Here's a little glimpse of Coffee's story: Coffee was discovered "by accident" in Ethiopia many many years ago by a sheep herder named Kaldi. Kaldi noticed his sheep becoming really hyper every time they would pass by a plant with red buds/cherries. He soon discovered that they were eating these buds which were causing them to be extra excited. So, he tried them himself and sure enough, he too became hyper. Finally, this is how the coffee bean was discovered.
After this discovery, the Arabs took the plant away in order to begin farming it in greater quantities. They were the first ones to begin a coffee monopoly. The coffee bean was considered to be very sacred and precious and was therefore highly guarded by the Arabs. In the 1500's, the Arabs wanted to keep the coffee in Arabia forever but since it was highly sought by everyone, it was eventually taken away and smuggled in to other grounds. And that's how it became internationally known today.
MY VERSION: Basically, the Ethiopians discovered it, they weren't smart enough to make it a commodity, so the Arabs took it away from them, made some money, stimulated the economy, tried to keep it to themselves, then karma came into play and took it away from them, and now it's sold everywhere in power hungry cafés such as Starbucks :).
