Coffee is tasty and for the night owls out there, it makes getting up in the morning possible. More than that, coffee has been a part of shaping our world since its discovery. How many great conversations, new ideas, deals, and decisions have been made between people over a cup of coffee? And to think it all started with a goat...really!
As the story goes, a goat ate a berry and was high on energy. The herder took the berries to the monks, and the monks tried it. Everyone loved how it woke them up. From there coffee goes on an epic adventure of discovery.
About 600 years later the first coffee houses open and become centers for information, entertainment, politics, and faith. Here are some of the most famous coffee houses in history and how they impacted the world for everyone.
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1454 in Mecca is where the first coffee houses were called Kaveh Kanes. This is where we get the term ‘coffee’ and ‘cafe’. Kaveh Kanes is also now a coffee shop located in Asklipiou 38, Larisa 412 22, Greece.
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1650 in England was the Oxford Coffee Club. As a gathering place for students and scientists it became the Royal Society, a scientific think-tank. Now it is called The Grand Cafe located on 84 High st, Oxford OX1 4BG, UK.
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1683 in Vienna was the Blue Bottle coffee house. Built by Franz Georg Kolschitzky who was awarded 500 sacks of green coffee for spying on the Turkish Army. After opening his coffee house he would become the Patron Saint to coffee houses in all of Vienna.
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1686 in Paris, an Italian, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli opens Cafe Procope. It is known as the first literary coffee shop in the City of Lights. It boasts patrons like Voltaire and Napoleon Bonaparte. It is still open for business and located at 13 Rue de l’Ancienne Comedie, 75006 Paris, France.
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1698 in London was Johnathan’s Coffee House on Change Alley where John Castaing started to issue a list of stock and commodity prices for organized trade. The London Stock Exchange is born.
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1720 in Venice, Cafe Florian opens and showcases great art and entertainment. It is still in business and located at Piazza San Marco, 57, 30124 Venezia, Italy.
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1773 in Boston USA, at the Green Dragon Coffee House, new world colonists meet to conspire against the English. From there the plan for the Boston Tea Party emerges. The coffee house is now the Green Dragon Pub and it is still open to this day. It can be found at 11 Marshall St, Boston MA 02108.
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1790 in New York City the Merchants Coffee House on Wall Street saw the buying and selling of public stock for the first time in America.
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1982 in Seattle, WA the idea for Starbucks coffee houses was presented by their Director of Marketing, Howard Schultz and it was rejected.
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1985 Howard quits Starbucks to start Il Giornale Coffee chain and sees wild success.
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1987 Howard buys Starbucks and renames his chain of cafes. Thus the first Starbucks coffee houses were born.
Through the course of a person’s life they will likely find themselves at a cafe at one point or another, if not every day, and there is no telling who you will meet. Coffee houses have the been the birthplace of inspiration, knowledge, and have witnessed acts of great power. They not only fuel our wake up routine, they are the inertia of destiny. Afterall life is what you make it, serve it with a real good cup of coffee.
Tell us about your favorite coffee house in the comments below!
