On September 29th, many places around the world celebrate International Coffee Day. Coffee, also called "Satan's drink", is widely popular in all of the world's nations and undoubtedly, the most addicting warm drink. But how did it originate?
A very old legend states that in the Ethiopian mountains, a goatherd by the name of Kaldi found that his goats became quite energized after eating the leaves of a particular bush. Kaldi told the abbot of the local monastery about his discovery and the 2 of them decided to make a drink from the beans of that same bush. That was how the invigorating properties of coffee were first discovered and soon it become widespread in the Arab world.
People began planting and selling it. Eventually, drinking the warm liquid became a tradition, leading to the creation of a series of coffeehouses called qahveh Khaneh.
By the middle of the 17th century, all of Europe began drinking coffee as well. However, there it was vilified by Venetian priests, according to which it was an actual bitter creation of Satan. Their opinion led to such heated debate that Pope Clement VIII had to allow the free use of the tonic drink.
Regardless of the ensuing conflicts, in the big cities of Austria, England, France, Germany and Holland, coffeehouses quickly turned into the best places for communication and social activities.
As we know, these places play an important role even today, since people there can have a pleasant chat, play games or watch TV. Thanks to coffee, "Penny universities" were founded in England. They were called so because for a single penny, a person could get a cup of coffee and engage in conversation.
Nowadays, coffee is cultivated in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, the islands in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, the hands-down leader of the coffee bean trade is Brazil. Annually, Brazil exports between 17 million - 20 million tons of it.
The most famous coffee varieties are Robusta and Arabica, while the most expensive bitter creation of Satan is grown in Indonesia, bearing the name "Kopi Luwak".
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