History of Coffee - Part 2

How was this first coffee?
Coffee was actually first used as a solid, food-like substance! Only later was it used as a beverage. The Arabian nomads would mix the coffee beans together with other meats, fats, and beans to form a hard, oval shaped cake. The nomads would take these cakes with them on long journeys. It is thought that the caffeine in the coffee was used to keep the nomads awake-sort-of an ancient Arabian No-Doz!
The Arabs were very superstitious about the plant. They thought that if they showed it to anyone, the seed would not germinate. The Arabs had a monopoly on coffee for several generations, prohibiting the export of the green beans, or seeds. They kept the plant a secret from the rest of the world because they believed the plant had great powers.
The Arab’s coffee monopoly was finally broken in the 17th century when an Indian pilgrim names Smygloud Badu Budam smuggled seven seeds into India. The trees grew like mad there, and the monopoly was finally broken.
The First coffee blend was created by the Dutch
In 1696, a governor of the Dutch East India Company sent the first Arabian coffee seedling to the Dutch colony of Java. The Dutch became the first Europeans to grow coffee, and coffee was on its way to becoming a world-wide product. The Java coffees of that day were excellent and considered the world’s best coffees, second only to the Arabian Mochas.
The Dutch were very enterprising and managed to find a new market by creating a new concept in coffee- the coffee blend. They took the two most popular coffees and mixed them together to male “Mocha Java,” the world’s oldest coffee blend. Have you heard of it?

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Chris