In honor of Black History Month, we are sharing the history of Coffee.

When people think of coffee, they usually think of Columbian coffee.

When people think of Ethiopia, they think about the climate, but...did you know that beautiful things and beautiful people come from Ethiopia?

Did you know that coffee actually originated in Ethiopia, and most other coffee plants are a descendent of the Ethiopian coffee plant?

The Legend of Kaldi

The legend tells the story of Kaldi, the goatherder who lived in Ethiopia about 300 A.D. He noticed that after the goats had been eating red berries from a tree, they were lively and energetic until late in the evening. He tried the red berries himself and experienced the same effect. He mentioned this to the monks in the nearby monastery who, from then on, took the berries to stay awake during the nightly Prayer gatherings. By chance they discovered that the beans could be roasted and that a beverage prepared from the roasted beans not only produced the same effect, but also tasted far better. The coffee beans and the beverage made from them, were from then on, regarded as a luxurious stimulant. 

In any case, while in Ethiopia I happened to find the Legend of Kaldi posted in a coffee shop in Ethiopia. It had on paper the history that I had until then only heard about, but had never seen written. I am sharing it with you:

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For more information on the history of coffee, check out this article posted on the PageOneCoffee Website. The article can be found at this link The Complete History of Coffee

Additional references:

For more information, check out the description by the National Coffee Association: History of Coffee