COFFEE AS A BEVERAGE.
It is remarkable that, much as coffee is used in this country, the
proper mode of preparing it as a beverage should be so little
understood. Perhaps it is that most people consider coffee-making as too
easy a process to need any pains at all; and for this reason the coffee
served at nine breakfast-tables out of ten, throughout the kingdom, is a
miserable muddy infusion, which people seem to drink only because, as
washerwomen say, it is “wet and warm.” The right way of making coffee is
not less easy than the wrong one; there is no mystery about it. All that
is required is the observance of a few simple rules:
1. The nature of coffee is such that it parts very easily with its
aromatic, stimulating, and other properties; a small quantity of water
will draw out all the goodness quite as effectually as a large quantity,
and it will do this if the coffee-berries be only bruised or very
coarsely ground. It is a grave mistake to suppose that coffee should be
ground to a fine powder; extreme fineness is the great cause of “thick
coffee” as prepared for breakfast. In Eastern countries, where people
know what good coffee means, they always bruise the berries in a mortar.
In fact, the goodness of coffee depends more on the roasting and the
method of preparing afterwards, than on the quality of the berry, or any
other particular.
2. Buy your coffee ready roasted, but not ground; that is, buy
coffee-berries, and always choose such as are fresh roasted, in
preference to stale. Observe, also, whether your grocer keeps the
article properly shut up in tin canisters, or lets it lie about in open
tubs or trays.
3. If possible, buy a coffee-mill, one that will grind very coarsely.
The price varies from 2s. 6d. to 5s. This article is so essential to a
good cup of coffee, that no one who can afford the outlay should
hesitate to buy one. Those who have a pestle and mortar may try the
method of bruising; but whether a mill or a mortar, no more should be
ground or crushed than is wanted for use at the time.
4. Coffee requires to be kept in a very dry place; and, as it readily
takes up the flavour of other articles near which it may be placed, it
should be kept in an air-tight vessel. If you buy tea and coffee at the
same time, do not pack them in one parcel or basket, or carry them in
the same packet, for the true flavour of both will be injured. We
presume that no one will be so careless as to keep either tea or coffee
in paper only; a wooden box would be better than this, but a bottle or
porcelain jar is best of all.
5. Have a clean, dry coffee-pot; it should always be rinsed out when put
away, and turned down to drain.
6. To every half pint of water, allow half an ounce of coffee-powder;
have your kettle of water boiling, put the necessary quantity of powder
into the coffee-pot, and pour in as much water from the kettle as you
require. Set the pot on the fire for a few seconds, but on no account
let the contents boil up; then pour about half a pint of the liquor into
a cup, and pour it back again into the pot, and stand it on the hob or
on the fender to settle. If these directions have been properly
followed, there will be in three or four minutes a pot of coffee as
clear and well-tasted as any one could wish to drink. Should it be too
strong, you have only to use less of the coffee-powder. All the goodness
is extracted with the first boiling; and those who wish to drink good
coffee must never boil the same grounds a second time.
7. The milk in all cases must be warmed, and used as hot as possible;
and it should always be put into the cup with the sugar before the
coffee is poured in. When a cup of coffee is taken after dinner, it
should be drank without milk, and with little or no sugar.
8. But of all the preparations of coffee there is none equal to the
French, known as _café au lait_, or milk coffee. We have drank it
constantly for several years, and can pronounce it to excel all others
as a breakfast beverage. In this there is more milk than water, and the
coffee liquor is rather an essence than a decoction; it will be almost
black in colour. The process to be followed is the same in most respects
as described; but, instead of a quart or three pints, not more than a
third of your usual quantity of water is to be poured on the full
quantity of coffee-powder. After it has stood to settle, pour it
carefully off the grounds into a jug or pitcher, which is to be kept hot
by any convenient means. In this way the liquor, though black, will be
perfectly clear. At the same time a quantity of milk, according to the
wants of your party, must be heated in a saucepan with a spout or a lip.
