Zarf Zarf A zarf (plural: zarfs, zuruuf, zarves) is a holder, usually of ornamental metal, for a coffee cup without a handle (demitasse or fincan). Although coffee was probably discovered in Ethiopia, it was in Turkey at around the thirteenth century that it became popular as a beverage. As with the serving of tea in China and Japan, the serving of coffee in Turkey was a complex, ritualized process. It was served in small cups without handles (known as "fincan"), which were placed in holders known as "zarf" (from the Arabic word ظرف "ẓarf", meaning "container, envelope") to protect the cup
Cage cup the Romans. The convivial dedications found on several examples are paralleled on the bases on many Roman gold glass cups found mostly in Rome. The Lycurgus Cup has no outurned rim, but may have been altered, or fitted with a metal rim like the modern one it has now. Like the Constable-Maxwell cup, the Corning cup is much wider than the other well-known examples, shaped more as a bowl than a cup, though apart from the lack of lettering, otherwise very similar in form to the narrower cups. The cups therefore probably form two groups: a bowl-shaped lamp group with