Coffee History & Today

Going back past the 10^th century, coffee was eaten by wandering tribesmen in Abyssinia and Arabia. Crushing of beans came at a later date and not until 1000 AD. This is when the Arabs discovered how to boil water and prepare this hot drink. The Arabs guarded their secret, but delighted Pilgrims smuggled fertile beans out and so coffee grew in surrounding areas. By the 13^th century, Arabian life was socially enhanced by coffee in the mainstream. By 1615 voyagers returned to Venice with some. Soon, the Roman clergy condemned it as a drink of the devil. Upon sampling coffee, Pope Clement VIII hoped to resolve this matter, only finding himself to be delighted! Coffee was then blessed with Papal approval and spread throughout Italy and it wasn’t long after the first European coffeehouses were opened. In 1637 the first English coffeehouses are recorded in history, after that in Great Britain. Up to the 17^th century, almost all coffee came from Arabia, until a daring French navy captain smuggled out a fertile coffee plant and it went on to flourish in Martinique. Back in the U.S.A. 1660, coffee arrived in North America courtesy of the Dutch in what we call New York today. In those days, tea was the mainstream drink, coffee only to be enjoyed by the affluent. That changed in 1773 at the “Boston Tea Party” forging the Americans tax revolt to tea and their new bond with coffee! Coffee soon became the national beverage – a position it still holds today, and coffee will always be considered a staple and a luxury in the American life.

Coffee Today

Since 1989, big “gourmet” coffee dealers, have driven coffee beyond the “morning eye opener” to become more of a cultural thing. In big cities across America, coffee is consumed, morning noon and night, summer and winter. American coffee shops have excelled in imitation of European coffee shops, which remain so much a part of their daily social experience. Many Europeans meet at outdoor café’s to read the paper and discuss issues of the day. However, Americans have tolerated weeks to months old coffee – where the Europeans demand fresh roasted coffee. Worldwide demand for coffee has remained such that it is one of the most valuable commodities in the world trade. In terms of U.S. dollars, it is second only to petroleum in international commerce traded over several years. Coffee is all-American! One third of all coffee exports come to the U.S. The over-all industry employs some 20 million people. Coffeehouses have popped up all around the country since the 1980’s. They are excellent, often cultural, and stimulating alternative establishments.