Turmeric & Spice Milk: Golden Milk

As you likely already know, heating milk can be difficult, as it often sticks or even burns, and then cleaning the pan is not the least bit fun, unless you have some sort of self-hatred complex. I probably looked at 15 recipes for this drink, and many recommended using a heavy bottomed pan, as well as stirring constantly. Some cooks suggest that you add a small amount of water to the empty heavy bottomed pan, before adding the milk, and to heat the milk over low heat.

Some suggest this milk before bedtime to help you sleep, but I drank some a little while ago and I experienced no such ... zzzz, zzzz, zzz

 

Ingredients (2 servings or 3 small servings):

 

2 cups milk (or almond milk)

2 inch piece fresh ginger, grated

1 inch piece peeled fresh turmeric, grated (or 1 teaspoon ground turmeric)

2 inch cinnamon stick

2 whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon black pepper 

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons honey

 

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, heat all of the ingredients, except the honey and the butter, over low heat, stirring or whisking constantly. When the milk is steaming, but not boiling, remove it from the heat and cover it; let it steep for about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the butter and honey, stir until the butter is melted and the honey is dissolved, and both are distributed through the milk. Strain into cups or into heat-proof glasses. You can sprinkle a little ground cinnamon, ground cardamom or ground turmeric on top.

 

I put a little ground cardamon on top ...

WORD HISTORY:

Cue-There is more than one word in English of this spelling, but this is the noun most commonly used in acting, and meaning, "a signal by words or action by one actor that another actor is to appear or perform in some way." This word is actually a bit of a mystery, although one explanation seems to make sense; that is, it is the phonetic spelling of the letter "Q" (mid 1500s?) from the Latin adverb "quando," which means "when," as the letter "Q" was often written on the scripts of performers to indicate when they were to appear, and/or, speak. "Quando" is related to quite a number of words, like "quote" (initially a verb), a Latin word borrowed from French, but with Latin influence, and to a number of "question words" like "when," "where," "who," "what," all from the Germanic roots of English, but related to the Latin word via the Indo European root "kwi/kwo." The verb form "cue" meaning "to give someone a prompt or signal to perform" is from the 1920s. (Note: The other forms of "cue" are not related.)      

Haitian Cornflour Drink, Porridge or Pudding: Akasan

Akasan is a thickened drink made with cornflour, which is NOT to be confused with cornstarch, which is also called cornflour in some cultures, nor is it quite the same as the cornmeal typically used in the U.S. to make cornbread or mush or to make polenta in Italian cuisine. If you don't have cornflour, it should be easily found in supermarkets in the flour and meal section, or it might be in the Latino section, and you won't need to take out a loan to buy it, as it is reasonably priced. It also comes in various size bags, like 4 1/2 pounds down to 1 1/2 pounds, and it is sold under at least a couple of  brand names. It will naturally also be easily found in Latino grocery stores. Rather than a drink, some call Akasan a porridge, and I've also seen it referred to as a pudding (keep reading). Akasan is a common drink in Haiti, while often served somewhat chilled, it can also be enjoyed warm. Just to be clear too, you use canned EVAPORATED milk, NOT canned sweetened condensed milk. This was the first time I ever made this, and it is easy to make, although you need to whisk it a lot to prevent lumps. One of the reasons human beings put various types of flour or meal into liquids is to help thicken them. Understand, because this is made with cornflour, if you give it more than a little chill, it will firm up a good deal, and you will find out why those who call it a pudding use that term. In that case, you can eat it with a spoon, which is just fine, or you can try adding some milk to thin it out, but it will likely be lumpy. After I looked at many recipes for akasan, I decided to use the smallest amount of cornflour, which will also help to keep it from getting too thick. You can, of course, use a little more cornflour (like 2/3 cup, instead of 1/2 cup) and then eat the thickened dish as a porridge while it is still warm. I suggest making just enough to enjoy relatively fast. As I mentioned, this was the first time I made this, so I'm learning too. 

 

When the drink was invented is unknown, and where its name comes from is also something of a mystery, although the "san" part is thought to be from the French-based creole language of Haiti and means "one hundred." Haitian creole is heavily based upon French, but with many influences from African languages, native Amerindian dialects, Spanish and Portuguese, and it seems to have developed into its modern recognizable form around 1700.

