Cocoa, Coffee, Tea - Who'd Like To Live Without These Drinks?

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'What I had for breakfast' is a popular topic on sites like this. How many times have members described that they only really woke up and could face a new day after having a cup of good, strong coffee? Now try to imagine living, say, 700 years ago. People had to live not only without the internet but also without foodstuff which we consider essential today. How did they survive at all? * Life must have been hard for hardcore sybarites (dictionary.com: a devotee of luxury and the sensual vices) living in Europe in the Middle Ages. Let‘s look at the drink sector. Nearly everything a person devoted to pleasure and luxury needs to indulge in had not yet arrived in Europe. What did people drink then? How did people wake up in the morning without a shot of caffeine? What did they drink sitting together in the afternoon? I‘m sure you agree that milk, water and herbal tea can become boring. At least there was already beer and wine! Chronologically, the goodies we can‘t imagine living without today arrived like this: Cocoa in 1528, tea in 1610, coffee in 1615. (Btw, tea came first only from China until someone smuggled some tea seeds in an etui to India). The first coffee arrived at Venice from Turkey and coffee houses quickly spread through Italy and to Vienna. From there they moved on so-to-speak through most of Europe. The first recorded reference to coffee in England was in 1637 when a Turk named Jacob opened a coffee house in Oxford. In the meantime the Dutch had obtained coffee seeds from Malabar in India and planted them in their colony in Java. At that time coffee was either available from Mocha, the main port of Yemen, or from Java, giving rise to the famous blend of "Mocha-Java." Aren't you glad to live now when cocoa, coffee and tea can be bought everywhere and are no luxury goods any more? --- *They didn't. They all died.