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Coffee is a widely-consumed stimulant beverage prepared from the roasted seeds (coffee beans) of the coffee plant. According to legend, Ethiopian shepherds were the first to observe the influence of the caffeine in coffee beans when, after consuming wild coffee berries, their goats showed increased energy levels, also appearing to "dance".
From Ethiopia, coffee spread to Egypt and Yemen, though it was in Arabia that coffee beans were first roasted and brewed. By the 15th century, coffee had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. The thriving trade between Venice and North Africa, Egypt and the Middle East brought many goods, including coffee, to the Venetian port. From here, the beans were introduced to the rest of Europe. The first European coffee house opened in Italy in 1645.
The Dutch were the first to import coffee on a large scale and, when Pieter van den Broeck smuggled seedlings from Aden into Europe in 1616, they were among the first to defy the Arab prohibition on the exportation of plants or unroasted seeds. The Dutch later grew the crop in Java and Ceylon. Through the efforts of the British East India Company, coffee soon became popular in England as well. In 1657, it was introduced to France, and in 1683, to Austria and Poland.
When coffee reached North America during the colonial period, it did not receive as enthusiastic a response as it had in Europe. After the War of 1812, during which Britain temporarily cut off access to tea imports, the Americans' taste for coffee grew, and high demand during the American Civil War together with advances in brewing technology secured the position of coffee as an everyday commodity in the US.
The English word "coffee" first came to be used in the early- to mid-1600s, though early forms of the word date to the last decade of the 1500s. It comes from the Italian "caffè", which was itself borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish "kahveh" and the Arabic "qahwa" collectively.
Coffee has played an important role in many societies throughout history. In Africa and Yemen, coffee was used in religious ceremonies and, as a result, the Ethiopian Church banned its consumption until the reign of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia. In the 17th Century, coffee was banned in Ottoman Turkey for political reasons, and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe.
Nowadays, coffee is an important export commodity. In 2004, coffee was the top agricultural export for 12 countries. In 2005, it was the world's seventh largest legal agricultural export by value.
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