The people of Japan reduce their tea to a fine powder, which they dilute
with warm water until it has acquired the consistence of a thin soup.
Their manner of serving tea is as follows:--They place before the
company the tea-equipage, and the caddy in which this powder is
contained; they fill the cups with warm water, and taking from the caddy
as much powder as the point of a knife can contain, throw it into each
of the cups, and stir it, until the liquor begins to foam; it is then
presented to the company, who sip it while it is warm. According to Du
Halde, this method is not peculiar to the Japanese; it is also used in
some of the provinces of China.
Coffee.
The beverage which we call coffee, is said to have been drank in
Ethiopia from time immemorial. The Galla, a wandering nation of Africa,
in their excursions on Abyssinia, being obliged to traverse immense
deserts, and being also desirous of falling on the Abyssinians, without
warning, that they may be incumbered as little as possible with baggage,
carry nothing with them to eat, but coffee roasted, till it can be
pulverised, and then mixed with butter into balls; one of these, about
the size of a billiard ball, is said to keep them during a whole day’s
fatigue.[39]
[39] Bruce’s Abyss. II. 226.
The liquor, called coffee, was introduced into Adea, in Arabia, from
Persia, about the middle of the 15th century. Not long after it reached
Mecca, Medina, &c. and Grand Cairo. Hence it continued its progress to
Damascus and Aleppo, and in 1554 became known at Constantinople.
It is not certain at what time the use of coffee passed from
Constantinople to the Western part of Europe. Thevenot, a French
traveller into the East, at his return in 1657, brought with him coffee
to Paris. In the year 1671, a coffee-house was opened at Marseilles.
Soon after coffee-rooms were opened at Paris.
The first mention of coffee in our statute books was 1660. In the year
1688, Mr. Ray affirms, that London might rival Grand Cairo in the number
of its coffee-houses.[40]
[40] Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary.