Posted by Rachel Schwartz on 7/12/2019 to
Now Ya Cookin'
Undated: The origin of coffee is unknown, but it can be traced back to Ethiopia several centuries ago. The most popular legend is that a sheepherder named Kaldi discovered coffee after noticing that his sheep became hyperactive after eating berries of a particular plant.
Early 1400s: Coffee was being grown in Arabia and in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey by the 1500s.
1453: The Turks are credited with making the first drink out of coffee beans.
Mid-1450s: The first "coffee shops" were opened, where people drank, conversed, listened to music, and kept up with news. They were often referred to as "schools of the wise."
Late 1400s: Turkish laws made it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he didn't provide her with enough coffee to last through the day.
1511: The governor of Mecca, Kha'ir Beg, tried to ban coffee because he was afraid that its influence might encourage opposition against him. The Sultan of Arabia, however, liked coffee and considered it sacred so had Beg killed for his attempt to ban it.
Late 1500s: Coffee had spread to Europe. Some were afraid and suspicious of the new drink and referred to it as "bitter invention of Satan" or "Devil's Drink." The controversy over coffee became so great that Pop Clement VIII was asked to intervene. He tasted the coffee before banning it but liked it so much he declared it papal approved and had it baptized.
Early 1600s: Coffee was introduced to the Americas by Captain John Smith, according to popular belief.
1650s: Coffee houses were becoming centers of social activity in major cities. This led to the creation of 'penny universities' in England--pay a penny for a cup of coffee and engage in stimulating conversation.
Late 1600s: Coffee overtook beer and wine as the breakfast drink of choice.
1710: The French created a new way of making coffee that sounds familiar--they began putting ground coffee in a linen bag to steep in hot water, much like how we use coffee filters today.
1723: The Mayor of Amsterdam gave a coffee plant as a gift to King Louis XIV in 1714. Louis XIV had the plant planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. In 1723, Naval officer Gabriel de Clieu obtained a few seeds from the garden and took them with him back to Martinique. Today, those seeds are the parents of all the coffee plants in the Caribbean, South, and Central America (over 90% of all coffee).
1727: Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta was sent by Brazilian leaders to French Guinea to obtain some coffee seeds. The French were not willing to share their coffee with the Brazilians but the French governor's wife managed to smuggle some seeds to Palheta inside a bouquet of flowers on his departure.
1773: The Boston Tea Party made coffee popular in the United States by necessity.
1818: Laurens, a Parisian metalsmith, invented the first coffee percolator.
1860: The J.A. Folger Coffee Company was founded.
1900: The Hill Brothers created the first packaged coffee in vacuum tins.
1901: Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato created instant coffee in Chicago. Luigi Bezzesa, an Italian, patented the first commercial espresso machine.
1903: Ludwig Roselius, a German coffee importer, discovered how to make decaf coffee.
1906: An inventor named George Washington created the first mass produced instant coffee, which was later marketed as "Red-E Coffee" in 1909.
1940s: During WWII, US soldiers were given instant Maxwell House coffee as part of their rations.
1971: The first Starbucks opened in Seattle. By 1995, Starbucks had become a pop culture reference.
1972: The first automatic drip home coffee maker was introduced.
1995-2000: Coffee consumption rose 700%.
