Coffee History:
Early Beginnings
The most famous story about the discovery of coffee takes place in what
is now Ethiopia. It tells of a goat herder who noticed that after eating the
berries of a certain bush, his goats became energized. He tasted the
berries, and they had the same effect on him. Then a local monk joined in
the experiment and ended up in a similar state of excitement.
The berries became a regular part of the diet at the nearby monastery and
were considered a gift from heaven because they helped keep the brothers
awake during their evening prayers.
The nomadic people of Ethiopia have been using the fruits, seeds and leaves
of the coffee tree for more than 1,000 years. But it wasn’t a major part of
their diet, and they didn’t make what we think of as coffee. They used the
leaves and the dried husks of the berries to make a tea-like drink. They
also crushed the seeds of the plant and rolled them into balls with animal
fat, creating a mentally stimulating fast food that could be carried on long
journeys.
HOUSES OF EXCITATION
The word “coffee” comes from an Arabic word for wine. Islamic law forbids
wine’s consumption, and in many ways the Islamic world has chosen coffee to
take its place. Its first serious cultivation as a cash crop took place in
Yemen during the 1400s. Religious pilgrims visiting Mecca spread the news
about coffee, and by the 1500s, coffeehouses were opening all over the
Islamic world.
At first coffee’s adoption was questioned by conservative Koranic scholars,
who argued that coffee should be treated as wine and prohibited. But
coffee’s intoxicating effects were the opposite of wine’s, and a much larger
group of scholars defended the beverage. They were enthusiastic about
coffee’s ability to sharpen the mind, loosen the tongue, and keep a person
awake through long hours of study and prayer.
A Dutch traveler described Middle Eastern coffeehouses as “large halls, with
floors covered with straw mats. Customers are served with smoking pipes and
cups of coffee. Scholars sit in these establishments and tell tales, deliver
speeches on various subjects and receive small contributions from the
audience for their efforts.”
The caffeine in coffee is a stimulant, and in these coffeehouses it
stimulated original thought, a sense of freedom, and a desire to discuss
politics and social change. In a world without newspapers, magazines, radio
or television, coffeehouses quickly became centers for travelers and locals
to exchange news, stories and opinions. The ruling classes,
however, were threatened by this development.
Coffeehouses were centers for gaming and writing fantastically funny,
satirical verses about Cayar Beg, the Governor of Mecca. He’d heard about
some of these things, and he didn’t like them, so he decided he was going to
close the coffeehouses. But his superiors in Cairo said, ‘Forget that. I
like coffee.’ It was the first time a coffeehouse was closed, but it wasn’t
going to be the last, because people tend to become irreverent when they
drink coffee.
When the Turks occupied Yemen in 1536, they learned about coffee and
coffeehouses and brought both back to Constantinople. They became so popular
among the Ottomans that by the end of the 1500s, European visitors to
Constantinople reported that there were 600 coffeehouses in the city and
that they served the same function as the taverns in Europe.
TRANSFORMING EUROPE
The Ottoman Turks introduced coffee to Europe and were the first to make
coffee a commodity. They guarded their monopoly and forbade any shipment of
fertile coffee fruit to their European or Asian customers. But during the
early 1600s, a Muslim pilgrim from India taped a few seeds to his chest,
returned home without having them discovered, and started a coffee farm in
Mysore. He didn’t have much commercial success, but he did prove that it was
possible to grow coffee outside of the Middle East.
In 1616 a Dutch trader managed to smuggle a coffee tree out of the Yemeni
port of Aden, and by the 1650s the Dutch were growing coffee commercially in
Ceylon. During the early 1700s, the Dutch East India company dominated the
world coffee markets with harvests from its coffee plantations in Java.
Europe was, at that time, beginning a cultural transformation, and as
European society modernized, coffee became the drink of choice for the
emerging middle class.
Up to the 1600s, most of what we think of as big business was done by
governments—most small businesses were run out of people’s homes.
Coffeehouses provided homes away from home for the new breed of capitalist,
busy building private industry. Lloyd’s of London, until recently the
largest insurance company in the world, began life in 1688 as a coffeehouse
which just happened to be popular with insurance brokers. Other coffeehouses
gave rise to holding companies, stock
exchanges, and newspapers. In England, coffeehouses became known as the
place where businessmen did business.
In the early decades of the 1600s, coffee also became a fad among English
college students, and in 1650 a group of students at Oxford opened the first
coffeehouse in England. In 1652, Pasqua Rosée, an Armenian immigrant, opened
the first coffeehouse in London. It was an instant success, and within 50
years coffeehouses had cropped up all over the city. They were a hit with
writers, artists and critics. They were called the “penny university,”
because you paid your penny and could listen to the main orators of the day
holding forth on their pet
subject.
The acceptance of coffee on the European continent did not take place as
quickly as it had in England. In France, coffee was nowhere until 1669, when
Ottoman ambassador Suleiman Aga’s arrival in Paris sparked a wave of
Turkomania, leading to the establishment of cafés all over the country.
