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#1 The origins of coffee are lost in legend, but the most popular tale traces its discovery to a goatherd in Ethiopia. By the sixth century A. D. , the plant had reached Arabia, where it was used as a food and medicine. Coffee beans were fermented to make wine, or dried, crushed, and eaten.

#2 The word coffee comes from the Arab word qahwah. The botanical name of the original species discovered in Africa is Coffea arabica. There are three general groupings of coffee: Brazils, Milds, and Coffea robusta, a variety of coffee grown at lower elevations and considered inferior in quality to Coffea arabica.

#3 Caffeine is the main stimulant in coffee, and it has received a great deal of attention ever since it was identified in 1820. But it seems that every year, even more noxious ingredients are isolated in coffee.

#4 Caffeine is a biological poison used by plants as a pesticide. It is produced by more than eighty species of plants, and the reason may well be survival. It is used in coffee to make it bitter, which discourages insects and animals from eating it.