SC - Timeline of Food

[Decker, Terry D.]

I've been looking over your timeline.  Like most timelines (including those
I produce), it is lacking in depth.  Let me add a couple points to ponder,
even though I am far from my sources and may be in error.

> Mocha in SW Arabia becomes main port for coffee export	1450
> 
The earliest date I can come up with for the spread of coffee into general
use is 1454, and there probably wasn't a major trade until 1470.  This is
based on the creation of large coffee plantations by the Mufti of Aden.

Mocha wasn't just the main port for the coffee trade.  It was the main port
for the North-South trade up the Red Sea into Palestine and North Africa and
the East-West trade between Arabia and India.  As a major trade nexus and
the closest major port to Abyssinia, it is logically the main port for
coffee export.

My personal opinion is that coffee is in trade as a medicinal substance by
1000 and later became a luxury good.  Coffee as a beverage appears to come
into use in the 14th Century and specialized implements (most notable coffee
roasters) come into use at the beginning of the 15th Century.

So the 1450 date is a generalization.   

Yes, Elaina, I am working on the article.  I am trying to clarify the period
1250 to 1470, so that I can make some reasonable comments on how coffee
became a beverage.

> Coffee in Europe for the first time			1517
> 
This date is a little early.  The first European description of coffee
(Rauwolf) doesn't occur until the second half of the century.  There is a
citation I've seen for the use of coffee privately brought to Northern Italy
by a traveller in the Middle East, but my memory places it quite a bit
later.

> Hops introduced to England from Artois			1525
> 
Hops appear to have been introduced into England in the reign of Henry VII
(d. 1509).  I think you will find this date is for the first serious attempt
to grow hops in England.  There is also a rhyme, listing some things that
"came to England in one year," including hops.  The rhyme has been
demonstrated to be false, but it is still used to date the entry of products
into England. 

> Tobacco brought for the first time to Spain from America	1555
> 
I've got a chronology that places Spanish commercial production of tobacco
in 1531 and tobacco plants being grown as ornamentals Spain and Portugal in
1560.  

> Tobacco plant imported to W. Europe by Jean Nicot	1560
> 
>From whom we get the word nicotine and the name Nicotiana rustica.  Nicot
was the French Ambassador to Lisbon and sent tobacco seeds and leaf to the
Queen Mother, Catherine de' Medici, in 1561.
 
> Method perfected to bottle beer by Alexander Nowell, 
> 	Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral			1568
> 
There's a date for you, Tyrca.  Maybe "99 Bottles of Beer On the Wall" is
period.

> Venice imports coffee from Turkey to Italy		1580
> 
Maybe.  I don't have the references handy and the time frame is about right.

> First Coffeeshop opens in London			1632
> 
I've got a 1652 date on this.  The first coffeehouse in England supposedly
opened in Oxford in 1650.


> I am fairly impressed with the credentials of the authors (multiple
> checkers and translators) of this book.  Most dates I found were right on
> the money with other sources I had already.  There were certain things I
> didn't agree with, but they are going with the first written record of
> things, (perfect for us!) and not necessarily when things first came into
> use.  This is intended to stimulate polite conversation, please don't
> flame me.  See above bibliographical information if you want to check it
> out.  
> 
> Mistress Christianna MacGrain, OP, Meridies
> 
I like the tidbit about the Romans learning to use soap from the Gauls.  I'm
curious about the Munich salt trade.  And I wonder what they were calling
brazilwood (probably braisewood) in 1193, since Caesalpinia echinata, really
is a Brazilian plant?

Did they include a source bibliography in the book?

Bear 
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