India, Aug. 1 -- About a thousand years ago, in the mountains of Ethiopia, a shepherd boy named Kaldi saw his goats acting strangely. The next day, he followed and saw them eat red berries growing in clumps on a short tree with waxy, dark-green leaves, sheltered by the rainforest canopy.

He plucked a berry and popped it into his mouth. Its meagre flesh was sweet, encasing twin seeds. He bit into these too and found them hard and bitter, but within 15 minutes, he had a spring in his step and was hopping along with his goats.

This is coffee's origin tale, told in the highlands of the Kaffa region. The berry spread from these cool and wet climes around the world, but this is the climate that still suits coffee best.

Back then, as word spr...