According to legends, coffee made its first debut in Ethiopia as early as the 9th century.
A goat herder was out tending to his flock when he noticed his goats were acting strangely after hanging around some bushes. The goats were acting different and they were bouncing around full of energy and refusing to sleep at night! Turns out they were actually eating a peculiar berry... the coffee beans!
The goat herder learned of the odd goat behavior and decided to brew a drink using the coffee cherries. He grabbed handfuls of the ‘cherries’ and called them “heaven sent” and showed them to the monks.
The monks were skeptical at first calling them “the Devil’s work”. But soon more and more monks wanted to try the new drink!
The monks found that they could pray longer when they had more energy and clarity than ever before after drinking the new concoction that was made previously.
Others believe that coffee beans have been known about for centuries and were chewed as a stimulant before they began to brew the beans in water.
Now today, over 12 billion pounds of coffee is consumed around the globe annually and the United States alone includes about 130 million coffee drinkers.