Judging from the number of specialized coffee outlets springing up like mushrooms throughout the country, you would think people are waking up and smelling the stuff for the first time. From the cities to the suburbs, coffee houses are the new hot spots and people who used to ask for a "cup of joe" are now connoisseurs who know their espressos from their mochaccinos. The buzzword on everybody's lips may be hip but it's not new. A check through the history books tells us this beverage has livened up cultures around the world for centuries.

Legend has it that coffee was discovered around 850 A.D. when Ethiopian goatherds noticed their flocks had an extra spring in their step after eating coffee plants. Looking for an explanation, they took one of the plants to a local monk who brewed a drink from the beans and found it was just the thing to keep him alert during lengthy prayer sessions. People knew a good thing when they saw it, and after Arab growers began cultivating the plant around 1575, coffee was soon in demand across the Middle East.

 Some enterprising soul opened the first coffeehouse in Constantinople, it was a hit and the concept popped up in cities all over the ancient world. Even in those days people found drinking coffee an excuse to socialize, and religious leaders complained that the mosques were empty while the coffee houses were full. When conversations became too political, rulers closed down the coffee houses. In fact one governor had the proprietors and their best customers sewn into leather sacks and tossed into the sea. Extreme as these measures were, they weren't enough to discourage coffee drinkers.

For years the coffee crop was held as a monopoly by the Arabs who sold only boiled beans which could not be cultivated. The Dutch managed to smuggle the first coffee plant to Europe in 1616, and the taste for the dark brew spread across the continent. Coffee houses all around Europe became wildly popular meeting places, and once again those in power tried in vain to shut them down. In 1675, Charles II of England even issued a "Proclamation for the Suppression of Coffee Houses," but within two weeks the public became so enraged that he backed down. Among the hard-core patrons were philosophers and writers who drew their inspiration form the conversation and attitudes in European coffee houses, and literature flourished at the peak of the coffee craze in the 18^th century.

 Coffee was brought to South and Central America in the 1700's where it thrived in ideal growing conditions. The establishment of the large coffee plantations in this region marked the beginning of the highly competitive coffee trade around the world. Second only to oil as a world trade item, the price of coffee is listed in commodity and stock exchanges. The World Bank has even used coffee instead of currency on occasion, and some countries which produce the crop have exchanged it for foreign aid from wealthier nations.

Americans first turned to coffee as a means to protest the high English tax levied on tea, and it has warmed our hearts ever since. In 1878, James Sanborn and Caleb Chase were the first to market coffee sealed in cans, and in 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt coined the first coffee slogan when he proclaimed the coffee at Nashville's Maxwell House Hotel "good to the last drop." Americans made a patriotic sacrifice in 1942 when coffee was rationed, but by 1945 the thirst for coffee was stronger than ever and amid the post war surplus of jobs, the great American coffee break was born.

After World War II a new generation of coffee houses cropped up luring our own revolutionary thinkers - like the members of the Beat Generation. It was then that espresso, which was first enjoyed in Italy around 1900 was introduced to our country, and the trend for specialty coffee drinks was launched. Today, half the world's coffee supply is consumed by Americans who down about 100 billion cups each year, and the current coffee boom is simply the latest phase of the craze. People have been clamoring for coffee for centuries, and with all the new varieties, blends and preparations now available, coffee is certain to remain the perpetual fad.