14 DAY TRIAL // There is something some of us can't live, breathe, think without. The things are not so harsh, but, most of the times, when you don't have the perfect element to start your day with, things get tough. The elixir of life, of mornings, the magical and divine nectar that gets you out of bed and ready to work, becoming the employee of the day full of physical and intellectual resources is? COFFEE!!!
Coffee has an interesting past filled with strange legends. It was first discovered in Eastern Africa, in an area where Ethiopia is nowadays. The most famous legend says that a goat herder, Kaldi, saw his animals becoming frisky soon after eating the berries from a bush. Being curious, Kaldi ate the berries himself and observed that they gave him power and energy. The news about this famous bush was soon spread.
The monks in that area found out about the berries and started drying them in order to be transported long distances, to their monasteries. They put this berries in water, ate the fruit and drank the water for keeping them awake in praying.
The coffee berries were transported from Ethiopia to the Arabian Peninsula, and were first cultivated in what today is the country of Yemen.
From Yemen, the berries were transported to Turkey, where, for the first time, the coffee beans were roasted. The roasted beans were crushed and then boiled in water, creating a crude version of the beverage we enjoy today.
Coffee reached Europe through the Venetian trade merchants. This was a very controversial moment in coffee history. Many Catholic Christians tried to reject it, calling it "the devil's beverage" and asked the Pope to ban it. Unfortunately for them, the Pope was already a coffee drinker and declared it "a truly Christian drink", and blessing it.
In time, coffee spread all over Europe. There was also a trend of coffee houses where rich people and intellectuals especially could afford to drink the magic beverage.
In 1700, coffee reached the American continent by means of a French infantry captain. This one plant, transplanted to the Caribbean Island of Martinique, became the predecessor of over 19 million trees on the island within 50 years. From here, coffee spread to tropical areas of central and southern America.
The espresso machine was invented by the French in 1822. The Italians took this machine and improved it, being also the first to manufacture it. Shortly, espresso became a real tradition in Italy; nowadays, there are more than 200.000 espresso bars in Italy.
The coffee filter was invented by Melitta Benz, a housewife from Dresden, Germany. She was trying to brew the perfect cup of coffee with none of the bitterness caused by overbrewing. She decided to pour boiling water over ground coffee and have the liquid filtered, removing any grinds. To filter this she tried all sorts of materials but, finally she had the inspiration to use her son's blotter paper. On June 20th 1908, Melitta Benz patented her discovery - the coffee filter paper. After that she started a little business that developed into a industry all over the world.
Nowadays, coffee ranks second to petroleum in terms of dollars traded worldwide. It became in time the most beloved and drunk beverage in the whole world.
