History UsefulNotes / Coffee

Now do me a favor. This coffee is crap and I'm still sleepy, so go away before I slay you and your whole family. Oh wait, UsefulNotes/TeaAndTeaCulture? A SpotOfTea? Don't mind if I do...

The legend has it that coffee was discovered in Ethiopia by a goatherd named Kaldi, who got very curious about the cherry-like fruit that made his goats happy and hyper. Although the story itself is probably apocryphal, it's generally agreed that coffee was discovered in Ethiopia and spread throughout the world by the Arabs; even the ''word'' for coffee in ''virtually every language''[[note]]The exception is the languages of Ethiopia, which use the native term ''bunn'' for the drink and the bean[[/note]] has Arabic roots: the drink got the poetic name ''qahwat al-bunn'' ("the wine of the 'bunn'", "bunn" being the Ethiopic word for "coffee bean") in Arabic, which got shortened to ''qahwah''; this provided the name in the other languages of the Muslim world[[note]]Including many African languages and Persian, which took the word almost without modification[[/note]] most importantly becoming ''kahve'' in Turkish, which became ''caffè'' in Italian, and from then travelled through Europe, the Americas, and East Asia as ''Kaffee'', "coffee", ''café'', and even ''ikhofi'' and ''kāfēi''.[[note]]Respectively German, English, French/Spanish, [=isiZulu=] (the "i" is a grammatical marker), and Mandarin Chinese.[[/note]] No wonder that in Catholic Europe it was even referred to as "the wine of Islam". Italian trade with Turkey, "Syria,"[[note]]Meaning what is now Lebanon, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and Jordan[[/note]] and Egypt, along with Turkish invasions of the Habsburg lands in southeastern Europe,[[note]]Supposedly, Vienna's world-famous café culture dates back to one of the two [[UsefulNotes/SiegeOfVienna Turkish sieges of the city]], where according to the legend, fleeing Turkish troops left bags of coffee that the Viennese brewed up and decided they enjoyed.[[/note]] spread the drink to the West by the 17th century, but it was widely opposed (but still drunk) until supposedly Pope Clement VIII, a downlow coffee drinker himself, blessed it around 1600; over the next century it would become popular throughout Europe.

* Direct infusion: This is used with Turkish, er, [[InsistentTerminology Greek]], um, [[OverlyLongGag Armenian]]-- screw it, let's just call it [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Near Eastern Coffee]], as well as what's commonly known as cowboy coffee. This coffee is brewed in a pot directly over the heat; Middle Eastern Coffee is ground to a powder, often with spices (cardamom is a favorite and practically universal in Arab countries, although cinnamon and a few others also show up) and prepared quickly and usually sweetened (drink this coffee without any sugar and people look at you funny), while cowboy coffee uses a coarse grind (presumably to avoid overextracting the flavors and burning the coffee while it sits by the fire). The Near Eastern variant is almost certainly the original way to make coffee, as it doesn't rely on specialized equipment and is traditional in the earliest countries to get coffee.

* Percolator: An older method, once ubiquitous but now largely abandoned, a percolator is a pot in which heated water is pushed up through a pipe by the bubbles formed as the water is boiled; the water then splashes through the end of the pipe to land on a filter containing the grounds, dripping ('percolating') through the filter bed before returning to the boiling chamber below ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9avjD9ugXc this Tech Connections video]] gives a detailed explanation of how they work). While this makes a very nice room freshener, it also causes the brewed coffee to reboil several times over, and for the most part coffee fans don't like the result. In the US specifically, percolators were nearly universal in the early 20th century, due to their convenience and low cost; however, they rapidly vanished once inexpensive drip-filtered coffee machines (specifically the iconic Mr Coffee[[TradeSnark ™]] and its work-alikes) came on the market in the early 1970s.

*** Breakfast Blend: Common in North America, usually a lighter coffee that won't compete with heavy breakfast foods or startle a sleepy palate. In the United States, similar coffees are sometimes referred to as "donut shop" or "diner" blends, implying that they're meant to be just like the morning coffee you grab on the way to work, but better. It serves a similar role to that of English Breakfast tea does in the U.K.

