Coffee - Basics

Barista | Coffee basics | Proper Coffee

The history of coffee

The first historical references to coffee are found in the year 850 in Persia but more colourful and legendary versions in regards to the discovery of coffee go back much further in time.

The most «legitimate», given the Muslin origins of the product, is the story that tells how the Angel Gabriel woke Muhammad from his drowsiness with a steaming cup of coffee just before an important task. The effect of the drink was so powerful, that it not only roused the prophet from his sleepiness, but gave him the strength to unsaddle and defeat 40 man at one time.

There is a theory that the «roasted grains”, which are offered to David, described in the Book of Kings, are none other than coffee beans. Some claim that Homer refers to coffee when citing a beverage called nephentens, mixed with wine, which Helen offers to Telemachus in the fourth canto of the Odyssey.

It is most likely that the history of coffee began in the Caffa region in Ethiopia, where a goatherd noticed a strange restlessness in his flock after they had eaten the berries and leaves of an unknown plant.

Monks from a nearby monastery heard of this phenomenon and after various trials discovered that by roasting, grinding and infusing in water the seeds of this plant, they obtained a beverage, which helped keep them awake during the long hours of prayer.

It is most probably due to this characteristic that word and use of this drink spread among monasteries and was taken by the Ethiopian army to the Yemen during the various invasions.

The use of coffee spread as far as the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The great number of pilgrims from all over the world, who visited these cities, tasted coffee for the first time and took it back to their own countries, therefore, contributing to its dissemination. It must be remembered that the Muslims were, and are still today, forbidden to consume alcoholic drinks, so this was fertile terrain for the spread of coffee which soon became part of these peoples" customs.

It is to them that we owe the term «qahwah» which means Infusion. The Turks then pronounced it «qahve» which unsurprisingly became caffe, cafe, and coffee in European versions.

Our story has now brought us to the beginning of the sixteenth Century. The establishments, which served coffee, were so numerous at the Mecca that a Governor's decree ordered them to be closed down.

Unfortunately for the Governor, the Sultan in Cairo was a habitual coffee-drinker and not only did he revoke the decree, but removed the Governor himself from his post.

In the seventeenth Century English women drew up a petition against coffee, because their husbands neglected them in favour of the new beverage, while Turkish ladies cited their husbands for divorce because their husbands forbade them to drink coffee.

As early as the sixteenth Century, this product has influenced people's public and private customs.

Coffeehouses have always been a venue for the great names of European literature, art and politics.

Goldoni wrote «La bottega del caffe», Voltaire declared he drank forty cups of coffee a day, rumour had it that Balzac drank fifty thousand cups while composing the «Comcdie humaine». The first coffee-house appear-ed in Paris in 1660, thanks to an Italian nobleman, one Procopio de Cultelli, right in front of the Comedie Francaise, and was assiduously patronised by men of letters, artists and people such as Rousseau, Diderot, Danton, Robcspierre. From these names one can imagine what an important part the cafe played, as a meeting place, in the destiny of France.

In Venice, the first coffeehouse was opened in 1683, and within a short time there were more then 200 cafes where coffee was served. In Vienna it was a Pole who opened the first coffeehouse. He not only contributed to saving the city from Invasion by the Turks, but also invented a new way of drinking coffee: he filtered the Sediment and sweetened it with honey, adding a little milk.

At the same time, to commemorate the eluded danger, a baker in the city invented a half-moon shaped pastry, which went perfectly with the drink. It was the beginning of what we know today as a cappuccino and croissant.

Originally the coffee plant grew naturally in Ethiopia, but once transplanted in Arabia was monopolised by this population. In the meantime the ever-growing number of coffeehouses increased the demand for coffee and some officials of The Dutch Indies Company stole several plants, which they transferred to their plantations in Ceylon and Java.

The ideal climate in these countries permitted the Dutch to become such great coffee producers and eventually they were able to impose their price on the market.

The French did the same thing and planted some precious cuttings in Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Trinidad. Finally a young Portuguese took some young plants to Brazil and in less than a Century this country was to become the world's largest coffee producer (in 1907 it accounted for 97% of the world's harvest).

It was at the beginning of the twentieth Century that a machine that prepared coffee fresh for every cup was invented: the espresso coffee machine.

Until then, in coffeehouse, coffee was prepared in large Containers and kept hot in a bain-marie, with the disadvantage that if it was not drunk within a few hours it had to be thrown away as its components will deteriorate after a while.

Espresso coffee machines introduced a new way of drinking coffee, providing a flavour which differed greatly from previous methods.

The coffee plant

Coffee is a cherry.

It is the seed of a tropical plant of the Rubiaceae family. It grows at an altitude between 400 and 2000 metres and at a temperature between 20° and 25° C.

About 60 species of coffee are grown but the most commonly used all over the world are Arabica and Robusta.

Once mature, a coffee plant produces an average of 1 kilo of raw "green" coffee beans per year.

These coffees are the subjects of a lot of misinformation, often perpetuated by coffee companies.

Arabica is the most valued for its aroma whereas Robusta gives body to the coffee. The Arabica beans are flat and elongated while Robusta's are small and rounder. A coffee plant can grow up to eight metres high. It produces a cherry-like fruit, which turns bright red when it is ripe. It contains two seeds covered with a thin silvery membrane; which are the coffee beans.

The arabica beans are usually regarded as the premium variety. Many roasters will make much of the "100% arabica" content of their roasts. These beans tend to be grown in more mountainous regions, over 800 meters above sea level, where disease is less prevalent. As such, harvesting is more labour-intensive. For this reason arabica beans command a higher value on the market.

The robusta beans, as their name suggest, are less susceptible to disease and can be grown at lower altitude, from sea level upwards. They tend to cost less as they can often be harvested by machine.

That arabica is always superior to robusta is complete nonsense. There are some downright lousy arabicas on the market, as well as some truly exceptional robustas. Lots of the top espresso blends contain a small amount of the best robustas.

The berries are harvested either by hand or mechanically. The beans are harvested by machine (in flatter areas, for lower quality beans) or by band (in sloping areas, for higher quality beans) and are usually exported to coffee roasters in their green state. Harvesting by hand will gather only the ripe berries, while mechanical picking will gather all berries thus producing unevenly mixed batches. The berries are treated with two different processes: dry and wet, in both cases the beans are separated from the pulp and impurities. The coffee beans are the packed in 60-kilo bags and sold all over the world.

Roasting

Roasting differs from country to country. In European countries the beans are usually roasted to a «monk's cowl» brown. Each roaster uses it’s own blend, usually made up of three to eight types of green coffee. The beans are roasted at a temperature of 200°-220 °C, the process taking from ten to fifteen minutes. During this phase internal gasses swell the beans, and cause an increase of volume of about 60% with a weight loss of 20%.

There are about 800 volatile aromas in one coffee bean.

The chemical composition of unroasted coffee is as follows:

• Water 12%
• Nitrogenous substance 12%
• Sugar and dextrin 10%
• Cellulose 24%
• Non-nitrogenous extractive substances 18%
• Ash 4%
• Caffettannin acid 6.7%
• Caffeine 1.2%
• Essential oils 0.1%

After roasting there is a substantial decrease in the water percentage, which is the principle cause of weight loss.

The roasted coffee must not be exposed to air for too long because the fatty substances turn rancid resulting in an «off-taste» in the cup.

Volatile substances trapped inside the bean, so the methods of grinding and preserving the coffee are fundamental in obtaining a good cup of espresso coffee create coffee’s aroma.