# The introduction of Caffeine to Europe **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108 "2015-11-09T15:37:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/1 "2015-11-09T15:37:05Z")
So I was joking around with my coworkers about what it must have been like in London when coffee houses first hit the scene. Folks running around all stoked up on their first caffeine rush and all that. But then we wondered what they used to before coffee and tea to put a zip in their step. I said they didn’t have anything for that because caffeine was the first stimulant to get to Europe. Everything else was a depressant like alcohol. Opium was available but it’s a narcotic that won’t get you humming along. Now I wonder if i’m right about all this. So, was caffeine the first stimulant to reach Europe? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/2 "2015-11-09T15:42:45Z")
There would be minute amounts of nicotine in members of the Nightshade plants like eggplant. I don’t know if there’s enough in anything for people to notice by eating them. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/3 "2015-11-09T15:54:02Z")
Coffee first reached Europe in 1573, according to Wikipedia. That’s surprisinghly late, considering that coffee originated in Ethiopia, and there were no significant barriers to its getting to Europe. But coffee was first brewed in the mid-15th century even in its home state (although there were mentions of earlier non-beverage use), so coffee made its way to Europe pretty soon after it was first used as a beverage. > **[History of coffee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_coffee)** > > The history of coffee dates back to centuries of old oral tradition in modern day Ethiopia. However, neither where coffee was first cultivated, nor direct evidence of its consumption prior to the 15th century, have been found. Sufi monasteries in Yemen employed coffee as an aid to concentration during prayers. Coffee later spread to the Levant in the early 16th century; it caused some controversy on whether it was halal in Ottoman and Mamluk society. Coffee arrived in Italy the second half of Not familiar with any descriptions of early caffeine users and their hyper-awake state. Tea, I’m surprised to observe, is first credited to Ming dynasty China circa 1590\*, and hit Europe in 1610 when the Dutch brought it over. Other major caffeine sources – chocolate, yerba mate, cola, guarana – are New World sources. I’m really surprised at the late introduction of caffeine. Some of the legends about tea give the impression of much greater age. \*Wikipedia, on the other hand, credits it to the Tang dynasty, circa 600-900 CE ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/4 "2015-11-09T15:58:48Z")
Khat is an African stimulant, in wide use today (and legal in many African countries). But it reportedly doesn’t travel well. Even in the age of air travel it hasn’t made significant inroads in Europe or the US (and it’s illegal in both). In view of the fact that its power declkines after being harvested, I’m not surprised it wasn’t used in Europe. Cocaine, of course, was also New World. Excellent question, and it’s surprising how late all of this made its way to Europe. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/5 "2015-11-09T16:00:16Z")
In his book _A History of the World in Six Glasses,_ Tom Standage argues that [coffee helped start the Enlightenment in Europe](http://www.thecoffeebrewers.com/coageofre1ce.html). It would seem that it was certainly the first stimulant to come into general use. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/6 "2015-11-09T16:01:55Z")
For those wanting a good tale about the introduction of coffee to Europe, read: [The Coffee Trader](http://www.amazon.com/The-Coffee-Trader-Ballantine-Readers/dp/0375760903), by David Liss. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/7 "2015-11-09T17:23:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Khat is an African stimulant, in wide use today (and legal in many African countries). But it reportedly doesn’t travel well. Even in the age of air travel it hasn’t made significant inroads in Europe or the US (and it’s illegal in both). In view of the fact that its power declkines after being harvested, I’m not surprised it wasn’t used in Europe. > > Cocaine, of course, was also New World. > Excellent question, and it’s surprising how late all of this made its way to Europe. There was also betel, whose nuts and leaves can be used as a stimulant. It was fairly common in Persia and lands to the east but its use apparently didn’t travel much westward into the Mediterranean and Europe. It is a historical curiosity but it appears the western world was just mellowing out until the sixteenth century. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/8 "2015-11-09T17:27:02Z")
