History, India & World

• Tradition Tradition says the Sufi saint Baba Budan brought seven coffee seeds from Yemen and planted them on the Chandragiri hills here, now called the Baba Budan Giri. Our India section above tells this story in full.
• Documented In 1925 the Mysore government, led by its agriculture director Dr Leslie C. Coleman, set up the Mysore Coffee Experimental Station at Balehonnur in this district to breed hardier plants and fight pests and diseases.
• Documented In 1946 the Coffee Board took it over and renamed it the Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI). It celebrated its centenary in December 2025 and has released many Arabica and Robusta selections for Indian growers.
• Documented In 2019 two coffees from this district received Geographical Indication (GI) tags: Chikmagalur Arabica and Bababudangiris Arabica.

Sources:

• Coffee Board of India: Research (CCRI history)
• Deccan Herald: A century of coffee science at Balehonnuru
• Business Standard (PTI): GI tag for five Indian coffees, March 2019

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• Tradition Local people in the Nalknad area grew coffee before any European estate. Older accounts say Mappila (Moplah) settlers may have brought the seed, but how and when it first arrived is not known.
• Documented After the British took over Coorg in 1834, the first European estate was opened near Mercara (Madikeri) in 1854. Many more followed, some by planters who came from Ceylon after leaf rust ruined coffee there.
• Documented Many early planters cleared the forest completely and grew coffee in full sun, as in Ceylon. Pests such as the white stem borer destroyed many of these estates. Planters then copied the Mysore practice of growing coffee under shade trees, which is now normal across India.
• Documented Today Kodagu is India's largest coffee-producing district, growing mostly Robusta along with Arabica, often with black pepper vines climbing the shade trees. 'Coorg Arabica' received a GI tag in 2019.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Kodagu district
• Krishi Jagran: Kodagu, land of coffee
• Business Standard (PTI): GI tag for five Indian coffees, March 2019

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• Documented Coffee was first planted in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh in 1898, by a British planter in the Pamuleru valley. It reached the Araku and Chintapalli areas in the 1920s but stayed small for decades.
• Documented In 1956 the state set up the Girijan Co-operative Corporation (GCC) to support tribal communities. With the Coffee Board and forest department it helped tribal families, many of whom had practised shifting cultivation, to grow coffee under forest shade.
• Documented From 2000 the Naandi Foundation worked with farmers on quality and organic methods, and a large tribal farmers' co-operative grew from this. An Araku café opened in Paris in 2017, and in 2018 Araku coffee won a gold medal at the Prix Epicures in Paris.
• Documented 'Araku Valley Arabica' received a GI tag in 2019. Brand names are mentioned here only to tell the history.

Sources:

• Quartz: Araku Valley coffee and its tribal farmers
• The Better India: Araku coffee wins gold in Paris
• Business Standard (PTI): GI tag for five Indian coffees, March 2019

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• Note The name Wayanad is usually explained as 'vayal nadu', the land of paddy fields. For a long time rice, not coffee, was the main crop.
• Documented Coffee estates spread here in the 19th century. Arabica was grown first, but it was gradually replaced by Robusta, which better resists pests and diseases. Today Robusta is more than 95 percent of Wayanad's coffee.
• Documented Wayanad grows about 90 percent of Kerala's coffee, mostly on small family farms where coffee shares the land with pepper, areca nut and banana. 'Wayanad Robusta' received a GI tag in 2019 and is described as full-bodied with a soft, chocolatey cup.
• Note Farmers here have reported serious losses from erratic rain and rising heat in recent years, a reminder of how climate affects coffee.

Sources:

• Wayanad district (Govt. of Kerala): Wayanad Robusta coffee
• Invest India (ODOP): Wayanad coffee
• Business Standard (PTI): GI tag for five Indian coffees, March 2019

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• Documented M. D. Cockburn, Collector of Salem district from 1820 to 1829, is remembered as the 'Father of Yercaud'. He is credited with bringing coffee to the Shevaroy hills around Yercaud in the 1820s, along with fruit trees such as pears and apples.
• Documented He later planted coffee at Kotagiri in the Nilgiris as well. Coffee in the Shevaroys, the Nilgiris and the Pulney hills is still grown under shade, often alongside pepper, oranges and other fruit.
• Note Sources differ on whether his first plants came from Arabia or Africa, and on exact years. Today Tamil Nadu grows only a small share of India's coffee, but some of its estates are among the country's oldest.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: M. D. Cockburn
• Wikipedia: Yercaud

