Most people think of the steam engine, the printing press, or the internet when asked to point to inventions that have driven civilization forward. But let's be honest: without coffee, we would still be sitting in caves painting ochre on the walls.
In 15th-century Yemen, Sufi monks discovered that roasted coffee beans boiled in water kept them awake during nighttime prayers. The rumor spread rapidly to Mecca, Cairo, and Istanbul. Suddenly, people could think, discuss, and work after sunset. Coffee houses (qahveh khaneh) became the first public spaces where men – and later also women in certain cities – met and exchanged ideas. It was pure intellectual fuel.
When coffee reached Europe in the 1600s, it replaced morning beer as the primary drink. In London alone, over 2,000 coffee houses opened within a few decades. Lloyd’s of London started as a coffee house. Stock trading began in a coffee house. Scientific societies met in coffee houses. The French Enlightenment was conceived over steaming cups of café au lait at Café Procope in Paris, where Voltaire reportedly drank 40–50 cups a day.
Factory workers in 19th-century England worked 14–16 hours a day. How? Coffee and tea replaced beer as everyday drinks (yes, before industrialization people drank weak beer for breakfast – it was safer than water). Caffeine made it possible to maintain concentration on the new machines. Without coffee, no textile factories. Without textile factories, no capital accumulation. Without capital accumulation, no railways, no steamships, no global trade as we know it.
Today we drink 2.25 billion cups of coffee – every single day. That corresponds to each adult on the planet having about ¾ of a cup daily. Programming, finance, science, creative professions: everything runs on coffee. A study from Johns Hopkins showed that caffeine improves long-term memory. Another from Harvard showed that 3–5 cups daily reduce the risk of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and certain cancers.
Silicon Valley is built on cold brew and single-origin pour-over. Wall Street on espresso. Even space travel: astronauts on the ISS drink coffee from specially designed pouches – because no one can calculate orbital trajectories properly without caffeine.
When you roast your own beans at home, you are essentially doing the same as the Yemeni monks did 600 years ago: you take control over the fuel. You decide for yourself how light or dark the roast should be, how fresh the oil is, how intense the flavor becomes.
A freshly roasted bean 4–14 days after roasting beats any supermarket bag by far. You get more antioxidants, more nuanced acidity, deeper sweetness – and honestly: greater pride when you serve guests "my own Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, roasted yesterday."
History doesn't lie. Every time humanity had to take a leap forward – from the Enlightenment to industrialization to the information age – coffee has been there with steaming, black, bittersweet energy.
So next time you stand in front of your coffee roaster, remember: you are not just a coffee nerd.
You are a continuer of a 600-year-old tradition of civilization builders.
Now just turn up the heat and roast the next batch.
Cheers – with black, strong fuel.
