You may have heard the story about how coffee was first discovered. But, that’s just how it managed to spread across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia. There’s a pretty interesting story behind how coffee first came to America and how it grew into the popular drink that it is today.
When you think of where coffee is grown today, you very likely think about South America. Brazil churns out more coffee beans than any other country these days, after all. But, coffee did not originate there, despite it growing so well there that you would think they evolved together.
However, it was Europeans in the mid-1600s that first brought over coffee. Brazil and most other South American countries would be a little behind the ball in terms of getting coffee. It wasn’t until the 1700s that this introduction occurred.
Native Americans had some dark caffeinated beverages of their own. There were no previous trade routes with the “Old World.” There were no native coffee plants, either. Native Americans also gained their true coffee exposure after these trade routes started opening up.
Not too long after the introduction of coffee to modern-day America though, coffeehouses became extremely popular. They were places to meet with others and discuss everything from politics to philosophy. Some even attribute the ideas of democracy to the debates and exchange of thoughts that occurred in these early coffeehouses.
However, even during these times, tea still remained the drink of choice for these British colonialists. That is, until the colonialists became increasingly unhappy with Britain’s rule.
Americans rejected a tax on tea and dumped tons of tea into a harbor in what would become known as the Boston Tea Party. This, in effect, became where the colonialists started to separate themselves from their motherland of Britain.
America attempted to create its own separation of culture and ways of doing things at that point. One of the ways it created its own culture was by switching from tea to coffee. Thomas Jefferson even went so far as to proclaim that “coffee is the favorite beverage of the civilised world” in some of his writings.
George Washington also had huge shipments of high quality coffee sent to him on a regular basis as well. Match Made Coffee even put together an article specifically about the first 10 US Presidents and their various associations with coffee.
These moves started us all down the coffee loving path that many Americans enjoy these days. Those early European trade routes and desire to create an identity of their own, led by the leaders of America before it was even known as America, is what got us to where we are today. Hopefully now you can further appreciate the journey and culture shifts involved with how coffee first came to America.