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• Documented During the Great Depression coffee prices crashed. In 1935 the Coffee Cess Act created a Cess Committee to promote Indian coffee; it also opened the first India Coffee House in 1936 (see the Indian Coffee House story).
• Documented The Coffee Act of 1942, passed during the Second World War, created the Coffee Board. Growers had to hand almost their whole crop to a central pool run by the Board, which sold it and paid them later.
• Documented After economic reforms began in 1991, a 'free sale quota' was allowed from 1994, and in 1996 the pooling system was abolished. Growers could now sell directly, and the Board became mainly an adviser, researcher and promoter.
• Note The change brought better prices for many growers but also exposed small farmers to world price swings. A new law to replace the 1942 Act has been proposed; check the Coffee Board for its current status.

Sources:

• Coffee Board of India: About us
• Parliament of India digital library: debate on amending the Coffee Act

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• Documented Al-Makha (Mocha) on Yemen's Red Sea coast was the main coffee export port from roughly the 15th to the early 18th century. Beans grown in the Yemeni highlands were carried down to the coast and shipped to Egypt, Turkey, Persia and later Europe.
• Tradition It is often said that Yemen tried to keep the trade to itself by selling only roasted or boiled beans that could not sprout. Historians are not sure how strict this really was, but it explains why stories of smuggled seeds (like Baba Budan's) matter so much.
• Note The name stuck. 'Mocha' first meant coffee from this port. Later the word came to mean coffee mixed with chocolate, perhaps because some Yemeni coffees were said to taste a little chocolatey. The exact reason is not proven.
• Note 'Mocha-Java', a blend of Yemeni and Javanese coffee, is often called the world's oldest coffee blend. That is a popular claim rather than a recorded fact.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Mocha, Yemen

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• Documented Gabriel de Clieu, a French naval officer, carried a coffee seedling from France to the island of Martinique in the early 1720s. The plant is usually said to come from the royal garden in Paris, which had received a tree from the Dutch.
• Tradition De Clieu's own account tells of a hard voyage: a passenger who tried to harm the plant, a pirate threat, a storm and a shortage of drinking water. He wrote that he shared his own water ration with the seedling to keep it alive.
• Documented The plant survived, and coffee spread from Martinique to other Caribbean islands and parts of Latin America during the 18th century.
• Note Some retellings claim that most coffee in the Americas comes from this single plant. That is an exaggeration: other plants also reached the region, for example through Dutch Suriname and French Guiana.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Gabriel de Clieu

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• Documented In 1727 the Portuguese-Brazilian officer Francisco de Melo Palheta was sent to Cayenne in French Guiana to help settle a border dispute. He came back with coffee seeds and plants, which were planted in Pará in northern Brazil.
• Legend The famous part is a legend: the French governor's wife, charmed by Palheta, is said to have given him a farewell bouquet with coffee seeds hidden inside. Another version says the governor himself gave the plants as thanks.
• Documented Coffee stayed a small crop in Brazil for decades, behind sugar. By the 1830s it had become the country's largest export, and Brazil has been the world's biggest producer for most of the time since.
• Note Brazil's coffee boom was built largely on the forced labour of enslaved people until slavery was abolished in 1888. This is part of the honest history of the cup.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Coffee production in Brazil

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• Documented Coffee is recorded as reaching Jamaica in 1728, when Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes planted it on his estate. The plants are usually traced to Martinique.
• Documented Growing later spread into the cool, misty Blue Mountains in the east of the island. Only coffee from defined areas there can legally carry the 'Jamaica Blue Mountain' name.
• Note It is famous for a mild, smooth cup and high prices, and much of it has traditionally gone to Japan. Because the name is valuable, fake 'Blue Mountain' blends are common, so check for certification.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee

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• Documented Coffee is believed to have reached Colombia in the 18th century, often credited to Jesuit priests. Dates in different sources vary.
• Tradition A well-known story says that in the 19th century Father Francisco Romero, a priest in Salazar de las Palmas, asked people who came to confession to plant coffee trees as their penance. Coffee then spread through the region.
• Documented Colombia later became famous for washed Arabica grown by many small family farms in the Andes, and for organised national marketing of its coffee.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Coffee production in Colombia

