coffee-msg - 1/5/19
Coffee and coffee-type drinks. Recipes.
NOTE: See also the files: Qawha-Coffee-art, tea-msg, wine-msg, beer-msg, beverages-msg, beverages-NA-msg, cider-msg, kvass-msg, kumiss-msg, mead-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: hqdoegtn/G=Harold/S=Feld/O=HQ at mhs.ATtmail.COM
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Coffee
Date: 2 Dec 1993 13:29:25 -0500
I just picked up a deleighful book called *Coffee and
Coffehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the
Medieval Near East* by Ralph S. Hattox, Prof. of Near
Eastern Studies at Washington University, Seattle Wash. (c)
1985 ISBN0-295-96231-3. The scholarship seems thorough, and
the writing style is pleasant and readable (without being
simplistic or anecdotal). The author attempts to use the
controversy surrounding the introduction of Coffee to the
Ottman world as a springboard to examining the early Ottoman
culture. There is also a nice piece in the back about the
particular problems of the diplomatic of the primary
sources.
I recomend it to those here who have expressed interest in
the subject of coffee. Good reading. An excellent
secondary source.
Yaakov (who would never have heard of coffee, doesn't even
like coffee mundanely, but wishes that *someone* would
import the tea he drank as a youth in Cathay.)
From: ayotte at milo.NOdak.EDU (Robert Arthur Ayotte)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: medieval cappucino request
Date: 14 Jan 1994 02:35:33 -0500
Organization: North Dakota State University ACM, Fargo ND
In article <1994Jan13.011932.2013 at ncsu.edu> you wrote:
: Kind Gentles,
: My associate and I are interested in constructing an authentic period
: cappucino maker (nummy)! If any have info concerning leads to design
: (pictures especially) or the Cappucine monks please E-mail me at
: ejcampbe at eos.ncsu.edu
: We thought this would be a great event treat.
: thank you in advance
: Xavier
: and
: Mezeppa Goloskyn
Sorry to have to be the one to tell you but cappacino is NOT
a period drink. It was developed sometime after espresso was made
in paris (gigga) just before WWII. Coffee was known to the Arabs around
1000 AD, and came to Venice in the 15th C.
It was drunk like early coco (powder whiped into hot water) or
the milled bean was boiled and the resulting fluid (??) was a thick viscous
stuff much like espresso but thicker and more bitter.
Since the additon of milk was late to cocoa as well there's no
period resource for cappacino. BUT One must be flexable at times and if
you want to serve such at an event, just do it. If anyone gives you any
guff, ask them how their "coke" is, and that should quiet them down. Fun
is important too.
Horace
From: hrjones at uclink.berkeley.edu (Heather Rose Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Medieval Cappucino
Date: 18 Jan 1994 03:30:53 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
<CLSMIT at ccmail.monsanto.COM> wrote:
>
> Greetings unto the Gentles milling about the Rialto from
> Caroline! If, as one gentle mentioned, cappucino and
> espresso aren't period, what about that similar drink known
> in Egypt now as "Turkish coffee"? I had it when I was there
There is a delightfully enlightening book on the subject of the beginnings
of coffee entitled "Coffee and Coffeehouses: the origins of a social beverage
in the Medieval Near East" (ISBN 0-295-96231-3) by Ralph S. Hattox. It
has an interesting discussion of the religious and political controversies
that it generated. (Is caffeine an "intoxicant" and thus forbidden? Is it
desirable to decide that coffee is forbidden whether it's intoxicating or
not if people are meeting in coffee houses and fomenting social unrest?)
The description of coffee preparation techniques in period follow those
for modern "Turkish" coffee -- i.e., you boil the grounds in a small pot
and hope they settle a little before you pour it into your cup. The
essential part of espresso/cappuchino, as I understand it, is that the
coffee is brewed by forcing steam through the grounds. The two processes
would not really be equivalent.
Also worth noting is that while there are a number of eyewitness descriptions
of coffee usage by 16th century Europeans, this book provides no support
for the use of coffee outside the Near East pre-1600. Sorry folks.
Keridwen ferch Morgan Glasfryn (who, being a 13th century Cymraes would
never consider making coffee at events herself but who, out of politeness,
will not refuse the strange things that my friends sometimes give me to
eat and drink)
From: habura at vccnw10.its.rpi.edu (Andrea Marie Habura)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Medieval Cappucino
Date: 19 Jan 1994 14:46:24 GMT
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Caroline asks about different sorts of coffee.
Turkish coffee is made by grinding coffee beans into a powder and dissolving
them in hot water, creating an intensely caffeinated, muddy liquid.
Espresso, on the other hand, is made by sending steam through slightly less
finely-ground beans. It is also highly caffeinated, but should not have actual
coffee particles in it. Cappuccino is basically espresso with frothed milk
in it.
Alison MacDermot
(Who, being 14th century, has never actually heard of coffee, but who is
forced to use the body of a 20th century caffeine addict)
From: DDF2 at cornell.edu (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Medieval Cappucino
Date: 24 Jan 1994 05:31:34 GMT
Organization: Cornell Law School
In article <940120.86164.WALKERMM at delphi.com>, WALKERMM at delphi.com wrote:
> Coffee hits England in 1583, ...
What is your source for this date? C. Anne Wilson, _Food and Drink in
Britain_, dates the first coffeehouse in England to 1650, and I have not
seen evidence for use earlier. The Larousse Gastronomique says that Coffee
reached Italy in 1615--although I would consider it a less reliable source
than Wilson on matters historical.
--
David/Cariadoc
DDF2 at Cornell.Edu
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: mikes at nickel.ucs.indiana.edu (michael squires)
Subject: Re: Turkish coffee
Summary: How to do it
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 02:36:31 GMT
Turkish coffee (modern) is made by very finely grinding coffee (usually
adulterated with whatever it is the French put in it whose name I have
just forgotten) and then placing a teaspoon of the powder in a long-handled
tinned brass cup. It is brought to a boil three times, then usually served
with lots of sugar (one of the shortages that the Ottomans complained about
the most during WWI was the coffee/sugar shortage, and sugar production was
one of the major industrial efforts of the early Turkish Republic).
The result is as strong as espresso, but with a lot more grounds. With
skillful drinking the grounds don't enter the mouth.
One of the more interesting baubles at Topkapi Saray (palace of the Ottoman
Sultans) is a pair of coffee cups (the size of the modern Turkish coffee
cups, demitasse size) each cut from a single emerald.
Coffee was drunk in Constantinople before 1600 (a major reason Sir Alan has
little interest in an earlier persona) and since the croissant may have been
invented to celebrate the Turkish defeat at Lepanto in 1571 he can eat his
favorite breakfast and be perfectly period :-).
--
Michael L. Squires, Ph.D Manager of Instructional Computing, Freshman Office,
Chemistry Department, IU Bloomington, IN 47405 812-855-0852 (o) 81-333-6564 (h)
mikes at indiana.edu, mikes at ucs.indiana.edu, or mikes at nickel.ucs.indiana.edu
From: sbloch at ms.uky.edu (Stephen Bloch)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca,rec.food.historic
Subject: Re: Medieval Cappucino
Date: 28 Jan 1994 23:54:27 -0500
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
>In article <940120.86164.WALKERMM at delphi.com>, WALKERMM at delphi.com wrote:
>> Coffee hits England in 1583, ...
David Friedman <DDF2 at cornell.edu> wrote:
>What is your source for this date? C. Anne Wilson, _Food and Drink in
>Britain_, dates the first coffeehouse in England to 1650, and I have not
>seen evidence for use earlier. The Larousse Gastronomique says that Coffee
>reached Italy in 1615--although I would consider it a less reliable source
>than Wilson on matters historical.
Harold McGee, _On Food and Cooking_, says:
... Venice became acquainted with coffee through the spice trade in
the 15th century, and in the 16th and early 17th centuries, English
travelers discovered it. [Quotes from English travelers, 1601 and
1607, not entirely complimentary, omitted.]
Despite this preliminary judgment, the new drink was a sensation
across Europe. First brought to England around 1630, it became
ensconced in London coffee houses in 1652, and Parisian cafes (named
with the French word for coffee) followed about 8 years later....
On December 23, 1675, Charles II of England issued "A Proclamation for
the Suppression of Coffee Houses." [quote omitted] The public outcry
was so great that the proclamation was revoked on January 8.
Then again, McGee is also says the only bean known in Europe before
1492 was the fava, so take that for what it's worth. The apparently
relevant entries from his bibliography (he doesn't give specific
endnotes) are
Robinson, E.F. _The Early History of Coffee Houses in England_
London: Kegan Paul, 1893.
Schapira, J., D. Schapira, and K. Schapira. _The Book of Coffee and
Tea_ New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975.
--
Stephen Bloch
sbloch at s.ms.uky.edu
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: dani at netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Subject: Re: Turkish Coffee
Keywords: Help!
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 20:26:10 GMT
lassman at ccu.umanitoba.ca (Linda):
>...Turkish Coffee, which instructed putting a teaspoon of coffee in a
>brass pot and adding water, then boiling 3 times.
I won't claim this isn't anachronistic, but here's what my Israeli Cookbook
has to say:
1-1/2 cups water, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons pulverized coffee,
pinch of hale (cardamom), 1 tablespoon cold water
"Put the water in a finjan or other coffee pot. Add the sugar and
stir well. Add the coffee mixed with the hale (cardamom). Place
on low heat and bring to a rising boil. Remove from heat and
add the 1 tablespoon cold water without stirring. Return to heat
and bring to a slow boil. Remove from heat and pour froth into
each cup. Bring to a boil a third time, remove from heat, and
serve in small cups. The pulverized coffee will sink like mud to
the bottom, the syrupy liquid remaining above it. This is the
coffee withwhich most Middle Eastern families will break the
fast, after the usual almond or herb drink."
An accompanying note states "...Turskish coffee, which is a sweet
heavy brew, with half the cup full of the pounded coffee grains.
This coffee is never taken with milk, but you may want it bitter,
and then you must say so. Or...you [may] have the coffee with
hale (cardamom). If you are with a Yemenite, you'll also have
ginger added to your brew."
'Luck.
-----
Dani of the Seven Wells
dani at netcom.com
From: adelekta at kentvm.kent.edu
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Turkish Coffee
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 94 18:37:15 EST
Organization: Kent State Univ.
In article <lassman.2.2D57BBD8 at ccu.umanitoba.ca>
lassman at ccu.umanitoba.ca (Linda) writes:
> and ran across a description of making
>Turkish Coffee, which instructed putting a teaspoon of coffee in a brass pot
>and adding water, then boiling 3 times.
>
>I have the coffee, I have the brass pot and I have the water, but don't know
>how much water. Can anyone help? And would any spices or sugar have been
>added before boiling?
Try using 1/2 cup of cold water, 2 teaspoons of coffee, and 0 to 2
tablespoons of sugar. Mix them all up together, then boil (well, it's not
really a boil - heat it until it foams up). Ground cardamon can be added,
I've also seen references to fumigating the cup with myrrh (I think it was
myrrh - I believe I read it in a book about coffee by a man named Ralph
Hattox -- cannot remember the exact title).
Cardamon warning... I bought some ground coffee that had cardamom in it -- I
found it undrinkably strong (the cardamon flavor, I mean). Use in moderation.
-Zimra al-Ghaziyah, still trying to perfect her coffee-making skills...
From: philippe at avignon.equinox.gen.nz (Peter Thomson)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Turkish Coffee
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 08:23:32 GMT
Organization:
From what I've read it's also the custom in some some mid-eastern
countries to add a single drop of rose water to each cup, which is the
way I like it best. Also the amount of sugar may be upped for happy
occasions, weddings etc. and lowered, or left out for sad ones, e.g.
funerals.
You should be using finely ground coffee beans. In Greece they have
two types of coffee, Greek which is your basic mid-eastern mud type
coffee, and Nescafe - that stuff the tourists drink with milk in it!!
The amounts I was shown to use are 1 demi-tase cup of water
1 teaspoon of coffee
1 teaspoon of sugar per person.
Cardamom and rose-water optional.
Rowena
From: UDSD073 at DSIBM.OKLADOT.STATE.OK.US (Mike Andrews)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Medieval Veggies, Fruits (LONG)
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 1995 15:00
Organization: The University of Oklahoma (USA)
In article <destryD29FrK.DvJ at netcom.com>,
destry at netcom.com (Fellwalker) writes:
>(Who published the Hattox book and what year? -thanks)
87-31618: Hattox, Ralph S. Coffee and coffeehouses : the origins of a
social beverage in the medieval Near East / University of Washington
Press ed. Seattle : University of Washington Press, 1988, c1985. xii,
178 p., 16 leaves of plates : ill. ; 22 cm.
NOT IN LC COLLECTION
Posted rather than mailed, since it might be of rather general
interest.
--
udsd007 at ibm.okladot.state.ok.us (192.149.244.136)
Michael Fenwick of Fotheringhay, O.L. (Mike Andrews) Namron, Ansteorra
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)
Subject: Re: Medieval Veggies, Fruits (LONG)
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 05:46:17 GMT
I wrote:
: According to Ralph Hattox, _Coffee and Coffehouses ..._, coffee use
: only started spreading outside of Abyssinia in the mid fifteenth
: century.
Max replied:
"Yes, but _in_ the Near East ...between the 10th and 15th centuries
it becames established as a drink..._then_ it spread, after
coffeehouses were opened in Mecca and the drink gained popularity."
