Did Coffee Change The World?
Coffee Beans
How Did Coffee Change the World?
How Did Coffee Change the World?
Coffee was a game-changing substance, whose introduction to Europe benefited the culture in so many ways by replacing alcohol as the most effective narcotic of choice. The impact of the coffee boom is still felt to this day, and we will be looking at the extent of this and how it applies to society.
Without Coffee Would Europe Have Gotten Out Of The 17th Century Sober?
Drunken Men
Are We Now All Caffeine Addicts? If you drink coffee, then like me you are addicted to the dark, bitter, revitalising liquid served hot and steaming. Caffeine is a psychostimulant, capable of producing similar behavioural effects as other stimulant drugs like cocaine and amphetamine. No wonder there is a need for caffeine to start the day and due to the addictive and yet somewhat invigorating effects of caffeine, it has grown into a behemoth industry. The coffee plant is one of the most successful plants in the world, competing with the grains for the top spot. In biological terms, the coffee plant is a huge success.
“Caffeine is the most frequently self-administered drug in recreational use worldwide today”
Coffee Culture
How Was Coffee Discovered
The Many Stories Of Coffee
Legend has it that a goat herder noticed that when his goats ate the red berries from the coffee plant, they stayed awake all night and were full of energy. He took the plant to his local man of faith and explained the story. The story goes that the man of faith experimented and finally found a way to get to the addictive effects through ingesting the red berry.
Caffeine In Nature - This Fascinated Me.
Caffeine In Flowers
Some plants have learned that adding caffeine to their nectar attracts all the bees to the yard. Once the bees have tried the nectar spiked with caffeine, they gain an extra wing flap and quickly tell their friends back at the hive. The caffeine has a positive effect in making the bees more active, however, it is so addictive that the bees will keep returning even after the sugary caffeine laced (sounds a lot like fizzy pop) liquid has run dry, therefore, wasting the bees time and energy. This shows the power of caffeine.
Coffee Love
Why Do We Love Caffeine
Caffeine can improve memory, decrease fatigue, improve your mental functioning, study after study suggests. It can improve your short-term memory and speed up your reaction times
Caffeine has many positive actions on the brain. It can increase alertness and well-being, help concentration, improve mood and limit depression.
Love Coffee
Negatives Of Caffeine
Caffeine may disturb sleep, but only in sensitive individuals. It may raise anxiety in a small subset of particularly sensitive people.
If you do eat or drink too much caffeine, it can cause health problems, such as:
Restlessness and shakiness, Insomnia, Headaches, Dizziness, Fast heart rate, Dehydration and Anxiety. Plus Dependency, so you need to take more of it to get the same results.
History Of Coffee
History Of Coffee
By the late 15th century, Turkey and the Middle East were already very familiar with coffee drinking. It was 100 years before coffee leaked from Arabia and entered Europe - Coffee arrived in the UK in the 17th century and the coffee houses were incredibly for men only.
Our early enthusiasm for coffee drinking arose from its perceived health benefits. Coffee has stimulating properties that it exhibits on the brain, and can be drunk in abundance without suffering the ill-effects of excessive ale or wine drinking.
The first English coffee-houses were established in the 1650s in Oxford, the stimulating benefits of the beverage increased academic discussion and debate. Mid 17th-century coffee-houses struggled initially to achieve much popularity. For many years they remained almost exclusively the haunt of the well-educated and commercial elite.
Why Was Caffeine Better Than Alcohol For The UK?
Invigorated By Caffeine
Coffee was an alternative to drinking alcohol. Due to dirty water, the safest way to drink water was via alcohol, before coffee there was actually beer breaks. The men drank beer, wine and cider to quench their thirst, so the UK was ran by drunken men, then came along coffee, which used boiling water, so it purified the water reducing the chance of getting ill, plus it was not a dullant, but woke up the workforce and made them more active and awake. Who would you rather work for you - drunken men or men invigorated by caffeine?
Lloyds Of London
Lloyds Coffee House
A coffee house in london called Lloyd's coffee house was frequented by shipping workers & brokers and it eventually became the global shipping insurer Lloyds of London. Coffee Houses in the 17th century were like magazines, each coffee house was frequented by specific professionals or areas of business or interests. A number of magazines and publications and societies were grounded in the UK’s coffee houses like ‘Tatler’ and the Royal Society.
Men Only
Tea Breaks
Women were not allowed into the 17th century coffee houses. The British are known as the great tea drinkers, but coffee was way more popular until the 18th century when women jumped on tea caffeine addiction and created a whole new more feminine and polite way to consume caffeine. Tea brought the rise of tea breaks, afternoon tea, the tea caddy, silver spoons, bone china, porcelain and lots of other things.
From Alcoholics To Coffee Addicts
I certainly believe that coffee was one of the reasons that Europe came out of a drunken hangover and was ready for the birth of the industrial revolution. Everything has caffeine added now, because big business knows that caffeine is a powerful drug that will keep you coming back, again and again. As you know, tea also has caffeine and so does chocolate. I didn’t realise chocolate had caffeine, so no wonder we are addicted to chocolate - it's not just the sugar addiction, but the caffeine addiction too.
Coffee Addicts
So Are You Addicted To Caffeine?
I am!
Thanks for reading.
Mick x
Published by
Michael Armstrong
Marketing led business consultant working with purposeful SMEs & Startups to increase customer engagement, turnover and profit.