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• Documented In 1825 Chief Boki, governor of O'ahu, returned from a voyage that stopped in Brazil and brought coffee plants, which were planted in Mānoa valley.
• Documented In 1828 the missionary Rev. Samuel Ruggles carried cuttings from those plants to the Kona district on the island of Hawai'i. Kona's sunny mornings, cloudy afternoons and volcanic soil suited coffee well.
• Documented Later, a Typica from Guatemala became the main variety. Many Kona farms in the 20th century were run by families of Japanese origin. Today only coffee from the Kona districts can be sold as '100% Kona'.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Coffee production in Hawaii
• Hawaii Coffee Association: History

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• Documented The name comes from the Capuchin friars, whose brown robes matched the colour of coffee lightened with milk or cream.
• Documented In 18th-century Vienna, coffee houses served a 'Kapuziner': coffee with cream and sometimes sugar or spices. This is seen as the ancestor of the name.
• Documented The modern cappuccino, espresso topped with steamed, foamed milk, became common in Italy only after espresso machines with steam wands spread, especially after the 1950s.
• Legend A popular legend credits Marco d'Aviano, a Capuchin friar present at the 1683 siege of Vienna, with inventing the drink by adding cream to bitter Ottoman coffee. There is no firm evidence for this.
• Note In Italy, cappuccino is usually a morning drink. Ordering one after lunch is a well-known tourist habit there.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Cappuccino

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• Documented 'Caffè latte' simply means 'milk coffee' in Italian. In Italy it was mainly a home breakfast drink, and 'latte' alone means milk.
• Documented France has 'café au lait' (coffee with hot milk, often in a wide bowl), Spain 'café con leche', Germany 'Milchkaffee'. India's own milky filter coffee belongs to the same big family.
• Note The tall espresso latte with a thin layer of foam and latte art became popular through cafés in the United States from the 1980s onwards.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Caffè latte
• Wikipedia: Café au lait

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• Documented Bicerin is a traditional drink of Turin: espresso, drinking chocolate and milk or cream served in layers in a small glass, not stirred.
• Documented It is linked to the café Al Bicerin in Turin, which dates from 1763. 'Bicerin' means 'small glass' in the local Piedmontese language.
• Note The café mocha (espresso, chocolate and milk) took its name from the Yemeni port of Mocha, not from chocolate itself. See the Mocha story above.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Bicerin

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• Documented Very finely ground coffee is simmered with water (and sugar if wanted) in a small pot called a cezve, then poured unfiltered so that a layer of foam sits on top and the grounds settle in the cup.
• Documented In 2013 UNESCO added Turkish coffee culture and tradition to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It is usually served with a glass of water and often a sweet.
• Tradition A Turkish saying holds that one cup of coffee is remembered for forty years of friendship. Many families also turn the cup over and 'read' the pattern of the grounds, a playful custom of fortune-telling.
• Note Similar unfiltered pot coffee is made across the Balkans, Greece, Armenia and the Middle East under local names.

Sources:

• UNESCO: Turkish coffee culture and tradition
• Wikipedia: Turkish coffee

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• Documented Arabic coffee is usually made from lightly roasted beans and flavoured with cardamom, sometimes with saffron or cloves. It is golden-brown rather than black and is served without milk.
• Documented It is poured from a long-spouted pot called a dallah into small handle-less cups (finjan), often with dates. In 2015 UNESCO listed Arabic coffee as a symbol of generosity, nominated jointly by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.
• Tradition Custom says the host keeps refilling the small cup. A guest who has had enough gently shakes the cup from side to side before handing it back.
• Note Indians who add elaichi (cardamom) to coffee or tea are following a very old flavour idea shared across the Indian Ocean.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Arabic coffee

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• Documented Café de olla is traditionally brewed in an 'olla', a clay pot, with cinnamon sticks and piloncillo, an unrefined cane sugar much like Indian gur (jaggery). Some families add orange peel, clove or star anise.
• Tradition A popular story says that during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) the soldaderas, women who travelled with the armies, made this sweet spiced coffee to keep soldiers going. It is a well-loved tradition rather than a recorded fact.
• Note Many people say the clay pot adds an earthy taste, much like water from an Indian matka tastes different. That is a common feeling rather than a measured result.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Café de olla

