Caf

For other uses, see Caf and Coffee.

"I just wanted something hot to drink—maybe a cup of caf?"
"At this hour? You'd be awake all night, and you need your sleep."

―Zare Leonis and Auntie Nags^[3]

Caf,^[6] also known as coffee,^[1]^[9] was a brewed beverage prepared from ground caf beans.^[2] It had a bitter taste,^[10] and stimulating properties because of the caffeine it contained.^[3] Cream could be added to caf, as could sugar. Caf without any cream or sugar added was referred to as "black"; Obi-Wan Kenobi was known to prefer black caf.^[11] One form of caf was described as "black and sweet".^[4] Another variant was known as "cold brew" and served iced.^[12]

Ram Jomaram didn't drink caf.^[13] When, late one evening, Zare Leonis asked Auntie Nags for some caf, wanting something hot to drink, she refused his request as it would likely keep him awake, suggesting that he have hot chocolate with tang bark instead. He agreed, as this was the way he liked his hot chocolate.^[3] Bix Caleen and Timm Karlo had caf in the morning after spending the night together.^[14]

Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla each enjoyed a cup of Spiran caf together before Syndulla's mission to Fort Anaxes, reminding Kanan of their time with one another on the moons of Rion.^[15] Zuckuss once ordered a caf with lots of cream, while Parazeen Parapa ordered a black and sweet variant.^[4]

Lieutenant Stramm of the Rebel Alliance fleet used to drink coffee.^[1] Zaluna Myder, the shift leader of Myder's Mynocks at Transcept Media Solutions, considered herself a caf addict.^[6] The Sith assassin Ochi found standard-issue Imperial caf disgusting and believed General Hurst Romodi thought the same upon seeing the Imperial officer put alcohol in his coffee.^[16]

While at Cantham House with her father, Senator Bail Organa, the day after the opening for the Apprentice Legislature, Princess Leia Organa drank caf with her breakfast. When Bail pointed out that people said that drinking caf stunts your growth Leia responded by saying that her growth was already stunted and that if she was stuck being short she might as well have the caf causing her father to laugh out loud, making Leia laugh.^[17] Cold Brew Black Caf and Cold Brew Black Caf with Taro Topper were served at Black Spire Outpost.^[12]

Behind the scenes[]

Caf first canonically appeared in the 2014 novel A New Dawn, written by John Jackson Miller.^[6] Although coffee and caf had never been designated as the same thing in a narrative source at the time, Miller explained that he decided to use caf as a more exotic Star Wars equivalent of Coffea arabica.^[18] Later, the short stories "Blade Squadron" and "A Good Kiss" identified the two beverages as the same;^[1]^[9] unlike the Star Wars Legends continuity, where caf and coffee are two different beverages.^[19]^[20]

In that continuity, caf first appeared in the short story "Hasty Exit" by Peter M. Schweighofer, which was published in 1996 in West End Games' Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook.^[19] Coffee was first mentioned in the fifty-ninth issue of the 1977 Marvel Star Wars comic book, written by David Michelinie and Walter Simonson^[21] and published by Marvel Comics on February 16, 1982.^[22] It first appeared in the novel Children of the Jedi, written by Barbara Hambly and published in 1995.^[20]

Out-of-universe, the breakfast menu for Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge describes Black Caf as "Regular coffee."^[23]

A 2014 non-canonical television special Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars features the occupation of barista, whose duties would include preparation and serving of the caf drinks.