Coffee: WHOSE Bitter Invention?

With gratitude to Catholic Coffee (yes, that really is the name of the business) – – –

Legend tells us that some of Pope Clement VIII’s advisors were calling coffee the “bitter invention of Satan.” 

They insisted that the Pope forbid Christians from consuming the wildly-popular imported drink. 

Before making a decision on whether to forbid it, however, Pope Clement VIII decided to taste it. The story goes that—after a few sips—the Pope blessed coffee, declaring, 

“This Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.”

What would have happened to coffee’s reputation without such “heavenly” intervention? 

We’ll never know…

…but what we do know is that, fifty years after Pope Clement VIII “baptized” coffee, the first coffee house opened in Rome in 1645. 

And the rest is coffee history.