COMMERCIAL CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION.
Coffee in commerce is the seed which grows in the pod or fruit of
the coffee plant, like the pea or the bean. Geographically, it is
divided into African, Asian, American and Polynesian coffees, and,
topographically, into “Mountain,” or upland, and “Plaingrown,” or
lowland Coffees, while commercially they are generally classified as
“Mild” and “Strong,” the former comprising in trade the product of all
countries, with the exception of Brazil. Grown in so many different and
widely separated countries, provinces, districts and situations, it is
but natural that the different products should vary materially in size,
style, color, form, flavor and character, and which also accounts for
the almost innumerable commercial divisions and subdivisions of names,
grades and values.
AFRICAN COFFEES.
Africa is the original home of coffee, it being indigenous to almost
the entire Continent; but while it is to be found growing in a wild
state almost all over the entire of tropical Africa, more particularly
between the fifth and fifteenth parallels, its cultivation for
commercial purposes on the “Dark Continent” is very light and partial
at the present time, although it affords a field of boundless
development in the future. African Coffees are divided into West and
East Coast, the former comprising Liberian, Loango, Angola, Benguelan,
Congo and Natal; the latter including Abyssinian, Egyptian, Zanzibar,
Mozambique, Nubian, Madagascar, Bourbon and Mauritius.
=Liberian=--Is produced in the Americanized colony known as the
“Black Republic,” and is principally cultivated in the district
of Mesurado, on the St. Paul river. It is an extremely large
dark-brown bean, possessing very marked peculiarities, being
“concave-convex”--technically termed “Male or pea-berry”--in form; that
is, round on top, with long, deep furrow extending longitudinally down
the face, tightly rolled or “folded” in appearance and very hard and
solid in texture. When roasted and infused the liquor is dark in color,
heavy in body and from 30 to 40 per cent. stronger in flavor than that
of any other variety grown, and is considered too strong to use alone,
but when blended in the proportion of about one to three parts of
some of the milder growths it makes a fairly smooth and rich drinking
coffee. The annual production is limited--about 10,000,000 pounds--put
up in large, coarse bags, averaging 200 pounds, and is principally
exported to England and the continent of Europe, where it is used
principally, on account of its ultra strength, for mixing with chicory,
and sold chiefly in the form of ground coffee.
=Loango=--Also an indigenous variety, is grown in the interior province
of Encougé, deriving its trade name from the port of shipment. It
closely resembles Liberian in form and color, but is much smaller in
size and greatly inferior in quality, and is sometimes termed “African
pea-berry.” The raw or natural bean is dark-brown in color, light or
“chaffy” in weight, very brittle and poorly prepared, while the liquor
is almost black and insipid, if not actually rank or nauseous, in
flavor, the decoction tasting more like an infusion of char-bones than
anything else it may be likened to. It is principally shipped to Spain,
Portugal and other European countries, very little, fortunately, ever
reaching the United States.
=Angola=--Produced in the Portuguese colony of that name, is medium
in size, concave in form, light-brown in color, strong and pungent
in flavor, but lacking in smoothness and aroma. Not being regularly
cultivated, its production is limited, that grown by the settlers on
the uplands of the interior being much superior to the wild or native
sorts.
=Benguelan=--Is another variety of Angola, grown in the adjoining
province to the south and closely resembles it in size, color and
general character. Being also limited in supply, it is rarely if ever
shipped to this country, what is not retained for home consumption
being forwarded to Lisbon, Madrid and the Canaries.
=Congo=--Is a medium-sized, heavy bean, strong and rich in the cup,
and, taken altogether, a desirable sort.
=Natal Coffee=--Is a large light-brown bean, closely resembling the
Liberian product, being grown from that species, but greatly modified
in body and strength. Coffee culture in Natal is struggling against
adverse conditions, owing to the spread of the bark disease in that
colony and for which no cure has been found. This is much to be
regretted, as the quality of the product is very fair, the demand for
the article continually growing. Some Coffees are also grown in the
States of Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, St. Helena and the Cape of
Good Hope, but, being limited in supply and unknown to commerce, do not
need description here.
=Abyssinian.=--The Coffee plant and its product have been known
in Abyssinia from time immemorial, its fruit being used there in
a _roasted state_, but in _solid form_, for centuries before its
introduction to the civilized world, receiving its now universal
name from the district of Kaffa or Caffa, in the southeastern part
of that country, and becoming the parent-plant of all the numerous
varieties now to be found on the Red Sea littoral. At the present
time it is grown there in all its native luxuriance and primitive
abundance, from the borders of Narla to the banks of the Nile, forming
the chief wood of the country. It is also cultivated there in almost
all situations, on plateaus and table-lands, mountain and valley,
hill and plain, growing as luxuriantly and producing as prolifically
on low as on upland sites. The bean is small in comparison with the
average coffee of commerce, but long and narrow in shape, hard and
“flinty” in texture, and varying in color from a translucent green to a
yellowish hue, according to its age. In body and flavor it ranks next
to Mocha, to which coffee it is analogous, and is by many connoisseurs
preferred to it as being smoother and less heating in effect. It
is little known to commerce under its true name, being principally
shipped from Massowah to Aden and Alexandria, where it loses its
identity, masquerading under the head of “Long-berry Mocha,” and going
principally to the Mediterranean and other European markets. The annual
crop is large and the yield excellent, but communication and transport
facilities being difficult and crude, the bulk of the product does not
reach the outside world. It is to be hoped, however, that whenever
this rich country which produces coffee in such wild abundance shall
be permitted, by civilized man, to enjoy its fertility it will rapidly
become an article of extensive cultivation and commerce.
=Egyptian=--Comprises the product of the Upper Nile region, and that
grown around Berber and the Soudan, very little being produced in the
country itself. Being the product of different districts, they vary
in size and quality, ranging from small to medium, are palish-green
in color, flat or regular in shape, and possess superior drinking
properties; so much so that many of the smaller bean varieties are put
up in Mocha bales at Alexandria and sold under the name of “Short-berry
Mocha,” being shipped principally to France and England, where they are
known to the initiated as “Alexandrian or Egyptian Mochas.”
=Nubian=--Is a small-bean coffee, hard and flinty in texture, oval
in shape, pale-green in color, heavy in body, and unusually rich in
flavor. This variety is usually forwarded to Alexandria for conversion
into a so-called Mocha, seldom finding its way into the American or
European markets under its legitimate name.
=Zanzibar=--Is medium in size, regular in appearance, full in body and
pleasing in flavor, but also very limited in quantity. Increased effort
is now being made, however, by the French, German and Italian colonists
to increase and extend its cultivation in that country.
=Mozambique=--The product is fairly good, ranking with the average of
mild coffees, medium in size, greenish in color, heavy and mellow in
the cup.
=Madagascar=--Grown on the immense island of that name, to the east,
is a small-bean variety, solid and firm, but shorter and rounder than
the latter. It is of a pea-green color when first picked, but gradually
assumes that of a silver-gray as it matures; in body it is round and
full, in flavor rich and fragrant. The supply of this variety is very
small when compared with the extent of area that may be utilized for
its profitable culture in that island, the entire product being chiefly
retained for home consumption, only small lots occasionally reaching
the outer world.
=Bourbon=--Is a small, hard and flinty bean, being chiefly mountain
grown, pale-yellow in color and closely resembling the Arabian product,
for which coffee it is extensively substituted, large quantities of
the smaller beans being annually shipped to Aden to be repacked in the
inimitable Mocha bales and sold as “genuine Aden Mocha.” The larger
beans are usually exported to France and the continent, where it is
held in high esteem for its rich, fragrant flavor and aroma, but rarely
found in the American market unless specially ordered.
