Coffee was first discovered in Eastern Africa in an area we know
today as Ethiopia. A popular legend refers to a goat herder by the
name of Kaldi, who observed his goats acting unusually frisky after
eating berries from a bush. Curious about this phenomenon, Kaldi
tried eating the berries himself. He found that these berries gave
him a renewed energy. The news of this energy laden fruit quickly
spread throughout the region.
Monks hearing about this amazing fruit dried the berries so that
they could be transported to distant monasteries. They
reconstituted these berries in water, ate the fruit, and drank the
liquid to provide stimulation for a more awakened time for
prayer.
Coffee berries were transported from Ethiopia to the Arabian
Peninsula, and were first cultivated in what today is the country
of Yemen. From there, coffee traveled to Turkey where coffee beans
were roasted for the first time over open fires. The roasted beans
were crushed, and then boiled in water, creating a crude version of
the beverage we enjoy today.
Coffee first arrived on the European continent by means of
Venetian trade merchants. Once in Europe this new beverage fell
under harsh criticism from the Catholic Church. Many felt the pope
should ban coffee, calling it the drink of the devil. To their
surprise, the pope, already a coffee drinker, blessed coffee
declaring it a truly Christian beverage.
Coffee houses spread quickly across Europe becoming centers for
intellectual exchange. Many great minds of Europe used this
beverage, and forum, as a springboard to heightened thought and
creativity.
In the 1700's, coffee found its way to the Americas by means of
a French infantry captain who nurtured one small plant on its long
journey across the Atlantic. This one plant, transplanted to the
Caribbean Island of Martinique, became the predecessor of over 19
million trees on the island within 50 years. It was from this
humble beginning that the coffee plant found its way to the rest of
the tropical regions of South and Central America.
Coffee was declared the national drink of the then colonized
United States by the Continental Congress, in protest of the
excessive tax on tea levied by the British crown. From
http://www.coffeeuniverse.com/university_hist.html
Geocacher Zen Cooker provided this additional piece of
information: Venice was the port where "spices" from Eastern
cultures and dairy products from European cultures met. The coffee
beans imported from Ethiopia, Yemen, etc. at the time were of low
quality and had to be roasted very dark to be palatable. The way to
make a tasty beverage from them? Add milk! Thus, the cappuccino and
latte (actually "cafe latte") were born.
OBJECT: Visit 8 non-traditional beverage locations, each
location (waypoint) yields a clue needed to find the
“reward” final cache and logbook. Note: All these
places serve non-coffee items for those who may not be lovers of
the bean.
Due to trees and buildings, the coordinates will get you near
them.
To check the coordinates for the 8th stage:Check
your solution
To check the coordinates for the final cache:Check
your solution