Coffee

From the Arabic qahwah, via the Turkish kahveh, café in French and Spanish, caffe in Italian and Kaffee in German, all remarkably alike. The Arabic word originally designated any stimulating drink. Coffee was discovered in AD 850, according to legend, by the Arab goatherd Kaidi in southern Ethiopia, who noticed that his goat became frisky after chewing the berries from certain tall evergreen shrubs. Coffee originated in Ethiopia, where Coffea arabica, one of the three main species, grows wild. The others, robusta and liberica, were later found in the Congo and Liberia respectively. The coffee tree requires a hot, moist climate and rich soil. While arabica grows best at a high altitude - from 2,000 to 6,000 feet (600 to 1,800 m) above sea level - the other species grow better at altitudes below 2,000 feet (600 m).

Originally, coffee was known as food by some African tribes, who would crush the ripened berries (called cherries), mix them with animal fat and form the resulting paste into balls. It was usually eaten before battles to enhance strength and vigor. Coffee was served as a drink much later, not as we know it today, but as a wine from the fermented juices of the cherries. It was not until AD 1000 that the Arabs learned to boil the burned beans and drink it as a hot beverage.

By 1454, coffee was introduced to Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. The beverage is popular in the Middle East, although many Muslim authorities disapprove, observing that Mohammed did not drink coffee.

Coffee is marketed under the name of the locality in which it is grown or the shipping port. Brazilian coffees are chiefly Rios and Santos. Mocha is the highest quality of Arabian coffee. Java and East Indian are also high-grade coffees, and Kona is the fine grade of mild coffee produced in Hawaii. Low-grade Rios are the cheapest coffees on the market (the United States is the biggest consumer). Maracaibo, Bogota and Sumatra are the other well-known varieties. Usually, the varieties of coffee are no longer obtainable separately but are blended to advertise brands.

The content of caffeine in an espresso coffee is less than a regular cup of coffee, due to the length of roasting of the beans. Strangely enough, the exact identity of the flavor of coffee has never been established. The term "caffeoyl" has for many years been applied to the substance or the group of substances developed by roasting, which are thought to be responsible for aroma and bouquet. Caffeoyl has been described as an essential oil, yet coffee contains no essential oil. Flavor substances (at least a part of them) are known to be water-soluble, a property not possessed by any true oil. Whether the flavor substances are held in some oils or fats of coffee and released by hot water has never been clear. Too long a heating process at too high a temperature may remove or destroy all characteristic flavor and bouquet.

In June 2003, the journal Nature reported that, at last, science might have solved one of the most vexing problems of the modern age: how to make a cup of decaf coffee that tastes good. By altering the genes of the coffee plant, Japanese scientists have found they can reduce the caffeine content by 70 percent. Scientists say it will take a few more years before they have a product ready to market. Currently, coffee beans go through a punishing ordeal to remove their caffeine. They are soaked in solvents or scraped in machines, losing not only their caffeine, but also many of the compounds that make coffee smell and taste so good to millions of people. Bad as most decaf tastes, it still accounts for about 20 percent of American coffee sales. If the new technology works as hoped, genetically engineered decaf will taste more like full-strength coffee. Unlike more controversial genetic engineering feats, in which genes from one species are added to another, these coffee beans will simply have an existing gene turned off. See also arabica.

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