The History of Coffee

Legend holds that in the Kaffa region of the Ethiopian highlands, a goatherd named Kaldi noticed his goats grew lively after eating red berries. Those berries were wild coffee cherries. Kaldi is said to have brought them to monks at a nearby monastery, who began using them to stave off drowsiness during night prayers.

In the 15th century, Yemen’s Sufis (Islamic mystics) began using coffee to stay focused during late-night devotions (dhikr). It spread from the port of Aden across the Arabian Peninsula, and the port of Mocha (al-Mukhā) became the hub of the international coffee trade. To protect its export monopoly, Yemen at first exported only roasted beans that could not germinate.

In the 1530s, the world’s first coffeehouses opened in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Known as “schools of the wise” (Mektebi İrfan), they became salons where intellectuals, merchants and artists gathered. Chess, backgammon and poetry readings took place, and they became venues for political debate. Some rulers, fearing their danger, tried and failed to ban coffee.

Around 1600, coffee reached Europe through Venetian merchants. Some Catholic priests urged Pope Clement VIII to ban it as “the Muslim devil’s drink.” But after tasting it, the Pope reportedly said it would be a shame to leave it to the infidels alone, and approved it as a Christian drink. This “papal baptism” accelerated its spread across Europe.

The first coffeehouse opened in London in 1652 and spread rapidly, exceeding 2,000 by the early 1700s. Open to all regardless of class, they were called “Penny Universities.” Lloyd’s of London, the London Stock Exchange and the auction house Sotheby’s all trace their origins to coffeehouses. At the Café de Procope in Paris, Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot debated, providing intellectual soil for the French Revolution.

The Dutch East India Company first brought coffee to Indonesia (Java) and began large-scale cultivation. Later, the French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu carried a small seedling to Martinique, expanding into the Caribbean and Latin America. Coffee reached Brazil via Portugal in 1727 and, in just a century, made it the world’s largest producer. After the Boston Tea Party (1773), coffee became America’s national drink.

The Industrial Revolution spread coffee as a cheap wake-up drink for factory workers. In 1865, James Mason invented a coffee grinder, enabling fresh grinding at home. In 1901, Japanese-American Satori Kato patented instant coffee. In both World Wars, instant coffee was adopted as military rations and spread to soldiers worldwide. The postwar canned-coffee culture began.

In postwar America, supermarket instant and canned coffee became everyday goods. Quantity and cheapness mattered more than quality, and weak “American coffee” became the norm. In Japan, the world’s first canned coffee (UCC Milk Coffee) launched in 1969, and together with vending-machine culture, a distinctive canned-coffee culture blossomed. Coffee in this era was mainly about a caffeine fix.

Founded in 1971, Starbucks brought Italian espresso culture to America. Menus like latte, cappuccino and Frappuccino redefined coffee as an “experience,” and the concept of the “third place” swept the world. Coffee came to be discussed not by single origin or region but by blend name and roast level. Seattle-style cafés surged in Japan too.

From the 2000s, the “specialty coffee” movement rose, discussing coffee like wine — by origin, variety, process and farmer name. Light roasts that draw out a bean’s character drew attention, and single-origin direct trade spread. Panama Geisha fetched a record price at a 2004 auction, stunning the world. In Japan too, interest in “third-wave cafés” and processing methods is spreading to the general public.

Coffee is said to have reached Japan around the 17th century through exchanges with the Dutch on Dejima. In 1888, Japan’s first coffeehouse, “Kahiichakan,” opened in Ueno, Tokyo. Through the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa eras, kissaten culture developed in its own way, spawning diverse formats — jun-kissa, music cafés, manga cafés and more. Japan is now the world’s third-largest coffee importer. A third-wave-style culture spread rapidly from around 2015, when Blue Bottle Coffee opened in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa.