The History of Coffee: From Ancient Discovery to Global Culture

The story of goats dancing through the night on the Ethiopian highlands is, on closer examination, a legend that did not appear in written records until after the 17th century.^[1] The tale of a young shepherd named Kaldi who noticed his goats growing restless and sleepless after eating red berries — and reported this to the monastery abbot — is a founding myth eagerly cited by coffee brands today, yet scholars regard it as closer to literary invention than historical fact. The truly interesting story lies elsewhere. Coffee began as a drink consumed to aid monastic devotion, was banned as sacrilege, became a hotbed of revolution, acquired a new name through war, and was finally sealed inside a metal capsule. Few beverages have accumulated such a complex cultural history over centuries.

The Kaldi Legend and Its Credibility

The most widely known story about the origins of coffee in Ethiopia is the legend of the shepherd Kaldi. Around the 9th century, a young shepherd in the Kaffa region named Kaldi supposedly witnessed his goats eating red berries and then growing so excited they could not sleep through the night. He reported this to the monastery abbot, and coffee became known.^[1]

However, there are serious doubts about the credibility of this legend. The story first appeared in written records no earlier than 1671 — long after coffee had already spread across the world over several centuries.^[2] According to food history research from Oxford University Press, the name “Kaldi” itself is virtually unverifiable in sources predating the 20th century.^[2] In fact, the most reliable evidence for coffee’s Ethiopian origins lies not in legend but in botanical and linguistic data: the wild progenitor of Coffea arabica grows natively in the highland forests of Ethiopia’s Kaffa region, and the very word “coffee” most likely derives from the name of that region.^[3]

In Ethiopia, the earliest practice was to chew the whole coffee berry or mix it with animal fat as an energy food. The custom of preparing it as a beverage developed only after coffee made its way to the Arabian Peninsula.^[3]

Sufism and Coffee: The Birth of a Religious Stimulant

The systematic consumption of coffee as a beverage began with Sufi mystics in 15th-century Yemen. Practitioners of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam, required a means to ward off drowsiness and maintain concentration during all-night prayer vigils and Quran recitation rituals. What they found was a drink brewed from roasted coffee beans that had crossed over from Ethiopia.^[4]

In the early 15th century, Jamal al-Din al-Dhabhani (d. 1471), a scholar of the Shadhiliyya Sufi order, is recorded as having introduced coffee’s stimulating effects into Sufi ritual practice.^[4] Other Sufi leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Aydarus (d. 1508), also employed coffee as a “spiritual tool.”

The Yemeni port city of Mocha became the world’s foremost center of coffee exports throughout the 16th century. The term “mocha coffee” derives directly from this place name, and virtually all coffee traded in the world at the time passed through this port.^[5] Yemeni rulers strictly prohibited the export of coffee seedlings or beans, maintaining their production monopoly for decades.^[5]

Prohibition and Repeal: Religious Disputes over Coffee

Coffee reached Mecca around 1500, and fierce religious controversy erupted almost immediately. In 1511, Khair Beg, the market inspector of Mecca, issued an order banning coffee, claiming that coffeehouses had become gathering places for licentious behavior akin to taverns.^[6] Supporters argued that coffee sharpened the mind and thus aided worship; opponents contended that coffee, like wine, was an intoxicating substance forbidden under Islamic law.

This debate was not purely religious in nature. Coffeehouses were spaces where people freely gathered to discuss politics and current affairs, making them a potential threat in the eyes of those in power. The first prohibition did not last long: the Mamluk Sultan of Cairo reversed Mecca’s decision and declared coffee drinking lawful.^[6]

Throughout the 16th century, the banning and permitting of coffee alternated within the Ottoman Empire. Sultan Selim I ultimately ruled that coffee was permissible under Islamic law, and by the end of the 16th century the controversy was effectively settled.^[6] By the late 16th century, the Ottoman court had an official coffee preparer (kahvecibaşı), and hundreds of coffeehouses (kahvehane) had opened in Istanbul alone.

Ottoman Coffeehouses and the Culture of Coffee Fortune-Telling

Ottoman coffeehouses first appeared in Istanbul in the mid-16th century. The commonly accepted account holds that two Syrian merchants opened the first coffeehouse in Istanbul in 1555, during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent.^[7] Coffeehouses quickly became central spaces in Ottoman society — places where people played chess, recited poetry, listened to music, and exchanged information. These spaces were also called “mekteb-i irfan,” meaning “schools of the wise.”^[7]

Out of this culture emerged a distinctive tradition: reading fortunes from coffee grounds, known as tasseography (Turkish: fal bakmak). After drinking traditional Turkish coffee, the cup is inverted and the grounds are left to set. The resulting shapes are then interpreted to tell fortunes.^[8]

The precise origins of this tradition are debated. The most popular account attributes it to women of the 16th-century Ottoman court, but scholars tend to favor the view that it emerged organically as coffeehouse culture spread among the general population.^[8] The word “tasseography” itself combines the French tasse (cup) with the Greek graphia (writing), and broadly refers to divination using the residue of liquids — including tea leaves and wine dregs.

