The Sociable Drink: Why Coffee?Coffee was not preordained as the center of public affairs in these societies. Nevertheless, there are some tangible reasons the drink was well-suited to bring people together, get them talking, and thereby catalyze societal changes.
UtilityCoffee’s genesis as a beverage is a result of its usefulness, not its taste. In the 15th century, the Sufis, a growing mystical sect of Islam, frequently partook in all-night vigils called dhikers, during which they would drink coffee as a part of their religious infusions qahwa. (p. 215). The magical, stimulating effects of coffee are today explained with chemistry—its secret is caffeine. Jonathan Morris argues that because coffee gives an apparent increase in brain activity, it attracted more scholarly and serious business-oriented clientele than taverns (227). People would go there to work, and read, and stay awake longer. This work in close quarters brought about discussion, sharing, and collaboration.
Such an attitude is championed by the author of "Coffee-houses Vindicated," (Figure 2) who hails the stimulating effects as a medicine, capable of fighting drunkenness, preventing disease and assisting digestion, arguing that people would not endure the bitter taste: ...unless there were some more then ordinary vertue and efficacy in it...Coffee has so generally, prevail'd that Bread it self (though commonly with us voted the staff of Life) Is scarce of so universal use. |
Coffee vesus Alcohol
How did coffeehouses succeed alongside the long-established pub culture of England? Morris notes that like alcohol, coffee is a safe drink—“‘pure’ water was too dangerous to drink” (227)—which worked in its favor as a refreshing alternative. The global nature of coffee, along with the economic gravity commanded by a flourishing England, populated towns with merchants and traders, who viewed coffeehouses as convenient public spaces in which to share news of prices and negotiate business.
In "Coffee-houses Vindicated," our author acknowledges a preference for coffee-houses over pubs for business, writing that at taverns, continual sippings...would be apt to fly up into their Brains, and render them drowsie and indisposed for business; Whereas having now the opportunity of a Coffee-house, they...go out more sprightly about their affairs than before. |
Geography of Coffee
The coffee plant can only be grown between latitudes roughly 20 degrees north or south of the equator. A map of coffee production shows that some countries were destined to be producers while others remained consumers (Click here for more on the geography of coffee). The necessity of coffee as a global trade presented a positive feedback on the establishment of coffeehouse culture—Dr. Goodman pointed out to me the centrality of the merchants and the printed news source to European coffeehouse culture.
Exotic Appeal
In Maps of Time, David Christian argues that discovery of the New World moved Europe from the periphery of global exchange to the center. "Thus is was here that the torrent of new information flowing through the first global exchange network had its earliest and greatest impact on intellectual life and activity" (393). The ubiquity of foreign elements in Europe can be seen in spectacular worldly displays, such as England's botanical garden tradition—in which foreign plants adorn English dwellings and landscapes—or London's Great Exhibition of 1851—the first world's fair, that exhibited science, technology, and cultural artifacts from every part of the globe.
Our "Coffee-houses Vindicated" author is well-aware of coffee as a foreign commodity: the Turks, Persians and almost all the Eastern World are so devoted to Coffee, that besides Innumerable Publick houses for sale of it, There is scarce a private Fire without it all day long. |
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Ritualistic Preparation
Christine A. Jones analyzed early French treatises about consuming coffee, and found that the notions of the exotic, ritual and sociability were intimately connected. These treatises were "part chemistry book, part guide to preparation and serving, and part marketing scheme." The exotic nature of coffee, tea, and chocolate meant professionals were needed to properly understand and prepare the brews according to obscure foreign rituals. Jones wrote,
"Mapped onto French culture, coffee, chocolate, and tea were folded into the language and practices of sociability and became powerful signifiers of good taste...Caffeinated beverages might prove even more stimulating when served by a handsome barista amid the buzz of a fashionable city café."
This mixture of the scientific , the geographical, and the cultural in preparing coffee "properly," to elicit sentimental and social value, is a notion still with us today. On the extreme extents of the "specialty coffee" movement, are people employing similar language, a prime example being linked below. Ritual as a means for sociability is as powerful now as it was in 1695.
Ritual—Then and Now
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