Ever wondered what the dark, thick liquid that sends wake up signals to your brain every morning really is? You reach for it several times a day, drink it in a thousand different ways, know it by a hundred different names but never really gave it a thought. Coffee has always been there. But is it really so? Everything has to start somewhere. Everything has to have an origin, a history. Where was coffee first discovered? Who discovered it? How was coffee, the drink prepared? This is an attempt to trace the origins of coffee and its journey through the ages to be where it is today.

Tough the earliest references point to Ethiopia as the place where coffee was first cultivated, the Republic of Yemen is considered to be the place where coffee was first discovered. Known popularly as the Legend of the Dancing Goats, the tale goes as such. A young goatherd names Kaldi awoke one day to discover his goats missing. Dejected and frightened to have lost his livelihood, Kaldi set out to search for his goats in the scorching heat. On much searching, sifting through the neighborhood hills and usual grazing lands of the goats, an exhausted and famished Kaldi was amazed to find the goats dancing in the scorching sun. After pinching himself and making sure that the sun was not playing games with his mind, Kaldi decided to examine the root cause of this strange scene in front of him. On closer examination, Kaldi noticed some of the goats eating the red fruit of a nearby shrub. Since there was nothing else around that could be consumed and famished that he was Kaldi joined the goats in their feast. Soon the goats were joined in their frolicking by their goatherd. Sometime later the Yemenite Sufi mystic Sheikh ash-Shadhili, passed nearby the same hill. Aghast at the scene in front of him of the dancing goats and the frolicking goatherd, he pulled Kaldi and demanded an explanation. After several questions he deduced that the energetic glee was the result of the red fruit growing around him. The saint decided to cook the seeds during his examination and experimentations but the result was such a bitter liquid that he kicked the cauldron and angrily threw the seeds into the fire. And then, the saint found the berries produced a pleasant aroma when roasted and that is how coffee as a drink came to be! It was eventually found that the berries were not of much use and the roasted seeds could be crushed to powder which could be used. The believers of this legend also believe that the word coffee is derived from the shepherd's name.

Another legend says the coffee plant originated in the Kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia. The beans originating from Kaffa, soon came to be known as Kaffe and soon as Coffee. Coffee soon found wide acceptance in the Muslim world, where it came to be known as qahhwat al-bun translated to wine of the bean. Soon a truncated version of the name came around known as Qahhve. When the Italians first started importing it, they started calling it Caf. And by the time it reached the rest of the world it came to be known as Coffee.

The humble drink that the Saint discovered would soon embark on a fantastic voyage around the globe winning continents as it progressed. Every continent it touched would develop its own variant of coffee. It took coffee around 600 years to return to its place of origin after a very fantastic journey around the globe. By the time it was back to its birth place, there had already been very variants and hybrids of the powerful stimulant.

Coffee was exported back to Yemen by traders who started cultivating the bean there. History also has it that the first coffee house was established in Yemen. The popularity of the beans soon spread to the neighboring kingdoms and was a huge success in the large cities of Cairo and Istanbul.

Coffee met some resistance in the conservative cities like Medina where the orthodox clergy banned it for the very reason it was so popular, the stimulating effect. But the popularity of the drink forced the Sultan to overrule the ban. The subsequent bans coffee faced during its journey had the similar resistance from the masses and would subsequently be overturned.
It was soon seen all over the Middle East as an alternative to wine. Since the religion prohibits the use of alcoholic beverages, it was widely popular.

Egypt had a very flourishing trade with Italy and Venetian traders soon began noticing the beans with the stimulating effect. Deciding to cash in on the strange drink, they introduced coffee as an exotic drink for the affluent. These traders launched the drink in Italy charging exorbitant prices. Soon it was a fashion to have coffee at social parties and dos. But the traders realized the potential this drink had and soon coffee began percolating to the ordinary masses, popularized by its ability to drive away sleep. Coffee again met with resistance due to the fact that it had originated in a Muslim Land and Europe was still very much orthodox. Many people sought to ban the foreign drink. But the popularity of coffee grew many folds when Pope Clement VIII baptized the drink. It started to be more widely accepted and since it was no longer forbidden by the church, people started drinking it more openly and more freely. The idea was soon germinated by a shrewd businessman to start a restaurant where people could sit, drink coffee and chat. The first coffee house in Europe opened in Italy in 1645. The success of this coffeehouse venture prompted many more entrepreneurs to venture into this new business. Soon a coffeehouse could be found in every nook and corner servicing the rich and the poor alike.

