We often hear people saying: “My day doesn’t start without a ‘Cup of Joe’ or my ‘Cup of Java’“. That is how many refer to their morning Coffee cuppa.
So, do you want to know why a cup of coffee would be called a cup of Java? Well, it is not much of a brainer though. As we all know, the Indonesian island of Java is the major producer of local Indonesian coffee. So, the coffee made from these Javanese coffee beans is very well known as a Cup of Java. It has the rich taste of the Java coffee beans. People more often refer to it as the cup of Java instead of a cup of coffee because it represents the aroma of the special intriguing and distinct taste that the Javanese coffee beans hold.
We came to know why is it called a cup of Java. But let us know now, why do we call coffee the Cup of Joe? Usually, the question arises in our mind isn’t it the name of a person? Isn’t it a biblical character? Does coffee now have something to do with the Bible? Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Well, actually we also don’t know. So let’s dig deep to find out now if is it called so.
Here’s why a cup of coffee is called ‘Cup Of Joe’
In the year 1914, at the time of World War I, the Secretary of the Navy was Joseph ‘Joe’ Daniels. He had banned alcohol on the ship. Thus, the only other beverage that remained available to the sailors was coffee. With a sore spirit and sarcasm, they tried to mock the Secretary without actually provoking or offending him. So, they would plaintively ask each other, “Would you like a ‘Cup of Joe’?” Although the ban was announced in 1914, the term started being used much later when the sailors went abroad in the year 1930s.
Well, that wasn’t the only reason coffee started being called that way. Because the soldiers were limited and not everyone famously knew about it. There is something more that made the cup of Joe being called more common among the masses. Let us know about it.
In 1898, the Martinson Coffee Company was founded by Joe Martinson in New York.
By the year 1930, the company name spread across New York and the company sales boomed up. The coffee from Martinson was originally known as Joe’s Coffee or Cup of Joe. However, later every coffee- no matter what brand or where they source it came from started being known as Joe’s coffee in the neighborhoods in New York.
Also in the 1930’s, Jamoke was a term used across many coffee outlets, which literally meant a combination of Java coffee and Mocha. Eventually, the term ‘Jamoke’ changed into an abbreviated form called ‘Joe’. It is quite possible that Joe was nothing but a blended variety of coffee with cocoa.
There’s another probability that says that coffee is a common man’s drink and Joe is used as a term to define an average male in America. So. basically a Cup of Joe is nothing but a commoner’s beverage choice.
So again, no one can pinpoint the exact fact of why and how the term ‘Cup of Joe’ came into being, or whether either of the stories was linked to one another in any way.
What we do know, is that the term came into being in the 1930s, but it became widespread only after the 1980s.
Do these facts seem intriguing enough to impress your friends over a Cup of Joe? Tell them, discuss it, and let us know how did it go!
