Why the Ottomans Roasted Coffee to Protect Their Monopoly

From Dancing Goats to Sufi Monks: The Origins of Coffee

According to legend, coffee’s energizing properties were first discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi. He noticed his goats “dancing” excitedly after nibbling red berries from a wild tree, and upon trying the fruit himself, he felt a new vitality. Stories say Kaldi brought these beans to a local monastery, where monks found that brewing them into a drink helped them stay awake through long nights of prayer. While this tale is likely apocryphal, it highlights coffee’s early association with alertness and spirituality. What is known is that by the 15th century coffee was being actively cultivated on the Arabian Peninsula, especially in Yemen​, and used by Sufi Islamic mystics to fuel late-night devotions. Initially regarded as a medicinal or religious brew, coffee soon spread beyond monastery walls and entered everyday use across the Islamic world.

Coffee Enters the Ottoman Empire

Coffee’s rise to prominence accelerated when the Ottoman Empire embraced the beverage. After Ottoman Turks occupied Yemen in 1536, they gained direct access to Yemen’s coffee plantations and the precious beans in circulation​. Istanbul (Constantinople), the imperial capital, had its first coffeehouse by 1555 during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent​. Founded by merchants from the Arab lands, these cafés introduced Ottoman society to the “wine of Araby,” as coffee was nicknamed. The drink’s popularity exploded – by the end of the 16th century, hundreds of coffeehouses buzzed across Istanbul​, welcoming poets, merchants, scholars, and janissaries alike. Enjoying a cup of strong, dark kahve (coffee) became an Ottoman daily ritual, from the Sultan’s palace to the humblest market stall. This booming coffee culture even proved influential abroad, as Europeans traveling through Ottoman lands experienced the coffeehouse tradition and carried it home, planting the seeds of Europe’s own café culture​.

Turkish Traders and the Roasted Bean Monopoly

As coffee’s popularity grew, Ottoman (often referred to as “Turkish”) traders quickly understood that they held “black gold” in their hands. Yemen was the only source of coffee in the world at the time, and controlling this supply became a strategic imperial interest. The Ottoman governors and merchants in Yemen tightly guarded their coffee plantations, enforcing a strict monopoly. No fertile coffee seed was allowed to leave their domain alive. In practice, that meant any coffee beans destined for export were either boiled or lightly roasted to render them incapable of germination. By parching the beans just enough to kill their ability to sprout, the Turks ensured that no outsider – especially European traders – could plant their own coffee trees elsewhere. This clever bit of culinary subterfuge protected the Ottoman coffee trade for over a century. European buyers could purchase all the roasted coffee they desired, but they could not get their hands on a viable raw bean that might break the Ottoman monopoly. Ottoman records and Arabian chroniclers note how jealously coffee production was guarded; it was forbidden by law to export any unprocessed coffee beans specifically to prevent their cultivation abroad​. For the Turkish traders, roasting wasn’t just about flavor – it was a matter of economic survival and empire-wide profit. The result was that throughout the 1500s and much of the 1600s, if you wanted coffee, you ultimately paid the Ottomans for it.

Despite these precautions, the monopoly wasn’t unbreakable. A few daring individuals managed to smuggle out live coffee seeds, ending the Ottomans’ exclusive hold. For example, around 1600, an Indian pilgrim named Baba Budan famously snuck out seven coffee beans hidden in his clothing and successfully planted them in India’s Malabar region​. European colonial powers also eventually obtained coffee plants – the Dutch got a coffee sprout in 1616 and soon established plantations in Ceylon and Java​. These events marked the beginning of coffee cultivation spreading to other parts of the world. However, during the early history of coffee, the Ottomans’ roasting tactic significantly delayed such developments. It bought them decades of unrivaled dominance, during which coffee’s mystique (and price) only grew on the European market. In those formative years, one could say the Ottoman traders literally roasted away the competition.

Trade Routes from Yemen to the World

In the 16th and 17th centuries, coffee beans traveled from the Arabian Peninsula along carefully managed trade routes that further maintained Ottoman control. The primary pathway originated in the Yemeni port city of Mocha (al-Mukha) on the Red Sea – a bustling harbor that gave its name to the coveted beans exported from its docks​. From Yemen, ships laden with coffee sailed northward up the Red Sea to Egypt’s port of Suez, the gateway to the Mediterranean​. There, the precious cargo was offloaded and carried by camel caravan across the desert to Alexandria on the Nile Delta​. Alexandria, under Ottoman rule, was a major commercial hub where European merchants from cities like Venice and Marseilles eagerly bought the coffee and shipped it onward to Western markets​. In this way, Mocha’s beans made their way to Ottoman coffeehouses and also to the cafes of London, Paris, and beyond – albeit still through Ottoman middlemen.

Other routes and channels complemented this main artery. Muslim pilgrims performing the Hajj to Mecca often encountered coffee in the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina (where the drink was popular by the 16th century) and brought beans back to their homelands as exotic gifts or trade goods​. Caravans also transported coffee overland from Yemen through Arabia into greater Syria and Anatolia, ensuring provinces of the Ottoman Empire were well supplied. Thanks to these routes, the port of Mocha enjoyed a powerful monopoly as the world’s coffee marketplace up until the 1700s​. European writers of the time even began using “Mocha” as a byword for the highest-quality coffee​. An engraving from the late 1600s shows European ships crowding the harbor of Mocha – a testament to how significant this Yemeni port had become in global trade​.

