Did you know that coffee was recommended as protection against the bubonic plague in the seventeenth century? Or that tea was believed to make men 'unfit to do their business' and blamed for women becoming unattractive? On the other hand, a cup of chocolate was supposed to have exactly the opposite effect on the drinker's sex life and physical appearance. These three beverages arrived in England in the 1650s from faraway, exotic places: tea from China, coffee from the Middle East and chocolate from Mesoamerica. Physicians, diarists and politicians were quick to comment on their supposed benefits and alleged harmfulness, using newspapers, pamphlets and handbills both to promote and denounce their sudden popularity. Others seized the opportunity to serve the growing appetite for these newly discovered drinks by setting up coffee houses or encouraging one-upmanship in increasingly elaborate tea-drinking rituals.How did the rowdy and often comical initial reception of these drinks form the roots of today's enduring caffeine culture? From the tale of the goatherd whose animals became frisky on coffee berries to a duchess with a goblet of poisoned chocolate, this book, illustrated with eighteenth-century satirical cartoons and early advertisements, tells the extraordinary story of our favourite hot drinks.

Coffee, tea, and chocolate are among the most frequently consumed products in the world. The pleasure that many experience from these edibles is accompanied by a range of favorable and adverse effects on the brain that have been the focus of a wealth of recent research. Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, and the Brain presents new information on the

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: Stimulatin beverage crops; Origins and distribution of coffee, cocoa and tea; Production and markets. II. COFFEE: Botany and plant improvement; Climatic requirements, soil requirements and management; Field management; Mineral nutrition and fertilizers; Pests, diseases and weed control. III. COCOA: Botany and plant improvement; Climatic requirements, soil requirements and management; Field management; Mineral nutrition and fertilizers; Pests, diseases and weed control. IV. TEA: Botany and plant improvement; Climatic requirements, soil requirements and management; Field management; Mineral nutrition and fertilizers; Pests, diseases and weed control. V. CROP PROCESSING: Crop processing at the plantation and for retail sale.

Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi explores the history and cultural importance of our most beloved tastes, paying homage to the ingredients that give us daily pleasure, while providing a thoughtful wake-up call to the homogenization that is threatening the diversity of our food supply. Food is one of the greatest pleasures of human life. Our response to sweet, salty, bitter, or sour is deeply personal, combining our individual biological characteristics, personal preferences, and emotional connections. Bread, Wine, Chocolate illuminates not only what it means to recognize the importance of the foods we love, but also what it means to lose them. Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi reveals how the foods we enjoy are endangered by genetic erosion—a slow and steady loss of diversity in what we grow and eat. In America today, food often looks and tastes the same, whether at a San Francisco farmers market or at a Midwestern potluck. Shockingly, 95% of the world’s calories now come from only thirty species. Though supermarkets seem to be stocked with endless options, the differences between products are superficial, primarily in flavor and brand. Sethi draws on interviews with scientists, farmers, chefs, vintners, beer brewers, coffee roasters and others with firsthand knowledge of our food to reveal the multiple and interconnected reasons for this loss, and its consequences for our health, traditions, and culture. She travels to Ethiopian coffee forests, British yeast culture labs, and Ecuadoran cocoa plantations collecting fascinating stories that will inspire readers to eat more consciously and purposefully, better understand familiar and new foods, and learn what it takes to save the tastes that connect us with the world around us.

-This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate, Detroit Institute of Arts.-

In recent years, the role of plant secondary metabolites as protective constituents in the human diet has been a growing area of research. Unlike the traditional vitamins, they are not essential for short-term wellbeing, but there is increasing evidence that modest long-term intakes can have favourable impacts on the incidence of cancers and many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes, which are occurring in Western populations with increasing frequency. This book covers the latest science on the metabolism and potential health benefits of teas, cocoa, coffee and their extracts in the human diet. From an opening chapter tracing the origins of teas, cocoa and coffee as beverage, the book proceeds to explore the phytochemical content of coffee, cocoa and the various types of tea. The bioavailability of secondary metabolites from each of the beverages is then considered in depth, and related directly to their health benefits. Embracing the full range of tea, coffee and cocoa beverages and products, the book offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of these increasingly important dietary components. As the only book to bring together the latest information on the biochemistry and health benefits of teas, coffee and cocoa, this book is essential reading for food scientists and technologists involved in the production of tea, coffee and cocoa products. Nutritionists will value the book's health focus, while agricultural scientists working on the cultivation of these crops will prize its scope and depth of detail. It is also an important resource for all those who use functional ingredients in other products, whether they are based in industry or research.

Caffeinated and Cocoa Based Beverages, Volume Eight in The Science of Beverages series, covers one of the hottest topics in the current beverage industry. This practical reference takes a broad and multidisciplinary approach on the production, processing, and engineering approaches to caffeinated drinks, highlighting their biological impact and health-related interference. The book presents evidence-based examples of the benefits of caffeinated and cocoa-based beverages and analyzes the latest trends in the industry that are essential for researchers in various fields of food and beverage development, including coverage of pharmaceuticals and the biomedical fields. - Presents both functional and medicinal perspectives in beverage production - Provides potential solutions for sustainable coffee and cocoa industry - Includes novel research applications to foster research and product development