Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. There are many ways to prepare this and various types of machines we can use for this; The Italian coffee machine is the most classic and is the machine with which most of us usually start this world. And we make good use of it because we love it, because we need it as a source of energy in the morning or even as a sports supplement.
But there are also people who don’t like it or even hate it. This is King Henry III, who tried to ban it and to show that it was a medicine by a very strange experiment. It was Gustav’s case.
Satan’s invention. Although the origin, or rather its discovery, of coffee remains unclear and is surrounded by legends, it is estimated that it reached Europe around 1600 thanks to Venetian merchants. Its arrival was controversial as some liked it and others tried to ban it in different countries.
Among the clergy, coffee’s effects were intriguing: some loved it because it allowed them to stay awake, while others christened it a “bitter invention of Satan,” considering it a contrast to wine, a drink blessed by Jesus. Pope Clement VIII blessed it and the trouble was over. Now it was the kings who had the power to forbid it, and among the detractors was Henry III. Gustav was also there.
twin experiment. Coffee was already quite popular in Sweden in the 18th century, but as well as those who decried it for religious reasons, there were also those who saw it as a dangerous substance. King III. Gustav saw it as a poison and proposed a very interesting (and delicious) experiment: To demonstrate the harmful effects of the drink, he made two identical twin brothers sentenced to death choose: drink coffee and tea every day or be hanged. .
The choice was clear (unless they liked a drink, of course), so the two prisoners drank several glasses a day, every day for years, under the supervision of two doctors. Even when? Until the prisoners died prematurely due to the consumption of these drinks.
Even the Prompter is dead. Or almost. The prisoners spent years drinking coffee, but one day it turned out that one of the doctors had died. After a while the other doctor also died, and the poetic thing is that the king himself was killed during a ball in 1792. He didn’t care anymore, but the experiment continued until the tea-drinking prisoner died at the age of 83. In 1794, Sweden tried to ban coffee again and did so for almost 30 years until the government gave up.
The debate is not dead. A lot has changed since this experiment, and the status of coffee has changed radically. But it continues to carry a number of myths about caffeine (such as increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease) or that it can cause cancer. It has been proven time and time again that it is a very healthy drink, and in fact, the benefits of this drink are discovered from time to time.
It is unclear what happened to the prisoner who was sentenced to drink coffee forever. There is no record of his death, so it would be funny if he were still alive and disturbing the memory of the late King Gustav.
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