Coffee plants grew in the wilderness in Ethiopia and were used by nomadic tribes for thousands of years, only until the 1400s when people figured out that they could roast its seeds. By the 1500s, the drink had spread to coffee houses across the Arab world. Coffee houses first appeared in Turkey, Syria, and Egypt as early as 1530. Since they became a hotspot for political discussions, they were banned repeatedly.
Subsequently, throughout the 1600s coffee houses began popping up across Europe and North America. The French and American Revolutions were said to have brewed in coffeehouses. Lloyd’s of London, a major insurance company, started as a coffeehouse that was frequented by merchants and sailors.
The coffee house acted as a perfect mid-ground for a meetup, between other options like places of spiritual significance or formal restaurants. Here creativity and innovation thrived through conversations. They have long been associated with writers, artists, and intellectuals and represented a safe and comfortable space to share news, discuss philosophy or politics. This surge in innovation was not only owing to the design of the space - the physical gathering of people from different backgrounds and fields of expertise - but also to coffee itself.
