We’ve been sharing the history of coffee, and there’s no way around the reality that the story of coffee is entwined in the story of colonization. At this point in the story, the Ottoman Empire controlled coffee growing and production. Though it was guarded closely, the Dutch stole some coffee seeds. With these seeds, they had success growing coffee in their colony in Java. It was from here, the late 1600s, that coffee began to spread around the world.
From the Dutch to the French
Following the success of their first planting in Java, the Dutch began to cultivate coffee in Sumatra and Sulawesi as well. They created the first coffee blend, combining coffee from Mokha, Yemen with coffee from Java. This blend, Moka Java, is still a favorite today. Later, the Dutch presented King Louis the XIV of France with a coffee tree in 1714. That tree found a home in the Royal Botanical Gardens.
Coffee Travels to the New World
In 1723, a naval officer named Gabriel de Clieu got a seedling from the king’s coffee tree. He brought it on a voyage to the Caribbean Islands. This seedling survived terrible weather, a pirate attack, and even a saboteur before it was planted in Bourbon, Martinique. Over the next 50 years, more that 18 million coffee trees grew in Martinique. These trees provided the foundation for coffee growing in the rest of the Caribbean, Central, and South America.
In the soon-to-become United States, coffeehouses existed, but most of the colonists preferred to drink tea. That is, until King George III increased the tax on tea. This led to the Boston Tea Party, and most of the colonists changed their preferences to coffee in protest.
Coffee production and trade was still very competitive, and the French were not particularly willing to share theirs. The Portuguese wanted in, and the Emperor sent the very handsome military officer, Francisco de Mello Palheta, to French Guyana to obtain seedlings. The French Governor refused, but his wife was charmed by de Mello Palheta. She sent him with a bouquet of flowers with coffee seeds hidden inside. The Portuguese cultivated these seeds in Brazil, which has become the largest coffee producer in the world.
A Delightful Aside
In the 1730s, church composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the Coffee Cantata. It’s a comedic, even sarcastic, and very cheeky story of a young woman who loves coffee. Her father is unsure about the newfangled coffee addiction, and tries to manipulate her into giving up coffee by promising to find her a husband. The woman agrees, but convinces any potential suitor that she must have her coffee. In the end, all parties come to agree that “drinking coffee is natural!”
Growing into the Modern Coffee Trade
By the mid 1800s, French missionaries brought coffee seedlings from Martinique to Vietnam, which has become the world’s second largest producer of coffee. From this point onwards, coffee spread around the world in much the same way. Trade alliances and even nations formed around coffee production. Importing and exporting companies began and turned into the trade network we have today.
Looking for your next favorite coffee? Try our Roast of the Month, a rotating selection of single origin coffee. It might just inspire you to write a cantata!