THE HISTORY OF COFFEE

There is always a story associated with all important human endeavours, and the origins of coffee are not an exception. According to a legend, well-known to both Muslims and Christians, the Prophet unfortunately once fell ill and the Angel Gabriel restored him to health and strength by proffering him a drink as dark as the Great Black Stone in Mecca.

There are many other legends that attest the importance afforded coffee throughout human history. Coffee is said to have been first drunk in the high plains in Abyssinia. There grew wild Arabica, its native variety. Travelling Muslims on their way to Mecca probably took coffee with them to Arabia and India from Ethiopia, since at that time trade and pilgrimage shared the same main routes. However the expansion of coffee is usually attributed to the Dutch - they cultivated coffee in extensive plantations in their Ceylon and Indonesia colonies.

They imported the coffee tree and succeeded in growing it in the botanical gardens in Amsterdam, Paris and London, from where it was taken to the Dutch Guyana, Brazil, Central America and many other countries.

Thanks to this, the coffee infusion went from being an almost unknown infusion to becoming a universal drink that Bach, Balzac, Beethoven, Goldoni, Napoleon, Rossini, Voltaire and many other historical characters consumed in great amounts and praised abundantly.