In Turkish coffee reading, the cup is rotated counterclockwise and turned upside down onto its saucer, then left to cool for five to ten minutes. The grounds remaining inside are interpreted: shapes in the lower half of the cup represent the past, while those in the upper half represent the future.^[8] Figures formed by the grounds — birds, horses, butterflies, serpents — each carry particular meanings. This custom spread throughout the Balkans, Greece, and the Middle East as the Ottoman Empire expanded, and remains a significant social custom centered on coffee in Greece and Turkey to this day.

Coffee Reaches Europe and the “Penny Universities”: A Knowledge Revolution

Coffee was first introduced to Europe in the early 17th century. Europe’s first coffeehouse opened in Venice in 1645,^[9] and in England, a Jewish merchant named Jacob opened the first coffeehouse in Oxford in 1650, at the Angel Inn.^[9] London’s first coffeehouse was opened by Pasqua Rosée in 1652.

English coffeehouses charged just one penny for entry, after which anyone could read newspapers and pamphlets and converse freely. This earned them the nickname “Penny Universities.”^[9] Aristocrats and fishermen sat at the same tables debating philosophy — a strikingly democratic exchange of knowledge for its time.

Institutions born in these spaces continue to shape the world today. Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse (opened 1688) was where marine insurance deals were struck, giving rise to Lloyd’s of London, now the world’s largest insurance market.^[10] Jonathan’s Coffee House became the venue for stock trading and served as the forerunner of the London Stock Exchange.^[10]

Coffeehouses were also seen as a threat by political authority. In 1675, King Charles II of England issued a closure order against coffeehouses, declaring them hotbeds of anti-government conspiracy — but faced with fierce resistance from merchants, aristocrats, and journalists, he was forced to reverse the order after just eleven days.^[9]

In France, coffeehouses served as gathering places for Enlightenment thinkers. The Café de Procope in Paris (opened 1686) was frequented by Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot, and is remembered as a space where the intellectual ferment that fed the French Revolution was cultivated.^[9]

Coffee Spreads Globally: Colonies and Plantations

The monopoly maintained by the Ottomans and Yemenis, who strictly prohibited the export of coffee seedlings and beans, began to crack in the early 17th century. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) successfully smuggled coffee seedlings out of Yemen in 1616.^[11] The Dutch transplanted these seedlings to the Malabar Coast of India and to Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), and later expanded cultivation to the island of Java (Indonesia) — which gave rise to the English slang term “java” for coffee.

The more decisive turning point came in Brazil. In 1727, Portuguese officer Francisco de Melo Palheta smuggled coffee seedlings from French Guiana into Brazil.^[12] Brazilian coffee cultivation then grew explosively: by the mid-19th century, Brazil accounted for 45% of global coffee production.^[12] Brazil remains the world’s largest coffee producer today, responsible for approximately 38% of total global output as of 2024/25.^[12]

This plantation economy carries a dark history. Coffee farms across Latin America, including Brazil, relied on enslaved African labor until the 19th century, and the exploitative structures persisted in the form of tenant farming long after the abolition of slavery.

The Rise of Espresso: An Invention Born of Speed

Espresso itself is a product of industrialization and urbanization. In Italy’s rapidly growing cities of the early 20th century, workers wanted to drink coffee quickly during short breaks.

The first attempt to address this need came from Turin businessman Angelo Moriondo, who in 1884 filed a patent for a machine that used steam to rapidly extract coffee — though he never managed to commercialize it on a large scale.^[16] The substantive innovation came from Luigi Bezzera. In 1901, Bezzera developed an improved machine with a portafilter and multiple extraction spouts,^[16] and his patent was purchased in 1903 by Desiderio Pavoni, who began commercial production. At the 1906 Milan Exhibition, the two men introduced “caffè espresso” to the world for the first time.^[16]

The Birth of the Americano: A Name Made by War

One important point to note is that the Italian espresso American soldiers encountered in the 1940s was quite different from the espresso of today. The espresso machines of that era operated on steam pressure, which produced only about 1.5 to 2 bars of pressure, while the water temperature far exceeded the boiling point.^[16] This excessive heat over-extracted the coffee, producing a dark, burnt, and intensely bitter drink. Even among Italians, methods existed to moderate this harsh flavor. One such method was the caffè lungo — a variant made by extending the extraction time to allow more water to pass through the grounds, producing a milder result without any separate addition of water.^[18]

Between 1943 and 1945, American soldiers stationed in Italy found this already-rough espresso even more challenging. Accustomed to the light drip or percolator coffee of home, they found Italian espresso — harsh even by today’s standards — far too strong and bitter.^[13] To accommodate these tastes, Italian baristas began pouring hot water directly into the espresso shot to dilute it. Unlike the lungo, which extends extraction itself, this approach added water after the fact, and it soon acquired the name “Caffè Americano.”^[13]

Then, in 1947, Achille Gaggia invented the spring-lever piston machine, which changed everything. By applying 8 to 10 bars of pressure through mechanical force rather than steam, it was also possible to lower the water temperature to an ideal range.^[16] This innovation produced espresso that was smooth rather than burnt, and for the first time, a golden layer of crema formed on the surface. This is the espresso that Italians take pride in today. The reason that adding water to espresso is treated almost as an act of desecration in Italy today is precisely this: after Gaggia, espresso became a complete drink that needed no dilution.