Not according to Hattox. His claim is that use was restricted to
Abyssinia until the mid fifteenth century. He goes through the spread
thereafter in some detail; he says it reached Mecca at the end of the
century, Cairo in the first decade of the 16th c.
The publisher (Max asked) is University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Date 1985.
David/Cariadoc
From: simon smith <sds1 at unix.york.ac.uk>
To: markh at risc.sps.mot.com
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:37:05 BST
Subject: coffee.msg - 2/2/94
Dear Mark,
I found your interesting collection of messages relating to coffee last week.
Regarding the introduction of coffee into England, the first explicit reference is of course John Evelyn's observation: 'there came in my time to the college one Nathaniel Conopios, out of Greece. He was the first I ever saw drink coffee'. Evelyn was an Oxford undergraduate when he wrote this (ie. between 1637 and 1639). Very probably the coffee was brought in privately by a traveller. The first known coffee house opened in England at Oxford in 1651, followed by London in 1652.
These would have been supplied with coffee by Levant Company merchants, or 'Turkey merchants'. The first major treatise dealing with coffee was published in 1659 by Edward Pocock called 'The nature of the drink kauhi, or coffee'. There is a reference to an East India Surat factor shipping coho (coffee)
dishes in 1640, but the first order the company made for coffee was recorded only December 31 1657 when 10 tons of coho seede was requested from Surat, followed by an order for 20 tons in December 1659. Coffee is first recorded as an item in the company's general court of sales for 10 October 1660. The same year the government imposed an excise duty of 4 pence per gallon on coffee served at coffee houses.
- Simon Smith.
From: simon smith <sds1 at unix.york.ac.uk>
To: Mark Harris
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 11:02:11 BST
Subject: Re: coffee.msg - 2/2/94
Dear Mark,
Thanks. Just a minor point, however. 1657 saw the publication of Walter Rumsey's
Organum Salutis: an instrument to cleanse the stomach, As also divers new Experiments of the virtue of Tobacco and Coffee. This should probably be considered the first treatise.
A final comment! There is a broadsheet published in 1655 by Pasqua Rosie describing 'The vertue of the coffee drink'.
- Simon.
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 18:49:17 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: SC - Caffeine in period
>I seem to recall that, at the tail end of period, some amount of coffee was
>available on the Continent.
The following is from the _Miscellany_.
The coffee plant is apparently native to Abyssinia. The use of coffee in
Abyssinia was recorded in the fifteenth century and regarded at that time
as an ancient practice (EB). I believe that there is a reference in one of
the Greek historians to what sounds like coffee being drunk in what might
well be Abyssinia, but I have not yet succeeded in tracking it down.
Coffee was apparently introduced into Yemen from Abyssinia in the middle of
the 15th century. It reached Mecca in the last decade of the century and
Cairo in the first decade of the 16th century (Hattox).
The use of coffee in Egypt is mentioned by a European resident near the end
of the sixteenth century. It was brought to Italy in 1615 and to Paris in
1647 (LG). The first coffee house in England was opened in Oxford in 1650
(Wilson), and the first one in London was opened in 1652 (EB). The earliest
use of the word in English is in 1592, in a passage describing its use in
Turkey (OED) .
It appears that coffee is out of period for European feasts and late period
for Islamic ones.
David/Cariadoc
From: Uduido at aol.com
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 20:13:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SC - Re: Arabic Coffee)
In a message dated 97-06-13 11:20:30 EDT, you write:
<< Do you (or does anyone else) have instructions on making this kind of
coffee, and perhaps an idea of how far back it goes?
--Bill, new to the SCA and as yet unnamed in Ansteorra
(bills at aurora-gas.com) >>
Wellll!!!!! As they say in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" ....here I go
again! No research...no documentation.... Basically, I serve and breww coffee
this way.......
Ras's Coffee
- ------------------
3 level tblspns groud coffee per 4 oz water
Bring water to a boil. Add coffee. Stir. Cover tightly. Remove from heat.
Leave stand 8-10 minutes. Strain into small cups. Float 1 pat (e.g. 1 tsp.)
yak, goat, or sheep butter ( I substitute 1 pat regular unsweetened cow
butter bought in West Virginia because this tastes more like butter than any
butter available in the continental United States). Sip slowly in small
amounts. Particularly tasty with gold-leaf covered dates. and lamb kabobs.
Surprisingly this is actually very tasty and I use it in my home occasionally
for a special drink for guests.. However, I assure you that if your tastes
run toward the more mundane, you will be served accordingly. :-)
If your coming to war let me know privately and I will open my camp to you. :-)
Lord Ras (Uduido at aol.com)
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 11:17:09 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: SC - coffee
At 9:01 AM +0000 6/14/97, leslie vaughn wrote:
>Your Grace,
> What's the Hattox book? I've not heard of it before.
>Isabeau
Hattox, Ralph S., Coffee and Coffeehouses, The Origins of a Social Beverage
in the Medieval Near East, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1985.
David/Cariadoc
From: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy at abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 09:55:37 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SC - Coffee (fwd)
IN reference to an old discussion on Coffee, from the Calontir list. I have
not checked the sites in question.
Tibor
Forwarded message:
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 18:17:44 -0500
From: rhianwen at WICHITA.FN.NET
Subject: Coffee
>Coffee is indeed a Period drink ( tho I believe cappucino is *way* OOP )
>coffee houses appeared in Constantinople in the mid 1400's.
For which I am eternally grateful.
For some interesting coffee history (including a really great quote from
Pope Vincet III), see:
http://agt.net/public/coffee/history.htm
http://www.yohannes.com/AAJKA/coffeehistory.htm
********
Rhianwen
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 01:27:36 -0400
From: marilyn traber <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Candied Citrus Peel & Turkish Coffee
Jeanne Stapleton wrote:
> For next week's work party, I need to have recipes for candied citrus
> peel and Turkish coffee...I can't *find* mine and this week at work
> and out is hellacious...can I call on y'all for some help?
>
> Berengaria
Turkish coffee-easy.
Get some regular french roast coffee, epresso grind it, add a few
cardamom seeds, place a heaping tbsp per person in a sauce pan, about 2
tb sugar, 6 oz water per person. Bring to a boil, remove from heat to
stop the boil, repeat another two times, pour gently into glasses and make
sure each glass has some of the foam on top.
margali
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 13:50:28 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: SC - LONG - Period veges(coffee)
> And coffee. Said to have been discovered by
>an arab goatherd in the 850's
>
>Charles ragnar (my period is medieval, 911- 1204 europe holy lands and
>north africa)
And I consort with Sheik Abdullah because coffee is period for him.
In general, the use of coffee was apparently uncommon in the Islamic
lands until after 1200 C.E., and was unknown in Europe until the late
1500's. Louis L'Amour places coffee houses in Spain during the 1100's
in his book The Walking Drum, but I believe this to be a historical
error. There are a number of errors in this book and I have found no
documentation to support the existence of coffee houses at that time and
place. Frankly, coffee houses can't exist until the supply of coffee is
large enough and trade steady enough to lower the cost into the price
range of the moderately wealthy.
Coffee is one of those subjects which gets debated regularly, so here's
my tuppence for Stefan's collection. The best text I have found on the
subject is William Ukers, All About Coffee, 2nd edition, 1932 (?). It
was written for the coffee industry and covers history, growing, and
processing in depth. The bibliography is one of the most extensive I
have ever seen. I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.
Herewith, Bear's Chronology of Coffee for the Anachronist. (Many of
these dates are approximate.) One of these years, I may actually get
around to writing the article I've been researching.
200 B.C. -- Possible cultivation of coffee in Yemen. Archeological
evidence is open to interpretation.
750 C.E. -- Khalid observes the effect of coffee on goats and himself.
(apocryphal)
900 C.E. -- Rhazes (Arab physician) mentions coffee under the name
bunca or bunchum.
1000 C.E. -- Avicenna (Arab physician and philosopher) describes the
medicinal properties of bunchum
1258 C.E. -- Sheik Omar (founder of Mocha) discovers coffee as a
beverage at Ousab, Arabia. (apocryphal ?)
1400 - 1500 C.E. -- Specialized tools for coffee making appear in
Turkey and Persia -- hand roasters, Turkish cylindrical coffee mill,
and the Turkish metal coffee boiler.
1454 C.E. -- Sheik Gemaleddin, mufti of Aden, learns of coffee in
Abyssinia and sanctions its use in Arabia Felix.
1505 C.E. -- Coffee plant is introduced into Ceylon.
1510 C.E. -- Coffee drink is introduced into Cairo.
1511 C.E. -- Kair Bey, governor of Mecca, prohibits the drinking of
coffee. The sultan of Cairo revokes the prohibition.
1517 C.E. -- Sultan Selim I, conquers Egypt, brings coffee to
Constantinople
1524 C.E. -- The kadi of Mecca closes the coffee houses. His
successor reopens them under license.
1530 C.E. -- Coffee drinking introduced into Damascus.
1532 C.E. -- Coffee drinking introduced into Aleppo.
1534 C.E. -- Religious riot against coffee houses. Chief judge
settles the controversy by serving coffee at a meeting of disputants.
1542 C.E. -- Soliman II forbids the use of coffee.
1554 C.E. -- The first coffee houses are opened in Constatinople.
1570 - 1580 C.E. -- Religious dispute over coffee. Amurath III closes
coffee houses by classing coffee with wine, but coffee use continues
privately.
1573 C.E. -- Rauwolf (German physician and botanist) travels to the
Levant, mentions coffee in his writings
1580 C.E. -- Alpinus (Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist)
travels to Egypt and describes coffee.
1582 C.E. -- First printed reference to coffee (chube) in Rauwolf's
Travels.
1585 C.E. -- Gianfrancesco Morosini (city magistrate in
Constantinople) reprots to the Venetian senate of the Turkish use of
cavee.
1587 C.E. -- First authentic account of the origin of coffee by Sheik
Abd-al-Kadir (manuscript in Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)
1592 C.E. -- First printed description of coffee plant (bon) and
drink (caova) in Alpini's The Plants of Egypt.
1596 C.E. -- Belli sends Egyptian (?) coffee beans to de l'Ecluse.
1598 C.E. -- First printed reference in English to chaoua in a note in
the translation from the Dutch of Linschooten's Travels.
1600 C.E. -- Coffee cultivation introduced into southern India at
Chickmaglur, Mysore, by Baba Budan. (apocryphal)
1601 C.E. -- Modern form of the word coffe first appears in English in
Sherley's Travels.
1603 C.E. -- Captain John Smith (yes, THAT John Smith) refers to the
Turk's drink coffa in his book of travels.
1610 C.E. -- Sir George Sandys (English poet) visits the Middle East
and describes the drinking of coffa.
1614 C.E. -- Dutch traders visit Aden to study the possibilies of
coffee cultivation and trade.
1615 C.E. -- Pietro Della Valle writes to Mario Schipano in Venice
that he will be bring some coffee with him, which he believes to be
unknown in his native country. Coffee is introduced into Venice.
1616 C.E. -- First coffee brought from Mocha to Holland by Pieter Van
dan Broecke.
1620 C.E. -- Peregrine White's wooden mortar and pestle (used for
braying coffee) is brought to America on the Mayflower by his parents.
1625 C.E. -- Sugar first used to sweeten coffee in Cairo.
1637 C.E. -- Coffee drinking is introduced into England by Nathaniel
Conopios, a Cretan student at Balliol College, Oxford.
1640 C.E. -- Wurffbain (Dutch merchant) offers for sale in Amsterdam
the first commercial shipment of coffee from Mocha.
1644 C.E. -- Coffee is introduced in to France at Marseilles by P. de
la Roque.
1645 C.E. -- Coffee comes into general use in Italy. First coffee
house opens in Venice.
1650 C.E. -- First coffee house in England is opened at Oxford by
Jacobs. Coffee introduced into Vienna.
1652 C.E. -- First coffee house in London opened by Pasqua Rosce in
St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill. He also produces the first advertisement
for coffee, the handbill, The Vertue of the Coffee Drink.
Bon Chance
Bear
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 22:09:36 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - LONG - Period veges(coffee)
At 1:50 PM -0600 11/26/97, Decker, Terry D. wrote:
>Coffee is one of those subjects which gets debated regularly, so here's
>my tuppence for Stefan's collection. The best text I have found on the
>subject is William Ukers, All About Coffee, 2nd edition, 1932 (?). It
>was written for the coffee industry and covers history, growing, and
>processing in depth. The bibliography is one of the most extensive I
>have ever seen. I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.
Another book worth looking at is:
Hattox, Ralph S., Coffee and Coffeehouses, The Origins of a Social Beverage
in the Medieval Near East, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1985.
My summary from the Miscellany, based mainly on Hattox
- --:
The coffee plant is apparently native to Abyssinia. The use of coffee in
Abyssinia was recorded in the fifteenth century and regarded at that time
as an ancient practice (EB). I believe that there is a reference in one of
the Greek historians to what sounds like coffee being drunk in what might
well be Abyssinia, but I have not yet succeeded in tracking it down.
Coffee was apparently introduced into Yemen from Abyssinia in the middle of
the 15th century. It reached Mecca in the last decade of the century and
Cairo in the first decade of the 16th century (Hattox).
The use of coffee in Egypt is mentioned by a European resident near the end
of the sixteenth century. It was brought to Italy in 1615 and to Paris in
1647 (LG). The first coffee house in England was opened in Oxford in 1650
(Wilson), and the first one in London was opened in 1652 (EB). The earliest
use of the word in English is in 1592, in a passage describing its use in
Turkey (OED) .
