By the time you finish reading this blog at the same time around 40 million cups of coffee will be drunk. At least minimum 1,500 years people have been drinking coffee. And some people say, its Importance in human civilization is so high that, many great ideas would not have been created which taught us to see and discover the world in a new way.
History
Coffee comes from the fruit of the coffee Arabica plant, which was first found in Ethiopia. A story goes that in the 9th century, a shepherd named Kaldi noticed that his goats were getting energetic after eating coffee berries. So then he also ate a little. Historical records show that the Sufi monk of Yemen made a kind of water by roasting the seeds of the coffee berry which we now know as coffee.
Cultural Impact of Coffee
In the fifteenth century, the first coffee houses appeared throughout the Ottoman Empire, and the following centuries spread first to Italy and then throughout Europe. European coffee houses once became a place to discuss business, politics, new ideas or concepts. Even an Academic Jürgen Habermas says, might we could not have been Reform free without coffee.
Coffee’s Role in society
One of the earliest cultivations of coffee in the New World was when Gabriel de Clieu brought coffee seedlings to Martinique in 1720. These beans later sprouted 18,680 coffee trees which is spread to other Caribbean islands such as Saint-Domingue and also to Mexico. By 1788, Saint-Domingue supplied half the world’s coffee. By 1852, Brazil became the world’s largest producer of coffee and has held that status ever since.
According to Philosophers Immanuel Kant and Voltaire, who drank roughly 72 cups of coffee a day, they turned their attention to science with the idea that everything in the universe can be rationally explained. This so-called Age of Enlightenment, or the development of thoughts, has changed our view on the world. It led us to the end of monarchy, the development of democracy and numerous scientific discoveries.
World Coffee economy
As per the International Coffee Organization (ICO), global coffee consumption in 2023 reached 175.6 million 60-kg bags, equivalent to approximately 2.25 billion cups daily. Coffee has been a $200 Billion annual revenue of the global coffee industry. Not only that, coffee has now become an important part of the daily life of billions of people.
The Dark Side of Coffee
it’s very sad to know coffee once fueled the slave trade, French using African slaves to plant coffee plantations by the early 1800s, during this time Brazil and France buy slaves to increase their coffee production. Brazil was producing a third of the world’s coffee using African slaves. Some argue that coffee helped give rise to capitalism. But did coffee really give birth to capitalism?
Companies once started giving their employees to drink coffee and even give them coffee breaks, but it was not without interest on the part of the owners, this was not a negative thing They were actually trying to increase the productivity of workers. From that era to the present century.
Coffee’s journey from the hills of Ethiopia to becoming a global cultural and economic powerhouse is nothing short of extraordinary. It has fueled revolutions, inspired great minds, and shaped societies. While coffee has been a source of connection and innovation, its history is also intertwined with exploitation and inequality. Today, as billions of people rely on their daily cup, coffee continues to play a vital role in shaping both our modern lives and global markets. Every sip we take is a reminder of coffee’s rich past and its ongoing influence on the future.
