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_All About
Coffee_
[Illustration]
ALL ABOUT COFFEE
[Illustration: COFFEE BRANCHES, FLOWERS, AND FRUIT
SHOWING THE BERRY IN ITS VARIOUS RIPENING STAGES FROM FLOWER TO CHERRY
(Inset: 1, green bean; 2, silver skin; 3, parchment; 4, fruit pulp.)
Painted from life by Blendon Campbell]
_ALL ABOUT
COFFEE_
_By_
_WILLIAM H. UKERS, M.A._
_Editor_
THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL COMPANY
1922
COPYRIGHT 1922
BY
THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL COMPANY
NEW YORK
_International Copyright Secured_
_All Rights Reserved in U.S.A. and
Foreign Countries_
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
_To My Wife_
_HELEN DE GRAFF UKERS_
PREFACE
Seventeen years ago the author of this work made his first trip abroad
to gather material for a book on coffee. Subsequently he spent a year in
travel among the coffee-producing countries. After the initial surveys,
correspondents were appointed to make researches in the principal
European libraries and museums; and this phase of the work continued
until April, 1922. Simultaneous researches were conducted in American
libraries and historical museums up to the time of the return of the
final proofs to the printer in June, 1922.
Ten years ago the sorting and classification of the material was begun.
The actual writing of the manuscript has extended over four years.
Among the unique features of the book are the Coffee Thesaurus; the
Coffee Chronology, containing 492 dates of historical importance; the
Complete Reference Table of the Principal Kinds of Coffee Grown in the
World; and the Coffee Bibliography, containing 1,380 references.
The most authoritative works on this subject have been Robinson's _The
Early History of Coffee Houses in England_, published in London in 1893;
and Jardin's _Le Café_, published in Paris in 1895. The author wishes to
acknowledge his indebtedness to both for inspiration and guidance. Other
works, Arabian, French, English, German, and Italian, dealing with
particular phases of the subject, have been laid under contribution; and
where this has been done, credit is given by footnote reference. In all
cases where it has been possible to do so, however, statements of
historical facts have been verified by independent research. Not a few
items have required months of tracing to confirm or to disprove.
There has been no serious American work on coffee since Hewitt's
_Coffee: Its History, Cultivation and Uses_, published in 1872; and
Thurber's _Coffee from Plantation to Cup_, published in 1881. Both of
these are now out of print, as is also Walsh's _Coffee: Its History,
Classification and Description_, published in 1893.
The chapters on The Chemistry of Coffee and The Pharmacology of Coffee
have been prepared under the author's direction by Charles W. Trigg,
industrial fellow of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.
The author wishes to acknowledge, with thanks, valuable assistance and
numerous courtesies by the officials of the following institutions:
British Museum, and Guildhall Museum, London; Bibliothéque Nationale,
Paris; Congressional Library, Washington; New York Public Library,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New York Historical Society, New York;
Boston Public Library, and Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Smithsonian
Institution, Washington; State Historical Museum, Madison, Wis.; Maine
Historical Society, Portland; Chicago Historical Society; New Jersey
Historical Society, Newark; Harvard University Library; Essex Institute,
Salem, Mass.; Peabody Institute, Baltimore.
Thanks and appreciation are due also to:
Charles James Jackson, London, for permission to quote from his
_Illustrated History of English Plate_;
Francis Hill Bigelow, author; and The Macmillan Company, publishers, for
permission to reproduce illustrations from _Historic Silver of the
Colonies_;
H.G. Dwight, author; and Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers, for
permission to quote from _Constantinople, Old and New_, and from the
article on "Turkish Coffee Houses" in _Scribner's Magazine_;
Walter G. Peter, Washington, D.C., for permission to photograph and
reproduce pictures of articles in the Peter collection at the United
States National Museum;
Mary P. Hamlin and George Arliss, authors, and George C. Tyler,
producer, for permission to reproduce the Exchange coffee-house setting
of the first act of _Hamilton_;
Judge A.T. Clearwater, Kingston N.Y.; R.T. Haines Halsey, and Francis P.
