The Story in a Cup: Let’s Explore the World of Coffee
For many of us, a morning feels incomplete without that first aromatic cup of coffee, exactly as Johann Sebastian said, “Without my morning coffee, I’m just like a dried-up piece of roast goat.” Beyond its rich flavour and aroma lies a fascinating journey filled with history, science, and culture. Let’s trace how coffee evolved from a wild berry into the world’s most beloved beverage.
Coffee’s origin is associated with the Ethiopian Plateau and a goat herder named Kaldi, who was amazed to notice that his goats were feeling lively and energetic after eating blood-red berries from a strange tree and then didn’t want to sleep at night. (About Coffee, 2025) The power of these unique and blushing red berries spread across Arabia in the 15th century when Kaldi reported about the berries to the local monastery. (Britannica, 2024)
After listening to Kaldi, a monk at the monastery prepared the drink out of curiosity to help with the struggle to stay awake for long hours during evening prayer. From there, coffee moved through the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, eventually becoming a global drink. (Sleepy own, 2025)
Yemen appeared as the epicentre for farming and cultivation of these power-packed berries and for exporting utterly roasted coffee beans from the port of Al-Makha.
History routes of coffee chain with a Sufi saint who brought the coffee home an Indian saint who was on his pilgrimage journey to Mecca. He smuggled exactly seven coffee beans, not a handful, and hid and secured them in his bread to avoid getting caught during the transition. (Coffee Am, 2025)
Upon his return, he planted the coffee beans in his home state of Mysore (today’s Karnataka), where the new birth of coffee beans in India started, and the hill was renamed after him as “Baba Budan Hills.” (Sleepy own, 2025) Today, you can travel to Baba Budan Hills and visit his tomb right at the perfect altitude to enjoy the lush green valley and fresh breeze.
Every country has its own coffee story from Italy’s espresso to Indian traditional filter coffee and Japan’s precise pour-over method. Each reflects not just the right taste but the traditional warmth, reminding us that coffee is not just a regular beverage.