- --
David/Cariadoc
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 22:00:12 EST
From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>
Subject: SC - Coffee-History
<< Coffee comes into the Islamic world in late period >>
FWIW, coffee seems to have been drunk in Persia in the 9th century. Mentioned
by the prince of physicians Abu ibn Sina around 1000 c.e. Rare drink made of
seeds brought from Egypt,Libya and Abyssinia. Only used by very high Arab
dignitaries. This places the use of coffee by the arab world pre-Crusades
which is not late period.
However, the first mention of coffee by a European was in 1580 c.e. by
Prospero Alpino of Padua after returning from a diplomatic trip to Ottoman
ruled Egypt. By then coffee houses were spread throughout the Arab world at
least as far as Constantinople despite the previous edict of a vizier more
noted for his ignorance than anything else , Mahomet Kolpii. After the
bastinado failed to curb coffee drinking and the closing of public coffee
houses also failed, as did then destruction of back walls to coffee houses, he
resorted to putting the proprietors and their more conspicuous customers in
leather sacks and casting them into the sea. This also failed to curb coffee
drinking.
It is next mentioned by an Englishman in 1617, so far as I know, who had been
a tourist to Arab countries.
Thus if you want to be period visit an Arab or Persian friend in the SCA and
consume to your hearts content. :-)
al-Sayyid Ras al-Zib, (who dispite his name always has coffee waiting for all
visitors. :-))
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 10:21:00 EST
From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Coffee-History
<< How do you know that what Avicenna describes is coffee? >>
The reference to coffee being used in 9th century Persia is taken from Loius
Figuier, Le savant au foryer, Hachette, Paris, 1876.
With regard to Avicenna> He does not use the word "kahwa" in his description
but rather quite specifically uses the word "bunc" the name by which coffee is
still known in Abyssinia. Since it is highly probable that coffee was imported
from Abyssinia, it makes since that he would use this word to name it. I would
point out that he also reported that it's use was very rare and for a
priveleged few only.
<<My main source is the Hattox book ...<snip>.....and his claim is that it
started being used outside of Abyssinia (where it is native) pretty late, I
think c.
1400. That permits the possibility that it was drunk earlier as an
exotic--but how clear is it that it is true?>>
I most certainly believe that it's use as a "common" beverage is probably more
like the 1400 date you imply. However, due to Avicenna's careful choice of
words in his description, I tend to believe that it was indeed, "bunc" (e.g.
coffee) he was describing.. Avicenna is not, so far as I know, noted for
exageration and falsification in his works. I humbly submit that common usage
of a product does not mean that the product could not have been used for
several centuries either as a medicinal or for the exclusive comsumption of a
few extraordinarily wealthy and/or well placed individuals. Indeed, given that
"bunc" is actually coffee, Avicenna apparently tells us exactly that it's use
was rare.
Perhaps the use of coffee would fit into a similar pattern that is somewhat
apparent with the use of potatoes which were also known for a couple of
centuries before they came into common usage.
<<David/Cariadoc >>
Ras
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 08:23:28 -0500
From: margali <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Coffee-History
per some research done for a class on coffee for at pensic, the coffee
was originally the greeen dried bean, steeped just like tea. roasting
came a bit later.
margali
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 08:59:27 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Re:coffee, tea or sugar
><< Ok ok now you all must remember that if todays folks were to drink real
> coffee you would gag as from what I have seen and talked to people it was
> very thick and sweet.... >>
>
>Sounds a lot like the way my 'cajun grandfather drank his coffee, but then
>again, he also insisted on a bit of chicory in it, and rumor is he also threw
>a whole egg into the pot to thicken it. He also insisted that it was most
>properly served by pouring sweetened, heated real cream into the cup at the
>same time as the coffee. The cream was thick with sugar, and the coffee was
>as thick as the cream.
>
>Mordonna
A little different blend. Middle Eastern coffee has crushed coffee and
sugar boiled with water until you get a black caffinated simple syrup.
Your grandpappy liked that bayou mud. I'd almost bet he used a
tablespoon and a half of coffee mix per cup, and if he was real
traditional, he'd run about 3 to 1 coffee beans to chicory through a
hand grinder.
Did he crack the egg and drop it in shells and all or did he stir it in?
Bear (who's about a quart low, but working on it).
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 11:06:45 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Byzantine Cooking (Long)
>Bear quotes me:
>
>>>Coffee comes into the Islamic world in late period; does anyone know when
>>>tea makes its appearance, and when? With the Mongols? It doesn't get to
>>>Europe until quite late--17th c. for England.
>
>and responds
>
>>I'll quibble on the coffee. While its expansion beyond the Arabian
>>Peninsula was limited primarily to the rich, it was known and in use as
>>early as the 9th Century.
>
>Evidence? The Hattox book concludes, after looking at a good deal of
>evidence and disputed claims, that it was native to Abyssinia, and didn't
>come into use in Arabia until the middle of the 15th c.
>
>David/Cariadoc
Not having read the Hattox book, I depend on Uker as my primary source
on coffee and his comments on coffeehouses, edicts for and against them,
and the riots over them. The trade aspects are from some old notes
taken from a book on trade in the Islamic world, whose name escapes me
at present (which means I need to reread it and see if I've gotten more
knowledgeable).
The earliest date I have for the discovery of coffee is 750 CE. Most
scholars place it at 850 CE. If Avicenna was actually describing
coffee, one of these dates is probably correct.
The Ommayids moved the capitol of Islam to Damascus in mid-7th Century.
After the Abbasids seized control in 750 CE, they moved their capitol to
Baghdad, so that it was the capitol by the beginning to the 9th Century.
The sole survivor of the Ommayids, creates the Caliphate of Cordoba by
the end of the 8th century. This means that by the time coffee is
discovered, the seat of power is Baghdad and the Arabian peninsula is a
backwater. Wealth and power moved out of Arabia, and I can easily see
Arabia coming to coffee late when the supply increased and its cost
diminished.
One of the major spice routes was up the Red Sea to Egypt then to other
Mediterranean ports, then inland to land locked cities. Mocha is a port
on this route in southwest Yemen. If I remember this correctly, Uker
places the use of coffee in Egypt and Damascus in the 11th Century,
approximately conteporary with Avicenna. An inference can be made, that
the sea ports closest to Ethiopia were harvesting coffee and sending it
up the trade route as a luxury good. This trade route probably changed
at the beginning of the Crusades.
Turkish and Syrian utensiles from the 13th and 14th Centuries have been
identified as coffee grinders and coffee makers. Barring error in the
identification of such utensiles, this suggests that coffee use was
spreading. It also suggests that coffee was moving from harvested wild
coffee to cultivated coffee, increasing the available supply.
A cultivated supply of coffee was certainly available by the 15th
Century. When Constantinople fell in the mid-15th Century, coffee was
immediately available within the city and the coffeehouse which later
opened there made coffee a middle class luxury, rather than the
exclusive drink of the wealthy.
These are a few of the points that cause me to hold the opinions I do.
As I have said, I have not read Hattox and of the many books on coffee I
have read, Uker is the only one I consider valuable enough to use in a
scholarly argument. When I have the opportunity to consider Hattox's
arguments, I may change some of my opinions. Until then, please pardon
my quibbles.
Bear
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 10:08:07 -0600From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>Subject: RE: SC - Byzantine Cooking (Long)Your pardon, but I am in error on some points and imprecise in myphrasing on others. I lost some of my notes in a disk crash and I wasworking from my faulty memory. I located a hard copy of some of mynotes this morning.The utensils I mentioned in this post are from the 14th and 15thcentury. They become more elaborate toward the end of the 15th Centuryand more common in the 16th and 17th Centuries.Uker places coffee as a drink about 1300 CE, but general introductionand the attendent riots and civil problems is early 16th Century, ratherthan the 11th Century I stated. He places the general use of coffee inArabia to about 1450 with it moving northward along the Red Sea to Meccaand Medina about 1470 and Cairo about 1510.The physician Rhazes refers to bunca or bunchum (coffee) about 900 CEand Avicenna describes its medicinal properties about 100 years later,so the odds are that it was primarily a medicinal herb until somewherelate in the 13th Century.A point I need to check is a note I have that the first coffee house inConstantinople is the Kiva Han opened in 1475. Uker places the firstcoffee houses in Constantinople in 1554 being opened by Shemsi ofDamascus and Hekem of Aleppo. The introduction of coffee toConstantinople may be either 1453 or 1517, depending on the veracity ofthe sources.One of these years, I need to do a paper, just to sort out my opinionsand present them with supporting documentation. Maybe it will be longenough to sell as a book. :-)Bear
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 20:22:46 -0800
From: Ron and Laurene Wells <tinyzoo at vr-net.com>
Subject: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #516
I have a Turkish Coffee recipe in my Meal Master database. Try it, and let
me know if it brings back any memories. :)
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
Title: TURKISH COFFEE
Categories: Beverages, Coffee
Yield: 2 Servings
3/4 c Water
1 tb Sugar
1 tb Pulverized Coffee
1 Cardamon Pod
Combine water and sugar in an ibrik or small saucepan. Bring to a
boil; then remove from heat and add coffee and cardamon. Stir well
and return to heat. When coffee foams up, remove form heat and let
grounds settle. Repeat twice more. Pour into cups; let grounds
settle before drinking._
From Sheila Buff & Judi Olstien, "The New Mixer's Guide to
Low-Alcohol and Nonalcholic Drinks." Published By HPBooks, Inc.,
1986, ISBN 0-89586-458-4.
MMMMM
My husband LOVES this coffee, but we never havvve quite figured out how to
make it foam up. My husband read somewhere that there is supposed to be a
froth on top of the coffee and that it is according to Turkish tradition it
is considered an insult to skimp someone on the froth when serving. This
recipe does not seem to make any froth though - perhaps we are doing it
wrong? PLEASE, let me know how it turns out for you!
- -Laurene
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 09:42:36 -0500
From: "Gedney, Jeff" <Gedney at executone.com>
Subject: RE: SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #516
> I have a Turkish Coffee recipe in my Meal Master database. Try it, and let
> me know if it brings back any memories. :)
<snip of good basic coffee recipe>
> My husband LOVES this coffee, but we never havvve wuite figured out hot
> make it foam up. My husband read somewhere that there is supposed to be a
> froth on top of the coffee and that it is according to Turkish tradition it
> is considered an insult to skimp someone on the froth when serving. This
> recipe does not seem to make any froth though - perhaps we are doing it
> wrong? PLEASE, let me know how it turns out for you!
The froth is called "Kaimak", I believe, and is the result of NOT
"boiling" the coffee.
Coffee oils are most efficiently extracted between 180 and 195 degrees F.
If the coffee goes above 205 degrees, the coffee oils begin to break
down, and the Kaimak ( derived from the coffee oils ) goes bye-bye.
Making this coffee is a balancing act, and takes practice.
The idea is to maintain the ground coffee at 180 to 200 degrees as long as possible to extract the fullest coffee flavor. If the coffee is allowed to boil, or the syrup to thicken, then temp will go too high, and the coffee will burn.
You boil the sugar and water until it bubbles up well.
Remove from heat until the bubbling ceases.
add the coffee (not commercial "Ground" -- use espresso powder, or crush your own dark roast in mortar and pestle, or a Turkish hand mill ( available from
most spice stores- -- Evidently the "Frugal Gourmet" made a big deal about them being the BEST for milling pepper ) and cardamom, and stir. This should be the LAST TIME you stir!
place the Ibrik back on the heat until the coffee just STARTS to bubble, and quickly remove from heat! Repeat this twice more, and at the third bubbling,
serve into cups immediately.
Brandu
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 00:22:26 -0500
From: David Friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: RE: SC - Byzantine Cooking (Long)
Bear writes:
>The Ommayids moved the capitol of Islam to Damascus in mid-7th Century.
>After the Abbasids seized control in 750 CE, they moved their capitol to
>Baghdad, so that it was the capitol by the beginning to the 9th Century.
> The sole survivor of the Ommayids, creates the Caliphate of Cordoba by
>the end of the 8th century. This means that by the time coffee is
>discovered, the seat of power is Baghdad and the Arabian peninsula is a
>backwater. Wealth and power moved out of Arabia, and I can easily see
>Arabia coming to coffee late when the supply increased and its cost
>diminished.
>
>One of the major spice routes was up the Red Sea to Egypt then to other
>Mediterranean ports, then inland to land locked cities. Mocha is a port
>on this route in southwest Yemen. If I remember this correctly, Uker
>places the use of coffee in Egypt and Damascus in the 11th Century,
>approximately conteporary with Avicenna. An inference can be made, that
>the sea ports closest to Ethiopia were harvesting coffee and sending it
>up the trade route as a luxury good. This trade route probably changed
>at the beginning of the Crusades.
Hattox dates the appearance of Coffee in Egypt etc. as later than the
appearance in Arabia. As best I recall, his sequence is
Abyssinia--Yemen--elsewhere in Arabia--Cairo--Istanbul.
>Turkish and Syrian utensiles from the 13th and 14th Centuries have been
>identified as coffee grinders and coffee makers. Barring error in the
>identification of such utensiles, this suggests that coffee use was
>spreading. It also suggests that coffee was moving from harvested wild
>coffee to cultivated coffee, increasing the available supply.
It sounds like a case of different scholars interpreting the evidence quite
differently. I'm not sure how one can distinguish coffee grinders from
other grinders--and suspect that the interpretation might depend a lot on
whether you thought coffee was being used there then. If it was merely an
exotic used for medicinal purposes, special utensils would also be exotic,
and rare, if they existed at all.