=Mauritius=--Like Bourbon is also an island coffee, the average bean
being medium-sized, heavy and well developed, light-green in color,
full in body and mellow in flavor, the liquor, in general, comparing
favorably with that of finest of the mild grades. The smaller beans
are separated and sold for shipment to Aden for the purpose of
adulterating, or, what is worse, substituting for Mocha, where it sinks
its identity, reappearing in the European market as “Short-berry” Mocha
coffee.
More or less Coffee is also produced in Sofala, Somali, and the Soudan,
in Usumbara, the Zambesi, Nyassa, Nyanza, and other districts as
far west as the base of the Kilimanjaro mountains, the total yield
of which, however, so far as its influence on the world’s supply is
considered, is insignificant, the export capacity of the whole not
exceeding 150,000 pounds annually. The entire product of the Eastern
provinces of Africa taken in connection with the comparatively
small crops raised on the West coast makes that country contribute
only between 5,000 to 6,000 tons to the world’s supply, this amount
including all coffees grown in Egypt and the interior countries of the
continent of Africa.
ASIAN COFFEES
Comprise Arabian, East Indian, Ceylon, Malayan and all coffees grown in
the Straits Settlements.
ARABIAN COFFEE
Is universally but erroneously known to trade as the far-famed
“Mocha,” as no coffee is or ever was grown there. Mocha itself,
being comparatively a modern town, which rose with the coffee trade
to a short-lived prosperity, the term “Mocha” as applied to Arabian
coffee, being derived solely from the shipment of its product from
there in former times. The internal disorders of Arabia and the
efforts of Mohamed Ali to make the coffee trade pass through India
accelerated its decline, the place being now nothing more than a mere
village. The shipment of coffee is no longer carried on there, being
transferred further south to the ports of Aden and Hodeida, yet,
although, still known to trade as “Mocha,” and notwithstanding the
fact that Arabian coffee has been popularly and commercially known
for centuries as Mocha, it never produced any coffee, being situated
as it is in a sterile plain. Seeing that Arabia is the parent soil
of most of the coffees of commerce, and comparatively little known
as a coffee-producing country, it may be interesting to transcribe
some particulars of the cultivation and trade in the article in
that country. The Coffee plant is claimed by some authorities to be
indigenous to Arabia, and by others to be simply exotic, and as having
been introduced there from Abyssinia, but at what period of the world’s
history has never been definitely decided. The plant or its product
is not mentioned in the Koran, was certainly unknown to Mahomet, and
his contemporaries make no reference to it up to the seventh century,
although the many commodities and beverages in use among his followers
in Mecca and Medina during his Calyphate are accurately and minutely
detailed by his biographers, both Arab and Christian. But while to
Abyssinia belongs the honor of its first discovery, it is to Arabia
that the civilized world is indebted, not only for the first knowledge
of the plant and its virtues, but also for the first plants from which
it is now so extensively propagated as well as for the first knowledge
of preparing it in liquid form. Yet, although exotic to Arabia, it
has been cultivated there for centuries, attaining its most extensive
distribution and highest standard of production in the province of
Yemen, a highland country formed by a labyrinth of precipitant hills
and fertile valleys, the air being pure, and even cold in some parts.
These mountains are well supplied with water, but no considerable
rivers find their way from them to the sea, tropical evaporation,
coupled with the light and porous quality of the soil, drying up the
torrent beds: nor do any natural lakes exist there. Artificial pools
and reservoirs have, however, been constructed, in which water is
preserved all the year round, and are numerous in the district.
In the province of Yemen, where the best Mocha coffees are produced,
the plant is cultivated in both situations, upland and lowland, that
raised on the latter being greatly inferior to that cultivated on the
former sites. The best being that grown on the mountain slopes under
the greatest difficulties and natural disadvantages of climate, soil
and site, the small gardens, for they cannot be called plantations,
being situated on terraces ranged one above the other, forming an
amphitheatre on the mountain slope and literally covering its sides
from almost base to apex. The plant is cultivated throughout more than
half these upland districts, the finest qualities of the berry being
produced on the western slopes of the mountains in the neighborhood
of Bulgosa and Sanaar, the capital of the province, at elevations
estimated at 5,000 feet above sea-level. The soil in these situations
is composed chiefly of basaltic columns, the detached rocks forming
grand objects of landscape, especially where cascades of water rush
from their summits. Indications of volcanic action, long since extant,
abound; basalt formations comprising a considerable portion of the soil
in the most favored gardens of the coffee-bearing districts, while in
others it is composed of jurassic rock, basalt-granite patches also
occurring in many of them. The basalts are of great utility to the
inhabitants of this region, the columns, which are usually separated,
serving as steps where the ascent is difficult, and as walls to
support the gardens of coffee trees, which are principally situated on
the steep declivities of the mountain sides, and although requiring
the well-diffused heat of an equatorial climate and a rich soil for
its most successful and profitable growth, it is in this region and
under these great disadvantages and peculiarities of soil, climate
and situation--hot, sandy and stony--that the far-famed Mocha coffee
obtains its finest, richest and most valuable developments, and to
which its superior excellence is attributed.
The gardens are arranged on rocky terraces, situated one above the
other, the slopes being densely covered and close together and are
watered from large reservoirs built upon the heights above them, into
which spring water is collected and sprinkled in a novel and ingenious
manner, being first conducted to the top terrace and then allowed to
fall gradually from one terrace to another, where the plant and shade
grow so thick together that the sun’s rays can hardly penetrate among
the branches. The plants yield ripe fruit twice a year and frequently a
third crop is gathered; the produce of the latter is, however, greatly
inferior to that of the previous ones. The cultivation and preparation
of coffee in Arabia are also of the simplest and most primitive kind.
When the berries have been gathered they are carefully and assiduously
picked over and separated by hand by experienced pickers and sorters.
So constant and frequent is this selecting and separating process
carried on, that a graduation almost as regular as the degrees upon a
map may be discerned in the grades and qualities of Mocha coffee. The
operations of hulling and cleaning being performed with the utmost
seriousness and scrupulous exactness, reminding one of the diligence
ascribed to diamond searchers and gold hunters, when sorting the
torrent sands for the minute but precious treasure.
The coffee is dispatched by caravan from the interior to the ports of
Aden and Hodeida at almost every season of the year, but principally
in February, March and April, the export consisting of crude and
prepared beans; the former is dried in the husk, and is termed by the
Arabs “Jaffal coffee.” The dealers are chiefly Arabs, who frequently
barter English manufactured goods for the article, the producers
seldom attending the seaport markets. The principal coffee dealers at
the shipping ports being Arabs from Hadramant, Syrians, Armenians,
Bhuddists, Brahmins and Musselmans from Hindustan, who also trade
in drapery and other English goods, which they send through their
agents in the interior to pursue the aforesaid system of barter for
the coffee. There are, however, three or four Anglo-Indian firms in
Hodeida, and one or two American houses in Aden, who deal in coffee
on their own account. Before reaching the harbor of Aden, from which
port the coffee intended for the aristocracy of Alexandria and
Constantinople is chiefly shipped, the beans are sifted and re-sifted
by the Arab merchants _en route_, the best being retained for their
own use; the less generous, flattened, opaque and whitish beans alone
reaching their destination, the last stage seldom conveying the
genuine article except on rare occasions, and only then by previous
arrangement, personal influence or interest. That intended for the
Syrian and Persian markets is forwarded by caravan from Jaffa and
Beyrouth under the same conditions, as whenever mere sale and traffic
is concerned, substitution of an inferior quality or an adulteration
equivalent to a substitution is frequently resorted to in the
storehouses of Aden, and the other points from which it is forwarded,
until whatever Mocha coffee intended for the general European or
American markets is no more the real offspring of the Yemen plant than
the logwood preparations of a fourth-rate wine resembles the pure
libation of an Oporto vineyard.
