A friend of mine claimed that there were countries where coffee is treated much like cocaine is in the Western world. He said he read it in an anthropology textbook but couldn’t remember the title.
Are there any such countries/cultures? Or is it at least possible the author of an anthropology textbook would think so?
North Korea perhaps? They are craving for coffee, it says.
Coffee was prohibited by the Ottoman empire back in (I think) the 16th century. This had something to do with the founding of Lloyd’s (which was originally a coffee house) but I forget what.
North Korea does not ban coffee. I am trying to find a bloody reason to go to North Korea for a job, actually.
To be super lazy and quote wiki:
If true seems my recollection about lloyds is incorrect (it was definitely a coffee hosue though)
I believe Sikhism and the LDS church prohibit caffeine. Neither of them is the state anywhere I know of, though.
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I think you’re incorrect about the LDS. “Hot drinks” are against the rules - which they deem to mean tea and coffee. Caffeinated soft drinks are fine.
All I can think of: there are two Mormon colonies in Mexico. I’d imagine they abide by Chihuahua laws, and if coffee is forbidden there probably aren’t any legal consquences. Maybe a stern talking to. Or the comfy chair, but that wouldn’t be punishing as much because Mormons don’t mind waiting till 11 for their coffee.
Sikhism: I think caffeine is kind of a gray area? No “intoxicants.” There are of course heavily Sikh areas in NW India, but doubt they’d ban it for everyone.
Many Mormons avoid all caffeine. Sounds like a GD question though.
What’s the Sikh attitude towards alcohol and nicotine?
This might explain why a Mormon co-worker of mine at a previous job was known to enjoy refreshing caffeinated carbonated beverages, but never tea or coffee. I thought it was odd (my understanding was all caffeinated drinks were verboten for Mormons) but he said shrugged with an air of “I don’t make the rules” and said no, it was just tea and coffee.
Harry Turtledove wrote an alternate history story “King of All” in which a narcartics agent takes a break from pursuing coffee dealers to have a refreshing Coke (original formula) (King of All | Turtledove | Fandom). I suppose it’s possible that the story might have been reprinted in an anthropology textbook to make a point about the variability of human customs.
Not really GD-worthy. I can give a factual (if slightly anecdotal) answer.
Yes, that was my experience when I was a Mormon. The attitude toward caffeine varies by region and by decade. In the '80s and '90s outside of Utah, it was forbidden in most LDS families. In the '90s and '00s in Utah, it was slightly discouraged but no one made a big deal about it. The prophet told Mike Wallace that LDS youth don’t partake of caffeinated sodas, but if he’d gotten out more he would have seen that he was incorrect. In 2012, the official LDS Newsroom mentioned in a Q&A that caffeine had never been forbidden.
Coffee itself is verboten. It was discouraged in an 1830’s revelation, and at some point it moved from discouraged to forbidden. But that is God’s law and not man’s law, so I doubt that even in Utah it has ever been a controlled substance.
It’s been said before that people denied one vice often gravitate to another vice that they are allowed to have. I knew an Evangelical Christian who didn’t smoke and afaik didn’t drink, but his church had no specific teachings about video games and he ended up having a problem with video game “addiction”.
Not trying to hijack this thread but… why? Would love to hear more about this if you’re into sharing, maybe in a new thread?
Since the heaviest drinkers I know among Indians are Panjabis, and these include a good number of Panjabi Sikhs, I’m surprised to learn that intoxicants are banned in Sikhism.