What is the date of your source? Short of comparing the detailed arguments,
a good first step would be to find out which author had access to the other.
David/Cariadoc
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 13:00:24 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - coffe and tea at events
>At 11:42 PM -0500 1/23/98, LrdRas wrote:
>> ddfr at best.com writes:
>>
>><< A Middle Eastern persona from when? >>
>>
>>15th Century, Turkish
>
>In that case, if Hattox's chronology is correct, you may never have tasted
>coffee and certainly do not regard it as something to be routinely served
>to guests. He has it first introduced (from Abyssinia) into Yemen in the
>15th c., reaching Mecca in the last decade of the century and Cairo in the
>first decade of the 16th. So it hasn't gotten to the Ottomans yet, although
>it is barely possible that you have tasted it when travelling in Arabia.
>
>David/Cariadoc
If Uker's chronology is correct, a 15th Century Turk might have coffee
available, especially if they were wealthy. This is primarily based on
the types of ewers and the coffee roasting plates which became available
in Persia, Egypt and Turkey between 1350 and 1500. I keep hoping to
come across a study of a chemical or neutron bombardment analysis of the
interior of some of these artifacts (especially the earlier pottery
ewers) to determine if they were actually used for coffee.
In Uker, general coffee drinking starts about 1454 with Sheik
Gemaleddin, the Mufti of Aden, sanctioning the use of coffee in Arabia
Felix. Coffee use spreads north. Coffee is prohibited in Cairo in
1511. Coffee reaches Constantinople with Selin I in 1517. 1524 the
Khadi of Mecca closes the coffee houses and his successor reopens them
under license. 1554 the first coffee houses are opened in
Constantinople by Shemsi of Damascus and Hekem of Aleppo.
From a different source, I have coffee being introduced into
Constatinople in 1453 and the first coffee house, Kiva Han, being opened
in 1475. I have not found an independent verification of this source
and it is not backed by a reliable bibliography or notes.
From the sources I have available, and I do not have Hattox, my opinion
is that coffee has been available in the Islamic world since about 900
CE (Rhaze's description of bunchum). It was probably a medicinal until
about 1250 (apocryphally, Sheik Omar, disciple of Sheik Schadheli,
patron saint and legendary founder of Mocha, discovers the beverage
coffee at Ousab, Arabia), when it became a luxury trade good for the
very rich. This would explain the existence of coffee making artifacts
and the lack of coffee houses. Cultivation of coffee expanding to meet
the demand creates a surplus which lowers the price of coffee and brings
it to the masses around 1450.
While I may argue the precise dates and tell Lord Raz he had better be a
wealthy Turk if he wants to drink coffee, I will agree that the general
use of coffee as a beverage in al-Islam is very late in the SCA period.
Bear
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 17:32:40 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - coffe and tea at events
>At 1:00 PM -0600 1/24/98, Decker, Terry D. wrote:
>I think the problem with that account is that coffee is being treated as a
>novelty in the fifteenth century, if I remember Hattox correctly--among
>other things, the question of whether it counts as an intoxicant and should
>be banned surfaces then. That might happen if it had been known only as a
>medicine before, but doesn't sound plausible if it had been a luxury trade
>good for the previous two centuries. Absent your hypothetical future tests,
>I find "coffe making arifacts" pretty weak evidence--how do they differ
>from similar artifacts used for other purposes?
>
>David/Cariadoc
Some of the artifacts in question are coffee roasting plates (flat,
slightly rounded plates with small holes drilled in them to help heat
the beans). They aren't much good for anything else. As for the tests,
I may need to write the Sackler and inquire if any such tests have been
made.
Coffee becomes a "popular" novelty at the end of the 15th Century. Uker
places the general use of coffee as starting in 1470. Depending on the
dates used, it took 25 to 75 years to spread across the Islamic world.
Sugar cultivation took about 50 years to spread and it had been
cultivated for centuries before the Arabs found it. The speed with
which coffee spread and the level of income that it reached suggests
that coffee had been under increasing cultivation for quite some time.
As for the 200 year luxury trade, if you were starting from wild plants
trying to create a cultivated base for a small but growing luxury trade,
200 years might be a bagatelle.
If coffee was not in use and under cultivation before it became popular,
where did the coffee beans come from to meet the demand? If coffee was
under cultivation, what was the market for coffee before it became
popular? They are questions worth answering, but the answers may be
beyond my limited skills.
Bear
Subject: RE: ANST - Traveling INN
Date: Wed, 01 Apr 98 14:11:19 MST
From: Dennis Grace <amazing at mail.utexas.edu>
To: ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG
Lyonel aisai.
I should know better than to rely on my failing memory with this list.
Bear corrects my unsupported claim that coffee was available in the 8th
century with:
>The first description of coffee (Rhazes) is 10th Century. Avicenna is 11th.
>And they were describing medicinal properties.
>
>Coffee was probably in use as a beverage by the 14th Century, but in my
>opinion, it was a luxury trade good. (Cariadoc disputes this one, placing
>the spread of coffee in the late 15th century).
>
>Common use of coffee in Arabia Felix doesn't begin until at least the middle
>of the 15th Century. Widespread general usage does not begin until the 16th
>Century.
>
>I have a source placing a coffee house (Kiva Han) in Constantinople in 1475
>CE, but I can not find confirmation. My preferred source (Ukers) doesn't
>place them there until the early 16th Century.
>
>If you know of sources supporting the earlier dates, please post them.
Okay, here's the earlier dates. These are according to the coffee shop
bible _Bean Business Basics_ (I know, not exactly a scholarly work; I'll
try to verify this stuff first chance I get).
Prior to 1000 AD: Members of the Galla tribe in Ethiopia notice that they get an
energy boost when they eat a certain berry, ground up and mixed with animal fat.
1000 AD: Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland and cultivate the plant for the first time on plantations. They also began to boil the green
beans, creating a drink they call "qahwa" (literally, that which prevents sleep). The turks pronounced this "kahveh."
1350: Turkish traders begin dry roasting the beans for ease of transport (and possibly to strengthen the resulting drink).
1453: Coffee is introduced to Constantinople by Ottoman Turks. The world's first
coffee shop, Kiva Han, open there in 1475. Turkish law makes it legal for a woman to divorce her husband if he fail to provide her with her daily quota of
coffee.
1511: Khair Beg, the corrupt governor of Mecca, tries to ban coffee for feat that its influence might foster opposition to his rule. The sultan sends word that coffee is sacred and has the governor executed.
1529: The Turkish Army surrounds Vienna. Franz Georg Kolschitzky, a Viennese
who had lived in Turkey, slips through the enemy lines to lead relief forces to the city. The fleeing Turks leave behind sacks of "dry black fodder" that
Kolschitzky recognises as coffee. He claims it as his reward and opens central Europe's first coffee house. He also establishes the habit of refining the brew by filtering out the grounds, sweetening it, and adding a dash of milk.
1600: Coffee, introduced to the West by Italian traders, grabs attention in high
places. In Italy, Pope Clement VIII is urged by his advisers to consider that favourite drink of the Ottoman Empire part of the infidel threat. However, he decides to "baptise" it instead, making it an acceptable Christian beverage.
I've also seen reference that says the Pope who baptised coffee was Vincent
III, so I wouldn't be surprised to find that this last item is apocryphal.
Admittedly, the earliest *English* reference to coffee provided by the OED
is dated 1598.
Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace, HCB*
*Heavily Caffeinated Baron
________________________________
Dennis Grace
Assistant Instructor
Recovering Medievalist
Department of English
University of Texas at Austin
Subject: RE: ANST - Traveling INN
Date: Thu, 02 Apr 98 09:37:35 MST
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG'" <ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG>
> Okay, here's the earlier dates. These are according to the coffee shop
> bible _Bean Business Basics_ (I know, not exactly a scholarly work; I'll
> try to verify this stuff first chance I get).
>
> Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace, HCB*
Rather than take up a lot of bandwidth, please let me recommend the
following scholarly works on the subject.
Ukers, All About Coffee. I have the second edition available which my
memory says was published in 1934. This was written to be the bible of the
coffee industry. It is a scholarly work with a comprehensive bibliography
and photographs of some of the source documents. The book covers coffee
history, coffee in art and literature, botany, geography, propagation,
cultivation, harvesting and processing.
Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the
Medieval Near East. I haven't read this one, but it is the primary source
for Cariadoc's arguments. It was published in 1985.
Cariadoc and I agree on the facts, but I argue for a coffee industry which
began as a luxury trade before coffee became a generally used beverage in
Arabia Felix in the late 15th Century. Cariadoc argues for the later dates
in Hattox.
Bear
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 21:57:57 -0400 (EDT)
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Fw: ANST - Chocolate Documentation!
Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard) / Mike C. Baker wrote:
> ... has anyone got comments upon a source printed in
> 1920, by A.W.Knapp, titled (approx.) _Chocolate and Cocoa_? I've
> seen only the reference in Brittanica [1960 ed] that refers to a
> multi-page bibliography available in this book so far, would like to
> avoid repeating over-trod ground if I can...
Not that particular book, but anyone interested in the history of
chocolate, as well as coffee, tea, and tobacco, might enjoy
_Tastes of Paradise: a Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and
Intoxicants_, by Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Pantheon 1992. That's the
English translation by David Jacobson; the original German is
_Paradies, der Geschmack und die Vernunft_.
mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
Stephen Bloch
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 11:35:56 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Royal declared chocolate period
> Coffee is period, although probably late period outside of Abyssinia. I
> don't know how early it reached Frangistan but it was spreading through
> al-Islam during about the last two centuries of our period. And there is
> some evidence, which I think Bear offered in a previous discussion, for at
> least medicinal use earlier.
<snipped>
> David Friedman
I thoroughly enjoyed your response to the article on coffee in TI. Since
I've done a little more research and revised some of my opinions, I thought
I might add my tuppence to the commentary. Frankly, I am still of the
opinion there was a medical trade in coffee early on, but that the origin of
coffee as a beverage is probably no earlier that the 11th Century (based on
some flimsy evidence, I admit, but it fits known facts). I am also of the
opinion that the general drinking of coffee occurs only during the last
century and a half of the SCA period and that its use prior to 1454 was very
limited.
Here is a revised and abbreviated history:
Rhazes (900) and Avicenna (1000) both speak of the coffee plant and berry.
Neither speaks of coffee as a beverage. Their possession of the plant and
berries suggests that there was a medical trade in coffee. Coffee was
probably ground and used as a powder rather than infused in a beverage.
The first references to coffee as a drink are apocryphal and, at the
earliest, date from 1258 (Mocha, Yemen). Coffee was being used as a
beverage in Sufi rituals. In fact until 1454, the most common use of coffee
appears to have been by the Sufis. Since Sufism originates in Persia and
Rhazes and Avicenna were both Persians, there may be a link between the
Sufis and the physicians of Persia in the creation of coffee as a beverage,
but there are no facts currently available.
The first historical record of coffee drinking is from a treatise on coffee
written in approximately 1558. It records a meeting between a Yemen jurist
and Shaykh Jamal al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Dhabbani, an
imam, mufti, and Sufi from Aden. As al-Dhabbani died about 1470, the
account establishes coffee as a beverage by the mid-15th Century.
Al-Dhabbani is apparently the key figure in the commercialization of coffee,
having started plantations in Yemen after being introduced to the beverage
in Abyssinia in 1454.
By 1540, coffee was a common, if not universally accepted, beverage in the
Islamic World. Leonard Rauwolf of Augsburg was the first European to
describe coffee from a trip to the Levant in 1570.
In the last quarter of the 16th Century, the Venetians began importing
coffee into Northern Italy. The initial importer may have been
Gianfrancesco Morosini, the city magistrate at Constantinople, who is known
to have encountered the beverage in 1585, or a major spice trader named
Mocengio. These initial imports would most likely have been for wealthy
clients, who had developed a taste for coffee while travelling in the
Ottoman Empire. General coffee use in Italy did not get established until
about 1645.
One of the chief errors made about the history of coffee is placing coffee
at the gates of Vienna in 1529. Coffee was new in Constatinople at that
time and if there was any at Vienna, there wasn't much. The coffee which
started the first Viennese coffee house was lost by the Ottomans during the
siege of 1683. So, no known coffee in 1529, sorry.
Until the last century of our period, coffee was largely limited to the Red
Sea area. It then spread through Islam. It spread from the Ottoman Empire
into Europe only in the last 25 years of our period and then only into
Northern Italy.
Bear
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 17:38:06 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Royal declared chocolate period
> Bear writes:
> >The first references to coffee as a drink are apocryphal and, at the
> >earliest, date from 1258 (Mocha, Yemen).
>
> Could you explain this? In what sense is the reference apocryphal?
>
> David/Cariadoc
The reference is apocryphal because it is based on legend. According to
legend, Shaykh Ali ibn Umar al-Shadhili, a Sufi, introduced coffee drinking
to Yemen about 1258. He was a figure of great respect and reverence in
Mocha, so much so that some refer to him as the "patron saint" of that city.
Little can be verified other than his existence.
Abu Bakr ibn Abd Allah al-Aydarus, has also been put forward as the "Father
of Coffee." Internal dating of his legend would suggest he lived in the
late 14th Century or early 15th Century.
It is possible that these two different legends about the same person.
Documented evidence is limited, but the legends appear to have become fact,
since in 1760 the Italian "Journal of the Savants" credits two monks,
Scialdi and Ayduis, with discovering the properties of coffee.
