The History of the Mazagran

How a battle in Algeria brought an iconic cup, and iced coffee, to France

Le Mazagran

Ever wonder what those distinctive cups are called?

In 1840, a small skirmish in the 17-year long French conquest of Algeria became memorialized as The Battle of Mazagran.

The story goes a French contingent of 132 soldiers, holed up in a fortification at the town of Mazagran and facing a siege by several thousand Algerians, was running out of gunpowder and supplies. In a stroke of luck, French reinforcements arrived just as the defenders were about to make a last stand, and the siege force retreated. There is an apocryphal story that the Algerians served the “victorious” French mint tea as a sign of peace … in distinctive conical shaped cups made of silver.

While the standoff was relatively minor and only lasted a few days, the French press touted the event as a great victory.

The Battle of Mazagran (Image: Jean-Adolphe Beaucé)

Mazagran Fever Takes Over

Details of the battle filled Parisian newspapers, and Mazagran became the talk of the city. A replica of the fort was built on the Champs Elysées, and all matter of merchandise was produced to commemorate the event. The French government went so far as to issue a commemorative medal and rename a street in honor of the victory. Rue de Mazagran still exists today.

As Jennifer Sessions writes in her account of France’s Algerian wars, By Sword and Plow, in 1840 people started dressing in a “Mazagran” style: “Mazagran pantaloons, hats, gloves, shawls, etc. became instantly and universally the vogue,” a magazine reported at the time.

The Battle Immortalized in Le Petit Journal almost 60 years after the event (Image: Meisterdruke.uk)

But the most enduring legacy of Mazagran was iced coffee. According to the story, French soldiers in the fortress ran out of brandy to mix with their coffee and began using water instead.

After the battle, French cafés popularized “un mazagran”: coffee served in a tall glass, sometimes over ice, with a beaker of cold water alongside to dilute it further.

Coffee was introduced to France by way of Constantinople in 1644

And those distinctive conical silver cups in which the French were served mint tea? It seems that one of the officers was so impressed with their shape he brought one back to France and showed it to his friend, Charles Pillivut. Factory Pillivut modernized the original form, billed them as — what else? — Mazagrans, and went on to produce thousands of porcelain copies. His however had the added benefit of warming the hands of the coffee drinker if the contents were hot: The conical form was perfectly ergonomic, allowing both hands to wrap around the cup.

The Mazagran craze died out in the 1950s, and now the iconic cups are mostly available only in brocantes and second hand stores throughout France. In our travels we see many examples of vintage Mazagrans in the flea markets and antique shows, but alas, most are newer and are decorated in an overly sweet way. Worse yet, matching sets are almost impossible to find.

Luckily a French company is offering a modern take of the classic form.

Sources: Thanks to Wikipedia and Sara Laskow over at Gastro Obscura