Coffee. The very word is alive with memory and promise.

Coffee. The very word is alive with memory and promise.

Coffee is our constant companion...

We begin our day with a breakfast cup. Share stories and secrets and laughter over a late afternoon latte. We end a perfect meal with dessert and a dark-roasted demitasse.

Coffee's heady aroma can transport us... to gramma's kitchen table. To that little French bistro, or that memorable Autumn in a quaint Vermont village.

For all the tremendous effort required to grow and harvest coffee — and the passion to select, roast and blend the beans just-so — coffee remains one of life's few simple pleasures.

This is the story of coffee. Of its rich history, its legend and lore—and its long journey from tree to cup.

We begin somewhere between history and lore, with the tale of a young herdsman named Kaldi...