| By
the 13th Century Arabian coffee houses
serving the drink had become very
popular... |
Coffee
Houses known as Kaveh Kanes
initially popped up in Mecca.
Originally religious in purpose,
the houses began allowing chess
& backgammon playing, as
well as harboring secular &
politically natured conversations.
With all this free thinking
taking place, dancing &
all types of debauchery soon
followed! Coffee houses quickly
gained popularity and traveled
to many parts of the region
including Cairo and Aden. |
|
|
As
coffee made it's way to Constantinople (Turkey)
by way of conquest, it caught on quickly.
Coffee Houses in Turkey first showed up
in 1554 and once again they became meeting
places for business and pleasure. Coffee
soon became taxed.
| In
1615,
the
first shipment of coffee arrived in
Europe at Venice from Turkey. Coffee
houses quickly spread through Italy
and Vienna, and soon most of Europe.
|
When
Venetian Traders brought Coffee to Europe
in 1615 some members of the Church in
Italy considered it the Devil's work,
but after Pope Clement VIII tasted it,
he baptized it to make it a "True
Christian Drink". Sold by lemonade
vendors, coffee was initially considered
and sold as an expensive medicinal beverage.
The
first recorded reference to coffee in
England was in 1637 when a Turk named
Jacob opened a coffee house in Oxford.
In 1672 the first coffee shop opened in
Paris. The first Venetian coffee house,
Bottega Del Caffé, was opened in
1683. One of the most famous and expensive
of the coffee houses is Café Florian,
opened in 1720.
Coffee
houses popped up all over Italy and Europe
with the first London coffee house opening
in 1652. The most famous of these is Mol's
Coffee House in Exeter, Devon where Sir
Walter Raleigh used to be a regular. Another
Coffee house from London was owned by
an Edward Lloyd in 1688 and as a part
of the extended menu offerings, he'd prepare
lists of ships his customers had insured.
Lloyd's ended up becoming the largest
insurance house in the world.
As
coffee houses made their way to America
in the early 1700's, New York and other
important towns like Boston introduced
the popular institution. Some of the oldest
coffee houses are: London Coffee House,
Gutteridge Coffee House and the infamous
Green Dragon establishment where the Boston
Tea Party was planned.
The
main difference between European coffee
houses of old and American ones of that
time is that radical elements flourished
in the European houses and conservative
elements thrived in American ones.
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