Coffee history can be traced before 9th century in the highlands of Ethiopia. Afterwards, it spread to Egypt and Yemen and North Africa. Soon it reached Europe and here it became popular during the seventeenth century. The importation of coffee was first started by Dutch into Europe. In 1530, the first coffee house was opened in Damascus and not long after, there were many coffee houses in Cairo and Istanbul. In the 17th century, coffee appeared for the first time in Europe outside the Ottoman Empire, and coffeehouses were established and quickly became popular. The first coffeehouse in England was set up in Oxford in 1650 by a Jewish man, named Jacob. The first coffeehouse in London was opened two years later in St. Michael's Alley in Cornhill. Greco opened the first coffee house in the Rome, in 1975.

In London, coffeehouses preceded the club of the mid-18th century, which skimmed away some of the more aristocratic clientele. Jonathan's Coffee-House in 1698 saw the listing of stock and commodity prices that evolved into the London Stock Exchange. At the end of the 19th century, coffee got the fame, not only in the whole world, but also in the other countries. In New York, the Tontine Coffeehouse at the foot of Wall Street, near the docks, became a central meeting place. In small cities, a coffeehouse functioned as a place where messages might be left and picked up. Now coffee is very commonly used in all parts of the world. According to a survey, more than 400 billions cups of the coffee are consumed every year.