Text/Chen Gen
Coffee, along with tea and cocoa, is known as the world's three largest non-alcoholic beverages, and is consumed by about 1/3 of the world's population. As a specialty drink in the West, in the past, drinking coffee was only popular in Europe and the United States. Now, with the global exchange of business and culture, coffee has also swept China and other eastern countries. A discussion of whether coffee is bad or not has arisen, and people often cite it while also having doubts about the health effects of coffee.
An interesting phenomenon is that, unlike tea drinking, the function and popularity of coffee have attracted the attention of Chinese, and people are more or less wary of coffee while accepting it. The content of coffee, in addition to its profound taste, also contains its thousand-year history - trade, colonization, war and so on.
All the products that make human beings addicted to it, whether it is salt, sugar, dopamine, caffeine, will give rise to a corresponding economy, and the economy will inevitably be interrelated with trade, war, religion, culture, and finally become a competition for the right to define based on interests. Consuming a cup of coffee is not so simple.
The development of coffee
The most widely circulated story about the origin of coffee takes place in the Kafa region of Ethiopia, where the shepherd Cardy noticed that the goats were extremely excited during a herding process, and he observed that the sheep had eaten a small red fruit that grew on a bush. The shepherd was curious, and he also took some to eat, and as a result, he himself was inexplicably high and excited.
As a result, people discovered coffee trees and coffee cherries, and named them after the "coffee method" where they were found, and gradually evolved into the now common name "coffee". Initially, people chewed the coffee cone directly, that is, eaten with the coffee pulp and coffee core. After coffee was introduced to Arabia, it was crushed and boiled in water.
Religion was an important factor in the widespread popularity of coffee in the Arab world and eventually evolved into a worldwide trend. The original use of coffee was mainly used for religious activities in the religious world and for doctors to treat diseases and restore patients. Religious people found that coffee has a refreshing effect, and because the Islamic Bible "Quran" strictly prohibits believers from drinking, they use coffee instead of alcoholic beverages and drink it regularly as a refreshing drink.
After the fifteenth century, pilgrims to the holy land of Mecca gradually brought coffee back to their places of residence, so that coffee gradually spread to Egypt, Syria, Iran and Turkey. Among them, the entry of coffee into The European continent is attributed to the Ottoman Empire at that time in Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire is also an important factor in promoting the development of coffee.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire, which had reached the peak of its military power, sent troops to conquer Egypt and brought the coffee drinking trend back to Istanbul, and then the Ottoman Empire occupied Yemen and took control of the port of Mocha, which exported coffee.
However, the unification of the Middle East was not the ultimate goal of the Sultan, and in the next few decades, the Ottoman Empire destroyed Hungary, forced Vienna, and captured Baghdad, and in only half a century, Ottoman Turkey became a superpower spanning three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, with a population of more than 10 million, including the Arabian Peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea, monopolizing trade between the East and the West. But at this time, coffee was once forbidden in the Ottoman Empire for no other reason than religion.
Just as the development of coffee initially refreshed the minds of religious people, coffee at this time, because it could lift the spirit, was considered by religious people to be no different from medicine, so it was forbidden as something that could arouse desire. But the people are not happy to ban it on such grounds. Thus, for a hundred years, coffee spread to every corner of the Ottoman Empire during the periodic prohibition and prohibition of the Ottoman Empire.
In the 1530s, the world's first commercial café appeared in Malaysiatuge, and in 1554, the Turkish capital Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) also appeared, and in the same year, the Turkish Sultan Suleiman (the Great) taxed the production and operation of coffee. The taxation of coffee is both a restriction on exploitation and, of course, a recognition and protection of this new industry.
Since then, European travelers and merchants have been exposed to hot drinks made from "black molasses cooked with black seeds" in cafes within Turkey. Under the rule of Turkey, coffee was not only widely spread throughout its vast territory, there were places for casual chat in cafes, but also the processing of coffee for drinking underwent revolutionary changes.
In the past, the Arab coffee drink Oishr used only the pulp part of the coffee and discarded the better-tasting seeds (cores) of the coffee beans; or the coffee pulp was dried and crushed, and then mixed with the oil to make a ball to eat; or its peel was mixed with green beans to ferment and drink.
