Coffee's mystical origins in Yemen

In the average American city, other than fast food, what business seems to outnumber any other? Coffee.

And whom do we thank for this precious, bitter brew? Arabs.

It’s no coincidence “Arabica” is what we call today’s dominant coffee bean — well, more a fruit pit than a bean, but I digress.

Coffee is produced in hot climes such as Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Indonesia. Like tobacco and cocoa, coffee also became popular in Europe around the 16th and 17th centuries, before being exported to North America.

But that was long after it was developed near the Red Sea, where coffee’s story begins.

According to a 2013 BBC News Magazine story by historian John McHugo, coffee was first cultivated in Yemen. Yemenis named it “qahwa,” meaning wine in old Arabic, from which the English words coffee and café both derive.

Why name it for wine? Coffee’s buzz was first meant to be spiritual. Sufi mystics in Yemen used coffee as an aid to concentration and, on occasion, as a spiritual intoxicant when they chanted the name of God.

By 1500, coffee-drinking, while still associated with Sufis, had spread to Mecca and Egypt from the Yemeni port of Mocha.

Catch that? Mmm... mochas. I’ll come back to it.

Clusters of coffee houses sprouted in Cairo (at first near a religious university campus), followed by Aleppo in Syria and the Ottoman Empire’s capital of Istanbul in 1554. Just like the East’s popular tea houses of today, in 16th century coffee houses men gathered to talk, listen to poets, and play chess or backgammon. They became a focus for intellectual life.

Ironically, while coffee started with one religion, other religious authorities tried to ban it.

After all, coffee does tend to excite. I’m tempted to stop this right now and grab a cappuccino.

Sheikhs and scholars of old likened coffee’s effects to those of alcohol (well, aptly named then, wasn’t it?), which was of course forbidden in Islam. A few considered coffee worse than wine, believing coffee houses could easily become “dens of sedition.” That view may have been more a feeling of competition, as men were gathering somewhere other than the local mosque.

Thank goodness that was the minority opinion and coffee drinking flourished. In fact, coffee is truly blessed. Around 1600, Pope Clement VIII reportedly so enjoyed a cup that he baptized it.

International trade sent coffee to Europe overland via the Ottoman Empire, and by sea from that first coffee port of Mocha. Both the English and Dutch East India Companies (who eventually brought it to us) were regular buyers at Mocha.

While today’s largest producers are Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia, it’s still produced in the Middle East in smaller quantities, and widely consumed. When served — along with tea — to guests in Arab homes, it’s often flavored with spices such as cardamom or saffron, which is actually quite lovely. (Many thanks to Abdul H. for making it for us and inspiring this column).

•••

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who grew up with tea but enjoys her addictions to both. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.