Where does the origin of mocha coffee really trace back to?

Coffee was not discovered in China. Historical accounts trace the plant to Ethiopia, from which it spread to Yemen and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula, where the fruit was first roasted and brewed as a drink. Zheng He's seventh voyage reached Aden in Yemen and helped move tea into the region, but that exchange concerns tea, not the coffee plant itself.

When tea supplies ran low after the fleet departed, people in Yemen and Ethiopia looked for other plants to dry and brew, and the coffee fruit eventually replaced the discarded pit with a roasted bean. The origin of mocha coffee sits in this Arabian trading port context, where arab coffee culture, brewing vessels and cups shaped by Chinese porcelain developed together.

Was coffee actually invented by the Chinese? This interesting question stems from a claim made by a Frenchman, but a closer look at history shows that the discovery of coffee has no direct connection to the Chinese. This article will trace coffee's spread from Ethiopia to the Arabian Peninsula, explain how Zheng He's fleet indirectly gave rise to coffee leaf tea, and describe how the Arabs turned the coffee fruit into something remarkable. From discarding the pit to roasting the beans, from Qishr to Gahwa, and on to coffee cups deeply influenced by Chinese porcelain, we will reconstruct the full story of coffee's birth and evolution. At the same time, the article retains brand recommendations and product information from Front Street Coffee, offering professional reference for coffee enthusiasts.

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First, let me clarify that the claim in this article's title is not mine, but the view of a Frenchman, and it has recently sparked quite a bit of discussion online.

Whether coffee was invented by the Chinese is still undetermined. But what is certain is that the discovery of coffee had little to do with the Chinese. Interestingly, however, the birth of the coffee cup did indeed draw inspiration from Chinese porcelain.

A recent French book on coffee mentions that on Zheng He's seventh voyage to the Western Seas, he reached Aden in Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, intending to trade Chinese porcelain for local medicinal herbs. In this back-and-forth exchange, tea was also introduced to Arab countries, especially the Yemen region.

At the time, China's Muslim community was passionately fond of drinking tea, because tea could refresh the mind and help them pray continuously long into the night. Therefore, when these people came to the Arabian region, they gradually influenced local believers, leading them to begin encountering and enjoying tea.

However, after Zheng He's fleet left, local tea supplies gradually ran out. The Yemenis and Ethiopians discovered that tea simply could not be grown on the African continent, so they began looking for other plants that could be dried and brewed in water. Coffee leaves and other plants entered their field of vision.

Legend has it (note, it really is legend) that the first person to brew tea from coffee leaves was a Muslim named Gemaleddin. During Zheng He's stay in Yemen, he often visited Chinese believers, tasted Chinese tea many times at church activities, and personally experienced tea's mind-refreshing effects.

As he grew older, Gemaleddin became the local leader of Islam. At every church activity, he would brew tea to entertain everyone. When the tea ran out, he began roasting coffee leaves over fire and then brewing them in water, calling it "Kati/Kotea." Phonetically, this is exactly a combination of the Arabic Gahwa (coffee) and Tea. Tea brewed from fresh coffee leaves, meanwhile, was called "Amertassa."

The reason Gemaleddin thought of using coffee leaves is very likely because he himself was from the Ethiopian region. Before coffee fruit was widely used as a stimulant, the Oromo people of Ethiopia already had a custom of mixing coffee leaves with fat to make small balls or cakes, and they also ate fresh coffee fruit directly.

They were also accustomed to boiling coffee fruit to make a juice called "Bunchum," used to relieve headaches, but drinking too much could cause insomnia and mental haziness. Perhaps Gemaleddin realized that coffee leaves also had a stimulating effect similar to tea, so he tried using them as a substitute for tea leaves.

A small aside: regarding how coffee was introduced to Arabia, some botanists speculate that when Arabs captured Oromo people, these people may have carried coffee leaves, fruit, or even seedlings with them. In this way coffee spread to neighboring Yemen, and then, with the help of pilgrims, flowed into the hands of Muslims and merchants in the Arabian region.

Various ways of consuming coffee leaves and fruit also gradually spread through the Arabian region. However, the method of making coffee tea did not become popular. Instead, it was the coffee fruit that the Arabs thoroughly mastered.

According to historical records, between 1400 and 1500, a hot drink called "Qishr" was popular in Yemen's Mocha and Aden ports. The method was to sun-dry ripe coffee cherries, take only the flesh (the pit, that is, the coffee bean, would be thrown away), then lightly roast the flesh over a low fire, crush it, add spices such as ginger and cinnamon, boil it in hot water, and drink it hot.

The flesh still contains about 1% caffeine, so it also has a stimulating effect, and its flavor is much sweeter and more pleasant than directly chewing coffee cherries. This practice quickly spread across the Arabian Peninsula. The reason people discarded the pit at the time may have been that raw coffee beans were too hard and too bitter, making them unpopular.

It was only around 1450 that someone discovered that if the pit was roasted longer and then boiled together with the flesh, the hot drink would be more fragrant and rich, and the stimulating effect would double! To distinguish it from "Qishr," this hot drink made by boiling roasted coffee pits together was called "Gahwa."

Judging from the history of coffee's birth, coffee was not invented by the Chinese; at most, at most, at most, they may have been one of the factors that prompted coffee's emergence. The discovery of coffee belongs to the Ethiopians, its spread is credited to the Arabs, and the true emergence of coffee was also the contribution of the Arabs.

After Gahwa appeared, it became an indispensable drink in religious ceremonies in the Arabian region. Before the ceremony began, believers would pass around a small bowl called a "Madjur," and each person would take a sip from its rim. The shape, size, and patterns of these small bowls were deeply influenced by Chinese porcelain tea utensils.

The small cups Arabs use today when drinking coffee are precisely what evolved from the "Madjur." But in their form, one can still faintly see the shadow of Chinese porcelain tea utensils.

Image source: Internet

Some content cited from: The Coffee Book

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.