The History of Coffee

What are the origins of coffee?

No real evidence exists to show exactly when or how coffee was first discovered.

Coffee legends

Many colourful legends surround the origins of coffee cultivation. Some believe that coffee as we know it was first discovered when a third century Ethiopian¹ goat keeper noticed his herd behaving like young kids after eating some stimulating red coffee berries! The goat keeper shared his discovery with the Abbot of a nearby monastery, who decided to test the power of the berry himself.

He poured boiling water onto the berries he had collected and made a drink which he found helped him to stay awake during long hours of prayer.

While many other legends deal with the origins of coffee, its actual discovery remains a mystery – which is hardly surprising, given that coffee’s known history dates back thousands of years.

Coffee facts

Legends aside, we know for a fact that the first commercial cultivation was reported in Arabia2 in the 15th century. For a long time, trade in the precious commodity was jealously guarded, with Arab farmers making every effort to stop other countries acquiring their precious beans. Over time, however, seed-beans and plant cuttings found their way to Aden, Egypt, Syria and Turkey3, where coffee become known as the ‘wine of Araby.’

From Arabia to the world

Before long, public coffee houses were open in every city in the Near East. Soon, the first shipment of coffee beans arrived in Europe4 and coffee’s popularity spread like wildfire. By the end of the 17th century, coffee houses plied their busy trade all across Austria, France, Germany, Holland and England.

The Dutch began to grow coffee in the Far East, and Britain and France followed suit in introducing coffee to their colonies. In America5, coffee became increasingly popular after the famous Boston Tea Party, when people revolted against the high tax King George placed on tea.

In the 18th century, missionaries, traders and colonists took coffee to Central and South America6. The natural environment proved ideal for cultivating coffee, and coffee growing spread rapidly. By the late 1800s coffee had become one of the world’s major export crops, especially in developing countries.

Coffee today

Today, coffee is one of the world’s largest trading commodities – second only to oil. It is worth over $12 billion US dollars in trade every year, mainly between developing countries, where it is grown, and industrialised countries, where it is consumed.

The price of coffee remains highly volatile. Being an agricultural commodity, coffee suffers from sharp variations in supply as a result of changes in environmental conditions. Most of the world’s coffee crop is produced in Southern and Central America. Coffee is also grown in commercial quantities in Africa and Asia7.

On the consumption side, the United States is the biggest importer of coffee, taking around a sixth of the world’s yearly crop. However, the nation that consumes the most per capita is Finland, with the average Finn drinking around 1400 cups each year! In Australia, the average consumption is 463* cups per person per year, making Australians the 17th biggest consumers of coffee!

*Source: World of Coffee 2002; Nestec Ltd. Avenue Nestle 55 CH - 180-0 Vevey (Switzerland).

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