Coffee- was Re: [Sca-cooks] Why no alcohol?

[Terry Decker]

Avicenna describes coffee as an infusion at approximately 1000 CE.  In
Ethiopia, coffee beans were eaten mixed with fat as a trail food by the
native tribes, the beans provide a fairly high caloric content for their
size as well as the caffine kicker.

The beverage coffee seems to originate as an adjunct to Sufi rituals,
possibly as early as 1250, although this is demostrable only to the late
14th Century.  General usage starts at about 1450 in Southern Arabia and
coincides with the rise of coffee cultivation there.

The coffee of the period seems to be much as the Turkish coffee of today,
thick, heavy on the sugar and spiced with cardamom of cinnamon, depending on
the local tradition.  There is a lighter version of the drink made from
hulls described in Avicenna, IIRC.  Generally served after meals or for
meetings.

Bear

>Got a question for you, though- do we know how it was served in period? I
>mean, beyond the anecdotal evidence of certain tribes chewing on coffee
>beans for extra energy, a la the early meso-Americans/South Americans on
>coca leaves.
>
>When was it roasted? How was it served- boiled into a thick syrup? Sugared
>perhaps? Other spices added? Was there any specific ceremony, time of day
or
>relationship to meals involved?
>
>Phlip