Transcriber’s Notes:
Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
in the original text.
Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.
Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs.
Deprecated spellings have been preserved.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.
[Illustration: NEAR VIEW OF BERRIES OF COFFEA ARABICA]
Coffee
Merchandising
A Handbook to the Coffee Business Giving Elementary
and Essential Facts Pertaining to the History,
Cultivation, Preparation, and Marketing
of Coffee
_By_
_William H. Ukers, M.A._
Editor, The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal
Author, All About Coffee; A Trip to Brazil
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Co.
1924
Copyright 1924
By
THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL CO.
New York
_International Copyright Secured_
_All Rights Reserved in the U. S. A. and Foreign Countries_
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
_To My Co-workers on_
_The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_
PREFACE
This work has been written in response to a demand for a handbook for
the especial use of those engaged in the coffee business. To a certain
extent it represents a condensation of the author’s encyclopedic work,
“All About Coffee.” “Coffee Merchandising,” however, is designed
primarily for beginners in the coffee business. It will be found to
contain all the elementary and essential facts pertaining to the
history, cultivation, preparation, and marketing of coffee.
In it the author has tried to avoid dogmatism. He has aimed to tell
briefly the story of coffee, including all those things which every
intelligent coffee man should know concerning the early history of the
beverage, the botany of the plant, the chemistry of coffee, how coffee
grows, how it is prepared for the market, how it is bought and sold in
the countries of production, and how it is marketed at wholesale and
at retail in the United States. In the telling of the story the author
has given the reader the best thought of the trade on all controversial
questions, striving to keep his own opinions in the background.
Then, too, the aim has been not only to tell the history story, but
to show how successful men in the coffee trade have built up the most
enduring business. For this reason the work should prove a source of
inspiration, as well as a fount of knowledge, for students and salesmen.
Those who may wish to make a more thorough study of the subject, to
delve deeply into the history, romance, and poetry of coffee, or its
scientific aspects, are referred to “All About Coffee,” by the same
author.
There are two important factors which make for success in the coffee
business,—faith and work,—an abiding faith in the opportunity which
it offers to render a public service and which inspires the faithful
student to get all the facts about coffee so as to be able to give
reasons for his faith; then an intelligent application of the knowledge
coupled with that diligence in business which always spells success in
any trade or profession—and lo! the battle is won. It is the author’s
hope that “Coffee Merchandising” will prove a lamp that will shed some
helpful light on the way of all those who are pushing on to greater
achievements in the coffee business.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
A SHORT HISTORY OF COFFEE
A brief account of the beginning of coffee in the Near East—Early
legends, persecutions, first printed references—The introduction
of the beverage into England, France, and Germany—Early London
and Paris coffee houses—The story of the spread of coffee
propagation around the coffee belt of the world—Early American
coffee houses Page 1
CHAPTER II
THE BOTANY OF COFFEE
Its complete classification by class, sub-class, order, family,
genus, and species—How _Coffea arabica_ grows, flowers, and
bears—Other species and hybrids Page 17
CHAPTER III
CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACOLOGY OF COFFEE
The chief factors which enter into coffee goodness—Brief discussion
of caffein and caffeol—Coffee’s place in a rational dietary
—Latest scientific discoveries that establish the whole truth
about coffee as a wholesome, satisfying drink for the great
majority of people and cause it to be regarded as the servant,
rather than the destroyer, of civilization Page 25
CHAPTER IV
WHERE COFFEE GROWS
Locating the principal coffee-growing districts in the world’s
coffee belt, with a commercial coffee chart of the leading
growths, giving market names and general trade characteristics
Page 31
CHAPTER V
HOW COFFEE IS GROWN
Coffee cultivation in general—Soil, climate, rainfall, altitude,
propagation, shade windbreaks, diseases—How the plant grows
in all the principal producing countries Page 37
CHAPTER VI
PREPARING GREEN COFFEE FOR MARKET
The marvelous coffee package, one of the most ingenious in all
nature—How coffee is harvested—Picking—Dry and wet methods
of preparation—Pulping—Fermentation and washing—Drying—
Hulling, or peeling and polishing—Sizing or grading—
Preparation methods of different countries Page 43
CHAPTER VII
BUYING COFFEE IN THE PRODUCING COUNTRIES
How green coffee is bought and sold in the countries of origin
Page 61
CHAPTER VIII
BUYING AND SELLING GREEN COFFEE AT WHOLESALE
The seven stages of transportation—Handling coffee at New York—
How green coffee is graded—Spot-market trading—Buying coffee
C. & F.—Futures and hedging—Buying and selling commissions—
