Is Ethiopia the Birthplace of Coffee?
Most coffee historians agree that coffee originated somewhere in the mountains of Ethiopia (Abyssinia). What today we call the Somali Peninsula. This is the northeastern most tip (“the horn”) of Africa and comprises the Countries of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and parts of Ethiopia. It is very close to the southern most tip of the Arabian Peninsula, which is the current and ancient location of Yemen.

William H. Ukers author of All About Coffee (the “bible” of coffee written in 1922) states that . . . “the first cultivation of coffee in Yemen dates back to A. D. 575, when the Persian invasion put an end to the rule of Caleb, who [had previously] conquered Ethiopia in 525”. Although Yemen was most certainly the region that first traded coffee internationally, tradition establishes Ethiopia as the birthplace of coffee.

For the next thousand years, the Arabians were able to maintain a total monopoly on coffee. Their name for coffee and coffee shrubs was bunn. They made sure that no coffee or berries (seeds) left the country without being boiled in water first. Boiling the berries ruined their ability to germinate, insuring that coffee wouldn’t be grown anywhere else. While these Yemen Arabians exported their coffee all over the world, it was against their law for anyone to export or remove a “bunn branch cutting” or fertile bean from the country.

Kaldi and the Monk, vs. Omar the priest/doctor Sheik
There are two primary legends that describe the discovery of coffee as a beverage. The first involves a young man named Kaldi who lived in the mountains of Ethiopia. Kaldi’s responsibility was to care for his families goat heard. When the herd didn’t return home one evening he became concerned and went searching for them. He searched all through the night and found them the next day “dancing” near bushes with shiny green leaves and bright red berries. Curious, he tried the berries himself. The story continues, while he was dancing himself with his goats, a “monk” (spiritual man) happened by and became intrigued by what he saw. The monk may or may not have scolded Kaldi for eating “the devils fruit”. Regardless, the monk took some of the berries himself and began experimenting with them. Soon he developed a beverage that allowed him and his fellow monks to stay awake during their hours long prayers. The value of the drink quickly spread from monastery to monastery.

Another traditional story tells of Omar, a Sheik (also a priest and doctor) and his followers who were banished to the desert from their town of Mocha to die for “a certain moral remissness”. Out of desperation, they picked, boiled, and ate the fruit of a shrub they had never seen before. Some versions say that the idea to pick the cherries of the coffee shrub came to him in a dream or vision. The coffee plant sustained the exiles and they thrived at their retreat – which later became named Ousab. The former patients from the nearby town of Mocha came out to Ousab to cure their ills and physical problems. Omar gave them coffee. The stories of the “magical properties” of the treatments caused Sheik Omar to be invited back to the city. The governor built a monastery for his followers and Omar later became the patron saint of the city of Mocha. The plant and brew were named mocha in honor of their miraculous survival.

Baba Budan the Holy Smuggler
Although security to preserve the lucrative exclusivity of coffee to Arabia was very tight, it was difficult to keep watch over the thousands of pilgrims that visited Mecca every year. In 1670 a Muslim holy man, Baba Budan, from southern India managed, during his pilgrimage, to smuggle seven un-boiled (fertile) beans out of the country and back to his home in the Mysore Mountains. Baba’s seven beans flourished, and the mountain range he planted them in was renamed after him (to this day) in his honor. Baba Budan was named a saint for his contribution to the local peoples lives, and the Yemen Arabian coffee monopoly was broken.

Coffee Expands around the World
Soon the Dutch traders that had already purchased silk, sandalwood, and incense from that region discovered the coffee farms and began propagating coffee in all of their mountainous provinces near the equator. The French, English, Germans and Spanish quickly followed. These European countries quickly realized that the territories they owned could now produce an important new cash crop.

If you study the history of the European influence on Central America, South America, Africa, the Caribbean, India, and the Asian Pacific between 30 degrees north (the Tropic of Cancer) and 30 degrees south of the equator (The Tropic of Capricorn) in the years between 1700 and 1901 and you’ll discover the global expansion of virtually all of the specialty coffee we drink today. The Dutch started by planting on the isle of Java and the English finished the coffee farming expansion in Eastern and Central Africa.

Although Yemen held a monopoly on all of the world’s export of coffee for at least a thousand years, in the next two hundred years the Western Europeans expanded coffee cultivation to their territories around the globe and completely dominated specialty coffee’s growth and export. However, in only twenty-one years, Starbucks Coffee an international specialty coffee retailer based in the United States went “public” and has grown to become (to date) the most dominate specialty coffee retailer in the world.

Is Coffee “Blessed”?
Many in the Italian Catholic church were concerned that coffee might be a dangerous stimulant. At that time it was available only by a doctors prescription in Venice. To address the controversy, Catholic priests who believed the “drug” should be condemned as evil took the issue to Pope Clement VIII (1535 – 1605) for a ruling. To the surprise of many, the Pope tasted the coffee, loved it, and baptized the beverage so that all, without a prescription, could enjoy it. He is said to have exclaimed, “Why, Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.”

The History of Specialty Coffee Retail It is often thought that the contemporary espresso bars and cafés of Europe and America are a specialized niche in the food service industry, which have grown out of the great restaurant traditions. Actually, it is the restaurant (the name restaurant is derived from the tradition of those establishments which specialized in the sale of "restorative foods") tradition that has grown out of the cafés, bistros, and brasseries of France, Italy, Germany and England. Most of these cafés and bistros specialized, as they do today, in the service of espresso based drinks, specialty coffees, fresh baked pastries, as well as wine and liquor.

