A Brief History of Coffee

Part 1

For those of us in the Western world, coffee is only three hundred years old, however, in the East it was a popular beverage, in every level of society, since earlier times. The first recorded dates go back to 800 B.C. There were already many Arabian legends telling a story of a mysterious black and bitter drink with powers of stimulation. Around the year 1000, coffee was being administered as a medicine. A strange story dating back to the year 1400 talks of a Yemeni shepherd who watched a group of goats become restless after crewing on reddish berries. The shepherd later told a monk what he had observed. The monk then boiled the berries to make a drink that was able to defy sleep and bring a rush of energy to those who consumed it.

Where this new form of liquid energy was discovered is irrelevant, it is known as a fact that the coffee plant was born in an Ethiopian region of Africa called Kaffa. From there it spread to Arabia, Egypt and Yemen where it thrived and became a part of one’s daily life.

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