Welcome to a whirlwind tour of the 10 insane episodes of the coffee war, a saga that stretches from the bustling bazaars of the Middle East to royal courts in Europe. These dramatic confrontations reveal how coffee, the world’s favorite stimulant, repeatedly found itself at the center of political, religious, and social battles.
10 Insane Episodes of Coffee Suppression
10 Khair Bey Fires the First Shot
Coffee made its debut in Mecca during the 15th century, quickly spawning lively coffeehouses where patrons could discuss news, play chess, sing, dance, or simply enjoy music. The conservative governor of Mecca, Khair Bey, viewed these gatherings with suspicion, fearing the brew could stir minds against Islamic law.
One Friday evening in 1511, after completing his devotions at the Kaaba, Khair Bey spotted a group of men on the shrine’s grounds passing a cup of coffee, visibly exhilarated by its effects. He dispersed the crowd and summoned a council of theologians and lawyers for the following morning. Two physicians testified that coffee disturbed the body’s humors, causing illness, while witnesses who had tasted the drink claimed it “altered their senses and spirits.” Based on these testimonies, the council voted to ban coffee and shut down the coffeehouses.
Bagged coffee was seized and burned, and anyone caught drinking it faced beatings. Though coffee vanished from open markets, private consumption persisted. The Sultan of Cairo intervened, telling Khair Bey that what was not forbidden in Cairo could not be forbidden in Mecca. A year later, Khair Bey was removed from office, his chief judge was exiled to Egypt, and coffee lovers rejoiced.
9 Riots in Cairo
Cairo’s coffee haven was short‑lived. The first fatwa against coffee arrived in 1512, yet people ignored it. Even a ban issued by four judicial schools two years later failed to curb the brew’s spread. In the early 1530s, scholar‑preacher Abd al‑Haqq al‑Sunbati warned that coffee “intoxicates,” forces drinkers to divulge secrets, and generally harms health.
Galvanized by al‑Sunbati’s denunciation, a mob stormed the coffeehouses, smashing urns and cups while assaulting patrons. Tensions escalated until judge ibn Ilyas staged an experiment: he ordered coffee to be consumed in his presence and spent the whole day observing the drinkers. No unacceptable behavior emerged, prompting ibn Ilyas to declare coffee legal.
Despite this decree, another café was later raided; its customers were imprisoned, beaten, then released. Nevertheless, coffee and its enthusiasts continued their merry routine.
8 The Istanbul Coffee Party
By the first half of the 16th century, coffee had reached Syria, likely traveling the pilgrimage route from Hijaz to Damascus. By the 1540s, coffeehouses dotted the city, alarming anti‑coffee forces. As in Cairo, a local preacher issued a fatwa, and mobs attacked the coffee dens, now with judicial backing.
Resistance persisted, leading Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to ban coffee in 1546 across Aleppo, Damascus, and Mecca. In 1565, he ordered the closure of Jerusalem’s coffeehouses, labeling them “the meeting place of rascals and ungodly people.”
Meanwhile, Istanbul welcomed coffee. Ships laden with beans arrived at the dock, only to be met by prohibitionists who, in a pre‑Boston Tea Party act, bored holes in the vessels, sinking them and their cargo. Yet the Istanbul Coffee Party proved futile: mobile coffee carts sprang up, and patrons slipped into nearby shops to evade the law. Repeated bans over the following decades failed to extinguish coffee, which soon began its European invasion.
7 Cheating the Devil
When coffee crossed from the Muslim world into Christian Europe, its mysterious, dark, and bitter nature sparked suspicion. Arriving in Italy via Venetian trade routes from North Africa and the Middle East, its invigorating effect seemed sinister to Church authorities, who dubbed it “the bitter invention of Satan.”
Before imposing a ban, they consulted Pope Clement VIII. He sampled a cup, declared, “This Satan’s drink is so delicious. It would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We should cheat the devil by baptizing it.” The papal blessing cleared the way, and the first Roman coffeehouse opened in 1645. Coffee then surged among Christians, reshaping breakfast and siesta habits forever.
6 The War Turns Bloody
Earlier Ottoman coffee prohibitions were mostly bloodless, with offenders facing beatings or brief imprisonments. However, under paranoid Sultan Murad IV, the stakes rose dramatically. Coffee culture had taken root in Istanbul, and coffeehouses became hotbeds for political discourse. Unlike alcohol, coffee sharpened minds, fostering lively, animated meetings—a clear threat to Murad’s authority.
Murad feared the Janissary military clique, traumatized by their rebellion that saw his brother Osman II murdered. Ascending the throne as a child, Murad endured several uprisings, including one where Janissaries hanged his close friend Musa. Since Janissaries frequented coffeehouses to plot, Murad concluded that public coffee consumption bred dissent.
Although Murad himself drank coffee, he declared public coffee drinking illegal, punishable by death. Legend claims he roamed Istanbul in disguise, broadsword in hand, beheading anyone caught sipping coffee. After his death in 1640, successors relaxed the penalty: first‑time offenders were beaten with cudgels, repeat offenders sewn into leather bags and drowned in the Bosporus.
5 The Seminaries of Sedition
Like Murad IV, England’s King Charles II grew paranoid after his father’s 1649 execution. Restoring the monarchy post‑Cromwell, Charles worried about political enemies gathering in London’s coffeehouses.
