--- title: A Brief History of Caffeine description: Explore the fascinating journey of caffeine from a plant defense mechanism to a global industry, shaping our daily lives and connecting cultures worldwide. image: https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Caffeina_Treedom.png --- - [Sustainable Business](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/sustainable-business) - [Green light](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/green-light) - [Treedom World](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/treedom-world) - [Green Focus](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/green-focus) Topics - [Sustainable Business](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/sustainable-business) - [Green light](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/green-light) - [Treedom World](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/treedom-world) - [Green Focus](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/green-focus) [Go to Treedom](https://www.treedom.net/en/) - ![](https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Treedom_April2021/Images/treedom-assets/flag/en.svg) - [![](https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Treedom_April2021/Images/treedom-assets/flag/it.svg)It](https://blog.treedom.net/it) - [![](https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Treedom_April2021/Images/treedom-assets/flag/de.svg)De](https://blog.treedom.net/de) - [![](https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Treedom_April2021/Images/treedom-assets/flag/fr.svg)Fr](https://blog.treedom.net/fr) - [![](https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Treedom_April2021/Images/treedom-assets/flag/es.svg)Es](https://blog.treedom.net/es) [Go to Treedom](https://www.treedom.net/en/) - [Blog](https://blog.treedom.net/en) - [trees](https://blog.treedom.net/en/tag/trees) - A Brief... # A Brief History of Caffeine *Sep 29, 2026* | written by: [*Tommaso Ciuffoletti*](https://blog.treedom.net/en/author/tommaso-ciuffoletti) Condividi - ![facebook share](https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Treedom_April2021/Images/facebook-icon-round.svg) - ![Twitter share](https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Treedom_April2021/Images/twitter-icon-round.svg) - ![LinkedIn share](https://blog.treedom.net/hubfs/Treedom_April2021/Images/linkedin-icon-round.svg) **Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world. But before it ended up in our cups, it was a molecule produced by plants. For defence, perhaps also to** ***seduce*** **pollinating insects and, at least in the case of coffee, to become the starting point of one of the planet's most important agricultural supply chains.** There are mornings when everything begins with a molecule. It is tiny: **eight carbon atoms, ten hydrogen atoms, four nitrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms. Its chemical name is 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine, but we all know it as caffeine.** It is a psychoactive substance, a central nervous system stimulant and, according to the scientific literature, the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world. We encounter it mainly in coffee, of course. But not only there. It is found in tea, cocoa, cola, guarana, yerba mate and numerous food and pharmaceutical products. In other words, when we think of caffeine as "the substance in coffee", we are looking at only one part of its story. ## A molecule designed for defence For a plant, producing a chemical substance means investing energy and matter. Caffeine belongs to what are known as *secondary metabolites*: compounds that are not essential to the fundamental processes of plant life but can provide advantages under certain conditions. One of those advantages appears to be defence. Caffeine is an alkaloid belonging to the xanthine family and in plants **it is found especially in young tissues, seeds and fruits. It can act as a deterrent or toxin to several herbivorous organisms and, in some plants, contribute to protecting their most vulnerable tissues.** Experiments conducted on caffeine-producing plants have also shown greater resistance to certain insects and pathogens. **This is far from unusual in the plant kingdom.** Plants cannot run away when something tries to eat them and, over the course of evolution, they have developed an enormous repertoire of chemical defences: substances that are bitter, toxic, irritating, repellent or capable of interfering with the physiology of herbivores. Caffeine is one of them. But there is a detail that makes its story considerably more interesting. ## When defence becomes a message For a plant, however, not every insect is an enemy. Some arrive to eat its leaves. Others come to visit a flower. And the second group is valuable. **Pollinating insects carry pollen from one flower to another, enabling the reproduction of countless plant species.** For them, flowers are a source of resources, especially nectar and pollen; for the plant, a visit from a pollinator can mean the chance to produce seeds and new individuals. Caffeine has also been found in the nectar of some plant species, including coffee and citrus plants, at concentrations much lower than those found in other tissues. In experiments with bees, **natural concentrations of caffeine improved their ability to remember the association between a floral scent and a reward. In a field study, caffeine-fed bees also showed greater persistence in visiting the food source and an increase in recruitment behaviour towards their nestmates.** This does not mean that caffeine was "invented" by plants to drug bees. Such a formulation would attribute an intention to natural selection that we cannot demonstrate. What it does mean is that a molecule probably important in plant defence can, at low doses and in a different context, influence the behaviour of pollinators. It is one of the small wonders of biology: **the same molecule can be a defence for a plant and, for another organism, become an incentive to remember a flower.