SEASONS by MITA Q. SISON-DUQUE

IN diplomatic socials, next to toasts of sparkling champagne and formal dinners, a demitasse cup of after dinner strong black coffee, caps the evening.

To the unschooled, coffee is either instant or brewed, decaffeinated or regular, but not so to the coffee aficionados, a breed, which is continuously increasing in number with the opening of cafes and the popular production of brewed coffee makers such as Espresso Makers, Espresso Machine and Burn Coffee Makers. For indeed, coffee has its own unique history and its proper place, and in fact is the second most valuable traded commodity in the world nect to petroleum, with coffee farm incomes on a rapid rise.

A drink that is usually served hot, coffee is prepared from coffee beans, humanity’s chief source of caffeine, the stimulants that make the world go round. There are several versions of its origin, one of them is that coffee originated from Kaffa region in Ethiopia, and imported for the first time to Yemen. A legend goes that one Ethiopian mystic while travelling through Ethopia upon observing that goats, after partaking of berries in the area became unusually energized, tried the same, and experiencing similar effects. Not long after, consumption of coffee started to be popular, momentarily outflowed in Mecca and Cairo in the 15th century, but there was no stopping coffee drinking.

Already, the first coffee house was opened in Istanbul. Then coffee was introduced in England and all of Europe largely through the efforts of the British and Dutch East India companies. Coffee houses opened in Cornhill, London, Boston, Paris, and about 3,000 more coffee houses at the start, and an anonymous petition of “Women’s Petition Against Coffee” complained that “excessive use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor caled COFFEE, has “‘eunuchied’ our husbands, and crippled out more kind Gallants, they have become impotent!”

It is never really known where the first coffeehouse was opened. There are claims of a first in Vienna after the Battle of Vienna, compliments of war spoils left behind by the defeated Turks. While another claim, one that is considered more credible is that the first coffeehouse was opened in Krakow in the early 17th century because of close trade ties with the East, mostly notably the Turks. Certain though, is that the first coffee plantation was in the 17th century in Brazil where coffee was planted as commercial commodity, relying on the services of slave labor from Africa. The successful spread as a drink was paralleled with the spread of the use of tobacco smoking all over Europe during the Thirty Years War.

There are two main kinds of coffee plant. Coffee Arabica is the older one of them, the mother plant of the world’s Arabica coffee is kept in Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus. Arabica coffee is traditionally named by the port it is exported from, the oldest being Mocha from Yemen, and Java from Indonesia. The second kind, said to be more inferior in taste to flavour of Arabica is the coffee canephora or robusta, which contains twice as much caffeine, practically an insecticide as it paralyzes and kills some of the insects that feed on it. This coffee is used where Arabica does not thrive and has become an inexpensive substitute for commercial blends and almost all instant coffee products.

Good quality of robusta is also used in some espresso blends to prepare a better foamy mixture. Popular in Italy, most espresso blends are based on robusta. Little known fact by Filipino coffee drinkers is that one unusual and very expensive variety of robusta is the Philippine Kape Alamid. The common Palm civet after gorging on the berries, small animals and fruits along the softer outer layer of the coffee cherry, excrete the undisgested beans. The berries after passing through the digestive system of the animals, acquire an unusual flavor for it is believed enzymes in the stomach of the civet break down proteins that give coffee its bitter taste.

Indonesian Kopi Luwak, and coffee from Vietnam and coffee estates of India have the same similar coffee beans, Philippine coffee such as the Barako of Batangas is presently being served at world coffee cafes as Starbucks, the Australian Mocha Blends and the Japanese UCC, Cordillera coffee, a brand of Arabica is grown in upland provinces of Sagada, Kalinga, Abra, Benguet, Ifugao and Apayao and is waiting to be discovered by the coffee drinking world.

Coffee beans from different places have distinctive characteristics of flavor, caffeine content and acidity dependent on the environment, method of process and the genetic quality. Aside from Brazil, sought after coffee beans are grown in Colombia, Kenya and Tanzania, Costa Rica, Tarrazu, Kona in Hawaii, Blue Mountain region of Jamaica, the island of Java in Indonesia, Mandheling region of Sumatra, Indonesia, and the peaberry beans grown on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. But the flavor does not end there. Blending for balance and complexity has grown popular, one of the oldest of which is the Mocha-Java blend. Often expensive coffee beans are blended with the Jamaica Blue mountain and Hawaii Kona coffee blends.

The next time you attend an embassy function, or even when taking a cup of black coffee, a cappuccino, latte, espresso or cafe au lait, remember an Ethiopian mystic who first witnessed adventurous goats eat unknown berries, and hence took the first step toward discovering coffee, the world’s most natural drink, next to water.

(Ed’s Note: Author is married to Salvador T. Duque, M.D., Chancellor, Lyceum Northwestern University in Pangasinan; President, Metro Dagupan Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Chairman, Regional Development Council; past president, Association of Private Schools, Colleges and Universities, Region I. Dr. Duque is also the eldest son of the late former Pangasinan governor Dr. Francisco Duque, Jr.)