"Qahwah," to "kaffe:" the early travels of the fine arts beverage called coffee

fine arts / espresso etc
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Coffee is prepared from the roasted seeds of the Coffea plant, says Wikipedia.

The beans are found in coffee "cherries", which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa. Green (unroasted) coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world.[1]

Wild coffee's energizing effect was likely first discovered in the northeast region of Ethiopia. Coffee cultivation first took place in southern Arabia;[4] the earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen.[4]

According to the ancient chronicle preserved in the Abd-Al-Kadir manuscript, Sheik Omar, who was known for his ability to cure the sick through prayer, was once exiled from Mocha to a desert cave near Ousab. Starving, Omar chewed berries from nearby shrubbery, but found them to be bitter. He tried roasting the beans to improve the flavor, but they became hard. He then tried boiling them to soften the bean, which resulted in a fragrant brown liquid. Upon drinking the liquid Omar was revitalized and sustained for days. As stories of this "miracle drug" reached Mocha, Omar was asked to return and was made a saint.[14] From Ethiopia, the beverage was introduced into the Arab world through Egypt and Yemen.[15]

From the Middle East, coffee spread to Italy. The thriving trade between Venice and North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East brought many goods, including coffee, to the Venetian port.

From Venice, it was introduced to the rest of Europe. Coffee became more widely accepted after it was deemed a Christian beverage by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the "Muslim drink." The first European coffee house opened in Italy in 1645.[17]