Green Fingers: Coffee Break - a transformational plant
The Dutch were the first to transport and cultivate coffee plants abroad.
On some occasions I write a few notes on a plant that has either transformed or made a significant effect on history. This time the plant is coffee but oddly, it had no effect in Ireland as tea was and is still the dominant beverage in these islands.
Tea was for a long time the staple hot drink in Ireland and we were considered the largest consumer per capita in the world. While some records still maintain that position, it has to be said that, per person, Turkey was and is the largest consumer of tea.
It is still the beverage of choice here, and far outstrips other hot drinks which are making inroads into our choices such as herbal teas, rooibos, cocoa, and coffee.
We were light years behind other countries in trying other drinks instead of tea and less than 50 years ago the availability of alternative hot drinks was simply not there except in specialist shops such as Chapman’s on the quay.
When the Irish began taking their first overseas package holidays, they were suddenly exposed to a whole range of different foods, drinks and activities, and while they were bedazzled by the choices, they did not immediately embrace these different cultural lifestyles but picked at it tentatively in small doses.
I do not know but it might have been the strength of the tea (no pun intended!) that depressed the popularity of coffee in Ireland.
Indeed, for many with a memory of the past, where the only coffee types available were Nescafe, Maxwell House and a brand called ‘Irel’, which also contains chicory and is not drunk now, but is still used as a coffee essence in baking.
Coffee is native to Ethiopia where it is considered the country's black gold, and accounts for around 60% of overseas earnings. Ethiopia has a long traceable history and is our oldest country and now one of the poorest due to the volatile supply and demand nature of the coffee trade.
Ethiopia is also the first Christian country and it was said that it was the monks who developed and gave us the drink.
There are many types or species of coffee but the principal one is Coffea arabica, which accounts for over 75% of the world production, with Coffea liberica, C.dewevrei and C.canephora trailing behind. The Dutch were the first to transport and cultivate coffee plants abroad in India and Indonesia, and they became the world’s main exporters for decades.
By the mid-1660’s a number of coffee houses opened up and drove coffee’s expansion, where it was the place to do business. One such enterprise was Lloyds the shipping and now worldwide insurance company, and another, the London Stock Exchange began out of a coffee house, both companies from Lombard Street in London.
Since those early years, coffee consumption has risen continually but, similar to numerous other growers or farmers worldwide, it is the manufacturers, traders and final retailers who make the profits, leaving the producers with small returns.
Dismayed by the difference between the subsistence farmers and the developed countries, movements to pass more profits back to the producers have been established, such as the well-known ‘Fair Trade’ organisation.
Gardening is practically at a standstill but, on any fine day, it is good to get out and spend some time in the fresh air and the best hours seem to be from 11am until 3pm when the day might be warmest.
We have been rooting out ivy and briars and pruning overgrown plants as we do every year and it works.
If you have any queries or comments you are welcome to share them with me on 051-384273 or orchardstowngardencentre@hotmail.com and if of general interest I will include them in a future article.