Out of the American espresso bars and cafés has evolved an incredible variety of espresso retail concepts designed to meet very specific needs. The most famous recent new concepts include: the espresso cart, espresso kiosks, the espresso drive-thru, mobile espresso vehicles and espresso catering.

The Traditional Espresso Bar
The chief characteristic of the espresso bar is it's steadfast adherence to the basics of retailing only espresso based drinks, drip coffee, whole bean specialty coffee, a limited fresh pastry menu usually prepared off of the premises by a vendor, fruit and carbonated drinks, and a limited variety of coffee/tea related retail items. The espresso bar owner seeks to derive at least 80% of sales from espresso based and drip coffee drinks. The size of the space may vary from a few hundred square feet to several thousand square feet with the norm close to twelve hundred square feet. The design and space often centers around a long service bar. Other tables and retail areas are present on a space-permitting basis.

In Vienna, the café became firmly established in 1683, when the invading Turks abandoned five hundred sacks of coffee. The Italians have always considered the espresso bar to be a natural extension of their homes and offices. They ether throw back a straight shot of espresso on their way to work or they may spend many hours there in the morning to read the news, in the afternoon to discuss business, and in the evening to talk and relax with friends.

The Espresso Café
The café features a limited menu food service and sit down tables; however, drinks and food are still purchased at the bar. Some of the great Viennese cafés still exist, perpetuating the traditions with their artwork, soft lights, and wooden paneling. Italian cafés existed before the first ones opened in France, especially in Venice where the famous ones date from the eighteenth century including Café Greco which opened in Rome in 1760, and Florian, which opened in Venice in 1720. These two well-known establishments are still open today, appearing much the same as they did in the eighteenth century. "At the Café Greco or the Florian, one can still select from a variety of finger sandwiches or desserts while standing at the bar, drinking a cup of espresso. The coffee bar and dining area are alive with tourists, shoppers, and locals, each there to share the pleasure of conversation while surrounded by an interior of marble tabletops, stone floors, wood detailing, and ornate mirrors." Martin Dorf, Restaurants That Work

As Marie-France Boyer reports in The French Café the tradition in cafés is and always has been an insistence on quality and excellence in food and design. In 1780 the publication Anne`e Litte`raire pronounced: “This new architecture seems to be blessed with both wisdom and invention: it is surely singular for a café to show the stamp of true taste."

The Coffee House
The coffee house emphasis is informal, more eclectic and artsy then espresso bars and cafés. The tradition is to create a casual atmosphere, quiet study, live acoustical music and literary readings. Often the decor includes used, mismatched couches and comfortable overstuffed chairs. The roots of live music in the coffee house may be traced to pre-war Berlin. Cafés there developed the singing tradition of cabarets.

College campuses have always been an ideal location for the coffee house theme, where students can gather for study, discussion, entertainment and simple inexpensive meals. The American urban or college campus coffee house are similar to the bistros of Paris that evolved in the last decades of the nineteenth century out of necessity to serve workers near of in Les Halles; the appeal of the original bistros that also captures the spirit of the American coffee house.

With their honest, homemade cooking and fair prices, the bistros became havens for struggling artists, students and journalists throughout Paris, whose apartments didn't have kitchens. Martin Dorf recalls "customers both dined and virtually lived in their favorite bistros, where grandmotherly women, nurtured their souls with cuisine. The allure of these coffee house bistros is and always has been the coffee and their deeply satisfying, down-to-earth cooking, served in a warm, homey, softly lighted environment."

Karl Petzke and Sara Slavin conclude their book Espresso: Culture and Cuisine with the following advice to those who would seek to design a destination coffee house. "The Italians call it dolce far niente: 'the sweetness of doing nothing.' Americans call it 'hanging out' or ‘hangin’. The social scientists discuss 'flow experience' and the 'expanded present.' Buddhists try to 'live in the moment.' All these things can happen in a well designed espresso bar."

The Espresso Bar Combination
This combination often consists of a compatible food or retail concept such as espresso/bakery, espresso/bookstore, espresso/deli, espresso/kitchenware retail etc.

The history of the espresso bar combination goes back once again to the French and Italian cafés. Their tradition includes such combinations as café-restaurants, café- tobacconists, café- bars and café-billiard rooms.

The strength of coffee sales in the American espresso industry has traditionally been high volume sales between 5:00 am and noon, with steady sales from noon to close. The recent trend toward afternoon and evening sales of alcohol (upscale micro-brewed beers and wine), presumably to "even out" and increase the cash flow, is once again a giant leap toward the traditions of the European cafés.

The Bavarian brasseries were similar to our "brew pubs" which have become a hot trend in recent years. They served pastries and coffee in the morning and the rest of the day beer, cider, and other drinks, along with hot and cold dishes often fairly late into the night.

The idea of serving alcohol in an espresso bar is somewhat controversial. Some of the recent purist espresso retailers are quick to point out that the addition of alcohol is one of the major factors that lead to the decline of the great early European and American coffee houses. History seems to make a case for both sides. On one hand Joel, David, & Karl Schapira report in The Book of Coffee and Tea that,