work in coffee long enough and someone
will make a joke about how one
particular coffee variety has the same
name as a style of American whiskey sir
bourbon in there coffee
absolutely like me for a moment you
might wonder why these two things share
the same name is it a coincidence
kind of hominem or something else is it
meaningful that bourbon whiskey is
pronounced differently to pull bottom
coffee and after thinking about it for a
moment just like me you'll probably
forget about it and carry on with your
day they are however connected the mid
point being one of the great royal
families and dynasties in Europe a house
that word France for 200 years
among them is where the most famous
kings of France near the 14th known as
the Sun King that same family lineage
continues today use the current monarchy
in Spain this is their house of bourbon
let's start with whiskey Bourbons
history is muddy and disputed there are
two claims as to where its name came
from the obvious one is Bourbon County
in Kentucky
folklore says that in the early 1800s
whiskey was shipped in barrels from the
county and those barrels were marked
with old bourbon that was the name that
people used for that County when a
Bourbon County was given its name as
acknowledgement for the assistance that
Lily the 16th and the French gave during
the American Revolutionary War and in
fact the capitol of the county is named
Paris bourbon does have another claim
for the name Kentucky whiskey sold well
in New Orleans there's a cheap
alternative to the more expensive cognac
and it was sold on the now famous
Bourbon Street that Street was also
named for the ruling House of Bourbon
and New Orleans itself was named after
the Duke of oleo who acted as regent of
France until Louis the 15th came of age
that explains the whiskey but what about
coffee
may 9th is the Saints day of Santa
Apollonia in Portugal on that day in
1507 Portuguese crew landed on an island
off the coast of Madagascar they decided
to name the island
Santa Apollonia much later it became a
stopper of her vessels on the way from
Yemen to Indonesia and as such coffee
ended up being planted on the island
that coffee would mutate and when it was
exported back to Brazil
it took the name of the island now that
coffee wasn't named for Santa Apollonia
because in 1642 the French had colonized
the island primarily to house 12
mutineers from Madagascar they had
renamed the island Bob on naming it for
the ruling family of the time the House
of Bourbon and that is how coffee
whiskey and the Sun King all came to
share a name