Question: What beverage was considered the devil’s drink before it was baptized by the Pope?
Answer: Coffee— In 1600, wary of the association with the Ottoman Empire, clerics asked Pope Clement VIII to ban the beans. To form a fair verdict, he asked to taste it. The Pope remarked, “This Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.” The moment has come to be known as the ‘baptism of coffee.’ With the Pope’s approval, Italian coffee culture was not only born, it was actually blessed. The appetite for the drink grew and the first Italian coffee house opened in Venice around 1675. A century later, there were 218 coffee shops in Venice.
