THIS DELICIOUS SATAN’S DRINK

Banned, baptised, outlawed and used as grounds for divorce, coffee has stood the test of time. In celebration of International Coffee Day today, here are some facts about the much-loved brew

Thank the goats for discovering coffee

While the origins of coffee remain murky, it’s believed that what we have come to know as coffee beans were discovered by a goat herder in Ethiopia in 800AD. On finding his goats to be giddy after eating the berries from a certain shrub, he decided to try it for himself and discovered the energising properties of caffeine.

Coffee doesn’t come from beans after all

Coffee doesn’t come from a bean but from the seed of what presents as a berry on coffea trees. Before coffee became a popular drink, the berries were ground and mixed with animal fat and eaten as food by some East African tribes.

What does the name have to do with wine?

If you trace the history of the word “coffee”, it’s suggested it derives from the Dutch koffie, which is derived from the Turkish word kahve, which was borrowed from the Arabic word qahwah, a traditional Arabic wine. As the story goes, the pulp of the coffea trees’ green cherries was fermented to make a potent tonic. Others say the word qahwa derives even further from the word kaffa, the name of the region in Ethiopia where the coffee plant is thought to have originated.

Coffee has been outlawed on numerous occasions and at one stage consumption was punishable by death

In 1511, the governor of Mecca, Khair Beg, banned coffee, believing it to be a dangerous substance which promoted radical thinking. Members of the clergy tried to label coffee as “satanic” in the 16th century, believing it capable of corrupting those who enjoyed it. But Pope Clement VIII saved the day when he decided that he liked it and baptised it as a Christian drink in around 1600, declaring: “This Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.” In 1675, England’s Charles II issued a “Proclamation for the Suppression of Coffee-Houses” that banned coffee houses and the selling of coffee. The public was outraged and the ban didn’t last long. In the 1600s an Ottoman ruler, Murad IV, outlawed coffee, believing it to be a narcotic, and made coffee houses illegal. At the peak of insanity, coffee consumption carried a death penalty. In Sweden, coffee was banned five times between 1756 and 1817 for various reasons, including health concerns and deeming the beverage to be too foreign. In the 1700s, Frederick the Great of Prussia — a staunch beer lover — established a state monopoly over coffee imports after blaming the decline of beer consumption on the increase of coffee consumption.

When coffee is grounds for divorce

Before coffee was outlawed by Murad IV, a wife in the Ottoman Empire could divorce her husband if she thought he was not providing her with enough coffee. Bizarrely, despite the country’s often-cited lack of women’s rights, women in Saudi Arabia are still allowed to divorce their husbands if they do not present them with coffee every morning.

R1,500 for a cup of coffee?

Two of the most expensive types of coffees are made from animal droppings. Black Ivory coffee will set you back R57,000 p/kg and is made from coffee cherries which have been partly digested by Thai elephants. A single package with enough coffee for two mugs is now being sold for $150 (about R2,860). Produced in Indonesia, Kopi Luwak coffee can cost up to R25,000 per kilogram. In South Africa, a 250g bag can be bought for R850. It is made from coffee beans eaten by palm civets, digested, defecated and then roasted, producing a naturally fermented, distinctive flavour.