Daniel Ming, Academic Director of Barista Guild Asia gave a brief history of coffee to start the workshop. According to a popular legend, coffee was first discovered in Northern Africa in an area we now know as Ethiopia. At that time coffee was still consumed in its fruit form. The berries were then transported to Arabian peninsula, i.e. Yemen. Coffee was on roasted for the first time when it travelled to Turkey. After that, it was brought to the European continent by Venetian trade merchants. At that time, coffee was sold in roasted form by the Arabs and coffee beans were believed to be some magic beans that heightened thought and creativity. In the 1700s, one coffee plant travelled a long journey across the Atlantic through a French infantry captain to the America, that’s when coffee started to be planted in the rest of the tropical region of South and Central America.
 

Coffee was prepared into espresso in 1822 when the first crude espresso machine was invented in France. The technology was later perfected by the Italians and drinking espresso has become an integral part of the Italian life that at present, there are over 200,000 espresso bars in Italy.
 

Do you know that coffee is the second largest commodity after petroleum in terms of dollars traded worldwide? With 400 million cups consumed every year, coffee has become the most popular beverages in the world.
 

More practical information about how coffee beans are planted, harvested, sorted and grated was introduced in the workshop before the process of roasting and cupping. Here are the picture gallery for roasting and cupping: