Article - Coffee felicitations; it's official but we knew that all along!

Well, for all you avid coffee enthusiasts, and confirmed by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, that a decent cup of coffee might not be so bad after all! The committee is responsible for
educated advisories to such  U.S. agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture.

From the devils own brew to every other ill mannered expletive from the medical community, the once bad boy of the beverage world has suddenly found a new appreciation and that indeed from such a prestigious authoritarian body in the USA.

Expert laurels are not easy to come by let alone confirmation of scientific evidence to back the claim that coffee, consumed in moderation, can do more good than harm to one's own body. For this body to come out with the statement that 3 - 5 cups of coffee aren’t necessarily associated with health risks, in an open report and recommendation, is quite stunning with the new revelation that moderate coffee drinking can be correlated with a reduced risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. 

For further reading please refer to -

  http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2015/02/0040.xml&contentidonly=true


Today, the U.S. is without doubt the world’s biggest consumer of coffee, which basically explains the driving engine behind the recent stellar US economic performance to drag itself out of the economic mire since 2008. According to the USDA the average American consumes about 1.7 cups a day of coffee. Thus it's now official in USA; that coffee is not only good for you but can be downright inspirational at the very moment the body needs it most to perform.

Thank you,

Yours sincerely

Pieter Bergli - Coffee narrator and enthusiast

History Part 2 - Coffee in Arabia in the Middle Ages

Following the mythical legend of the goat-herder Kaldi it wasn’t long enough before goat-herders and then all peoples in the Middle Eastern region started chewing on the delicious coffee berry because of it’s fame for bestowing a vitalizing energy. As we mentioned before, the condemned and hapless Sheik Omar, had wandered through the dessert surviving merely on the red coffee berry and water. Quite fittingly it is known that the town which Sheik Omar came to inhabit was a Yemeni town by the name of “Mocha.” It is said that in this area c. 10th century A.D that the first actual domestic cultivation of coffee began in the area in the Middle East now known as Yemen. 

The popularity of the coffee berry had by now grown so profusely that even an emerging sect of Islam had found that the coffee berry had great uses in

sustaining their visionary pursuit of religious thoughts. 

Today, the Sufis are well known for their trance like meditations in pursuit of their worship of Allah. Sufism as a philosophy emerged around the 8th century A.D. with its main tenet of Wahdat or "Unity with God." By the 10th cent A.D. Sufism was widespread with it's penchant for metaphysics and mysticism taking a deep root within a new wave of liberalism sweeping through the Middle East finding expression in all schools of learning from astronomy to mathematics to literature.

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the ensuing Dark Ages this was a great age of learning indeed; a new age where great thinkers and scholars dwelt upon all questions of humanity, philosophy, and the meaning of life, finding ingenuity over a now renown yet simple cup of coffee brew -  

The great mathematician and writer of the time, Omar Khayyam was once said to have an equal penchant for wine and coffee when reflecting upon life and the questions of destiny and human will. Although life maybe be a stellar script, he concluded, make haste and make merry, and savor every moment whilst it lasts. As in his own words from the immortal Rubaiyat ...
 
"The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

By the time of the 12th century A.D. the first local Yemeni coffee houses began to emerge and they became to be known as qahveh khaneh. The word qahveh became the root word for the modern word 'coffee.' Qahveh proved to be an instant delight amongst all kinds of people who were fond of its consumption in social company. These gatherings evolved into the first local houses for the sole purpose of consumption of coffee beverages. They quickly became centers of discussion and thoughts and reflected the birth of the new age amongst men with the indomitable spirit of reason and scientific inquiry. 

There is always a limit to liberalism and by the 14th and 15th centuries A.D. the consumption of coffee beverages became synonymous with boisterous and animated cafe lounges. The popularity of such coffee houses did not come without notice and subsequent resistance amongst some people. In the early 14th century A.D. The Ottomans of Turkey came to absorb Yemen with a strict aversion for political opposition. The Ottomans had already encountered the practice of drinking coffee and its popularity with Sufism spreading to all corners of its empire. Questioning

the morality of unfettered minds in animation in houses of coffee, fervent religious men soon began to voice their concern and the need for disciplining restrictions to tame the animated spirit of the local coffee houses. Rulers began to fear that congregations and animated discussion could lad to future political and religious dissent. In 1511, Governor of Mecca and the head of the police, Kha’ir Beg had come to observe the unruly behavior of coffee drinkers with some disdain. he questioned the morality of consumers stupefied with  excessive consumption of coffee and would not tolerate such revelry as he enforced a local ban on all coffee drinking in the city of Mecca.

