ABSTRACT
As coffee spread, controversy erupted. More than any other beverage in history, coffee seems to have excited concern, resistance, and even overt opposition as it gained popularity. Coffee historians observe that coffeehouses have been hotbeds of social change in the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. Although coffee's introduction in the Middle East occurred in association with religious rituals and medical applications, it was adopted promptly as a social beverage by the general populace. One of coffee's early opponents was Kha'ir Beg, an official charged with keeping public order in Mecca. In 1511, he discovered a group of people drinking coffee outside a mosque, and to his eyes, their gathering looked suspicious. The sultan's edict failed to settle anything, not even in Cairo. In 1521 and 1532, Cairo suffered riots over coffeehouses. The history of the Revolutionary War ties to the early consumption of coffee in the Americas. The Boston Tea Party occurred during rising resistance to British taxation.
