A History Of The World In Six Glasses By Tom Standage

Food and drink have shaped humanity’s evolution and history since the appearance of the first humans on Earth. In particular, there have been many influential and historically significant drinks throughout human history. In the book A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage, Standage highlights on six of the many influential drinks that have shaped the world in what can be observed today. Of the six, two can be argued to have caused some of the most influential changes in human history. Wine and Coffee, although very different, both have caused many impactful changes in society and the world through its’ development and lasting historical significance. Wine and Coffee, two historically significant beverages developed differently

Standage describes wine as having a direct correlation with human advancement by quoting a greek scholar; “In the words of Thucydides… ‘the peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learnt to cultivate the olive and vine.’” (Standage 53). Advancements in greek society such as democracy and new sciences were directly impacted by wine and its’ effects on the human mind. In small quantities, wine can allow one to relax making thought easy but, with too much it can cause drunkenness and ill-minded thought. Coffee came into direct play after its’ development as a great soberer against alcoholic drinks. Human society was further developed and impacted technologically, socially, and mentally through the development of wine and coffee although having dissimilar effects on the

This is not a mere coincidence, but a direct correlation of beverage to human advancement. During Greece’s golden age, also a pivotal time for wine and connoisseurship on the rise, ideas like democracy, philosophy, and laws were developed for use and are still used to this day. Democracy, in particular, continues to be used today in countries like the United States and France. Wine became the staple and an impactful beverage in Greece’s cradle of Western thought. In venues like symposia, greek citizens would socialize and drink wine “in which drinkers would try to outdo each other in wit, poetry, or rhetoric” (Standage 52). The arts, philosophies, and different ideas blossomed in these symposia. Many of these discoveries continue to affect today’s world. Coffee also wrought forth a significant and long history that continues today in the modern era. From the religious practices of the muslims and their association with coffee, it began to spread across Europe and parts of Asia and by the seventeenth century, coffeehouses were speckled across the continent. Coffeehouses were initially ridiculed because they were believed to distract students from academia but later, as coffee became more widespread, coffeehouses became popular venues to meet up at for academic discussion. Coffeehouses became popular with scholars because “coffeehouses