The Mystery of the Coffee Culture

Published April 17, 2007

by Martine Burtis

Anyone who has ever been in a coffee shop knows its enticing and alternative academic ambiance: soft lighting, foreign beats, and coffee. As I sit and overhear the nearby debate about the literary genius of Dante, I cannot help but laugh at the history of these infamous brewed beans that made this conversation possible.

Legend has it that the coffee bean was first discovered in Ethiopia circa 800 AD. Apparently, a brilliant Homo sapien decided to taste the plant his goat was eating.

The man had seen the glorious effects the brown bean had on his prized ass and was pleasantly surprised at the similar uplifting outcome he experienced. And the rest is… relatively murky.

One of its first purposes was to keep monks awake for their extended prayer sessions. Leaving Ethiopia, coffee spread to Africa where it was cultivated in bulk and shipped off as a luxury: eastward to India and westward to Turkey, and later, Europe. “Coffee,” in the linguistic sense, only entered into the English language in 1598. It came from the Turkish term “kahve,” which was Arabic for “qahhwat al bun,” meaning “wine of the bean.”

Sipping on my beverage as “black as ink,” I find it strange that coffee was once used as a vehicle to serenity. It has come a long way from inducing monks to a calm state of deliberation. It is now the most common of amphetamines used by peoples across the globe to help us do things we don’t want to do.

Jittery feet and tapping fingers perfectly represent the change that has occurred in the wonderful world of liquid speed. Americans have warped caffeine into a dangerous addiction that comes with an allure of Parisian expatriates.

Surrendering to the daily dependence, we drink our morning cup to wake up, our mid-morning cup to wake up, our midday cup to wake up. We drink our afternoon cup to suppress appetite, our late-afternoon cup to spur pleasant conversations, our après-dinner for digestive purposes and our late-night cup to wake up, again.

We even make coffee for those who don’t even like the bitter brew by adding sugar-sweeteners like caramel and chocolate. Recovering caffeine junkies and abstainers alike can muse over an aromatic, steaming mug with the option of “decaf.”

The rest of us college students send up silent prayers to the miracle drug as the sun rises and we finish our papers. Heart palpitations and ulcers aside, we continue to build our shrine to coffee as we accelerate through the years and the tedious rapidity of our everyday lives becomes increasingly hard to stay awake for.

I step outside, lower my sunglasses and walk through the viscous air with caffeine crawling through my veins. So what now? I turn the corner and my fatalistic view of the greatest human addiction is lost in the dark swirling liquid in my mug.

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