Late 17th Century British Coffeehouse

Scene: a British coffeehouse from the late seventeenth century. Fact: to us, this cafe likely would have smelled far better than London’s streets, with their crowds and lack of sewage treatment. However – what we consider a pleasant aroma has changed over time. As historian of smell Mark S. R. Jenner writes, “in 1657 a London barber faced investigation for ‘making & selling a Drinke called Coffee whereby in making the same he annoyeth his neighb[ou]rs by evill smells.'” Fifty years later, British people loved the new habit – and presumably, the odors that went with it as well. New smells, as foreign, might have triggered the human tendency to put people and their associated things in “them” versus “us” groups.