With its complex flavors and varied brewing methods, coffee is more than just a drink. Like lovers of fine wines, dedicated coffee drinkers seek out new blends and roasts. They spend hundreds of dollars on equipment to make the perfect cup of coffee. But coffee is also an everyday drink. In its powdered "instant" form, it can be made quickly or bought from vending machines. Coffee drinking has been traced back to sixth-century Yemen (pronounced YEAH-men; a country in the southwestern corner of the Arabian peninsula), but it became popular in Europe and America in the seventeenth century. Most coffee contains caffeine, a mildly addictive drug that increases heart rate, boosts appetite, and decreases or eliminates fatigue. Because of caffeine, coffee is the number-one morning pick-me-up in America. In 2000, 54 percent of the adult population drank coffee, amounting to 110 million daily drinkers.

Most coffee is made from the roasted...