Coffee was a regular part of the Turkish diet, but almost unknown to the
Viennese. Beer drinking was a matter of national pride, and there was heavy
resistance to the new drink. The event that began to change Austria’s
attitude was the siege of Vienna in 1683. The city was attacked and
surrounded by a Turkish army. Eventually, the siege was broken and the Turks
retreated, leaving behind hundreds of sacks filled with coffee beans. The
army thought the sacks contained animal fodder, but Franz Kolschitsky, a war
hero who had lived in Arab countries, knew about coffee. He smelled the
burning beans, and offered to take them.
As a reward for his wartime efforts, Kolschitsky was given a building, which
he turned into Vienna’s first coffeehouse. Since then, the Viennese have
really taken to coffee.
Coffeehouses in Europe served the same function as they had in the Arab
world: they provided a place for scholars, artists, journalists and
political activists to socialize and do business. The coffeehouse also
played its part in the 1700s, the Age of Enlightenment. It was a time when
philosophers believed in the reasonable mind of man, in natural law, and in
universal order. People were beginning to question the divine right of
kings, and the coffeehouse became the popular spot to ask and answer those
questions.
The idea of man as an essentially rational being set the stage for the
economic policies of Adam Smith and the political ideas of Thomas Jefferson
and Benjamin Franklin. Plans for both the French Revolution and the American
Revolution were discussed and developed during meetings that were held in
coffeehouses.
Several European leaders, including Frederick the Great of Prussia, banned
coffeehouses as hotbeds of sedition but, as the mayor of Mecca had found out
400 years earlier, even a royal edict is no match for the public’s love of
coffee.
TO THE AMERICAS
By the middle 1700s, there were tens of thousands of coffeehouses
throughout Europe. Eager to capitalize on the demand for coffee, European
entrepreneurs were always on the lookout for new sources of the bean. The
Dutch, like the Turks before them, did their best to prevent other interests
from getting their hands on live coffee plants. But in 1723, a French
officer, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, smuggled a single coffee plant across the
Atlantic and planted it in Martinique in the West Indies— the first coffee
plant in the Americas, and probably the parent of most of the coffee grown
in the New World today. The Portuguese government desperately wanted to
plant coffee in Brazil, but they had a difficult time getting hold of any
living plants. In 1727, a Portuguese official in Brazil was called in to
broker a land dispute between the governors of French and Dutch Guiana. The
representative resolved the conflict, and at the same time conducted a
secret love affair with the wife of the French governor. As he departed for
his return trip to Brazil she presented him with a large bouquet of flowers.
Hidden in the center was a coffee bush, ready to be planted and establish
the Brazilian coffee industry. Coffee soon spread throughout Central and
South America.
COFFEE IN THE COLONIES
The British colonists in North America arrived with a taste for coffee.
John Smith, who led the settlers at Jamestown, had traveled in Turkey and
was a coffee aficionado. Coffeehouses also crossed the Atlantic with the
colonists; in 1689 Boston opened its first coffeehouse.
Coffee in the American colonies was expensive in comparison to tea, which is
why the early settlers were tea drinkers. When King George III’s tax on tea
caused the patriots of Boston to stage the Boston Tea Party, the protest was
financial and political, but totally unrelated to gastronomy. During the
Revolutionary War, American colonists drank coffee because tea was not
readily available. When the war was over they went right back to drinking
tea, which was considerably cheaper.
When the newly formed United States of America went into battle with England
for a second time during the War of 1812, the supply of English tea was once
again greatly reduced. Americans returned to drinking coffee, but this time
the coffee came from Latin America. It was inexpensive, and of the best
quality. After that war, Americans stopped purchasing their tea from the
great English tea companies, buying it instead from American shippers.
Unfortunately, the knowledge and skills
necessary to purchase top-quality tea in the growing areas was not part of
the American tradition, and the quality of the tea coming into the United
States declined significantly. It was this reduction in excellence that
caused most Americans to turn to coffee. The choice was simple: inferior,
high-priced tea or superior, inexpensive coffee.
The history of how people really eat and drink clearly shows that politics
play a small role in our food selection. Price, however, significantly
alters the way we eat and drink.
The United States became the world’s largest consumer of coffee, and South
and Central America its biggest suppliers. Increased production in Latin
America drove coffee bean prices down, making coffee accessible to more and
more people, both in Europe and the United States. American firms were
developing high-capacity roasters, and a huge coffee roasting industry grew
up in New York. By 1845, New York City
was roasting as many beans as all of Great Britain. Before the Civil War
most American consumers bought green coffee beans, roasted them at home in a
frying pan, then ground and brewed the beans.
During the War, the South couldn’t get any coffee at all. They had to make
fake coffee out of everything from acorns to figs to little roadside weeds,
so after the War, everyone in the South wanted coffee more than you could
possibly imagine. An Atlanta jeweler got hold of a real coffee bean and set
it.
