Music is much more common. There are those, to be sure, who find no

music in the sounds poured forth oftenest by a gramophone, often by

a pair of gypsies with a flaring pipe and two small gourd drums,

and sometimes by an orchestra so-called of the fine lute--a company

of musicians on a railed dais who sing long songs while they play

on stringed instruments of strange curves. For myself I know too

little of music to tell what relation the recurrent cadences of

those songs and their broken rhythms may bear to the antique modes.

But I can listen, as long as musicians will perform, to those

infinite repetitions, that insistent sounding of the minor key. It

pleases me to fancy there a music come from far away--from unknown

river gorges, from camp-fires glimmering on great plains. Does not

such darkness breathe through it, such melancholy, such haunting of

elusive airs? There are flashes too of light, of song, the playing

of shepherd's pipes, the swoop of horsemen and sudden outcries of

savagery. But the note to which it all comes back is the monotone

of a primitive life, like the day-long beat of camel bells. And

more than all, it is the mood of Asia, so rarely penetrated, which

is neither lightness or despair.

[Illustration: STREET COFFEE VENDER IN THE LEVANT, 1714]

There are seasons in the year when these various forms of

entertainment abound more than at others, as Ramazan and the two

Bairams. Throughout the month of Ramazan the purely Turkish

coffee-houses are closed in the daytime, since the pleasures which

they minister may not then be indulged in; but they are open all

night. It is during that one month of the year that Karaghieuz, the

Turkish shadow-show, may be seen in a few of the larger

coffee-shops. The Bairams are two festivals of three and four days

respectively, the former of which celebrates the close of Ramazan,

while the latter corresponds in certain respects to the Jewish

Passover. Dancing is a particular feature of the coffee-houses in

Bairam. The Kurds, who carry the burdens of Constantinople on their

backs, are above all other men given to this form of

exercise--though the Lazzes, the boatmen, vie with them. One of

these dark tribesmen plays a little violin like a pochelle, or two

of them perform on a pipe and a big drum, while the others dance

round them in a circle, sometimes till they drop from fatigue. The

weird music and the picturesque costumes and movements of the

dancers make the spectacle one to be remembered.

Christian coffee-houses also have their own festal seasons. These

coincide in general with the festivals of the church. But every

quarter has its patron saint, the saint of the local church or of

the local holy well, whose feast is celebrated by a three-day

_panayiri_. The street is dressed with flags and strings of colored

paper, tables and chairs line the sidewalk, and libations are

poured forth in honor of the holy person commemorated. For this

reason, and because of the more volatile character of the Greek,

the general note of his merrymaking is louder than that of the

Turk. One may even see the scandalous spectacle of men and women

dancing together at a Greek _panayiri_. The instrument which sets

the key of these orgies is the _lanterna_, a species of hand-organ

peculiar to Constantinople. It is a hand-piano rather, of a loud

and cheerful voice, whose Eurasian harmonies are enlivened by a

frequent clash of bells.

What first made coffee-houses suspicious to those in authority,

however, is their true resource--the advantages they offer for

meeting one's kind, for social converse and the contemplation of

life. Hence it must be that they have so happy a tact for locality.

They seek shade, pleasant corners, open squares, the prospect of

water or wide landscapes. In Constantinople they enjoy an infinite

choice of site, so huge is the extent of that city, so broken by

hill and sea, so varied in its spectacle of life. The commonest

type of city coffee-room looks out upon the passing world from

under a grape-vine or a climbing wistaria.

[Illustration: A COFFEE HOUSE IN SYRIA--AFTER JARDIN]

Coffee-houses of distinction are to be found also in the Place of the

Pines overlooking the Marble Sea, on Giant's Mountain, in the Landing

Place of the Man-slayer, and along the rivers that flow into the Golden

Horn.

Originally the Turkish method of preparing coffee was the Arabian

method, and it is so described by Mr. Fellows in his _Excursions through

Asia Minor_:

Each cup is made separately, the little saucepan or ladle in which

it is prepared being about an inch wide and two deep; this is more

than half filled with coffee, finely pounded with a pestle and

mortar, and then filled up with water; after being placed for a few

seconds on the fire, the contents are poured, or rather shaken, out

(being much thicker than chocolate) without the addition of cream

or sugar, into a china cup of the size and shape of half an

egg-shell, which is inclosed in one of ornamented metal for

convenience of holding in the hand.

Later, the Turks sought to improve the method by adding sugar (a

concession to the European sweet tooth) during the boiling process. The

improved Turkish recipe is as follows:

First boil the water. For two cups of the beverage add three lumps

of sugar and return the boiler to the fire. Add two teaspoonfuls of

powdered coffee, stirring well and let the pot boil up four times.

Between each boiling the pot is to be removed from the fire and the

bottom tapped gently until the froth on the top subsides. After the

last boiling pour the coffee first into one cup and then the other,

so as to evenly divide the froth.

In Syria and Palestine the Turkish-Arabian methods are followed. The

brazen dippers, or _ibriks_, are used for boiling.

[Illustration: CAFETAN

Oriental coffee-house keeper's costume]

In the Near East, coffee manners and customs are much the same today as

they were fifty or even one hundred years ago. Witness Damascus. The

following pen picture of the cafés in this ancient city was written in

1836 to accompany the drawing by Bartlett and Purser, which is

reproduced here; but it might have been written in 1922, so slight have

been the changes in the setting or the spirit of the original coffee

house that Shemsi first brought to Constantinople from Damascus in

1554.[370]

[Illustration: STREET COFFEE SERVICE IN CONSTANTINOPLE]

The Cafés of the kind represented in the plate are, perhaps, the

greatest luxury that a stranger finds in Damascus. Gardens,

kiosques, fountains, and groves are abundant around every Eastern

capital: but Cafés on the very bosom of a rapid river, and bathed

by its waves, are peculiar to this ancient city: they are formed so

as to exclude the rays of the sun, while they admit the breeze; the

light roof is supported by slender rows of pillars, and the

building is quite open on every side.

A few of these houses are situated in the skirts of the town, on

one of the streams, where the eye rests on the luxuriant vegetation

of garden and wood: others are in the heart of the city: a flight

of steps conducts to them from the sultry street, and it is

delightful to pass in a few moments from the noisy, shadeless

thoroughfare, where you see only mean gateways and the gable-ends

of edifices, to a cool, grateful, calm place of rest and

refreshment, where you can muse and meditate in ease and luxury,

and feel at every moment the rich breeze from the river. In two or

three instances, a light wooden bridge leads to the platform, close

to which, and almost out of it, one or two large and noble trees

lift the canopy of their spreading branches and leaves, more

welcome at noonday than the roofs of fretted gold in the "Arabian

Nights." The high pavilion roof and the pillars are all constructed

of wood: the floor is of wood, and sometimes of earth, and is

regularly watered, and raised only a few inches above the level of

the stream, which rushes by at the feet of the customer, which it

almost bathes, as he sips his coffee or sherbet. Innumerable small

seats cover the floor, and you take one of these, and place it in

the position you like best.

