The story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherd who discovered coffee.

Aloha kakahiaka!  (Good morning in Hawai’ian)  Here in Ruidoso, New Mexico we just say “howdy.”  Happy Tuesday morning and greetings to all you coffee fiends.   That’s fiends not friends.  I know how you really feel about coffee!  The purpose of this blog is to unite coffee lovers, especially lovers of Kona coffee, and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  The first American coffee trader was from Boston. By the name of Dorothy Jones, she was granted the license to sell coffee in 1670.

Ethiopian ancestors of today's Oromo people were believed to have been the first to recognize the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant.  However, no direct evidence has been found indicating where in Africa coffee grew or who among the natives might have used it as a stimulant or even known about it, earlier than the 17th century.  The story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherd who discovered coffee, did not appear in writing until 1671 and is probably apocryphal.  Other accounts attribute the discovery of coffee to Sheik Omar. According to the ancient chronicle (preserved in the Abd-Al-Kadir manuscript), Omar, who was known for his ability to cure the sick through prayer, was once exiled from Mocha to a desert cave near Ousab.  Starving, Omar chewed berries from nearby shrubbery, but found them to be bitter. He tried roasting the beans to improve the flavor, but they became hard. He then tried boiling them to soften the bean, which resulted in a fragrant brown liquid. Upon drinking the liquid Omar was revitalized and sustained for days. As stories of this "miracle drug" reached Mocha, Omar was asked to return and was made a saint.  From Ethiopia, the beverage was introduced into the Arab world through Egypt and Yemen.

Do you want FREE coffee?  The first member of the Kona Coffee Fiends fb group who comes to the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company’s Cowboy Coffee Saloon at the Lions Club Gun Show at the Las Cruces (NM) Convention Center, February 18 and 19, will get a free, that’s FREE bag of CAFÉ PINON de Nuevo Mexico…our newest fusion coffee made with a proprietary blend of central American coffees and real New Mexico pinon nuts!

The purpose of this blog is to unite Kona coffee lovers and perhaps learn a little about coffee and all the benefits of coffee at the same time.  You can find the Kona Coffee Fiends group on Facebook and we’d appreciate it if Facebook users would “LIKE” the Kona Cowboy Coffee Company page at www.facebook.com/pages/Kona-Cowboy-Coffee-Company/222070817858553.  Just copy and paste to your browser.  You can also find us on Twitter at twitter.com/jackshuster.  And at www.KonaCowboyCoffee.com.

You know you’re a coffee fiend when you can jump-start your car without cables!
So enjoy your coffee, make it Kona, and remember, Kona is the home of the Hawaiian cowboy…and we had cowboys in Kona before there were cowboys in Texas!