DRINKS
The Quick Quirk Quiz
The Surprising Stories, Hidden History,
and Unusual Origins Behind Familiar Things
By Janet Spencer, Trivia Queen of the Universe
Royal Ruler of Useless Information
Master of Arcane Knowledge & Extraneous Lore
Keeper of Forgotten Facts & Startling Statistics
Published by Janet Spencer at Smashwords.com
Copyright 2009 Janet Spencer
Discover other works by Janet Spencer at
www.smashwords.com/profile/view/triviaqueen
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Successful Tea Merchant
A Baptized Brew
Decaffeinated Discovery
Dehydrated Discovery
A Coffee Roasting Company
A Better Brew
A Successful Coffee Shop
Rum and Rancid Water
Bear Booze
A Bad Bartender
A Better Beer
A Prize-Winning Beer
Opportunity Arises from the Ashes
A Colorado Company
A Skimpy Nightgown
The Nation’s First Distillery
A Famous Monk
An English Queen
A Drink of Water
Seasick Cows
Elsie’s Husband
Happy Cows
Famous Root Beer
An Orange Drink
A Smack in the Face
A Powdered Drink
Brad’s Drink
Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda
A Successful Tea Merchant
As a young man in Glasgow, Scotland, Thomas helped his parents run their small grocery store. He spent a few years living in the U.S. where his work in a New York City grocery store introduced him to the effectiveness of publicity events and advertising. Later he returned to Glasgow and opened his own store, which was so successful that he kept opening more. He engaged in innovative marketing techniques including staging parades and hiring brass bands. By 1888 he owned over 300 stores. Around that time, the price of tea began to fall, and his middle-class customers began drinking more of it. Spotting an opportunity, Thomas opened a tea trading office and established wholesale distribution channels that allowed working-class people to be able to easily afford tea. He bought his tea in such large amounts that he was able to undercut prices. This was such a successful venture that he began to invest in tea plantations. In Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) coffee plantation owners had recently suffered a coffee blight that ruined their crop, so Thomas convinced them to plant tea instead. In a time when most tea was sold by the pound, Thomas pioneered selling it packaged in individual bags. Thomas’ hobby was yachting, and he entered the America’s Cup five times, hoping to bring the trophy home to Britain. He lost every time, but the publicity he got from being ‘the world’s best loser’ caused tea sales to soar. Today, Thomas’ last name is synonymous with tea. What’s his name?
Answer: Lipton.
A Baptized Brew
Sometime around the 9th century, shepherds in the Ethiopian region of Kaffa noticed their goats acted frisky after eating the berries of a particular type of evergreen bush. Experiments with this fruit yielded a stimulating drink. The drink (and the bush that yielded the fruit) began to spread around the world, becoming particularly popular in the Middle East, where it was often used in religious ceremonies. By the 1500s, cafes that served it were popping up all over. These cafes became brewing grounds for radical ideas. Authorities tried to outlaw the drink. At the Vatican, priests insisted it was a satanic beverage born of Islamic infidels. Because Muslims were forbidden from drinking wine, Satan must have given them this drink as a substitute. Wine was used in Holy Communion; therefore this drink must be from the anti-Christ. They asked Pope Clement VIII to ban the cursed Muslim drink. The Pope decided to sample the beverage before deciding, and he liked it so much he decided to baptize it instead of banish it, claiming it would be a shame to let the infidels have exclusive use of such an interesting drink. With his blessing, its popularity quickly spread. Today it’s the world’s second largest legally traded commodity, after oil. It’s the top agricultural export for 12 countries. It’s the third most popular drink in America, coming in after milk and soft drinks. About half of us drink at least one cup per day. The average consumer spends about $164 per year on it. Name it.
Answer: Coffee.
Decaffeinated Discovery
Ludwig Roselius had a father who was a professional coffee taster in Germany in the 1800s. His father died young. Ludwig thought his father’s death was due to ingesting too much caffeine. At the time, the process of decaffeinating coffee made it lose most of its flavor. Ludwig opened a coffee business of his own, and in 1903 a ship filled with coffee beans destined for his store flooded and the entire load was soaked with seawater. Ludwig gave this ruined coffee to his researchers, asking them to experiment with decaffeination. Surprisingly, they found that the soaked beans were easy to decaffeinate. The key was to raise the moisture content of the beans before subjecting them to the chemical process. Ludwig patented the process and moved to America in 1914, setting up a coffee trading company called Kaffe-HAG, with HAG being an acronym for the German words meaning Coffee Trading Company. When World War I began, his business was seized under the U.S. Alien Property Custodian Act and handed over to Americans. Ludwig lost everything, including the trademarked name of his coffee. He set up a new business, marketing his coffee in Europe until the war ended. He needed a new name for his coffee so he chose a contraction of the French words sans caffeine meaning ‘without caffeine’. He returned to America in 1923, and nine years later General Foods bought him out. Meanwhile, the company that he lost during the war went out of business. The modern decaffeination process is still based on his accidental discovery, and his company was purchased by Kraft foods. Name it.
Answer: Sanka.
Dehydrated Discovery
During the Great Depression, coffee sales slumped. The Brazilian government, whose economy revolved around coffee, asked the Nestlé corporation to try to invent a better instant coffee in order to boost dwindling coffee exports. Instant coffee had been around since the turn of the century, but it tasted bad and sold poorly. At that time, it was manufactured by brewing large vats of extra strong coffee and boiling it dry. The residue left at the bottom was turned into coffee powder. The heat involved in boiling destroyed the aroma and flavor of the coffee and the coffee was pungent and bitter, little resembling the original product. Nestlé scientists experimented with the problem for eight years before finally hitting on the solution. When a fine mist of coffee solution was sprayed into a heated tower, the droplets turned to powder instantly without being exposed to heat for a long period of time. Next they added dextrose, dextrin, and maltose to preserve the flavor. Nestlé needed a name, so they took one syllable from their company name and added the Italian word for coffee, hoping the Italian influence would lend an air of romance to the product. An aggressive ad campaign directed towards the American housewife paid off, and when World War II began, American soldiers were issued the dehydrated coffee crystals in their rations which further boosted sales after the war ended. Today instant coffee accounts for about 25 percent of coffee sales worldwide, but Nestlé’s coffee is the dominant player. What’s the name of the coffee?