Evidence indicates that the history of the coffee bean began on the plateaus of central Ethiopia. There is also lore that links coffee to this same geographical beginnings.

The Legends:

It is said that the goat-herder Kaldi witnessed his goats prancing excitedly after chewing berries from coffee bushes. He himself tasted them and enjoyed their stimulating effect. The discovery of the powerful berries was passed on to those at a local monastery. The monks harvested, roasted and brewed the coffee cherries themselves and received a heightened sense of awareness. As a result they were kept awake during their long prayers at night. Coffee was thus accepted as a stimulant drink.

Another legend states that the Archangel Gabriel came to the aid of Mohammed who was beginning to be overcome with sleep. Gabriel brought him coffee from Heaven. After a few sips Mohammed felt so invigorated he was able to "unhorse forty men and make forty women happy".

Usage:

For centuries coffee beans were chewed raw in Ethiopia. In the tenth century, coffee was considered a food. The Ethiopian nomadic mountain peoples may have been the first to recognize coffee’s sustaining effect (but not as a beverage). These people gathered the coffee beans from the trees that grew in the region, ground them up and mixed them with animal fat, forming small balls that they carried as rations on trips. Other indigenous tribes of Ethiopia ate the beans as a porridge or drank a wine created from the fermented crushed coffee beans.

By the 13th century, coffee’s restorative powers were well known in the Islamic world. Coffee was considered a potent medicine, as well as a religious potion that helped keep people wake during prayers.

Pilgrims of Islam spread the coffee throughout the Middle East and by the end of the 15th century, coffeehouses had replaced mosques as favored meeting places.