By the 17th century the trade between the Turks and most of Europe was flourishing. Mehmed IV, King of the Ottoman Empire of Turkey sent his ambassador, Soleiman Agha, to Paris and along with his entourage came a huge consignment of coffee. Even though there are stories that coffee beans had already reached France before the ambassadors visit, coffee really caught on after this visit. The ambassador was more than happy to toast the royalty with coffee and there was more than enough for everyone. The French courtesans who had never tasted anything like it were soon taken in by the powers of coffee. Soon coffee was being imported in huge quantities and enjoyed by the royalty and the commoners alike. By the end of the century, coffee drinking had become a custom in France. There would be coffee after meals and in functions and parties. Coffee had arrived in France.

The same Ottoman Empire which was responsible for introducing coffee to France, also introduced coffee to Austria albeit in a very different manner. Sultan Mehmed had been involved in a bitter conflict with Vienna for a considerable amount of time during which he was able to regain the Aegean islands from Venice. But the victory was short lived when the Turks were utterly routed in the Battle of Venice in the year 1683. While the Venetians were celebrating their victory, in the spoils of the war was found a huge store of coffee beans. Never seen before, the beans generated tremendous interest among the officer who found them. Eventually the first coffee house in Austria was opened by using these very coffee beans. The Polish Military Officer Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, who had found the beans during the battle, opened the coffeehouse. During his experimentation with coffee, he found that adding sugar to the bitter drink improved the taste and adding milk made the drink more presentable. Soon this became a custom around Austria and even today coffee is consumed by many with milk and sugar.

The most important role for popularizing coffee was played by the East India Company. The Company is responsible for the spread of Coffee to England and to Asia. The East India Company was essentially a trading organization which would sell rarities like spices and herbs from British colonies to England and other countries. On one such trading trip to Turkey, A trader ship brought back some coffee beans for trying out in the British Markets. The astounding response these beans received from the British populace prompted the Company to start a flourishing trade dealing exclusively in Coffee. The first coffee house in England was founded in 1583 and by the late 1600s there were more than 3000 coffee houses all over England.

The Company cashing in on the popularity of coffee, decided to supply it to the other countries and colonies where they were trading and soon all of Europe was under the spell of coffee. The East India Company soon realized that demand had exceeded supply and importing coffee would prove to be highly expensive. The shrewd traders of the Dutch division of the Company decided to try cultivating the plants in Java which is now Indonesia and Kerala in India. The Dutch would grow the coffee in their forts and export it to all over Europe. The Java coffee that we know of today is more popular than the original Ethiopian Coffee. At around the same time, there was a great deal of experimentation being conducted to improve the taste and the effects of coffee. It was around the same time that people started believing in the healing powers of coffee. Essentially, coffee being a strong stimulant would aid healing by giving the patient a sense of well being and health.

The Europeans soon began toying with the idea of growing coffee plants in their homelands instead of cultivating them elsewhere and exporting the coffee. This would save time and money involved in the business. At the same time, the coffee plants was generating huge interest among researchers. But the weather conditions in Europe would not be suitable for cultivation of the plant. By then the idea of greenhouses had already been in existence. The Dutch finally were able to transport some of the plants from Kerala to the Netherlands where they were grown in greenhouses. Being the undisputed leaders after beating the competition from the rest of Europe, the Dutch soon became the leading suppliers of coffee all over Europe. Dutch colonies in India, Americas and Java were the principal cultivators for the Dutch.