** ## Before coffee, there was the coffee plant ![Image by Francisco Corado Rivera from Pixabay](https://blog.treedom.net/hs-fs/hubfs/caffeee.jpg?width=1280&height=853&name=caffeee.jpg) The species that has most closely linked its destiny to caffeine is *Coffea arabica*. Its natural range lies in East Africa, especially around southern Ethiopia and South Sudan. The genus *Coffea*, meanwhile, includes more than a hundred species naturally distributed across tropical regions of Africa, the Indian Ocean and Asia. Its origins are wrapped in a mixture of historical evidence, traditions and legends. **The most famous is the story of Kaldi, the Ethiopian shepherd who is said to have noticed that his goats became unusually lively after eating the berries of an unfamiliar plant.** It is a beautiful story, but we have no historical evidence that Kaldi actually existed. Recent research therefore draws a clearer distinction between what we know and the legends that were subsequently built around the origins of coffee. **What we do know is that the history of coffee as a crop and a beverage runs from Ethiopia to Yemen, where the plant was cultivated and coffee consumption developed at least as early as the Middle Ages.** Monasteries and Sufi communities played an important role in its spread, partly because coffee helped people stay awake during night-time vigils. Then came **Mocha. The Yemeni port on the Red Sea became one of the great centres of the coffee trade.** For centuries, ships departing from there helped spread coffee beans around the world, and the name of the city eventually became synonymous with a particular type of coffee. ## From an African plant to a global industry **From the Arab world, coffee reached Europe in the seventeenth century.** The first European coffee houses quickly became places for meeting, trading, discussion and the circulation of information. A coffee house was already operating in Oxford by 1650; London would see many more open in the decades that followed. **Colonial powers carried plants and seeds beyond the Arabian Peninsula, and coffee cultivation spread across Asia, the Caribbean and the Americas.** Within a few centuries, a plant native to the forests of East Africa had become one of the world's major commercial crops in tropical regions. Sadly, this expansion also carried with it a productive system that for centuries relied on slavery. Today, coffee is grown in **more than 70 countries**, within the tropical belt roughly between the two Tropics. **Around 12.5 million farms are involved in coffee production, with a large proportion consisting of smallholders.** According to the latest USDA estimates, global production could reach 189.7 million 60-kg bags in the 2026/27 season, while global consumption is forecast at around 179.7 million bags. **Brazil remains by far the world's largest producer, with a forecast of 71.9 million bags, followed by Vietnam with 32.5 million, Colombia with 13.4 million, Ethiopia with 12.1 million (and** [**Africa has interesting prospects in this market**](https://blog.treedom.net/it/caff%C3%A8-africa)**) and Indonesia with 11.4 million.** [**Although the market has been heating up lately and production is facing a number of difficulties.**](https://blog.treedom.net/en/coffee) It is a global supply chain in geographical terms, too. **Coffee is grown mainly in the Global South and consumed largely in the major markets of Europe, North America and East Asia.** For 2026/27, USDA estimates put consumption in the European Union at around **42.5 million bags**, in the United States at **27 million**, in Brazil at **22.4 million** and in Japan at around **6.9 million**. China and the Philippines are also now significant markets. ## And caffeine? It has gone much further Caffeine has taken an even broader journey. **We find it naturally in tea and cocoa, of course. It is also present in cola-based drinks and is added to numerous energy drinks and food products.** A 355 ml can of Coca-Cola, for example, contains 34 milligrams of caffeine according to figures provided by the company. **And then there are medicines**, because caffeine is used in some formulations for headaches and migraines and can be combined with other active ingredients to enhance their analgesic effect. There are also specific medical applications, including its use in the treatment of apnea of prematurity. And all of this is possible because caffeine has a particular characteristic: **it knows how to talk to our nervous system.** ## What happens when we drink it? ![caffeee](https://blog.treedom.net/hs-fs/hubfs/caffeee.png?width=1602&height=982&name=caffeee.png) Caffeine does not contain energy in the way sugar does, and it does not "recharge" the brain. At the doses normally consumed, its main action involves adenosine. During waking hours, adenosine gradually builds up in the brain, a molecule involved in the mechanisms that promote feelings of tiredness. Caffeine binds mainly to adenosine A1 and A2A receptors, blocking its action. In this way, it temporarily reduces some of the signals that contribute to sleepiness and increases alertness. This explains many of the effects we know: greater attention and alertness, reduced perception of fatigue and, under certain conditions, improved physical and cognitive performance. But the response is not the same for everyone. Caffeine metabolism also varies depending on genetic, physiological, pharmacological and environmental factors. There is another interesting consequence: if we regularly consume caffeine, suddenly stopping can cause temporary withdrawal symptoms, including headaches, drowsiness, irritability and difficulty concentrating. A molecule, then, that can change the way we perceive fatigue for a few hours. And that, precisely for this reason, has become part of our daily lives. ## It all starts with a tree But in the end, we have to return to the starting point. To a tree. Because coffee beans are seeds. And before they are roasted, ground, packaged, exported, sold, extracted and turned into espresso, they are simply the seeds contained inside the fruits of a plant belonging to the genus *Coffea*. The caffeine that millions of people encounter every morning over a cup of coffee originally comes from there. **From a plant.** And perhaps that is the most beautiful way to look at a coffee tree: not simply as the source of a beverage we know so well, but as the beginning of a story connecting evolution and agriculture, insects and people, small farmers and global markets, tropical forests and cities around the world. [A story that began millions of years ago with plant chemistry. 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