Perhaps you wish to sit apart from the crowd, just under the shadow

of the tree, or in some favourite corner where you can smoke, and

contemplate the motley guests, formed into calm and solemn groups,

who wish to hold no communion with the Giaour. There is ample food

here for the observer of character, costume and pretension: the

tradesman, the mechanic, the soldier, the gentleman, the dandy, the

grave old man, looking wise on the past and dimly on the future:

the hadge, in his green turban, vain of his journey to Mecca, and

drawing a long bow in his tales and adventures: the long straight

pipe, the hookah with its soft curling tube and glass vase, are in

request: but the poorer argille is most commonly used.

From sunrise to set, these houses are never empty: we were

accustomed to visit one of them early every morning, before

breakfast, and very many persons were already there: yet this

"balmy hour of prime" was the most silent and solitary of the whole

day; it was the coolest also: the rising sun was glancing redly on

the waters: there was as yet no heat in the air, and the little

cup of Mocha coffee and the pipe were handed by an attendant as

soon as the stranger was seated. His favourite Café was the one

represented in the plate: the river is the Barrada, the ancient

Pharpar. Never was the sound of many waters so pleasant to the ear

as in Damascus: the air is filled with the sound, with which no

clash of tongues, rolling of wheels, march of footman or horsemen,

mingle: the numerous groups who love to resort here are silent half

the time; and when they do converse, their voice is often "low,

like that of a familiar spirit," or in short grave sentences that

pass quickly from the ear.

[Illustration: A RIVERSIDE CAFÉ IN DAMASCUS, NINETEENTH CENTURY

After Bartlett and Purser]

Yet much, very much of the excitement of the life of the Turk in

this city, is absorbed in these coffee-houses: they are his opera,

his theatre, his conversazione: soon after his eyes are unclosed

from sleep, he thinks of his Café, and forthwith bends his way

there: during the day he looks forward to pass the evening on the

loved floor, to look on the waters, on the stars above, and on the

faces of his friends; and at the moonlight falling on all. Mahomet

committed a grievous error in the omission of coffee-houses, in a

future state: had he ever seen those of Damascus, he would surely

have given them a place on his rivers of Paradise, persuaded that

true believers must feel a melancholy void without them.

There is no ornament or richness about these houses: no sofas,

mirrors, or drapery, save that afforded by a few evergreens and

creepers: the famous silks and damasks of Damascus have no place

here; all is plain and homely; yet no Parisian Café, with its

beautiful mirrors, gilding, and luxuriousness, is so welcome to the

imagination and senses of the traveller. After wandering many days

over dry, and stony, and desert places, where the lip thirsted for

the stream, is it not delicious to sit at the brink of a wild,

impetuous torrent, to gaze on its white foam and breaking waves,

till you can almost feel their gush in every nerve and fibre, and

can bathe your very soul in them. And while you slowly smoke your

pipe of purest tobacco, the sands of the desert, and their burning

sun, rise again before you, when you prayed for even the shadow of

a cloud on your way. The banks are in some parts covered with wood,

whose soft green verdure contrasts beautifully with the clear

torrent, and almost droops into its bosom.

Near the coffee-houses are one or two cataracts several feet high,

and the perpetual sound of their fall, and the coolness they spread

around, are exquisite luxuries--in the heat of day, or in the

dimness of evening. There are two or three Cafés constructed

somewhat differently from those just described: a low gallery

divides the platform from the tide; fountains play on the floor,

which is furnished with very plain sofas and cushions; and music

and dancing always abound, of the most unrefined description.

The only intellectual gratification in these places is afforded by

the Arab story-tellers, among whom are a few eminent and clever

men: soon after his entrance, a group begins to form around the

gifted man, who, after a suitable pause, to collect hearers or whet

their expectations, begins his story. It is a picturesque sight--of

the Arab with his wild and graceful gestures, and his auditory,

hushed into deep and child-like attention, seated at the edge of

the rushing tide, while the narrator moves from side to side, and

each accent of his distinct and musical voice is heard throughout

the Café. The building directly opposite is another house, of a

similar kind in every respect There are a few small Cafés, more

select as to company, where the Turkish gentlemen often go, form

dinner parties, and spend the day.

Night is the propitious season to visit these places: the glare of

the sun, glancing on the waters, is passed away; the company is

then most numerous, for it is their favourite hour; the lamps,

suspended from the slender pillars, are lighted; the Turks, in the

various and brilliant colours of their costume, crowd the platform,

some standing moveless as the pillars beside them, their long pipe

in their hand--noble specimens of humanity, if intellect breathed

within: some reclining against the rails, others seated in groups,

or solitary as if buried in "lonely thoughts sublime"; while the

rush of the falling waters is sweeter music than that of the pipe

and the guitar, that faintly strive to be heard. The cataract in

the plate is a very fine one; on its foam the moonlight was lovely:

we passed many an hour here on such a night, the clear waters of

the Pharpar, as they rolled on, reflecting each pillar, each

Damascene slowly moving by in his waving garments. The glare of the

lamps mingled strangely with the moonlight, that rested with a soft

and vivid glory on the waters, and fell beneath pillar and roof on

the picturesque groups within.

The slender brass coffee grinders sometimes serve as a combination

utensil in the equipment of the Turkish officer. Frequently they are

made of silver. They might be called collapsible, convertible coffee

kits, as they are made to serve as a combination coffee pot, mill, can,

and cup. The green or roasted beans are kept in the lower section. It

takes but a minute to unscrew the apparatus. To make a cup of coffee,

the beans are dumped out and three or four of them are put in the middle

section. The steel crank is fitted over the squared rod projecting from

the middle section, which revolves, setting in motion the grinding

apparatus inside. The ground coffee falls into the bottom section, and

water is added. The pot is placed on the fire, and the contents brought

to a boil. The coffee pot serves as a cup. The process requires but a

few minutes. The cup is rinsed out, the beans replaced, the utensils put

together, the whole thing is slipped into the officer's tunic, and he

goes on, refreshed.

In Persia, where tea is mostly drunk, the Turkish-Arabian methods of

making coffee are followed. In Ceylon and India, the same applies to the

native population, but the whites follow the European practise. In

India, many people look upon coffee as just a _bonne bouche_--a

"chaser." A well known English tea firm has had some success in India

with a tinned "French coffee", which is a blend of Indian coffee and

chicory.

European methods obtain in making coffee in China and Japan, and in the

French and Dutch colonies. When traveling in the Far East one of the

greatest hardships the coffee lover is called upon to endure is the

European bottled coffee extract, which so often supplies lazy chefs with

the makings of a most forbidding cup of coffee.

In Java, a favorite method is to make a strong extract by the French

drip process and then to use a spoonful of the extract to a cup of hot

milk--a good drink when the extract is freshly made for each service.

_Coffee Making in Europe_

In Europe, the coffee drink was first sold by lemonade venders. In

Florence those who sold coffee, chocolate, and other beverages were not

called _caffetiéri_ (coffee sellers) but _limonáji_ (lemonade venders).

Pascal's first Paris coffee shop served other drinks as well as coffee;

and Procope's café began as a lemonade shop. It was only when coffee,

which was an afterthought, began to lead the other beverages, that he

gave the name café to his whole refreshment place.

Today, nearly every country in Europe can supply the two extremes of

coffee making. In Paris and Vienna, one may find it brewed and served in

its highest perfection; but here too it is frequently found as badly

done as in England, and that is saying a good deal. The principal

difficulty seems to be in the chicory flavor, for which long years of

use has cultivated a taste, with most people. Now coffee-and-chicory is

not at all a bad drink; indeed the author confesses to have developed a

certain liking for it after a time in France--but it is not coffee. In

Europe, chicory is not regarded as an adulterant--it is an addition, or

modifier, if you please. And so many people have acquired a

coffee-and-chicory taste, that it is doubtful if they would appreciate a

real cup of coffee should they ever meet it. This, of course, is a

generalization; and like all generalizations, is dangerous, for it _is_

possible to obtain good coffee, properly made, in any European country,

even England, in the homes of the people, but seldom in the hotels or

restaurants.

[Illustration: COFFEE AL FRESCO IN JERUSALEM]

AUSTRIA. Coffee is made in Austria after the French style, usually by

the drip method or in the pumping percolator device, commonly called the

Vienna coffee machine. The restaurants employ a large-size urn fitted

with a combination metal sieve and cloth sack. After the ground coffee

has infused for about six minutes, a screw device raises the metal

sieve, the pressure forcing the liquid through the cloth sack containing

the ground coffee.

Vienna cafés are famous, but the World War has dimmed their glory. It

used to be said that their equal could not be found for general

excellence and moderate prices. From half-past eight to ten in the

morning, large numbers of people were wont to breakfast in them on a cup

of coffee or tea, with a roll and butter. _Mélangé_ is with milk;

"brown" coffee is darker, and a _schwarzer_ is without milk. In all the

cafés the visitor may obtain coffee, tea, liqueurs, ices, bottled beer,

ham, eggs, etc. The Café Schrangl in the Graben is typical. Then there

are the dairies, with coffee, a unique institution. In the _Prater_

(public park) there are many interesting cafés.

Charles J. Rosebault says in the _New York Times_:

The café of Vienna has been imitated all over the world--but the

result has never failed to be an imitation. The nearest approach to

the genuine in my experience was the upstairs room of the old

Fleischman Café in New York. That was because the average New

Yorker knew it not and it remained sacred to the internationalists:

the musicians, artists, writers, and other Bohemians to whom had

been intrusted the secret of its existence. It is the spirit that

counts, and it was the spirit of its frequenters that made the

Vienna café. It was everyman's club, and everywoman's, too, where

one went to relax and forget all the worries of existence, to look

over papers and magazines from all parts of the world and printed

in every known language, to play chess or skat or taracq, to chat

with friends and to drink the inimitable Viennese coffee, the

fragrance of which can no more be described than the perfume of

last year's violets.

The café was filled after the noon meal, when busy men took their

coffee and smoked; again around five o'clock, when all the world

and his wife paraded along the Graben and the Karntner Strasse, and

then dropped into a favorite café for coffee or chocolate and

cakes--horns and crescents of delicious dough filled with jam or,

possibly, the wonderful Kugelhupf, in comparison with which our

sponge is like unto lead; finally in the evening, when there were

family parties and those returning from theatres and concerts and

opera.

[Illustration: Photograph by Burton Holmes

THE CAFÉ SCHRANGL IN THE GRABEN, VIENNA, THE CITY THAT COFFEE MADE

FAMOUS]

While the café life of Vienna has been nearly killed by the World War,

it is to be hoped that time will restore at least something of its

former glory. In spite of the stories of plundering bands of Bolshevists

that in the latter part of 1921 wrecked some of the better known places,

we read that Oscar Straus, composer of _The Chocolate Soldier_, is

living in comparative luxury in Vienna, and spends most of his time in

the cafés, where he is to be found usually from two until five in the

afternoon and from eleven o'clock at night until some early hour of the

morning "surrounded by musicians of lesser note and wealth, whom, to a

degree, he supports; also with him being many of the leading composers,

librettists, actors, actresses, and singers of Vienna."

For Vienna coffee, the liquor is usually made in a pumping percolator or

by the drip process. In normal times it is served two parts coffee to

one of hot milk topped with whipped cream. During 1914-18 and the recent

post-war period, however, the sparkling crown of delicious whipped cream

gave way to condensed milk, and saccharine took the place of sugar.

BELGIUM. In Belgium, the French drip method is most generally employed.

Chicory is freely used as a modifier. The greatest coffee drinker among

reigning monarchs is said to be the King of the Belgians. His majesty

takes a cup of coffee before breakfast, after breakfast, at his noonday

meal, in the afternoon, after dinner, and again in the evening.

BRITISH ISLES. In the British Isles coffee is still being boiled;

although the infusion, true percolation (drip), and filtration methods

have many advocates. A favorite device is the earthenware jug with or

without the cotton sack that makes it a coffee biggin. When used without

the sack, the best practise is first to warm the jug. For each pint of

liquor, one ounce (three dessert-spoonfuls) of freshly ground coffee is

put in the pot. Upon it is poured freshly boiling water--three-fourths

of the amount required. After stirring with a wooden spoon, the

remainder of the water is poured in, and the pot is returned to the

"hob" to infuse, and to settle for from three to five minutes. Some stir

it a second time before the final settling.

The best trade authorities stress home-grinding, and are opposed to

boiling the beverage. They advocate also its use as a breakfast

beverage, after lunch, and after the evening meal.

