5 fun facts from the history of coffee

COFFEE TURNS MEN INTO WOMEN

This coffee blunder is one of the funniest in coffee history. It is based on the imagination and conspiracy theories of those who were not part of the "secret community of coffee drinkers". Theidea that coffee turns men into women was first suggested in the 16th century. The theory of coffee's ability to change a person's sex was supposedly written down in letters by the Venetian ambassador to Turkey.

Hewas puzzled by thetradition of Turkish men going to baths where coffee was served and also to cafes without women. At that time, it was believed that the food or drink you took could change your body quite a bit. So the ambassador assumed that coffee was the culprit for men getting together like this. He considered the members of these all-male clubs to be homosexuals. Even coffee was supposed to cause these changes in the body, i.e. the transformation of the male sex into the female.

Gentlemen, don't worry, it's never happened that coffee turned a man into a woman. For men, a useful interesting fact about coffee will definitely be that caffeine promotes male potency. This is evidenced by studies looking at caffeine intake in erectile dysfunction. It shows that2-3 cups of coffee a day reduce the likelihood of erectile dysfunction. This affects about 44% of men over the age of 40.

Traditional preparation of Turkish coffee from a hot sand java

IMPOTENT INTELLECTUALS IN COFFEE SHOPS

Let's move on from the Turkish coffee houses for about a century. Coffee has found its place among European intellectuals. In the 17th century, it was a problem to supply good quality waterto the cities . Therefore, rather than drink polluted water, people drank beer. Drunkenness was the norm. Then came coffee - a delicious drink that encouraged creativity and thought. Coffee is said to be behind the French Revolution.

Businessmen, politicians, philosophers and artists were popular for its stimulating effects. Men wouldmeet over a cup of coffee to discuss what was happening in society, share ideas and arrange business. Of course, in those days, important meetings were not allowed to disturb women. So coffee shops became an exclusively male affair.

And that led, as in the first case, to fictional theories about coffee. This time it was women who spoke out against coffee. Not surprisingly. Women complained that men had no time for them because they spent it in cafes. When they get home they don't even have sexual interest in their wives.

London women in 1663 even wrote their dissatisfaction down as: The Maiden's Complaint Against the Coffee House. And a year later, they published TheWomen's Petition Against the Coffee House. Some passages from this petition of angry women will amuse you.

"...the excessive use of that novel, abominable, heathen liquor called coffee...has so paralyzed our kindly men that they are as impotent as old age and as barren as the deserts..."

The petition didn't help the women much either. Soon men had their mail and newspapers delivered to the cafes as well. They basically lived in the cafes. Thenumber of men gathered made the cafés a strategic location for brothels. The men had coffee in the café, discussed business, handled the mail, and paid for ladies' company one floor up. Which, unlike the coffee vilified by women, was the real reason for the decline in their interest in their own wives.

YOU DIDN'T BUY COFFEE? LET'S GET A DIVORCE!

Between a man and a woman, coffee has always had a specific value. For example, in a Turkish wedding ceremony, the groom would take a vow to always provide coffee forhis future wife. This covenant, in turn , entitled the wife to divorce if the husband failed to provide coffee.

THE DEVIL'S DRINK, WHICH WAS BLESSED

Christian Europe was at first very suspicious of coffee, and not just as our first story of the Venetian ambassador tells. It was even thought that this oriental drink was the very drink of Satan! In the 16th century, coffee made its way to the Vatican, where those closest to the Pope demanded that coffee be officially banned.

But Pope Clement VIII decided not to give in to the pressure of his advisors and, after tasting it, decided: "This satanic drink is so delicious that it would be a pity for it to be used exclusively by non-believers." With the Pope's blessing, coffee became the drink of the Christian world and spread throughout the world.

THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BY A CUP OF COFFEE

King Gustav III of Sweden was concerned about thehealth consequences of drinking coffee. In 1746, a decree was issued against excessive drinking of coffee and tea. Coffee accessories such as coffeecups were also illegal . Eventually, coffee was banned altogether. To prove his theory that drinking coffee was bad for health, the king ordered an experiment.

Two death-row prisoners were chosen for this historical study. Instead of the death penalty, they were given life imprisonment with the condition that one of them would drink coffee for the rest of his life and the other would drink the same amount of tea. The entire research was overseen by two doctors to control the course of the presumed death from coffee and tea.

The result? The King himself did not live to see the end of the experiment. He was assassinated in 1792. The prisoners also survived the two supervising doctors. The tea-drinking prisoner lived to be over 80. When the coffee-drinking prisoner died is unknown. Rumor has it he may still be alive.