In the beginning, the coffee bean is created on the third day right alongside limas and garbanzos but soon outpaces them in popularity. Why? Because they make goats dance.
The story goes like this: an Ethiopian goat herder notices the stimulating effects of coffee beans upon his flock and decides to take a nibble himself. It is love at first bite, so he takes them to his local holy man, who disapproves and throws them into the fire: the world’s first roasted coffee.
Brewing is not far behind, and soon the Arabic world is abuzz with this “wine of the bean,” kahve. The Italians dub it caffé, the Dutch smuggle it out of an Arabic port called “Mocha,” and the Louis XIV of France adds sugar.
Coffee is introduced to the New World by John Smith, founder of Virginia at Jamestown– yes, Jamestown! – and it becomes decidedly patriotic following the Boston Tea Party. In 1901, the WindyCity, Chicago, brings us the first instant coffee, and in 1971 Seattle tries to put a coffee house on every corner of the developed world.
Today, coffee is the most popular beverage on planet earth. Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day, making the United
States the largest consumer of coffee in the world.
