Inquiry about origin of VN "cafe filter" design
From: Nora Taylor <nthanoi04@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
To: vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Dear Group,
I have a student in design here at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago who is interested in research
the origins of the single-cup coffee filter that is
used in making coffee in Vietnam. I know that it
probably appeared during the colonial period, but what
she wants to know is why is the design so unique to
Vietnam? The French don't use the same model. Does
anybody have any insight? Thank you.
Nora
Nora Annesley Taylor,PhD
Alsdorf Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Curator
"Changing Identity: Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam"
www.artsandartists.org
Tel: 312 345 3757
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From: Adam @ UoM <fforde@unimelb.edu.au>
Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2008 at 2:25 PM
Nor, I understand, were the French the origin of the custom of serving the
coffee in a cup itself in a bowl of hot water.
Adam
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From: Sarah Grant <sarahggrant@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2008 at 4:28 PM
Dear Nora,
The origins of coffee filters, roasting methods, and serving styles is definitely a controversial subject and I'll write a proper and more detailed response soon. Briefly here, France adopts the use of biggins quite early on in coffee history (early 1700s) but I've read conflicting reports as to whether or not the metal filter similar to a Vietnamese filter is first used in Germany or France. I've also come across an East India Co. report that peripherally mentions a similar filter method in South India.
For starters, there's the classic William Ukers (1935) All About Coffee and the Coffee Tea and Trade Journal which starts publications in 1904. The latter often contains columns about new coffee technology and "coffee habits around the world." If you can get your hands on it, there's a limited print (1200 copies) unbelievably comprehensive two volume coffee bibliography: Hunersdorff, Richard Von. Coffee: A Bibliography. A Guide to the literature of coffee. London: Hunersdorff, 2002. I've only managed to sift through the first volume but it's a rich bibliography that covers Spanish, French, German, and English coffee related materials. Also, Ralph Hattox's (1985) Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East makes great use of 15th and 16th century travelogues though off the top of my head I can't recall any references to metal filters.
I hope you can make some use of this info for the time being.
Cheers,
Sarah
Sarah G. Grant
MA Southeast Asian Studies
Ph.D. Student, Cultural Anthropology
University of California, Riverside
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From: Erica Peters <e-peters-9@alumni.uchicago.edu>
Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2008 at 4:32 PM
Fascinating question. I hope to have more detailed info for you after I can dig through my notes, but I suspect that the short answer is that it's the kind the French were using when they arrived in Southeast Asia, and hence the kind they brought with them.
http://argov.club.fr/bal/bal01/caf00.htm (Balzac's cafetiere, also known as a "dubelloire")
p. 341 in Dictionnaire d'orfèvrerie, de gravure et de ciselure chrétiennes (1857), available on Google Books
"la cafetière à la de Bellay, l'une des plus communément employées, est formée de deux vases en fer-blanc, superposés et entrant l'un dans l'autre; le supérieur porte à son fond un filtre percé d'une infinité de petits trous."
Erica
Erica J. Peters
Culinary Historians of Northern California
Phone: (650) 938-4936
Email: e-peters-9@alumni.uchicago.edu
www.chonc.com
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