Cómo la cafeína creó el mundo moderno

el sardinero
El Sardinero

La Coca-Cola original era un brebaje de finales del siglo XIX conocido como French Wine Coca de Pemberton, una mezcla de alcohol, nuez de cola rica en cafeína y coca, el ingrediente crudo de la cocaína. Ante la presión social, primero se quitó el vino y luego la coca, dejando en su lugar la bebida moderna más banal: agua azucarada con cafeína y carbonatada con menos sabor que una taza de café. Pero, ¿es así como pensamos en Coca-Cola? Para nada. En los años treinta, un artista comercial llamado Haddon Sundblom tuvo la brillante idea de posar a un corpulento amigo jubilado con un traje rojo de Papá Noel y una Coca-Cola en la mano, y pegar la imagen en vallas publicitarias y anuncios en todo el país. La coca, mágicamente, renació como cafeína para los niños, cafeína sin ninguna de las connotaciones adultas del café y el té. Fue, como dicen los anuncios con Santa de Sundblom, «la pausa que refresca». Añadió vida. Podría enseñar al mundo a cantar.

Una de las cosas que siempre ha hecho que las drogas sean tan poderosas es su adaptabilidad cultural, su forma de adquirir significados más allá de su farmacología. Pensamos en la marihuana, por ejemplo, como una droga de letargo, de desafección. Pero en Colombia, señala el historiador David T. Courtwright en “Forces of Habit” (Harvard; $ 24,95), “los campesinos se jactan de que el cannabis les ayuda a quita el cansancio o reduce la fatiga; aumentar su fuerza y ​​ánimo, fuerza y ​​espíritu; y se vuelve incansable, incansable «. En Alemania, justo después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, los cigarrillos se convirtieron breve y repentinamente en el equivalente del crack. “Hasta cierto punto, la mayoría de los fumadores habituales preferían prescindir de la comida, incluso en condiciones extremas de nutrición, antes que renunciar al tabaco”, según un relato de la época. «Muchas amas de casa … intercambiaban grasa y azúcar por cigarrillos». Incluso una droga tan demonizada como el opio se ha visto desde una perspectiva más favorable. En los años treinta, el abuelo de Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Warren Delano II, hizo fortuna con la familia exportando la droga a China, y Delano pudo endulzar sus actividades de manera tan plausible que nadie acusó a su nieto de ser el vástago de un narcotraficante. Y, sin embargo, como nos recuerdan Bennett Alan Weinberg y Bonnie K. Bealer en su nuevo y maravilloso libro «El mundo de la cafeína» (Routledge; $ 27,50), no existe una droga que se adapte tan fácilmente como la cafeína, el Zelig de los estimulantes químicos.

En un momento, en una forma, es la droga preferida de los intelectuales y artistas del café; en otro, de amas de casa; en otro, de los monjes Zen; y, en otro, de niños cautivados por un gordo que se desliza por las chimeneas. El rey Gustavo III, que gobernó Suecia en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII, estaba tan convencido de los peligros particulares del café sobre todas las demás formas de cafeína que ideó un elaborado experimento. Un asesino convicto fue sentenciado a beber taza tras taza de café hasta su muerte, y otro asesino fue sentenciado a beber té de por vida, como control. (Desafortunadamente, los dos médicos a cargo del estudio murieron antes que nadie; luego Gustav fue asesinado; y finalmente el bebedor de té murió, a los ochenta y tres años, de viejo, dejando al asesino original solo con su espresso y dejando el café. supuesta toxicidad en alguna duda.) Más tarde, las diversas formas de cafeína comenzaron a dividirse a lo largo de líneas sociológicas. Wolfgang Schivelbusch, en su libro «Tastes of Paradise», sostiene que, en el siglo XVIII, el café simbolizaba las clases medias en ascenso, mientras que su gran rival cafeinado en esos años, el cacao o, como se le conocía en ese momento, el chocolate. era la bebida de la aristocracia. “Goethe, que usó el arte como un medio para elevarse de su origen de clase media a la aristocracia, y quien como miembro de una sociedad cortesana mantuvo un sentido de calma aristocrática incluso en medio de una inmensa productividad, hizo un culto al chocolate y evitaba el café ”, escribe Schivelbusch. “Balzac, que a pesar de su lealtad sentimental a la monarquía, vivió y trabajó para el mercado literario y solo para él, se convirtió en uno de los bebedores de café más excesivos de la historia. Aquí vemos dos estilos de trabajo y medios de estimulación fundamentalmente diferentes, psicologías y fisiologías fundamentalmente diferentes «. Hoy, por supuesto, la principal distinción cultural es entre café y té, que, según una lista elaborada por Weinberg y Bealer, han llegado a representar sensibilidades casi completamente opuestas:

Aspecto café
Masculino
Bullicioso
Indulgencia
Cabeza dura
Topología
Heidegger
Beethoven
Libertario
Promiscuo

Aspecto del té
Mujer
Decoroso
Templanza
Romántico
Geometría
Carnap
Mozart
Estadístico
Puro

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