The Telling (Hainish Cycle, #8)

by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Corporation brand of akakafi was called Starbrew and was ubiquitous. Bittersweet, black, it contained a remarkable mixture of alkaloids, stimulants, and depressants. Sutty loathed the taste, and it made her tongue furry, but she had learned to swallow it, since sharing akakafi was one of the few rituals of social bonding the people of Dovza City allowed themselves, and therefore very important to them.

Starbrew!

One of the historians of Darranda said: To learn a belief without belief is to sing a song without the tune.

belief is the wound that knowledge heals.”