When this is ready, pour it into your breakfast-cups until they are
three-parts full, or rather more, add the sugar, and then fill up with
coffee from the jug, more or less, according as you prefer it strong or
weak. Coffee made in this way will be found more nutritious, and to
possess greater richness and smoothness, than can be attained by any
other means.
Many persons are in the habit of keeping roasted coffee in vessels of
tin, closely secured; this is a most improper mode, and the consequences
of doing so may be pointed out. It is known that coffee contains gallic
acid, a principle which has the property of acting on iron or tin, and
it is therefore certain that in keeping coffee in these canisters the
acid has such an effect in dissolving particles of the metal, as not
only to affect the taste, but even the colour of the coffee. To convince
one’s self of this, it is only necessary to leave some freshly-roasted
coffee in a tinned vessel for a time, and it will soon be found to have
imbibed a black colour and a most disagreeable taste.
It appears, therefore, to be necessary to avoid keeping coffee in these
metal receptacles. The best mode of properly preserving the article is
by using vessels of porcelain, or other similar material. With regard to
the description of coffee-pot to be used in preparing the article, it
should never be of tin or iron; nothing will so soon and so surely
destroy the fine flavour of the beverage as these descriptions of
coffee-pots. It has generally been the practice to make coffee either by
boiling it, or by pouring boiling water on the ground coffee placed on a
filter. Both of these methods are bad.
Experience has shown that boiling water destroys or sensibly alters the
volatile parts of the berry, and dissolves those which are bitter and
unpleasant. We ought not, therefore, to employ water heated to a greater
temperature than to allow the finger being placed in it. But difficult
as it may be to believe, there can be no doubt but that the best mode of
preparing this beverage is with cold water. Coffee so made is not only
more aromatic, more limpid, and more substantial, but it is far stronger
than any made with hot water. The cold infusion takes from the coffee
and communicates to the water all its aromatic qualities, while it does
not imbibe much, if any, of the gallic acid; consequently this
preparation is far less bitter than that which has been boiled, in which
process the most minute particles are acted upon.
Coffee thus made is of a fine bright and dark colour; it requires far
less sugar and much less care, because all that has to be done is to
place the powder on the filter, drop on it a little water, and when well
moistened to pour on it the proper quantity of water. The filtration
will be completed in a moderately short space of time, and the liquor
having run through, may be again poured on the coffee, so as to remove
any further portion of flavour left in it; and when this has been done,
the preparation will be so delicate and aromatic that those who taste it
will adopt the mode in preference to any other. When the coffee thus
made is to be warmed for use, it must not be heated to the boiling
point, and take care that the vessel in which it is warmed be quite
full. It may be here remarked that coffee thus made warm is always more
pleasant than when drank at the time of its preparation, provided it be
not made to boil, and that the coffee-pot be well closed. It is equally
necessary with the above that the berry should be well and thoroughly
roasted, and not ground in a mill or machine, but pounded and sifted, so
as to secure the particles being of equal fineness.
To enter into an examination of the comparative merits and demerits of
the several percolators and cafetières at present in use, would extend
these observations to too great a length; but most of those generally
adopted are worthless, or complicated, with the abominable bag-filter,
which is seldom kept clean. There is ample room for inventors in the
manufacture of a simple coffee-pot with a water-gauge at the side, which
shall effect what is not now done--a passage of the hot water once only
through the coffee, so as to have a bright infusion instead of a muddy
decoction.
“Tea,” observes Dr. Sigmond, “as the morning beverage, when breakfast
forms a good substantial meal, upon which the powers for the day of
meeting the various chances and changes of life depend, provided it be
not strong, is much to be recommended; but when individuals eat little,
coffee certainly supports them in a more decided manner; and, besides
this, tea without a certain quantity of solid aliment, is much more
likely to influence the nervous system. Some persons, if they drink tea
in the morning and coffee at night, suffer much in animal spirits and in
power of enjoyment of the pleasure of society; but if they reverse the
system, and take coffee in the morning and tea at night, they reap
benefit from the change; for the coffee, which to them in the morning is
nutrition, becomes a stimulus at night; and the tea, which acts as a
dilutent at night, gives nothing for support during the day.”
