[seems OT, but its not] Coffee Talk

[Delemental]

This is an appeal to all you coffee drinkers out there, particularly those of you who buy your beans whole, to help me bring just a wee bit more versimillitude to my new character.

I decided that my new character, who already has a taste for the exotic, would become a coffee drinker (this is set in FR, where coffee originates in Maztica and is therefore a rarity). So, I went to the Arms & Equipment Guide and bought a hand mill and percolator. But after buying all my 'real' equipment (you know, weapons, armor, silly stuff like that), I only had enough money to buy one pound of beans (at 50 gold per pound, that's still a good bite out of the pocketbook).

All well and good, but then I got to wondering how long that would actually last. See, we're not exactly going to be near any major cities for a while, so if it's going to be runnig out quick I need to make sure I don't let any of my adventuring companions have any. Unfortunately, I have no real-world experience to base an estimate on, as I am one of the four people in the Pacific Northwest who doesn't drink coffee.

(Sigh) This is what I get for trying to convert something listed in the rules as a "Commodity" into a game-useable format...

So, if you're one of those people who buys whole-bean coffee, about how much coffee would a pound of beans make? For simplicity, I'm assuming that there's no significant difference in the amount of coffee used between the old-fashioned percolator and more modern coffeemakers.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

As I know for making coffee for my mother, it takes two tablespoons of ground coffee beans to make 12 cups of coffee. She typically drinks the whole pot during the day (your character may not be so caffeine-dependent). A half-full bag of selected coffee beans from the store, which she grinds at home, can sometimes last her a bit over a week.

Take from that what you will.

 

[babomb]

I'd say about 60-70 cups of coffee per pound of coffee beans, depending on how dark you brew it.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

So, I went to the Arms & Equipment Guide and bought a hand mill and percolator.

There's a Percolator in the A&EG? (Is it magical or something?) I think a "french press" type pot would be more in order for an adventuring type who's always on the go.

 

[Henry]

Don't forget to have your PC feed the beans to a weasel before he uses them.

 

[Deadguy]

Don't forget to have your PC feed the beans to a weasel before he uses them.

Weasels on caffeine?!!?!

Those little beggars are mad enough as it is, without getting them wired too!

Now there's an image: a Wizard with a caffeine-hooked weasel familiar dancing around in his robes*!


*this has actually nearly come up in a game of Ars Magica; read from that what you will!

 

[diaglo]

i'm glad this isn't related to the real world. (coffee didn't originate in the NEw World btw)

i thought they imported the beans to Amn in the FR. where are you basing your character?

 

[Henry]

Weasels on caffeine?!!?!

Those little beggars are mad enough as it is, without getting them wired too!

Do a Google search on "Kopi Luwak Coffee".

Don't eat beforehand or during your search.

 

[green slime]

One pound of coffee? Lasts my wife less than a week. Of course, she is a Swede, so her coffee consumption is rather high... Swedes drink pretty strong coffee, they tend to compare the coffee you find in the US to muddy water... They drink from these rediculously small cups. Many a Swede I know has ordered 2 cups of double expresso in Italy "to get a decent cup". Expressos in Italy are ordered by the small mouthful.

At a rough estimate, a pound of unground coffee beans would make 25 to 30 cups (1½ - 2 deciliters) of strong coffee. You could stretch that to 100 cups of weak coffee, but then nobody will ever have coffee at your house ever again (which is perhaps part of the plan, at 50 gp / pound).

1½ - 2 dl being the size of the average mug. Swedes tend to drink it in cups half that size, and the "expresso" cup is even smaller (about half again).

You using those addiction rules from BoVD? My wife is a terror those days there is no coffee available in the morning! Not a ray of sunshine, let me tell you!

 

[Verdigris]

FYI Henry,

"Kopi Luwak" is passed through the digestive track of a palm civit (a tree dwelling animal similar to a monkey), not a weasel.

As for how long a pound of coffee would last -- it lasts me about 2 weeks between 1.5 people (my wife sometimes drinks it). Keep in mind that the pot I use is a 4 cup maker, which actually means it makes 2.5 mugs of coffee. I always make at least one pot in the morning and I sometimes make a pot in the afternoon on weekends (though usually only half a pot then). Depending on how much your PC drinks, it will take him longer or shorter. If he is a morning and afternoon drinker (a not uncommon rythem) he will use his coffee faster than I do, but the requirements of the trail may preclude this. Clear?

Now, the single-cup French Press has much to say for it: it is self-contained, it requires less coffee than either a single-cup filter or a formal coffee maker.

On the trail, we usually make "Billy Coffee" [which is a cousin to the venerable Anglo-Australian "Billy Tea"]. This usually means you throw a bunch of grounds in a pot, boil the heck out of it, drop a bit of cold water on the top to settle the grounds, and drink it quickly before the taste hits your tongue. When cowboys used to make coffee on the range, they'd carry raw beans and roast them by hand. This is probably more realistic for your game than the various yuppie contraptions available these days.

Don't forget you'll need a grinder for those beans. I suggest a warhammer and a hollowed-out Orc skull.