history of coffee

C850

According to legend, coffee was initially discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. He noticed that his goats were acting suspiciously irregular one day and he wanted to find out the reason of this erratic behaviour. 

He soon discovered that his goats were eating berries from an unusual little shrub nearby. Kaldi tried the berries from that little tree we know today as coffee and soon after felt alert and full of energy. From here word spread quickly and the rest is history.

 

800 A.D

Coffee was first harvested in Ethiopia.

 

PRE 1000 A.D

History has it that members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia also reported feeling energetic when consuming the coffee berries. Ethiopians also began to make a wine from the pulp of fermented coffee berries called 'qishr'.

 

1100 A.D

The first coffee trees were cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs also started roasting coffee beans and brewing a drink called Qahwa meaning "spirit drink".

 

1453 A.D

Ottoman Turks introduce coffee into Constantinople.

 

1475 A.D

Kiva Han, the world’s first coffee shop, opens its doors in Constantinople.

Fact!

Turkey passes a law making it legal for a Turkish woman to divorce her husband if he fails to provide her with her daily coffee requirements.

 

1511

The corrupt Governor of Mecca, Khair Beg, tries to ban coffee fearing that its influence may promote opposition to his rule. The Sultan has the Governor executed and sends word that coffee is sacred.

 

1600

Coffee is introduced to Europe by Italian Traders transported through the port of Venice.

 

1607

Captain John Smith, founder of Virginia at Jamestown introduces coffee to the new world.

 

1645

The first coffee house in Italy opens.

 

1652

The first coffee house in England opens in St Michael’s Alley, Cornhill. Coffee houses were known as Penny Universities in England because admission would cost a penny. 

 

1668

New Yorkers replace Beer for Coffee as their favourite breakfast drink.

 

1670

In India coffee was first cultivated in Chikkamagaluru on Baba Budin Giri.

 

1672

The first coffee house in Paris opens.

 

1675

Central Europe’s first coffee house is opened by Franz George Kolschitzy who also refines the brew by filtering out the grounds, adding sugar and a dash of milk.

 

1683

The first coffee house in Vienna, Italy opens.

 

1688

Edward Lloyd’s opens its doors in London. Eventually it becomes Lloyd’s of London the world’s most reputable insurance company.

 

1690

The Dutch become the first to cultivate and transport coffee commercially to Ceylon and Java with beginnings starting from a coffee plant being smuggled out of the Arab Port of Mocha.

 

1696 

Coffee was introduced to Indonesia (Batavia – now known as Jakarta) by the Dutch.

 

1713

The Dutch provide Louis XIV of France with a coffee plant and within the next half century a formal survey records 19 million coffee trees on Martinique. 90% of the world’s coffee can be attributed to this plant.

 

1721

The first coffee house in Berlin opens.

 

1727

Brazil’s coffee industry gets its start from Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta who smuggles out seedlings from Paris into Brazil.

 

1732

Kaffee-Kantate is composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

1748

Coffee was brought into Cuba by Antonio Gelabert who brought seeds from Haiti and started a plantation in the town of Wajay, Province of La Habana.

 

1750

Café Greco one of Europe’s first coffee houses, opens in Rome. Venice has over 2,000 coffee establishments by 1763.

 

1773

Drinking coffee in America is made a patriotic duty by the Boston Tea Party.

 

1775

Frederick the Great of Prussia blocks the importation of Green Coffee Beans, as Prussia’s wealth dwindles away only to reverse the ban because of public outcry. 

 

1779

A Spanish Traveller by the name of Navarro, introduced Cuban coffee to Costa Rica.

 

1822

The first espresso machine prototype is created in France.

 

1885

The most popular method of roasting was the process of using natural gas and hot air.

 

1886

Joel Cheek a former wholesale grocer names his popular coffee blend “Maxwell House”, after the hotel in Nashville Tennessee where it was served.

 

1900

The Hills Bros began packing coffee in vacuum sealed tins.

 

1901

A Japanese/American chemist by the name of Satori Kato of Chicago invents the first soluble instant style coffee.

 

1901

An Italian by the name of Luigi Bezzera, an owner of a manufacturing company in Milan, wanted to reduce the coffee break time of employees. He introduced the idea of adding pressure to the brewing process, reducing the time required to brew the coffee. He named his machine the Espresso Machine (Espresso = Fast)

 

1903

Ludwig Roselius a German coffee importer collaborates with a team of researchers, perfecting the removal of caffeine from coffee beans with steam without destroying the flavour characteristics > Decaffeination.

Ludwig markets the decaffeinated product under the name ‘Sanka’ which is introduced into the United States in 1923.

 

1905

The very first espresso machine made for commercial use is manufactured in Italy. 

 

1906

George Constant Washington, an English Chemist living in Guatemala, creates the first commercially mass-produced instant coffee.

 

1907 

97% of the world’s coffee bean harvest is produced by Brazil in less than a century.

 

1920

Coffee sales and consumption booms as prohibition comes into effect in the United States.

 

1933

The first automatic espresso machine is developed by Dr. Ernest Illy.

 

1938

Nestle invents freeze dried coffee (Nescafe) as a solution to Brazil’s surplus coffee stockpile problem. Nescafe is introduced into Switzerland.

 

1942

During WWII, Maxwell House Instant Coffee is supplied to American Soldiers ration kits.

 

1946

Achilles Gaggia perfects his Espresso Machine with a high pressure extraction piston that produces a thick smooth layer of coffee crema. Cappuccino is named after the colour of the robes worn by the monks of the Capuchin order.

 

1969

Heiress Abigail Folger (Folgers Coffee) is murdered in the home of filmmaker Roman Polanski – The Manson Family Murders.

 

1971

Starbucks’ very first store opens its doors in Seattle (Pike Place Public Market).

 

TODAY

Today coffee is the most popular beverage with over 2.25 billion coffees being consumed daily. It is also the second largest traded commodity, second only to oil.