From Muslim Mystics to West End
Tracing coffee’s journey from Yemen to London
Coffee is a cornerstone of life in our fair city, and across the word. From its noble origins, and through coffee’s spread across the world, there is something to be learnt and sought. As I embark on exploring London’s best coffee shops, it’s worth reminding how the story began, how coffee has shaped culture and society through the ages, and perhaps reflect on how it impacts us today.
The legend of Kaldi
Somewhere in 9th Century Ethiopia, a goat was buzzing.
This goat had consumed red berries from a nearby shrub. He, and the rest of his herd, were behaving erratically, energised, and jumping about.
Kaldi, the herder of these crazed and now elated goats, notices this unusual behaviour. He traces the cause to the red berries growing nearby.
Trying these berries himself, he experiences the same energising effect. In his excitement, he relays this news to a nearby Sufi monastery. Initially dismissive and throwing the berries into a fire, the monks of this Sufi monastery are eventually enticed by the resulting aroma. They remove the roasted fruit from the fire, dissolve it in hot water, and try it for themselves.
Upon drinking, the monk feels energised and awake during his night prayers. He convinces the other monks of the mysterious drink’s ability to boost worship.
This story is probably not true. But so the legend goes. I like to think that a cornerstone of our modern life started with some goats getting high.
How coffee began
The earliest known instances of coffee consumption, according to more reliable written records, point to the Sufi monasteries of Yemen in the 15th Century.
These Yemeni Sufis would use coffee to aid concentration and to stay alert during night prayers. The drink eventually spread North, to Mecca, Medina, and beyond.
Coffee was spreading to Egypt from the Yemeni port of Mocha (heard that word before?). Coffee houses appeared in Cairo around Al-Azhar University. They also opened in the city of Aleppo, Syria, and then in Istanbul, the capital of the vast Ottoman Turkish Empire.
These coffee houses, known as qahveh khaneh, became popular hubs of social activity. Not only did visitors drink coffee and participate in intellectual conversations, but listened to poetry, music, performances, and played chess or backgammon. Coffee houses quickly became such an important centre for the exchange of information that they were often referred to as ‘Schools of the Wise.’
Coffee in Europe
Coffee eventually entered Europe through a number of avenues. The first is thought to have come from Muslim Turkish slaves made prisoners by the Order of Saint John, in Malta during the 16th century. These slaves would prepare their coffee, which eventually the Knights grew fond of and popularised on the Island.
The rest of Europe first tasted coffee in 1615, when Venetian merchants carried it back with them to Venice from their trades in Istanbul. Starting out as a street beverage, the first coffee house opened in Italy in 1645. Coffeehouses soon sprang up all over the country and, as elsewhere, they became a platform for people from all walks of life, especially artists and students, to come together and chat.
At first, coffee had been viewed with suspicion in Europe as a Muslim drink. As controversy grew, Pope Clement VIII was eventually asked to intervene. He is reported to have so enjoyed coffee so much that he said it would be wrong to permit Muslims to monopolise it, and that it should therefore be baptised. Smart man.
Coffee comes to England
Coffee’s association with intellectual, social, and cultural enlightenment continued during its introduction to England. The first coffee house opened in England in 1651. Coffee houses grew in popularity, and by 1660, London’s coffeehouses had become an integral part of its social culture. These coffee houses became known as ‘Penny Universities,’ as they were patronised by writers, artists, poets, lawyers, politicians and philosophers.
The religious and political discussions taking place in these early coffee houses became viewed as problematic to authority, and so Charles II made an attempt to crush these coffee houses in 1675. Charles II was not the only one to oppose the newfound establishment doling out this mysterious Turkish drink:
Although some coffeehouses had female staff, no respectable woman would wish to be seen inside these premises and the Women’s Petition Against Coffee (1674) bemoaned how the “newfangled, abominable, heathenish liquor called coffee” had transformed their industrious, virile men into effeminate babbling layabouts who idled away their time in coffeehouses. The men took no notice and London became a city of coffee addicts. — The surprising history of London’s fascinating (but forgotten) coffeehouses, (The Telegraph, 2017)
Despite early hesitancy, coffeehouses continued to grow, and established themselves as places of social exchange and interaction. Their lifeblood was conversation, and with strangers at that.
What now?
Taking a step back the first thing that strikes me is how all of this was made possible by a goat getting high.
But anyway, I realise that many of us still go to coffee shops to prop up our creativity and big thoughts. Except the intellectual conversations (if you can call them that) with strangers are over Twitter and the meetings are pre-arranged. Today, coffee shops mostly fuel our interaction with our devices.
Something about the unbridled intellectual conversations with anyone and everyone in the coffeehouses of old seems enticing. However, I quickly remember that I’m usually in coffee shops to not talk to humans and get some peaceful time alone with that beguiling elixir of life known as coffee.
