Tea, Telloch And Arthberry Wine

In Ardaig on Merseia, Dagla Quick-to-Anger, Olgor hu Freylin and their guest, Chee Lan, drink a potent wine, poured into goblets from a cut-crystal decanter. Concealing the fact that alcohol does not affect Cynthians, Chee Lan takes a long draught and Dagla takes a larger one. Her equivalent of alcoholic drink is narcotic cigarettes. On Ronraud, Haguan offers her arthberry wine.

In Dalgorad on Merseia, Tachwyr the Dark, Lannawar Belgis and their guest, Dominic Flandry, drink tankards of bitter ale.

On Talwin, Ydwyr the Seeker pours a glass of arthberry wine for Djana every time they meet.

After their private dinner to celebrate the conclusion of the negotiations that have ended of the Jihannath crisis, Uldwyr offers Cunderban Desai more of the pungent Merseian ale but Desai prefers tea - which is grown throughout the Merseian Roidhunate in this period.

When Flandry and Tachwyr meet on Talwin:

"They sought the well-stocked sideboard. Tachwyr reached for Scotch and Flandry for telloch. They caught each other's glances and laughed, Merseian drumroll and human staccato."
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT IX, p. 454.

Appropriate, because Merseians use drums in rituals, e.g.:

"Kettledrums rolled their ritual from Eidh Hill."
-"Day of Burning," p. 242.

Place names generate a sense of tradition and familiarity.

This post refers to four of the seven volumes of The Technic Civilization Saga.