Coffee as we know it got its start in Yemen, where roasted beans were first brewed into a beverage around A.D. 1000. The drink gained popularity quickly, and by the 13th century Muslims were drinking it religiously.

Coffeehouses sprang up in the 16th century, giving Muslims, who generally do not drink alchohol, a place to enjoy a drink and the company of others.

Traders, travelers, and Muslim pilgrims spread the drink wherever they went, and the beans were soon in great demand.

In Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkish law allowed a wife to divorce her husband for failing to keep the family ibrik, or pot, filled.

The climate of the southern Arabian Peninsula was well suited for coffee production, and Yemen's port cities, especially Mocha, became the world's top coffee exporters.

Europe caught the buzz in the early 1600s, but sharp merchants there wanted to be able to produce their own beans instead of buying from Arabia. In 1696 the Dutch established the first European-owned coffee plantation on its colony of Java, in what is now Indonesia.

Indonesia continues to be a major producer of coffee beans, most notably the robusta variety of beans. Nearby Vietnam and India are also top producers. Coffee-bean agriculture is nearly as primitive as it has always been. Planting, picking, sorting, and processing are done by hand, often by women.