... (like the imam from the story) in order to stay awake all night for prayers. Coffee gained popularity in this part of the world first as a medicinal and religious substance, then later as a recreational beverage in the coffee houses of Cairo and Mecca.

Tradition has it that the Arabs were at first jealous and protective of the coffee plant and refused to allow fertile seed to leave their country. Eventually, however, around 1650 a.d. a Muslim pilgrim, named Buba Budan, managed to smuggle some seeds in to south India. The Dutch were able to procure fertile coffee plant seeds (perhaps from buba Budan?) and cultivated the plant in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) Java. From the port of Java and Mocha, coffee was exported to Europe where the wealthy elite enjoyed it as a prized luxury. King Luis XIV became so enamored by the drink that he called in a favore from the Dutch. After much effort by the Dutch, the King received a coffee plant in Paris. Coffee reached the Caribbean through this very plant around 1720.

Chevalier Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu stole Luis XIV's tree and managed to protect it on a perilous journey to Martinique. De Clieu had to contend with storms, on the high seas, and attempts on the plant from fellow passengers. So dedicated to the plant was de Clieu, that he even shared his fresh water ration with the tree. Such drastic sacrifices were not in vain. From this hardy plant, coffee cultivation spread to Haiti, Mexico and the Caribbean.

King Luis XIV's tree also lent shoots to the Island of Reunion (formerly Bourbon) in the Indian Ocean, where some of the coffees in Brazil and Mexico are grown. Coffee eventually reached Kenya and Tanzania only a few hundred miles from where it all began, Ethiopia. Coffee is now grown on six continents and consumed just about everywhere. It is the second most popular beverage in the world. The first is water.

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