From an American point of view, the principal defects in the English

method of making coffee lie in the roasting, handling, and brewing. It

has been charged that the beans are not properly cooked in the first

place, and that they are too often stale before being ground. The

English run to a light or cinnamon roast, whereas the best American

practise requires a medium, high, or city roast. A fairly high shade of

brown is favored on the South Downs with a light shade for Lancashire,

the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the south of Scotland. The trade

demands, for the most part, a ripe chestnut brown. Wholesale roasting is

done by gas and coke machines; while retail dealers use mostly a small

type of inner-heated gas machine. The large gas machines (with

capacities running from twenty-five to seven hundred pounds) have

external air-blast burners, direct and indirect burners, sliding

burners, etc. The best known are the Faulder and Moorewood machines. In

the Uno, a popular retail machine, roasting seven to fourteen pounds at

a time, the coffee beans are placed in the space between outer and inner

concentric cylinders, one made of perforated steel, and the other of

wire gauze, revolving together. A gas flame of the Bunsen type burns

inside the inner cylinder, its heat traversing the outer, or coffee

cylinder, while the fumes are driven off through the open ends. The

roasting coffee may be viewed through a mica or wire-gauze panel

inserted in the wall of the outer cylinder. The Faulder machine has an

external flame, a capacity of from seven to fourteen pounds; and there

are quick gas machines, with capacities ranging from three pounds to two

hundred and twenty-four pounds, for the retail trade.

[Illustration: FAVORITE ENGLISH COFFEE-MAKING METHOD]

[Illustration: A CAFÉ OF YE MECCA COMPANY, LONDON]

In recent years there has been a marked improvement in English coffee

roasting, due to the intelligent study brought to bear upon the subject

by leaders of the trade's thought, and by the retail distributer, who,

in the person of the retail grocer, is, generally speaking, better

educated to his business than the retail grocer in any other country.

Years ago, it was the practise to use butter or lard to improve the

appearance of the bean in roasting; but this is not so common as

formerly.

The British consumer, however, will need much instruction before the

national character of the beverage shows a uniform improvement. While

the coffee may be more carefully roasted, better "cooked" than it was

formerly, it is still remaining too long unsold after roasting, or else

it is being ground too long a time before making. These abuses are,

however, being corrected; and the consumer is everywhere being urged to

buy his coffee freshly roasted and to have it freshly ground. Another

factor has undoubtedly contributed to give England a bad name among

lovers of good coffee, and that is certain tinned "coffees," composed of

ground coffee and chicory, mixtures that attained some vogue for a time

as "French" coffee. They found favor, perhaps, because they were easily

handled. Package coffees have not been developed in England as in

America; but there is a more or less limited field for them, and there

are several good brands of absolutely pure coffee on the market.

The demi-tasse is a popular drink after luncheon, after dinner, and

even during the day, especially in the cities. In London, there are

cafés that make a specialty of it; places like Peel's, Groom's, and the

Café Nero in the city; also the shops of the London Café Co., and Ye

Mecca Co.

While, in the home, it is customary to steep the coffee; in hotels and

restaurants some form of percolating apparatus, extractor, or steam

machine is employed. There are the Criterion (employing a drip tray for

making coffee in the Etzenberger style); Fountain; Platow; Syphon

(Napier); and Verithing extractors, put out by Sumerling & Co. of

London; and the well-known J. & S. rapid coffee-making machine, having

an infuser, and producing coffee by steam pressure, manufactured by W.M.

Still & Sons, Ltd., London.

American visitors complain that coffee in England is too thick and

syrupy for their liking. Coffee in restaurants is served "white" (with

milk), or black, in earthen, stoneware, or silver pots. In chain

restaurants, like Lyons' or the A.B.C., there is to be found on the

tariff, "hot milk with a dash of coffee."

[Illustration: GROOM'S COFFEE HOUSE, FLEET STREET, LONDON]

[Illustration: CAFÉ MONICO, PICCADILLY CIRCUS, LONDON]

As to the boiling method, this is already generally discredited in the

countries of western Europe. The steeping method so much favored in

England may be responsible for some of the unkind things said about

English coffee; because it undoubtedly leads to the abuse of

over-infusion, so that the net result is as bad as boiling.

The vast majority of the English people are, however, confirmed tea

drinkers, and it is extremely doubtful if this national habit, ingrained

through centuries of use of "the cup that cheers" at breakfast and at

tea time in the afternoon can ever be changed.

As already mentioned in this work, the London coffee houses of the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries gave way to a type of coffee house

whose mainstay was its food rather than its drink. In time, these too

began to yield to the changing influences of a civilization that

demanded modern hotels, luxurious tea lounges, smart restaurants, chain

shops, tea rooms, and cafés with and without coffee. A certain type of

"coffee shop," with rough boarded stalls, sanded floors and "private

rooms," frequented by lower class workingmen, were to be found in

England for a time; but because of their doubtful character, they were

closed up by the police.

Among other places in London where coffee may be had in English or

continental style, mention should be made of the Café Monico, a good

place to drop in for a coffee and liqueur, and one of the pioneers of

the modern restaurant; Gatti's, where _café filtré_, or coffee produced

by the filtration method, is a specialty; the cosmopolitan Savoy with

its popular tea lounge (teas, sixty cents); the Piccadilly Hotel, with

its Louis XIV restaurant catering to refined and luxurious tastes; the

Waldorf Hotel, with its American clientèle and its palm court (teas,

thirty-six cents); the Cecil, with its palm court and tea balcony, also

having a special attraction for Americans; Lyons' Popular Café (iced

coffee, twelve cents); the Trocadero with its special Indian curries

prepared by native cooks once each week; the Temple Bar restaurant, an

attractive refectory owned by the semi-philanthropic Trust-Houses, Ltd.,

which runs some two hundred similar establishments throughout the

country, serving alcoholic drinks but stressing non-intoxicating

beverages, among them special Mocha at six and eight cents a cup;

Slater's, Ltd., catering mostly to business folk in the city, there

being about a score of restaurants and tea rooms under this name with

retail shops attached; the British Tea Table Association, like Slater's,

a grown-up sister of the olden bun shop of Queen Victoria's day; and the

Kardomah chain of cafés, where one is reasonably sure to get a

satisfying cup of coffee and a cake.

[Illustration: GATTI'S, IN THE STRAND, LONDON]

[Illustration: TEA LOUNGE OF HOTEL SAVOY, LONDON]

Supplementing the above, Charles Cooper, some time editor of the

_Epicure_ and _The Table_, has prepared for this work some notes on the

evolution of the old-time London coffee houses into the present-day tea

rooms, tea lounges, cafés, and restaurants for all comers. Mr. Cooper

says of the transformation:

The old-fashioned London coffee-house that flourished forty to

fifty years ago has within the past thirty years been completely

extinguished by the modern tea rooms. These old-fashioned

establishments were mainly situated in and about the Strand and

Fleet Street, the neighborhood of the Inns of Court, etc. They did

not sacrifice much to outside show and decoration. They were

divided into boxes or pews, and were generally speaking clean and

well ordered; the prices were moderate, and the fare simple but

superlatively good. There is nothing to equal it now. Chops were

cooked in the grill. The tea and coffee were of the best; the hams

were York hams and the bacon the best Wiltshire; they were the last

places where real buttered toast was made. The art is now lost.

