Originally Posted by
deniah
That's a fast and loose summary of the coffee trade. Most country's lore has coffee introduced without an intermediary. In Austria it was a direct contact with the Ottomans during the Holy Roman Empire's war vs the Ottomans.
Sorry, you're right, I could have worded it better. It's not that Italy served as the intermediary to other European countries, it's just that it is generally accepted as being the first place on the European mainland to have had coffee.