Brokers—The Exchange Clearing House—Brazil quotations—London,
Havre, and Hamburg markets—Rulings Page 69
CHAPTER IX
GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE CHARACTERISTICS
The trade values, bean characteristics, and cup merits of the
leading coffees of commerce—Appearance, aroma, and flavor in
cup testing—How experts test coffees—Typical sample-roasting
and cup-testing outfit Page 81
CHAPTER X
COFFEE BLENDING
Blending green coffees—Properly balanced blends—Low-priced and
high-priced blends—Blends for restaurant and hotel trade—
Doubtful value of sample blends Page 105
CHAPTER XI
COFFEE ROASTING
Separating, milling, and mixing—The roasting operation—Dry and
wet roasts—Finishing and coating—Cost card for roasters—
Cooling and stoning—Roasting equipment—Blending roasted coffee
—A trip through a model coffee-roasting plant—Evolution of
coffee-roasting apparatus Page 111
CHAPTER XII
COFFEE GRINDING
“Steel-cut” coffee—Wholesale coffee grinding—Evolution of
grinding apparatus Page 131
CHAPTER XIII
SELLING ROASTED COFFEE AT WHOLESALE
How coffees are sold at wholesale—The wholesale salesman’s
place in merchandising—Ten things every master salesman
should know—Profit sharing for salesmen—Some coffee costs
analyzed—Common sense in cost finding—Terms and credits—
About package coffees—Coffee-selling chart—Various types
of coffee containers—Labels—Coffee-packaging economies—
Practical grocer helps—Coffee sampling—Premium method of
sales promotion Page 139
CHAPTER XIV
SELLING COFFEE AT RETAIL
How coffees are sold at retail—The place of the grocer, the tea
and coffee dealer, the chain store, and the wagon-route
distributer in the scheme of distribution—Starting in the
retail coffee business—Coffee blends for retailers—Small
roasters for retail dealers—Model coffee departments—Creating
a coffee trade—Meeting competition—Profits and costs—
Splitting nickels—Figuring costs and profits—A credit policy
for retailers—Premiums for retailers—How to build and hold a
retail coffee business Page 155
CHAPTER XV
BREWING COFFEE IN HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
Analyzing the potential market—The supreme coffee test—Freshly
roasted and freshly ground—Coffee-brewing conclusions—Coffee
urns—Rules for making coffee in hotels and restaurants—
General directions for improving coffee service—How to
operate a successful coffee shop, with sample menus, hints
on equipment and service Page 175
CHAPTER XVI
PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF COFFEE
A statistical study of world production and consumption of
coffee by countries—Coffee in the United States—The trend
of the trade in 1923—Brazil’s coffee valorization Page 197
CHAPTER XVII
COFFEE ADVERTISING
The first coffee advertisement—Evolution of coffee advertising—
Package-coffee advertising—Advertising to the trade—Advertising
by various mediums—Advertising for retailers with ready-made
sample copy—Advertising to the nose—Successful coffee window
displays—Advertising by government propaganda—
Coffee advertising efficiency Page 219
CHAPTER XVIII
COFFEE MAKING IN THE HOME
The importance of correct grinding and brewing—Drip or filter
coffee—Boiled or steeped coffee—Percolated coffee—The
perfect cup of coffee—Some coffee recipes Page 233
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
_Facing page_
Near view of berries of Coffea arabica (frontispiece) iii
Legendary discovery of the coffee drink 1
First advertisement for coffee 6
A coffee house in the time of Charles II 10
Merchants Coffee House in New York 14
Coffea arabica flower and fruit 17
Green and roasted Bogota coffee 25
800,000 coffee trees in bearing 31
Coffee nursery under a bamboo roof 37
Efficient weeding and harrowing at Ribeirao Preto 38
Picking coffee on a well-kept fazenda 43
Coffee drying ground, Sao Paulo 50
Loading coffee aboard ship at Santos 61
Weighing and sacking coffee at Santos 62
Coffee pit in the New York Coffee & Sugar
Exchange 69
Samples of typical roasted coffee beans 81, 86, 90, 98
Modern gas coffee-roasting plant 111
Dumping the roast in a coal roasting plant 118
Some leading trade-marked coffee containers 139
Luhrs, of Poughkeepsie, features freshly roasted
coffee in his window 155
Johnson of Red Oak roasts before the customer 162
One of the coffee kitchens of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel 175
Day and night coffee room of the Rice Hotel, Houston 184
Advertising copy of the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity
Committee 219
Drawing upon history for social-intercourse atmosphere 224
A prize-winning coffee window display 228
Coffee-making devices used in United States 233
Brewing the guest’s coffee in a Mohammedan home 236
Showing how grinding breaks open the oil cells 242
[Illustration: LEGENDARY DISCOVERY OF THE COFFEE DRINK:
KALDI AND HIS DANCING GOATS
From a drawing by a modern French artist]
CHAPTER I
A SHORT HISTORY OF COFFEE
_A brief account of the beginning of coffee
in the Near East—Early legends, persecutions,
first printed references—The introduction of the
beverage into England, France, and Germany—Early
London and Paris coffee houses—The story of the
spread of coffee propagation around the coffee belt
of the world—Early American coffee houses._
Coffee is at least 1,000 years old. It was first mentioned in
literature by Rhazes, a famous Arabian physician, about the year 900;
only Rhazes called it _bunchum_. The early Arabians called the bean and
the tree that bore it _bunn_; the drink, _bunchum_.
