The World in a Glass: Six
Drinks That Changed History Tom Standage urges drinkers to
savor the history of their favorite beverages along with the taste.
The author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses (Walker & Company,
June 2005), Standage lauds the libations that have helped shape our world from
the Stone Age to the present day. "The important drinks are
still drinks that we enjoy today," said Standage, a technology editor at the
London-based magazine the Economist. "They are relics(纪念物) of different
historical periods still found in our kitchens." Take the
six-pack, whose contents first fizzed at the dawn of
civilization. Beer The ancient Sumerians, who
built advanced city-states in the area of present-day Iraq, began fermenting(发酵)
beer from barley at least 6,000 years ago. "When people started
agriculture the first crops they produced were barley or wheat. You consume
those crops as bread and as beer," Standage noted. "It’s the drink associated
with the dawn of civilization. It’s as simple as that." Beer was
popular with the masses from the beginning. "Beer would have
been something that a common person could have had in the house and made
whenever they wanted," said Linda Bisson, a microbiologist at the Department of
Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis.
"The guys who built the pyramids were paid in beer and bread," Standage
added. "It was the defining drink Egypt and Mesopotamia. Everybody drank it.
Today it’s the drink of the working man, and it was then as
well." Wine Wine may be as old or older than
beet--though no one can be certain. Paleolithic humans probably
sampled the first "wine" as the juice of naturally fermented wild grapes. But
producing and storing wine proved difficult for early cultures.
"To make wine you have to have fresh grapes," said Bisson, the UC Davis
microbiologist. "For beer you can just store grain and add water to process it
at any time." Making wine also demanded pottery that could
preserve the precious liquid. "Wine may be easier to make [than
beer], but it’s harder to store," Bisson added. "For most ancient cultures it
would have been hard to catch [fermenting grape juice] as wine on its way to
[becoming] vinegar." Such caveats and the expense of producing
wine helped the beverage quickly gain more cachet (威望) than beer. Wine was
originally associated with social elites and religious activities.
Wine snobbery may be nearly as old as wine itself. Greeks and Romans
produced many grades of wine for various social classes. The
quest for quality became an economic engine and later drove cultural
expansion. "Once you had regions [like Greece and Rome] that
could distinguish themselves as making good stuff, it gave them an economic
boost," Bisson said. "Beer just wasn’t as
special." Spirits Hard liquor, particularly brandy
and rum, placated (安抚) sailors during the long sea voyages of the Age of
Exploration, when European powers plied the seas during the 15th, 16th, and
early 17th centuries. Rum played a crucial part of the
triangular trade between Britain, Africa, and the North American colonies that
once dominated the Atlantic economy, Standage also suggests that
rum may have been more responsible than tea for the independence movement in
Britain’s American colonies. "Distilling molasses for rum was
very important to the New England economy," he explained. "When the British
tried to tax molasses it struck at the heart of the economy. The idea of ’no
taxation without representation’ originated with molasses and sugar. Only at the
end did it refer to tea." Great Britain’s longtime superiority
at sea may also owe a debt to its navy’s drink of rum-based choice, grog(掺水烈酒),
which was made a compulsory beverage for sailors hr the late 18th
century. "They would make grog with rum, water, and lemon or
lime juice," Standage said. "This improved the taste but also reduced illness
and scurvy. Fleet physicians thought that this had doubled the efficiancy of the
fleet." Coffee The story of modern coffee starts
in the Arabian Peninsula, where roasted beans were first brewed around A,D,
1000. Sometime around the 15th century, coffee spread throughout the Arab
world, "In the Arab world, coffee rose as an alternative to
alcohol, and coffeehouses as alternatives to taverns (酒馆)--both of which are
banned by Islam," Standage said. When coffee arrived in Europe
it was similarly hailed as an "anti-alcohol" that was quite welcome during the
Age of Reason in the 18th century. "Just at the point when the
Enlightenment is getting going, here’s a drink that sharpens the mind," Standage
said, ’The coffeehouse is the perfect venue (聚会地点) to get together and exchange
ideas and information. The French Revolution started in a
coffeehouse." Coffee also fuelled commerce and had strong links
to the rituals of business that remain to the present day. Lloyds of London and
the London Stock Exchange were both originally
coffeehouses. Tea Tea became a daily drink in
China around the third century A.D. Standage says tea played a
leading role in the expansion of imperial and industrial might in Great Britain
many centuries later. During the 19th century, the East India Company enjoyed a
monopoly on tea exports from China. "Englishmen around the world
could drink tea, whether they were a colonial administrator in India or a London
businessman," Standage said. "The sun never set on the British Empire---which
meant that it was always teatime somewhere." As the Industrial
Revolution of 18th and 19th centuries gained steam, tea provided some of the
fuel. Factory workers stayed alert during long, monotonous shifts thanks to
welcome tea breaks. The beverage also had unintended health
benefits for rapidly growing urban areas. "When you start packing people
together in cities it’s helpful to have a water-purification technology like
tea," which was brewed with boiling water, Standage
explained. Coca-Cola In 1886 pharmacist John Stith
Pemberton sold about nine Coca-Colas a day. Today his soft drink
is one of the world’s most valuable brands--sold in more countries than the
United Nations has members. "It may be the second most widely
understood phrase in the world after ’OK’ ," Standage said. The
drink bas become a symbol of the United States--love it or hate it. Standage
notes that East Germans quickly reached for Cokes when the Berlin Wall fell,
while Thai Muslims poured it out into the streets to show disdain for the U.S.
in the days leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "Coca-Cola
encapsulates what happened in the 20th century: the rise of consumer capitalism
and the emergence of America as a superpower," Standage said. "It’s
globalization in a bottle." While Coke may not always produce a
smile, a survey by the Economist magazine (Standage’s employer), suggests that
the soft drink’s presence is a great indicator of happy citizens. When countries
were polled for happiness, as defined by a United Nations index, high scores
correlated with sales of Coca-Cola. "It’s not because [Coke]
makes people happy, but because [its] sales happen in the dynamic free-market
economics that tend to produce happy people," Standage said. Coffee is the best drink according to Standage.