Arab origins of Coffee

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The UK alone drinks around 95 million cups of coffee a day.

That is 1.4 cups a person every day😲

But do you know where the first cup of coffee came from?

Take a guess.

South America? No.

South Asia? No.

Europe? Definitely not!

The right answer is

Drum Roll please 🥁

The Middle East. More specifically, Yemen 🇾🇪

Interested in the story?

Let’s take a trip to 15th-century Yemen. 

The coffee bean was native to East Africa. Initially, it was consumed as berries or flours in modern-day Ethiopia. However, in the town of Mocha, Yemen, traders figured out that coffee beans can be brewed into an exciting beverage! And the name of your Mocha coffee comes from this city. In particular, it was popular amongst Sufi Saints in Yemen who drank coffee to stay awake during the night-long meditation and recitation rituals.

During the earlier days of globalisation, Coffee culture spread across the Middle East and Turkey by the early 1500s. By the early 1600s, coffee was known from Morocco to India. The spread of Coffee was thanks to trade and pilgrimage routes.

Next, Europeans fell in love with coffee. Venetian merchants were one of the first to import coffee from Turkey. Soon, it became loved across Italy. Next time you enjoy Italian classics like Cappuccino or Espresso, remember they wouldn't exist without the Arab world. 

But why isn’t coffee associated with the Arab world?

 

Yemen struggled to keep with growing global demand for coffee. So, by the 18th century, colonial entities like Britain’s East India Company and the Dutch East India Company transformed coffee into a global commodity, and pushed it away from its Arab roots. They imported coffee seeds into their colonial territories and coerced subjects to cultivate coffee. So, the Arab world relinquished its market dominance and its prominent role in shaping coffee culture. From a monopoly, Yemen currently only produces 0.1% of the world’s coffee.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a time machine to take you back to the 15th Century to experience the world’s first cup of coffee.  

But we can offer you arabica coffee beans (similar to the ones enjoyed by the Sufi Saints). With Bakkali, a cup of arabica coffee won’t even cost £0.25 per cup. Be energised throughout your day, Arab-style! 

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