History of Coffee - Documentary

[Music] coffee over 125 million people today are in some form employed in the industry surrounding it worldwide helping to bring the world the 400 billion cups of coffee it consumes each year many in fact consider having at least a morning cup of coffee a necessary part of having a productive day or at least a stable one the main reason for this unless you're drinking decaf is the famous invigorating and generally safe drug called caffeine coffee has helped to fuel mankind in its various pursuits for centuries but how long exactly where did coffee come from and how did it take over the world ladies and gentlemen hello and welcome to fire of learning i'm justin in this video we will be exploring the fascinating origins of coffee before we begin i'd like to thank lamia buchrisse eric raider beth baird mike fantasia stephen colona michael mcginnis nicola lonesha everett white anubis anarchy faceless buster david md lynnae casperson blaine arahara carolis and alan hastie for being our most recent supporters on patreon they joined these supporters who helped make these videos possible also a past patron had his name mispronounced jacob sewers is actually jacob sivers this video is an improved remake of a video i did years ago now then let's get to it many societies such as the united states home to many of the world's most famous coffee house chains consider coffee to be a central part of their dietary culture however though caffeine itself has been consumed by humans in some form since before recorded history for most of human history coffee itself was unknown to the world the story begins in the late middle ages and early modern era with the berries of a small tree native to aromia a region of what is today the east african nation of ethiopia this is the homeland of the kefaya plant when exactly people first stumbled upon and consumed the berries of the kefaya plant and felt the stimulating effects of the red berries or cherries is not known one legend attributes the discovery to an ethiopian goat herder named kaldi who lived sometime between the 6th and 9th century one day he noticed some of his goats had become quite energetic after chewing on the red berries of an unfamiliar shrub made curious by his dancing goats he dried the berries for himself and felt these energizing effects believing his discovery to be quite important he took the berries to a local monk the monk however rejected them and cast them into a nearby fire however the smell of the roasting coffee seeds within the berries which are usually called beans although they're technically not caught his attention as well as the attention of other nearby monks the beans were taken from the fire ground up and mixed into a cup of water thus the first cup of coffee this story which seems to come from european writers from the late 1600s is probably much more legend than history one of a handful of legends pertaining to the discovery of coffee in fact no one knows who first discovered the effects of coffee and we likely never will however it is certainly quite possible that the true story is not too dissimilar caffeine is a deadly poison to insects it's believed that caffeine naturally functioned as a pesticide overloading the nervous system of insects causing them to die before they could consume a large portion of the plant however that same effect on a much larger creature like a human or perhaps a goat is a much more survivable and enjoyable experience one way or another ethiopian locals likely the gala tribe discovered this effect of the coffee berry however it does not appear that they were the first to make a drink from the seeds rather that appears to have happened in the nearby islamic world like in africa it appears that the arabs first chewed the beans and made drinks from them which historians believe were quite different from modern coffee this may have begun sometime around the 10th century or so the persian scholar al-razi seems to have mentioned the stimulating effects of the berries around this time the arabs called the drink they made from the berries kabla a word interestingly related to their word for wine and likely the origin of the modern word for coffee across most languages when they began making coffee in its modern form is not known but it seems to have been sometime between the 10th and 15th century there is clear written evidence of the consumption of coffee in the islamic world by at least the 15th century a drink which they again gave the same name as the other drink kabua according to bennett alan weinberg and bonnie k beeler in the world of caffeine the earliest certain appearance of coffee in its modern form comes from the mid-15th century in the monasteries of sufi monks in yemen which was just across the red sea they also note there is a strange lack of discussion about coffee beans or potentially coffee itself the beans being called boone or booncham between the 10th and 15th centuries with the exception of folk accounts such as that of the sheik omar his story is another one pertaining to the supposed discovery of coffee he is said to have survived off the berries and the drink he brewed from them after having been banished men introduced him to his people in the 12th century why this 500 year gap regarding the discussion of coffee exists is yet another coffee mystery anyway it appears to have reached the city of moca in modern day yemen by that time it soon reached nearby mecca from there mecca being a mecca of the islamic world after all it spread out across the middle east and north africa interestingly coffee initially had a religious significance to many muslims especially the sufis who used it to assist in fasting during ramadan as well as to aid them in staying awake at night for prayers it was also believed to have carried many medicinal benefits some of which though not all of course scientists today know consuming it really does have quite quickly though in a society which forbade alcohol it became a drink of the common people for normal casual use what followed were places for men men of all classes but men only to congregate and consume the beverage these were the first coffee houses women could consume coffee at home though in some circumstances they were allowed to sing at coffee houses provided they were hidden from view these coffee houses