As you gently tip the warm mug of sweet nectar to your anticipating lips, have you ever thought about the history of coffee?  As with many of the fine things we enjoy in life, we seldom take thought from whence they came. The history of coffee is full of action, drama, stealing, smuggling and even religon. Enjoy the journey as you follow the history of coffee through the trek spanning over a thousand years. 

850-

In Kaffa, Ethiopia a goat herder named Kaldi observed his goats eating red berries from  some bushes. He noticed they act very energetic. He tried some, and experienced an elevated sense of euphoria. He took the coffee berries to a monastery nearby. The monks upon trying the berries denounced them as a fruit of the devil.  However, that night they noticed that they actually stayed awake for their prayers and the next day blessed them and kept a good supply of berries handy for their nightly devotions.

African natives from the Galla tribe made coffee bean and animal fat balls for energy pills.  

1100- Arabia was the first to roast beans and brew coffee. Popularity of coffee in the Muslim religion is given credit to the spread to coffee to North Africa and Eastern Mediterranean & India.
The Arabs protected their monopoly by boiling the beans to make them infertile. 
1475- The java shop in coffee history opens in Constantinople. 
1600- Fertile coffee seed didn’t spread outside Africa or Arabia until 1600’s. This happened when Baba Budan, an Indian, left Mecca with fertile seeds under his garb, strapped to his belly.  He planted a coffee farm near Mysore, India. Early this century, explorers discovered thriving descendants of these original plants.
Boca Java 20% off Coupon 1615- A merchant from Venice transported coffee from the Turks to Italy. This, however, was a finished product; Europe wanted the seed so they could produce their own coffee.
1616- The Dutch were the first in Europe to possess the coffee seed.  They smuggled the plant out of Mocha, the Arab port, and took it to Ceylon and East Indees to grow it.
1696- The first European coffee estate in coffee history was established in the Dutch colony, Java, which is now in Indonesia.
Dutch spread coffee to islands near Java.  Amsterdam sold it to aristocrats around Europe.
1714- Louis XIV received a coffee plant as a gift from the Dutch for the royal botanical garden in Paris, France.
1723- Gabriel Mathieu from Martinque, a French colony in the Caribbean, asked for clippings from the king’s tree.  The king denied the request.
Gabriel Mathieu sneaked into the garden and stole a sprout.  He planted it in Martinque and in 50 yrs, there were 18 Million trees.  The offspring of these plants supplied Latin America.
1727- Brazil sent Lt. Col. Francisco De Melo Palheta to French Guiana to mediate a border dispute. At a state farewell dinner the governor’s wife gave him a bouquet with coffee seedlings hidden in it.
By  the year 1777, Brazil planted 1920 million trees and reaped cash crops. Brazil is given credit for making coffee available to the common man, no longer a beverage only for the elite.  Today over 400 billion cups of coffee annually are consumed worldwide.
1900- Coffee in vacuum packed tins is introduced by Hills Bros..  This method of coffee packaging would alter the path of coffee history. Making a fresh roast of Hills Bros. coffee available anyone, anywhere in the world was an unfortunate event for  local coffee mills and small roasting shops, which, for the most part, were eliminated or reduced to novelty shops, selling an experience.
Boca Java Signature Sampler 1901- Japanese-American Satori Kato invents the first instant coffee.
1903- Researchers aquire a batch of ruined coffee beans from Ludwig Roselius, a German coffee importer, and successfully remove the caffeine from the coffee without ruining the flavor.  Roselius markets the decaffeinated coffee under the brand name Sanka.
1907- Brazil accounts for 97% of the world’s harvest.
1920- Coffee sales soar in United States during prohibition.
1938- Nestle company invents coffee history's first freeze-dried coffee, naming it Nescafe.
1971- Starbucks openes its first store in the Pike Place public market in Seattle, Washington.
Today more than 400 billion cups of coffee are consumed each year.   Coffee is the world's most popular beverage and is a commodity traded second only to oil.  Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries worldwide.  About 30 of these countries produce more than 5,000,000 tons of coffee each year.  Americans are credited for more than 1/3 of today's coffee consumption.  With new coffee shops sprouting on every corner in every major city worldwide, the popularity of coffee and coffee culture is definately on the increase, and is sure to add a new chapter in coffee history.