History of Coffee Timeline!

In the Beginning:

In the Coffee Timeline, myth has it that roughly around the ninth century an Abyssinian goat herder named Kaldi discovered some of coffees stimulant properties.

History of Coffee Timeline:


An unusual timeline of coffee and history for you're viewing pleasure.

Before 1000 A.D.: When the people of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia, mixed a particular berry ground up with animal fat they noticed a rise in their energy.

1000 A.D.: when Arab traders first brought the coffee bean back to their homeland to farm the bean first time. Also made a drink out of the coffee bean that they called "qahwa".

1453: Ottoman Turks pioneered coffees for the first time. A little unknown possible fact is that if a Turkish man doesn't give his wife a daily portion of coffee she can divorce him.

1475: Legend has it that the first known coffees diner opened in Kiva Han making this is one more to add to the history of coffees legend.

1511: The foul Governor Khair Beg of the land of Mecca attempted a ban on coffee for fear of a riot against him. For this act the King of Mecca made coffee sacred and had Khair Beg put to death.

1607: Its believed that North America was introduced to coffees by Capt. John Smith at the Jamestown colony in Virginia.

1615: The Pope Clement the VIII heard of Italian merchant selling coffee and was informed by his priests that coffee was the tool of the devil. Clement, not to be foolish, requested a sample of the coffee and in doing so fell in love with it, so he baptized it and made it a "truly Christian Beverage."

1645: It's believed that the first coffee diner opened in Italy.

1652: The first coffee house opens in England. By popular demand more coffee diners open for the rich and commoners. Due to quality discussions the coffee shops were labeled "Penny Universities" because of the price of coffee.

1668: Beer: New York's City's favorite breakfast drink was replaced by coffee.

1668: Lloyd's of London almost the most purchased insurance provider in London became famous from when it first opened as a coffee diner. That travel merchants and insurance salesman frequented.

1672: The first Paris coffee diner opens.

1675: When Franz Georg Kolschitzky escaped the Rebel Turkish Soldier's in Vienna to lead military aid back to the city. The skedaddling Turkish rebels left behind a bag of coffee grounds. Snatching the grounds as his reward, Franz used the grounds to open Europe's first coffee diner and in doing so refined the method of filtering the grounds and adding sugar for sweetener.

1690: The Dutch smuggled a coffee plant out of the Arab port "Mocha" for transplantation and cultivation. This is where the name "Java" comes from which is one of the cities that opened a plantation.

1713: Gabriel Mathieu do Clieu in 1723 steals a seedling from France. Within 50 years an estimated 19 million coffee plants, 90 percent of the world's coffee spreads from this plant.

1721: Berlins' first coffee diner opens.

1727: Lieutenant colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta woos France's Governor of Guiana's wife into stealing and smuggling germinated coffee seedlings in a flowers basket for him. He returns to Brazil from which he was dispatched to settle a feud between the French and Dutch about country border lines, only to have successfully stolen coffee and also settling the dispute.

1732: Johann Sebastian Bach's famous one-act operetta, the "Coffee Cantata," was a not so liked operatic criticism of the extraordinary lengths the royal and upperclass took to keep commoners from drinking coffee.

1773: In America the Boston Tea Party allowed the experimentation with and also a popular form of protest when drinking coffee.

1775: As "Prussia's" Frederick the Greats wealth is diminished trying to stop imports of coffee and the public scorn's his foolishness he has a change of heart.

1886: Wholesale grocer Joel Cheek names a coffee blend "Maxwell House," after the hotel in Nashville, TN where it was served.

Early 1900's: In Germany,"Kaffee klatsch" is coined to describe women's gossip. At these affairs afternoon coffee becomes a standard occasion.

1900: When the Hills Brothers start packaging coffee in metal tins, they half heartedly kill the coffee shop diners and mills.

1901: Satori Kato Japanese-American chemist of Chicago invents instant coffee.

1903: Sanka is introduced to the United States in 1923. Ludwig Roselius admits a batch of destroyed coffee beans over to chemist's, who remove caffeine from the coffee beans without losing the flavor. Then sells it as the brand name "Sanka."

1906: George Constant Washington, an English chemist living in Guatemala, notices a powdery condensation forming on the spout of his silver coffee holder. After experimentation, he creates the first mass-produced instant coffee (his brand is called Red E Coffee).

1920: United States institute prohibition, and coffee sales explode.

1938: Having been asked by Brazil to help find a solution to their coffee surpluses, Nestle company invents freeze-dried coffee. Nestle develops Nescafe and introduces it in Switzerland.

1940: The US imports 70 percent of the worlds coffee.

1942: During W.W.II, American soldiers are issued instant Maxwell House coffee in their ration kits. Back home, widespread hoarding leads to coffee rationing.

1946: Achilles Gaggia finishes his espresso machine In Italy. Cappuccino is named for the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the Capuchin monastery.

1969: One week before Woodstock premier the Manson Family murders coffee mogul Abigail Folger as she visits film maker Roman Polanski with Sharon Tate.

1971: The first Starbucks opens in Seattle's Pike Place public market.