coffee-msg - 7/8/06 Coffee and coffee-type drinks. recipes. NOTE: See also the files: tea-msg, wine-msg, beer-msg, beverages-msg, beverages-NA-msg, cider-msg, kvass-msg, kumiss-msg, mead-msg, cordials-msg. ************************************************************************ 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 ************************************************************************ 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 http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ 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 http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ 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 http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ 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 >http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ 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 >http://www.best.com/~ddfr/ 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 th