Coffee in the stories

[Bellatrix]

I'm noticing that all novels so far have a lot of coffee drinking in them. All stories I've read thus far were published between 1965 - 1971.

I was born in 1965 and my parents became anti-social in the early '70s, so there was no "let's have coffee at 8 PM" with friends at our home.

Last evening while reading the current novel (will review it when finished), sure enough the heroine prepares coffee (and toast) before turning in for the night.

Characters always brewing up a pot of coffee whether it's morning or mid-afternoon or late evening. Caffeine past 6 PM?? Not for me. But it's cool in the stories.

It's a nice social graces touch. Social graces are, at least in this area, mostly dead. Many of these stories are bringing back certain memories of when people were more willingly connected. I miss those days...

[paigenumber]

I'm not a coffee drinker but I sure love the smell of it. I'm not sure I noticed the coffee drinking except in more modern Gothics. The historical ones seem more bent on serving tea.

[Bellatrix]

I've recently become a coffee drinker (need that mid-morning jolt to keep me going).

The current novel [Keys of Hell by Louise Osborne, 1975, set in Ontario, Canada] alternates between coffee and tea somewhat, but favors coffee.

It definitely lends a "cozy" touch to stories which certainly aren't intended to be. I definitely like the "sociability" of it all.

[ginnystrait]

I'm not a coffee drinker but I sure love the smell of it. I'm not sure I noticed the coffee drinking except in more modern Gothics. The historical ones seem more bent on serving tea.

Charlotte Bronte mentions coffee drinking in her novels. In Jane Eyre, the pupils were given coffee to drink for one thing.

[Penfeather]

Charlotte Bronte mentions coffee drinking in her novels. In Jane Eyre, the pupils were given coffee to drink for one thing.

I've noticed that in some Gothics and mystery novels (especially British), there seems to be a graduated rule for what to drink under certain circumstances: for ordinary social occasions, tea; when strength and invigoration are needed, coffee; and when someone has suffered a shock or traumatic incident, brandy!

I often find myself very suggestible when reading. If the characters in the book are having coffee, I suddenly crave a cup myself. Silly!

[gurugoddess]

The first record of tea being advertised in Britain occurs in 1658, which advertised tea for sale at a coffee house called The Sultaness' Head. Thomas Garway, a merchant with an eye for a deal, advertised tea at his London coffee house, Garraways later that same year.

Garway's advertisements painted a rosy picture of the new drink. There was hardly an ailment that this miracle leaf couldn’t cure, such as helping headaches, giddiness, bad dreams, colds, dropsy, and scurvy, apparently. Sounds like Green tea now, right?

Tea-drinking came under royal patronage in 1662 when Charles II married Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess and avid tea-drinker. Catherine began taking tea at Court in delicate, translucent Chinese bowls and pots and the courtiers soon followed suit.

Tea was already expensive, but now it was fashionable too. Suddenly tea had style and exclusivity. In the eyes of the image-conscious aristocracy, it was irresistible.

The coffee had come over from the new world in the late fifteenth century, of course, thanks to the Spanish and Portuguese.

The coffee house culture of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century combined business with pleasure. Later, they began to add tea drinking.

Although women enjoyed tea at home, they would not dare set foot in a coffee house if they valued their reputations. They were gossipy, bawdy places, hugely popular, but with stiff competition between the owners. They were always trying to find new novelties to lure in more customers.

There were as many as two thousand five hundred coffee houses squeezed into a two or three-mile radius of central London in the late eighteenth century.

Some were interested only in the beverage side of things, whilst others offered unique products. For example, Mr. Lloyd would display a list of ships that were due to sail, along with their cargoes. This encouraged the underwriters to meet in Mr. Lloyd’s coffee house in order to arrange the ships' insurance. And of course, Lloyds of London the insurers is still in existence today.

So coffee has an extremely long history in Europe, and in novels of the period, as compared with tea. Tea really only started to take off as a common beverage in the early 19th century when the East India Company started trading it more in earnest, and when tea was 'discovered' in India in 1811.

The government monopoly on China tea was still in place, but they discovered Darjeeling tea, and shortly after that, Assam tea, which now makes up about 50% of all the tea drunk in the world.

So tea is a relative newcomer to the West, and as you say, Penfeather, the occasions upon which it was drunk were quite regulated.

In fact, the tea was so valuable it was locked in a caddy with a key. So you would never really see ordinary people drinking it in novels, or shouldn't if the author is trying to be historically accurate.

Otherwise, poorer people used citrus peel in hot water, or cloves in hot water, or warm apple cider to warm them up on a cold day. Sometimes homemade wines would be drunk, and beer, of course, because the water was so bad it was the only way to drink it without dying of cholera the way Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband did, and her eldest son Albert nearly did as well.

[Penfeather]

Otherwise, poorer people used citrus peel in hot water, or cloves in hot water, or warm apple cider to warm them up on a cold day. Sometimes homemade wines would be drunk, and beer, of course, because the water was so bad it was the only way to drink it without dying of cholera the way Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband did, and her eldest son Albert nearly did as well.

I remember reading that in China, long ago, people who could not afford tea would serve their guests plain hot water, calling it "white tea". Not sure if it's true, but it makes a picturesque, if sad anecdote.

[gurugoddess]

It might be true, but there is also white tea, the uncured and unfermented tea leaf.

White tea is fast-dried, while green tea is roasted in an oven or pan. Oolong and black teas are fermented before being roasted.

White tea is also less far along in the growth cycle, and usually contains buds and young tea leaves, which have been found to contain lower levels of caffeine than older leaves.

So the caffeine content of some white teas may be slightly lower than that of green teas, which are lighter than black and oolong.

But it is a nice thought.

A lot of people would also have used herbs, spearmint, peppermint, and so on. Anything to add flavor to the boiled water, and they knew they had medicinal properties as well, to aid digestion and kept the breath fresh.