The next time you step inside a coffeehouse — be it an independent or a chain — relax and inhale deeply. There’s a lot of history behind that arresting aroma and ambiance.

According to various accounts, a goat herder discovered coffee while tending to his flock in Ethiopia centuries ago and by 1475 the first Turkish coffeehouse had opened its dvoors in Constantinople (now Istanbul).

Coffee arrived in Colonial America somewhere between the 17th and 18th centuries. Our loyalty to the beverage started in earnest with the 1773 Boston Tea Party, when American colonists destroyed crates of tea bricks in Boston Harbor to protest the British Crown’s excessive tea tax. Afterward, many colonists pledged to abstain from tea and the First Continental Congress proclaimed coffee to be the nation’s official drinkbeverage.

Coffeehouses, already popular in Europe, quickly became important meeting places for American politicians and businessmen. George Washington is said to have planned his attack on Cornwallis’ troops in 1776 while sipping coffee with his staff officers in New York City’s Fraunces’ Coffee House. The Tontine Coffee House, built in the 1790s, became an early location for the New York Stock Exchange because traders conducted so much business there.

The modern age of American coffeehouses was ushered in with the invention of the commercial piston espresso machine in 1946. The Gaggia coffee bar in Italy was reportedly the first place to use these machines and to offer espresso along with regular coffee. But it wasn’t until 1983 when Howard Schultz, then the director of retail operations and marketing for Starbucks and now its chairman and CEO, traveled to Italy, where he was impressed with the popularity of espresso bars in Milan. Upon his return, he succeeded in building on — and mainstreaming — the coffeehouse culture that had already begun to flourish with the Beat generation in cities like Seattle, New York and San Francisco.

It will be interesting to see how the current coffeehouse competition plays out, especially with Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s recent launch of gourmet java product lines and Schultz’ return as chief executive officer. Writing in a letter to customers posted on Starbucks’ website, Schultz says he wants “to help our partners [employees] build upon our heritage and our special relationship with you, and lead our company into the future.”

“We have enormous opportunity and exciting plans in place to make the Starbucks Experience as good as it has ever been and even better,” Schultz continued. “In the coming months, you will see this come to life in the way our stores look, in the way our people serve you, in the new beverages and products we will offer.”

Regardless of whether or not you agree that you think Starbucks’ future is rosy, the company companyarguably has been good for the coffee-drinking industry as a whole. “Coffee is a hot commodity in more ways than one,” says Robert F. Nelson, president of the National Coffee Association. “It’s filling new roles in American life as it expands in variety, popularity and presence as an icon of an exploding U.S. cafe culture.

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