Johan Nieuhof
Coffee was traditionally drunk black and that is how it was introduced to the European continent. So how did milk become such an integral part of this beverage? This history is a little obscure, as is always the case when trying to pin down exact details from hundreds of years ago. Many think that the Dutch ambassador to China, Johan Nieuhof, saw Chinese elites adding milk to their tea and experimented with adding milk to his coffee around 1660.
Following this, several French physicians began touting coffee with added milk (“café au lait” in French) as a medicinal treatment for a range of ailments. Among these were Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, who wrote a treatise on the health benefits of coffee, tea and chocolate. So does this mean that mocha has double the health benefits?
