Buzz
Caffeine-infused coffee reigns as the planet's most widely consumed stimulant. Long before heroin, cocaine, or marijuana gained notoriety, the War on Drugs initially targeted this beloved beverage. Since its discovery in Ethiopia around AD 800, coffee has been shrouded in controversy as it journeyed northward, spreading across the Middle East and eventually the globe. Its potent effects drew skepticism from religious, governmental, and medical leaders.
Imagine a world devoid of coffee—no Starbucks, no morning pick-me-up. It’s a thought too dreadful to entertain. Yet, throughout history, numerous attempts have been made to eliminate coffee. This list highlights those efforts and how, luckily for humanity, coffee prevailed.
10. Khair Bey Initiates the First Attack
Coffee arrived in Mecca during the 15th century and swiftly gained popularity, resulting in the proliferation of coffeehouses. Patrons would gather over their cherished drink to exchange news, engage in chess, sing, dance, or unwind to music. However, Khair Bey, the conservative governor of Mecca, viewed these gatherings with suspicion. He feared the brew’s mind-altering effects might incite actions contrary to Islamic law.
On a Friday evening in 1511, the Muslim holy day, Khair was returning home after his prayers at the Kaaba when he noticed a group of men near the sacred shrine, animatedly sharing a cup of coffee. Disturbed by their exuberance, he swiftly disbanded the gathering and convened a council of theologians and lawyers the following morning. Two physicians testified that coffee disrupted the body’s natural balance and caused ailments. Others who had consumed the drink claimed it “altered their senses and moods.” Based on these testimonies, the council voted to outlaw coffee and shut down all coffeehouses.
Bags of coffee were confiscated and set ablaze, and those caught drinking it faced physical punishment. While coffee vanished from public markets, it continued to be consumed in secret. When the Sultan in Cairo learned of Khair’s actions, he ordered him to stop, declaring that what was permissible in Cairo should also be allowed in Mecca. The following year, Khair was dismissed from his position, and his chief judge was removed and sent to Egypt. Coffee lovers rejoiced as their beloved drink was once again free from persecution.
9. Cairo’s Coffee Riots
However, Cairo’s status as a coffee sanctuary was short-lived. The first fatwa against coffee was issued in 1512, but it was largely ignored. Even a subsequent ban by four judicial schools two years later failed to curb its popularity. In the early 1530s, the scholar Abd al-Haqq al-Sunbati publicly condemned coffee, claiming it “intoxicated” drinkers, caused them to reveal secrets, and posed health risks.
Inspired by al-Sunbati’s fiery anti-coffee rhetoric, a mob stormed the streets, targeting coffeehouses. They smashed urns, shattered cups, and assaulted patrons. Tensions escalated as pro-coffee and anti-coffee factions clashed. To resolve the conflict, a judge named ibn Ilyas conducted an experiment. He ordered coffee to be consumed in his presence and observed the drinkers throughout the day. Finding no unacceptable behavior, he declared coffee lawful, putting an end to the dispute.
Despite this, another café was targeted shortly afterward, with patrons arrested, beaten, and eventually released. Yet, coffee enthusiasts carried on enjoying their beloved drink as if nothing had happened.
8. The Istanbul Coffee Incident
Coffee made its way to Syria in the early 16th century, likely through the pilgrimage route from Hijaz (Arabia) to Damascus. By the 1540s, coffeehouses had become widespread in the city, sparking concern among anti-coffee factions. Similar to Cairo, a local preacher issued a fatwa condemning coffee, and mobs, with judicial support, attacked the coffeehouses.
However, coffee proved resilient. In the years that followed, two new measures were enacted to suppress it. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent imposed a ban in 1546, covering Aleppo, Damascus, and Mecca. Later, in 1565, he ordered the closure of Jerusalem’s coffeehouses, claiming they had become “gathering spots for troublemakers and the irreligious.”
Around the same time, Istanbul, the imperial capital, was introduced to coffee’s allure. Ships carrying coffee beans were met at the docks by prohibitionists, who, in an event reminiscent of the Boston Tea Party, drilled holes into the vessels, sinking them and their precious cargo. Despite this, the Istanbul Coffee Party failed to stop coffee’s rise. Resourceful citizens bypassed the coffeehouse closures by using mobile coffee carts and slipping into nearby shops to evade authorities.
Despite numerous attempts to ban it in the following decades, coffee endured and began its conquest of Europe.
7. Outsmarting the Devil
Coffee made its way to Christian Europe from the Muslim world, and its mysterious, dark, and bitter nature initially aroused suspicion. It arrived in Italy through Venetian trade routes connecting North Africa and the Middle East. Its energizing and addictive effects on both body and mind alarmed Church authorities, who labeled it “Satan’s bitter creation.” They distrusted anything associated with non-believers.