The city’s first coffeehouse opened in 1652, quickly multiplying as the brew’s popularity grew. These establishments offered men of all classes a space to converse as equals—a revolutionary social shift in hierarchical England. Politics dominated conversation, earning coffeehouses the nickname “seminaries of sedition.” A 1681 comedy even featured a line: “In a coffee house just now among the rabble, I bluntly asked, which is the treason table?”
Women also protested, issuing a 1674 petition blaming coffee for making husbands lazy, drunk, annoying, absent, and impotent. On June 12, 1672, Charles issued a proclamation to “Restrain the Spreading of False News, and Licentious Talking of Matters of State and Government,” warning that men had assumed liberties in coffeehouses to censure and defame state proceedings.
Spies infiltrated coffeehouses, and in 1675 Charles ordered their closure. Public outcry forced the ban’s reversal after just 11 days. Coffeehouses persisted, later hosting the 1773 Boston Tea Party planning at Boston’s Green Dragon coffeehouse—dubbed “Headquarters of the Revolution” by Daniel Webster.
4 King Gustav’s Experiment
Sweden’s King Gustav III, though despised for absolutism, introduced enlightened policies such as abolishing judicial torture and promoting religious tolerance. In 1746, Swedish officials restricted coffee and tea sales to protect the beer and wine industry, demonizing the drinks. Gustav grew up believing coffee was poisonous.
When coffee’s popularity surged, Gustav devised a scientific experiment to prove its lethality. He commuted the death sentences of a pair of twins, assigning one coffee and the other tea daily, intending both to die from poisoning under medical supervision.
Gustav himself was assassinated at a masquerade ball in 1792. Years later, the two supervising doctors died. The tea‑drinker lived to 83—well beyond the era’s average life expectancy of 40—while his coffee‑drinking brother soon followed, becoming the last survivor. After a series of bans and steep taxes, Sweden finally conceded; today Swedes rank among the world’s most avid coffee consumers.
3 The Beer King
In Prussia, coffee faced resistance as a rival to wine and beer, a battle championed by Frederick the Great, the self‑proclaimed “Beer King.” He feared coffee imports would drain national wealth and weaken the military. German doctors warned coffee rendered men effeminate and women sterile.
Frederick waged a lifelong war against coffee, employing bans, high taxes, and special police squads. He restricted coffee to aristocrats, deeming it an unnecessary luxury for common folk. He believed preserving Prussia’s formidable army required soldiers to avoid coffee’s “corroding” effects.
On September 13, 1777, Frederick proclaimed, “My people must drink beer… Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the King does not believe that coffee‑drinking soldiers can be relied upon to endure hardships in case of another war.”
In 1781, he attempted a royal monopoly on coffee roasting, profiting personally. “Coffee sniffers” tracked illegal roasting aromas, arresting violators. A black market flourished, with Germans brewing substitutes from wheat, barley, dried figs, or chicory. Despite temporary suppression, coffee endured; Leipzig’s famed coffeehouses, like the Kaffeebaum, became student favorites, ushering in the golden age of the kaffeeklatsch. Ultimately, Prussia surrendered to coffee.
2 The Word of Wisdom
In the 1820s, prophet Joseph Smith received revelations that birthed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑Day Saints. Early Mormonism, controversial for polygamy, theocracy, and blood atonement, faced persecution. Among Smith’s revelations was the Word of Wisdom, a dietary code prohibiting alcohol and tobacco, and classifying tea and coffee as “hot drinks” unsuitable for the body.
Initially, the Word of Wisdom was advisory; Smith himself occasionally drank coffee. Brigham Young, concerned about the economic strain of importing coffee into Utah, championed self‑sufficiency, preferring local bean cultivation.
By the late 19th century, as the Church shed its most contentious practices to achieve Utah statehood, avoidance of coffee became a test of true discipleship. The Word of Wisdom grew stricter, eventually mandating abstention from alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee for temple entry and ministerial service. Those who defied faced public shaming, akin to kosher laws, setting Mormons apart from mainstream society.
1 The Cereal Moguls
The Seventh‑Day Adventist movement, emerging from the 1844 Great Disappointment, emphasized healthful living. Co‑founder Ellen G. White warned, “Coffee is a hurtful indulgence… the after‑effect is exhaustion, prostration, paralysis of the mental, moral, and physical powers.” Adventists deemed coffee sinful.
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, director of the Adventist sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan, claimed coffee damaged the liver, sapped vitality, and caused premature aging. His institution served Kellogg’s special cereal blends and “Caramel Coffee,” a substitute made from bread crusts, bran, and molasses. His brother Will later launched Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes to the public.
In 1888, Charles William Post, recovering from a nervous breakdown at the sanitarium, embraced Kellogg’s anti‑coffee stance. He introduced Postum, a grain‑based coffee substitute, advertising that “you can recover from any ordinary disease by discontinuing coffee and poor food, and using Postum Food Coffee.”
Post’s aggressive marketing fabricated “facts” branding coffee as a villain causing “coffee heart,” “brain fag,” blindness, ulcers, and even poverty. Though these myths lingered, the campaign failed to eradicate coffee from American breakfasts; the beloved pick‑me‑up proved irresistible.