Hello again! This week we welcome you to sit down, relax, and enjoy some early spring weather with a nice cup of coffee. Whether it be hot, iced, or lukewarm because it was forgotten on the counter, the history of coffee goes back centuries, and your participation continues that legacy. In many countries and cultures, coffee is a time to come together, enjoy playing games with friends, participate in discussions, and even a time for song and dance.
Wild coffee plants are thought to be native to the Ethiopian plateau, though the exact origin is unclear. The stimulating effects of the plant when brewed into a beverage became incredibly popular, thus marking an important chapter of agricultural domestication and cultivation of the plant. Coffeehouses appeared in the 15th century in Mecca and spread to Constantinople, now Istanbul, in the 16th century. The Turks loved coffee, and the Ottoman Empire was especially influential in the spread of the drink.
Europe was introduced to coffee in the 16th and 17th centuries, and by the end of the 17th century, the drink was basically everywhere in Britain, the British colonies in America, and all of Europe. With increased popularity and global shipping, cultivation of the plant spread to the Indonesian archipelago in the 17th century and to the Americas in the 18th century, as well as to Hawaii in 1825. In the 19th and 20th centuries, industrial roasting, grinding, vacuum-sealed containers, and the decaffeination of green beans, as well as the perfection of instant coffee, all allowed production to boom. Interests in organic, fair-trade, and sustainably grown coffee are leading to shifts in growing practices.
Coffee grows in what is known as the coffee belt, with the largest producers being Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, and Ethiopia as of 2023. The region is tropical, falling between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.The plants prefer temperatures between 23 and 28 °C (73 and 82 °F), and no variety can withstand temperatures lower than 0 °C (32 °F). Rainfall of 1,500 to 2,000 mm (60 to 80 inches) per year is required, along with a dry period of two to three months for the Arabica species. Climate change is causing several issues that will affect growing, such as shifts in precipitation and warmer temperatures, which are the main determinants of the essential growing conditions. Coffee is but a sliver of agriculture that is being affected by climate change; cacao, cereals, rice, corn, and soy are all major crops facing challenges in the future.
Our activation with Mimo’s Coffee has officially begun this week, so we once again encourage you to sip some sweet caffeine and support small coffee growers, and while you’re at it, snap a pic and Post On Purpose with the tags #cococoalition and #impactasnap. Each post funds real impact.
