Terroir terror

Once again I have a new obsession - coffee.  Words can't begin to describe how wonderful this particular brew is.  There is an espresso and coffee guide online that tells you everything there is to know about coffee.  Ever since it was smuggled from Ethiopia to Yemen it has been a commodity and a source of wealth for merchants, particularly when they held monopolies.  Until the Dutch smuggled plants to Indonesia, the Arabs and Venetians had a monopoly.  The kicker is that coffee grows best in the global south but the commodification of coffee only truly benefits those in the global north - hence the push for fair trade coffee.

Coffee became mass produced in various western hemisphere colonies and we can clearly see who has reaped the benefits of the exploitative coffee plantation economy that stretches from Central America to the Caribbean. 

Learning a bit about the history has helped me to put my coffee preferences in perspective.  Coffee from the western hemisphere lacks the body and flavor that I love because it is so far removed from the original source and is essentially a mass produced grandchild of the original coffee plant.

The thing that's even more crazy about the history of coffee is the role of the Dutch East India Company.  I wonder if my friend realizes that she embodies the rags to riches story of coffee.  Her mother is Eritrean and her father is Dutch.  Eritrea is an Abyssinian country that was colonized by the Italians in the 19th century (initially the Venetians held the European coffee monopoly before the Dutch establish plantations on Indonesia).  I am waiting for a jebena so that I can experience coffee from seed to cup.