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How Caffeine Accelerated Scientific Enlightenment
Caffeine (tea & coffee) is the world’s most consumed psychoactive drug. Today, coffee is a $100bn dollar industry where we consume 2.25 billion cups of coffee daily. Let’s talk about coffee culture (not the hipster kind):
The Bean:
Before coffee arrived in Europe, the beverage of choice was alcohol, probably because water was often contaminated, so distillation / fermentation into spirits and beers was safer. Then, merchants brought coffee from Ethiopia to Europe in the 1400s. People’s drug of choice changed from a depressant (alcohol) to a stimulant (caffeine). This also marks the end of The Dark Ages and into the Era of Enlightenment.
The Brew:
Coffee houses popped up everywhere in Europe and became a hub for discussion and reasoning. People discussed politics, giving rise to revolutions (ie. Ottoman Empire, French Revolution etc.) So, coffee-drinking toppled leaders, one coup at a time. People discussed science with coffee, just as Newton did. Also, music and literature with Bach, Beethoven and Voltaire. “Jonathan’s Coffee House” was a meeting place where people talked stocks, eventually forming the London Stock Exchange.
The Buzz:
Caffeine borrows energy from the future and gives it to you in the present. With coffee and lamps, night shifts are more possible. Workers increased productivity and steamed through the Industrial Revolution into the hustle culture today; alcohol can’t do that.
Another Shot?
Caffeine has propelled us into an era of advancement, but also an era of stress, overwork and exploitation. Could we see another psychoactive drug rise & replace caffeine, just as coffee replaced alcohol? Who knows, maybe we would want to slow down and adopt cannabis in the future? Marijuana is a stimulant, depressant and hallucinogen altogether. Besides the legalisation hurdle, I think it could be adopted in an era of increasing counterculture just like the Hippie Movement.
Bonus Fact: 🍵
Coffee was more popular than tea in Europe back then because tea was expensive being imported from China, so it was for the elites. Coffee became more for the masses.
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