Arabian coffee, like that of all other countries, though one in name
is manifold in fact. Geographically they are classified as Yemen and
Tehama, but are known to trade almost universally as “Mocha” coffee,
from being at one time all shipped from that port; but since the
opening of the Suez Canal, the bulk of the crop is now shipped from the
ports of Aden and Hodeida.
=Yemen Mocha=--Is grown on the mountain slopes surrounding the towns
of Bulgosa, Sanaar and the valley of the Oudien, and constitutes the
true Mocha coffee, which is rarely if ever exported, being consumed
chiefly within the limits of Arabia itself; very little, so little,
indeed, of this variety finds its way west of Constantinople that it is
almost inappreciable. Nor, indeed, do the latter always get the best or
purest, Arabia, Syria, Persia and Egypt consuming over two-thirds of
the limited product of the Yemen hills, the remainder being reserved
for the Turkish and Armenian æosophagi, from which fact it is sometimes
termed the “Aristocrat of Coffees.”
The true “Mocha” or Yemen bean is exceedingly small, hard, round,
and symmetrical in form, regular and uniform in general appearance,
of a translucent, olive-green color when new, but assuming a rich
semi-transparent yellowish hue with age. It is perfectly clean, being
entirely free from stems, stones, chaff and all other extraneous
matter. When fresh roasted it exhales a pleasing if not delicious odor,
not even approached by that of any other variety grown or known; the
liquor is heavier in body than that of Java, but creamy and rich, and
the flavor fragrant and aromatic to an eminent degree. The superior
excellence attributed to this particular variety of Mocha coffee is
said to be due to two causes, first to the extreme dryness of the
climate, hard granitic nature of the soil, and second to the fact that
the berries are never picked, but allowed to fall from the trees of
their own accord when ripe, and then allowed to dry naturally, after
which they are gathered and hulled by the simplest and most primitive
methods, which process of drying cannot be pursued in countries where
the rainfall is great, as sudden showers spoil the crop if left
unprotected. While others claim that the high reputation which it so
long held in the European markets, is not to be ascribed to either
superior cultivation or improved stock, but to the fact that the
coffee was formerly shipped to India, and thence by circuitous routes
to Europe, so that it was generally two to three years old when it
reached its destination, all coffees improving with age and keeping.
Still growing as it does high up on the sandy terraces of the Yemen
hills, sparse of leaves, gaunt and stunted, as becomes a plant of the
desert as well as from its condensed vitality, it appears difficult
to understand the aromatic pungency of its small berries, a quality
that has never been even approached by any achievement of scientific
cultivation.
=Tehama Coffee=--Is grown in the low, level sandy plain of that name,
extending from the Red sea littoral to the base of the Yemen hills,
formed by the arc of their curve, and reaching from the province of
Hejaz in the north down as far as Aden on the southern extremity of the
peninsula. As might be expected from its geographical situation towards
the coast, it is an exceedingly hot, dry and sandy region, being only
of moderate fertility, the soil being composed of an agglomeration
of coral debris. The rains are periodical, sometimes flooding the
plantations, and hardly drying up through the year, the coast being
indented with several small harbors. The coffee produced in this
district--like all plain-grown or lowland coffees--is greatly inferior
to the mountain product of Yemen. The bean is small, irregular,
immature and chaffy, having a gnarled or shriveled appearance, greenish
in color when new but assuming a yellowish hue as it dries. Being only
imperfectly cured it frequently contains fragments of hull, fibre and
small stones. It is invariably “quakery” when roasted, and in body and
flavor is inferior to the average run of what are known in trade as
“mild coffees.” Yet, though not a palatable coffee when drunk alone,
it makes a fairly fragrant infusion when combined with a Preanger
or other good Java. It is principally shipped from Hodeida, now the
second considerable port in the Red sea, from which it is known to
trade as “Hodeida Mocha,” and in contradistinction to that shipped
from Aden, and known as “Aden Mocha.” At Hodeida the coffee is sold in
the custom house, whither it is brought from the interior. The Hodeida
dealers also receiving large quantities of Malabar, Bourbon and other
small-bean varieties to mix with or substitute for the original sort.
OTHER VARIETIES.
There are several other varieties known to trade and sold as Mocha
coffee, but having little or no relation to it. Among these are:--
=Lechia.=--Shipped from a small port to the north of Hodeida and from
which it derives its trade name. It is very inferior in quality,
roasting and drinking poorly, and on the whole not a desirable sort.
=Djebelli.=--Which is imported into Aden from the African coast, and is
a mountain-grown coffee possessing valuable cup qualities.
=Berberah.=--Also an African coffee recognized by its large and
tapering bean, heavy body and rich infusion, and used principally for
mixing with or substituting for genuine Mocha coffee.
=Havar.=--Another variety of Mocha coffee known to trade as “Havar”
or “Hazar,” which comes from the south African coast of the Red sea,
is being recently shipped from Aden. The bean is long and pointed,
greenish in cast, and solid in structure; it roasts and drinks
exceedingly well, being preferred by many connoisseurs to the true
Mocha bean.
=Mussowah=--Is an Abyssinian variety, previously described, deriving
its trade name from being shipped from that port on the African coast
of the Red sea.
=Egyptian Mocha.=--In Alexandria, Mocha coffee is imitated by the
substitution of small-bean African varieties, principally produced
in Berber, Nubia, Somali and the interior of the Soudan, which
are carefully picked over and assorted by hand, the larger beans
being separated from the smaller, the better to adapt them to their
respective markets, being usually shipped to France and other
continental European countries.
Arabian or “Mocha” Coffee is put up in large grass-mat
bales--containing two smaller packages termed “quarters” or four
termed “eights”--distinctive in shape and material, being made of a
coarse, grassy substance and sewn with a fibrous ligature that becomes
excessively hard and tough as it seasons. The exports, the amount of
which it is difficult to determine owing to the fact that there is no
real custom-house control in the country, consists of about 8,000,000
to 10,000,000 pounds only, about half of which only is pure Mocha, the
product being so badly manipulated and so extensively substituted with
other coffees of foreign origin and inferior quality.
EAST-INDIAN COFFEES.
Unlike tea, coffee was not introduced into India by European
enterprise, and even in the present day its cultivation there is
largely followed by the natives only. The Malabar coast has always
enjoyed a direct commerce with Arabia, and at an early date in the
world’s history gave many converts to Islam, one of whom, Baba Bouden
by name, is said to have gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca and to have
brought back with him “seven coffee-berries,” which he planted on the
hill range of Mysore and which is still called after him, and which,
according to local tradition, occurred about two centuries ago. The
shrubs thus said to be sown lived on, but their systematic cultivation
did not spread until the beginning of the present century. While
another account states that the coffee-plant was first introduced into
India, on the Malabar coast, by the Arabs themselves, as far back as
1740, yet no official mention is made of the plant or its product
in that country up to 1822, when its cultivation as a curiosity was
first began in the Wynaad district, another plantation being formed
later in the adjoining district of Manjarabad. The Baba Bouden
range, in the State of Mysore, also witnessed the first opening of
a coffee plantation by an English planter in 1840, the success of
this experiment leading to the extension of coffee cultivation in the
neighboring districts of Madras and Malabar. In 1840, a plantation
was also started in Manautoddy, and in 1842 it was found growing well
in Belgaum. From 1842 to 1860, however, the enterprise made but slow
progress, but since the latter date it has spread with great rapidity
along the whole line of the Western Ghauts, clearing away the primeval
forest and opening up a new era of prosperity to the laboring classes
in that country, its cultivation for commercial uses increasing at a
most remarkable rate.
