Where did the coffee tree originate?

Where did the coffee plant originate? Not Italy or South America...

Long, long ago a coffee plant was brought from Ethiopia to Yemen. From Yemen the Dutch stole it – yes, stole – some trees and planted them on the Island of Java (the biggest of the Indonesian Islands). Years later, the Dutch government wanted to give a gift to the King of France and decided that a coffee tree would be a great gift (sounds good to me!).

France was thrilled and a greenhouse was created for this single plant. It was treated royally and properly cared for and became the ancestor to most of the coffee we have in the world today.

The seeds were taken and planted around the world. This is were Latin America comes in. This very important tree was christened with the name “The Noble Tree” because of how significant it was in widening the range of coffee we have today.