became places of both relaxation and games but also serious discussion and argument not everyone approved however other muslims felt that the ban on intoxicants such as alcohol mentioned in the quran should apply to coffee as well furthermore coffee houses became sources of trouble centers of debauchery forbidden by islamic law and hotbeds of political unrest indeed at certain points and in certain places such as the city of mecca in 1511 coffee and coffee house bands were enacted forcing the trade and consumption underground in some cases trading and consuming coffee was punishable by death the spread to the christian world seems to have come via the burgeoning ottoman empire which ruled over parts of europe and much of the middle east the ottomans conquered yemen in 1536. syrians introduced coffee to the capital of constantinople in the 1550s and the turks became very enthusiastic about it many european merchants and travelers first observed it there tried it on some occasions and sometimes wrote of it coffee's gradual introduction to europe appears to have been through both war and trade in 1565 the ottomans attempted to conquer the island of malta they were defeated however by the knights of saint john they took ottoman soldiers as slaves who introduced the maltese to coffee decades later the venetians became interested in the drink and acquired it through trade becoming the first to introduce the drink to the continent throughout the late 1500s coffee quickly spread to many other parts of europe england france the other italians and the dutch were especially interested the people of europe began to search for the plant which produced these wonderful new beings the dutch were the first to succeed in 1616 when a sly merchant peter van der brooke acquired them while in the city of moca this was no simple task the yaminis guarded their coffee supply closely requiring that any beans which left the area be boiled or roasted to prevent germination however peter was not the first to succeed in smuggling them a muslim pilgrim had already succeeded in bringing them to india by taping the seeds to his stomach under his clothes still burka's success was of great importance to his people he took them back to his home in the netherlands where he began to successfully grow them however such cold climates as northern europe are not ideal for large-scale coffee production thankfully for the dutch however in this time they were in the business of acquiring tropical colonies such as the island of sri lanka south of india the island of java in indonesia and suriname in south america the dutch east india company spearheaded european coffee production in these areas in the late 16 and early 1700s fueling europe's new coffee addiction for many years other european empires would follow suit in their warmer colonies as well in 1720 gabrielle de clau brought coffee to the island of martinique legend says he introduced it to the island and kept it alive on a ship by sharing his limited water ration with it though in truth others may have already brought it there much of the coffee drink around the world arabica is said to be descended from his plants arabica by the way is one of the four main varieties of coffee drank around the world to this day accounting for about 65 percent of production the other main one being robusta which makes up much of the remainder liberica and excelsa are somewhat rarer anyway coffee was also farmed by the slaves of the french colony of sandaming modern-day haiti which would later begin to produce massive amounts of coffee as well the first european coffeehouses opened in venice in 1645 the rest of europe followed suit with thousands of copy houses springing up throughout the continent in the subsequent decades european coffeehouses were not quite as rowdy as the middle eastern counterparts as they already had pubs with alcohol for that thus they were more likely to become centers of intellectual culture however that does not mean they were not centers of trouble at all coffee houses were frequent meeting places for those seeking to discuss new ideas new ideas which often contradicted the ideas of ruling political elites in 1675 charles ii the son of a king who had had his head cut off by political dissidents after a civil war attempted to shut down coffeehouses throughout england but retracted his order when the public outcry was too great likewise french enlightenment philosophers were later known for gathering in coffee houses in the years prior to the french revolution coffee wasn't always popular with those supportive of the enlightenment however in his book uncommon grounds mark pendergast shares a quote from frederick the great the 18th century king of prussia and by the way friend of the enthusiastic coffee addict voltaire in which he denounced it he was recorded to have said it is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects and the like amount of money that goes out of the country in consequence my people must drink beer his majesty was brought up on beer and so were his ancestors and quote he then banned the roasting of coffee outside of government establishments for four years old fritz was known for being a bit of a curmudgeon in frederick's defense importing coffee to prussia was costly others however believed the coffee had helped to bring sobriety to their countries and were glad to see the change like in the islamic world christians initially also had religious concerns about coffee though their concerns were not as strong they did have concerns about a muslim drink becoming popular among their people however when pope clement viii tried it around the year 1600 he gave it his blessing it is claimed and it may or not be true that he said quote why this satan's drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it we shall cheat satan by baptizing it and making it a truly christian beverage end quote and thus the catholic world especially italy and eventually france accepted coffee and never looked back the italians in particular would become creative with coffee inventing many ways of having it including espresso in victorian england christian prohibitionists encouraged coffee houses as an alternative to alcohol a few branches of christianity however eventually did decide against coffee most famously the mormons in 1683 a massive ottoman army