Certainly they must have bakeries that provide the city with tarts, fry breads, egg pastry and the like, and on cold winter mornings they'd certainly have something hot to drink along with those fine foods. So I bring you my Realms' version of Starbucks: Volothamp's. They are the much loved bakeries that have sprung up in many northern cities, named for the famous traveling Volo who wrote guidebooks and tell-all chapbooks. Owned by the Geddarm family, they are profitable and always serve excellent food.
Any given Volothamp's serves their trademarked "coffee" (made from traditionally roasted Maztican beans at several secret family plantations still in Faerun), along with a variety of fried breads, savory meat or egg pies, and other "one-hand mornfeasts" now quite popular with traveling nobles, busy merchants, hurried apprentices, hungry laborers, and salty sailors. The decor is intriguing, with quotes and drawings of the original traveling Volo featured on the walls. Also, copies of Volo's various chapbooks, highly nostalgic and now in their 26th printing, can also be purchased at the counter for a few silvers each. Comfortable chairs and tables encourage patrons to stay and read, and in the late evenings many stay to discuss business or play card and dice games (while enjoying their coffee and pastries, of course).
These cafes aren't found in just the wealthiest quarters of cities, but in any part of the city that sees a lot of travelers and merchants. In Waterdeep, there are two: one at the edge of the docks, and another set between the nobles' quarter and the trade district. The Volothamp's on the docks features a ride-up back window that caters to messengers and errand-runners in a hurry for their delicacies. The second Volothamp's often hosts boisterous study groups from the nearby wizard academy.
Recognizable not just for the large, garish "VOLOTHAMP'S" near the entrance, all of these cafes feature a round sign that is a symbolic representation of the Lady-of-the-stars: clearly meant to represent the goddess Selune. Surrounded by a circle of stars, the silvery Lady is smiling and has an open-armed posture of welcome. It is said that in the early days of these cafes, Selune herself visited one after a particularly nasty run-in with Shar. The goddess of the moon and stars found the coffee and pastry so refreshing that she gave the Geddarm family her blessing.
I forgot to mention their primary competition: Silverymoon's Best Coffee.
Featuring imported Amnian roasted beans, their coffee has a bolder flavor. Ancient high Elven magic keeps the flavor rich and dark, without the bitterness of cheap coffees found in ramshackle Inns and Taverns, while retaining the full-bodied aroma of the Maztican beans.
Similar in terms of baked goods, Silverymoon's Best Coffee offers more than 20 whole bean and ground coffees, including flavored, organic and Fair Trade Certified™ coffees (i.e. guaranteed never to have been in the possession of Zhentarim or Red Wizard merchants).
And im still going to refuse to buy Fair Trade Certifiedtm coffee until they can guarantee me that it hasnt been in the hands of any Shade or Sembian merchants. Actually i dont mind the Zhents so much, they do usually get quality stuff.
;)
So thats what Volos been up to these days, starting up a coffee franchise. Makes sense to me. It kinda makes me wonder how Aurora's is doing.
And im still going to refuse to buy Fair Trade Certifiedtm coffee until they can guarantee me that it hasnt been in the hands of any Shade or Sembian merchants. Actually i dont mind the Zhents so much, they do usually get quality stuff.
Aurora's is the Realms version of Kmart.
Tammie poo had to ruin Thay's chance at becoming the Realms version of Wally-world.
That sounds kinda interesting.
So... I would argue that it is probably from Zakhara. A large part of Calishite wealth is derived from its merchants monopolies on the coffee trade, as it is in enormous demand along the Sword Coast, the Lake of Steam, the Dragonmere, and the Moonsea.
After the Spellplague, Waterdhavian and Balduran merchants attempted to break the Calishite monopoly on Zakharan trade. However, while both of these cities had had limited trade with the Land of Fate in the past, these attempts were completely unsuccessful. Traders returned speaking of terrible monsters wandering cities in the night, beasts attacking men, and far worse. Only the Calishites keep up the Zakharan trade these days, and even that is becoming more and more sporadic....
well... as for the origins of coffee... in RL it was from Ethiopia. it was only brought to the Americas two centuries after Columbus.
So... I would argue that it is probably from Zakhara. A large part of Calishite wealth is derived from its merchants monopolies on the coffee trade, as it is in enormous demand along the Sword Coast, the Lake of Steam, the Dragonmere, and the Moonsea.After the Spellplague, Waterdhavian and Balduran merchants attempted to break the Calishite monopoly on Zakharan trade. However, while both of these cities had had limited trade with the Land of Fate in the past, these attempts were completely unsuccessful. Traders returned speaking of terrible monsters wandering cities in the night, beasts attacking men, and far worse. Only the Calishites keep up the Zakharan trade these days, and even that is becoming more and more sporadic....
....aaaand someone completely missed the whole point. LOL
By lore, the only "true" coffee is grown in Durpar / Ulgarth (see Shining South, 2nd ed). But for purely humorous reasons, I thought it'd be funnier to assume that some had been taken to Maztica. Wasn't really looking to take it further than a little joke.
well... as for the origins of coffee... in RL it was from Ethiopia. it was only brought to the Americas two centuries after Columbus.
