Coffee

Coffee is darkly colored, bitter, slightly acidic and has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. Clinical research indicates that moderate coffee consumption is benign or mildly beneficial as a stimulant in healthy adults. The word coffee entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch koffie, borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish kahve, borrowed in turn from the Arabic qahwah. The two most commonly grown coffee bean types are C. arabica and C. robusta.

About Coffee in brief

Summary Coffee Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of berries from certain Coffea species. Coffee is darkly colored, bitter, slightly acidic and has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. Clinical research indicates that moderate coffee consumption is benign or mildly beneficial as a stimulant in healthy adults. The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appears in modern-day Yemen in southern Arabia in the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed. Coffee plants are now cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa. The word coffee entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch koffie, borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish kahve, borrowed in turn from the Arabic qahwah. The two most commonly grown coffee bean types are C. arabica and C. robusta. As of 2018, Brazil was the leading grower of coffee beans,. producing 35% of the world total. Coffee is a major export commodity as the leading legal agricultural export for numerous countries. It is one of the most valuable commodities exported by developing countries. The way developed countries trade coffee with developing nations has been criticised, as well as the impact on the environment with regards to the clearing of land for coffee-growing and water use.

Consequently, the markets for fair trade and organic coffee are expanding. The term ‘coffee pot’ dates from 1705. The expression ‘coffee break’ was first attested in 1952. Coffee was used to refer to a type of wine whose etymology is given by Arab lexicographers as deriving from the verb ‘to lack hunger’, in reference to the drink’s reputation as an appetite suppressant. The story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherd who discovered coffee when he noticed how excited his goats became after eating the beans from a coffee plant, did not appear in writing until 1671 and is probably apocryphal. Another legend attributes the discovery of coffee to a Sheikh Omar. According to an old chronicle, Omar, who was known for his ability to cure the sick through prayer, was once exiled from Mocha in Yemen to a desert cave near Ousab east of Zabid. Upon drinking the liquid Omar revitalized and sustained for days. As stories of this ‘miracle drug’ reached Mocha, Omar was asked to return and was made a saint. Accounts differ on the origin of the coffee tree in Ethiopia, prior to its appearance in Yemen, but coffee was used by Sufi circles to stay awake for their religious rituals. It was here in Arabia that coffee was first roasted, and brewed, in a similar way to how it is now prepared for drinking. The coffee beans were procured from the Ethiopian Highlands via coastal Somali intermediaries, and began cultivation.