Our very human love affair with coffee has been expressed passionately (and humorously) in writing for hundreds of years, and quotations about coffee were first recorded back when the stimulating effect of the beans was first realized.
This article takes a look at the best of these quotations, starting from the 16th century, not long after the first coffee beans were first roasted and brewed in Arabia.
This is when the beverage was first described by German physician, Leonard Rauwolf, in 1583 as black as ink and useful against illnesses.
What did people think of coffee in the 1500s?
Coffee in the 16th century attracted some brilliant descriptions. Clearly, the potential of brewed coffee had been realized:
- “This Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall cheat Satan by baptizing it.” (unknown 16th century)
- “The best Maxim I know in this life is, to drink your Coffee when you can, and when you cannot, to be easy without it. While you continue to be splenetic, count upon it I will always preach.” (Jonathan Swift)
By “splenetic”, Swift meant bad-tempered or spiteful, and he argued for coffee once a week as remedy for it.
And yet, at the same time, consumption of coffee was causing alarm:
- “Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, sticking nauseous puddle water.” (The Women’s Petition Against Coffee,1674)
- “It is the duty of all papas and mammas to forbid their children to drink coffee, unless they wish to have little dried-up machines, stunted and old at the age of twenty…. I once saw a man in London, in Leicester Square, who had been crippled by immoderate indulgence in coffee; he was no longer in any pain, having grown accustomed to his condition, and had cut himself down to five or six cups a day.” (Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin 1755-1826)
Time goes by and our love affair with coffee intensifies
Eventually, some of our greatest minds found they could not do without it:
“Without my morning coffee I’m just like a dried up piece of roast goat.” (Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) The Coffee Cantata.)
Lucky for us, he seemed to have gotten enough of it to avoid the roast goat syndrome.
“As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move…similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle.” Honoré de Balzac (1799-1859)
Again, lucky for us that Balzac made it through the struggle.
It was amazing just who was seduced by a well brewed cup of “java”
Henry Ward Beecher, a 18th century American Congregationalist clergyman described his passion for coffee in glowing and astonishingly expressive terms:
- “A cup of coffee – real coffee – home-browned, home ground, homemade, that comes to you dark as a hazel-eye, but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick, tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothing on the java. (Beecher)
- “Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.” (Charles Maurice de Talleyrand 1754-1838 speaking of the perfect cup of coffee)
Talleyrand also enthusiastically described the molecules of the original mocha coffee bean as suave and liable to stir up your blood.
Out love for coffee continues into the modern world with an added splash of humour
Some of our most brilliant writers, enjoying the sustained energy found in their espresso cups, added their thoughts
- “I like coffee because it gives me the illusion that I might be awake.” (Lewis Black)
- “Coffee is a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to your older self.” (Terry Pratchett, Thud!)
- “The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.” (Douglas Adams)
And “coffee culture” began in earnest
As appreciation of coffee flavour profiles deepened, and serving styles developed, so did the culture of coffee grow:
- “You can’t have a decent food culture without a decent coffee culture: the two things grow up together.” (Adam Gopnik)
- “Coffee is a lot more than just a drink; it’s something happening. Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time, but not actual hours or minutes, but a chance to be, like be yourself, and have a second cup.” (Gertrude Stein, Selected Writings)
We began to realize that coffee brought a certain dependency with it
Of course, coffee, like anything we over-consume, is not without its health issues:
- “We want to do a lot of stuff; we’re not in great shape. We didn’t get a good night’s sleep. We’re a little depressed. Coffee solves all these problems in one delightful little cup.” (Jerry Seinfeld)
- “We drank our coffee the Russian way. That is to say we had vodka before it and vodka afterwards.” (Philip Sington)
Which quotations about coffee are the most beautiful of all
The best writing about coffee are expressed with wit and tenderness (and a hint of sadness)
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons (T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock)
“Either way, he figured a cup of coffee would hit the spot. For what is more versatile? As at home in tin as it is in Limoges, coffee can energize the industrious at dawn, calm the reflective at noon, or raise the spirits of the beleaguered in the middle of the night.” (Amor Towles)
“Coffee is far more than a beverage. It is an invitation to life, disguised as a cup of warm liquid. It’s a trumpet wakeup call or a gentle rousing hand on your shoulder … Coffee is an experience, an offer, a rite of passage….”(Nichole Johnson)
Hi, I’m Jen Williams, chief editor and writer for ThirstPerk.com.
I’ve been drinking coffee and tea for most of my life, but it wasn’t until I started working at Thirstperk.com that I became an expert on the subject. I’m a total caffeine addict who has spent hours upon hours reading about and experimenting with the different types of coffees out there in my search to find the perfect cup of joe.
I’ve been a tea lover for as long as I can remember as well. I grew up in a house with a mom who loved to drink herbal tea, and I think that’s where my love for tea first began. These days, I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting teas to try, and I love experimenting with different brewing methods and flavoring combinations.