Page 30 - FWG Issue 3 April 2023

Lifestyle

“If I can’t take
my coffee break,
something within
me dies . . .”
FR ANK L OESSER:
HO W T O SUCCEED
IN BUSINESS

COFFEE, A MOST SEDUCTIVE BEAN

hether as a quick pick- his find and came upon an elderly Moslem strong jasmine fragrance.
me-cup in the morning mullah, who was depressed by his
or an indulgent finish to a tendency to nod off during prayers. The cherry like fruit of the coffee berry,
Wsplendid meal, coffee is still within which the beans or seeds are stored,
one of the little luxuries of life. Khaldi let him into the secret of the red appear green at first, gradually darkening
berries and coffee took its first step toward to a rich crimson. Arabica berries ripen in
Coffee was always an exotic drink and so becoming one of mankind’s favourite pick- six to eight months. Robusta berries ripen
it remains today. Smouldering passions me-ups. in ten to eleven months. This allows only
crowd television commercials over cup one harvest a year, though Colombia and
after cup of rich, dark coffee, sipped Being of a more academic frame of Kenya – with erratic wet and dry seasons,
wistfully on a dusty desert train journey, mind than the goatherd, the mullah can have a secondary crop.
or savoured abroad a yacht on a romantic experimented with the berries and
tropical night, until a solo cup becomes a eventually hit on the idea of boiling them, Coffee harvest times vary according
delightful duet. turning the raw fruit of the coffee tree into to geography: those coffee-producing
a fragrant and delicious beverage. regions north of the equator generally
Today, the aroma and taste of a cup of harvest their crops late in the year, while
coffee is enjoyed worldwide, though the At first, coffee was regarded as a wonder in the southern hemisphere coffee is
story of coffee begins in East Africa. drug and was only consumed in Yemen harvested in spring.
and Arabia on the advice of a doctor.
The Story of Coffee In the 1930s Francesco Illy developed a
Legend has it that in the depths of However, coffee was too exciting to be machine that forced compressed air, rather
Abyssinia, today’s Ethiopia, sometime restricted to medical. Many saw it as a than steam through coffee grounds. In
around the middle of the ninth century, brain tonic. Others credited coffee with 1945 Achille Gaggia invented the spring-
there lived a sober goatherd called Khaldi. stimulating religious visions and before powered, piston-lever machine. Both
One day his ordinarily lethargic goats long, coffee-houses had sprung up right in allowed the greatest amount of flavour to
pranced home in an agitated state. Curious the heart of Mecca, the holiest city in the be extracted from the grounds so quickly
at their antics, he followed them and Islamic world. that the coffee produced had no time to
discovered that they had been nibbling become bitter.
the red berries of an evergreen tree. Growing Coffee
Coffee trees take three or four years to Coffee is increasingly earning scientist
Khaldi decided to try some himself and mature. They bear fruit in rows along approval. Studies continue to suggest that
was soon in a state of euphoria. In his their branches soon after the appearance the beverage may have some beneficial
excitement, he dashed off to broadcast of delicate white blossoms, which have a effects on health.

Fourways Gardens • 28 • April 2023