The paleobotanic findings suggest that tea was used by a lateral lineage of our species – homo erectus – some half a million years ago.

The cradle of homo sapiens – Africa – is also the home of popular caffeine plants: coffee and cola. Long before we learnt to make popular drinks from them, they served our forefathers as food. Even now primitive African tribes consume their sweet fruit as a dessert or a delicious snack and they make nutritional pies and soups from their seeds. Such use of the plants has not changed probably for thousands of years.

Coffee fruit is eaten by birds, goats and even small predators as well as apes. This makes us surmise that caffeine was included in our menu in the early stage of the evolution of our species.