History of Coffee
Yemen Haraz Coffee Farm
Tradition has it that Ethiopian goat herder Kaldi discovered coffee after seeing the energizing effect the red berries had on his goats when they ate them. Another tradition gives credit to a farmer in Yemen who gave the cherries as an offering to his Imam. The truth is a bit less dramatic.
Coffee grew wild in Ethiopia and Yemen where Muslim clerics drank a beverage called kufi made from stewing the dried cherries in hot water. In parts of Africa where this is still popular, they call it bun. (That might sound familiar. Bunn, one of the leading manufacturer of commercial coffee brewers in the U.S, is in fact named for the founder of the company.) Sometime in the 15th or 16th century, farmers began to roast the seeds over a fire, then grind and brew a beverage that was reserved for the priesthood and medical profession. Priests used coffee to stay alert during late night devotions, while doctors used the beverage for a whole host of ailments including aiding in digestion. (Read: constipation. Sound familiar?)
Coffee spread to Italy, Germany, England, Scandinavia, and the rest of Europe. Coffee was a luxury item, one reserved for the wealthy and well to do. Soon enough, though, coffee houses, catering to the working classes, sprouted throughout Europe and Africa. By the end of the 18th century, coffee was as ubiquitous as tea, if not more so.
Yemen controlled coffee cultivation, production, and distribution until the mid 17th century when an Indian Sufi smuggled six coffee beans out of Yemen and cultivated them on the hills of Chikmagalur, Karnataka. From there, coffee cultivation spread to other parts of the world. In 1720, French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu stole cuttings from a coffee plant that had been given to Louis XIV. De Clieu brought them to Martinique where soon coffee cultivation spread throughout Central and South America.
Today, coffee is grown in dozens of countries around the world along the Coffee Belt, a geographic region that stretches across the Equator from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn, where the arabica plants get plenty of rain, a steady and temperate climate, and can grow in rich, porous soil.
At Iron Skillet Coffee, we source coffee from all over the world—Ethiopia and Kenya, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Sumatra, and India, just to name a few, all in the name of furthering our mission:
To create great tasting, fresh roasted coffee by roasting high quality green coffee beans in a cast iron pan, and to do so in a meaningful, impactful, and sustainable way that has a positive impact on our community and our environment.
