The story of coffee begins in the Ethiopian plateau. Legend credits a goat herder named Kaldi for the discovery. He noticed that his goats became so energetic after eating berries from a certain tree that they did not want to sleep at night. Kaldi reported his findings to the abbot of a local monastery, who made a drink with the berries and discovered it kept him alert through long hours of evening prayer. Word spread to the Arabian Peninsula, and by the 16th century, coffee was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. The coffee cherry contains two seeds (the beans). The roasting process triggers the Maillard reaction, complex chemical changes that create the 800+ aromatic compounds found in a cup of coffee.