preview

Coffee Has A Very Mysterious History

Decent Essays

Coffee has a very mysterious history. There are several legends about who discovered it, but no one is completely sure who discovered it. Many historians disagree on where and when it spread, but there are some interesting theories. The main questions about coffee are where did it come from, where did it go, who tried to stop it, who helped it, how it is grown and harvested, and pricing. Most of coffee’s controversy doesn 't start until the late 1600s, but we will be focusing on two topics that occurred much earlier than that. The two topics in question are who discovered coffee, and who started the worldwide spread of coffee. In this essay, we will be comparing and contrasting the options of three coffee historians. We will be using …show more content…

We may find out in this paper or we may never know because coffee’s history was not well documented. This makes us wonder, “Were the Ethiopians trying to keep coffee to themselves? Did they have coffee since the rise of their civilization? Could they not trade it with other places?” Only further research and exploration can give these questions a 100% correct answer. There are two possible people that discovered coffee. The possible people are Kaldi and Sheik Omar. The both would have discovered it close to Ethiopia, but it is uncertain during what time period they each discovered it. These people are only discovering the coffee plant itself, not the drink as we know it. The coffee we know does not arise until much later. First, Mark Pendergrast and Tom Standage believe Kaldi was the first to discover coffee. Kaldi was a goat herder in Ethiopia. It is said that “one day when Kaldi went to retrieve his goat from the mountain side, they would not come to his whistle, so he went to investigate. When he found the goats they were running in circles and dancing on their hind legs. Kaldi found fragments of red berries on the ground, that the goats had been eating. After several days of this he decided that since his goats were fine he was going to try some of the berries. He took a few of the berries and chewed them, but they tasted foul so he spit them out. A few minutes later he felt very awake and energetic. He then

Get Access