According to an old Ethiopian legend, coffee was discovered by a goatherd named Kaldi. One evening he noticed that his goats, instead of settling down for the night, were leaping and dancing under the moon, wide awake and full of mischief. It took him a while to find out why. They had been nibbling the glossy red berries of a bush that grew on the hillside.
Kaldi, who was curious by nature, tried a few of the berries himself. A pleasant restlessness spread through him, and he suddenly felt that he could walk all night. He hurried to the nearby monastery, where he showed the berries to the abbot and described what he had seen.
The abbot was not impressed. Convinced that the berries were dangerous, he tossed them into the fire. But the flames did something unexpected: a warm, rich fragrance began to fill the room, and the monks gathered around. They raked the roasted beans out of the embers, ground them and covered them with hot water. The result was the very first coffee. From then on, the monks drank it to stay awake through their long hours of prayer. Whether any of it is true, nobody can say, but it is a good story.