SC - Re:coffee, tea or sugar

[Dan Stratton]

G'day Cooks,
The coffee and Tea discussion is fascinating. Do you know about the Arabic
'connection' for sugar? I have been given to understand that sugar was imported
from the Middle East in Period, with the origins somewhere in the Far East, and
the 'American/colonial/sugar cane industry' only appearing late to post period. I
did find one comment on a Recycling poster to the effect that the first sugar cane
factory in the Americas dates back to 1509. No docs, of course.

sca-cooks wrote: 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. :-))

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