Wake up and Smell the Coffee 飲咖啡也要思源

Some people cannot imagine starting the day without a cup of coffee. From the most fashionable cafes of Paris to the breakfast stands lining the streets of Taipei, coffee has firmly established itself as one of the world's favorite beverages. For such a well-loved drink, however, few people are aware of its curious origins.

As legend goes, coffee berries were first discovered in 850 by an Ethiopian goat herder who noticed his goats were much friskier after having eaten the red berries of a local bush. After trying the berries himself, the goat herder felt much more energetic than usual. He disseminated the news about the wonderful berry, and soon monks were hailing it as an elixir and drinking the brew to stay awake during evening prayers.

Although coffee originated on the plateaus of Ethiopia, it was the Arabs who first cultivated it around 1100. They were also the first people to roast it and boil it. By 1475, people in Constantinople were enjoying a cup of coffee in the world's first coffee shop. Coffee spread to Europe around 1600 and to the New World seven years later.

These days, it seems you can get a cup of coffee just about everywhere you go. Every year, coffee lovers consume more than 400 billion cups of one of the world's biggest commodities-second only to oil.

有些人難以想象，不喝一杯咖啡怎么能開始一天的生活。從巴黎最流行的咖啡廳到臺北街頭林立的早餐店，咖啡已躋身世界最受歡迎的飲料行列。像這樣廣受喜愛的飲料，卻很少有人明白它奇妙的起源。

傳說咖啡的果實是公元850年一個埃塞俄比亞牧羊人發現的：他注意到山羊吃了當地某種灌木的紅色果實之后便活蹦亂跳起來。他自己嘗了一下，發現比平常更精力充沛。他到處去說這種神奇果子的消息，沒多久，僧侶們就將其奉為仙丹，晚禱時喝它的釀造物而不會入睡。

咖啡原產于埃塞俄比亞高原，但首先培植咖啡樹的卻是公元1100年左右的阿拉伯人。他們也是第一個烘焙、烹煮咖啡的人。到了公元1475年，君士坦丁堡人就在全世界第一家咖啡館里享用起了一杯咖啡?？Х燃s于西元1600年傳到歐洲，七年后再傳入新大陸。

現在，無論你身在何方，咖啡似乎都唾手可得。愛喝咖啡的人每年要喝掉四千億杯咖啡?？Х葍叭怀蔀槭澜缱畲笞诘纳唐珐ぉH次于石油。