Books Explore History Thru Coffee, Tea
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Drinks do more than just quench our thirst ― they sustain us. What we drink and how we drink thus seems to be an important barometer of our technological progress and social/cultural values. Two books, ``A History of the World in 6 Glasses'' and ``La France des Cafes et Bistros,'' offer unique historical sketches through coffee and tea.
``A History of the World in 6 Glasses'' argues with clarity and wit that the path of human civilization can be traced down to beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and cola. The author, Tom Standage, pours out world history (though a rather Eurocentric version), from antiquity to present, in six glasses.
The book covers history, but is far from being long and boring. Technology editor at the Economist, Standage concisely illustrates big concepts while providing interesting details.
It is a well-known fact that beer nourished the first human civilizations of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. The world's oldest recipe, in cuneiform, is for beer. ``A History'' looks into how the fermented grain beverage may have assisted the transition from hunting/gathering to farming/settlement.
But soon wine became more popular. It lay in the heart of ancient Greece and Rome. In Greece, politics, philosophy and poetry were discussed in symposia, or formal drinking parties. Wine drinking was a status symbol back then, and still remains so today. Wine also defines the diverging traditions of the Christian and Islamic worlds.
During the Age of Exploration, spirits like rum, whiskey and brandy became the norm because they were compact, durable and sea travel-friendly. They also fed the international slave trade. Rum was used to buy slaves from Africa, who were used to produce sugar, which was made into more rum by them, and so on. It was also integral to the American Revolution: unpopular tax policies like the Sugar Act prevented getting rum on the table and deepened colonists' grievances against Britain.
Coffee defined the Age of Reason, as intellectuals, politicians and businessmen gathered in cafes to map out the future of societies. When first introduced to Europe in the 17th century, the Arab drink was met with some violent opposition as being ``evil'' and dangerous, but was soon heralded as a wonderful drink, a sobering alternative to alcoholic beverages.
The subsequent spread and institutionalization of coffee houses was enormous. In London, coffeehouses acted like the Internet of its time. It was where one went to learn the latest news; heated discussions there inspired Isaac Newton's ``Principia''; and Adam Smith wrote ``The Wealth of Nations'' while sipping coffee. Different venues catered to different groups of people, and one coffeehouse frequented by brokers became the forerunner to the London Stock Exchange.
In Paris, cafes abounded and were frequented by famous artists and thinkers. But the circulation of information was governed by strict government control. State-dispatched spies mingled among guests, and those who spoke out against the king risked imprisonment at the Bastille. But cafes continued to breed political discussion, and the French Revolution literally started at one of them, when a young lawyer Camille Desmoulins leapt onto a table at Cafe de Procope, shouting ``To arms, citizens!''
Another book, ``La France des cafes et bistros'' maps out French culture and society in terms of cafes and bistros ― how a cup of coffee or liquor defined and continues to mark French life.
The author introduces the reader to the coffee houses, from chic Parisian salon-style cafes to humble rural establishments. He provides colorful photographs he personally took and includes cafe-themed illustrations and paintings by famous artists. Particularly well presented is the section on ``cafes des arts,'' places frequented by artists.
``La France'' is devoted to the more sentimental significance of cafes and provides more of a mosaic of anecdotal scenes from French cafes from different times and places. It's tinted with a dark coffee stain-like nostalgia, pointing out how so many of these historical places are disappearing.
Going back to ``A History,'' coffee met competition as tea became increasingly popular in Europe. Like beer, spirits, wine and coffee, tea was another alternative to water, which often risked contamination in cities.
Tea opened the way to trade routes and nourished Britain's rise as an imperial and industrial superpower. It also played a role in the American Revolution, as colonists manifested their complaints with tax rules at events like the Boston Tea Party. The British, in order to maintain an abundant supply of tea, launched the notorious ``Opium War,'' which contributed to the undermining of the ancient Chinese civilization and propelled mass tea production in India.
Most recently, America's Coca-Cola came to define consumer capitalism and globalization as it became the world's most widely known and distributed product.
Today we have canned beer, duty-free liquor shopping and take-out Starbucks coffee and tea _ some things never change over time. The book also provides a guide to where you can find some of the ancient drinks that still survive today like beer fermented in a tree and how to prepare cola 19th-century style.