They catered exclusively to men; and their clientèle consisted of

journalists, artists, actors, men from the Inns of Court, students,

_et al._ A man living in chambers could breakfast comfortably at

one of these places, and read all the morning papers at his ease.

The most westerly perhaps of the old houses was Stone's in Panton

Street, Haymarket, which has recently been sold. Groom's in Fleet

Street, where a good cup of coffee may still be had, is principally

frequented by barristers about the luncheon hour. They are usually

men who lunch lightly.

The tea rooms, as I have said, have killed the coffee houses. At

the time the latter flourished, there were no facilities in London

for a woman, unattended by a man, to obtain refreshment beyond a

weak cup of tea at a few confectioners'. It mattered the less in

the days when the girl clerk had not come into being. When the

field of women's employment widened, fresh requirements were

created which the coffee shops did not meet.

[Illustration: LYONS' "POPULAR CAFÉ," PICCADILLY--ONE OF MANY OPERATED

UNDER THAT NAME]

[Illustration: PALM COURT IN THE WALDORF HOTEL--A POPULAR RESORT FOR

AMERICAN TRAVELERS]

[Illustration: TWO POPULAR PLACES FOR COFFEE IN LONDON]

The tea room pioneers in London were the Aërated Bread Company,

familiarly known as the A.B.C. I think that coffee palaces in

provincial industrial centers had been started; but as part of a

temperance propaganda, to counteract the attractions of the public

house. The Aërated Bread Company was founded about the middle of

the past century for the manufacture and sale of bread made under

the patent aërated process of Dr. Daugleish. The shops were opened

for the sale of bread to the public for home consumption; but to

give people an opportunity of testing it, facilities were provided

for obtaining a cup of tea, and bread and butter, on the premises.

This subsidiary object became in a short time the most important

part of the company's business. It multiplied its shops, enlarged

its bill of fare to include cooked foods; and while, nowadays, the

A.B.C. and its rivals cater to many thousands daily, I doubt if

anybody ever buys a loaf to take home.

The A.B.C. has many competitors, similar shops having been started

by Lyons, Lipton, Slaters. Express Dairy Company, Cabin, Pioneer

Cafés, and others. _Ex uno disce omnes._

[Illustration: TEMPLE BAR RESTAURANT, LONDON]

The fare in all these places is much alike, as are the general

equipment, prices, and class of customers. They cater for a cheap

class of business. In the busy centers they are frequented mostly

by young men and girl clerks and shop assistants, by women in town,

shopping, and such-like custom. Young employees can get a modest

mid-day meal at a price to suit a shallow pocket. Before the war,

the ruling price for a cup of tea, and a roll and butter, was

fourpence, and the general tariff in proportion. Nowadays, the war

has run up prices at least fifty percent. During the worst times of

food control the fare was very scanty and very unappetizing. As a

rule, it is plain and wholesome, with no pretense of being

_recherché_. Tea is almost always very good; coffee not on the same

level. Their tea rooms are all places designed for small, quick

meals; and are in no sense lounges.

[Illustration: TEA BALCONY IN THE HOTEL CECIL, LONDON]

Lyons have refreshment-houses of different grades. The Popular Café

is a cut above the tea rooms, and so are the Corner Houses. Two

years ago, the A.B.C. amalgamated with Buzard's, an old established

confectioner's in Oxford Street--a famous cake-house.

The Monico and Gatti's appeal to a quite different class from that

catered to by the tea shops, although perhaps not to what Mrs.

Boffin would call "the highfliers of fashion" who frequent the

lounges of the fashionable hotels. Gatti's original café was under

the arches of Charing Cross station.

[Illustration: SLATER'S, A BETTER-CLASS CHAIN SHOP, LONDON]

I may add about the Savoy that it was an outcome of the successful

Gilbert and Sullivan operas of the seventies, D'Oyly Carte having

expended some of his profits on building the hotel on a piece of

waste ground by the Savoy Theatre. He brought over M. Ritz from

Monte Carlo to manage the hotel and restaurant, and Escoffier, the

greatest chef of the day, to preside over the cuisine. They made

the Savoy famous for its dinners, and it has always maintained a

high reputation, although Escoffier, who has now retired, ruled

later at the Carlton; and Ritz, at the hotel in Piccadilly which

bears his name.

BULGARIA. In Bulgaria, Arabian-Turkish methods of making coffee prevail.

The accompanying illustration shows a group in a caravan of the faithful

on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The venerable Moslem, who is

ambitious of becoming a hadji, is attended by his guards, distinguished

by their fantastic dress; their glittering golden-hafted _hanjars_,

stuck in their shawl girdles; and their silver-mounted pistols; the

grave turban replaced by a many-tasseled cap. Their accommodation is the

stable of a khan, or serai, shared with their camel. Their refreshment

is coffee, thick, black and bitter, served by the khanji in tiny

egg-shaped cups.

[Illustration: ST. JAMES'S RESTAURANT, PICCADILLY, LONDON]

In DENMARK and FINLAND coffee is made and served after the French and

German fashion.

FRANCE. Were it not for the almost inevitable high roast and frequently

the disconcerting chicory addition, coffee in France might be an

unalloyed delight--at least this is how it appears to American eyes. One

seldom, if ever, finds coffee improperly brewed in France--it is never

boiled.

Second only to the United States, France consumes about two million bags

of coffee annually. The varieties include coffee from the East Indies;

Mocha; Haitian (a great favorite); Central American; Colombian; and

Brazils.

[Illustration: AN A.B.C. SHOP, LONDON]

[Illustration: HALT OF CARAVANERS AT A SERAI, BULGARIA]

Although there are many wholesale and retail coffee roasters in France,

home roasting persists, particularly in the country districts. The

little sheet-iron cylinder roasters, that are hand-turned over an iron

box holding the charcoal fire, find a ready sale even in the modern

department stores of the big cities. In any village or city in France it

is a common sight on a pleasant day to find the householder turning his

roaster on the curb in front of his home. Emmet G. Beeson, in _The Tea

and Coffee Trade Journal_ gives us this vignette of rural coffee

roasting in the south of France:

In a certain town in the south of France I saw an old man with an

outfit a little larger than the home variety, a machine with a

capacity of about ten pounds. Instead of a cylinder in which to

roast his coffee, he had perched on a sheet-iron frame a hollow

round ball made of sheet iron. In the top of this ball there was a

little slide which was opened by the means of a metal tool. In the

sheet-iron frame he had kindled his charcoal fire. Directly in

front of his roaster was a home-made cooling pan, the sides of

which were of wood, the bottom covered with a fine grade of wire

screening.