** In the American state of Louisiana, it is common to flavor coffee with chicory, a plant (closely related to endive, and whose leaves are commonly used as endive is) whose roots, when ground and seeped in hot water, yield a bitter tasting drink. The reason is that during the American Civil War, coffee imports into Louisiana dried up because of the Union blockade of Southern ports. Chicory was drunk as a substitute. After the war, coffee became available, but there was a severe economic depression in Louisiana, and so most people continued drinking chicory. Even many who could afford coffee added chicory to it to stretch out the supply of what was a luxury good. When the economy got better, the chicory growers prevailed on the state legislature to pass a heavy tax on coffee, and the adulteration of coffee with chicory continues to this day.

Okay, coffee. The world would stop without it. People spend big money on it. It is in practically every workplace everywhere in the world. From weak, sour percolated coffee to [[KlatchianCoffee eating the grounds right out of the bag with a wet spoon]],[[note]]r, you know, coating the roasted beans in chocolate works too,[[/note]] people have come up with many, many ways to consume the most common psychoactive drug in the world.

*** Spanish roast or ''Torrefacto'': The darkest of roasts, the bean is not only burnt, but sugar is added during the roasting process so the bean caramelises slightly. Considered vile by most coffee aficionados, it was originally done as a way of increasing coffee shelf life, but it became popular in the impoverished post-war Southern Europe.

*** Spanish roast or ''Torrefacto'': The darkest of roasts, the bean is not only burnt, but sugar is added during the roasting process so the bean caramelises slightly. Considered vile by most coffee aficionados, it has its origin in the SpanishCivilWar.

** In the late 1990s[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keurig]], a single-serving filter coffee system was introduced by Keurig, which took the market by storm when the price for the units dropped about ten years later. In the Keurig system and work-alikes, the coffee machine is loaded with a small plastic pod ('K-cup') roughly the size and shape of a thimble or single-serving creamer, the flat bottom of which being a semi-permeable filter. The K-cup, which contains a pre-measured amount of ground coffee, is loaded into the top or side of the coffee machine, which then forces pressurized water (not steam, as would be the case for a pressure-brewing system, and at a much lower pressure than those) to quickly filter the water through the grounds. While they are unmatched in convenience (short of instant coffee, see below), they aren't very efficient in terms of energy use, the disposable cups are considered wasteful by many, and worst of all to a coffee fanatic, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the pre-ground coffee is usually of mediocre quality]]. Reusable K-cups do exist, but aren't particularly popular compared to the disposable cups.

Okay, coffee. The world would stop without it. People spend big money on it. It is in practically every workplace everywhere in the world. From weak, sour percolated coffee to [[KlatchianCoffee eating the grounds right out of the bag with a wet spoon]],[[note]]Or, you know, coating the roasted beans in chocolate works too.[[/note]] people have come up with many, many ways to consume the most common psychoactive drug in the world.

** In the late 1990s[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keurig]], a single-serving filter coffee system was introduced by Keurig, which took the market by storm when the price for the units dropped about ten years later. In the Keurig system and work-alikes, the coffee machine is loaded with a small plastic pod ('K-cup') roughly the size and shape of a thimble or single-serving creamer, the flat bottom of which being a semi-permeable filter. The K-cup, which contains a pre-measured amount of ground coffee, is loaded into the top or side of the coffee machine, which then forces pressurized water (not steam, as would be the case for a pressure-brewing system, and at a much lower pressure than those) to quickly filter the water through the grounds. While they are unmatched in convenience (short of instant coffee, see below), they aren't very efficient in terms of energy use, the disposable cups are considered wasteful by many, and worst of all to a coffee fanatic, the pre-ground coffee is usually of mediocre quality. Reusable K-cups do exist, but aren't particularly popular compared to the disposable cups.

* Instant Coffee: Coffee that been brewed in mass infusion units, and then freeze-dried or processed in some other way to produce a powder (or in one well-known brand, 'crystals') which can be infused into hot water to produce a vaguely coffee-like liquid. The results are generally considered BadToTheLastDrop by serious coffee aficionados, being coarse and painfully bitter, and many feel it is better saved for cold drinks and cooking. Still, it has the advantages of being cheap and extremely convenient, and can be serviceable enough for most people's tastes when mixed with a large amount of sugar and creamer[[note]] and perhaps other flavorings, which are sometimes pre-packaged with the instant coffee to make 'instant flavored cappuccino' or similarly questionable delights[[/note]], particularly when better brews aren't readily available; thus, millions of people drink it around the world to get their daily caffeine fix. There are many brands, but it seems that the undisputed worldwide number one is Nescafé.

