Z is for Zarf

My theme for A- Z was the year my book takes place: 1881. My plan was to post about people, places, and random facts about the year as it relates - however distantly - to my book, West of Paradise. However, I ran into a little trouble with these last three letters, so instead I tried to find interesting words beginning with the appropriate letter that people might not be familiar with.

And so I give you Z for Zarf, a chalice-like holder for a hot coffee cup, typically made of ornamented metal and used in the Middle East. And while you may think of coffee as an 18th century discovery, it was in Turkey that it first became popular in the 13th century. Like the serving of tea in China and Japan, the serving of coffee in Turkey was a complex ritualized process, and the coffee was served in small cups without handles. These were then placed in holders known as zarf to not only protect the cup, but also the fingers of the person drinking the hot coffee.

Zarf could also be a pretty nice Scrabble word assuming you found the right spot for it.

There are no zarfs in my tale, but as an added bonus for sticking with me to the end of the alphabet, I'm giving away a copy of West of Paradise to one lucky winner. Anyone who comments and is interested these last three days of the challenge will be automatically entered to win.


And now for that comfy chair and a glass of wine...perhaps some Zinfandel might be appropriate :)