Coffee Roots

Ethiopia is considered to be the natural homeland of coffee where it grows until now.

But the triumphant march of coffee across the globe started in Yemen (the economic homeland of coffee) where it was brought by the Arabian merchants and where it quickly became popular.

People first started to consistentlyа cultivate coffee in the 15^th century.

For two centuries Yemen had been the only country that supplied coffee to the world market. Then coffee spread rapidly to the majority of Asian countries and, through Turkish diplomats, entered the other states.

Legends

Until now the experts cannot agree upon the origin of this word.

Others relate it to the name of Kaffa – the Southern province of Ethiopia where even nowadays one can find the wild bushes of Arabian coffee.

The history of the discovery of coffee – the drink that the mankind savours – goes back into centuries.

There are several legends telling about the first acquaintance of a man with coffee. One of such legends is the story of the Ethiopian shepherd Kalid who lived presumably in the 3^rd century A.D.

He noticed that his goats behaved so spirited that they did not want to sleep at night after they had eaten the leaves and red berries from one of the bushes. Being a curious person, he himself tried those berries and felt the extraordinary surge of energy.

They used to prepare the drink from coffee berries in order to relieve the fatigue after lengthy religious ceremonies.

Nowadays nobody knows whether it happened or not or whether any of these stories are true.