Things of most importance to Hobbits

[venger]

So an interesting role-play thing came up at the game a couple weeks ago.
We were in the Iron Hills, Azanulinbar-dum, and One of the players went to the market and wanted to buy coffee.
I remember Bilbo had a well stocked larder and he did indeed serve coffee. Tolkien wrote it.

So right off the top of my head, given the time period, dwarves being prosperous and well provisioned themselves, I deemed it possible they could have such fare, though it would have been imported from the Shire and would be expensive.

I didn't come up with a cost, and a look through the Laketown supplement gave no similar items to draw info from.

I still don't have that answer, How much is Coffee?, but I did find an interesting read about what could be found in a Hobbit's larder, and where it might have come from that I thought I would share.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2008/200 ... en-a.shtml

[Amargen]

Dwarves all hyped-up on caffeine... sounds like something to be avoided...

[Terisonen]

Say 10Pounds for a 1 Treasure?

[zedturtle]

I'd suggest just simply letting it be available to any Rich or Prosperous characters. Frugal or Martial character have to pay their Treasure for that month in order to afford it.

[Robin Smallburrow]

Coffee (called Kafe) comes from Harad, not The Shire, being one of those expensive spices imported by Gondor ( the others would be pepper, sugar etc.). The Shire would import coffee etc. from the ship trade from Gondor. The biggest market for coffee etc. was Umbar ( think of it as like Istanbul). The Haradrim have a legend about how one of their sheikhs discovered coffee- it plays an important role in their culture.

Robin S.

[Glorelendil]

Coffee (called Kafe) comes from Harad, not The Shire, being one of those expensive spices imported by Gondor ( the others would be pepper, sugar etc.). The Shire would import coffee etc. from the ship trade from Gondor. The biggest market for coffee etc. was Umbar ( think of it as like Istanbul). The Haradrim have a legend about how one of their sheikhs discovered coffee- it plays an important role in their culture.

Robin S.

I'm (mostly) with Robin. When in doubt, use real-world analogues. Since coffee came to Europe from the Near East, I'd assume something similar in Middle Earth.

A fun read about the introduction of coffee to northern Europe is the David Liss novel "The Coffee Trader". Not exactly literature, but an entertaining mystery.

[Khamul]

Coffee in swedish is kaffe

[Otaku-sempai]

Perhaps coffee was originally introduced to Middle-earth from Valinor or Numinor. It just happened to thrive in the South.

[Glorelendil]

Espresso, on the other hand, requires machinery, which as we all know is a sure sign of the works of the Enemy.

Double pumpkin spice caramel soy latte? That there is a Misdeed. 3 Shadow points.