cherries from wild coffee trees, mixed with animal fat, and rolled them into
round balls. These “coffee balls” were served at their war parties. The result
of eating these coffee balls was:1.fat combined with raw coffee's high protein
content provided the African tribes with nourishment2.the considerable caffeine
content of the mixture was of course a “stimulant” that stirred the warriors on
to greats heights of warrior abilitiesI guess one could sort of compare those
African tribe coffee balls to the cans of spinach Popeye use to consume to
become mighty and strong enough to battle with Pluto for the quest of Olive
Oil's love!When coffee appeared as a beverage in Africa it appeared not in the
form as we know it, but as a wine that was made from fermented juice of the ripe
cherries mixed with cold water.Later in around 1000 A.D. the Arabs learned to
boil coffee. This is when coffee became a hot drink.From coffee's first
discovery the new drink was surrounded by mystery, and thought to have magical
properties. The first coffee drinkers described experiences of sensations
ranging from exhilaration to religious ecstasy.Legends about how coffee could
create great physical and mental feelings of well-being created a mythical
status that spread throughout the Arab world. It was at first consumed only on
the advice of a physician or a beloved priest. Coffee as a beverage became
rapidly popular. Doctors accepted coffee as beneficial and prescribed it to
their willing patients.Dervishes provided coffee at night-long religious
services in Aden, Yemen, Cairo and Mecca. They passed huge jars of coffee around
and chanted prayers until the new day arrived. Lawyers, artists and those who
worked at night discovered the benefits of coffee for staying awake for long
hours. Soon doctors no longer had to prescribe coffee. Coffee was becoming a
permanent staple of the civilized Eastern world.As the demand for coffee
continued to grow, the Arabs developed an effective form of cultivation. They
started coffee plants in nurseries from seed and transferred the young plants to
plantations in the foothills of nearby mountains. They irrigated the plants
using a system of pebble-lined trenches that distributed water from the mountain
streams throughout the young coffee tree plants. Shade poplars protected them
from the sun. As popularity of coffee grew methods of preparation became more
sophisticated.People started preparing coffee as a decoction from the dried
hulls of the bean. Then someone got the idea of roasting the hulls over charcoal
fire. Further advances in preparation included whole beans roasted on stone
trays, then on metal plates. Next, the roasted beans were pulverized with a
mortar and pestle and the powder was combined with boiling water. For over 300
years, this decoction that included ground and all was consumed, as the main
method of coffee preparation.This article is FREE to publish with the resource
box.© 2007 Connie Limon All Rights Reserved