User:Omer Canon/sandbox

= History of Coffee = The origin of this drink so present in our lives dates from the sixth century, when in ancient Abyssinia (present Ethiopia) a shepherd who took his goats to pasture noticed on one of the nights that they were more agitated and bouncy than normal. As the goats performed the same behavior the next night, the pastor appealed to a monk who accompanied them to see if it was something supernatural. The monk then noted that the goats were eating red berries from a bush and brought some leaves and fruit to the monastery. Meanwhile, the shepherd tasted some fruits and felt the same excitement of his goats, joining them.

In the monastery they made an infusion with the leaves and the fruits, but the flavor was so bitter and unpleasant that they threw to the fire, appearing an ecstatic aroma. Then a new infusion was made and the monks drank and stayed the whole dawn reciting scriptures. Thus, was discovered this magical drink called coffee, able to end fatigue and stimulate the brain.

Coffee was already highly prized in the 15th century in the Ethiopian region, when it crossed the Red Sea and hit Yemen, gaining interest from the government and farmers, conquering the Arab world. At that time the drink was prepared as follows: the water was boiled in a kettle of its own, the coffee powder was added and the mixture boiled for a while to lose the unpleasant taste and one had to drink it quickly. Some people added sugar, cinnamon and clove. This drink was called cahue or coffee. The species of the plant was known as Coffea Arabica because it adapted very well in Arabia. At the end of century XIX other species happened to be cultivated like Coffea Robusta.

Going back to the time, in the sixteenth century Yemen was the main producer of coffee, which was already well known in the Middle East. In the middle of 1500 the drink started to gain lands from Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Greece, brought mainly by the merchants that crossed the region. By 1600 the coffee arrived in the south of India, spreading to other regions of the country. At that time, the Yemeni port of the city of Mokka (Red Sea) was the largest exporter of coffee, bringing the drink to Western Europe.

In 1616 the first foot of coffee arrived in Europe, disembarking in the Botanical Garden of Amsterdam. This foot remained in a greenhouse and originated new feet, which were taken to the Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) and Java (Indonesia) colonies of the Dutch. In 1706 the Dutch were responsible for the supply of coffee from all over Europe and Indonesia had become the first major producer and exporter of the grain.

The coffee houses in Turkey, Europe and Arab countries were very frequented by intellectuals, artists, religious and merchants. In London, which had about 2,000 houses that sold the drink in 1715, its consumption came before tea, who would say?

At that same time several coffee houses began to appear in Boston and New York. It is said that it was at a café in Boston on Union Street that the agreements and pacts for the revolution that culminated with American independence in 1776 arose. In addition, since tea was associated with the English crown, Americans began to consume more coffee and today are the largest consumers in the world.

Continuing the history, the increase of the demand made the plantations expand and in the late eighteenth century the coffee plantations also prospered in Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico. The French took the coffee to French Guiana, Haiti, Guadeloupe, Mauritius (Africa), Tonquim (present-day Vietnam) and Reunion Island (known as Bourbon).