Coffee lovers often claim that their drink is so popular due to the influence of Pope Clement VIII (1596 – 1605). Some Catholics urged the pope to ban coffee, calling it “devil’s beverage.” They wanted him to call it the “bitter invention of Satan” since it was so popular with Muslims. After tasting it, the Pope is said to have remarked that the drink was “… so delicious that it would be a sin to let only misbelievers drink it.”
As it is with many “events” that are said to actually have happened hundreds of years before, not everyone agrees that this has actually happened this way – but it’s a cool story nonetheless.
My all time favorite comment on stuff like this is, and I quote, “At last we know what might have happened.” Brilliant. Said in an offhand manner by a British commentator at the end of some historical documentary.
Another cool story: In a 16th century Spanish nunnery, the nuns drank hot chocolate. The priest said they were enjoying it too much and prohibited it. So they killed him. Makes sense to me.