 

 

Ingredients (3 or 4 large, or 4 to 6 smaller servings):

 

1/2 cup cornflour (the flour type, not the larger grain type)

2 1/2 cups water

3 star anise

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (depending upon your preference for cinnamon)

1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 to 6 tablespoons sugar, depending upon desired sweetness 

Use a heavy bottom pan, and bring 1 1/2 cups of the water, star anise, cinnamon, and salt to a boil. Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix the remaining 1 cup water with the cornflour to make a kind of batter. Slowly begin adding the cornflour mixture to the boiling water, whisking constantly to prevent lumps or to break up any lumps that form. Reduce the heat to low or very low and continue whisking as the mixture cooks for 4 to 5 minutes. Do not let the cornflour stick. If it begins to stick, remove it from the heat immediately and keep stirring, then put it back on the heat (adjust the heat to the lowest setting). Take out the 3 star anise and add the evaporated milk, vanilla extract and sugar, stirring well to mix everything together and then remove from the heat. You can serve this right away while warm, or you can put it into the refrigerator for an hour or so to just chill it a bit before serving (see above about chilling).

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Cent-This word is closely related to "centurion" and to "percent," both borrowed by English from Latin (see further below about "percent"), and to "century," a Latin word, "probably" borrowed from that language, but with French influence or reinforcement, although perhaps the other way around, and to "decade," a word borrowed from French, which had it from Latin, which had it from Greek, and it is distantly related to both "hundred" and to "ten," words from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to Indo European "dekm," which meant "ten," and its altered form "kmtom," which meant "hundred." This gave Latin "centum," with the same meaning, and this was rendered in Latin-based Old French as "cent." English seems to have first used "cent" in the mid 1500s^ from the expression "per centum" ("by the hundred"), but with the form "cent," presumably from the French form, which gave English "per cent," then combined into "percent," which led the meaning to "a one hundredth part of something." The 1780s saw "cent" by itself proposed for a monetary unit in the United States to represent "one hundredth of a dollar."

 

^ I say "seems" because many sources on "cent" have different times the word entered English, with some mentioning the 1300s (with the meaning "hundred," but it certainly had little, if any, chance of replacing the native English word "hundred") and others later, including the example I used above. Some say the earlier form was from Latin, others say it was from French, and with a number of Latin-based words borrowed into English, at times it is tough to tell the exact source, as the French forms are similar or even the same. I'm getting along in years, and I don't know how much time I still have, but I'm not going to spend it in consternation over whether English borrowed "cent" in the 1300s, the 1400s or the 1500s. I chose the 1500 example, because that is apparently when the word took on the meaning still with us today.       

Peppermint Patty Cocktail: Hot or Cold

This is a great chocolatey and minty cocktail, either hot or cold. You can certainly make these without alcohol for children, or for adults who don't drink alcohol, by using some peppermint essence in chocolate milk. You can adjust the amount of ingredients depending upon the size of the glass you use.

 

Ingredients for about a 6 ounce drink:

 

4 ounces milk

1 or 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

1 ounce peppermint schnapps 

1 ounce creme de cacao

whipped cream for topping

peppermint patty, chopped

 

For hot: heat the milk, but do not boil. Pour into a cup or mug, add the chocolate syrup and stir well to mix it in, then add the peppermint schnapps and creme de cacao and stir to mix; top with whipped cream and pieces of peppermint patty.  For cold: use good cold milk, add the chocolate syrup, peppermint schnapps, creme de cacao and a few ice cubes; stir well; top with whipped cream and chopped peppermint patty.

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Dull-This word is related to "dust," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "fume," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. It goes back to Indo European "dheu/dhew," which meant "vapor, smoke, dust." This seemingly produced the variant "dhewel," which meant "dim, cloudy, hazy." This gave Old Germanic "dulaz," meaning, "foolish, dulled in the mind, confused, mad/crazy." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "dol" meaning "foolish," which then became "dul," and "dull." The idea of "foolish" led to "not sharp in the mind;" thus, in reference to objects, "blunt, without sharpness," and later to "not exciting, boring." (Note: In Old English "dol" was also used as a noun meaning "foolishness, stupidity.") The verb form seems to date from circa 1200 and was tied to many of the adjectival meanings; thus eventually settling on: "to lessen the sharpness of something of physical objects and of the senses or mind of living things, to lessen the brightness of something, to dim or obscure in some manner, to reduce activity." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "toll," meaning "crazy, mad," but also in every day speech "great, fantastic," as in : "Es ist eine tolle Party" ("It's a great party"),^ Low German at least had "dul," but I'm uncertain about a truly modern form, North Frisian has "dull/doll," but I didn't find a modern West Frisian form, Dutch has "dol" (mad, crazy, wild), Icelandic has "dulinn" (disguised, concealed), Swedish once had "dul/dol."

