Which countries is the coffee plant native to?

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world, with over 400 billion cups served annually, it is brewed from coffee beans obtained from a plant species known as coffee.

The coffee plant is native to tropical Africa, specifically Sudan and Ethiopia but today, it is cultivated in over 70 countries across the globe with Brazil as the largest producer followed by Vietnam and Colombia.

Drinking coffee as a beverage seems to have originated in Yemen in the 15th century in the Sufi Shrines. It was there that the coffee berries were first roasted and brewed in a way similar to how the drink is prepared today. However, the coffee seeds were exported from East Africa to Yemen via the Somali traders.

The name coffee may have resulted from Keffa Zone, the name of the area where coffee berries were first used by herders either in the 6th or 9th century. Keffa Zone is a region in southwestern Ethiopia. The name “coffee” was included in the language in 1582 through the Dutch word “koffie.”