By Francesca Lungarotti
Coffee is a universal language expressed and adapted to each culture. Each nation and community embrace it and makes it their own. Coffee is a product that embodies work, struggle, love, diversity, passion and tradition. Whether it is called buna, caffe, kahawa, kahve, or kave, coffee might be the most understood word all over the world.
Coffee rituals, steeped in tradition, vary from one corner of the world to another – each, an intricate colloquium of culture, community, companionship, and contemplation.
Sicches, Peru. Red and green coffee beans on stem belonging to the farmer of fair trade coffee cooperative in Northern Peru. February 2010. Credit: Majority World/Universal Images Group 
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – A bag of arabica coffee beans ready for export at Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative. Credit: Edwin Remsberg/VW Pics/Universal Images Group 
Linen bags are filled to the brim with a variety of different blends of roasted coffee beans, Istanbul, Turkey. Credit: Edwin Remsberg/VW Pics/Universal Images Group 
Coffee beans roasting, Addis Adaba, Ethiopia. Credit: Edwin Remsberg/VW Pics/Universal Images Group 
Black turkish coffee with foam in old vintage cezve coffee pot. roasted beans above over brown texture background. Credit: Natasha Breen/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group
In Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, it is a sacrament, celebrated with a ceremony that is both ceremonial and spiritual. There’s a legend that tells of a young shepherd and poet named Kaldi in Ethiopia who observed the energizing effect on his goats after they consumed coffee cherries, and he tried it himself. Kaldi took the fruit to a nearby monastery, where the monks turned it into a beverage, using it as a stimulant to stay awake during nighttime religious services.
France: Poster advertisement for Cafe Collas (Collas Coffee), ‘Pearls from the Indes, the Best of all Coffees’, anonymous, c. 1927. Credit: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group 
Coffee plantation. Farmer showing red and green and picked coffee beans. Credit: Pascal Deloche/Godong/Universal Images Group 
Turkish coffee is made by bringing the powdered coffee with water and usually sugar to the boil in a special pot called cezve in Turkey. In the Four Season Hotel garden. Istanbul. Turkey. Credit: Paolo Picciotto/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group 
Belgium: Art Nouveau advertising poster for Rajah Coffee featuring a Javanese woman, Henri Meunier, 1897. Credit: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group 
Kopakama coffee grower’s cooperative, Rutsiro, Rwanda. Women with coffee cherries in their collective plantation. Credit: Godong/Universal Images Group 
Coffee shop sign in Cuenca, Ecuador. Credit: Godong/Universal Images Group 
Coffee plantation, Fernao Dias highway, BR-381, 2016, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Credit: Geff Reis/AGB Photo Library/Universal Images Group 
Bag of Coffee beans from Italy with scoop, Grocery Store, Queens, New York. Credit: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group 
Bialetti Store, Italian coffee machine, Sestriere San Marco 729, Venice, Veneto, Italy, Europe. Credit: Eddy Buttarelli/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group
From the bustling coffee shops of Istanbul, where Turkish coffee is an art form, the flamboyance of Italian espresso and cappuccino to the minimalist elegance of Japanese pour-over, every culture has embraced coffee, adapting it to its own unique rhythms and rituals.
Places of aggregation have then been created around this beverage which keep this human imprint of socialization alive even in this challenging and powerful digital age.
Coffee represents one of the few elements capable of combining a private and global value at the same time. From small Parisian cafés to large American chains, coffee is something always loved, respected and celebrated.
Viva Espresso Tasting coffe in the siphon coffee maker. Credit: Sergi Reboredo/VWPics/Universal Images Group 
Shelby, North Carolina, LilyBean microroasted coffee shop interior with customers on couch. Credit: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group 
Merida, Mexico, Centro, Marmalade restaurant espresso bar, server waiter holding tray latte drink coffee milk. Credit: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group 
Hendersonville, North Carolina, Main Street Coffee shop sign. Credit: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group 
Merida, Mexico, Centro, Marmalade restaurant espresso bar, cappuccino coffee milk drink. Credit: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group
Coffee, in its multifaceted journey, encapsulates the struggles, triumphs, dreams, and aspirations of humanity. As we move forward, facing challenges and embracing opportunities, coffee remains our constant companion, reminding us of our shared past and urging us toward a more inclusive, sustainable, and harmonious future.
Happy International Coffee Day on October 1, 2024!
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Sources:
International Coffee Day (ICD) | International Coffee Organization (icocoffee.org)
https://www.tbsnews.net/features/coffee-more-beverage-something-beloved-710098
https://hospitalityinsights.ehl.edu/coffee-culture