East meets West as coffee arrives in 17th century Europe ... http://thegenteelworldofcoffee.blogspot.com/2015/03/history-part-3-coffee-and-renaisance.html

Pieter Bergli -  Reflections upon the history of coffee drinking

History Part 1 - The origins of coffee

Today, coffee is undoubtedly the world's foremost beverage and the third most valuable physical, international commodity being traded after crude oil and gold spot and forward.   

The scientific name for coffee is Coffea arabica L. which itself hints of an origin in the ancient areas of the Middle East.

So where does the story begin? Where lies the history and origins of this humble berry that once thrived in the wilds of the Middle East and Africa?  Quite remarkably, considering the history of human civilization and it's span over the last 7000 years, the consumption of coffee beverages is a relatively new social phenomenon given that the first accurate and reliable records of its consumption demonstrate a solid practice of drinking as recent as the 10th century A.D. 


One of the first accounts we have of the discovery of the coffee berry is supposed to date back to about the 8th century A.D. There is a famous legend of an ancient goat herder. Legends and the threads of folklore usually do have some strands of historical truth twined between their fanciful episodes. In a fanciful tale, it had been suggested that a common goat-herder by the name of Kaldi, had noticed his goats eating the wild coffee berry and subsequently behaving in a stimulated and animated manner. In excitement Kaldi collected some berries and took them to a monastery close by. But the monk was not happy and according to legend, he threw the berries into the fire! Shortly after a wonderful aroma enticed several monks to take a look at the roasting berries in the fire. The roasted beans were gathered from the embers and placed into a jug of hot water to yield the world's first consumable coffee beverage.

Whether a fictional account or a tale based upon reality, it can be concluded that the coffee berry in the 9th century A.D. was widespread in the Middle East and Africa during the period that is commonly known as the Dark Ages, being the long and expansive interregnum between the fall of the Roman Empire in the  5th century A.D. and the birth of the new spirit of the Renaissance in the 13th   century A.D.  Perhaps it is one of the greatest mysteries of social culture that the coffee berry and its uses was not discovered much earlier for indeed the Egyptians were the first peoples to herd goats in the wild perhaps as far back as 4000 years B.C. Moreover, with the establishment of Roman rule it is indeed peculiar that whilst leopards and all kinds of exotic creatures and fancy marbles and stones would arrive at the port of Alexandria for export to Rome, that very little of the coffee berry should be known at this age of Roman domination in North Africa and the Middle East.

As far as the earliest records and narratives show, the coffee berry was known to have been growing profusely and wildly in the Middle East for a long time indeed. Thus the legend of Kaldi may have a semblance of truth. It is thought that the origins of the coffee berry lie in modern Ethiopia and East Africa and historical texts, narratives and accounts point to a rich history of trading and cultivation that goes back as far as the 9th century A.D. and in all probability the coffee berry had been known for several more centuries before. Ancient history has shown that one of the first animals to have been domesticated was in fact the goat In ancient Egypt c. 4000 years B.C. goats and sheep were introduced to the sub-Saharan Africa as agriculture grew along the river Nile, with the sowing of grains like wheat and barley. Rain of course was unreliable so people had to plan their irrigation to grow such grain crops. Thus the consumption of meats was also important in the economy of the time, and cattle like cow, sheep and goat, all became domesticated, each with its own penchant for a particular type of food source. Eventually grain agriculture and domesticated cattle would stretch across the entire region from modern Turkey to Syria to Iraq and Iran and down into the Jordan. All manners of vegetation from legumes to nuts and berries, and in particular, the ancient coffee berry would soon flourish by the time of the Rise of the Mediterranean power Rome with it's political and cultural influence stretching into the region from c. 3rd century B.C. - c. 4th century A.D. 

