The Puritans Started Our Coffee Craze

"Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants" by Wolfgang Schivelbusch Pantheon, $25

Coffee aided the cause of 17th-century Puritanism. Hot chocolate was the de rigeur drink of Catholic-European aristocrats before it became a children's treat.

The Napoleonic wars contributed to the popularity of cigar smoking, while the Crimean War led to widespread puffing on cigarettes. Increased intoxication from hard liquor and the Industrial Revolution went hand in hand.

These are some of the fascinating theses set forth by Wolfgang Schivelbusch in his absorbing new study, "Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants and Intoxicants." The last in the author's three-volume inquiry into the origins of industrialized consciousness, this handsomely illustrated book considers why certain prized substances became so popular in Western Europe. It's an intellectual buffet of sorts, with sections on salt, coffee, tobacco, chocolate, gin, opium, snuff, bottled water. . .bottled water?

Yes, and I do mean Perrier. Where others may see a simple pattern of consumption, Schivelbusch (a German historian and social scientist) finds a socioeconomic-religious-cultural nexus. Take his reflections on Seattle's favorite beverage.

Before the coffee bean found its way to Western Europe in the 1600s, Schivelbusch tells us, most people drank beer for breakfast - beer soup, in fact, frothed up with eggs and sweetened with sugar. By early morning, a vast proportion of the population was sloshed.

With its powerful stimulant efffect, coffee was welcomed as "the great soberer" by England's Puritans, who led the campaign for its common adoption among the bourgeoisie. Even poets sang the praises of java, with one 1674 verse extolling it as a drink "That heals the stomach, makes the genius quicker/ Relieves the memory, revives the sad/ And cheers the Spirits, without making mad. . ."

The institution of the coffeehouse also merits attention. Around 1700, London's many such establishments (3,000, by one count) functioned as economic and intellectual hubs, places to transact business and exchange news. Schivelbusch contends they helped create "a culture of dialogue, of conversation," influencing the colloquial prose style of "Robinson Crusoe" author Daniel Defoe and other major 18th-century scribes. The coffeehouses were also the natural hang out for the authors of "The Tatler," a London publication which made rich use of local gossip.

In his entertaining sweep through history, Schivelbusch synthesizes information from many sources and enriches his text with illustrations from antique engravings, advertisements and pamphlets. One memorable drawing depicts a servant dousing Sir Walter Raleigh with water because he assumed his master was "burning up from within."

Actually, Raleigh was just smoking a pipe - an unfamiliar practice in the 17th century.

First published in German, and deftly translated into English by David Jacobson, "Tastes of Paradise" makes a few far-fetched assertions (has Perrier really reached the status of Mumm's Champagne?) and omits footnotes. But these are quibbles with a book that's as satisfying as a bracing chat with an ingenious scholar over a good, strong mug of coffee.

Misha Berson is The Seattle Times' theater critic.