Luxuries

dreamrider wrote:As someone who enjoys a nice glass or bottle of wine from any of the named places, I have to say I think it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that France has been "supplanted" as a wine exporter.

Those place's have likely passed France by in quantity if not quality. Also remember that the French define wine's VERY narrowly, Champagne is wine that is only grown is a certain part of France. This area isn't very large (Legally it only covers 33,500 hectares (76,000 acres)) and has been used to grow grapes for at least 1,000 years. And these days Champagne is only used to refer to sparkling white wine. If anything ever happens to effect production, such as environmental changes or simply the soil growing exhausted from over production, that wine is lost, possibly forever.

I love malt Scotch, good beer, bad (Scrumpy) cider, and a wide variety of wines.
There are good wines and not so good. I do believe that places other than France have perfected affordable and drinkable wines; whereas France has excellent expensive wines, and cheap mower fuel.

I had forgot that Honor had access to good cocoa so that answers my overt question, but the covert ones are, what little luxuries are best solely from Earth, and what ones have surpassed them?

SCC wrote:

dreamrider wrote:As someone who enjoys a nice glass or bottle of wine from any of the named places, I have to say I think it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that France has been "supplanted" as a wine exporter.

Those place's have likely passed France by in quantity if not quality. Also remember that the French define wine's VERY narrowly, Champagne is wine that is only grown is a certain part of France. This area isn't very large (Legally it only covers 33,500 hectares (76,000 acres)) and has been used to grow grapes for at least 1,000 years. And these days Champagne is only used to refer to sparkling white wine. If anything ever happens to effect production, such as environmental changes or simply the soil growing exhausted from over production, that wine is lost, possibly forever.

Daryl wrote:I had forgot that Honor had access to good cocoa so that answers my overt question, but the covert ones are, what little luxuries are best solely from Earth, and what ones have surpassed them?

I suspect that the expense and popularity of "Terran Whiskey" has far more to do with the "Terran" and less to do with the "Whiskey."

Just as wine snobs will swear that only sparkling white wine from the Champagne region is fit to drink, those non-snobs with discerning taste will prefer cheaper, better tasting sparkling white wines. True whiskey drinkers will find a better whiskey that is "locally" made and a carefully held secret to avoid overproduction.

Weird Harold wrote:

Daryl wrote:I had forgot that Honor had access to good cocoa so that answers my overt question, but the covert ones are, what little luxuries are best solely from Earth, and what ones have surpassed them?

I suspect that the expense and popularity of "Terran Whiskey" has far more to do with the "Terran" and less to do with the "Whiskey."

Just as wine snobs will swear that only sparkling white wine from the Champagne region is fit to drink, those non-snobs with discerning taste will prefer cheaper, better tasting sparkling white wines. True whiskey drinkers will find a better whiskey that is "locally" made and a carefully held secret to avoid overproduction.

Absolutely agree, Harold, but since the thread is (generally) about the luxury trade, the target audience is the 'snobs' (or people who can be convinced by advertising (and I doubt that will have disappeared in the next 2,000 years0 that buying this product somehow increases their sales/prestige/desirablity).

I mean, today it is "Angus" Beef or "Kobe" beef. I'm sure restaurants throughout the Honorverse trumpet that their steaks are genuine 'Montanan" Beef..

The 'Luxury' trade has been a prime mover in trades for Millenia, and I expect it to remain so in the future--even if your own planet can produce comparable (or even better) products.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

Weird Harold wrote:

Daryl wrote:I had forgot that Honor had access to good cocoa so that answers my overt question, but the covert ones are, what little luxuries are best solely from Earth, and what ones have surpassed them?

I suspect that the expense and popularity of "Terran Whiskey" has far more to do with the "Terran" and less to do with the "Whiskey."

Just as wine snobs will swear that only sparkling white wine from the Champagne region is fit to drink, those non-snobs with discerning taste will prefer cheaper, better tasting sparkling white wines. True whiskey drinkers will find a better whiskey that is "locally" made and a carefully held secret to avoid overproduction.

There isn't much textev on the Final War, but from the sound of it, Earth was quite badly damaged. Nukes, weaponised nanotechnology and bioweapons were unleashed, all of which would be destructive to the environment. Supporting your 'more to do with the "Terran"' remark, I have to question whether Earth would be producing much of high quality, compared to other worlds that haven't had the shit blown out of them.

cthia wrote:I'll have to order an expensive soda-pop in the Honorverse, since pop isn't often mentioned, I suppose it's expensive. Let me guess...ginger-ale has survived.

I'll take a root beer.

I'm with you on that. I don't drink alcohol at all (used to... a lot, but not anymore), and coffee is just plain evil.

Although I'm partial to cherry cola, rather than root beer.

Oh, and it's "soda"... "pop" is what you hear when you pull your head out of your ass

And I love white chocolate, but not to the exclusion of a good semisweet dark.

MaxxQ wrote:... and coffee is just plain evil.

To paraphrase Honor "How can somthing that smells sooo good (heavenly?) taste so vile!" I am with you.

MaxxQ wrote:And I love white chocolate, but not to the exclusion of a good semisweet dark.

White chocolate is a waste of product, Now dark chocolate, the darker the better. I my opinion of course (bows)

drothgery wrote:

Daryl wrote:The more serious question that appears not to have been answered is; can other worlds produce decent chocolate?

If we can assume that
- Honor would not drink substandard cocoa AND
- prior to her prize awards, she did not have the wealth to develop a taste for imported chocolate beverages
then we'd have to assume that decent chocolate can be produced on Sphinx, or at least on Manticore.

Since Wikipedia says: "Cocoa trees grow in hot, rainy tropical areas within 20° of latitude from the equator."

That's here on Earth. Presumably that completely rules out Sphinx, and depending on the climate of a particular area, maybe Gryphon as well. However Manticore seems to have a suitable climate for cocoa trees.

Vince wrote:

drothgery wrote:If we can assume that
- Honor would not drink substandard cocoa AND
- prior to her prize awards, she did not have the wealth to develop a taste for imported chocolate beverages
then we'd have to assume that decent chocolate can be produced on Sphinx, or at least on Manticore.

Since Wikipedia says: "Cocoa trees grow in hot, rainy tropical areas within 20° of latitude from the equator."

That's here on Earth. Presumably that completely rules out Sphinx, and depending on the climate of a particular area, maybe Gryphon as well. However Manticore seems to have a suitable climate for cocoa trees.

Sounds like Torch would have a good climate for a cacao plantation ...

I inherited 300 bottles of single malt whiskey. I typically don't drink, being a Rootbeer man. A&W or Boylans being my favourites. I do occasionally have a, Ballantines. A bottle typically lasts me a decade. Not sure what I will do with my 3000 year supply.

One presumes the Honorverse will have custom air cars that go 10% faster, or 15% smoother.

Fine silk suits, velvet robes, the Hexapuma coat.

Foods might have the Grayson heavy metal soup, not as cool as it sounds, but it never ever goes cold. Small doses taste unique but luckily are cureable with only three regeneration episodes. The high is very head banging


One wonders if there are still roads on the more advanced worlds?