Wake up and Smell the Coffee 饮咖啡也要思源

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.

有些人难以想象，不喝一杯咖啡怎么能开始一天的生活。从巴黎最流行的咖啡厅到台北街头林立的早餐店，咖啡已跻身世界最受欢迎的饮料行列。像这样广受喜爱的饮料，却很少有人明白它奇妙的起源。

传说咖啡的果实是公元850年一个埃塞俄比亚牧羊人发现的：他注意到山羊吃了当地某种灌木的红色果实之后便活蹦乱跳起来。他自己尝了一下，发现比平常更精力充沛。他到处去说这种神奇果子的消息，没多久，僧侣们就将其奉为仙丹，晚祷时喝它的酿造物而不会入睡。

咖啡原产于埃塞俄比亚高原，但首先培植咖啡树的却是公元1100年左右的阿拉伯人。他们也是第一个烘焙、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馆里享用起了一杯咖啡。咖啡约于西元1600年传到欧洲，七年后再传入新大陆。

现在，无论你身在何方，咖啡似乎都唾手可得。爱喝咖啡的人每年要喝掉四千亿杯咖啡。咖啡俨然成为世界最大宗的商品──仅次于石油。