COFFEE HISTORY

HISTORIC SUMMARY AND COFFEE PROPERTIES

There are many stories related to the coffee history, one of them says that in the year of 1140, in Abyssinia, some shepherds who realized that their goats were acting very strange started investigating why and found out that they had been eating some red fruits that growed in some bushes. The shepherds took some of those bushes and fixed a hot drink to keep warm against the desert nocturnal cold weather. It is said that the beverage they prepared is what we now know as coffee.

One of the other most known legends says that a shepherd called Kaldi was directing his flock in Ethiopia. One day, the goats found some coffee plants, ate their berries and chewed their leaves. When the night came, instead of sleeping, the goats started jumping around and kept having the same energy during the whole night.

Another legend says that some cappuccino monks took the fruits and leaves of the mysterious plant and made with them a baking. To get that infusion, the chief of the community dried the grains in fire producing their first toast and that’s how the coffee was born. They called that drink “Kawa” (Arabic word for coffee)

A different legend says that a monk took the fruits and leaves of the coffee plant into his kitchen for cooking them. Once they were cooked, he found they had a terrible flavor and he put the ones that remained uncooked in the fire. While the grains were burning, they produced a very pleasant smell, reason why the monk decided to prepare a drink with these grains and the concoction he has prepared before. In spite of being a little bitter, it had a good flavor and smell that produced an energizing effect after drinking it. The monks decided to drink it to keep awake during their prayers.

Through history, coffee has been praised, forbidden, criticized, symbolized etc. In 1671, an anonymous agreement appeared in which the properties that are given to coffee were showed “...It dries any cold and humid mood, expulses the gases, tonifies the liver, heals hydropics because of its purifying nature; its also excellent against scabies and blood corruption, refreshes the heart and the vital beat of it, it heals people with stomachaches and the ones who have lost their appetite. It is also good for cold, humid and shaming brain indispositions. The smoke that it releases is good against ocular fluids and ears humming. It is also excellent with breathlessness, flues that attack the lungs, kidneys pain and worms. It also is an extraordinary release after eating or drinking too much”

According to the facts published by Exterior Commerce in Mexico and by Don Miguel Lerdo de Tejada in 1802, 1803 and 1805. Coffee was being exported in proportions of 272, 483 and 336 qq. respectively and this coffee seemed to be originally from Cordoba, Veracruz.

In a world-wide level, Mexico occupies the 5^th place as a producer country after Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Vietnam with a production volume between the 4 and 5 million bags per year. Mexico, in spite of being one of the countries which products more coffee has one of the lowers consume levels (700 grams per capita) this might be because of the need of promotion to increase consumption, the lack of coffee culture and the taboos that exist against it in health aspect. The kinds of coffee produced in Mexico according to their classification are: Altura, Prima Lavado, Lavados, Naturals, being the main ones the Arabic and Robust.

The most favorable weather for growing coffee is localized between the Cancer Tropic and the Capricorn Tropic. The coffee plantations that are located between these zones are the ones that provide the best qualities and the ones that are outside are marginal for the growth. Inside this place, the right zones for growth are determined by the weather, the ground and the altitude. The coffee plant needs favorable temperatures between the 20 C. and pluvial precipitations of 2500 mm.

In Mexico, coffee is grown in 12 states: Chiapas, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi, Nayarit, Colima, Jalisco, Queretaro and Tabasco. The year time for recollecting coffee starts in September and finishes in March of the next year.

Coffee occupies the first place as an agricultural product producing currencies and employments for the rural sector. Because of the characteristics that the growth has, for cleaning, growing and benefiting the grain, it employs women, men and children of entire families.

To obtain the coffee quality the right height for the growth is 600 mos to 1400 mos producing the best coffees in the world. In Mexico, coffee with quality comparable to the Colombian one is produced.

The coffee plantation system in our country is under shade, preserving the environment, the flowers and the fauna, aquifer mantes, carbon capitation besides giving an amazing and beautiful view with different kinds of colors and their bright green leaves.

At the end of the 80´s the coffee growers decided to develop the organic coffee, that besides conserving the ecological balance of the ground, is chemical and pollution agents free, besides the fact of taking advantage of the agricultural waste by recycling and that is actually commercialized in the most exigent markets in the US, Canada and Europe with a more expensive price.

The modern world is divided in two kinds of consumers: The ones that consume coffee and the ones that consume tea.

Coffee history goes back in time and was introduced in Europe by the Arabics and Turks in the XV century, but it wasn’t till the next century that its consumption started extending.

Nowadays, coffee represents the engine of the world-wide social life.

Coffee agro industry has being diversified in the whole world and now we can find different producers in every continent. It is strange, but nowadays the best coffee is consumed in places where it is not grown, this is mainly because the countries that don’t produce it are able to import grains from different parts of the world and make their own mixes, while the producer countries don’t import coffee grains to mix them with their local ones.

This is why Europe and Japan turn out to be the ones who consume better grains in the world.



 

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