By Francisco Peyret
This weekend we celebrate International Coffee Day, and how can we not celebrate coffee, which to tell the truth, is part of our lives. There are many stories about the discovery of coffee as we know it and how it came to Mexico. Some of these stories date back to the year 1140 in countries as different as Abyssinia, Ethiopia, or Arabia.
In Mexico, it is one of the most popular beverages and its production in the country is so extensive that it is currently the eleventh largest producer worldwide. Introduced since 1795, when it arrived on the ships of French immigrants, its production began in Cordoba, Veracruz, and allowed the development and generation of wellbeing in the area where its inhabitants began to organize themselves to take advantage of the crop.
In Mexico, coffee is grown in 12 States: Chiapas, Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, Nayarit, Colima, Jalisco, Querétaro, and Tabasco. The coffee harvest season begins in September and ends in March of the following year.
Currently, in Mexico the Coffee Production System (production, commercialization, and transportation) is unleashing a wave of tourist attractions, in the Mexican geography it is a vacation alternative that is more than recommendable due to the abundant regions where coffee of excellent quality is produced. Currently, in Mexico we have a menu of options of spectacular natural and cultural beauty and not to be missed, it is highly recommended to follow the Coffee Farm Routes, especially those of Oaxaca and Chiapas, with farms such as Argovia, Hamburgo, and Las Margaritas. Or the Coffee Route in Puebla, which includes magical and coffee towns such as the famous Xicotepec. But we cannot forget that for decades there have been iconic places that have been attractive for city dwellers and tourists alike, they are counted by millions, such as the iconic Sanborns de los Azulejos and the Café Tacuba, both located in the Historic Center of Mexico City, and the legendary Café de la Parroquia, in the historic Port of Veracruz.
In ecological matters, coffee cultivation is threatened by climate change since it requires very humid climates for its reproduction. The defenders of coffee in this area argue that the reproduction of the plant generates the capture of CO2 and the conservation of biodiversity. Even when the hard environmentalists speak that coffee production also has to do with the deforestation of some regions, they also argue that coffee prices are considerably affecting small producers who are on the verge of disappearing.
But if we talk about health, in the last few years dozens of studies have been presented that affirm that a daily and controlled dose of caffeine can be the best defense against cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, or diabetes. In the end, all of us who drink coffee every day have our beliefs, customs, and rituals around one of the most popular beverages on the planet. Sadly, and speaking in numbers, they say that only Coca Cola competes with it. What is coffee for you?
Celebrities and coffee:
Voltaire (1694-1778):
«Of course coffee is a slow poison; I have been drinking it for 40 years.»
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850):
«If it were not for coffee, one could not write, that is, one could not live.»
Johan Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832):
«To you I owe all my vigor, passion without rate débote, inclination, worship and madness.»
Truman Capote (1924-1984):
«I am a completely horizontal author. I can’t think unless I’m lying down, either in bed or stretched out on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee at hand. I have to inhale and drink. As the afternoon progresses, I move from coffee to peppermint tea to sherry to Martinis.»
J.K. Rowling (1965):
«Writing and coffee shops are strongly linked in my brain. I still write by hand, I like physically walking around with papers, and not having to stop writing to go to the kitchen to make myself a coffee.»
