Coffee and the German Empire: An Beverage Across the World Naoto MINAMI Since the so-called “Columbian Exchange” (Alfred W. Crosby), the globalization of food has advanced steadily for centuries. It is one of the most important subjects of the research about food history because it is deeply related with the phenomena of European colonialism. In this article we focus on coffee, a typical beverage which represents both globalization of food and European colonialism, and analyze the process of its introduction and popularization in Germany, a country which had been allotted an unfavorable position in the world trade of coffee until the late 19th century because of geographical and historical reason. In the first chapter we pick up two phenomena in 18th century Germany; a ban of coffee which was enforced unsuccessfully in several ‘Länder’ in central and northern Germany, and an attempt to invent substitutes for coffee, which was to bear fruit with the successful production of chicory coffee. The second chapter treats the structural change of world coffee trade in the latter half of the 19th century, the most important factor of which was the growth of coffee production in Brazil. As a result the leading center of coffee trade moved from Amsterdam to Hamburg, where the new free trade district was constructed and the harbor facilities were modernized in the 1890s by the German central government. Consequently Hamburg came to hold hegemony over the world coffee trade. In the third chapter we turn our attention to the domestic situation in Imperial Germany. The structure of coffee supply also experienced a deep change, and a new coffee business was born, which launched the process of coffee roasting and integrated the wholesale and retail divisions. Around the turn of the century, coffee culture spread across the wide range of people in Imperial Germany, including both the bourgeoisie and the working classes. Finally we examine harmful effects of the globalization of coffee.