Cheers

My mother does not allow me to drink coffee. As a student at Stuyvesant, this is almost laughable. In fact, from the list of drinks A History of the World in Six Glasses presents as the world’s most influential beverages, I am only allowed to drink tea. After all, I am legally restricted from purchasing (and publicly possessing in the state of New York) half of the drinks discussed in the novel and abstain from soda. Not drinking most of the beverages from this books has put me into the favorable category of mostly unbiased. Of course society and location has probably altered my perception of each of these drinks but I will attempt to keep that minimal. Cheers.

People don’t usually claim, “drinks have [shaped] human history,” unless they have good reason to do so. With imagination, beer could be considered quite influential, on par with special interest groups in Washington. For example, what if our early ancestors only strayed from their already established water sources because their judgement became cloudy after downing a beer at the neighborhood pub? I mean, I guess a more likely explanation would be that more territory could be explored if water could be purified but it would be nice to believe humans were only able to advance after the invention of drinking games. As bountiful lands were discovered, humans shifted from hunter-gatherers to farmers, forsaking themselves to the whim of wild barley and cereal. Over time, humans cultivated the grains that fed them, which allowed for steadier calories throughout the year and the chance of having more children. It was impractical for women back then to take care of more than one child as only one can be carried on the back. Anymore children and the woman will have to carry the ...

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...t in society, culture, America and physics. The spirit of invention continues today with energy drinks and nutrient shakes and the scientific advancements undoubtedly fueled by caffeine and late night partying. Still, each of the drinks on this list were discovered and used for a reason –– they satisfied powerful desires and demands. Beer was the substitute for water, tea gave the English better health and more power, coffee created places to socialize, rum gave America much needed alcohol and Coke wet the lips of children everywhere. The funny thing about examining the revolutions in the drinking world is that they tend to relate to economics. Finance is an important thing: without commerce, advancements made in one part of the world never would have spread to other parts. And to think, it all might of started with a few beers at the pub and some hasty decisions.