Nature tends to work in a circular fashion. An animal cannot thrive without a suitable sustenance. Since the region was bereft of adequate rainfall, it would naturally follow that cattle and indeed goats would soon come to inhabit a sub-Saharan region only where nourishment is in plenitude, such as in the form of wild grasses and foods such as berries, and indeed the very coffee berry itself. 

The tale of Kaldi is certainly an interesting one as it narrates an element of human observation and analysis. The goat herder had noticed his goats preferring to chew on the coffee berry and noticed the energizing effects upon the goat some time after consumption. Human intrigue and inquisition would naturally follow suit.  We watch, we tend to mimic. So one may surmise that eventually people would also have come to chew upon the coffee berry after watching their goats. Thus the fabric of legend bear interesting threads of truth as a story grows into a culture. Many centuries before the first historical records of the coffee berry being turned into a beverage man may have chewed upon the coffee berry much as the betel nut was chewed upon in Asia as a pastime for the relief of tension and natural enjoyment, very much like the modern day chewing of gum.

Although it is not until the 11th century A.D. where solid evidence arises of a coffee drinking culture with the religious practices of the Sufi in Yemen, there are several reasons to believe that the consumption of coffee had earlier origins as legends and narratives show.

Another fascinating tale tells us of a Sufi mystic known as Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili who traveled all over the Middle East in the early 13th century A.D. Whilst traveling in Ethiopia the mystic had observed some animated  eating some wild berries. Thus he also tried eating the berry and found the taste to be delightful.Yet, another account mentions the disciple of Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili, Omar, who was known to be a healer of sickness. Omar through the tribulations of exile was wondering near a desert cave at Ousab and stumbled upon the coffee berries. Thereafter, he gathered the berries and roasted them and dissolved them in water. The resulting liquid was consumed and gave Omar great vitality.

And now from the ancient world to the Medieval Ages .... http://thegenteelworldofcoffee.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-origins-of-coffee-part-2_13.html

Pieter Bergli - Reflections upon the history of the coffee berry

Cafe Corner - Honore de Balzac

Legend has it that the prolific 19th century French writer  Honore de Balzac c. 20th May 1799 - 18th August 1850 had passed away after innumerable and copious quantities of this infamous brew, once scandalously known as the devil's own brew. The properties of literatti had not held itself back. Honore de Balzac had truly lived a driven life through flashes of inspiration. Though it cannot be said that the hallmark of genius and properties of inventiveness were found to be wanting through the course of his brief but prodigious literary career, Honore de Balzac could truly find his immense source of inspiration from a very humble dark drink known to stir the very heights of emotion and intellect. The property mantle of intellect had it's origins from this mere humble drink. Known to have arisen at the darkest hours, time knew not how to slow the seeds of genius when slumbers would have called another, lesser mortal man, to put down the pen and peacefully repose towards a mundane life of dim wittery.  

Indeed, once he had wrote -

"if those who are the enemies of innocent amusements had the direction of the world, they would take away the spring, and youth, the former from the year, the latter from human life ... "

Therefore, Honore de Balzac, we salute your genius and rever your name for it's literary glory.

Honore de Balzac is best know today for his enormous collection of books collectively titled La Comédie humaine and portraying French society of the early nineteenth century. At its inception after an insightful flash of true genius, and a cup of coffee, Honore de Balzac famously declared to his sister -

"I am about to become a genius!"

In the literary world the French writer Honore de Balzac is a name that is eternally coupled with the passion for coffee as much as the name of Samuel T. Coleridge, author of such fantastic visionary works such as - The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, became synonymous with opium. 

Varying reports identify his daily consumption habits in the region of 10 - 50 cups! Depending of course which article you read.


