The Legends Behind and Myths of Coffee

A really fascinating story I know regards the drink that we all know by the name of Coffee. Coffee by its very nature is varied and interesting. its pursuit and enjoyment involves all of life’s fantasies, chance encounters of people we know, dream about or just dream of. Political decision are made while drinking it, major life decisions are made over it.

According to one legend I have heard (no idea is the legend is real or not), the amazing effects of coffee beans  was first noticed by a sharp eyed shepherd from Caffa, in Ethiopia named Kaldi as he was watching over his sheep. He noticed that his sheep became very active and happy after eating the red fruits of this unusual plant, the fruits look like red “cherries” .  Kaldi, the shepherd soon realized that it was the bright red cherries on the plant that were causing the funny euphoria and after trying the cherries himself, he learned about the great effect .

So what did Kabi do next? Kabi as a good network marketing guy, dutifully reported his findings to his community, family and friends.

After hearing of this the local monks decided to drink water with berries to see if they could stay awake for longer hours of prayer.  So you can say that the first use of coffee was mainly religious. Pretty funny isnt’?  But obviously keeping the secret was pretty difficult and the word spread, the rumor about coffee reached the Arabian Peninsula, and, coffee was born.

I know, believing in this legend is pretty nice, but some top historians believe something different, they think that the first beans of coffee where brought to Ethiopia (where the legend started) by ships from Yemen, where it existed since the 6th century. Then coffee became world famous once it arrived to key places in that time, Cairo and Mecca.

I love the legends about the origin of things, and in this case, I love the legend of the origin of Mocha mainly because I’m a coffee lover, but the best one so far is the origin of how the name of mocha or coffee was created.

The story goes that an Arab was sent into the desert with his followers to die of starvation (not very nice). Well, the Arabian was so desperate that he had his friends boiled and ate the fruit from an unknown plant. (yes, you guessed it already, didn’t you? Coffee)  Not only did this fruit save the exiles, but their survival was taken as a religious sign by the residents of a close by town, Mocha.

The plant and its beverage were named Mocha to honor this event. So every time you order a Mocha , think of this. Nice story isn’t?

The ironic thing of the history of coffee is that the plant grew naturally in Ethiopia, but once transplanted in Arabia the Arabic business men took control and make a good profit from the coffee idea, but it took a long time for a country to adapt it as a proper drink. And that was until the Turks started drinking coffee in their everyday life, often adding spices such as clove, cinnamon, cardamom and anise to the brew. That’s why we have Turkish coffee today!