THE FOLKLORE OF PLANTS: Coffee

Lisa Karen Miller

“If this is coffee, please bring me some tea.

If this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”

Abraham Lincoln         

          Before industrialization, most people lived an agrarian life.  As they moved to cities during the Industrial Revolution, their lives were indeed turned upside down.   

          In the country, people lived by the sun.  When it rose, it was time to work; when it set, it was time to sleep. Once we started working in factories, our lives were governed by the town clock and the factory bell.  This disrupted our circadian rhythms and put us out of sync with nature.                

          Because our bodies were thrown from a natural cycle of waking, working, and sleeping into an artificial one ruled by infernal machines, we could no longer afford the luxury of awakening in our own time.  We needed a little help to get out the door and off to work. People who showed up late had their pay docked.

          Enter the artificial morning stimulant.

          Britain primarily used tea as an eye-opener. American colonists also drank it, but developed an aversion to tea (imported from Britain and heavily taxed) after that little trouble in Boston Harbor over taxation without representation. In the wake of the Boston Tea Party, tea became positively unpatriotic.

          Many colonists switched to coffee, as we already had trade routes to Africa.  This allowed us to thumb our noses at the imperialist homeland, while still providing the stuff to stimulate the workforce needed to expand a young country. 

          Early Americans also improvised a number of coffee substitutes, including chicory, acorns, dandelions, roasted grains, black locust seeds, holly stems and leaves, and chickpeas.  Some of these had been borrowed from various Native American tribes.

          In the novel The Coffee Trader by David Liss, a young entrepreneur tries to convince 17^th century Dutch investors to import an exotic dark bean from Africa.  He explains that it should be roasted, ground, brewed, and drunk strong and hot in the morning, or any time alertness waned. 

          In those days, no one added milk or sugar.  He takes some of the bitter brew to a tavern to allow the punters to sample it.

          “He’ll go broke,” they all predict.

           Someday we may return to our natural rhythms, but for now, as we honor all those who work, let’s have another cup.

© Copyright 2023 Lisa Karen Miller