Coffee, Spirituality and Democracy
The Mysterious Origins of Coffee
Where did coffee come from? When did it originate? How did it become so pervasive in society? The history of coffee is steeped in mystery, with questions about its origins, the timeline of its discovery, and the reasons for its widespread popularity. Online searches often yield simplified tales of an Ethiopian shepherd and his energized goats. Despite my 13 years in the coffee industry, this narrative persists among many acquaintances. However, the captivating story of coffee deserves a more comprehensive and nuanced exploration.
Coffee's Journey Through History and Society
I’ve summarised a scientific paper, Coffee as a Social Drug, to explore the history of coffee in society from Africa to the Middle East, to Europe and finally to the USA. We look at how society has evolved through its consumption and ritualisation of coffee, including how it vivified democracy during The Enlightenment. As science continues to advance our understanding of evolutionary biology, I believe it is important that we stay connected to the history of society’s number one drug. So pour yourself a nice hot cup of democracy, and dive in.
Coffee as a Social Drug: A Summary
The paper explores the history and impact of coffee as a global commodity and social drug. Coffee, being the most widely consumed legal drug, has played a significant role in various social settings, religious and ethnic identities, and symbolic rituals throughout history. The global coffee trade originated from the spice trade and spread across the globe from Africa to various continents.
Coffee has not only been a commodity but also a social stimulant that helped shape the world economy and societies. It has been part of various social spaces, from religious ceremonies to political discussions, contributing to the development of concepts such as the public sphere, gender, religious and national identity, and sociability. While coffee has been credited for inspiring the rise of capitalism, its history is also filled with contradictions, such as its association with slavery and underdevelopment in some coffee-growing countries.
The popularity of coffee can be attributed not just to its caffeine content but also to the social rituals and customs surrounding its consumption. Despite its psychoactive properties, only about 15% of consumers are physiologically addicted to caffeine. The paper highlights that coffee's role as a social drug and its versatility in adapting to different cultural contexts has significantly shaped the modern world.
The Origins of Coffee: Ethiopia and Africa
The second section of the paper discusses the beginning of human use of coffee, particularly the Coffea arabica species native to Ethiopia. Coffee was initially a holy sacrament for indigenous peoples and was used for energy and hunger suppression by tribesmen on long hunting treks. The Tanzanian Haya people used coffee as a medium of exchange. The drink gained popularity in Africa as a hospitality drink but was not widely consumed until the twentieth century.
Coffee's Journey to the Middle East
Coffee came to the Middle East via Arabians, who were prominent traders. The Shadhili Sufi Muslims in Yemen were the first to use coffee as a devotional ritual. The drink later spread to more mainstream Islamic sects due to its properties and suitability as a boiled beverage during Ramadan. However, coffee's place in the Islamic world was not easily won, facing opposition from some religious scholars.
By 1500, coffee became widespread in the Arabian peninsula, with Sufis spreading coffee drinking to Cairo, Damascus, and Mecca. Coffee became associated with secular society, and the Middle East saw the birth of the café. Coffeehouses played an essential role in the commodification of entertainment and were centres of political intrigue and vice. The Middle East and South Asia were the principal coffee-drinking areas until the mid-eighteenth century.
Europeans Adopt the Coffee Habit
The third section discusses the rise of coffee's popularity in Europe during the seventeenth century, in parallel with the emergence of commercial capitalism. Initially perceived as a medicinal drug, coffee spread throughout Europe via trade, diplomacy, war, and immigration. Its sociability and prestige were enhanced by its association with the luxurious Ottoman Empire.
Northern Europeans became the largest consumers, with England's first coffeehouse opened in Oxford in 1637. The beverage eventually became associated with intellectual discussions and political movements, playing a role in the birth of civil society, public space, and the democratisation of a semi-feudal aristocracy. Despite high taxes and prices, coffee became the preferred breakfast beverage for the urban working class, with coffee substitutes like chicory, figs, and peas consumed when arabica was too expensive.
Coffee's Impact on the United States
In the United States, coffee played a significant role in the industrial age, with sugar-sweetened coffee pushing the nation and northern Europe into the era of machines. Although the thirteen original British colonies had a preference for tea, by the 1830s, North Americans had shifted to coffee. This transformation was due to lower coffee prices, government policies that reduced import taxes, and an influx of northern European immigrants from coffee-drinking countries.
The Civil War contributed to the industrialisation of the coffee sector. Despite initial challenges, the northern army recognised coffee as a military necessity and it became a part of each soldier's ration. This led to coffee becoming entrenched as a social institution, with annual per capita consumption increasing significantly.
Advancements in transportation, roasting, grinding, and brewing technologies contributed to the growing demand for improved and standardised coffee. The 19th century saw the industrialisation of coffee production in the United States, with steamships protecting green beans from damage, and innovations in roasters, grinders, and coffee pots improving the overall quality of coffee.
Coffee in the 20th Century: Standardization and Globalization
Improvements in technology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries allowed for standardisation and the emergence of a wholesaling oligopoly in the United States coffee industry. Innovations such as vacuum packing helped preserve roasted coffee, enabling a few national brands to dominate the trade. The 1907 Pure Food and Drug Act regulated coffee quality, and coffee became increasingly linked to sociability and the workplace. In the 20th century, coffee shops and cafeterias emerged, and coffee became a part of popular speech as a symbol of conversation.
Ironically, while temperance societies promoted coffee as an alternative to alcohol, the Pure Food Movement attacked its harmful properties. The mass-media campaigns surrounding coffee encouraged market oligopolisation. The U.S. coffee market eventually became dominated by four major companies: Phillip Morris, Proctor and Gamble, Sara Lee, and Nestle. Specialty coffee beans, such as those sold by Starbucks, challenged conventional wisdom about consumer preferences and led to the rise of connoisseurship. Coffeehouses became global, with cybercafes connecting people internationally. Gourmet coffee is now a growing market sector, and coffee is increasingly viewed as a social statement.
Coffee as a Social Drug: Conclusions
Caffeine is the world's most popular drug, and coffee is its primary source. Throughout history, coffee has had various roles, from a spiritual and medicinal substance to a beverage that fuels business, revolution, and countercultures. It has been associated with both health and harm, and its effects vary depending on individual factors. Coffee is predominantly a social drug, representing the concept of "society" and the "public sphere."
Despite efforts to ban or regulate it, coffee's links to labor, industry, sobriety, status, and leisure have allowed it to become the second most valuable internationally traded commodity. Today, coffee is associated with modernity in the consuming sphere, and it plays a significant role in adapting our bodies to the unnatural rhythms and fast-paced world of artificial light and the Internet. The first sip of coffee by a Yemeni Sufi centuries ago unknowingly set in motion a vast world of social interactions.