Il Vino d'Arabia

A bit of history

The name "coffee" doesn't stem, as everyone could believe, from kaffa (its original land, in Etiopia) but from the Arabian word gahwa, which means wine, coffee and every vegetable drink. That's why, when the coffee reached Europe, at the beginning of the 17th century, it was called "the Arabian wine".

There are many legends on the coffee's origins, the most popular tells about an Abyssinian shepherd who saw his goats becoming particularly lively and sprightly after eating some leaves and berries of an evergreen shrub. Bringing the fruit in a close convent, monks made of it a sour and warm drink which reinvigorates the body and let extend the prayer watches.

And geography

The countries producing coffee are placed in the area between the two tropics where the climate is warm and humid.

Coffee's variety

The important species from the trade viewpoint are two: Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora, known as Arabica and Robusta.