How Coffee Expanded Worldwide with a Special Recipe

The first Arab coffee traders were so protective of their goods that they would pre-roast the coffee beans before shipping to prevent others from germinating and cultivating the valuable product.

However, in the early 17th century, a Sufi saint still managed to smuggle coffee from Yemen to India, and a Dutch merchant smuggled seedlings from Yemen to Amsterdam, planting them there.

By the end of the 17th century, coffee plantations were established in Dutch colonies, particularly in Indonesia. In the early 17th century, coffee was first planted in the Caribbean and South American colonies.

The Dutch presented the seedlings as gifts to the French, who planted them in Haiti, Martinique, and French Guiana. The Dutch also established coffee plantations in Suriname, and the English brought coffee from Haiti to Jamaica.