92 WATER AND OTHER BEVERAGES 



effects, except that it may lead to the regular use of a 

 hot drink and thus eventually to the use of tea and 

 coffee. 



Cocoa and chocolate. Cocoa and chocolate are really 

 dilute foods, of which chocolate is the richer owing to 

 the fat in the form of cocoa butter contained in it. 

 Otherwise, they are identical in effect. Both contain 

 small amounts of theobromine, which resembles the 

 caffeine of tea and coffee and which in very large doses 

 may be harmful. As found in cocoa and Qhocolate, how- 

 ever, it has practically no effect. Cocoa and chocolate, 

 if simply prepared and taken in moderate quantities, 

 are ordinarily agreeable and wholesome beverages. For 

 some persons, however, the chocolate especially is too 

 rich. 



Tea and coffee. The most popular beverages are tea 

 and coffee. Although these have such different flavors, 

 they are almost identical in composition and effect. Both 

 contain a powerful drug, caffeine, which in tea is known 

 as theine, together with a powerful astringent, tannic 

 acid, which is very harmful to the lining membrane of 

 the stomach. The effects of tea and coffee depend to a 

 large extent upon the method of preparation as well as 

 upon the quantity drunk. Caffeine and theine are both 

 quite soluble and are very quickly abstracted by hot 

 water from the finely ground coffee and thin tea leaves. 

 The tannic acid, on the contrary, takes some time to 

 dissolve out and appears in large quantities only when 

 tea and coffee are boiled. They should, therefore, be 

 steeped for only a few minutes. For this, tea balls or 

 small bags are desirable, since in this way the tea leaves 

 or coffee grounds can be removed at the proper time and 

 the solution of tannic acid avoided. If drunk occa- 

 sionally at meals, the amounts of caffeine and theine taken 