The Turks drink their coffee very hot and strong, and without sugar;
occasionally they put in, when boiling, a clove or two bruised, or a few
seeds of star anise, or a drop of essence of amber.
The following quotations from recent travellers give the Turkish mode of
making coffee:
“The bruised or ground beans are thrown into a small brass or copper
saucepan; sufficient water, scalding hot, is poured upon them, and,
after being allowed to simmer for a few seconds, the liquid is poured
into small cups, without refining or straining. Persons unaccustomed to
this way of making coffee find it unpalatable. Those who have overcome
the first introduction prefer it to that made after the French fashion,
whereby the aroma is lost or deteriorated. A well made cup of good
Turkish coffee is indeed the most delectable beverage, that can be well
imagined, being grateful to the senses and refreshingly stimulant to the
nerves. Those who have long resided in the East can alone estimate its
merits.”--WHITE’S _Three Years in Constantinople_.
“The Turkish way of making coffee produces a very different result from
that to which we are accustomed. A small conical saucepan, with a long
handle, and calculated to hold about two table-spoonfuls of water, is
the instrument used. The fresh roasted berry is pounded, not ground,
and about a dessert-spoonful is put into the minute boiler; it is then
nearly filled with water, and thrust among the embers; a few seconds
suffice to make it boil, and the decoction, grounds and all, is poured
into a small cup, which fits into a brass socket much like the cup of an
acorn, and holding the china cup as that does the acorn itself. The
Turks seem to drink this decoction boiling, and swallow the grounds with
the liquid. We allow it to remain a minute, in order to leave the
sediment at the bottom. It is always taken plain; sugar or cream would
be thought to spoil it; and Europeans, after a little practice (longer,
however, than we had), are said to prefer it to the clear infusion drunk
in France. In every hut you will see these coffee-boilers suspended, and
the means for pounding the roasted berry will be found at
hand.”--CHRISTMAS’S _Shores and Islands of the Mediterranean_.
“A small vessel, containing about a wine-glass of water, is placed on
the fire, and, when boiling, a teaspoonful of ground coffee is put into
it, stirred up, and it is suffered to boil and ‘bubble’ a few seconds
longer, when it is poured (grounds and all) into a cup about the size of
an egg-shell, encased in gold or silver filigree-work, to protect the
finger from the heat; and the liquid, in its scalding, black, thick, and
troubled state, is imbibed with the greatest relish. Like smoking, it
must be quite an acquired taste.”--MAXWELL’S _Shores of the
Mediterranean_.
CHICORY
SECTION I.
INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND.--CONTINENTAL PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION.
The term chicory is an Anglicised French word, the original being
chicorée. The plant is known to botanists by the name of _Cichorium
Intybus_, and belongs to the natural order Compositæ, tribe Cichoreæ. It
is an indigenous plant with a perennial root, better known probably to
most readers by its English appellation of wild succory. The root is
spindle-shaped, with a single or double head; externally it is whitish
or greenish yellow; internally, whitish, fleshy, and milky. The roots
grown in this country are smaller, and more woody or fibrous than those
which are imported from the Continent.
The cultivation and consumption of chicory have now attained a very
great importance, not only on the Continent, but also in the United
Kingdom. Dating its extended use chiefly from the system pursued by the
first Napoleon to substitute home-grown for colonial products, it has
gradually become approved and popularised for a beverage, either used
alone or more generally mixed with coffee, in numerous countries, where
it can be sold far under the price of even the lowest grade coffees.