Before imposing a ban, Church leaders sought the opinion of Pope Clement VIII. After tasting the beverage, Clement reportedly declared, “This devilish drink is too delightful to be left solely to infidels. Let us outwit Satan by baptizing it.” With the Pope’s approval, the first coffeehouse opened in Rome in 1645. Coffee’s popularity among Christians soared, forever altering breakfast routines and afternoon traditions.
6. The Conflict Escalates
Initially, the occasional bans on coffee in the Ottoman Empire were relatively mild, with offenders facing beatings or imprisonment at most. However, the rise of the paranoid Sultan Murad IV marked a deadly turn. Coffee culture had firmly established itself in Istanbul, and coffeehouses became hubs for political discourse. Unlike alcohol, coffee’s ability to sharpen the mind led to spirited and animated discussions, which Murad saw as a direct threat to his authority.
Murad harbored a deep fear of the Janissaries, the elite military group, especially after their rebellion resulted in the murder of his brother, Osman II. Ascending to the throne as a child, Murad faced several minor uprisings, including one where the Janissaries executed his closest confidant, Musa. Recognizing that the Janissaries often gathered in coffeehouses to plot, Murad, now older and more powerful, resolved to address the issue decisively.
Murad did not oppose coffee itself—he consumed it privately—but he believed its public consumption in coffeehouses fostered dissent and rebellion. He outlawed public coffee drinking, decreeing that violators would face execution. Legends claim that Murad patrolled Istanbul’s streets in disguise, armed with a broadsword, and personally beheaded those he caught indulging in coffee.
After Murad’s death in 1640, his successors upheld his policies, albeit with slightly less severity. First-time offenders were beaten with a cudgel, but a second offense resulted in being sewn into a leather bag and thrown into the Bosporus.
5. The Breeding Grounds of Rebellion
Similar to Murad IV, King Charles II of England had ample reason for paranoia. His father, Charles I, had been executed by a rebellious Parliament in 1649 following a civil war. Although the Stuart monarchy was restored after Oliver Cromwell’s dictatorship, Charles remained cautious of political adversaries. He was well aware of their favorite meeting spots—London’s bustling coffeehouses.
London’s first coffeehouse opened in 1652, and their numbers grew rapidly as coffee gained popularity. These establishments attracted men from all social classes, who gathered as equals—a radical shift in England’s rigidly hierarchical society. Political discussions were a common pastime, which deeply concerned Charles. Coffeehouses earned a reputation as “breeding grounds for rebellion,” with a 1681 comedy even featuring a character quipping, “In a coffeehouse just now, among the crowd, I boldly asked, which table is plotting treason?”
Women also voiced their grievances. In 1674, a group of housewives published “The Women’s Petition Against Coffee,” accusing the beverage of rendering their husbands idle, intoxicated, irritating, absent (likely due to their time spent in coffeehouses), and, most alarmingly, impotent.
On June 12, 1672, Charles II issued a proclamation to “Restrain the Spreading of False News and Licentious Talk of State and Government Affairs.” The king declared, “Men have taken it upon themselves to freely criticize and defame the actions of the State, not only in coffeehouses but in other public and private gatherings, speaking ill of matters they do not understand.” Spies were sent to monitor coffeehouses, and in 1675, Charles took the drastic step of shutting them down entirely.
The prospect of losing their cherished coffee sparked widespread outrage among enthusiasts, and the ban proved unsustainable. It was lifted just 11 days later. Coffeehouses continued to serve as hubs for revolutionary ideas. For instance, the 1773 Boston Tea Party, a pivotal event leading to America’s War of Independence, was planned at Boston’s Green Dragon coffeehouse, a favorite haunt of the Sons of Liberty and later called the “Headquarters of the Revolution” by Daniel Webster.
Perhaps Murad and Charles had valid reasons for their paranoia after all.
4. King Gustav’s Scientific Trial
Sweden’s King Gustav III, despite being widely disliked for his authoritarian rule, implemented some progressive measures, such as ending judicial torture and advocating religious tolerance. Born in 1746, the same year Swedish officials restricted coffee and tea to protect the beer and wine industry, Gustav grew up convinced that coffee was a lethal toxin.
Despite the widespread criticism, coffee had gained popularity by the time Gustav ascended the throne. Determined to prove its dangers, he devised an experiment inspired by the Enlightenment. Gustav commuted the death sentences of twin brothers convicted of a capital crime, assigning one to drink coffee daily and the other tea, under the supervision of two physicians. He hoped they would eventually succumb to the supposed poison.
Ironically, Gustav was the first to die, assassinated at a masquerade ball in 1792. The supervising physicians also passed away years later. The tea-drinking twin lived to 83, far exceeding the average life expectancy of 40, while his coffee-drinking brother followed shortly after. Despite multiple bans and heavy taxes, Sweden eventually conceded defeat. Today, Swedes are among the world’s most passionate coffee enthusiasts.
