Coffee History: From Ethiopia to Switzerland

The history of coffee is, to a good extent, made up of stories. We've separated what's documented from what's legend – and in the process found a Swiss angle that rarely gets mentioned: this country holds 20,180 tonnes of coffee as a compulsory reserve.

Upfront: legends aren't worthless. They tell you what people thought about coffee. They're just not sources – and we'll tell you which is which.

Where does coffee come from?

From southern Ethiopia. That's the only statement about coffee's origin that's undisputed in the scientific literature. The wild stands of Arabica grow in the mountain forests of the country's southwest.

Eight documented dates

The milestones are shown in sequence, not to time scale – more than two centuries separate 1685 and 1912.

What's true about the Kaldi legend?

Everyone knows the story: a goatherd named Kaldi notices that his animals don't sleep after eating certain red berries. A monk tries the berries, stays awake during prayer, and coffee is discovered.

There's no contemporary source for this story. It first appears in print in 1671, in a work by the Maronite orientalist Antonio Fausto Naironi, published in Rome. The alleged event is usually dated to the 9th century – roughly eight hundred years before it was first written down. Even the Swiss industry association lists it explicitly under the heading "The Legend."

The name "Kaldi" doesn't appear at all in the scholarly literature on early coffee history that we reviewed. Anyone who gives a year for it is citing a number with no source.

How did coffee reach Yemen?

Here the sourcing gets better. The earliest tangible account names the Sufi scholar Muhammad al-Dhabhani, who is said to have spread coffee in Aden. His date of death is documented by two independent Arabic sources: 875 in the Islamic calendar, meaning 1470 or 1471.

The social context is the interesting part: coffee was drunk within Sufi orders to stay awake during nightly devotional remembrance. From there it spread among scholars and craftsmen, "to seek help with study and with other occupations and crafts," as the account puts it.

This account isn't without caveats either. The historian Ralph Hattox, whose standard work is our main source for this section, himself notes that the account is vague overall and contains more than a little legend – and that even the Arab chronicler who records it grows skeptical by the end.

When did the first coffeehouse emerge?

Before the 16th century there's no evidence of an establishment that could be called a coffeehouse. The first reference to a place where people gathered to drink coffee and socialize comes from the official report on the events in Mecca in 1511.

Those events were a ban. On the night before Friday, June 20, 1511, Khaʾir Beg al-Miʿmar, Mamluk governor and market inspector of Mecca, took action against coffee consumption. It's the first extensively documented attempt to prohibit coffee.

Coffee reached Cairo in the first decade of the 16th century, initially around the al-Azhar mosque, soon after in the streets nearby. According to the Ottoman chronicler Ibrahim Peçevi, coffee and the coffeehouse arrived in Constantinople together as a complete package around 1555 – introduced by two Syrians named Hakm and Shams.

For Constantinople, the year 1554 is often cited. The scholarly literature says "around 1555" or "around the middle of the 16th century." We therefore stick with "around 1554/55" and don't commit to a single year.

What's true about the Vienna legend of 1683?

Nothing. And that's unusually clearly documented.

The story: after the Ottomans withdrew from Vienna in 1683, sacks of coffee beans are left behind, and Georg Franz Kolschitzky uses them to open Vienna's first coffeehouse. The City of Vienna writes in its city encyclopedia: "The claim that Koltschitzky opened the first coffeehouse in Vienna is not correct" – and describes the story as a legend scientifically disproven by the historian Karl Teply. The Wien Museum, too, lists the famous image of the "first coffeehouse" as a depiction of a supposed establishment.

The legend only arose in 1783, a hundred years after the siege, spread by the Piarist father Gottfried Uhlich. What is documented, however: the first Vienna coffee-serving privilege was granted on January 17, 1685, to the Armenian Johannes Deodat. And as early as 1645, Vienna recorded its first expenses for coffee – for Turkish envoys.

When did coffee arrive in Switzerland?

The knowledge came early, the drink came late. In Switzerland, it was the Orient traveler Johann Jakob Ammann who publicly introduced the "Turkish drink" in 1618. That's the earliest date given by the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

Cafés as actual establishments, by contrast, only emerged in the late 18th century in the larger cities, modeled on Italian and French examples. Confectioners from Graubünden, already well known in Venice and northern Italy in the 18th century, had close ties to the world of the emerging coffeehouses.