Coffee at the present time in India is grown all along the summits and
slopes of the Western Ghauts from the northern limits of Kanura south
to Cape Comorin, the chief centres of production being located in the
Presidencies of Madras, Mysore, Malabar, Coorg and Travancore, attempts
being also made to introduce the plant into the Bengal district of
Chittagong and the northern districts of Nepaul, the Punjaub and
British Burmah, the cultivation extending within the past few years to
the Shevaroy hills in the Salem district as well as to the Neilgherry
and Pulmey mountains in Madras, the slopes adjacent to Octacamund being
literally covered with coffee plantations on every side. In India,
after the berries, or “cherries,” as they are called there, have been
harvested, they are cured in one of two ways, one of which is to pulp
them in the soft state, the coffee being known as “Cherry-dried,” while
by the other they are dried first and the pulp removed by a huller.
Where the latter method is adopted, they are spread upon terraces
and there kept until complete desiccation takes place, the coffee
prepared in this manner being known as “thick-hull” or “sun-dried”
coffee. They are classified in trade as “Malabar,” “Mysore,” “Wynaad,”
“Tellicherry,” “Coorg,” “Neilgherry” and “Travancore,” grading
commercially in the order named.
=Malabar=--Produced on the western slopes of the Ghaut mountains,
is a small, hard, whitish bean, closely resembling a Bourbon, being
frequently shipped to Aden for substitution or conversion into Mocha
coffee. It is full in body, high in color and rich in flavor,
particularly when old, ranking high commercially in the European
markets, where it is principally disposed of.
=Mysore=--Is a mountain coffee grown on the slopes of the Eastern
Ghauts, and, like all mountain-grown coffees, is large or bold in
style, bluish-green in color, hard and solid in texture, heavy in
body, but apt to be somewhat “grassy” in flavor when new, mellowing
considerably, however, with age. It commands a higher price in the
English market than Java, not on account of its intrinsic worth, but
from the fact that English merchants favor the products of their own
colonies to the prejudice of all others.
=Wynaad=--Is simply a Malabar coffee, grown in the interior of that
province, and deriving its trade-name from the district of growth, and
possessing the same intrinsic qualities of body, color and flavor,
being heavy, rich and fragrant in the cup.
=Tellicherry=--Is another variety of Malabar, deriving its commercial
cognomen from the port of shipment, but is generally conveyed to the
coast for curing, and is classed commercially with it, being used for
the same purpose of mixing or substituting for Mocha.
=Coorg=--Is a plain-grown or lowland coffee, large and flat in
appearance, dark-greenish when new, but becoming a dull-white with
age, and while regular and uniform in the roasted state is apt to be
“quakery.” The liquor is thin and flat in the cup, while the flavor is
somewhat “mawkish” to the taste.
=Neilgherry=--Although a mountain coffee, seems to be an exception to
the general character of this variety, for while the bean is fairly
large in size and uniform in appearance, it is usually moist and soft
in substance, losing heavily in the roast, and yielding a flat, almost
insipid liquor.
=Travancore=--Grown in the extreme South, is a lowland variety having
an average-sized, flat, but whitish bean, soft or “spongy” when new,
but becoming light and brittle as it dries. It is invariably “quakery”
in the roast, thin and watery in the cup, and lacking in even an
approach to fragrance.
=Burmah Coffee=--Is a comparatively new variety to commerce, being only
recently introduced, and very limited in supply to the present. The
bean is fairly large and regular in form, greenish in color and soft
in texture in the natural state, tough or “leathery” when roasted, and
wild or “grassy” in the infusion--defects due to its newness, which
may, however disappear in the later crops. A very large portion of the
surface of Burmah is admirably adapted for the cultivation of fine
coffees, but it still remains in its primeval state of unproductive
jungle, owing to the entire absence of natural energy on the part of
the natives, who have been described as the laziest under the sun. At
the present time, however, the government is making liberal offers
to Europeans and others who understand the art of coffee-planting in
order to develop the industry in that country; such settlers being
offered free grants of land in the celebrated Tavoy district, the only
conditions being the cost of survey and demarcation.
India coffees are classed in the English market as “Bold,” “Middling”
and “Small,” the bulk of the small-bean Mysore, Malabar and Wynaad
being shipped to Aden and Alexandria, where they are repacked and sold
as Mocha. The average quantity and value of the coffee product of India
is about 40,000,000 pounds, valued at $75,000,000, fully one-half of
which is retained for home consumption, the balance being shipped to
England and France, which are the two next largest consumers of India
coffee, although in both countries it is subject to excessively heavy
duties. The average product per acre is only about 350 pounds, but the
drought having affected the plantations would of itself sufficiently
account for the diminished exports if the leaf disease and borer did
not also help to keep down the yield.
CEYLON COFFEES.
The history of coffee cultivation in the island of Ceylon is one
fraught with interest and full of instructive lessons, which, since
the year 1845, has assumed a position of great and ever-increasing
importance. Although coffee is claimed to have been an article of
growth and export from Ceylon even as far back as the time of the
Portuguese, it only grew wild there without any attempt at cultivation.
Small patches of it were to be found around the Kandyan villages,
growing in wild luxuriance, the berries being gathered before they
were ripe and imperfectly cured, seldom possessed much flavor, they
were but lightly esteemed as an article of commerce. Its systematic
cultivation was first commenced in 1824, by Sir E. Barnes, the then
governor, who hoped by his example to introduce coffee planting by
Europeans into the island. Up to 1834, however, public attention does
not seem to have been occupied with the industry, but in that year
the falling off in supplies from other countries brought capitalists
into the field, and when, in 1836, the duty in England was reduced to
six pence per pound, a great impulse was given to coffee planting in
Ceylon. During that and the following year about 7,000 acres of the
finest lands were purchased for the purpose, until, at the end of a
few years, it became a matter of notoriety that the soil and climate of
Ceylon were capable of producing coffee equal in value to most kinds
then grown, when the influx of capital from England for investment in
this new branch of industry became simply enormous. In 1840, nearly
10,000 acres of mountain forest were felled and planted in coffee,
and in an exceedingly short space of time the sale of crown-lands for
coffee culture averaged 40,000 acres per annum. The mountain ranges
on all sides of the district of Kandy became speedily covered with
plantations, the great valleys of Ambogamoa, Doombera, Kotmalie and
Pusilawa were occupied by speculators, others settling in the steep
passes of Neurailla and penetrating the Ouvah and Badulla districts,
coffee-trees quickly blooming on every solitary hill, even up to and
around the very base of Adam’s peak. The first ardent adventurers
pioneering their way through pathless woods, living in log-cabins
whilst felling the forest and making their preliminary preparations
for planting, until, in a few years, the paths by which they came
were converted into roadways and their cabins replaced by comfortable
“bungalows.” The coffee cultivation mania in Ceylon, however, reached
its climax in 1845, when the governor, council, military, judges,
civil servants, and even the clergy penetrated the hills in their mad
haste to become purchasers of crown lands for coffee growing. The East
India Company’s officers crowded to Ceylon to invest their savings in
coffee lands, capitalists from England at the same time arriving by
every vessel, the bulk of the emigrants as a class being more than
ordinarily aristocratic, and who, if not already opulent, were still in
haste to become more so. So dazzling was the prospect that expenditure
was unlimited, its profusion being only equalled by the ignorance
and inexperience of those to whom it was intrusted; five millions
sterling being sunk in the “Coffee craze” in less than as many years.
