“Caffeine would transform the world around us in ways large and small, magnificent and horrific. It would stimulate and focus the mind in a way that would influence the workplace, politics, social relations and “arguably even the rhythms of English prose,” Pollan writes. But the cultivation of, and trade in, coffee and tea plants (and the sugar used in both) would also enslave countless people and lead to the East India Company opening an opium trade with China.” WaPo: Caffeine has been a boon for civilization, Michael Pollan says. But it has come at a cost. (I hate to be a total drip about coffee…)