 The
History of Coffee House Hollander
Coffee House Hollander is locally owned and operated by Rebecca and
Roy Slootheer.
They have been living in Altoona since June 2000. Roy was born and
raised in Holland
and moved to the U.S.A in 1995.
Both Rebecca and Roy wanted to introduce different flavors from Holland
to Altoona.
It took two years of planning before they finally opened the doors
of Coffee House Hollander.
Focused on Dutch flavors and quality of service, customer experience
and products, Coffee
House Hollander offers a variety of Dutch pastries, lunch items, cookies,
licorice and chocolates.
At Coffee House Hollander we only use the highest quality of products;
coffee from Kaldi's Coffee,
a small roaster from St Louis, MO; Chocolates from Chocolaterie Stam;
every day fresh baked pastries
and a healthy lunch menu will make you notice the difference.
Additional Services
Free Wireless Internet,
Coffee on the go (96 oz. and 160 oz. coffee containers to bring
to work or home)
Special group events
Lunch reservations
Lunch to go (just call in 10 min. before to have it ready when you
pick it UP)
Frequent live music events
History
of Coffee
Most coffee historians agree that coffee originated somewhere in
the mountains of Ethiopia (Abyssinia). What today we call the Somali
Peninsula. This is the northeastern most tip ("the horn")
of Africa and comprises the countries of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea,
and parts of Ethiopia. It is very close to the southern most tip
of the Arabian Peninsula, which is the current and ancient location
of Yemen.
William H. Ukers author of All About Coffee (the "bible"
of coffee written in 1922) states that. . . "the first cultivation
of coffee in Yemen dates back to A. D. 575, when the Persian invasion
put an end to the rule of Caleb, who [had previously] conquered
Ethiopia in 525:' Although Yemen was most certainly the region that
first traded coffee internationally, tradition establishes Ethiopia
as the birthplace of coffee.
For the next thousand years, the Yemen Arabians were able to maintain
a total monopoly on coffee. Their name for coffee and coffee shrubs
was bunn. They made sure that no coffee or berries (seeds) left
the country without being boiled in water first. Boiling the berries
ruined their ability to germinate, insuring that coffee wouldn't
be grown anywhere else. While the Yemen traders exclusively exported
their coffee all over the world, it was against their law for anyone
to export or remove a "bunn branch cutting" or fertile
bean from the country.
There are two primary legends that describe the discovery of coffee
as a beverage.
1. Kaldi and the Monk
The first involves a young man named Kaldi who lived in the mountains
of Ethiopia. Kaldi's responsibility was to care for his family’s
goatherd. When the herd didn't return home one evening he became
concerned and went searching for them. He searched all through the
night and found them the next day "dancing" near bushes
with shiny green leaves and bright red berries. Curious, he tried
the berries himself. The story continues, while he was dancing himself
with his goats, a "monk" (spiritual man)
happened by and became intrigued by what he saw. Legend states that
the monk may have scolded Kaldi for eating "the devils fruit'~
Regardless, the monk took some of the berries himself and began
experimenting with them. Soon the monk developed a beverage that
allowed him and his fellow monks to stay awake during their hours
of long prayers. The value of the drink quickly spread from monastery
to monastery.
2. Omar the priest/doctor Sheik
Another traditional story tells of Omar, a Sheik (he was also a
priest and doctor) and
his followers who were banished to the desert from their town of
Mocha to die for "a certain moral remissness." Out of
desperation, they picked, boiled, and ate the fruit of a shrub they
had never seen before. Some versions say that the idea to pick the
cherries of the coffee shrub came to him in a dream or vision. The
coffee plant sustained the exiles and they thrived at their retreat
- which later became named Ousab. The former patients from the nearby
town of Mocha came out to Ousab to cure their ills and physical
problems. Omar gave them coffee. The stories of the "magical
properties" of the treatments caused Sheik Omar to be invited
back to the city. The governor built a monastery for his followers
and Omar, after he died, became the patron saint of the city of
Mocha. The plant and brew were named mocha in honor of their miraculous
survival.
Baba Sudan the Holy Smuggler
Although security to preserve the lucrative exclusivity of coffee
to Arabia was very tight, it was difficult to keep watch over the
thousands of pilgrims that visited Mecca every year. In 1670 a Muslim
holy man, Baba Sudan, from southern India managed, during his pilgrimage,
to smuggle seven un-boiled (fertile) beans out of the country and
back to his home in the Mysore Mountains. Baba's seven beans flourished,
and the mountain range he planted them in was renamed after him
(to this day) in his honor. Baba Sudan was named a saint for his
contribution to the local peoples' lives, and the Yemen Arabian
coffee monopoly was broken.
Coffee Expands around the World
Soon the Dutch traders that had already purchased silk, sandalwood,
and incense from that region of India discovered the coffee farms
and began propagating coffee in all of their mountainous provinces
near the equator. The French, English, Germans and Spanish quickly
followed. These European countries quickly realized that the territories
they owned could now produce an important new cash crop.
If you study the history of the European influence on Central America,
South America, Africa, the Caribbean, India, and the Asian Pacific
between 30 degrees north (the Tropic of Cancer) and 30 degrees south
of the equator (The Tropic of Capricorn) in the years between 1700
and 1901 you'll discover the global expansion of virtually all of
the specialty coffee we drink today. The Dutch started by planting
on the isle of Java and the English finished the coffee farming
expansion in Eastern and Central Africa.
Although Yemen held a monopoly on all of the world's export of
coffee for at least a thousand years, in the next two hundred years
the Western Europeans expanded coffee cultivation to their territories
around the globe and completely dominated specialty coffee's growth
and export.
Is Coffee "Blessed"?
Many in the Italian Catholic church were concerned that coffee
might be a dangerous stimulant. At that time it was available only
by a doctors prescription in Venice.
To address the controversy, Catholic priests who believed the "drug"
should be condemned as evil took the issue to Pope Clement VIII
(1535 - 1605) for a ruling. To the surprise of many, the Pope tasted
the coffee, loved it, and baptized the beverage so that all, without
a prescription, could enjoy it. He is said to have exclaimed, "Why,
Satan's drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the
infidels have exclusive use of it:'
Dutch
Trading in Coffee
More information coming soon.
Articles
written about Coffee Hollander
More information coming soon.
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