Bytheendthe17thcentury.someLondoncoffeeshopshadstartedtobecomereferredtoas'pennyuniversities'.Theybecomeabreedinggroundfornewwaysofscientificthinking，anincubatorforhypothesesandtheories，andsometimesevenastaginggroundforwhatweretermed'naturalphilosophy' demonstrationsand experiments.Since many coffee houses specialized inspecific fields of business， news， arts， discussion or learning，it was shopssuch as the Grecian， Marine and Garraways that the likes of ChristopherWren(the architect of St. Paul's Cathedral) and the English scientistRobert Hooke would visit. The Marine also became the atage for James Hodgson，one of London's earliest celebrity schoolientists. Isaac Newton's eponymouswork， principia， in which he shared his gravity theory for the frist time， waspublished in 1687， and some would say， had more to do with his local Cambridgecoffee house than it did with fallen apples.The scottish academic Adam Smith wrote alarge part of what is perhaps the most important piece of literature concerningeconomics and finance of any time- The Wealth of Nations -in the British CoffeeShop in London. Coffee houses like the British Coffee shop in London. Coffeehouses like the BritishCoffee shop functioned as common rooms in which to discuss the topics of tradeand commerce， where a network of runners could rapidly disseminatestock-sensitive news from the colonies among all the relevant coffee shops.Jonathan'scoffeeshop was one such coffee hangout that became a popular alternative trading postto the roya Exchange when strict protocols were enforced by the crown. Almost100 years later， in 1773， a group of traders broke away and established a newcoffee shop， called New Jonathan's. That name lasted only a short time，however， and it becameknownas the Stock Exchange (now known as the LondonStock Exchange ). One of the world's largest insurance brokers， Lloyds of London， also atarted lifeas a coffee shop， and even today the porters who work there are referred to aswaiters. Well-known publications such as The Spectator. The Guardian and Tatlerwere either directly birthed from or heavily influenced by the coffee shop，too. News and commentary that would previously have only been the preserve ofthe higher social ranks was suddenly available to the masses. Tatler， when itfirst launched in 1709， even had section headers named after prominent Londoncoffee shops.And what of the coffee itself? Not so good，it seems. In his 1661 book， A Character of Coffee and Coffee House. John Starkycolourfully describes the drinks he received with such phrases as 'boiledsoot''made with the scent of old crusts'， and I have seen other references to'horse pond liquor '， and 'hot hell-broth'. Most coffee houses roasted theirown， ofcourse，and given the above deions it is fair to say they may have been on thedarker side， but it's likely that questionable brewing methods， abopted fromOttoman practices， where coffee is repeatedly boiled， is the cause for the stonglybrewed and bitterbrews that most shops served. Some 17th-century recipes evenrecommended using water that has been previously boiled for 15 minutes with oldcoffeegrounds to season it. The appearance of the drinkperhapstook greater precedence over its flavour and some shop owners experimented withelaborate filtrationtechniques，using egg whites and isinglass (a substance extracted from the swimbladders of fish)in an attempt to clarify their brews and remove some of thesludge. It was also commonplace to brew all the coffee in the morning， thenreheat it to order throughout the day， which is another practice that wouldhave done no favour for the flavour.Paris' first coffee house opened in 1672， 20years after London， with some sources even suggesting that the our old friendPasqua Rosee was involved inits conception. Virtually all traces of itsexistence appear to have been lost to time， unfortunately. This contrasts withCafe Procope， which was established in 1686， and became a famous meeting placeof the French Enlightenment; Rousseau， Diderot and Voltaire frequented it.lndeed， Voltaire， who was rumoured to have consumed 40 cups of coffee adayarguably conceived his Encyclopedie，the world's first modern encyclopedia atCafe Procope. Two of America's founding fathers， Thomas Jefferson and BenjaminFrankin， were also known to meet at Cafe Procope， which still exists today，incidentally.Another popular Parisian coffee house， Cafede Foy was the stage for the rallying cry that atarted the French Revolution.Under the watchful eyes of police spies， while standing on a tablebrandishing a pistol， Camille Desmoulins roused his countrymen with hishistoric appeal 'Aux armes， citoyens!'on 12th July 1789.The Bastille fell twodays later， and the French Revolution had begun.Although it was irrefutably London that washit hardest by the coffee-house bug， most European cities had at least onecoffee house by the close of the 1670s and the first American shop was openedin Boston in 1671. New York had to wait another 25 years to get its first，which was opened by a Britishimmigrant on South Broadway.