Food History: Coffee and Tea

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  • Опубликовано: 28 дек 2021
  • The history of tea and coffee touches on science, politics, culture, and more. Did you know that coffee doesn't come from beans? Or that the history of tea is directly related to the Opium Wars? Learn all about coffee and tea's fascinating history.
    Food History is a show all about... well, the history of food. Join host Justin Dodd as he brings you the stories of how your favorite meals ended up on your plate. Today, we're talking coffee and tea. How did these two simple beverages become two of the most consumed beverages in the world?
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    Website: www.mentalfloss.com​
    Twitter: / mental_floss​
    Facebook: / mentalflossmagazine

Комментарии • 87

  • @CasualSpud
    @CasualSpud 2 года назад +40

    Canadian.. Coffee in the AM, and tea for later in the day 🇨🇦☕🍵

    • @Konztinental
      @Konztinental 2 года назад +3

      Wrong, maple syrup all day

    • @TheNiteinjail
      @TheNiteinjail 2 года назад

      Also Canadian... No coffee ... Tea? yes please

    • @FullOfMalarky
      @FullOfMalarky 2 года назад

      Took the words right out of my mouth (literally all of the words, I’m Canadian too)

    • @Angie-qw1qx
      @Angie-qw1qx 2 года назад

      Used to do the same as you. After living in multiple countries and absorbing from the cultures I ended up with tea in the morning, coffee in the afternoon 😄

    • @JamesKing-lw1xp
      @JamesKing-lw1xp 2 года назад

      Sounds perfect 👌

  • @KiloOscarZulu
    @KiloOscarZulu 2 года назад +20

    Hi, for a future video, can you perhaps do a history on what foods Europeans ate before 'discovering' the Americas? Ireland is/was famous for potato and that's an American crop. Italians are famous for their tomatoes, and again, it's an American crop. A lot of Asian cuisine are famous for hot chili peppers (like kim chi), again an American crop. What did these (and other countries) eat before coming into contact with the New World?

    • @Tareltonlives
      @Tareltonlives 2 года назад +6

      Well a lot of Italian food descended from the Roman food: the salted pork, the steak, the cheese, lasagna (yes, it existed before tomatoes) the olive oil, the seafood, etc. They were further developed with Genoese and Venetian colonies and conquests to the east, connecting them with Chinese and Middle Eastern spices. The Normans introduced casserole and baccala as well as northern style cheeses and beef. Arabs introduced pasta and rice in the renaissance, and trade with China diversified pasta recipes. This culminated in the ultimate recipe book of medieval Italy, the Libro de arte coquinaria by the cultured Roman chef Maestro Martino da Como
      In Europe, cereals have always been the staple. In Ireland, this took the form of flatbread made of wheat or oats. Popular recipes included the butter-infused menedach and the high medieval Frumenty porridge. Of course, the winters were very hard, especially as the Little Ice Age began. Potatoes came in just in time to save European civilization.
      In East Asia, varieties of mustard and horseradish were the main spices before chili peppers came around. Fruits like Persimmons and oranges were big favorites. In India, the oldest cities made the same curry, made of ginger, garlic and turmeric, and pepper was the common spice and export. Lemon , orange and mango gave new flavors and refreshment. In Asian-American cooking, chile peppers (hot and sweet) and tomatoes are used as substitutes for vegetables that are only available back home.

    • @KiloOscarZulu
      @KiloOscarZulu 2 года назад +1

      @@Tareltonlives Thank you very much for the detailed response! Maybe you should do the video.

    • @deus_ex_machina_
      @deus_ex_machina_ Год назад +1

      @@Tareltonlives Thanks, it's one of those questions I've mulled over but didn't bother researching.

  • @eicdesigner
    @eicdesigner 2 года назад +3

    Oddball American here! 10:25AM and I have already enjoyed black tea from Fujian in China and coffee from Sumatra. I have a special fondness for Aged Ripe Pu-erh Tea from the Yunnan Province as well. Fun to watch my American blue-collar coworkers scoff while downing another cup of tragically terrible American drip-brewed cheap coffee. They consider me odd for drinking tea at all. No doubt a holdover from The Boston Tea Party and the American folklore about it. Cheers!

  • @hunterG60k
    @hunterG60k 2 года назад +5

    I'm from the UK and I used to drink tea with three sugars, when I'd be offered tea at someone's house and told them this you'd think I'd just asked for their first born son. I usually remind them that rationing finished a long time ago.

  • @erraticonteuse
    @erraticonteuse 2 года назад +4

    American here-I drink coffee for the energy and tea (/tisanes) for the flavor(s). Any sort of tea that's got citrusy and/or spicy notes is a wonderful way to unwind even if there is technically caffeine in it.

