History of Coffee: From the Origins of the Plant to the First Coffee Shop

Introduction

The influence of coffee throughout history is significant and we do know a lot, but this seed has a few grey areas that we may never know the real answer to. For example, we don't know how humans discovered coffee, beyond a few legends. Additionally, the history of coffee is broad and filled with interesting stories that I won't be able to cover. For example, in 1674, there was the Women’s Petition against Coffee which called coffee “nauseous puddle water” and in the same year The Men’s Answer to the Women’s Petition Against Coffee was written in which they ask “…why must innocent COFFEE be the object of your Spleen? That harmless and healing Liquor…” Coffee is a more divisive drink than you may think. I am going to walk you through the beginnings of the plant, the discovery of coffee, how coffee spread from Ethiopia into the Arabian world, and finally the establishment of the first coffee shop.1

Beginnings of the Plant

There are many types of coffee plant species that belong to the Coffea genus. The two most common are Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora. Coffea Arabica is referred to as Arabica, and makes up the vast majority of specialty coffee. Coffea Canephora is referred to as Robusta, and is commonly used in commodity grade coffee and it is considered lower quality than Arabica. I will be focusing on Arabica coffee since specialty coffee is what we are passionate about.

The coffee plant grows between the tropics of Cancer and the tropics of Capricorn. The coffee plants origins are all across central Africa. However, the Arabica plant’s origins are mostly in Southwest Ethiopia, modern day South Sudan, and Northern Kenya.2

Map of Coffee Origins

Kaldi the Goat Herder

As legend goes, there was an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. He would take his goats up the mountain and while they grazed for food, he would play music and write songs. There was a special note that the goats would always return to. But one day when Kaldi played this note, the goats did not return. When he found the goats, he noticed that they seemed hyper – dancing, playing, and frolicking. They were eating the berries from a peculiar plant, but the goats did not die. So on the next trip up the mountain, Kaldi partook of these mystery berries and joined the prancing goats in song. Kaldi shared the word of this fruit and it quickly spread through Ethiopia. Whether this legend is true or false, we are nearly certain that coffee was first consumed by people in Ethiopia.3

Kaldi the goat herder dancing with goats

From Ethiopia to the Arabian World

It is a common misconception that the origins of coffee reside in Yemen. It is unlikely that the birthplace of coffee is outside the Ethiopian region. However, it is likely that the first coffee plantations were constructed in Yemen. This possibly occurred during the Ethiopian occupation of the Arabian peninsula in the 6th century.4 It is also likely that the first time coffee seeds were roasted, crushed, extracted with water, and consumed, was in Yemen.5 However, this development did not occur until much later, around the 14th or 15th centuries. Until then, coffee was consumed in various ways which likely included the coffee cherry or the coffee leaves in the process.6 Coffee consumption was largely popularized by Yemeni Sufi monks who would use the drink to keep them awake during their overnight prayer ceremonies. It is likely that the Sufi monks spread the word of coffee. Eventually trade routes were set up around the Arabian peninsula. Trade routes and pilgrim caravans are likely how the majority of coffee spread across Arabia and to the west.7 However, it may be that the Ottomans, in modern day Turkey, first discovered coffee during the second Ottoman-Mamluk War when they conquered Arabia and Northern Africa in 1518.8

Arrow from ethiopia to yemen

The First Coffee Shop

There is disagreement about what the first coffee shop was. Some sources say that the first coffee shop opened in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) in 1457 or 1475 called “Kiva Han.”9,10 However, there is no documentation of this coffee shop and I find it unlikely because the Ottoman’s occupation of Arabia was not until the early 16th century. Although, we do have documentation from İbrahim Peçevi, an Ottoman-Bosnian historian, from his 17th century writings about the first coffee shop in Constantinople. He writes that two men, Hekim from Aleppo and Schems from Damascus, arrived in Constantinople and opened two large coffee houses in the Tahktacala district in 1554. These coffee houses were nicely furnished and were mainly places to conversate, study, or play tabletop games. This is an enduring feature of coffee houses.11,12,13 Eventually, when coffee shops opened in London during the 17th century they would be called “Penny Universities” because of the knowledge someone could gain from speaking to the patrons.14 Coffee shops being a social venue has largely remained constant throughout history and into the present. And it is likely to spread because the specialty coffee industry has seen a major boom over the last twenty years and sees no sign of slowing down.15

Depiction of an Ottoman coffee house

Depiction of an Ottoman coffee house by Amadeo Preziosi, 1854

 

  1. Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World. New York, NY, Basic Books, 2019.↩︎

  2. Anthony, F., et al. “The Origin of Cultivated Coffea Arabica L. Varieties Revealed by AFLP and SSR Markers.” Theoretical and Applied Genetics, vol. 104, no. 5, 2002, pp. 894–900. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-001-0798-8.↩︎

  3. Ukers, William, and L. Carr. All About Coffee - Classic Illustrated Edition. Independently published, 2019.↩︎

  4. Christides, Vassilios. “The Himyarite-Ethiopian War and the Ethiopian Occupation of South Arabia in the Acts of Gregentius (ca. 530 A.D.).” Annales d’Ethiopie, vol. 9, no. 1, 1972, pp. 115–46. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.3406/ethio.1972.896.↩︎

  5. Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World. New York, NY, Basic Books, 2019.↩︎

  6. Ukers, William, and L. Carr. All About Coffee - Classic Illustrated Edition. Independently published, 2019.↩︎

  7. Hattox, Ralph. Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East (Publications on the Near East). University of Washington Press ed, Seattle, WA, University of Washington Press, 1985.↩︎

  8. Thurston, Robert, et al. “Coffee, a Condensed History.” Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry, Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2017, pp. 215–25.↩︎

  9. Paajanen, Sean. “The Evolution of the Coffee House.” The Spruce Eats, 6 Feb. 2019, www.thespruceeats.com/evolution-of-the-coffee-house-765825.↩︎

  10. Xu, Jami. “Coffee.” Journal of Agricultural & Food Information, vol. 5, no. 3, 2003, pp. 79–86. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1300/j108v05n03_07.↩︎

  11. Hattox, Ralph. Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East (Publications on the Near East). University of Washington Press ed, Seattle, WA, University of Washington Press, 1985.↩︎

  12. Thurston, Robert, et al. “Coffee, a Condensed History.” Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry, Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2017, pp. 215–25↩︎

  13. Schimmel, Annemarie, and Bernard Lewis. “Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire.” Die Welt Des Islams, vol. 10, no. 1/2, 1965, pp. 132–33. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.2307/1569651.↩︎

  14. Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World. New York, NY, Basic Books, 2019.↩︎

  15. https://sca.coffee/research/specialty-coffee-facts-figures↩︎

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published