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• Documented Café Cubano is a short, strong espresso sweetened during brewing. The first drops of coffee are whipped hard with sugar into a pale paste called espumita, and the rest of the coffee is poured over it.
• Note Indians will recognise the idea: it is close to our 'phenti hui' (beaten) coffee, where coffee and sugar are beaten until creamy before hot milk is added.
• Tradition A 'colada' is a larger serving poured into a cup with several tiny plastic or paper cups, meant to be shared among friends or co-workers.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Cuban espresso

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• Documented The French introduced coffee to Vietnam in the 19th century. The small metal 'phin' filter sits on top of a single cup and drips slowly, giving a thick, strong brew, usually from Robusta.
• Note Fresh milk was scarce and hard to keep in the hot climate, so sweetened condensed milk from a tin became the usual partner. 'Cà phê sữa đá' is this coffee with condensed milk poured over ice.
• Note Newer Vietnamese favourites include coconut coffee and salt coffee (cà phê muối), from the old capital Huế.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Vietnamese iced coffee

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• Documented In 1946, during the First Indochina War, fresh milk was hard to find in Hanoi. Nguyễn Văn Giảng, a bartender at the Metropole hotel, whisked egg yolk with sugar and condensed milk into a thick cream and spooned it over strong coffee.
• Documented The drink, called cà phê trứng, was so popular that he left the hotel and opened his own café, Café Giảng, in Hanoi's Old Quarter. His children still run family cafés that serve it.
• Note Most of this story comes from the Giảng family itself. It tastes a little like a liquid dessert. Because it uses raw or lightly cooked egg, people with egg allergies, and anyone advised to avoid raw egg, should skip it.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Egg coffee
• Hanoi Times: Egg coffee

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• Documented Yuenyeung (also spelled yuanyang) is a mix of coffee and Hong Kong-style milk tea, served hot or iced. It grew up in the city's street stalls and 'cha chaan teng' cafés.
• Documented The name means 'mandarin ducks'. These birds are usually seen in pairs and stand for a couple in Chinese culture, just as two different drinks are paired here.
• Note India also has a long chai-and-coffee culture side by side. Yuenyeung shows one city simply putting both into the same glass.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Yuenyeung

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• Documented Foynes in western Ireland was a base for transatlantic flying boats in the 1940s. The story most widely told says that one winter night in 1943 a flight to North America turned back in bad weather, and chef Joe Sheridan gave the cold passengers hot coffee with Irish whiskey, sugar and a layer of cream.
• Tradition As the story goes, a passenger asked if it was Brazilian coffee, and Sheridan replied that it was Irish coffee. This lively detail is part of the tale and is hard to prove.
• Documented In 1952 the travel writer Stanton Delaplane brought the idea to the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco, which began serving it on 10 November 1952. Sheridan later moved to the United States and worked there.
• Note Some historians point to earlier coffee-and-whiskey drinks, so 'invented' really means 'made famous'. This drink contains alcohol; the coffee-and-cream idea works fine without it.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Irish coffee
• Foynes Flying Boat Museum: Chef Joe Sheridan

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• Documented The Greek frappé is said to have been invented in September 1957 at the Thessaloniki International Fair. Dimitris Vakondios, who worked for the Nestlé exhibit, could not find hot water for his instant coffee, so he shook it with cold water in a shaker meant for a new children's chocolate drink.
• Documented The result was a thick, long-lasting foam. With sugar, milk and ice it became one of Greece's most popular summer drinks.
• Note Some researchers note that 'frappé' coffee was advertised before 1957, so the fair may have popularised the shaken version rather than created the idea.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Frappé coffee

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• Tradition The story says that in 1840 French soldiers besieged in the fort of Mazagran in Algeria made a cold drink from coffee syrup and cold water. Back in France, cafés began serving 'café mazagran' in tall glasses.
• Documented In Portugal, mazagran is a cold drink of coffee, lemon, sugar and ice.
• Note It is often called one of the first iced coffees in Europe, but cold coffee drinks may be older. Treat 'first' as a nice title, not a record.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Mazagran

