Coffee-A History

Posted by ken on September 12th, 2011
Coffee beans

Image via Wikipedia

Fact:  Coffee is consumed more than any beverage, anywhere in the world.

What made coffee the coveted drink that it is today? And where, or rather what ancient land, first figured out that coffee was such a great thing?  Who were the original coffee geeks? Who made the first great cup of coffee? When and where did the first coffee shop open its doors?

Let me rain on your parade immediately: No one knows the a lot of the facts, exactly but we have a pretty good idea. However, that original fact holds true:  Coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world.

The First Coffee Geeks: Humble Beginnings

Coffee popped in traces and some evidence in Abyssinia and the Red Sea area around 700 A.D. Some African people were also using the coffee berry (bean) pulp very early in history for native rituals and constitution.  (That’s health if you have never played Dungeons and Dragons.)

Then something great happened for coffee.  People of the Arabian peninsula started cultivate it around 1100 A.D.  Boom!  Coffee’s popularity explosion takes root! How did it get there in the first place?  Ships probably…who the hell really knows.  Why does it matter?  It got there, didn’t it?

Arabs began to brew a drink that they called “gawha”–again, it doesn’t matter–which was used to fight drowsiness by roasting and boiling the bean. The first caffeine rush! It became the Arabian signature drink of the native peoples.  It’s a great thing we’re experiencing here.

Around 1200 A.D. someone figured out you could make a delicious drink out of the beans.  Instead of being used for rituals and medicine it started to become a leisure beverage. And coffee’s popularity grew and grew and grew.

Arabs started to travel with the drink and it caught on almost everywhere it went. It eventually ended up in India, North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and around 1400 A.D. Yemen began to heavily cultivate it. However, the Arabs didn’t want another people to cultivate the bean because they saw the lucrative possibilities in this new drink. But, c’mon, you can’t keep a bean hostage forever.

Eventually, the beans were smuggled out by some keen ploy.  Yuck…wonder where they hid them?

Ancient Coffee Shops Sprout Up

Constantinople, 1475 A.D.-The first coffee shop, which we know was called “Kiv Han”.  Then in 1554 A.D. two more pop up in Turkey. It worked out well.  People started to gather in these places to chill out with each other, listen to music, play games and drink the coffee!

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How To Brew Coffee For The Newbie

Posted by ken on September 9th, 2011
An old-fashioned manual coffee grinder.

Image via Wikipedia

It seems so basic doesn’t it?  You’ve been making coffee for how many years?  It’s almost automatic.  It is for me anyway.  When you walk into your favorite coffee shop do you ever wonder if they have  a secret brewing method? Maybe you’re on of the very, very few who has never made coffee before and you’re looking for a “How to” on the basics.

Well, here is that very basic coffee brewing article to get you started.  Soon…you’ll be a coffee geek just like us!  If you have questions afterward, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments section.  Happy brewing!

Grind

For most purposes (ie. NOT espresso), a cylindrical chopping style electric grinder is ideal for home or office use. Inexpensive at under $25, it will accomodate a wide range of grinds. Grinding your beans to the optimum level is important to the quality of the cup, for the wrong contact level between the ground coffee and the brewing resultant will produce either a bitter or weak cup of coffee. Brewing time will also affect this element of a good cup of coffee. A good guide for Grinds, Brewing Time, and Grinding Time each as functions of Brewing Methods is as follows:

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Coffee With Milk? I’ll Take Cream And Sugar, Please!

Posted by ken on September 5th, 2011

coffee and milkI had a little bit to drink last night so I ended spending the night over a friends house.  To my friends credit I woke to the smell of brewing coffee.  It was great after what was a rough night, indeed.  I got up and helped myself to a cup and asked for where the cream and sugar was.  “I think I have sugar somewhere,” my friend said.  “Cream,” I asked.  “Nope, milk.”  My heart sank.  Milk with coffee?  I can’t do it.

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I Love Coffee So Much…

Posted by ken on September 3rd, 2011
Dunkin Donuts coffee logo

Image via Wikipedia

How much do I love it?

I love coffee so much that I buy decaf and regular each time I shop.

I know that at night I’m gonna’ want a cup and but not wanna’ stay up all night.  The more I drink, the more I want.  My uncle can drink a pot at night and sleep like a baby.  I can’t do it.  I get amped still.  Maybe one day when I’m an older coffee geek I’ll be able to do the same.

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What’s So Good About Coffee?

Posted by ken on September 1st, 2011
coffee cups

I know some people who scrunch their face at coffee, but not many. Regular old coffee geeks like me could never imagine not loving coffee but what exactly is it that makes us be so attracted to it. I will constantly argue the “caffeine addiction affliction” because I don’t think that makes up any more than half of the hold that coffee has on us. If I get caffeine in some other way I still yearn for coffee. Are you the same way? Similar?  C’mon…don’t make me feel like the only coffee geek in the house!

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A Great Place For Any Coffee Geek

Posted by ken on September 1st, 2011
coffee-cups-to-each-his-own-21311046

I’ve been a coffee geek for a while now.  I can’t remember when the first time my grandparents let me drink coffee but it was early in life, I know that for sure. When I was old enough, and we’re talking about 10 years old here, I was finally allowed to make the coffee myself.  My grandfather would look at me and say, “why don’t you go make some coffee for us.”  I would excitedly go and take on the task with intensity.

I’m not that old, so this isn’t going to be a post about the old 1932 diesel powered percolator or how I had to crank a handle until all the coffee beans were fine enough to be brewed.  Rather, this is a post…an entire site actually, dedicated to the way coffee has made me feel my entire life since those early days.  Has it developed into a caffeine addiction?  I guess it probably has.  It goes deeper than that I think, though.

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