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

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

Yes. When I studied 17th century British History, one of the odd (to us 
students) things we learned was about that reversal.

In the 17th century, coffee was new, expensive, and very trendy. 
Intellectuals hung out in coffee houses, discussing New Ideas - which 
might be *gasp* seditious. (OK, in 17th century England, everyone was 
seditious - you took your turn depending on who was in power, but...) 
They wanted to alter Society. They were, at least potentially, Dangerous.

The ale house, on the other hand, was where the good solid English 
workingman hung out. Hearts of Oak. Reliable. Drinking Honest English 
Ale, not that fancy-schmancy foreign stuff... All kinds of polemics 
written about this...*G*

Tea came along a little later, with Catherine of Braganza and her dowry, 
Bombay.

AEllin

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius 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.
> 
> 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