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[Illustration: Plate 1.--A Branch of Coffea Arabica, with Berries and
Flowers.]
COFFEE AND CHICORY:
THEIR
CULTURE, CHEMICAL COMPOSITION, PREPARATION
FOR MARKET, AND CONSUMPTION,
WITH
SIMPLE TESTS FOR DETECTING ADULTERATION,
AND
PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE PRODUCER
AND CONSUMER.
BY
P. L. SIMMONDS,
AUTHOR OF “THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM,”
“A DICTIONARY OF TRADE PRODUCTS,” &c.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
[Illustration]
LONDON:
E. & F. N. SPON, 16, BUCKLERSBURY.
1864.
PREFACE.
A practical essay on the culture and preparation of coffee for market in
the various producing countries of the world, brought down to the
present time, has long been wanted, especially as the sources of supply
have changed so much of late years. Porter’s “Tropical Agriculturist”
has long been out of print, and my own work on “The Commercial Products
of the Vegetable Kingdom” is too expensive and too diffuse for ordinary
reference. The present hand-book deals with the subject in a popular
form, but, at the same time, supplies correct information on most
points, combined with the fullest descriptive and statistical details
respecting every coffee-producing country. For much of the information
relating to coffee cultivation in Ceylon, I am indebted to a small
treatise by Mr. G. C. Lewis, privately published in that island. For the
views of buildings and scenery, I am under obligations to Sir Emerson
Tennent and Messrs. Worms, who kindly lent me original drawings and
photographs--whilst the microscopic representations of pure and
adulterated coffee and chicory are copied, by permission, from Dr.
Hassall’s elaborate work on “Food and its Adulterations.” Trusting that
this little work may be found useful and interesting to a large class, I
send it forth as the pioneer of other hand-books on the great staples of
commerce.
P. L. S.
8, Winchester-street, S.W.,
July, 1864.
CONTENTS.
COFFEE.
SECTION I. PAGE
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COFFEE-TREE (with two illustrations) 1
SECTION II.
HISTORY OF ITS INTRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION 6
SECTION III.
PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY 12
SECTION IV.
COMMERCIAL VARIETIES OF COFFEE 15
SECTION V.
CHEMICAL ANALYSES 20
SECTION VI.
COFFEE-LEAF TEA, &C. 27
SECTION VII.
ADULTERANTS (_with an illustration_) 29
SECTION VIII.
CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES AND AMERICA 34
SECTION IX.
CULTURE IN ARABIA 42
SECTION X.
CULTIVATION IN CEYLON (_with an illustration_) 45
SECTION XI.
BUILDINGS, PLANTING, &C., IN CEYLON (_with four illustrations_) 52
SECTION XII.
HARVESTING THE CROP, AND PREPARATION FOR MARKET
(_with an illustration_) 59
SECTION XIII.
PREPARATION FOR MARKET, CONTINUED 63
SECTION XIV.
CULTIVATION IN SOUTHERN INDIA 73
SECTION XV.
BOURBON, JAVA, AND THE EAST 78
SECTION XVI.
COFFEE AS A BEVERAGE 81
CHICORY.
SECTION I.
INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND. CONTINENTAL PRODUCTION
AND CONSUMPTION 88
SECTION II.
CULTIVATION. HARVESTING AND PREPARATION FOR MARKET 93
SECTION III.
STRUCTURE AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION (_with an illustration_) 98
COFFEE AND CHICORY.
COFFEE.
SECTION I.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION.
The coffee-tree--_Coffea arabica_, Linn.--is a plant belonging to the
natural order _Cinchonaceæ_. It is a large erect bush, quite smooth in
every part; leaves oblong lanceolate, acuminate, shining on the upper
side, wavy, deep green above, paler below; stipules subulate, undivided.
Peduncles axillary, short, clustered; corollas white, funnel-shaped,
sweet-scented, with four or five oblong-spreading twisted lobes. Fruit a
compressed drupe, furrowed along the side, crowned by the calyx. Seeds
solitary, plano-convex, with a deep furrow along the flat side. Putamen
like parchment.
The generic name given to the plant by Linnæus was taken, it is said,
from Coffee, a province of Narea, in Africa where it grows in abundance.
Plate 1 represents a branch of the coffee-tree in blossom and fruit,
and the lettered figures at the foot have reference to the dissection of
the flower and fruit.
A--The flower, cut open, to show the situation of the five filaments,
with their summits lying upon them.
B--Represents the flower cup, with its four small indentations enclosing
the germ or embryo seed-vessel, from the middle of which arises the
style, terminated by the two reflexed spongy tops.
C--The fruit entire, marked at the top with a puncture like a navel.
D--The fruit open, to show that it consists ordinarily of two seeds,
which are surrounded by the pulp.
E--The fruit cut horizontally, to show the seeds as they are placed
erect, with their flat sides, together.
