Bach wrote a cantata about it. Scholars, philosophers, and lawyers have argued over it. And every day, people swear they can’t live without it. No, not love or anything as undefinable as that—coffee.  Coffee is native to Ethiopia, but it wasn’t until the 15th-century in Yemen where it b ecame popularized as a beverage amongst Sufis seeking to stay alert during prayer. As its rich smell, bitter taste, and caffeine content conquered hearts around the globe, a good number of powerful people became suspicious of this newfangled drink. Some authorities even set out to ban coffee, often touting health, economic, or moral reasons for their crack down.  But sometimes, such bans hid a dark and bitter truth. Coffee brought people together to discuss news and society, something that certain rulers feared and would not tolerate. Throughout history, coffee bans never lasted long, but while they were active, transgressors faced punishment—or even death—for their love of having a cup of coffee with friends.  1. Mecca’s early 16th century ban on coffee Around the year 1500, coffee arrived in Mecca. Soon coffeehouses sprang up to serve both locals and weary pilgrims. But the popularity of this novel new drink drew suspicion. In 1511, a Meccan official, Kha’ir Beg, gathered a group of scholars to decide if coffee should be banned.  Kha’ir Beg pressured the attending scholars to support a ban on coffee-drinking on the grounds that coffee harmed the body, intoxicated the mind, and encouraged people to gather together and behave badly. Coffeehouses closed, coffee beans were burned, and authorities had coffee drinkers beaten. Meanwhile, Kha’ir Beg sent an account of what he had done to Sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri. The sultan’s response, however, was a swift rebuff. The sultan issued a royal edict stating that while public coffee-drinking was off-limits, private coffee-drinking was still allowed, taking the wind out of Kha’ir Beg’s sails and allowing the people of Mecca to return to their coffee and, eventually, their coffeehouses.  2. In Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire’s Sultan Murad IV executed coffee drinkers More than 100 years later, Sultan Murad IV also went after coffeehouses, this time in Istanbul. While coffee had been banned before in the Ottoman Empire, Murad IV took things to an extreme. He saw coffeehouses as hubs of dangerous socialization, where uprisings and rebellion could foment.  Since Murad IV himself was put on the throne by such uprisings, he was, perhaps understandably, paranoid. As a result, he banned coffeehouses in Istanbul, and imposed the death penalty for those caught drinking coffee in public. A brutal ruler, some of the worst tales about Murad IV have him executing coffee-drinkers (and smokers, since tobacco was also banned) himself. Some accounts say that Sultan Murad IV would roam the streets of Istanbul in disguise, decapitating whomever he found drinking coffee. Image: Public Domain 3. Sweden banned coffee five different times In the 16th century, European visitors to the Ottoman Empire looked on coffee with curiosity, noting how it was served in small cups and hot, no matter the weather. It took until the 17th century for the coffee trade to take hold in Europe, and it spread quickly. But the drink soon faced the same scrutiny in Europe that it had in Mecca and Istanbul. One common story is that King Gustav III of Sweden was so suspicious of coffee’s effects that he both banned it and conducted a bizarre medical trial on twin convicts to see if coffee was dangerous. The tale goes that one twin drank coffee each day, while the other drank tea, and both ended up outliving the king, who was assassinated in 1792. Gustav III was certainly assassinated, but Michal Salamoni, a researcher on Sweden’s coffee history and coffee substitutes at Umeå University, Sweden, believes the twin trial story is a myth.  Nevertheless, Sweden did issue bans on the import of coffee five times: in 1756, 1766, 1794, 1799, and 1817. While Salamoni notes that there was often “criticism towards new habits” such as coffee drinking, authorities cracked down on coffee mostly because of a trade deficit.  The prohibitions, he says, were “against the import of coffee grown in the colonies of other European countries.” To enforce these bans, though, police would arrest, fine, and imprison people found drinking or selling coffee even on a small scale. 4. Prussia’s secret “coffee-sniffer” force In 1777, Frederick the Great released a screed against coffee. “It is disgusting,” he wrote, “to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects, and the amount of money that goes out of the country in consequence.” Like the rulers of Sweden, much of his beef with coffee was economic. Coffee, in his opinion, was for the elite. Regular people, on the other hand, “must drink beer.”  In 1781, Frederick created a royal coffee monopoly, complete with its own roasteries, and forbade citizens from importing and roasting their own beans. Coffee became much more expensive, and naturally, this led to widespread smuggling. Enter the secret force of “coffee-sniffers.”  The Kaffeeschnüffler, typically war veterans discharged for their injuries, roamed the streets to sniff out the rich smell of illicitly roasted coffee. Those caught with coffee had to pay hefty fines, with a quarter of the sum going to the coffee-sniffer.  In late 18th century Prussia, Frederick the Great employed a force of coffee sniffers (here shown inspecting a ladies teatime) to smell out the prized beverage. Image: Public Domain Few politicians would dare to outright ban coffee in this day and age. There’s not as many political coups happening in local coffee shops, for one thing. Plus, most doctors now agree that there’s little harm in a cup or two of coffee. Instead, it’s the price of that cup that might give someone pause, as tariffs and climate change roil the international market. But as history shows, people will do a lot to get their coffee fix. In That Time When, Popular Science tells the weirdest, surprising, and little-known stories that shaped science, engineering, and innovation. Related 'That Time When' Stories In medieval France, murderous pigs faced trial and execution Andrew Jackson’s White House once hosted a cheese feeding frenzy The radioactive ‘miracle water’ that killed its believers Idaho once dropped 76 beavers from airplanes—on purpose During WWII, a dress-wearing squirrel sold war bonds alongside FDR The post 4 times drinking coffee was illegal—or even punishable by death appeared first on Popular Science. ...read more read less