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Your Questions About Gardening « gardenerscardiff.co.uk
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gardenerscardiff.co.uk

For the Best Gardeners in the Cardiff Area

   Nov 01

Your Questions About Gardening

Chris asks…

can anyone tell me about the origins of coffee and tea?

GardenersCardiff answers:

The history of coffee can be traced at least as early as the 9th century, in the highlands of Ethiopia. From there it spread to Egypt and Yemen,and by the fifteenth century had reached Persia, Egypt, Turkey, and northern Africa.Coffee was at first not well received. In 1511, it was forbidden for its stimulating effect by conservative, orthodox imams at a theological court in Mecca. However, the popularity of the drink led these bans to be overturned in 1524 by an order of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I. In Cairo, Egypt, a similar ban was instituted in 1532, and the coffeehouses and warehouses containing coffee beans were sacked.From the Muslim world, coffee spread to Europe, where it became popular during the seventeenth century. The Dutch were the first to start the large scale importation of coffee into Europe, and eventually smuggled out some seedlings in 1690, as the Arabs were not allowed to export the plants or unroasted seeds. This led to coffee growing in Java, which was owned by the Dutch.In 1538, Léonard Rauwolf, a German physician, having returned from a ten-year trip to the Near East, gave this description of coffee.
“ A beverage as black as ink, useful against numerous illnesses, particularly those of the stomach. Its consumers take it in the morning, quite frankly, in a porcelain cup that is passed around and from which each one drinks a cupful. It is composed of water and the fruit from a bush called bunnu. ” When coffee reached the American colonies, it was initially not as successful as it had been in Europe, as colonists found it a poor substitute for alcohol. However, during the Revolutionary War, the demand for coffee increased to such an extent that dealers had to hoard their scarce supplies of it and raise prices dramatically; part of this is due to the reduced availability of tea from British merchants. Americans’ taste for coffee grew during the early nineteenth century, following the War of 1812, which had temporarily cut off access to tea imports, and high demand during the American Civil War as well as many advancements in brewing technology cemented the position of coffee as an everyday commodity in America.
TEA:
The cradle of the tea plant is a region that encompasses eastern and southern China, northern Myanmar, and Assam in northeastern India. Spontaneous (wild) growth of the assamica variant is observed in an area ranging from the Indian state of Assam to the Chinese province Yunnan and the northern part of Myanmar. The variant sinensis grows naturally in eastern and southeastern regions of China. Recent studies and occurrence of hybrids of the two types in wider area extending over mentioned regions suggest the place of origin of the Camellia sinensis variant is in an area consisting of the northern part of Myanmar and the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of China.
Origins of human use of tea are described in several myths, but it is unknown as to where tea was first created as a drink.In one popular Chinese legend, Shennong, the legendary Emperor of China, inventor of agriculture and Chinese medicine, was on a journey about five thousand years ago. The Emperor, known for his wisdom in the ways of science, believed that the safest way to drink water was by first boiling it. One day he noticed some leaves had fallen into his boiling water. The ever inquisitive and curious monarch took a sip of the brew and was pleasantly surprised by its flavour and its restorative properties. Variant of the legend tells that the emperor tried medical properties of various herbs on himself, some of them poisonous, and found tea works as an antidote.Shennong is also mentioned in Lu Yu’s Cha Jing, famous early work on the subject.A Chinese legend, which spread along with Buddhism, the Indian Bodhidharma is credited with discovery of tea. Bodhidharma, a semi-legendary Buddhist monk, founder of the Chan school of Buddhism, journeyed to China. He became angered because he was falling asleep during meditation, so he cut off his eyelids. Tea bushes sprung from the spot where his eyelids hit the ground. Sometimes, the second story is retold with Gautama Buddha in place of Bodhidharma. In another variant of the first mentioned myth, Gautama Buddha discovered tea when some leaves had fallen into boiling water.Whether or not these legends have any basis in fact, tea has played a significant role in Asian culture for centuries as a staple beverage, a curative, and a symbol of status. It is not surprising its discovery is ascribed to religious or royal origins.The Chinese have enjoyed tea for centuries if not millennia. While historically the origin of tea as a medicinal herb useful for staying awake is unclear, China is considered to have the earliest records of tea drinking, with recorded tea use in its history dating back to the first millennium BC. The Han Dynasty used tea as medicine. The use of tea as a beverage drunk for pleasure on social occasions dates from the Tang Dynasty or earlier.The first historical record documenting the offering of tea to an ancestral god describes a rite in the year 661 in which a tea offering was made to the spirit of King Suro, the founder of the Geumgwan Gaya Kingdom (42-562). Records from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) show that tea offerings were made in Buddhist temples to the spirits of revered monks.The earliest known references to green tea in Japan are in a text written by a Buddhist monk in the 9th century. Tea became a drink of the religious classes in Japan when Japanese priests and envoys sent to China to learn about its culture brought tea to Japan. Ancient recordings indicate the first batch of tea seeds were brought by a priest named Saicho (767-822) in 805 and then by another named Kūkai (774-835) in 806. It became a drink of the royal classes when Emperor Saga, the Japanese emperor, encouraged the growth of tea plants. Seeds were imported from China, and cultivation in Japan began.As the Venetian explorer Marco Polo failed to mention tea in his travel records, it is conjectured that the first Europeans to encounter tea were either Jesuits living in Beijing who attended the court of the last Ming Emperors, or Portuguese explorers visiting Japan in 1560. Russia discovered tea in 1618 after a Ming Emperor of China offered it as a gift to Czar Michael I.
Soon imported tea was introduced to Europe, where it quickly became popular among the wealthy in France and the Netherlands. English use of tea dates from about 1650 and is attributed to Catherine of Braganza (Portuguese princess and queen consort of Charles II of England).

Thomas asks…

Best coffee in the world ?

Where the experts are ?

GardenersCardiff answers:

Best coffee is the one grown by a small estate farm with intense hand labor, pulped and processed by them, stored in their facilitity in parchment form, milled to green beans in small batches when needed, and roasted only upon order. The coffee which you get without middlemen, roaster, importers, warehouses directly from the grower. As whole beans and not grounded. It’s always fresher. And contains no dirt, twigs and non-coffee particles. Is not a ‘blend’ and therefore may taste different from season to season. The coffee farmers should ideally be member of a “self policing” organization to supervise the production and that the coffee comes from their own farm. It’s expensive, but well worth it.

Jamaican Blue Mountain, 100% Kona Coffee Farms, Yauco Select in Puerto Rico offer this experience. Try it. So you get the Starbucks scent out of your nose, which smells the same around all urban street corners on the globe.

Www.konacoffeefarmers.org gives you Kona coffee farmers websites. Www.bluehorsekona.com is one of them.

Mark asks…

How to start enjoying coffee?

I would like to drink coffee, but I tried it and thought it tasted horrible. I heard it is an acquired taste. Any suggestions of how to acquire this taste (specific kinds of coffee that are good for “beginners”, additives to use, etc.)? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’d appreciate any help you give. 🙂

GardenersCardiff answers:

I grew up in a family of coffee drinkers… Me, I’m a tea drinker. Never acquired the taste for coffee, tried it all different ways over the years. I’m married to a man who LOVES his coffee, straight up no frills regular coffee. Don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything… My daughter swears by the flavored coffee’s. I don’t know why you feel the need to have to like to drink coffee. To each their own, me I’m happy with tea…

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