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• Documented A flat white is espresso with steamed milk and only a thin, velvety layer of microfoam, usually in a smaller cup than a latte.
• Documented Claims include Alan Preston in Sydney, Australia (mid-1980s) and Fraser McInnes in Wellington, New Zealand (late 1980s). Neither side has won the argument.
• Tradition In the Wellington story, a cappuccino 'failed' because the milk would not foam, and it was served 'flat' instead.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Flat white

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• Documented In early 2020 whipped coffee, made by beating instant coffee, sugar and hot water into a thick foam and spooning it over milk, went viral from South Korea during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
• Documented The Korean name 'dalgona' comes from a honeycomb toffee sweet with a similar colour. The trend took off after a Korean actor tried a version on a TV show in Macau.
• Note Many Indians pointed out that 'phenti hui' or beaten coffee has been made at home for decades. Similar drinks exist in Pakistan, Greece (frappé) and Macau.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Dalgona coffee

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• Documented 'Affogato' means 'drowned' in Italian. A scoop of vanilla gelato or ice cream is 'drowned' with a hot shot of espresso.
• Note Its exact origin is unclear. It became widely known outside Italy in the late 20th century. It is an easy café menu item because it needs no extra equipment.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Affogato

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• Documented A two-part metal filter drips hot water slowly through ground coffee overnight or in the morning, making a strong 'decoction'. This is mixed with hot milk and sugar.
• Documented It is served in a steel tumbler and a wide bowl called a dabara (davara). Pouring between the two from a height cools the coffee and gives it a light froth.
• Documented Many South Indian blends add roasted chicory root, often around 20 to 30 percent. It gives more body and bitterness and stretches costly coffee.
• Note 'Degree coffee', linked with Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, is a famous name with several explanations: pure (high-'degree') milk tested with a lactometer, the first strong decoction, or something else. No single explanation is proven.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Indian filter coffee
• Coffee Board of India

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• Documented Café Touba is coffee roasted with 'djar' (grains of Selim, a peppery West African spice) and sometimes cloves, then ground and brewed through a cloth filter. It is sold from street carts across Senegal.
• Documented It is named after the holy city of Touba and linked to Sheikh Amadou Bamba, founder of the Mouride Sufi brotherhood. He was exiled by French colonial rulers to Gabon in 1895, and the drink is said to have come to Senegal when he returned in 1902.
• Tradition Followers say he drank it to stay alert for night prayers. Today it is also seen as a proud local alternative to imported instant coffee.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Café Touba

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• Documented Kopi joss is sweet black coffee into which a red-hot piece of charcoal is dropped just before serving. 'Joss' is said to imitate the sizzling sound.
• Documented It is credited to a street stall (angkringan) run by a man known as Lik Man or Pak Man near Tugu railway station in Yogyakarta, starting around the 1960s. Other vendors soon copied it.
• Note Sellers say it helps an upset stomach, but there is no good medical evidence for that. Do not try this at home with ordinary charcoal: only food-safe charcoal is used, and burns are a real risk.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Kopi joss

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• Documented In Yemen, qishr is made from the dried husks (skins) of the coffee cherry, simmered with ginger and sometimes cinnamon and cardamom. It is lighter in caffeine than bean coffee.
• Note The same dried cherry skins are sold in specialty shops today as 'cascara' (Spanish for husk). This is an old idea being rediscovered, and it also cuts waste on farms.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Qishr

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• Tradition In northern Finland and Sweden, some people drop cubes of a squeaky baked cheese (leipäjuusto or juustoleipä) into hot coffee and eat them with a spoon. The Swedish word is 'kaffeost', coffee cheese.
• Tradition 'Egg coffee' (different from Vietnam's) is a Scandinavian-American church-kitchen tradition: a raw egg, sometimes with its shell, is mixed with the grounds before boiling. The egg binds the grounds so the coffee comes out clear and less bitter.
• Documented Sweden's 'fika', the coffee-and-cake break, is covered in our coffee traditions section above.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Juustoleipä (coffee cheese)

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• Note Natural flavour is built in four places: the plant (species and variety), the place (altitude, soil, rain and shade), the processing on the farm (washed, natural or honey), and the roast.
• Note Tasting words like 'jasmine', 'berry' or 'chocolate' describe what the coffee reminds tasters of. These come from hundreds of aroma compounds formed in the bean and in roasting, not from added ingredients.
• Note 'Flavoured coffee' is different: here vanilla, hazelnut, caramel or other flavourings are added to roasted beans or to the drink. The label should say so. Our Science, Taste & Health page explains tasting in more detail.

