History of coffee until 1600

The word of coffee is probably derived form the former Kingdom of Kaffa. Coffee originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia. Either the Ethiopian province of Kaffa in Ethiopia’s southwestern highlands or the plateaus of central Ethiopia is likely the original home of the coffee plant, which was discovered growing wild around 600 AD.

In the early Kaffa Kingdom, coffee was an important product for home consumption as well as for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. It was probably cultivated in home gardens and forests coffee systems.

The most frequently quoted legend is that of a Yemenite goatherd, Kaldi. He became intrigued by the state so excitement of his goats, especially at night and noticed the animals were eating red berries from a bush.

After tasting several of these berries, his mind turned jovial and he began dancing. He ran to announce his discovery to the prior of the neighboring monastery. The prior prepared an infusion from the berries, drank it and later was unable to fall asleep. They could attend prayers without the problem of falling asleep.


The world first coffee lovers chewed the leaves and berries; infused them in hot water like tea; ground them and mix them with animal fat for a snack; or made a sort of wine when berries fermented.

It was then introduced as a kind of medicine for relaxation, for which purpose it was roasted, ground and boiled in water.

By A.D. 1000, Ethiopian Arabs were collecting the fruit of the tree, which grew wild, and preparing a beverage from its beans. It widely consumed and demand all over Arabia Turkey and Persia since alcoholic were not allowed.

During the fifteenth century traders transplanted wild coffee trees from Africa to southern Arabia.

People believed that the coffee beans were brought to Arabia from Ethiopia by Sudanese slaves who chewed the fresh coffee berries during the trip to help them survive.

The eastern Arabs, the first to cultivate coffee, soon adopted the Ethiopian Arabs' practice of making a hot beverage from its ground, roasted beans.

Coffee was introduced by Venetians in the year 1591, into Italy to be used only as an enlivening medicine.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, the first coffee house were established in Constantinople, where the new habit also provoked the ire of the religious order. As a result of complaints to the Sultan, heavy taxes were imposed in the coffee houses but this did not prevent them from flourishing.

Coffee was brought to England first by a Turkey merchant returning from a voyage to the Levant in the time of Cromwell; he was accompanied by a Greek named Pasqua who understood the art of preparing the beverage.

The first public coffee house was opened in London in the year 1652; a few years after the second appeared in Paris and third in Amsterdam.
History of coffee until 1600