Coffee Break – The History Of Caffeine

By | October 3, 2019

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Black Coffee. Source: (wikimedia.org)

Coffee is something some people depend on these days to help them start their day while others simply enjoy sitting down with a good cup of “Joe.” Where did coffee actually come from? Not only does coffee come in many different strengths and flavors – it even has many different countries of origin.

Goat Herder?

There are various legends that may or may not be true about the introduction of coffee. One of them has to do with a goat herder named Kaldi in Ethiopia. He supposedly noticed that his goats were eating some berries from a particular tree and after they ate these berries, they got so wired up that they would not sleep. Kaldi told the abbot at the monastery about what happened with the goats, so the abbot took some of the berries and made a drink out of it. After drinking it, he was able to stay awake through the evening prayer, which was several hours. The news spread throughout the monastery and beyond to Arabia.

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Arab Coffee Shop. Source: (wikimedia.org)

When coffee reached the Arab lands, they began capitalizing on it by creating plantations of it and boiling the beans to make drinks out of it. The Ottoman Turks brought coffee to Constantinople. Coffee Houses began opening up there as well as other places. Arabia and Africa monopolized the coffee market and so forbid anyone from taking the “fertile” beans out of their countries, but a good thing is hard to contain. Eventually, someone did succeed in getting some out by hiding them against his stomach. It was an Asian Indian named Baba Budan who managed to get some back to India.