Fact File about the Invention of Coffee: Date of Invention: 750 AD *** Name of Inventor: Kaldi *** Nationality of Inventor: Ethiopian *** Historical Period: Dark Ages *** Category: Food and Drink *** Country of Origin: Ethiopia, Africa ***

Fact 1: Who invented Coffee? Coffee was invented by Kaldi in 750 AD. Like many inventions it was discovered by accident. Little is known about Kaldi but he is believed to have lived in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia in East Africa.

Fact 2: Who invented Coffee? Another legend surrounding coffee was that the Galla tribe of Ethiopia chewed coffee beans wrapped in animal fat as their only source of nutrition whilst on raiding parties.

Fact 3: Who invented Coffee? Whether the legends are true or false the Coffea arabica is a species of Coffea that was originally indigenous to the forests of the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia and the mountainous regions of Yemen, to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula.

Fact 4: Who invented Coffee? The word 'coffee' derives from Kingdom of Kaffa, a state located in what is now Ethiopia, and their word for coffee in Kaffa which was 'bunn'. The Anglicization of "Kaffa bunn" resulted in the term "coffee-bean".

Fact 5: Who invented Coffee? The first domestication of Arabica coffea in Ethiopia is obscure, but cultivation in Yemen was well documented by the 12th century. Coffee was cultivated for the first time on plantations in Yemen. The energizing drink they made by boiling the beans in water was called 'qahwa' meaning "that which prevents sleep".

Fact 6: Who invented Coffee? Yemen was the first great exporter of coffee and to protect its lucrative trade issued a decree that no living plant could leave the country, but by the 16th century, it was smuggled out of the country and reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia and Turkey.

Fact 7: Who invented Coffee? In 1475 the Kiva Han, the world’s first coffeehouse, was opened in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, aka the Turkish Empire.

Fact 8: Who invented Coffee? Coffee began to appear in the busy port of Venice in Italy in 1570. Traders from all over Europe stopped at Venice and the drink began to spread to other countries in Europe. 

Fact 9: Who invented Coffee? During the 1600's coffee-houses became centers of social activity in the major cities of England, Austria, France, Germany and Holland. The beverage was introduced to England in 1650, and by 1675 the country had more than 3,000 coffee- houses. The price of a penny bought customers a cup of the beverage and admission.

Fact 10: Who invented Coffee? The Queen's Lane Coffee-House in Oxford, which is still in existence, was established in 1654. The first coffeehouses established in Oxford and London were given the nickname of 'penny universities' and were frequented by eminent scholars such as Samuel Pepys, Alexander Pope and Sir Isaac Newton. Paris's first real coffeehouse, called the Café de Procope, opened in 1686 and attracted famous patrons such as Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot.

Fact 11: Who invented Coffee? In the mid 1600's the beverage found its way to the New World. The first coffeehouse in New York, called "The King's Arms", opened in 1696. It became a vital drink in America following the Boston Tea Party was a pre-revolutionary incident that occurred on December 16, 1773. The Boston Tea Party was a direct protest by colonists in Boston against the Tea Tax that had been imposed by the British government. 

Fact 12: Who invented Coffee? The American tradition of drinking coffee increased as British Tea was subject to boycotts during and after the Boston Tea Party. Now the United States is the world's biggest consumer of the beverage with about 83% of adults consuming an average of three cups a day per person.  Hawaii is the only state in the United States that commercially grows coffee.

Fact 13: Who invented Coffee? In 1723, a French sailor called Gabriel du Clieu took a sapling to the island of Martinique and the plant spread to other Caribbean islands, as well as to Central and South America. By 1727 the first coffee-bush in Brazil was planted by Francisco de Melo Palheta in the state of Para and coffee plantations were established in Brazil. Brazil is now the world's largest producer of with 40% of the market, followed by Colombia and Vietnam

Fact 14: Who invented Coffee? After his pilgrimage to Mecca in the 16th century, an Asian Indian pilgrim named Baba Budan brought some coffee-beans from Yemen and raised them in India. The first plantation was established in 1840.

Fact 15: Who invented Coffee? By the end of the 18th century, coffee had become one of the world's most profitable export crops.

Fact 16: Who invented Coffee? During World War 2 the process of freeze drying was invented to preserve foods by placing in a dryer where temperatures drop to minus 40 degrees F.

Fact 17: Who invented Coffee? In 1909 Chemist George Constant Washington experimented with dried-coffee and eventually created Red E Coffee, a pun on "ready", that the first brand name instant-coffee.

Fact 18: Who invented Coffee? By the end of the 18th century, coffee had become one of the world's most profitable export crops, and remains so until this day.