ETYM Turk. qahveh, Arabic qahuah wine, coffee, a decoction of berries. Related to Café.
Any of several small trees and shrubs native to the tropical Old World yielding coffee beans; SYN. coffee tree.
Cultivation.
The shrub is naturally about 5 m/17 ft high, is pruned to about 2 m/7 ft, is fully fruit-bearing in 5 or 6 years, and lasts for 30 years. Coffee grows best on frost-free hillsides with moderate rainfall. The world's largest producers are Brazil, Colombia, and the Côte d'Ivoire; others include Indonesia (Java), Ethiopia, India, Hawaii, and Jamaica. In recent years the world coffee market has been dogged by over-supply, and in the early 1990s the price of coffee was well below the cost of production.
History.
Coffee drinking began in Arab regions in the 14th century but did not become common in Europe until 300 years later, when the first coffee houses were opened in Vienna, and soon after in Paris and London. In the American colonies, coffee became the substitute for tea when tea was taxed by the British.
After the US became an independent nation, coffee remained the national drink and is so popular that “coffee breaks” are negotiated into labor contracts. Coffee is usually drunk hot, black or with cream and sugar; it is drunk cold as iced coffee, especially in summer.

Drink made from the roasted and ground beanlike seeds found inside the red berries of any of several species of shrubs of the genus Coffea, originally native to Ethiopia and now cultivated throughout the tropics. It contains a stimulant, caffeine.
A beverage consisting of an infusion of ground coffee beans; SYN. java.