How does morning begin or rather how does morning begin in hearts?

Many would agree that coffee is our first task in the morning, but how many of us know the origin, the birthplace of coffee?

It’s time to dig into the past.

According to a 1671 story, coffee was discovered by 9th-century Ethiopian goat herder Kaldi. In the Ethiopian kingdom of Kaffa, he noticed that his goats started behaving erratically when eating the fruits of shrubbery with yellow and red berries. In response to his curiosity, he took some of these stimulating "magic berries" to the next monastery so the chaplain could explain their effects to him. In a fury, the chaplain flung the berries into the fire, calling it a devilish temptation. Soon after, an aromatic smell of roast coffee rose from the fire, enchanting the monks. It wasn't long before the beans were saved from the fire and brewed the first coffee.

Yemen also made significant contributions to coffee's founding, according to well-known stories. There is a slight variation in the Ethiopian legend about coffee origins from Yemen. The Yemenite Sufi mystic was travelling through Ethiopia for spiritual reasons. He came across some very lively and excited birds devouring the fruit of what is now known as the coffee plant. Exhausted after his voyage, he decided to sample these berries for himself and discovered that they induced an enthusiastic condition in him as well.

Another tale revolves around Sheikh Omar, a doctor-priest and follower of Sheik Abou'l Hasan Schadheli from Mocha, Yemen, was exiled to Ousab mountain cave.

Sheikh Omar was exiled for trying to run off with the king's daughter. It's the tale of how, after he screams out in despair to Schadheli for assistance, a miraculous bird guides him to a coffee bush. The raw cherries tasted delicious, so he made a soup out of them. The drink we now know as coffee closely resembled the 'soup' as he was drawn to the pleasant aroma of the increasingly brown liquid. So instead of eating the beans, he decided to drink the decoction. After experiencing the drink, Omar quickly spread the word about it to his hometown of Mocha. His exile was lifted by the King and he was ordered to return home with the berries that he had discovered. Others who tried coffee found that it "cured" many ailments when they shared the beans and the drink. Shortly after, coffee was hailed as a miracle drug, and Omar as a saint. There was a monastery built in Mocha to honor Omar.

How fascinating it is to know our favorite beverage has numerous tales before it becomes so widely popular.

LOVE IN EVERY FORM

When we visit a cafe today, the menu is flooded with various coffee options, but do we know where they come from?

The modern form of roasted coffee is derived from Arabia. The Muslim community back then greatly enjoyed the stimulant effects of coffee during the 13th century, which proved valuable during long prayer sessions. The Arabs cornered the coffee crop market by parching and boiling coffee beans, rendering them infertile. According to tradition, coffee plants were not found outside of Arabia or Africa until the 1600s, when Indian pilgrim Baba Budan left Mecca with fertile beans strapped on his abdomen and planted them in the Karnataka Chandragiri highlands. The Dutch (who ruled much of India throughout the 17th century) aided in the spread of coffee production across the country, but Commercial coffee farming flourished under the British Raj in the mid-nineteenth century.

It was the Dutch who established the first European-owned coffee estate in Sri Lanka in 1616, then Ceylon in 1623, and Java in 1696. In the Caribbean, the French grew coffee first, followed by the Spanish in Central America and the Portuguese in Brazil. It was Italy, and later France, where European coffee houses reached a new level of popularity.

Despite the arrival of coffee plants in the New World in the early 18th century, the popularity of the beverage did not really take off until after the Boston Tea Party in 1773, when switching from tea to coffee was seen as a patriotic duty. Following the Boston Tea Party, John Adams who served as the second President of the United States from 1797 to 1801, and many other Americans thought tea consumption to be disloyal. Tea consumption fell during and after the Revolution, culminating in a transition to coffee as the favoured hot beverage.

Coffee consumption increased as a result of the Civil War and other wars that followed. Since soldiers relied on caffeine for energy, they consumed more coffee in the years that followed. Although it may have started later, Americans were passionate about coffee just as much as everyone else.

As coffee became a global commodity by the late 1800s, entrepreneurs sought new ways to profit from it. The Pittsburgh brothers John and Charles Arbuckle purchased Jabez Burns' self-emptying coffee bean roaster in 1864. They began selling pre-roasted coffee by the pound in paper bags. It was named Ariosa and was a great success among cowboys of the American West.

James Folger is an American businessman and the founder of a very popular chain, Folgers Coffee Company didn't take long to follow suit and start selling coffee to California's gold miners. This paved the way for several other well-known coffee manufacturers, such as Maxwell House and Hills Brothers.

A growing interest in specialty coffee emerged in the 1960s, which encouraged the establishment of the first Starbucks in Seattle in 1971. Like wine, coffee has evolved into an aesthetic industry renowned for its terroir and rich flavor profile.

The Coffee Board of India

The term "coffee" has roots in a number of different languages. It acquired the name "qahwah" in Yemen, which was formerly a romantic phrase for wine. Later on, it evolved into the Turkish kahveh, then Dutch koffie, and finally English coffee. In South Indian languages, KAAPI was most likely adopted as a phonetic translation of the term coffee, making it a popular morning beverage till today.

Digging into the past is often not considered a good option, but when it's coffee, well let us look for new rules.

So, if you plan to drink another cup of coffee in an hour, try to keep in mind the intriguing history of coffee.