Our word “coffee” comes from the Arabic _qahwah_, through the Turkish
_kahveh_, being originally one of the names employed for wine in
Arabic. The word has no connection with the town of Kaffa in Abyssinia,
as many writers have supposed. Its final form in French became _café_;
in German, _kaffee_. The North American Indians knew it as _kaufee_.
Coffee was first a food, then a wine, a medicine, and lastly a
beverage. Its use as a popular beverage dates back 700 years.
_Coffee Was First a Food Ration_
In the beginning, the whole ripe berries, beans, and hulls were crushed
and molded into food balls held in shape with fat. This was about 800
A. D. The Galla, a wandering African tribe, still make use of these
food balls. One of them, of the size of a billiard ball, constitutes
a day’s ration, and sustains them on long marches. The inhabitants of
the island of Groix, off the coast of Brittany, also thrive on a diet
that includes roasted coffee beans. But, however nourishing these
isolated groups may find coffee taken in this way, so far they have no
imitators, and the rest of the world wisely prefers to use it in the
liquid form.
Following its use as a food ration, a kind of aromatic wine was made
in Africa from the fermented juice of the hulls and pulp of the ripe
berries. Next a medicine was made by boiling the dried berries in
water. About 1200, the practice began of making a drink from the dried
hulls alone and boiling in water. Toasting the hulls followed, and
about 1300 it was the custom to roast the dried beans after hulling and
to boil them whole. Grinding in mortars was a later development.
_Same Early Legends_
Sheik Omar, a doctor-priest and a disciple of Sheik Schadheli, the
patron saint and legendary founder of Mocha, quite by chance discovered
coffee as a beverage at Ousab in Arabia in 1258. Omar was in exile
and facing starvation. He was forced to eat certain berries which he
found growing on wild bushes in his Ousab retreat. In this way he
discovered that they were possessed of stimulating—or, as he called
it, magical—properties. Later he tried roasting them and boiling them
in water. He got even better results. Next he prescribed the drink for
those of his former patients who came to visit him, and these carried
back such stories of benefits received that Omar was invited to return
in triumph to Mocha, where a monastery was built in his honor and he
himself was made a saint.
There are several versions of this legend. One ascribes the discovery
of the drink to an Arabian herdsman in upper Egypt, or Abyssinia,
who complained to the abbot of a neighboring monastery that the
goats confined to his care became strangely frolicsome after eating
the berries of wild shrubs found near their feeding grounds. The
abbot tried the berries on himself, and, being astonished at their
exhilarating effects, experimented by boiling them in water and
ordering the decoction served to his monks, who too often fell asleep
over their nightly religious ceremonies. Thereafter the monks found no
difficulty in keeping awake.
About 1300, it is recorded that the coffee drink was a popular
decoction among the churchmen. It was made from the roasted berries,
crushed with a mortar and pestle, the powder being placed in boiling
water and the drink taken down, grounds and all.
About 1454, Sheik Gemalledin, mufti of Aden, having discovered the
virtues of the coffee berry on a journey to Abyssinia, sanctioned
the secular use of coffee in Arabia Felix. It quickly reached Mecca
and Medina. About 1500, the propagation of the plant had spread from
Abyssinia through Arabia and into Ceylon.
_Early Coffee Persecutions_
In 1511, soon after the drink had reached Cairo, and the coffee house
had become a favorite resort, Kair Bey, governor of Mecca, being
outraged by the extent to which the new drink was being consumed by
clergy and laymen, called a consultation of lawyers, physicians, and
leading citizens, and succeeded in browbeating a majority into issuing
an indictment of the beverage, while he issued an edict prohibiting
its use. His master, the sultan of Cairo, ordered it revoked shortly
thereafter, and Kair Bey subsequently came to an inglorious end, being
first exposed as “an extortioner and a public robber” and then slowly
“tortured to death.”
In 1524, the kadi of Mecca tried his hand at closing the coffee houses,
because of disorders, but permitted coffee drinking in private. By
1532, the coffee house had taken root in Damascus and Aleppo. In
1534, a religious fanatic denounced coffee in Cairo, and led a mob
against the coffee houses, many of which were wrecked. The city was
divided into two parties,—for and against coffee. To put an end to
the agitation, the chief judge invited the leading physicians to a
conference, and at the end not only served coffee to all present, but
drank some himself.
In 1554, the first coffee houses were opened in Constantinople by
Shemsi of Damascus and Hekem of Aleppo. Here, too, religious zealots
soon became jealous of their popular appeal, and about 1570 they put
forth the argument that roasted coffee was a kind of charcoal, and, as
the Koran forbade the use of charcoal among the other unsanitary foods,
the use of coffee was against the law of the Koran. The mufti was so
impressed by this that he ruled that coffee was forbidden by the law of
the Prophet.
