We go far back to the early 16th century when coffee’s opponents – including in Venice – called the coffee “Satan’s drink”.

But history says that the pope had another view!

The whole story is attributed to Pope Clement VIII (24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death.

Coffee “aficionados” often claim that the spread of its popularity among Catholics is due to Pope Clement VIII’s influence.

Responding to opposition to coffee as “Satan’s drink”, or “bitter invention of Satan” with the pope’s advisers asking him to denounce the beverage. However, upon tasting coffee, Pope Clement VIII declared: “Why, this Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it.”

Clement allegedly blessed the bean because it appeared better for the people than alcoholic beverages.

The year often cited is 1600. It is not clear whether this is a true story, but it may have been found amusing at the time.

Information from Wikipedia