Question 1

Where did coffee originally come from?

Accepted Answer

Coffee comes from Coffea arabica, a plant native to the forests of southwestern Ethiopia. By the fifteenth century it had crossed the Red Sea to Yemen, where Sufi monks brewed it to stay awake during night prayers before it spread across the Ottoman world and beyond.

Question 2

Why was coffee banned in history?

Accepted Answer

Coffee was banned by rulers who feared coffeehouses as breeding grounds for political dissent. In 1633, Ottoman Sultan Murad IV outlawed it on pain of death, and some European clergy urged the Pope to condemn it as a Muslim heresy before he reportedly blessed it instead.

Question 3

Why does caffeine keep you awake?

Accepted Answer

Caffeine resembles adenosine, a molecule that builds up in the brain and causes drowsiness. It occupies the same receptors without activating them, blocking the sleepiness signal. First isolated from coffee by chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge in 1819, it is the most widely used psychoactive drug on Earth.

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