The history of Costa Rican coffee begins on another continent, in the horn of Africa and on the shores of the Red Sea. Around 1.000 AD the Ethiopians were the first to use coffee beans to make a drink, known for it’s stimulating effect that the coffee grown in Costa Rica still has today. Coffee became popular in the Arab world, who controlled the coffee bean vigorously by preventing the export of fertile coffee beans and by doing so protecting their coffee cultivation which started in the 15th century. However Muslim pilgrims managed to smuggle out some coffee plants, because coffee was in high demand in the Arab world. India was one of the first non-Arab countries to have coffee cultivation. Coffee entered Europe for the first time in Venice. This city along the Spice Route, was a center for trading spices, perfumes, dyes, etc. and made the drink more and more popular. The Dutch who dominated the merchant shipping industry introduced coffee cultivation in their colonies in the East Indies and took advantage of the fact that the imperishable beans could be transported safely. It were the French though who introduced coffee to the Americas by bringing coffee plants to Martinique. The overseas trip took a high toll. Almost overcome by storms, pirates and jealous fellow passengers, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, in charge of bringing the plants, was forced to share his water ration with the coffee plant. It might as come as no surprise that the only surviving plant grew under the watchful eye of an armed guard. From there coffee cultivation spread across the continent. One of the countries that undertook an undercover mission to get their hands on a coffee plant was Brasil. In 1727 they wanted their share of the coffee market and sent their secret agent Francisco de Melo Palheta to French Guiana under the pretence to settle an evoked border dispute. This early 007 won the sympathy of the governors wife instead of trying to get access to the heavily guarded coffee plantations. At a state dinner she showed her affection for him in the form of a flower arrangement containing various coffee seeds. These seeds would lay the foundation for Brasil to become the world’s biggest coffee producer. The central valley of Costa Rica offers perfect climate conditions for growing coffee which started in the Meseta Central in 1779. Coffee cultivation was so successful in Costa Rica that it became more important than the growing of cacao. The income of the Costa Rican coffee plantation owners boomed and it was this wealthy elite who dominated the political stage in the last half of the 19th century. Costa Rican coffee is of a very good quality and is grown in the provinces of San José, Alajuela, Heredia, Puntarenas and Cartago. After the crash of the world coffee market in 1989, Costa Rica joined forces with Honduras, Guatemala Nicaragua and El Salvador to stabilize the price by controlling produced quantities of coffee. Five years later Costa Rican coffee could be exported without applying an export tax. Despite the industrial progress Cost Rican coffee is still handpicked and depends on relatively cheap seasonal labor mostly by Nicaraguans crossing the border looking for a better standard of living. After the beans are picked they are sun dried, the skin is removed which is used the fertilize the soil of the Costa Rican coffee plantations. The acreage of Costa Rican coffee cultivation is shrinking. Since most of the plantations are located in the Costa Rican metropolitan area, real estate opportunities are more profitable than cultivating coffee. For now however there is still enough good quality coffee in Costa Rica to enjoy an energizing start of the day.