Guten Tag! Today’s post is about one of my favourite things – coffee! We’ve talked about coffee (der Kaffee) a few times on the blog, including this post on Germany’s Kaffee und Kuchen Kultur (coffee and cake culture), and this one, which talks about a scam called die Kaffeefahrt. In today’s post, however, we’re going back in time to the 18th Century to learn about a group of people called die Kaffeeriecher: the coffee sniffers!

 

Die Kaffeeriecher: The Coffee Sniffers

Firstly, let’s look at the word itself! Der Kaffee is the German word for coffee. Riechen is the verb ‘to smell’ or ‘to sniff’. To be a ‘Riecher’ means to be a ‘sniffer’, and in this case, the word is referring to a group of people, hence the feminine article (die). Der Riecher is also an alternative way of saying die Nase (nose).

The term Kaffeeschnüffler is sometimes used instead of Kaffeeriecher. Schnüffler comes from the verb schnüffeln, meaning ‘to sniff’. However, it also means ‘to snoop around’ – and this is very appropriate, given the nature of the Kaffeeschnüffler!

 

Who were the Kaffeeriecher/Kaffeeschnüffler?

Let’s go back to the 18th Century, when Germany was still the Kingdom of Prussia (Königreich Preußen). Following the Siebenjährigen Krieg (Seven Years War, 1756 – 1763), Prussia’s treasury was leer (empty), so Friedrich II, the king at the time, made some changes in an attempt to boost the economy again. His goal was to get people consuming food and drink items from inside the Kingdom, so coffee, which was imported from across the border, was out. The state took over coffee roasting, with only state-owned and approved Kaffeeröstereien (coffee roasters) allowed to brew coffee. Any coffee that was available was sold at a hugely inflated price, so only the very well-off could afford it. Friedrich II wanted people to drink locally brewed das Bier (beer), or a coffee alternative made using der Chicoree (chicory), instead.

Whilst some accepted the alternatives, others turned to smuggling foreign coffee into the country. The coffee beans themselves were easy to smuggle (schmuggeln – to smuggle), but once in the country, one thing was harder to hide: the delightful smell of the coffee while it was roasting!

 

 

Friedrich knew coffee smuggling was a problem, so, to seek out anyone who was illegally smuggling and roasting coffee, he hired 400 people to work as Kaffeeriecher. These people – all of whom were die Soldaten (soldiers) who had been injured during the war – would walk the streets, and even search people’s houses sniffing for coffee, seeking out anyone who was roasting the drink without a permit. Offenders were fined if caught, though this didn’t deter people very much and the smuggling continued.

The rules were lifted and the Kaffeeriecher’s jobs came to an end in 1787, following Friedrich II’s Tod (death), and people were free to enjoy good quality coffee once more.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Here is some related vocabulary that you may find useful:

Die Kaffeerösterei – Coffee roaster

Das Schwarzbrennen – Roasting illegally/without license

Die Kaffeebohnen – Coffee beans

Der Kaffeekonsum – Coffee consumption

rösten – to roast

importieren – to import

schmuggeln – to smuggle