* Percolator Coffee: An older method, once ubiquitous but now largely abandoned, a percolator is a pot in which the water is boiled and pushed up through a trap containing the grounds, with the water returning to the boiling chamber below ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9avjD9ugXc this Tech Connections video]] gives a detailed explanation of how they work). While this makes a very nice room freshener, it also causes the brewed coffee to reboil several times over, and for the most part coffee fans don't like the result. In the US specifically, percolators were nearly universal in the early 20th century, due to their convenience and low cost; however, they rapidly vanished once inexpensive drip-filtered coffee machines (specifically the iconic Mr Coffee[[TradeSnark ™]] and its work-alikes) came on the market in the early 1970s.

* Percolator Coffee: An older method, once ubiquitous but now largely abandoned,a percolator is a pot in which the water is boiled and pushed up through a trap containing the grounds, with the water returning to the boiling chamber below. While this makes a very nice room freshener, it also causes the brewed coffee to reboil several times over, and for the most part coffee fans don't like the result. In the US specifically, percolators were nearly universal in the early 20th century, due to their convenience and low cost; however, they rapidly vanished once inexpensive drip-filtered coffee machines (specifically the iconic Mr Coffee[[TradeSnark ™]] and its work-alikes) came on the market in the early 1970s.

* Instant Coffee: Coffee that been brewed in mass infusion units, and then freeze-dried or processed in some other way to produce a powder (or in one well-known brand, 'crystals') which can be infused into hot water to produce a vaguely coffee-like liquid. The results are generally considered BadToTheLastDrop by serious coffee aficionados, being coarse and painfully bitter, and many feel it is better saved for cold drinks and cooking. Still, it has the advantages of being cheap and extremely convenient, and can be serviceable for most people with enough sugar and creamer[[note]] and perhaps other flavorings, which are sometimes pre-packaged with the instant coffee to make 'instant flavored cappuccino' or similarly questionable delights[[/note]], particularly when better brews aren't readily available; thus, millions of people drink it around the world to get their daily caffeine fix. There are many brands, but it seems that the undisputed worldwide number one is Nescafé.

* Instant Coffee: Coffee that been brewed in mass infusion units, and then freeze-dried or processed in some other way to produce a powder (or in one well-known brand, 'crystals') which can be infused into hot water to produce a vaguely coffee-like liquid. The results are generally considered BadToTheLastDrop by serious coffee aficionados, being coarse and painfully bitter, and many feel it is better saved for cold drinks and cooking. Still, it has the advantages of being cheap and extremely convenient, and can be serviceable enough with enough sugar and creamer[[note]] and perhaps other flavorings, which are sometimes pre-packaged with the instant coffee to make 'instant flavored cappuccino' or similarly questionable delights[[/note]], particularly when better brews aren't readily available; thus, millions of people drink it around the world to get their daily caffeine fix. There are many brands, but it seems that the undisputed worldwide number one is Nescafé.

* Instant Coffee: Coffee that been brewed in mass infusion units, and then freeze-dried or processed in some other way to produce a powder (or in one well-known brand, 'crystals') which can be infused into hot water to produce a vaguely coffee-like liquid. The results are generally considered BadToTheLastDrop by serious coffee aficionados, being coarse and painfully bitter, and many feel it is better saved for cold drinks and cooking. Still, it has the advantages of being cheap and extremely convenient, and can be serviceable enough with enough sugar and cream, particularly when better brews aren't readily available; thus, millions of people drink it around the world to get their daily caffeine fix. There are many brands, but it seems that the undisputed worldwide number one is Nescafé.

* Instant Coffee: Coffee that been brewed in mass infusion units, and then freeze-dried or processed in some other way to produce a powder (or in one well-known brand, 'crystals') which can be infused into hot water to produce a vaguely coffee-like liquid. The results are generally considered BadToTheLastDrop by serious coffee aficionados, being coarse and painfully bitter, and many feel it is better saved for cold drinks and cooking. Still, millions of people drink it around the world; there are many brands, but it seems that the undisputed worldwide number one is Nescafé.

