Lets all worship the goat

Civilized life begins with coffee. Some would say it begins with beer, but they’d be wrong. It begins with coffee and ends with beer. We must thank a Goatherd, some Monks, the Arabs, but, primarily, we must thank a goat, for civilization.
 
It began in 850 AD when an Ethiopian goat got frisky after eating coffee berries. The goat herder noticed this and brought some berries to the local monks, who, after tasting them, threw the bitter berries in the fire, whereupon, the pleasant aroma made them try them again. They soon considered them a gift from God since eating the roasted berries allowed them to stay awake longer and get more work done. Later, the Arabs got wind of this wonderful thing, and, since they were not allowed alcohol, poured hot water over the roasted, ground up berries to make coffee.

Now we could venerate the Goatherd but no one knows his name. We could venerate the Monks, but we already have wine to thank them for. We could venerate the Arabs, but we already thank them for the alphabet. So it’s only fitting that we worship the goat for bringing civilization to the world. So here is a short history of coffee and the early temples devoted to it’s worship.

850 An Ethiopian goat gets high on coffee berries. The monks get high on the roasted beans.

1100 The Arabs first make coffee. (It took 250 years to get from roasted beans to coffee?)

1475 A year we should celebrate... the first coffee shop (temple) opens in Constantinople

1654 The first coffee shop in Italy

1607 Capt John Smith brings it to Jamestown. Apparently, however, it arrived in Canada earlier than that.

1652 First coffee houses in England (it costs a penny a cup)

1672 First Parisian café dedicated to serving coffee

1683 First coffee house in Vienna

1721 First coffee house in Berlin

1727 Brazil starts growing coffee from plants smuggles out of Paris

1750 Café Greco opens in Rome 1822 The French invent the espresso machine

1938 Instant coffee is invented in the US by Nestle thereby bringing coffee to its lowest point until Starbucks opens in 1971

1964 The fist Tim Horton’s opens in Hamilton Ontario
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Currently, over 400 billion cups of coffee are consumed yearly throughout the world. I do my part.