The
history and development of the coffee has involved luck, politics, and
the pursuit of great fortune. According to legend, a goat herder
named Kaldi discovered coffee. Kaldi noticed his goats became
excited after eating the red "cherries" from a certain plant when they
changed pastures. He tried a few himself, and became alert and
excited.
The story goes on to say that a monk heard of Kaldi's discovery and
scolded him for "partaking of the devil's fruit." However, it
soon came to pass that the monks were using coffee cherries to help
them stay awake and pray late into the night.
Coffee was introduced much later to countries beyond Arabia, whose
inhabitants believed it to be a delicacy and guarded it's secret as if
it were a top secret military plan. Coffee export spread after
when an Arab named Baba Budan smuggled beans to some mountains near
Mysore, India, and started a farm there. Early in this century,
the descendants of those original plants were found still growing
fruitfully in the region.