Among well-off city dwellers, coffee drinking was an established habit by the end of the 18th century. In the countryside it spread as milk coffee or coffee mush – in Ticino, at the same time, it wasn't yet common at all.

For specific coffee bans in Swiss cantons, we found no reliable source. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland speaks of "fierce controversies" for medical, moral, and economic reasons, but names no bans. The known 18th-century bans concern Prussia and Hesse, not Switzerland – anyone who applies them to Switzerland does so without evidence. Likewise, we couldn't verify specific years for the first coffeehouse in Zurich, Bern, or Basel.

What did Switzerland contribute to coffee history?

More than you'd think – and most of it in processing.

Two different years circulate for Nescafé. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland and Nestlé itself give 1938; the blog of the Swiss National Museum gives 1937, but contradicts itself internally and dates its own image captions to 1938. We follow 1938.

The Swiss Water Process, the chemical-free water decaffeination method, is often described as a Swiss invention from 1933. What's documented is the company and location of today's plant near Vancouver, as well as its commercialization by Coffex S.A. starting in 1980. For the year 1933 and the Swiss origin, we found no primary source – the company itself makes no dated claim to this on its own pages.

Why does Switzerland stockpile 20,000 tonnes of coffee?

Because coffee is a supply-critical good here – legally binding. The Ordinance on Compulsory Stockpiling of Food and Feed lists in Article 1 what is subject to compulsory stockpiling: sugar, coffee, rice, edible oils and fats, as well as grain and animal feed.

Why Switzerland hoards coffee

In 2019, the federal government proposed in a consultation to no longer classify coffee as an essential good – on the grounds that coffee contains practically no energy, since it's low in protein and fat. The compulsory stockpiles were to be phased out by the end of 2022.

The industry rejected the proposal with a clear vote in the summer of 2019. The responsible department then withdrew the proposal and asked the Federal Council to continue the program. In 2023 the compulsory stockpile quantity was even increased, from 18,750 to 20,640 tonnes by the end of 2026.

As of the end of 2025: 20,180 tonnes, held by 17 cooperative members, sufficient for about three months of national demand. Around 3.3 million francs in compensation was paid out for the storage, equivalent to 16.50 francs per 100 kilograms.

How much coffee does Switzerland drink?

For 2025, the industry association Procafé cites a per-capita consumption of about 9 kilograms on a green-coffee basis, with domestic consumption of roughly 60,000 tonnes. Historically, the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland gives an average of 8.6 kilograms for the years 1990 to 1998 – which put Switzerland in the European midfield at the time.

Two caveats that rarely get mentioned alongside it. First, the 9-kilogram figure is an industry-association figure, not an official statistic; Procafé itself points out that the 60,000 tonnes for 2025 don't match the three-year average of roughly 84,000 tonnes. Second, Switzerland is a major re-exporter: in 2025, roughly 234,000 tonnes of coffee were imported and roughly 174,000 tonnes exported. Rankings based on import figures therefore systematically overestimate Swiss consumption. We were unable to verify a reliable international ranking – the relevant ICO data is paywalled.

Frequently Asked Questions About the History of Coffee

Where does coffee originally come from?

From southern Ethiopia. From there it reached Yemen, where the earliest verifiable consumption and cultivation began in the 15th century. Knowledge of it didn't reach Europe until 1582, through the travel account of the Augsburg physician Leonhard Rauwolf.

What's true about the story of the goatherd Kaldi?

It's a legend, not a historical account. There's no contemporary source for it. It first appears in print in 1671, in a work by the Maronite scholar Antonio Fausto Naironi in Rome – roughly eight hundred years after the alleged event.

Who spread coffee in Yemen?

According to the traditional account, the Sufi scholar Muhammad al-Dhabhani, who died in 1470 or 1471. Coffee was drunk within Sufi orders during nightly devotional remembrance to stay awake – the earliest documented social context of coffee consumption.

When was the first coffee ban?

