content: text: CIRCULATING THINGS, CIRCULATING STEREOTYPES

content: text: indicates the use of balsam, which is "indigenous
in various parts of Arabia," as an ingredient in the
"Myrabolan comfit."25 Such references emphasize
Arabia's exoticism and refined taste, as well as the
sweetness and fragrance of its products, which
were much valued during a time when the con-
sumption of sugar and spices was rising rapidly
among European populations.

content: text: Coffee is another staple thing customarily asso-
ciated with the area. In his Dictionary, Johnson indi-
cates the Arabic origin of coffee and rightly so, as
one the most popular types of coffee is called "Ara-
bica" because it was first domesticated for commer-
cial use in the southern part of Arabia the Happy
(present-day Yemen). Given the Muslim prohibi-
tion of alcohol, coffee became particularly attrac-
tive to the Muslim world as "the wine of Islam,"26
and spread through the ports of the Persian Gulf in
Western Europe, where it became immensely pop-
ular. Collections of travels published during the
time mention that coffee was "the product of Ara-
bia only."27 Imported largely from Yemen, which
was credited with producing the best coffee in the
world, coffee was considered to have stimulating
and therapeutic properties.28 The former quality is
famously described by Pope in The Rape ofthe Lock:
"Coffee (which makes the politician wise), / And see
thro' all things with his half-shut Eyes) / Sent up in
vapours to the Baron's brain / New Stratagems, the
radiant Lock to gain."29 According to Beawes, the
product was brought to Mecca through the port of
Jeddah, whose "[t]rade consists mainly of coffee
brought here by the Arabians and bought by the

content: text: TASTE in HIGH LIFE

content: text: FIGURE 4.2 William Hogarth, Taste in High Life [graphic].
PRINT MADE BY ISAAC MILLS AFTER WILLIAM
HOGARTH'S PAINTING, WITHOUT THE ARTIST'S
PERMISSION, LONDON, 1798

content: text: Turks ... [and] by the Merchants of Mogul, Persia,
and several places on the coast of Ehiopia."30 From
here, coffee spread rapidly in England, France, and
Italy, giving rise to the coffeehouse culture that is a
hallmark of the eighteenth century. Coffee was also
regularly paired in the visual culture of the time
with expensive china (fig. 4.2), was employed as a
mark of the culture of sociability (fig. 4.3), or was
used for its oracular properties 31 (fig. 4.4).

content: text: Arabian medicines were also much sought-after
in the Western world. As indicated by Beawes,
"from Arabia, Medicinal drugs, Dragon's Blood,
Manna, Myrrh, [and] Incense,"32 were brought to
the British metropolis. Pharmacopoia Reformata
(1744) mentions gum Arabic, aloe, cassia, acacia,
cardamom, saffron, myrrh, and spikenard, which
were all used for their therapeutic properties. 33 To

content: text: 25 Wiliam Beckford, An Arabian Tale, from an Unpub-
lished Manuscript: With Notes Critical and Explanatory
(London: Printed for J,Johnson, 1786), 165.
26 For the association between coffee and wine, see Ralph
S. Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a So-
cial Beverage in the Medieval Middle East (Seattle: Uni-
versity of Washington Press, 1985), 18-19.
27 A Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1:440.
28 Coffee was customarily used as a mild painkiller during
the eighteenth century. Poet Alexander Pope, for in-
stance, used it as a palliative for his migraines.
29 Pope, The Rape of the Lock, 69.

content: text: 30 Beawes, Lex Mercatoria Rediviva, 791.
31 Again, the custom of reading one's fortune in coffee
grounds is of Turkish provenance, not Arabic. Such
mistaken attributions were pervasive during the eigh-
teenth century.
32 Beawes, Lex Mercatoria Rediviva, 792.
33 M.M., Pharmacopoia Reformata: Or, An Essay for a Ref-
ormation of the London Pharmacopoia, by a Set of Re-
marks on the Draught for a New One, and a Brief Ac-
count of the Proceedings of the Committee Appointed by
the College of Physicians, to Thoroughly Reform Their