If you say the word “coffee”, you imagine a nice mug full of some dark and sweet or spicy beverage. It is impossible to resist the temptation to drink at least a cup of coffee per day. As all the great things that have been part of human development, coffee has its own history and it is worth being told.

The development of the facts that form coffee history includes wars, religions, political and mysteries. How coffee spread around the world is an interesting and sometimes incredible history that deserves to be described. It is said that in the 9th century a Persian physician defined coffee as bunchun. Despite that, real information about a beverage made of some red toasted berries was recorded many years later.

There was an Arabian writer who collected information about coffee and prepared a story on it. He included some information about a Sheikh that was the first person to use coffee as a social beverage. Traders and pilgrims to Mecca contributed to spread coffee in that area. At first, coffee was not considered a good preparation for religious aims, so it was forbidden. In spite of that, it became so popular that the prohibition was overturned in the 16th century. On the other hand, Ethiopian Orthodox Church considered drinking coffee a pagan practice and coffee was also banned in Ethiopia.

It was up to the 19th century that coffee was accepted as a “normal” beverage. Europe could not escape from coffee invasion. According to different stories and legends, the first European country where coffee was accepted was Italy, through Venetian merchants. Pope Clement VIII allowed its use and it made coffee houses to be built in the most important cities of Italy.

It is said that a French man brought coffee to America. The Martinique and all the colonies of the West Indies were the origin of the most important coffee plantations at that time. Then, in the 18th century, Brazil got the first place as American coffee producer and coffee became a real commercial commodity. Although Ethiopia is said to be the place where coffee originated, it was not up to the 20th century that this country began to export big amounts of coffee to other countries.

John Smith, Virginia and Jamestown founder, introduced coffee in North America, at the beginning of 17th century. It gained great popularity because people wanted to get rid of tea that represented Great Britain power. In 1808, in Boston, the biggest Coffee Stock Exchange was built.

Bans, prohibitions and bad reputation could not stop coffee invasion. Nobody knows if coffee will lose its special place in the beverage world but we all know that we are not able to refuse a cup of coffee when somebody else offers us one. This marvelous, fragrant and sometimes spicy beverage is a real temptation that seems to have come from heaven.