Short Trip History of Coffee Beans

Short Trip History of Coffee Beans  - Enjoying a cup of bitter coffee that still bore the smoke is very delicious. Especially if in the morning or afternoon with a loved one and the conversation took place exciting. Occasionally accompanied by laughter. The strangling routine of every day is no longer unthinkable.

Nody Arizona in Indonesia In A Cup of Coffee writes interesting things. If the one in front of you is a type of Arabica coffee, you probably will never enjoy it if at the end of the 17th century, in 1699, the beans were not brought and replanted by a man named Henricus Zwaardecroon. Three years earlier, the seeds of this type of coffee have actually been planted in Coffee Garden Kedawung Batavia (Jakarta). However, this first cultivation failed to harvest due to massive flooding.

The second planting, which finally succeeded in giving birth to the first Arabica coffee beans in the archipelago, planted in 6 plantations. Four fruit, Bidaracina, Jatinegara, Palmerah, and Kampung Melayu, located in Batavia and in Sukabumi and Sudimara, West Java. Shortly thereafter, the Dutch colonials brought samples of the first crops harvested from plantations in Java to study. Amsterdam Botanical Garden was chosen to develop and distribute more extensively throughout the Blue Continent.

Henricus and his predecessor brought these coffee seeds from Malabar, India. At that time Malabar has been recognized as the center of coffee planting the world but is believed not the place of origin of coffee plants.

Coffee was first cultivated in the 15th century by Muslims in a region called Harar - currently entering the territory of Ethiopia. Somewhat surprising because in those days, the Abyssinian Kingdom that had political authority in the region, did not produce it in significant numbers. The official Christianity of Abyssinia produced it in large numbers in the 20th century AD.

The story about coffee cultivation is spread over a long time. Since the 11th century AD, Harar became one of the places where the spread of Islam is quite massive. The Muslims who used to occupy Yemen often traveled to Harar. As the easternmost region of Ethiopia, to go to Harar, Yemenis only need to sail briefly past a small part of the Red Sea. Or any other route, to the Gulf of Aden.

In the following years, coffee is still cultivated by Muslims and grows wild in the territory of the Abyssinian Empire. Perhaps, the market calls it Arabica coffee because the production of copies of that time was closely related to people from the Arabian Peninsula. Not with the Abyssinians who barely harvest, sell, or consume them.

At this time has been known coffee type Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa. Robusta grows around Congo as well as other tropical regions of Africa and Excelsa is commonly found in the lowlands of West and Central Africa. While Liberica, can be easily guessed, growing in the surrounding area called Liberia.

Until the next 200 years coffee is still a commercially 'monopolized' commodity by Yemeni Muslims. Although there are at least 3 more sub-species of coffee plants grown in Harar and other areas of the Abyssinian Kingdom, they are known as Arabic. In fact, he has another more explicit name: Mocha Yemen.

Another one that may surprise quite a different coffee with other agricultural products. Since it was first cultivated in significant quantities, the rate of coffee production is not directly proportional to the level of consumption of the Yemeni people. That is, coffee has since been oriented to sell to outsiders, exports. Directly, after harvesting the coffee beans, the Yemeni people went eastward to barter it with other products.

The reason is quite simple, Yemeni people love tea more than coffee.

Not too long, five years later in 1711, the coffee beans developed at the Amsterdam Botanical Garden found its market. Arabica coffee grown in gardens on the island of Java goes to Amsterdam for the first time. The brand name chosen as an introduction to coffee from Java is 'Java Koffie'.

This auction can be said to be a marker of colonial success in cultivating coffee in the colonies. The amount of coffee brought by the colonial time was about 894 pounds, which was shipped directly from the Batavia plantation. Java Koffie sells per pound about 47 cents.

Motivated by the Dutch colonial government which was then represented by the VOC, the Yemeni people also sold their coffee harvest to the Amsterdam Auction Hall. Previously, these Yemeni people are still rather reluctant to massively market their coffee production to Amsterdam. In addition to the extremely high transport costs, the taxes imposed by the Ottoman government were quite expensive when they crossed their protocol areas.

The introduction of Java coffee to the Amsterdam Auction Center was wide-ranging. A man named Gabriel de Clieu arrived in Paris, France and introduced Java Koffie to the King of France, Louis XIV. Because Java Koffie, the French colonial for the first time planted coffee in the Martinique area located east of the Caribbean Sea, one of the islands discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493.

Not surprisingly, the coffee that is then spread over the southern plains of the Americas, Latin America, is the 'children' of this planted tree in Martinique. Like one of the most famous variants of Arabica coffee in the world, Bourbon, which thrives in the highlands of Brazil.

Source :

Center for Coffee and Cocoa Research, A Cup of Coffee Meracik Tradisi, 2011.

William Gervase Clarence-Smith and Steven Topic (eds.), The Global Coffee Economy in Africa, Asia, and Latin America 1500-1989, 2003.