[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

I think a question we all need to consider at this point is what need would the Hobbits have for coffee? I mean, if The Shire is an idyllic community, if things are peaceable, if everyone is happy with his place and all's right with the world, why would they need a caffeine jolt?

Because they had mornings.

Thanks Aiwendil for the intelligent summation of the problem and three possible solutions. What I find interesting about this debate is that a reader's response to which of your three scenarios seems to depend more on their sense of what the Shire is like -- or how they want it to be -- than anything in the text.

I, for example, see the Shire as a little pocket of the 'real' world smack in the centre of Middle-Earth: so for me, coffee, tea and sugar are the same there as here. When Bilbo consumes any of these products he is doing so just as I would, bringing us into close, almost visceral contact.

Jenny, on the other hand, you seem to see the Shire as a bit more removed from our world than do I. That is, when Bilbo or the other hobbits go about their daily lives in the Shire it doesn't seem to break the enchantment for you if you have to perform a bit of imaginative sleight of hand, quickly and silently substituting something like SASSAFRAS tea for 'real' tea when you read it.

Squatter and Hilde, you both offer yet another interesting variation of readers' response in that you would appear to want, like me, to close the gap between the Shire and the 'real' world -- when Bilbo drinks coffee, he drinks coffee -- but you are a bit more willing, like Jenny, to contemplate a Shire that is not exactly like our world (I don't care how good the hothouse or how dedicated the gardener, you ain't gonna get real coffee to grow in the Shire!). Wheras Jenny performs sleight of hand, you both seem to prefer elegant gymnastics.

I'm not suggesting that any one approach is right or better than the others -- only observing that as is so often the case, when we try to figure out this story we end up revealing a lot more about ourselves!