In 1723, more than 200 years after Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean; a French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu De Clieu made the same journey with precious cargo on board: a small coffee tree. Legend has it that he scaled the walls of a botanical garden in Paris and stole the coffee tree from its greenhouse in the middle of the night. Another account tells of him charming an aristocratic young lady to obtain a graft cutting from the royal doctor. On board the ship, as it battled stormy weather,De Clieu had to share his allotment of water with the tree and keep it safe from being stolen by fellow passengers. The hard work paid off. The ship finally reached Martinique, the Caribbean Island under French rule. And within a few decades, Martinique was home to 20 million productive coffee trees, all from the fruit of that single smuggled tree.
Why did De Clieu want the coffee tree so badly? Coffee houses opened in Britain in 1650s quickly replacing alcohol as a staple beverage. Coffee stimulated the intellect, people realised. And coffee houses brought people together to discuss business, news, political developments, commodity prices and scientific advancements. Naturally, there was tremendous demand for the brew.
Until the end of the 17th century, the Arabs were the leading suppliers. They guarded their sources rigorously. They only sold processed, sterile beans that could not be planted. Eventually the Dutch broke that monopoly by cultivating coffee plantations in the Java islands, now a part of Indonesia. In 1713, the mayor of Amsterdam presented King Louis XIV of France with a coffee plant. This is where De Clieu comes in. He recognised how rich the crop could make him.
Today, an estimated 1 billion people worldwide drink coffee every day. We crave the caffeine in it. But, the plant did not develop caffeine to attract humans. Caffeine is a natural insecticide. Plants such as cocoa, guarana, kola nut, tea and (yerba) mate use them for defence. For the plant, it is taxing to produce caffeine. It requires nitrogen, a precious resource also needed for growth. Plants try to recycle caffeine as much as possible. They first send it to young leaves that are especially vulnerable to attacks from snails and other insects. Once the leaves grow and become tough, the plant redirects it to the most important place of all, its seeds. We call them beans only because of the way they look.
The caffeine in the seeds may prevent them from being eaten, but it also interferes with cell division and germination in the plants. To overcome this, the roots and shoots of the germinating seed sprout far away from the caffeinated section of the bean. Once it attains a certain level of growth, the seed releases the caffeine into the soil to prevent any competitor from growing close by. Every last drop of caffeine in the plant is put to good use.
It’s a lot like how humans rely on caffeine to steal energy from the future. Caffeine occupies a receptor meant for a molecule called adenosine. Adenosine is a naturally occurring substance in our body, which signals drowsiness and tells us that it is time to sleep. Blocking adenosine is great when it is time for work. But given that some caffeine remains in our system long after consumption, too much coffee can affect the quality of your night time sleep. In moderate consumption, however, coffee fuels workers worldwide, and we’re grateful for it.
(To reach Swetha Sivakumar with questions or feedback, email [email protected])
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