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1300s-1400s
1300s-1400s
Coffee was discovered in the Ethiopian highlands, where eating the berries or roasting and brewing them whole became popular. Coffee arabica is native to Ethiopia, which is one of the top producers of coffee today.
Mid-1400s
Mid-1400s
Coffee spread to Yemen, where the drink was first used by Sufi mystics as an aid to worship. Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam that seeks to draw closer to the divine. Followers used coffee to focus, stay awake for long hours of prayer and meditation, and to reach ecstatic and euphoric states in order to be closer to Allah.
Wikimedia Commons/Tiwahi CC by SA 4.0
© Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
1497-99
1497-99
Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese explorer, made his first voyage around Africa to India at the end of 15th century. His voyage marked the first successful route to India that did not have to go through the Ottoman Empire, meaning that Portuguese traders could make vast inroads into the spice trade without heavy taxing and restrictions.
For the Ottomans, that meant less profits from their spice trading ports such as Cairo, which capitalized on the demand for spices in Europe. However, coffee was taking off as an important commodity within the Ottoman Empire, which helped replace some of the lost profits.
Early 1500s
Early 1500s
Through networks of Sufi convents and traders, coffee spread up the Hejaz (the west coast of the Arabian peninsula) and into Egypt. In important urban centers like Mecca, Medina, and Cairo, coffee become hugely popular among men, who would meet to drink it in public spaces, mosques, and coffeehouses.
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Jacques-Nicolas Bellin: Plan de la Ville de Moka, from: Le petit atlas maritime..., Vol. III, pl. 20, Paris 1764
1538
1538
In 1538, Yemen was conquered and became part of the Ottoman Empire, and was ruled by Ottoman governors for the following decades. Yemen was a key conquest for the Ottomans because of its geographical location at the heart of the spice trade, and because most of the coffee in the world was produced in Yemen at the time.
Mocha, a port city on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula and the namesake of the coffee-chocolate beverage, controlled the majority of coffee trade in this period. As coffee drinking gained popularity in the Ottoman Empire, Mocha's status as an important port only increased.
1555
1555
By the mid-1500s, coffee had spread up through Anatolia to Syria and Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. There, coffeehouses began to pop up in every neighborhood as a space for men to gather and relax.
Coffeehouse (from 'Voyage Pittoresque de Constantinople') - Antoine Ignace Melling
© Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
Late 1500s
Late 1500s
By the late 1500s, coffee drinking had reached the farthest reaches of the Ottoman Empire. The empire was very diverse and contained Muslims, Christians, Jews, and a variety of other ethnic and religious groups. Coffee, even in the Ottoman holdings in the Balkans, took hold. Christians adopted coffee culture wholesale and founded their own coffee shops that served coffee in the Ottoman way, without milk or sugar.
1600
1600
Coffee first reached Europe through Italy, another important center of trade in the Mediterranean. Coffee was initially viewed as an exotic Ottoman beverage, often represented by caricatures like the Turk in this painting of a Viennese coffeehouse. Like in the Ottoman Empire, coffee drinking took off in Europe and exports of Yemeni coffee, shipped from Yemen, increased.
"To the blue bottles", old Viennese coffee house scene (c.1900), by an Unknown artist
Murad by Abdulcelil Levni
1633
1633
As coffeehouses spread in the Ottoman Empire, so did concern over what was going on inside them. In 1633, the reigning Sultan Murad IV banned coffeehouses amidst fears that they were breeding grounds for sedition and subversive politics. Despite brutal attempts to enforce this ban, it was not successful in closing down coffeehouses. This ban was one of multiple in the 16th and 17th centuries in both the Ottoman Empire and Europe in which government officials and religious figures condemned and attempted to suppress coffee culture.
Coffeehouses were meeting places for men which were outside of the religious confines of the mosque. They also had little government oversight and encouraged an atmosphere of community, discussion, and learning. There is evidence that men frequently gossiped about community members, discussed politics, listened to lectures or satirical stories about sultans and their governments, and generally expressed subversive viewpoints.
1711
1711
As popularity of coffee rose in Europe, so did demand for a European source. The Dutch East India Company seized the opportunity to fill that niche by starting coffee plantations on Java, an island in the Dutch East Indies.
The new source of coffee added to its popularity in Europe, and was another blow to the Ottoman Empire's profits in Mediterranean trade.
Historical map by The Century Company
Coffee For Less
1727
1727
Coffee was introduced to Brazil in 1727 and to many other colonies in the Americas throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Demand for coffee worldwide grew and Yemeni coffee production was outpaced by European colonies.
Today, coffee's birthplace of Ethiopia remains a major coffee producer. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of coffee, which is drunk in a variety of ways and cultures around the world.
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