Musing for Tolkien Fashion week Day 9
I have no drawing for Day 9. (Tomorrow is another picture)
But I did have a thought about "Off the map"
In The Hobbit, Coffee is mentioned in the very first chapter.
Some called for ale, and some for porter, and one for coffee, and all of them for cakes; so the hobbit was kept very busy for a while.
A big jug of coffee had just been set in the hearth, the seed-cakes were gone, and the dwarves were starting on a round of buttered scones...
An Unexpected Party, The Hobbit
Which lead me to the question. Where does the coffee come from that both Hobbits and Dwarves know it? Also what did the coffee growers wear?
Given our "coffee belt" (a defined area between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn) runs along the equator and includes Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, India and the north half of Australia, (to name a few). It must be grown in the right climate.
Superimpose the location of Middle-Earth in relation to "the girdle of Arda" the argument could be made for Haradwaith producing coffee, for 3rd age Middle-earth. There must be quite a bit a trade if such diverse cultures as Dwarves and Hobbits both know of it. Haradwaith is very much off the map from Middle-earth.
Finally my other question, since this is @tolkienfashionweek, what did the coffee growers wear?
Comparing our world first, the earliest credible reports of coffee drinking is among the Sufis of Yemen (southern Arabia) Source: Wiki on Coffee
The answer: This is what they wore:
Wiki Source: Rabia Basri, one of the earliest female Sufi mystics during the Umayyad Caliphate
