From the Public Advisor (England, 1657):
“In Bartholomew Lane on the back side of the Old Exchange, the drink called ‘Coffee’ is for sale. It is a very wholesome and physical drink, having many excellent virtues, closes the orifice of the stomach, fortifies the heat within, helpeth digestion, quickens the spirits, maketh the heart lightsome, is good against eyesores, coughs or colds, rhumes, consumption, headache, dropsy, gout, scurvy, Kings evil, and many others. Is to be sold both in the morning and at three o’clock in the afternoon.”
If only even half of that were true. 
Copyright 2010 by Tammi Mossman.
