The Coffee Buzz

Following on from my tea article More Tea Vicar where I tried to discover when tea was first introduced to the UK, I've now had a chance to look at coffee.

I discovered that the first mention of tea being served over here was around about 1658, when it was being offered in a London coffee shop.

This is what I discovered about coffee.

Coffee, according to legend, was discovered by a goatherd called Kaldi who lived in Abyssinia. He saw that his goats became more lively having eaten some red berries from a bush nearby. He tried the berries himself and found that they kept him awake. When he returned to his village he took a sample of the berries with him and the villagers found them to be excellent for keeping them awake during long prayers!

By the end of the 9^th century coffee had gained popularity in Arabia, most likely having been introduced there by Arab traders, and a drink known as qahwa ('that which prevents sleep') was being made by boiling the beans. By the end of the 13th century Muslims were drinking it and, presumably due to Muslim pilgrims taking supplies of it on their travels, it made the journey from India to North Africa and then on to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Coffee, once it had been cultivated in Yemen, spread to Turkey and it's understood the first coffee shop opened in Constantinople round about 1475. The popularity of coffee houses soon spread throughout Turkey and from there they expanded far and wide. By the mid 16^th century they were being frequented in Egypt, Syria and Persia. From there 'the habit' travelled to the Balkans, Central Europe, Spain and North Africa.

Travellers around this time brought back small quantities of beans to Europe but it was the Brits it seems who really took to it. The first coffee house opened in Oxford around 1650 and by 1652 coffee shops were springing up in London where a cup of coffee cost 1d (one penny). These coffee shops were frequented by gentlemen who conducted business over a dose of daily caffeine or even just enjoyed a game of chess before returning home to their nagging wives!! In fact, in 1674 the Women's Petition Against Coffee was set up in London as women bewailed the fact that their men were spending too much time in an 'excessive use of the drying and enfeebling liquor'. In 1675 King Charles II tried to close coffee houses as it was considered they were dens of iniquity, frequented by revolutionaries but, after a public outcry he had to back down after 11 days!

Over the years, coffee houses in London became extremely popular. Jonathan's in Change Alley became a meeting place for stockbrokers and eventually became the London Stock Exchange. Ship owners and marine insurance brokers frequented Edward Lloyds in Lombard Street and that shop became the head office for Lloyds of London.

Coffee was even recognised as a fine beverage by J S Bach who composed the Coffee Cantata in 1732 where he seems to have rated it as 'lovelier than 1,000 kisses and sweeter than muscatel wine'. Boy, oh boy, he must have had a really bad addiction!!!

The downfall in coffee's popularity over here in England was the increase in coffee duties, combined with the British East India Company's concentration on tea imports so tea became more popular,

So, there you have it. It seems coffee became popular here probably around a decade before tea. Now, what about hot chocolate??