不過我這人有個壞毛病，喝了咖啡話就多，這種症候，古時候人叫清談，四川人叫擺龍門陣，北方人叫侃大山，話題無限，只嘆午後 coffee break 時間太短 。言多必失，牛吹多了就會破，有次正巧和實驗室的同學談到咖啡屋的典故，我憑著先前在 The Coffee Book 讀過文章的一點印象，斬釘截鐵，毫不猶豫的說第一家英國咖啡屋，是 1650 年開在倫敦。同時還侃了一堆咖啡和保險的關連 （Lloyd's of London，這是另外一篇文章的題材了），還有一些咖啡和回教文化千絲萬縷的關係，總之是拾人牙慧，硬般亂套，胡攪一通。回家後，總覺得有一事如鯁在喉，怕自己吹牛吹過了頭，趕緊上網查查資料，看看真相究竟是怎麼回事。查過資料之後，如釋重負，牛皮吹得還不太大，只差了兩年。
Wikipedia 的文章是這麼說的
The first Turkish coffeehouse in England was set up in Oxford by one Jacob or Jacobs, a Turkish Jew, in 1650. The first coffeehouse in London was opened two years later in St. Michael's Alley in Cornhill. The proprietor was Pasqua Rosée, the Ragusan servant of a trader in Turkish goods named Daniel Edwards, who imported the coffee and assisted Rosée in setting up the establishment.The Coffee Book 的說法和 Wikipedia 的文章差不多，書中插圖 The Timeline of Coffee History 在 1650年標示第一家咖啡屋在 Oxford。而 Encyolpedia.com 的文章 The rise and fall of English coffee houses，則是說
The first English coffee house was opened in 1652 by a Greek Orthodox servant from western Turkey, Pasqua Rosee, in the City of London, already England's financial capital. He worked for a Turkish merchant named Edwards. His coffee house was sponsored by merchants from the Levant Company, the trading house that organized trade with the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey). Levant Company officials had become accustomed to drinking coffee--the coffee bean was called the 'Mahometan berry'--during their extended trips across the Ottoman Empire and wished to have coffee when back in London.不過 About.com 介紹咖啡歷史的文章 The Evolution of Coffee House，則是只用一句 "Coffee establishments continued to spread, with the first one opening up in Britain in 1652." 交代這件事。
雖然不同出處的資料略有出入，綜合以上從網路得到的資料，對照 The Coffee Book 的原文， 我們可以得到一個還算可以接受的結論：大不列顛第一家咖啡屋，在1650年成立於 Oxford；而倫敦（London）第一家咖啡屋的成立時間，是 Oxford 咖啡屋開門的兩年後，西元 1652 年。
PS.
TIPS 這個英文字，也是發源自咖啡屋，意思是 To Insure Prompt Service，咖啡屋文化可真是多采多姿...
Drafted: 2007/07/04
Published: 2007/07/20
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