Coffee in Retrospect

Coffee in Retrospect is a reprint column prepared by Poor Farmer blog to provide context for the current global coffee trade by republishing news articles from the past. The intention is to reprint archived prints by converting images into electronic file formats with careful conformity to originals and, whenever applicable and possible, providing links to the sources of the information. Meanwhile, responsibility for the contents lies solely with the authors and the views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect our opinions.

Since October 2026 the column also reprints treaties, government papers, a court opinion and passages from old books, and pairs them with short essays that read the documents together. The essays are marked below.

2026

Essay: Harar to Jibuti, and sometimes back through Aden (1908 to 1922)	11/10/26
The British Foreign Office on Ethiopia's coffee trade (1920)	11/10/26
Essay: Who could call Ethiopian coffee "Mocha"? (1906 to 1922)	11/6/26
William Ukers on Abyssinian coffee, from Harar custom-house to Aden (1922)	11/6/26
United States v. Thomson & Taylor Spice Co., the "Abyssinian Mocha" case (1912)	11/6/26
"The Labeling of Mocha Coffee," U.S. Department of Agriculture (1908)	11/6/26
"A Grocery in Congress" (1906)	10/27/26
Essay: What the 1903 treaty between Menelik II and the United States did and did not say	10/26/26
The Treaty of Commerce between Menelik II and the United States (1903)	10/26/26
Essay: The price of coffee and the cost of the road to Berbera	10/25/26
Richard Burton on the coffee of Harar (1856)	10/25/26
"A great emporium of the coffee trade" (1887)	10/25/26

2013

"Decaffeinated coffee tied to cholesterol rise"	01/19/13
Naturally decaffeinated coffee plant discovered in Ethiopia	01/3/13

2012

"Coffee exporters have grounds for apprehension"	12/25/12
Coffee and International Situation	12/23/12
How ECX demolished "Direct Trade" in Ethiopia's Specialty coffee trade	03/31/12

2011

"Coffee Sales Freeze is Near" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin	10/29/11
The ownership controversy over natural decaf coffee	10/14/11
"U.S. Consul General Couldn't Get Coffee Seeds and Zebras"	10/13/11
"US Could Control Coffee Price Rise, Agency Head Says"	10/10/11
"Ethiopian Coffee to Aid Trade of Italy"	10/9/11
"American Consumer May Have to 'Do Bit' for Brazil"	10/6/11
"Why Italy is Determined to Conquer Ethiopia"	10/3/11
"Ethiopia Boosts Coffee Production; U.S. State Department is Getting a Headache"	10/1/11
"U.S. to Exchange Wheat for Coffee"	09/30/11
"Expert Doubts Coffee Prices Will Decline"	09/30/11