Carolyn

Coffee’s allure was not only because of its taste; coffee has risen to prominence as a global commodity because of religious, medicinal, and habitual uses. Coffee was widely consumed in the Middle East around the mid-fifteenth century. However, it is hard to determine a specific date of its arrival in due to the lack of written texts. The attraction to coffee was in part due to the health benefits. Like the tea-drinking monks of East Asia, they found the coffee to keep them awake during religious ceremonies. Myths claim Islamic leaders consumed coffee as a way to feel a closer spiritual connection with their God because of their heightened state. This gave a religious precedent for the consumption and cemented it as apart of Islamic culture and not just a social trend. As Sufism towards the West spread, so did drinking coffee. Early trade is the result of a religious practice turned cultural. The creation of the coffeehouse in the Ottoman Empire was revolutionary and expanded the public sphere as a space for business, to become a place of enlightenment. They were also safe spaces for intellectual curiosity and political engagement. After being introduced to European travelers, coffee was immediately popularized, thus increasing the demand for the commodity.

Miniatures were Turkish artwork in the Ottoman Empire. They depict some of the first accounts of a coffeehouse, which are still apart of present-day culture.

This is a preserved specimen of Coffea Arabica from Turkey. The cultivation of coffee farms blossomed as is spread towards the West with nations trying to grow coffee in their respective territories. Cultivation was unsuccessful in many regions because of the geographic climate; it grew well closer to the equator, most commonly in South America, South East Asia and Africa. Tropical commodities such as sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cocoa were especially valuable because they could not be grown everywhere.