The Legend of Coffee

Legend has it that coffee was first discovered by a young Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi, who noticed his goats behaving excitedly after eating red berries from a nearby bush. Kaldi then tried some himself and discovered that it gave him a fresh burst of energy. This was in about the eighth century AD. Up until that time coffee had only been used as a foodstuff and it was only after 1000 AD that coffee began to be used as a hot beverage. The habit of drinking coffee was then adopted by monks who boiled the berries and made a drink that kept them awake during long religious services.

From the cradle of coffee in Africa, coffee then spread to the Middle East, Persia and Turkey, then to Italy and the rest of Europe and finally to the rest of the world.