Global Buzz: How caffeine is worth over $850bn

Caffeine – in one form or another – is one of the world's oldest commodities.

Tea - one of the main delivery systems for caffeine, if you can call it that - is thousands of years old. There are claims of it being made into a drink in China as far back as 2700 BC, while there are archaeological records of cups with tea residue from a few hundred years BC.

Matcha – which is essentially a type of green tea – has also been around for a long time. There are records of it being made during the Tang Dynasty, so mid-to-late 1st century.

In many ways coffee is the baby of the group – at least as a drink.