{"id":53874,"date":"2025-10-29T10:05:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T17:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/?p=53874"},"modified":"2025-12-15T10:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:13:11","slug":"how-coffee-started-the-enlightenment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/how-coffee-started-the-enlightenment\/","title":{"rendered":"How Coffee started the Enlightenment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last time we shared the story of how coffee became a thing<\/a>.\u00a0 Though steeped in legend, there’s plenty of information about how coffee traveled through the Ottoman Empire.\u00a0 By the 1500s, coffee made it to Europe.<\/p>\n

\"Cafe<\/a><\/p>\n

Coffee first arrived in Hungary, brought by the Turks during the Battle of Moh\u00e1cs in 1526.\u00a0 It was introduced to Venice the same way the following year.\u00a0 Some Europeans were suspicious, calling coffee the “bitter invention of Satan”.\u00a0 Others loved the drink so much they asked Pope Clement VIII to intervene, and he officially blessed the coffee, declaring “this devil\u2019s drink is so delicious we should cheat the devil by baptizing it!”\u00a0 The first European coffeehouse opened in Venice in 1645.<\/p>\n

The Enlightenment<\/h4>\n

At this point in time, most of Europe was filled with public houses where folks could enjoy a meal, conversation, and beer.\u00a0 Public houses were common places for gentlemen to gather and talk about life, philosophy, politics, and more.\u00a0 With coffee’s growing popularity, coffee houses started springing up across the continent.\u00a0 Folks went from chatting over a beer, which dulls the senses, to conversation over caffeine, a stimulant.\u00a0 In just a generation after the first coffee house appeared in Venice, the European Enlightenment began.\u00a0 People started referring to coffee houses a ‘penny universities’ because men could pay a penny for coffee and have access to conversation, books, games, and news.<\/p>\n

Global tensions around coffee<\/h4>\n

Not everyone wanted an educated public.\u00a0 Charles II of England became suspicious of coffeehouses, stating that they promoted idleness and rumor-mongering.\u00a0 The likely reality is that he recognized their potential as a meeting place for his political opponents.\u00a0 On December 29, 1675, Charles II passed a law to ban coffeehouses.\u00a0 This law was supposed to take effect on January 10th of the following year. Instead, it was rescinded on January 8th because a number of Charles’ advisors loved coffee.\u00a0 England, like many other countries in Europe, didn’t allow women in coffeehouses for the same reasons.\u00a0 Under the guise of discouraging idleness, those in power didn’t want women to be able to meet together and organize.<\/p>\n

During this time, the coffee trade was also tense.\u00a0 The Ottoman Empire still controlled coffee farms and production due to coffee’s native range.\u00a0 Growing demand in Europe led coffee growers and producers to be protect of their crops, refusing farm entry to Europeans.\u00a0 Eventually the Dutch stole coffee beans (seeds) that they planted in their colony in Java.\u00a0 From here, coffee spread all around the world.\u00a0 Next time, we’ll learn more about the coffee trade from the 1700s to now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Out of coffee at home?\u00a0 Pick up one of our award winners!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last time we shared the story of how coffee became a thing.\u00a0 Though steeped in legend, there’s plenty of information about how coffee traveled through the Ottoman Empire.\u00a0 By the 1500s, coffee made it to Europe. Coffee first arrived in Hungary, brought by the Turks during the Battle of Moh\u00e1cs in 1526.\u00a0 It was introduced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[344,376],"tags":[378],"class_list":["post-53874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-about-coffee","category-coffee-history","tag-coffee-history"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53874"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54044,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53874\/revisions\/54044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindcoffeeroasters.com\/bcr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}