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The beginnings of coffee

Hundreds of years ago coffee moved from North east Africa to Arabia. Throughout this passage of time the lowly coffee bean has been responsible, in part, for shaping and changing history. This movement of the coffee bean from one continent to another shaped all sorts of society – social, political, financial. Even then the effect was more than just in those regions. We can see the influence as far as North America, South America and the United Kingdom.

Coffee can make or break – and history reflects this. There is much money to be made and, certainly, much has been lost. Inspiration has been drawn from the mere coffee bean. Coffee has been used to help diets, change strategies and been part of daily life and necessities. In short, the history of coffee is such that we can no longer live without it.

There is much discussion over who discovered coffee and how it's development was pursued. Intense debates rage on this one subject alone. Great minds have had their theories and even films have been made about coffee. Arab lands abound with their stories on the origin of coffee, coffee bean industries and coffee developers.

Does coffee originate as far back as the early times of the Old testament? Nobody can be sure and materials exist that could conceivably classed as early coffee beverages. An important name is Petrus de Valle – he was an Italian that thought coffee went far far back even to days of the Trojan war. Legends like this abound and there are many colorful stories that reflect, or at least, attempt to reflect, the passing of this lowly beverage.

There is an interesting legend or fable about “dancing goats”. In this story, a goat herd made a complaint that his goats were acting unusually – being agitated, stimulated and generally causing mayhem at night! Eventually it was thought that they were ingesting something that caused this effect. They found some berries and in good scientific tradition made a hot brew which the, themselves, drank. They found it most agreeable and the brew was utilised for local monks who had less sleep and more praying time as a result! The use of such a beverage of “coffee” became popular to others in the locality and even further afield.

Coffee has even been used and thought of as a form of medicine and certainly today it is known that some constituents have a euphoric and stimulating effect. In addition, coffee can have detrimental effects – especially in causing irregularities of the heart.

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