Coffee has been known in the world for over 1000 years. For most of that time, only residents of Muslim countries enjoyed it. In Europe, it began to gain popularity only in the 17th century.
The most famous legend about the discovery of coffee tells about Kaldi – an Ethiopian goat shepherd from the Abyssinian Highlands. According to legend, one day (it happened in the 9th century CE) he noticed that his animals were extremely agitated and even those that were usually slow and lethargic behave in an unusual way. Kaldi went to the grazing area and saw goats eating red berries from a certain tree (it was a coffee tree). The hero of the legend also tasted these fruits and felt the revival of the body and mind. With a handful of coffee berries, he then went to a nearby monastery, where a monk named Chadely crushed them and poured boiling water over their seeds (i.e. coffee beans). It was the first coffee brewing in the world. The monk did not keep the secret to himself – he passed it on to other brothers so that they could persevere in long night prayers. These, in turn, spread the knowledge further …
Regardless of whether the above legend is 100% true or only its elements are true, coffee is considered the homeland of today’s Ethiopia. It is known that coffee trees (arabica species) appeared in the Abyssinian Upland as early as the 6th century, and in the 9th century (after the alleged discovery of coffee by Kaldi), coffee was a popular drink and its drinking was associated with an extensive ceremony that could last up to several hours.
It wasn’t long before Arab traders spread coffee first in the Arabian Peninsula and then everywhere Islam went. It was also soon discovered that after throwing coffee beans into the fire for some time, their properties significantly improved, and the drink made from them not only has more strength, but also a better taste. The Arabs carefully guarded their coffee secrets. Until the beginning of the 17th century, all caliphates were prohibited from exporting coffee seedlings.
Coffee began to approach Europe as early as the 15th century from Turkey. Then (in 1475) the first coffee shop in Constantinople (now Istanbul) was opened. It was a huge success, and similar establishments began to appear fairly quickly in other cities of the Islamic world. In 1580, a certain Prospero – a traveler from Padua for the first time in Europe described the great popularity of coffee and coffee houses in Turkey and other Muslim countries. However, it was necessary to wait several dozen more years for such premises to be built on the Old Continent.
One of the first coffee shops in Europe was founded in 1650 in Oxford by the Turkish Jew Jacob. Over the next decades, thousands of coffee shops were opened in the UK and coffee became very popular. Some of the coffee houses specialized in serving a specific group of customers, e.g. Jonathan’s Coffee House was popular with stock brokers, and Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House among merchants and ship owners.
In France, coffee was distributed at that time by the ambassador of the Ottoman Port at the court of King Louis XIV – Suleiman Aga. The French court quickly became convinced of the black drink (coffee was even grown in the greenhouses at the Palace of Versailles). From the salons, coffee quickly made its way to the apartments of Paris and other French cities. Many cafes started to appear, and the most famous one was founded by Francois Procope dei Coltell.
The Pole Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki also played a significant role in popularizing coffee in Europe. On September 12, 1683, after the victory of Hetman Jan III Sobieski, the future king of Poland, at the Battle of Vienna, many items and supplies were left from the Turks. Among them, more than 300 coffee bags. Initially, the Poles believed that it was a “black grain” intended for feeding camels. Kulczycki, who had traveled around Turkey before, knew that it was coffee and was not used to feed animals. As he made significant contributions during the battle, Hetman Sobieski contributed to his request and presented him with Turkish coffee supplies. Soon Kulczycki opened the first cafe in Vienna and called it “Under the Blue Bottle”