The prohibition was more honored in the breach than in the observance.
Coffee drinking continued in secret, instead of in the open; and when
Amurath III, about 1580, at the further solicitation of the churchmen,
declared that coffee should be classed as a wine, also forbidden by
Mohammed, and ordered all coffee houses suppressed, the people only
smiled and persisted in their disobedience. The civil officers, finding
it useless to try to destroy the custom, winked at violations of the
law, and, for a consideration, permitted the sale of coffee privately;
so that many Ottoman “speakeasies” sprang up,—places where coffee might
be had behind shut doors, shops where it was sold in back rooms.
This was enough to reestablish the coffee houses by degrees. The
prohibition was repealed _de facto_, if not _de jure_. Then came
a mufti less scrupulous or more knowing than his predecessor, who
declared that coffee was not to be looked upon as coal, and that the
drink made from it was not forbidden by the law. There was a general
renewal of coffee drinking; religious devotees, preachers, lawyers, and
the mufti himself indulging in it, their example being followed by the
whole court and the city.
_First Printed References_
The first printed reference to coffee appeared as _chaube_ in Rauwolf’s
_Travels_, published in German at Frankfort and Lauingen in 1582.
Rauwolf was a German physician and botanist, who made a journey to the
Levant in 1573.
The first authentic account of the origin of coffee was written by the
sheik Abd-al-Kadir, in an Arabian manuscript still preserved in the
Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris.
The first printed reference to coffee in English appeared as _chaoua_
in a note of Paludanus in Linschoten’s _Travels_, translated from the
Dutch and published in London in 1598.
About 1600, coffee cultivation was introduced into southern India by a
Moslem pilgrim, Baba Budan.
The first printed reference to coffee in English, employing the modern
form of the word, appeared in W. Parry’s book, Sherley’s _Travels_, as
_coffe_, in 1601. In 1610, Sir George Sandys in his _Travels_ recorded,
“The Turks sip a drink called _coffa_ (of the berry that it is made of)
in little china dishes, as hot as they can suffer it.” Francis Bacon
also wrote in 1627, “They have in Turkey a drink called _coffa_ made of
a berry of the same name, as black as soot, and of a strong scent. This
drink comforteth the brain and heart and helpeth digestion.” In 1632,
Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, wrote, “The Turks have a drink
called _coffa_, so named from a berry black as soot and as bitter.”
_Coffee Baptized by the Pope_
The news of coffee caused early dissensions in Italy. Because coffee
drinking originated in Mohammedan lands, many churchmen in the 16th
century were concerned about the propriety of permitting its use in
Christendom, denouncing it as an invention of Satan. Discussion arose,
and the disputants appealed to Pope Clement VIII for a decision. The
pope wisely decided to drink some before committing himself.
After imbibing a steaming beaker, according to the much quoted legend,
the pope exclaimed, “Why, this Satan’s drink is so delicious that it
would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it! We shall
fool Satan by baptizing it, and making it a truly Christian beverage.”
This he did, and added the Church’s seal of approval to the waxing
popularity of the harmless and invigorating decoction. Coffee was
introduced into Venice in 1615.
The drink was brought to England by Canopios, a Cretan student at
Oxford, in 1637. A Dutch merchant offered beans from Mocha at public
sale in Amsterdam in 1640, although the drink was introduced into
Holland as early as 1616. Coffee came to France in 1644. In 1645, the
first coffee house was opened in Venice.
_The First London Coffee House_
A Jew named Jacobs opened the first coffee house in England, at Oxford,
in 1650. The first coffee house in London was opened by Pasqua Rosee,
a Greek youth, body servant to Daniel Edwards, a London merchant who
brought the boy back from Smyrna with him. When in the Levant, Mr.
Edwards had acquired the coffee habit. In London, Pasqua was wont to
prepare the beverage for his master daily. The novelty of the drink
caused the Edwards house to be overrun with company, and Edwards, in
self-defense, set the youth up in a shed or tent in St. Michaels Alley,
Cornhill, opposite the church. Here, in the same year, Pasqua Rosee
issued the first advertisement for coffee in English. It was in the
form of a handbill acclaiming “The Vertue of the Coffee Drink.” After
leaving England, Pasqua Rosee went to Holland and opened a coffee house
there.
_First Newspaper Advertisement for Coffee_
The first newspaper advertisement for coffee appeared in the _Publick
Adviser_, London, May 19, 1657. It was as follows:
[Illustration]
The Vertue of the _COFFEE_ Drink.
First publiquely made and sold in England, by _Pasqua Rosee_.
The Grain or Berry called _Coffee_, groweth upon little Trees,
only in the _Deserts of Arabia_.
It is brought from thence, and drunk generally throughout
all the Grand Seigniors Dominions.
