Coffee and the Age of Enlightenment, are they related in any way?
Did you know that the world consumes 2.25 billion cups of coffee EVERY SINGLE DAY! Fascinating, Right. But did you know that just maybe, just maybe coffee was important in the history of Europe? We know that us humans discovered coffee in the 1400s but coffee is a naturally growing plant, what took us so long? I mean, we found out how to make a rocket back in 1200s, then what gives? Well, the fact is that us humans took an embarrassingly long time to understand how to roast these beans and another 200 years to understand how to transport these beans.
But when they hit Europe, they were a hit in the markets and coincidentally just after this trend, the enlightenment period followed just after the coffee mania grew all over Europe and was at its highest peak in popularity. So does that mean, oh yes there is a connection between these two significant events.
1. First, before coffee was introduced to Europe, the drink/drug of choice was alcohol. Some say it was because of the addiction but after my extensive research, I found out that the reason was because there weren’t any drinkable fluids. Water was very contaminated and tea, it was out of the question because it was way too expensive and only royalties could buy so distilled beer was the only thing that would get rid of thirst without having any problem later. But Alcohol is a depressant, which slows down the functions of your body, including your brain. But when Europe was introduced to coffee, being a stimulant, which speedens up the activities in your body, including your brain, that’s why you feel more energized in the morning after having your daily cup of joe. This switch between a depressant to a stimulant was the reason of people who were before lazy and doing nothing were now asking “WHY AND HOW?”.
2. But there is another connection, I think all of you know about Sir Isaac Newton, but did you know that when Newton was in his college at Oxford, due to the coffee craze, there was a coffeehouse inside the campus. They thought it was an amazing place to start their Oxford coffee club to discuss scientific theories. Early participants were Sir Edward Hailey, Sir Hans Sloane and Sir Isaac Newton. This coffee club is now the prestigious Royal Society of London which has participants like Sir Albert Einstein and Stephan Hawking. The French and the American Revolution was planned in coffee houses and were called invisible collages because these were the places where people asked questions and that is the defining definition of the Enlightenment period So, if you want to thank anyone for Newtonian physics or calculus, Thank your daily cup of joe.
References:
Matthew Patrick [Matpat] Food Theory : Coffee, Science’s MOST IMPORTANT Discovery
Author: Apoorva Singh
