In the early years following its discovery, coffee
was consumed cold as a type of wine.
It was not until between 1000AD and 1200AD when it was found
that by roasting and crushing the bean of the coffee cherry and
then infusing it with boiling water, a delicious hot drink could be
made. By the end of the 13th century, coffee drinking had become
almost part of the Muslim religion and wherever the religion of
Islam went, coffee was eventually to follow – to India, North
Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Coffee was not really known in Europe until the seventeenth
century when travellers to Middle Eastern countries returned with
reports about the many coffee houses that were to be seen there.
Perhaps these travellers brought back small samples of coffee
beans, but it was the Venetians who were the first people to bring
large quantities of coffee into Europe and Italy’s first coffee
house was opened in 1645.
Whilst mainly known for their tea drinking, it was the British who
were the first European nation to embrace the pleasures of coffee
drinking on a wide commercial basis. A Turkish Jew named Jacob
opened the first coffeehouse in Oxford in 1650.
The first cafe selling coffee was opened in Paris in 1686 - Le
Procope - an establishment that's still in business today. It has
been said that such celebrated characters as Voltaire, Diderot and
Robespierre drank coffee there.
attempted coffee bans
The popularity of coffee drinking spread throughout Europe and
by the 18th century, there were more coffee shops in London than
there are today. One conjecture is that it was the coffeehouses of
England that started the custom of tipping waiters and waitresses.
People who were looking for good fast service and a better seat
would be encouraged to put some small change in a box labelled "To
Insure Prompt Service" – or the ‘TIPS’ box.
Coffee shops were to become very influential places and used
extensively by artists, intellectuals, merchants, bankers and
political activists. In England, they were dubbed ‘penny
universities’ as it was said that in a coffee house a man could
learn more useful knowledge than by reading his books for a whole
month. (A penny was the price of a cup of coffee at the time). In
Paris the coffeehouses attracted revolutionaries and it is said
that without them there may well still be a French monarchy!
It is no surprise, that such a popular institution had opponents in
high places, and in Italy, some 1600 priests requested that Pope
Clement VIII should forbid the favourite drink of the Ottoman
Empire, considering it an Infidel threat. On taking one sip
however, the pope found the drink so delicious that he immediately
baptised it - making it an acceptable beverage for all Christians.
In 1675, King Charles II tried to suppress the coffee houses as he
regarded them as hotbeds of revolution, but after a huge public
outcry, his proclamation was revoked and the ban lasted just 11
days!
coffeehouses throughout europe
Some of the best-known coffee houses in London became to be
frequented by different groups of workers and were soon the meeting
places in which the capital's social, political and commercial life
revolved. Jonathan's Coffee House in Change Alley, which was used
by stockbrokers, was later to morph into the London Stock
Exchange.
Likewise, ship owners and marine insurance brokers would meet at
Edward Lloyd's Coffee House in Lombard Street and it was later to
become the centre of world insurance and the headquarters of Lloyds
of London.
By 1668 coffee had replaced beer as New York City's favourite
breakfast drink, with coffeehouses in New York, Boston, Baltimore,
Philadelphia and elsewhere. Most of these coffeehouses were more
like pubs and taverns than the genuine coffeehouses of Europe. They
served not only coffee and tea, but also chocolate, ales, beers and
wines. They also rented rooms to sailors and travellers. One famous
coffeehouse in New England was the Green Dragon in Boston. At first
it was popular with British officers but in later years it came to
be the gathering place of John Adams, Paul Revere and other
revolutionaries plotting against England.
Tea remained the favourite beverage in America until 1773 when the
people of Boston revolted against the excessively high tax King
George had placed on tea. They raided English merchant ships, which
were in the harbour, and threw their cargoes of tea into the sea.
The event became known as the "Boston Tea Party", and thereafter
the people of Boston and soon the whole of America changed their
drinking habits from tea to coffee - which was seen as their
patriotic duty.
As in London, both the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of New
York were formed and originated from meetings of like minds in
coffeehouses. These coffeehouses were situated in what is today the
financial district known as Wall Street.