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How The Historical, Social And Political Influence Of Coffee In The Middle East

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“How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweet far than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee, and if anyone wishes to please me, let him present me with–coffee!” (Bach). Inspiration of musical pieces, poems, and for college students everywhere, coffee is beloved all over the world in various roasts and styles. It has not always been this way, however. Coffee is relatively new to the Western world, becoming popular around the mid-17th century, but it has been actively consumed in the Middle East since at least 1000 AD. Economic competition ultimately caused the decline of coffee consumed in the Middle East, but that does not negate the historical, social, and political significance of the brew.
From Turkey to Yemen, coffee has impacted lives with its historical significance across the Middle East for centuries. Coffee as we drink it today originated in the mountains of Yemen at around …show more content…

In A History of Food, the author, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, comments how coffee was a luxury item that “only very high Arab dignitaries drank, as a tonic” (521). Coffee slowly made its way up to Mecca as a commodity for the common man in 1414 and by the end of the 15th century, the drink had spread into the rest of the Islamic world (Pendergrast 6). The drink was able to spread rapidly once it reached major port cities, like Cairo and Mocha along with the help of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires. It is not hard to see why the drink became so popular so fast, as it has numerous health benefits along with its enticing taste and aroma. Coffee stayed local in the middle east hundreds of years, as it didn’t become popular in Europe and the Western world until the mid-to-late 1600s. During this time, Middle Easterners has perfected their trade and style of coffee, mainly what is now referred to as “Turkish coffee” around the world and adapted coffee into their daily

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