  • @pesterenan
    @pesterenan 2 года назад +12

    This video was so charming and well informed! I loved it, learning the origins of "tea" and "cha" was really fun!
    I love coffee, and occasionally drink tea when it's cold outside hehe

    • @fahimhasan22
      @fahimhasan22 2 года назад

      Isn't tea and cha the same thing?

  • @NthMetalValorium
    @NthMetalValorium 2 года назад +7

    the arabic at 9:13 is shown left to right. It should be right to left: شاي

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  2 года назад +1

      Dang, our mistake. Thanks for pointing it out, we'll be more careful in the future!

    • @Bugz1098
      @Bugz1098 2 года назад +1

      It’s actually Farsi so it should be چاى but still right to left

  • @RodrigoBarbosaBR
    @RodrigoBarbosaBR 2 года назад +2

    Brazilian living in a part of the country where the best coffee is produced.
    So yeah, coffee. Lots and lots of coffee of the best quality.

  • @Tareltonlives
    @Tareltonlives 2 года назад +1

    I love the irony of Turkey switching from the 1000 year old coffee tradition to being the biggest tea consumer in the world with the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire.

  • @vahanara
    @vahanara 2 года назад +6

    Things may be very different here, but Tsar's Russia banned import of _yerba mate_ to non-existening-yet Poland in 1900's.
    Yep, they were a major coffee importers in Europe.
    The biggest _yerba_ importer outside of S. America nowadays is ...Syria and Lebanon

  • @docbhuvan
    @docbhuvan 2 года назад +1

    Very Informative and excellent.
    1) There is a mention of tea in Indian epics and as Buddhism spread from India and they took with them tea and martial arts from India to China.
    2) Kashmir is part of India and not an independent country.
    Thanks

  • @garethtudor836
    @garethtudor836 2 года назад +6

    I usually drink coffee, but when I drink tea I proudly show my Lancastrian working class roots: black, sweet, and thick enough to eat

    • @RikDog91
      @RikDog91 2 года назад +1

      How do you make it thick? With the sugar?

    • @garethtudor836
      @garethtudor836 2 года назад

      @@RikDog91 make it really strong

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  2 года назад +1

      @@garethtudor836 OK, stupid (American) question, but does that mean you're making it with loose leaf tea? I can't imagine dropping 2 or 3 teabags in a cup would make tea even slightly thick, but I've never tried.

    • @whocares12345
      @whocares12345 2 года назад

      @@MentalFloss I’d think the thickness would be in reference to the amount of sugar added? @garethtudor, I’m also curious what the thick means!

    • @garethtudor836
      @garethtudor836 2 года назад +1

      @@MentalFloss yep, loose leaf black tea in a good ceramic pot, pop a tea cosy on, and wait (possibly longer than you should).
      Pour into a mug (NOT a cup - we be workers) and add sugar.
      If the spoon doesn't stand up when you've stirred it, it's not strong enough 😉

  • @missheadbanger
    @missheadbanger 2 года назад +8

    I've never liked coffee, I do love tea though.
    Milk tea with honey is one of my favourites, i think it goes well with sugar or shortbread cookies.

  • @affablegiraffable
    @affablegiraffable 2 года назад +4

    this is fascinating.

  • @zulimi
    @zulimi 2 года назад

    This is an awesome history lesson. Thank you!

  • @KokLiangLim
    @KokLiangLim 2 года назад +1

    Not a coffee drinker, but Tea... sooooo gooooooood!!!

  • @TakaComics
    @TakaComics 2 года назад +1

    I knew a lot of this information before, but there are some really interesting tidbits that I never knew! ❤️

  • @kd1s
    @kd1s 2 года назад +2

    Um almost a full year before the Boston Tea Party there was the burning of the Gaspee in Pawtuxet Cove in RI. The Gaspee was a tax ship.

  • @8nansky528
    @8nansky528 2 года назад +1

    I ADORE READING

  • @digitaldroo
    @digitaldroo 2 года назад +3

    A thumbs up for the Kermit the Frong meme reference.

  • @Tareltonlives
    @Tareltonlives 2 года назад

    One of my favorite coffee legends was that when an Austrian-Polish alliance (which also contained Germans, Cossacks, Lithuanians, etc) chased off an Ottoman Turkish attack on Vienna in 1693, a Ruthenian named Georg Franz Kolschitzky (who lived in Polish-ruled Ukraine and acted as a government liaison with both the Cossacks and the Habsburg empire) found the Vizier's coffee stash, abandoned in the rout. Kolschitsky, in the legend, promptly started his own coffee house in Vienna, the Hof zur Blauen Flasche. While the coffeehouse is real, as was Koloschitsky, the connection is almost certainly fictional, made in 1783 by the current owner Gottfried Uhlich to give his place more romance.