 

^ German "toll" meaning "great, super," is an example of how generally negative words can sometimes be used for positive emphasis, as in, "Dinner was awfully good," doesn't mean the dinner was bad, it means it was VERY good.  

North German Hot & Cold Anglian Mug: Angler Muck (Heiß und Kalt )

This drink is from the northern section of the Schleswig part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, from an area called "Angeln," near the border with Denmark, with the Baltic Sea lying off its east coast. The "general area" had been the home of the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that sailed off to Britain centuries ago, settled there, and helped to found England, the name of which, as well as the name of the language that developed there from various Germanic dialects, are derived from the Angles. 

There are two versions of "Angler Muck," one that is served hot (German: heiß/heiss), which is good for winter, and one that is served cold (German: kalt), which makes it good for summer. "Korn," a very popular north German grain alcohol or brandy is the alcohol most often used for the cold drink, but you can substitute vodka and I don't think they'll punch you in the "mug" (see Word History below).There is actually a special ceramic mug in Germany for the hot drink (see photo below for an example), which is often kept warm on a small warmer called a "Stövchen," a word taken from Low German into standard German and also a close relative of English "stove," and literally translated as "little stove." They are typically heated with a candle.

 

Ingredients for the cold Angler Muck:

 

1 part vodka or clear grain alcohol/brandy

1 part lemonade

1 part club soda/sparkling water

ice cubes

 

Make the lemonade to your own recipe and sweetness/tartness preference. The club soda/unflavored sparkling water gives the lemonade some evfer.... ah, efverves... ah, bubbles. 

 

The recipe for the hot version of Angler Muck is: heat together 1 pint of rum and 1 pint of water (do not boil). As the liquid heats, add 4 tablespoons sugar and 6 to 8 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (your own taste preference). Stir to mix and dissolve the sugar. Serve hot.

 

 Cold Angler Muck ...

 

Mug for the hot Angler Muck; the Angler Muck Pott ...

About this photo, see: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mucktopf.jpg#file

 

WORD HISTORY:

Mug-The origin of this word is unknown, but it shows up in English in the mid 1500s as the word for "a bowl, cup or earthenware jug with a handle." Germanic relatives of English had forms of the word, and it's very likely that the word came to English either through Low German, which has "muck," as well as "mukke" and "mugge" (Note: Low German is not a standard language, but rather a series of dialects, so often there is more than one spelling for a word, or even a different word all together. Low German often has been referred to as a dialect of German, but many linguists have come to assign Low German its own designation as a separate language. It is "similar" to its close cousins Dutch, Frisian and English, but it also bears many similarities to its cousin (standard) German and to German dialects, but with several differences.) It is also possible that "mug" came to English via Danish or Norwegian "mugge" (one of the Low German forms, "mugge," is perhaps just a coincidence, or it could have been picked up from Danish, which is nearby, or even from Norwegian, which isn't that far away; then again, it might have been the reverse). By the way, Swedish has "mugg" and Dutch has "mok" (West Frisian "mok?" If so, from Dutch?). Old English had "muga," which meant "haystack, heaped up corn (grain)," but whether this is related to "mug" is unclear. Mugs of old often were made into designs of faces, and this seems to be the source of "mug" being used as a slang word for "face." This idea then was applied to photos in the second half of the 1800s, when photography became popular; thus, "mugshot," for a "person's facial photo in police records." Since a person's face is "who we are," likely this lies behind the notion of "mug" being used for a person, usually a man, and often a person of bad repute (likely from the added idea of being known to police), and the further idea of "mug" for usually a man, but further "a stupid man," seemingly from thieves jargon for a "man stupid enough to get caught and thus have a record with law enforcement." The verb form "mug" is from circa 1825 and its use in fist fighting, boxing, for "hit someone in the mug (face)," and this expanded in meaning by the mid 1800s to "a physical attack on a person with the intent to rob them."    

