Part 1:The Illustrated Journal
Beer
1. Food and Nutrition
-One advantage of beer, however, was that it was highly nutritious. In the ancient world, beer often contained whole grains, along with particles of yeast, meaning that beer contained large amounts of protein and vitamins. Beer was also safer to drink than water, since it had to be boiled.
2. Medicine
―In ancient Egypt, beer was believed to have divine origins, and to be able to cure diseases. In one Egyptian story, beer saves the human race: when the goddess Hathor plots to kill off all humans, the god Ra gives her beer, making her fall asleep and forget her mission.
―In general, bread and beer were regarded as the bases of all life―so much so that in Egypt, “bread and beer” was an expression of good luck and prosperity. The Egyptians also used beer as a sedative during surgeries.
3. Currency
―-In Sumer, as well as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, people were required to pay taxes in
the form of grain. This wealth was then used by the people's rulers to build public works. In other words, grain―and beer ―was a form of payment. To build the pyramids at Giza in Egypt, workers were paid in beer.
4. Social Class and Status
―Finally, Egyptians were buried with bread and beer, so that they would have riches to take with them in the afterlife. Even common Egyptians, who didn't have the wealth to be buried in elaborate tombs, were buried with bread and beer.
5. How This Drink Led to Change.
-In the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the first great works of literature, Gilgamesh confronts a “wild man” named Enkidu. Enkidu’s wildness is immediately demonstrated when he’s served bread and beer, and doesn’t know how to consume them. As soon as Enkidu drinks a glass of beer, he “turns into a human.” In spite of the fact that beer leads to drunkenness, beer was also a symbol of civility and culture in the ancient world.
Wine
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Food and Nutrition
―Partly as a result of the prevalence of Christianity in the Western world, wine remained a staple of the Western diet in the late Roman empire and into the Middle Ages.
―Wine remains the quintessential beverage in the Mediterranean, usually consumed in moderation and with meals.
2. Medicine
―-the passage shows us that the Greeks, like so many ancient peoples who consumed alcohol, unwittingly saved themselves from bacterial diseases by drinking wine mixed with water. As the size of the Roman Empire meant the spread and prevalence of fine wine.
―-Wine has often been used as either a pain killer or an antiseptic, so it has two different medical uses.Religion is also used at times for medical purposes, since many people believe that their religion is a source of miraculous cures, faith healing, etc.
-It was the main beverage in Ancient Greece as the water was often unsafe to drink on its own so the addition of wine, helped to kill bacteria.
3. Currency
―Like the Greeks, the Romans regarded wine as a drink for everyone to enjoy―and yet, even more so than the Greeks, they regarded fine wine as an excellent way for the wealthy to show off their power.
―-In the centuries following the time of Plato , wine was exported across Europe and the Middle East.As Rome grew in power, it continued to use Greek methods for making wine . Powerful Romans purchased villas, where slaves worked hard to produce wine. This wine was then shipped across the Roman Empire, extending as far as the Middle East and Spain.
--wine was accepted forms of currency for slave traders in Africa.
4. Social Class and Status
―In general, wine never became as popular and widespread in Mesopotamian society as it did in Mediterranean societies. This meant that wine remained a luxury, fit only for kings. By the first millennium BCE, wine had become the most cultured and civilized beverage in Mesopotamia. By serving wine, the King proved his wealth and worldliness.
―The broader lesson from this is that it was possible to identify a Roman based on the kind of wine he drank―a clear illustration of the careful stratification of Roman society.
ーIn Greece, beer was considered to be the drink of the "common" folk.Wine became the fancier, more sought after drink that eventually led it to become a sort of status symbol for those who could afford to drink it.
5. How This Drink Led to Change.
―-Wine was an intellectual's drink―the Greeks liked to participate in symposiums, during which they drank and discussed intellectual matters.
―-The founder of Islam, Muhammad , commanded his followers, the Muslims, to refrain from drinking alcohol of any kind, calling it an “abomination.” There were complex cultural reasons for Islam's rejection of wine . In general, however, Islam turned its back on “the old notions of sophistication,” of which wine was a powerful symbol―and wine, as a clear symbol of Christianity, posed an obvious threat to Islamic values.