The rush for coffee lands at this period in Ceylon was only paralleled
by the movement towards the gold mines of California and Australia,
but with this painful difference, that the wild enthusiasts in Ceylon
instead of thronging to disinter were hurrying to bury their gold, for
in the very midst of their visions of riches a crash suddenly came
which awakened the victims to the reality of their ruin. The financial
panic of 1845 in England rapidly extended its destructive influences
to Ceylon; remittances ceased, credit failed, prices fell, and the
first announcement on the subsidence of the turmoil was the doom of
protection and the withdrawal of the distinctive duty which had so
long screened the British coffee plantations from competition with
those of Java and Brazil. The consternation thus produced in Ceylon
was proportionate to the extravagance and hopes that were blasted,
coffee plantations being forced into the market, and many sold off for
a twentieth part of the outlay incurred in forming them, while others
that could not be sacrificed at any price were abandoned and allowed
to return to their natural jungle. For over three years the enterprise
appeared paralyzed, the ruined disappeared and the timid retreated,
but those who, combining judgment with capital, persevered, succeeded
eventually, not alone in restoring energy to the enterprise, but in
imparting to it the prudence and experience gleaned from former similar
disasters. Still, the crisis, had it not been precipitated by the
calamities of 1845, must have ensued eventually, from the indiscretion
of the previous period; and the healthy condition which coffee planting
appears to have attained at the present day in Ceylon results from
the correction of the errors then committed; and it is no exaggeration
to state that there is not a single well-established principle now
governing the management of the plantations and the conduct of the
proprietors that was not preceded by a directly opposite policy in 1845.
Since the explosion of this second edition of the “South-sea bubble”
in Ceylon, the island has made rapid strides in coffee growing, the
mountain forests have been replaced by extensive plantations, of which
there are at the present day no less than 1,000 under cultivation,
yielding an average annual crop of nearly 80,000,000 pounds exclusive
of that raised by the natives. Observation has also since discerned
the true tests of soil, climate and aspect, former delusions as to
high altitudes have been exploded, unprofitable districts avoided
and unproductive localities abandoned. And in lieu of the belief
that the coffee tree, once rooted, would continue ever after to bear
crops without further attention or manure, and flourish perennially
in defiance of weeds and neglect, every plantation is now tended like
a garden, and the soil enriched artificially in proportion to the
produce it bears, expenditures also being reduced within the bounds of
discretion. An acre of forest land can now be purchased for one-tenth
of what it cost in 1844, and though the extravagant prices and the
still more extravagant expectations of that period have been entirely
dissipated, coffee planting at the present day in Ceylon under careful
supervision, promises as sound an investment as moderate enterprise can
hope for. Systematic coffee cultivation is almost exclusively confined
to the hill region, which embraces the districts of Kandy, Pusilawa,
Doombera, Kotmalie and Ambogama, although irregular native gardens are
to be found everywhere in the southwestern portion of the island, even
close to the seashore. The favorite and most productive elevation is,
however, between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above sea-level, but in a few
exceptional cases plantations descend almost to the foot of the hills,
others being situated nearly 6,000 feet above. While native gardens,
sometimes bearing good crops, may be met with along the coast actually
at sea-level; in such instances, however, the gardens are limited in
extent, and are generally richly manured and well watered during the
dry season.
The principal coffee-producing zone of Ceylon of the present day is
chiefly situated in what is known as the Gampola district, in which the
scientific cultivation of coffee was first attempted, and the point at
which the great roads converge connecting the rich coffee districts of
Doombera, Kotmalie and Pusilawa with the ports of Kandy and Colombo.
The soil and situation of the Gampola district have proved so favorable
to the growth of the coffee-plant that there is hardly one of the
magnificent hills seen from it that has not been taken possession of
by planters, the plantations being situated chiefly in the mountain
ranges on all sides of it. Ceylon coffees are classified commercially
as “Native,” “Plantation,” “Liberian” and “Mountain” or “Mocha,” the
latter being nothing more than a small-bean plantation coffee usually
separated.
=Native.=--What is known to commerce as “Native Ceylon” is principally
produced in the district of Ouvah by native growers, from which fact it
derives its trade-name. Being a plain-grown or lowland coffee, the bean
is large and flat in style, greenish, moist and “flabby” when first
picked, but becoming almost white, broken and “chaffy” as it dries. It
is a poor “roaster,” being invariably “quakery,” weak and thin in the
infusion, and devoid of any distinctive flavor or aroma in the cup.
[Illustration: DRYING COFFEE ON THE PATIO OR TERRACE.]
=Plantation=--Derives its trade-name from its being systematically
cultivated in regularly-laid-out plantations, by scientific methods
under intelligent management, and is without doubt one of the finest
varieties grown, ranking high commercially for its intrinsic value. The
raw or natural bean is large, bold, symmetrical and exceedingly well
developed, of a light bluish or translucent-green tint or cast, very
regular and invariably uniform in general appearance. It roasts even
and handsomely, as fine, if not more so, than any variety known, while
in the infusion it is rich and strong, but smooth and creamy in body,
fragrant and aromatic in flavor; an equal quantity of this variety
yielding a heavier-bodied and richer liquor than that of the finest
Java, but will not be quite as high in flavor.
=Liberian-Ceylon=--Is produced from a transplant of the Liberian
species, which, owing to the destruction caused by the “leaf disease”
on the Ceylon plantations, has been introduced to that island, on
account of its being considered much stronger, hardier and better able
to withstand disease than the native trees, but while it was found
specially adapted to the plains and low-lying situations, it would
not bear so well on the upland or mountain slopes. A hybrid species
was at length evolved, the product of which is known to trade as
“Ceylon-Liberian,” the bean of which in the natural state is not quite
as large as that of the parent plant, not as convex in shape, the
color being paler, bordering on a rich yellow instead of brown, while
the infusion though not as heavy in body or dark in color, is much
smoother and more palatable, the too-heavy properties of the original
being greatly modified by climatic and other causes.
=Ceylon-Mocha=--Is a small bean, mountain-grown, coffee, very even
and uniform, usually separated from the regular plantation variety.
The raw or unroasted bean is of a steel-blue or silvery-grey color,
according to age, exceedingly rich in liquor and fragrant in flavor,
and considered by some experts to be equal in drinking qualities to any
variety grown, being frequently shipped to Aden for substitution or
mixing with Mocha coffee.
Ceylon coffees are usually packed in casks and in hogsheads (except
Native, which is put up in bags), the former weighing 400 and the
latter 1,000 pounds, and shipped to England, where it commands a high
price, relatively, and where they are graded as No. 1 (largest);
2 (medium); 3 (small), and “Triage,” or common, but generally as
“Plantation” and “Native” in the American market. In 1880 it was
estimated that the capital invested in coffee culture amounted to over
$70,000,000, a notable increase having taken place since that year,
there being at the present time some forty districts on the island
in which coffee culture is carried on for commercial uses. While the
native product is usually calculated to extend over 50,000 acres,
which, however, varies very much, according to the character of the
season, the prices obtained, and the cheapness of money. The annual
exports are about 80,000,000 pounds, giving an average yield from old
and new plantations of a little over 400 pounds per acre.
