Who Invented Coffee?
#bigquestions #coffee
Each day, millions of people brew a cup of coffee in the morning to help get their day started. As with most things in history, from milk to vegetables, someone had to be the first to think of roasting beans for their caffeine kick. According to legend, it was a 9th-century Ethiopian goat-herder named Kaldi who may have done as much for the beverage as Starbucks.
Allegedly, Kaldi observed his goats behaving erratically after eating the red berries from a nearby Coffea arabica tree. He tried some of them himself and was soon acting as hyper as his herd. He then brought a batch to a monastery, where their stimulating effects during long hours of prayer were cause for concern. Coffee, the men observed, must be the devil’s work.
The religious leaders there threw the tree’s beans onto a fire to destroy them—but the pleasing aroma that resulted convinced them to give coffee a second chance. Much like with tea, they put the roasted beans into warm water and coffee (the beverage) was born.
Despite the legend, it’s thought that the practice of chewing coffee beans as a stimulant was around for centuries before Kaldi's alleged discovery. People would grind them to mix with butter and animal fat to preserve and eat on long journeys—basically, a precursor to the energy bar. Similarly, enslaved Sudanese peoples are thought to have chewed on coffee beans to help them survive their difficult voyages on trade routes.