Bear
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 10:15:36 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Royal declared chocolate period
> >The reference is apocryphal because it is based on legend. According to
> >legend, Shaykh Ali ibn Umar al-Shadhili, a Sufi, introduced coffee drinking
> >to Yemen about 1258.
>
> And when is this legend first recorded? If the answer is "after we know
> from other sources that coffee was being drunk," then it isn't much
> evidence about when coffee drinking began.
>
> Or to put it differently, what you are describing are not "the first
> references to coffee as a drink," unless the legend itself was recorded
> before we have other references to coffee as a drink. Rather, they are
> later references that assert coffee was being drunk earlier. In precisely
> the same fashion, you could have described the recent TI article as "The
> first references to coffee as a drink," since it at least suggests a still
> earlier date.
>
> David/Cariadoc
Point taken. To my knowledge, the legend was written down later. I believe
this particular legend is from Moreadgea D'Ohsson's Tableau general de
l'empire othoman, which would place the written version between the 18th and
19th Centuries. Ukers notes the legend. Hattox considers the date
"improbably early". Also, Carsten Niebuhr in Travels through Arabia and
other Countries in the East (1792) places a late 14th Century date on
al-Shadhili.
For Hattox's thesis, 1258 is improbably early, leaving a 200 year gap
between the introduction of coffee to the people of Mocha and the beginning
of the general spread coffee through al-Islam. However, the date is not
impossible.
Both Ukers and Hattox tie coffee drinking to the Sufis as part of their
rituals. Sufism got its start in the late 10th and early 11th Century in
Persia. Considered heretical, Sufism was secretive, but influential, as it
appealed to many literate, wealth and powerful individuals. Between the
12th and the 13th Centuries, Sufi mysticism was resolved to the main body of
Islamic thought, primarily through the work of al-Gahzali, but it did not
appeal to the average member of the Faithful.
Considering that Avicenna did not comment of coffee as a beverage, one can
speculate that coffee as a beverage did not exist before the 11th Century.
>From Persian coffee roasting pans dated to the early 15th Century, we know
that coffee was consumed in Persia before the general spread of coffee.
This suggests that coffee as a beverage existed in the 14th Century.
This means that a 12th or 13th Century date for first brewing coffee is not
out of the question. Ergo, I am willing to accept 1258 as the earliest date
for the establishment a Sufist school in Mocha attributed to Al-Shadhili and
drinking coffee as part of its ritual, subject to revision on the basis of
better evidence. As the current evidence is based on oral tradition written
down centuries after the fact, I consider the evidence to be apocryphal.
While I could use the TI article as "the first reference to coffee as a
drink," to do so would be questionable. Reviewing the sources of the
article suggests limited research. At least one of the works contains
errors of fact. The author did not consult Ukers or Hattox, the two primary
authors on the history of coffee. And I found points in the article which I
would consider apocryphal to be treated as fact. I try to base my opinions
on the best evidence I can find and while twenty years ago I might have
accepted the TI article, today it doesn't make the grade.
Bear
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 19:27:49 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Royal declared chocolate period
> TerryD at Health.State.OK.US writes:
> > The existence of the roasting pans says someone used
> > coffee in Persia at this time, it does not indicate general use.
>
> Hmmm, again, how is it known WHAT was roasted in these pans? Is it possible
> that they are identical to pans used to roast coffee in later eras, so it is
> assumed coffee was roasted in the older version as well? Isn't it at least
> possible that a pan used for something other than coffee worked so well
> that it was adapted for coffee use when coffee showed up?
>
> Mordonna
If coffee wasn't roasted in them, what was -- peanuts? I'm accepting Ukers
statement that they are coffee roasting pans until presented with better
evidence.
Coffee could be made with a mortar and pestle and a couple small pans.
Proving that they were used for making coffee is next to impossible. The
roasting pans, on the other hand, are fairly unique items. Crude ones
appear early in the 15th Century and become more elaborate over time. In
the 16th Century ibriks, Turkish coffee makers, begin to appear with the
roasters, and the whole thing begins to look like a yuppie fad. The timing
and the connections are such to reinforce the idea they are coffee roasters
from the start.
If they were not coffee roasters originally, what was roasted on them? Why
did they stop roasting X and switch to coffee? Why aren't they still
roasting X?
Bear
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 15:41:22 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Royal declared chocolate period
> >>From Persian coffee roasting pans dated to the early 15th Century, we know
> >that coffee was consumed in Persia before the general spread of coffee.
> >This suggests that coffee as a beverage existed in the 14th Century.
>
> How do we know they are coffee roasting pans? How precisely are they
> dated?
>
> This is an example of a more general issue--how to interpret a situation
> where almost all of the available evidence suggests that something was
> introduced after date X, but there is one piece of evidence that implies
> it was introduced earlier. If evidence were proof, the answer would be
> obvious--you accept the earlier date. But evidence isn't proof. In
> particular, the fact that one piece of evidence is anomalous is itself
> evidence (not proof) that someone has made a mistake.
>
> In my view, the most plausible explanation is that the archaeologist in
> question misdated his dig. In the coffee case the argument isn't as strong,
> since Coffee is an old world crop, and the question is only when its usage
> as a drink spread. But I am still suspicious of the isolated early date,
> given the amount of evidence Hattox offers for a somewhat later date.
>
> David/Cariadoc
The coffee roasting pans represent an identifiable, specific-use utensil. I
am accepting the identification and dating on the basis of Ukers
thoroughness until I can obtain more precise information. The dating is
reasonable and it is just as plausible that the utensils have been correctly
identified and dated.
What is not stated is who used the coffee roasting pans and the purpose for
using the coffee. The existence of the roasting pans says someone used
coffee in Persia at this time, it does not indicate general use. To be
totally honest, they don't even demonstrate that coffee was being used as a
beverage, but I would be surprised if it wasn't.
Hattox's thesis is about the spread of coffee-drinking in the general
populace. His summary of the facts is that coffee drinking appears to have
begun in Abyssinia, that coffee drinking was introduced to Yemen in the
first half of the 15th Century, that coffee drinking is commonly connected
to various Sufi masters, that the spread of coffee is tied to al-Dhabbani by
legend and reference, although he may not be the real prime mover, and that
general coffee use began spreading in the later half of the 15th Century.
Frankly, Hattox's work is a specialized study of a social phenomenon and he
properly ignores information which does not contribute to exposition of his
work. He ignores most of the Abyssinian questions. He ignores the Persian
physicians. He mostly ignores the Sufist issues, other than the Sufis
directly related to the spread of coffee to Yemen. They are not pertinent
to his thesis, which is primarily about occurences in the 15th to 17th
Centuries. The information he ignores is pertinent only when one takes a
broad look at coffee over a 1000 year span. Hattox does not anwer the
question of when did coffee's usage as a drink spread. He answers the
question of when did coffee usage as a drink change from restricted
consumption to general consumption.
In terms of most SCA personas, coffee use will be determined by the pattern
of general availability and consumption outlined by Hattox.
As for the suspicious date, let me remind you that 1258 is the earliest date
given for coffee drinking in Yemen, it is based on legend, and there are
conflicting datings of the legend. As i have said before, I consider the
date apocryphal. It is not an impossible date, but it is not a very
probable date.
Hattox presents a great deal of evidence for the introduction of coffee
drinking into Yemen, some of it conflicting. IIRC, the date could have
ranged from mid-14th Century to mid-15th Century. I believe Hattox
summarized it as the first or second quarter of the 15th Century, possibly,
but not probably, the third quarter. Reasonable and conservative.
I'm willing to accept 1258 as the earliest possible date for the Sufist
introduction of coffee into Yemen and 1450 as the latest possible date. My
opinion of the most probable period for the introduction would be last
quarter of the 14th Century thru the first quarter of the 15th Century, but
I'm not as conservative as Hattox.
It should also be considered that "introducing" coffee drinking to an region
does not necessarily equate with "general use."
Bear
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 13:07:40 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Brazier? was Mortar and pestle illustration?
> The question was asked recently about coffee ... we're having a Turkish
> event.. and arguments aside as to whether it was drunk or not.. how did they
> heat beverages? Stove?? Charcoal Brazier?? What did such a thing look
> like?
>
> Corwyn
The traditional coffee maker is the ibrik, a tapered cylindrical pot made of
copper, wider at the base than at the neck and having a short lip with
reverse taper above the neck to provide a funnel for pouring liquids in and
out of the pot. A relatively long handle extending perpendicular to the
neck allows the user to manipulate the ibrik over a fire.
The ibrik is designed to retain heat and to bring the contents to a boil
over a minimal heat source. In a coffee house, a charcoal brazier or stove
would have been a likely heat source. In the desert, it would probably have
been a dung fire. It is alleged that the ibrik can be heated in the desert
by partially burying it in hot sand and letting the sun do the cooking.
Ibriks are available from most fine coffee dealers. If you want to fake it,
use a small sauce pan.
The traditional coffee roaster is a 4 to 8 inch diameter concave plate
drilled with small holes and having a handle.
As for making the coffee itself:
"Qahwa" can be made from the husks, the berries, or both. Coffee was most
likely first brewed from the husks as a medicine. The "al-qahwa
al-qishriya" produced from the husks is still used in Yemen. "Al-qahwa
al-bunniya" or coffee brewed from the berries or the berries and the husks
probably came from trying to strengthen the brew.
To make "qahwa al-bunniya", the berries could be roasted or unroasted.
Roasting improves the flavor of the coffee, and came into regular use early
in the known history of the beverage. The berries would be crushed to a
fine powder in a mortar. For each cup, about five ounces of water would be
placed in an open pot and brought to a boil. A teaspoon to a tablespoon of
the crushed coffee powder is added per cup. The coffee would be returned to
the fire and allowed to boil up a second time, then removed and allowed to
cool slightly. The boiling process would be repeated two or three more
times.
The Arabs soon added powdered cloves, cardamom, or cinnamon at the third
boil to sweeten the taste. Sugar was first used as a sweetener after the
Turks took up the coffee habit, causing the thick, sugar-sweetened coffee to
be referred to a Turkish. Modern Turkish coffee uses two teaspoons of sugar
per cup added with the coffee at the first boil.
Modern Arabian coffee uses a heaping teaspoon and modern Turkish coffee uses
a tablespoon of coffee powder per cup. This may be a matter of taste, or it
may reflect the availability and value of coffee when the habit was
originally adopted.
Bon Chance
Bear
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 11:37:15 -0000
From: "Oughton, Karin (GEIS, Tirlan)" <Karin.Oughton at geis.ge.com>
Subject: RE: SC - Brazier? was Mortar and pestle illustration?
Just an interesting modern aside - I picked up a whole stack of unroasted
coffee beans in Dubai, and was stuck for how to roast them without
completely blackening them , which my fan oven tends to do, when a friend
had a cool idea. Use one of those hotair popcorn makers - it rotates the
beans beautifully while roasting and allows total control of the roasting
process for a mild or strong roast : ) .
karin.
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 09:20:25 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - coffee
> According to "The Timetables of History" by Bernard Grun, 1979 ed, Simon
> and Schuster;
> AD 850, Arabian goatherd Kaldi credited with the discovery of coffee
> AD 1450, Mocha in Southwestern Arabia becomes main port of export for
> coffee.
>
> regards, Puck
The story of Kaldi is apocryphal and actually takes place in Abyssinia. The
Arabs moved in between the 6th and 8th Centuries after Axum went into
decline. Also Kaldi did not brew coffee, he ate the beans.
The earliest date I've found for coffee drinking, based only on legend, is
mid-13th Century. I'm convinced that coffee, as a medicinal, was being
traded as early as the 10th Century, although the evidence is sketchy. It
is possible that coffee as a beverage originates in the medical community as
a means of making the medicine go down for patients who could not swallow a
paste.
Coffee drinking was tied to the Sufis, who appear to have used it in their
mystic rituals. I have some opinions about Abyssinia, Persia, the Sufis and
the spread of qawah, but they require some very serious research to
determine if they have any merit.
In any event, the 1450 date is questionable, because the historical evidence
is that the commercialization of coffee on the Arabian Peninsula begins
sometime after 1454. The actual spread of coffee drinking through the
general populace is primarily 16th Century.
Rather than flog the horse some more, let me direct you to a couple of
decent references:
Hattox, Ralph S., Coffee and Coffeehouses, The Origins of a Social beverage
in the Medieval Near East; Seattle, University of Washington, 1985.
Ukers, William H., All About Coffee, 2nd Edition; New York, The Tea & Coffee
Trade Journal Company, 1935.
These are the most accurate and scholarly works on the subject I have found.
Bear
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 14:07:44 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Coffee in period
> So what was period coffee like? Specifically, what was being drunk in
> Italy, and when did that start? I'm curious, since I have an Italian
> Renaissance persona.
>
> -Sofonisba
Coffee in Italy came from the trade between Venice and the Turks, so it was
probably prepared in the Turkish style with a tablespoon of powdered coffee
beans and spiced with cardamon, cinnamon or nutmeg. Sugar in coffee appears
in the early 17th Century in Istanbul. It would have been prepared in an
ibrik. I know of no description of how coffee was prepared in Italy at this
time, and most of what we know about how coffee was prepared in the Arab
world comes from slightly later sources.
Since I don't have my notes handy, I'm working from memory, which may be
faulty. The first coffee to enter Italy was brought in by an
ambassador/trade negotiator to Constantinople. This was about 1550. He
apparently enjoyed the beverage and served it as an after dinner curiosity.
It apparently caught on with the wealthy Italians and spread across Northern
Italy, so that the drink was known before the first known Italian coffee
shop opened in the latter half of the 17th Century.
