The origin of coffee is hidden in the mystery of the Near East. We do know that coffee is indigenous to the old Arabian colony of Abyssinia, and was cultivated by the Arabs in the 15th Century.

One legend is that an Arab herdsman named Kaddi noticed his goats became frisky after eating the berries from a certain evergreen bush. Daring to try them himself, Kaddi noticed that the beans stimulated him and allowed him to watch his goats throughout the night without fatigue.

One day a monk happened by and, being astonished at the sight of Kaddi dancing with his goats, inquired about the cause of their behavior. He was told of the marvelous fruit. The monk reasoned that Mohammed had revealed this miracle to help him and his fellow monks stay awake at night during their long prayer sessions.

Coffee first came into vogue as a popular drink after being endorsed by the Mufti of Aden. It appears to have been drunk around 1454 in two ways: first, by using the skin and pulp surrounding the beans and second, by using the beans themselves.

By 1510, the beverage was being drunk in Cairo. In 1554, coffee was introduced in Constantinople, where it became the in-drink with the Turks, who drank 10 to 12 cups of the strong brew each day.

Coffee was introduced to the Christians and to Western Europe around 1615 by Venetian traders. Responding to complaints about Satan's drink, Pope Clement VIII is said to have sampled coffee and found it so delicious that he solved the dilemma by baptising it and making it a Christian drink.

Coffee spread across Europe and, by 1715, there were 2,000 coffee houses in London alone!

Coffee was introduced in the Americas by a French captain, Gabriel deClieu, and to Martinique in 1720, from where almost all the coffee in our hemisphere propogated. South America produces over half the world's supply of coffee, with Brazil alone producing almost a third. In the United States, we consume over 450 million cups daily.