coffee plants

"At an actual coffee planation, you can usually buy coffee beans for about 4 copper pieces a pound, or a little bit less if you are a good negotiator.   Like with most things, The farther you ship the coffee, the more expensive it becomes. In most of the lands controlled by the Confederacy you can usually find coffee beans for five coppers a pound. In most West Colassia and northern Penarchian ports, a pound of coffee beans usually costs seven copper pieces. In the more distant ports, it runs for about eight coppers. Inland, coffee beans become a lot more expensive very quickly.  

by Me with Nightcafe

Of course all the numbers I mentioned refers to wholesalers. A pot of coffee or cup of coffee has a fair bit of markup and you can easily make more than two dozen cups of coffee from a pound of beans. In East Colassia, most take their coffee 'black', or 'soldier style'. That is they take their coffee with nothing but ground beans and hot water.

  I hear a few kings and queens abroad have a taste for coffee but not many. What you don't usually see abroad is peasants drinking coffee. Usually most coffee is drank by successful merchants, master tradesmen, and lesser nobility. They will usually spruce their coffee up with milk or cream and a sweetener like honey, maple syrup, or cane sugar. Sometimes they add another flavoring spice like cinnamon, vanilla, or nutmeg. In a lot of cases, the flavoring agents cost far more than the coffee itself.   In East Colassia where most people who drink coffee are not especially rich, drinking coffee "soldier style" is the only option though a few use a splash of goat's milk, honey, or a pinch of mint and these things aren't too hard for a working man to get a hold of. Even rich people in the East Colassian Confederacy are not likely to spruce up our coffee too much relative to coffee drinkers overseas. Coffee is sort of viewed as an everyman beverage and any leader aiming for a 'Man of the People' vibe probably wants to show they drink their coffee simply.   I don't care if the commoners think I'm one of them or not, but I don't see the need to spruce up my coffee too much. A small dab of honey and a leaf of mint is all I need."   -Eknok of Mooringsland, tengku merchant

Ancient History

"The majority of surviving documents from the Second are not very exciting, mostly inventory records and bills of sale. But we can still glean knowledge from this.   We can be certain that coffee was cultivated and consumed in the Second Age. In the Third Age, it is noteworthy that relatively few elves seem to enjoy drinking coffee. This seems to be historically consistent. The vast majority of coffee sold in the Second Age was purchased by tengku and satyrs.  

In modern times, both tengku and satyrs remain fond of coffee and both claim that their ancestors were the first to cultivate coffee. As of yet, we don't know who was the first to cultivate coffee plants or when, but this is not unusual. We don't know who or when maize, wheat, tea leaves, potatoes, or almost any other widely cultivated agricultural plant was first domesticated nor do we know the names of the thousands of farmers who wisely were able to breed incremental improvements to their crops, but I digress.

coffee plant on Unsplash by Delightin Dee

  Most oral legends say that coffee beans were first cultivated in what is now East Colassia. We don't know if this was the main place coffee was grown in the Second Age or the only place coffee was grow. Either way, after the Second Unmaking the only place coffee plants survived was East Colassia."   -Akeem of Magicland, Professor Emeritus of History

More Recent History

"I like coffee, but I won't die to protect my coffee. It makes sense that coffee farms and plantations were abandoned during the Second Unmaking and if people tried to defend their plants, they tried to defend their food first.   Our legends say that the surviving coffee plants were on the eastern side of the East Colassian Mountains, square in the territory of Kahdisteria. Of course, early in the Red Era, before the dark elves formed their glorious nation, that land was occupied by the Chay humans. They didn't drink coffee but they would occasionally chew the beans for a pickme up.   Most of the Chay were enslaved, but the cleverest and luckiest were able to escape westward to merge with the other human tribes assisted by a few freedom loving satyrs. Some of the Chay that escaped brought coffee with them and my ancestor goats started planting and cultivating them west of the the East Colassian Mountains and a lot of humans picked up a taste for coffee over the generations.   Eventually it was discovered that coffee grew best in what is now known as Mariverlandia and that is where most coffee is grown today. Coffee was generally viewed as a luxury good and was raised for export overseas and normally only well-to-do folk drink coffee.   During the Great Colassian War, the Colassian Confederacy has very few military vessels compared to the dark elves, so any merchant ship that tried to go overseas was extremely vulnerable to piracy and impressment. As the Kahdisterians tightened their blockade, coffee beans piled up in our ports with nowhere to go.   Eventually the plantation owners heeded the words of a wise satyr and opted to give the coffee to our soldiers rather than let the coffee rot away.  

boiling pot of water by me using Nightcafe

It was probably a coincidence, but the day our soldiers started receiving coffee with their daily rations marks the turning point of the war. My grandfather told me how soldiers liked the help waking up and soldiers would often use coffee to flavor some of their blander food. Soldiers would often use their coffee to soften their hardtack. It was also a good excuse to make sure noone cut corners and skipped boiling water gained from a questionable source.

  After the Armistice was signed, coffee was able to exported again, but as more and more soldiers hung up their swords and went back to their old professions, many of them still wanted to keep drinking coffee.   Now in peace time, coffee cultivation has increased. About half of the continents coffee is exported to fancy folk overseas and about half the coffee is consumed by regular folk at home. I am one of those regular folk.   -Basim, Confederate Satyr Apothecary And Reagent Dealer