Really Getting a Buzz

 We humans have many vices, but we rarely admit to them.  Caffeine and nicotine are two which we may admit to more readily, maybe because so many people share these addictions, but we’re not the only ones buzzing from our favorite chemicals.

Scientists at the University of Haifa in Israel found that bees may actually prefer nectar traced with caffeine and nicotine over nectar without.  Flower nectar is primarily comprised of sugars, which provide energy for the potential pollinators. But the floral nectar of some plant species also includes small quantities of substances known to be toxic, such as caffeine and nicotine.

Nicotine is found naturally in floral nectar at a concentration of up to 2.5 milligrams per liter, primarily in various types of tobacco tree (Nicotiana glauca). Caffeine is found at concentration levels of 11-17.5 milligrams per liter, mostly in citrus flowers. In the nectar of grapefruit flowers, however, caffeine is present in much higher concentrations, reaching 94.2 milligrams per liter. In order to examine whether bees prefer the nectar containing caffeine and nicotine, the researchers offered artificial nectar that comprised various natural sugar levels and various levels of caffeine and nicotine, alongside “clean” nectar that comprised sugar alone. The caffeine and nicotine concentrations ranged from the natural levels in floral nectar up to much higher concentrations than found in nature.

The results showed that bees clearly prefer nectar containing nicotine and caffeine over the “clean” nectar. However, at higher concentrations, the bees went back to the “clean” nectar, proving there can be too much of a good thing.

Who knows, maybe we’ll be sitting on a patio at our favorite coffee shop, enjoying a cup of joe and a nicotine patch (because we’re quitting, right?) and our sweet friend the honey bee will be sitting next to us with their tiny cup of bee coffee and their tiny nicotine patch.

The History of the Coffee House

It is a common mistake for many modern day coffee drinkers to believe that the café was created for them in their generation, and for a large percentage of them, with the advent of the Starbucks franchise. Coffee shops have been around since 1555, and possibly even earlier.

The first coffeehouses or kaveh kanes opened in Mecca and quickly spread throughout the Arab world, thriving as places where chess was played, gossip was exchanged and singing, dancing and music were enjoyed. Nothing quite like this had existed before: a place where social and business life could be conducted in comfortable surroundings and where - for the price of a cup of coffee - anyone could venture. Perhaps predictably, the Arabian coffeehouse soon became a center of political activity and was suppressed. Over the next few decades coffee and coffeehouses were banned numerous times but kept reappearing until eventually an acceptable way out was found when a tax was introduced on both.

The first recorded coffee house was Kiva Han in what was then Constantinople (now Istanbul) by Shemsi of Damascus and Hekem of Aleppo, who are generally acknowledged as the proprietors of this coffee house which was opened in Talchtacalah, Constantinople in 1555.

The first European coffeehouse opened in Venice in 1683, with the most famous, Caffe Florian in Piazza San Marco, opening in 1720. It is still open for business today. It is a prime contender for the world’s longest continuing coffee house with its 287 years of coffee service to its Venetian, Italian and international patrons and takes its place amongst the city's chief symbols. Much of the paintings, wood carvings, high ornate mirrors, cozy booths and naked woods come from the refurbishments done in 1859. It is also home to the Venice Biennial, an exhibition of contemporary art that has been running since 1893. Famous patrons included Marcel Proust, Charles Dickens and the Venice born womanizer Giovanni Giacomo Casanova.

St. Michael’s Alley Coffee House is England’s first coffee house and was opened in Cornhill London in 1652. It is still unclear to this day whether it was opened by a Mr. Bowman or Pasqua Rosee although the weight of evidence suggests Pasqua Rosee. It is also uncertain as to whether he was a native of Armenia, a Greek from the Republic of Ragusa or from Ottoman Smyrna, a port in Western Turkey. What is clear is that he was a man-servant or employee to a Turkish merchant trader (one who dealt in coffee and other such luxury items) named Daniel Edwards. Some researchers also claim that Pasqua went into business with a coachman who was a relative of Mr. Edwards. The coffee house is famous for being the first known coffee advertising or prospectus in England with the original document, ‘The Virtue of the Coffee Drink’, still being on display in the British Museum.

The first literary reference to coffee being drunk in North America is from 1668 and, soon after, coffee houses were established in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other towns. The Boston Tea Party Of 1773 was planned in a coffee house, the Green Dragon. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Bank of New York started in coffeehouses in what is today known as Wall Street.

Café Reggio (still trading) a small coffee house in New York’s Greenwich Village, opened in 1927. It claims the title of “the original Cappuccino bar” because the owner Domenico Parisi imported and installed the first espresso machine in the United States. By the mid 50’s the Italian “La Pavoni” espresso machine, built in 1902, began offering espresso made the Italian way to a clientele including the Beats, Bob Dylan and the poet Joseph Brodsky. The original machine, an ornate brass-decorated beauty, still holds pride of place at Cafe Reggio’s today.