Legend has it that the stimulant properties of coffee were discovered sometime before the ninth century by an Abyssinian goat herder named Kaldi. As an experiment religious leader boiled the cherries in water and then drank the concoction himself. He became alert and lively, so much so that maintaining wakefulness. These stimulating properties made coffee an instant hit among the ranks of the faithful, and its use rapidly became routine.

1300: Islamic monks brew qawha, a blend of hot water and roasted coffee beans.

1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world's first coffee shop, Kiva Han, was opened.

1475: Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily quota of coffee.

1600: Baba Budan, a Moslem pilgrim, introduces coffee to southern India.

1607: Captain John Smith helps found the colony of Virginia at Jamestown. It is widely believed that he introduced coffee to North America.

1645: The first coffee house opens in Venice.

1652: The first coffee house opens in Oxford, England.

1689: The first coffee house opens in Paris.

1696: The first coffee house opens in New York.

1705: The Dutch dominated the world's merchant shipping industry, and they introduced large-scale coffee cultivation to their colonies in Indonesia on the islands of Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Bali.

1721: The first coffee house opens in Berlin, Germany.

1882: The New York Coffee Exchange commences business.

1906: Brazil withholds some coffee from the world market in an attempt to boost global prices.

1911: American coffee roasters organize into a national association, the precursor to the National Coffee Association.

Early 1990s: Specialty coffee catches on in the United States.