Coffee Is the second most trade commodity in the world after crude oil. It is a cherished brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of selected coffee species. Ther are more than 10 million small producers in developing countries make their living by growing coffee. Most coffee is grown between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, a strip of land also known as the coffee belt, at altitudes between 800 and 2000 meters.

It is believed that coffee originated in Ethiopia and Sudan, and was first consumed in Yemen.

According to an Ethiopian legend, coffee was discovered around 850 A.D. by a goat herder name Kaldi. He noticed that his goats acted in an unusually spirited manner and didn’t sleep at night after eating the red cherries of nearby shrub.  Kaldi consulted with an imam from a local monastery who boiled some of the berries and drank the liquid himself. These plants were brought from Ethiopia to Yemen who were probably the first to roast and grind the seeds.

The journey of coffee across the world came with the Turkish conquests of Arabian Peninsula during early 16th century, finding its way towards the north from the port city of “Mocha”, the name became synonymous with coffee.

Cultivation In India

The Arabians were jealous of their new found and lucrative industry, and for a time successfully prevented its spread to other countries by not permitting any of the precious berries to leave the country unless they had first been steeped in boiling water so as to destroy their powers of the germination  As per legend,  the first coffee bean was planted in India by a Muslim pilgrim, Baba Budan  who smuggled the coffee beans from Mocha port while returning from his pilgrimage to Mecca  in the early 17^th century A.D.  He planted these seeds near a hut built for himself in Chickamagalur hills of erstwhile of Mysore state, now in Karnataka.  These shrubs remained in the backyard until t the British began coffee plantation slopes of the western Ghats, from Kanara/Canara to Travancore in 1840. Coffee is now cultivated in Coorg and Mysore.

It is also believed that early commercial cultivation of coffee in India was widely undertaken by the Dutch in the latter part of 16^th century. German, Italian and Dutch botanists and travelers successfully transported the coffee plant from Mocha to Holland to be grown in botanical gardens but failed due to climatic conditions.

In 1696, at the instigation of Nicolaas Witsen, then burgomaster of Amsterdam and Director of the Duitch East India Company, Adrian Van Ommen, Commander of Malabar, coffee was shipped from Kannur in Malabar to Java where the first coffee plants were introduced into the island.  They were grown from the seeds of Coffee arabica brought to Malabar from Arabia.

A Montage of Sketches on the History of Coffee

Coffee Is the second most trade commodity in the world after crude oil. It is a cherished brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of selected coffee species. Ther are more than 10 million small producers in developing countries make their living by growing coffee. Most coffee is grown between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, a strip of land also known as the coffee belt, at altitudes between 800 and 2000 meters.