Coffee: Remembrance of a brew - by Rakesh Kumar
Most of the people in India feel that Coffee, Cappuccino or even Café Mocha, is a western drink or is associated with our South Indian friends. The origin of coffee, however, is in Ethopia and it was the Arabs who used to drink this as their favourite drink. Hundreds of years ago, in the district of Kaffa in Ethiopia, farmers observed that their goats became lively and active after chewing red berries from the coffee plant. They then tried themselves and thus began the journey of coffee from Africa. Initially, it was restricted to Ethiopia but then it went to Sudan and from their to the famous Mocha port of Yemen in 15th century. The word 'Café Mocha' is derived from the port of Yemen where coffee was traded in large volumes then and even now. The western world, however, was not aware of the drink because Arab world kept the coffee secret closely and never allowed the seeds or beans to be exported or get it smuggled out of their territory. The same policy was followed by Muslim Ottoman Empire of Turks who kept a tight control over the coffee trade. In fact, the first-ever coffee house that opened up in the world was in Islam's holiest city of Mecca in 15th century before it caught the fancy of western world. By the beginning of the 16th century, the Dutch (citizens of Holland) were able to get the beans and got to know how to produce coffee.
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