On this particular afternoon, the old man had taken up his place on

the curb; and a big black cat had taken advantage of the warmth

offered by the charcoal fire and was curled up, sleeping peacefully

in the pan nearest the fire. The old man paid no attention to the

cat, but went on rotating his ball of coffee and puffing away

pensively on his cigarette. When his coffee had become blackened

and burned, and blackened and burned it was, he stopped rotating

the ball, opened the slide in the top, turned it over, and the hot,

burned coffee rolled out, and much to his delight, on the sleeping

cat, which leaped out of the pan and scampered up the street and

into a hole under an old building.

I afterward learned that this old fellow made a business of going

about the town gathering up coffee from the houses along the way

and roasting it at a few sous per kilo, much the same fashion as a

scissors grinder plies his trade in an American town.

[Illustration: CAFÉ DE LA PAIX, WHERE PARIS DRINKS ITS COFFEE OUTDOORS]

Quite a few grocers roast their own coffee in crude devices much like

those described above; but the large coffee roasters are gradually

eliminating this sort of procedure. There are at Havre several roasters,

but only two of importance; one does a business of about two hundred and

fifty bags a day, and the next largest has a capacity of about one

hundred and sixty bags a day. In Paris, there are many coffee roasters,

some quite large, comparatively speaking, one having a capacity of about

seven hundred and fifty bags a day. Shop-keepers in Paris and other

large cities roast their coffee fresh daily. The machines used are of

the ball or cylinder type, employing gas fuel and turned by electric

power. Invariably they stand where they may be seen from the street.

Sample-roasters, or testing tables, in France are conspicuous by their

absence. Inquiry regarding this subject discloses that coffee is sold on

description; and when the French trader is asked, "How do you know your

delivery is up to description so far as cup quality is concerned?" he

answers that this is arrived at from the general appearance and the

smell of the coffee in the green. Perhaps one reason for the laxity in

buying cup quality may be explained by the fact that coffee is roasted

very high, in fact it is burned almost to a charred state; and unless

the coffee is unusually bad in character, the burned taste eliminates

any foreign flavor it may have.

[Illustration: SIDEWALK ANNEX, CAFÉ DE LA PAIX, PARIS, WITH OPERA HOUSE

IN BACKGROUND--SUMMER OF 1918]

The fact that coffee was, and still is, quite generally sold to the

consumer green, accounts for Central American coffees taking first

place. Style takes preference over everything else when it comes to

selling to a Frenchman.

To the American coffee merchant it seems that the French are carrying

their artistic tastes to an unreasonable extreme when they apply them to

coffee; for coffee is grown to drink and not to look at.

Since the coming of the large coffee roaster, who delivers roasted

coffee right down the line to the consumer, Santos has come in for its

share of the business. The roasters are getting good results out of

Santos blends, up to fifty percent and sixty percent with West Indian

and Central American coffees. Rio is as much in disfavor in France as it

is in the United States, perhaps more so.

In Brittany the demand is for peaberry coffee, no matter of what

variety. This comes about from the fact that the people of this section

of the country still do a great deal of their roasting at home, and have

become accustomed to the use of peaberry coffee because they do not have

the improved hand roasters, and still do a great deal of their roasting

in pans in the ovens of their stoves. The peaberry coffee rolls about so

nicely in the pan that they get a much more uniform roast.

Nearly all the coffee is ground at home, which is not a bad practise for

the consumer; but perhaps works hardship on the dealer, who can mix some

grade grinders into his blends without doing them any material harm.

Where coffee mills are used in the stores, they are of the Strong-Arm

family and of an ancient heritage. To get a growl out of the grocer in

France, buy a kilo of coffee and ask him to grind it.

Package coffee and proprietary brands have not come into their own to

the extent that they have in the United States, although there are at

present two firms in Paris which have started in this business and are

advertising extensively on billboards, in street cars, and in the

subways. However, most coffee is still sold in bulk. The butter, egg,

and cheese stores of France do a very large business in coffee. Prior to

the war and high prices, there were some very large firms doing a

premium business in coffee, tea, spices, etc. They still exist, and

have a very fine trade; but since the high prices of coffees and

premiums, the business has gone down very materially. They operate by

the wagon-route and solicitor method, just as some of our American

companies do. One very large firm in Paris has been in this business for

more than thirty years, operating branches and wagons in every town,

village, and hamlet in France.

[Illustration: CAFÉ DE LA RÉGENCE, PARIS, SHOWING THE TYPICAL

CONTINENTAL ARRANGEMENT OF SEATS]

The consumption of coffee is increasing very materially in France; some

say, on account of the high price of wine, others hold that coffee is

simply growing in favor with the people. Among the masses, French

breakfast consists of a bowl or cup of _café au lait_, or half a cup or

bowl of strong black coffee and chicory, and half a cup of hot milk, and

a yard of bread. The workingman turns his bread on end and inserts it

into his bowl of coffee, allowing it to soak up as much of the liquid as

possible. Then he proceeds to suck this concoction into his system. His

approval is demonstrated by the amount of noise he makes in the

operation.

Among the better classes, the breakfast is the same, _café au lait_,

with rolls and butter, and sometimes fruit. The brew is prepared by the

drip, or true percolator, method or by filtration. Boiling milk is

poured into the cup from a pot held in one hand together with the brewed

coffee from a pot held in the other, providing a simultaneous mixture.

The proportions vary from half-and-half to one part coffee and three

parts milk. Sometimes, the service is by pouring into the cup a little

coffee then the same quantity of milk and alternating in this way until

the cup is filled.

Coffee is never drunk with any meal but breakfast, but is invariably

served _en demi-tasse_ after the noon and the evening meals. In the

home, the usual thing after luncheon or dinner is to go into the _salon_

and have your demi-tasse and liqueur and cigarettes before a cosy grate

fire. A Frenchman's idea of after-dinner coffee is a brew that is

unusually thick and black, and he invariably takes with it his liqueur,

no matter if he has had a cocktail for an appetizer, a bottle of red

wine with his meat course, and a bottle of white wine with the salad and

dessert course. When the demi-tasse comes along, with it must be served

his cordial in the shape of cognac, benedictine, or crème de menthe. He

can not conceive of a man not taking a little alcohol with his

after-dinner coffee, as an aid, he says, to digestion.