So... I would argue that it is probably from Zakhara. A large part of Calishite wealth is derived from its merchants monopolies on the coffee trade, as it is in enormous demand along the Sword Coast, the Lake of Steam, the Dragonmere, and the Moonsea.After the Spellplague, Waterdhavian and Balduran merchants attempted to break the Calishite monopoly on Zakharan trade. However, while both of these cities had had limited trade with the Land of Fate in the past, these attempts were completely unsuccessful. Traders returned speaking of terrible monsters wandering cities in the night, beasts attacking men, and far worse. Only the Calishites keep up the Zakharan trade these days, and even that is becoming more and more sporadic....
....aaaand someone completely missed the whole point. LOL
By lore, the only "true" coffee is grown in Durpar / Ulgarth (see Shining South, 2nd ed). But for purely humorous reasons, I thought it'd be funnier to assume that some had been taken to Maztica. Wasn't really looking to take it further than a little joke.
Coffee might be a joke to you.
To me, it's deadly serious.
Coffee might be a joke to you.
To me, it's deadly serious.
Heh, I know what you mean. I'm picky about my beans as well. I actually prefer European coffees over American coffee, based on the flavor profiles.
As far as the Realms, I imagine the first transplanted crops and roasted beans somehow made their way through a portal from Earth to Durpar~Ulgarth and thrived there because of the climate.
I like my coffee black. Reminds me of the Darkness of Lady Shar. Sweet Bitterness.
I like my coffee black. Reminds me of the Darkness of Lady Shar. Sweet Bitterness.
I like my coffee black. Reminds me of the Darkness of Lady Shar. Sweet Bitterness.
agreed
Everyone knows that the only worthwhile coffee is grown by the elves on Evermeet, and this is why I haven't had a decent cup of coffee in over a century.
pfft. Gnomish "feybeans", every time.
I like my coffee black. Reminds me of the Darkness of Lady Shar. Sweet Bitterness.
Hey, can you ask the emo queen if her kid can come out and play yet?
Or is he still grounded?
Me and the Shaundakul are bored, and exploring with Mask always leads to trouble, which as any good explorer knows, is a good thing. *
Anyway, I might intergrate something like this into my FR games, with an almost frighteningly potent variant coming out of the Skyfire Emirates. Mostly that one free port...god I'm bad at remember names of things...
*dammit, now I'm seeing Shaundakul, Mask and Helm travelling around like Odin, Loki and Thor in Norse myth.
sigh...one more story for me never finish writing....bugger.
-
The recent increase in widespread interest in coffee has had a few interesting affects and the general trade and production of said drink. First, as the reader is doubtless aware, is the popular Volothamp's coffee house franchise. Although the practice of purchasing coffee and pastries from a shop dedicated to that exclusive purpose is rather new, it has quickly come to be a fixture of any well to do city to have at least a small handful of these shops, whether Volo's, Silverymoon's or any of a number of arguable lesser independent operations.
So pervasive has this recent trend grown that many have trouble imagining how they got by without these "coffee shops", as they're called.
The second, and possibly more far reaching effect, has been a dramatic increase in the profitability of growing coffee beans, particularly finding a new flavour or blend to sell to the ever present shops. With the increased prevelance of magical farming aids, growing products that might not otherwise work in your climate has never been more feasible, and just in time for an age describe by one sage as one in which "The Western World is held aloft not by earth, or ocean, nor even magic, but by the product of a dark little bean no larger than a haflings finger tip."
While Almraiven imports exotic beans from various strange locales, many Gnomes are selling to independent operations, and a few to Volo's. Among the blends the Gnomes export is an exciting product humans have been known to call "Feybeans", after both their origin, and their effects. The calishites are particularly fond of "feybrew" blends for the use in their dangerously potent Moonless Desert. Named for the extreme nature of the coffee, and it's impregnably black colour.
Feybean differ from "mundane" beans in that when brewed the coffee produced is slightly lighter of colour, with a lighter, slightly sweet flavour, and deceptive potency. Combined with somewhat lessened "crash" as the effects wear off, this is a very popular, but somewhat expensive option.
more later. :D
What about Laerakond? Its in Maztica's spot, so it would make sense for it to have the same climate and everything, so perhaps coffee could be easily grown there as well, perhaps some Maztican seed tobacco? cocoa might be popular as well, or coca.
It might have realatively the same climate, but the landscape is all different, so that might change weather patterens, and the soil might be vastly different, so coffee grown in Returned Abeir may not come out as good as you might think.
Bitter, burnt, and acidic, it's sweet to the Lady of Loss.
then again, I'm the guy playing a shadar-kai who mistepped into the feywild and almost immediately went insane, stayed that way for a number of years (about 20) and when he finally was aided in regaining his sanity by an Eladrin Lady, had lost most of his gift for magical song, but his maddened attempts to force himself back into the shadowfel through telepathy had given him a much advanced abillity to teleport, and to manipulate light and shadows. (he's an assassin mc bard.)