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A Lesson in Tea and Coffee
Tea and coffee are two beverages with very rich histories. There?s a whole culture surrounding these beverages. You don?t just drink coffee or tea; usually, it?s a social event or an event invested with ritualized meaning. Here is a brief glimpse at the history of these two very significant beverages.
Legend has it that coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia; the local shepherds realized that their herds, after munching on the stuff growing wild all around them, couldn?t sleep at night. Another tale tells of a man who was banished to the desert; this man called Omar, found only the coffee plant and in a bout of desperation, boiled it. The plant saved his life and the residents of a neighboring town, called Mocha, took it as a miracle.
Historians believe that coffee was first drank around 1000 AD. In Yemen (southern Arabia), Sufi monks apparently brewed the drink within their monasteries. The drink traveled to Yemen and Egypt via Ethiopia. As with so many other inventions, we can credit the Arabians for introducing the roasting and brewing technique we are familiar with in these modern times. From the Middle East, the plant spread to Northern Africa by around 1450. It then took off in Europe by way of Italy; from there it spread to Indonesia and then eventually America.
The Arabians weren?t keen to share their precious coffee beans; so in order to make sure no one else could grow them, they cooked or boiled the beans, making them infertile. However, according to one tale, an Indian by the name of Baba Budan smuggled out some fertile beans by taping them to his belly. This way, coffee arrived in Venice and spread all around Europe.
The Dutch began importing coffee in significant amounts, defying the Arab prohibition in 1616. They then took their crop to Java and Ceylon. Exports of Indonesian coffee to the Netherlands took place around 1711.
Today, coffee is drunk the world over. Brewing the perfect cup has become something of an art form. It?s not just water and beans, but rather, temperature, water quality, roast and care.
Tea has a long and varied history too. It can be traced back to ancient China. The emperor Shen Nung is credited with discovering tea about 5,000 years ago. As a wise and learned man, the emperor passed an edict that all water should be boiled before it was drank. One day, while the emperor and his court were traveling, they stopped for some water. The servants set up the pot to boil it and some dried leaves from a bush fell into it, making tea. The emperor, always inquisitive, tasted the new concoction and was delighted. This was the birth of tea.
Tea culture was pervasive in ancient China. In 800 AD Lu Yu wrote the first guide to tea called the Ch?a Ching. The book detailed various tea rituals, cultivation methods and preparation. The work was heralded as a masterpiece and backed by the Emperor himself.
The Japanese weren?t introduced to the beverage until the priest Yeisei brought it back to his homeland from China some years later. After that tea was big in Japan.
Tea was introduced to Europe in 1560 via the Portuguese Jesuit Jasper de Cruz. From there it spread like wild fire.
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