rom it's discovery by the Galla tribe in Ethiopia, who noticed they got a boost of energy when they ate a certain type of berry mixed with animal fat, coffee has become the world's favourite stimulant.

Legend has it that the coffee plant got it's name when a goatherd from the region called Kafa in Ethiopia, observed how his goats (some say camels) stayed awake at night after grazing on wild red berries growing on a hillside. Feeling weary himself, he tried some of the berries and found them to be quite bitter yet rather good, and soon the goatherd felt his weariness leave him and he tended his goats with renewed energy and alertness.

The origins of coffee as a drink are murky as are the circumstances which led to the transport of the bean from Ethiopia to the Yemen. The number of myths that have arisen around the origins of coffee are striking; it is clear that coffee always had an aura of the sacred about it. In one myth, the angel Gabriel brings knowledge of coffee brewing to earth. In another, Sheikh Omar uses holy water infused with the spirit of his dead master, Sheikh Schadeli to water a coffee plant in the town of Mocha. When the town was struck by a plague Omar used the blessed coffee to cure the inhabitants. Even though Mocha no longer exports coffee, its name is still synonymous with one of the best varieties of coffee bean.

What we do know is that coffee farming originated in Yemen, about 600AD. Surprisingly they fermented the coffee berry to make wine. Green coffee became a popular brew, but coffee as we know it - roasted and ground, was not documented until the 13th century. Coffee was always held in high esteem from very early on. In the 10th century Avicenna (Abu 'Ali Al-Hussain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina), the greatest physician of his time, wrote of the medicinal value of coffee.

Coffee was often incorporated in ritual. Shortly after the Turks adapted the innovations of roasting and grinding, coffee became part of the Turkish marriage ceremony. The groom promised to keep his bride supplied with coffee, and woe betide him if he failed in this duty as his wife could divorce him if he did not! In its early history, Arabic perceptions of coffee vacillated between seeing the beverage as sacred or shameful. Holy men liked coffee because its stimulant effect helped them focus on their prayers and meditations. At one time only men were allowed to prepare the drink. Coffee became a scandal in 1500, when coffee houses opened in Mecca and Medina. It seems that the patrons succumbed to the social charms of coffee, and disturbed the peace with loud laughter and music. The governor became concerned - was coffee an intoxicant, or stimulant? This was an important question for devout muslims because coffee drinking might be considered to be a violation of the Koran. So the governor appointed a Commission on Coffee which debated for seven days before returning a verdict: coffee was banned. Similar bans followed in Cairo and Constantinople. But the bans did not last out the century, as many holy and learned men spoke out in coffee's favour.

With the spread of the coffee habit, coffee production and trade became a serious business. Arab countries sought to maintain their monopoly of this lucrative trade. They forbade the export of any live coffee seedlings and sterilised all green coffee beans destined for export by immersing them in boiling water. Their monopoly would not last for long however, as with so many thousands of religious pilgrims coming and going from Makkah, it was inevitable that fertile green beans would eventually be smuggled out.

The first account of successful smuggling is by an Indian pilgrim to Makkah named Babi Budan, who started his own coffee plantation in Karnataka, India around 1600. In 1616 the Dutch East India Company used spies to secure coffee seedlings from Aden, and used these seedlings to start plantations in their colonies in Asia and the Americas.

It is the Turks who are believed to have introduced Europeans to coffee. Early in the 16th century Mecca and Medina had come under Ottoman rule and for the next century the coffee trade was largely controlled by the Turks. During this period the port of Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik) began trading in substantial quantities of beans, supplying the "Turk's drink", throughout the Ottoman Empire and most north-western outposts. In fact, the famed dark roasted beans of contempory Vienna are a consequence of the region's proximity to the Ottoman's former frontiers. Through this initial contact with the Turks, Christian Europe's fascination for the exotic beverage grew.

Soon coffee houses were springing up in all the major cities of Europe and were seen by authorities as politically destabilising. They provided a forum for people of all walks of life to gather and start open discussions about religion or politics. This was not nessessarily approved of by kings and governments keen to maintain the status quo.

Although persecution of coffee drinkers in both the Christian and Muslim world was sporadic, penalties could be harsh. At one time the Turks punished coffee drinking with death, but as the ban on coffee depended more on the whims of local rulers rather then by general agreement among the ruling classes, every ban was eventually repealed.

With the expansion of the European trading empires, coffee was taken to the tropical regions of Africa and on to the Caribbean, Latin America and South East Asia to be grown on estates. Coffee reached Brazil when an army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta returned from French Guyana with a bouquet of flowers for his fiancee in which he hid cuttings and fertile coffee seeds. Brazil went on to become the largest supplier of coffee in the world, supplying between half and three quarters of the World.

Since the second world war, Europe and US coffee consumption has grown way beyond pre-war levels. Until now it is manufactured by large multi-national companies and backed by expensive advertising campaigns. Instant coffee has come to occupy a large sector of the market because of them. But discerning drinkers remain loyal to the 'real thing' and the Arabic world has stayed faithful to tiny cups of very strong coffee flavoured with cardamom.

Everywhere that people have tasted coffee, it has conquered. We now live in a world where countless millions cannot conceive of passing the day without at least one cup of coffee to wake them up, or give them an extra boost of energy when they most need it. Indeed coffee is king and long may it reign.