Perhaps it is the same now. This difference of taste gave rise to a
rather jocose dispute between a grey friar and a white friar. One, who
was a Fleming, was for beer; the other, who was from Bordeaux, was for
wine. The Fleming cited passages without number from antiquity in proof
of the excellence of beer, known by the ancients under the name of
_zithum_, or _curmi_. The one from Bordeaux was not so learned, but he
was a native of Bordeaux, and with one word he terminated the dispute.
“Brother,” said he to his adversary, “I maintain that there is as much
difference between wine and beer as there is between St. Francis and St.
Dominick.” The whole community were for the Bordeaux monk, and the
Fleming was reduced to silence.[XXVI-27]
_Braket_ was formerly the cherished drink of the lower classes in
England. Arnold describes the preparation of it, in his “Chronicles of
London:”
“Take a pot of good ale and put thereto a porcyon of honey and pepper,
in this manner:--When thou hast good ale, lete it stonde (stand) in a
pott two dayes, and then drawe out a quart, or a pottell, of that ale,
and putt to the honey, and set it over the fyre and let it sethe well,
and take it of the fyre and scume it clene; and then sat it over the
fyre and scume it agayne, and then let it keele a whyle, and put thereto
the pepper, and then set hym on the fyre and let him boyle well togyder,
with esy fyre, but clere. Take four gallons of good ale, a pynte of fyn
tryed hony, and about a saucerful of powder of peper.”
Beer was hot unknown in Italy, but the Romans never granted it their
serious attention.[XXVI-28] We will give a brief sketch of those
beverages which, among them and the Greeks, replaced wine with greater
or less advantage.
Convalescents, sober persons who resisted the sweet seductions of
Falernian and Chios wines, drank a kind of barley-water _ptisana_, a
sorry liquid, of which the following is the recipe for the use of the
abstemious of the present day. They placed barley in water, and left it
there until it swelled; it was then dried in the sun, then beaten to
deprive it of its husk, and ground. Then, when it had been boiled in
water for a long time, it was again exposed to the sun. When they wished
to drink barley-water, a small quantity of this flour was boiled, the
water was strained off, and a few drops of vinegar were added.[XXVI-29]
The disciples of Comus have always shuddered at this beverage, when only
mentioned.
The _oxycratus_ was not much better. It was a mixture of water and
vinegar, with which the lower orders contented themselves when they
could obtain nothing more exhilarating to drink;[XXVI-30] and with which
the soldiers, especially in the camp, were compelled to quench their
thirst.[XXVI-31]
Some passages from Pliny, and also from other authors, prove that the
ancients were acquainted with cider.[XXVI-32] It is, however, asserted
that the use of this beverage goes no farther back than three or four
centuries, either in England or France;[XXVI-33] but this cannot be a
fact with regard to the last-named country, since the capitulars of
Charlemagne place among the number of ordinary trades that of
_sicerator_, or “cider maker.” This “wine of apples,”[XXVI-34] it is
said, was very common among the Hebrews. That is possible, but it would,
nevertheless, be difficult to prove it from the holy writings, since the
word _schecar_, which has been translated by _sicera_, and which, again,
has been rendered into cider, signifies all kinds of intoxicating
beverage, whether made from grain, honey, or fruit.[XXVI-35]
Gaul, covered with forests, and swarming with bees, possessed an immense
quantity of wild honey, of which, by the aid of fermentation in water,
the inhabitants composed a strong and intoxicating drink, called
_hydromel_. This beverage, highly esteemed both in Rome and Greece, was
prepared in the following manner: rain water was kept some time, and
then boiled until reduced to one-third, to which honey was added.[P]
This mixture was exposed to the sun for the space of forty days; it was
then placed in a vessel, and by these means they obtained, in time, a
vinous hydromel very similar to our Madeira wine.[XXVI-36] To make
_oxymel_, still more heady, ten pounds of honey were mixed with two
pints and a half of old vinegar, and one pound of sea-salt; the whole
boiled only an instant in five pints of water. This liquor was left to
get very old.[XXVI-37]
Juice of quinces and honey, boiled in water, produced _hydromelon_, a
delicious drink, which our century might envy the delicate drinkers of
Athens and Rome,[XXVI-38] especially when roses had been added to this