German Egg Grog: Eiergrog

The German North Sea coast is the ancestral homeland of the Germanic tribes that sailed to Briton 1500 years ago and founded England. To this day the English and the Germans of the area share more than their DNA and the common Germanic source of their languages,* as they also share a good deal of weather, as well as food and beverage similarities. Like their English cousins, these northern Germans like tea, although I'm sure this isn't some shared genetic trait, but rather more a fact of shared cool, damp weather conditions in many parts of both northern Germany and parts of England, as well as the fact that tea drinking has become quite a tradition among these North Sea cousins. The Germans in this area of the north use rock candy (called "Kluntje" in the region) to sweeten their tea. Another shared drink is grog, borrowed by the Germans from the English. The drink is served hot, and it is another tie to weather conditions, as it can take the chill out of a polar bear (German: Eisbär, literally, "ice bear," but they also use "Polarbär"). So the English and the northern Germans share tea and grog, both a type of "drink," which is "Drank" in both Low German and Frisian, and "Getränk" in standard German. This grog has egg yolk and is called "Eiergrog" (the first part is pronounced as if, "eye-ah") in German; that is, "Eggs Grog." **

Ingredients (4 servings):

3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
8 ounces rum (light or dark)
8 ounces hot water (you can adjust the amount of rum and water)

If you have a stainless steel bowl that will fit over a pan of hot water, that is ideal for this. Heat the water in the pan. Meanwhile, heat some more water to be added to the mixture. Mix the egg yolks and sugar and set the bowl over the hot water. Stirring constantly, gradually add the rum, then the hot water. Don't let the eggs curdle, and pull the bowl off of the hot water if need be to prevent curdling. Keep stirring (whisking is best) until you get some froth to the rum mixture. Serve the grog in glasses and stir again to keep the froth. If desired, dust each glass of grog with a bit of nutmeg or mace.  

* The Germans of the area often grow up bilingual, speaking Low German and standard German, and some even grow up multilingual, speaking Frisian, or even Danish.

** English long had "ei/ey/eai" (dialectal variances all pronounced essentially like "eye") as its word for "egg," with "egg" being a close relative of the former word, but brought to northern England long ago by the Danes, who spoke Old Norse, a Germanic cousin of English from the North Germanic branch of Germanic. "Egg" eventually won the battle, but not until the 16th Century. If my memory is right, some linguists have speculated that the "eye" pronunciation of the long time English word may have aided "egg" as a replacement, because of the same pronunciation for the "eye," the organ of sight.  

WORD HISTORY:
Grog-This word goes back to the nickname for Edward Vernon, an English admiral of the mid 1700s, who often commanded ships in the West Indies, famous for its rum. He was called "Old Grog" for his grogram coat. Grogram was a fabric of strong, but coarse material. The admiral gave orders that the rum for his men was to be watered down, thus providing the basis for the drink of rum with water added. The drink also often had lemon added as a preventive measure for scurvy on ships. I've read somewhere, but I cannot now recall where, that the admiral's "water down the rum" order was met by the talk of mutiny. George Washington's brother served under Vernon, and it is for this reason the Washington estate came to be called Mount Vernon (the admiral died well before the American Revolution). "Groggy" came from the idea of being under the influence of too much grog, although later the term broadened in meaning to any condition of not being clear in mind, regardless of alcohol intake.  

Glühwein Will Give You A Glow

Glühwein, literally "glow wine," is German spiced wine (also called "mulled wine," in English), more common in winter and at Christmas time, as it is usually served hot. It is frequently sold at Christmas markets or Christmas events in German areas. Commonly made and served in German areas in Europe: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Alsace. "Typically," it is made of red wine, but white wine is not totally uncommon, especially in some areas. Scandinavian countries also have a similar spiced drink, but the drink's base sometimes comes from other fruit juices, and the drink may include liquor. Americans drink spiced apple cider, which is something akin to the wine, but the American version is usually non alcohol cider; at least that's what I tell people (not that it isn't the truth, I swear!), but in the German state of Hessen, hard apple cider, known in standard German as "Appelwein," and in Hessian dialect by a number of regional variations, is used. "Glühwein" can take the chill out of winter and even make having a cold fun .... ahhhchooo! .....Gesundheit!   

