SELECTED STUDIES

Section Editor: Prof. Talaat I. Farag

COFFEE:
ARABIA'S GIFT TO THE WORLD

By Habeeb Salloum

            Drunk piping hot in the early morning hours, a cup of coffee adds to the pleasure of beginning a new day.  It is a beverage, more than any other, which truly wakes, then relaxes and refreshes the body for the daily grind.  For its fans, and they are some 400 billion, its aromatic scent and smooth flavour perks them up in the early morning.  And this not all, during the day a few cups of coffee will stimulate the tired office worker or busy executive, and at night a drowsy reveller will be revived after a few sips of this brew.

            The vast majority of people in the Middle East and in the Western world are stimulated by coffee - many addicted to its very name.  On the other hand, a few complain that it keeps them awake and makes them neurotic.  However, alike for those who love it or those who detest it, not many can do without his or her cup of coffee.  In almost every country of the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, the coffee-break has become ingrained as part of the business world.  Rarely does one dream of taking a rest period without a cup of this stimulating drink.

            The brew, besides its unique aroma and rich mallow taste, has a mystical aura.  It is associated with the exotic East - a legacy of the sons of the Arabian Desert and their romantic land.   The coffee plant is believed to have been first cultivated in the highlands of the Yemen.  The name coffee itself, derived from the Arabic qahwa (coffee or wine) in almost every language of the world, lends credence to this theory.

            The first mention of coffee as a drink was made around 900 A.D. in the writings of the Arab medieval scholar Al-Razi, known in the West as Rhazes.  Avicenna, an Arab physician/philosopher, about 1000 A.D., introduced coffee as a medical tonic.  In the 16th century, Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire of which most of the Arab lands were a part, became the headquarters of the coffee drinking world.  Near the end of the 16th century, the utilization of coffee spread from Turkey to the remainder of Europe.

            The 17th and l8th centuries were the golden age of the European coffee houses that sprang up in every city of Europe and were frequented by all levels of society.  In the Americas, it was only in the l8th century that coffee became a common drink.  Subsequently, it overtook tea to become the national drink of North America.  Today, the U.S.A. consumes more coffee than any other country in the world.

            For hundreds of years the Arabs had a monopoly on the production of coffee.  Until the end of the 17th century, Yemen was the origin of the world's supply of coffee beans.  Today, coffee is grown in at least 70 countries of the world.  Brazil is now the world's largest producer, harvesting about 30% of the world's supply, and is the land of origin for 75% of the world's imports.  Colombia comes second in production and export followed by numerous countries in South and Central America, Africa and Asia.

            There are from 40 to 80 species of coffee trees grown throughout the world, but only some eight species widely distributed.  The most universal is coffee Arabica, the top type of coffee in the world, followed by Robusta, then Liberia.  Other species, to a large extent, are local types and are not very widespread.  Taking all this data into account, it is estimated that there are some 10 billion coffee trees in the world.

            The coffee berries are picked individually by hand.  After harvesting, they are prepared by either the ‘dry’ or ‘wash’ process that removes the pulp from around the seed. When the pulp is removed the greyish-green seeds or beans are thoroughly dried in the sun or by artificial means.  They are then sorted and bagged for sale to coffee manufacturers.

            The roasting of coffee beans is a large thriving industry in almost every country of the world.  This preparation gives the coffee its aroma and flavour.  Roasting the beans to medium colour preserves the delicacy of the aroma while roasting to dark increases the strength of the brew.  In almost every case, various types of beans are blended to produce the desired combination of aroma, flavour and richness.  To keep these elements, after the coffee is ground it must be utilized as soon as possible or stored in air-tight containers.

            Although the joys of coffee have spread to the four corners of the world, it is in its original homeland that it preserves its mystical hold.  For many centuries coffee and Arabia have been inseparable. In The Coffee Lover's Handbook, edited by D. Sturmanis, it is stated that the Arabs use so much coffee that the English-speaking world once called it ‘the wine of Araby’.

             Today, in the eastern Arab lands, as it has been for centuries, coffee remains of great importance in the lives of the people.  It is a social beverage offered to guests in homes and to customers by shopkeepers.  When a guest arrives, it must be brewed especially for the occasion - never reheated.  Coffee is a symbol of welcome and friendship; and for a guest to refuse a cup of coffee is to greatly insult the host.

             A Bedouin will usually invite any stranger, who happens to pass by, in for a cup of coffee.  The generosity of a person is related to this hospitality.  ‘He makes coffee day and night’ is an old Bedouin saying describing such a generous person.

            Arab coffee is always at its best when made a few cups at a time and served piping hot. The serving cups are small and offered less than half full - a few sips of this strong brewed coffee will suffice.  To fill the cup is to suggest to a guest that it is time to leave.  The Arabs always take pride in preparing their coffee.  There is an Arab proverb that says, ‘The best cup of coffee must be as bitter as death and as hot as love’.

            The Arabs, per capita, probably drink more coffee than any other people on earth.  On the other hand, the U.S.A. accounts for half the world's coffee imports, and coffee has become the national drink of both Canada and the U.S.A.  Indeed, this brew is so much in demand that North America is considered 'the land of the coffee break'.  This clear rich-brown liquid, with or with­out sugar and cream, has seduced almost every member of society.

            Instant coffee is tailor-made for the busy and rushing people of these lands.  This fast type of coffee is so popular that it has even invaded the Arab lands.  Drunk in this form or decaffeinated, filtered, iced, percolated or just boiled with water, it has become one of the mainstays of life in Canada and the U.S.A.  In Europe, South America and, ever-increasingly, in North America, café au lait, café con leche, expresso and cappuccino are popular drinks of relaxation.

            There is no better proof of the wide use of coffee than the words derived from the name of that amber beverage found in the languages of the world.  In English, more than 60 words can be found in dictionaries that are rooted in the word ‘coffee’.

            Yet, in spite of its wide dispersion throughout the world, it is still greatly appreciated in the eastern Arab lands.  It is a gesture of hospitality served to guests whether they are friends or strangers.  In the past, it was almost impossible to imagine the Arab world without the enticing perfume of roasting coffee or the soothing of the ring of the pestle. 

            In the Arab countries, bargaining is never done without a cup of coffee.  In the home or office and among the wealthy or poor, in the Bedouin tents, in the cafes of the smallest village or a metropolis, an offered cup of coffee, diffusing its rich aroma, is an unfailing sign that the guest is honoured.  In the coffee houses, men spend much of their free time sitting and talking, or sipping their thick brew while playing a game of tawla (backgammon).  Here, poets and literary men, as in the Europe of the past centuries, gather with adherents listening to their every word.

            In the Middle East, coffee is never drunk with the meals, only after or in between. When the meals are finished, women spend happy hours reading their fortunes from the coffee sediments left in the cups.  A brew for every occasion, coffee is served to the guest's taste, but at weddings it is always served sweet and at funerals bitter. 

            According to our host at the Coffee Room in the Cham Palace Hotel, located amid the magnificent ruins of Palmyra in Syria, to the Arabs, coffee embodies three things: its rich aroma signifying the joy of meeting; its bitterness representing the sadness of departing; and its blackness revealing the dark eyes of the beloved.  With synonyms such as these it is no wonder that this gift that the Arabs gave the world remains their most cherished brew.