What Was the Original Purpose of Coffee? (Solved & Explained!)

Coffee was used in its more natural form, as a coffee berry drink, that was used to help with concentration and staying awake for longer periods of time in the 13th century.

It was then roasted, ground, and brewed into coffee, and then traveled the world, where it revolutionized how people communicated with the introduction of coffee houses in the 17th century.

This article will go more in-depth on the original purposes of coffee, how it was used and discovered, and how it transformed the world.

What Are Some of the Most Popular Legends of The Beginnings of Coffee?

What is the Ethiopian Legend of Coffee?

Kaldi, a goat herder, was with his goats when he noticed their behavior change. His goats had eaten red berries from an unknown tree and began to move with more energy, almost as if they were dancing. It was discovered this tree was the coffee tree.

A monk tried some of Kaldi’s berries and found he was full of awakeness and alertness. The rest of the monks and himself were able to stay awake the whole night and perform their prayers.

The coffee berry was boiled into a type of hot beverage with the same stimulating effect, and the coffee berry gained popularity, eventually reaching the Arabian Peninsula.

During the 13th century, the Muslims of the Arabian Peninsula began drying and boiling the coffee beans, making what the world nowadays recognizes as coffee.

What is the Yemen Legend of Coffee?

A Sufi living in Yemen named Ghothul Akbar Nooruddin Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili was said to have seen birds flying overhead that he knew to be behaving more energetic than usual, and discovered the berries they had eaten previously. When he tried the same berries, he confirmed the unusual energy they offered.

What is the Mocha (Arabia Felix in Yemen) Legend of Coffee?

A sheik named Omar, who lived outside of Mocha in a desert cave near Ousab, found the red berries one day while hungry. He tried the berries but found them too bitter. He then tried to roast them, but this made them too hard to eat. Then, he tried to boil them, making something so similar to modern-day coffee that gave him energy for days.

His miraculous discovery allowed him to return home to Mocha, where he had once been exiled and reached the level of sainthood while coffee became mainstream in the Arabian Peninsula.

How was the Coffee Berry Used Before We Knew About Coffee?

The berries were eaten straight when red and ripe and made into a variety of coffee-like recipes such as snack bars, wine, and juices.

Back in the day, people mixed animal fat with coffee fruit to make a protein-rich snack bar.

Fermented fruit pulp was also used to create a type of wine. This wine-making also happened with cacao before humans discovered they could also make chocolate from cacao.

Another type of hot juice was made from preparing the entire coffee fruit, beans, and hull, boiling it well before drinking it for the caffeine effects.

What is the Origin of the Word ‘Coffee’?

The word coffee followed the trail-blazing path as coffee began to travel around the world. In Yemen, people referred to the drink as ‘qahwah’, originally a word used to romantically describe wine. 

Later, the Turkish people called coffee ‘kahveh’, and then the Dutch people named it ‘koffie’, where finally in the English language we now call it ‘coffee’.

How Did Coffee Travel the World?

In the 16th century, Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey knew that Mecca’s coffee was their favorite beverage of choice, referring to it as the ‘wine of Araby’. From the Middle East it first traveled through the Balkans, then Italy and Europe as a whole, then Indonesia and the Americas through the Dutch.

How Did Coffee Change the Social Dynamic and Create a Revolution?

Whenever coffee was growing in popularity, coffee houses also sprang up. These started all across the Middle East and were called ‘qahveh khaneh’, popping up in villages as well as cities and becoming very popular to attend. 

This is where the concept grew that coffee houses were for coffee drinking and conversation, accompanied by all types of entertainment. The first houses enjoyed their coffee drinking with musical performances, dancing, chess, and discussing the news of the day.

If you wanted to know what was going on before the invention of the internet, coffee houses were your best bet. These places became known as the ‘schools of the wise’ and the link between coffee and knowledge became a long-lasting concept.

How Was the Reception to Coffee’s Growing Popularity in the Early Days?

As with all new things, coffee had its own hurdles, being banned and unbanned in both Mecca in the 15th century, and in Europe when it arrived, the ban only being lifted by the Pope’s intervention.

Coffee fostered intellectual and honest conversation between all members of the community, which the Meccan governor Khair Beg did not like. He was afraid people would gather to discuss his failures, and so he banned it, claiming it to be an intoxicant similar to alcohol.

13 years later, to finally put the disquiet community to rest, the sultan of the Ottoman Turkish empire gave an order to one of the highest-ranking scholars of the time, Grand Mufti Mehmet Ebussuud el-İmadi, to unban coffee and remove its association with intoxicants. The sultan went on to say, after coffee was reinstated, that coffee was sacred and to be treated with dignity.

In Europe, coffee came under similar fire, with catholic people declaring the drink as the ‘devil’s drink’, thinking it was also an intoxicating liquor, and outright outlawing it.

It took the intervention of Pope Clement VIII to stop the arguments and fighting, where he sampled the coffee and stated that the ‘devil’s drink was so delicious that they should baptize it. And he stopped the fighting, allowing the coffee to increase its popularity as it reached England in the 17th century.