nectar, which changed it into _hydrorosatum_.[XXVI-39]
The _apomeli_ was nothing more than water in which honeycomb had been
boiled.[XXVI-40] _Omphacomeli_, an ingenious mixture of honey and
verjuice, quenched thirst during the summer, and produced that agreeable
gaiety which is to drunkenness what doziness is to sleep.[XXVI-41]
A mixture of honey and juice of myrtle seed, of course diluted with
water, composed _myrtites_, the aromatic flavour of which flattered the
palate, and rendered the breath more sweet.[XXVI-42] Sometimes
pomegranates were substituted for the myrtle, and it was then called
_rhoites_, and possessed an agreeable and pungent flavour.[XXVI-43]
Wine made of dates enjoyed a general esteem in the east. The Romans, who
knew also how to appreciate it, prepared it by throwing into water some
common, though very ripe, dates; and when they had well soaked, they
were put under a press.[XXVI-44] The same means were employed to procure
fig wine; but often the sediment of grapes was used instead of water, to
prevent its being too sweet.[XXVI-45]
“Artificial wines” were also procured by the aid of several other kinds
of fruits, such as sorbs, medlars, and mulberries.[XXVI-46] Fermentation
dispelled the sweet and insipid flavour which generally distinguishes
these fruits; and, at the commencement of a repast, the guests swallowed
with delight large cups of these beverages.[XXVI-47]
It was also the custom to serve very cold water, in which certain plants
had been infused, and which was freshened by being surrounded with snow
after it had been boiled for some time. The invention of this iced water
is attributed to the Emperor Nero, who made great use of it; and who
appears to have bitterly regretted it when, dethroned and flying from
his assassins, he was constrained through excessive thirst to drink
muddy water from a ditch. The unfortunate Cæsar then, for the first
time, thought of the strange vicissitudes of fortune, and casting a
sorrowful glance at the disgusting fluid he held in his hand, “Alas!” he
exclaimed, with a sigh, “is this the iced water that Nero
drank?”[XXVI-48]
TEA.
This plant is a native of China, and it is only in the Celestial Empire
that tea is cultivated to any great extent. Why, then, is it neglected
on all other points of the globe situated in the same latitude?
Doubtless, because the soil of China is superior for its culture to that
of any other country.
The shrub that produces tea is cultivated between the twenty-third and
thirty-third degrees of latitude; it thrives on the mountainous parts,
on the slope of the hills, and that which grows on high ground is far
superior to that gathered in the valleys. It is the same with this plant
as with the vine in France and in Europe; it grows on flat land, and
succeeds wonderfully on plains exposed to the sun’s rays.
The Chinese export teas of the first quality in much greater proportion
than those of an inferior kind. In England there is a larger consumption
than in any other country in the world.
In China, the tea that forms the habitual beverage of the people is a
very inferior species of the _Boo_ tea.
The provinces of Kiang-Nang, Kiang-Si, and Che-Kiang, furnish green tea
to Russia, the United States, Calcutta, and various European countries;
the province of Fo-Kien furnishes black tea to England, with the
exception of a third of the _boo_ tea, or _bohee_, which is exported
from a district called Wo-Ping, lying to the north-west of the province
of Canton.
It is in Fo-Kien that the cultivation of this precious shrub is held in
the highest estimation. In this province it is deprived of a large
number of its buds at the beginning of the spring. Of these are made the
tea _Pé-ko_, the most renowned of all kinds. Congo tea serves to perfume
part of these buds, and to impart to them a more agreeable flavour.
A first gathering of full-grown leaves takes place at the commencement
of May, a second towards the middle of June, and a third and last at the
end of the summer. This produces a tea inferior to the preceding kinds
in point of quality and perfume.
The inhabitants of Fo-Kien cultivate tea in inclosures; and at the time
of harvest sell the leaves to a class of persons who undertake their
preparation, which consists in drying the leaves in houses, first by the
simple contact with the air, afterwards in heated warehouses. When the
preparation is terminated, the merchants come and make choice of the
best qualities; then the desiccation of the tea is finished, and it is
forwarded in packets, each bearing its proper designation.
