While not having as long a history as tea, it can be argued that coffee makes up for it in the richness and diversity of the coffee bean. The coffee tree (Coffea Arabica) has been growing in Africa for thousands of years and evidence shows that Ethiopian tribes were brewing coffee leaves in hot water centuries ago. However, what we know as coffee, comes from taking the seed of a small fleshy berry and roasting this seed to create a coffee bean. The first cultivated Coffea Arabica trees could have happened as early as 575 AD in Yemen or Ethiopia but the drink made from this fruit would have been something very different from what is known as coffee.

Sometime in the 16th century probably in Syria, Egypt or Turkey the coffee bean was stripped from the fruit and roasted to create the first cup of coffee. No one knows for sure why someone first decided to roast the coffee bean but like most great discoveries it probably happened by accident. Whether by accident or not, the discovery of coffee has spawned an industry so lucrative and widespread that it is now the world's second largest traded commodity.

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