The History of Coffee 

My history with coffee dates back to my teens when I worked in restaurants and discovered the boost in energy it gave me. It has since evolved to a necessary morning routine of making coffee and sitting down to enjoy its flavor before beginning my busy day. The history of coffee dates back to two legends.

1. The legend of an Arabian shepherd named Kaldi. It is said that he found his goats dancing joyously around a dark green leafed shrub with bright red cherries in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. After some time of observing, Kaldi soon determined that it was the bright red cherries on the shrub that were causing the peculiar euphoria in his goats. He tried the cherries himself and felt their powerful effect.  The stimulating effect of the coffee bean was then used by monks at a local monastery to stay awake during extended hours of prayer and distributed to other monasteries around the world.  

2. The legend of a Muslim dervish whose enemies condemned him to wander in the desert and eventually die of starvation. In his delirium, the young man heard a voice instructing him to eat the fruit from a nearby coffee tree. Confused, tried to soften the beans in water. The attempt failed so he simply drank the liquid that was produced. Interpreting his survival and energy as a sign of God, he returned spreading the faith and the coffee bean recipe.

Even though they are appealing legends, recent botanical evidence suggests a different origin of the coffee bean. There is evidence that supports that the history of the coffee bean began on the plateaus of central Ethiopia. It somehow must have been brought to Yemen where it was cultivated since the 6th century. The first coffee houses were introduced in Cairo and Mecca. Soon, coffee became a passion rather than just a stimulant.

East African tribes were said to grind the coffee cherries together and mixing it into a paste with animal fat. They then rolled the paste into little balls and was said to give warriors much-needed energy for battle.

Later Ethiopians, around the year 1000 AD, concocted a type of wine from coffee berries. Coffee grew on the Arabian Peninsula, where coffee was first developed into a hot drink during the 11th century.

Sometime in the fifteenth century the cultivation of the coffee began and the Yemen province of Arabia was the world's main source of coffee. The coffee plants were highly guarded and no fertile plants were allowed to leave the country. Muslim pilgrims managed to smuggle coffee plants during their Mecca pilgrimages as a result India soon had coffee crops.
Coffee eventually gained popularity when lemonade street vendors began selling coffee along with cold beverages. Some of the European merchants who enjoyed drinking coffee overseas brought it back with them.

The Dutch are responsible for introducing large-scale coffee cultivation to their colonies. Decades later, coffee arrived in Latin America when the French brought a cutting of a coffee plant to Martinique. Due to a rare plant disease that spread through the coffee fields of Southeast Asia in the mid 19th century, Brazil emerged as the world's foremost coffee producer and currently maintains the position.