As soon as the leaves have been gathered and selected, they are plunged
in boiling water, where they remain about thirty seconds; they are then
quickly withdrawn, strained, and thrown on iron plates, large and flat,
placed above a furnace: the workmen’s hands can hardly endure the heat
of these plates. They continually stir the leaves till they are
sufficiently heated, after which they take them off, and spread them on
large tables covered with mats. Other workmen then busy themselves with
rolling them with the palm of the hand, while others cool them as
quickly as possible by agitating the air with large fans. This operation
must be continued until the leaves have completely cooled under the hand
of the person who rolls them, for it is by being quickly cooled that the
leaves remain longer curled. Thanks to the operation of rolling them,
which is repeated two or three times, the leaves are deprived of their
humidity, and the unwholesome bitter juice they contain. For teas of the
first quality, each leaf must be rolled separately; but for more common
kinds, several may be rolled at once. Tea, thus prepared, is dried, and
put into boxes or cases free from moisture. The Chinese then aromatise
it with various odoriferous plants, such as the flowers of the _olea
fragrans_, and those of the _camellia sesangua_, shrubs of the same
family as tea; or those of the scented tea-roses and orange-flowers.
This tea is destined for mandarins of the higher class, for the _Calaos_
or ministers, and even for the celestial sovereign of the _Centre of the
Earth_--or, in more simple words, the Emperor.
There are, in reality, but two kinds of tea, black tea and green tea;
each kind is again subdivided into many varieties. The best black tea is
the scented _Liang-sing_, worth in China about 10_s._ the pound.
The first of all green teas, destined for the great, and bearing an
exquisite perfume, is that called _Koo-lang-fyn-i_. M. de Rienzi assures
us that he has seen it sold in Canton for 32s. a pound.
New tea is considered by the Chinese as a powerful narcotic, therefore
it is never sold until a year after the gathering.
The Europeans and Americans, who trade with tea in Canton, have recourse
for their transactions with the Chinese to native tasters, or others,
who know how to distinguish the different qualities at the sight of the
colour produced by the infusion.
It is generally believed in Europe that tea exported thence has already
served as a beverage to the Chinese. It is a mistake, propagated by
persons who, having seen the tea put in water, have doubtless not well
understood the reason of this operation. We must, however, admit that
the merchants sometimes mix tea already used with tea of good quality; a
fraud only to be discovered by the weakness of the infusion.
Tea seems likely to spread over the world. Our books, wines, brandy,
cutlery, and jewellery, go round the globe, and are sought after by the
civilized nations as well as the wild tribes. On the other hand, we
receive our food, together with spices, from Malaisia; we sweeten them
with sugar from the Antilles or Siam; we enjoy the flavour and perfume
of coffee from Arabia and the Island of Bourbon; we intoxicate ourselves
with tobacco from Manilla, Virginia, of Havannah, and Latakia; and we
imbibe with luxurious pleasure the tea of those Chinese we are
continually laughing at, but of whom we have borrowed so many useful
things. We must, however, acknowledge that France is the country the
least advanced in this respect, and the use of this beneficent drink is
far from being as common as it ought to be. We do not fear to say that
when once acquainted with the method of preparing it better than is
generally done, this inferiority in the consumption will disappear. Some
witty delineator of manners and customs has pourtrayed upon the joyous
scene of a comic theatre of Paris, that famous tea party of _Mother
Gibou_ and _Madame Pochet_, one of those ridiculous Parisian and really
home-scenes, much more common than is generally supposed, and although
the picture is over-charged, it is nevertheless true.
It is not necessary here to give our private recipe to prepare an
infusion in which that excellent lady, _Madame Pochet_, thought herself
so perfect; suffice to say, that to make it agreeable to her guests she
added salt, pepper, some cinnamon, the yolk of an egg, and a tiny drop
of vinegar. We would beg the reader not to fail in attending these
charming and daily meetings, at which each housewife presides, and we
would say to strangers, let us seriously study an English tea.
“The use of tea in China dates from the greatest antiquity. The Japanese
attribute to it a miraculous origin. They say that Darma, a very pious
prince, and son of an Indian king, landed in China in the year 510 of
the Christian era, and wishing to edify mankind by his example, imposed
upon himself privations of all kinds. It happened, however, that after
several years of great fatigue, in spite of his care he fell asleep; and
believing he had violated his oath, and in order to fulfil it faithfully
for the future, he cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. The
next day, returning towards the same spot, he found them changed into a
little shrub, hitherto unknown to the earth. He eat some of the leaves,
which made him merry and restored his former strength. Having
recommended the same food to his disciples, the reputation of tea soon
spread, and has continued in use since that time.”--DESFONTAINES. See,
also, KŒMPFER, in his “_Aménités Exotiques_.”
