How much truth is there to the story that Pope Clement VIII was about to ban coffee, then tasted it and said "This devil's drink is so delicious...we should cheat the devil by baptizing it"?

by lapapinton

Is it a complete myth, partial truth, or what? I can only find references to the quote on popular websites.

Itsalrightwithme

Just like with anything else, it's hard to prove that something doesn't exist. But for all my search through history sources, I have not found a credible citation to this. And tried I did, for I love all things early modern and I roast my own coffee beans. Despite all that, all I could find were coffee blogs, websites, books, that either don't cite a history source or cite each other (if they cite anything at all).

So very likely this is a hoax / apocryphal.

Clement VIII happened to be the pope during the Long War between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. And now that this factoid is on the Wikipedia page of Clement VIII, I'm sure this factoid will forever be repeated.

It's very hard to prove a negative unless we are able to track down the source of the rumor or mistake. Such as in the case of Gavrilo Princip's sandwich.