F--One of the seeds taken out, with the membrane or parchment upon it.
G--The same with the parchment torn open, to give a view of the seed.
H--The seed without the parchment.
Lindley and Paxton only enumerate two species: _C. arabica_, native of
Yemen, and _C. paniculata_, indigenous to Guiana.
Continental botanists, however, describe no less than eight other
species: four inhabiting Peru, _C. microcarpa_, _C. umbellata_, _C.
acuminata_, and _C. subsessilis_; two indigenous to the West Coast of
Africa, _C. laurina_ and _C. racemosa_; and two natives of the East
Indies, _C. bengalensis_ and _C. Indica_. Some of these are probably
mere varieties.
Whatever its origin may have been, there can be no doubt that there are
three kinds or species now grown, differing materially from each other.
The Arabian or Mocha coffee is characterised by having a small and more
brittle leaf, with branches shorter, and more upright than the Jamaica
and Ceylon coffee; and by its berry being almost always, or at least
very frequently, single seeded, and the seed cylindrical and plump.
The Jamaica coffee-tree has a larger and more pliable leaf, longer and
more drooping branches, and berries almost always containing two seeds.
(_The Ethiopian._)
The great difference now existing between the two kinds, may possibly
have originated in the change of soil, climate, and season, operating
through a series of years; but this difference is so decided, and so
strongly marked, that the veriest tyro can in a moment pronounce of
either.
The East India or Bengal coffee-tree differs much from all others, but
is in every respect a veritable coffee.
The leaf is smaller, and lighter green, than the foregoing variety; its
berry is infinitely smaller, and when ripening, turns black instead of
blood-red. Coffee made from it is of excellent flavour, and much liked.
Within the tropics, coffee thrives best at an elevation of 1200 to 3000
feet, and rarely grows above 6000 feet. It may be cultivated as far as
36° north latitude, where the mean temperature is about 70°.
In the western hemisphere coffee is grown in many of the West India
Islands, in Central America, the northern republics of South America,
Berbice, Cayenne, and Brazil. In Africa it is grown in Liberia and other
parts of Western Africa, at St. Helena, in Egypt, and Mozambique, and a
little in Natal. Passing eastward we find it in Arabia, one of the
oldest seats of culture, the southern peninsula of India, Ceylon,
Bourbon, Java, Célèbes, and other parts of the Eastern Archipelago,
Siam, and some of the Pacific Islands.
Coffee-plants are able to bear an amount of cold which is little known
or thought of. The high and cold regions of Jamaica near St. Catherine’s
Peak, and the foot of the Great Blue Mountain Peak, both situated at
some 6000 feet above the level of the sea; and, again, the mountains of
Arabia, the Neilgherries, and Ceylon, furnish instances of the great
degree of cold that the coffee-plant will endure. More than this, it is
an established fact that it bears a larger, plumper, and far more
aromatic berry at these altitudes than in a lower situation and in a
warmer temperature. The coffee produced on plantations near the foot of
the Blue Mountain Peak, in Jamaica, is the finest in the world. In
Arabia, likewise, the cold at night is sometimes intense; yet who will
dispute the goodness of Mocha coffee?
Nothing can exceed the beauty of the rows or walks planted with
coffee-trees, from their pyramidical shape and glossy dark leaves,
amongst which are hanging the ripe, scarlet-coloured berries. A writer,
in his “Impressions of the West Indies,” thus speaks: “Anything in the
way of cultivation more beautiful or more fragrant than a
coffee-plantation I had not conceived, and oft did I say to myself that
if ever I became, from health or otherwise, a cultivator of the soil
within the tropics, I would cultivate the coffee-plant, even though I
did so irrespective altogether of the profit that might be derived from
so doing. Much has been written, and not without justice, of the rich
fragrance of an orange-grove, and at home we ofttimes hear of the sweet
odours of a bean-field. I have, too, often enjoyed, in the Carse of
Stirling and elsewhere in Scotland, the balmy breezes as they swept over
the latter, particularly when the sun had burst out with unusual
strength after a shower of rain. I have likewise in Martinique, Santa
Cruz, Jamaica, and Cuba, inhaled the breezes wafted from the orangeries,
but not for a moment would I compare either with the exquisite aromatic
odours from a coffee-plantation in full bloom, when the
hill-side--covered over with regular rows of the shrubs, with their
millions of jasmine-like flowers--showers down upon you as you ride up
between the plants a perfume
[Illustration: Plate 2.--A Coffee Plantation in Jamaica.]
of the most delicately delicious description. ’Tis worth going to the
West Indies to see the sight and inhale the perfume.”
Plate 2 represents a coffee plantation in Jamaica.
In the culture of the tree there is a singular difference in the western
and eastern hemispheres, inasmuch as in the former shade is considered
injurious, whilst in the latter it is held to be desirable, if not
absolutely necessary.