[Sca-cooks] A college class... on Coffee

[Bill Fisher]

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 07:02:09 -0500, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
> I think what you're describing is a phenomenon that doesn't
> necessarily translate into a universal trend throughout history.
> Coffee-houses were in vogue among the upper classes in the
> seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, probably because coffee was not
> something the working classes trusted or could afford. There's an
> interesting reversal of the social order in the nineteenth century,
> where Joe Average stopped hanging out [as much] in the alehouse and
> started drinking tea and coffee and cocoa, and that, as much at home,
> or more so, as at shops dedicated for that purpose.

Yeah, I don't have the precise time-line in my head for it yet, I just
know that it happened.  The big events that caused the reversal were
the formal "tea gardens," which were open to lord and commoner alike
and they could mix socially with no repercussions.

Also it was at this time that coffee and tea production were starting 
in the new world and india respectively, and prices were starting to
drop on these items.  Cocoa would be a natural extension of the new
world coffee trade.  

> There's a book somewhere on my shelves about the bumpy rise of
> coffee, tea, chocolate and tobacco, but after a quick check I don't
> see it. I think it's called "Forbidden Pleasures"...
> 
> Adamantius

Cool, I'll see if I can find a copy, it sounds interesting.  

Cadoc
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