I'm finishing up the documentary I was tasked to make - I've been working hard on it all week. I am getting sidetracked too often. When I stumble on an interesting book unrelated to my present search, I often cannot stop myself from reading a bit in it. I've found this old book in the library on the uses of coffee and the ways of brewing it throughout the ages.
It appears coffee was discovered by a goat herder who found that his goats became overly energetic when eating the berries of the coffee plant. He reported this to the Abbott of the local monastery, who asked the infirmarer monk to investigate the plant's medicinal properties. They made a drink with the berries, and found that it kept the monks alert through the long hours of evening prayers.
The discovery was shared, first within the other monasteries of the same order, and later outside the walls of the monastery, as knowledge of the energizing effects of the berries spread.
