YOU THOUGHT DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS WERE ANNOYING.

Once upon a time, there were coffee-sniffing Prussians.

Prussia had too many out of work soldiers. Frederick II hired 400 of them, and gave them the job of Kaffeeriecher or Kaffeeschnüffler (Coffee Sniffers). Their job ... to wander the streets of Berlin "sniffing' for the smell of roasting coffee! The soldiers wore special uniforms (I'm imagining golden coffee beans on the epaulettes!) and could go into any home where they suspected coffee roasting. The fines for roasting your own beans was stiff, and the sniffers were paid a quarter of the fines, so they were rather enthusiastic about their jobs ... and hated by the general population.

The particular political economy of German taxation had something to do with creating those special tax collectors.  Does it really require a Ph.D. in economics to grasp that steep tariffs on imported coffee and prohibitions on home-roasting will have unintended consequences.  Additionally, you know full well that having the tax collectors working on a percentage is, like the asset forfeitures that accompany those drug busts, not a good idea.

The story ends with cooler heads prevailing, and did you know there is a real Melitta behind those coffee filters?  Ja, sicher, a Melitta Bentz aus Dresden.