Ethiopia, along with Kenya and Tanzania, is often called the cradle of human civilization. It was in the river valleys of the Omo and Awash that archaeologists discovered the earliest remains of primitive humans. But Ethiopia is not only the birthplace of humankind — it is also the homeland of one of humanity’s most beloved beverages: coffee.
As Agent Cooper in the TV series Twin Peaks liked to say, “What could be better than a cup of black coffee?” Indeed, nothing — except, perhaps, imagining the long journey coffee beans have taken to end up in that very cup.
Sages and Dancing Goats
The story of coffee begins with legends and myths that stretch back through the ages to the Ethiopian Highlands. According to tradition, a goatherd named Kaldi from the province of Kaffa (some believe the word “coffee” itself derives from this name) discovered mysterious berries that made his goats unusually energetic — they refused to sleep and danced with excess vitality.
Astonished, Kaldi brought his discovery to the abbot of a local monastery, along with a handful of berries. The monk, suspicious of their seemingly magical effects, threw them into the fire — unknowingly becoming the world’s first coffee roaster. As the alluring aroma filled the air, the other monks took notice, examined the roasted beans, and soon brewed what would become the world’s first cup of coffee. This Ethiopian tale was first recorded in 1671 by Lebanese writer Antoine Faustus Naironi in his book De Saluberrima potione Cahue seu Cafe nuncupata Discurscus, retelling it from Roman acquaintances — making the story difficult to verify, though equally hard to disprove.
Another coffee origin story, also from Ethiopia, involves the 13th-century Sufi mystic Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili. While traveling through Ethiopia, he noticed birds of unusual vitality feeding on mysterious red berries. Naturally, he decided to try them himself — and felt the same burst of energy. So inspired was al-Shadhili that he composed a qasidah (poem) in honor of coffee. For the Sufis, who often engaged in long, meditative prayers in seclusion, the invigorating drink became especially significant. It was they who helped spread coffee’s popularity. Port by port, the Islamic world passed along knowledge of this wondrous beverage until its reputation finally reached the Arabian Peninsula.
It was there — in Yemen’s Arabian region — that coffee’s story began anew. The southern part of the peninsula offered ideal conditions for cultivating coffee, while its ports, especially the famed port of Mocha, provided a gateway for global export. From Yemen, coffee made its way to Mecca and Medina — key Islamic centers — and from there, with pilgrims, it traveled to Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, and Constantinople. By the 16th century, coffee was well known in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. It was called qahwa — a term meaning “invigorating spirit,” originally associated with wine. Across the Ottoman Empire and into Europe, coffee became known as “the wine of Arabia.”
Coffee was enjoyed not only at home, but also in public coffeehouses known as qahveh khaneh. In Cairo, they sprang up around Al-Azhar University, one of the oldest in the world. In Syria, Aleppo — a cosmopolitan city — became the capital of coffeehouses. But it was in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople, that these modest establishments truly flourished. There, coffee was often shared from a large communal bowl, much like wine. Patrons gathered to converse, listen to music, watch performances, play chess, and exchange news. Coffeehouses quickly gained a reputation as vital centers of information exchange — they were called “schools of the wise.” For centuries, coffee drinking became an inseparable part of Islamic culture.
Yet even in Arabia, coffee’s journey wasn’t smooth. In 1511, conservative orthodox imams in a religious court in Mecca banned it due to its stimulating effects. The ban was lifted in 1524 by order of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I. Cairo followed a similar pattern, briefly outlawing coffee in 1532; coffeehouses and warehouses were raided, their coffee stores looted. Ethiopia, too, at times rejected coffee. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church condemned it as a “Muslim drink.” But in the latter half of the 19th century, these suspicions were dispelled — largely thanks to Emperor Menelik II, an avid coffee drinker himself.
