An example is coffee and hot chocolate. One rarely starts out in the morning without having a taste of the Arabic, nor enjoys a cold, wintery night without warming up with a legacy from Aztecs.
Coffee makes us Severe, and Grave, and Philosophical (Jonathan Swift, 1722)
Most find coffee invigorating. Commonplace in both Europe and America, this popular beverage had origins elsewhere, in Ethiopia and Yemen. Coffee is fairly new to the world (unlike tea) and its trend limited to Arabia until the 16th Century.
The exact history of coffee remains somewhat obscure.
Coffee Origins
The plant, coffee arabica, still grows wild in Ethiopian forests conjuncting the African and Arabian worlds. Possibly, indigenous plants came from Kaffa (Ethiopia) and were traded with Arabs by BC 800, explaining its presence in Yemen when Europeans discovered cultivated plants there. Other authorities believe coffee came to Arabia when Ethiopia invaded it in AD 525. At any rate, coffee beans were chewed raw as early as BC 850 in both Ethiopia and Yemen.
Coffee Folklore
According to folklore, Kaldi, an Ethiopian (Absidian) goat herder discovered that coffee beans made his herd nearly dance (AD 850), so he created a concoction for himself. This legend wasn't recorded until the 17th century, though, and several accounts of similar mythical themes exist. Another involves a Yeminite Sufi mystic traveling through Ethiopia who noticed highly energetic birds eating coffee beans. Then again, perhaps both stories are true (since humans and animals probably chewed on sweet coffee berries enjoying the effect for thousands of years).
Sufi monasteries in southern Arabia were thought to have provided coffee for Yemen’s Sufi monks (members of an Islamic sect) in the 15th century to keep them awake for midnight prayers.
Coffee Facts and the Islamic Golden Age
By most accounts, coffee beans were cultivated for perhaps the first time (AD 1100) by Arabs (in Yemen) who crushed them into boiling water. Coffee houses (“kaveh kanes”) opened in Arabia centuries later, by AD 1500. These public cafes offered music and relaxation; "coffee spurred Islam to develop a scientific, medical, and literary culture that was one of the brightest of all times." (Caribbean Property Magazine, June, 2010)
In the late 15th century wayfarers introduced coffee to nearby lands and African Muslims traded coffee beyond the Islamic world into Italy (AD 1600); Europeans also smuggled plants out. The Arabic “qahwah,” was eventually translated as coffeum into Latin, suggesting how the (English) word for coffee was derived. (Some believe the word stems from Ethiopia’s province of Kaffa.)
Coffee introduced to Europe and America
In Italy coffee was called the “wine of Arabia.” Early Christians denounced coffee as the devil’s drink until this new and novel beverage was tasted by Pope Clement VIII, who gave it Papal approval. Apparently, he really liked it; he even blessed it!
Coffee houses opened in Europe by AD 1600 and remain popular today, but only recently (in the last few decades) became trendy in the U.S. The first American coffee house actually opened in 1689 in Boston, but (similar to early England, where only men were allowed) there was really little distinction between it and a tavern.
In early America only wealthy, upper class people drank coffee, but later commoners enjoyed it, too. Today – despite its mystic origin - coffee has established itself as unique American tradition at restaurants. Pay for one cup and drink all that you can!
Chocolate’s Roots in Ancient Mesoamerica
Chocolate was once considered so rare and sacred that, like gold, only the elite had access to it in both Europe and Mesoamerica.
Recent scientific evidence observes that chocolate was discovered by Aztec Indians of Central Mexico over 3,100 years ago, while previous research claimed Mayans did. Ancient pottery suggests it may have been used earlier. Either way, chocolate was significant to Aztec and Mayans as well as other tribes of the area.
The cacao tree was cultivated centuries before the discovery of the New World, only thriving on a narrow strip ten degrees of the equator, each tree bearing some pods. Mayans called this tree cacahuaquchtl. Aztecs/Mayans called chocolate xocoatl (pronounced “shoco-latle”), then later, chocolatl (meaning warm or bitter water).
Chocolate and Aztecs
Aztecs believed their god,Quetzalcoatl, descended from heaven on a star beam bearing a stolen cacao tree from paradise. The drink was so precious to Aztecs, it supposedly was served in golden chalices thrown away after only one use. Mayans called cacao “food for gods” as the pods symbolized life and fertility. Cacao beans were used as currency by the time of Columbus and Aztecs were first to tax the beans. Aztecs believed cacao had nourishing and aphrodisiac qualities.
Chocolate was the national drink of the Aztec civilization which, in several ways, was more advanced than Europe at the time. Their Emperor, Montezuma, purportedly was so fond of chocolate he drank fifty goblets a day (supposedly flavored with vanilla); other Aztecs added various imaginative spices, including hot chili pepper. Sugar was unknown to them, so it was not the sweet drink we know today, but rather a thick, frothy, spicy drink.
Chocolate was important in Mayan/Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies. Normally reserved for the elite and royalty, others could drink it on occasion.
Spaniard Conquest of Mexico and Cacao
When Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortes, conquered the Aztecs of Mexico (1519) he wasn’t fond of the strange elixer, but interested in its use as currency. He had dreams of establishing cacao plantations to literally cultivate “money.”
Nevertheless, these conquering Spaniards were fascinated by the drink (which tasted very bitter) and returned to Spain with cacoa beans in the 16th century. Chocolate was sweetened to make it more European friendly, its preparation techniques slightly changed.
In Europe (well known for chocolate today) cacao was a luxury affordable to kings and queens, coincidentally reminiscent of its royal origins in Mesoamerica. By 1700, chocolate was mass produced and equally enjoyed among common folk. But chocolate was not always so common.
Not surprisingly, chocolate came from an enchanted place. Before Aztec’s great city, Tenochtitlan, was completely burned by Spanish conquistadors and a church later built over it, one of Cortez’s men wrote of that beauteous world floating on water:
“And when we saw all those … buildings rising from the water … like an enchanted vision…Indeed, some of our soldiers asked whether it was not all a dream…It was all so wonderful that I do not know how to describe this first glimpse of things never heard of, seen or dreamed of before." (Bernal Diaz del Castillo (Diaz, 214, S tolen Continent)
Sources
- History of Coffee, James Grierson
- Lesson 50 Coffee!
- Who Discovered Coffee?
- Ethiopian Coffee
- The Gemini Geek, Who Invented Coffee?
- Mark Pendergrast, The New York Times, 1999
- Coffee History Timeline
- Fresh Coffee - History
- Coffee - History
- Ethiopia, Karen Aleta
- Mail Online, April 6, 2011 (Coffee)
- The Daily Mail, UK, Associated Newspapers Ltd. (Aztecs Invented Chocolate)
- Virtual Chocolate
- The Dagger, Tenochtitlan
- Culture of the Cocoa Bean, Mary Bellis
- Chocolate History Aztec Chocolate
- Chocolate History
- Chocolate History Time Line 1492, Columbus Returns ...
- Food Related Inventions
- Origins of Chocolate
- History of Chocolate: Chocolate's History at a Glance
- All About Chocolate
- The Chocolate Spot
Paula Marie Deubel - Published author/writer/journalist/poet I've always written under the pen name "P. Mari," an abbreviation of my full name. I have ...
Join the Conversation