More precisely, American demand during the war was what fixed this approach — pouring water into espresso — under a specific name.^[13] The Americano did not disappear after the war ended; with the global expansion of Starbucks in the 1990s and the “Second Wave of Coffee” sweeping the world, the Americano took hold as a bridge between espresso culture and filter coffee culture.

Decaffeinated Coffee: Ludwig Roselius’s Invention

Until the early 20th century, there was no option for people who wanted to drink coffee but wished to avoid the effects of caffeine. The man who solved this problem was Ludwig Roselius, a German coffee merchant.

Roselius believed that his father had died young from excessive coffee consumption, and this conviction drove him toward developing decaffeinated coffee.^[14] He stumbled upon the process through a chance incident in 1903: when a cargo of coffee beans arrived having been submerged in seawater, he observed that the seawater had dissolved much of the caffeine while leaving the flavor largely intact.^[14] Building on this insight, he developed a process using saltwater to treat the beans, then benzene as a solvent to extract the caffeine, and secured a patent in 1906.^[14]

He commercialized this coffee under the brand name “Kaffee HAG,” making it the world’s first commercially available decaffeinated coffee.^[14] However, the benzene used in this original process was later confirmed to be a human carcinogen and is no longer used. Modern decaffeination processes have been replaced by safer methods, primarily supercritical carbon dioxide (CO₂) extraction and the Swiss Water Process.

The Birth of Capsule Coffee: Éric Favre and Nespresso

The history of capsule coffee — which made it possible to enjoy espresso-quality drinks at home with ease — begins with the observations of a Swiss engineer. In 1975, Éric Favre, working in the packaging division of Nestlé, accepted a challenge from his wife. Born in Italy, she asked whether it was possible to make the same quality espresso at home as one would find in an Italian bar.^[15]

Favre observed the espresso bars of Rome and found a crucial clue. While other bars applied pressure by pressing a lever at regular intervals, the barista at a café called Sant’Eustachio il Caffè was pumping the lever rapidly and repeatedly. Favre understood that this repeated pumping emulsified the air and oils in the coffee to produce a rich crema. He set out to replicate the same effect by sealing air inside a closed capsule and forcing water through it at high pressure.^[15]

The patent embodying this principle was registered by Nestlé in 1976.^[15] But it took another decade for Favre’s idea to become a real product. After struggling to find strong support within Nestlé, the capsule coffee system was finally launched simultaneously in Japan, Italy, and Switzerland in 1986 under the name “Nespresso.”^[15]

The initial reception was lukewarm. Just two years after launch, in 1988, Nespresso repositioned its strategy toward high-end consumers in corporate and home settings, and the brand grew steadily from there. Today the capsule coffee market has expanded into a multi-billion-dollar industry with dozens of competing brands — Keurig, Dolce Gusto, Illy, and many more, alongside Nespresso itself. The environmental impact of mass-discarded aluminum and plastic capsules remains one of the most pressing challenges facing capsule coffee culture today.

Coffee Today: The Global Economy and Sustainability

Today, coffee is counted among the most actively traded commodities in the world after oil. Around 100 million people worldwide earn their livelihoods through coffee cultivation, processing, and trade.^[17] More than 50 countries produce approximately 100 million 60-kg bags of coffee annually, and in some developing nations, coffee accounts for over 80% of all export revenue.^[17]

Since the 1990s, a movement known as the “Third Wave of Coffee” has spread the specialty coffee culture, elevating coffee beyond a simple consumer beverage into a gastronomic pursuit — one in which origin, processing method, roast profile, and brewing technique are all subjects of careful exploration. Like wine or whisky, coffee is now discussed in terms of terroir, with distinctions drawn by origin and variety.

At the same time, three pressing challenges confront the coffee industry today: ensuring fair compensation for producers in coffee-growing regions, addressing the environmental burden of mass-discarded plastic and aluminum capsules, and grappling with the shrinking of viable coffee-growing areas due to climate change.

Conclusion: What Coffee Left Behind

In 16th-century Mecca, theologians issued prohibition orders because people were conversing too freely in coffeehouses. Yet even in cities where coffee was banned, people gathered in secret to drink it, and the prohibitions were repeatedly overturned. Coffee did not spread simply because of its taste or stimulating properties. What spread was the culture of gathering without regard to social rank — the culture that the coffeehouse itself created.

Whether or not the Kaldi legend is true matters little. Whether or not goats danced on those Ethiopian hills, coffee has survived by transforming itself to meet the needs of every era: from the Sufi mystic’s all-night prayer to the divination rituals of the Ottoman coffeehouse; from the espresso bar of Italy to the watered-down drink of a wartime battlefield; from Ludwig Roselius’s saltwater experiment to Éric Favre’s aluminum capsule. That capacity for adaptation is, in all likelihood, the real reason coffee has remained the most widely consumed beverage in the world for centuries.