Tata Coffee

No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness. — Sheik Abd-al-Kadir There are varied and engaging legends of contingent occurrences in the history of the elixir that we know as coffee. The Arabs called it 'Qahweh' which means wine and the Turks called it 'Kahveh'. The word became 'Caffe' in Italian, 'Café' in French and Spanish, 'Koffie' to the Dutch, 'Kopi' in Indonesia and 'Kaffee' in Germany and translating into English as Coffee in 1598. As one such story goes concerning the origin of coffee, the most popular story involves an Abyssinian goatherd called Kaldi. Legend has it that one day while tending his sheep he noticed that his goats were behaving in an unconventional manner and had suddenly become exceptionally lively. Upon investigating their exuberant and unlikely behaviour of skipping and rearing on their hind legs bleating loudly, he found that his goats were nibbling the bright red berries from a dark-leafed shrub nearby. Curious, he tried a few himself and was astonished to feel extraordinarily stimulated and invigorated. Immediately, he filled his pockets with the ripe berries, believing he had discovered a miracle, and rushed to the monastery to show the monk and related to him his discovery of their miraculous effect. The monk, upon hearing the story, was convinced the berries were from the devil himself, pronounced them to be evil and threw the berries into the fire. Soon, the monastery was filled with the heavenly, exotic and irresistible aroma of roasting beans which spurred the monk to rake the berries out of the fire and throw them into a bowl of water for cooling. After a short while, he tasted the water where the berries were 'brewing' and vowed to drink the brew daily to help keep him awake during his extended hours of prayers. top Another story involves an Arabian by the name of Sheikh Omar who was banished, with his followers, into a desert near Mocha to live like recluses. Starving and desperate for food, Sheikh Omar and his followers boiled and ate a fruit from an unknown plant which helped them survive the rigours of the desert. Amazed at seeing Sheikh Omar and friends live through the ordeal, the people of the nearby town of Mocha asked him to administer his 'special brew' to the locals who were suffering from a mysterious ailment. When they were cured, the townsfolk took it to be a sign from heaven and thus the plant was named after the town as a tribute to this event, Mocha. These legends do have an aura of enchantment around them. However, recent botanical evidence suggest that the coffee bean seem to have originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia, located in the Horn of Africa. The Africans used the beans as a form of food, where they combined ground berries with animal fat, made into round balls which they carried and consumed during long journeys. These balls proved to be a source of nutrition. Somehow, the coffee beans made their way to Yemen across the Red Sea where it has been cultivated since the 6th century. The first mention of coffee in Arabia is that of its use as a medicine, and later consumed as beverages during meditation. The Turks were the first to brew coffee and to take it as a drink, habitually adding spices such as cinnamon, clove and cardamom to enhance the rich taste of coffee. Throughout Arabia, 'Qahweh' (coffee) houses sprung up by the 13th century and it became a popular hang out, where music was played and people from all walks of life such as artists, tradesmen, philosophers and politicians, all gathered to drink coffee. This culture became a passion throughout Arabia and Turkey. Voyagers and merchants from Europe tasted the novel drink and took news of it back home, but the coffee plant was jealously guarded by the Arabs. They would not allow any fertile plants to leave the country. The beans were, in fact, roasted to prevent germination. In the 17th century, however, an Indian Sufi saint, affectionately called Baba Budan by all, on a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in Arabia, was sufficiently roused by the stimulating drink not only to become a coffee aficionado but was innervated enough to defy the law and smuggle seven seeds by hiding them in his robes. These seeds, legends say, were the native plants from the Koffa district of Abyssinia and were planted in Chikmagalur, which is located in the highest ranges in northern reaches of Karnataka in South India. The descendants of those original plants are still growing fruitfully in the region. Coffee, today, is one of the most enjoyed beverages in the world.

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