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Coffee
is the world's most popular beverage after water, with
over 400 billion cups consumed annually. The coffee bean
comes from an evergreen tree grown in a narrow
subtropical belt around the world. The three major
growing regions are Latin
America and the Caribbean Islands , Africa and the Arabian Peninsula,
and Indonesia .
Coffee
was first discovered in Eastern Africa in an area we
know today as Ethiopia. A popular legend refers to a
goat herder by the name of Kaldi, who observed his goats
acting unusually frisky after eating berries from a
bush. Curious about this phenomena, Kaldi tried eating
the berries himself. He found that these berries gave
him a renewed energy. The news of this energy laden
fruit quickly spread throughout the region. Monks
hearing about this amazing fruit, dried the berries so
that they could be transported to distant monasteries.
They reconstituted these berries in water, ate the
fruit, and drank the liquid to provide stimulation for a
more awakened time for prayer.
Coffee
berries were transported from Ethiopia to the Arabian
peninsula, and were first cultivated in what today is
the country of Yemen. From there, coffee traveled to
Turkey where coffee beans were roasted for the first
time over open fires. The roasted beans were crushed,
and then boiled in water, creating a crude version of
the beverage we enjoy today.
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