Coffee

History of Coffee

For Westerners coffee is about three hundred years old, but in the East it was widespread as a beverage, in every level of society, since earlier times. The first dates go back to 800 B.C.; but already there were stories of a mysterious black and bitter beverage with powers of stimulation.

In the year 1000, coffee was being administered as a medicine. Another story, dating from 1400, speaks of a Yemeni shepherd who, having observed some goats cropping reddish berries from a bush, and subsequently becoming restless and excited, reported the incident to a monk. The monk boiled the berries, and from that came a bitter beverage, rich in strength, and capable of dispersing sleep and weariness.

Despite the different opinions about its start, the coffee plant was born in Africa in an Ethiopian region. From there it spread to Yemen, Arabia and Egypt, where it became very popular.

The increasing needs of a growing market, improved knowledge of the coffee plant, and high taxes imposed at the ports of shipment, led coffee growers to try transplanting coffee in other countries. It eventually reached, via a circuitous route, Brazil, and Central and South America where it has remained the most important crop.