A History of the World in 6 Glasses

Author: Tom Standage

Rating: ⭐ 3/5

Date Read: 2013/03/27

Pages: 336

This book should really be called “A History of the Western World in 6 Glasses,” as it doesn’t consider the drinks of South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and much of Asia. Indeed, tea is considered only through the lens of the British empire, even though the formal Japanese tea service is arguably more interesting than a British tea party. Even as a Western history, it kind of fails, as there’s a large gap between wine production in the Roman empire and the distillation of rum in Barbados. This can only be viewed as a surface history of the world, but as far as surface stories go, it’s pretty interesting.

Throughout the book, Standage tells the history of six beverages (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola) as they appeared in the historical record. This is actually not so great, as the book ends up talking about beer without ever mentioning Germany, and wine without ever mentioning France or California. Instead of bringing it all back together in the epilogue, he just rambles on about bottled water and (randomly) colonizing Mars.

The book also contains a shockingly uncritical depiction of the Coca-Cola company, which creatives a “beverage” that can best be described as a noxious substance that no one should be consuming, especially not on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the health effects of soda are not discussed.

I’d recommend A History of the World in 6 Glasses only to those interested in culinary history and esoterica. History buffs and general readers should skip this one.