Coffee Quebec

Coffee Quebec: "* 600-800 AD -- the era in which an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi reportedly discovered coffee after observing that his goats become very excited upon eating coffee berries"

Coffee beans were chewed raw for centuries in Ethiopia and Yemen. Excavations in the Ethiopian highlands where coffee grows wild indicates human gathers have been eating coffee berries over a hundred thousand years. The fleshy pulp around the coffee bean in Ethiopian coffee has a high sugar content. Being sweet, being nutritious, and seeds, nuts, grapes and berries being generally eaten by humans for over a million years sort of supports this theory.

Ugandans were noticed chewing dried coffee beans when the first explorers from Europe were searching for the origin of the Nile river. Green coffee beans were ground up and mixed with fat, then made into small balls, which were eaten by travellers on long journeys. Some say this is the first trail mix.

Stories in the Southern Arabian peninsula known as Yemen where Europeans first found the coffee plant cultivated support the coffee bean being traded as early as 800 BC. Facts support trade between Yemen and Ethiopia during this time. Knowing how eating the coffee berry acts on people, it would be logical that those early traders would attempt to trade this item. Additionally, evidence does not support the coffee plant would grow wild in Yemen but was cultivated instead. Although, it is possible that a large bird could have carried the coffee berry that far, it is not likely.