In 1511, in Mecca. On the night before Friday, June 20, 1511, the Mamluk governor and market inspector Khaʾir Beg al-Miʿmar took action against coffee consumption. That's the first extensively documented attempt at a ban.

Is it true that the Turks left coffee behind at Vienna in 1683?

No. The City of Vienna and the Wien Museum explicitly describe the story around Georg Franz Kolschitzky as a legend that has been scientifically disproven. It only began circulating in 1783, a hundred years after the siege, spread by a Piarist father. The first Vienna coffee-serving privilege was granted on January 17, 1685, to the Armenian Johannes Deodat.

When did coffee arrive in Switzerland?

The Orient traveler Johann Jakob Ammann publicly introduced the "Turkish drink" in Switzerland in 1618. Cafés as actual establishments, however, only emerged in the larger cities in the late 18th century, modeled on Italian and French examples.

What did Switzerland contribute to coffee history?

Above all, instant coffee: Nescafé launched on the Swiss market on April 1, 1938, developed by the chemist Max Morgenthaler and produced in Orbe in the canton of Vaud. As early as 1912, the German Kaffee-Handels-AG had opened the first factory for decaffeinated coffee in Switzerland.

Why does Switzerland stockpile coffee as a compulsory reserve?

Because coffee is listed as a supply-critical good in the Ordinance on Compulsory Stockpiling of Food and Feed. At the end of 2025, 17 cooperative members held 20,180 tonnes in storage, enough for about three months of national demand. A proposal to abolish it failed in 2019 due to industry opposition.

Where This Story Begins, You Can Drink It

The beginning of this whole journey lies in the mountain forests of Ethiopia – and that's exactly where two of our coffees come from. Bright Cassis and Wild Peach grow on the Tero Farm in the Guji region, at 1,800 to 2,200 meters, as heirloom varieties on volcanic soil.

This isn't an attempt at reconstruction, and it's not "this is what it tasted like back then" – nobody can prove claims like that. It's simply the same region that coffee came from before it reached Yemen, Vienna, Paris, and eventually Switzerland. If you want the other side of the story in your cup, the Italian espresso with body and crema: Cozy Nut or Very Nutty, our pure robusta from southern India.

Both belong to the same story. What goes in your cup is your call – as always.

Now What?

The best thing about this story is that at almost every point, it was a social event before it became an economic one. Coffee was first a drink for nighttime prayers, then for scholars, then for newspaper readers and political debates – and only after that a commodity with an exchange price and a compulsory reserve.

If you want to know what's botanically behind it: Arabica and Canephora. If you want to trace the path of individual lineages: Typica and Geisha. And if you just want a good coffee: our coffee beans and the workshops in Bern and Zurich. We are United by Coffee – for around 550 documented years now.

Sources and Context

• Information about our own roasts comes from our product data and is company-reported.
• Swiss coffee history, Rauwolf 1582, Ammann 1618, substitutes, HAG 1912, Nescafé 1938: Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, articles Kaffee (Albert Pfiffner) and Cafés (Lokale) (François de Capitani).
• Yemen, Sufi orders, al-Dhabhani, Mecca 1511, Cairo, Constantinople: Ralph S. Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses. The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East, University of Washington Press, 1985.
• Kaldi legend, first printed 1671: Antonio Fausto Naironi, De saluberrima potione cahue, seu cafe nuncupata discursus, Rome 1671; also classified as a legend by Procafé.
• Vienna: Wien Geschichte Wiki of the City of Vienna, articles Kaffeehaus and Georg Franz Koltschitzky; Wien Museum, online collection.
• Nescafé: Nestlé Switzerland on its 75th anniversary; Swiss National Museum, blog post on Max Morgenthaler.
• Compulsory reserve: Ordinance on Compulsory Stockpiling of Food and Feed, SR 531.215.11; réservesuisse, annual reports 2019 and 2025; WBF, consultation documents 2019 and 2023.
• Consumption figures: Procafé, Statistische Angaben über Kaffee, 2026; import and export figures from réservesuisse's 2025 annual report.
• Not verified, and flagged as such in the text: specific cantonal coffee bans, years for the first coffeehouses in Swiss cities, the year 1933 for the Swiss Water Process, an international consumption ranking.