The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, was quite accomplished. He was the first colonial governor of Puerto Rico and led one of the earliest European explorations into what is now Florida. In fact, Ponce gave Florida its name. He termed the area “La Florida” in recognition of the lush green landscape and because it was the Easter season, which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida (Festival of Flowers).
While we might remember Ponce for these significant achievements, if contemporary society remembers Ponce at all, it is to associate him with the quixotic quest of the fabled Fountain of Youth. Historians recon Ponce was far more interested in finding gold than magical wellsprings, but popular legend has nonetheless yoked him with the association.
Two centuries later, another European mariner, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, an officer in the French Navy, introduced an African/Arab culinary staple to his diplomatic post in Martinique: coffee. The lone coffee tree de Clieu brought to the Caribbean island multiplied into almost 20 million coffee trees by the end of the 18th century. Despite de Clieu’s introduction of the bean to the New World, the Dutch first took the coffee plant to Central and South America. Coffee first arrived in the Dutch colony of Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in 1718, followed by plantations in French Guyana and Brazil. During the 17th and 18th centuries, vast sugar plantations covered the Brazilian landscape. As sugar prices plummeted in the 1820s, lands were converted to coffee cultivation. By the 1830’s Brazil was the world’s largest coffee producer, followed by Cuba, Java and Haiti.
The rapid expansion of production caused a glut of supply which deflated world coffee prices. The global price of coffee bottomed out in the 1840’s, but rebounded to a peak in the 1890’s. During this 50-year climb, Brazilian expansion slowed considerably due largely to a lack of inland transport and manpower. Even so, rising prices spurred coffee cultivation in other regions of South and Central America such as Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia.
Fast forward another century to the current ubiquity of Starbucks and a dizzying array of coffee contraptions — pods, presses, percolators, drip machines, foamers and their kin. There is coffee from Jamaica’s Blue Mountains, from the hills surrounding Kilimanjaro and even coffee harvested from civet cats (if you don’t know what civet coffee is, you may not want to find out).
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
American historic lore owes to coffee house culture. A Boston coffee house is where the famous Tea Party was planned (irony noted). Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of New York started in coffeehouses in the area now known as Wall Street. In short, coffee fuels American productivity.
According to a recently released study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, coffee consumption may actually lead to a longer life. The study begun in 1995, followed 402,260 test subjects (none of whom had heart disease or cancer) between the ages 50 and 71. Subjects were asked about their coffee drinking habits. Only 42,000 of the test subjects were non-coffee drinkers. A majority admitted to drinking two to three cups a day. A few (15,000) admitted to six or more cups per day.
By 2008, 52,000 of the test subjects had died. Based on the data, researchers observed that men who drank two to three cups of coffee daily were 10 percent less like to die and women were 13 percent less likely. The percentage reached 16 percent for women who drink four to five cups a day.
Researchers conclude that it doesn’t matter whether the coffee you drink is decaf. Caffeine isn’t the issue. While they cannot yet pinpoint exactly what substance is the source of the benefit, they continue to look. Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, stated that more research is needed to establish the connection between drinking coffee and having a longer life, but he believes it’s “the best evidence we have.”
While Ponce never found his fountain, his travels paved the way for other Europeans, carrying an African plant that would transform (and possibly extend) modern lives. To paraphrase the famous jingle – the best part of waking up, is to actually wake up.