Coffee Information

English Coffee


With English Tea being a very familiar term, English coffee may seem as contrary a term as Arctic bananas; however, England's impact on the coffee trade and the world of business is undeniable. The history of English coffee began in 1650 at Oxford University when a Lebanese immigrant opened the first coffeehouse on campus.

Initially, coffee was seen as novelty and a snake oil, if you will, as the proprietor touted many incredible medical claims. His English coffee was said to aid in digestion, cure headaches, coughs, dropsy, gout, scurvy and even prevent miscarriages. About the only claim that was accurate was that English coffee prevented drowsiness.

By 1700, however, coffee had become a very popular beverage and there were more than two thousand coffeehouses in London. Coffeehouses occupied more retail space and paid more rent than any other trade. They came to be known as Penny Universities, because for the price of a cup of coffee, one penny, a person could sit for hours and engage in stimulating conversation with educated people.

Each coffeehouse specialized in a different clientele. In one, physicians could be consulted. Other's catered to lawyers, actors, army officers, or clergy. English coffee became the beverage of business and one coffeehouse in particular grew into one of the worlds largest and most well known companies. Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse catered primarily to seafarers and merchants and he regularly prepared "ships' lists" for underwriters who met there to offer insurance to the ship captains. And so began Lloyd's of London, the famous insurance company.

Prior to the popularity of English coffee, beer, or ale, was the morning beverage of choice among the working class. The pubs and taverns were filled early in the morning with workers who stopped in for a few pints of camaraderie before heading off to the factories and shops around London.

One English writer wrote in 1624, "They flock to the taverns to dizzy their brains and a productionless society is the result." Fifty years later another writer credited English coffee with stimulating the economy as he wrote, "Coffee drinking hath caused a greater sobriety than has ever been seen in the business of London."

By the late 18th century the buzz of English coffee subsided and tea became the preferred British drink, due much in part to the outcry of women, who were excluded from the all-male society of the coffeehouse and complained loudly. A group of angry coffeehouse widows filed a petition with the English government to ban coffee on the grounds that their men were never at home and their duties as husband and father were being neglected. English coffee was not banned but the outcry did have repercussions on the coffeehouse business and men returned to the taverns instead.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

Randy has more articles on coffee such as Colombian Coffee, Are Coffee Enemas the Real Thing? and Arabica Coffee.


MORE RESOURCES:

Tata Coffee recruits Karnataka Planters’ Association secretary
Economic Times, India - 2 hours ago
However, the last thing the Karnataka Planters’ Association (KPA) in India’s coffee-growing heartland expected was that the association’s secretary for the ...


Seattle Post Intelligencer

Coffee and community at Faire Gallery and Café
Seattle Post Intelligencer - 17 minutes ago
When it comes to coffee, Seattle has a plethora of options. However, there is one place on Capitol Hill that stands apart from the rest -- Faire Gallery and ...


Sustainable coffee program seen booming
Reuters - May 16, 2008
By Marcy Nicholson NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Rainforest Alliance has nearly doubled the amount of coffee sold every year from its program that certifies ...
Nespresso to hit hefty sales target this year guardian.co.uk
all 11 news articles


Coffee shop robbed
TheChronicleHerald.ca, Canada - 12 hours ago
By OUR STAFF A man walked into the Tim Hortons at 365 Pleasant Street at about 11:35 pm He demanded money from the cashier and ran out with an undetermined ...


Kenyan coffee fetches highest ever price
Daily Nation, Kenya - May 16, 2008
Kenyan specialty AA grade coffee has fetched $1138 per 50-kilogramme bag, the highest price ever paid for Kenya coffee using the direct sales system, ...


True Blue Coffee Roasters Announces 2 New Organic Fair Trade ...
PR-CANADA.net (press release), Montenegro - 1 hour ago
True Blue Coffee Roasters, the Old Fields, West Virginia, Organic Fair Trade coffee roasting company, announced today the addition of 2 new Organic Fair ...


(SkyNewswire.com)--Some Interesting Facts and questions about Fair ...
Prudent Press Agency (press release), Netherlands - 2 hours ago
The targeted gourmet coffee farmer who needs fair trade owns a farm less than 10 acres; his family runs and works the farm, they live in a third world ...


O Lucky Man! Malcolm McDowell's journey from coffee salesman to ...
Times Online, UK - May 16, 2008
... Malcolm McDowell was a rather promising coffee salesman, flogging the brown stuff to hotels and businesses across Yorkshire in the early 1960s. ...
DVD reviews: O Lucky Man! and more Telegraph.co.uk
all 2 news articles


All Saint's Christian Aid Week coffee morning
Bexhill Observer, UK - 4 hours ago
By Lynda Turner ALL SAINT'S at Sidley was one of many church's in the area supporting Christian Aid Week, with a coffee morning held on Saturday. ...


Coffee Earns Country Sh440b in 2007
AllAfrica.com, Washington - May 16, 2008
UGANDA earned $265m (about sh440b) in 2007 from coffee exports, making it the leading foreign exchange earner. A report by the Uganda Export Promotion Board ...

Coffee - Google News

home | site map
© 2006