A Coffee Tale

And now a little something not related with music, but as magical as music: Coffee, a drink that is on the top of the list of the best-liked and most consumed drinks in the world.

Food historians all agree that the coffee plant originally came from Ethiopia. However, growing of the coffee plant, which still grows on its own in the nature today in Ethiopia, originated in Yemen.

Yemen, at the time, hosted one of the most frequented ports of the world; Mocha. This helped coffee to spread all around the world almost in no time.

It is a common belief that coffee growing dates back to 575 AD in Yemen, yet hardly any coffee found its way out till the beginning of the 15th century. An Arabic monopoly over coffee reigned until then, similar to that of the Chinese over tea. It was the Sudanese slaves carrying along coffee plants that introduced Arabs to coffee. Some believe that the Arabs brought coffee to Sri Lanka themselves in the 1500s. However a more popular story is about an Indian called Father Budan, who brought home coffee seeds from Mecca.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the German, French and especially the Dutch tradesmen introduced coffee to their colonies and this led to an abrupt increase in coffee plantations. Thanks to the coffee plants the Dutch bought in 1616 from the port of Mocha, an intensive coffee growing took start in Sri Lanka.One of the renowned characters of coffee history is Nicolaas Witsen. In 1696, coffee planting commenced in Java upon his orders, which would in the future lead to the growing of the highest quality coffee in the world. In 1706, coffee plants grown in Java were transported to the Netherlands and were studied in botanical gardens and special greenhouses. In those years, the Dutch also had already started planting coffee in Indonesia and they organized the first export of coffee from this group of islands. Today, Indonesia is still among the highest quality coffee exporters.

A coffee tree brought from the Netherlands to France in 1714 is accepted as the ancestor of the coffee plants grown by the French in their colonies. In those years, the Dutch carried along the coffee plant to South America. In 1730, the British grew the first coffee plant in Jamaica. These coffee trees are probably the first ones of “Jamaican Blue Mountain” coffee, acknowledged to be the highest quality coffee in the whole world.

The general belief is that coffee drinking first started in the beginning of 1400s in the Arab peninsula, passed on to Syria and in 1550s, reached Istanbul. Italian Ambassador of the time serving in Istanbul helped it travel as far as Venice. It was the Venetians again who commenced importing coffee in Europe. In 1644, coffee was tasted for the first time in France thanks to Suleiman Aga, sent as an ambassador to the King, Louis XIV. Coffee drinking became quite common due to the invention of the coffee mill in 1687.

95 % of the coffee production in the world today is comprised of two kinds of coffee; “Arabica” and “Robusta”. “Arabica” coffee is usually oval in shape and flattish, light and quite aromatic. The most delicious coffee is generally produced from “Arabica” seeds. “Robusta” seeds are relatively smaller in size, but much intense caffeine-wise. The taste is more bitter compared to “Arabica”.

Very generally speaking, there are two basic methods to prepare coffee. The first one is the method to prepare Turkish coffee, called the “Turkish method”, of which we all know. It is prepared with finely grounded coffee seeds boiled in a coffeepot. The second method called “French method” is the filter coffee preparation. The logic here is to pour boiling water over lightly grounded coffee seeds.

In modern times, coffee methods have become varied. On the top of the list are Espresso and Cappuccino, refined gifts of the Italians to the coffee world. The preparation of Espresso is similar to the “French method”, but the high pressured water poured over the coffee results in a creamy bubble on top and provides a silky sip. Cappuccino (named after the Capuchin monks’ cloaks) is prepared with adding milk and milk foam over the Espresso.

Let's finish the post with a coffeecake recipe, which I think everyone will like.

First of all, the ingredients:

150 gr. butter

2/3 cups of sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 egg

1.5 cups flour

2 tablespoons full espresso

2 tablespoons full milk

and for the syrup:

1 cup of espresso

1/3 cup of sugar

1-2 table spoons full of coffee liqueur

Stir the butter and the sugar in a pan till quite softened. Add the vanilla and the egg and mix. Next add the flour, espresso and the milk. Stir till mixture is homogeneous. Cook mixture at 180 C in the oven, either in a buttered cake mold or in small muffin cups for about 20 minutes.

And for the syrup, stir at low heat the espresso, sugar and the liqueur. Turn the heat off, and let mixture cool for 5-6 minutes. Serve cake warm with syrup on top.

Bon Appétit!