 A 17th-century engraving of the port of Mocha in Yemen, where European ships gathered to load coffee. This coastal hub was the linchpin of the Ottoman coffee trade, funneling Yemen’s beans through the Red Sea and onward to a caffeine-hungry world.​

Through these trade networks, the Ottoman Empire maintained its lucrative coffee commerce. By controlling both the source (Yemeni farms) and the distribution routes, Turkish traders could keep prices high and supplies limited. This not only filled Ottoman coffers but also added to coffee’s aura of exclusivity. For a time, it truly seemed the Ottomans had turned coffee into their own “golden goose” – one that, thanks to roasting, no rival could easily steal and breed elsewhere.

Roasting Traditions and Their Lasting Legacy

The Ottoman strategy of roasting coffee beans for trade had unintended but profound effects on how the world drinks coffee. First and foremost, it cemented roasting as an essential step in coffee preparation, a tradition that continues unbroken to this day. Early on, people learned that raw green coffee beans are hard and bitter, but roasting transforms them, unlocking the rich flavors and aromas we associate with coffee​. Ottoman traders perfected techniques to roast beans just enough to both enhance flavor and ensure the seeds wouldn’t sprout. This meant that by the time coffee reached new markets, it was already in a roasted form ready for brewing. Consumers around the world thus came to know coffee as a roasted, dark brown product meant to be ground and boiled – never as a raw agricultural seed. In a way, the Ottomans standardized the art of coffee roasting at the very birth of global coffee culture.

An Ottoman coffeehouse scene painted in 1854 by Amadeo Preziosi. Ottoman society embraced coffee fervently; cafés like this spread throughout Istanbul. Roasted coffee, brewed strong and black, became a social lubricant and intellectual fuel across the empire.​

Importantly, the Ottomans also developed distinct roasting preferences that have influenced regional tastes. In Yemen and Turkey, coffee was typically roasted to a medium or dark level, producing the deep, bold flavors prized in Turkish coffee. Historical anecdotes suggest that different roast profiles were used for different audiences. Yemeni roasters, for example, would prepare a lighter, spiced roast for local tribal customers, but a much darker roast for export, jokingly calling it “coffee for the Christians” (i.e. Europeans)​. This early understanding—that roast level dramatically affects flavor—anticipated the diversity of coffee roasts today. Modern coffee drinkers owe a debt to these early roasters for the spectrum of roasting styles we now enjoy, from light cinnamon roasts to very dark Italian or French roasts. Every time you choose between a light roast with fruity notes or a dark roast with smoky intensity, you’re experiencing a legacy of experimentation that began centuries ago in Ottoman roasters’ kitchens.

Beyond the act of roasting, the Ottoman era left other enduring marks on global coffee culture. The very word coffee entered European languages via the Ottoman Turkish word kahve, which itself came from the Arabic qahwah​. Many coffee terms and techniques have roots in the Ottoman world, from the ibrik/cezve pot used to brew Turkish coffee, to the practice of grinding beans extremely fine for unfiltered coffee. The Ottoman love of coffee fostered the concept of the coffeehouse as a social hub – a notion that quickly spread to Europe and still thrives today in every Starbucks or neighborhood café. In the 17th century, observers noted that in the Middle East “the coffee house became a place for men to talk, read, share their opinions...,” and Europeans eagerly adopted the same model in their cities​. Today’s café culture, where ideas percolate over cups of joe, is a direct descendant of the Ottoman qahvehane.

Perhaps the most ironic legacy of the Ottoman coffee monopoly is that in trying to keep coffee to themselves, the Turks ended up sparking a worldwide passion. Once travelers and traders acquired a taste for coffee, demand only grew, fueling exploration and eventual cultivation in new lands. What began as a closely guarded regional specialty became a truly global beverage. And through it all, the tradition of roasting beans remained paramount. Contemporary coffee roasters, whether artisanal micro-roasters or big commercial operations, still rely on the fundamental knowledge that heat unlocks coffee’s magic. They have far more advanced technology – precise temperature controls, drum roasters, and scientific profiling – but the goal is the same as it was on a 16th-century Yemeni hearth: to coax out the best flavor from each bean while preserving its quality for the journey to the cup.

Today, coffee is without question a global obsession. It is one of the most popular drink worldwide, with around two billion cups consumed every day​. From New York to Nairobi, Istanbul to Seattle, people start their day with steaming mugs of coffee, savoring a taste that is at once bitter, bold, and invigorating. This universal love for coffee has roots in the early history we’ve explored. The Ottomans’ zeal for coffee spread the beverage far and wide, and their roasting practices set the template for how the world would consume it. Modern coffee aficionados still celebrate roasting as a key element of what makes coffee delicious – we speak of roast profiles and cupping notes much as Ottoman coffee merchants might have boasted of their finest roasted Mocha beans. Even the idea of terroir in coffee (such as Ethiopian vs. Sumatran flavor differences) harks back to the time when Yemeni Mocha beans were treasured for their distinct chocolatey taste​.

In conclusion, the early history of coffee is a tale of intrigue and innovation, with Ottoman Turkish traders at its heart. By roasting their coffee beans before export, they safeguarded an empire-wide monopoly and unwittingly shaped the way the world would enjoy coffee for generations. Their legacy lives on in every cup of coffee we brew today – a legacy of bold entrepreneurship, rich flavor, and the simple delight of a well-roasted bean. The next time you sip your latte or Turkish coffee, take a moment to appreciate the journey of those beans: from the hills of Yemen through Ottoman hands, roasted in fire, protected as treasure, and eventually into your eager grasp. It’s a journey steeped in history – and yes, it’s one heck of a rich, engaging blend.