A little coffee history

The History of Coffee

Coffee has been through a lot to get where it is today. In order to really appreciate coffee, we have to go back to its roots….Literally. Coffee is indigenous to only one country-Ethiopia, which is located on the African continent. In fact, if you travel to Ethiopia today, you will still find coffee plants growing in the wild. Every coffee plant in the world that grows today is a descendent of these original Ethiopian plants. So how did coffee become so popular around the world?

It all began with Kaldi and his goats

Legend has it that one day many centuries ago, a young Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi found his goats bounding about the hillsides in a joyous frenzy. They were having a ball! Even the old and tired goats were prancing around and acting young again. Kaldi was confused. Tired and worn out himself, he watched the goats carefully to find their secrete. He found the answer when he saw the goats eating cherries from a nearby tree. After trying a few cherries himself, he felt suddenly rejuvenated.

That’s when the monks got involved

A monk from a nearby monastery came upon Kaldi one day, determined to find out how he and the goats got all their energy. The monk ate from the plant and he, too, was revitalized. He brought some cherries back to the monastery to help the monks stay awake during the long religious services. Soon all the monasteries used the coffee cherries as a part of their services. The monks believed the plants were magical and were linked to the religious.
During the 5th and 6th centuries AD, the Ethiopians invaded Arabia (now called Yemen) and brought some of their magical seeds. The Arabs did not drink alcohol, so they were enraptured by the fruit that has some of the same invigorating and stimulating properties. The Arabs became the first people to actually cultivate coffee plants. In fact, the first recorded word for coffee is in Arabic. It is qahwah (KAH wah), meaning “Arab’s wine.”

Stay tuned for more..

Chris