A Short History Of Coffee

Coffee was first discovered around the 9th century in Ethiopia by a young goatherd, who noticed his goats grazing upon berries which seemed to have interesting side effects. The goats jumped around and were full of energy. The goatherd believed the berries had some magical properties so he took some back to the village elders. They boiled them with some water and soon realized the stimulating potential of the brew. From this point on coffee plants were cultivated by man purely for their precious crop.

The Ethiopians traded with the Arabs and coffee spread towards the east. The Arabs guarded the coffee plant and although they traded across the Islamic world all beans for export were boiled to prevent any chance of transplantation, however the Dutch managed to transplant some to Indonesia in the late 1600s and this was the beginning of worldwide growth of coffee cultivation. In the late 17th century coffee came to the masses in Europe and the first coffee house opened in Italy, Austria and England. Lloyds of London and the London Stock Exchange are just two key institutions whose roots can be traced back to a 17th century coffee house.

By the 18th century the French introduced coffee cultivation to Martingue and by the end of the century Central America and South America had somewhere between 18 and 19 million bushes and were firmly established coffee producers.

Today coffee is grown on five continents and consumed worldwide. It is the most important commodities traded on the world markets.