If you're new to wine, beer, whisky, tea, coffee or cola and want a basic introduction to the history of each of these beverages, this is a good start. If, as I am, you are already seriously into some or all of them (I'm a beer, wine, whisky, tea and coffee guy), there's not much new here. The writing is fine and some of the anecdotes are very well told, but covering these six topics in just over 200 pages allows for little more than a sip of each.