Coffee Comes to Europe
European travelers returning from the Middle East brought with them not only exotic goods but also tales of a curious dark beverage. Englishmen passing through the Ottoman Empire in the late 16th century consistently noted that coffee “greatly aids digestion, stimulates the spirit, and purifies the blood.” By the 17th century, coffee had made its way to Europe — and though Europeans were initially wary, they soon fell in love with it forever.
Coffee’s European debut was closely tied to Turkish expansion. It first appeared in Hungary after the Ottoman victory at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. From there, it reached Vienna during the Ottoman-Habsburg wars, when Turkish forces laid siege to the Austrian capital.
Later in the 16th century, coffee arrived on the island of Malta. Turkish Muslim prisoners, captured by the Knights of Malta, brewed the traditional drink while in captivity. In 1663, German traveler Gustav Sommerfeldt wrote admiringly of “the skill and diligence with which the Turkish captives earned a few coins, especially by preparing coffee — a powder resembling snuff, mixed with water and sugar.”
Lively trade between the Republic of Venice and the peoples of the East brought many African goods into this European port — including coffee. Venetian merchants introduced the drink to the city’s wealthy elite, charging high prices for each cup. In 1591, Venetian botanist and physician Prospero Alpini became the first European to publish a description of the coffee plant.
The Rise of the Coffeehouse
The first European coffeehouse — beyond those already established in the Ottoman Empire and Malta — opened in Venice in 1645.
Not everyone welcomed the new drink. Some viewed it with suspicion and fear. Members of the clergy even condemned coffee as “the bitter invention of Satan.” Eventually, the issue was brought before Pope Clement VIII. He decided to taste the beverage before making a judgment — and found it so delightful that he gave coffee his papal blessing.
As in the East, coffeehouses in Europe rapidly became hubs of public life in major cities across England, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. In England, they were called “penny universities” — for the price of a penny, one could buy a cup of coffee and join in lively discussions. By the mid-17th century, over 300 coffeehouses were operating in London. Some even evolved into major institutions. For example, the Lloyd’s of London insurance market had its beginnings in Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse.
Gradually, coffee began to replace the usual breakfast drinks of the time — beer and wine. Those who drank coffee instead of alcohol started their days sharper and more energetic, and their work improved considerably (no surprise there!).
Vienna developed its own unique coffeehouse culture, which soon spread across Central Europe. Scholars, artists, intellectuals, and financiers met in the rich microcosm of Viennese cafés. Gustav Klimt, Sigmund Freud, James Joyce, and Egon Schiele all drew inspiration from these spaces. Writer Stefan Zweig famously called them “centers of enlightenment.”
In the diverse coffee culture of the Habsburg Empire, new brewing traditions also emerged. It was in Vienna that people first began adding milk to coffee, serving it with a glass of water, and pairing it with desserts like the Sachertorte, Esterházy cake, and apple strudel. The Viennese also created the melange, a coffee drink known as Kapuziner, which later inspired the Italian cappuccino — now one of the most famous coffee drinks in the world.
In France, coffee also gained popularity thanks to a clever and theatrical move by the Ottomans. In 1669, Soleiman Agha, ambassador of Sultan Mehmed IV, arrived in Paris with his entourage and a large supply of coffee beans. The Ottoman envoy not only hosted guests, but also made frequent visits himself, often presenting coffee beans as gifts. During his six-month stay in the French capital, Soleiman succeeded in making Parisians fall in love with coffee. What impressed the Parisian elite wasn’t just the drink itself, but the way it was served: in gleaming porcelain cups, on napkins trimmed with gold fringe, amid luxurious furnishings. We can still imagine — and often see — such elegant service in cafés today.
Bach and the Coffee Cantata
In the 18th century, coffee finally conquered a region that had long resisted it — the German-speaking lands. Composer Johann Sebastian Bach, who served as cantor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750, also led a small orchestra that performed at the local Zimmermann coffeehouse. Between 1732 and 1735, he composed the Coffee Cantata, commissioned by the café. In the piece, a young woman pleads with her father to accept her deep love of coffee. The cantata was Bach’s witty response to a growing movement that sought to ban coffee — especially for women.
