Bringing a cup of steaming coffee to the lips is a common gesture in most of the world, but only few people wonder about the origin of the drink, its history and its social meaning.

Many legends refer to the origin of coffee. Everybody knows the legend coming from the Chehodet Monastery in Yemen, according to which one of the monk that, having being told by a shepherd named Kaldi that his goats and his camels were "lively" also during the night if eating certain berries, prepared a drink with these berries with the intent to stay awake to pray longer.

Less known is the legend concerning Mahomet: it is told that one day, when the Prophet felt very bad, the Archangel Gabriel helped him bringing him a potion that he had received directly from Allah. The drink was dark as the Holy Black Stone of the Mecca, commonly called "Qahwa". Mahomet drank it, suddenly recovered himself and left for great enterprises.

An other ancient legend tells about a drink that was a source of ecstasy, able to bring the spirit up to heavens. The most known story (told to the students by the Monk Antonio Fausto Nairone, teacher of theology at the Sorbonne in 1700) narrates about a shepherd named Kaddi in Arabia that, having led his goats to pasture, noticed bewildered that, after they ate the berries of a spontaneous plant, showed some excitement signals. The shepherd couldn't explain what was happening and submitted the fact to the old abbot Yahia. The abbot, realizing the properties of the plant, made a drink that was bitter and rich of heat that, heating the body could impart new vigour to it, freeing it from sleep and tiredness.

A similar legend tells that coffee was discovered by an Imam of an Arab Monastery, who prepared a decoction and offered it to all the monks of the convent that stayed awake without being tired for the whole night.

An other story tells of an Arab monk, the sheik Ali Ben Omar, that remained alone during a travel to Moka, a city to which he was accompanying his teacher Schadeli, who died during the way. An angel appeared to him, encouraging him to proceed to the city where a terrible plague was raging. Here, with his prayers to Allah, he could cure many ill people and also the king's daughter, with whom he fell in love. But the king sent him away and, forced to live alone in the mountains, to quench his hunger and thirst he had to invoke the help of his teacher who sent him a wonderful bird with coloured feathers and persuasive singing. Awaked and relieved by the melodious singing, Omar tried to get closer to admire the bird and, when he reached the place, he saw a tree with white flowers and red fruits: the plant of coffee. He picked some berries and made a decoction with healthy virtues that he often offered to the pilgrims that he hosted in his shelter. The piece of new concerning the magic qualities of the drink diffused and the monk was received in the kingdom with full honours.

A last legend tells that a huge fire propagated in a large territory of Abyssinia covered by spontaneous plants of coffee, diffusing for tens of kilometres the aroma of what we can consider a gigantic natural roasting.

Further legends tell that coffee comes from the Abyssinia highlands, where its real origin seems to be. Anyway, the reports of many travellers testify that the use of coffee was diffused in the whole Islamic East at the end of XVI century.
In the West coffee diffused through Venice where it seems that the first "Coffee Shop" was opened in 1640, even if someone thinks that an other one was opened before in Livorno. In any case, the success was immediate and the coffee, both as drink and as shop, diffused in each Italian city. The diffusion of coffee in the world was facilitated by an interests conflict between who wanted to preserve the exclusivity of the precious plants and who wanted to obtain some profit from them.
In 1690 a commando of Dutch marines landed to the Moka coasts, in Yemen, and could take possession of some plants: some years later, the first plantations blossomed in Java and Sumatra. Later, coffee diffused fast in Centre and South America where, especially in Brazil, are currently located the main plantations of the world.