read this with my morning cup(s)

On my Joy of Cooking daily calendar

THE NOTORIOUS HISTORY OF COFFEE

Coffee has always thrived on adversity. In the Arab world, where the coffee plan was first cultivated commercially in the fifteenth century, coffee was widely consumed by the populace but condemned by Islamic leaders for its supposed intoxicating effects. Coffee was banned repeatedly as it traveled from Constantinople to Venice and then to Vienna and other European capitals. The beans were initially sold by pharmacists and eventually in cafés--which became notorious hotbeds of revolution and enlightened thinking.

HOTBEDS of REVOLUTION! ENLIGHTENED THINKING! Coincidence? I think not!