For millennia men and women from all across the globe have savored tea both for its healthful benefits and for its unique taste properties. Tea has been a mainstay in the dietary regime of many countries in the Eastern world as well as in countries of the west, such as Great Britain. It continues to be a mainstay in the diets of many Americans today, in part due to its great versatility.
For thousands of years the bean of this plant has been harvested and utilized by various cultures for its plentiful health and taste properties. Today it is also utilized by students, executives, and moms-on-the-go for its beloved caffeine benefits. Yet whether it is consumed for its practical health and caffeine properties, or simply for a love of its bold, rich flavor, coffee is a staple in the diet of millions of Americans.
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Tea and coffee are both drinks which inspire passion. More than just simple beverages, tea and coffee are part of a cultural phenomenon filled with social meaning and ritual. They both have fairly long, extensive histories?here?s a short look at them.
There’s more to drinking coffee than just walking into a shop and asking for a small, medium, or large cup of whatever the house blend is. The amount of time and effort it takes to grow and harvest coffee beans around the world deserves a little more respect from the average consumer, especially since the delicate taste you get has nothing to do with the barista at Starbucks, and more to do with faraway volcanic slopes and mountain ridges.
Coffee shops have a history which goes back over five hundred years, from times when the idea of human beings congregating was enough to put a fright in autocratic rulers. Reports still exist of Imams sending subjects to find out about the happenings in a Mecca cafes in the early 1500s. A few hundred years later, coffee shops were still giving kings sleepless nights. In England, the monarch tried to start a smear campaign to get citizens to ignore the rumblings in London coffee houses. Coffee shops continued to dominate culture in the 1960s, when folk singers like Bob Dylan brought their protests to Greenwich Village coffee houses in New York. It?s been a long time, yet coffee shops may be popular like never before.
Coffee wasn’t always such a big deal, you know. At one point, it was just something that truckers drank and diners served endless pots of in many places. But beverages grow, they change, and somehow there’s been a boom where you need to know a little more about coffee than whether or not you want a small, medium, or large cup at McDonalds.
Coffee is something of an acquired taste, owing to the bitterness that most coffee drinkers experience when trying the drink for the first time. With some milk or sugar (or both), that bitterness quickly disappears and it is no surprise that coffee is popular all over the world, in some cases ranking in a consumption ratio of 1 to 3 when compared to water. After introducing new flavors to a favorite drink, it isn?t difficult to see why flavored coffees continue to increase in number and popularity.
With all the different names for coffee drinks out there, it’s no wonder that people get a little overwhelmed when they’re ordering. Fortunately, with all the different styles of coffee, there’s actually usually just a simple variation on a classic drink happening. We’ll prep you for a world where hazelnut and pumpkin lattes are confusing you from what’s really going on behind the counter.
Clueless about the best way to meet people and get to know a new city? There’s a simple way to figure out where the best spot to go later in the evening is, or better yet, to understand how things work. Just head to a local cafe, and get the best insight on how the country you’re in operates. Learn if people are leisurely or rushed just by watching them drink some coffee.