Spirits
1.Food and Nutrition
-Rum was produced by allowing cane sugar to ferment for long periods―its name derives from the slang word “rumbullion,” meaning a brawl―suggesting the link between drinking and fighting.
2. Medicine
―While spirits don't seem very healthy by modern standards, they weren't contaminated with bacterial diseases, meaning that they were often a healthier beverage than plain water, which could carry all sorts of diseases.
―Rum was served to slave traders in Africa and slaves in the Americas to soften their hardships.
-as with wine and beer in earlier times, rum was consumed in large quantities because it represented a safe alternative to water, which carried diseases (something that the colonists would have observed).
3. Currency
ーBy the end of the 18th century, rum was a staple of colonial life in North America―everyone drank it, and it became an accepted form of payment. Whiskey could be produced in North America without any trade whatsoever―all it required was cereal grains.Whiskey was also used as a currency, and even clergymen were paid in whiskey.
―sugar required a large amount of labor to cultivate, Portugal turned to slavery, kidnapping Africans and taking them to the Americas to work. This constituted the first major surge in slavery since the time of the ancient Romans.The surge continued throughout the 16th century, when Britain, Holland, Spain, and France joined Portugal in exploring the New World. All of these nations used alcohol to trade with Africa: wine and brandy were accepted forms of currency for slave traders in Africa.
―Following the Revolutionary War, whiskey replaced rum as the dominant drink in America, in part because the sugar supply flowing from the West Indies had been disrupted by the war.
4. Social Class and Status
-Rum was a popular drink for sailors journeying to and from Europe.
-By the end of the 18th century, rum was a staple of colonial life in North America―everyone drank it
5. How This Drink Led to Change.
-The rum business in North America became so influential that Britain began to tax it heavily.In 1733, the infamous Molasses Act taxed North American distilleries' sugar sources, making rum prohibitively expensive. As a result, a huge black market of rum and molasses arose in the New World. In general, the Molasses Act was despised in North American colonies, and provided an early symbol of British tyranny.
-In 1764, Britain passed the Sugar Act, which strengthened the Molasses Act by raising the tax on sugar. Smugglers were punished more harshly, further raising the price of rum . The Sugar Act was the first of a series of highly unpopular acts in the 1760s and 70s: the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and the Tea Act. These political decisions on Britain's part would eventually lead to the Revolutionary War of 1775.
-For many hundreds of years, spirits were a fixture of colonial life: spirits inspired colonies to rise up against Britain, and were later used to subjugate slaves and Native Americans.
Coffee
1.Food and Nutrition
-Coffeehouses were well patronized in Muslim countries, to the point where many Muslim scholars tried to argue that coffee was an intoxicating brew―no better than alcohol.
2. Medicine
-While alcohol is essentially a depressant, coffee is a stimulant―it creates energy, vigor, etc. In this way, coffee became an apt symbol of the new optimism of the Enlightenment.
3. Currency
-Coffeehouses served as makeshift stock markets, where sellers and buyers would meet to discuss trading.
4. Social Class and Status
-the coffeehouse provided a measure of equality for its patrons, but could only do so by also excluding large sections of the population―women and the poor weren't allowed inside. The coffeehouse was therefore both elitist and egalitarian―much like Western society at the time.
-French coffee houses were similar to their English counterparts in many ways: they welcomed wealthy and middle-class men (but not women or the poor), and they encouraged nnopen discourse on a wide variety of topics. As the century proceeded, however, the coffeehouse increasingly became a place of political revolution.
-The new drink of coffee, and the shops in the City of London where it was sold became the furnaces of the financial revolution. Wealthy, influential men met in these coffee shops and began to trade in stock and shares, and, famously, insurance.Lloyds of London, the World's largest insurance market, began in Edward Lloyd's coffee shop.
5. How This Drink Led to Change.
―coffee quickly became popular throughout the Middle East. Coffee was especially popular because Muslims weren't permitted to drink alcohol. At first, the Christian world rejected coffee and viewed it as a pagan, Muslim drink. But in the early 1600s, Pope Clement VIII changed the popular thinking on coffee by claiming that it was a delicious beverage.
