Guarana

In this sweeping chronicle of guarana glossy-leaved Amazonian vine packed with more caffeine than any other plantSeth Garfield develops a wide-ranging approach to the history of Brazil itself. The story begins with guaran as the pre-Columbian cultivar of the Sater-Maw people in the Lower Amazon region, where it figured centrally in the Indigenous nations origin stories, dietary regimes, and communal ceremonies. During subsequent centuries of Portuguese colonialism and Brazilian rule, guaran was reformulated by settlers, scientists, folklorists, food technologists, and marketers. Whether in search of pleasure, profits, professional distinction, or patriotic markers, promoters imparted new meanings to guaran and found new uses for it. Today, it is the namesake ingredient of a multibillion-dollar soft drink industry and a beloved national symbol.Guarans journey elucidates human impacts on Amazonian ecosystems; the circulation of knowledge, goods, and power; and the promise of modernity in Latin Americas largest nation. For Garfield, the beverages history reveals not only the structuring of inequalities in Brazil but also the mythmaking and ordering of social practices that constitute so-called traditional and modern societies.