Culinary Chemistry / The Scientific Principles of Cookery, with Concise Instructions for Preparing Good and Wholesome Pickles, Vinegar, Conserves, Fruit Jellies, Marmalades, and Various Other Alimentary Substances Employed in Domestic Economy, with Observations on the Chemical Constitution and Nutritive Qualities of Different Kinds of Food.

by Friedrich Christian Accum

Coffee.

The beverage which we call coffee, is said to have been drank in Ethiopia from time immemorial. The Galla, a wandering nation of Africa, in their excursions on Abyssinia, being obliged to traverse immense deserts, and being also desirous of falling on the Abyssinians, without warning, that they may be incumbered as little as possible with baggage, carry nothing with them to eat, but coffee roasted, till it can be pulverised, and then mixed with butter into balls; one of these, about the size of a billiard ball, is said to keep them during a whole day’s fatigue.[39]

[39] Bruce’s Abyss. II. 226.

The liquor, called coffee, was introduced into Adea, in Arabia, from Persia, about the middle of the 15th century. Not long after it reached Mecca, Medina, &c. and Grand Cairo. Hence it continued its progress to Damascus and Aleppo, and in 1554 became known at Constantinople.

It is not certain at what time the use of coffee passed from Constantinople to the Western part of Europe. Thevenot, a French traveller into the East, at his return in 1657, brought with him coffee to Paris. In the year 1671, a coffee-house was opened at Marseilles. Soon after coffee-rooms were opened at Paris.

The first mention of coffee in our statute books was 1660. In the year 1688, Mr. Ray affirms, that London might rival Grand Cairo in the number of its coffee-houses.[40]

[40] Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary.