ESSAY: COFFEE

Ei, wie schmeckt der Koffee süsse! Oh, how sweet coffee tastes!  – J. S. Bach

The other day when I was having breakfast and thinking of a topic to reflect on, I happened to look at the cup of hot coffee that was near my toast. Like millions of others, I have taken thousands of cups of coffee during these many decades of my life: in the morning, in the afternoon, and even at night; at home and in restaurants; with friends and at lecture breaks. Every cup of coffee bore an epithet: Turkish, mocha, Irish, espresso, cappuccino, and such, also known as Arabica, Robusta, Liberica. 

It is said that sometime in the 9th century, a goat-herder named Kaldi picked up a berry on a highland called Kaffa in Ethiopia. The legend says that Kaldi saw his goats jumping after chewing on the beans, and he himself couldn’t control jumping after swallowing a few. So, it came to be believed that when made into a drink, the bean acquired magical properties, especially when imbibed with certain chants.

Cultural appropriations have made many customs universal; coffee drinking is one of them. It gradually spread far and wide, first in the Arab world, then beyond. Yemen is where coffee-drinking became a regular practice among the populace.  According to one story, an Indian Sufi mystic called Baba Budan once went to Mecca in early 17th century and on his way back from Yemen he hid seven coffee beans in his beard. He planted them in a hill in (present-day) Karnataka, and so started coffee in India.

Coffee was introduced by the Turks in Vienna, and it spread to Prussia. Coffee houses, like opera theaters in Italy, sprang up all over the country. This became a matter of concern for the beer lobby. Emperor Frederick of Prussia resented that his soldiers were getting too fond of coffee. On September 13, 1777 he made a proclamation in which he said: “It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects and the amount of money that goes out of the country.” So, in a spirit of “Königreich Preussen zuerst!” (Prussian Kingdom First!), coffee was vilified as immoral and banned. Following global custom, illegal roasters popped up. There used to be spies who sniffed to detect coffee aroma in the streets to spot culprits. 

Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici) wrote: “Here, a few days ago, there was a Royal Decree posted outside the parliament, which read: ‘Unfortunately, for a long time, we have felt that merely by coffee many a person is ruined. Thus, in order to counteract this in a timely fashion, nobody shall dare to drink coffee, only the King and his court drink it, themselves, and others shall not be entitled to do so…’ ” But the public craved for it. Poets extolled the virtues of coffee and composers sang its praises.

One heard incessant longing for the drink: “Oh!” cried out the women folk, “Oh!  take our bread instead, since, without coffee, our lives are dead!” It was in this context that Bach wrote his Coffee Cantata, which occurs in an operetta in which a father strictly prohibits his daughter from drinking coffee. To this the daughter replies:

“Herr Father do not be so strict, when I cannot, three times a day, drink my cup of coffee. Then I will, in my torment, shrivel up like a dried-out roast goat! Oh! How sweet coffee tastes.” And she goes on to sing:

“Oh! How sweet coffee tastes!

Lovelier than a thousand kisses,
Softer than Muscatel Wine,

Coffee, Coffee, I must have,
And if someone wants to delight me, let him pour me coffee.”

This operetta contains the line quoted at the top of this essay.

French wine-merchants were not thrilled by coffee either. Like the man who said giving up smoking was very easy because he had done it several times, Sweden banned coffee at least five times.

Who would have thought that a bean first harvested on slopes in Ethiopia would have houses named after it? Coffee-houses sprang all over Europe and beyond. At one time, they became places where philosophers met to explore weighty questions and ordinary people stopped for informal chats.

In our own times, in some/many cultures, dinners are incomplete without a cup of coffee as a conclusion. But it has been pointed out that taking coffee too soon after a meal may interfere with the absorption of iron and some minerals by the body. So, some nutritionists advise us to wait a little after dessert before enjoying the coffee.

For some a cup of good coffee

For contentment can be a key.