Sources:

• World Coffee Research: variety catalog

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• Tradition Cardamom (elaichi): Arabic qahwa in the Gulf, and often in Turkish and Indian homes.
• Tradition Cinnamon (dalchini) and cane sugar: Mexico's café de olla.
• Tradition Grains of Selim and clove (laung): Senegal's Café Touba.
• Tradition Ginger (adrak): Yemen's qishr, and 'kopi jahe' ginger coffee in Indonesia.
• Tradition Salt: a small pinch in coffee in parts of Ethiopia and in Vietnam's salt coffee, said to soften bitterness.
• Note Spices in coffee are a matter of taste. If you have a health condition or allergy, check with a doctor before using any spice in large amounts.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Arabic coffee
• Wikipedia: Café Touba
• Wikipedia: Qishr

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• Documented Roasted chicory root tastes bitter and slightly woody, a little like coffee, but has no caffeine. It has long been used to stretch or replace coffee.
• Documented Its use spread widely in France after 1806, when Napoleon's Continental System blockade made imported coffee scarce. It also became common in New Orleans, especially during shortages in the American Civil War.
• Note In India, coffee-chicory blends are a normal part of filter coffee. Packs usually show the ratio, such as 80:20 or 70:30. Pure coffee and blends are both fine; it is a matter of taste.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Coffee substitute
• Wikipedia: Chicory

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• Documented In the days of sailing ships, coffee from India's west coast spent months at sea on the way to Europe. The damp, salty air made the beans swell, turn pale gold and lose much of their acidity.
• Documented With faster steamships and the Suez Canal (opened 1869), beans arrived almost unchanged, and some buyers missed the old mellow, heavy taste.
• Documented Indian processors began to recreate the effect by exposing dried coffee to the wet south-west monsoon winds in open warehouses on the Malabar coast. 'Monsooned Malabar' now has a Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
• Note Exact dates for when monsooning on land began are not clear in the sources we read. The Coffee Board is the best place to check details.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Monsooned Malabar
• Coffee Board of India

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• Documented Kopi luwak is made from coffee cherries eaten by the Asian palm civet. The beans pass through the animal, are collected from its droppings, cleaned and roasted.
• Tradition A common story says it began in the Dutch colonial period, when farm workers were not allowed to pick coffee for themselves and gathered beans left by wild civets instead.
• Documented Because it sells for very high prices, many civets are now kept in small cages and force-fed cherries. Animal welfare groups have reported serious cruelty, and a lot of 'luwak' on sale is said to be fake or mixed.
• Documented A similar idea in Thailand uses elephants, which eat coffee cherries; the beans are collected from their dung.
• Note Many coffee professionals say these coffees are about novelty more than cup quality. If you are curious, look only for clearly wild-sourced and verified products, or simply skip them.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Kopi luwak
• Wikipedia: Elephant coffee (Thailand)

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• Documented In 1884 Angelo Moriondo, who ran a hotel and bar in Turin, patented a steam machine to make coffee quickly in bulk and won a bronze medal at the Turin General Exposition. He built only a few machines for his own businesses.
• Documented In Milan, Luigi Bezzera patented improvements in 1901–1902 to make single cups in seconds. Desiderio Pavoni bought the patent, and the two presented 'caffè espresso' at the 1906 Milan fair.
• Documented Those early machines used steam and often tasted burnt. In the 1940s Achille Gaggia developed a lever-piston machine that pushed water at much higher pressure. It produced the golden foam now called crema, and modern espresso was born.
• Note 'Espresso' is linked to 'express' (fast, made to order) and 'pressed out'. Both ideas fit. Early customers were reportedly suspicious of the new foam until it was sold as 'caffè crema'.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Espresso machine

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• Documented Melitta Bentz, a housewife in Dresden, punched holes in the bottom of a brass pot and lined it with blotting paper from her eldest son's school notebook. Water poured through gave a clean cup with no grounds.
• Documented On 20 June 1908 the Imperial Patent Office in Berlin registered her filter. She was one of the first women in Germany to protect her own invention. She started a company with her husband from their flat with a starting capital of about 72 pfennigs.
• Documented Every pour-over and drip coffee machine with a paper filter grows out of this idea. The cone shape came later, in the 1930s.
• Note Her story is a favourite for young entrepreneurs: a small home problem, a cheap test with what was at hand, and protecting the idea before selling it.

