From Food to Beverage

The comments of the early European explorers and botanists indicate that the Ethiopians chewed raw coffee beans - obviously appreciative of their stimulating effect. They also pounded ripe coffee cherries, mixed them with animal fat and molded the resulting paste into pellets. This powerful cocktail of fat, caffeine and meat protein was a vital source of concentrated energy, particularly valuable in times of tribal conflict when warriors were required to give their all. The cherries were probably eaten as a ripe fruit, too, since the pulp is sweet and contains caffeine.

Early records also show that a wine was made from the fermented juice of the ripe cherries. The wine was called qahwah, meaning "that which excites and causes the spirits to rise", a term which was eventually used for both wine and coffee. Since wine was prohibited by Mohammed, coffee was nicknamed "the wine of Araby".

It seems possible that coffee was treated as a food in Arabia, too, and only later mixed with water to make a drink. The earliest version of the beverage was probably a liquid produced by steeping a few whole hulls in cold water. Later, the hulls were roasted over an open fire, and then boiled in water for about thirty minutes until a pale yellow liquid was produced.

By about AD 1000, the drink was still a relatively crude decoction made with green coffee beans and their hulls. It was probably not until around the 13th century that the beans were dried before use. They were laid out in the sun, and once dry, could be stored for longer periods. After that, it was a small step to roast them over a charcoal fire.