Checking a little further, I find I was mistaken about one aspect of betel. Apparently while they may be called by one name, betel leaves and betel nuts come from two different plants. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/9 "2015-11-09T17:38:57Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > For those wanting a good tale about the introduction of coffee to Europe, read: [The Coffee Trader](http://www.amazon.com/The-Coffee-Trader-Ballantine-Readers/dp/0375760903), by David Liss. Thanks for the reminder; I lost my copy years ago when I was only half way through and had completely forgotten the book’s name and it’s author. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/10 "2015-11-09T18:42:36Z")
The wikipedia article on this is quite well developed. > [@](#): > > Europeans first learned about coffee consumption and practise through accounts of exotic travels to “oriental” empires of Asia.[3] According to Ellis, travellers accounted for how men would consume an intoxicating liquor, “black in colour and made by infusing the powdered berry of a plant that flourished in Arabia[clarification needed].”[4] Native men consumed this liquid “all day long and far into the night, with no apparent desire for sleep but with mind and body continuously alert, men talked and argued, finding in the hot black liquor a curious stimulus quite unlike that produced by fermented juice of grape.”[5] But any discussion of early coffee use reminds me of this old rant I read years ago: [“The Women’s Petition Against Coffee” of 1674.](http://www.gopetition.com/famous-petitions-in-history/232/the-women-s-petition-against-coffee-1674.html) It’s absolute comic gold. > [@](#): > > To the Right Honorable the Keepers of the Liberties of Venus; The Worshipful Court of Female Assistants, &c. > > The Humble Petitions and Address of Several Thousands of Buxome Good-Women, Languishing in Extremity of Want. > . . . > [@](#): > > . . . > the brisk Activity of our men, who in former Ages were justly esteemed the Ablest Performers in Christendome; But to our unspeakable Grief, we find of late a very sensible Decay of that true Old English Vigor; our Gallants being every way so Frenchified, that they are become meer Cock-sparrows, fluttering things that come on Sa sa, with a world of Fury, but are not able to stand to it, and in the very first Charge fall down flat before us. Never did Men wear greater breeches, or carry less in them of any Mettle whatsoever. There was a glorious Dispensation ('twas surely in the Golden Age) when Lusty Ladds of Seven or eigh hundred years old, Got Sons and Daughters; ande we have read, how a Prince of Spain was forced to make a Law, that Men should not Repeat the Grand Kindness to their Wives, above NINE times a night; but Alas! Alas! Those forwards Days are gone, The dull Lubbers want a Spur now, rather than a Bridle: being so far from dowing any works of Supererregation that we find them not capable of performing those Devoirs which their Duty, and our Expectations Exact. > > The Occasion of which Insufferable Disaster, after a furious Enquiry, and Discussion of the Point by the Learned of the Faculty, we can Attribute to nothing more than the Excessive use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor called COFFEE, > . . . > [@](#): > > . . . besides, we have reason to apprehend and grow Jealous, That Men by frequenting these Stygian Tap-houses will usurp on our Prerogative of tattling, and soon learn to exceed us in Talkativeness: a Quality wherein our Sex has ever Claimed preheminence: For here like so many Frogs in a puddle, they sup muddy water, and murmur insignificant notes till half a dozen of them out-babble an equal number of us at a Gossipping, talking all at once in Confusion, and running f rom point to point as insensibly, and swiftly, as ever the Ingenous Pole-wheel could run divisions on the Base-viol > . . . ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/11 "2015-11-12T18:34:36Z")
What stimulants followed after caffeine? Sugar is an old world crop that had been around long before coffee and tea made their European debut. But it became plentiful and cheap when the sugar trade began in the Caribbean. It’s not really a stimulant, but I imagine a sugar rush somewhat exacerbated the effect of the new stimulating drinks. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/12 "2015-11-13T10:55:58Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > but I imagine a sugar rush somewhat exacerbated the effect of the new stimulating drinks. There is no such thing as a sugar rush. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-introduction-of-caffeine-to-europe/737108/13 "2015-11-13T11:38:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Not familiar with any descriptions of early caffeine users and their hyper-awake state. _clears throat, stands up_ I am. The Danish-Norwegian writer Holberg described the caffeine craze in 18th century Copenhagen as pretty dang sweet, because it - quoting from memory here - “allows our ladies to pay up to ten visits a day, and yet return home reasonably sober”! This is from Oxfeldt, _Nordic Orientalism. Paris and the Cosmopolitan Imagination 1800-1900._ Bonus factoid: During his wild-‘n’-crazy Copenhagen years, Knut Hamsun - the great Norwegian writer, Nazi asshole, and _Twin Peaks_ trivia footnote - would hand out raw coffee beans to his free-wheeling bohemian pals as a makeshift hangover cure. That’s from Welblund, _Den Litterære Café_.