Settled agriculture began in Ethiopia around 575 AD. Since time immemorial Coffea Arabica L. has been growing in the wild forests of the South-western highlands of Kaffa and Buno districts of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the primary center of origin and genetic diversity of the arabica coffee plant.

Ethiopia has more than 70 ethnic groups speaking over 200 languages. As a result, coffee is described as Bunna (in Amharic), Bun (in Tigrigna), Buna (in Oromiya), Bono (in Kefficho), Kawa (in Guragigna). Some consider that these and other names of coffee were derived from the Kafa or Buno districts of Ethiopia where coffee originated. The French and Spanish call it Cafe, the Italians Caffe, the Germans Kaffee, the Finnish Kahvi, the Dutch Koffie, the Greeks Kafes. All are phonetic approximations of the original Ethiopian, Arabic or Turkish word. The single word coffee had passed into the languages by the year 1700.

Around 575 – The legend of Kaldi, the goatherd discovers the simulating value of coffee. Later coffee is used as food and cultivated in Yemen.

Around 1000 – Coffee infusion was developed. The fruit was submerged in boiling water and used for medicinal purposes.

1457 - The world's first coffee shop, Kiva Han, opened in Constantinople.

1475 – The Turkish law allowed a wife to file for divorce, if a husband was not capable of providing a certain quota of coffee. The world first coffee-shop was born in Mecca the Kaveh Kanes.

1480 - Coffee was prepared as the drink we know today. Since the Koran prohibits the Arabs from consuming alcoholic beverages, coffee became their favorite drink and was served in religious ceremonies.

1511 – Khair Beg, Mecca’s governor, tried to forbid the consumption of coffee. When the Sultan found out he condemned the governor to death and decreed a law making coffee a sacred beverage.

1520 – Coffee was taken to Mocha where a large cultivation was initiated in 1554 the first coffee house was opened in Constantinople.

1592- Prospero Alpino described the coffee plant in his book De Plantis Aegypti, published in Venice.

1615-16 – Venetians import and introduce coffee to the rest of Europe. Pietro Della Valle describes this wonderful drink from his travel to Constantinople and names it “Coffea Arabica”.

1637- Coffee reaches Oxford England and in 1644 arrives in France

1645-52 – The first “botteghe del café in Venice”. The first coffee shop in London, by Pasqua Rosée , was opened causing a religious conflict. Some people considered it an impure drink. A coffeehouse opens in Livorno, Italy.

1660 – Coffee reaches North America and is traded in New Amsterdam (New York). The first coffee shops in Holland. In 1670-72 Boston gets its first coffee licensed and an Armenian called Pascal opens the first coffeehouse in Paris.

 

1683 – The Ottoman army surrounded Vienna, but had to move back leaving behind 200 bags of coffee, which became the supply for the first coffee house in the city. New York began a large market of coffee beans on Wall Street; and the Exchange coffeehouse was created.

1686 – Cafe Procope opens in Paris. It is still a restaurant where you can experience the tradition of the European cafeterias.

1690- The Dutch are the first to transport coffee trees from Moka to the Botanical Garden of Amsterdam. Six years later they took some seedlings from Malabar and started the first plantation in Java, followed by experiments in Sumatra.

1714-15 – The bourgeois of Amsterdam sent some coffee plants to Suriname and also present King Louis XVI of France with a five-foot coffee tree to be planted in the greenhouse of the gardens of Versailles. The Sultan of Yemen present Louis XVI with 60 trees but only 20 arrived healthy on the Island of Bourbon (Reunion). In 1719 a French soldier misleads Surinam guards and takes a few coffee cherries to French Guyana.

1720- Café Florian opens its doors in Piazza San Marco, in Venice. A traditional place we can still enjoy today. Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu, captain of the French navy, traveled to Martinique taking a treasure; two coffee trees. Sharing his personal supply of drinking water with the plants, only one plant survived and became the ancestor of many coffee plantations in America.

1727 – Coffee arrives in Brazil from a seedling bought by Lieutenant Colonel Palheta, in a flower bouquet received in a romantic affair with Surinam Governor's wife. Dr. James Douglas describes the coffee tree.

1730 – The British started plantation in the famous Blue Mountain, in Jamaica and the Exchange Coffee House is open in Broad Street, N.Y. Coffee-shops were a place for music lovers and in 1734, Johann Sebastian Bach composes the famous operetta, the Coffee Cantata.

1773 – The boycott of tea, the Boston Tea Party, makes coffee the official drink of America and in 1784 the Merchants Coffee-House becomes The Bank of New York.

1808 - Boston welcomes the first coffeehouse and between 1820 and 1828, numerous inventions on how to prepare coffee changes the habits of drinking this energetic fruit. Also Kona Hawaii has its debut of their plantation.

1901 – An American, Satory Kato invents soluble coffee, Luige Bezerra the principles of espresso, Ludwig Roselius decafcofee and Mellita Bentz the paper filter. In 1904, Alberto Santos Dumont, the son of the largest coffee-grower in the world, of this time called “The King of Coffee”, flew for the first time in Paris, with his “14 Bis” airplane.

1929 – Stock Market Crashed and send the coffee sector to near ruins. In the Thirties, the French launch the “Melior”cafetiere, Illy invents the air compressed espresso coffee maker, the Italian Moka home coffee maker has its debut and Karen Blixen publishes the novel La Ferme Africane that is latter used to make the film Out Of Africa.

1950 – After the World War II Mr. Gaggia presents the world with the spring piston powered espresso machines and Faema a pump based espresso revolution. The percolator drip machines became popular.

1971 – Espresso conquest America.

1990s – Automatic espresso machines and espresso bars became popular throughout the world and coffee consumption surpassed 100 million bags.

2000 – The Specialty Coffee Association in America, Europe and Brazil and its “Cup of Excellence” award and revolutionize the Coffee Quality concept.

2001 – Brasil Coffee House opens its first store in Queens, N.Y

2002 – Sustainability and Ecological awareness impose a significant challenge on coffee farming. Fair trade, ISO14001, EcoOk and Organic certification become a new frontier for coffee growers.