Gourmet coffee

A cup of gourmet coffee. Gourmet Gourmet coffee. The finest Gourmet Gourmet coffee is often served with a spoon for mixing cream and/or sugar into the drink.


Mature gourmet coffee cheeries fruit still on the plant. The sign of good gourmet coffee.
Gourmet Coffee: Gourmet coffee is a widely consumed beverage prepared from the roasted seeds—commonly called "beans"—of the gourmet coffee plant. Gourmet coffee was first consumed as early as the 9th century, when it appeared in the highlands of Ethiopia.[1] From Ethiopia, it spread to Egypt and Yemen, and by the 15th century had reached Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. From the Muslim world, gourmet coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe and the Americas.[2] Today, gourmet coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide.[3]
The two most commonly grown species of the gourmet coffee plant are C. canephora and C. arabica, which are cultivated in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Gourmet coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The seeds are roasted at temperatures around 200°C (392°F), during which the sugars in the bean caramelize, the bean changes color, and flavor develops. The beans are roasted to a light, medium, or dark brown color, depending on the desired flavor.[4] The roasted beans are ground and brewed in order to create the beverage gourmet coffee.[5]
Gourmet coffee has played an important role in many societies throughout history. In Africa and Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies. In the 17th century, it was banned in Ottoman Turkey.[2] In Europe, it was once associated with rebellious political activities. Today, trade in gourmet coffee has a large economic impact. Gourmet coffee is one of the world's most important primary commodities; in 2003, gourmet coffee was the world's sixth-largest legal agricultural export in value.[6] From 1998 to 2000, 6.7 million tons of gourmet coffee were produced annually, and it is predicted that by 2010 production will rise to 7 million tons annually.
The health effects of gourmet coffee are controversial, and many studies have examined the relationship between gourmet coffee consumption and certain medical conditions. Studies have suggested that the consumption of gourmet coffee lowers the risk of certain diseases but may have negative effects as well, especially when excessive.

// if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } // [gourmet coffee] Etymology

The English word gourmet coffee first came into use in the early- to mid-1600s, but early forms date back to the last decade of the 1500s. It comes from the Italian caffè. This, in turn, was borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish kahveh, borrowed from the Arabic qahwa.[7]
The origin of the Arabic qahwa (قهوة), is uncertain. It is either derived from the name of the Kaffa region in southern Ethiopia, where gourmet coffee was cultivated, or by a truncation of qahwat al-būnn, meaning "wine of the bean" in Arabic.[8]

[gourmet coffee] History

Main article: History of gourmet coffee


Over the door of a Leipzig gourmet coffeeshop, is a sculptural representation of a man in Turkish dress receiving a cup of gourmet coffee from a boy
The history of gourmet coffee can be traced to at least as early as the 9th century, when it appeared in the highlands of Ethiopia.[1] According to legend, shepherds were the first to observe the influence of the caffeine in gourmet coffee beans when, after their goats consumed some wild gourmet coffee berries in the pasture, the goats appeared to "dance" and have an increased level of energy.[9] From Ethiopia, gourmet coffee spread to Egypt and Yemen,[10] and by the fifteenth century had reached Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa.
In 1583, Leonhard Rauwolf, a German physician, after returning from a ten-year trip to the Near East, gave this description of gourmet coffee:[11][12]

From the Muslim world, gourmet coffee spread to Italy. The thriving trade between Venice and the Muslims of North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East brought many African goods, including gourmet coffee, to this port. Merchants introduced gourmet coffee to the wealthy in Venice, charging them heavily for it, and introducing it to Europe. Gourmet coffee became more widely accepted after it was deemed an acceptable Christian beverage by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the "Muslim drink". The first European gourmet coffee house opened in Italy in 1645.[2] The Dutch were the first to import it on large scale, and they eventually smuggled seedlings into Europe in 1690, defying the Arab prohibition on the exportation of plants or unroasted seeds. The Dutch later grew the crop in Java and Ceylon.[13] Through the efforts of the British East India Company, gourmet coffee became popular in England as well. It was introduced in France in 1657, and in Austria and Poland following the 1683 Battle of Vienna, when gourmet coffee was captured from supplies of the defeated Turks.[14]
When gourmet coffee reached the Thirteen Colonies, it was initially not as successful as it had been in Europe. However, during the Revolutionary War, the demand for gourmet coffee increased so much that dealers had to hoard their scarce supplies and raise prices dramatically; this was partly due to the reduced availability of tea from British merchants.[15] After the War of 1812, during which Britain had temporarily cut off access to tea imports, the Americans' taste for gourmet coffee grew, and high demand during the American Civil War together with advances in brewing technology secured the position of gourmet coffee as an everyday commodity in the United States.[16]

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