Selected titles from La Comédie humaine -

    Les Chouans (1829)
    Sarrasine (1830)
    La Peau de chagrin (1831)
    Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu (1831)
    Le Colonel Chabert (1832)
    Le Curé de Tours (1832)
    La Fille aux yeux d'or (1833)
    Eugénie Grandet (1833)
    Le Contrat de mariage (1835)
    Le Père Goriot (1835)
    Le Lys dans la vallée (1835)
    La Rabouilleuse (1842)
    Ursule Mirouët (1842)
    La Femme de trente ans (1829-1842)
    Illusions perdues (I, 1837; II, 1839; III, 1843)
    La Cousine Bette (1846)
    Le Cousin Pons (1847)
    Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (1847)

Pieter Bergli - Cafe enthusiast, raconteur extraordinaire on the dark but illuminating property of the humble coffee bean...

Cafe Corner - Reflections with Chopin...

 

Sunday's are for solitude and finding time away from ourselves

Watching the world through the rain that purifies with deep cleansing thoughts over a nice warm cuppa ...

Pieter Bergli - Cafe enthusiast ..

The Age Of Reason And Coffee In The 17th Century

In Europe the early 17th-century saw a whole new era of philosophical discussion which steadily came to be known as the Age of Reason or Age of Rationalism, widely regarded as the precursor to be the early form of modern philosophy. Gone was the earlier understanding of the Renaissance an in it's place all forms of rational inquiry was now the vogue. 
 

In England the very first coffee house to be opened was situated in Oxford in 1652.  It quickly came to earn a reputation of a place of disrepute; for what gentleman would stoop to shops of clamor and argument over a drink with no less a reputation than a sordid glass of alcoholic beverage. Coffee had at once become l'enfant terrible! Yet, tastes can become cultured.  In London, in that very same year, another coffee house was opened at St Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, by a Greek gentleman Pasqua Roseé amidst a great deal of controversy. Local tavern keepers offering alcoholic beverages were quite literally aghast that almost 600 cups of the black devilish brew were being sold every single day! Thus a culture of coffee enthusiasm was growing fast and unbounded by popular opinions.

By 1656, there was a second coffee house that had opened at the sign of the rainbow on Fleet Street and by 1663 indeed there were no fewer than 82 coffee houses with thriving custom in London alone. “Black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love”, said an old Turkish proverb. yet, that did stop an insatiable demand as a thriving London coffee mores quickly became established, whose manners inspired heated debate and discussion on almost every topic form God to nature, to finances to politics. 

The arrival of the London coffee culture, first and foremost in a newly enlightened Europe, coincided with the dawn of reasoning that laid the foundations for the English economy to  growth, compete and innovate in the decades to come. London coffee houses were the sources of inspiration for the organization of the stock exchange, the currency markets the insurance industry, the banking industry, commodity trading and auctioneering. At the forefront of the new English economy and its lieberal rational mind was the 17th-century coffee houses that ignited a new era of global trade and financial domination and prosperity for Great Britain.

The property of genius and sources of inspiration brewed at the very heart of the English Industrial Revolution and the birth of a future Empire. From the darkest house of clamor and ill-repute, men's minds huddled over the darkest of brews, in pensive reflection, were unleashed upon a new age of mercantile, scientific and political expansion. 

Pieter Bergli - cafe narrator and enthusiast...

historical narrations and commentaries upon the properties of coffee and the chapters of human ingenuity.

Cafe Corner- Browning Musings - The Best Is Yet To be!

Rabbi Ben Ezra
By Robert Browning

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!''

Not that, amassing flowers,
Youth sighed "Which rose make ours,
Which lily leave and then as best recall?"
Not that, admiring stars,
It yearned "Nor Jove, nor Mars;
Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!"

Not for such hopes and fears
Annulling youth's brief years,
Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark!
Rather I prize the doubt
Low kinds exist without,
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark.

Poor vaunt of life indeed,
Were man but formed to feed
On joy, to solely seek and find and feast:
Such feasting ended, then
As sure an end to men;
Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast?

Rejoice we are allied
To That which doth provide
And not partake, effect and not receive!
A spark disturbs our clod;
Nearer we hold of God
Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe.

Then, welcome each rebuff      
That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!

Be our joys three-parts pain!
Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!                                     


For thence,—a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks,—
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me:
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.

What is he but a brute
Whose flesh has soul to suit,
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play?
To man, propose this test—
Thy body at its best,
How far can that project thy soul on its lone way?