From the beginning of the 16th century to the first half of the Year, after the Turks entered the Arab region, they began to collect and use the discarded coffee beans, dried, roasted, ground, and then boiled into juice with water to drink, and added sugar, which is also the basic way of eating coffee in modern times. The first cafes to appear in Turkey were the ones that entertained customers with this new type of beverage.
At the same time, the Turks also export a large number of coffee fruits to make money and profits. In order to monopolize coffee production, the Turks strictly prohibit the export of raw beans, coffee seedlings and coffee branches, and stipulate that the exported coffee cherries and coffee beans must be boiled in boiling water, or roasted, or the skin of the coffee beans is peeled off so that they cannot germinate. Thanks to harsh inspections, Turkey monopolized the production and sale of coffee for more than 100 years.
The fame of coffee went hand in hand with the national strength of the Ottoman Empire.
Victory in war
At this point, the territory of coffee development has begun to emerge, it was born in Africa, cultivation and household consumption have left The African mainland, and the main drinking methods and corresponding cultural customs have gradually emerged in Europe. But coffee, which went out of Africa, returned to its homeland again in the era of great voyages, where coffee flourished because of favorable land and climatic conditions. Behind the return to the homeland, there is a bloody storm.
During the Ottoman conquest of Continental Europe, although merchants and bourgeoisie coveted the benefits and profits of coffee, in the era of geographical discovery, Europe or other European empires did not have military superiority over Ottoman Turkey and could not take military violence to obtain coffee seedlings. In the face of Turkey's strict control policy, it could not be imported legally, so only armed robbery was left.
The ottoman empire and the european countries of the war, a fight, is more than a hundred years. Over the course of a hundred years, the Ottoman Empire and European countries fought countless battles. At first, the Ottoman Empire was still dominated by victories, but as the war was prolonged, the form began to reverse, and the Ottoman decline gradually became apparent, winning more and losing less, becoming more victorious and more defeated.
In 1529, under the siege of Vienna, the Ottoman Turks almost pushed Europe to the brink of death and established a supreme imperial glory. In 1683, the Battle of Vienna marked the end of Ottoman expansion in Europe, and the trade routes it controlled were eroded by various countries, declaring its prosperity and decline. Success is also Vienna, defeat is also Vienna.
In the same year, in Vienna, the land of the Ottoman Empire, the defeated Ottoman army retreated with a large amount of military supplies, including 500 bags of trade that the Arabs regarded as treasures and refused to flow out- coffee beans. In this way, coffee slowly spread to Europe through the abnormal way of communication of war, as a trophy.
From then on, the Ottoman Empire fell into decline until the Turkish Republic was established in 1923, the Ottoman royal family was expelled, and the empire ushered in its final chapter. Moreover, as the coffee-drinking Ottoman army conquered the continent and stayed there for several years, when the army finally withdrew, leaving a large supply, including coffee beans, the people of Vienna and Paris were able to develop European coffee culture with these coffee beans and the cooking experience obtained by the Turks.
The blockade and monopoly of the Turks were finally completely broken, the cultivation of coffee in the field gradually spread throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, and the drinking habit of coffee gradually infected the world with Europe and the United States. Brought out of Africa and brought back from Europe, the social function of coffee also underwent a shift from religion to war, and when it became popular again from Europe, coffee became a representative of culture.
Europe ended the long Middle Ages, the humanistic spirit represented by the Renaissance replaced dull theological ideas, and more members of European high society and the general public increasingly accepted and approached coffee, because the pursuit and enjoyment of a happy life was the main theme of humanism, and drinking coffee in cafes to discuss human nature and human issues became part of the very popular way of life at that time.
From 1615, when Venetian merchants shipped imported coffee beans back to Venice to open the first café in Europe, by the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, cafes sprung up rapidly in Europe, especially in various cities in Western Europe. Especially since the 20th century, cafes have become an important place for social leisure, where people talk about politics, conceive literary works, and chat about trivial matters of life.
Some of Europe's famous cafes have long been home to scholars and artists from all over the world, where they have built a sacred place and spiritual home for philosophers, writers and artists from all over the world. In the mid-to-late 17th century, London's cafés became the main meeting places.