In Normandy, there prevails a custom in connection with coffee drinking

that is unique. They produce in this province great quantities of what

is known as _cidre_, made from a particular variety of apple grown

there--in other words, just plain hard cider. However, they distil this

hard cider, and from the distillation they get a drink called

_calvados_.

[Illustration: CAFÉ DE LA RÉGENCE IN 1922]

The man from Normandy takes half a cup of coffee, and fills the cup with

_calvados_, sweetened with sugar, and drinks it with seeming relish.

Ice-cold coffee will almost sizzle when _calvados_ is poured into it. It

tastes like a corkscrew, and one drink has the same effect as a crack on

the head with a hammer. From the toddling age up, the Norman takes his

_calvados_ and coffee.

In the south of France they make a concoction from the residue of

grapes. They boil the residue down in water, and get a drink called

_marc_; and it is used in much the same way as the Norman in the north

uses _calvados_. Then there is also the very popular summertime drink

known as _mazagran_, which in that region means seltzer water and cold

coffee, or what Americans might call a coffee highball.

Making coffee in France has been, and always will be, by the drip and

the filtration methods. The large hotels and cafés follow these methods

almost entirely, and so does the housewife. When company comes, and

something unusual in coffee is to be served, Mr. Beeson says he has

known the cook to drip the coffee, using a spoonful of hot water at a

time, pouring it over tightly packed, finely ground coffee, allowing the

water to percolate through to extract every particle of oil. They use

more ground coffee in bulk than they get liquid in the cup, and

sometimes spend an hour producing four or five demi-tasses. It is

needless to say that it is more like molasses than coffee when ready for

drinking.

It is not unusual in some parts of France to save the coffee grounds for

a second or even a third infusion, but this is not considered good

practise.

Von Liebig's idea of correct coffee making has been adapted to French

practise in some instances after this fashion: put used coffee grounds

in the bottom chamber of a drip coffee pot. Put freshly ground coffee in

the upper chamber. Pour on boiling water. The theory is that the old

coffee furnishes body and strength, and the fresh coffee the aroma.

The cafés that line the boulevards of Paris and the larger cities of

France all serve coffee, either plain or with milk, and almost always

with liqueur. The coffee house in France may be said to be the wine

house; or the wine house may be said to be the coffee house. They are

inseparable. In the smallest or the largest of these establishments

coffee can be had at any time of day or night. The proprietor of a very

large café in Paris says his coffee sales during the day almost equal

his wine sales.

The French, young or old, take a great deal of pleasure in sitting out

on the sidewalk in front of a café, sipping coffee or liqueur. Here they

love to idle away the time just watching the passing show.

In Paris, there are hundreds of these cafés lining the boulevards, where

one may sit for hours before the small tables reading the newspapers,

writing letters, or merely idling. In the morning, from eight to eleven,

employees, men-about-town, tourists, and provincials throng the cafés

for _café au lait_. The waiters are coldly polite. They bring the

papers, and brush the table--twice for _café créme_ (milk), and three

times for _café complet_ (with bread and butter).

In the afternoon, _café_ means a small cup or glass of _café noir_, or

_café nature_. It is double the usual amount of coffee dripped by

percolator or filtration device, the process consuming eight to ten

minutes. Some understand _café noir_ to mean equal parts of coffee and

brandy with sugar and vanilla to taste. When _café noir_ is mixed with

an equal quantity of cognac alone it becomes _café gloria_. _Café

mazagran_ is also much in demand in the summertime. The coffee base is

made as for _café noir_, and it is served in a tall glass with water to

dilute it to one's taste.

Few of the cafés that made Paris famous in the eighteenth century

survive. Among those that are notable for their coffee service are the

Café de la Paix; the Café de la Régence, founded in 1718; and the Café

Prévost, noted also for chocolate after the theater.

[Illustration: ONE OF THE BIARD CAFÉS

There are about 200 of these coffee and wine shops in Paris. They are

frequented mostly by laborers, clerks, and midinettes]

[Illustration: RESTAURANT PROCOPE, 1922

Successor to the famous "Cave" of 1689]

GERMANY. Germany originated the afternoon coffee function known as the

kaffee-klatsch. Even today, the German family's reunion takes place

around the coffee table on Sunday afternoons. In summer, when weather

permits, the family will take a walk into the suburbs, and stop at a

garden where coffee is sold in pots. The proprietor furnishes the

coffee, the cups, the spoons and, in normal times, the sugar, two pieces

to each cup; and the patrons bring their own cake. They put one piece of

sugar into each cup and take the other pieces home to the "canary bird,"

meaning the sugar bowl in the pantry.

Cheaper coffee is served in some gardens, which conspicuously display

large signs at the entrance, saying: "Families may cook their own coffee

in this place." In such a garden, the patron merely buys the hot water

from the proprietor, furnishing the ground coffee and cake himself.

While waiting for the coffee to brew, he may listen to the band and

watch the children play under the trees. French or Vienna drip pots are

used for brewing.

Every city in Germany has its cafés, spacious places where patrons sit

around small tables, drinking coffee, "with or without" turned or

unturned, steaming or iced, sweetened or unsweetened, depending on the

sugar supply; nibble, at the same time, a piece of cake or pastry,

selected from a glass pyramid; talk, flirt, malign, yawn, read, and

smoke. Cafés are, in fact, public reading rooms. Some places keep

hundreds of daily and weekly newspapers and magazines on file for the

use of patrons. If the customer buys only one cup of coffee, he may keep

his seat for hours, and read one newspaper after another.

Three of the four corners of Berlin's most important street crossing are

occupied by cafés. This is where Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrasse

meet. On the southwest corner there is Kranzler's staid old café, a very

respectable place, where the lower hall is even reserved for

non-smokers. On the southeast corner is Café Bauer, known the world

over. However, it has seen better days. It has been outdistanced by

competitors. On the northeast corner is the Victoria, a new-style place,

very bright, and less staid. There no room is reserved for non-smokers,

for most of the ladies, if they do not themselves smoke, will light the

cigars for their escorts.

Around the Potsdamer Platz there is a number of cafés. Josty's is

perhaps the most frequented in Berlin. It is the best liked on account

of the trees and terraces in front. Farther to the west, on

Kuerfuerstendamm, there are dozens of large cafés.

[Illustration: MORNING COFFEE IN FRONT OF A BOULEVARD CAFÉ, PARIS, WITH

A BRITISH BACKGROUND]

[Illustration: INTERIOR, CAFÉ BAUER, BERLIN]

Some of the cafés are meeting-places for certain professions and trades.

