[4] Coffee plants are cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa.

[6] Medieval Arabic lexicons traditionally held that the etymology of qahwah meant 'wine', given its distinctly dark color, and was derived from the verb qahiya (قَهِيَ), 'to have no appetite'.

[3] This legend does not appear before 1671, first being related by Antoine Faustus Nairon, a Maronite professor of Oriental languages and author of one of the first printed treatises devoted to coffee, De Saluberrima potione Cahue seu Cafe nuncupata Discurscus (Rome, 1671), indicating the story is likely apocryphal.

[12] The earliest recorded reference to the coffee bean and its qualities appears in a treatise by Al-Razi, which describes the bean—referred to as “bunchum”—as “hot and dry and very good for the stomach".

[13] Medieval sources indicate that coffee was first introduced in the land of Saʿd ad-Din—the heartland of the Adal Sultanate, which encompassed Somali territories and adjoining areas of the Horn of Africa.

[17][18] 16th-century Islamic scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytami notes in his writings that a beverage called qahwa developed from a tree in the Zeila region located in the Horn of Africa.

[15] Coffee was first exported from Ethiopia to Yemen by Somali merchants from Berbera and Zeila in modern-day Somaliland, which was procured from Harar and the Abyssinian interior.

[21] In 1583, Leonhard Rauwolf, a German physician, gave this description of coffee after returning from a ten-year trip to the Near East: A beverage as black as ink, useful against numerous illnesses, particularly those of the stomach.

Coffee became more widely accepted after it was deemed a Christian beverage by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the "Muslim drink".

[28] When coffee reached North America during the Colonial period, it was initially not as successful as in Europe, as alcoholic beverages remained more popular.

[31] During the Age of Sail, seamen aboard ships of the British Royal Navy made substitute coffee by dissolving burnt bread in hot water.

[43] C. arabica, the most highly regarded species, is native to the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia and the Boma Plateau in southeastern Sudan and Mount Marsabit in northern Kenya.

[52] In 2020, the world production of green coffee beans was 175,647,000 60 kg bags, led by Brazil with 39% of the total, followed by Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia.

[54] As of 2021, no synthetic coffee products are publicly available but multiple bioeconomy companies have reportedly produced first batches that are highly similar on the molecular level and are close to commercialization.

Good quality robusta beans are used in traditional Italian espresso blends to provide a full-bodied taste and a better foam head (known as crema).

[59] In particular, the spread of the devastating coffee leaf rust (caused by the fungal pathogen Hemileia vastatrix), to which arabica is vulnerable, hastened the uptake of the resistant robusta.

These include leguminous trees of the genera Acacia, Albizia, Cassia, Erythrina, Gliricidia, Inga, and Leucaena, as well as the nitrogen-fixing non-legume sheoaks of the genus Casuarina, and the silky oak Grevillea robusta.

Growing the plants needed to produce 1 kg (2.2 lb) of roasted coffee in Africa, South America or Asia requires 26,400 litres (7,000 US gal) of water.

[98] Kopi luwak coffee is said to have a uniquely rich, slightly smoky aroma and flavor with hints of chocolate, resulting from the action of digestive enzymes breaking down bean proteins to facilitate partial fermentation.

[102] During roasting, caramelization occurs as intense heat breaks down starches, changing them to simple sugars that begin to brown, which darkens the color of the bean.

It is prepared by grinding or pounding the seeds to a fine powder, then adding it to water and bringing it to a boil for no more than an instant in a pot called a cezve or, in Greek, a μπρίκι: bríki (from Turkish ibrik).

The water then seeps through the grounds, and the process is repeated until terminated by removing from the heat, by an internal timer,[122] or by a thermostat that turns off the heater when the entire pot reaches a certain temperature.

[119] As a result of brewing under high pressure (typically 9 bar),[123] the espresso beverage is more concentrated (as much as 10 to 15 times the quantity of coffee to water as gravity-brewing methods can produce) and has a more complex physical and chemical constitution.

A long black is made by pouring a double espresso into an equal portion of water, retaining the crema, unlike Caffè Americano.

[157] Market volatility, and thus increased returns, during 1830 encouraged Brazilian entrepreneurs to shift their attention from gold to coffee, a crop hitherto reserved for local consumption.

[163] For example, in April 2000, after a year-long campaign by the human rights organization Global Exchange, Starbucks decided to carry fair-trade coffee in its stores.

[168] In espresso, however, likely due to its higher amount of suspended solids, there are significant contents of magnesium, the B vitamins, niacin and riboflavin, and 212 mg of caffeine per 100 grams of grounds.

[178][179] Coffee is known to have a significant amount of water-soluble dietary fiber compared to other commonly consumed beverages such as factory orange juice.

"[200] John B. Watson, a behavioral psychologist who worked with Maxwell House later in his career, helped to popularize coffee breaks within the American culture.

[211] Johann Sebastian Bach was inspired to compose the humorous Coffee Cantata, about dependence on the beverage, which was controversial in the early 18th century.