“Coffee is the common man’s gold, and like gold it brings to every man the feeling of luxury and nobility….Take time in your preparations of coffee and God will be with you and bless you and your table. Where coffee is served there is grace and splendor and friendship and happiness.” –Sheik Ansari Djezeri Hanball Abd-al-Kadir, 1587.

Coffee was originally discovered by a goat herder named Kaldi whose goats had become energetic after snacking on some local Ethopian berries. After tasting the berries himself and seeing the effects first-hand, he ran to a local monestary to share in his recent discovery, where the monk disapproved of the taste, hastely throughing the branch into a fire. The aroma of roasting coffee beans led to the brewing of roasted beans and the first brewed cup of coffee! Since then, this wonderful drink inspired cultivation and before long, coffee had become a huge commodity. Today coffee is the 2nd most traded commodity next to fossil fuels!

I chose to evaluate the coffee commodity chain due to my large passion for this morning staple. I drink coffee every morning with my breakfast and occasionally I have another cup in the evening depending on how much sleep I had the night beforehand! I often take for granted all that happens in order to bring ‘common man’s gold’ to my lips, and something so dear to my heart has gained my attention when proposed with the idea of critically anylizing a commodity. Learning how this commodity has moved through time, economy, and country to make its way into my cup will help me to understand the complexity of its commodity trade in a global context.

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