Coffee, the Lacedæmonian Black Broth

Your correspondent "R.O." inquires what modern author suggests the probability of coffee being the black broth of the Lacedæmonians? The suggestion, I think, originated with George Sandys, the translator of Ovid's *Metamorphoses*. Sandys travelled in the Turkish empire in 1610. He first published his Notes in 1615. The following is from the 6th edit. 1652, p. 52.:— "Although they be destitute of taverns, yet have they their coffa-houses, which something resemble them. Their sit they, chatting most of the day, and sip of a drink called coffa (of the berry that it is made of), in little China di…