MALAYAN COFFEES
Include the products of the islands of Java, Sumatra, Celebes, the
Sunda and many other of the smaller islands of the Malayan Archipelago.
JAVA COFFEES.
Java is a generic term applied to all coffees grown in the Eastern
Archipelago, and is almost a synonym for coffee. While the coffee
plant, which is only known in Java by its European appellation and
its intimate relation with European despotism, was first introduced
into that island by the Dutch at the close of the seventeenth century,
and has ever since remained one of their chief articles of exclusive
monopoly. The labor by which it is planted and its produce collected
is included among the oppressions or “forced services” of the natives
at inadequate rates. Previous to the year 1808 the cultivation of
coffee in Java was principally confined to the Sunda districts, there
being, up to that year, but few plantations comparatively in the
eastern districts, the product of which they were capable of yielding
not amounting to one-tenth of the whole. But under the rapacious
administration of the Dutch East India Company and government the
cultivation of coffee has usurped the soil of almost the entire island,
otherwise destined for yielding the subsistence of the people, the
cultivation of all other products being made subservient to it and the
withering effects of a government monopoly, extending their influence
indiscriminately throughout every province and district in the island.
In the Sunda districts particularly each native family is compelled
to care for 1,000 coffee plants, and in the eastern districts, where
new and extensive plantations are being formed from time to time
in soils and situations in many instances by no means favorable to
its profitable culture, 650 plants is the prescribed allotment. No
negligence can be practised in the performance of this duty, the
whole operations of planting, picking and pulping being conducted
under the immediate superintendence of the government officials, who
select the sites where the new plantations are to be formed, seeing
that they are preserved from weeds and rank grasses and overseeing its
selection and removal to the “go-downs” or warehouses when prepared.
Under this system the Sunda districts are estimated to yield an
annual produce of 100,000 piculs, and it was at one time calculated
that the young plantations of the eastern districts, when they should
come into full bearing, would produce an equal quantity, but in the
latter section many of the plantations had been formed on ill-judged
sites, the natives being also averse to the new and additional burden
which this increase of cultivation imposed upon their labor. Had the
system been persevered in or enforced by a despotic authority, it is
questionable whether the quantity anticipated in the above estimate,
or even one-half of it, would have been obtained from the eastern
districts. The Sundas living in an island and mountainous country,
and having been long accustomed to the hardships of coffee culture,
are less sensible of its pressure than the rest of their countrymen,
time and habit having reconciled them to a system of servitude, which
was at first revolting to them, and a state of slavery, which the
philanthropist laments as degrading, is scarcely felt to be even a
grievance by themselves. Instances, however, are not wanting in which
the usual measure of exaction having been surpassed they have been
awakened to a sense of their wretchedness, a government of colonial
monopolists, eager only for profit, and heedless of the sources from
which it is derived, subjecting its native subjects to privations and
distresses, the recital of which shock the ear of humanity. In brief,
the system of coffee culture in the island of Java has sometimes been
so severely exacted that, together with the other constant and heavy
demands made upon them by the government authority on the native labor
of the country, that they deprived the unfortunate peasants of the time
necessary to raise food for their own support, many thus perishing by
famine, while others fled to the mountains, where, raising a scanty
subsistence in patches, or often dependent for it upon the roots of the
forest, they congratulated themselves on their escape from the reach
of their oppressors; numbers of these people, with their descendants,
remaining in these haunts to the present time. In their annual
migrations they frequently pass over the richest lands, which still
remain uncultivated, awaiting their return to till it, but they prefer
their wild independence and precarious subsistence to the horrors of
being again subjected to forced servitude and forced deliveries at
inadequate compensation.
In the Java highlands the tree yields fruit for a period of twenty
years, while on the plains or lowlands it seldom attains a greater age
than nine or ten, bearing only during six or seven of these, the fruit
being larger comparatively, but the flavor less as a general rule.
About the end of the rainy season such plants as have not thriven are
replaced by others and the plantations cleared, this latter operation
in well-managed plantations being generally performed from three to
four times in the year, the tree being never topped or pruned, but
universally allowed to grow in all its native luxuriance. In this state
it often, in favored situations, reaches a height of sixteen feet,
and plants eight inches broad have been frequently procured from the
trunks. The average product of a coffee tree in Java is not estimated
at much more than 1¹⁄₄ pounds, but there are instances on record where
as much as from twenty to thirty pounds have been yielded by a single
plant in a season. Again, in Java there does not appear to be any
fixed or certain season for the plant to arrive at maturity, as in the
Western countries, the gathering usually commencing in June or July,
and it is not until late in the following April that the entire crop
is delivered to the go-downs. The picking season in general, however,
consists of three pickings or crops of which the first or “roor-pluk,”
which is small, begins in February, the second or “main-pluk” in May
or June, when the heaviest portion is gathered. It is also termed the
“full-pluk,” from being the most abundant of the season the third
or “after-pluk,” being what is left to open on the trees, may be
considered more of a gleaning, as it is merely a general sweep of
the fallen berries. When the berries become of a dark crimson color
they are plucked off one by one with the assistance of a light bamboo
ladder, the greatest care being taken not to shake off the blossoms
which still remain on the tree or to pluck the unripe fruit. The women
and children of the country usually do the picking, the men attending
to the heavier work around the plantations. Attached to every village
near which there are coffee plantations of any extent, there is a
“drying-house,” to which the newly-gathered coffee is carried and where
it is placed on hurdles about four feet from the floor, under which a
slow wood-fire is kept up during the night; the roof is opened in the
mornings and evenings to admit the air, the berries being frequently
stirred meanwhile to prevent fermentation. As the excessive heat of
the sun is considered prejudicial, the roof of the “drying-house” is
closed during mid-day, this operation being continued until the husk is
thoroughly dried. The coffee dried in this manner is generally small,
sea-green or grayish in color and is supposed to acquire a peculiar
flavor from the smoke, although it does not appear that any particular
kind of wood is used as fuel. On the other hand, when the coffee is
dried in the sun the bean becomes of a pale yellowish color, is larger
in size, specifically lighter in weight and more pungent in flavor than
the former. The most common method of pulping in Java among the natives
is to pound the berries when dried in a bag made of buffalo hide, care
being taken not to break or mutilate the beans. A mill of the most
elementary construction is, however, sometimes used for the purpose,
but is said not to answer as well. When the operations of pulping and
cleaning are completed the coffee is then put in bags and baskets and
stood on raised platforms until the period of delivery arrives, when it
is carried to the “go-downs” or storehouses, sometimes by men but more
generally on the backs of buffaloes and mules in strings of from 1,500
to 2,000 at a time. In the Sunda district there are three principal
depots for receiving the coffee from the cultivators--Chikan, Karang
and Buitzenorg. From Buitzenorg it is either sent direct to Batavia by
land in carts or by way of Linkong, whence it is forwarded in boats by
the Chidana river, while from Chikan the coffee is sent in boats down
the river Chitaram and thence along the sea-coast to Batavia, where
it is received into extensive warehouses and from which it is in turn
generally exported to the European and American markets.