The 18th-century Café de Paris was a gathering place for politicians, writers, thinkers, poets and artists. Rousseau, Voltaire, Robespierre and Marat were regulars in the café. Since the end of the 19th century, cafes have long been more than just a place to drink coffee, with banquets, exhibitions, weddings, salons, creations, cabaret performances and almost everything else taking place in the café.
Beginning in the mid-18th century, North American cafes gradually became meeting places for politicians and businessmen, often shrouded in a strong political atmosphere, and Boston cafes became the base camp for planning revolutions at that time. In fact, in both Continental and North America, the earliest cafes were greenhouses for the germination and development of political thought. At this time, coffee is the "social item" of the elite.
In the development of coffee, the Italians focused on developing the extension of coffee, adding milk foam to coffee, adding chocolate sauce, and even adding various types of wine, cream and so on. The complex, elaborate and quantitative process of making coffee has given birth to Italy's unique coffee culture and numerous coffee varieties. The Italians gave full respect to coffee itself, elevated coffee making to a craft art, and coffee became a relaxed, free and equal way of life, a kind of interest and taste.
Coffee is becoming civilian
With the rise of the new class of citizens, the population density of the city increased, and the social production and lifestyle changed, coffee began to gradually evolve into a secular drink. One of the key factors is that coffee as a consumer product has become the choice of the United States under the influence of economic and political dividends.
In the 1850s, some American coffee companies began to roast, grind, and cannize coffee themselves, and these pre-measures greatly reduced the threshold of coffee consumption so that people could easily brew coffee themselves, and sealed tin packaging allowed coffee to be distributed throughout the United States.
Standardization solves the problem of storage, transportation and consumption scenarios of coffee. After World War II, the United States became a superpower. The U.S. coffee industry has also followed the development of the United States, and has set off three waves of fast food, boutique, and aesthetics. In 1938, the war accelerated the development of coffee fast food, and instant coffee was born.
Instant coffee companies such as Nestlé and Maxwell pursue the sale of coffee in a business model way, setting off a 20-year wave of fast food. With the birth of instant coffee, the ultimate standardized product, American coffee has been widely spread around the world with the increasing influence of the United States.
Now, with the global exchange of business and culture, coffee has also swept China and other eastern countries. China's coffee trend is in the ascendant, commercial markets can be seen everywhere Starbucks, Luckin and other coffee shops, the overall level of the coffee industry and people's tolerance and recognition of coffee are constantly improving.
Coffee is a drink imported from the West, the spirit of revolution and rebellion in the cafes on the Left Bank of France, the pursuit of freedom and democratic ideals by modern intellectuals and the imagination of urban elegance have all been endowed with coffee, and gradually formed China's coffee culture. With the development of the economy and the deepening of understanding of Western culture, people's understanding of coffee culture is gradually enriching.
Moreover, with the advancement of modern medicine, people have a more scientific understanding of the impact of coffee on health. Let's take a look at the main ingredients in coffee, which, in addition to containing refreshing caffeine, contain hundreds of biologically active phytochemicals, including polyphenols (such as chlorogenic acid and lignans), as well as a certain amount of magnesium, potassium and vitamin B3.
These compounds can reduce oxidative stress, improve the intestinal flora, and regulate glycolipid metabolism, but the diterpene caffeol present in unfiltered coffee may increase cholesterol levels in the serum. That is to say, as far as coffee is concerned, according to the dosage and usage, it will inevitably have different effects on the human body, neither can only consider the role of caffeine, nor can it reject the benefits of coffee because of only listening to its adverse effects.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that limiting intake to lower or slightly higher levels may also be appropriate in individual cases due to individual differences in caffeine metabolism and sensitivity. In fact, according to the available evidence, although it is not possible to prevent disease by ingesting caffeine or drinking coffee, the existing evidence suggests that moderate consumption of coffee or tea can be part of a healthy lifestyle for adults who are not pregnant and non-breastfeeding, and do not have a specific health condition.
Coffee itself exists as a part of culture, and is interrelated with trade, war, religion, and history, and before evaluating whether coffee is zang or not, it may be necessary to first understand the essence of coffee and the civilization behind it.