Source of coffee?

[Keiri]

Roasted Coffee Beans Texture
freestock.ca [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Was reading hardtack and coffee and was enjoying his pages of raving about the coffee, and I wondered: where did the civil war coffee beans come from that they were so good? I'm sure the fresh roasting the6 did didn't hurt either. Anyone know?

 

[ErnieMac]

A clipping from the 23 February 1861 edition of the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper is attached. The subject matter is the Morrill Tarriff bill and the taxes to be imposed on tea and coffee. Three Latin American nations (Brazil, Hayti (sic) and Venezuela are mentioned as the primary sources of coffee imports.

 

[Kurt G]

The army issued 30 lbs per soldier per year . According to the Coffee Report ( Carnegie Mellon University , Fall 2004) a pound of coffee was .14 in 1861 , but increased to .42 per pound by 1864 . This led to a drop in civilian consumption during the war . It was very important to the army and was consumed in great amounts and was a morale booster to the soldiers .

 

[Lampasas Bill]

I heard this story years ago but have forgotten its origin: After Lee's surrender at Appomattox a Union soldier found himself host to two Confederates who had been on short rations for a considerable time. He passed out hardtack then fried up his ration of salt pork, which was gratefully received. Finally he brewed cups of genuine coffee, something his guests had not tasted in ages. After enjoying the brew, one Reb turned to his host and said: "Yank, If we'd had coffee like that we could have beat ya'll with sticks!"

 

[DaveBrt]

While coffee was rare and expensive in the Confederacy, it was present. There are many advertisements of coffee for sale, from recent blockaderunners, to be found in newspapers. There are records of an entire train of coffee from Wilmington to Petersburg in January 1864. Dr. Hess mentions coffee being issued to those assigned to digging mines and counter-mines. There are also orders sending coffee to hospitals.

The Virginia & Tennessee RR reports the following Eastbound quantities of coffee carried (year ending June 30) 1861, 384,000 pounds (24 car loads), 1862, 239,000 pounds (15 car loads), 1863, 7,000 pounds (1/2 car load), 1864, 5,000 pounds (1/2 car load).

 

[donna]

An interesting site on History of Coffee is "The History of Coffee by Professor Peaberry".

https://www.gocoffeego.com/professor-peaberry/history-of-coffee/

There is timeline from 800 to the present day.

Coffee has always been an important beverage. It was especially important for soldiers on both sides during the Civil War.

 

[Keiri]

I found an article that stated the civil war coffee was from slave plantations in Brazil, article quoting Jon grinspan. Unfortunately the valley it case from was overfarmed and no longer raises coffee. But you can go there and visit the old plantations and have the white descendant owner pretend to be the plantation mistress and have all the black plantation Slave actors serve you in the role of slave. Really messed up. So there's really no way to tell how good that coffee was, as it doesn't exist anymore.

 

[Keiri]

Here is a link to the grinspan article http://www.kitchensisters.org/hidden-kitchens/war-and-peace-and-coffee/

 

[Keiri]

This is the article about the paraiba valley plantation, I have been unable to find any info about that valley still producing coffee. It seems to have moved from the area entirely after slavery was banned and the soil went downhill. https://theintercept.com/2016/12/06...ion-in-brazil-and-are-served-by-black-slaves/

 

[donna]

Some facts on coffee in America:

Coffee reached North America in 1668. The first coffeehouse in New York was "The King's Arms" which opened in 1696.

The Dutch gave Louis XIV a coffee sapling from Java in 1714. It was planted in the royal Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In 1723 the French mariner by name of Gabriel du Clieu took a sapling from Louis' garden to the Island of Martinique. Later coffee plants spread to the Caribbean islands and to Central and South America.

By 1727 a Portuguese named de Mello Palheta took saplings to Brazil. Brazil became the number one producer of coffee in the world. Today they account for 35% of all coffee production.

In 1730 the British began cultivation of coffee in Jamaica.

By the mid 19th century, "coffee had become one of the most important commodities in world trade."

From: https://www.turkishcoffeeworld.com/History-of-Coffee-s/60.htm

 

[dlavin]

Can't live without it, then or now!