The History of coffee
Coffee has a very interesting historical timeline. The primary species of
coffee, Coffea Arabica, originated in Ethiopia and migrated to the
rich coffee belts of Brazil, Columbia and other countries located between
latitudes of 25 degrees North and 30 degrees South. The word coffee is
most likely derived from its early shipping point, Kaffa.
The coffee percolator comes to us from England, however "drip pot" was
a term in the American language since the late 1800's.
James Sanborn and Caleb Chase produced the first commercially available ground
coffee in sealed cans in 1878.
Standard American coffee blends came to us from the Maxwell House hotel in Nashville,
TN, where it became extremely popular in the 1880's. The Maxwell House slogan "good
to the last drop" came from President Theodore Roosevelt's declaration
in 1907.
Powdered coffees date back to the eighteenth century, but did not become popular
until 1901 when instant coffee was introduced by Satorie Kato at the Buffalo
Pan American Exposition. It was later marketed as Nescafé® in 1939.
The decaffeination process was developed by Dr. Ludwig Roselius of Bremen, Germany.
The process requires either water processing or chemical solvents like ethyl
acetate to remove caffeine. The General Foods company first put the push behind
decaffeinated coffee in the 1930s with their Sanka® product, named from the
French sans (meaning without) caffeine. Today, about 22% of coffee consumed
in America is decaffeinated