Sources:

• German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA): The invention of the coffee filter
• Wikipedia: Melitta Bentz

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• Documented Satori Kato, a Japanese-American chemist in Chicago, showed a soluble coffee powder at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. In 1910 George Constant Washington began selling an instant coffee commercially in the United States, and it was widely used by soldiers in the First World War.
• Documented In the 1930s Brazil had huge unsold coffee stocks and asked Nestlé to help find a way to preserve it. A team led by chemist Max Morgenthaler developed a better powder, launched as Nescafé in Switzerland in 1938.
• Documented Today instant coffee is made mainly by spray-drying or freeze-drying brewed coffee. It became especially popular in countries like India and the UK.
• Note Earlier soluble 'coffee cakes' are reported from the 18th and 19th centuries too, so there is no single inventor. Brand names are mentioned only to tell the history.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Instant coffee

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• Documented Caffeine itself was first isolated in 1820 by the German chemist Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge, reportedly at the suggestion of the writer Goethe.
• Tradition Ludwig Roselius, a coffee merchant in Bremen, believed too much coffee had harmed his father. The story says that around 1903 a shipment of his beans was soaked in seawater, and the soaked beans turned out to have lost much of their caffeine.
• Documented He developed and patented a process (around 1905–1906) and founded Kaffee HAG to sell decaf. The original method used benzene, a solvent later found to be harmful, and is no longer used.
• Note Today decaf is made with water-only methods (such as the Swiss Water process), carbon dioxide, or approved solvents. Decaf still contains a small amount of caffeine.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Decaffeination

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• Documented French press (plunger): early designs were patented in France in 1852. The modern form owes much to a 1929 patent by the Italians Attilio Calimani and Giulio Moneta.
• Documented Moka pot: launched in Italy in 1933 by Alfonso Bialetti, with the design often credited to engineer Luigi De Ponti. Steam pressure pushes water up through the coffee, and it became a symbol of Italian homes.
• Documented Chemex: an hourglass-shaped glass brewer designed in 1941 by the German-born chemist Peter Schlumbohm in the United States.
• Documented AeroPress: invented in 2005 by Alan Adler, an American engineer who also designed a famous flying ring toy.
• Note Our Roast & Brew page shows how to use each of these. Brand names appear here only for history, not as a recommendation.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: French press
• Wikipedia: Moka pot
• Wikipedia: Chemex
• Wikipedia: AeroPress

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• Documented Kyoto-style or 'Dutch' coffee uses tall glass towers. Ice-cold water drips slowly through ground coffee for several hours, making a smooth, concentrated brew.
• Legend A popular story says Dutch traders in 17th-century Japan made cold coffee concentrate for long voyages. There is no clear proof for this; it is best seen as a legend behind the name.
• Note This is different from steeped cold brew, where coffee simply soaks in cold water for 12 to 24 hours.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Cold brew coffee

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• Documented Coffeehouses opened in Istanbul in the mid-16th century and spread fast. People met there to talk, listen to storytellers, play games and hear the news.
• Note They are often called 'schools of the wise' because of the conversation and learning that happened there. This is a well-known nickname, not an official title.
• Documented Rulers sometimes saw them as places of gossip and rebellion. Sultan Murad IV is reported to have banned coffeehouses in the 1630s with harsh punishments, but the habit came back after him.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: History of coffee

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• Documented London's first coffeehouse opened in 1652. Soon there were hundreds. Entry with a cup of coffee cost about a penny, and anyone could sit and join the talk, which earned them the nickname 'penny universities'.
• Documented In 1674 a pamphlet called 'The Women's Petition Against Coffee' complained that men wasted their time in coffeehouses. Its real authorship is unclear, and it may have been satire.
• Documented In December 1675 King Charles II issued a proclamation to close coffeehouses, which he saw as centres of political criticism. After a public outcry it was withdrawn within days, before it took effect.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries
• Wikipedia: The Women's Petition Against Coffee

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• Documented Edward Lloyd opened a coffeehouse in London in the late 1680s. It became popular with ship owners, captains and merchants who came for reliable shipping news.
• Documented Here people agreed to share the risk of ships and cargo for a fee, which is marine insurance. Over time this grew into the Lloyd's of London insurance market.
• Note London's stock exchange also has roots in coffeehouses such as Jonathan's, where traders met. Coffee and business have been partners for a long time.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Lloyd's Coffee House