The manufacture of a factitious coffee from roasted chicory-root would
seem to have originated in Holland, where it has been used for more than
a century. It remained a secret until 1801, when it was introduced into
France by M. Orban of Liége, and M. Giraud of Homing, a short distance
from Valenciennes. This root is not superior to many others which
possess sweet and mucous principles, but of all the plants which have
been proposed as substitutes for coffee, and which, when roasted and
steeped in boiling water, yield an infusion resembling the berry, it is
the only one which has maintained its ground. The French, not satisfied
with chicory, have recently introduced acorn coffee and roasted
beetroot. The beet, it is asserted, besides communicating its hygienic
qualities, also helps to sweeten the beverage. This new coffee is called
“café de betterave,” as the old was called “café chicorée.” These
distinctions will soon become as puzzling as those in America, which led
the Irish waiter to ask if the gentleman would have coffee-tay or
tay-tay.
Mr. George Phillips, when giving evidence before Mr. Scholefield’s
Parliamentary Committee on Adulteration, in 1855, stated that, prior to
the year 1832, little was heard of the use of chicory in this country,
but in the subsequent three years its use had gradually so increased
that the Board of Inland Revenue was obliged to take steps against the
sale. “I have no doubt (he adds), from my own experience, that a very
large bulk of the public prefer the mixture. That, however, is a matter
of taste. The trade contend that good coffee, mixed with one-eighth part
of chicory, and sold at a moderate price, makes a better beverage than
ordinary coffee would do at the same price, and the great mass of the
public prefer it. Chicory sold as coffee yields a certain profit, but
probably it equalises itself in the general competition of trade. There
is a large quantity of chicory sold by itself, and drank as a beverage
in the neighbourhood of Manchester and Liverpool. I believe the price of
a pound of the cheapest kind of coffee, purchased by the bulk of the
poor people, and a pound of the mixture, is about the same. The trade
say, when we use a portion of chicory we use a better coffee. I do not
know the fact of my own knowledge. Whether the coffee sold in mixtures
is of a superior quality to that sold as a pure article would be very
difficult to ascertain; it depends upon the question of taste and aroma.
The chicory itself is not always pure.”
On the first introduction of chicory into Great Britain a nominal duty
of 20 per cent. was levied on it, which, owing to the representations of
the coffee-planters, was afterwards increased to the same rate as that
then payable on British plantation coffee. The high duty thus levied on
foreign-grown chicory soon led to its cultivation in England, but so
little was known of the plant that the farmers required the rent to be
paid in advance for the use of their land. In the autumn of 1853 we find
chicory grown in Kent, Surrey, and Essex, where the article was
prepared, and met with a large sale. With the increasing demand for the
root, its culture spread to Bedford, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire,
Leicestershire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire. At first the price realised was
as high as 50_l._ per ton ground, and 20_l._ per ton in the root. But as
the growth extended the price receded. The admission, duty free, of
foreign-grown chicory, in 1854, led to the abandonment of much of the
home culture.
In 1842, Mr. McCulloch assumed the growth and consumption of chicory in
the United Kingdom to be 6¾ million pounds; in 1850, from careful
inquiries I instituted, I estimated the consumption then to be double
that amount. Mr. Braithwaite Poole, in his “Statistics of Commerce,”
published in 1852, rated the actual production of chicory-root, made
into powder in England and Guernsey, then as high as 14,000 tons, worth,
at 22_l._ per ton, 308,000_l._ The gradually increasing imports of
foreign-grown replaces much formerly produced at home, but the changes
in legislative enactments have much interfered with the consumption of
chicory here, and hence the import is not so remunerative. From 1856 to
1859 the imports of foreign chicory in the root rose from 81,721 cwts.
to 267,000 cwts., but there has since been a gradual decline to 45,563
cwts. in 1862. The value has ranged from 6s. to 10s. 6d. per cwt.
The largest quantity comes from Belgium, the next from Holland, and a
little from Hamburg and other quarters. There are also some considerable
imports of roasted and ground chicory, which is chiefly re-exported;
76,206 lbs. of chicory-powder were imported in 1862.