IIRC, commercial importation began in the last quarter of the 16th Century.
Among my notes, I have the names of a couple people who were very likely the
first coffee importers. The trade appears to have been limited to Northern
Italy, probably because Venice and Genoa controlled much of the trade into
the Ottoman Empire.
When I find my notes, I'll cheerful send you a copy. Until then, let me
recommend Ralph Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses: the Origins of a Social
Beverage in the Medieval Near East and William Ukers, All About Coffee.
These are the two most scholarly works on coffee of which I know.
Hattox thoroughly covers the Islamic origin and spread of coffee. The book
was available as a trade paperback from one of the university presses.
Ukers is more difficult to find, having been originally printed in the early
1920's with a second edition in the earlie 1930's. Ukers book was an
attempt to encompass "everything" known about coffee for the tea and coffee
industry. He also wrote a companion set of volumes on tea.
There are a number of sources which place the original entry of coffee into
Europe at Vienna in 1529. This is an error. Coffee was new in Istanbul and
I doubt that any great quantity of coffee made it to the First Siege of
Vienna. The coffee was lost at the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683. Zum
Roten Kreuz, the first coffeehouse in Vienna opened in the same year,
supplied by coffee salvaged from the Ottoman baggage.
Bear
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 16:17:28 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Coffee, Tea, and OOP
For coffee and tea, I would recommend Ukers and Hattox. Ukers wrote All
About Coffee and All About Tea for the coffee and tea industry in the 20's.
The are very thorough and inclusive and far more scholarly than many more
recent text. Hattox wrote Coffee and Coffeehouses: the history of a social
beverage in the late Medieval Middle East (if I remember the title
correctly).
Coffee (the plant and berry) was described by Rhazi's around 900 CE and
Avicenna around 1000 CE. As a beverage, coffee appears to have been used in
Sufi rituals and entered the mainstream through the efforts of the Mufti of
Yemen (IIRC). The earliest evidence for coffee drink in the general
population is about 1450. I tend to argue for a general start date of 1250,
but that is speculative argument.
> On another list in a thread on What Food to Bring to War (some folks
> here are on it too), someone asked if coffee was period.
>
> I blundered in and wrote:
>
> Well, coffee is only late period, say around 1400 or 1450 and only if
> you are a Middle Easterner (men hung out in coffee houses, no
> kidding). But no coffee in Europe until after period.
>
> Someone responded, and I quote (with spelling corrections by me):
> >Uh, not exactly true. When Emperor Maximilian of Germany captured the City
> >of Verona back from the Turks in 1520?, he did so by agreement after a
> >protracted siege. He did so as King Louis of France was about a week away
> >with a larger army, also intent of recapturing Verona for Christianity
> >(and political
AFIK, Verona was never touched by the Turks, seeing it is in Northern Italy
west of Venice. Vienna, on the otherhand, was subjected to two sieges by
the Turks. The first in 1529 ended when Sulieman the Magnificent retreated
into Hungary. This siege would have been in the time of Maximillian II.
Coffee would have only been recently introduced to Constantinople (if at
all) and supplies would have been limited. The second siege of Vienna was
in 1683. It was lifted by a combined force of Charles of Lorraine and John
III Sobieski. During the second siege, the Turks left behind large
quantities of coffee which were awarded to the messenger (Kolschitsky, IIRC)
who carried dispatches between the city and the relieving forces. He opened
the first coffeehouse in Vienna.
One of the common errors in writing about coffee is to not realize there
were two sieges and confuse the second with the first. This is a dead
giveaway that the author didn't do their research.
> Any comments? suggestions? sources? quotable anecdotes?
>
> From the fully caffeinated
> Anahita al-shazhiya
BTW, the TI article on coffee is nearly worthless as a resource. Of the
three sources quoted in the bibliography, Tannehill is too broad scoped to
be of much use on an in depth article and the other two are extremely
questionable. Neither of the two best sources, Ukers or Hattox, was
referenced.
Bear
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 14:50:28 -0500
From: margali <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Coffee, Tea, and OOP
>>>
BTW, the TI article on coffee is nearly worthless as a resource. Of the
three sources quoted in the bibliography, Tannehill is too broad scoped
to be of much use on an in depth article and the other two are extremely
questionable. Neither of the two best sources, Ukers or Hattox, was
referenced.
<<<
http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~dbarkey/cafe_press/history_of_coffee/hist_coffee_preface.html
http://members.aol.com/teacof/ukers.html
are a couple of interesting sites in this vein...
margali
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 22:02:47 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Siamese coffee
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Just for fun. Al-qawha al-bunniya is coffee made from the coffee berries.
Al-qawha al-qishriya is coffee made from the coffee husks. The latter is
more commonly found in the southern Arabian penisula including Yemen.
Arabian and Turkish coffee are made by adding finely crushed coffee to about
5 ounces of water and bringing it to a boil three (or sometimes four) times.
Cloves, cinnamon or cardamom are added at the final boil. Traditionally,
Arabic coffee used about a heaping teaspoon of coffee per cup, while Turkish
coffee used a tablespoon of coffee per cup. The Turks are also the ones who
introduced sugar to coffee (about two teaspoons per cup added at the first
boil).
I've tried boiling and drip methods for these types of coffee and you need
the boil to infuse the flavor of the spices into the coffee.
BTW, al-qawha al-bunniya may be made with roasted or unroasted coffee beans.
The roasted tastes better.
Bear
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 19:48:31 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re:Hattox/ Unger books - blantant commercial
plug
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
People might also like
The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most
Popular Drug.
It's out in paperback or can be found used.
The New England Journal of Medicine, April 19, 2001 review is up on
Amazon.com.
Johnnae
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 11:52:34 -0500
From: Colin MacNachtan <dcm at mccr.org>
Subject: Re: Coffee, was Re: [Sca-cooks] Cola with sugar...
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
--On Tuesday, April 18, 2006 09:27:25 -0700 Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I should break out my Turkish Coffee gear and make the Brew That Is True
> in a more historical manner, I'm thinking. The trick is finding the
> "ibriks" [long handled coffee pots] that don't look too modern. Getting
> tricky these days. I'd also like some advice about tabletop heating, a
> little charcoal burner maybe?
I'm not sure what constitutes "don't look too modern", but you might want
to check out this page:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.brewers.ibrik.shtml
As for tabletop heating, check out the "vacuum brewers" link. They use a
small spirit lamp and look really cool. One of these days I'm going to
actually get one :)
Colin
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 13:14:50 -0400
From: "Jeff Gedney" <gedney1 at iconn.net>
Subject: Re: Coffee, was Re: [Sca-cooks] Cola with sugar...
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> I'm not sure what constitutes "don't look too modern", but you
> might want
> to check out this page:
>
> http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.brewers.ibrik.shtml
last I checked Francisco Sirene, Spicer has them slightly cheaper.
http://www.silk.net/sirene/potation.htm
also this place is cheap, but these are thoroughly modern looking
As for heat, you actually want a few more BTUs than most Spirit
lamps... You have to rather quickly get it to a light boil, somewhat
before the entire thermal mass passes 195 degrees, that takes some
intensity. and do it three times, traditionally.
If you want to go period, a small metal brazier that allows for
draft through the coals (chimney effect) works wonders.
the traditional tool is a "mangal" (sp?) and is effectively a copper
pot in which you lay coals.
It has a conical pierced lid to keep sparks from spreading when you
are not actually cooking on it.
Jaji just uses a bottle propane portable stove.
I have no complaints with his coffee.
(I often hang about and "clean" his return cups, by wiping out
and eating the "coffee sludge" from the bottom of the cups...
mmmmmm
I guess you could say that I am somewhat of a "hardcore" coffee
fanatic)
Capt Elias
Dragonship Haven, East
(Stratford, CT, USA)
Apprentice in the House of Silverwing
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 11:13:18 +1200
From: Adele de Maisieres <ladyadele at paradise.net.nz>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] El drama del medieval caf?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Suey wrote:
> The Arabs had coffee, they had cups, not sure about saucers, and they
> had sugar. They had spoons for liquids and semi-liquids. They did not
> use knives or forks. Now at the medieval dinner we are planning we are
> having a problem finding wooden soup spoons for the first course but
> when it comes to the coffee how can the guests stir it after adding
> the sugar?
That's very simple. When you make middle eastern style coffee, the
sugar goes directly into the coffee pot, not into the cups.
--
Adele de Maisieres
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 17:28:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Carole Smith <renaissancespirit2 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] El drama del medievalcafé
To: dailleurs at liripipe.com, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Actually, the coffee pot is so small that you can only make maybe 6
or 8 cups at a time, assuming you can find a pot big enough. My pot
makes 2 cups, but they do come quite a bit larger. There is a good
reason for using that style pot, with the sides slanting in. Keeps
the coffee from spilling over while it's boiling up, which you do
twice. Then pour before the grounds settle.
Somebody will always ask you if they are supposed to consume the
sludge in the bottom of their cup. Most people don't.
In modern times the person making the coffee would ask if you
wanted it a little or a lot sweet or no sugar. And then proceed to
make coffee to your taste. It only takes a couple of minutes to make
Arabic coffee, but still - this is NOT something I'd want to do at a
feast.
Most of your diners won't like coffee that strong, and will prefer
"American" coffee, which you can make in a 50-cup pot.
Cordelia
On Thu Apr 27 16:59 , Suey sent:
> The Arabs had coffee, they had cups, not sure about saucers, and they
> had sugar. They had spoons for liquids and semi-liquids. They did not
> use knives or forks. Now at the medieval dinner we are planning we are
> having a problem finding wooden soup spoons for the first course but
> when it comes to the coffee how can the guests stir it after adding
> the sugar?
> Stumped,
> Sue
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:42:30 -0500
From: "otsisto" <otsisto at socket.net>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] El drama del medieval caf?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/arab_culture_and_identity/47495
http://www.arabicslice.com/qahwah.html
http://www.sweetmarias.com/brew.inst.ibrik.html
I remembered seeing a program that showed Arabs at a coffee house. The cups
were small. I think similar to espresso cups in size.
The second link says that traditionally the coffee is served without
Sugar but if sugar is added it is boiled with the coffee.
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:56:28 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] El drama del medieval caf?
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com> wrote:
> The Arabs had coffee, they had cups, not sure about saucers, and they
> had sugar. They had spoons for liquids and semi-liquids. They did not
> use knives or forks. Now at the medieval dinner we are planning we are
> having a problem finding wooden soup spoons for the first course but
> when it comes to the coffee how can the guests stir it after adding
> the sugar?
There's scant to no evidence for coffee being drunk before the 15th
century, although the beans and/or husks (bunn) were eaten. Coffee
was being drunk in Cairo by the late 15th century, but didn't make it
to Istanbul until around the middle of the 16th century.
Even women had knives for dining and by the 16th century in the
Ottoman and Persian Empires could wear them on a belt, although, of
course, Ottomans and Persians are not Arabs. And there is evidence
for forks being used, but not for eating, rather for condiments.
I know wooden spoons were used by the Ottoman sultans and others
dining with them, but there is clear evidence for spoons made of
other materials used in other parts of Dar al-Islam - metal, for
example.
And as someone already mentioned, the sugar and the coffee are boiled
together to make the beverage. (and no milk in the coffee)
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:53:52 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Coffee mill documentation needed
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
>> Sorry I'm not on SCA Cooks anymore (19 kingdom heraldry lists kind of
>> loads one's inbox) but you can take the info back. Ukers has been
>> put into Google Books:
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=Y5tXt7aoLNoC&;pg=PA480&dq=Ukers,
>> +W#PPA618,M1
>>
>> That'll take you to the pages the herald I'm working with has found,
>> but alas none of the pictures of the grinders are dated to period.
>>
>> - Teceangl
It's good to know that Ukers is now webbed.
Page 616 has the only grinding devices dated prior to 1600, the Egyptian
mortar and pestle and the Roman conical grain mill. Since Roman mills could
be a little wasteful and I know of no table top versions, I would think that
the mortar and pestle would have been the tool of choice for grinding
coffee. Mechanical spice grinders date from around 1400 in Europe, but I
suspect they used primarily by spicers to prepare spices for sale. I've
been trying to find an illustration of a mechanical grinder for some time,
but haven't had much luck. On the otherhand, mortar and pestle are
ubiquitous in most of the illustrations of spice shops and apothecaries.
The illustration on Franisco Serene's webpage (
http://www.silk.net/sirene/ ) has one.
While I can make a case for coffee in Sufi rituals from around 1250, general
use and commercialization of the coffee industry only begins in the Arab
Peninsula around 1457 and takes until around 1520 to spread through the Arab
world. Coffee drinking arrived in Italy around 1585, but it is 1640 before
coffee is being imported for sale in Europe. Mechanical coffee grinders
seem to date from the early 17th Century when coffee drinking was becoming a
habit for much of Europe and the Middle East. Unless one of us comes across
an illustration of one of the early spice grinders (which might have been
used for coffee grinding), I would say you're out of luck. [to use a coffee grinder for an SCA heraldic charge]
Bear
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:14:28 -0800
From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Coffee mill documentation needed
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
I don't know squat about SCA-period coffee grinders. Given that
coffee are we know it (a beverage brewed of roasted coffee beans)
doesn't show up until quite late in period (late 15th) and didn't
make it to Constantinople until the mid-16th, any means of grinding
the beans would be quite late in SCA-period.
I did live in Indonesia for several years in the late 1970s, a place
where coffee is grown on many of the major islands - Sumatra, Java,
Sulawesi, New Guinea, etc. - and where it is a very common beverage.
