According to legend, a young Yemeni shepherd named Kaldi was the one who discovered the coffee plant. Kaldi saw strange behavior in his herd, which ran and jumped with more energy than usual after eating the red fruits of a previously unknown bush. Surprised by this, the shepherd plucked several fruits and showed them to a religious from a nearby convent. The priest tried to boil the berries and drink the resulting infusion, but it was too bitter and he discarded it. Throwing those fruits into the fire, he observed how, when roasted, they gave off a pleasant aroma. Again he tried to prepare an infusion with the berries already toasted, then discovering what we know today as coffee.
the mountains of ethiopia
Historians place the first coffee plants in the mountainous regions of Ethiopia, before the 9th century. From there they went to neighboring Yemen, located in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, from where they were taken to Ceylon and India. Coffee was introduced to Europe when several specimens of coffee trees from Java were brought to the Botanical Garden in Amsterdam. Since then, coffee cultivation has spread throughout the continent, even reaching the colonies that European countries had in America. Coffee consumption began to become widespread in Europe from the eighteenth century.
From fruit to infusion
At first, coffee was consumed by chewing the raw grains or in a mass obtained after crushing the fruits and mixing them with fat. Later the coffee became a drink obtained from the maceration of the grains in cold water. Starting in the 13th century, the grains were dried in the sun and roasted over a fire before preparing the infusion, as is still the case today.
world consumption
Coffee has become one of the most popular and consumed beverages around the world. Today the Nordic countries are the largest consumers of coffee, followed by the United States, Italy and Spain. For their part, Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia are the main world producers of coffee.
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