Coffee

Coffee is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive substance and one of the most valuable traded commodities. Discovered in Ethiopia roughly 1,000 years ago, it fueled the Islamic Golden Age, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution before becoming an essential part of daily life for billions. Legend has it that a 9th-century Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi noticed his goats became unusually energetic after eating berries from a certain tree. The practice of making a beverage from roasted coffee beans spread from Ethiopia to Arabia, where coffeehouses (qahveh khaneh) became centers of intellectual discussion. Coffee reached Europe in the 17th century, where it displaced alcohol as the breakfast beverage of choice. London's coffee houses became centers of political, economic, and intellectual life — Lloyd's of London began as a coffee house. Today, approximately 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day worldwide. It's the primary source of antioxidants in the Western diet and has been linked to reduced risk of Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver disease.