I observed several families preparing coffee on Bali, Java, and
Sumatra. First, they roasted the green beans in a kuwali, which is
like a wok, over a fire - variously wood, charcoal, and kerosene.
Then, in every case, the beat the beans in a moderately large mortar
with a long pestle. This could take quite some time, and various
female members of the family sat around chatting and taking turns
until it was all pulverized as desired.
I am embarrassed to say i don't remember what the mortar and pestle
were made of. The basic kitchen grinding tools are often of volcanic
rock, but i don't recall if that is what the mortar and pestle were
for the coffee. Probably, although wood is also a possibility.
It is certainly possible, even likely, that the Cairenes and
Stambuliots ground their coffee a similar way.
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:06:57 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Beverage experiments
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Coffee, however, is sacred.
>
> Gunthar
Why yes it is. But that doesn't make its use historically accurate.
There is an apochryphal tale that Shayhk Ali ibn Umar al-Shadhili introduced
coffee into Yemen around 1258. He is a somewhat shadowy but real figure who
is sometimes referred to as the patron saint of Mocha. He was also a
Sufi.
The Sufis, who experimented with altered states as a path to enlightenment,
used coffee as a sacrement in their rituals to help them stay alert for
extend periods. The appearance of coffee roasting pans in Turkey and Persia
in the first half of the 15th Century where Sufi activity was greatest
suggests that they may have been using coffee a little earlier than its
general spread, but by no more than 50 to 150 years. Ergo, coffee is
sacred, for the Mass, so to speak, but not the masses.
It's more plebian use as a general beverage had to wait for Shayhk Jamal
al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Dhabbani.
Bear
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:54:15 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Coffee was Beverage experiments
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
From: "otsisto" <otsisto at socket.net>
> In the Floreigium (sp?) it says that coffee was introduce to Venice
> in the 1400s.
That's an error and it may even be one I introduced. There is some
evidence that coffee was imported into Venice in the late 16th Century by
Gianfrancesco Morosini, a Venetian who was the city magistrate at
Constantinople, known to have encountered coffee around 1585. Another
possible importer is a spice trader named Mocengio. In either case, the
coffee was for personal use rather than as a commercial venture. There is a
letter documenting the non-commercial importation of coffee into Venice in
1615 and the first coffee house known to exist in Venice was opened
in 1645.
Nope, the error was not mine, it was some other gentle quoting Harold McGee.
McGee's bibliography in On Food and Cooking references the Schapira's The
Book of Coffee and Tea, which is not the most accurate source. If you
scroll down to Bear's Timeline for Coffee, that's a little more accurate,
although I've found other things to improve it since it was first
written.
The two best works on the subject of coffee are:
Hattox, Ralph S., Coffee and Coffee Houses: The Origins of a Social
Beverage in the Medieval Near East; Seattle, University of
Washington, 1985.
Ukers, William H., All About Coffee, 2nd Edition; New York, The Tea and
Coffee Trade Journal Company, 1935.
A version of Ukers can be found on Google Books, but it is a little
difficult to find things.
Bear
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:27:09 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions on coffee
Is Istanbul located in Europe?
Hattox in his book Coffee and Coffeehouses estimates that there
were 600 coffeehouses in Istanbul by the later 16th century. Voyages
in World History gives the 600 number but dates it as by 1650.
Paul Freedman mentions coffee in Venice by the end of the 16th century.
There are so many books on coffee, it's hard to keep up with them, and
the field continues to expand.
The social life of coffee: the emergence of the British coffeehouse by
Brian William Cowan is one.
There are lots of notes and footnotes for that one.
Johnnae
On Jan 26, 2010, at 10:12 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote: bigtime snipped
* 1475 The first coffee shop opens in Istanbul (Kiva Han). It is
still open.
* The first European to mention coffee is Prospero Alpino of Padua.
In 1580 he went to Egypt, then under Ottoman rule.
Hrolf
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:11:42 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions on coffee
Okay, Stefan. Here are my thoughts on these statements.
First, you must differentiate between the coffee plant and the coffee
beverage. Second, there is a lot of misinformation on coffee out there,
with the best stories being the most misleading.
<<< I made a comment on the Lochac list recently about coffee (and tea) not
being period for Europe and this is one of the responses which came back.
I've asked for the references for the first three statements since they
don't seem to match what Bear and others have said on this list. None of
them apply to my statement on Europe, but in addition they don't seem to
match with the comments about coffee originating in Ethiopia in the
latter Middle Ages, either. Are these statements items which were later
disproved? Am I mis-remembering what was said about coffee here?
Thanks,
Stefan
=========
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:42:17 +1100
From: "C Lenehan" <lenehan at our.net.au>
Subject: [Lochac] coffee
To: "The Shambles: the SCA Lochac mailing list"
<lochac at lochac.sca.org>
For information on the vital subject of coffee
* Coffee seems to have been drunk in Persia since the ninth century >>>
Questionable without sourcing. Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Zakariya Al-Razi
(Rhazes) describes the medicinal properties of "buncha" or "bunchum" but
does not adequately describe the plant or the method of preparation at the
beginning of the 10th Century. This is generally accepted as the first
reference to coffee. BTW, it is difficult to make a case for coffee as a
beverage before 1245 and proof of the beverage occurs only after 1450.
.
<<< * It was first cultivated around 675 in Arabia. >>>
Source? There is some archeological evidence for coffee cultivation at Axum
in Abyssinia and for the introduction of coffee cultivation following the
invasion of Yemen in 525. If so, the practice did not survive, as coffee
drinking and coffee cultivation appear to have been introduced by Shaykh
Jamal al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Sa'is al-Dhabbani around 1454.
<<< * Abu ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, was acquainted with coffee
around the year 1000. >>>
To quote Avicenna, "As to the choice thereof, that of a lemon color, light
and of good smell is the best; that of the white and heavy is naught. It is
hot and dry in the first degree, and, according to others, cold in the first
degree. It fortifies the members, it cleans the skin, and dries up the
humidities that are under it, and gives an excellent smell to all the body."
Avicenna uses the term "bunchum" or "bunn." In Arabic, "bunn" means the
entire kernal or the coffee berry depending on usage. The husk of the berry
is called "qishr." The drink is "qahwa." Obviously both Rhazes and
Avicenna were referring to the coffee berry, not the beverage.
<<< * 1475 The first coffee shop opens in Istanbul (Kiva Han). It is
still open. >>>
To my knowledge, this is an unproven based on an unsupported statement by
James Trager. The first certain appearance of coffee the beverage in
Constantiople is after Selim I conquered Egypt and brought the drink back to
his court. Coffeehouses appear in the Levant around 1530.
<<< * The first European to mention coffee is Prospero Alpino of Padua. In
1580 he went to Egypt, then under Ottoman rule.
Hrolf >>>
The first European observation of coffee berries and drinking coffee is by
Leonhard Rauwolf in 1573, published in Rauwolf's Travels in 1583. Alpini
observed the plant and the berries in 1580 and provided the first European
botanical description in his Plants of Egypt, 1592.
The first person to import coffee into Europe may have been Gianfrancesco
Morosini, the Venetian city magistrate in Constantiople, in 1585.
The botanist Charles l'Ecluse received some coffee seeds in 1596, but
European coffee drinking only began in earnest in the 17th Century.
Bear
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:52:21 +1100
From: Raymond Wickham <insidious565 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Lochac] coffee
To: <lochac at lochac.sca.org>
Coffee as a drink is first mentioned by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al Razi (850 922 CE) in his treatise on medicine where he called it Bunchum. A contemporary of Raki also mentions coffee in his writings.
Sheikh Jamaluddin Abu Muhammad bin Said became acquainted with coffee while in abyssinia in 1454 and after exploring its medicinal qualities sanctioned it for devout muslims so they could spend their nights in prayer with more attention. He was also is supported at about this time by Muhammad al-Hadhrami A reputable physician from Yemen where the moslems chewed the cherries to stay awake during night prayers.By the close of the sixteenth century residents of Makkah had become so fond of coffee that they turned it into a secular drink and sipped it publicly in Qahwa Khanes whilke discussing news and business. Khair Bey in 1510 saw this found out about this practice and some misunderstanding investigated this practice and was alarmed by its widespread practice in the city of Makkah. He decided that it was a substance that would drive men and women to etravagance which was against the law. This was discussed in a public meeting of the leaders of Makkah some spoke in favour of the drink while a large group spoke on banning the substance. So a decree was signed and drawn up and sent to the Sultan at Cairo for ratification. The Sultan disagreed and raised the edict against the coffee houses basicly as it was apporved of by Physicians in Cairo. Selim 1 is said to have introduced Coffee to Constantinople and by 1530 it was popular in Syria and Aleppo. Before 1536 the Yemeni dominated the supply of coffee but after the Ottomon turks captured Yemen in 1532 they took up the coffee trade where they were an important export revenue in the port of Mocha. The turks created a monopoly until well into the 1600's making sure no viable seeds left their control.
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:33:03 +1100
From: Mark Calderwood <giles at sca.org.au>
Subject: Re: [Lochac] coffee
To: "The Shambles: the SCA Lochac mailing list"
<lochac at lochac.sca.org>
On 27/01/2010, at 11:52 PM, Raymond Wickham wrote:
<<< Coffee as a drink is first mentioned by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn
Zakariya al Razi (850 922 CE) in his treatise on medicine where he
called it Bunchum. >>>
Sorry, but no. This is a story propagated by Phillipe Dufour
(1622-1687), a French coffee merchant. Fortunately, it has been
debunked by historians and Arab etymologists, as well as Dufour later
admitting himself that the plant element in the drink in question was
the stimulant root of a plant, not the bean or husk of coffea arabica.
The confusion may have happened easily enough to early Europeans
working from second and third hand translations. 'Bunchum' sounds
somewhat like the Arabic bunn' (meaning the coffee fruit and kernel)-
but the drink is called qahwa, not bunn.
Where the word is qualified to mean coffee made from coffea arabica
the construction is qahwa al-bunniya or qahwa al-qishriya (if made
from the husks)
Giles
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:31:14 +1100
From: Raymond Wickham <insidious565 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Lochac] Europe WAS Re: coffee
To: <lochac at lochac.sca.org>
In 1616 Pieter Van dan Broeck brought the first coffee from
Mocha to Holland. In 1640 a Dutch merchant, named Wurffbain, offered for sale in
Amsterdam the first commercial shipment of coffee from Mocha.
Della Valle, Pierre (Pietro). De Constantinople
Bombay, Lettres. 1615. (vol. i: p. 90.)
http://www.gertjanbestebreurtje.com/application/uploads/files/Catalogues/cat129.pdf
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:33:43 +1100
From: Ian Whitchurch <ian.whitchurch at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Lochac] coffee reply from SCA-Cooks list
To: lilinah at earthlink.net, "The Shambles: the SCA Lochac mailing list"
<lochac at lochac.sca.org>
<<<
* Abu ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, was acquainted with
coffee around the year 1000.
Bun is mentioned earlier by 9th & 10th c. Persian physician abu Bakr
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known in Europe as Rhazes (865-925).
Perhaps someone confused him with mostly 11th c. Persian physician
and philosopher Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Sina', known in
Europe as Avicenna (c. 980-1037), who also mentioned bun.
Coffee was first used as a medication (hot and dry). However, it was
the covering of coffee, known as bun, that was used, often made into
a beverage. In some places bun refers to the coffee bean, and later
the green beans were chewed... well before coffee beans were roasted
and ground >>>
Theres a copy of Avicenna's Book of the Canon of medicine here, thanks
to the American University of Beiruit.
http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/saab/avicenna/
1593 Medici Press edition (yeah, those Medici). It has his formulary
in it - his list of drugs and preparations.
I suspect buru/coffee is in it, because for Rauwulf to be interested
in it's medical properties, then he had to get that from somewhere,
and the Canon of Medicine is, well, the Canon of Medicine (*).
If you can find someone who reads Arabic, we may be able to answer
this question.
Anton de Stoc
At Southron Gard
XXVIII Januarie b+l
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:47:20 +1100
From: Mark Calderwood <giles at sca.org.au>
Subject: Re: [Lochac] coffee reply from SCA-Cooks list
To: "The Shambles: the SCA Lochac mailing list"
<lochac at lochac.sca.org>
On 28/01/2010, at 11:33 AM, Ian Whitchurch wrote:
<<< Theres a copy of Avicenna's Book of the Canon of medicine here, thanks
to the American University of Beiruit.
http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/saab/avicenna/
1593 Medici Press edition (yeah, those Medici). It has his formulary
in it - his list of drugs and preparations.
I suspect buru/coffee is in it, because for Rauwulf to be interested
in it's medical properties, then he had to get that from somewhere >>>
It's not listed in the English index.
Rauwulf seems to have got it from direct observation of local practice.
Again, buncham =/ qahwa al-bunniya.
Giles
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:55:07 +1100
From: Zebee Johnstone <zebeej at gmail.com>
Subject: [Lochac] coffee - the real reason for drinking it
To: "The Shambles: the SCA Lochac mailing list"
<lochac at lochac.sca.org>
http://thegentlemanadministrator.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/coffee-the-17th-century-viagra/
Where coffee drinkers indignantly rebut the idea that it makes them
lesser men but instead say it enables them to keep up with the
incredible demands upon them....
Silfren
- expecting to see some Really Big Coffee Mugs at Festival....
