technique extracts less caffeine and theaflavin
than brewing in hot water, so the caffeine-
theaflavin complexes don’t form in sufficient
quantities to become visible in the chilled tea.
Coffee
Coffee trees are native to east Africa, and
were probably first valued for their sweet
cherry-like fruits and for their leaves, which
could be made into a kind of tea. Even today
an infusion of the dried fruit pulp is enjoyed
in Yemen, where the seeds or “beans” were
apparently first roasted, ground, and infused
in the 14th century. Our word coffee comes
from the Arabic qahwah, whose own origin is
unclear. The coffee tree was taken to south
India around 1600, from India to Java around
1700, and from Java (via Amsterdam and
Paris) to the French Caribbean shortly
thereafter. Today Brazil, Vietnam, and
Colombia are the largest exporters of coffee;