SC - Cubebs or Sen-Sen?

[Elise Fleming]

Do forgive me for harping on an old thread, so to speak (sheesh!  one long weekend and I'm 18 digests behind!!!) but this one I really needed to answer...


> Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 13:04:20 -0800
> From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
> Subject: Re: SC - coffe and tea at events

> At 6:16 AM -0500 1/24/98, Mordonnade wrote:

> >But I will not give up the coffee pot, nor the tea pot.  My primary
> >responsibility is to my House, and suiting their tastes is more > > >important than
> >my ego.

> I am not saying that you should. Each of us makes his own > compromises
> between authenticity and other things of value.

> I am arguing against viewing it as something that is "not practical in
> the current Middle Ages" as opposed to something that you have not > yet figured out a practical way of doing. The problem with ruling > things out is that you stop trying to figure out how to do them.

> Consider this case. <snip> There are, after all, period hot drinks.
> You could experiment with offering your people some of them in > addition to their coffee and tea. If you're lucky, you eventually find > substitutes that they like and can drop the modern drinks. If you > aren't lucky, you have still learned something interesting about > medieval drinks and life.

> An example of just this pattern is sekanjabin, which has now become > a  well established element of SCA culture in many areas. I started > pushing it because I wanted a period substitute for iced tea. > Hardened leather, as an (I think) increasingly popular substitute for > Kydex, is another.


Good Sir,

	This is in no way meant as a negative reflection on you or on your position, because I can see that it is a very valid one and I also see you as someone I respect and admire, and I have a great wish to learn from your culinary knowledge.

	However...  <g>

	Please keep in mind that not everyone is as affluent as everyone else in the Society.  Though we are all "playing at" being nobles, as many if not more of us are housekeepers and secretaries as are CEOs and engineers.  

	I like sekanjabin; I've been fortunate enough to taste it at a few events.  A lady in southern Shores makes a rosewater sekanjabin I still fantasize about... but I don't even want to consider the price.

	At $2.49 for 100 tea bags, that non-period iced tea is still less than 15 cents a gallon... 

	Same argument goes for the hardened-leather-versus-plastic argument.  My lord took a class on cuirboulli; he was fascinated both by how easy it was and by how adaptible the procedure was.  He longs to try it at home; but...  Have you priced leather recently?  Calculate for the shrinkage, and shudder... 

	I am saying this not to argue with you, nor to flame, nor to attempt to "correct" you.  I simply wish to remind all of us, once in a while, that there are reasons besides habit, tradition, modern tastes and (yes, it has been said, on this list no less) sheer laziness that keep us to our (59 cents/2-liter bottle) mundane habits rather than branching out and exploring period territory as thoroughly as we would ALL like.

	My thanks for your patience, good gentles...  I shall put this soapbox away now.  margali, how's the weather under the rock?  <g>

		- kat


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