221 year old bottle of booze

Bottle of French Cognac from 1788 sells for 25,000 euros (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/1788-cognac-sells-for-25000/article1393094/).

Oddly enough, the brand name, "Cafe Anglais" translates to "English Coffee, an odd name for a cognac, considering, at the time, France and Britain were often at war.

thats a pretty neat little piece of history there. expensive, but still cool. and that is kind of weird that they would give a name meaning English Coffee. I looked on Google Translate and it says that 'Cafe Anglais' translates to 'Cafe English'. http://translate.google.com/#fr|en|Cafe%20Anglais I'm not sure which is correct, but either one of them still brings up the question of why they would call it 'English' anything, especially with the turbulent times experienced in those years? Maybe it was a really bad tasting cognac. lol Here's some British History of 1788. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward_Stuart Maybe somebody could find a reason for the Frech Cognac having a title with the word 'English' in it?

I used Babelfish and my 6 years of French lessons in school to come up with the "English Coffee" translation.

I agree with you that "English Cafe" would also be valid translation in todays context.

But I do not know if the French used the term 'cafe' 220 years ago in the same way we do, (that is, to describe a small coffee restaurant)

Sorry. I wasn't intending to say you were wrong. I just thought it was an interesting difference in translation. I'm always up for learning something. Thanks for the lesson. lol

Sorry. I wasn't intending to say you were wrong. l

Nah, I did not take it in that way. :)
I agree with your translation interpretation. FWIW I did not think that translating French to English would be this vague!

I'd have to go with MagicRat on the translation :D, if you go by direct meanings it translates to coffee English, which is flipped from how we'd read it, English Coffee.

Coming from my 2 years of french, during which I payed little attention and screwed around but whatever :D

That is kinda funny though. £25,000? damn, lot for a single bottle, but at the same time seems slightly low for one that old.

The term "cafe" does not have a direct correlation to coffee. The current definition is "a usually small and informal establishment serving various refreshments". http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cafe

The name "Cafe Anglais" might have been pejorative, indicating that the wine wasn't worthy of any thing better than an English Cafe in the first place.

The name "Cafe Anglais" might have been pejorative, indicating that the wine wasn't worthy of any thing better than an English Cafe in the first place. lol :lol2:
In that case, why not just call it "Maudite Anglais"?

Isn't "Maudite Anglais" an oxymoron?