How and where was coffee discovered?
The most popular story told is of a goat herder named Kaldi who went looking for his flock and found them dancing wildly. He soon discovered that they were eating the leaves and berries of a certain plant. When he tried some of the berries, he quickly felt energized. Soon, a monk noticed Kaldi’s vigor, and he asked the goatherd how that came to be; Kaldi told him about the plant, and the monk picked the berries and brought them back to the monastery, where the monks used them to stay awake for late night prayer and study. Unfortunately, this story is almost certainly simply a legend, and the true story of how the effects of the coffee bean were discovered is lost to history. What is not in dispute is that coffee originated in the highlands of Ethiopia. Originally, the beans were not roasted and brewed; one of the first coffee drinks was, ironically, a tea (or, more properly, an infusion) brewed from the leaves and cherries. As with most human endeavors, an alcoholic beverage (a wine ma
