Do You Know About Kehwa? The Coffee Story

One cup of great coffee can make your day. It can fill you with freshness and energy. And that’s the reason it is one of the most popular drinks all over the world. I am sure if you consume coffee in the right way, it can prove beneficial for your body. It sure does a lot of good for me. I was in Nepal on October 1st, 2016, and celebrated my first International Coffee.

I didn’t even know there was such a day before 2016, and they celebrate it to appreciate the hard work and efforts of the people associated with the coffee industry.

I am not much into history, but the International Coffee Organization decided to celebrate International Coffee Day by dedicating it to all the coffee lovers in 2014. Next, in 2015, the International Coffee Organization launched the first official Coffee Day in Milan. However, different countries all over the world celebrate their own National Coffee Day on different dates throughout the year.

However, you may be surprised to know that the journey of coffee begins with Islamic spirituality and mysticism. Coffee has been cherished for centuries and is now the most popular drink all over the world.

When you think of coffee, you may think of Italian espresso, French cafe, latte, or American Double Grind with a cinnamon aroma. But today, you can find outlets of many great coffee chains like Starbucks, Cafe Nero, Costa Grace, and Café Coffee Day on every corner in every country. And let me add that my favorite brand of coffee, Nescafe, has become a symbol of globalization.

Where do you get your coffee from?
Coffee is produced in hot regions, such as Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam, and Indonesia. In the 16th and 17th centuries, coffee, tobacco, and chocolate became popular in Europe.

The birthplace of coffee is the hills of Yemen and Ethiopia, at the southern end of the Red Sea. It is believed that a shepherd in the Ethiopian plateau first sipped a beverage made from the wild coffee plant. He liked what he drank and sowed it in his neighborhood. The world should be

Initially, it was cultivated in Yemen, and the people of Yemen named it Kehwa in Arabic, from which words like “coffee” and “café” have been derived.

How many of you know that the word “Kehwa” originally meant alcohol and that the Sufi saints of Yemen used it while meditating and concentrating while remembering their God?

Are you interested in coffee history?
By the 15th century, it reached Egypt from the Yemeni port of Mocha. But even then, its consumption was limited only to Sufi saints. It was cultivated in some individual houses near a religious university in Cairo. Later, in 1554, it spread to the Syrian city of Aleppo and Istanbul, the then capital of the Ottoman Empire.

People used to sit in coffee houses and discuss many issues, listen to Arabic poetry, and play chess. These coffee houses had become a symbol of intellectual life, and people started going to these coffee houses, called Kehwa houses, instead of going to mosques, which was probably not acceptable to religious organizations in Mecca, Cairo, and Istanbul. So they banned coffeehouses or Kehwa. Some scholars believed that coffee houses were worse than taverns and could become sites of conspiracies.

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During the reign of Murad the Fourth, in the 17th century, they imposed the death penalty on coffeehouse goers. But all the efforts failed, and eventually, Muslim scholars had to allow the consumption of coffee in these places. Coffee reached Europe through two routes, one via the Ottoman Empire and the other via the Mocha port by sea.

And now how has it come to India? The East India Company and the Dutch East India Company were the biggest buyers of coffee from the port of Mocha in the early 17th century. Their ships, laden with coffee, reached their homeland via the Cape of Good Hope or were exported to India. The rest of Yemen’s coffee consumption was in the Middle East. Like in the Middle East, coffee houses in Europe began to become places for people to meet, discuss, and play games. Charles II thought, as early as 1675, that dissatisfied people met in coffee houses and spread propaganda against power.

And now for the biggest rumor of them all: Initially, coffee was viewed with suspicion in Europe as a Muslim drink. But around the 16th century, Pope Clement VIII was so overwhelmed by drinking a cup of coffee that he accepted that coffee had nothing to do with Muslims only, or that Muslims had any monopoly over coffee.

And coffee consumption in Austria increased when Vienna got its liberation from Ottoman occupation in 1683. There, large quantities of coffee were confiscated from the bases of the Turks. One of my friends who lives in Vienna says that they also serve a glass of water with a cup of coffee.

In fact, what we call “Turkish coffee” is a myth because Turkey is only one of the few countries that consumes coffee. In Greece, it is called “Greek coffee”.
But the people of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestine region, and Jordan do not agree with this term, and neither do I.

There are many traditions for drinking coffee in the Arab world. I have visited a couple of Gulf countries, and I do like their coffee because it’s more bitter and contains cardamom, ginger, or other spices like cinnamon.

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