Coffee was a beverage made by brewing the bi-podal seeds (beans) of coffee plants in hot water. While these plants are native primarily to Africa on Earth, there are several varieties from other planets.
History and specifics[]
In 20th century Earth slang, coffee was sometimes referred to as "joe". When Vic Fontaine requested a "cup of joe" during a chat with Julian Bashir, the doctor misunderstood this as a reference to an unfamiliar word, "cuppajo". (DS9 novel: Avatar, Book One)
By the 21st century, coffee was commonly synthesized from kelp. This ersatz coffee was described as tasting like "parched sorghum and Nile Delta water at low tide on washday." (TOS novel: Strangers from the Sky)
Klingons became familiar with coffee (transliterated into Klingonaase as "kafei") as one of the spoils of raids against Human colonies. For half of one of the Klingon Kethas's deep-space voyages, all the crew had to drink was Earth coffee and the engineer's "white hot". Kethas noted the two weren't a bad mix. (TOS novel: The Final Reflection)
Spock stored small lots of fresh coffee in the USS Enterprise transporter's pattern buffer in order to keep it fresh, a practice eventually adopted by Starfleet. (TOS novel: Spock's World)
In 2269, Harry Mudd sold a coffee substitute salvaged from an alien derelict tug in the Harrapa system, branding it as "Mudd's Limited Coffee Substitute". (TOS video game: 25th Anniversary mission: "Another Fine Mess")
Coffee drinkers[]
In the 1970s decade, Aegis agent Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln drank coffee. In 1974, Lincoln pretended to trip, dropping newspapers and seeming to spill two cups of coffee in the Aegis office in New York City, a ruse that exposed Isis as being more than just a cat. (TOS - Star Trek: Assignment: Earth comic: "Ah-Ha!")
Number One of the USS Enterprise enjoyed coffee, and kept a supply of real ground coffee and un-synthetic demerara sugar. (EV comic: "Nor Iron Bars a Cage")
James T. Kirk acquired a taste for coffee in his youth, when his Aunt Ilsa would serve him coffee with an unusually large amount of milk and honey. In retrospect, Kirk considered it to be more like a "liquid candy bar" than a true cup of coffee. Kirk's mother prepared coffee for him in the same manner when he visited the family farm in 2267. (TOS novel: Final Frontier) Kirk continued to enjoy coffee as an adult. (TOS episode: "The Trouble with Tribbles") While working aboard the SS Ian Shelton following the Talin IV disaster, he was forced to drink "coffee" that had been dispensed in a small cube that had to be dissolved in hot water. Later, the ship's captain, Anne Gauvreau, was able to obtain real coffee beans; still, Kirk reflected, it didn't taste as good as the replicated blend available on his own ship. (TOS novel: Prime Directive)
Hikaru Sulu spilled coffee over his station on his first day at the helm of a starship. (TOS - The Modala Imperative comic: "A Little Seasoning") Later, while stranded on planet Alpha 177 in 2266, he jokingly asked the Enterprise to lower down a pot of coffee to keep him and his landing party warm and alert. (TOS episode: "The Enemy Within")
In 2293, Leonard McCoy self-administered black coffee to weaken the effects of both Romulan ale and the hormonal musk of Klingon body odor. (TOS movie: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
Captain Rachel Garrett enjoyed coffee with her sandwich and salad at lunch time. (ST short story: "Hour of Fire") She kept a stash of coffee beans and a grinder in her ready room, preferring her own coffee to replicated. (TLE novel: Well of Souls)
Captain Kathryn Janeway considered coffee a vital necessity of shipboard life. (VOY episode: "The Cloud") Following her apparent death in 2380, Q made a point of assuring her there were "bottomless cups" of coffee in the place she was taking her to. (TNG novel: Before Dishonor)
Admiral Alynna Nechayev discovered that her morning ritual of status reports and intelligence briefings before sunrise was a lot easier with a cup of coffee. Her favorite blend was a combination of Colombian beans and Klingon Raktajino that had been introduced to her by Admiral William Ross. (TNG novel: A Time to Harvest)
Types of coffee[]
- Brazilian coffee
- cappuccino
- Colombian coffee
- Deluvian coffee
- espresso
- Irish coffee
- iced coffee
- Katheka
- Kona
- Landras blend
- macchiato
- Raktajino
- Reman coffee
- Rilorean coffee
- Vulcan mocha
- "Even better than coffee substitute"
See also[]
Appendices[]
References[]
External links[]
- Coffee article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Coffee article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.