The coffee plant was originally discovered in Eastern Africa, which we now know as Ethiopia.

The Ethiopians knew they were onto a good thing and kept coffee a closely guarded secret for many years.

But when the Arabians visited the area in the 15th century to forge new trade links, they soon heard about this wonderful new plant and its invigorating properties. They stole seedlings and smuggled them back to what is now Yemen, offering it to their European merchant guests after dinner.

Given our penchant for tea, the Europeans realised that coffee would go down a storm at home. They devised ingenious plans to steal the seedlings and establish plantations around the globe. After much trial and error, all came to the conclusion that coffee won’t grow more than 1,000 miles from the equator.

The main producers today are Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia and the Côte d’Ivoire. Despite the enormous range of beans available, the coffee trade divides them into just two categories:

· Coffee Robusta: a hearty bean which is usually found in more full-bodied coffees, including instant coffee
· Coffee Arabica: a much more sophisticated variety which forms the basis for high quality speciality coffee