Tea, Coffee & Chocolate: How We Fell in Love with Caffeine

by Melanie King

There are few things in the world more pleasing than a decadent cup of hot chocolate, a steaming mug of one’s favorite tea, or that first wonderful sip of freshly brewed coffee. Three of the great culinary obsessions of the twenty-first century, tea, coffee, and chocolate are long-time favorites of both casual diners and foodies, But how did we become so enamored of the big three?
           
In her mouthwatering new book, Melanie King offers a concise cultural history. All three beverages hail from faraway tea came first from China, coffee from the Middle East, and chocolate from Central America. Physicians and politicians alike were quick to comment in newspapers and popular periodicals on their supposed perils or health benefits. Readers learn that coffee was recommended in the seventeenth century as protection against the bubonic plague. Tea was thought to make women unattractive and men “unfit to do their business,” while a cup of chocolate was supposed to have exactly the opposite effect on the drinker’s sex life and physical appearance. As consumption of these newly discovered delicacies grew, merchants seized on the opportunity by setting up coffee houses or encouraging ever-more-elaborate tea-drinking rituals.
           
Filled with fascinating and often funny anecdotes—from a goatherd whose flock became frisky after eating coffee berries to a duchess with a goblet of poisoned chocolate, Tea, Coffee & Chocolate shows how the rowdy initial reception of these drinks forms the roots of today’s enduring caffeine culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Food

176 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2015

Reviews

[Andrés Jiménez cuenca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining book with a lot of historical stuff and references.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a super interesting little book that had my imagination, tastebuds and cravings all in an uproarious tizzy. While reading the first section, I was longing for a cuppa (while practicing holding my pinky up and imagining my teatime conversation with Maggie Smith. She wants to have tea with me; I just know it!). During the second portion of this small book, I was seriously jonesin’ for some Java and kept picturing fancy foam finishes to my many cappuccinos.

They saved the best for last in the third portion. This section had me pretty much salivating and drooling all down my chin while thinking about this amazing drinking chocolate that I once had in Naples that I’ve never been able to find anywhere else or come close to even replicating (I’ve tried). And when they talked about hard chocolate in “large slabs weighing between 2 and 3 pounds,” I became totally envious of the Spanish nuns who were cloistered in Mexican missions making it. I mean can you imagine? Cloistered. With 3 pound slabs of chocolate!! I can’t think of anything better than that except for maybe…ummm…well…no…there is nothing better than that. No wait, I lied. Better would be 20 pound slabs! Oink.

As for the historical aspects of these three, aside from learning of their origins, I also learned a lot of really odd things about the “medicinal” and other purposes that the people of the 17th century thought about these drinks. Truly fascinating tbh.

One last note: This book was another product of my travels down the rabbit hole of the East India Trading Company.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compact and informative.

[LotusBlade · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little book, full of information, anecdotes and history. Set more around how these beverages came to English shores, still a very enjoyable volume and worth adding to your library.

[Sean Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating little book about the origins of these drinks and how they have affected society.