According to legend, coffee was discovered in Ethiopia (some say Arabia) by
a goat herder named Kaldi. He noticed his goats got quite frisky after
eating the small, red fruit of a certain tree. He tried some of the fruit,
and he became pretty frisky. He shared his discovery with Monks who lived
nearby and soon they were feeling frisky. Well… at least as frisky as Monks
tend to get.

Just how much of this story is true is pretty much beside the point. There is evidence that coffee has been grown in Yemen since the sixth century. As with many plants, food and beverage use is discovered by trial and error. Someone figured out that the real punch was in the seed (the bean!) of the fruit. Someone else threw some in a fire and found that these roasted beans tasted better than the green ones. Somebody else ground up the roasted beans and boiled them. Voila!

And so coffee becomes a beverage to be savored and enjoyed for its effect and its flavor.
Coffeehouses sprang up throughout Arabia and into Cairo. Soon coffee was enjoyed throughout the Arab world and into Turkey. This stimulating, but non-alcoholic, beverage was a natural fit in Islamic societies and soon there was a veritable coffee craze.

As time went on and Europeans made their way to the Middle East and brought coffee home where it caught on and has never let go. By the 17th century there were coffeehouses throughout America. In fact prior to the American Revolution the Continental Congress declared coffee the national drink, in protest of high tea taxes levied by the British. So…that's it in a nutshell. The last couple of hundred years have brought refinements in processing, roasting, packaging and preparation (Espresso!), but that's another story.