COFFEE AWARENESS MONTH, DAY 3: WHERE COFFEE CAME FROM
The origins of coffee are murky — we know our precious plant was first harvested in what is now Ethiopia, but who discovered it and when is up for debate. All of the possibilities are interesting, but our personal favorite is the legend of Kaldi. From Wikipedia’s “History of Coffee” entry:

(A) goat-herd, Kaldi, who, noticing the energizing effects when his flock nibbled on the bright red berries of a certain bush, chewed on the fruit himself. His exhilaration prompted him to bring the berries to a Monk in a nearby monastery. But the monk disapproved of their use and threw them into the fire, from which an enticing aroma billowed and the monks came out to investigate. The roasted beans were quickly raked from the embers, ground up, and dissolved in hot water, yielding the world’s first cup of coffee. The Ethiopian ancestors of today’s Oromo ethnic group, were the first to have recognized the energizing effect of the native coffee plant.