Home: All About Coffee: Timeline of Coffee

Botanists believe coffee originated in Ethiopia and that it began as food rather than beverage (crushed berries mixed with animal fat). First coffee beverage fermented like wine. 

Arabs first boiled raw seeds with water to make hot drink and Arab traders are believed to have brought coffee from Ethiopia across Gulf of Aden into Yemen through port of Mocha. In fact, so much coffee shipped through Mocha, name now synonymous with coffee.

Coffee was used as a replacement for wine which was forbidden by Islamic law. It was first offered in religious ceremonies, before widespread popular use. The Arabs developed a system of cultivation in nurseries. Coffee trade so valuable to Arabs that removal of plants punishable by death. And, religious pilgrims to Mecca may have smuggled coffee to Egypt, Syria, and Turkey.

Advancements in preparation led to roasting of coffee seeds (beans) and boiling to create a yellowish drink. 

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