COMMERCIAL VARIETIES OF COFFEE.
The coffee-berry of Cayenne is rather convex, irregular, of a dull
green, covered with a slight pellicle. It is analogous to Mocha, and of
a pleasant aromatic flavour.
That of Guadaloupe is elongated, larger, of a dark greyish green, and
nearly always without any pellicle.
The coffee-berry of Martinique is also large, oval, flat on one side,
with the furrow deep and straight for the greater part of its length,
but diverging at the ends. Its odour is agreeable, and the flavour
strong when used alone, but it is generally mixed with Mocha.
The Mocha berry is very variable in form, size, and colour, but it is
generally more round or compressed than other coffees; its odour is
strong and agreeable, and very characteristic. Many of the seeds are
often covered by the endocarp, while others are without the pellicle. A
great number also are rounded, and the involuted edges form a deep
furrow, differing from the ordinary one. The form of these seeds is due
to the abortion of the other half of the fruit, which gives it this
particular formation.
Aden, _alias_ Mocha, coffee is, along with the other coffees of the Red
Sea, sent first to Bombay in Arab ships, where it is “garbelled”
(picked), previously to its being exported to England. The bean is
always broad and small, and the climate of India is supposed to improve
its flavour. The seed of the Berbera (Abyssinian) plant is usually
called long-berried Mocha.
The Java and East Indian, next in quality, are larger, and of a paler
yellow. The Ceylon berries are of irregular sizes, ill-shaped, and of a
spotted dirty cream-colour. The terms “Plantation” and “Native” coffees,
as applied to Ceylon berries, are distinctions arising from one being
the cultivated coffee of the estates of the planters, which are better
attended to and prepared for market, while the other is that grown in a
wild or careless manner by the natives about their dwellings, and more
rudely prepared. Java coffee is chiefly prized in the market for its
delicacy of flavour, but in point of strength it falls short of the West
Indian.
Of Bourbon coffee there are in commerce two qualities, fine and
ordinary. The first is in small seeds, well selected for size, of a
variable colour, yellow or green, with little pellicle, the furrow
slightly indented, and it has a sweet odour. The second is badly
assorted as regards form and colour, and its odour less agreeable.
The Jamaica coffee-berry is medium-sized, of a greenish blue colour,
rather oblong, and smooth to the touch. It has a strong, agreeable
smell, and excellent flavour, and when carefully picked and sorted,
fetches about the highest price of any kind.
Porto Rico is a middle-sized coffee, of a pure and agreeable flavour;
the colour of the better sorts is a bluish green; and of the common,
yellow.
The West Indian and Brazilian coffees have a bluish or greenish-grey
tint. This grey-green shade of the Western coffees is entirely deficient
in those of Asia. The value of the berry in our wholesale markets is
not, therefore, a fictitious quality, as some imagine, but is real, and
depends first upon the texture and form of the berry or seed, secondly
on the colour, and thirdly the flavour. The texture of the berry and
form, termed “style” by the coffee brokers, is so well defined and
palpable to the initiated, that at one view they pronounce its value,
from one hundred and thirty shillings per cwt. downwards, according to
the two other qualities, colour and flavour.
The value of the coffees usually imported into this country stands in
the following order: Mocha, fine Ceylon Plantation, Jamaica, Costa Rica,
Java, Tellicherry, and St. Domingo.
Portugal produces coffee in several of her colonies. Ordinary
description, yellowish berry, in St. Thomas; tolerably good in the Cape
de Verdes; bad, yellow, in Timor; worse (but curious from the very small
size of the berry), growing wild, in Mozambique; good in Angola; and of
excellent quality in Madeira and Porto Santo, but the production is
limited.
Much of the coffee which finds its way into England as genuine Mocha is,
in reality, Malabar coffee, sent to ports of the Persian Gulf from
Bourbon, and when thus naturalised, finding its way to Europe. But the
coffee of India even now competes successfully with that of Arabia, in
Bussorah, and other local markets, which the latter had for centuries
commanded as its own.
It is curious to watch the progress of English enterprise. The energetic
and ubiquitous Anglo-Saxons hold India, and here we see coffee from
India triumphing over the famous berry of Arabia. The cultivation of tea
also is rapidly spreading over 30,000 square miles of the Sub-Himalayan
ranges; and who knows but that Indian teas may yet compete with those of
the flowery land in the markets of Shanghae?
Already the Assam teas are held in high estimation by good judges of tea
in this country, whilst they fetch a high price in India for local
consumption.
The colour of the berry is by no means a decisive criterion of
excellence of quality; in some parts the bluish berry is esteemed most
highly, in others the yellow. The West Indian coffees often change
colour when kept a few years.
It is well known that the various sorts of coffee imported into Europe
from the several parts where the plant is cultivated differ widely in
quality and flavour. Levantine or Mocha still retains its old
superiority in this respect, though the best sorts imported from Ceylon,
Bourbon, Mauritius, and other Indian Islands are now generally
considered to come very near it. This difference in quality and flavour
of the various sorts of coffee is generally attributed to climatic and
local causes and influences, which are necessarily beyond the power of
remedy. This, however, is a great mistake. The more or less advanced
state of maturity to which the berry is allowed to attain before
picking, and, more particularly still, the degree of dryness, and the
longer or shorter period of time for which it is kept before being sent
into the market, exercise a most powerful influence upon the quality and
flavour of the article. Berries gathered before they have attained
maturity, though they may be perfect in colour, will always have a raw,
herbaceous taste. If the drying berries are heaped too thickly or
closely, they are apt to heat and to contract an unpleasantly bitter and
harsh taste, and a disagreeable smell; this will frequently occur also
where artificial heat is had recourse to expedite the drying. Keeping
tends to cure these serious defects in coffee. There are instances on
record where coffee of a most disagreeable flavour and smell has been
brought near perfection by being kept for some years in a dry loft; and
though it may be going too far to assert, as has been done by some high
authorities on the subject, that “the worst coffee produced in the West
Indies will, in a course of years not exceeding ten or fourteen, be as
good, parch and mix as well, and have as high a flavour as the best we
have now from Turkey,” still there can be no doubt that long keeping
will most materially improve the quality of even the worst sorts.
Unfortunately, the difference of price between inferior and superior
coffee is not sufficiently great to cover so many years’ interest on the
capital invested. It is for the same reason that planters, though they
are perfectly aware that trees growing on a light soil, and in dry and
elevated spots, produce smaller berries of very superior flavour to
those grown in rich, flat, and moist soils, yet prefer cultivating the
latter, simply because the production is double that of the better sort.
Those who wish to improve the quality of their coffees by keeping, must
bear in mind that perfect dryness of the loft or warehouse, moderate
warmth, and gentle ventilation are the indispensable conditions of
success; a strong draught of air is more particularly to be guarded
against, as it tends to bleach the berries. Great care must be taken,
also, to keep all strong-flavoured wares, such as pepper, pimento,
ginger, cod-fish, herrings, rum, &c., as far as possible from the
coffee, which has a powerful attraction for these scents, and gets
thoroughly impregnated with them, to the great deterioration, of course,
of its quality. This remark applies more particularly to the shipping of
coffee from Jamaica and the other West India Islands. Want of proper
ventilation in the holds in which a cargo of coffee is stowed on board
ship, is equally injurious to the quality of the article. Coffee which
has suffered damage by sea-water, or has been spoiled by the close
vicinity of strong-scented wares, may, to some extent, be reclaimed by
“rouncing” or putting it in a tub, pouring boiling water over it,
stirring for a few minutes, then pouring the water off, repeating the
same operation a second, or even a third time, if necessary, and most
carefully drying the washed berries.