Your reviving cup of coffee in the morning may date back to 600,000 years, know how

The morning cup of coffee you slurped may date back to 600,000 years. Researchers created a family tree for the most widely consumed variety of coffee worldwide, known to scientists as Coffea arabica and to coffee enthusiasts as simply “arabica,” using genes from coffee plants found all over the world.

“In other words, prior to any intervention from man,” stated Victor Albert, biologist at the University at Buffalo.

Although the origins of these wild coffee plants are believed to be in Ethiopia, it is believed that Yemen is where coffee was first roasted and drunk beginning in the 1400s. It is said that in the 1600s, the Indian monk Baba Budan sneaked seven raw coffee beans from Yemen back to India.

Due to its smooth and somewhat sweet flavor, Arabica coffee is now the preferred choice for many major coffee companies like Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, and Dunkin’.

The Natural History Museum in London provided a sample from the 1700s that Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus used to identify the plant. Researchers also examined the genomes of over thirty different arabica plants, C. canephora, and Coffea eugenioides, another parent.

The research was released in the journal Nature Genetics on Monday. The study was supported by researchers from Nestlé, which owns a number of coffee brands.By examining the genetic makeup of one arabica type resistant to coffee leaf rust, the researchers were able to identify potential protective regions for the plant.

The study sheds light on the origins of arabica and identifies signals that may help protect the crop, according to Fabian Echeverria, a Texas A&M University adviser for the Center for Coffee Research and Education who was not involved in the study.