Black Wine

Black wine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Black wine is earth coffee and sometimes served in clay bowls. On Gor, it is commonly grown only in Thentis and is quite expensive. The beans were undoubtedly brought from earth.
It is served from silver pots often kept warm on braziers. Many times, because it is so strong, it is served in tiny cups; usually with added cream and sugars. If it is served without the cream and sugar, or black it is called 'second slave' because, traditionally, the first slave girl prepares the cups with the creams and sugars and the second slave pours the black wine. Second slave means that the first slave need not add the cream and sugar. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I had heard of black wine, but had never had any. It is drunk in Thentis, but I had never heard of it being much drunk in other Gorean cities........Then I picked up one of the thick, heavy clay bowls......It was extremely strong, and bitter, but it was hot, and, unmistakably, it was coffee." -Assassin of Gor, page 106 * "I grinned, and washed down the eggs with a swig of hot black wine, prepared from the beans grown upon the slopes of the Thentis mountains. This black wine is quite expensive. Men have been slain on Gor for attempting to smuggle the beans out of the Thentian territories." -Beasts of Gor, page 21 * "Black wine, except in the vicinity of Thentis, where most of it is grown on the slopes of the Thentis range, is quite expensive." -Guardsman of Gor, pages 244-245 * "Thentis does not trade the beans for black wine. I have heard of a cup of black wine in Ar, some years ago, selling for a silver eighty piece. Even in Thentis black wine is used commonly only in High Caste homes...." -Assassin of Gor, page 107 * "Originally, doubtless beans were brought from Earth, much as certain other seeds, and silk worms and such." -Assassin of Gor, page 107 * "From one side, a slave girl, barefoot, .....fled to him, with the tall, graceful, silvered pot containing the black wine...She knelt, replenishing the drink." -Tribesmen of Gor, page 88 * "I decided I might care to taste the steaming black wine. I lifted my finger. The girl in whose charge was the silver vessel, filled with black wine, knelt beside a tiny brazier, on which it sat, retaining it's warmth. She rose swiftly to her feet. She knelt, head down, before me. She poured carefully, the hot, black beverage into the tiny red cup. I dismissed her." -Guardsman of Gor, page 244-245 * "I lifted the tiny silver cup to my lips and took a drop of the black wine. It's strength and bitterness are such that it is normally drunk in such a manner, usually only a drop or a few drops at a time. Commonly, too, it is mollified with creams and sugars. I drank it without creams and sugars, perhaps, for I had been accustomed, on Earth, to drinking coffee in such a manner, and the black wine of Gor is clearly coffee, or closely akin to coffee. Considering its bitterness, however, if I had not been drinking such a tiny amount, and so slowly, scarcely wetting my lips, I too, would surely have had reacourse to the tasty, gentling additives with which it is almost invariably served." -Guardsman of Gor, page 247 * "Too, I had brought up a small bowl of powdered bosk milk. We had finished the creams last night and, in any event, it was unlikely they would have lasted the night. If I had wanted creams I would have had to have gone to the market." page 295, Guardsman of Gor * "She carried a tray, on which were various spoons and sugars. She knelt, placing her tray on the table. With a tiny spoon, its tip no more that a tenth of a hort in diameter, she placed four measures of white sugar, and six of yellow, in the cup; with two stirring spoons, one for the white sugar, another for the yellow, she stirred the beverage after each measure. She then held the cup to the side of her cheek, testing its temperature; Ibn Saran glanced at her; she, looking at him, timidly kissed the side of the cup and placed it before him. -Tribesmen of Gor, page 89 * "He sat, cross-legged, behind the low table. On it were hot bread, yellow and fresh, hot black wine, steaming, with its sugars, slices of roast bosk, the scrambled eggs of vulos, pastries with creams and custards,....." -Beasts of Gor, page 20 * " 'Second slave,' I told her, which, among the river towns, and in certain cities, particularly in the north, is a way of indicating that I would take the black wine without creams or sugars, and as it came from the pouring vessel, which, of course, in these areas, is handled by the "second slave," the first slave being the girl who puts down the cups, takes the orders and sees that the beverage is prepared according to the preferences of the one who is being served.....The expression "second slave," incidentally, serves to indicate that one does not wish creams or sugars with one's black wine, even if only one girl is serving." -Guardsman of Gor, page 244-245 *

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