Coffee and Conversation: Coffee and public debate

One of the best parts about coffee is its ability to bring people together. Meeting with friends, business conversations, job interviews, and first dates often go in tandem with a cup of coffee. But did you know that this tradition is one of the oldest traditions of European coffee culture, which heavily influenced coffee-culture in Canada?

In the 1600s, coffee houses opened as places for intellectual, political and scientific conversations. The rise and popularity of newspapers allowed for knowledge to be shared and debated more widely, and amongst more classes of people than ever before. Coffeehouses became the go-to spot for the public to debate, and even demonstrations and lectures happened in these spaces. Sound similar?

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The point of cafe society was conversation. People who were literate gathered to discuss the news, listen to live readings, and even try their own hand at writing. Among coffee-house goers there are some famous authors including John Dryden and Alexander Pope. Politicians, lawyers, scholars, scientists and journalists frequented coffeeshops because they proved excellent spaces for gossip, discussion and a good grounds to popularize new information or discoveries.

Despite the origin of this tradition being hundreds of years old, it still lingers in how we now think about coffee and coffee shops today: a conversation starter and a place to meet with friends new and old, or even a place to get some work done.