History Of Coffee And Coffee Mug
You know, I have seen coffee mugs around ever since I was a little boy, but the one thing that I couldn't figure out was where did the first coffee mugs come from, who invented them? To fully understand this, we must go way back to the origin of coffee. Most people don't fully realize how old coffee is as it has been around since the 11th century. The Ethiopians were the first to cultivate coffee. The Ethiopians during this time and even before that originally discovering coffee during the ninth century, so they were known as the experts in coffee. Later on however the Arab world started to expand its horizons and that ultimately led it to Ethiopia and they had their first contact with coffee. It was an experience that left an enduring taste in their mouths for a long time after as the Arab world developed many different brands of coffee from the light tasting Nescafe to the very strong taste of Turkish coffee which very few people could tolerate it (I know from personal experience as I tried it once and will not try it ever again).
Coffee has truly become a part of our society's culture. One evidence of such claim is the presence of various coffee shops in almost every block. Products related to coffee such as coffee makers and mugs are all over the department store. Varieties of coffee are also available in the market. Simply put, coffee is now part of our daily life. Wouldn't it be good to know some facts about the history of coffee and the things related to it such as the coffee mug? Read on the short article below and know more about the coffee.
You know, I have seen coffee mugs around ever since I was a little boy, but the one thing that I couldn't figure out was where did the first coffee mugs come from, who invented them? To fully understand this, we must go way back to the origin of coffee. Most people don't fully realize how old coffee is as it has been around since the 11th century. The Ethiopians were the first to cultivate coffee. The Ethiopians during this time and even before that originally discovering coffee during the ninth century, so they were known as the experts in coffee. Later on however the Arab world started to expand its horizons and that ultimately led it to Ethiopia and they had their first contact with coffee. It was an experience that left an enduring taste in their mouths for a long time after as the Arab world developed many different brands of coffee from the light tasting Nescafe to the very strong taste of Turkish coffee which very few people could tolerate it (I know from personal experience as I tried it once and will not try it ever again).
Most people think that the original word "coffee" was an English word, but it wasn't as that term was passed down from the Italian word café which itself was an offshoot of the Turkish word Kahve. Even this Turkish word wasn't the original word for coffee. The original word for coffee came the Arabic language and was called qahwar al-bun, but believe it or not this word meant in Arabic "wine of the bean". So my friends this is the beginning of the history of coffee. Now that we know a little bit more about the history of coffee, we could then turn to the history of the coffee mug.
For the most part coffee came before the mug, but amazingly someone had made the first drinking mugs way before coffee was ever invented. Archaeologists had found old bones carved out from the bones of Wales that were made into drinking mugs and these mugs were made way back during the Stone Age. There was a big gap here from the Stone Age to the first coffee shop built in modern recorded history in 1475 in Constantinople. Of course, coffee mugs and drinking mugs were made of wood back then. I am very sure if they have the kinds of mugs back during the Renaissance era that they do now, they really would have enjoyed drinking coffee a lot more back then. Now imagine how far we have come since then. We now not only have coffee mugs for drinking coffee but we have mugs from most every occasion. The functionality and durability of these coffee mugs have made them a staple in almost every household and of course, the coffee mug business has exploded since they started to become popular in America. I am very sure that in the near future some other mugs will be invented that will be even more creative and serve a more functional purpose than they do today. With nano technology advancing the way it has been lately at a very tremendous pace we will soon be seeing coffee mugs that will be able to stay warm and cold much longer than they do today and they will be virtually indestructible so you can take them almost anyplace you go.
I hope you have enjoyed reminiscing about the history of coffee and of the coffee mug; the next drink is on me (coffee of course).