After more than 35 years in the coffee business, I still look forward to that first cup in the morning. And when I travel, I’m always curious about how people take theirs. A quick espresso at a counter in Italy feels different from a leisurely cup on the deck of a Rhine river cruise. Both are good ways to get a feel for where you are.
The illustrated timeline below follows coffee from Ethiopia to the specialty cafés we know today. And, fittingly, the story starts with a few goats that had a little too much energy.
Ethiopia and the legend of the dancing goats
Arabica coffee has its roots in Ethiopia. According to legend, a goatherd named Kaldi noticed his goats becoming unusually lively after eating red berries from a shrub. It’s a good story to tell over a cup of coffee, and the ninth-century date often attached to it belongs to the legend.
Yemen and the port of Mocha
By the 15th century, there’s historical evidence of coffee being brewed in Yemen. Sufi practitioners drank it to stay alert during long nights of prayer. Coffee also became a gesture of hospitality, and Yemen’s port of Mocha helped carry it into wider trade. If the name sounds familiar from your local coffee shop, now you know where it started.
Europe pulls up a chair
Coffeehouses spread through cities such as Cairo and Istanbul before taking hold in Europe in the 17th century. In places like Venice and Oxford, customers could sit down with a cup, catch up on the news and argue about the affairs of the day. I can still see a little of that tradition in any coffee shop where regulars have their own table and the conversation outlasts the coffee.
Brazil changes the scale of coffee
Coffee reached Brazil in the 18th century, and production expanded dramatically in the 19th. That growth helped make coffee more widely available, and it depended heavily on the labor of enslaved people. Their work is part of the story behind those plantation scenes in the illustration.
Specialty coffee brings the farm back into view
The rise of specialty coffee gave more attention to where a bean was grown and how it tasted. That’s the thread connecting the graphic’s final two panels, from small roasters and tastings to the farm names you might see on a bag today. If you’ve ever asked a roaster where a coffee comes from and ended up talking for ten minutes, you’ve already had a taste of that shift.
Make time for a coffee stop
On your next trip, leave a little room in the itinerary for coffee. Pull up a chair in a café on a side street, ask a local roaster what they’re brewing, or visit a coffee farm if your travels take you somewhere like Hawaiʻi’s Kona coast. One of my favorite ways to spend a morning abroad is to find a café, order a cup and see how the neighborhood wakes up.
What’s the most memorable cup of coffee you’ve had while traveling? I’d love to hear where you were and what made it stick with you. And if you’re ready to plan a trip with time for moments like that, get in touch. I’d be glad to help you plan it.
— Rick, The Caffeinated Wanderer