It is a simple innocent thing, composed into a Drink, by being
dryed in an Oven, and ground to Powder, and boiled up with Spring
water, and about half a pint of it to be drunk, fasting an hour
before, and not Eating an hour after, and to be taken as hot as
possibly can be endured; the which will never fetch the skin off
the mouth, or raise any Blisters, by reason of that Heat.
The Turks drink at meals and other times, is usually _Water_, and
their Dyet consist; much of _Fruit_; the _Crudities_ whereof are
very much corrected by this Drink.
The quality of this Drink is cold and Dry, and though it be a
Dryer, yet it neither _heats_, nor _inflames_ more then _hot
Posset_.
It so closeth the Orifice of the Stomack, and fortifies the heat
with; it’s very good to help digestion, and therefore of great use
to be bout 3 or 4 a Clock afternoon, as well as in the morning.
It quickens the _Spirits_, and makes the Heart _Lightsome_.
is good against sore Eys, and the better if you hold your Head
o’er it, and take in the Steem that way.
It suppresseth Fumes exceedingly, and therefore good against the
_Head-ach_, and will very much stop any _Defluxion of Rheums_,
that distil from the _Head_ upon the _Stomack_, and so prevent and
help _Consumptions_; and the _Cough of the Lungs_.
It is excellent to prevent and cure the _Dropsy_, _Gout_, and
_Scurvey_.
It is known by experience to be better then any other Drying
Drink for _People in years_, or _Children_ that have any _running
humors_ upon them, as the _Kings Evil_. &c.
It is very good to prevent _Mis-carryings in Child-bearing Women_.
It is a most excellent Remedy against the _Spleen_, _Hypocondriack
Winds_, or the like.
It will prevent _Drowsiness_, and make one fit for busines, if one
have occasion to _Watch_, and therefore you are not to Drink of it
_after Supper_, unless you intend to be _watchful_, for it will
hinder sleep for 3 or 4 hours.
_It is observed that in Turkey, where this is generally drunk,
that they are not trobled with the Stone, Gout, Dropsie, or
Scurvey, and that their Skins are exceeding cleer and white._
It is neither _Laxative_ nor _Restringent_.
[Illustration]
Made and Sold in St. _Michaels Alley_ in _Cornhill_; by _Pasqua
Rosee_, at the Signe of his own Head.
FIRST ADVERTISEMENT FOR COFFEE (1652)
Handbill used by Pasqua, who opened the first coffee house
in London. (Reproduced from the original in the British Museum.)
In Bartholomew Lane on the back side of the Old
Exchange, the drink called Coffee (which is a very
wholesome and Physical drink, having many excellent
vertues), closes the Orifice of the Stomach,
fortifies the heat within, helpeth Digestion,
quickneth the Spirits, maketh the heart lightsom, is
good against Eye-sores, Coughs, or Colds, Rhumes,
Consumptions, Head-ach, Dropsie, Gout, Scurvey, Kings
Evil, and many others is to be sold both in the
morning and at three of the clock in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, in 1656, coffee was subjected to further persecution in
Constantinople, where the grand vizier Kuprili, for political reasons,
suppressed the coffee houses and prohibited the use of coffee. For the
first violation the punishment inflicted was cudgeling; for the second
offense the offender was sewed in a leather bag and thrown into the
Bosporous.
Despite the severe penalties staring them in the face, violations of
the law were plentiful among the people of Constantinople. Venders of
the beverage appeared in the market places with “large copper vessels
with fire under them; and those who had a mind to drink were invited to
step into any neighboring shop where every one was welcome on such an
account.”
Later, Kuprili, having assured himself that the coffee houses were no
longer a menace to his policies, permitted the free use of the beverage
that he had previously forbidden.
At this time to refuse or to neglect to give coffee to their wives was
a legitimate cause for divorce among the Turks. The men made promise
when marrying never to let their wives be without coffee. “That,” says
Fulbert de Monteith, “is perhaps more prudent than to swear fidelity.”
In 1657, coffee appeared in Paris, but it was not served publicly until
introduced by Soliman Aga, the Turkish ambassador, in 1669. He made it
in Turkish style, had it served by black slaves, “on bended knees, in
tiny cups of egg-shell porcelain, and poured out in saucers of gold and
silver, placed on embroidered silk doylies, fringed with gold bullion.”
Naturally, his sumptuous coffee functions became the rage of Paris.
The coffee drink came to North America in 1668. It was first sold in
Boston in 1670.
_Opposition to London Coffee Houses_
Coffee and the coffee houses were fiercely attacked by publicans and
ale-house keepers in London between the Restoration and 1675. A series
of broadsides and tracts were launched against them. They bore such
titles as, “A cup of coffee: or coffee in its colours,” “A Broadside
against coffee, or the marriage of the Turk,” and “The Women’s petition
against coffee,” the latter presenting the argument that coffee made
men as “unfruitful as the deserts whence that unhappy berry is said to
be brought.”
