Coffee Then and Now

were at first wary of the new drink. However, Pope Clement the Eighth gave the drink his seal of approval after trying a cup for himself, and the trend quickly caught on. The 17th century saw the spread of coffee drinking throughout Europe. Coffee houses opened in Vienna, Paris and London, and they soon became the favourite meeting places of politicians, and were also known to attract artists of all kinds. By the 18th century, coffee production was well established in Java in Indonesia and also throughout the Caribbean. Coffee drinking continued to grow in popularity; one of the repercussions of the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773 was that the USA adopted coffee as its national beverage. Today, coffee is drunk around the world, though each nation has its own ways of preparing and serving it. Coffee is now grown in more than 50 countries, although production is not at all straightforward. Because it is vulnerable to frost, coffee can only be grown successfully between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. In addition, crop maintenance is labour intensive. The plants require constant care and attention, and in most areas the picking is carried out by hand.