USA Coffee and Yavuz Sultan Selim
Washington Post: Starbucks owner should thank Yavuz Sultan Selim
The article published in The Washington Post, in which it was stated that “Coffee all over the world actually has an Ottoman history”, came to the fore again on October 1, World Coffee Day.
In the article signed by Alan Mikhail, it was noteworthy that the Ottoman Empire became an economic power center with its size and the leadership Selim I showed in controlling this vast geography.
The article included the following striking statements about coffee:
“I. One of the factors that drove the economy of the empire from the reign of Selim to the beginning of the 18th century was the control of the global coffee trade. In fact, it was Sultan Selim’s army during the Yemen campaign that first discovered this bright red berry plant. The Ottomans discovered how to turn these grains into beverages and built places specific to drinking coffee. We Americans (and, of course, Starbucks owner Howard Schultz) have Ottoman Sultan Selim to thank for coffee shops. Few of us appreciate that an Ottoman sultan was the one who turned trade into geopolitics and monopolized the supply of one of the world’s first unique mass consumer goods.
Now, do you understand the relationship between being a world power and trade-culture?
“Coffee comes from Yemen”
Yes, let’s continue with our proverb. Let’s give justice to justice.
Coffee coming from the northern regions of Yemen is one of the oldest in the world. Yemen Mocha Mattari is the best coffee exported from the country’s Mokhaport.
Yemen’s Mocha port, which went down in history as the first place where coffee cultivation took place, is the port where Yemeni coffee has been distributed to the world from past to present.
THE NAME OF CAFE MOCA IS FROM YEMEN’S CITY MOKHA
It became so famous that it used this name to name its coffees and blends by exploiting foreign sources. The chocolate notes found in Yemen coffee also inspired “Mocha”, an espresso-based chocolate drink.
Mokha 1450, which provides boutique coffee services in Dubai, and its CEO, Garfield Kerr, introduced me to the delicious coffee of Yemen and explained its history and culture, which made me say that this is how the past and the future met. Coffee is a unique experience.
Yemen is the key location for the spread of coffee to the world through the Ottoman Empire.
There are dozens of stories about the discovery and spread of coffee. The most accepted discovery story is the goats of the shepherd Kaldi, which everyone who is interested in coffee knows. Coffee, which started to be cultivated in Yemen in the mid-1400s, was introduced to Mecca and Egypt after Yemen. The first coffeehouse in Cairo was opened in 1521. . In the same years, coffeehouses were opened in Aleppo, Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran.
Coffee came to Istanbul after Cairo, Damascus and Aleppo, which were within the Ottoman Empire at the time.
It is rumored that coffee was first brought to Turkey by two Syrians named Hükm and Şems in 1555. In some other sources, it is recorded that during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), the Governor of Abyssinia, Özdemir Pasha, liked coffee very much and brought it to Istanbul during his visit.
The coffee brewed with special ceremonies in the palace was served to the guests by specially trained coffee makers on trays and cups decorated with precious stones and gold.
That’s why they said “Coffee comes from Yemen”.
We replaced the special coffee beans from Yemen with low-quality Rio Minas beans. Unfortunately, the coffee beans that the Turkish palate is accustomed to today no longer come from Yemen, but from Brazil.
By: Serkan Oral