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• Documented Café Procope was opened in Paris in 1686 by Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, from Sicily. It is often called the oldest café in Paris still operating, now as a restaurant.
• Tradition It is famous as a meeting place of 18th-century thinkers such as Voltaire and Diderot, and later of figures of the French Revolution. Some famous-visitor stories are hard to confirm.
• Note It also sold sorbets and ices, and helped make such cold desserts fashionable in Paris.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Le Procope

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• Legend The famous legend: after the Ottoman siege of Vienna was broken in 1683, the retreating army left sacks of strange beans. Georg Franz Kolschitzky, a hero of the siege who had lived among the Ottomans, knew they were coffee, asked for them as a reward and opened the city's first coffeehouse, 'The Blue Bottle'.
• Documented Historians say the first licensed coffeehouse in Vienna was opened in January 1685 by Johannes Diodato (Theodat), an Armenian merchant. Kolschitzky received a licence later, around 1686.
• Documented Viennese coffeehouse culture, with its marble tables, newspapers and long, unhurried visits, was added to Austria's national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki (Kolschitzky)
• Wikipedia: Viennese coffee house

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• Documented Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a short comic cantata, known as the Coffee Cantata (BWV 211), around 1732–1735. It was performed at Zimmermann's coffeehouse in Leipzig.
• Documented In the story, a father tries to stop his daughter's coffee habit by threatening not to find her a husband. She agrees, but secretly plans that any suitor must allow her coffee. It pokes fun at the coffee craze of the time.
• Documented In 1777 King Frederick the Great of Prussia issued a statement complaining that too much money was leaving the country for imported coffee and urging people to drink beer, as their ancestors had. Coffee roasting was later restricted under state control for a time.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Coffee Cantata
• Wikipedia: History of coffee

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• Documented The first 'India Coffee House' opened at Churchgate in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1936, started by the Coffee Cess Committee to promote coffee. By the 1940s there were around 50 across British India.
• Documented In the mid-1950s the Coffee Board decided to close them. Workers, supported by the leader A. K. Gopalan, campaigned to keep them going and formed workers' co-operatives. The first co-operative was registered in Bangalore on 19 August 1957, and the network was renamed Indian Coffee House.
• Documented Today there are hundreds of outlets run by several co-operative societies, with Kerala having the most. Branches such as College Street in Kolkata are famous as meeting places for writers, students and activists.
• Note Outlet numbers change over time, and different sources give different dates for some openings.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Indian Coffee House

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• Legend The legend says Sheikh Omar, a holy man and healer of Mocha, was exiled to a desert cave near Ousab. Hungry, he tried the berries of a shrub. They were bitter, so he roasted them; they were hard, so he boiled them, and the brown liquid gave him new energy.
• Legend When news of this 'miracle drink' reached Mocha, he was invited back and honoured as a saint.
• Note Like the Kaldi story, this is a legend. The earliest reliable evidence of coffee drinking is from Sufi circles in 15th-century Yemen (see the timeline above).

Sources:

• Wikipedia: History of coffee

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• Legend The story says some advisers asked Pope Clement VIII (around 1600) to ban coffee as a drink linked with the Ottoman world. He tasted it, liked it so much that he declared it too good to leave to non-Christians, and 'baptised' it instead.
• Note There is no record of any such blessing. Historians treat it as a later, popular tale. Coffee was in fact spreading in Europe through trade in the 17th century.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: History of coffee

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• Tradition Beethoven is said to have counted exactly 60 beans for each cup. The story comes from his secretary Anton Schindler, whose accounts of Beethoven are known to be unreliable in places.
• Tradition Voltaire is often said to have drunk 40 to 50 cups a day. This is a popular anecdote with no reliable count behind it.
• Documented The novelist Honoré de Balzac really did write an essay on the pleasures and pains of modern stimulants, describing how he used very strong coffee to work through the night. Numbers like '50,000 cups' are later guesses.
• Note These are fun stories, not advice. Very high caffeine intake can harm sleep and health; see our Science, Taste & Health page.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Coffee and health
• Wikipedia: Honoré de Balzac

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