A Feast Without Coffee? Not Anymore.

Thanksgiving is, without a doubt, my favorite holiday of the year. Sure, Christmas is the grand prize at the end of the calendar, and we all appreciate the extra day off for New Year’s. Other national holidays honor important people and events in our country’s history, and Halloween serves as a cheerful beacon of the festive season ahead. But Thanksgiving is uniquely American, rooted in the earliest recorded celebration of thanks shared by the Pilgrim settlers and the native Wampanoag people.

Which brings us to the most important question about that first Thanksgiving: after a brutal winter of hardship and loss, with so much to be thankful for, did they drink coffee? The short answer is a solid “no.” Coffee was still making its way from the Middle East into European culture and certainly wasn’t among the provisions carried to the New World. So the Pilgrims enjoyed a three‑day feast without ever sipping hot coffee with dessert. A three‑day celebration without coffee? They were hearty people, that’s for sure.

So when did coffee finally arrive in the colonies? By the mid‑1600s, Dutch traders were carrying beans across the Atlantic, and by the early 1700s, coffee was beginning to catch on in American households. Tea was the preferred drink at first, but coffee slowly won hearts—especially after the Boston Tea Party, when drinking coffee became a patriotic act of defiance.

By the mid‑1700s, coffeehouses were thriving in cities like Boston and Williamsburg. These weren’t just places to grab a cup—they were buzzing hubs of conversation, commerce, and even revolution. Some historians call them the “nurseries of the Revolution,” where merchants, artisans, and politicians debated the future of America over steaming mugs of coffee.

This Thanksgiving, as you gather with family and friends, take a moment to savor your own cup of gratitude. Thankfully, we don’t have to imagine a feast without coffee. In fact, our holiday blends—Tannenbaum and Ebenezer—are crafted to bring warmth and cheer to your table, whether paired with pumpkin pie or enjoyed during a quiet morning of reflection.