Coffee today is an industry worth over 100 billion dollars a year. Millons of people around the world drink coffee every day. But how was it discovered, and how did it spread around the world?
The Discovery Of The Coffee Bean's effects
Coffee was first discovered in the 9th-century in Ethiopia. A goat-herder named Kaldi observed his goats eating the red berries from a coffea arabica tree. He discovered his goats were acting different after they ate them, and soon he tried the berries himself. He experienced the stimulating effects, and brought some of the beans to a nearby monastery. The people in the city were very religious and at first didn't like how he described the plant. They threw some of the beans on a fire to destroy them, but when they smelled the beans roasting they decided to give them a second chance. Like they did with different teas, they tried putting the roasted beans in warm water, and that was how the first cup of coffee was made.
Despite the legend, it’s thought that the practice of chewing coffee beans as a stimulant was around for centuries before Kaldi's alleged discovery. People would grind the beans to mix with butter and animal fat to preserve and eat on long journeys. Similarly, Sudanese slaves are thought to have chewed on coffee beans to help them survive their difficult voyages on trade routes.The cultivation and trade of the beans for the drink began in Arabic countries in the 14th century and spread throughout Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. It's said not a single coffee plant existed outside of Arabia or Africa until the 1600s, when a pilgrim named Baba Budan brought them back to India. In 1616, Pieter Van Der Broeck smuggled some coffee out of Mocha, Yemen and brought it back to Amsterdam. Soon, the Dutch and their colonies—most notably Sri Lanka and Java—took over the European trade, followed by the French in the Caribbean, the Spanish in Central America, and the Portuguese in Brazil. The drink eventually made its way to America via British colonizers who docked in New York City.
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