When Did People Start Drinking Coffee?

Unknown beginnings for the dark brew  

Surprisingly, the longer history of coffee consumption is pretty mysterious. Who was the first person to make a drink out of the bean (I say “bean”, but coffee isn’t a legume – it’s actually a fruit)? We don’t know, but there are many legends about its origins. If you look at any online sources, you’ll likely see mention of coffee’s fabled discovery as occurring in Ethiopia during the 9^th century CE, when a goatherd called Kaldi allegedly saw his goats acting bizarrely after eating some berries in the mountains. Kaldi, apparently excited by the discovery, took the berries to a local monk who disapproved of them and cast them into the fire.

I expect you can see where this is going. Suddenly the monk’s room was filled with an alluring rich aroma. The now roasted beans were quickly pulled from the fire and were then, after being ground up, mixed with hot water, creating the first cup of coffee. As delicious as this story may sound, it is likely fictitious, as it doesn’t appear in writing until the 17^th century CE. 

There are numerous other legendary stories similar to Kaldi’s related to 13^th century Sufism, but these are also doubtful. However, given its abundance across the highlands of Africa, it has been suggested that coffee consumption in foods may have been practiced by African peoples, including the ancestors of the Galla in Ethiopia, long before records existed.

There is currently no evidence that coffee was ever cultivated and consumed by any ancient cultures, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Africans or Middle Eastern kingdoms, but again, it cannot be ruled out that it was not used in some unrecorded way.

A cup of Joe for your BO?

The first strong evidence for coffee consumption is believed to appear in the 9^th century CE medical works of the influential Persian physician Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, otherwise known as Rhazes in Latin.

According to al-Rāzī, what he called “bunn” (thought to mean coffee berry) and “buncham” (drink made from the berry) was “a drink that is good for those with hot nature, but it decreases the libido.”

If this is the case, then coffee was originally seen as part of the materia medica of physicians during the Islamic Golden Age. This is further supported by the berry’s first confirmed appearance in the texts of Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnā, or Avicenna in Latin. In his 11th-century book, The Canon of Medicine, ibn Sīnā described bunn as a way to check for bad smells associated with body sweat, a way to clean the skin and freshen up, while also having properties that could affect the mind. This, it seems, is the first reference to coffee as a stimulant.

Coffee, a steaming cup of sedition

Coffee soon became a hit within the Arabic world, where Sufis in Yemen used it to aid concentration during lengthy prayer, especially during nighttime devotion. By 1414, the drink had appeared in Mecca and later it was spread to Egypt from Yemen, where it helped establish coffee houses in Cairo, which were still associated with Sufism. Early coffee houses were also created in places like Aleppo in Syria and later in early 16^th century Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

Coffee houses were a new institute popularized by coffee trade across the Red Sea and, like cafes today, they served as cozy spaces for people to meet, play games, relax, and share news, stories, and ideas with one another. 

However, these places were also viewed with suspicion by the Islamic authorities. Orthodox thinkers viewed coffee as a potential intoxicant, not dissimilar to hashish (cannabis) and alcohol, which were prohibited. As such, there were efforts made to ban coffee altogether, but eventually, this was rectified after it was pointed out that coffee, unlike wine, was not mentioned in the Quran.

Nevertheless, cafes attracted intellectuals who gathered to listen to music and poetry and to discuss ideas and so became the sites where political dissent and sedition could be articulated and shared. There were various attempts to shut down coffee houses, but like the substance itself, there was no suppressing the thirst for this popular commodity in the long run.

And here comes the West

Coffee spread to Europe through two routes: from the Ottoman Empire, and across the sea from Mocha, the original coffee hotspot of Yemen. In the 17^th century, the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company had latched onto the trade network of coffee in the Middle East.

At first, coffee consumption in Europe was viewed with suspicion because it was associated with Muslim culture. This level of cultural resistance was so pronounced that, in around 1600, Pope Clement VIII reportedly baptized coffee so that it could be enjoyed more comfortably by Christians, therefore challenging the Muslim monopoly.

This marked a new era in the consumption of coffee that would see it lose more and more of its cultural associations with Islam. Effectively, coffee was “whitewashed”, as Folger Shakespeare Library says. By the 18^th century, the British, French, and Dutch had taken coffee seeds to their colonies in Indonesia, South India, Sri Lanka, and the Caribbean. In doing so, the market shifted to these locations and coffee became a product inexorably connected to European trade masters.

Coffee today

Coffee is now one of the most popular drinks across the world and, weirdly like the physicians of the Islamic Golden Age, its consumption is often lauded for having various health benefits. For one thing, some research has suggested that coffee may help protect against Alzheimer’s, while also promoting longevity.

However, coffee production is also a major concern for climate change, as the industry may be unsustainable. So while there is a rich, flavorful history associated with this drink, we may need to think carefully about our relationship with it in the future, while also remembering the cultures that rely on it today, and, of course, not forgetting those who created it in the first place.