Coffe Beans

Coffee are made from roasted seeds, also known as coffee beans, this is one of the largest products of trade in the world, seconded only by crude oil, although this might be a slight exaggeration. It is believed that coffee beans were first discovered to have energizing effects in Yemen and the south west of Ethiopia, making these the places of origin for cultivation of the plant within the Arab world, the earliest recorded evidence of people drinking coffee has been found in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen during the 15th century. After the Muslim world discovered coffee, it spread to Italy and to the rest of Europe and then on to Indonesia and the Americas.

 

The two most common species of the coffee plants are known as Coffea canephora, or Coffea robusta, and Coffea arabica. However, the species most produced in South America are called liberica, excelsa, stenophylla, mauritiana and racemosa. Ottoman Turkish is believed to be the source of the word coffee, using the name kahve, which in turn is believed to be derived from the Arabic word qahwah, in Ethiopia the terms bunna and būn are more commonly used. It is not known where the Arabic word came from, some attribute it to the name of the Kaffa region of Ethiopia while others say it comes from the Arab word for a type of wine called qahiya which means “to have no appetite”.

 

These days, Brazil, followed by Vietnam and Colombia are the three top producers of coffee in the world, with Brazil alone producing over two million tonnes of coffee every year, noted should be that Vietnam, number two on the list, produces less than one million tonnes each year. Originally, coffee was consumed for spiritual reasons by Muslim monks who grew the bush in their gardens for use in religious ceremonies.