Eugine Adams, Jr., age 13, of Shreveport, Louisiana, for his question:
Where did coffee originate?
The story of coffee began by the Red Sea long before the discovery of the New World. Half the world's coffee now comes from Brazil and the little brown beans are sold under a strict agreement of the United Nations. The United States imports enough coffee to pour 500 million cups every day.
Most botanists agree that the original home of the coffee plant was Ethiopia. This bumpy land by the Red Sea has high slopes and a,tropical climate just right for coffee growing. But these original coffee plants grew wild. For untold ages, nobody suspected that they were good for anyone except goats. This was a ,region of goat herds and the frisky creatures had a fine time capering up and down the sun drenched slopes. They enjoyed the tough mountain shrubbery but most of all they enjoyed the wild coffee plants.
This was noticed long ago by the goatherds of Ethiopia. They also noticed what happened after their shaggy goats had dined on the red berries and the glossy green leaves of the wild coffee plants. The frisky fellows became friskier. They pranced and danced around and cut more goatish capers than usual. Wild coffee certainly cheered up the goats and filled them with frolicsome fun.
Since coffee did so much for the goat, perhaps it also might be good for people. Naturally, a few adventurous ,experimenters tasted the berries. They felt fine, more alert and cheerful than usual. After that, coffee berries were used as medicine to brighten the downhearted. People took a few of the coffee berries to add to their foods. No one knows how long the Ethiopians enjoyed their coffee and who discovered their secret.
But the Arabs knew about it at least 800 years ago. They added a few tricks of their own to the cheerful pepper upper. They learned to take the two little beans from each red coffee berry. They dried the pale yellow beans, roasted them brown and ground them up to boil in water as a beverage. This was about 700 years ago, and the Arabic word for the coffee brown beverage was qahwah. You might, just might, be able to twist that word around to sound like our word coffee.
The Arabs loved to spread their secrets. Turkey learned about this peppy beverage, then Italy. By the 1600s, all Europe was enjoying the wonderful stuff. Everybody knew that it cheered up the spirits, sharpened the mind and added a sparkle of extra energy. Coffee houses soon opened all over Europe. People gathered there to sip the fragrant brown beverage, to chatter brightly and enjoy the cheerful conversations.
We know that this peppy pickup comes from a drug called caffeine in the coffee bean. A cup of coffee during a pause in the day's work really does make the mind a little brighter and adds just a speck of extra energy to return us cheerfully to the day's work. Scientists say that the caffeine drug works by expanding the blood vessels, just a mere trifle. This means that more blood can flow to the brain and the heart.
If someone doubts that coffee is a peppy pickup, give him a cup of it at bedtime. His mind will stay busy on all kinds of problems and the restless fellow will not fall asleep for hours. The story of coffee is fun but children must wait a few years to try the tread for themselves. The experts who know about these things insist that coffee is not good for growing youngsters. And every one of Andy's young friends should have the good sense to wait and look forward just a few years for a real treat.