Roasted and reduced to powder chicory is the most universal substitute
for coffee in the chief continental countries, especially in France,
Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Russia, and other
Northern States. In Germany, the ground chicory is made up into cakes,
and sold in that form. Denmark and the Duchies consume about 3,000,000
lbs. annually. A few years ago the annual import of chicory-root into
Hamburg was 24,600 cwts., and of ground chicory and other coffee
substitutes 13,000 cwts.
Belgium exports 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 lbs. yearly. The quantity of the
dried root consumed in France is about 16,000,000 lbs. a year. Formerly
they were able to export 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 lbs., but now enough is
not produced for home consumption. In 1860, about 10,000,000 lbs. of
chicory-root was imported into France, chiefly from Belgium, and about
660,000 lbs. of chicory in powder was exported, chiefly to Algeria. Till
within a few years the cultivation was carried on principally near
Valenciennes, but lately manufactories have sprung up in several
localities, especially at Arras, Cambray, Lille, Paris, Senlis, in
Normandy, Brittany, &c. In some parts of Germany the women are becoming
regular chicory-topers, making of it an important part of their daily
sustenance.
SECTION II.
CULTIVATION, HARVESTING, AND PREPARATION FOR MARKET.
There are many varieties of this plant, the greater part of which have
blue flowers; some are white, and others red. In Brunswick they only
grow the broad-leaved, or native kind, or the small-leaved, which has
long roots, and is a native of Magdeburg. The former is, however,
preferred, on account of its being the richest. In Altona they grow a
medium variety, which has neither very narrow nor very broad leaves. The
plant thrives in all soils that will grow carrots; indeed, the mode of
cultivating one is much like that of the other. The roots seem, however,
to grow best upon a loamy soil, with a clayey subsoil, dry, deep, and
rich. It very seldom thrives in heavy clay land, and never in sand or
wet land. It requires much manure. In preparing the land deep ploughing
is recommended; but, unless the soil is very deep, it is probable that
subsoil ploughing will answer better. The surface must be well worked;
indeed, it cannot be reduced to too fine a mould.
As the plants are a long time in coming up, generally five or six weeks
from the time of sowing the seed, it is necessary that the land should
be very clean, or the weeds (particularly chickweed) are liable to
overtop and smother the young plants. The time of sowing varies in
different districts; in the midland and eastern counties of England, the
second or third week in May is considered best, for if sown earlier,
many of the plants will run to seed, in which case they are called
“runners” or “trumpeters,” and must be carefully dug out and destroyed
when the time for taking up has arrived, because if allowed to become
mixed with the bulk, they will spoil the sample. The best crops have
been obtained when the seed has been sown broadcast; but the preference
is usually given to drilling, the crop being more easily hoed and
cleansed. The rows are generally from 9 to 12 inches apart, and about 3
or 4 lbs. of seed per acre is the quantity used.
Most of the cultivators of chicory single out the plants so as to leave
spaces between them in the rows, each about 6 or 8 inches long; but
there are many who do not do this, fancying that four or five small
plants produce more weight of root than one large plant; the expediency
of this, however, is very questionable, as it does not allow of the land
being nearly so well cleaned as when the practice of singling is
adopted.
In October or November, the work of taking up the roots may be
commenced, and continued during the winter (if the crop cannot be
previously secured), until it is finished. Although the roots penetrate
a long way downwards, they become too thin below 14 or 15 inches to be
useful, and the utmost care is also required in order to get up that
portion of the root which will prove profitable.
In some cases chicory has been ploughed up, about 12 inches deep, with a
strong cast-iron plough drawn by six horses, having men to fork each
furrow to pieces with common potato-forks before a second furrow is
ploughed upon it, and women and children following to pick up the roots
and cut off the tops.
