[Red Badger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicory

“The cultivated chicory plant has a history reaching back to ancient Egyptian time. Medieval monks raised the plants and when coffee was introduced to Europe, the Dutch thought that chicory made a lively addition to the bean drink.

In the United States chicory root has long been used as a substitute for coffee in prisons.[54] By the 1840s, the port of New Orleans was the second largest importer of coffee (after New York).[53] Louisianans began to add chicory root to their coffee when Union naval blockades during the American Civil War cut off the port of New Orleans, thereby creating a long-standing tradition.[53]”

[Vigilanteman]

It sounds like the "discovery" in Ethopia or Kenya as the case may be in the 8th century was actually a "rediscovery" of something developed in Ancient Egypt.

This would make sense considering that the world went into a Dark Ages after the collapse of the Ancient Egyptian Empire much as it did after the collapse of the Roman Empire.