Coffee Bean Origins

Almost all of us drink coffee and it is something of an institution across the world. We drink coffee first thing in the morning to wake us up, we drink it on the side of the road when travelling on large journeys to avoid having crashes and we drink it when we first get in to work in order to feel as awake and alert as possible and to get on with our work. At the same time many of us will also regularly pop into coffee shops on our lunch break in order to get an espresso to help us through our day, or we'll go in with some work and work it through over a cuppa. Some businesses even conduct interviews and business meetings in the humble coffee shop. At home likewise the first thing we do when someone comes round tends to be to offer them a coffee and it might well be the first thing we do when we get home ourselves too. We tend to drink them over books, in front of the television and to make everything we do more relaxing while keeping us alert and focussed.

So we all love coffee, and it plays an important role in our way of life. Yet we know hardly anything about it – most of us don't know where it comes from, how it is made or anything about its history. Thus we will look into it here – though it might surprise you to learn that no one in fact is completely sure as to its origins.

The history of the coffee bean spans many generations and goes at least as far as the 13th century. It was believed here that the ancestors of the Oromo People in Ethiopia were the first people to discover the coffee bean and to recognise it's incredible qualities. It is not known however where in Africa the bean was used or which natives grew or used it prior to the 17th century.

A famous tale of the discovery of coffee focusses on a goat-herder called Kaldi who it is claimed discovered coffee in the 9th century when his goats began to act unusual, demonstrating just how much uncertainty there is surrounding its origins. Suffice to say that the story was not told until 1671AD in writing, suggesting that it may have been invented later on (or otherwise was passed by word of mouth across many generations).

It is known that it started in Ethiopia however, and that from here it spread further to Yemen and Egypt. The first evidence of coffee being a drink as it is today comes from Yemen where it may have been drunk by those in the Sufi monasteries. However it was in Arabia where the beans were first roasted and brewed as they are today and by the 16th century it had spread to Italy and from here to the rest of Europe. Since then it has continued to have an exciting history and has been an important part of both Western and Eastern culture.

By: Jeff Diacik

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Today it is easy to buy coffee online from a variety of regions. Many coffee suppliers allow you to buy your coffee based on the region it comes from.