  • @bhuvybabay
    @bhuvybabay 2 года назад +1

    Hi slight mistakes in you excellent and informative presentation. The map shows Kashmir in blue as independant country when actually it is an Indian state. 2nd you have explored Tea from chinese rumour but forgot to mention that it is actually mentioned in Ramayan --the indian epic which might have been before the chinese encounter with Tea,

  • @jenniferbates2811
    @jenniferbates2811 2 года назад

    I live in Rhode Island, USA.
    I don't drink either everyday. My dad was born In Puerto Rico and he was a pressed coffee person, then my maternal great- grandmother was Irish so we would make small pots of loose tea which I really enjoyed.
    Caffeine makes me sick so I drink caffeine free tea.

  • @cornbreadfedkirkpatrick9647
    @cornbreadfedkirkpatrick9647 2 года назад

    This is very interesting, I've been weaned off caffeine twice in m life and with no ill effects so far but I'm a sweet tea drinker and soft drink drinker.

  • @dillpunk206
    @dillpunk206 Месяц назад

    Awesome video You think next time you can do a history of Hot coco/hot chocolate.💜💛

  • @lukaszj78x
    @lukaszj78x 2 года назад +1

    Polish word for tea is "herbata". Not from cha or tea but from latin word "herb"

  • @CrystalWilliamsoncoach
    @CrystalWilliamsoncoach 2 года назад

    I love Chai tea and your new hair color!!

  • @katnip266
    @katnip266 2 года назад +2

    Mmmmm flavor water

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  2 года назад +3

      This should have been the title for this video.

    • @katnip266
      @katnip266 2 года назад +1

      "every strike brings me closer to the next home run" - Babe Ruth 😂😂💕

  • @chrischungy
    @chrischungy 2 года назад +1

    I just bought 5 boxes of tea yesterday.

  • @borchmore9
    @borchmore9 2 года назад

    Best food subject.

  • @musicalintentions
    @musicalintentions 2 года назад +1

    Love the sweater, Justin - very handsome.

  • @fahimhasan22
    @fahimhasan22 2 года назад

    I drink coffee in the weekend and tea in the weekdays

  • @I_Cast_Fireball
    @I_Cast_Fireball 2 года назад

    Chocolate milk for me, please and thank you 👍

  • @nosuchthing8
    @nosuchthing8 2 года назад

    Reminds me to get some more coffee

  • @zatoth13
    @zatoth13 2 года назад

    Colonists in Greenwich, NJ, raided the ships and burned the tea.

  • @lagmoar
    @lagmoar 2 года назад +3

    Me watching this while drinking a cup of coffee 👁👄👁

  • @CalvinLimuel
    @CalvinLimuel 2 года назад +4

    9:13 guys it's not that hard to find out that Arabic scripts are written from right to left, or just simply copy it from an actual Persian or Arabic text. What you wrote there is "yach" not "chai"

  • @mrexists5400
    @mrexists5400 2 года назад

    Coffee is tea

  • @OtusAsio
    @OtusAsio 2 года назад

    tea for me is best...but with some milk. I do no drink coffee anymore even if I like the smell of fresh grinded coffee.

  • @skybluskyblueify
    @skybluskyblueify 2 года назад +2

    The human rights abuses both connected to the two drinks reminds me that I probably should be paying more for both sourced ethically. That and chocolate.

  • @killercaos123
    @killercaos123 2 года назад +2

    Ill fully admit, I’m extremely addicted to caffeine. I need it everyday

  • @fictionrules
    @fictionrules 2 года назад

    The coffee at my work says 100% chemical free.

  • @preparedtobereckless
    @preparedtobereckless 2 года назад +1

    What is CD? Doesn't he say discovered in 850 CD?

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  2 года назад +3

      That was probably "CE," i.e. "common era." It's what we grew up learning as "AD," but I believe many sources (including MF) now prefer BCE/CE.

  • @joecurran2811
    @joecurran2811 2 года назад

    You forgot to mention purple tea and yellow tea.

  • @DgurlSunshine
    @DgurlSunshine 2 года назад +3

    now do cannabis / hemp

    • @tag1462
      @tag1462 2 года назад

      Yeah, I'd like to see this one too. Just to see if they get the story straight or a watered down cannabis is bad.

