The History of Coffee

There are many legends about the discovery of coffee. One of the oldest tells of a young goatherd in Ethiopia in around 850 AD. He had noticed that after eating a certain kind of berry, his goats would become particularly lively. Monks then tried the fruit but were so disappointed by the bitter flavour that they threw it into the fire. Soon, a delicious aroma was wafting around their nostrils. The monks were curious and they used the roasted nuts to create a brew which they saw as a gift from God because it helped them stay awake half the night.

Another legend relates how the Archangel Gabriel brought a dish of dark elixir to the prophet Mohammed, who lay dying. He promptly arose, killed 40 warriors and then made love to a similar amount of women. A potent brew indeed! Thanks to the divine power it gave him, he went on to create the great Islamic empire. In Arabia, coffee was soon known far and wide as the ‘wine of Islam’, first mentioned in a celebrated Arabic manuscript of 1587. Next time you’re enjoying your coffee, enjoy the fact that you are drinking history.

So what is the truth about coffee? Historians say coffee did indeed originate in the Kaffa mountains of Ethiopia. The first written record of coffee originates from 9th century Persian medical documents. Then in the 11th century, Avicenna, the famed doctor and philosopher wrote of its effects on the human digestive system. It was the Arabs who in the early 16th century first roasted the coffee bean and created the delicious dark beverage that is now enjoyed the world over. By the end of the 16th century, news of coffee had reached the trading centres of Italy. Full scale importing of coffee from north Africa began in the 1600s and by the end of that century Europeans managed to obtain coffee plants to grow themselves and break the Arab monopoly on the coffee trade.