How the java got its jo: The history of a popular American drink

I started drinking coffee when I was still really young, I know it probably wasn't the best idea, but my parents got me hooked. I would wake up and my parents would already have a big pot brewed and ready to go, all  I had to do was pour some into a cup and add cream and I was good to go for a couple of hours. For many of us, coffee is the type of drink that is usually just there, wherever you go, but have you ever sat down to actually think about how coffee even got here and where it came from?

According to National Geographic, coffee dates back to A.D. 800, when the legendary Ethiopian goatherd, Kaldi, noticed his goats dancing from coffee shrub to coffee shrub and grazing on a cherry-red berry that contained coffee beans. He wondered how the berries would effect him, so he chopped himself some and soon after he was dancing and frolicking with the rest of his goats.

As the National Coffee Association and legend has it, Kaldi shared his findings with the abbot at the  local monastery and he too was filled with much energy and alertness through the evening prayer. The abbot then shared his findings with other monks at the local monastery and from there the word about coffee started to move East as more and more people found out about the effects of it. This was just the beginning of the journey of coffee that would become a huge phenomenon all across the globe.

Coffee is grown in a multitude of countries around the world today, including; in Asia, Africa, South America, the islands of the Caribbean, and the Pacific.

The first people to begin trading coffee were the Arabs, and by the sixteenth century it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. Coffee was huge in this area at that time because the Muslims prohibited alcoholic drinks by the Koran, so they found that coffee was a close substitute to experiencing the same type of feelings when consumed.

Coffee then spread to Europe and by the mid-1600’s, coffee was brought to New Amsterdam, a location later named New York. This new drink spread into houses rapidly, but tea continued to be the drink of choice until about 1773. That is when colonists revolted against a heavy tax on tea, which was imposed by King George. This revolt, known as the Boston Tea Party, would forever change the American drinking preference to coffee.

Now that you have learned a little about the origins of coffee, I leave you all with this...

A cup of coffee shared with a friend is happiness tasted and time well spent.

--Anonymous