Garvan, New York, for permission to publish pictures of historic silver
coffee pots in their several collections;
The secretaries of the American Chambers of Commerce in London, Paris,
and Berlin;
Charles Cooper, London, for his splendid co-operation and for his
special contribution to chapter XXXV;
Alonzo H. De Graff, London, for his invaluable aid and unflagging zeal
in directing the London researches;
To the Coffee Trade Association, London, for assistance rendered;
To G.J. Lethem, London, for his translations from the Arabic;
Geoffrey Sephton, Vienna, for his nice co-operation;
L.P. de Bussy of the Koloniaal Institute, Amsterdam, Holland, for
assistance rendered;
Burton Holmes and Blendon R. Campbell, New York, for courtesies;
John Cotton Dana, Newark, N.J., for assistance rendered;
Charles H. Barnes, Medford, Mass., for permission to publish the
photograph of Peregrine White's Mayflower mortar and pestle;
Andrew L. Winton, Ph.D., Wilton, Conn., for permission to quote from his
_The Microscopy of Vegetable Foods_ in the chapter on The Microscopy of
Coffee and to reprint Prof. J. Moeller's and Tschirch and Oesterle's
drawings;
F. Hulton Frankel, Ph.D., Edward M. Frankel, Ph.D., and Arno Viehoever,
for their assistance in preparing the chapters on The Botany of Coffee
and The Microscopy of Coffee;
A.L. Burns, New York, for his assistance in the correction and revision
of chapters XXV, XXVI, XXVII, and XXXIV, and for much historical
information supplied in connection with chapters XXX and XXXI;
Edward Aborn, New York, for his help in the revision of chapter XXXVI;
George W. Lawrence, former president, and T.S.B. Nielsen, president, of
the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, for their assistance in the
revision of chapter XXXI;
Helio Lobo, Brazilian consul general, New York; Sebastião Sampaio,
commercial attaché of the Brazilian Embassy, Washington; and Th.
Langgaard de Menezes, American representative of the Sociedade Promotora
da Defeza do Café;
Felix Coste, secretary and manager, the National Coffee Roasters
Association; and C.B. Stroud, superintendent, the New York Coffee and
Sugar Exchange, for information supplied and assistance rendered in the
revision of several chapters;
F.T. Holmes, New York, for his help in the compilation of chronological
and descriptive data on coffee-roasting machinery;
Walter Chester, New York, for critical comments on chapter XXVIII.
The author is especially indebted to the following, who in many ways
have contributed to the successful compilation of the Complete Reference
Table in chapter XXIV, and of those chapters having to do with the early
history and development of the green coffee and the wholesale
coffee-roasting trades in the United States:
George S. Wright, Boston; A.E. Forbes, William Fisher, Gwynne Evans,
Jerome J. Schotten, and the late Julius J. Schotten, St. Louis; James H.
Taylor, William Bayne, Jr., A.J. Dannemiller, B.A. Livierato, S.A.
Schonbrunn, Herbert Wilde, A.C. Fitzpatrick, Charles Meehan, Clarence
Creighton, Abram Wakeman, A.H. Davies, Joshua Walker, Fred P. Gordon,
Alex. H. Purcell, George W. Vanderhoef, Col. William P. Roome, W. Lee
Simmonds, Herman Simmonds, W.H. Aborn, B. Lahey, John C. Loudon, J.R.
Westfal, Abraham Reamer, R.C. Wilhelm, C.H. Stewart, and the late August
Haeussler, New York; John D. Warfield, Ezra J. Warner, S.O. Blair, and
George D. McLaughlin, Chicago; W.H. Harrison, James Heekin, and Charles
Lewis, Cincinnati; Albro Blodgett and A.M. Woolson, Toledo; R.V.
Engelhard and Lee G. Zinsmeister, Louisville; E.A. Kahl, San Francisco;
S. Jackson, New Orleans; Lewis Sherman, Milwaukee; Howard F. Boardman,
Hartford; A.H. Devers, Portland, Ore.; W. James Mahood, Pittsburgh;
William B. Harris, East Orange, N.J.
New York, June 17, 1922.
[Illustration]
FOREWORD
_Some introductory remarks on the lure of coffee, its place in a
rational dietary, its universal psychological appeal, its use and
abuse_
Civilization in its onward march has produced only three important
non-alcoholic beverages--the extract of the tea plant, the extract of
the cocoa bean, and the extract of the coffee bean.
Leaves and beans--these are the vegetable sources of the world's
favorite non-alcoholic table-beverages. Of the two, the tea leaves lead
in total amount consumed; the coffee beans are second; and the cocoa
beans are a distant third, although advancing steadily. But in
international commerce the coffee beans occupy a far more important
position than either of the others, being imported into non-producing
countries to twice the extent of the tea leaves. All three enjoy a
world-wide consumption, although not to the same extent in every nation;
but where either the coffee bean or the tea leaf has established itself
in a given country, the other gets comparatively little attention, and
usually has great difficulty in making any advance. The cocoa bean, on
the other hand, has not risen to the position of popular favorite in any
important consuming country, and so has not aroused the serious
opposition of its two rivals.
Coffee is universal in its appeal. All nations do it homage. It has
become recognized as a human necessity. It is no longer a luxury or an
indulgence; it is a corollary of human energy and human efficiency.
