咖啡最早發現於今天的東非埃塞俄比亞。流行的說法是一個名叫Kaldi的牧羊人發現山羊喫了一種漿果後行動敏捷。出於好奇，Kaldi自己也嘗試着喫了一點。他發現這些漿果使他精神煥發。這種使人體能充沛的漿果很快在這一地區變得人人皆知。

Coffee was first discovered in Eastern Africa in an area we know today as Ethiopia. A popular legend refers to a goat herder by the name of Kaldi, who observed his goats acting unusually frisky after eating berries from a bush. Curious about this phenomena, Kaldi tried eating the berries himself. He found that these berries gave him a renewed energy. The news of this energy laden fruit quickly spread throughout the region.

修道士們聽說了這種神奇的漿果後，把漿果烘乾以便運到遠處的修道院。然後再用水將這些漿果浸泡成原狀，喫果實並喝浸泡過的水，以便延長祈禱的時間。

Monks hearing about this amazing fruit, dried the berries so that they could be transported to distant monasteries.They reconstituted these berries in water, ate the fruit, and drank the liquid to provide stimulation for a more awakened time for prayer.

咖啡豆從埃塞俄比亞運到阿拉伯半島，第一次在今天的也門種植。

Coffee berries were transported from Ethiopia to the Arabian peninsula, and were first cultivated in what today is the country of Yemen.

從也門傳到了土爾其，這時纔開始用明火烘培咖啡豆。烘培後的咖啡被磨碎，用水煮後就是我們今天所喝咖啡飲料的雛形。

From there, coffee traveled to Turkey where coffee beans were roasted for the first time over open fires. The roasted beans were crushed, and then boiled in water, creating a crude version of the beverage we enjoy today.

威尼斯商人首次將咖啡帶到了歐洲大陸。這種新飲料一度遭到天主教堂的嚴厲批評。許多人認爲教皇應禁止咖啡，並稱之爲罪惡飲料。令人驚奇的是，教皇已經是一個咖啡飲用者，並宣佈咖啡是一種真正的基督徒飲料。

Coffee first arrived on the European continent by means of Venetian trade merchants. Once in Europe this new beverage fell under harsh criticism from the Catholic church. Many felt the pope should ban coffee, calling it the drink of the devil. To their surprise, the pope, already a coffee drinker, blessed coffee declaring it a truly Christian beverage.

咖啡屋在歐迅速發展起來，併成爲知識分子的交流中心。歐洲論壇的很多創新思想都源於這種飲料的提高思維能力和創造性這一作用。

Coffee houses spread quickly across Europe becoming centers for intellectual exchange. Many great minds of Europe used this beverage, and forum, as a springboard to heightened thought and creativity.

18世紀，一名法國步兵上尉將咖啡傳入美洲。他在穿越大西洋的長途旅行中養育了一株小咖啡樹。這株咖啡樹移植到了加勒比海的馬提尼克島，在隨後50年裏在該島繁衍出一千九百萬株以上咖啡樹。雖然起步艱難，但咖啡種植正是以此爲契機，傳遍了中南美洲的熱帶地區。

In the 1700's, coffee found its way to the Americas by means of a French infantry captain who nurtured one small plant on its long journey across the Atlantic. This one plant, transplanted to the Caribbean Island of Martinique, became the predecessor of over 19 million trees on the island within 50 years. It was from this humble beginning that the coffee plant found its way to the rest of the tropical regions of South and Central America.

爲了抗議英國政府徵收的茶葉附加稅，大陸議會宣佈咖啡作爲美國殖民地的國家飲料。

Coffee was declared the national drink of the then colonized United States by the Continental Congress, in protest of the excessive tax on tea levied by the British crown.

今天，咖啡成爲全球的大產業，從業人員兩千多萬。這種商品在以美元爲單位的全球貿易中僅次於石油居第二位。咖啡是世界上最流行的飲料，每年消耗4000億杯。可以想象出，僅僅在巴西，就有五百多萬人從事種植和收穫，而咖啡樹的數量達到30億棵之巨。

Today, coffee is a giant global industry employing more than 20 million people. This commodity ranks second only to petroleum in terms of dollars traded worldwide. With over 400 billion cups consumed every year, coffee is the world's most popular beverage. If you can imagine, in Brazil alone, over 5 million people are employed in the cultivation and harvesting of over 3 billion coffee plants.