coffee house culture

The first record of a public place serving coffee dates back to 1475. Kiva Han was the name of the first coffee shop, located in the Turkish city of Constantinople (now Istanbul). Coffee was such an important item during that period; it was legal in Turkey for a woman to divorce her husband if he could not supply her with enough coffee. Turkish coffee was served strong, black and unfiltered, usually brewed in an ibrik.

Whether it?s called Turkish Coffee Pot, Ibrik, Cezve, or Ibriq, it is designed to make a perfect cup of Turkish Coffee and has been a unique piece from Coffee History.

According to historians, Turkish Coffee Pot has been used since the late 15th century. Ottoman Chroniclers believe, usage of Turkish Coffee Pot (also known as Cezve in Turkish) in households has started around the years 1554-1555 after the opening of coffee houses in Istanbul, Turkey.
In 1600, Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabbed attention in high places. In Italy, The priests believed that coffee was the drink of the Devil. Christians debated if consumption of this hellish brew would risk eternal damnation. Pope Clement VIII decided to put this dispute to rest once and for all. He had coffee brought to him and found it delightful. He knew it would be a sin for this drink to be banned to Christians, so he baptized it on the spot. In 1645, the first coffeehouse opened in Italy,
The first coffeehouse in England was set up in Oxford in 1650 by a Jewish man named Jacob in the building now known as “The Grand Cafe”. A plaque on the wall still commemorates this, the Cafe is now a trendy cocktail bar, the first coffeehouse in London was opened in 1652 in St Michael’s Alley, Cornhill. The proprietor was Pasqua Rose, the servant of a trader in Turkish goods named Daniel Edwards.

Coffee houses multiplied and become popular forums for learned and not so learned people, these coffeehouses were dubbed penny universities, because that was the price for the coffee, the social upper-class of business-men were found there. The small coffee shop run by Edward Lloyd in 1668 was such a business hub; it eventually became the still-operating Lloyd’s of London insurance company.

It was in an English coffee house that the word “tips” was first used for gratuities. A jar with a sign reading, “To Insure Prompt Service” sat on the counter. You put a coin in the jar to be served quickly.

After becoming popular in England, France was introduced to coffee around 1660, however coffee only became popular in France when the Turkish ambassador, Suleiman Aga, began holding outrageous coffee parties for the French nobility in 1669. These parties are described by Isaac D’Israeli in his Curiosities of Literature:

Coffee arrived in Vienna in 1683, the Turkish army, threatening to invade Europe, massed outside Vienna for a prolonged siege. The count in charge of the Viennese troops desperately needed a messenger who could pass through the Turkish lines to reach nearby Polish troops who would come to the rescue. Franz George Kolschitzky, who had lived in the Arab world for many years, took on the job. On September 12, in a decisive battle, the Turks were routed.

The fleeing Turks left tents, oxen, camels, sheep, honey, rice, grain, gold and five hundred huge sacks filled with strange-looking beans that the Viennese thought must be camel fodder. Having no use for camels, they began to burn the bags. Kolschitzky, catching a whiff of that familiar odour, intervened. “Holy Mary!” he yelled. “That is coffee that you are burning! If you don’t know what coffee is, give the stuff to me. I can find a good use for it.”

Having observed the Turkish customs, he knew the rudiments of roasting, grinding, and brewing, he Vienna’s first coffeehouse, the Blue Bottle (aka Blue Flask). So popular was his new business, it soon spawned an official guild of coffeemakers (kaffe-sieder) and cafes burst onto the scene in old-world Vienna, welcoming artists, anarchists, poets, and radicals. Within a few decades, coffee practically fuelled the intellectual life of the city.

When America was colonized, the coffee house was quick to follow. The role of the American coffee house was the same as those in England: the hotspots for the business community. Coffee was declared the national drink of the then colonized United States by the Continental Congress, in protest of the excessive tax on tea levied by the British crown.

In 1668, Coffee replaced beer as New York’s City’s favourite breakfast drink. Though the American coffee houses never influenced the arts, they contained assembly rooms where court trials took place. The Tontine Coffee House (1792) in New York was the original location for the New York Stock Exchange, because so much business was conducted there.

War of Independence and coffee shop

When the British sought to punish the colonies by unfair taxation on tea, coffee became not only the preferred drink, but the patriotic one as well. The East India Company couldn’t conceive of the colonists doing without tea, so they sent over a full cargo of tea in a marketing scheme that would pay the taxes to the King, but cut out the middle-man merchants. This scheme infuriated the colonists.

A particularly energized group in Boston carried out the event which became known as the Boston Tea Party. They threw tea overboard and vowed against drinking tea, in favour of coffee.

With the advent of the Revolutionary War, coffee houses soon became the preferred meeting place of the newly formed Continental Congress. The most famous coffee house of the time was the Merchant’s Coffee House in Philadelphia, also known as the City Tavern. It was there where the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud to the public.

Then came espresso

In 1946, Gaggia invented the commerical piston espresso machine, which was far easier to use and safer than earlier models. The Gaggia coffee bar, in Italy, was the first location to use these machines and to offer espresso along with the regular coffee. The modern age of the coffee house was born.

Who could forget the most popular and wide-spread coffee house of them all, Starbucks. They opened their first store in 1971, in Seattle and have taken the world by storm with more than 17,000 locations.

Whether you prefer the wide-spread chains, or the local independent coffee house, you’re taking a step into a long history of coffee each time you stop for a latte.