Coffee Started as Food, Not a Hot Drink
In Ethiopia, people brewed its leaves for tea and ate its berries with butter and salt.
TED-Ed · How humanity got hooked on coffee - Jonathan MorrisCoffee began as food, not as a morning drink. Sometime before the 15th century, in what is now Ethiopia, people gathered wild coffee growing low beneath the forest trees and learned to use almost the whole plant.
They steeped its leaves to make tea, and they mashed its fruit into salted butter to make a hearty, portable bite. They also dried, roasted, and boiled the fruit to create a stimulating brew.
Only later, after traders carried coffee to the Middle East, did the dark roasted drink take hold. By the 1450s, worshippers in Yemen were using it to stay alert during rituals, and people across Ottoman lands started to roast crushed beans for a darker, stronger cup.
Questions people ask
Why would anyone mix coffee berries with butter and salt?
The fat and salt made the fruit more filling and longer lasting, much like an energy bar. In the highlands of Ethiopia, farmers and travelers needed portable calories, and butter provided fat while salt replaced what was lost through sweat.
What does coffee leaf tea taste like?
It is mild, slightly sweet, and grassy, with less of the roasted bitterness we associate with coffee. It also contains caffeine, though generally less per cup than brewed coffee, plus antioxidant compounds found in many leaf teas.
When did people switch to drinking roasted coffee?
The shift happened in the Middle East, especially after the 1450s when Yemeni worshippers began using coffee to stay alert. People in the Ottoman Empire started roasting and grinding the beans, which produced the dark, strong infusion that became the model for modern coffee.