Archaeological Find Changes Coffee History

In January of 1998, the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal reported a remarkable archaeological find that changes the way we see history as far as coffee is concerned.

Excavations in the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, which is situated close to Dubai on the coast of the Arabian Gulf, uncovered what are generally considered the oldest coffee beans existing in the world. According to calculations, the beans date back to the 12th century A.D., pushing back the time in which coffee was first drunk by 250 years.

The coffee in question was coffee arabica, which grows naturally in the highlands of Ethiopia. A man called Ali ibn al-Shadhili, who died in 1418, has generally been considered the man responsible for turning coffee into a drink and bringing it to the Middle East (Yemen). It was initially popular among Muslim mystics who used coffee (Qahwa) as a means to stay awake during long religious ceremonies that took place at night. The Yemenis held onto their monopoly of coffee until the middle of the 17th century, when coffee cultivation began in other parts of the world. But this archaeological find may mean that we will have to re-write much of the early history of coffee.

The coffee beans were discovered with the help of a specialized paleobotanical flotation machine, which uses water to separate carbonized matter from the excavated soil without damaging the find itself. The coffee beans themselves owe their preservation to the fact that they had been roasted and had gone through a carbonization process.