A brief history to coffee

Globally, over two billion cups of coffee are consumed every day. In Britain alone, we need around 95 million cups to keep us going from dawn 'til dusk. But 450 years ago, Western Europe had barely even heard of it. Coffee's roots lie in Ethiopia, where the wild plant grew. People slowly started to realise that the dried fruit, when roasted and ground, could be used to produce a beverage which was curiously addictive, and gave its drinker a bit of a buzz.
全球每天消费的咖啡超过 20 亿杯。仅在英国，我们就需要约 9500 万杯咖啡，才能从清晨一直喝到黄昏。但在 450 年前，西欧甚至还没听说过咖啡。咖啡起源于埃塞俄比亚，那里生长着一种野生植物。人们慢慢开始意识到，这种干果经烘焙和研磨后，可以用来制作一种饮料，这种饮料会让人上瘾，喝了之后还能让人兴奋。

Coffee is, let's face it, an acquired taste. Early Western drinkers were fascinated by it, recognising its potential as a drink which was ideal for business. Wine and beer were great, but they weren't always conducive to delicate negotiations which required a clear head. When Westerners brought the drink back to Britain, reactions were polarised, including one description of it as, "Pluto's diet-drink, that witches tipple out of dead men's skulls."
让我们面对现实吧，咖啡是一种后天养成的嗜好。早期的西方饮者对咖啡情有独钟，他们认识到咖啡作为一种理想的商务饮品的潜力。葡萄酒和啤酒固然不错，但它们并不总是有利于需要清醒头脑的微妙谈判。当西方人把这种饮料带回英国时，人们对它的反应两极分化，有人形容它是“冥王星的减肥饮料，巫师们从死人头骨中提取的小酒。”

The first coffee house in the UK opened in Oxford in 1651, followed by London, and they quickly became sort of proto-clubs. There were coffee houses for all sorts - from bankers to merchants, literati to men about town, and they were often heavily politicised. Charles II tried to ban them for encouraging sedition. Many subscribed to journals and newspapers for their clientele and, since a dish of coffee cost only a penny, they became known as the 'penny universities'. They were, however, only for men, and coffee quickly became seen as a masculine drink. Even today, men drink more coffee than women.
英国的第一家咖啡馆于 1651 年在牛津开张，随后在伦敦开张，它们很快就成了一种原生态俱乐部。从银行家到商人，从文人雅士到市井小民，各种各样的人都有咖啡馆，而且这些咖啡馆往往被严重政治化。查理二世曾试图以煽动叛乱为由取缔咖啡馆。许多咖啡馆为顾客订阅期刊和报纸，由于一碟咖啡只需一便士，因此被称为“便士大学”。然而，这些大学只为男性开设，咖啡很快就被视为一种男性饮品。时至今日，男性喝咖啡的数量仍多于女性。

The taste still put many people off, but the British habit of drinking it with milk and sugar, like their tea, helped.  By the 18th Century it was established as a part of British life, emerging out of coffee houses and into its place as an after-dinner drink. In the 19th Century coffee was still pretty bad, until the Italian invention of the espresso machine which forced pressurised water through a small amount of ground beans - a huge step forward from simply steeping coffee and filtering it, and then keeping it warm for hours until needed. Italian coffee culture, with its futuristic and gleaming coffee machines and aura of effortless cool, spread across the Western world. Their rules, well... ruled - including tenets such as never drink a cappuccino after lunch.
咖啡的味道仍然让很多人望而却步，但是英国人喝茶的习惯是加牛奶和糖，就像他们喝茶一样。到了18世纪，它已经成为英国生活的一部分，走出咖啡馆，成为餐后饮料。在19世纪，咖啡味道仍然很差，直到意大利发明了浓缩咖啡机，高压水注入少量磨碎的咖啡豆--这比简单地浸泡咖啡、过滤咖啡，然后保温数小时直至需要时才饮用的做法向前迈进了一大步。意大利的咖啡文化，以其未来主义和闪闪发光的咖啡机和毫不费力的酷光环，传播到整个西方世界。他们的规矩，呃... 规矩包括午饭后不能喝卡布奇诺。

The last 20 years have seen the rise of new types of coffee - long, flavoured American drinks, along with the Antipodean flat whites. We've also adopted a new way of drinking it. Wandering down the street coffee cup in hand is such a ubiquitous sight now that it's hard to remember this is a recent fad. It's a fundamental part of hipster identity - along with beards and vintage cardis, knowing your cold brew from your nitro is vital. Society - and coffee - have moved on a lot in 450 years. But some things haven't changed. So, here's to coffee, with a side of sedition, sociability and amazing cool.
在过去的20年里，新型咖啡兴起了——时间长、味道浓的美国饮料，还有澳大利亚的扁平白咖啡。我们还采用了一种新的饮用方式。现在，手持咖啡杯漫步街头已成为一种无处不在的景象，很难让人想起这是最近才兴起的时尚。这是潮人身份的一个基本组成部分--与胡子和复古卡其裤一样，了解冷萃氮气咖啡至关重要。450年来，社会和咖啡都发生了很大的变化。但是有些事情并没有改变。所以，为咖啡干杯，它有煽动性、社会性和惊人的酷。

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