Jewish Musings, Sunday 2/25

[lee058]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.



Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:



Frieda (hopefully)?

Holly

Lee

Louise

Lynne

Peachy



And for those of you who stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Today's topic: Coffee, and the Jewish connection.

First off, do you drink coffee? When and how much? What type of preparation do you do? How about when you were younger?

I drink coffee, usually a mug or two in the morning. Sometimes I will have more in the afternoon or evening if I want to stay up late. We have a drip brewer, and we grind our own beans, usually Wegmans house brand. When I was a kid, my parents drank instant Maxwell House coffee. I didn't like it.

What Jewish connections can you think of related to coffee? I mentioned Maxwell House coffee. If I remember correctly, for Passover, they used to attach Haggadahs to the containers.

As for coffee in the past, I honestly don't know much about this topic but would be interested in learning more. I don't know if Jews were involved in the early companies who used to buy, package and ship coffee to Europe from where it grew. Jews were involved in a great many trading companies, so I would think it would be natural that we were involved somehow, unless there were bans.

I also have no idea about coffee plantations. Maybe there were some that were owned and/or run by Jews. Anything is possible!

I'm looking forward to learning what you know! Have a peaceful day, Lee

[louise]

Ha ha - I definitely remember the Maxwell House haggadot. They were a staple. I also remember as a child being frightened by their angel of depiction in Hagadya. We drank tea in our house growing up, servied in a glass with milk. As I grew up and mugs became popular the transition from glasses to a mug was an easy one. My mother drank coffee but made herself instant. She had an electric percolator for when we had company.

I have read that Chock Full of Nuts and Starbucks were founded by Jews. Also that in the 20's Maxwell House launched a major PR campaign to inform people that coffee was not actually made from beans but from the pits of berries, thus there was no kitniyot issue for Pasover. This is how the association of Maxwell House and Passover began!

[gazelle18]

There is a good historical novel about Jews in Amsterdam being part of the coffee trade, and instrumental in bringing it to Europe. It’s called “The Coffee Trader,” by David Liss, and I read it for my book club.

I love coffee in all of its forms. Traditional New Orleans coffee is made by blinding coffee with chicory (which was a way to stretch the volume, as coffee was expensive). Coffee and chicory has a distinctive flavor, which I love.

[peachymom1]

Wow, this is interesting stuff! I'm not a coffee drinker myself; I just don't like the taste. My mom drank it black, which didn't appeal to me. I do like tea, both hot and iced, though I drink much more iced tea than hot tea. Right now I have a cold, so I'm drinking hot tea, which feels good on my throat.

DH is the opposite of me. He drinks coffee every day and makes iced tea for himself from a variety of flavors, while I just drink the plain kind. DH isn't particular about coffee brands. But he is particular about his coffee mugs. Two of his favorites are mugs I gave him as anniversary gifts. :+)

[hollygail]

Both DM and DF drank their coffee black (always always always made in a percolator; never instant). I probably started drinking coffee around age 16 or maybe 17. I too drank it black. Once, someone asked me if I wanted it "regular" and, not knowing that "regular" didn't mean ONLY the coffee, I said yes. It had cream (or milk or whatever) and sugar in it. I threw it away; I might have been able to drink it with the cream/milk/whatever, but the sweetness was horrendous in my mouth! (I shudder just remembering it.) I drank black coffee for numerous years. However, at some point, I stopped. And I tried so-called "caffeine-free" coffee. I've always liked the smell and taste of coffee, but the caffeine gets to me. I'm sure I've told you all that one day I had a cup of Sanka (97% caffeine-free) around 11:30am; at 10 that night a friend asked me to leave so he could go to sleep (he had to be at the office by 7 the next morning).

These days I drink herbal teas that never had caffeine in them to begin with.