The History of Coffee:

Legend of the Dancing Goats

One hot Ethiopian day, sometime during the 9th century, a goat-herder named Kaldi stopped to rest his tired feet. After some time he noticed the goats began to dance. Wondering what was causing this frisky behaviour, he saw that the goats had been eating small red fruit. It seemed that the fruit had lasting powers and the goats did not want to sleep that night. Kaldi tried the berries for himself and found they gave him renewed energy.

A goat eating red berries.

Kaldi reported his findings to the abbot of the local monastery who had the idea of turning the berries into a drink. The result? The drink was used to keep Kaldi awake so he could pray for more hours each evening. The energy-laden berry was slowly shared with others in the monastery: the berries would be dried, shipped to other monasteries, soaked in water and consumed just before prayer times. Word travelled east towards the Arabian Peninsula and Ethiopian coffee started a new phenomenon.

Further information on the Dancing Goats can be found by clicking this link.

Coded by Peta Armstrong👓