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The Unknown Hero of Coffee
Morning coffee. In a plastic or paper cup on the go, in a mug, in a café, at the desk, after waking up, during a work break… I kick off my day with a strong brew from a local roastery, made in a French press.
Coffee has made a staggering career for itself, appearing in hot and cold drinks, with milk, sugar, honey, an abundance of additions, in countless variations.
COFFEE!
It likely wouldn’t have been this way if not for a Polish merchant, whose life story resembled an action movie plot, residing in Vienna in 1983, when Vienna was besieged by the Turkish army under the leadership of Kara Mustafa, a true coffee aficionado as befitting a Turk of great stature.
Coffee, growing wildly in those times, was discovered by people 2 and a half thousand years ago. The Ethiopian Oromo tribe brewed whole beans with salt and butter.
Over one and a half thousand years later, coffee reached Yemen, from where it spread as a beverage throughout the entire Muslim world. However, not without resistance and bans. Coffee prohibition was introduced, whether in the Ottoman Empire or among Arabs, by religious fundamentalists outraged by its stimulating effects.
Similar resistance arose initially among many Europeans regarding coffee as a “hideous and pagan” drink. The first to write about it was…