The history of coffee bean, the magic beans that activate billons of people in the early mornings, goes back to tenth century. It’s evolution through the timeline and variety of uses serves for different purposes makes this fascinating beans much more than basic fruits of a regular plant, but a source of beverage which still attracts entrepreneurs, investors and marketing people from all around the world.
It is known as the coffee beans were discovered in Ethiopia, and it is recognized as the motherland of it. From that time, coffee has been a well appreciated economically valuable product which later travelled to Arabian Peninsula whit the hands of traders. Attractiveness of the taste was also irresistible for the traders and name of coffee reached to India and later on to Europe via Turks who gave the used the word “kava” which derived from Arabic. In 1683, with Vienna Siege of Ottoman Turks, remarkable journey of coffee on Europe started. It is believed that the Turks left the city in a rush after the siege and they left the coffee bean bags in Vien. A man named Kolschitzky knew what these beans were used for and naturally he became the owner of the first coffee shop in Vienna. Around the same, even earlier Venetians also traded coffee in small quantities since there were numerous people who knew about it and also Arabs were strict about the trade since it was thought that coffee beans could have used to grow in other lands too. What was not known that the climate was not suitable to grow it in Europe naturally but only in green houses? It has been thought as a sinful drink which was maybe coming from Muslim lands and identified very much with Arab and Turks. But there is not sure that the actual product began to be served first in Venice in coffee houses and then these coffee houses spread around all Europe.
The coffee was banned for some time until it was blessed by Pope Celement VIII who tried it and enjoyed the taste very much. In 17th century Dutch people brought coffee beans from Malabar and grew them in green houses and they were amazed with the possible income that they can have if they had larger lands where they can grow them without green houses. This led Dutch colonies such as Java in Asia and Surinam in America to be one of the most important suppliers of Europe.
Britain, even though it is much more associated with tea, has been also an important spot for the traders after the 1674 with the opening of the first coffee house in London by a Lebanese Jew. In central Europe, coffee and coffeehouses became one of the symbols of liberty which is often now associated with “comfort” and “joy” in today’s advertisements. There have been various attempts to grow this magic product and be independent from Arab traders. This has been achieved first by Dutch and then by French entrepreneurs with the help of green houses. This was a new method to grow the beans in Europe and with Dutch’s gift; noble tree, the method was used to produce billions of Arabica trees which were used in various French colonies in Latin America and Central America. It became a way of living and representation of values such as "Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort!" ("Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death!")" in French revolution against bourgeoisie.
Later on from the beans of Noble Tree, Chevalier Gabriel Mathiew de Clieu produced immense amount of new trees which were used to produce coffee in Haiti, Caribbia, and Mexico and spread to all Latin America after 1720’s. While the coffee and this addictive joyful habit was spreading all around the world, in every spot, it was being prepared in a different way and named according to preparation process. Such as mocha, frappachino, latte, Turkish coffee, macchiato. Espresso and so on. Coffee houses and their purposes was also varied, some were used as a meeting spots for a break in daily rush, some were used a meeting place for sharing political ideas such as Sons of Liberty of American Revolution and abortive Beer Hall Putsch by German Nazi Party in 1923. Boston Tea Party which is known as a place where United States Declaration of Independence was read was also a coffeehouse in a contradiction to its actual name.
Coming to 20th century. Brazil became the main and the biggest produce of the coffee and it continued to be the monopoly until new countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Vietnam and Indonesia started to be highly productive countries of coffee to sell the various coffee chains surrounding the main cities day by day. Through out the coffees’ journey from one continent to the other, there is great fact that coffee itself moves from being just an ordinary drink but a powerful sign of a wealth for the traders for centuries and a trendy choice for the customers living in big cities in their rush times. There is no doubt that the coffee is today not just a drink but a beverage which brings set of rules both for consuming and marketing. According to the needs of the consumers, in 21st century, the coffee might be served after different processes, grinding types, shapes and kinds of beans, as an instant or fresh, cold or hot, iced or flavoured, in glass on ceramic mugs, as take away or in cosy chairs with house music. Is that all? Certainly not! Coffeehouses, coffee chains and side products in 21st century makes coffee a kind of extension of customers own identity with their personalized drinks. Even though the standard component can be seen as the coffee beans, outcome so always varied with partial configurations just as in most of the products in 21st century markets.
In today’s world, according to statistics given by NCA coffee drinking survey in 2000, the average coffee consumption per capita in the United States is around 4.4 Kg. Among coffee drinkers (i.e. not per capita) the average coffee consumption in the United States is 3.1 cups of coffee per day (NCA). Per capita men drink approximately 1.9 cups per day, whereas women drink an average of 1.4 cups of coffee a day. Still these numbers are showing that coffee market still expand since there is a strong capability as long as right strategy and marketing methods are used as well as configuration of the product and service according to the varied needs of customers.
Gokhan KURTARAN
Bibliography
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/coffee/history.htm
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/market/usa.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee
http://www.decentcoffee.com/history.html
