In the Islamic world
Islam considers alcoholic beverages haram, and coffee was used as a substitute for alcoholic beverages. This drink became very popular and acceptable from the 13th century AD, and until the beginning of the 15th century AD, it was widely consumed in Egypt, Syria, and the Ottoman Empire, and coffeehouses were established in all these cities, religious authorities in Mecca, Cairo, and Istanbul tried to ban its consumption. However, the sheiks argued over the similarity of the effects of coffee and alcohol, and some pointed out that handing a coffee pot, unlike a glass of wine, is not a forbidden drink in Islam, but in the end, they agreed to drink coffee. The coffeehouse was a new institution where men would gather to talk, read poetry, and play games like backgammon and chess. They had become a center for the gathering of thinkers and, implicitly, a rival to the mosque as a place of public meeting. Some religious scholars believed that the coffee house was even worse than the mikvah, and the authorities realized that these places could become nests of sedition. However, all attempts to ban the consumption of coffee, even with the death sentence issued during the reign of Sultan Murad IV (1623 to 1640 AD), failed. In the end, religious scholars reached a consensus that the consumption of coffee is permissible.
in Europe
Coffee entered Europe through two routes, the land trade of the Ottoman Empire and the sea trade, from the ports of Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Was
It was also raised in this country. Around 1650 AD, coffee was imported to England and coffeehouses were established in Oxford and London.
The cultivation of coffee plants in England started at the same time, but the pests and the cold weather of the region destroyed the coffee plants and the English had to turn to tea cultivation instead of coffee cultivation, [8] First in Europe coffee was a drink. Muslims were viewed with suspicion, but it is said that around the year 1600, Pope Clement VII enjoyed a cup of coffee so much that he considered its monopoly in the hands of Muslims as a great mistake and demanded to “baptize” it. Coffee drinking in Austria increased dramatically after the defeat of the siege of Vienna in 1683 and the confiscation of their large coffee reserves. Before the beginning of the 18th century, the use of coffee drinks was common throughout Europe. European countries introduced this plant to tropical regions so that these countries could cultivate and mass-produce coffee plants. In Europe, like the Middle East and Greater Iran, coffeehouses became a place for socializing, studying, and exchanging opinions on current issues. Another similarity was the possibility of turning them into a gathering place for undesirable elements and vandals
Charles II, and King of England introduced coffeehouses as “places for traitors to meet, and to spread vulgar gossip about his majesty and his ministers.” In the 18th century, the famous Paris coffee house, Café Procope, had regular customers such as Mara, Danton, and Robespierre , who were plotting the revolution there during the French Revolution
For many people, leaving home without drinking a cup of coffee disrupts their daily routine. The main issue is the taste of coffee, always before the taste of coffee, the aroma of coffee attracts people.No one knows exactly how or when coffee was discovered, although there are many legends about it. Many believe that coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia.
There is a legend that says that in the 11th century AD, a shepherd named Kaldi first discovered the ability of this popular seed. And they don’t sleep at night.
He discussed this issue with the senior monk of the neighborhood monastery, who also noticed that he was staying awake for long hours by drinking coffee.
Big B shared his discovery with other monks and the energizing properties of this seed quickly spread among the general public. Local monks also started to dry them and send them to other monasteries. Over time, the dried seeds were brought to the Middle East and found many fans there, for the first time farmers in Yemen started to grow coffee.
For the first time in Turkey, these beans were roasted and became the beans that we know today as coffee. We know it as coffee.Coffee was first brought to Europe by Venetian traders. Due to its stimulating effect, there was a lot of criticism from Catholics based on this drink being evil and evil. But the Pope, who at the same time enjoyed drinking coffee, informed his members that the drink was only misunderstood and that there was no obstacle to drinking it.
Coffeehouses quickly spread throughout Europe and soon became a place for intellectuals to gather and discuss. When the first immigrants came to America, this dark drink quickly gained popularity and in time During the American Revolution, when the patriots did not decide to drink tea due to the strike, coffee was accepted as the national drink. Since then, coffee has been known as the most popular drink in all countries.
Technology and changing equations in the world of coffee
The way coffee is consumed around the world is changing. According to a report by the National Restaurant Association, during the Corona pandemic, more than 50% of coffee-related businesses in the United States have devoted more resources to customer service technologies, including ordering through apps. , mobile payments, and on-site delivery services.
In 2021, in the UK, more than 50,000 consumers were surveyed by the World Coffee Portal. 61% of them have downloaded an application related to a coffee shop, and 36% of them have bought a drink from a coffee shop in the last 12 months.
In China’s growing coffee shop market, Global Coffee Portal data shows that 86 percent of surveyed Chinese consumers order their coffee for delivery, with more than half ordering 2-3 times in 2020 alone. They did this during the week.
