Between history and legend

We have no certain historical information on the origins of coffee, but there are many legends that fuel the curiosity of the lovers of this beverage.
It seems likely that the word coffee derives from the Kaffa region in Ethiopia, where coffee is said to have been discovered, since the Coffea Arabica species is native to this geographical area.
In 1891, Pellegrino Artusi, author of the famous treatise “The science of cooking and the art of eating well”, stated that the best coffee came from the Yemenite city of Moka, and this could give us a further key to identifying the origin. Artusi claimed that coffee was discovered by some monks, who noticed that their goats became livelier and at times restless after eating the red berries from a certain bush. Therefore, to combat sudden sleepiness during their nights of prayer, the monks made the berries edible also for humans by roasting and grinding them to make an infusion.
Coffee is said to have come to Europe in 1683 after the second Turkish siege of Vienna. When the Ottomans were routed, sacks of roasted beans, hitherto unknown to the Western world, were found in their camp. Other sources report that coffee arrived in Italy through the large ports of the trade routes with the East, first Venice, where the first documented load of coffee dates back to 1624.