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The origin of coffee has been described in the form of legends and various stories. Most popular versions are based on the story of Kaldi, a goat herder in Caffa, around 700-800 A.D. in what is now Ethiopia. He was aware of the sheep being much more lively than usual and investigated their grazing. He took note that the coffee shrub cherries changed the goat’s behavior. He ate some of the cherries himself and experiences euphoria from the caffeine. Supposedly Kaldi either brought the plants to a monastery or a monk happened by and talked to Kaldi. At any rate, the monks were instrumental in concocting various beverages from the leaves and cherries of the coffee plant to make a drink and even wine. Also, coffee cherries were supposedly used as an ingredient in various forms of basic food for extra energy. Some versions of roasted coffee (the seed of the coffee cherry) happened as early as 1100 A.D and coffee as we know it for sure around 1400 A.D. The first coffee house was in Venice in the early 1600’s. Later coffee houses spread all over Europe starting some coffee houses called penny universities. Another historical event supposedly happened in those meetings. If a patron needed a coffee cup refill, money was slid to the edge of a table to get the server to refill the coffee his cup faster than others, thus the origination of what we now call ”tip”.
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