It is simple to make coffee. Of course, when properly made, with good
berries, the liquor is good.
When good roasted coffee can be bought, it saves the trouble of roasting
it, and is, or rather ought to be, cheaper than it can be done in a
family.
If coffee is roasted a long time before being used it loses much of its
aroma, therefore a family ought not to roast more than it can use in
about a week, while twenty or twenty-five pounds can be roasted at one
time and by one person.
Three or four different kinds, roasted separately, and properly mixed,
make better coffee than one kind alone.
A good proportion is: to one pound of Java add about four ounces of
Mocha, and four ounces of one or two other kinds.
Good coffee, as well as tea, is said to possess exhilarating
properties.
Its use was not known in Europe before 1650. Neither was the use of
sugar, tobacco, and brandy.
Good coffee cannot be made but by leaching.
The easiest utensil is what is called a filter, or coffee-pot, or
biggin, according to locality, with a top to diffuse the water.
[Illustration]
The coffee-pot called "the French balance" makes the best-flavored
coffee, but it is an expensive one.
[Illustration]
There are several good filters, but the great majority or the people
find them too complicated for daily use.
The bottom of the filter should be of silvered brass-gauze instead of
perforated tin, as it is generally.
Gauze-holes being much smaller than those of perforated tin, the coffee
can be ground much finer, and therefore, all the strength and aroma can
be had; while if ground coarse, it is utterly impossible.
Good coffee cannot be made in a utensil often but wrongly called a
_coffee-pot_, which is nothing but a pot, and something like a tea-pot.
With such a utensil, the grounds must be boiled; and as no liquor can be
boiled without allowing the steam to escape (the steam made by boiling
coffee being its aroma), therefore the best part of the coffee is
evaporated before it is served.
Never grind your coffee until ready to make it.
No matter how air-tight you keep it, the aroma evaporates or is
absorbed.
Coffee can be ground and made as soon as cool; but it is better to let
it stand for about twenty-four hours after being roasted.
If kept as air-tight as possible in a tin-box, it will keep very well
for about a week.
Never buy ground coffee except when you cannot help it.
By taking a pinch of ground coffee and rolling it between wetted
fingers, it will remain in grains, if pure; and will form in a ball if
foreign matters are mixed with it.