Everyone drinks caffeine, whether it be in your morning cup of coffee, a can of soda at lunch, or a cup of tea before bed. But do they know where it came from? Caffeine containing plants might have been around since 600,000 BC, but was first really put into use in 900 BC. T In 1100 the first coffee trees were cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula where they were boiled by the Arabs to make a drink called qahwa. In 1450 the love for coffee started to spread through Yemen and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. Over the centuries this plant has shaped our economy into the shape of a coffee bean.

Think about walking through downtown Boston, or downtown New York City. There is only one kind of shop in which one is found on nearly every block; coffee shops. Our culture has molded itself around loving coffee. Although it...