Coffee, wonderful coffee

As I brewed the cup, the dork in me went “Seriously, who thought this up?  Genius.”

Of course, the interweb and all it’s tubes bring answers.  Near as anyone can tell, coffee was first used as a food, probably in Northern Africa where the fruit was crushed and mixed with fat.  The shrub is said to have originated in the Kaffa province of Ethiopia.  No one really knows how people started roasting the beans, grinding them up and filtering water through them.  If I live to see time travel, I’m definitely going back to thank that particular goat herder.

Somewhere near the 15th century, the beverage we know had been developed in Arabia and over the next 200 years spread through Europe.  As to why we Americans drink so much, tea fell out of favor in the Colonies after the Boston Tea party was publicized.  We needed our stimulants, so we turned to coffee, the trade of which was not controlled by England.

Fast-forward to today: Whenever you see “100% Arabica Beans” on a bag of coffee, you’re getting more flavor and less caffeine.  Almost all decent coffee today is arabica.  The other dominant strain of coffee plant is robusta, which generally doesn’t taste good unless given special processing, but contains twice as much caffeine.  Robusta shrubs grow in places arabica will not, so it hangs on.  It’s used primarily as a filler in blends, and a small amount of robusto is what gives espresso that foamy quality and bitter taste.  Instant coffee is often made with robusta, which is probably half the reason it tastes awful.  In the late 90’s, Vietnam started floodng the market with cheap robusto beans, resulting in a market crash in 2001.  Coffee went from $3.00/lb to $.043/lb.  How come I didn’t see any changes in prices at the store?  Thieving bastards.  ;) The market is recovering slowly, with demand for Arabica driving up prices (and quality).  Still haven’t broken a dollar a pound though.  Coffee used to be regulated by the International Coffee Organization, but now the markets in New York, London and Tokyo dictate price and quantity.

After writing that, it occurs to me; All blogs are written by dorks who actually liked doing book reports in school.  Excuse me while I go get a hooker and snort some H off her ass to try to regain some level of cool.

Posted by JimK at 12:15 PM on September 24, 2006
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