For three hundred years, coffee's been a popular drink all over the world, but only few know exactly how it was discovered.

Maybe a tale about a shepherd who observed his goats grazing on the mountains and suddenly changing their behaviour after eating little red fruits from the bushes.

There are other stories like one telling about a religious man who was expelled from Moca, and as He got shelter in the mountains, had the opportunity to try the bitter fruits that grew in the bushes in the surroundings. In a attempt to improve the taste of those fruits the man then browned them by the fire, what made them harden up, due to the loss of moisture. Then, the man again immersed the fruits in water to bring back the natural consistency. The result was a brownish water, and after drinking it He found out that it tasted good and    felt stimulating.
Coffee is originally from Abssynia (Ethiopia), and is believed to have been discovered sometime in the thirteenth century. By the end of seventeenth century, coffee had been already planted all over Arabia beeing called MOCA, the city of its origin.

At the time, cunning dutch merchants, realising the prospects of this new trade, urged their government to bring coffee seeds to their possessions in the Dutch Eastern Indias (today's Indonesia).

The governor of the Island of Java then handed out seeds in several parts of the island which developed very rapidly, due to the soil fertility and favourable climate.

From Java, coffee migrate to Western Indias (Jamaica) and then to Central and South America, where the plant found its best conditions to grow, becoming one of the most profitable chain of business.

Coffee's annual consumption reaches 2 million tons, from which 35% is supplied by Brasil,  and half of this volume consumed in the United States alone, stablishing themselves as the leading consumming country in the world, with a rate of around 7 Kg per capita yearly.

The coffee tree is planted from seeds fully matured, selected for this purpose. When the scion reaches 30 cm, it's taken to the plantation and placed in rows distant 3 meters from each other. When fully grown they can reach 3 m of height or even more.

Each shrub can produce annualy in average 1.5 Kg of coffee, after the forth or fifth year, and a coffee tree can produce up to 100 years, but its most productive period varies from the fifth to the fiftyth year of life.

Its leaves are deep green coloured with smooth and shiny surface, and flowers are small star shaped, they grow in racemes and exhaling a strong and pleasant perfume.

Fruit development takes about six months, and, when mature gets a deep red colour resembling a cherry. At harvest time, the service of every farm worker and their families is necessary, in order to quickly send the fruits picked to final preparations.

Coffee is prepared in two different ways:

1. "NATURAL" PROCESS:
Natural coffee is obtained by allowing the fruits to remain in the trees after ripening. The sunny days of the tropics accelerates the fruits pulp water loss by evaporation, resulting in a black wrinkled fruit. At this stage workers just make fruits drop from the trees for them to be swept and packed by the women.

After that, beans are scattered on a cemented floor area to dry, and remain exposed to direct sun light for about 7 days, even though, the beans are gathered and covered with a canvas every single night, in order to protect them from dew, because moisture at this stage would be harmful to the coffee beans.

When totally dried, beans external pellicle gets frail, being easily removed by a machine.

Beans are then separated according to its size and quality, after which beans are packed to exportation.

2. THE PROCESS OF WASHING:
Washed coffee demands a totally different way of handling, and as the name suggests, the beans undergo a thorough washing, unlike the "NATURAL" process.

In this method, the beans are picked from the trees directly, and taken to a machine for removing the seeds, seemingly to what is done to cherrys. After seeds removal, beans are placed inside tanks of concrete or alternatively inside barrels full of water. Beans remain inside these tanks for about twenty to thirty hours, period during which occurs the so called "fermentation", what promotes changes in the flavour, producing what is known as acidity.

After the completion of the washing process, what follows is just similar to the NATURAL process, although, the final results are much better in terms of appearance, acquiring a deep green colour, also attaining better value than the beans of the same grade processed in the natural way. 

Coffee tree requires warm temperatures and can be cultivated in a stripe from twenty degrees north up to twenty degrees south of the equator. Also, soil location and altitude exert vital influence in coffee culture, determining different grades of quality for the product.

The finest beans come from plantations located on altitudes varying from thousand to thousand and five hundred meters above sea level, where days are warm and nights are rather cool, also where trees are planted on a slightly inclined surface to better the soil drainage.

 Harvest in all countries happens to be similar from year to year, in terms of appearance and flavour, nevertheless, excess of rain or its absence could modify the characteristics of the product, affecting the quality of the drink.

A big difference in the flavour of each country's product is tasted specially when drunk in cups. Each one has its own peculiarities, making coffee mixture a form of art by itself. By combining distinct and individual flavours, in exact proportions experts provide a perfect blend and a delicious drink.

 SMOOTH AND STIMULATING

 Stimulants are substances that excite nerves and some of the human body organs. Stimulated nerves send messages to the brain, and from the brain to other parts just as quickly. That makes one think and act in such an alert and cheerful way. Coffee (as well as tea) contain caffeine which raises blood pressure and works as a light stimulant. One or two cups of coffee daily, will probably be harmless to most of people, even though there are some who  think that drinking coffee before going to bed may cause insomnia.

 Doctors sometimes advise certain patients to either refrain from having coffee or having it decaffeinated.

 Many working places such as offices and industries offer on their own expenses coffee to employees, by considering this a good practice and also a good investment,  once it stimulates and helps regain energy, thus increasing efficiency.

 Therefore, a pause for a coffee has always been as stimulating and vital as a spiritual stimulation to carry out our compulsory daily tasks.