- Before 1000 AD. The Galla tribe in Ethiopia realize that they get an energy high from eating ground up coffee cherry. They would then roll up cherry grinds with animal fat into little pasty energy balls, useful for a bit of buzz before a big battle or long march.
- 1000 A.D. Arab traders bring coffee to their homeland and begin cultivating it. They boil the beans to create a drink known as “qahwa” (that which prevents sleep).
- 1453. Ottoman Turks bring coffee to Constantinople, and history’s first coffee shop, named Kiva Han, is opened.
- 1600.Baba Budan, an Indian pilgrim-smuggler is said to be the first to bring fertile seeds outside ofArabia or Africa, by strapping them to his belly.
- 1615. Venetian trader brings coffee to the West. Pope Clement VIII, though initially lobbied to ban the infidels’ (the Ottoman Empire) favourite drink, chooses to baptize the beverage, making it acceptable for guilt-free Christian consumption.
- 1616. The Dutch are the first to smuggle an entire coffee plant into Europe.
- 1607. When founding the colony of Virginia, some believe that Captain John Smith brought coffee to North America for the first time.
- 1652. England opens its first coffee house. Many follow, and soon their popularity rises to the point they are dubbed “penny universities”--a penny being the price of a coffee, and the discussion among patrons rivalling those among enrolled university students.
- 1683. Turks fleeing Vienna after a battle leave behind bags of coffee, which are claimed as spoils by a Polish military officer, Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki. With it, he open’s central Europe’s first coffee house, and begins the custom of filtering out grounds, adding a sprinkling of sugar and a dash of milk to the popular drink.
- 1690. The Dutch smuggle a coffee plant from the Arab port of Mocha. They become the first to cultivate it commercially, doing so both in Ceylon and their East Indian colony, Java.
- 1907: Brazil accounts for 97% of the world's harvest.
- 1946: In Italy, the espresso machine is perfected by Achilles Gaggia. The deep brown colour of the robes of Capuchin-order monks, give this refined version of the brew its name, cappuccino.
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