History of coffee

I made a throwaway comment in class the other da that Jesus probably drank coffee. This is incorrect. Coffee was discovered as a beverage in about 800 AD. There’s a nice, concise history right here. Including a passage that tells the story of how coffee came to Christendom (before it was a legitimate form of ministry).

“Europe was introduced to coffee in the late 1500s by Venetian travelers. Priests tried to get coffee banned for Catholics by Pope Clement VIII because it was so popular in the Muslim world. They thought that since Muslims did not drink wine (a holy sacrament), the devil must have given them this devilish brew. For Christians to drink it was to risk the devil’s trap. Curious, the good Pope wanted to examine this “devil’s brew” and had some brought to him. At first he just smelled it, but then to the horror of the priests, he drank some. The priests thought he might die or turn into the devil. Instead he declared it delicious and baptized it, thus snatching it away from the devil’s grasp and opening up the coffee trade to Europe.”

So the pope isn’t always wrong.