** An older way of doing this is the percolator, in which the water is boiled and pushed up through the grounds and back where it came; although this makes a very nice room freshener, it also causes the brewed coffee to reboil several times over, and for the most part coffee fans don't like the result. In the US, percolators were nearly universal in the early 20th century, due to their convenience and low cost; however, they rapidly vanished once inexpensive drip-filtered coffee machines (specifically the iconic Mr Coffee[[TradeSnark ™]] and its work-alikes) came on the market in the early 1970s.

** And then there's instant coffee. Which we acknowledge the existence of, and occasionally drink, depending on the troper (truthfully it's probably better saved for cold drinks and cooking, but millions of people drink it around the world; there are many brands, but it seems that the undisputed worldwide number one is Nescafé.).

* Pressure-brewed coffee: Better known as espresso, this is similar to filtered coffee except instead of using gravity, it uses steam pressure or some kind of pump to force hot water through fine grounds. (Single-serve coffee makers like Keurig and Senseo work on a similar principle, though at much lower pressure.) Espresso makers range from the simple Moka pot (similar to a percolator, but the coffee collects in a top reservoir and doesn't reboil) up to massive pump-powered monsters that can cost as much as a car and produce dozens or hundreds of shots of espresso in an hour. Espresso is originally from Italy, but has become the base of most of modern Western coffeehouse culture, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff from Scandinavia to Japan and on]]. The café cubano of Cuba and south Florida is espresso carefully stirred together with more sugar than you'd expect it to be able to dissolve and is a nice but hard-to-find alternative to straight espresso. Worth noting, Espresso is sometimes incorrectly called "Expresso" by English-speakers, which is doubly amusing if you know that "Espresso" comes from the Italian word for "Expressed", as the water is ''expressed'', or forced through the grounds.

In Ethiopia, different families like milk, butter, or salt (in a significant amount beyond the pinch some Americans claim brings out the flavour of very good drip coffee), with a fair bit of disgust for the addition they weren't raised on. Outside coffeehouses, drip coffee in big electric urns or small glass carafes is associated with diners and {{greasy spoon}}s, and despite the fact that it's often kind of crap, there are a lot of people who have a strong affection for the stuff (sometimes out of reverse snobbery, sometimes just because the drip coffee goes ''fantastically'' well with the heavy cuisine associated with greasy spoons). At the other end of the spectrum, the "third wave" coffee movement has popularized the pour-over method with high-quality, single-origin beans made one cup at a time. In some areas, various forms of iced coffee drinks are popular, even in the dead of winter.

* Direct infusion: This is used with Turkish, er, [[InsistentTerminology Greek]], um, [[OverlyLongGag Armenian]], screw it, let's just call it [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Near Eastern Coffee]], as well as what's commonly known as cowboy coffee. This coffee is brewed in a pot directly over the heat; Middle Eastern Coffee is ground to a powder, often with spices (cardamom is a favorite and practically universal in Arab countries, although cinnamon and a few others also show up) and prepared quickly and usually sweetened (drink this coffee without any sugar and people look at you funny), while cowboy coffee uses a coarse grind (presumably to avoid overextracting the flavors and burning the coffee while it sits by the fire). The Near Eastern variant is almost certainly the original way to make coffee, as it doesn't rely on specialized equipment and is traditional in the earliest countries to get coffee.

** Israelis, being an odd sort, skip all the effort used in making the coffee palatable and just spoon some of the near-eastern grounds into a mug before pouring in some hot water. The legend goes that it was invented by [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles IDF soldiers]] on alert who didn't have time to brew up a proper cup. The name for this drink translates fairly directly to "mud coffee."
** they might bring this method from the Central Europe, where at least in the former Czechoslovakia the "Turkish way" cofee is drunk even today.
** In similar way to Israeli, Indonesian typical way of brewing coffee is almost identical (called "tubruk"): dump coffee grounds, put the sugar, then pour hot water, stir, and serve

* Cold-brewed: Similar to sun tea and the like, it's somewhat common to make coffee simply by infusing the grounds into cold or room-temperature water and then filter the result. There are people who swear by this for iced coffee, claiming it gets a more balanced, less bitter/acid flavor. It's somewhat common among cold brew fans to treat this as the seriousest of SeriousBusiness, even more than pour-over fans.

