The drink was first common in Yemen. Tradition has it that the very first known coffee shop was established in Constantinople around the year of 1475.
It was named Kiv Han, and immediately became a popular meeting place. In 1554 two coffee houses open there and people came pouring in to socialize, listen to the music, play games and of course drink.
Some often called these places in Turkey the ‘school of the wise’, because they could learn so much by just visiting the coffee house and listening to conversations.
The Constantinople coffee house was a place for powerful elders, where younger men might be granted patronage and learn the political strategies of their mentors.
Turkish coffee was served strong, black and unfiltered. At that time a Turkish woman could divorce her husband if he could not give her enough coffee.
From there, the habit spread to Constantinople’s frequent trading partner, Venice, from where it disseminated to England and Germany.
In 1683 Turkish invaders brought their favorite drink with them when they swept into Vienna and the rest was history.
By the end of the Ottoman Empire, during the period of modernization, the older coffeehouse began to seem old-fashioned, ‘stagnant, sullied place’ where the older men played cards, while European-style café’s attracted those seeking the cachet of modernity.
The first coffee house in Turkey
