From Coffee to Tea: Shifting Patterns of Consumption in Qajar Iran

Introduced into Safavid Iran in the late 1500s, coffee and (to a lesser extent) tea soon found their way into the Iranian diet. By the early eighteenth century, however, the prolonged turmoil and impoverishment that followed the end of Safavid rule curtailed the consumption of these drinks in the public sphere. The reemergence of both beverages in the 1800s revealed regional differentiation and social stratification: tea became popular among the elite classes and dominated in the north, while coffee prevailed in the south. During the nineteenth century, tea began to supersede coffee everywhere in a process that involved status perceptions, the influence of tea-consuming England and Russia, and shifting trade routes.