Yet gifts should prove their use:
I own the Past profuse
Of power each side, perfection every turn:
Eyes, ears took in their dole,
Brain treasured up the whole;
Should not the heart beat once "How good to live and learn?"

Not once beat "Praise be Thine!
I see the whole design,
I, who saw power, see now love perfect too:
Perfect I call Thy plan:
Thanks that I was a man!
   Maker, remake, complete,—I trust what Thou shalt do!"

For pleasant is this flesh;
Our soul, in its rose-mesh
Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest;
Would we some prize might hold
To match those manifold
Possessions of the brute,—gain most, as we did best!

Let us not always say,
"Spite of this flesh to-day
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!"
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry "All good things
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!"

Therefore I summon age
To grant youth's heritage,
Life's struggle having so far reached its term:
Thence shall I pass, approved
A man, for aye removed
From the developed brute; a god though in the germ.

And I shall thereupon
Take rest, ere I be gone
Once more on my adventure brave and new:
Fearless and unperplexed,
When I wage battle next,
What weapons to select, what armour to indue.

Youth ended, I shall try
My gain or loss thereby;
Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold:
And I shall weigh the same,
Give life its praise or blame:
Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old.

For note, when evening shuts,
A certain moment cuts
The deed off, calls the glory from the grey:
A whisper from the west
Shoots—"Add this to the rest,
Take it and try its worth: here dies another day."

So, still within this life,
Though lifted o'er its strife,
Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last,
This rage was right i' the main,
That acquiescence vain:
The Future I may face now I have proved the Past."

For more is not reserved
To man, with soul just nerved
To act to-morrow what he learns to-day:
Here, work enough to watch
The Master work, and catch
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.

As it was better, youth
Should strive, through acts uncouth,
Toward making, than repose on aught found made:
So, better, age, exempt
From strife, should know, than tempt
Further. Thou waitedst age: wait death nor be afraid!

Enough now, if the Right
And Good and Infinite
Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own
With knowledge absolute,
Subject to no dispute
From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone.

Be there, for once and all,
Severed great minds from small,
Announced to each his station in the Past!
Was I, the world arraigned,
Were they, my soul disdained,
Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last!

Now, who shall arbitrate?
Ten men love what I hate,
Shun what I follow, slight what I receive;
Ten, who in ears and eyes
Match me: we all surmise,
They this thing, and I that: whom shall my soul believe?

Not on the vulgar mass
Called "work," must sentence pass,
Things done, that took the eye and had the price;
O'er which, from level stand,
The low world laid its hand,
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice:

But all, the world's coarse thumb
And finger failed to plumb,
So passed in making up the main account;
All instincts immature,
All purposes unsure,
That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount:

Thoughts hardly to be packed
Into a narrow act,
Fancies that broke through language and escaped;
All I could never be,
All, men ignored in me,
This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.

Ay, note that Potter's wheel,
That metaphor! and feel
Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,—
Thou, to whom fools propound,
When the wine makes its round,
"Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!"

Fool! All that is, at all,
Lasts ever, past recall;
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure:
What entered into thee,
That was, is, and shall be:
Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.

He fixed thee mid this dance
Of plastic circumstance,
This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest:
Machinery just meant
To give thy soul its bent,
Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed.

What though the earlier grooves,
Which ran the laughing loves
Around thy base, no longer pause and press?
What though, about thy rim,
Skull-things in order grim
Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress?

Look not thou down but up!
To uses of a cup,
The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal,
The new wine's foaming flow,
The Master's lips a-glow!
Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what need'st thou with earth's wheel?

But I need, now as then,
Thee, God, who mouldest men;
And since, not even while the whirl was worst,
Did I,—to the wheel of life
With shapes and colours rife,
Bound dizzily,—mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst:

So, take and use Thy work:  Amend what flaws may lurk,  
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim!
My times be in Thy hand!
Perfect the cup as planned!
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Solitary musings of contentment with a morning cafe

The Life of Robert Browning -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning

Pieter Bergli - cafe enthusiast and some daily musings with a cup of coffee.....

a man may find peace within himself staring into the dark emptiness of an early swirl.