Louis XIV and Coffee

Louis XIV

Coffee ranked as one of the world's most drank beverages. Many countries like Brazil, Indonesia, and Ethiopia profited from meeting the world's need for a caffeine fix. France topped as one of the largest importers of coffee in Europe. Its love of coffee went back to the 17th century when only a few drank coffee, a far cry from its current status as a major consumer item. The powerful Ottoman Empire monopolized the coffee trade and only a limited amount arrived in Europe. It only entered the limelight of Europe when the Sun King of France, Louis XIV, encountered coffee.

Coffee debuted in France when in 1669 the Ottoman ambassador Suleiman Aga arrived at the opulent Palace of Versailles. As part of his courtesy call, he gave gifts to the King including luxurious items such as gold and jewelry as exotic products, most importantly coffee. Louis, however, initially disliked coffee preferring wine and champagne. Besides his coffee, Louis also repulsed by Suleiman Aga's carefree attitude wearing only a simple coat, refusal to bow, and treating Louis as if an equal rather than a sovereign. 

Suleiman Aga, as a result of his actions, found himself residing in Paris rather than in Versailles. He rented a mansion and fashioned it in the Ottoman style becoming a peculiar place to see and visit. He welcomed to his exotic home numerous aristocrats intrigued by Turkish style and culture besides the Nubian slaves serving under him. He offered coffee adding sugar to sweeten the strong bitter taste for his guest. With cups of coffee, he opened up conversations which became a source of information for him as a diplomat. Many of his aristocrat guests developed a taste for coffee and became too popular for even King Louis XIV not to ignore.

After the courtiers, coffee also grew popular among common Parisians. Around the 1680's Armenians dressed as Turks peddled coffee in the streets of Paris. These pedlers, later on, build stall which grew into cafes with the Cafe Procope the most famous. In the tradition of coffee as a catalyst of ideas, the Cafe Procope hosted men like Maximillien Robespierre and Jean-Paul Marrat, major players of the French Revolution.

Louis XIV, being an avid spender, needed to find out a new source of income to maintain the kingdom and his extravagant lifestyle. He decided to take advantage of the rising consumption of goods like tea and coffee and imposed taxes. These new taxes put a dent in coffee’s proliferation.

In 1714, Louis XIV received a gift from the mayor of Amsterdam. The mayor sent the King of France a newly acquired coffee plant from the orient. Louis, sensing its importance, stored the plant at the Royal Botanical Garden. This plant later became the ancestor of the plant that would make coffee global.

9 years after the plant arrived in France, the plant grew and a man’s ambition ended with coffee's global expansion. In 1723, Gabriel de Clieu stole a shoot of the coffee plant and escaped across the Atlantic to Martinique. There he amassed wealth from the stolen shoot that he planted in the island. Years later, from that single tree, coffee began to grow to mainland South America, especially, Brazil, today’s largest coffee producer.

Louis XIV's repulsion towards Suleiman Aga played a crucial role in the spread of coffee culture. French began to develop a taste for coffee from the mansion of Aga and became a sensation that even he could not ignore. Moreover, his decision of keeping a coffee plant became an element to the story of coffee's expansion to the New World. It then helped to make coffee into today’s top consumer products.

See also:
Dark Gift from Spain to France - Louis XIV and Chocolate
Dinning with King Louis XIV
Tragic Death of Francois Vatel

Bibliography:

Bernstein, William. A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World. New York, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008.

Santos, R. et al. An Unshammed Defense of Coffee: 101 Reasons to Drink Coffee Without Guilt. Indiana: Xlibris, 2009.

Ukers, W. All About Coffee. Massachusetts:  Adams Media, 2012. 

“A Sip of Coffee History.” One World Coffee. Accessed on November 18, 2013. http://www.oneworldcoffee.org.