Reminds me of the scene from movie Aeroplane where the flight attendant announces all that's wrong with the flight, and nobody bats an eye. Then as she's almost done, she adds that they've ran out of coffee, and then panic ensues.
“The famed Brazilian coffee owes its existence to Francisco de Mello Palheta, who was sent by the emperor to French Guiana to get coffee seedlings.”
Small nitpick: at this time Brazil was a Portuguese colony and the monarch was called King John V, not an “emperor”. Brazil only got an emperor when it became independent about one century later.
Why did Peter, the son of a Portuguese King ruling over territories spanning 4 continents, decided to call himself an Emperor when ruling over a single (albeit large!) territory? I don’t know, ego?
I think calling yourself emperor was all the rage at the time.
Prior to Napoleon and the dissolution of the HRE the Roman Empire was sort of still viewed as single and indivisible, it wasn’t a exactly a generic title (well.. at most there could be two legitimate ones).
But now you had the Emperor of the French, Emperor of Austria, Russia (prior to that), so why not Brazil? Since you’re establishing a new state anyway might as well pick the best available title.
I think there are also some connotations associated with the idea of Empire that implies greater centralization and control.
One thing that's fairly interesting is how the British did not allow their monarch to become an Emperor, because of the traditional liberties associated with English monarchy and parliament.
When Queen Victoria became Empress of India, parliament only consented to her becoming a Queen-Empress, not an Empress-Queen, to emphasize the fact that Britain was still a kingdom.
It was also arguably seen as a more “democratic” office by some. The imperial throne in the HRE or in the eastern empire was always technically non hereditary. Being at its root a republican title in a certain way.
There is also a fascinating story about how we got coffee breaks, as it turns out the today what we consider "coffee breaks" is tied to a court case back in 1955!
I don't see a connection to the larger practice of coffee breaks. It looks more like one guy had an argument about whether or not to pay workers for break time.
And, if you'd like to see a little bit of what goes on where the coffee is grown, you could do worse than picking up one of the below excellent photobooks:
Sebastião Salgado's 'Scent of a Dream' or Steve McCurry's 'From These Hands' - both provide a wonderful portrait of the people who work hard to bring coffee to our shores. (Salgado works in B/W, McCurry almost exclusively in colour, if that makes a difference to you.)
> The controversy was so great that Pope Clement VIII was asked to intervene. He decided to taste the beverage for himself before making a decision, and found the drink so satisfying that he gave it papal approval.
if someone would have given him a pinch of coke it might be sanctioned now by the church. i'm sure he would have found it very satisfying, too ... ;D
Later popes did indeed. Popes Leo XIII and Pius X were drinkers of the Vin Mariani coca wine, the former even awarding its creator Angelo Mariani a Vatican gold medal.
Vin Mariani was the inspiration for John Pemberton to create his own "French Wine Coca" nerve tonic, which also included caffeine from the Kola nut. Later, influenced by the temperance movement, he left out the alcohol (but not the coca), and thus, the first iteration of Coca-Cola was born...
That’s gonna pack a fair whallop, especially given the coadministration with ethanol results in the whole cocaethylene thing happening resulting in a longer lasting buzz.
> Then I received my diagnosis as a Type II diabetic. I could no longer add sugar in the quantity necessary to make coffee from the cafe next door drinkable, but if I didn’t drink coffee I was in danger of not being able to actually stay awake through a morning of wrangling x-ray machines and radioactive materials. Experimentation began in earnest with BBotE as it promised to eliminate what I couldn’t stand the most about normal percolation coffee, bitterness and acidity.
The description is that it tastes like coffee smells.
I've been curious about this myself. I am not a fan of coffee but in my explorations with advent calendars of a wide range of spirits I had some spiced coffee rum which was quite enjoyable. So, if my caffeine needs lead me in that direction again, I'll likely give it a try.
I am curious why you pretty much can't find any mainstream brand of coffee made from Robusto beans - I have never seen a Robusto bean coffee in any grocery store I've ever checked - all 100% Arabica. Seems like with 2x the caffiene there would be a market for it. There are plenty of high-caffiene specialty brands of Arabica - why not just get 2x in the same amount of coffee? Besides, I think the caffiene content they show on the labels is before roasting and the more they roast it, the less caffiene afterwards. There is a misconception that the darker, the more caffiene but its actually the opposite. Just dumb stuff I wonder about...
You can find Deathwish coffee in many grocery stores these days (it’s in most Safeways) and it’s a blend of robusta and arabica beans. Way overpriced with cringey marketing and not the best tasting, but meets your criteria I think
I'm not sure where to find whole beans but I'm pretty sure many brands of instant coffee (e.g. the Folgers and Nescafe of the world) actually use Robusto or at least a blend of Robusto and Arabica.
I bought some unroasted (green) robusta beans from sweetmarias.com and then roasted them. It wasn't bad, but I prefer arabica. It has a more earthy taste. Some espresso blends are part robusta.
If anyone looks at this page and wants a bit more then I'd recommend The Devil's Cup by Stewart Lee Allen, it's a travelogue as he explores the origins and cultural impact of coffee across the world.
People have been drinking tea for 4000 years. Yerba mate and guayasa have also been consumed for a long time, possibly even pre Incan so caffeine has been consumed for a long time.
a large missing piece to the above "history" the article describes, is that somewhere along the way a fire accidentally roasted the coffee beans and this wrinkle enhanced the coffee preparation process. Many legends exist telling the context story of how this fire occurred.
i love posts like this as it mixes my passion of coffee ( as a roaster) and a community of tech folks that we can discuss all the history... Coffee has such a wide and interesting history rooted in capitalism.
It's not legal by chance. Coffee is good for the heart and possibly slightly extends life. It can help you get stuff done. Not all drugs are bad for you.
I used to drink a litre a day when I worked from home, brewed strong. Later I got an office job, and my consumption slowly tailed off, to te point I was drinking just one mug in the morning. No effort, no plan or intention, and certainly no headaches. It's no problem if I miss my morning joe.
I have an addictive personality, and I drink and smoke a lot; I don't think any addictive substance is easier to quit than coffee.
What you did is called tapering. You reduced your dose slowly enough to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
I assure you that the withdrawal is very real, though nothing ibuprofen can’t take care of. To experience it, just quit drinking all caffeine cold turkey.
I got ill and couldn't keep anything down. The caffeine withdrawal was brutal. I resolved not to start drinking caffeinated coffee again. Decaff worked for a few months. Now I'm back on the full strength, but not as much.
I've never experienced anything worse than a mild one, and then only one day. Just reduce intake gradually. If coffee is a drug, kicking the habit is really the easiest thing.
You generally should not drink coffee cca 6 hours before going to sleep, there is no way diuretic effect still persist during your sleep if you adhere to this simple principle.
If you already got addicted, or just self-curing some other problems with high doses of coffee, maybe attack those problems head-first. Coffee is really not source of your issues in this case.
If we view it from perspective of addiction, then sugar should be banned in all forms first and foremost, then lets start talking about relatively mild stuff like caffeine. And all this is long after alcohol and all nicotine products are long banned. We know already how well that works, right.
There's also a big genetic variation in caffeine metabolisation speed between individuals. For some 4 hours before bed might be fine, while for others even 12+ hours before messes up their sleep.
I get by on one cup of coffee before noon now, it seems to work. I'm one of those that feels effects on sleep from just more than one cup or coffee much later than lunch.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_coffee_crisis
You can see how important coffee has become in our society.
On a more funny note, I always found this episode of Dexter's Lab hilarious:
https://youtu.be/QZpy9r_KXqc