Caffe Massimo

An Ethiopian goatherd, named Kaldi, noticed his goats were particularly lively after eating the berries from a certain bush.  Whether true or not, we do know it wasn’t long before coffee berries found their way into Arabia, through a port called Mocha, a name now synonymous with coffee.  At this time, it was still the whole berries being used as a food or made into a drink.  It wasn’t until coffee arrived in Turkey the beans were first roasted, making a boiled coffee similar to the present day Turkish coffee.  Espresso coffee was developed in the 19th century in France, although it was the Italians who perfected the technique, and were the first to manufacture espresso machines.

As demand for coffee spread across Europe, suitable coffee-growing areas had to be found.  The Dutch started cultivating coffee in Java, now Indonesia, India and several parts of South and Central America, whilst the British headed for the West Indies.  Coffee from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica now being the world’s most famous and expensive.  The first European coffeehouse opened in the 17th century, but the most famous, Caffé Florian, started up in 1720 and is still trading today.  Coffee was taken to the USA from Europe, and has continued to make its way around the world ever since.

Coffee drinking is now a global phenomenon, and an industry employing more than 20 million people, over 5 million in Brazil alone.  Coffee comes second only to petroleum in terms of trading, and is crucial to the economies of many developing countries.