Saudi Gazette

 

Coffee in the morning is a quick pick-me-up to keep us alert and charged for the working day. Later on, in the afternoon it can be more of a delightful ritual to unleash creative powers, to read, to take a brief respite from demands and just drown in that hazelnut flavored cappuccino, or to slowly sip some Turkish coffee while talking with a friend or family member.

 

Each culture has their own way of preparing it; coffee in all of its forms is absolutely delicious and energizing but its aroma is so comforting and soothing. Italy has given us espresso; Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region lightly roast their coffee beans which are coarsely ground and then brewed slowly, with the addition of cardamom at the end. Turkish coffee is the beverage of choice not only for the Turks but also the Syrians and Lebanese, served in the famous copper coffee pot. We are forever indebted to the Austrians for their invention of espresso topped with foamy milk - cappuccino. And nothing can pair up better with blueberry pancakes than a cup of American black coffee with just a hint of creamer, plain and simple.   

 

Without rival, coffee is the most popular drink worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year. Even the Brits, who are strong tea loyalists, spent £730 on coffee last year. Statistics show that the average American coffee-drinker drinks about 3.1 cups of coffee per day.

 

The next time you are in your favorite coffee shop, breathing in the smell of freshly brewed coffee, take a moment to reflect on the fact that it was the Muslims who first introduced coffee to the world and brought coffee to our family tables. It wasn’t exactly the caramel iced mocha frappe that is part of today’s coffee craze, but the Muslims were the first to make a coffee drink.

 

According to the historical records, coffee beans were first boiled and brewed as a drink in Yemen in the 1400s and its popularity spread rapidly in Arabia. From the Arabian Peninsula, coffee spread among Muslims to Cairo and the Middle East. Coffee helped keep worshipers awake into late hours of the night for prayer, and scholars for studying. It was good at keeping sleep at bay, to prolong the hours of learning and worship. Coffee soon became an integral part of religious, family, and social life in the Muslim world.   

 

In 1554, Istanbul’s first coffeehouse opened. Coffeehouses specializing in this new tantalizing drink began springing up in major cities of the Muslim world: Cairo, Istanbul, Damascus, and Baghdad. In coffeehouses, people sipped the dark, bitter coffee while socializing, holding poetry competitions, playing backgammon and chess, and also discussing theology, government, politics, economics, and more.

 

The drink found its way into Europe through the important city of commerce, Venice. Coffee was gaining popularity among the people but it was controversial and highly criticized by religious authorities in Europe.

According to a report in The National Geographic, “As the coffee craze rumbled across Europe, devote Catholics denounced it as the drink of the infidels, and therefore sinful.”

 

In one of his articles, David Alvarez, who is Associate Professor of English at DePauw University and has a PhD in British literature from Cornell University, wrote that to the Europeans, coffee was considered foreign, decadent, effeminate, and it was the drink of the Islamic Ottoman Empire. To drink coffee was ‘to turn Turk’.

 

Although coffee was initially denounced by Catholic authorities as the ‘Muslim drink’, its taste and fragrance was too overpowering to resist and it eventually became a part of European culture. The first coffeehouse in London was opened in 1652. The European coffee houses of the 1600s was where philosophers met and discussed issues such as the rights of man, the role of government, and democracy. Some of the greatest European thinkers were heavy coffee drinkers. With coffee came the most powerful intellectual movements of the modern world.

 

After learning the history behind coffee, I will never look at my cup of cappuccino, sprinkled with powdered cocoa and cinnamon, the same way.