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The history of coffee began in Ethiopia, where the Arabica coffee tree (Coffea arabica) grew as a bush. Initially the fruit was used as it was by local people, who either chewed it or ground it into small pellets. The earliest reliable reference to the consumption of coffee or knowledge of coffee trees appears in the mid-15th century in the monasteries of the Sufis of Yemen.

Name and myths

The name of coffee is derived from the Arabic word قهوة (qahwa) which is a corruption of part of the original Arabic name for coffee, qahwat al-būnn, meaning “wine of the bean”, referring to the fact that coffee is used as a substitute for wine, as the Qur’an forbids alcohol. When coffee first came to Europe it was known as ‘Arabic wine’. Another version attributes the name of coffee to the Kingdom of Kaffa, the region of Ethiopia where coffee began to be used.

The origin of coffee and the discovery of its properties have given rise to several myths. The most important ones are the one that attributes the discovery of coffee’s properties to an Ethiopian goatherd, Kaldi, who observed that his animals became more active when they ate the fruit of the coffee plant (the myth of dancing goats) and the one that says that coffee was given to Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel in order to give him strength and endurance.

Arab world

From Africa, coffee passed to Yemen, where it was brought by slaves from what is now Sudan. The first mention of coffee by Muslims is from around 900 AD in the writings of the Persian physician Razi, and it is estimated that the preparation of coffee as we know it today (by roasting the beans and boiling them) began around the 14th century. The first detailed account we have of the origin and use of coffee is a work by Abd al-Qadir al-Jaziri from 1587, which states that the first person to introduce the use of coffee was the mufti of Aden in the 14th century. It is also mentioned that coffee was a popular beverage and that it was drunk by adding cornflour and cinnamon. This bitter beverage was made with coffee beans from Egypt, which at that time was also developing in the same way.

From Yemen, coffee spread further north to Mecca and Medina, and from there to the major cities of North Africa. Coffee’s ability to combat drowsiness made it popular among the Sufis, and as the Qur’an forbids the use of alcohol, coffee was considered a good substitute, and socially its use was the same as that of alcohol in the West: coffee houses became a place of gathering, discussion, entertainment and even gambling. The first cafés were opened in Mocha, which was the main port from which coffee was distributed. Several times, due to their nature, coffee shops became a place of political discussion and activity, and for this reason several attempts were made to close them down, but without success due to the popularity of the drink. Attempts to ban coffee in general as a stimulant, both by hardline imams in Mecca and Cairo, and later by the Ethiopian Church, met with the same fate.

In 1511 Cair Begg outlawed coffee and coffee shops within Mecca. At that time, coffee was widely used by Muslims to prepare themselves and stay awake during evening prayers, some even believed that the sense of alertness coffee gave them brought them closer to God. Qansu al-Ghauri, the Sultan of Cairo, insisted that there could be no ban without his prior approval. The story is a little unclear as to what happened next. Some reports suggest that the Sultan lifted the ban on coffee, sentencing Cair Begg to death; others say that the Sultan simply replaced Cair Begg with a new ruler the following year who was not opposed to coffee. Regardless, the ban on coffee did not last long.

Passage to Europe

Coffee (as a finished product, as the Arabs strictly prohibited the export of beans) passed to Europe from Venice, which had strong trade relations with the Arab world, in the late 16th century. It was initially made available by Venetian merchants to the wealthy as an exotic species. Its popularity grew after Pope Clement VIII, against the advice of his entourage to excommunicate coffee as an Islamic threat to Christianity, tried coffee in 1600, found it to be excellent and ‘christened’ it a Christian beverage. The first coffee shop opened in Italy in 1645.

The Dutch were the first to obtain coffee seeds and cultivate it, initially in their colonies in Indonesia. Around the same time, the coffee plant also made its way to India, where Baba Buntan smuggled seeds by hiding them in the folds of his clothes on his return from Mecca.

The popularity of coffee grew rapidly in Europe; in England there were 3000 coffee houses in 1675. Coffee arrived in France in 1657 and in 1669 the gift brought to Paris by the envoy of Sultan Mohammed IV was a large quantity of coffee.

One of the spoils of the Poles, Austrians and Germans after their victory in Vienna in 1683 was the many sacks of coffee left behind by the defeated Ottoman army. Franczysek Kulczyk, a Polish officer who was given the coffee sacks as a gift for his bravery, opened a coffee shop and pioneered the addition of sugar and milk to coffee. This victory thus became the occasion for the spread of coffee in Austria, Poland and Germany.

The American continent

Coffee was brought to the Americas by the French, through their colonies in Martinique, French Guiana and elsewhere. The first plants were brought to Martinique by Gabriel de Cleu in 1714. From there it passed to French Guiana. In 1727, Francisco Palieta was sent by the King of Brazil to Guyana to bring coffee seeds to be grown in his country. As getting the seeds proved difficult, Palcheta solved the problem by seducing the wife of the French ruler, who gave him coffee seeds and germs, and the plant was brought to Brazil, which is now the country with the largest coffee production in the world.

Around the same time coffee was grown in Jamaica, in 1740 in Mexico, in 1784 in Venezuela and at the end of the century in Colombia. In 1893, coffee passed from Brazil to Kenya and Tanzania, completing its transcontinental journey that began a little further north, in Ethiopia, 900 years ago.