Coffee in Costa Rica: History and basic principles
Arabica coffee is a millenary drink, with its origins in the first centuries of Christianity.
It has been said, that the word coffee, “café”, in Spanish, derived from the word “qahwa”, which means wine. But it has also been said that the word originated from Caffa, a province of Abyssinia However, when coffee reached Europe in the beginning of the 17th century, it was called the “Wine of Arabia”, for its exhilarating sensation that it produced to whomever consumed it. Coffee has several medicinal attributes, among these, suppression of asthma attacks, treatment of heart diseases, ascites, pleuritic disorders, it is a powerful
Diuretic, a mild laxative and popularly used today, for inebriety. The leaves of the coffee trees contain the most caffeine and have been used for infusions.
Coffee arrived in Central America in 1740 in El Salvador and in Costa Rica in 1796.
The first plantations of Costa Rica date back to the year 1816, and later in the year 1875 Costa Rica made its first direct export to Great Britain, this to be seen as the beginning of highly beneficiary commercial and cultural relations between the two countries and allowing many Costa Rican students to visit Great Britain and graduate, bringing back knowledge in areas like medicine and engineering. Costa Rican history was significantly changed from one the poorest provinces of the colonies of the Guatemalan Reign by the ends of the XVIII century, to be called nowadays the “Switzerland of Central America” in reference to economic and cultural condition.