Ingredients:

1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
1 orange, juice + peel
1 lemon, juice + peel
1 bottle red wine (not sweet, I tend to use Cabernet Sauvignon)

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the water over medium heat. Turn down the heat to low and add the sugar, stirring to dissolve it. Add the cinnamon, the cloves, the orange juice and peel, the lemon juice and peel. Let simmer, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will form a nice syrup. Add the wine and heat through, stirring to mix. Serve hot. You can leave some peel in, as it looks and tastes good, but be careful of the cloves, you don't want to choke.  

WORD HISTORY:
Mull-There are several words of this spelling in English, some of which "may" be related.^ This form, used as "mull (something), usually wine," with the past tense form, "mulled," being more common in an adjectival usage, as "mulled wine," or "mulled cider," to mean, "heated wine with sweetener and spices." It "seems" to go back to Indo European "melg," which meant "to rub, to stroke," and is what you do to get milk from a cow or goat. The stroking process then became the word (noun) for the actual product, "milk" (the same form gave the Germanic languages, including English, their forms for "milk"). This gave Latin "mulgere," with the meaning, "to milk," which then gave Latin "mulctra," meaning, "milk pail." This was borrowed by the Germanic dialects of northwestern Europe as "molde," but with the same meaning; although, that meaning began to broaden to "trough," and later also to a more general word for a container, but then more specifically to a container for beer. Low German lost the "d" sound, which left "Molle." ^^ English "apparently" borrowed the word from Low German or Flemish, as both had forms of the word. The idea of heating a liquid with added flavorings would have easily applied to wine.

^ "To mull over;" that is, to think something over, to ponder," may be a figurative use of a verb form "mull," meaning "to grind into a powder." 
 

^^ Low German speakers were the main group of Germans to settle Berlin. While standard German (based on High German dialect) began to overtake the Low German of Berlin, it never completely displaced the Low German, and Berlin dialect, Berlinerisch, remains a dialect of High German, but with many Low German characteristics and vocabulary, including "Molle," meaning "a glass of beer." In Berlin, the term, "Mollenfriedhof" literally means, "cemetery for glasses of beer," but it really is the term for, "beer belly," a true cemetery for glasses of beer.

Egg in Your Beer, Eierbier

There are many recipes for "Eierbier;" that is, "egg beer." Here are two:

Recipe #1 Ingredients (adjust ingredients for the amount you want to make):

2 12 ounce bottles of light (in color) beer
20 ounces canned evaporated milk or regular milk
4 eggs, beaten
6 tablespoons brown sugar
4 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
whipped cream for topping

This requires a little physical work .... stirring, or even better, whisking. If you have a double boiler, you can use it for this; otherwise, you can put all of the ingredients, except the whipped cream, into a bowl and set the bowl on top of a pot of some lightly simmering water. Heat ingredients over low heat, stir well, and stir continuously as the liquid actually heats through. Continuously stir until foamy and a bit thickened. Remove cinnamon stick and cloves. Serve warm, with whipped cream on top.

In the north of Germany, rock candy is commonly used to sweeten beverages, including tea. I have chosen to just use regular white sugar. This drink uses strong dark beer or stout as the main component. 

Second Recipe Ingredients:

2 pints dark beer (or stout)
4 teaspoons white sugar
4 egg yolks

Heat the beer and sugar in a heavy bottomed pan over low heat until the sugar is fully dissolved. Do not allow to boil. Turn off the heat and allow the beer to cool just briefly. Beat the egg yolks, then add about a tablespoon of the warm beer to the eggs, stirring constantly. There should be no curdling. Gradually mix the eggs into the beer, using a stick blender or an eggbeater. Serve immediately.

WORD HISTORY:
Flour-This word, spelled "flower" until the first half of the 1800s, goes back to Indo European "bhel," which meant "to swell." From this notion also came the meaning, "bloom, blossom," as plant buds "swell" and bloom into a blossom. Its Italic offspring took the "f" sound instead of "b," which gave Latin "flos," meaning "flower," and it's accusative case was "florem." Old French, a Latin-based language, rendered this as "flor" (later the spelling changed to "fleur"), along with the figurative meaning "best of, the finest part of." This meaning came to be identified with ground grain, as "the finely ground best part of the grain," which brought along the word as the name for the ground grain. English "meal" and its ancestors were the original English words for "flour," and "meal" was retained for the "coarsely ground grain." English borrowed that meaning in the mid 1200s, but the word "flower," for "blossoming plant," had already been borrowed earlier. The spelling "flour" seems to have been done purely to differentiate it and its meaning from "flower." By the way, "flower" is related to English "blossom," as they come from the same Indo European root, but Old Germanic retained the original Indo European "b" sound.  

