The socio-cultural history of the Pousse Café. Part 6: Sugar and liqueur

Before we take a closer look at the Chasse Café and the Pousse Café and how they were integrated into society, we must first turn our attention to the consumption of sugar and liqueurs, because it was their general availability that laid the foundation for the spread of the Pousse Café as we know it today.

Antoine Galland and others mention that it was the Christians in Constantinople, and especially the Greeks, who had adopted the habit of sweetening coffee: ^[10-26] “The Orientals drink coffee all day long, up to three or four ounces a day; they make it thick and drink it hot in small cups, without milk or sugar, but flavoured with cloves, cinnamon, caraway or amber essence.” ^[11-57]

– “Les Orientaux prennent du Café toute la journée, et jusqu’à trois ou quatre onces par jour; ils le font épais et le boivent chaud dans de petites tasses, sans lait ni sucre, mais parfumé de clous de girofle, de la cannelle, des grains de cumin ou de l’essence d’ambre.” ^[11-57]

“The Turks drink coffee not only hot, but usually also very strong, and they call it aghir cahveh, heavy coffee, i.e. heavily loaded with coffee. They do not try to soften the bitterness that others find in it with sugar. It was the Christians in Constantinople, and after them the other Europeans, who came up with the idea of sweetening it in this way.” ^[11-47]

– “Les Turcs ne prennent pas seulement le Café fort chaud, ils le prennent encore généralement très-fort de Café, et ils l’appellent aghir cahveh, du Café pesant, c’est-à-dire fort chargé de Café. Ils ne cherchent pas à adoucir avec du sucre l’amertume que les autres y trouvent. Ce sont les chrétiens de Constantinople, et après eux les autres Européens, qui se sont avisés de l’adoucir ainsi.” ^[11-47]

Sugar is the intermediary between coffee and liqueur, the connecting element. We will have to go into the role of the liqueur in more detail later, but it is fitting to mention it here. When questioned by the Qabiji, Hanna Diyāb recounts how he said: “I was a customs officer in Aleppo and counted French traders among my friends. … My best friend was Chawādscha Rimbaud, he also spoke Turkish. I visited him often and drank fruit liqueur with him. He had a storekeeper called Antūn who brought me liqueur. When I heard this, I turned pale. I thought he recognised me and realised that I was a liar. For Chawādscha Rimbaud had been my master and also that of my brother Antūn, and it was I who had brought him the fruit liqueur and had been of service to him. But apparently I had changed, and he did not recognise me, for at that time I was still a child of a good twelve years.” ^[8-369] Since Hanna was born around 1688, ^[9] this meeting must have taken place around 1700, and we learn from his report that at that time people not only drank coffee in the Ottoman Empire, but also enjoyed liqueur. Even if we have not yet gone into the exact meaning of a pousse café, the question arises as to whether the origins of the pousse café can already be surmised here. In Constantinople and Aleppo, in the Christian Orient?

The coffee fad also popularised the use of sugar. At the time, this was bought in small quantities from the pharmacy. It is reported that so much sugar was added to coffee in Paris that it was nothing more than a “syrup of blackened water“. ^[6-98] However, not everyone seems to have overdone it with the amount of sugar, as Sylvestre Dufour wrote in 1671: “I am no less opposed to the abuse of coffee than to the abuse of wine, but I adhere to the legitimate use of coffee, since it is evident that many do very well if they take it in the morning on an empty stomach with a little sugar in a small quantity and at the right time, and daily experience shows that it is very good for curing stomach ailments, stopping inflammation and strengthening the body.” ^{[12-29] [12-30]}

– “Pour moy ie ne blasme pas moins l’abus du Caffé, que celuy du vin: mais i’en retiens l’vsage legitime, puis qu’il est evident que plusieurs se trouvent tres-bien de sa boisson, prise le matin à jeun avec vn peu du sucre, dans vne modique quantité & bien à propos, & l’experience journaliere fait voir qui’il est tres-propre pour guerir les maux d’estomac. arrester les fluxion, & fortifier tout les corps.” ^{[12-29] [12-30]}

One reason why the consumption of liqueur was popular in Paris and France and why the Limonadiers were involved in its production may be that the culture of liqueur drinking was introduced to the French court by Catherine de Medici, who became Queen of France after her marriage to Henry II in 1547. ^[13] Liqueurs thus became fashionable and were drunk regularly. ^[14-295]

François Massialot wrote in his book ‘New instructions for jams, liqueurs and fruits’, ‘Nouvelle instructions pour les confitures, les liqueurs et les fruits’, published in Paris in 1712: “Liqueurs are not among the least of life’s comforts, and there are refreshing ones for spring and summer, and others that strengthen and warm, not only with the intention of being useful.” ^{[15-265] [15-266]}

– »Les Liqueurs ne sont pas un des moindes agrémens de la vie, & en a de refraîchissantes pour le Printems & pour l’Eté, & d’autres pour fortifier & pour donner de la chaleur en pas seulement dessein d’être utile.« ^{[15-265] [15-266]}

Sugar consumption

In this context, it is certainly interesting to take a closer look at sugar prices and consumption. Around 1600, sugar was still relatively expensive at almost 30 pence per 250 grams, but by 1700 it only cost a third of that, and by 1850 it was only around 5 pence. It is not surprising that the fall in prices was accompanied by an increase in consumption, as sugar became affordable for a wider section of the population. The reduction in the price of sugar also led to an increase in the consumption of liqueurs. It is also interesting to note that much more sugar was apparently consumed in England in the 18th century than in France. This may have to do with the fact that England was perhaps much better supplied with sugar from its colonies than France.

