Coffee's journey from Ethiopian highland to global commodity is a story spanning centuries and continents. Legend attributes its discovery to a goatherd named Kaldi, who noticed his goats becoming energetic after eating certain berries.
From Ethiopia, coffee spread to Yemen in the 15th century, where Sufi monks used it to stay awake during nighttime prayers. By the 16th century, coffeehouses had appeared across the Ottoman Empire, becoming centers of social and intellectual life.
European colonizers spread coffee cultivation to their tropical colonies. The Dutch brought it to Java, the French to the Caribbean, and the Portuguese to Brazil—now the world's largest producer.