back in the day

By the early-sixteenth century, coffee had necessitated the creation of its own institution: the coffeehouse.  With the spread of such novel public places throughout the Early Modern Ottoman Empire, a distinct culture of urban leisure began to take shape.  

For Ralph S. Hattox, author of Coffee and Coffeehouses, the coffeehouses of Istanbul were the new secular centers where the exclusively male cliental could exchanging ideas.  These medieval café dwellers were seen as “young idlers” and “professional loungers” participating in the unrespectable trend of ‘utlah, or ‘doing nothing.’  The scholar Kâtib Çelebi linked the coffeehouse culture of Istanbul with the city’s clandestine world of “loose living” (Hattox).  Despite the negative associations with the drink, coffee was and remains to this day, a public affair. 

European centers of commerce followed suit in the seventeenth century as coffee culture spread to London and Paris via Venice, then over to the American colonies. In his book Tastes of Paradise, Wolfgang Schivelbusch uses London as case study.  By 1700, the city boasted about 3,000 coffeehouses for its population of 600,000.

Lloyds of London, now a major insurance company, started out as a coffeehouse in the eighteenth century.

Coffee and tea were already international commodities by the seventeenth century, stimulating colonial investments and trade to cater to the emerging European culture of leisure.  Middle class intellectual culture was kept satisfied with goods from the colonies in a system much akin to the modern importation of coffee beans.

“black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love”

The best part of finals week: half priced coffee at the CoHo.

While the library is the prime study spot, the Coffee House is equipped with more than silent cubicles—with finals creeping up, the CoHo will be your best study buddy.

Walking into the UC Davis Coffee House you can feel the buzz--the music, the chatter, and the frantic flipping of pages.  Students with their noses in books fight through mental anguish amidst the distinct aroma of freshly-ground coffee.  

Every so often, a drink is made ready at the counter—calls to claim a “double mocha for Tom” or a “soy latte for Sophie” ring out through this oasis for students on their way to and from class, seeking that extra boost to get them through the day.  For some, myself included, a visit to the CoHo is part of the daily grind.  With a cup of coffee in hand, you can take on the day, fully caffeinated and ready for anything.

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Everyday in every country, coffee is consumed by the gallons.  Coffee has fostered its own culture sparked by its mythical discovery in the ninth century.  Since then, the beans have become a commodity with a complex system of varieties, growers and distributers as complex as the wine industry.  Today, Americans are the world’s most avid consumers of what has become an essential beverage. 

You can’t get more eloquent than CharlesMaurice de Tallyrand-Périgord when he described coffee in the early nineteenth century: “black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.” From the sixteenth century coffeehouses of the Ottoman Empire, coffee culture has evolved into the present day’s grab-and-go caffeine dealers like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.  With ninety-percent of Americans getting their caffeine fix satisfied daily, you have to wonder at the lengths we will go to for that extra kick—often at the expense of the environment and our own peace of mind.