- Coffee Science Information Centre (#)

  „The coffee tree probably originated in the province of Kaffa, in the area known today as Ethiopia. There is no real evidence to show exactly when, or how, it was first discovered that a rich and stimulating brew could be made from the bean (or seed) within the fruit of the coffee bush, but it is thought that before coffee was ever appreciated as a beverage, native people may have chewed the ripe cherries and beans as food. There is evidence to suggest that coffee trees were cultivated in monastery gardens 1,000 years ago, and commercial cultivation followed, although the first reports of this, from the Yemen, were not recorded until the fifteenth century.“

http://www.cosic.org/background-on-coffee/ history-of-coffee - Cached

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Tips on Coffee - The history of coffee

  „Probably originated in the Ethiopian province of Kaffa, though there is controversy about its origins. The crop first became popular in Arabia around the 13th century, its popularity probably enhanced by Islam's prohibition against alcoholic beverages. Before 1600, coffee production was a jealously guarded secret, and fertile beans were not found outside Arabia.“

http://www.tips-on-coffee.com/ print_version.php?s=27 - Cached

International Coffee Organization

  „It starts in the Horn of Africa, in Ethiopia, where the coffee tree probably originated in the province of Kaffa. There are various fanciful but unlikely stories surrounding the discovery of the properties of roasted coffee beans. One story has it that an Ethiopian goatherd was amazed at the lively behaviour of his goats after chewing red coffee berries. What we know with more certainty is that the succulent outer cherry flesh was eaten by slaves taken from present day Sudan into Yemen and Arabia, through the great port of its day, Mocha, now synonymous with coffee.“

http://www.ico.org/acoff/cofstor.htm - Cached

Coffee: History, Origins, Brewing, Cupping, and Buying

  „Despite the appeal of such a legend, recent botanical evidence indicates that Coffea arabica originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia and some how must have been brought to Yemen where it was cultivated since the 6th century.  Upon introduction of the first coffee houses in Cairo and Mecca coffee became a passion rather than just a stimulant.“

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/ history.htm - Cached

The Coffee Review - the world's leading coffee buying guide

  „Although the coffee tree originated in Ethiopia and probably was first domesticated there as a medicinal plant valued for the stimulating properties of its leaves and fruit, it was carried across the Red Sea to the southwestern tip of the Arabian peninsula (now Yemen) sometime before 1000 AD, where the mountain Arabs discovered how to grow it on their steep, terraced mountainsides, and, more importantly, how to unlock its aromatic potential by drying, roasting, grinding and brewing the "beans" hidden inside its small, sweet red fruit. It was Yemen coffee that filled the mysterious little cups that fascinated Europeans in the coffee houses of Constantinople and Egypt in the early 17th century, and it was Yemen that supplied the world with coffee for the next hundred years.“

http://www.coffeereview.com/article.cfm?id=46 - Cached

Coffee From Around The World - National Coffee Association

  „Indeed, it is not hard to believe that coffee originated in a land where wild coffee tree forests are still the primary source of harvested coffee.  Generally wet processed, coffee from Ethiopia comes from one of three main growing regions -- Sidamo, Harer or Kaffa -- and often bears one of those names. In the cup, an Ethiopian coffee tends to offer a remarkable and bold statement.  It is full flavored, a bit down-to-earth and full bodied.“

http://www.ncausa.org/public/pages/ index.cfm?pageid=75 - Cached

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