Coffee in the morning; coffee and a catch up with old friends; going for coffee with your new hot date – we drink coffee morning, day and night with friends, business associates and lovers. You have only to walk down the nearest high street and note the number of coffee chains to realise the extent of our love affair with our favourite caffeinated beverage.
Coffee Day also marks the long history of the drink: the properties of coffee beans are thought to have first been discovered in Ethiopia. The beans are actually the pits found in the coffee berry or cherry. The story goes that a 9th century goat herder noticed their stimulating effects on his goats and began experimenting.
Coffee drinking was originally popularised in the Arab world from around the 15th century spreading across Asia then to Italy and across Europe and to the Americas – and finally to your coffee cup.
Today, coffee is one of the world’s biggest crops so buying ethically grown coffee is all the more important – be sure to be selective in buying your cup of coffee and supporting ethical trade.
So when you drink your cup of coffee today, inhale its aroma, taste it’s dark and full-bodied flavour, think about its story – but most of all enjoy.