Coffee technology and automation
The restaurant and hospitality industry around the world is struggling with severe staff shortages following the coronavirus pandemic. With an unprecedented shortage of skilled baristas in 2016, Keith Tan, CEO of Singapore-based Crown Digital, opted for a radical technology-based solution to expand his coffee shop business.
After opening his first coffee shop—Crown Coffee—Tan quickly encountered high employee attrition rates and training costs that prevented his business from expanding.
“It’s very difficult to get hired in Singapore,” he says. “Many local university students work for you for a few months and then leave.”
Faced with the huge cost of training new staff, Tan decided to fully automate his coffee shop by developing the ELLA robotic barista concept.
“Building a high-throughput, high-speed, human-free system grew from there to solve my problems,” he says. This experience gave me a good insight into the coffee business – our customers ultimately want consistency, speed, and great quality.”
The development of ELLA took about three and a half years, parent company Crown Digital developed its own POS system, custom app, and several similar examples of ELLA before bringing the concept to market.
ELLA can prepare up to 200 customized drinks per hour using Eversys Cameo super-automated machine technology, artificial intelligence (AI) learning, and an app-based user interface. The concept currently has several units in Singapore and Tokyo and is in mass production, with another 30 planned for Singapore’s MRT subway network by the end of 2022.
More than 95 percent of ELLA’s customers use ELLA’s custom-built app to order and pay, access rewards, and subscribe to coffee, Tan says.
“Our mission is to convert our customers into daily users, and our subscription service has been able to bring them back daily.”
After securing further investment in 2022, Crown Digital plans to go even further with ambitious plans to expand ELLA to locations across Asia, Europe, the GCC, and Australia. Tan estimates that through partnerships with rail networks in Singapore and Japan and attendance at technology fairs, ELLA has served about half a million cups of coffee so far. “Each cup was an experience and a lesson for us,” he says.
ELLA is not the first robotic barista concept to hit the market. Other brands, such as US-based Café X and Russia’s Rozum, have also started but have yet to achieve mass-market success.
“People underestimate the challenges of building coffee shops without manpower,” said Tan, describing Crown Digital’s franchise structure, which allows for convenient maintenance and restocking of units worldwide.
“The idea is to form joint ventures with large food and beverage (F&B) companies and have on-site teams for restocking and maintenance and cleaning. “Using telemetry, we remotely adjust things like calibration and preventive maintenance to determine when parts need to be replaced.”
Latte art is one aspect of the barista’s art that ELLA’s sturdy body can’t handle right now. However, Tan says that thanks to the presence of technology, full business automation enables him to achieve consistency, quality, speed, and efficiency on a global scale.
Improving and maintaining the quality of coffee
In May 2022, software developer Cropster launched the Cropster Cafe app in partnership with La Marzocco. The idea behind this platform is to use data to solve the challenges facing commercial specialty coffee shops; such as optimizing retail operations or consulting with wholesale customers using data.
Developed directly with specialty operators, this web-based application receives and collects data from Internet of Things (IoT) coffee machines to generate reports on coffee brewing consistency, output volume, and equipment maintenance issues. Create across stores.
Andy Benedikter, global sales manager for Cropster Cafe, says: “In the analog cafe space, there is a lot of information floating around, and operators often tell us that they don’t know how stable the coffee they are serving the customer is.”
“We want to make store management easier by empowering operators. By making decisions based on data, not anecdotes and quotes. This means operators can focus on the true art of bartending – on the coffee, the customers, or the passion to create an exciting brunch.”
At the level of everyday work processes, Cropster Cafe eliminates the need for inefficient tools such as disparate checklists, worksheets, or notes behind the counter and provides more flexibility for work coordination and execution that is immediately visible to all team members, says Benedikter. Is. Owners and employees can see processes clearly on one page, making it more efficient for everyone.
Establishing constant communication between employees and their work measurement criteria creates efficiency, the Cropster Cafe application helps to reduce waste by providing consumption data in real-time and reduces the need for managers to check different stores
As digital tools become ubiquitous in coffee shops, operators must ensure they keep up with consumer expectations for speed, quality, choice, and service – and take advantage of the benefits technology can bring.
Benedikter says the number of stores using Cropster Cafe is already in the hundreds, and the platform is focused on expanding into the US, European and Australian markets.
Our vision does not end with espresso machines. Cropster Cafe can be integrated with any equipment that generates data, including grinders, scales, or point-of-sale systems.
From small steps for operators to giant leaps for customer engagement, the global coffee shop industry has constantly innovated in the face of challenges. Time will tell which technologies can deliver the best results in increasingly competitive markets globally.