A Brief History of Coffee Cultivation

The history of coffee begins in the Caffa region in Ethiopia, where a goatherd noticed a strange restlessness in his flock after they had eaten the berries and leaves of an unknown plant. Monks from a nearby monastery heard of this phenomenon and after various trials discovered that by roasting, grinding and infusing in water the seeds of this plant, they obtained a beverage which helped keep them awake during the long hours in prayer.

Originally the coffee plant grew spontaneously in Ethiopia, but once transplanted to Arabia it was monopolized by this population. In the meantime, the ever growing number of coffee-houses increased the demand for coffee and some officials of The Dutch East Indies Company stole several plants which they transferred to their plantations in Ceylon and Java.

The French did the same thing and planted some precious cuttings in Haití, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Trinidad. Finally a young Portuguese took some young plants to Brazil and in less than a century this country became the world's largest coffee producer. Today coffee is grown in tropical regions all over the world, including southeast Asia.

To learn about how coffee is processed, click here.

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