attempted to conquer the austrian capital of vienna at the battle of vienna they were defeated by a combined christian force who upon pillaging the ottoman army camps found coffee initially they assumed it was camel food so they burned it but thankfully for them a commander who had lived in the ottoman empire for a time recognized the smell this helped coffee's immediate spread throughout central and eastern europe coffee was very well received throughout europe however throughout this time it should be remembered that coffee was in competition with tea for which the british for example developed preference this was the case in their american colonies as well that is of course until the tea act was placed upon them after american patriots held the boston tea party in 1773 tea became a symbol of royal tyranny and americans began to prefer coffee which they still do to this day though it was expensive and less common in america in those days for example in 1774 john adams wrote to his wife abigail saying quote t must be universally renounced and i must be weaned the sooner the better caffeine was first separated from coffee by friedlib ferdinand runge in 1819 at the suggestion of johann wolfgang von gotta coffee only reached isolationistic japan in 1858 in the end the king of coffee plantations would be brazil coffee became popular there after the country gained independence from portugal in 1822. large tracts of the amazon were cleared to make way for coffee production by 1852 brazil was leading the world in terms of coffee production much of this was through slave labor in fact coffee production played a large role in making brazil the last country in the americas to abolish slavery not doing so until 1888 and only then in part because paid labor from europe became cheaper to this day the large warm and fertile country of brazil remains the world's largest coffee producer from 1850 until 1950 in fact it exported more coffee than the rest of the world combined since then other countries namely vietnam colombia indonesia and of course ethiopia have begun to increase production each of these countries lies between the tropics of cancer and capricorn or what's called the coffee belt a geographical belt stretching around the planet where conditions are ideal for growing coffee today brazil produces one third of all the world's coffee in the industrial era when coffee production became more bountiful coffee began to move from being a drink more often than not associated with the upper classes to one which fueled working people in their gruesome labor conditions to this day common folk fuel their labor across a wide variety of fields with coffee though as i mentioned brazil produces coffee at great levels proportionally speaking finland drinks more coffee than any other country at over 26 pounds per capita per year the rest of scandinavia has high consumption levels as well if you consider finland scandinavia anyway of the american states new york is the most interested in coffee today coffee's popularity is stronger than ever man it doesn't appear likely that that popularity is going anywhere with so many people consuming so much coffee many wonder how exactly is coffee affecting our health coffee has been viewed as a drug since its beginnings indeed in its early days it was perhaps viewed more as a drug than as a comestible in its early days it was said to cause impotence sterility exhaustion dry up cerebrospinal fluid and eventually cause paralysis inversely others said that it was a remedy for plague and that it prevented stillbirths these claims weren't exactly scientific but modern science has shown that there are a number of benefits and drawbacks to coffee some of which were indeed suggested by the people of the past overall coffee is considered very safe when consumed at normal amounts i.e on average three to four cups a day each cup of normal coffee contains about 95 milligrams of caffeine almost four times the amount in a cup of tea we all know people who would call that rookie numbers though that amount may be too high for pregnant women coffee intake may be associated with low birth rate or even miscarriage but the science on this is not very clear overall coffee may be more beneficial to human health than harmful many studies show coffee drinkers seem to live longer than non-drinkers and are at lower risk for a whole list of diseases whether or not this is causal that is to say whether or not coffee itself is actually causing people to live longer and be healthier or if it's co-correlated with something else is unclear coffee may also improve gastrointestinal health lift mood and as many are well aware give an individual a feeling of increased energy still coffee is not very nutritional in itself and it can have negative effects especially when consumed in excess or consumed by individuals suffering from disorders such as gerd anxiety disorder or much more seriously an unruptured aneurysm in case you were wondering on average it would take about 70 cups of coffee or over 4 gallons at once to kill a healthy adult though you would likely begin feeling extremely unpleasant before even nearing that number and find yourself unable to go through with it in fact you would likely die from water intoxication well before caffeine overdose more concentrated forms of caffeine have been deadly however so be careful about combining coffee with other stronger sources of caffeine i hope you enjoyed this video if so i invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe for more videos like this in the future to help with the cost of producing these videos a donation on patreon would be a big help a special thanks to our patrons once again listed here we are also on instagram and i run a science channel called lusinox which you may want to check out too sources are listed in the description history of spain part 2 is coming thank you for watching alright well i'm going to grab a cup of tea

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 321,217

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Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 14 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/CrispyJelly]

Interesting video and really good as mealtime video. I like it when there is something happening on the screen when I look up but not a constant need to watch.