STORYTIME
The first coffee bushes were discovered in Ethiopia. The coffee bean was brought to Yemen across the Red Sea by slave drivers. In 1454 a sheikh is said to have planted the first cultures with seeds or plants in Yemen. In the second half of the 15th century, thanks to numerous pilgrims visiting the cities of Mecca and Medina, coffee spread throughout Arabia and thus began its triumphal march.
The Turks were responsible for spreading the coffee, especially since they conquered lands in Syria, Yemen and Egypt and even took Mecca and Medina in 1517. Thus, the coffee growing areas were in their hands. In 1554 the first coffee house was opened in Constantinople, today's Istanbul. The coffee bean came to Venice via trade routes of the seafarers a short time later in 1645 the very first coffee house in Europe, the "Bottega del Caffe", opened there.
Numerous countries tried again and again to grow coffee, since the Turks and Arabs did not want to share their monopoly on the raw material, they only sold non-germinable beans.
In the end, the Dutch succeeded in stealing germinable beans and raised coffee saplings in the greenhouses of Amsterdam. Gradually they transplanted them into the newly conquered colonies. From 1718, Dutch coffee also grew in South America. The coffee, which comes from Ethiopia, was spread all over the world by the Europeans in the course of colonial expansion.
Reading strengthens the soul and coffee strengthens the nerves.
