The origins of coffee and its use can be traced as far back as the 15th century. No direct evidence of its consumption or where it was first cultivated has been found prior to then. Its use spread quickly throughout the world; spreading to Persia in the 16th century, then to Italy shortly after. Eventually the Europeans were introduced to the coffee bean and in the 17th century, India and the East Indies followed suit. The coffee house became a hub for popular discourse in Western Europe by the late 17th century, primarily in England and Germany. By the late 1800’s coffee was being imbibed around the world and continues relentlessly to this day. Sufi monks would use coffee as an aid to concentration during prayers; it would also at various times be used as an appetite suppressant or as a stimulant and was banned in Ethiopia in the 18th century. It soon became the most popular beverage in the entire world. Would Agnes be lucky enough to find a coffee house in the world of 20,000 years ago? I reply a hearty yes to that! This world that we live on has been made and re-made a countless number of times during it’s billions of years revolving around the sun. Fossilized gears and machine screws have been found buried in rocks from millennia ago, whereas something like that shouldn’t have been at all possible…at least to man’s limited knowledge. So, were the merits of the coffee bean appreciated by the people populating the timeline of my little fictional world that I’ve created? See the comic above and suspend your disbelief!