Coffee: the Devil's Drink?

Coffee has a storied past filled with interesting characters, drama, and intrigue. Once considered the drink of the devil, its use has spread like hellfire around the world. 

“One of the most interesting facts in the history of the coffee drink is that wherever it has been introduced, it has spelled revolution. It has been the world’s most radical drink in that its function has always been to make people think. And when the people began to think, they became dangerous to tyrants and the foes of liberty of thought and action. Sometimes the people became intoxicated with their newfound ideas ….” *

When coffee reached the streets of Venice and Rome many greeted it with suspicion. It was, after all, a favored drink of their enemies, the Muslims, who they had been fighting with for centuries. The people who feared it called it the devil’s drink.  According to legend, they asked Pope Clement VIII (1535-1605) to excommunicate the “bitter drink of Satan.” The pope decided to taste it instead, and said, “This drink of Satan’s is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.”** The Pope baptized the drink and coffee houses sprang up all over Christendom. Or so the legend goes.

Something to think about, the next time you drink coffee, and when you read my next trilogy which is centered around a coffee house that caters to the supernatural.

Sources:

*  William H. Ukers, All About Coffee: A History of Coffee From the Classic Tribute to the World’s Most Beloved Beverage by William H. Ukers, 1922, p. 13

** Stephanie Weber, Coffee was the “Devil’s Drink” Until One Pope Tried it and Changed History, History Hustle, (https://historyhustle.com/coffee-was-the-devils-drink-until-one-pope-tried-it-and-changed-history-2/)

Picture from Pixabay.com