According to legend, one day an Arabian goat herder named Kaldi found his goats jumping and dancing around a green-leafed shrub that had bright-red cherries. Kaldi also observed that his goats were eating the cherries.

The local people found that the cherries were a stimulant, and monks from the local monastery soon began to use them to stay awake during prayer sessions. Also according to legend, the monks then began to distribute the cherries throughout the world.

Not long after the Venetian traders first presented coffee to Europe in 1615, Pope Clement VIII was warned it might prove threatening to the holy aims of the Church. Curious, the pope requested that his attendants bring a cup of the stuff to him. He found its aroma pleasing and, upon tasting it, became so in love with coffee that he decided to get the better of the devil by baptizing it, thereby making coffee a “truly Christian Beverage”.