These were ably answered by coffee’s defenders, and the drink continued
to find favor in spite of its detractors.
_Early Parisian Coffee Houses_
The beverage was introduced into Germany in 1670, and the next year
the first coffee house in France was opened in Marseilles. Pascal,
an Armenian, opened the first coffee house in Paris, at the Fair of
St. Germain, in 1672. The progenitor of the real French café was the
Procope, opened in Paris in 1689 by Francois Procope, a lemonade vender
of Florence.
The coffee house spread rapidly in France. In the reign of Louis XV,
there were over 600 cafés in Paris. These became famous: Tour d’Argent,
the Royal Drummer, Café Foy, Régence, Momus, Café de Paris, Voisins,
Café de la Paix, and Tortoni. At the close of the 18th century there
were over 800 cafés in Paris; in 1843, there were over 3,000. They
played an important part in the French Revolution, in the development
of French literature and of the stage. Among the notables that
frequented them were Voltaire, Rousseau, Fontenelle, Beaumarchais,
Diderot, Desmoulins, Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, de Musset, Victor
Hugo, Gautier, Talleyrand, Marat, Robespierre, Danton, and Rossini.
While it is recorded that coffee made slow progress with the court of
Louis XIV, the next king, Louis XV, to please his mistress du Barry,
gave it a tremendous vogue. It is related that he spent $15,000 a year
for coffee for his daughters.
_Coffee Houses Suppressed_
In 1675, Charles II of England issued a proclamation to close all
London coffee houses as places of sedition. By that time there were
hundreds of them, and they were known as penny universities. The king’s
proclamation was so unpopular in nearly all quarters that it stands
today as one of the worst political blunders in history. Upon petition
of the coffee traders, the order was revoked eleven days after issue.
_Some Famous Coffee Houses_
The London coffee houses of the 17th and 18th centuries were centers
of wit and learning. They were referred to as the “penny universities”
because they were great schools of conversation, and the entrance fee
was only a penny. Twopence was the usual price of a dish of coffee or
tea, this charge also covering newspapers and lights. Quoting a poem of
the period:
So great a universitie
I think there ne’re was any,
In which you may a Scholar be
For spending of a penny.
By 1715, there were 2,000 coffee houses in London. Every profession,
trade, class, and party had its coffee house. Men had their coffee
houses as now they have their clubs; sometimes contented with one,
sometimes belonging to three or four. Johnson, for instance, was
connected with St. James’s, the Turk’s Head, the Bedford, Peele’s,
besides the taverns which he frequented. Addison and Steele used
Button’s; Swift, Button’s, the Smyrna, and St. James’s; Dryden, Will’s;
Pope, Will’s and Button’s; Goldsmith, the St. James’s and the Chapter;
Fielding, the Bedford; Hogarth, the Bedford and Slaughter’s; Sheridan,
the Piazza; Thurlow, Nando’s.
Among the famous English coffee houses of the 17th-18th century period
were St. James’s, Will’s, Garraway’s, White’s, Slaughter’s, the
Grecian, Button’s, Lloyd’s, Tom’s, and Don Saltero’s.
St. James’s was a Whig house frequented by members of Parliament, with
a fair sprinkling of literary stars. Garraway’s catered to the gentry
of the period, many of whom naturally had Tory proclivities.
One of the notable coffee houses of Queen Anne’s reign was Button’s.
Here Addison could be found almost every afternoon and evening, along
with Steele, Davenant, Carey, Philips, and other kindred minds. Pope
was a member of the same coffee house club for a year, but his inborn
irascibility eventually led him to drop out of it.
At Button’s, a lion’s head, designed by Hogarth after the Lion of
Venice, “a proper emblem of knowledge and action, being all head and
paws,” was set up to receive letters and papers for the _Guardian_.
The _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_ were born in the coffee house, and
probably English prose would never have received the impetus given it
by the essays of Addison and Steele had it not been for coffee-house
associations.
Pope’s famous _Rape of the Lock_ grew out of coffee-house gossip. The
poem itself contains one charming passage on coffee:
For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned;
The berries crackle and the mill turns round;
On shining altars of japan they raise
The silver lamp: the fiery spirits blaze:
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,
While China’s earth receives the smoking tide.
At once they gratify their scent and taste,
And frequent cups prolong the rich repast.
Straight hover round the fair her airy band;
Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned:
Some o’er her lap their careful plumes displayed,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.
Coffee (which makes the politician wise,
And see through all things with his half-shut eyes)
Sent up in vapors to the baron’s brain
New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.
[Illustration: A COFFEE HOUSE IN THE TIME OF CHARLES II
From a woodcut of 1674]
Another frequenter of the coffee houses of London, when he had the
money to do so, was Daniel Defoe, whose _Robinson Crusoe_ was the
precursor of the English novel. Henry Fielding, one of the greatest
of all English novelists, loved the life of the more bohemian coffee
houses, and was, in fact, induced to write his first great novel,
_Joseph Andrews_, through coffee-house criticisms of Richardson’s
_Pamela_.
