Last week William H. Ukers' quest took us to Asia, where we explored ancient and current coffee traditions in Arabia. Today we continue our research in the Asian continent, moving onto Turkey. Ukers cites a few references which gave comprehensive and detailed descriptions of traditional Turkish coffee houses. Even if only half of it was true, they must have been quite a sight and well worth the experience of wandering into one of these back in the days. As in Arabia, they were (and are) the places where men would gather for sipping coffee, talking and smoking, in days long gone enlightened with the additional entertainment by (live) music or traditional storytellers. Making and drinking the coffee were an art in itself, with the beans being roasted and ground at the spot. At first their tradition was very similar to that of the Arabians, but through time the Turkish developed their own method, by adding sugar to the boiling water, partly as a concession to the sweet tooth of European customers. After all, it is through their contacts with Turkey that Europeans became aware of coffee, being the plant, the seeds, the beverage as well as the coffee houses. Not only did the Europeans borrow the beverage, they also took the concept of the coffee houses and the word root from the Turkish (who in turn got it from the Arabs), back to their home countries. This at least is one explanation of how the words café and coffee started their conquest of the world. A full transcript of the book All About Coffee, by William H. Ukers has been made available as part of the Gutenberg project. This series is based upon Chapter 35, World's Coffee Manners and Customs.
1 Comment
candida
24/9/2013 04:14:24 pm
I never thought that coffee had such a history , what a past, and a for-history!! Apparently we should say coffee with respect:-)
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AuthorI wouldn't be surprised to find out I was born with a passion for coffee. For the life of me, I can't remember not loving coffee. And by that, I don't just mean drinking it, but everything involved from its cultivation over the processing to the final product that is my loyal companion throughout the day. Archives
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