The saga of coffee in India began with an act of defiance. In the seventeenth century, a Sufi saint from India went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Coffee, discovered in Ethiopia a century (or more) ago, was being kept as an Arab monopoly. It was exported only in roasted form; the seeds were kept within the country.

But the saint, Baba Budan, circumvented the checkers. He returned by Mocha, Yemen, with seven seeds strapped to his chest under his clothes. Being a pilgrim, he was spared an overt examination. Probably smiling, he made the long trip back to India, where he is said to have planted the first coffee seeds in Chikmagalur, in the year 1670 A.D.

The legend of Baba Budan is well circulated, but is not the first time coffee reached India. In Hazel Colaco’s book ‘A Cache of Coffee’, we can see how it emerged first along the Malabar coast courtesy the Arab traders. And a quote by Edward Terry in the court of Jahangir, 1616 A.D demonstrates its presence even in Mughal India:

Many of the people there (in Mughal India) who are strict in their religion drink no wine at all, but they use a liquor more wholesome than and pleasant, they call coffee… it is very good to help in digestion, to quicken spirits and to cleanse the blood.

Soon, coffee was spreading across the world, with the Ottomans leading the charge. In India and abroad, Sufi mystics like Baba Budan favoured it – for the strong concoction that could keep them awake as they chanted devotional songs through the night.



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