In the Beginning

Coffee originated in Ethiopia , on plateaus several thousand feet above sea level. Coffee then found its way over the Red sea to Yemen although exactly how it got there is uncertain. The two regions are relatively close and as their trading relationship dates back to at least 800 B.C it is easy to see how coffee could appear for sale in Yemen. If coffee didn't reach Yemen during this period then it is likely to have arrived around A.D 525 when the Ethiopians successfully invaded southern Arabia . There are hundreds of botanical varieties of coffee but the one that has captivated the world's palettes is Coffea Arabica. According to legends the Arabs were very protective of their discovery of coffee but a pilgrim from India sneaked some seeds out of Arabia and planted them in the hills in southern India where they flourished. Attempts by the French, Dutch and Portuguese to grow coffee plants in Europe failed due to the plants intolerance to frost. The Dutch eventually carried coffee to Sri Lanka and then on to Java. In the 1700's, coffee found its way to the Americas by means of a French infantry captain who nurtured one small plant on its long journey across the Atlantic . This one plant, transplanted to the Caribbean Island of Martinique, became the predecessor of over 19 million trees on the island within 50 years. It was from this humble beginning that the coffee plant found its way to the rest of the tropical regions of South and Central America . It wasn't until 1893 that coffee seed was introduced into Kenya and Tanzania which is ironically only a few hundred miles south of its original home in Ethopia.

Further Coffee Information to follow shortly.