Coffee: Good to the Last Drop?

By Anthony Wild
The Globalist

While coffee bolstered the emergence of capitalism, the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in our globalized economy is exemplified by the growing inequalities in the coffee trade. In "Coffee: A Dark History," this week's Globalist Bookshelf selection, Anthony Wild argues that coffee has always marched hand in hand with colonialism through the pages of history.

Once known as the “Wine of Araby,” trade in coffee was an important component in the creation and consolidation of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.

The effect of caffeine itself ensured that there were always likely to be lively, well-informed debates and intense, original exchanges.

It was first consumed in the late 15th century as a sacred ritual amongst the Sufis in Yemen, from where it quickly spread through Islam.

In that religion, despite some initial opposition, it was considered an acceptable stimulant because, unlike the reviled alcohol, it never left the drinker incapable of distinguishing a man from a woman or the earth from the heavens.

The popular coffee houses of Cairo and Constantinople attracted the attention of the first European visitors to the Orient.

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