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HOT TAKES, episode I: where does coffee come from?

Hot Takes is a lighthearted, conversational discussion exploring the topics that make people in the world of coffee very, very worked up. We look at the arguments for and against both sides, instigate discussion, and overall try and map out why it is people feel so strongly about these issues. If you like a bit of drama, enjoy a good debate, or are simply curious about the inner workings of this weird world, read on.

We will start with the oldest of these debates:

Where does coffee actually come from?

I know what you’re thinking. The answer is Ethiopia, right?

Wrong…
Sort of.
Let me explain.

We know three things when it comes to the origin of coffee.

1. Coffee beans – as far as we can tell – come from Ethiopia. Actually they come from Kaffa which is Ethiopia before it was Ethiopia. And as far as we can also tell, they were discovered around one thousand two hundred years ago. The legend around their discovery involves a goatherder named Kaldi and a group of goats that were hopped up on caffeine. The legend then splits a little depending on which source you read so we won’t go into that.
2. Coffee has been consumed since around this time in its bean form (I.E. not as a drink). It was often mixed with porridge and used as a sort of energy bar on pilgrimages.
3. Seven hundred years later we have the first record of the coffee being cultivated to make coffee as a drink. Used by monks as an aid during midnight prayers, this record comes to us from Yemen, not Ethiopia.

So which is it?

Here’s where it gets complicated, and in my opinion very interesting. Yemen is responsible for the mass consumption of coffee and the way we drink it today. Coffee’s history can all be tied back to Yemen.

But you see, Yemen was a cultural hub. Many people of different places and walks of life passed through Yemen. In fact, that is how it is believed Yemen got the coffee bean in the first place, through trade and pilgrimages. Yemen also had a standardised written language (South Arabian script) long before Ethiopia did. A version of this South Arabian script was actually what was brought over to Ethiopia and served as one of the first written languages of the region (at least that we have documented, of course). Alongside this, the general cultures of Ethiopia and Yemen at the time meant that Yemen was more likely to record events in writing whereas Ethiopia relied on a rich oral history.

So what’s the problem?

Well outside of the written text, there is now way of knowing when the first brewed coffee was created. According to on of the legends of the goatherder, the monks were given the beans and discovered its brewing at the same time as they discovered that burning the coffee produced a lovely aroma. But the likelihood of these two discoveries occurring so close together is slim, making this almost definitely legend.

Almost definitely. But oral histories more commonly feature these temporal anomolies.

So where do we draw the line. Do we not believe something because it wasn’t written down? Is it foolish to think that Ethiopia for several hundred years never thought to put the bean in hot water? Then again, history often moves in random fits and starts with stagnation all too common.

If this is the case, Yemen would be the origin. It’s location as a trade hub would suggest a turbulence of ideas needed to bring about this new idea.

Which do we think?

The trouble with answering this question is history is full of both stagnation and innovation. So it is possible that coffee wasn’t brewed despite Ethiopia having the bean for hundreds of years. But to assume that in Ethiopia conditions for innovation weren’t ripe for seven hundred years seems a bit of a stretch.

Ok but what do we think?

To be honest, it is equally likely (if not more likely) that the practical ancestor to what we know now as brewed coffee was developed somewhere on the road between Ethiopia and Yemen. Think about it. After all, the time between the discovery of caffeine in coffee beans and the record of brewed coffee was full of migration (forced or otherwise). It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that coffee was eaten in Ethiopia and not brewed (after all, why would you? You had something that works). Then during one such migration someone decided to chuck a few beans into a vat of boiling water. Maybe they ran out of the porridge. Maybe they scavenged the beans on route. Maybe they were just curious.

Chances are, this didn’t work. But it was a start. And then by the time the traveller reached Yemen, they had something. In the chaos of Yemen this idea was taken to its completion with what we now know as brewed coffee. From here it was sent on its trade routes around the world.

And so, in answer to the question who first brewed coffee, I’m going to choose somewhere on route between Ethiopia and Yemen. Let’s say… on the coast of what is now Djibouti. With some pretty extreme landscapes and a thriving port, the conditions for innovation are ripe. Who’s to say someone didn’t (accidentally or otherwise) brew the first cup of coffee here?