** A more recent trend is taking black coffee and blending it with one or two teaspoons of butter, and either some Coconut Oil or MCT Oil. The result is a fatty drink without coffee's bitter edge for people on low-card or no-sugar diets. Frequently called either Butter Coffee or Bulletproof Coffee. It's high fat content typically allows it to be a healthy alternative to a full breakfast meal.

In Ethiopia, different families like milk, butter, or salt (in a significant amount beyond the pinch some Americans claim brings out the flavour of very good drip coffee), with a fair bit of disgust for the addition they weren't raised on. Outside coffeehouses, drip coffee in big electric urns or small glass carafes is associated with diners and {{greasy spoon}}s, and despite the fact that it's often kind of crap, there are a lot of people who have a strong affection for the stuff (sometimes out of reverse snobbery, sometimes just because the drip coffee goes ''fantastically'' well with the heavy cuisine associated with greasy spoons). In some areas, various forms of iced coffee drinks are popular, even in the dead of winter.

* Pressure-brewed coffee: Better known as espresso, this is similar to filtered coffee except instead of using gravity, it uses steam pressure or some kind of pump to force hot water through fine grounds. (Single-serve coffee makers like Keurig and Senseo work on a similar principle, though at much lower pressure.) Espresso makers range from the simple Moka pot (similar to a percolator, but the coffee collects in a top reservoir and doesn't reboil) up to massive pump-powered monsters that can cost as much as a car and produce dozens or hundreds of shots of espresso in an hour. Espresso is originally from Italy, but has become the base of most of modern Western coffeehouse culture, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff from Scandinavia to Japan and on]]. The café cubano of Cuba and south Florida is espresso carefully stirred together with more sugar than you'd expect it to be able to dissolve and is a nice but hard-to-find alternative to straight espresso. Worth noting, Espresso is sometimes incorrectly called "Expresso" by English-speakers, which is doubly amusing if you know that "Espresso" comes from the Italian word for "Expressed", as the water is ''expressed'', or forced through the grounds, ''expressly'' for that customer.

In Ethiopia, different families like milk, butter, or salt (in a significant amount beyond the pinch some Americans claim brings out the flavour of very good drip coffee), with a fair bit of disgust for the addition they weren't raised on. Outside coffeehouses, drip coffee in big electric urns or small glass carafes is associated with diners and {{greasy spoon}}s, and despite the fact that it's often kind of crap, there are a lot of people who have a strong affection for the stuff (sometimes out of reverse snobbery, sometimes just because the drip coffee goes ''fantastically'' well with the heavy cuisine associated with greasy spoons). In some areas, various forms of iced coffee drinks are popular, even in the dead of winter. At the other end of the spectrum, the "third wave" coffee movement has popularized the pour-over method with high-quality, single-origin beans made one cup at a time.

In Ethiopia, different families like milk, butter, or salt (in a significant amount beyond the pinch some Americans claim brings out the flavour of very good drip coffee), with a fair bit of disgust for the addition they weren't raised on. Outside coffeehouses, drip coffee in big electric urns or small glass carafes is associated with diners and {{greasy spoon}}s, and despite the fact that it's often kind of crap, there are a lot of people who have a strong affection for the stuff (sometimes out of reverse snobbery, sometimes just because the drip coffee goes ''fantastically'' well with the heavy cuisine associated with greasy spoons). In some areas, various forms of iced coffee drinks are popular, even in the dead of winter.

* Pressure-brewed coffee: Better known as espresso, this is similar to filtered coffee except instead of using gravity, it uses steam pressure or some kind of pump to force hot water through fine grounds. (Single-serve coffee makers like Keurig and Senseo work on a similar principle, though at much lower pressure.) Espresso makers range from the simple Moka pot (similar to a percolator, but the coffee collects in a top reservoir and doesn't reboil) up to massive pump-powered monsters that can cost as much as a car and produce dozens or hundreds of shots of espresso in an hour. Espresso is originally from Italy, but has become the base of most of modern Western coffeehouse culture, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff from Scandinavia to Japan and on]]. The café cubano of Cuba and south Florida is espresso carefully stirred together with more sugar than you'd expect it to be able to dissolve and is a nice but hard-to-find alternative to straight espresso. Worth noting, Espresso is sometimes incorrectly called "Expresso" by English-speakers, which is doubly amusing if you know that "Espresso" comes from the Italian word for "Expressed", as the water is ''expressed'', or forced through the grounds, and "expressly" for that customer.