Coffee: History, Information, and [Some] of the Health Benefits it Creates

When I was a young girl, my family lived with my grandma and grandpa (on my mom's side). One of the things that I remember about living with my grandparents was that every morning when I was getting ready for school, I would smell the aroma of the freshly-brewed batch of coffee that my grandparents would drink every morning. At that time, I didn't drink coffee, and I didn't start drinking coffee until February 2013 when I was going to beauty school. Currently, I like to have my coffee with creamer (chocolate flavored being my favorite flavor) and 3 packets of sugar.

This is what a coffee plant looks like. A coffee bean has one seed but a coffee cherry has two seeds in each berry.

Some information about coffee is that one coffee plant can produce between 1 1/2 and 2 pounds of coffee a year and would take 1.6 billion trees to supply the USA alone on a year's worth of coffee. The sacks that coffee is sent and exported in is made with hemp plant and to fill a 150 pound sack with coffee beans, it would take over 600,000 coffee beans. A shot of espresso uses 45 coffee beans. The word coffee comes from a latin word coffea, which is a member of the rubiacecae family, having over 500 genera and over 6000 varieties of this plant. Coffee plants take about 3 to 4 years to mature and can bear fruit for about 20-30 years. Coffee is actually a fruit which is mostly grown 1000 miles from the equator on both Northern and Southern hemispheres. Just as rich coffee is with information about the plant variety, coffee also has a rich history with amazing health benefits.

There are a few theories that deal with the origin of coffee. One of the origins is that there was a goat shepherd in Ethiopia named Kaldi. Kaldi noticed his goats would eat a specific berry that would make them energetic. Kaldi then brought this berry to an abbot at a local monastery, who then brewed a beverage with the berry. The abbot noticed that the beverage would help him with his late hours of study. Since the abbot noticed this, he talked to other monks and eventually word spread about this wonderful beverage.

The first place that coffee was cultivated and traded was on the Arabian Peninsula. By the 16th century the cultivation and trade of coffee spread to Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. There was also a growth in the amount of coffee houses, otherwise known as Qahveh Khaneh or Schools for the Wise. Citizens would go to the coffee houses to socialize, listen to music and watch performers, playing chess, as well as keeping up with the news.

During the 17th century, coffee was introduced to Europeans. The first reactions towards this beverage wasn't as positive as it was in the Middle East. People met coffee with a skepticism and dubbed the drink as the bitter invention of Satan. In 1615 Venice, people were so concerned with the beverage that the Pope had to intervene. Pope Clement VIII tasted the beverage and was so satisfied with it that he approved the beverage. Although coffee was looked at with disdain, people would open coffee houses. In England, coffee houses were also called Penny Universities and by the mid-1600s, there were more than 300 Penny Universities in London alone, with other coffee houses in England, Austria, Germany, France, and Holland. The most common thing to drink in the morning at 17th Century Europe was wine or beer, but eventually, coffee would replace the two for morning drinks. Those who would drink wine or beer and then switched to coffee noticed that they were more alert and that the quality of their work also improved. Coffee was brought over to New Amsterdam (now known as New York) during the mid-1600s. Until 1773, when the Tea Tax occured, tea was the most common thing to drink in the morning. When the Tea Tax happened, however, colonists would revolt by drinking coffee instead.

Until the late 17th century, the only people who grew coffee plants were people in the Middle East. The first people to successfully grow a coffee plant were the Dutch when they planted a coffee tree in Batavia which was located on an island named Java (now named Indonesia). After their success with growing a plant in Batavia, the Dutch then started growing plants on the islands of Sumatra and Celebes.

During the early 18th Century, King Louis XIV of France was presented with a coffee plant by the Mayor of Amsterdam. Naval Officer Gabriel de Clieu was able to obtain a seedling from King Louis XIV's coffee plant in 1723, in which he brought with him to Martinique in 1723. His voyage was successful, but also difficult. During his voyage he was met with tough weather, an almost sabotage, and a few pirate attacks. Once he was able to plant the seed, it became a very successful plant. Within 50 years the coffee plant de Clieu planted would parent over 18 million coffee trees and would be the parent tree of different coffee plants in the Caribbean, South America, and Central America.

Francisco de Mello Palheta of Brazil

Francisco de Mello Palheta of Brazil was sent by the Emporer to French Guiana to try to obtain a seed. He wasn't very successful at convincing the French to share a seedling with him. However, when de Mello Palheta left, the Governor's wife gave him a bouquet of flowers. When de Mello Palheta looked at the flower bouquet, he noticed that he was given enough seeds to create a billion-dollar industry. Thanks to all of the missionaries, traders, colonists, and travelers planting coffee plants worldwide, coffee became one of the main exported crops. Currently, the coffee plant is 2nd in exports and beverages bought.

Throughout the past, a lot of people believed that coffee was a drink that was bad for you and would cause sicknesses. Contrary to that belief, drinking coffee moderately (3-6 cups) actually provides the best health. This doesn't mean mixing milk and sugar into your coffee with all of the fancy toppings but this is when a person drinks coffee without the add-ins and drinks it plain. A regular brewed coffee has less than/equal to 5 calories and no fat or carbs. To reduce your chances for cardiovascular problems, it's important to drink 3-5 cups of coffee a day. Having 2-6 cups of coffee can reduce the risk of stroke and having 4 cups a day can reduce the risk of heart failure. If a person were to increase their coffee intake to two servings per day can lower the risk of liver cancer by about 40%. However, for those who have liver cancer, it can reduce the risk of cirrhosis and for those who already have cirrhosis it lowers the risk of death and/or the development of liver cancer. Finally, by drinking coffee every day you can lower your risk of getting Type 2 Diabetes, with the lowest risks being 6 or 7 cups a day drank daily.


Citation:

Carroll, A. (2015, May 11). More Consensus on Coffee’s Benefits Than You Might Think. Retrieved October 21, 2015.

FUN FACTS: AMAZING COFFEE INFORMATION... (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2015.

History of Coffee. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2015.