Coffee

Coffee, nectar of the gods. What is coffee and why do so many of us just love to drink it. According to legend, ancestors of today's Oromo people in a region of Kaffa in Ethiopia were believed to have been the first to recognize the energizing effect of the coffee plant, the coffee bean would be wrapped in animal fat and used kind of like a modern day energy bar. This came in hand during long walks or hunting parties. Today, there’s no evidence indicating where in Africa coffee grew or who might have used it as a stimulant or even known about it, way back then. I wonder, did they just place the raw coffee inside a hunk of fat? It sounds nasty. The name Kaffa dose sound like coffee, but there is no written records saying this is how it got started. The story of the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherd who is supposed to have discovered coffee when he noticed how excited his goats became after eating the beans from a coffee plant, did not appear in writing until 1671 and is more than likely a made up tail to lay claim the discovery of coffee. People still believe it so it could be true. Because of this story, everyone in Ethiopia drinks coffee every day as a prestigious ritual. In parts of Ethiopia, the woman of the house, or a younger woman in the household designated by the matriarch, performs or participates in the two- to three-hour coffee ceremony three times each day (once in the morning, once at noon and once in the evening). Yep, that’s nine hours of coffee making. It is also customary for women to perform the ceremony when welcoming visitors into the home and in times of celebration.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/strange-things-with-chris-james--4931876/support.