However it was first introduced to humanity, a modern-style cup of coffee, derived from roasted and ground beans and hot water, comes from somewhere around the Thirteenth Century. The drink was very popular with the Muslim population of the Eastern Mediterranean, as it was used both as a stimulant to expand times of prayer and as a social drink for a culture who could not consume alcohol.

            The Ottoman Empire gets most of the credit for introducing coffee to the rest of the world. A coffeehouse established in Istanbul in 1554 is credited as the first outside of the Arabian Peninsula, but there were likely others before it, now lost to history. From there, it was introduced to Europeans by those who travelled through Ottoman territories for trade. It spread through Europe over the course of the Sixteenth Century through this trade as well as by enslaved Muslims who taught the drink to their masters. A supply left behind by the Ottomans after the Siege of Vienna set the stage for European coffee culture.

            These years coincided with various European colonization efforts across the globe. The Dutch discovered the plant grew well in their Southeast Asia territories, particularly the island of Java, from which we get one of the many names for coffee. The Portuguese added it to their territories in Brazil in the first decades of the Eighteenth Century, where it could be tended by the same enslaved labor used on their sugar plantations. The English and French did some coffee cultivation in the Caribbean but were far more influential as buyers than producers.

             By the Seventeenth Century, in many European households, coffee had replaced the traditional breakfast drinks of watered wine or small beer. Coffee houses were also found in every major city in Europe, but coffee houses were for socializing, not getting one’s morning cup. Coffee houses gained a reputation as meeting places for students, intellectuals, and revolutionaries. This last one comes, in part, from the American Colonies, where coffee was associated with the boycott of various British goods being taxed after the French and Indian War. Loyalists drank tea, declaring their support of the crown’s policies, while the revolutionaries drank coffee (or chocolate) and planned how to break away.

            Recent decades have seen a massive change in the types of coffee people drink.  Espresso was invented in Italy in the early twentieth century, allowing for the creation of espresso-based drinks like cappuccinos and lattes. The once-ubiquitous percolator on stoves in the United States was replaced by the drip coffeemaker in the 1950s. Drip-brewed coffee, with cream and sugar added for many, was the standard for many years, until the “reintroduction” of the coffeehouse (Starbucks takes the credit for this, but they aren’t the only ones), which brought in all of the more complex coffee drinks so common in the early 21st century.

            Today, coffee is the second-most sought-after commodity in the world. As of a 2018 study, the industry as a whole is worth $100 billion dollars and approximately 500 billion cups of coffee are consumed annually around the globe. However you take your coffee, we hope today’s Caffeinated History helped you to better appreciate this most ubiquitous of beverages.