Tea Time

Expanded a bit on 12-27-2015 and photo added, as well as a little editing on 8-19-21

Tea drinking apparently goes back at least 4500 to 5000 years in China. It wasn't until the mid 1500s that western Europeans came into contact with tea, as the Portuguese settled in Macao (also "Macau") in southeastern China, which remained as a Portuguese colony until 1999! Then Dutch traders established themselves in southeastern Asia in Indonesia in the early 1600s, which later became the Dutch colony "the Dutch East Indies." The mid 1600s brought the marriage of England's King Charles II to a Portuguese princess, who made tea drinking a prominent feature among the nobility. The price of tea in those times was prohibitive for the spread of the drink to those not in the upper classes, but increased trade and involvement in India brought more tea, and lower prices, and sugar, into England. It wasn't long before the British began to sweeten their tea with sugar from the New World and tea drinking became popular with the general population, making tea the national drink. The ancestral homeland of the English (the Anglo-Saxons) is northern Germany, and their close relatives, the Saxons and the Frisians, still inhabit the area. The similar climate to Britain along the North Sea coast of Germany, and the availability of tea from Dutch importers, made tea a popular drink with the Frisian and Saxon population of the area, where tea is still the regional beverage. In the East Frisian part of northern Germany, rock candy is used to sweeten their tea, with some cream carefully layered a bit below the surface. The idea is to provide three distinct tastes: the bitter black tea at the top, the tea/cream mixture in the middle, and then the addition of the sweetness of the melting rock candy near the bottom. The East Frisians are known for their pickiness for black tea and their brands are considered topnotch.

Russians have had a strong attachment to tea going back to the 1600s, although its high price initially limited its availability to the upper classes. Russians traded directly with the Chinese by overland route, organized in caravans. It was quite a trip and "supposedly" the tea acquired a smoky flavor from being near the campfires during its long journey,* a characteristic still common in the most popular form of black tea in Russia, although the flavoring is now added. It is the national beverage of Russia, although vodka drinkers may question that... hic! Hey, I'm a tea drinker, honest!

Chai is a spiced black tea (sometimes green tea) and is my favorite. Chai typically has a lot of milk and sugar, and you can most certainly get it in any Indian or Pakistani restaurant in the U.S. or elsewhere. I make my own, pretty much every day, although I'm sure some Indians might not approve of my recipe or technique, although from what I'm told, there are considerable variations, even in India. Generally chai is black tea in about a 50-50 milk/water mixture, but I use far less milk (I use evaporated milk). When I've bought chai at Indian restaurants, it has always been very sweet, and I make it somewhat less so. I use fresh grated ginger, some ground cardamom, a bit of ground cloves (and often some ground allspice, too), a small bit of mace (or nutmeg), and some ground cinnamon. Some Indians or Pakistanis use black pepper in chai, too, and others use fennel seed. After letting the spices steep for awhile, you can strain the tea into your cup. You can buy tea bags already with a spice mixture in them, but I've never been very impressed with the result. You can also put the ingredients into a pan and gently boil the mixture. In this case, I tend to use a cinnamon stick, rather than ground cinnamon, as well as whole cloves and crushed cardamom seeds. I prefer to add the milk after the cooking is done, but you can cook it right along with the tea. Note: A while back, I also started using black pepper in chai, sometimes ground or sometimes whole crushed peppercorns. It gives the chai that added "zip."  

* It seems a bit of a stretch to me that tea packed for such a trip would acquire the smoky flavor this way. I wonder if at some point some open tea was exposed to the campfire smoke, the users liked it, and they then chose to repeat the process?

