Coffee culture’s origins grew from the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen, as coffee developed from a medicine to a religious concoction to the preferred brew of the masses. When the Dutch came to India in the beginning of the 18th century, they brought coffee seedlings to Java. Soon all coffee imports to Europe were either from the port of Mocha in Yemen, or from Java. When combined, these two coffees - at that point the only two coffees available in the world to Europeans - became the now famous blend Mocha Java.

Over the centuries cafés developed as a place in which enlightened men came together to discuss the matters of the day, including literature, plays, economics, religion and politics. The coffeehouse takes us out of the cocoon of private life and into the public world. Cafés and coffees are important for creating a public life, particularly in a democracy.

There are many different types of coffee, depending on your palate. From freeze-dried to fresh the variants are astounding. The hottest of coffees at the moment are eco-friendly. Whether your preference is to help support a coffee grower’s family or preserve a Warbler’s habitat, you can find a coffee dedicated to the purpose. If there is also an Organic seal, consider yourself twice blessed. The birds pay you back as you sip your morning cups near the birdbath.

Whatever your preference, the detailed history of coffee is fascinating, recording lives lost, fortunes made, and valour displayed. Pouring coffee into a cup is also a pouring out of that history, that culture, and to taste your coffee is to taste the current summation of all that has come before. Be sure that the coffee you drink gives a beautiful testimony.