Discover the history of coffee by experiencing the adventure that spreads across countries and centuries: Hyper goats. Addicted Muslims. Smuggling pilgrims. Italian merchants. Raids on French royalty. Pirates. Droughts. Storms. Coercive lieutenants and love affairs. The history of coffee is not what you will find in your ordinary history textbook.

Hyper goats in Ethiopia were the first signs of the effects of caffeine. Or so goes the myth. The goat herder followed his goats’ example and tasted the strange red berries. Amazing! He probably thought. And it was. He shared it with his friends and coffee became the protected and beloved beverage of Africa.

Addicted Muslims in Arabia first brewed roasted coffee beans around A.D. 1000. They drank it religiously. Literally: coffee kept them awake in prayer. In order to keep their monopoly intact, the Muslims tampered with the exported seeds, making them infertile.

Smuggling pilgrims from India ended the Muslim dream in the 1600s. Under the pretense of leaving Mecca, the Indian pilgrims strapped live coffee seeds around their bellies. The coffee industry was now outside Africa and Arabia.

Italian merchants popularized coffee in Europe in the 1700s. Then the Dutch began the inter-Europe coffee competition by instigating plantations in Java, modern day Indonesia. It was the first colonial coffee estate.

Raids on French royalty were instigated by Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, who desperately wanted coffee trees for his home island, Martinique. King Louis XIV had refused to give samples of this exotic plant from his royal garden, the Jardin de Plantes. De Clieu stole seedlings in the dead of night and sailed for the Carribean.

Pirates, droughts, and storms were the obstacles coffee survived while crossing the Western hemisphere. Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu adamantly protected the precious coffee seedlings. When they were finally planted in Martinique, armed guards were stationed on site to ensure safe growth. This coffee plant was the first of millions in the Americas.

Coercive lieutenant colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta was assigned by the Brazilian government to French Guiana. He was sent to pilfer the seeds for the “magic” coffee drink. He seduced the governor’s wife into a love affair. As a parting gift, she gave him small coffee saplings.

Thus, coffee spread across countries and throughout centuries to become the second largest global industry, preceded solely by oil. Coffee is a global addiction. Currently, the top ten coffee producing countries are Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico, Ethiopia, India, Guatemala, Cote d’Ivoire, and Uganda.