The History of Coffee in Switzerland

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

Dominik Flammer is not a fan of restrained statements. For him, it's all about making the everyday visible.

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

Or:

"This romanticization that everything was better in the past is absolute nonsense."

Coffee is something that has become everyday for many people. Yet it is 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 little miracle for me. But coffee has become everyday for many. To view something so ordinary in a new way requires striking images and statements.

Dominik Flammer, nutritional researcher, author and curator of the Culinarium Alpinum in Stans, spoke with me in a podcast about the history of coffee in Switzerland. Yes, coffee was once more everyday, then, when it was roasted at home. But with advancing industrialization came the age of coffee roasteries. "People were out of the house more, worked almost around the clock, roasting coffee at home was no longer an option."

The Grisons as founders of coffeehouses throughout Europe

The often cited history of coffee begins with the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. But it was not in Vienna that the first coffeehouses were founded, but in Italy. It was exiled Grisons, mostly confectioners, who first settled in Northern Italy and then throughout Europe, founding coffeehouses.

Coffeehouses were initially taverns, dives, often places where people indulged in pleasures.

Dominik Flammer

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

Switzerland as an actor in the slave trade and coffee colonialism

"It simply takes historians who can think freely and rid themselves of traditions," says Dominik Flammer in the podcast. Swiss colonial history has long been known, but it was only documented precisely by historians over the past 40 years.

Coffee was then a colonial commodity 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 sweets to roastery coffee

Coffee was expensive for a long time and was therefore understood as a luxury item. However, consumption at that time had little in common with today's understanding of coffee.

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

Dominik Flammer

Aren't we glad that we get to experience coffee differently today? My 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 again more fully.

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

Interestingly, the famous Schwarzenbach coffee roastery in Zurich's Niederdorf only began roasting in 1929; before that, it sold raw coffee to customers.

Dominik Flammer shows in an engaging way how alive the history of coffee is, and how we all have a connection to it. Enjoy listening.