But the best method is found to be that of digging up the roots with
double-pronged strongly-made iron forks, the blades being about 14
inches in length, and each fork, with shaft and handle complete,
weighing about 8 lbs.
The plan of ploughing is liable to bring too much of the subsoil to the
surface, and costs quite as much, if not more, than digging.
The advantage which is looked for in ploughing, is to ensure getting the
roots up from a greater depth than can be done by digging, as a great
number break off about 8 or 9 inches long, unless a boy is employed to
assist the diggers, and is very careful to pull the top at the precise
time that the man presses the root upward with his fork.
When dug, the tops should be neatly cut off, and the roots conveyed to
the washing-house to be cleaned. Sometimes they are earthed in pits,
but, generally speaking, they are taken to the washing-house immediately
after being dug up.
In the former case, on the Continent, the roots, with the leaves cut
off, are thrown, in heaps of from four to six feet in length, width, and
height, on the surface of the ground; some straw and then some earth are
put around. But generally the growers deliver the roots to the
manufacturers from the latter end of August to November, by whom they
are immediately dried.
The root is from 2 to 4 inches thick, 3 to 7 inches long, and
occasionally, in a good soil, 3 lbs. in weight. In Brunswick they obtain
from 4 to 6 tons of root per Brunswick acre.
The weight of the crop depends entirely upon the richness or poverty of
the soil, the tillage and manure it has received, and other
circumstances. The fault in England is the striving to grow as heavy a
crop as possible, to the very great detriment of the quality of the root
for powder.
In Brunswick the price of the root in the original state varies from
20s. to 40s. per ton, according as the crops have been good or bad, and
an acre will realise from 5_l._ to 7_l._ The cost for cultivation is
from 3_l._ 15s. to 4_l._ 10s.; 1½ to 2 tons is about an average crop.
Mr. William Strickney, who has grown and prepared chicory for the
manufacturer to a very great extent, on a large farm near Hull,
estimates the expense of the cultivation of chicory there at 4_l._ 5s.
6d. per acre, and if we add to this 2_l._ 10s. for rent, manure, &c., it
gives 6_l._ 15s. 6d. The produce on suitable land he states to be from 8
to 12 tons per acre, and it requires 4 tons of green root to make 1 ton
of dried. In the dried state the root is worth from 12_l._ to 24_l._ per
ton. Take 10 tons per acre, at 2_l._ 10s. per ton, and this would leave
a profit per acre of 18_l._ 4s. 6d.
Another competent agricultural authority states that the price of 2¼
tons of dry root for the acre, at 12_l._ per ton, would be 27_l._;
deducting 7_l._ for rent, labour, and other expenses, this would leave a
profit of 20_l._ per acre.
The roots are cut into small pieces of about half-inch or three-quarter
inch lengths by a turnip-cutter, or by hand, the object being to have
the pieces of as uniform a size as possible. The slices are then dried
in a kiln: this process wasting the chicory from 75 to 80 per cent. It
is then marketable, and is usually sold to the drysalters and grocers,
who roast and grind it as they do coffee. In the ground state it may be
kept for years, but it soon cakes. The roasted root is emptied into iron
vessels, and, after cooling, is crushed in vertical stone mills, or
between iron cylinders.
The dried roots cut are roasted in this country like coffee. The loss
during roasting is from 25 to 30 per cent. The roasters generally
introduce into the roasting machine about 2 lbs. of lard for every cwt.
of chicory. Some say this is to give the chicory a better face, others
state that it renders the powder less hygrometric. Inferior kinds of
chicory are alleged to be coloured with Venetian red.
Chicory is occasionally adulterated with roasted pulse (called Hambro’
powder), damaged corn, and coffee husks (“coffee flights,” as they are
technically termed). We have also heard of parsnips having been roasted,
ground, and mixed with chicory. Dr. Hassall gives a long list of other
substances which have been found as adulterants of coffee.
Treacle is sometimes introduced into fictitious chicory, to give the
caramel or saccharine odour possessed by real chicory.
