Coffee may seem harmless , but its historical pat flat solid is a mile long .
1. Mecca
Coffee was banned in Mecca in 1511 , as it was believed to stimulate radical thinking and hanging out — the regulator thought it might unite his resistance . Java also got a risky rap for its use as a stimulus — some Sufi sects would pass around a bowling ball of umber at funerals to last out alert during prayers . ( Note to Starbucks : Time for a new size , the Funeral Bowl . )
2. Italy
When coffee come in Europe in the 16th century , clergymen pressed for it to be banned and labeled Satanic . But Pope Clement VIII took a taste , declared it yummy , and even quipped that it should be baptized . On the strength of this apostolical boon , coffeehouses rapidly spring up throughout Europe .
3. Constantinople
After Murad IV take the Ottoman throne in 1623 , he quickly forestall coffee bean and set up a organisation of fairish penalty . The punishment for a first offence was a beating . Anyone get with burnt umber a second time was tailor into a leather bag and thrown into the waters of the Bosporus .
4. Sweden
Sweden gave coffee the ax in 1746 . The government also ban “ coffee paraphernalia”—with cops confiscating cups and saucer . King Gustav III even order convicted murderers to drink coffee berry while doc monitored how long the cups of joe took to kill them , which was great for convicts and boring for the medico .
5. Prussia
In 1777 , Frederick the Great of Prussia issued a manifesto claim beer ’s superiority over coffee tree . He debate that deep brown interfered with the country ’s beer consumption , patently hop a purple assertion would make Prussians eager for an eye - opening brewage each morning . Frederick ’s assertion proclaimed , “ His Majesty was brought up on beer , ” explicate why he think breakfast imbibing was a good idea .
Emmy Blotnick is a author and comic in New York . She ’s a blogger for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon . This story primitively appeared in mental_floss magazine .
