Every day, people around the world drink about two billion cups of coffee. But where did this habit begin?
An old legend from Ethiopia tells of a young goat herder named Kaldi. One day he noticed something strange: after his goats ate the red berries of a certain bush, they jumped and danced and refused to sleep. Kaldi tried the berries himself and felt fresh and energetic. Monks at a nearby religious house heard about the berries, and they began to boil them in water so they could stay awake and pray at night.
We do not know if the story of Kaldi is true. But we do know that coffee drinking spread from Ethiopia to Yemen more than five hundred years ago, and from there it traveled across the Middle East. In cities like Cairo and Istanbul, people met in coffee houses to talk, play games, listen to musicians, and share the news of the day. Some rulers worried about these lively places and even tried to close them — without any success.
Coffee reached Europe in the 1600s. At first, some people called it strange and even dangerous, but its popularity grew quickly. Coffee houses opened in London, Paris, and Vienna, and they became meeting places for writers, artists, and thinkers with revolutionary ideas.
Today coffee grows in more than fifty countries, most of them in the warm, tropical belt around the middle of the Earth. Brazil grows the most, followed by Vietnam, and for millions of farming families the little red berry pays for food, homes, and education.
So the next time you hold a warm cup, remember its long journey: from a bush in the hills of Ethiopia, through the coffee houses of old cities, to your kitchen table. Not bad for some berries that once made a few goats dance.