People love coffee because of its two-fold effect--the pleasurable
sensation and the increased efficiency it produces.
Coffee has an important place in the rational dietary of all the
civilized peoples of earth. It is a democratic beverage. Not only is it
the drink of fashionable society, but it is also a favorite beverage of
the men and women who do the world's work, whether they toil with brain
or brawn. It has been acclaimed "the most grateful lubricant known to
the human machine," and "the most delightful taste in all nature."
No "food drink" has ever encountered so much opposition as coffee. Given
to the world by the church and dignified by the medical profession,
nevertheless it has had to suffer from religious superstition and
medical prejudice. During the thousand years of its development it has
experienced fierce political opposition, stupid fiscal restrictions,
unjust taxes, irksome duties; but, surviving all of these, it has
triumphantly moved on to a foremost place in the catalog of popular
beverages.
But coffee is something more than a beverage. It is one of the world's
greatest adjuvant foods. There are other auxiliary foods, but none that
excels it for palatability and comforting effects, the psychology of
which is to be found in its unique flavor and aroma.
Men and women drink coffee because it adds to their sense of well-being.
It not only smells good and tastes good to all mankind, heathen or
civilized, but all respond to its wonderful stimulating properties. The
chief factors in coffee goodness are the caffein content and the
caffeol. Caffein supplies the principal stimulant. It increases the
capacity for muscular and mental work without harmful reaction. The
caffeol supplies the flavor and the aroma--that indescribable Oriental
fragrance that wooes us through the nostrils, forming one of the
principal elements that make up the lure of coffee. There are several
other constituents, including certain innocuous so-called caffetannic
acids, that, in combination with the caffeol, give the beverage its rare
gustatory appeal.
The year 1919 awarded coffee one of its brightest honors. An American
general said that coffee shared with bread and bacon the distinction of
being one of the three nutritive essentials that helped win the World
War for the Allies. So this symbol of human brotherhood has played a not
inconspicuous part in "making the world safe for democracy." The new
age, ushered in by the Peace of Versailles and the Washington
Conference, has for its hand-maidens temperance and self-control. It is
to be a world democracy of right-living and clear thinking; and among
its most precious adjuncts are coffee, tea, and cocoa--because these
beverages must always be associated with rational living, with greater
comfort, and with better cheer.
Like all good things in life, the drinking of coffee may be abused.
Indeed, those having an idiosyncratic susceptibility to alkaloids should
be temperate in the use of tea, coffee, or cocoa. In every
high-tensioned country there is likely to be a small number of people
who, because of certain individual characteristics, can not drink coffee
at all. These belong to the abnormal minority of the human family. Some
people can not eat strawberries; but that would not be a valid reason
for a general condemnation of strawberries. One may be poisoned, says
Thomas A. Edison, from too much food. Horace Fletcher was certain that
over-feeding causes all our ills. Over-indulgence in meat is likely to
spell trouble for the strongest of us. Coffee is, perhaps, less often
abused than wrongly accused. It all depends. A little more tolerance!
Trading upon the credulity of the hypochondriac and the
caffein-sensitive, in recent years there has appeared in America and
abroad a curious collection of so-called coffee substitutes. They are
"neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring." Most of them have been
shown by official government analyses to be sadly deficient in food
value--their only alleged virtue. One of our contemporary attackers of
the national beverage bewails the fact that no palatable hot drink has
been found to take the place of coffee. The reason is not hard to find.
There can be no substitute for coffee. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley has ably
summed up the matter by saying, "A substitute should be able to perform
the functions of its principal. A substitute to a war must be able to
fight. A bounty-jumper is not a substitute."
It has been the aim of the author to tell the whole coffee story for the
general reader, yet with the technical accuracy that will make it
valuable to the trade. The book is designed to be a work of useful
reference covering all the salient points of coffee's origin,
cultivation, preparation, and development, its place in the world's
commerce and in a rational dietary.
Good coffee, carefully roasted and properly brewed, produces a natural
beverage that, for tonic effect, can not be surpassed, even by its
rivals, tea and cocoa. Here is a drink that ninety-seven percent of
individuals find harmless and wholesome, and without which life would be
drab indeed--a pure, safe, and helpful stimulant compounded in nature's
own laboratory, and one of the chief joys of life!
CONTENTS
A COFFEE THESAURUS
Encomiums and descriptive phrases applied to the plant, the berry, and the
beverage Page XXVII
THE EVOLUTION OF A CUP OF COFFEE
Showing the various steps through which the bean passes from plantation to
cup Page XXIX
CHAPTER I
DEALLING WITH THE ETYMOLOGY OF COFFEE
Origin and translation of the word from the Arabian into various
languages--Views of many writers Page 1