Why coffee is called "java"
The island that gave coffee its nickname, how Dutch traders turned it into a global brand, and why Java coffee fell out of fashion.
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Why your coffee costs what it does, where it comes from, and how to make it better at home. Plain English, sources cited, written by someone learning it all in public.
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From the notebook
All notes →Notebook #1: Why we're doing this
The first entry in our learning-in-public notebook. What Java Matters is, what it isn't, and the questions we want to answer first.
Why "Java"?
In the 1690s, Dutch traders planted coffee on the Indonesian island of Java. Within a few decades its beans were a fixture of European auctions, and "java" became slang for coffee itself. We borrowed the name because every cup still carries that kind of story.
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