Coffee - the favorite drink of the civilized world." - Thomas Jefferson
Two of the earliest single-origin coffees are Mocha from Yemen and Java from Indonesia. In fact, the early success of these two single-origins saw the emergence of the world’s first coffee blend - Mocha-Java. Traditionally, this is a coffee bean blend of one part Yemen Mocha and two parts Arabica Java coffee. In this traditional form, Mocha-Java is the world’s oldest coffee bean blend. This historic blend combined the full bodied Java bean with the acidic Yemen Mocha, which produces a more balanced espresso experience.
Mocha (sometimes called Arabian Mocha), dates back hundreds of years to the 15th century. It was a name used by coffee traders who purchased coffee beans from the people of Yemen. Yemen was the only place in the world at the time with cultivated coffee beans, and Mocha was the name of the port on the Red sea from which the coffee beans were shipped. In ancient times, this port went by the name Al-Mukha.
Java is an island which is now located within the boarders of Indonesia. Back in the 17th Century, the Dutch establish the large Arabica coffee farms or estates in Java. Java at the time became the second great commercial coffee plantation region after Yemen giving its name to the second oldest single-origin.
Coffee makes connections: to ourselves; to each other; to the world; and even to the past. Here are five of the oldest, most prominent coffee houses across the world, where our favorite beverage has been served and enjoyed in much the same way for, in some cases, hundreds of years. What will folks discuss over coffee in another hundred years?
1.CAFÉ LE PROCOPE, PARIS (1686)
The oldest operating cafe in Paris, and arguably one of the oldest in the world. Known for hosting revolutionaries and intellectuals such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
2. CAFFÈ FLORIAN, VENICE (1720)
The only coffee house at the time that allowed women, which is why it may have attracted such famous patrons as Lord Byron, Proust, and Dickens. Alongside Cafe le Procope, it is the oldest continuously operated coffee house in the world.
3.CAFFÈ GRECO, ROME (1760)
The oldest, and some say most elegant, cafe in Rome. Known for hosting Keats, Shelley, Lord Byron (he got around), Goethe, Wagner, Lizst and Mendelssohn, among others.
4.CAFÉ CENTRAL, VIENNA (1876)
A popular historical landmark of Viennese cultural history, this cafe served as an incubator for prominent intellectuals including Freud, Lenin, and Trotsky.
5. CAFFÈ REGGIO, NEW YORK CITY (1927)
This small Greenwich Village coffee house was home to the first espresso machine in the United States, and remains proud of introducing America to the cappuccino.