Short story where humans exchange art and works of beauty for alien technology and other items (such as coffee)

Question

The story is about a man who stumbles upon some alien tech - I recall a lighter that just produces a flame without any mechanical parts....

He doesn't have the wealth to trade the art for these items so he basically becomes a middle-man.

I recall a quote about him asking himself "How do they manage to get the coffee to taste as good as it smells?" or something along those lines.

All of the trade is also set in those dusty non-specific trinket shops you occasionally walk past and wonder what on earth they do and how comes they haven't been turned into a Costa yet.

Answer 1

This is Bob Shaw's "A Full Member of the Club".

As you remembered, it ends:

"How on Earth, he wondered idly, do they manage to make it taste exactly the way it smells?"

Thanks to user14111 for the archive.org link.

Also the unaccepted (but correct, IMHO) answer to this slightly older question:Story about alien art smugglers