The Caribbean sugar plantations led to a general economic boom in Europe from the middle of the 18th century at the latest. Both British and French entrepreneurs invested their money in sugar production. They realised quick and above-average profits, as the demand for sugar grew steadily despite the high prices. This profit was reinvested in domestic industrial companies. At that time, sugar, which had previously only been a luxury for kings, became a royal luxury for citizens. While sugar had initially only been used as a kind of spice, it was then used in ever larger quantities. Court confectioners used it to make decorative sugar artworks that were served at banquets. Confectioners modelled castles, fortresses or hunting scenes, and middle-class customers also indulged in this pleasure and had mythical creatures or Chinese temples sculpted. ^[1]

Marie-Antoine Carême was one of the most important chefs of his time and made a significant contribution to the development of classic French cuisine. From 1804 to 1814, he was the personal head pastry chef to the French foreign minister and organised the banquet for Napoleon’s wedding to Marie-Louise of Austria, for example. In 1815, he published his book Le Pâtissier pittoresque, which contained over 100 drawings of models for decorative patisserie. In 1816 he was engaged by the British Prince Regent, later George V, and in 1818 by the Russian Tsar. ^[16]

In her dissertation, Stephanie Weis looks at the ‘Journal des Luxus und der Moderne’ (Journal of luxury and modernity) and reports on a text from the February 1789 issue in which an anonymous writer describes liqueur as a harmful luxury that not only harms young women, but in particular the wealthy, noble class. The author is of the opinion that liqueur is more harmful than the “less strong brandy” (“minder starke Brandeweine“) that the “middle and common rabble” (“mittlere und gemeine Pöbel“) have to make do with. ^{[7-78] [7-79]}

Although more sugar was consumed in England than in France, France nevertheless played a key role in the emergence of the pousse café. Not only did coffee drinking become fashionable there, but there were also numerous liqueur factories. The so-called limonadiers produced syrups and liqueurs and offered them for sale. Sugar and liqueur had finally arrived in the centre of society.

The next post in this series will tell you about the French origins of the Pousse Café, which was initially called the Chasse Café.

Sources

1. https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/luxus-der-koenige-a-a67fab0e-0002-0001-0000-000013516962 Zucker. Luxus der Könige. 2. March 1986.
2. https://www.learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/2018-02/TT-Teaching-Hard-History-American-Slavery-IDM-How-did-Sugar-Feb2018.pdf  How Did Sugar Feed Slavery?
3. https://web.archive.org/web/20170702124414/http://www.princeton.edu/rpds/seminars/Voth102809.pdf Jonathan Hersh & Hans-Joachim Voth: Sweet Diversity: Colonial Goods and the Rise of European Living Standards after 1492.
4. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sugar-intake-increases-in-England-in-the-18th-century_fig2_233750937 Christopher J. Rivard, Jeffrey Thomas, Miguel Lanaspa, Richard Johnson: Sack and sugar, and the aetiology of gout in England between 1650 and 1900. In: Rheumatology 2013; 52: 421-426.
5. http://www.nofructose.com/introduction/other-stuff/history-of-sugar/ History of sugar.
6. https://archive.org/details/AllAboutCoffee/page/91/mode/2up?q=frenchAb William H. Ukers: All about coffee. New York, 1922.
7. https://diglib.uibk.ac.at/download/pdf/1659733?name=Die%20Luxuskonzeption%20im%20%E2%80%9EJournal%20des%20Luxus%20und%20der%20Moden%E2%80%9C%20im%20Kontext%20der%20Debatten Stephanie Weis: Die Luxuskonzeption im „Journal des Luxus und der Moden“ im Kontext der Debatten einer aufgeklärten Gesellschaft. Mit einer fachdidaktischen Umsetzung der Thematik im Geschichtsunterricht. Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des Magistergrades an der Philosophischen-Historischen Fakultät der Universität Innsbruck, 2016.
8. Hanna Diyāb: Von Aleppo nach Paris. Die Reise eines jungen Syrers an den Hof Ludwigs XIV. Die Andere Bibliothek, Band 378. ISBN 978-3-8477-0378-5. Berlin, 2016.
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Diyab Hanna Diyab.
10. https://books.openedition.org/iremam/1199?lang=de#bodyftn9 H. Desmet-Gregoire: Une approche ethno-historique du café: évolution des ustensiles servant à la fabrication et à la consommation du café. In: Le café en Méditerranée. Histoire, anthropologie, économie. XVIIIe-XXe siècle. Seite 93-114.
11. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6581311r/f61.item.texteImage Antoine Galland: De l’Origine et du progrès du café, opuscule du XVIIe siècle par Galland, auteur des mille et und nuits. Nouvelle édition augmentée d’instructions sur les propriétés de cette fève et le meilleur procédé pour en obtenir la boisson dans toute sa perfection. Paris, 1836. Darin: Fragments sur le café.
12. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k87051147/f49.image.r=paris Sylvestre Dufur, Bartolome Marradón, Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma, Jacob Spon: De l’usage du caphé, du thé et du chocolate. Lyon, 1671.
13. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterina_de%E2%80%99_Medici Caterina de’ Medici.
14. David Wondrich & Noah Rothbaum (Hrsg.): The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails. ISBN 9780199311132. 2022.
15. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RkLylz9GyUAC/page/n3/mode/2up François Massialot: Nouvelle instruction pour les confitures, les liqueurs, et les fruits, avec la maniere de bien ordonner un dessert, & tout le reste qui est du devoir des maîtres d’hôtels, sommeliers, confiseurs, & autres officiers de bouche. Paris, 1712.
16. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Antoine_Car%C3%AAme Marie-Antoine Carême.
17. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1025012g/f12.planchecontact Marie-Antoine Carême: Le Pâtissier pittoresque. 4e édition. Paris, 1842.

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