A Good Story, But Is It True?

A Good Story, But Is It True?

By Tony A Grayson

The story: An Ethiopian goat herder of the Ninth Century became amused by his goats' behavior. Some of the older goats had begun to behave like the young ones. They played chase, jumped sporadically, and seemed to have boundless energy. Then, he noticed that those goats congregated around specific plants that yielded red berries. The goats ravenously ate the berries. After he determined the peculiar goat behavior and deduced the cause of that behavior, the goat herder - did nothing.

A traveling monk passed through the grazing area and asked the goat herder if he might warm himself by the fire and spend the night. His request granted, the two men shared a meal and conversation, during which the goat herder shared his observation about a plant with red berries. Intrigued, the monk gathered a small sack of the berries and he took them with him to his travel destination, a monastery. He allowed the berries to naturally dry out while he acclimated himself to monastic life. Once he had the time to experiment with the dried fruit, he pounded some of the dried berries, and the seeds therein, into a powder and mixed the powder with boiling water. He wanted to learn what the goats experienced. However, he found the sight of the black liquid repulsive, with a bitter taste. He changed the color by adding some cream. He changed the taste by adding some sugar. Then, he drank the liquid.

The monk discovered that he had not tired at mid-day, when he usually took a nap. He seemed to have acquired energy. Had he duplicated the experience of the goats? By experimenting further, he learned that by adding more of the powder to hot water, he did not need to sleep at night either. He believed that he may have discovered a plant that could reverse the aging process. He talked about it, got other monks interested, and word spread about the wondrous power of the plant. A growing industry developed to provide the drink derived in the Kingdom of Kaffa, Ethiopia. The drink became known as coffee. Is this story true?

The alternate story: People have sucked on the red berries of the plant for so long that no one remembers who started it. The berries were known to impart a sort of high feeling of energy, and for some reason, people who sucked on them always craved to do it again. Eventually someone made a drink out of the seeds of the plant after roasting and grinding them. No one remembers who did that. Which story do you like best? #Tag1writer

#Tag1writer Gold can be found on Wild Land    https://livewildcityworker.wordpress.com/ in the United States. Tony is a writer, publisher, and marketer. His published novels include: Nation Rising    https://www.amazon.com/Nation-Rising-Tony-Grayson-ebook/dp/B074LWQ294, A Voice from New Mill Creek: The Methodists, Goodnight Paige, The Star of India, & How Tony Wrote and Published Two Novels. Find his books by searching Tony Alan Grayson (with one of the book titles) on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Smashwords.com, apple.com, kobo.com, or twenty other international book-selling websites.

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