1. Who was Pasqua Rosee?
A British Levant merchant
A Greek servant
A tavern keeper
A coffee sampler
2. What did he open?
London's first coffee house
A London tavern
London's first Greek restaurant
A place to sample all kinds of drinks
3. How was the beverage described?
Light, mild, and frothy
Sweet, salty, and sour
Golden, rich, and bitter
Black, strong, and sweet
1. A Greek servant
2. London's first coffee house
3. Black, strong, and sweet
View Text
London's coffee craze began in 1652 when Pasqua Rosee, the Greek servant of a coffee-loving British Levant merchant, opened London's first coffeehouse (or rather, coffee shack) against the stone wall of St Michael's churchyard in a labyrinth of alleys off Cornhill. Coffee was a smash hit; within a couple of years, Pasqua was selling over 600 dishes of coffee a day to the horror of the local tavern keepers. For anyone who's ever tried seventeenth-century style coffee, this can come as something of a shock - unless, that is, you like your brew "black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love", as an old Turkish proverb recommends, and shot through with grit. It's not just that our taste buds have grown more discerning accustomed as we are to silky-smooth Flat Whites; contemporaries found it disgusting too. One early sampler likened it to a "syrup of soot and the essence of old shoes" while others were reminded of oil, ink, soot, and mud.
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