We are ignorant of the period and motives which persuaded the Chinese to
use tea in infusion. Perhaps it was to render water more agreeable,
which is said to be brackish and of a bad taste in many parts of China.
In 1641, Tulpius, a Dutch physician, was the first to mention this
plant, in a dissertation he published. In 1657, Joncquet, a French
physician, called it the divine plant, and compared it to ambrosia. In
1679, Cornelius Bentekoe, a Dutch physician, published a treatise, in
which he declared himself a partisan of tea, and asserted that this
beverage in no way could injure the stomach, even if drank to the extent
of _two hundred cups_ a day. Many of his countrymen went even beyond
this: they made of it a universal panacea.
As at first the leaves of the tea plant were rare and but little known,
many persons thought they had discovered in Europe what others fetched
from such a distance. Thus Simon Pauli introduced the royal pimento
(_myria gale_ of LINN.), as the real tea of China. Others thought to
have found the marvellous virtues of tea in plants growing in our own
country, such as marjoram, veronica, myrtle, sage, agrimony, &c.; but it
happily ended in granting the preference to the real tea of China and
Japan.
COFFEE.
In the trade five principal kinds of coffee are enumerated--or rather,
five sorts--according to the different countries from whence they come,
although all derived from the same kind of coffee tree, _Coffea
Arabica_. These five kinds are as follows:--
1st. Mocha coffee, thus called from the country whence this kind of
coffee originates, a plant now so commonly spread over every American
colony. The grain of this coffee is generally round and small. From
Mocha coffee is derived the most sweet and agreeable beverage; it is
also the most esteemed, the dearest, and holds the first rank in the
trade.
2nd. The Bourbon coffee, cultivated in the Island of Bourbon; for some
time it occupied the second place in quality, but the _gourmets_ prefer
to it coffee from Martinique or Guadaloupe.
3rd. There are several kinds of Martinique or Guadaloupe, distinguished
by the various preparations.
4th. The Cayenne coffee. This kind is less known on account of the small
quantity cultivated there, and introduced in trade. This kind is
superior to the Martinique coffee.
5th. The St. Domingo coffee, in which is comprised that from Porto Rico,
and other leeward islands, is considered inferior to the four other
kinds.
Let us mention a few of the methods by which coffee in infusion is
obtained.
It is not exactly known who introduced the custom of taking coffee. Some
attribute its use to the prior of a convent, who becoming acquainted
with the properties of this plant by the effect it produced on the goats
which fed upon it, tried its influence on his monks, in order to keep
them awake during the performance of divine service. According to
others, the discovery is due to a mufti, who, wishing to surpass in
devotion the most religious dervishes, made use of coffee so as to
banish sleep, and thus be enabled to pray longer without interruption.
Whatever may be the origin of the use of coffee, it has become so
general up to the present day that it may almost be classed among the
articles of the greatest necessity. This extensive use has stimulated
the industry of inventors to seek means of rendering it most pleasant to
drink, as also its great consumption and high price have awaked both
economy and fraud, in order to find a substitute for this agreeable
beverage.
It would be useless here to describe the different methods of making
coffee; it will be sufficient to mention that all those which tend to
prepare it without boiling the water in which the pulverised coffee is
placed, are almost equally good.
In order to supplant coffee, which in Europe was found very expensive,
many different means have been tried. About fifty years since the Swiss
porter of a nobleman in Paris thought of roasting acorns, which he mixed
with roast coffee, ground; he sold it cheaper than any one; all bought
it, and the Swiss made his fortune.
The trick, however, being discovered, all sought means of gratifying
their taste without emptying their purses; barley and rye began to be
mixed with coffee.
In the mountains of Virginia, in America, the inhabitants make a coffee
simply of roasted rye; they by these means obtain a beverage in no way
resembling coffee, but it goes by that name, and at least the
imagination is satisfied.
In Belgium, in the province of Liege, coffee is mixed with wild chicory
root. This method, generally known, is at the present time practised
throughout the whole of Europe; and wild chicory root then opened for
Liege a new branch of commerce. Lastly, in Flanders some of the
inhabitants cultivate the lupin, which they complacently call coffee,
and whose seed, roasted, they drink instead of real coffee.
