Coffee plants grow wild in Ethiopia, Africa and were probably used by local people for thousands of years, but it wasn't until the 1400s that people found they could roast（烘烤）its seeds. Then it really took off. By the 1500s, the drink had spread across the Arab world. Within another 150 years, it took Europe by storm.
"It actually had a major influence on the rise of business," says historian Pendergrast. Coffeehouses became a spot not just to enjoy a cup but to exchange ideas. Literature, newspapers and even some great musical works were also produced in coffeehouses.
It is often said that after the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American police raided（突击搜查）British tea ships and threw boxes of tea into the harbor, Americans universally changed over to drinking coffee. In a letter John Adams, the Founding Father, declared his love of tea but said he would have to learn to accept coffee instead, because drinking tea meant not supporting America.
For all the upsides coffee has brought the modern world, it also resulted in downsides, too. Europeans carried coffee with them as they occupied various parts of the world, and this frequently meant they enslaved（奴役）people in order to grow it.
"Ironically（讽刺地）, to seek equality, people came together to plan the French Revolution（革命）in coffeehouses," Pendergrast says. "But they were there drinking coffee grown by African slaves."
Today, coffee has become a powerful drink. Many people drink it for breakfast to start their day and to relax at the end of it. It not only helps keep us awake and active, it also has helped shape our history and continues to shape our culture. As Pendergrast puts it, coffee "had a very good impact in many ways on our civilization, even though it was, for a long time, grown by slaves."