Meanwhile, the Union army, was fueled by coffee: soldiers received a ration
of 36 pounds a year and they brought home their taste for coffee when the
war was over. Industrial roasters, which had been supplying beans to
coffeehouses, hotels, and the Army, began to package roasted coffee beans
for home use, and branded coffees began to appear. Maxwell House, Folgers,
and Chase and Sanborn all got started in the mid-1800s.
TAKE A BREAK
As the United States industrialized, coffee found a new role. For workers
who had to be at the factory or office early in the morning, and often for
round-the-clock shift work, coffee became a necessity.
On March 17, 1930, at three-thirty in the afternoon, the owners of the
Mississippi Steamship Company in New Orleans called all their employees into
the company’s main office and held the first company-sponsored coffee break
in the United States. Executives of the steamship line had seen something
like a coffee break in Brazil, and they liked the effect it had on the
morale of the workers. It also improved the morale of the
workers in New Orleans, so they made the coffee break a permanent part of
their operations. Even without corporate sponsorship, the coffee break has
become a central part of the American workday.
FEDERAL ESPRESSO
In Turkey and Arabia, coffee had been brewed by repeatedly boiling ground
coffee in a brass or copper pot called an ibrik. It was served (as it still
is today) along with the grounds. Early European drinkers adopted a similar
method. But by the early 1800s, various drip coffee methods were being
devised, and a primitive form of filtered coffee evolved. It
required wrapping the grounds in a cloth bag before boiling them in water,
but it worked.
By the turn of the 20th century, Europe was a hotpot of coffee innovation.
In 1901, Italian inventor Luigi Bezzera built a steam-driven machine that
could make single cups of coffee to order—and espresso was born. Espresso
and the espresso bar, manned by a knowledgeable barista, became popular
throughout Italy, and after World War I, quickly spread across the
Continent.
Because of its caffeine content, some people were beginning to have concerns
about coffee’s effect on good health. In 1906, Ludwig Roselius, a German
coffee merchant, found a way to extract caffeine from coffee beans. Roselius’
coffee was a success, and the brands he established, Kaffe Hag and Sanka,
are still around.
IT’S ALL IN THE BEAN
Traditionally, coffee had been made from a variety of the bean known as
arabica. It was the plant that was first discovered in Ethiopia, cultivated
in Yemen and spread around the world by European coffee traders. But arabica
matures slowly, will only grow properly at high elevations, and is
susceptible to disease. At the beginning of the 1900s, a variety known as
robusta was found in the African Congo. It was a much tougher plant, able to
grow in a wider range of environments, and it packed twice the caffeine
punch of arabica. The taste was not up to the standard set by arabica, but
the economics of using robusta were too great for the coffee producers to
ignore.
Consumers in the United States became accustomed to the harsher taste of
the new beans. So did the Europeans, though the French and Italians
developed much darker roasts in order to compensate. The large manufacturers
began to put together blends in pursuit of the perfect coffee. They’d pick
one for acidity, one for body, one for flavor, and so on.
Soldiers serving in World War I had a great thirst for coffee. But
transporting the beans was a logistical nightmare. G. Washington, a
Brooklyn-based coffee roaster, responded to the problem by developing the
first successful instant coffee. Washington’s crystallized coffee was a huge
success with the troops, and by 1918 the U.S. Army had requisitioned the
firm’s entire output. During the war they consumed over 75 million pounds of
coffee.
During the war, all kinds of names were made up for the coffee that the GIs
were getting in their foxholes. Many of them pejorative, such as mud, but it
was also known as a “cuppa joe” because of G.I. Joe. This was his coffee,
and that’s the origin of why coffee is
called cuppa joe.
Back home instant coffee, often of questionable quality, joined dozens of
brands on store shelves. Coffee firms relied on the cheap, plentiful, and
low quality robusta beans as they fought for market share. For most of the
20th century, Americans learned to drink what coffee they were served— and
that was often weak and watery.
In 1966, Alfred Peet, a Dutch immigrant living in Berkeley, California, was
fed up with the coffee available in the United States. Peet, a former coffee
trader himself, whose father had been a coffee importer in the Netherlands,
started a premium coffee business. He liked the dark roasts popular in
France and Italy—roasts that were developed to cover
up the taste of low-quality beans—but he decided to use the technique with
high-quality beans. Peet’s Coffee soon developed a cult following, and
inspired a generation of coffee roasters to produce a quality coffee boom
that is still seeping across the United States.
Peet’s most successful disciples were a group of Seattle coffee merchants
who, in 1971, founded a firm they called Starbucks. The company has played a
major role in creating—and then capitalizing on—a taste for espresso and
cappuccino drinks. Starbucks also introduced Americans to the modern
coffeehouse.
Unknown for most of human history, coffee has changed the world. Currently
it is the world’s leading cash crop, the second most actively-traded
commodity after oil, and the most widely used psychoactive substance on the
planet.
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