Up to a very recent period almost all coffee in Java was cultivated
by the natives under supervision of the Dutch government, which had
a monopoly of the product, deriving an enormous revenue from its
cultivation. Under this system, each family was compelled to cultivate,
pick, dry, hull and deliver the coffee at the nearest government
warehouse for transport to the port of shipment, the natives being
allowed but a small percentage of the crop as compensation for their
labor in many instances, but more generally the government placing a
figure so low as to enable it to sell the coffee at an enormous profit,
and also deducting again a heavy duty from the gross price paid to the
growers, thereby deriving an almost fabulous revenue from this system
of cultivation.
It is difficult to state what recompense the native cultivator
of coffee receives in Java for his services and his product, the
complicated system of accounts which prevails there seem only
calculated to puzzle or mystify the investigator and allow the Dutch
commissary to derive an income of from eighty to one hundred thousand
dollars per annum at the expense of the government by whom he is
employed, on the one hand, and that of the natives whom he oppresses,
on the other. Latterly, however, it has been directed that the
cultivators should receive, on delivery at the government storehouses,
“three rix-dollars (copper) for each “mountain” picul (225 pounds) of
coffee, being very little more than one dollar per hundred, while this
same coffee has frequently been sold in Batavia, within fifty miles
of the spot where it was raised, at twenty dollars per hundred, and
has been seldom sold in the European or American markets at less than
twenty cents per pound. It is, also, difficult to fix the exact rate at
which the coffee might be produced under the free system, but that it
can be raised for exportation at ten dollars per hundred with profit is
beyond doubt. The price paid the natives, however, is deemed liberal
by the Dutch government, though in many cases it has to be transported
over sixty miles of an almost impassible country, where two men are
required to carry a hundred pounds of coffee on their shoulders and
at an expense of labor which one would suppose at least equal to the
remuneration.
All the available mountain slopes on the island of Java are literally
covered with coffee plantations, owned and operated by the Dutch
government, which assigns to each Javanese family the cultivation
and care of from 600 to 1,000 trees under severe penalties, the
natives being compelled to deliver their crops, hulled and cleaned,
to the nearest government stores at the end of the harvest, accepting
in return whatever price the government is pleased to put on it.
Considerable coffee is, however, cultivated by the natives themselves,
independently of that raised directly for the government, being chiefly
grown along the borders of the government plantations and other
unused patches, as well as along the fences around their farms, being
generally raised in the shade; the berry of some of this coffee attains
a high excellence rivalling if not actually excelling the government
product in many instances.
A considerable portion of the peasantry having--as already
observed--been long accustomed to the cultivation of coffee, it is
owing to their skill and experience that the coffee owes its excellence
as much as to any direct knowledge, superintendence or interference of
the Dutch officials, who derive their information from the natives,
having little more to do than occasionally ride around the plantations
with a pompous suite, keep the accounts and examine the coffee, as it
is received from the cultivators. The plantations are generally laid
out in squares, the distances between the plants varying according to
the fertility of the soil, that is, in a soil not considered fertile,
a distance of six feet is preserved, and in each interval is planted a
“dadap” tree for the purpose of affording shade to the plants; while in
a rich soil where the plant grows more luxuriantly, fewer shade trees
are required and the plants are placed at greater distances from each
other. But in Java, a certain degree of shade appears to be necessary
at all times to the health of the coffee plant, especially during its
earlier stages, and in low situations, for which purpose the dadap tree
is found to be better calculated for affording this protection than any
other kind in the country, it being a common saying on that island that
“where the dadap flourishes, there also will flourish coffee.” But it
must not be inferred from this that they are always constant or even
necessary companions, for in the highlands many of the most flourishing
plantations are to be observed with but very few dadaps in the vicinity.
Coffee is cultivated for commercial use in all of the twenty-two
residencies into which the island is divided, including Bantam,
Batavia, Bezoeki, Bagelen, Banjoewanjie and Banjoemas, Cheribon,
Japara, Kadoe, Kediri and Krawang, Madioen, Rembang, Preanger,
Probolingo, Passoeren and Pekalongan, Soerabaya, Soerakarta and
Djokjakarta, Bali, Timour, Malang and Samarang, each of which
residencies or districts containing from five to fifty plantations,
by which they are further distinguished. In trade they are generally
divided into “Government” and “Free Coffees,” the free cultivation
being now permitted in the residencies of Bantam, Cheribon and many
other of the Eastern districts. And, as with the coffees of all other
countries, the product of the different districts of Java varies
considerably in quality and value, many of them possessing a richness
and mellowness not approached by that of any other country; others,
again, being so inferior that were it not for the fact of being grown
on that island they would not be deserving of the name.
=Bantam and Batavia=--Are medium-sized, yellowish in color, regular
and uniform in appearance, roasting and drinking exceeding well, being
generally clean and free from quakers.
=Bagalen and Bezoeki=--Are rather bold and plump in style, rich yellow
in color, solid and compact in form, full in body and fragrant in
flavor, ranking with the best of the Java growths.
=Banjoewanjie and Banjoemas=--While not plentiful sorts, rarely coming
to this market, being principally shipped to Holland, where they
are much appreciated for their great strength and rich flavor, are
medium-sized, heavy and round in body, creamy and fragrant in the cup.
=Cheribon and Japara=--Are rather light in weight and color, inclined
to be “chaffy” in the natural state and “quakery” in the roasted, but
nevertheless yield a pleasing and palatable liquor on infusion.
=Kadoe and Kediri=--Are small, hard-bean coffees, approaching brown,
and usually good drinkers, being a favorite in the European market,
where they rank high commercially.
=Rembang and Krawang=--Rank next to Kadoe in general cup qualities, but
are somewhat irregular in the raw state, roasting and drinking well,
however.
=Preanger and Probolingo=--The soil of these districts being
pre-eminently adapted for the cultivation of fine coffees, they are
noted for their products. The bean is round, full and well developed,
high-yellow in color, but assuming a rich-brown with age, firm and
regular in style, rich, mellow and creamy in liquor, fragrant and
aromatic in flavor, rivalling the best product of Arabia itself.
=Passoeren and Pekalongen=--Rank next to Preanger, being usually brown,
regular and uniform, full in body, round in flavor and as a general
rule very fragrant, particularly when the crop is good.
=Madioen and Soerabaya=--Belong to the yellow-bean class, and are
rather light in weight and body but pleasing and agreeable in the cup,
approximating to a fine Cucuta Maracaibo in form, liquor and general
characteristics.
=Soerakarta and Djokjakarta=--Are among the best of the Java growths,
large, heavy and well-developed in bean, handsome and attractive in the
roasted state, yielding a rich golden-yellow liquor, creamy in body and
aromatic in flavor.
=Bali and Timoor=--Are grown on the small islands to the south of Java,
and though fair in size and quite brown in color, are nevertheless
deceptive in roasting and drinking qualities.
=Malang and Samarang=--Are light in weight and in color, somewhat
chaffy in the natural state and “quakery” in the roasted, thin, flat
and flavorless in liquor.
OTHER VARIETIES.