3. The Breakfast Revolutionaries
Among the groups emerging from the Great Disappointment of 1844, when William Miller’s prophecy of Christ’s return failed, was the Seventh-Day Adventists. Known for their Saturday Sabbath observance and focus on health, co-founder Ellen G. White condemned coffee, stating, “Coffee is a harmful indulgence. It briefly stimulates the mind but leaves behind exhaustion, weakness, and a decline in mental, moral, and physical strength. The mind becomes weakened, and unless the habit is actively broken, the brain’s functionality is permanently reduced.”
Adventists consider coffee consumption sinful. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, director of the Adventist sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, shared this belief. He argued that coffee harmed the liver, drained energy, and accelerated aging. Instead of coffee, the sanitarium served Kellogg’s cereal blends and his Caramel Coffee substitute, made from bread crusts, bran, and molasses. His brother, Will Kellogg, later popularized their breakfast innovations with Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes.
In 1888, Charles William Post, recovering from a nervous breakdown, stayed at the sanitarium and embraced Kellogg’s anti-coffee ideology. By the 1890s, he launched Postum, a grain-based coffee alternative, asserting that “abandoning coffee and poor nutrition while switching to Postum Food Coffee could cure common ailments.”
Post waged a fierce marketing campaign, spreading fabricated claims about coffee’s dangers. He blamed it for “coffee heart,” “brain fatigue,” blindness, ulcers, brain tissue damage, indigestion, reduced productivity, low energy, poverty, obscurity, and paralysis. These myths, disseminated through nationwide newspaper ads, persist even today.
Despite their success in promoting their products, Post and Kellogg ultimately failed to rid America of coffee at breakfast. The allure of this timeless energizer proved too strong to resist.
2. The Divine Dietary Guidelines
In the 1820s, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, began receiving revelations that shaped Mormonism. Initially, the religion faced persecution due to controversial teachings on polygamy, theocracy, blood atonement (essentially “holy murder”), and communalism. Over time, the church abandoned many of these doctrines, and today, Mormonism is known for its unique practices, such as special undergarments and the prohibition of coffee.
Among Smith’s revelations was the Word of Wisdom, a set of dietary guidelines. It banned alcohol and tobacco, while tea and coffee were labeled as “hot drinks” and deemed harmful to the body. Initially, these rules were seen as recommendations rather than strict commandments, and even Smith occasionally indulged in a drink.
Brigham Young, a later leader, focused on the economic impact of buying coffee from outside the Mormon community in Utah. With limited funds, Young prioritized self-sufficiency and encouraged growing local crops. However, by the late 19th century, as the church abandoned controversial practices to gain Utah’s statehood, Mormon attitudes toward coffee shifted significantly.
Seeking to distinguish themselves from the broader world, Mormon leaders began treating coffee avoidance as a measure of true faith. The Word of Wisdom was enforced more strictly, and by the early 20th century, abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee became mandatory for church leadership and temple entry. Violators faced public shaming, and like Jewish kosher laws, the Word of Wisdom became a defining marker of Mormon identity.
1. The Monarch of Beer
In Prussia, coffee faced resistance as a rival to wine and beer, and no one championed beer more than King Frederick the Great. He feared that importing coffee beans would drain the nation’s wealth, worsening its economic struggles. Additionally, German physicians claimed coffee made men effeminate and women infertile.
Frederick dedicated his life to combating coffee. He employed bans, heavy taxes, and specialized police units to apprehend violators. Only the aristocracy was permitted to enjoy coffee, as he deemed it an extravagant indulgence for the common folk. Above all, Frederick sought to protect Prussia’s formidable military, which he had meticulously built, from what he saw as coffee’s debilitating effects.
“My people must drink beer,” Frederick declared on September 13, 1777. “His Majesty was raised on beer, as were his ancestors and officers. Many battles were fought and won by soldiers sustained by beer, and the King believes coffee-drinking soldiers cannot be trusted to endure hardships in future wars.”
Even the formidable Frederick couldn’t stop coffee’s rise. In 1781, he attempted a new strategy by establishing a royal monopoly on coffee roasting, amassing significant wealth. Spies, known as “coffee sniffers,” tracked the scent of illegal roasting to catch offenders. A thriving black market emerged, with Germans experimenting with substitutes like wheat, barley, dried figs, and chicory.
Though coffee’s progress was temporarily slowed, it persisted. Leipzig became renowned for its coffeehouses, including the Kaffeebaum, a popular spot among university students. This era marked the golden age of the kaffeeklatsch. Like the rest of the world, Prussia eventually succumbed to coffee’s enduring appeal.