“The infusion of coffee is thought to be beneficial to stout and
phlegmatic persons, and for pains in the head; but it appears that its
admixture with cream or milk prevents these good effects, on account of
the relaxation it thus causes to the stomach. On the contrary, it gives
strength when taken pure. It is doubtless for this reason that the
inhabitants of the colonies take it three and four times a day--that is,
at four o’clock in the morning, a very strong infusion, sometimes
without sugar; at breakfast, with milk; after dinner, pure; and often in
the afternoon, for the fourth time.”--BEAUVAIS.
We are unacquainted with the period of the introduction of coffee into
Europe. Rauwolf is the first who speaks of coffee, in 1588. Prospero
Alpini then came, and described the coffee tree in Egypt by the name of
_bon_, _bun_, or _boun_: his work appeared in 1591. In 1614, Bacon
mentioned this oriental beverage, and Meissner published a treatise on
it in 1621.
It was not, however, until towards the year 1645, that it began to be
drunk in Italy. The first _cafés_ were opened in London in 1652, and in
Paris in 1669, a time at which a pound of coffee was worth forty crowns.
It was principally Soliman Aga, the ambassador from Turkey, who caused
coffee to become fashionable in Paris.
It penetrated into Sweden in the year 1674, where it was thought of use
in scorbutic diseases. The first person who made trial of coffee with
milk was Nieuhoff, the Dutch ambassador in China, in imitation of tea
with milk.
“The physical effects of coffee are well known: it accelerates the
circulation of the blood, but sometimes causes palpitation of the heart
and giddiness; it has even been thought to occasion apoplexy and
paralysis. Nevertheless, celebrated writers--such as Fontenelle and
Voltaire--made constant use of it, almost to an abuse. They were told,
_it is a slow poison_; it was indeed slow for these learned men, who
died, the one at a hundred, the other eighty-four years of age. However,
at the present time coffee is a beverage whose power over our
intellectual or moral habits has, perhaps, never been calculated as it
deserves, since it has become general, and almost suppressed the
drunkenness which disgraced our ancestors at the end of their grand
repasts.”--VIREY.
The subject we have just slightly touched upon recalls to our
recollection a whim of the charming Sévigné: “_Le café et Racine
passeront_,” said this amiable lady, nearly two hundred years ago. The
beautiful marchioness was mistaken: both coffee and Racine have
remained, and do not appear likely soon to bid us adieu.
CHOCOLATE.
Every one is aware that chocolate is an aliment obtained from the
cocoa-nut, roasted and reduced to paste, with sugar and aromatics.
But first, the choice of cocoa nuts is not indifferent.
Those from Soconusco, from Caracas, and Maracaibo, are the best and
sweetest; it is, however, well to mix with them other kinds, to correct
their insipidity by a certain sharpness far from being unpleasant; thus,
to four parts of Caracas cocoa, earthed--that is, rendered mild by a
sojourn of some weeks under the moist earth--a part of cocoa from the
Antilles, or Maragnon and Para, is added; this kind contains more of
sharp and bitter matter. These cocoas are slightly torrefied in an iron
pan. The Spaniards burn their cocoa much less than the Italians. Being
left to grow cold, this cocoa is slightly crushed, to separate the
envelopes or shells, which are thrown away. However, in England,
Switzerland, and Germany, these shells serve to make, with boiling
water, a warm infusion, mixed with milk and drank in lieu of real
chocolate. The envelopes of torrefied coffee are employed in a similar
manner in the east for the “Sultana coffee.” The mixtures of torrefied
cocoa are reduced into a fat paste of a brown colour, either between
stones, or by means of an iron roller upon a porphyry rock, warmed
underneath by live coals; this paste, regularly ground, is at last
incorporated with sugar, equal to its weight, then it is mixed together
as perfectly as possible. In this _chocolat de santé_ a small quantity
of very fine cinnamon powder is admitted, which makes it more palatable,
and neutralizes the action of the fat and heavy substance, or vegetable
butter, contained in the cocoa.
“The term chocolate belongs, it is said, to the language of the
Mexicans, and is derived from the two words _choco_, sound or noise, and
_atle_, water, because it is beaten in boiling water to make it froth,
according to the custom of this people. Before their conquest by the
Spaniards, it formed the principal aliment of the Mexicans. They held
the cocoa tree in such estimation, that its kernel served as current
coin, and this custom even now remains.”--HUMBOLDT.