Our Reporter/Photographer Tony Taft reports,
Today we had an attendance of 23 with 3 apologies
Our speaker today was one of our club members Barry Hayden who was giving a presentation about the origins of our beloved drink Coffee.
Barry started by telling us about a goat herder in Ethiopia called Kaldi who noticed that when his goats started eating the berries from a certain tree his goats became more energetic and didn’t want to sleep at night legend has it this all happened around 850 AD.
This was the start of Coffee becoming popular and eventually being consumed in Coffee houses in 1555 spreading across the Arabian peninsula, pictures below,
the cost of a cup of Coffee was reported to have been one penny, in todays terms about seventy pounds, so the extortionate price you pay for Coffee in Venice is not so bad.
Barry talked about the countries that grow Coffee the most popular beans are Arabica with Robusta, Excelsa, and Liberica also available.
The countries on the map that produce Coffee are in what is called the Coffee belt.
Barry gave us a very interesting talk despite the fact that technology was against him so that some of the pictures in his visual presentation were blank on the screen but this did not deter Barry and he kept going, well done Barry.
We were then given a demonstration on how to make a perfect expresso, Barry had brought along his Coffee grinder and Coffee machine but only one cup so after watching him sup his drink and lick his lips saying how delicious it was there were no free samples for the rest of us.
Judging by the many questions put to him by our members it was clear to see that we are all keen Coffee drinkers, myself included.
Thank you Barry.
Paignton Probus Club 