Dr. Hassall says the roasted chicory root yields from 45 to 65 per cent.
of soluble extractive. Its solution in water is acid, and it does not
possess the peculiar bitter taste of the raw root; but the taste of the
liquid is more like that of burnt sugar. The copper test shows the
presence of from 10 to 13 per cent. of sugar.
SECTION III.
STRUCTURE AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.
The following analysis represents the per-centage composition of chicory
root in its different conditions:
Raw root. Kiln dried.
Hygroscopic moisture 77·0 15·0
Gummy matter (like pectine) 7·5 20·8
Glucose, or grape sugar 1·1 10·5
Bitter extractive 4·0 19·3
Fatty matter 0·6 1·9
Cellulose, inuline, and woody
matter 9·0 29·5
Ash 0·8 3·0
----- -----
100·0 100·0
The composition of the roasted root was as follows:
1st species. 2nd species.
Hygroscopic moisture 14·5 12·8
Gummy matter 9·5 14·9
Glucose 12·2 10·4
Matter like burnt sugar 29·1 24·4
Fatty matter 2·0 2·2
Brown or burnt woody
matter 28·4 28·5
Ash 4·3 6·8
----- -----
100·0 100·0
Dr. Hassall gives the following results of trials instituted to
determine the effect of chicory on the human frame.
Three persons partook of a chicory breakfast. The infusion was
dark-coloured, thick, destitute of the agreeable and refreshing aroma so
characteristic of coffee, and was of a bitter taste.
Each individual experienced for some time after drinking this infusion a
sensation of heaviness, drowsiness, a feeling of weight at the stomach,
and great indisposition to exertion; in two headache set in, and in the
third the bowels were relaxed. In second and third trials of the chicory
breakfast the same feelings of drowsiness, weight of the stomach, and
want of energy were experienced, but no headache or diarrhœa. Several
other trials were subsequently made, with nearly similar results. But
chicory, it will be said, is seldom taken alone in this country, and
when mixed with coffee these effects are not produced.
Two persons partook, for a considerable period, twice a day, of an
article denominated coffee, costing 1s. 6d. a pound, and largely
adulterated with chicory; during nearly the whole of this time they both
suffered more or less from diarrhœa.
From the results of these trials, therefore, we are warranted in
concluding that at least some doubt is attached to the assertion of the
wholesome properties of chicory-root as an article of diet.
Several characters, sufficiently simple and easily recognised for
general application, have been indicated in different works for
detecting the addition of roasted chicory to coffee in the roasted and
ground state, but the application of chemical reagents for detecting the
presence of the colouring matter of roasted chicory, when added to
infusion of coffee, has not yet proved successful.
The brownish-yellow colouring matter which is developed in chicory-root
by the process of roasting, when dissolved in water by infusion or
decoction, retains its colour, or becomes a little deeper by the action
of persalts of iron, without giving rise to any precipitation.
The brown colouring matter of roasted coffee, on the other hand,
acquires, from the same reagent, a green colour, and a brownish-green
flocculent precipitate is formed. These two different reactions may be
applied, not only for distinguishing the pure infusion of coffee and of
chicory, but also those which contain a mixture of the soluble
principles of the two alimentary substances.
Infusion of pure coffee acquires a green colour, more or less intense,
on the addition of some drops of persulphate of iron.
Infusion of pure chicory, under similar circumstances, retains its
brownish-yellow colour, which becomes more intense, and acquires a
slight greenish tint.
A mixture of the two infusions, containing one-half, a fourth, or a
fifth of its volume of infusion of chicory, may be recognised by its
brownish-yellow colour, which remains after the deposition of the
precipitate produced by the salt of iron, together with part of the
colouring matter of the coffee. This separation may be expedited by
rendering the coloured liquor slightly alkaline by the addition of a
small quantity of weak solution of ammonia, and allowing it to stand in
tubes closed at one end. The supernatant liquor, after the precipitate
has deposited, will possess a brownish-yellow tint by refracted light,
which will be deeper in proportion to the quantity of chicory present.
