Ted Lingle, executive director for the Coffee Quality Institute says that coffee culture is defined by "friendship and ideas" and that coffee houses in England were once known as penny universities. "Coffee houses are where people would gather to share ideas that often times led to some sort of commercial development. We have seen that come and go in waves throughout the centuries." Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House in England (circa 1685), for example, eventually became Lloyds of London while New York City’s Merchants’ Coffee House, built in 1737 on Wall Street, is reputed to be the birthplace of the New York Stock Exchange.

"The current coffee house is more a place of social interchange rather then commerce, but it fills the same need. It’s a place for people to go other than home or business, where they can meet other like-minded people in a safe, warm and friendly environment to share personal communications, ideas and academics," says Mr. Lingle.

Though coffee is mentioned as a social beverage in correspondence and literature during the 15th and 16th centuries, says historian Jack Putnam, there is no way to pinpoint the exact date when coffee houses emerged. He does offer that the first record of coffee houses would have come out of the Middle East, more specifically Turkey. That said, Kiva Han, which opened its doors in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the 15th century is reported to be the first documented coffee house.

Coffee houses in the Middle East were a way of mixing business and social activity and critical to the way business was conducted in that part of the world, says Mr. Putnam. "No one would ever tackle a business transaction head-on. You would sit down and exchange pleasantries over coffee. In as much as many people in that part of the world were Muslims, it was good to be able to partake of something nonalcoholic. In fact, it is very good on general principals to not involve alcohol when discussing business." He adds that the comforts of the coffee house gradually spread to other parts of the world as coffee began to make its way to other countries.

For centuries coffee houses have provided a steady muse for artists, musicians, poets, actors and writers--and they have even sparked a revolution or two. In the 16th and 17th centuries coffee was the beverage of the intelligentsia and nobility, says Mr. Putnam, but by the 18th century, it was a drink of the people. Some coffee houses became assembly points for revolutionaries and patriots. One of the best known in Colonial America was New York’s Merchants’ Coffee House. Though not a "hot bed of treason," says Putnam, Merchants’ was a center for business, news, gossip and "a place for local merchants to discuss the issues that affected then as colonials and New York as a colony."

"An Election Entertainment."
by William Hogarth, 1754

The Englsih Copyright Act of 1735 came about, in part, as a result of Hogarth’s campaign against the profiteers.

PRESIDENT-ELECT WASHINGTON WELCOMED AT THE MERCHANTS COFFEE HOUSE, NEW YORK 1789.

The reception took place April 23, 1789, one week before his inauguration. From a painting by Charles P. Gruppe