|
Expertise
Coffee’s historic journey
By Rudy Trillanes
January 2009
| |
Rudy Trillanes |
IT only takes moments for anyone to be able to get their daily fill of coffee. In contrast, coffee’s journey from being an unknown plant to being the world’s most popular beverage took more than a millennium full of colorful and compelling stories.
Coffee’s journey began in the African country of Ethiopia. According to legend, around 850 AD, a goat herder named Kaldi noticed that his goats became frisky after chewing on the red berries of a dark-leaved shrub. After trying the berries himself, Kaldi experienced the same vitality and shared his discovery with the local monks.
In 1100 AD, Arabian traders from Africa brought coffee to their homeland in Yemen, where the plant was cultivated for the first time.
Europe welcomes coffee
Coffee soon spread to the rest of the Muslim world. It is said that the Turks of the Ottoman Empire made the first liquid coffee drink and brought it first to Europe via Constantinople.
The vibrant Italian port of Venice ushered coffee into Europe in 1600. At that time, a bustling trade existed between the city and the Muslims of North Africa, Egypt, and the East. The trade brought many African goods, including coffee, to Europe. As demand grew for the new beverage, Italy opened the continent’s first coffeehouse in 1645.
In 1610, Dutch traders smuggled the then-forbidden coffee plant out of Mocha, a port in Yemen on the Red Sea. The business-savvy Dutch became the first to transport and cultivate coffee commercially.
However, Europe's harsh winter weather could not support the plant. So the Dutch had to grow coffee in their east colony of Java, Indonesia. The colony later served as the main supplier of coffee to Europe.
Coffee in the Americas: A major turning point
| |
The invention of soluble coffee by Dr, Max Morganthaler made coffee accessible to everyone |
Coffee's journey through history took a dramatic turn when Brazilian Francisco Mello Palheta was sent by his country's emperor to French Guiana to obtain coffee seedlings. The French, however, did not want to share them.
Luckily for Palheta, his charms so captivated the French governor's wife that as he was about to leave the country, she gave him a farewell gift: a bouquet of flowers that concealed viable coffee seeds. Thanks to those seeds, Brazil is now the world's biggest coffee producer.
As coffee's popularity continued to spread, technology for easier coffee-making inevitably became available. The first espresso machine was made in France in 1822. More than a century later, in 1933, Dr. Ernest Illy invented the first fully automated espresso machine.
In the 1930s, Brazil, being a major producer of coffee, experienced surplus problems. The Brazilian Coffee Institute turned to Nestle and asked the company to help. In 1938, after 8 years of rigorous research, Dr. Max Morganthaler and his team made a breakthrough innovation--a shelf-ready coffee product that instantly dissolved in hot water, and that product was named NESCAFE, the world’s first instant coffee. Finally, a coffee beverage was in a form that had a long shelf-life, was easy to prepare, and at the same time had good taste and quality.
| |
An early model of the Illy espresso machine |
NESCAFE has since become a worldwide phenomenon, making coffee accessible to everyone in most parts of the globe. Today, coffee is one of the world’s most popular beverages, and NESCAFE remains as the the leading brand of choice.
Rudy Trillanes is NESCAFE’s resident coffee ambassador. This former factory manager now conducts coffee appreciation seminars to NESTLE employees and is active with the Philippine Coffee Board and the Sustainable Agricultural Initiative Platform. |
