Joe Rogan guest Michael Pollan notes that caffeine was unknown in Europe until the 1650s, when coffee, tea and chocolate all arrived:
“Before caffeine, it was a very different world, and a very different consciousness. People were drunk a lot of the time, buzzed almost all the time. People drank morning, noon and night because it was safer than water.” They gave kids hard cider for breakfast!
So a drug comes on the market that encourages sober, linear thought, and shortly after that the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution ensue.
Food (or drink) for thought…