|
By
Nizla Naizer
Most of us start our day with the anticipation of that
unmistakable aroma in the air. An aroma that perks you
up and has you following your nose like those memorable
Tom and Jerry cartoons, unconsciously drawn to action
just so you can cradle that steaming mug of black liquid
in your hands, take that first heavenly sip and actually
start functioning.
In my opinion, it’s not love nor money that makes
the world go round. It’s coffee. If you look back
at the brew’s turbulent and rich history, it has
been guarded by civilizations, stolen by secret agents
of empires long perished, smuggled in the belly of wily
courtiers and banned by the Church because of the unethical
natural high the liquid brings about.
Even today, most of the denizens in the financial hubs
of the world function thanks to this devilish drink.
From the busy brokers on Wall Street to the hustle and
bustle of London to the etiquette filled lands of the
Orient, people thrive on getting through the day with
the help of a steaming coffee cup. Just as the monks
in the 1st century AD found out they can keep up longer
and pray more devoutly with the aid of this herbal brew,
the upholders of the financial systems count on coffee
to get them through the long hours of trading and negotiating.
It’s no wonder coffee is the most traded commodity
in the world after petroleum. But where exactly did
this magical brew come from? What is the origin of coffee?
That was my question as I sat sipping my shot of black
coffee, the third that day.
Legend has it that the potency of coffee was first discovered
by a simple goatherd in the plains of Ethiopia. (Goatherds
tend to make many discoveries in the region, the Dead
Sea Scrolls, Dinosaur fossils etc) Kaldi, the observant
goatherd during 850AD noticed that his goats acted friskier
and jumpier after they ate the red berries of a particular
tree. Curious, Kaldi tried eating the berry himself,
finding it too distasteful to munch he tried brewing
it. The aroma was the first indication of the potency
of the berry. He drank the brew and felt the perkiness.
Coffee had found its first fan.
Legend continues to state that the monks in the surrounding
area heard of this magical brew and tested it themselves.
Though at first they termed it a ‘drink from the
devil’s fruit’, they soon saw its advantages.
Coffee had found a religious backing. However the journey
for this magical bean was not smooth there on. The Yemenis
and other Arab states started cultivating the plant
and guarded it fiercely. No fertilized sapling was allowed
to leave its shores while within the Arab courts, the
drink brewed as ‘Kahwa’ became a brew for
the nobles.
To this day, most in the Arab, North African and Turkish
regions drink their coffee the way their ancestors did;
a dark brew with less sugar but filled with enough caffeine
to keep your eyes wide for the next six hours.
The word spread within the region about this dark liquid.
By the 13th Century, coffee had turned into a religious
drink for the Muslims. Some of the more orthodox clerics
banned it as ‘haraam’ but the popularity of
the drink swayed their verdict and a Fatwa was established
to allow coffee as an herbal drink. Where the Islamic
empire spread, coffee spread and even though till the
1600s Arabia only exported the bean from the port of
Mocha in Yemen and never the sapling, a wily Indian
pilgrim called ‘Baba Budan’ left Mecca for
India with smuggled fertile seeds strapped to his belly.
India thus got their opportunity at brewing the drink
of the denizens in the desert.
The coffee smuggling tradition went on. A Merchant of
Venice introduced the bean in 1615 to Europe and the
popularity was contagious. They wanted the means to
produce the brew and the Dutch won the race by stealing
a sapling from the Indian planters and taking it to
Europe. By 1696 they had coffee estates thriving in
Java, Indonesia which now produces the famous Java blend,
a type of Robusta coffee.
Coffee houses sprang up all over Europe and the Vatican
alarmed by the popularity of the drink banned it as
‘unholy’ and the drink of the pagans. However,
before the ban became widespread Pope Vincent III said
he wanted to taste the drink himself. He enjoyed it
so much that he decided to solve the issue by baptizing
the drink saying, “This drink is so delicious,
it would be a pity to let Satan and the infidels have
exclusive use of it.”
From then on, coffee was allowed to thrive and was introduced
to the colonial lands including Sri Lanka. However our
country and many South East Asian nations suffered a
rare disease which killed off the coffee plantations
in the 19th century and which led to the introduction
of tea to many regions.
Today, as much as 7,742,675 tonnes of coffee are produced
every year with Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia being the
primary producers of coffee. There are two varieties,
Arabica which is full of flavor and harder to cultivate,
and Robusta which has more caffeine content but is less
on the flavor. From the drink of the nobles, coffee
has become the elixir for the masses. And exotic brews
come up every day, like the ‘Kopi Lewak’.
Innovative cultivators of coffee found out that the
bean has an altered taste when released undigested from
the Indonesian civet cat that has a habit of eating
raw Java coffee beans. The bean is then brewed into
the most expensive coffee in the world at US$ 420 a
pound.
Whether you like your coffee with more milk or just
dark, latte or frappe, mocaccino or cappuccino, plain
espresso or Starbucks style, coffee is the language
a lot of us speak in the morning. My thanks to Kaldi,
the observant goatherd.
Coffee
with a cause
Sri
Lanka may be renowned for their world class tea, but
in the 1850s we were contending to be the largest exporter
of coffee with Brazil with 67,453,680 lbs exported out
of Ceylon in 1857. The flavor of Sri Lankan coffee was
unique and rich and traces of the old flavor still remains.
“The blight of 1870 may have wiped out most of
the larger plantations,” Lawrence Goldberg, Proprietor
Hansa Coffee explained, “But smaller cultivations
survived and thrived and are still found in the mountainous
regions of Sri Lanka.”
Goldberg, a native of Seattle (the birthplace of Starbucks)
came to Sri Lanka in 1978 and fell in love with the
island. He now runs a coffee roasting factory in the
cool climes of Nuwara Eliya and markets the coffee as
‘Hansa Coffee’ a name popular among tourists
and locals alike for its rich, chocolaty flavour. “We
encourage farmers to cultivate coffee and we’re
seeing more farmers join in every year. Coffee is less
prone to price fluctuations.” But the most important
factor Goldberg says is the dual purpose of saving the
environment. “We see a lot of soil erosion in the
hills and planting coffee trees can prevent that while
providing people with a source of income.” The
British cut down thousands of acres of mountainous forests
to start these cultivations, the trend seems to be now
reversing.
Goldberg says he’s promoting the old flavour that
is found in Sri Lankan coffee, a flavour that has withstood
the tests of time and disease. “And it has always
been debated that roasting in higher altitudes brings
about a different flavour.” This explains why Goldberg’s
factory is 6000 feet above sea level.
Hansa Coffee is sold at US$ 15 a kg and is demanded
by many international buyers from USA, France, Cambodia
and Maldives but there focus is on supplying to the
local market through supermarkets and hotels. “Coffee
never really went away from Sri Lanka. We’re hoping
to resurrect it.”
|