=Old Government Java=--Is a trade term applied to coffee grown and
stored under the supervision of the officers of the Dutch government,
and in contradistinction to that raised by the natives, but is now
an almost obsolete term. It is produced principally in the Preanger
district, where the greatest care and attention is bestowed on its
cultivation and curing, its cultivation never being entirely entrusted
to the natives; the primary object of the government officials being
to improve the berry and enhance its value to the exclusion of
increased quantity. After being picked and cured, it is stored in
“go-downs” or storehouses for a number of years, frequently seven,
before being offered for sale, the go-downs being erected expressly
for the purpose, being open at the sides so as to admit the sun and
air in order to mature and season the coffee, which, like wine,
improves with age, the bean assuming with time a dark-brown color and
the flavor becoming richer and more mellow by the development of the
volatile or essential oil contained in the beans. By prolonged keeping
in the raw state it is found that the richness of any seeds in this
peculiar oil is increased, and with increased aroma the coffee yields
a blander and more mellow beverage. Stored coffees, for this reason,
lose weight at first with great rapidity, sometimes as much as 8 per
cent. having been found to dissipate in the first year of keeping, 5
per cent. in the second and 2 per cent. in the third; but such loss
of weight is more than compensated for by the improvement in quality
and consequent enhancement of value. Old Government Java is for this
reason celebrated for its superior excellence, and justly deserving of
its high repute. Latterly, however, the term has been indiscriminately
used and applied to all Java coffees of a brown color, irrespective of
age, grade or district of production and has thereby ceased to possess
any real significance as implying any extra merit or superiority over
the average run of Java coffees. The natural bean of the true Old
Government Java Coffee is large, round and well developed, of a rich
brown color, exceedingly regular and uniform in general appearance and
entirely free from defects of any kind, while the infusion is round and
heavy in body, creamy, mellow and fragrant in flavor, surpassing in
general “cup qualities” that of any other variety grown. All coffees
raised under the supervision of the government are disposed of through
the agency of the “Netherlands’ Maatschappy,” or Trading Company, at
the periodical (quarterly) auction sales held in Batavia or Amsterdam,
the sales occurring in the months of March, June, September and
December. It is offered for sale only in limited quantities--from one
to two hundred picul lots--no purchaser being permitted to buy more at
a single bidding, the prices varying at each sale, being regulated by
the quantity offered and the number of orders received by the agents
or brokers to buy, so that parties purchasing two or more lots cannot
calculate what the average cost will be until the sale is ended.
=Plantation=--Or “Private Growth Javas,” are so termed from being grown
on plantations owned and operated by private or individual planters,
and in contradistinction to that raised under government supervision.
Being grown from selected seed, under the best agricultural conditions
and scientific cultivation, it produces a quality of coffee that cannot
be surpassed for size, style, color, regularity and general intrinsic
merit. It is also marketed differently from the government system,
being disposed of by contract or tender, that is, as soon as the
quantity and quality of the crop can be estimated, the planters issue
a circular letter or note to the principal firms of Batavia and to the
representatives of European and American houses, informing them of the
facts and soliciting bids for the entire crop. Proposals are received
and the coffee sold to the highest bidder; but if, according to the
planter’s views, the offers are too low, he claims the right to reject
them and hold the coffee for a better market. If accepted the coffee is
carefully picked over, assorted and transported to the shipping port
by the planter and delivered in bulk, the purchaser furnishing his
own bags and marks, the coffees being of such high repute and quality
they sell high, there being great competition to obtain them. Many
of these plantations were in existence prior to the introduction of
the government monopoly system, or are situated on the estates of the
native princes, who have been permitted to retain some portion of their
sovereign privileges.
=Liberian-Java=--Is the product of a transplant of the Liberian species
introduced into the island about ten years ago, where it was found to
prosper well and vigorously; a great demand springing up for its seed,
the cultivation increasing and yielding a bean much larger than that
produced by the parent plant, full and well developed, yellow to brown
in color, concave in form and closely resembling “Padang” in liquor and
flavor.
=W.I.P.=--Or “West India Prepared” Java is so termed from being
pulped and prepared by the “Washed” or West India process, being also
known to trade as “Blue-bean Java.” The raw bean is bold, regular and
bluish-green in color, hard and solid in substance, heavy, rich and
flavory in liquor. Some authorities, however, contend that this new
process is detrimental to the coffee, claiming that by the old or
“dry-hulled” method the bean retained all the properties of the coffee
to a much greater degree, whereas by the new process, considerable of
the active principle (caffeine) is carried off in the washing.
=Loeke or “Tiger-cat Java”=--Is a variety of Java coffee highly prized
for the intrinsic merits imparted to it by a peculiar process. It is
composed simply of the undigested beans which have passed through the
intestinal canal of the “Loeke,” a small species of tiger found in
Java, which, climbing the trees, selects the ripest and richest of the
berries, feeds on them, swallowing both pulp and beans, the latter
being left in the jungle and afterwards collected by the natives. It
is analogous to the “Monkey coffee” of Brazil and the “Jackal coffee”
of India, the excellent qualities of which is due to the chemical
process which the beans undergo in the stomach of the animal that has
stolen them, the appreciation of such stercoraceously deposited beans
by the natives being an undoubted fact. The bean is large and bold, but
whitish in color, heavy, round and creamy in body, exceedingly fragrant
and aromatic in flavor and not excelled by that of any coffee grown or
known to commerce.
At the time of shipment all Java coffees are of a light-green shade
unless--as in the case of government and other coffees--they have been
previously stored for the purpose of seasoning or to await a better
market. During the long voyage through the tropics the bean gradually
changes to a deep-yellow, and finally to a dark-brown, particularly
if the voyage be materially lengthened, as it frequently is; the
darker the color becomes the more valuable the coffee on arrival. This
distinctive feature being characteristic of Java coffees only, no
other variety acquiring this color except by artificial means. Color
is the standard of value and the principal consideration in appraising
its price in the American market, there being a wide difference made
in the values of “Pale,” “Yellow” and “Brown” Java coffees in favor
of the latter. As stated before, by being stored for a certain length
of time, Java coffees improve in quality, the bean becoming browner
and the flavor more mellow, probably in the same manner as wine. The
moisture evaporates from the bean and the aciduous, astringent taste,
of the young, new bean is entirely dissipated and lost by the process,
which, by becoming thoroughly dry and seasoned, enhances its value
commercially. Yet color cannot always be taken as an indication of
age or genuineness, as much of the coffee offered under the head of
Brown Java at the present time is nothing more than Malang and other
varieties “sweated,” and colored by a steaming process or artificially
faced with a preparation of kaolin or soapstone. Again if this feature
of turning brown with time, were always an indication of age, it may
be taken for granted that “Brown Javas,” possessed finer roasting and
drinking qualities, than the “Light” or Yellow-bean varieties, but
it is an acknowledged fact that this brown color, even when natural,
neither adds or detracts from its value in the cup. Practically the
demand for “Brown Java” coffee is but an American caprice, enhancing
its commercial value from two to three cents per pound beyond its
intrinsic worth; this caprice being also directly responsible for
the immense amount of other so-called Java coffees that are annually
sweated and colored to imitate or counterfeit the naturally colored and
genuine kinds. While in Europe the yellow-colored coffees are preferred
to the brown, being quite as good, if not superior, to them, and less
liable to manipulation.
Java coffees are packed for export in bags containing one picul
(133 pounds) when intended for the European markets, and in mats of
one-half picul for the American, the latter style being preferred in
this country. In the European markets they are classed as “Green,”
“Pale-green,” “Greenish” and “Extra-green” when new, but as “Yellow,”
“Dark-yellow,” “Light-brown” and “Brown” when old, grading in the
order named. While in the United States they are generally classed as
“Light,” “Yellow” and “Brown,” according to color, the packages being
usually marked with the initials of the importer, underneath which is
a letter or letters denoting the district or plantation where grown.
The average annual production is about 100,000,000 pounds, of which
30,000,000 pounds is produced on private plantations.
SUMATRA COFFEES.