Monday 26 August 2019

Four Or Five Hot Drinks

Coffee, tea, rax (?), jaine, kave.

Poul Anderson's Time Patrol agents and SM Stirling's temporal exiles miss coffee in the past (see "Tea Or Coffee, Sir?") although Julian May's temporal exiles serve it (see Coffee And Creativity). Rax and jaine are served in futures imagined by James Blish and Poul Anderson, respectively. See Corridors Of Power.

SM Stirling's and David Drake's Raj Whitehall thinks:

"If the Azanians ever cut off our supply of kave beans, the Army high command is doomed."
-The Hammer, CHAPTER EIGHT, p. 451.

But we don't really need hot drinks, do we? My grandmother said, "Have you ever been in someone's house in the afternoon and you've wanted them to offer you tea and they haven't? Ooh, It's awful!" but would have been horrified if you had told her that she was a drug addict.

3 comments:

David Birr said...

Paul:
Early in my Army service, I was sent to pick up some paperwork at the (cavalry) squadron headquarters. As I stood at the doorway of the Operations Center, waiting for the material to be got out of the safe, the squadron's second in command walked up behind me. He was evidently in a jovial mood, since rather than just ordering me to get out of his way, he joked, "Son, your life is in danger, because you are between me and the coffee pot."

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

David,
How true.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

and it's a stereotype to say the British are addicted to tea! But, I found myself conforming to having tea at my meals during my visits to the UK because I did not want to irritate others by making a fuss about drinking cold milk!

As addictions goes, tea or coffee are nothing like being hooked on opium, heroin, cocaine, meth, etc.

And I suspect the "rax" offered by Admiral Kheraskov to Flandry in Chapter II of THE REBEL WORLDS was a non-Terrestroid drink from another planet consumed by humans like coffee or tea. And of course we know of how the Merseians became enthusiastic tea drinkers!

Sean