International Coffee Day history and meaning of 1 October

At a Glance

The Member States of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) agreed in March, at a meeting of the International Coffee Council in Milan, to hold one International Coffee Day on 1 October.
The first official International Coffee Day took place on 1 October the following year, alongside the Expo in Milan.
1 October is the first day of the international coffee year, so the celebration falls on the trade’s commercial new year.
Last year’s ICO theme, ‘Embracing Collaboration More Than Ever’, asked everyone along the supply chain to work together, from farmers and cooperatives to roasters, baristas and drinkers.

Many countries hold their own national coffee days, each on a different date. That left coffee drinkers, farmers and traders with no single day they all shared, and no moment when the whole sector spoke together.

The ICO now counts 77 Member States, and those states chose one worldwide date: 1 October. National days still exist, but International Coffee Day gives coffee lovers and dozens of coffee associations one shared celebration. The ICO uses it to back the millions of farmers whose livelihoods depend on the crop.

Origins of International Coffee Day and the 1 October date

From the Ethiopian forests of Kaffa to the ICO decision in Milan

Historians usually trace coffee to the wild coffee forests of Kaffa in Ethiopia. The story of Kaldi, the goat herder who is said to have seen his goats grow lively after eating coffee cherries, is a legend and not recorded history. By the 15th century, Sufi communities in Yemen were brewing coffee to stay awake through their night prayers, which made Yemen one of the first places where people drank coffee as a regular habit.

By the 16th century, coffeehouses called qahveh khaneh had spread through Mecca, Cairo, Damascus and Istanbul, and people met in them to talk, trade news and argue ideas. Coffee reached Venice in the early 17th century and spread across Europe despite religious disputes and bans. In London, people called the coffeehouses ‘penny universities’ because the price of a cup got you into the debate. By the 18th century, colonial powers had planted coffee in Indonesia, Brazil and the Caribbean, which set the map of where coffee is grown today. Centuries later, the Member States of the ICO met in Milan and agreed to give this global drink a single day on 1 October.

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1 October is the first day of the ICO’s international coffee year, the calendar the coffee trade runs on. The worldwide celebration of coffee therefore falls on the industry’s commercial new year.

International Coffee Organization

Coffee rituals around the world

Five coffee rituals that International Coffee Day celebrates

Ethiopia

Hosts roast green beans over an open flame, grind them by hand with a mortar and pestle, and brew the coffee in a clay pot called a jebena. They serve it in three rounds, abol, tona and baraka, often with popcorn or snacks, and the ceremony can last an hour or more.

Ethiopia is widely seen as coffee’s birthplace. Families and neighbours use the ceremony as a regular time to share news and welcome guests.

Turkey

People brew finely ground coffee unfiltered, often with sugar, in a small copper pot called a cezve. They serve it with the grounds settled in the cup, often with Turkish delight, and afterwards someone may read fortunes from the grounds.

Turkish coffee carries the heritage of the Ottoman coffeehouse. Reading the grounds turns the cup into a game that friends share.

Italy

Italians usually drink espresso quickly while standing at the bar, trading a few words with the barista. Many keep milky drinks such as cappuccino for the morning and order plain espresso later in the day.

The espresso is a short pause built into the day, and Italian espresso culture shaped café menus around the world.

Sweden

Swedes take fika, a planned coffee break, usually with pastries, alongside colleagues, friends or family.

People often name fika as a pillar of Swedish work-life balance, because it puts a pause and some company into the working day.

Brazil

Brazilians offer guests a cafezinho, a small, strong and often sweetened cup of coffee, as soon as they arrive.

In one of the world’s great coffee-growing countries, hosts offer the cafezinho by reflex as a sign of welcome.

Coffee is a product of many hands and many hearts. When farmers, cooperatives, researchers, roasters, traders, baristas and consumers work together, we create opportunities for income, resilience and environmental stewardship. This year’s campaign calls for practical collaboration that delivers real benefits along the whole chain.

— Vanúsia Nogueira, Executive Director, International Coffee Organization

Why the day matters to coffee farmers

Recognition

Follow your morning cup backwards. A barista pulled the shot. A roaster turned green beans brown. A trader shipped the sacks, and a cooperative collected them. At the start of the chain, a farmer on a small plot picked the ripe cherries by hand. That farmer is one of the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on coffee, and the price they get for a harvest decides what their family can plan for the year ahead.

You rarely see the farmer when you drink the cup. International Coffee Day asks you to notice them, and the ICO built the day to honour the people who grow coffee as well as the people who drink it.

The ICO set out clear aims for the day. It wants to unite coffee lovers, honour the farmers who depend on the crop, raise awareness of sustainability and fair trade, and strengthen the sense of community among everyone in the coffee chain.

A fair income sits at the centre of these aims. When buyers commit to farmers for the long term, farmers can plan, invest in their land and recover their costs. Climate pressures such as rising heat, leaf rust and forest clearing add to the risk that growers face, which is why the ICO links the day to environmental stewardship. Certification schemes such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance give shoppers one way to act on these concerns.

Figures for how much coffee the world drinks differ from source to source. One coffee retailer, Cafely, reports that people drink more than 2 billion cups a day. If you quote a number in a post, name the source you took it from.

Ways people celebrate International Coffee Day today

How people mark 1 October now

The ICO’s yearly theme and campaign site

Each year the ICO picks a theme and runs a dedicated campaign website. It shares videos, posters and postcards in several languages for anyone to use.

Campaign slogans

An earlier campaign used the slogan ‘Coffee, your daily ritual, our shared journey’, linked to the United Nations naming a year for cooperatives. Last year the ICO followed it with ‘Embracing Collaboration More Than Ever’.

Café tastings and workshops

Cafés and roasters host tastings and brewing workshops, where customers try coffees from different origins and learn how they are made.

Hashtags

People post their cups under hashtags such as #InternationalCoffeeDay and #EmbraceCollaboration, which the ICO promotes to gather posts from around the world.

Sustainability drives

NGOs and coffee associations use the day to push for fair pay for farmers and for greener ways of growing coffee.

Coffee Day puns, quotes and barista thank-you messages

The themes of the day shape how people post on 1 October. Coffee is a ritual almost everyone shares, so a pun about a morning brew lands with a wide audience. Quotes carry the history of the coffeehouse, from Istanbul’s qahveh khaneh to London’s penny universities, where people went to talk over a cup.

Thanking a barista puts the ICO’s collaboration theme into practice. The barista is the last person in the chain that starts on a farm, and a short note tells them you see the work behind your cup.

Choose the kind of message you want to share on 1 October:

funny coffee puns for international coffee dayLight wordplay about brews, beans and mornings for a playful post or photo caption.best coffee quotes for international coffee dayCoffee quotes listed with their authors, so you can credit the words correctly in a post.thank you message for barista international coffee dayShort notes you can write on a card or say at the counter to thank the person who makes your coffee.

If you want ready-made posts for 1 October, the parent guide collects International Coffee Day captions in every tone, from funny to heartfelt, ready to copy and paste.

International Coffee Day captions to copy and paste →

The cup you drink on 1 October brings several stories together. The crop began in the forests of Kaffa in Ethiopia. People built coffeehouses around it in Yemen, Istanbul, Venice and London. The trade opens a new coffee year on the same date.

The day also gives you a chance to remember the growers. Before you post, or thank the person behind the counter, think of the farmer who picked the cherries. The ICO created International Coffee Day so that people would recognise that farmer.