Other frequenters of the coffee houses of the period were Thomas Gray
and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Garrick was often to be seen at Tom’s in
Birchin Lane, where also Chatterton might have been found on many an
evening before his untimely death.
The second half of the 18th century was covered by the reigns of the
Georges. The coffee houses were still an important factor in London
life, but were influenced somewhat by the development of gardens in
which were served tea, chocolate, and other drinks, as well as coffee.
At the coffee houses themselves, while coffee remained the favorite
beverage, the proprietors, in the hope of increasing their patronage,
began to serve wine, ale, and other liquors. This seems to have been
the first step toward the decay of the coffee house.
The coffee houses, however, continued to be the centers of intellectual
life. When Samuel Johnson and David Garrick came together to London,
literature was temporarily in a bad way, and the hack writers dwelt in
Grub Street.
It was not until after Johnson had met with some success, and had
established the first of his coffee-house clubs at the Turk’s Head,
that literature again became a fashionable profession.
This really famous literary club met at the Turk’s Head from 1763 to
1783. Among the most notable members were Johnson, the arbiter of
English prose; Oliver Goldsmith; Boswell, the biographer; Burke, the
orator; Garrick, the actor; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, the painter. Among
the later members were Gibbon, the historian, and Adam Smith, the
political economist.
Certain it is that during the sway of the English coffee house, and at
least partly through its influence, England produced a better prose
literature, as embodied alike in her essays, literary criticisms, and
novels, than she ever had produced before.
The advent of the pleasure garden brought coffee out into the open
in England; and one of the reasons why gardens, such as Ranelagh and
Vauxhall, began to be more frequented than the coffee houses was that
they were popular resorts for women as well as for men. All kinds of
beverages were served in them, and soon the women began to favor tea as
an afternoon drink. At least, the great development in the use of tea
dates from this period, and many of these resorts called themselves tea
gardens.
After the Turks failed in their attack on Vienna in 1683, Kolschitzky,
a hero of the siege, was given the supplies of green coffee which they
left in their flight, and with them he opened the first coffee house in
Vienna.
_Early Coffee Propagation_
In 1696 and again in 1699, the Dutch introduced the propagation of
coffee into Java. The same year the first coffee house (the King’s
Arms) was opened in New York.
“Java” coffee seeds were received at the Amsterdam Botanical Gardens
in 1706, and in 1714 a plant raised from them was presented to Louis
XIV and by him nurtured in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. It was
a seedling of this plant that Captain Gabriel De Clieu carried to
Martinique in 1723, sharing his drinking water with it on a long voyage.
In 1715, coffee cultivation was first introduced into Haiti and Santo
Domingo. Later came hardier plants from Martinique. In 1715-17,
the French Company of the Indies introduced the cultivation of the
plant into the isle of Bourbon (now Réunion) by a ship captain named
Dufougeret-Grenier from St. Malo. It did so well that nine years later
the island began to export coffee.
The Dutch brought the cultivation of coffee to Surinam in 1718.
The first coffee plantation in Brazil was started at Pará in 1723
with plants brought from French Guiana, but it was not a success.
The English brought the plant to Jamaica in 1730. In 1740, Spanish
missionaries introduced coffee cultivation into the Philippines from
Java. In 1748, Don José Antonio Gelabert introduced coffee into Cuba,
bringing the seed from Santo Domingo. In 1750, the Dutch extended the
cultivation of the plant to the Celebes. Coffee was introduced into
Guatemala about 1750-60. The intensive cultivation in Brazil dates from
the efforts begun in the Portuguese colonies in Pará and Amazonas in
1752. Porto Rico began the cultivation of coffee about 1755. In 1760,
João Alberto Castello Branco brought to Rio de Janeiro a coffee tree
from Goa, Portuguese India. The news spread that the soil and climate
of Brazil were particularly adapted to the cultivation of coffee.
Molke, a Belgian monk, presented some seeds to the Capuchin monastery
at Rio in 1774. Later, the bishop of Rio, Joachim Bruno, became a
patron of the plant and encouraged its propagation in Rio, Minas,
Espirito Santo, and São Paulo. The Spanish voyager, Don Francisco
Xavier Navarro, is credited with the introduction of coffee into Costa
Rica from Cuba in 1779. In Venezuela, the industry was started near
Caracas by a priest, José Antonio Mohedano, with seed brought from
Martinique in 1784.
Coffee cultivation in Mexico began in 1790, the seed being brought from
the West Indies. In 1817, Don Juan Antonio Gomez instituted intensive
cultivation in the state of Vera Cruz. In 1825 the cultivation of
the plant was begun in the Hawaiian Islands with seeds from Rio de
Janeiro. The English began to cultivate coffee in India in 1840. In
1852, coffee cultivation was begun in Salvador with plants brought from
Cuba. In 1878, the English began the propagation of coffee in British
Central Africa, but it was not until 1901 that coffee cultivation was
introduced into British East Africa from Réunion. In 1887, the French
introduced the plant into Tonkin, Indo-China.
