When people are told of the origin of coffee the most popular story told is the one about Kaldi the Yemeni goat-herder who was around in the 6th century.

While tending his goats he noticed that when they ate the red berries from the bushes young and old goats became playful and excited.

Kaldi took the magical berries to the Abbott at the local monastery and the monks found that when they chewed the berries it helped them to stay awake during their long hours of prayer.

The Abbott placed the berries into boiling water and made a brew, which gave a similar effect as chewing the berries.

News of the drink spread and the demand for the berries grew.

The monks became very guarded about the energy drink and did all they could to stop the cultivation of the bushes outside of their country. The seeds were allowed to be exported only when they had been dried or cooked in boiling water to kill the seed germ,

The legend goes on to tell the story of an Indian man who smuggled the seeds by strapping them to his body and took them to Southern India.

By the 16th century coffee drinking had spread to Aden, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Java.

The first coffeehouse opened in England in Oxford in 1650.
Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse opened in London in 1688 and is now the site of Lloyds of London the world-renowned insurance company. Soon coffeehouses appeared all over London.

In 1690 the Dutch began to transport and cultivate coffee commercially.

The Brazilian coffee industry begins from seedlings smuggled from Paris in 1727.

In 1822 the first prototype of an espresso machine is created in France.

In 1903 Luigi Bezzera invented espresso with his fast coffee machine but sadly sold the patent in 1905, as he became penniless from unsuccessfully marketing his invention.

In 1945 Achilles Gaggia perfects the espresso machine with a piston that creates a high-pressure extraction to produce a creamy layer known as crema.

Today there are many different coffee concepts on high streets all over the world.
Coffee is the second largest commodity outside of oil and it is fast becoming the world’s most popular drink with over 300 billion cups consumed by us all each year and still growing. 

THE COFFEE PLANT

About Coffee.

Coffee is the pit or the stone inside a cherry plant.
There are several layers to the coffee cherry berry:

CHERRY SKIN - The outer red fruit
MUCILAGE - Sweet red pulpy flesh of the red cherry berry
PARCHMENT - A protective membrane around the stone
SILVER SKIN - The final protective coat
BEANS - The two flat sided coffee beans (nut)

Growing the Coffee.  

Coffee comes from a tree known as the “GENUS COFFEA”.

The two main species of coffee are Arabica and Robusta
Arabicas are considered the Rolls Royce of the species grown at highest altitudes and have the lower amount of caffeine.

Robustas are the Minis of the species grown at lower altitudes than the Arabicas. Italian coffee has some Robusta to give a real “kick” to the espresso. The Robusta beans have a higher caffeine content than Arabica.

These trees or bushes are grown in the tropics at altitudes of between 200 - 2000 metres (2000- 6000 feet).

Coffee needs the ideal growing conditions with temperatures of 18-22c (65 - 75f) mineral rich soils, moderate rainfall and frost-free conditions. You could buy a coffee plant in this Country but it would not last very long, as the conditions here are not ideal.

The trees can reach 15ft tall but as most of the picking is done by hand they are pruned to about 6-8ft for easier access.

Plantations look very much like vineyards with all the trees or bushes laid out in rows on the tops of the mountains.

Before the trees have got to the stage were they bear fruit they will have needed to mature for at least five years with the berries taking a further six months to ripen.

Each tree will produce only 1lb of coffee per year. In the right climate and growing conditions, the trees start to produce fruit they will continue to do so for up to 20-25 years.

As the branches ripen at different stages the best way to harvest them is to pick them by hand.
It would take at least 3500 berries to fill a 1kg bag of coffee beans

The branches of the coffee plant ripen at different stages and the branches will be abundant with white flowers, which fill the air with a heavy scent. On the branches are also red, green, yellow and black berries, all again at different stages of maturity.

Processing the Beans.

The beans can be processed either wet or dry
The wet method is best, although expensive and is always used for Arabica coffees.

Water is used to take off the outer cherry flesh to leave behind the beans that have a crisper cleaner taste when roasted

The dry method is used in countries were water is in short supply. It is cheaper than the wet method, however is takes longer to process the beans. The beans are placed out in the sun to dry and are continually raked to allow them to dry evenly but a freak rainfall can ruin a whole crop. This method leaves the beans with a more earthy taste when roasted.

Coffee beans do not posses aroma until roasted they also increase in size by 50% and decrease in body weight.

When coffee is roasted changes happen to the beans’ cellular structure and a development of complex sugars which in turn release all the flavours and the oils in the coffee.

Coffee is roasted in small batches and most coffee companies roast light, medium and dark as well as espresso roast.

When beans are roasted they are put into ovens without direct heat but are roasted at even temperatures around 240c a bit like a tumble drier.

It takes very little time to roast 3-5 minutes for light 5-7 minutes for medium 7-9 minutes for dark and espresso 12- 18 minutes

The Decaffeinating Process

Naturally people assume that decaffeinated coffee will have a slightly different taste to regular coffee as the chemical process used to take out the caffeine used to leave an after taste. Today decaffeinated coffee should taste no different to your regular cup as the beans are decaffeinated prior to roasting using the Swiss Water Method or Super Critical Carbon Dioxide method. The water method creates a natural effervescent, which strips caffeine from the beans and dries into a powder. This powder is shipped to pharmaceutical companies and used in drugs such as headache remedies.