero Alpini, a Venetian physician and botanist, who in addition to describing the plant did the same with its therapeutic uses.
Alpini had previously been commissioned to bring the coffee plant to Europe for the first time, in particular to Venice.
Out of curiosity, in 1713 Antoine de Jussieu classified this plant as a variety of jasmine (he did not call it Jasminun Arabicanum for nothing), and it was only in 1737 that Linnaeus finally classified it in a unique genus proper to coffee: Coffea. At the time, only one type of coffee was known: Arabica, although today we know that there are many more (over a hundred).
Origin of coffee: where does coffee come from?
Coffee comes from the beans of a plant called the coffee tree.
The coffee plant is a perennial tropical plant with a highly variable morphology.
The coffee beans are roasted and then ground to give rise to the coffee with which the infusion we all know and consume today is traditionally prepared (with different methods).
Furthermore, more recently, green (unroasted) coffee beans have been consumed to take advantage of the innumerable antioxidant properties of the fruit.
To get an idea of the breadth and variety of coffee plants, and of the different qualities that coffee has according to its origin, information is enough: it is estimated that there are about 6,000 different types of coffee plants in the world, which produce more than 100 species of coffee (although at the time of human consumption only two are handled: Arabica and Robusta). Most are small trees or shrubs, but you can find specimens up to 10 meters tall.
Where does the coffee come from?
The origin of coffee in the world remains a mystery to everyone, even if the most accepted theories suggest that the ancestors of the current inhabitants of Ethiopia (or in any case in the Horn of Africa area) were the first humans to recognize the properties of coffee, as well as in the cultivation of the beans of the coffee plant.
From the Abyssinian regions it would then spread eastwards, and began to be cultivated and consumed with great success in Arabia and India.
All this thanks to the trade and pilgrimage routes of Muslims (to Mecca), which crossed the Asian continent from one end to the other.
Similarly, the reverse journey was made by Venetian merchants, responsible for introducing coffee to Europe.
Unfortunately, there is no proof or evidence that unequivocally proves these facts.
Another different question is where the coffee is grown.
Today the coffee plant has spread all over the world and many coffee varieties are grown in the most diverse corners of the planet: from Ethiopia to South and Central America, passing through many regions of Asia.
The great “culprits” of coffee globalization were the Dutch, who imported the coffee plant into all their colonies and managed to acclimate it so that it could survive in unequal conditions.
Who discovered coffee?
As we have already said, there are many doubts about who was the first or the first to discover the qualities of coffee as a drink.
However, habitual consumption of the product seems clearer to have started in Ethiopia, and in particular with grains of the Arabica species.
At the beginning Arabica coffee was consumed in infusion with the leaves, while the fruits were simply chewed.
There is also a legend that speaks of Kaldi, a shepherd from Yemen (there are also versions that say that the shepherd was Ethiopian) who one day realized that his goats were running and behaving with an energy and euphoria out of the ordinary. common, and that these behaviors occurred soon after eating beans and coffee bush leaves.
Later, the shepherd took some branches and fruits of these bushes to a nearby convent and told the monks what had happened.
The superior of the convent accidentally threw the fruits of the coffee plant on the fire, and in this way it is said that the man became acquainted with the aroma of roasted coffee for the first time.
Can we attribute the discovery of coffee to Kaldi? Sure, the legend is vague, but everything seems to indicate that it’s the more likely theory.