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:11:41 -0800 (PST)
From: emilio szabo <emilio_szabo at yahoo.it>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] [Lochac] coffee reply from SCA-Cooks list
<<
Theres a copy of Avicenna's Book of the Canon of medicine here, thanks
to the American University of Beiruit.
http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/saab/avicenna/
1593 Medici Press edition (yeah, those Medici). It has his formulary
in it - his list of drugs and preparations.
I suspect buru/coffee is in it, because for Rauwulf to be interested
in it's medical properties, then he had to get that from somewhere,
and the Canon of Medicine is, well, the Canon of Medicine (*).>>
In Italy, Germany, France ... it was the Latin translation of Avicenna which was used.
You might want to have a look at Nancy Siraisi's "Avicenna in Renaissance Italy", 1987.
Rauwolff saw coffee drinkers in Aleppo and reports what he saw there. He explicitly says that the plant they use is similar to Bunco Avicennae and Bunca Rhasis ad Almansorem etc.
Thanks for the link!
E.
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:16:45 -0800 (PST)
From: emilio szabo <emilio_szabo at yahoo.it>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] coffee - the real reason for drinking it
http://thegentlemanadministrator.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/coffee-the-17th-century-viagra/
<<
Coffee that both keeps us Sober, or can make us so;
And let our Wives that hereafter shall presume to
Petition against it, be confined to lie alone all Night,
and in the Day time drink nothing but Bonny Clabber.
FINIS.
(Notes on the transcription: The Mens Answer to the Womens Petition against Coffee (London 1674) Digital version: Janet Clarkson (Australia), Thomas Gloning (Germany), 12-11-2005 ? See Glossary and notes by Janet Clarkson.? (c) You may use this digital text for scholarly, private and non-profit purposes only)>>>
The link points to this site, where there are more coffee texts:
http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/ctc.htm
E.
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:54:17 +1100
From: Zebee Johnstone <zebeej at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Lochac] coffee - the real reason for drinking it
To: "The Shambles: the SCA Lochac mailing list"
<lochac at lochac.sca.org>
On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 2:55 PM, Zebee Johnstone <zebeej at gmail.com> wrote:
<<<
http://thegentlemanadministrator.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/coffee-the-17th-century-viagra/
Where coffee drinkers indignantly rebut the idea that it makes them
lesser men but instead say it enables them to keep up with the
incredible demands upon them.... >>>
And for those who didn't get as far as the comments, here's what they
were replying to:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Women%27s_Petition_against_Coffee
"For the continual flipping of this pitiful drink is enough to bewitch
Men of two and twenty, and tie up the Codpiece-points without a Charm.
It renders them that use it as Lean as Famine, as Rivvel'd as Envy, or
an old meager Hagg over-ridden by an Incubus. They come from it with
nothing moist but their snotty Noses, nothing stiffe but their Joints,
nor standing but their Ears: They pretend 'twill keep them Waking, but
we find by scurvy Experience, they sleep quietly enough after it. "
It's pity that the empirical testing mindset of the enlightenment is
out of period, else endless fun could be had at camping events testing
the conflicting claims...
Silfren
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:09:33 -0500
From: "Daniel & Elizabeth Phelps" <dephelps at embarqmail.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions on coffee
Was written:
<<< The first known appearance of the tale of Kaldi is in De Saluberrima potione
Cahue nuncupata Discurscus (1671) and, to my knowledge, does not have an
Islamic source. This suggests that the tale is a fabrication, a fantasy, of
the author, Antoine Faustus Nairon. The story is definitely considered
apochryphal. >>>
Odd question does anyone know if coffee mentioned in "The 1001 Nights"? I
understand that they date from period. I've a couple of the translations,
Burton's is the most extensive, but have not waded through them.
Daniel
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:23:46 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions on coffee
On Jan 30, 2010, at 9:09 PM, Daniel & Elizabeth Phelps wrote:
<<< Odd question does anyone know if coffee mentioned in "The 1001
Nights"? I understand that they date from period. I've a couple of
the translations, Burton's is the most extensive, but have not waded
through them.
Daniel >>>
Ok, insert 1001 Nights in the title field.
Insert coffee in the search in Google Books.
And out pops the 2006 1001 Nights which offers this snippet:
Then Abu Sir left him, and going back to the captain, supped and enjoyed himself
and drank coffee with him, after which he returned to Abu Kir and found
and a 2009 version which offers this snippet:
coffee, and after drinking he arose and a party of black slaves came
forward and clad him in the ...
Johnnae
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:39:06 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions on coffee
<<< Odd question does anyone know if coffee mentioned in "The 1001 Nights"? I
understand that they date from period. I've a couple of the translations,
Burton's is the most extensive, but have not waded through them.
Daniel >>>
I don't recall any references to coffee in the versions I've read, but that
has been some time.
The Thousand Nights and a Night are an accretion of stories that were first
compiled in book form around the 10th Century. The earliest manuscripts
that are available are 14th-15th Century, so we can't tell if coffee
appeared in the work prior to this time. There are differing versions of
the tales, having the same core of stories, but different peripheral
stories. There is also debate as to how much editing and revision have
been done in the early modern period. This means that references to coffee
in the stories may be modern rather than pre-1600 artifacts.
I am told that the Husain Haddawy translation from a modern Arabic
translation of the Medieval manuscript (Leiden text) in the Bibliotheque
Nationale is the closest to the original and would probably be the best
manuscript to search for references to coffee. Haddawy has also translated
a collection of stories not found in the Leiden manuscript.
Bear
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:57:38 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>,
<al-Barran_Cooks at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] All About Coffee
I have just received my copy of William H. Ukers's All About Coffee recently
published by Adams Media. On the cover it says "Abridged and Excerpted."
After a quick read, I say "Gutted."
Ukers founded the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal in 1905 and published the
original edition of All About Coffee in 1922 (revised and reissued in 1933).
It was a scholarly work covering all aspects of coffee, history, growing,
processing, production, and making the cup of coffee. The original work is
packed with fact, fable and statistics. Most importantly, it had a large
bibliography covering the sources. It is, in my opinion, the most complete
work ever produced on the subject.
The Adams Media edition dumps the bibliography and most of the facts in
favor of the apocryphal and the anecdotal. It's fun, cute, easy to read and
pretty much worthless for any serious consideration of coffee as a
historical beverage. If you are truly interested in the subject, don't
waste your money on this edition, find one of the originals from the Tea and
Coffee Trade Journal, which also published Ukers' All About Tea (a worthy
volume on that subject).
Bear
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:08:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Bell <magnus77840 at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] All About Coffee
All about coffee (1922)
Author: Ukers, William Harrison, 1873-
http://archive.org/details/allaboutcoffee00ukeruoft
The original publication is public domain and can be downloaded for free at archive.org.
Magnus
Date: Sat, 30 May 2015 23:17:30 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Coffee Redux - a Look at The History of Coffee
After reading The History of Coffee in the Florilegium, I decided take
another look at the subject. I found the article interesting but of uneven
quality. The author failed to reference either Hattox, Coffee and
Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Middle East,
or Ukers, All About Coffee, the two best references on the subject I have
encountered. Points of information were not matched to sources, some
historical references were inaccurate, and the author did not distinguish
between the coffee berry and the beverage where the distinction is critical.
I obtained a copy of one of her sources on a recent trip to Charleston, SC,
Allen, The Devil's Cup, and found several tantalizing tidbits that were
ignored in the article.
As a word of warning, The Devil's Cup is a rambling travelogue of the
pursuit of coffee larded with historical and scholarly references without
bibliography or sourced notes. Fun read, but tricky to know what to take
seriously.
One of the things I have been chasing is the origin of the legends
surrounding coffee. The first known appearance of the tale of Kaldi is in
De Saluberrima potione Cahue nuncupata Discurscus (1671). The author,
Antoine Faustus Nairon was a Maronite and a professor of Chaldean and Syraic
languages at the College of Rome. The story probably represents collected
folklore and is definitely apocryphal. Pietro Delia Valle appears to be
the source for the idea that the nepenthe of Helen was coffee. George
Sandys, the poet, is the likely source for the idea that coffee was the
black broth of the Lacedaemoniuns. And so it goes.
The History of Coffee places Avicenna (11th Century) as the first reference
to coffee, but Rhazes predates that reference by almost a century. The
author is probably referencing a work that uses Phillipe Dufour (a 17th
Century coffee merchant and philosopher} as the source that thinks Avicenna
is talking about a beverage. In a later writing, Dufour suggests that
Avicenna may have been talking about the root of the coffee plant rather
than the beverage.
Rhazes describes the medicinal properties of "buncha" or "bunchum" but does
not adequately describe the plant or the method of preparation. at the
beginning of the 10th Century. Avicenna states, "As to the choice thereof,
that of a lemon color, light and of good smell is the best; that of the
white and heavy is naught. It is hot and dry in the first degree, and,
according to others, cold in the first degree. It fortifies the members, it
cleans the skin, and dries up the humidities that are under it, and gives an
excellent smell to all the body."
Avicenna uses the term "bunchum" or "bunn." In Arabic, "bunn" means the
entire kernal or the coffee berry depending on usage. The husk of the berry
is called "qishr." The drink is "qahwa." Obviously both Rhazes and
Avicenna were apparently referring to the coffee berry, not the beverage.
The tale that Shayhk Ali ibn Umar al-Shadhili introduced coffee into Yemen
around 1258 is apocryphal. It first appears in a work by Abd-al-Kadir ibn
Mohammad al-Ansari al-Jasari al-Hanbali from 1587 roughly titled "Argument
in favor of the legitamate use of coffee". Abd-al-Kadir may have gotten the
tale from an earlier work, now lost, by Shihab-ad-Din Ahmad ibn
Abd-al-Ghafar al-Maliki, who predates Abd-al-Kadir by about a century. The
article treats this as stated fact rather than an unsupported statement.
Tantalizingly, The Devils Cup provides a footnote that, "... the British
Journal of Mythic Society VII claims that in A.D. 1385 Emperor Harihara II
of Vijayanagar (now Mysore) ordered that all imports for Peta Math enter tax
free in 'return for coffee seeds.' " If true, were they for medicine or
drink? If they latter, then Abd-al-Kadir's tale might be less apocryphal as
the timeline would fit it better.
In part, my peeve with The History of Coffee is the casual generality. For
example, "It is confirmed that coffee was being spread by a mufti in
mid-15th century Yemen, with the major sales done through the port of
Moccha." With one line, the author writes off the seminal event and person
in the spread of coffee.
Abd-al-Kadir records a meeting in approximately 1450 CE between a Yemeni
jurist and Shaykh Jamal al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-Dhabbani,
imam, mufti, Abyssinian traveler and Sufi from Aden, where coffee was drunk.
The first reported use of coffee as a beverage. As al-Dhabbani died about
1470, the account establishes coffee as a beverage by the mid-15th Century.
Al-Dhabbani is apparently the key figure in the commercialization of coffee,
having started plantations in Yemen after being introduced to the beverage
in Abyssinia.
Still, despite my irritation with the article, it is better than some of the
others I've seen. It does have a bibliography and I'll go over the
references to see if I can glean any more detail.
Bear
Date: Sun, 31 May 2015 00:15:44 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Coffee Redux - a Look at The History of
Coffee
Nasrallah thinks there are references to coffee in al-Warraq--I'd have
to check to be more precise.
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2015 14:51:50 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Coffee Redux - a Look at The History of
Coffee
Excellent and many thanks. I was still looking for a source.
The segment is to be found on page 105 of Vol. VII No. 2, the January 1917
issue. The author appears to have been a member of the Mysore Royal
Archeological Society and appears to have been careful about delineating
fact, tradition and evidence. It is far more useful than the footnote in
The Devil's Cup would suggest.
Just to save everybody time, here is the pertinent quotation:
?The Baba Budan mountain has been rightly called the cradle of the coffee
plantation of South India. The man who first brought coffee to Mysore is
said to be Hazrat Shah Jama Allah Mazarabi. According to tradition coffee
began to be cultivated on the mountain in A.D. 1385 during the reign of the
Vijayanagar King Harihara II; and it is stated that a 'nirup' or order was
issued by this king to the officers concerned directing them to allow free
the articles brought for the use of the 'matha' in exchange for the coffee
seeds grown on the mountain. It is further stated that a stone inscription
was set up during the reign of the Vijayanagar King Krishna-Deva-Raya
(1509-1529) permitting the cultivation of coffee within certain limits on
the mountain as in the previous reigns without any molestation from the
Government officers. But no such inscription has as yet been found. It is,
however, interesting to note that tradition carries the cultivation of
coffee on this mountain as far back as the close of the fourteenth century.?
Narasimhacrya, Rao Bahader R. A., ?The Baba-Budan Mountain,? The Quarterly
Journal of the Mythic Society, Mysore; Vol. VII, No. 2, January, 1917, pg.
105.
I kinda wish he had said where "it is stated." It is a truly fascinating
paragraph as it gives an earlier date than is normally associated with Baba
Budan (Mazarabi), but one that is in keeping with the spread of Sufism and
one that would easily fit with other Sufi traditions about coffee.
Bear
<<< If anyone were inclined to have a read through the relevant Mythic
Society volume, there's a PDF at:
https://indianhistorybooks5.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/4990010047643-the-quarterly-journal-of-the-mythic-societyvol-71916-1917-n-a-374p-social-science-english-1917.pdf
The PDF is an image scan of the pages, not a text document, so trying to
find the text avails nothing. And as it's from 1917, modern scholars might
look a little askance at it - I suspect that my history tutor would say
something about the borders between history and antiquarianism. It's 375 or
so pages in total, although it looks like a good few are blank.
Aodh >>>
<the end>