  • @cahproductions4695
    @cahproductions4695 2 года назад

    We call it tay in the south 🤣🤠

  • @cornbreadfedkirkpatrick9647
    @cornbreadfedkirkpatrick9647 2 года назад

    I'm female love the background

  • @madbeef420
    @madbeef420 2 года назад

    what ever happened to Jonathon?

  • @TyroneAdams
    @TyroneAdams 2 года назад

    lol a lesson in tea from a guy who calls masala chai, "chai tea".

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  2 года назад +1

      That was meant to be a joke. In the section from 8:15-9:30 we discuss the etymology of tea/cha/chai, and mention that "chai tea" is a redundant phrase referring (basically) to masala chai.

  • @pscheidt
    @pscheidt 2 года назад +1

    Do you read the referenced articles or just trust your writers to make you sound informed?

  • @delpullen730
    @delpullen730 2 года назад

    Take this, change it to alcohol and apply it to prehistory. You're welcome, fellow historians.

  • @kj-uv7zr
    @kj-uv7zr 2 года назад

    Needed the caffeine to get through this...

  • @praveenp1369
    @praveenp1369 2 года назад

    Chinese king inventing Tea come on who are u fooling we know how China works it would be some chef in his kingdon, What was he even boiling water for to take a bath 😂

  • @ceciland18
    @ceciland18 2 года назад

    The colonizers had their own ships, why didn’t they have enough forethought to go get their own goods from China, India, Africa, and South America? The idiocy.

  • @machism.a
    @machism.a 2 года назад

    when does a dish stop becoming the food of immigrants, and start becoming a national dish?

  • @fictionrules
    @fictionrules 2 года назад

    Benjamin Carp is a plagiarizer. That book is ripped off an earlier text, which he cites extensively.

  • @honodle7219
    @honodle7219 2 года назад +3

    Although caffeine is 'technically' a drug, I find the title of the video misleading and unnecessarily alarmist. The people in China wasted and zombied out on opium were 'drugged'. Coffee and tea are mild stimulants. Nobody is 'drugged' by them.

    • @andyshorrock6230
      @andyshorrock6230 2 года назад +2

      DRUG - noun "a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body" - Opium, caffeine, aspirin... - all are 'actually' drugs

    • @erraticonteuse
      @erraticonteuse 2 года назад +2

      I consider it more of a direct challenge to the negative connotations of the word "drugged" itself. Anyone who has ever been on psychiatric medication can tell you the wonders that being "drugged" has performed for them, but even carefully prescribed and measured medication is stigmatized. But most people have consumed caffeine, even people who smack-talk psych meds. Pointing out that their morning coffee is just as much of a drug as my morning Adderall is a good point to make IMHO.

    • @MentalFloss
      @MentalFloss  2 года назад +2

      @@erraticonteuse Thanks, we were partially thinking along these lines (and, of course, trying to be a *bit* provocative). But without being alarmist (I happily consume coffee daily), we did want to point out that these quotidian beverages *are* affecting our brain chemistry. Michal Pollan's work was definitely influential here-even if people aren't in a drugged stupor, as Honodle points out, I do think it's valid (and hopefully interesting) to consider that billions of us are often experiencing life mediated through a psychoactive substance. (Possibly through several such substances, if we consider the affect sugar et al has on mood/energy levels/etc.) I think it's fair to assume that these two beverages wouldn't have inspired the same kind of (sometimes pernicious) geopolitical maneuverings if they were only consumed for the taste, so it felt like a fair (if, admittedly, *slightly* sensationalist ) framing.

    • @deus_ex_machina_
      @deus_ex_machina_ Год назад

      @@MentalFloss In this context, to be considered a drug, a substance needs two attributes:
      Tolerance - You need ever greater quantities to achieve the same effect.
      Withdrawal - Negative effects of quitting suddenly.
      Since coffee & tea demonstrate both effects, calling them drugs was the right choice.

  • @messianic.resources
    @messianic.resources Год назад

    Also, the traditional way to brew coffee is a lot different from the coffee pots in modern times. In Arab countries, coffee is still brewed the traditional way, which is to have a small pot large enough for one cup of coffee, and brew the coffee grounds directly in the pot, along with spices such as cardamom and saffron. The coffee is then poured into a cup, being careful to limit the amount of grounds and spices going into the cup. This doesn't mean that the grounds and spices don't end up in the cup, because it does. Make sure not to drink the last sip, as it will be full of grounds and spices. Other than that, the Arab countries make an interestingly delicious cup of coffee!
    However, if your faith prohibits the next part, as mine does, avoid the fortune-telling that sometimes accompanies the coffee. Other than those last two things, enjoy your Arabian coffee!