If the experiment be first made with infusion of pure coffee of a
certain strength, and afterwards with additions of known quantities of
chicory, keeping these for comparison, the quantity of chicory in a
mixed sample may be thus determined.[2]
A simple means of detecting the chicory in ground coffee is as follows:
Throw about a tea-spoonful of the suspected coffee in a wine-glass of
water, and stir the mixture with a spoon. If
[Illustration: Plate 10.
Fragment of Roasted Chicory.]
[Illustration: A Fragment of Roasted Coffee, being magnified 140
diameters.]
the coffee be pure, it for the most part floats, becomes very slowly
moistened, even when shaken up with the water, and communicates scarcely
any colour to the liquid; very gradually it imbibes water; the liquid
acquires a very pale sherry tint; and at the end of several hours the
greater part of the powder is found to have fallen to the bottom of the
glass. If, however, it be chicorised, the presence of chicory (genuine
or spurious) will be readily detected, by a portion of the suspected
powder rapidly sinking and communicating to the liquid a reddish-brown
tint, which will be more or less deep according to the amount of chicory
present.
If the coffee be adulterated with what is called Hambro’ powder (roasted
and ground peas, &c., coloured with Venetian red) or roasted corn, we
have a further test in iodine, which communicates a purplish or
bluish-red tint to the water to which either of these substances has
been added. The preceding test is sufficiently delicate and valuable, in
all ordinary cases, for detecting chicory in coffee; but to those
familiar with microscopic investigations, the microscope furnishes
another mode of proceeding: fragments of dotted ducts being found in
chicory, but not in pure coffee. They are not met with, however, in
great abundance; and some patience and care, therefore, are requisite in
searching for them. The starch grains of Hambro’ powder are readily
detected by the microscope, as also the blackening effect of a solution
of iodine on them.
Plate 10 represents the structure and character of genuine ground
roasted coffee, and of a fragment of roasted chicory-root, showing the
dotted or interrupted spiral vessels which pass in bundles through the
central parts of the root, magnified 140 diameters; copied, by
permission, from Dr. Hassall’s work on “Food and its Adulterations.”
In the raw chicory-root three parts or structures may be distinguished
with facility, cells, dotted vessels, and vessels of the latex. These
vessels afford useful means of distinguishing chicory from some other
roots employed in the adulteration of coffee. The chief part of the root
is made up of little utricles or cells. These are generally of a rounded
form, but sometimes they are narrow and elongated. The former occur when
the pressure is least and the root soft, the latter in the neighbourhood
of the vessels.[3]
There are four characters by which adulterated chicory may be
distinguished from the genuine.
1st. It yields to cold water a much whiter colour. In using this test it
is necessary to have a sample of genuine chicory for comparison.
2ndly. A decoction of chicory containing either roasted grain or pulse,
yields when cold a purplish or bluish-black colour, with a solution of
iodine; whereas a corresponding decoction of genuine chicory is merely
coloured brown by iodine.
3rdly. The microscope detects in adulterated chicory the torrefied
starch grains of either corn or pulse. That they are starch grains is
shown by the action of a solution of iodine, which blackens them.
4thly. The odour and flavour will sometimes detect adulterations.
Roasted and ground chicory attracts water from the air, and thereby
increases in weight and becomes clammy. The grinders are accustomed to
return as much by weight of ground chicory as they receive of the
unground root, for the loss which the root suffers by grinding is more
than compensated by the absorption of water from the air.
THE END.
C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.
FOOTNOTES:
[1: Mr. J. Crawfurd on the History of Coffee, in the
Statistical Society’s Journal, vol. xv. p. 51.]
[2: M. Lassaigne, in “Journal de Chimie Médicale.”]
[3: “Food and its Adulterations.”]