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FRASIER’S FRIDAY FACT

Volume LXXXII

2/8/2019

Hello everyone,

I would like to welcome you all back to Frasier's Friday Fact, where we cherish knowledge and continually build our mental database of useless information to use at parties.

Well, if you're like me, there are few better things in this world than a nice, bold, hot cup of coffee. The scent, the taste, the warmth - bliss. Of course, one of the issues you can run into when hot coffee is served in a paper cup is that it's too hot to hold! Many coffee shops slip that little cardboard sleeve on there for this reason.

That little cardboard sleeve, like many things in this world that we don't think of, has a name. It is called a "zarf." Although the paper version was invented in 1991 (under the trademark "Java Jacket"), the zarf itself actually dates back to thirteenth-century Turkey. Turkish coffee was served in small cups without handles (called fincan) which were placed in the zarf (from the Arabic word for "container" or "envelope") to protect not only the cup itself but also the fingers of the drinker from the hot liquid. Since the zarf was usually more visible than the cup itself, it was usually more ornamented.

Stay energized, my friends.

Fraish