Today coffee is a giant global industry employing more than 20 million people.  As a commodity it ranks second only to petroleum in terms of dollars traded worldwide.  Coffee is the world’s most popular beverage with over 40 billion cups consumed every year.  Over 5 million people in Brazil alone are employed in the cultivation and harvesting of over 3 billion coffee plants.

African Origins

(Circa A.D. 800)

Coffee was first discovered in East Africa in an area known today as Ethiopia. A legendary goatherd called Kaldi noticed his herd acting unusually frisky after eating cherry-red berries containing the beans from a bush. He tried them himself and found that they gave him a renewed energy.

The news of this special fruit travelled fast.  A monk plucked some berries, dried them so that they could be transported to distant monasteries.  They were then reconstituted in water, the fruit was eaten and the liquid drunk to produce an uncannily alert state to divine inspiration.

Coffee Leaves Africa  

(Circa 1000 – 1600)

Coffee berries were transported from Ethiopia to the Arabian Peninsula.  By the 13th century Muslims were drinking coffee religiously.  Wherever Islam went, coffee went too; North Africa, the Mediterranean and India. By the 15th century the Southern Arabians had become specialists in the art of cultivation and would also remain for the next 300 years the only area in the world where coffee was to be cultivated and traded.  Yemen became the “land of coffee” and the Arab harbour, Mocca, on the Red Sea became the centre of the Arabian coffee trade.

From there, coffee travelled to Turkey where coffee beans for the first time were roasted over open fires.  The roasted beans were crushed and the boiled water consumed, creating a crude version of the beverage we enjoy today.

Coffee Erupts in Europe

Coffee’s emergence in Europe was through Venetian trade merchants.  It soon fell foul of the Catholic Church.  Many felt the pope should ban coffee, calling it the drink of the devil.  However, the pope, already a coffee convert, blessed coffee declaring it a truly Christian beverage.

Coffee houses spread quickly across Europe, many a great mind used this beverage and forum as a springboard to heightened thought and creativity.

Across the Pond

(Circa 1720 – 1770)

Coffee found its way to the Americas by means of a French infantry captain, de Clieu.  He natured one plant on its long journey across the Atlantic and it was transplanted to the Caribbean Island of Martinique, yielding an extended family of approximately 18 million trees.

Meanwhile ……

(Circa 1727 – 1800)

The government of Brazil wanted a “piece” of the coffee market – enter the James Bond of Beans.  Lt .Col. Francisco de Melo.  He was despatched to French Guiana.  His objective was to smuggle seeds back to Brazil.  His mission was accomplished when he was presented with a bouquet spiked with seedlings.

The world’s greatest coffee empire sprouted from these scant shoots.