It is widely known that I am a geek with extremely broad interests, not just great food and fine drink, but technology, history, art, philosophy, nature… I am curious about pretty much everything. So, I really enjoy when an author takes a different approach on a familiar topic, particularly if that approach involves crossing traditional boundaries between interests and academic disciplines. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Tom Standage’s A History of the World in 6 Glasses. The big idea of the book is that what people drink has had a significant impact on human history and that, in fact, certain great moments in history can be seen as closely related and at least partially caused by what people decided to drink. The author identifies six great beverages that have shaped human history, thus the “6 Glasses” of the title.
Are you curious what the six history shaping beverages have been? I will give you a hint, he intentionally excludes water, though he returns to it as a beverage of interest in the final chapter. Water is not one of the six. One more hint, alcohol or caffeine is present in each of the six (which probably tells us something else about humanity).
And the six winners are: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola.
He dedicates two chapters to each beverage and focuses on a specific point in history. So, the two chapters on beer do not follow beer through the ages, they just tell the tale of beer’s role in the emergence of agriculture and the first great urban cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt. I found this section really fascinating. It essentially puts bread and beer on equal footing as the fundamental foodstuffs and economic base of early human societies. Compared to its modern role in our society it certainly seems to have fallen in its esteem even as it has grown in its craft.
In the other sections, he explores the significance of wine in Greek and Roman culture and economics. He analyzes the colonization of the Americas and emergence of the United States in terms of distilled spirits, particularly rum and, eventually, whiskey. I admit that I was a little disappointed at first by the lumping of all distilled spirits together, but it made sense in the context of the slice of history he was discussing.
When he turns to the caffeinated beverages, he starts with Europeans learning about coffee from the Arabs and its importance to enlightenment thinking. I was amazed to learn that cafe culture really dated back to the Enlightenment and that meeting with colleagues and business partners in a Starbucks would not have been a foreign concept in the 1700s. The section on tea is really about British imperialism and the impact of the tea trade on China and India.
Being a recovered Coca-Cola addict (I shudder to think how much I consumed in my high school and college days) and still a fervent supporter of Coke in the Cola Wars, I really enjoyed Coke’s inclusion as the sixth of the historic beverages. Better still, it really is an amazing tale of commercialization, globalization, and quintessential Americana. Food entrepreneurs of all sorts should appreciate the rise of a backwater patent medicine becoming one of the greatest global brands of all-time. One little factoid that I thought particularly telling was that “Coca-Cola” is the second most recognized phrase in the world, behind “OK”. How is that for promoting global understanding?
So, what does a business owner take away from all of this? First, food and beverages really are fundamental and important, culturally and economically. That is a lesson of history and not going to change anytime soon. Second, that there are always cultural shifts and successful entrepreneurs who assist and profit from them. The move to better, local, and craft food and drink is an example, but think about your own business niche and industry. I have seen very few markets standing still these days. What changes are afoot and how can you position your business to thrive through them?
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