Coffee For The People is always a good thing!
Lot’s of things have been decided over coffee and tea.
Key decisions and developments associated with “coffee” or “coffeehouses” include:
- Political Revolutions:
- The Boston Tea Party protest against British tea taxes helped popularize coffee as a patriotic drink in the American colonies, which was often consumed in taverns like the Green Dragon Tavern, nicknamed the “Headquarters of the Revolution” for hosting meetings of the Sons of Liberty.
- Parisian cafés, such as the Café de Foy and Café Procope, were hotbeds of republican agitation and intellectual discussion during the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, where thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot gathered to plot and hone their philosophies.
- Business and Finance:
- The London Stock Exchange and Lloyd’s of London insurance market both originated from discussions held in 18th-century London coffeehouses (Jonathan’s Coffee House and Lloyd’s Coffee House, respectively), where merchants and stockbrokers met to trade and conduct business.
- Early conversations that led to the global brand of Starbucks took place in coffee shops, inspired by the Italian coffeehouse concept.
- Many modern venture seed rounds and business deals are informally initiated and refined during meetings over coffee.
- Creative and Literary Works:
- The early concepts for the Harry Potter series and the photo-sharing app Instagram were reputedly developed and refined in coffee shops.
- Famous writers and artists, including Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot, used Parisian cafés as their workspaces and meeting grounds to debate and create.
- International Agreements and Policies:
- The International Coffee Agreement (ICA) is a formal, international commodity agreement aimed at stabilizing coffee prices and ensuring sustainable production, which has been renewed and amended multiple times since its inception in 1962.
- In the 16th century, religious jurists in Mecca once decided that coffee was forbidden due to its association with informal, potentially dissident social gatherings, though this ban was quickly overturned by higher authorities.
In essence, “decided over coffee” highlights the role of the coffeehouse environment as a unique, informal setting conducive to groundbreaking ideas, social connection, and significant decisions across history and modern life.
Join us for the first Coffee Klatch with Candidate Scanlon at Reunion Coffee House, one of three Community Uplift Partnership locations.
Learn more about CUP via the link above.