The first coffee drinkers.
Kaldi the Abyssinian goatherd
Legend has it that sometime around 850 AD, an Abyssinian (Ethiopian) goat herder named Kaldi was the first to recognize the potential of the beans that grew in the ancient coffee forests high on the Ethiopian plateau.
According to legend, Kaldi discovered coffee after observing that his previously “irreproachable” goats became so lively after eating the berries from a certain tree that they could not get to sleep at night. Kaldi tried the berries for himself and found that he was filled with energy and that his persistent gloom had lifted.
Kaldi informed the Islamic abbot of a nearby Sufi monastery, who made a drink from the berries and discovered that it kept him awake throughout the lengthy hours of nightly prayer. The abbot informed the other monks at the monastery about his discovery, and word of the energising berries spread quickly.
As news spread east and coffee reached the Arabian Peninsula, it embarked on a voyage that would eventually take these beans around the world.
The anecdote may or may not be fictitious. It was originally told by Antoine Faustus Nairon, a Maronite who became a Roman professor of Oriental languages and author of De Saluberrima potione Cahue seu Cafe nuncupata Discurscus, one of the first printed treatises on coffee (Rome, 1671)
Coffee in Yemeni Sufi Monastaries
The first credible evidence of coffee consumption originates from the 15th century in Yemeni Sufi monasteries.
Yemeni traders first brought coffee berries to Yemen from Ethiopia, and later began cultivating the plant. Sufi monks would consume coffee as a stimulant to help them stay awake during their meditation and prayers, according to Abd Al-Qadir al-Jaziri, who wrote an early report of the history of coffee.
“They drank it every Monday and Friday eve, putting it in a large vessel made of red clay. Their leader ladled it out with a small dipper and gave it to them to drink, passing it to the right, while they recited their usual formulas”
Coffee spreads through the Middle East and into Europe
Abd Al-Qadir al-Jaziri’s manuscript chronicles the spread of coffee from Yemen through Mecca and Medina, and then to Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Constantinople, the Middle East’s most important trading centers at the time.
By the 1500s, several coffee shops had opened in Egypt, Syria, and Istanbul, spreading the beverage and its culture even further.
Following the spread of coffee shops in Africa and the Middle East, coffee expanded around the world, finding some of its biggest fans in European cities.
