COFFEE

COFFEE: "Coffee is made from the roasted pits of a berry that grows on the coffee tree. These coffee �beans� are ground and steeped in hot water to produce an infusion that is consumed hot or, sometimes, cold. The stimulant caffeine is naturally present in the bean and the infusion, and apart from coffee�s characteristic bitter flavor, its perennial appeal can be attributed to the increased wakefulness and alertness that the drug produces.1 Like other beverage-drugs coffee has accumulated a panoply of social traditions, one of which was the coffeehouse, an institution of some social importance in certain European cities in the early modern period."