As demand for the beverage continued to rise, fierce competition eventually emerged over the right to grow coffee outside of Arabia. The Dutch acquired coffee seedlings in the latter half of the 17th century. Their initial attempts to cultivate the plants in India failed, but they found success in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta), the capital of the Dutch East Indies on the island of Java. There, the plants thrived. Soon, the Dutch had a productive and rapidly expanding coffee industry. They continued growing coffee trees on the islands of Sumatra and Sulawesi. By the mid-1600s, coffee had even reached New Amsterdam — the settlement that the British would later rename New York.
Coffee Comes to the Americas
In 1714, the mayor of Amsterdam gifted a young coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France. The king ordered it to be planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. In 1723, a young naval officer named Gabriel de Clieu managed to obtain a seedling from the king’s tree. Despite a perilous journey marked by storms, a saboteur who tried to destroy the plant, and attacks by pirates, de Clieu successfully transported the seedling to Martinique. Over the next fifty years, that single plant is said to have yielded 18 million coffee trees — becoming the ancestor of all the coffee plants in the Caribbean, as well as in Central and South America. Or so de Clieu himself claimed.
Brazil owes its coffee legacy to a Portuguese officer named Francisco de Mello Palheta. The emperor sent him to French Guiana to obtain coffee seedlings. The French were reluctant to share, but the wife of the French governor, reportedly charmed by Palheta’s good looks, presented him with a large bouquet of flowers before his departure — hiding within it enough coffee seeds to start what would become a multibillion-dollar industry. By 1852, Brazil had become the world’s largest coffee producer — a title it has maintained ever since. Between 1850 and 1950, Brazil dominated the global market, exporting more coffee than the rest of the world combined.
Post-1950: Coffee Conquers the World
The period following 1950 saw the expansion of the global coffee trade with the emergence of several other major producers — including Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Vietnam.
Missionaries and travelers, merchants and colonists continued carrying coffee seeds to new lands — and coffee, remarkably adaptable to new environments, slowly took over the world. Plantations sprang up in lush tropical rainforests and on harsh mountain highlands. Some crops flourished, while others proved short-lived. Entire nations were shaped by coffee-based economies. Fortunes were made — and lost. By the end of the 18th century, coffee had become one of the most profitable export commodities in the world.
The United States — originally a tea-drinking nation — became a coffee country after King George III imposed heavy taxes on tea in 1773. American colonists rebelled. On December 16 of that year, they boarded British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped an entire shipment of tea into the sea. This act of defiance became known as the Boston Tea Party. Tea came to symbolize tyranny, while coffee became the drink of freedom. Drinking tea was seen as unpatriotic, and Americans turned en masse to coffee. Eventually, it was in the U.S. that President Thomas Jefferson famously declared coffee to be “the favorite drink of the civilized world.”
Later, in the United States, coffee found a new life once again. In 1938, the U.S. Coffee Institute came up with the idea of an instant version of the beverage. Nestlé joined the effort, and the new drink was named Nescafé — a blend of the words “Nestlé” and “café.”
But Europe wasn’t far behind. In 1933, in Turin, Italian engineer Luigi di Ponti invented the first moka pot (stovetop espresso maker) and sold the patent to Alfonso Bialetti. In 1946, Alfonso’s son Renato launched industrial-scale production, selling millions of the coffee makers in just one year.
The U.S. responded with Starbucks, a franchise founded in Seattle in 1971. Starbucks became the epitome of the third wave of coffee — a movement that gave coffee lovers drinks in all formats, endless menus, flavored syrups, and a sense of belonging to a global subculture. Over time, the coffee to go format also gained huge popularity — beverages taken on the move.
Today, more than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed around the world every single day. And it looks like it’s time to add one more to the count.
