Story and photos by Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling GourmetTM
All rights reserved
Food photos are of real food with no photoshop
The audacious and inspiring Travelling Gourmet drinks coffee on 29 September, 2014 which has variations like…
MACCHIATO, Cappuccino, Latte, Espresso, Melange and other such delectable dark delights made from the humble coffee bean…roasted! Coffee is like a beautiful woman, a man of the world once said: Strong, sexy and keeps you up the whole night long!
According to legend coffee was discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. He noticed his goats frolicking around in an unusually spirited manner one fine day after they ate the berries on a shrub. He decided to try the berries himself. Energized and pleased with the effects the coffee cherries had on him, he told his friends and…the rest is history.
Timeline:
Prior to 1000 A.D.: Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice that they get an energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and mixed with animal fat.
1000 A.D.: Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and cultivate the plant for the first time on plantations. They also began to boil the beans, creating a drink they call “qahwa” (literally, that which prevents sleep).
1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world’s first coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fail to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.
1511: Khair Beg, the corrupt governor of Mecca, tries to ban coffee for feat that its influence might foster opposition to his rule. The Sultan decrees that coffee is sacred and has the governor executed.
1600: Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabs attention in high places. In Italy, Pope Clement VIII is urged by his advisers to consider that favorite drink of the Ottoman Empire part of the infidel threat. He decides instead to “baptize” it thus making it an acceptable Christian beverage!
1607: Captain John Smith helps to found the colony of Virginia at Jamestown. It’s believed that he introduced coffee to North America.
1645: First coffeehouse opens in Italy.
1652: First coffeehouse opens in England. Coffee houses multiply and become such popular forums for the learned and not so learned as places for heated discussions that they are called “penny universities” (a penny being the price of a cup of coffee).
Espionage and intrigue and coffee…1683 – Viennese coffee house culture starts…
The end of the Siege of Vienna in 1683 has close links to coffee! The Viennese citizen and spy Georg Franz Kolschitzky (1640 – 1694) was the first to obtain a licence to serve coffee in the city following his heroic actions during the Siege of Vienna. The coffee beans left behind by the Turks were the basis of his success. A street in Vienna’s 4th district was named after him and a statue was put up at the corner of Favoritenstrasze/Kolschitzkygasse.
The first coffee house in Vienna was opened by the Armenian secret agent Johannes Diodato in 1685. He served at the Viennese Imperial court and was a man full of intrigue and secrets. He knew about the dark beans and the art of preparing coffee from his home country. The Johannes-Diodato-Park in Wieden, Vienna’s 4th district, is dedicated to this spy.
Cafe Frauenhuber is the oldest coffee house in Vienna.
There is really absolutely NOTHING better with your coffee than ein Stueck von Sacher-Torte! Only the ORIGINAL from the Hotel Sacher made by my friend, Chef Konditorei Alfred Buxbaum will do…
There must be 50 ways to drink your coffee…
At this link is the song: There must be fifty ways to leave your lover. Maybe someone can change the lyrics to “5o ways to drink your coffee”!
ENJOY! 🙂
The Travelling Gourmet 