After having mentioned about conquest of continents by coffee, it is only fair that Australia not be left out. Australia had already been brought under coffee cultivation much before it reached anywhere else. Coffee reached Australia around the same time that it started gaining popularity in England. Initially only 500 acres of land was brought under the cultivation of coffee. Soon Australia was exporting coffee along with the other British colonies. But coffee export from Australia never happened on a large scale.

One continent was still to come under the spell of coffee but not for long. Gabriel DeClieu, a French naval officer endured great hardships to being coffee to the Americas. Before 1723, America was largely unaware of the existence of coffee. DeClieu brought a single sapling, which had been gifted to the Louis XIV by the Dutch, to the Americas. Legend has it that he watered the plant cutting down his own rations. The single sapling eventually grew into cultivation in Martinique in Haiti. Within 50 years the single sapling had given rise to 10 million coffee trees and accounted for 90% of the world's coffee spread.

Coffee plantation soon spread to the Isle of Bourbon in the Indian Ocean where the plants produced a newer variety of coffee which had smaller beans. Around 1727, The Emperor of Brazil decided to enter the coffee market and was able to obtain some seeds from the French. These seeds, believed to be the progeny of the Bourbon coffee plants would evolve to produce what we know as the famous Santos coffee of Brazil. Brazil today exports 35% of its coffee produce making it one of the largest exporters in the world.

Their colonies in the Americas and the West Indies gave the French an upper hand with the other competitors. There was ample land in both these places and most of the cultivation was carried out by slave labor. Coffee export was by now a very lucrative business and everyone wanted a slice of it.
Coffee would soon reach the very land it started its journey from but in a more polished form nearly 600 years later. The French exporters soon started exporting their superior coffee to the entire world which included Tanzania. The people preferred buying from the French traders who would get the coffee all the way from their cultivations in America. Eventually, Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee is not far from Tanzania and the other countries buying the wonder drink from the French.

Coffee today is available in a variety of forms. From the black coffee that is thrown in the cup by the brewer to the exotic flavored coffee available in the pricey restaurants. The humble coffee has come a long way. It is one of the top export commodities in the world. It is a cash crop for many Third World Countries and is the backbone of the economy of some of the African countries like Uganda and Ethiopia. The colonies that cultivated coffee for the kingdoms are still the major producers of coffee. Only there are fair trade practices in place that have enabled a healthy business of coffee. Brazil still is the biggest exporter of coffee in the world. The coffee plantations in Java have an ever increasing bunch of coffee drinkers. India still accounts for a large amount of coffee that is exported. Coffee is almost a religion in Kerala where most of the coffee plantations are. In Australia tough, the cultivation has not caught up as much as in the other places. Still Australia is a minor exporter of coffee. It is also a pioneer in modern cultivation techniques which use mechanical means for a faster and efficient crop picking.

Coffee was traditionally cultivated under the shade of trees. But soon the farmers discovered that cultivating under the sun ripened the fruit faster and the plants produced higher yields. Soon many farmers shifted to this technique which has resulted in massive deforestation. Aggressive coffee cultivation has led many farmers to adopt modern techniques such as use of pesticides and use of machinery due to which there has been massive habitat destruction. Another issue concerning the cultivation of coffee concerns water availability. According to a study, it takes about 140 liters of water to produce one cup of water. But coffee is grown in countries where there is acute water shortage like Ethiopia. Many activists have condemned this kind of cultivation where water is used for the coffee plants which could have been used for the survival of humans and animals.

With the advance of medical sciences and technology, Coffee has become marred again by controversies. The medical problems associated with coffee is mainly due to caffeine, the primary content of coffee. Experts suggest drinking excessive coffee may lead to coronary heart disease. On the other hand, Coffee is also supposed to reduce risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Production of coffee has evolved during all these years as well. Many modern techniques are now in place to handle the creation of the famed powder, right from the planting of the seeds to the roasting

Coffee has come a long way from the humble beginnings it had as goat Fodder. The journey has taken up some centuries to complete but today coffee is available anywhere and everywhere. Known by different names like Cafe, Coffee, Kapi, the drink continues to maintain its popularity with the masses despite the controversies surrounding the cup of that dark, thick liquid that sends wakeup signals to the brain.