Hot cocoa, coffee, tea, and hot cider. They can jump-start a cold morning or help us relax before bedtime. But our favorite wintertime drinks are also a blast from the past.
The Olmec of ancient Mexico were probably the first people to sip on cocoa-based drinks, around 1700 B.C. The drink was bitter instead of sweet, which resulted in its name, xocolatl. That means “bitter water” in the Olmec language.
Around the world, coffee has taken center stage. According to legend, an Ethiopian goat herder named Kaldi was the first to eat the fruit that contains the coffee bean, in the 800s. He was inspired to try it after seeing how it energized his goats. People in Arabia started brewing roasted beans about 200 years later.
Apple cider got its start in the British Isles as early as 55 b.c. The first cider may even predate eating raw apples—which used to be extremely bitter! The orchards Johnny Appleseed planted across the U.S. in the early 1800s were made of apple varieties better suited to cider than pie.
But the oldest drink of all is tea. Legend says that Chinese emperor Shen Nung accidentally discovered tea more than 5,000 years ago after leaves blew into his boiling water.
Warm beverages have come a long way—and with the growing availability of sugar after the 1800s, they’ve also become much sweeter!