The History of Coffee in Switzerland

The history of coffee in Switzerland has received little scholarly attention so far. Yet the last few centuries are full of anecdotes: colorful, but also dark ones. With nutrition researcher Dominik Flammer, we shed light on the last three hundred years in a podcast.

Dominik Flammer is not one for cautious statements. For him, it's all about making the everyday visible.

"Louis XIV was influencer number one for European nobility when it came to indulgence!"

Or:

"This romanticization that everything used to be better is absolute nonsense."

Coffee is something that has become everyday for many people. Yet it's not a given that a product travels halfway around the world, by jeep, by truck, by ship, and again by truck, gets roasted and still tastes good. Every time a sack of coffee from a distant land arrives at our roastery, it's a small miracle for me. But coffee has become everyday for many. To look at something so ordinary in a new way requires striking images and statements.

ominik">Dominik Flammer, nutrition researcher, author and curator of the Culinarium">Alpine Museum in Stans, spoke with me in a podcast about the history of coffee in Switzerland. Yes, coffee was once more everyday, back when it was roasted at home. But with advancing industrialization came the age of coffee roasteries. "People spent more time away from home, worked almost around the clock—roasting coffee yourself was no longer feasible."

The Grisons as Founders of Coffeehouses Across Europe

The oft-cited coffee history begins with the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683. But the first coffeehouses were not founded in Vienna—they were founded in Italy. It was Grisons exiles, especially confectioners, who first settled in Northern Italy and then spread across Europe, establishing coffeehouses.

Coffeehouses were initially taverns, dives, where indulgence was often enjoyed.

Dominik Flammer

We discuss the intermingling of bourgeois ideals, coffee, status and religion, and what influence this had on consumer behavior.

Switzerland as an Actor in Slave Trade and Coffee Colonialism

"It simply takes historians who can think freely and shed their traditions," says Dominik Flammer in the podcast. Swiss colonial history was long known, but it was only documented precisely in the last 40 years.

Coffee was then a colonial good that had to be planted and harvested. For this, people from West Africa were enslaved in South America, mostly on large plantations. Swiss families not only owned plantations, but were heavily involved in logistics—they organized the transport of slaves as well as the transport of coffee. "A triangular trade," as Dominik Flammer calls it in the podcast.

From Chicory Coffee, Through Pharmacy Confections to Roastery Coffee

Coffee was long expensive and was therefore understood as a luxury item. However, consumption at that time bore little resemblance to today's understanding of coffee.

Five coffee beans had to suffice for a cup of coffee, plus substitute products such as chicory or lupines, sugar, and spices.

Dominik Flammer

Aren't we glad that we experience coffee differently today? The conversation with Dominik Flammer showed me how the history of coffee in Switzerland unfolded, but above all, that we are on a good path to enjoy coffee more again.

Two hundred years ago, coffee was roasted at home—it was simply cheaper and the proper thing to do. Heute">Today, many roast their coffee at home again and understand, see and smell the processes, are right there.

Interestingly, the famous Kaffeerösterei">Schwarzenbach in Zurich's Niederdorf only started roasting in 1929; before that it sold green coffee to customers.

Dominik Flammer engagingly shows how lively the history of coffee is, and how we all have a connection to it. Enjoy listening.