This post was published more than a few years ago (on 2011-08-06) and may contain inaccurate technical information, outmoded thoughts, or cringe takes. Proceed at your own risk.
A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Entertaining overview of a fun premise. A bit euro-centric (the history of the beverages is mostly discussed as they enter the history of Europe and, in Coke’s case, the USA, regardless of when they first came on the scene in a global context), but the origins of all of the beverages are at least covered in a cursory fashion. This seems meant as an entertaining narrative, and not a complete and exhaustive scholarly tome — you have to pick a point of view if you’re going to tell a story, and this one worked great.