Legend has it that coffee was first discovered by a goat herder in Ethiopia. One day he noticed that his goats were gone and after a bit of searching he discovered them eating small red fruits off of low growing bushes. He noted that his goats were acting jittery and jumping all over the place. Perplexed, the goat herder ate a few of these small cherries and was amazed to find he felt energized. The herder took a bushel of the fruit to his local monastery. The monks ate the cherries and were amazed to discover that they had more energy, their minds were clearer, and they could focus better. This worked to their advantage during long nightly prayers. One monk, dubious of the powers of the coffee cherries, threw a basket of them into the fire. Another monk rescued the beans from the fire and threw them into some water to put out the flames. Legend has it that this is how the first coffee drink was created.
Coffee originated in Ethiopia, but it took a very strong hold in Saudi Arabia. Coffee served as a perfect drink to substitute alcoholic beverages, which are strictly banned from countries that practice Islam. Coffee slowly spread into Europe via trade with countries in the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs were so protective of their lucrative crop that they boiled the beans before export to ensure that all of the product was infertile. One way or another fertile beans managed to be smuggled to Denmark where the plants were gown and cultivated in greenhouses. From here it was only a matter of time before all of the major superpowers began growing and producing their own coffee. At one point in Italy a group of people though coffee was the drink of the devil and wanted it to be outlawed. They figured that coffee was detrimental to their faith because Muslims drink coffee and reject wine. They took their case to Pope Clement VIII. It is purported that the Pope took one sip of coffee and immediately fell in love with the taste. He even suggested that coffee be baptized to become a true Christian drink.
Coffee was a big wake-up call for countries like England and France. If you lived in London or Paris around this time you would generally not have access to drinking water. People wouldn't dare drink the water from the Thames or Seine Rivers for fear of contracting cholera or other waterborne diseases. The beverage of choice was beer for breakfast, lunch, dinner and anywhere in between. Beer was safe to drink, but it clearly did not improve a person's ability to focus at the workplace. Some people claim that coffee fueled the industrial revolution because it got rid of the inebriated haze most people were living in. The ability to design and operate heavy machinery was greatly aided by the clarifying, energizing and stimulating effects of coffee. Coffee has literally changed our world.
