| 600 | Coffee makes its migration from Ethiopia to Arabia | |
| 1000 | The philosopher Avicenna first describes the medicinal qualities of coffee, which he refers to as bunchum | |
| c.1300 | Islamic monks brew qawha, a brew of hot water and roasted coffee beans | |
| 1470-1500 | Coffee use spreads to Mecca and Medina | |
| 1517 | Sultan Selim I introduces coffee to Constantinople after conquering Egypt | |
| 1554 | Constantinople’s first coffee houses open | |
| 1570-1580 | Coffee houses in Constantinople ordered closed by religious authorities | |
| 1600 | Baba Budan, a Moslem pilgrim, introduces coffee to southern India | |
| 1616 | Coffee is brought from Mocha to Holland | |
| 1645 | The first coffee house opens in Venice | |
| 1650 | The first coffee house opens in England (at Oxford) | |
| 1658 | The Dutch begin cultivating coffee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) | |
| 1668 | Coffee is introduced to North America | |
| 1669 | Coffee catches on in Paris when a Turkish ambassador spend a year at the court of Louis XIV | |
| 1670 | Coffee is introduced to Germany | |
| 1674 | The Women’s Petition Against Coffee is introduced in London | |
| 1675 | King Charles II orders all London coffee houses closed, calling them places of sedition | |
| 1679 | Marseilles’ physicians try to discredit coffee, claiming it is harmful to health The first coffee house in Germany opens in Hamburg |
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| 1689 | The first enduring Parisian cafe, Cafe de Procope, opens | |
| 1696 | The King’s Arms, New York’s first coffee house, opens | |
| 1706 | The first samples of coffee grown in Java are brought back to Amsterdam | |
| 1714 | A coffee plant, raised from a seed of the Java samples, is presented by the Dutch to Louis XIV and maintained in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris | |
| 1720 | The still-enduring Caffe Florian opens in Florence | |
| 1723 | Gabriel de Clieu brings a coffee seedling from France to Martinique | |
| 1727 | Francisco de Mello Palheta brings seeds and plants from French Guiana to Brazil | |
| 1730 | The English bring coffee cultivation to Brazil | |
| 1732 | Bach composes The Coffee Cantata, parodying the German panaroia over coffee’s growing popularity | |
| 1777 | Prussia’s Frederick the Great issues a manifesto denouncing coffee in favour of the national drink, beer | |
| 1809 | The first coffee imported from Brazil arrives in Salem, Mass. | |
| 1869 | Coffee leaf rust appears in Ceylon. Within 10 years the disease destroys most of the plantations in India, Ceylon and other parts of Asia | |
| 1873 | The first successful national brand of packaged roast ground coffee, Ariosa, is marketed by John Arbuckle | |
| 1882 | The New York Coffee Exchange commences business | |
| 1904 | The modern espresso machine is invented by Fernando Illy | |
| 1906 | Brazil withholds some coffee from the market in an attempt to boost global prices | |
| 1910 | German decaffeinated coffee is introduced to the U.S. by Merck & Co., under the name Dekafa | |
| 1911 | American coffee roasters organize into a national association, the precursor to the National Coffee Association | |
| 1928 | The Colomian Coffee Federation is established | |
| 1938 | Nestle technicians in Brazil invent Nescafe, the first commercially successful instant coffee | |
| 1941-1945 | U.S. troops bring instant coffee to a global audience | |
| 1959 | Juan Valdez becomes the face of Colombian coffee | |
| 1962 | Peak in American per-capita coffee consumption — more than three cups a day | |
| 1964 | First Tim Horton’s opens in Hamilton, Ont. | |
| 1971 | First Starbucks opens in Seatlle | |
| 1973 | First fair-trade coffee is imported to Europe from Guatemala | |
| 1975 | Global coffee prices rise dramatically after Brazil suffers a severe frost Second Cup makes its debut in Canada |
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| 1989 | International Coffee Agreement collapses as world prices drop to an historic low | |
| early 1990s | Specialty coffee catches on in the U.S. | |
| mid 1990s | Organic coffee becomes the fastest growing segment of the specialty coffee industry | |
| 1997 | Tim Horton’s introduces first specialty coffees, English Toffee and french Vanilla flavoured cappuccinos | |
| 1998 | Starbucks approaches 2,000 U.S. outlets, with as many planned for Asia and Europe | |