Quoted By:
“Their commonly found drink is coffee - a black colored beverage, made from a grain-like bean called “Coaua” which is milled and boiled in water. They drink it as hot as they could possibly withstand it - which they believed to be good for the body. This is usually done after only eating uncooked food, vegetables, and meats.”
This type of drink is not mysterious for a poet such as Sir George Sandy, who has had a taste of it in Turkey, in 1610. He noted the practice of not drinking alcohol in this country was contrary to that of England. “Although they do not have alehouses at all, there is an abundance of coffeehouses - which has similarities to alehouses.” He wrote, in a cutesy book called Sandy Travels “They sat and gossip there, all day long, sipping on a drink called coffee (which is the name of the berry used in the making of this drink) from small ceramic plates, as hot as they could withstand drinking it, whose color are as black as soot, and taste similar to such. He also noted they drink coffee to “Assist… in digestion and invigoration.” However, it seemed this quality of relaxing the stomach and mind might not prove adequate to attract customers, and so, the owner of the coffeehouse Sandy visited had devised a ploy they believed would surely attract the local men “Many of the coffeehouse owners would have good-looking boys to act as lure.”
TLDR; before maid cafes were a thing, there were shota cafes.
If only I had known this when writing Sira Can’t Run a Brothel. That, and 17th century Japan’s prostitution. Ah well.
