Calloused palms plant the seeds, nurse the seedlings under a shade canopy, transplant them to mountainside ranks, prune and fertilize, spray for pests, irrigate, harvest, and lug two hundred–pound bags of coffee cherries. It is an incredibly labor-intensive crop. At various times it has been prescribed as an aphrodisiac, enema, nerve tonic, and life extender.Ĭoffee provides a livelihood (of sorts) for some 100 million human beings. In the form of a hot infusion of its ground, roasted seeds, coffee is consumed for its bittersweet bouquet, its mind-racing jump start, and social bonding. From its original African home, coffee propagation has spread in a girdle around the globe, taking over whole plains and mountainsides between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Yet coffee is big business, one of the world’s most valuable agricultural commodities, providing the largest jolt of the world’s most widely taken psychoactive drug. The evergreen leaves form glossy ovals and, like the seeds, are laced with caffeine. It first grew on a shrub-or small tree, depending on your perspective or height-under the Ethiopian rain forest canopy, high on the mountainsides. It is only a berry, encasing a double-sided seed. trifle away their time, scald their Chops, and spend their Money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty bitter stinking, nauseous Puddle water? “In Praise of Coffee,” Arabic poem (1511) This is the beverage of the friends of God. O Coffee! Thou dost dispel all care, thou are the object of desire to the scholar.
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