Of Coffee Cups and Beer Glasses: Material Drinking Culture and Colonial Beverages in Rural Northwest Germany, 1600–1800

Abstract

abstract: This article explores the spread of material drinking culture of colonial and domestic beverages in rural regions in early modern northwest Germany. The rapid diffusion of colonial beverages in early modern Europe is well established in literature on consumption and material culture. But historians have yet to adequately answer questions concerning the way these beverages influenced material culture in intermediate regions, which were neither centers of (global) trade networks nor at their periphery. This article argues that while rural, intermediate areas lagged behind the development of centers, they also produced new forms of material drinking culture distinct from cities.