―In addition to being an appropriate symbol for Enlightenment values, coffee also became a rather poignant symbol of European imperialism during the modern era.
Because of the Europeans' desire for coffee, entire ecosystems and societies in Java and Indonesia were altered. As with sugarcane and rum, the popularity of coffee also fueled the slave trade, as free labor was required to keep these drinks cheap.
Tea
1.Food and Nutrition
- tea was a sterile, healthy drink that ensured a steady supply of strong, capable workers.
2. Medicine
-many doctors recommended tea for medicinal properties.
-As with coffee, wine, and beer, tea was a safe alternative to ordinary water, because it didn't spread bacterial diseases. Because tea became popular in mills, cases of dysentery and other water-spread diseases went down dramatically in the 18th century.
3. Currency
-Like many other drinks, tea was used as a form of currency in China: it was popular and commonly consumed to the point where anybody would accept it as a valuable thing. Despite taxes, tea remained popular, a sure sign of the strong, “inelastic” demand for the drink.
4. Social Class and Status
-tea shifted from an elite beverage to an everyday one―by the 1700s, commoners drank tea almost every day.
-As with the coffeehouse and the symposium, the tea garden was an important drinking space, defined as much by those who weren't allowed inside it as by its loyal members.This is a somewhat surprising argument, as coffee seems more conducive for workers than tea does, since coffee is celebrated for stimulating alertness.
-tea was a popular drink for workers during the Industrial Revolution.
5. How This Drink Led to Change.
-Because of the lack of potable water in England when tea (and coffee) was introduced around the year 1650, its use forced those drinking it to boil the water - sterilizing it.
-The popularity of tea encouraged the Industrial Revolution in many ways. Not only were workers given tea at factories and mills, but the demand for tea itself helped to foster a huge industry of ceramics.
-The controversy over tea prices, instigated by the British East India Company's control over the British crown, played a decisive role in bringing about the American Revolution.
-Britain's love affair with tea can be seen all over the world in its colonies―in a way, the popularity of tea around the world is one of the last signs of the huge political and military power the British Empire once held.
Coke
1.Food and Nutrition
-Pemberton's first attempt at a miracle-cure, which he called French Wine Coca, contained the leaves of the cocoa plant. It had been known since the 1850s that cocoa could stimulate the nervous system and lessen the appetite (cocoa leaves can also be used to produce cocaine).
2. Medicine
-sparkling water could be used as a medicine for fighting nausea, tiredness, and even scurvy.
-Pemberton marketed Coca-Cola by claiming that it was “exhilarating” and “invigorating,” and claiming that it could cure headaches, hysteria, melancholy, and other diseases.
3. Currency
-Coca-Cola became a truly “American” product during World War II, when Coke was so supportive of the American military effort that it offered to supply every soldier with a bottle of their product.
-Coke's experience in the Middle East reiterates the connections between the beverage and American capitalism: at the end of the day, capitalism's only goal is increasing profits.
4. Social Class and Status
-Coca-Cola sometimes seen as the ultimate symbol of American values and weaknesses. For some, Coke is the ultimate symbol of equality, unpretentiousness, and mass culture.For others, Coke is the symbol of capitalism, greed, imperialism, and cultural genocide.
-As early as the 1890s, writers praised soda for its democratic, egalitarian implications.
One writer wrote, “The millionaire may drink champagne while the poor man drinks beer , but they both drink soda water.”
5. How This Drink Led to Change.
-Coke's success during the war resulted in its status around the world as an American beverage, and also as a symbol of American military might. this also means that it represented American imperialism and corrupt capitalism at its worst.
-Coke had been exported around the world and associated with the American military, it was one of the most visible symbols of America, and thus of American culture and values.
-Coke was an important step forward for American business in several ways.
First, it made use of exotic plants from other countries, confirming America's status as a major imperial power.
Second, it (along with the many other miracle tonics available at the time) proved that advertising was crucial for a business.