Ethiopia – Kaldi

Around 8500 AD, and Abyssinian goat herder named Kaldi witnessed his goats jumping around wildly after eating leaves and berries of a coffee plant. He then tried the coffee berries and leaves himself, and felt delighted and energetic. He showed the berries to monks in a nearby monastery, where the monks threw them into the fire – sceptically. As you can imagine they were pleasantly surprised by the fine aroma that came from the fire once the berries were roasted. The berries were salvaged from the put out fire and the roasted berries were soaked in hot water. This made for the first cup of coffee. [ad#ad-1]

Vienna – Home Of The Croissant


A similar discovery was done by the Austrians in Vienna after they defeated the Ottoman Turks, who has controlled the coffee trade for decades. The Austrians thought that the beans were food for the Turks’ camels, and burned them. Once the aroma of roasted beans started to spread they realized what they had eon, took the seeds and opened the first coffee house in Austria. Something else that came from celebrating their victory over the Turks was the croissant: a pastry shaped like a crescent moon, symbol of Islam, was created to celebrate the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in 1683.

Coffee NOT Banned By The Pope

Coffee finally arrived in Europe in 1615, in Venice, Italy. Catholic priests believed that coffee was unholy, and asked the Pope to ban the beverage. But when the Pope tasted coffee, he refused to ban it. He ordered a Senseo machine instead (just kidding).

Black Gold For James Folger

When the James with his Folger’s brothers Edward and Henry went to California in 1850 during the gold rush, they did not find yellow gold but “black gold” instead. And then I don’t mean oil, of course. James worked in a coffee and spice mill in San Francisco, and he noticed that many gold miners did not have any equipment to roast and grind their own coffee beans. So he did that for them. By 1870 Folgers was selling coffee all through the USA.