 

WORD HISTORY:
Tea-This word comes from a Sino-Tibetan word, "sla/tsla," which likely meant "leaf." Sino-Tibetan is a large language family in Asia and Southeast Asia which is the ancient ancestor of the Chinese dialects, like Mandarin and Cantonese, as well as southeastern Asian languages like Burmese and others. Sino-Tibetan is to these modern Asian languages what Indo European is to English, German, Italian, Russian, etc. Min Nan, a dialect of Sino-Tibetan had "te." Malay, an unrelated language from the Austronesian language family^  in southeastern Asia, borrowed the word from Min Nan as "teh." The Dutch East India Company was a private company granted Asian trade rights by the Dutch government in the early 1600s. The Dutch picked up the word from Malay "teh," rendered in Dutch as "thee," which they then brought back to western Europe, along with a lot of the product itself. English borrowed the word in the mid 1600s as both "tee" and "tea," before finally settling on the latter. Many other European languages borrowed the word from Dutch, for example, German has "Tee" (pronounced "tay"), West Frisian has "tee," French has "thé." Interestingly, the Portuguese had established themselves in southeastern China, at Macao, in the mid 1500s. The Chinese dialect in Macao pronounced their form of Sino-Tibetan "sla/tsla" as "cha." The Portuguese took the term as "chá," which they have retained to this day as their word for "tea." This same Chinese term spread elsewhere, providing forms to Russian and Persian, and from Persian to Hindi and other languages/dialects in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. English borrowed the word, likely from Hindi, as "chai," a term now used more specifically for "sweetened spiced tea." It is pronounced "ch," as in Charles, and "eye."    

^ Hawaiian is from the Austronesian language family, too.

Coffee: "Grounds" For A Love Affair

This article was updated slightly on June 19, 2015.


Each day one hell of a lot of people get their day going with coffee. In fact, quite a number of people keep their day going with coffee. "Apparently" coffee plants grew wild in Kaffa, a province of Ethiopia (also known for a long time as "Abyssinia") and the locals began using the plant to make a drink around 1000 A.D., give or take a hundred years or so. People from the Arabian Peninsula got hold of some plants and began to make a regular business out of growing and making coffee, but when the Turks acquired some plants in the 1500s, they seem to have been the first to roast the berries from the plant, the "beans," which they then ground and boiled in water. Venice was a major trade center in Europe in those times, and the Venetian traders brought coffee home in the early 1600s. It wasn't long before the Venetians and other Italians opened a number of coffeehouses, the first in Europe.* Trade and diplomatic missions brought coffee to France in the mid 1600s, where the French opened "cafés," the French term for "coffeehouses." The mid 1600s also brought coffee to England, where literally hundreds of coffeehouses opened in a relatively short period of time. Of course it wasn't long before European colonists from several nations began toting coffee off to the New World, where it has flourished ever since, and several countries are among the world's biggest producers of coffee: Brazil is the #1 coffee producer and Columbia is #2, while both Mexico and Guatemala are in the top ten. Indonesia, Vietnam and Ethiopia are also major producers in the top ten. Americans are likely more familiar with Columbia, as coffee from that country has been advertised here for decades. **

The latter part of the 1600s brought the Germans into the act, as the Turks besieged Vienna, then the capitol of the Old German Empire.*** When the siege was broken, the Turks left large quantities of supplies behind, including coffee beans. The coffee business soon took hold in Vienna and it spread to other German areas. Vienna is still known for its coffeehouses, where you pretty much need to take a class just to learn the various terms for coffee served in a variety of ways. I'd venture to say that any and all German and Austrian coffeehouses have my favorite, "Eiskaffee," or Ice Cream Coffee; cold coffee over vanilla ice cream in a tall glass, typically served with whipped cream and a cookie. If you order this, you get to cover a couple of your vices all in one order. What's not to like?

* Technically, the Turks, under the name, the Ottoman Empire, occupied a part of southeastern Europe in the Balkans, including the former city of Constantinople, which they eventually renamed Istanbul.

** For more see:  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coffee/map.html

*** The proper name was, "The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation."     

WORD HISTORY:
Coffee-The ultimate origins of this word are disputed, but while I understand the desire to claim the origins of the word for this popular drink, I lean toward the word being derived from the old Ethiopian province of "Kaffa," where "supposedly" the plant grew wild and was first used for making a beverage. Trade contact likely brought Arabic speakers to borrow a form of the word as, "qahwa/qahwah." This then was borrowed by Turkish as "kahveh." The Venetians, avid traders, learned of the beverage from the Turks, giving Italian "caffe." This was borrowed into English as "coffee" in the early 1600s, again, undoubtedly the result of trade and the resulting desire for the beverage.