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THE CREATION OF THE COFFEE BARWhile discussing the incredible popularity of specialty coffee and gourmet chocolate some time ago, weRead More
The vibrant spirit of coffee with the silky smooth indulgence of Chocolate
THE CREATION OF THE COFFEE BAR
While discussing the incredible popularity of specialty coffee and gourmet chocolate some time ago, we were struck by the similarities between the two beans that people have fallen deeply in love with over the centuries – the coffee bean and the cocoa bean. The coffee bean is used to make the world’s most popular beverage, while the cocoa bean is used to make what is arguably the world’s most beloved food – chocolate. A look at the history of both these natural gifts reveals interesting, almost fateful similarities. Chocolate began in the Americas in ancient times with the Mayans and Aztecs as a royal drink. This bitter concoction first traveled across the ocean with Cortez and initially gained popularity with the Spanish aristocracy, then later throughout Europe. During this entire period, spanning hundreds of years, chocolate was consumed only as a drink. The world changed in 1847 when an English company introduced “solid eating chocolate” and the rest was culinary history.
An interesting parallel exists with the coffee bean – whose story begins on the other side of the ocean. According to legend, the wonders of the coffee bean were first discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder who observed the excited demeanor of his goats snacking on the wondrous coffee cherry – the fruit that holds the bean. The goatherd brought a handful of the fruit to his local religious leader, who promptly boiled the cherries in water and made the first cup of coffee. In the early 1600s Venetian traders presented coffee to Europe where it gained such popularity with the fashionable and influential, that the famous philosopher Voltaire is rumored to have consumed 50 cups a day and Johann Sebastian Bach even wrote a famous one-act operetta entitled “The Coffee Cantata”. Coffee crossed the Atlantic from Europe to the Americas in 1723, almost 200 years after chocolate made the same voyage in the opposite direction with Cortez. This time a young naval officer named Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu brought the first coffee plant to the Americas. Coffee gained its first spot in American history when it was used as a form of protest by colonists against the British monarchy in retaliation for levying a tax on British tea. Just about ever since, coffee has enjoyed wild popularity as a beverage – but has never “crossed over” to be enjoyed as a food like its counterpart chocolate.
Why had coffee not made this historic jump to be enjoyed not only as a beverage but also as a food? There’s obviously room in our culinary hearts for both – just consider enjoying a fine cup of drinking chocolate and the next day enjoying your favorite gourmet chocolate bar. What then was the world missing without a co