_Frederick, the Great Beer Drinker_
Germany also had its attempts at coffee suppression. Frederick the
Great, of Prussia, had a violent scorn for any beverage so innocuous as
coffee—until he found in its increasing popularity, despite his tirades
and ukases against it, a comfortable source of revenue to the crown.
Following is the text of Frederick’s celebrated _Coffee and Beer
Manifesto_ issued September 13, 1777, a curiosity:
It is disgusting to notice the increase in the
quantity of coffee used by my subjects and the amount
of money that goes out of the country in consequence.
Everybody is using coffee. If possible, this must be
prevented. My people must drink beer. His Majesty was
brought up on beer, and so were his ancestors and
his officers. Many battles have been fought and won
by soldiers nourished on beer; and the king does not
believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be depended
upon to endure hardship or to beat his enemies in
case of the occurrence of another war.
Later, in 1781, Frederick established state coffee-roasting plants and
made the coffee business a government monopoly. The common people were
forbidden to roast their own coffee. “Coffee smellers” were employed to
seek out violations of the law. In 1784, Maximilian Frederick, elector
of Cologne, prohibited the use of coffee except by the well-to-do. The
decree failed of its purpose.
Holland early adopted the coffee house, and the Dutch were the pioneer
coffee traders. History records no intolerance of coffee in Holland.
[Illustration: MERCHANTS COFFEE HOUSE IN NEW YORK (AT THE RIGHT) AS IT
APPEARED 1772-1804
The original coffee house of this name was opened on the northwest
corner of Wall and Water Streets about 1737, and was moved to the
southeast corner in 1772.]
If Vienna helped make coffee famous, London and Paris gave us the
last word in coffee houses. The two most picturesque chapters in the
history of coffee have to do with the period of the old London and
Paris coffee houses of the 17th and 18th centuries. Much of the poetry
and romance of coffee centers around this time. The London coffee house
was, however, a male institution; indeed, out of it came the solid
British club. The Parisian coffee house, on the other hand, was, like
everything French, distinctly Gallic. Women were welcome, and it is
not to be wondered that the French adaptation of the oriental coffee
house became in time a much more esthetic and artistic institution,—the
unique French café.
_Early American Coffee Houses_
The early history of coffee in the United States centers around the
coffee houses of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. These were
patterned largely after the English prototype. Gradually they became
taverns, and not infrequently evolved into hotels. In Colonial days,
Americans were also large consumers of tea, and, indeed, were in a
fair way to become a nation of tea drinkers, when King George III
perpetrated that fatal blunder known as the Stamp Act. The Boston Tea
Party of 1773 cast the die for coffee. It became a patriotic duty to
drink something else, and coffee didn’t have to come from England. Thus
was started a national habit which made coffee our national drink. So,
when the coffee house disappeared, the coffee drink was found to be
strongly intrenched in the homes of the people, and it has stayed there
ever since,—“King of the American breakfast table.”
In Boston, the London, Crown, and the Gutteridge were the best known
early coffee houses. Later came the King’s Head, Indian Queen, and
Green Dragon. The Exchange Coffee House, erected in 1808, was a
seven-story skyscraper, and was probably the largest and most costly
commercial coffee house ever built. It was a center of marine
intelligence, like Lloyd’s of London.
The burghers of New Amsterdam began to substitute coffee for “must,” or
beer, in 1668. In 1683, the year following William Penn’s settlement
on the Delaware, we find him buying supplies of coffee in the New York
market, and paying for them at the rate of 18 shillings and 9 pence
(about $4.68) a pound.
The King’s Arms (1696) was the first coffee house in New York. It was
followed by the historic Merchants Coffee house (sometimes called “the
birthplace of our Union”), the Exchange, Whitehall, Burns, and Tontine
houses.
The coffee houses of early Philadelphia loom large in the history
of the city and the republic. Picturesque in themselves, with their
distinctive colonial architecture, their associations were also
romantic. Many a civic, sociological, and industrial reform came into
existence in the low-ceilinged, sanded-floor main rooms of the city’s
early coffee houses. One of those reforms was the ultimate abandonment
of the public slave auctions which were held regularly on a platform
in the street before the second London coffee house, kept by William
Bradford, the printer.
There is this to be remarked in closing this brief sketch of the early
history of coffee: In Europe and in America the houses where the
coffee drink was first served became forums of democracy and temples
of free speech. Wherever introduced, coffee has spelled revolution. It
ushered in the Commonwealth in England, it was first aid to the French
Revolution, and it undoubtedly helped make the American republic.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: COFFEA ARABICA (COSTA RICA) FLOWER AND FRUIT]