- C850AD - An Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi finds his flock high on a mountainside cavorting around a bush with red berries. Story has it that the next day Kaldi’s goats rushed back to the same bush when let out to graze.
Over the next few centuries Ethiopian farmers started to cultivate and consumed the beans by either eating or fermenting into wine. - 1475 – The world's first coffee shop opens in Constantinople.
- 1600s - Coffee from the port of Mocha, in Yemen, is shipped to Europe to supply the thriving coffee shops in the Netherlands, England and France. The rest of Europe starts to follow.
- 1700s - Dutch and French colonies in Java and Martinique begin to cultivate coffee. All coffee cultivated to date is Arabica bean, originating from Ethiopia via Yemen.
- 1850s - French Jesuits introduce coffee to Vietnam. Click here for more information.
- 1900s - Coffee becomes the second most traded economy in the world after oil. And is the world’s favourite beverage, after water.
