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in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Aceh is internationally known for its popular varieties of coffee. Arabica Gayo and Robusta. Photo: Hotli Simanjuntak
José; Miguel Coleto Martínez, professor of Plant Production at the University of Extremadura, tells EFE how “the history of coffee begins in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originates from and where the legend of a shepherd who observed the to the goats of him eat the fruits of himand that, in this way, they were stimulated, so he deduced that they could have exciting properties.
“After the disaster of the Ceylon coffee plantations, John Brown, Queen Victoria after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, advises the monarch to carry out a national advertising campaign, the first to be carried out for a food product, so that the entire British empire would drink tea instead of coffee”, explains the engineer.
ofJamaica is the most expensive and those of Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil are the best considered. depending on the processing system; the fruit of the coffee it is like a cherry and what is used is the stone, the rest is pulp, bark and skin. In processing, what is eliminated is the pulp and the bone and the shell remain; then there is drying where the shell is removed, after which a coffee is obtained. of one quality or another”, emphasizes Coleto.
José; Miguel Coleto Martínez, professor of Plant Production at the University of Extremadura, in the School of Agricultural Engineering, describes to EFE the history of coffee. which, in parallel, has walked alongside the history of the world for many centuries, but with different processes and results depending on where it stopped.
“The history of coffee; It begins in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originates from and where the legend of a shepherd who observed it was born. His goats eat his fruits and that, in this way, they are stimulated, so he deduced that they could have exciting properties, “says Coleto.
“But the first documented historical certainty– continues the engineer- he is from the Yemeni port. Moca (Moka, later the name of a type of coffee), where Sudanese slaves sold in Yemen ate green beans from the coffee tree to withstand the hard work they were subjected to and, from there, Yemenis started cultivating it in the 15th century.”
From Yemen he passed I went to Mecca which, at that time, was a very busy place and where the first coffee shops were established in the 15th century. However, “the Arabs prevented the export of the fertile grains of the coffee tree so that it would not be grown anywhere else and thus keep the secret that was inside the fruit of the coffee tree.”
The first European coffee shop, in Saint Mark’s Square in Venice
According to José Miguel Coleto “in the 17th century, the Dutch obtained fertile grains and began to cultivate them on the island of Java (Indonesia) and, at the beginning of the 18th century, coffee grew. Dutch, of Indonesian origin, is already supplied to Europe, although the first ones who brought coffee The Venetians entered the European continent, around the year 1600, and it was in Venice that it was opened. the first European coffee shop, the café ‘Florián’, in the Plaza de San Marcos, which opened It opened its doors in 1720, and where you can still have a coffee today, although at a price of gold.”
He came to America the coffee hand in hand with the French, in the 17th century, who planted it on the island of Martinique, where they saw that coffee it acclimatized very well, since it is a very demanding plant and there Where it is grown, a series of very specific weather conditions must be present.
From Martinique he passed to Jamaica, which was in the hands of the English, and later to Cuba, to Puerto Rico, to the entire Spanish and Portuguese empire. For climatic reasons, the coffee settled down in Central America, and Colombia and Brazil were the areas where it spread the most. your crop.
“The coffee tree is an exotic plant that in order to produce it needs a minimum temperature of 12 degrees and a maximum of 35, an adequate degree of humidity and an altitude between 1,000 and 2,000 meters, so that the areas The areas in which it can be grown are quite restricted, narrow strips between the equator and the tropics”, indicates the researcher.
In the 19th century there was an enormous struggle between tea and the tropics. and coffee, above all, in the British empire. “In the Spanish and American empires they drank coffee, but the British empire did not produce enough coffee, because, although it had numerous colonies, they only produced it in Jamaica, so ; They had to buy it from other countries”, adds Coleto.
The British empire led coffee cultivation In 1799 to Ceylon (current Sri Lanka), where they realized that, due to its climatic conditions, it was cultivated very well, so they extended its extensive cultivation throughout the island so as not to depend on other empires, such as the Portuguese. ;s or Spanish.
The unstoppable disaster of ‘ROYA’
The engineer points out that “at that time in the British empire they drank their coffee in a proportion of 60 percent versus 40 percent who drank tea. But in 1867 came the the disaster and in a few weeks the fungus of coffee rust. he destroyed it everything, so they had to resort to coffee again. of foreign empires”.
“We are in the Victorian era, with the exaltation of all things British and their conquest of India. After the Ceylon disaster, John Brown, companion of Queen Victoria after the death of her husband, Prince Albert, advises the monarch to carry out a national advertising campaign, the first to be carried out in a food product, so that the entire British empire would drink tea. instead of coffee”.
In this way, the English changed the coffee for tea, also with stimulating properties, induced by patriotism and not to depend on coffee. Foreign. “They converted the coffee plantations into Ceylon in tea, they spread them throughout Indonesia and India, and the statistics changed, in such a way that they began to drink 6 cups of tea every day. for each one of coffee. Thus, today tea is drunk. of the ‘5’ in the British Empire, New Zealand and Australia”, explains the researcher.
La Roya passed They quickly spread from Ceylon to India and the Philippines, then to the islands of Java and Madagascar, where they ruined the coffee plantations. It later moved, in 1886, to Africa and Oceania, where it also wreaked havoc. Already in 1966 passed to Central America and in the decades of the 70s and 80s of the last century came Brazil and Colombia, but then time had already been given to research to alleviate this problem.
Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil, the best-regarded coffees
the coffee Jamaica is the most expensive, and the best considered are those of Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil. “Your difference is depending on the processing system; the fruit of the coffee it is like a cherry and what is used is the stone, the rest is pulp, bark and skin. In the processing, what is eliminated is the pulp and the bone and the shell remain; then there is drying where the shell is removed, after which a coffee is obtained. of one quality or another”, emphasizes Coleto.
Normally, the producing countries tend to export this grain already cured to the coffee-consuming areas. that cannot grow it due to weather conditions, such as the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia, where what is done is roasting, grinding and preparing it for packaging.
The engineer argues that “in roasting, it depends on the temperature to which it is subjected, 200 degrees, 180 , etc. the coffee will be more or less strong. If it gets too hot, the caffeine decreases more. The way of roasting gives it a certain flavor and aroma. There is also roasted coffee, which must be indicated on the label, in which roasting is done with a layer of sugar and so on. it turns out a coffee very strong”.
The coffee is very strong. The one that has reached all corners of the world as an almost essential stimulant is “a very important diuretic, with a clear stimulant, caffeine, in addition to being a great antioxidant. It increases blood pressure, so people who suffer from blood pressure problems should moderate their consumption, but there are many of us who need it even to wake up”, concludes José. Miguel Coleto.