The history of coffee is fascinating, and just like the rest of history, how you look at it determines how you tell the story. For today’s coffee news we’re going to share with you something fun and fascinating that happened with coffee in the not so distant past.
In Europe and specifically England (or Great Britain or whatever history specialists prefer it to be called), there was a period of time where clean drinking water was hard to come by…so people mostly drank beer during the day. Yes, beer. Yum! Except it turns out, drinking beer all day to stay hydrated is very similar to sitting in a sauna. Ok maybe not exactly the same but you get it. So imagine all these peasants and lords and folks in wigs (pretty sure that’s when this was happening, the men wearing wig era), running around trying to get things done and drinking beer to stay refreshed. Now I read this in a book somewhere a few years back, so if you want to fact check me please do and feel free to correct me because I’m at a coffee shop and the wifi isn’t connected because I don’t know where to find the password and it’s more fun to make you curios if this is true or not than to go fact check myself. Ok so back to the story. Drunk peasants and dudes in wigs drinking beer all day instead of water. So imagine a lot of naps and well we all know thinking clearly isn’t a byproduct of alcohol consumption, so let’s say questionable decisions were pretty normal (this might explain a lot of strange things during this time, like maybe the wigs? I can just imagine some guy going “this beer is for my health and hydration and this WIG is AWESOME). So one day, coffee shows up.
If I remember correctly, the coffee came from trade routes, somewhere in what I will call the “Arabic” region because again, no internet and I know some things and some things I just don’t. So coffee shows up, and how do you make coffee? Well you have to boil water, so that’s good because boiling water helps eliminate some of the bacteria and stuff in the water you don’t want to drink. Then maybe using a filter for the coffee helped in some way shape or form too? Maybe not. I’ve been on long wilderness outings and the filters they make to protect you from giradia seem fairly high tech compared to a coffee filter, so don’t spread lies that coffee filters protect you from water bacteria and then blame me when someone gets sick ok?
Ok so now coffee is on the scene. Not only does the process of making the coffee help with the clean drinking “water” dilemma, BUT, it also has the OPPOSITE affect of beer - you feel alert and productive! Pretty sweet. And now let’s add some sugar and it’s definitely sweet.
What happened was a “coffee boom.” All of a sudden coffee shops start springing up, and they became social hubs in a big way. A coffee shop was not just a place you went to get a daily dose of caffeine, it was where you went to debate politics, get the latest news, and you might even find your lawyer now had a table there regularly for the entire day. Yes, please would set up shop at the coffee shop, and do business out of it. So much so, that some people even had their mail delivered to their “spot.” I’m sitting right now thinking how cool would it be if every time I walked to the coffee shop around the corner the barista handed me my mail with a cup of coffee and I sat down and my accountant and lawyer were at the tables next to me and we got some business done as I worked on this writing. Ok so maybe that’s excessive, but seems neat in theory.
There’s a lot more details here, and some of these might even be a little off because again, I’m writing this based on something I read back in 2019 and in this moment that was 3 ish years ago. But, let’s just go ahead and thank and congratulate coffee for bringing some clarity to the world. I invite you to click the like button below, leave a comment, and share this with a friend if you enjoyed it or just even thought it was weird and someone you know might get a laugh out of it. We here at Shady Lion love coffee, love laughing, and love friends, and if you haven’t tried our delicious beans please do. Our Ethiopian Sweet Lilly is a top 1% bean on the planet, with a higher grade than literally 99% of what you will find. Our last scoring on the Ethiopian Sweet Lily was a 93, and if you compare that to other coffees who offer their true ratings, you’ll find some of the higher end coffees on the market only making it to 88 and feeling really good about it. I’ll tell you I didn’t quite understand how special that as when I started this journey, and having been drinking a Brazilian medium roast from my friends at Guadalupe (Hi Brad and team!) for several years, it took me a few weeks to really begin to notice and appreciate the difference in what I was drinking and just the quality and profile of such a beautiful coffee from one of the most special places on the planet. Thank you to all of our subscribers, customers, and the incredible people who grow, harvest, wash and process and help us make this journey on our spinning rock that much better through the gift of coffee. (Remember to like, comment, and share this below, thank you!).
- The Shady Lion Coffee Co. Team