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Originally Posted by radagastly
In the "Unexpected Party," Bilbo served coffee to the dwarves (or at least, they requested it, knowing it was available.) Coffee does not grow in the same climate as tobacco, and the Shire was famous for growing tobacco. It stands to reason that the coffee was imported from some jungle-like, southern land, where coffee grows easily. Clearly, some kind of trade existed between (at least) the Shire and some of the Sothron lands, from which the coffee must have come. I imagine the dwarves of the Blue Mountains trading with the shipbuilders of the Grey Havens for passage (at least) if not ownership of the actual ships they needed to use. After all, just because the elves built ships to the undying lands doesn't mean they didn't also build very sea-worthy ships for sale to the highest bidders for other purposes in the Middle-Earth vicinity. As much as most of them hated boats, the dwarves of the Blue Mountains had spent an age living within sight of the sea. They must surely have gotten over their water fears by then. They could (and would) have easily sailed south far enough to trade for the goods that would maximize their profit from the voyage, as any good trader would.
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Well I must oppose here. The Hobbits also lived quite a long time not that far from the Sea, yet they never dared to go there. I can't possibly imagine a Dwarf stepping on a boat unless he were Gimli forced by his duties, or by Aragorn, or seeing some nice heads to chop aboard (but hoping to get off as soon as possible). And the idea of Círdan trading ship with them seems odd at least. No, I am sure the Dwarves had their part in it if it came to trade, and it may well be that they supplied coffee to the Shire, but through some nice, old-fashioned ways on the land. A Dwarf could take a pony caravan and supply coffee from the East, or from some Dunland to where the coffee came from elsewhere in the South. I am sure the sea-ways were not safer than the overland route, and especially not for Dwarves, who never were mariners.
Asides from that, I think Tolkien's proverbial anachronisms are to blame, but I am not willing to talk about that here: the coffee was in the Shire and now how to explain it. In the way the coffee is handled in the Shire, I would actually presume that coffee actually
was cultivated somewhere in, or at least near the Shire. Had it come all the way from let's say Far Harad, it would have been quite a rare thing. Yet Bilbo does not worry about serving it to a band of Dwarves he hardly even knows. Of course he was a rich hobbit, but no one tells us that the guests were super-excited when they saw such a rare thing as coffee being served.
And speaking of it, what about tea? That was even more common, everywhere; and it surely can't grow everywhere as well.
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Originally Posted by radagastly
Certainly, Gondor was founded by seafaring people, and they would have kept that knowledge and skill as long as they could continue to foster it. Did the Prince of Dol Amroth keep a fleet of trading ships all the way into the end of the third age? It seems very likely to me. What else (aside from personal dignity) would keep his Principality at such a level of dignity and respect if he did not provide some genuine value to the kingdom of Gondor? A lucrative trade in exotic spices and goods of all kinds seems a likely source of wealth for a coastal city-state such as Dol Amroth.
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This sounds very plausible, though.