One of the most known legends probably comes from the Chohodet Monastery in Yemen. One of the monks who lived there heard from a shepherd called Kaldi, that his goats and camels were lively also in the night because they eat some particular berries. The monk decided to prepare a drink using the same berries to stay awake in order to pray longer.

A similar legend tells instead that coffee was discovered by an Iman of an Arabic monastery, who prepared a decoction and had it tested by all monks of the monastery, who were able to stay awake for the whole night without any difficulties.

Less known is the legend about Mahomet: it is said that one day the Profet felt really bad. Gabriel the Archangel assisted him, bringing him a potion which he received from Allah. The drink was dark like the Black Sacred Stone of the Mecca, commonly called “qawa”. Mahomet drank the potion, suddenly revived and left for great exploits.

In 1700 Fausto Nairone, a maronita monk and teacher of theology by the Sorbona, narrated to his students that in Arabia a shepherd called Kaddi, noticed that his goats seemed excited after eating the berries of a plant.
The shepherd, which did not understanding what happened, asked the Abbot Yahia for help. He understood that the plant had special features and so he used it to obtain a bitter and hot drink, which heats and reinvigorates the body keeping it awake and free from tiredness.

The sheik and Arabic monk Ali ben Omar remained alone on the road of Moka, after the death of his maestro Schadeli.
An angel appeared to him so he decided to proceed as well to that city where there was a terrible plague epidemic. Praying Allah he was able to cure many ills there, even the daughter of the king, to whom he felt in love. However the king moved him away. The monk had to live alone in the mountain and had to invoke the help of his maestro to satisfy his hunger and thirst. Schadeli sent him a magnificent bird with multicolored feathers and a persuasive singing.
Awaked and supported by the melodious singing, Omar came nearer to the bird to admire it and so he could see a tree full of white flowers and red fruits: the coffee plant.
He picked some berries and made a healthy decoction with them. He often offered it to the pilgrims who he was used to welcome in his refuge. The monk was received back to the kingdom with great honors, just after people heard about the magic qualities of his drink.

A latest legend tells that an immense fire spread in a vast territory in Abissinia covered by spontaneous coffee plants. The aroma of this gigantic natural roasting, as it was considered, spread to dozens of miles away.
Other legends link the true coffee origins to the Abissinian highlands.
Anyway, reports of many travelers prove that coffee was commonly used in the Islamic Orient at the end of XVI century.
In Occident coffee diffused through Venice, where in 1640 it is supposed they opened the first “Coffee shop”, even if some people think that one was previously opened in Livorno. Anyway coffee had an immediate success both as a drink and as a meeting point and spread all over Italian cities. The diffusion of coffee in the world was facilitated by the struggle of interests between people interested in maintaining the exclusivity of the precious plants and the ones who wanted to profit by them.
In 1690 a command of Dutch sailors landed on the Moka coasts, in Yemen and took possession of some plants. After some years the first plants blossomed in Giava and Sumatra. After coffee impetuously spread in the whole Central and Southern America, especially in Brazil, where still today exist the major world plantations.