The Admiral's café, in Friedrichstrasse, for instance, is the

"artistes'" exchange. All the stage folk and stars of the tanbark meet

there every day. Chorus girls, tumblers, ladies of the flying trapeze,

contortionists, and bareback riders are to be found there, discussing

their grievances, denouncing their managers, swapping their diamonds,

and recounting former triumphs. Cinema-makers come also to pick out a

cast for a new film play. There one can pick out a full cast every

minute.

Then there is the Café des Westens in Kuerfuerstendamm, the old one,

where dreamers and poets congregate. It is called also Café

Groessenwahn, which means that persons suffering from an exaggerated ego

are conspicuous by their presence and their long hair.

At almost every table one may find a poet who has written a play that is

bound to enrich its author and any man of means who will put up the

money to build a new theater in which to produce it.

Saxony and Thuringia are proverbial hotbeds of coffee lovers. It is said

that in Saxony there are more coffee drinkers to the square inch and

more cups to the single coffee bean than anywhere else upon earth. The

Saxons like their coffee, but seem to be afraid it may be too strong for

them. So, when over their cups, they always make certain they can see

bottom before raising the steaming bowl to the lip.

Von Liebig's method of making coffee, whereby three-fourths of the

quantity to be used is first boiled for ten or fifteen minutes, and the

remainder added for a six-minute steeping or infusion, is religiously

followed by some housekeepers. Von Liebig advocated coating the bean

with sugar. In some families, fats, eggs, and egg-shells are used to

settle and to clarify the beverage.

[Illustration: CAFÉ BAUER, UNTER DEN LINDEN, BERLIN]

Coffee in Germany is better cooked (roasted) and more scientifically

prepared than in many other European countries. In recent years, during

the World War and since, however, there has been an amazing increase in

the use of coffee substitutes, so that the German cup of coffee is not

the pure delight it was once.

GREECE. Coffee is the most popular and most extensively used

non-alcoholic beverage in Greece, as it is throughout the Near East. Its

annual per capita consumption there is about two pounds, two-thirds of

the supply coming _via_ Austria and France, Brazil furnishing direct the

bulk of the remaining third.

Coffee is given a high or city roast, and is used almost entirely in

powdered form. It is prepared for consumption principally in the Turkish

demi-tasse way. Finely ground coffee is used even in making ordinary

table, or breakfast, coffee. In private houses the cylindrical brass

hand-grinders, manufactured in Constantinople, are mostly used. In many

of the coffee houses in the villages and country towns throughout Greece

and the Levant, a heavy iron pestle, wielded by a strong man, is

employed to pulverize the grains in a heavy stone or marble mortar;

while the poorer homes use a small brass pestle and mortar, also

manufactured in Turkey.

In his _The Greeks of the Present Day_[371], Edmond François Valentin

About says:

The coffee which is drunk in all the Greek houses rather astonishes

the travellers who have neither seen Turkey nor Algeria. One is

surprised at finding food in a cup in which one expected drink. Yet

you get accustomed to this coffee-broth and end by finding it more

savoury, lighter, more perfumed, and especially more wholesome,

than the extract of coffee you drink in France.

Then About gives the recipe of his servant Petros, who is "the first man

in Athens for coffee":

The grain is roasted without burning it; it is reduced to an

impalpable powder, either in a mortar or in a very close-grained

mill. Water is set on the fire till it boils up; it is taken off to

throw in a spoonful of coffee, and a spoonful of pounded sugar for

each cup it is intended to make; it is carefully mixed; the coffee

pot is replaced on the fire until the contents seem ready to boil

over; it is taken off, and set on again; lastly it is quickly

poured into the cups. Some coffee drinkers have this preparation

boiled as many as five times. Petros makes a rule of not putting

his coffee more than three times on the fire. He takes care in

filling the cups to divide impartially the coloured froth which

rises above the coffee pot; it is the _kaimaki_ of the coffee. A

cup without _kaimaki_ is disgraced.

When the coffee is poured out you are at liberty to drink it

boiling and muddy, or cold and clear. Real amateurs drink it

without waiting. Those who allow the sediment to settle down, do

not do so from contempt, for they afterwards collect it with the

little finger and eat it carefully.

Thus prepared, coffee may be taken without inconvenience ten times

a day: five cups of French coffee could not be drunk with impunity

every day. It is because the coffee of the Turks and the Greeks is

a diluted tonic, and ours is a concentrated tonic.

I have met at Paris many people who took their coffee without

sugar, to imitate the Orientals. I think I ought to give them

notice, between ourselves, that in the great coffee-houses of

Athens, sugar is always presented with the coffee; in the khans and

second-rate coffee-houses, it is served already sugared; and that

at Smyrna and Constantinople, it has everywhere been brought to me

sugared.

[Illustration: KRANZLER'S, UNTER DEN LINDEN, BERLIN]

ITALY. In Italy coffee is roasted in a wholesale and retail way as well

as in the home. French, German, Dutch, and Italian machines are used.

The full city, or Italian, roast is favored. There are cafés as in

France and other continental countries, and the drink is prepared in the

French fashion. For restaurants and hotels, rapid filtering machines,

first developed by the French and Italians, are used. In the homes,

percolators and filtration devices are employed.

The De Mattia Brothers have a process designed to conserve the aroma in

roasting. The Italians pay particular attention to the temperature in

roasting and in the cooling operation. There is considerable glazing,

and many coffee additions are used.

Like the French, the Italians make much of _café au lait_ for breakfast.

At dinner, the _café noir_ is served.

Cafés of the French school are to be found along the Corso in Rome, the

Toledo in Naples, in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuel and the Piazza del

Duomo in Milan, and in the arcades surrounding the Piazza de San Marco

in Venice, where Florian's still flourishes.

NETHERLANDS. In the Netherlands, too, the French café is a delightful

feature of the life of the larger cities. The Dutch roast coffee

properly, and make it well. The service is in individual pots, or in

demi-tasses on a silver, nickle, or brass tray, and accompanied by a

miniature pitcher containing just enough cream (usually whipped), a

small dish about the size of an individual butter plate holding three

squares of sugar, and a slender glass of water. This service is

universal; the glass of water always goes with the coffee. It is the one

sure way for Americans to get a drink of water. It is the custom in

Holland to repair to some open-air café or indoor coffee house for the

after-dinner cup of coffee. One seldom takes his coffee in the place

where he has his dinner. These cafés are many, and some are elaborately

designed and furnished. One of the most interesting is the St. Joris at

the Hague, furnished in the old Dutch style. The approved way of making

coffee in Holland is the French drip method.

NORWAY AND SWEDEN. French and German influences mark the roasting,

grinding, preparing, and serving of coffee in Norway and Sweden.

Generally speaking, not so much chicory is used, and a great deal of

whipped cream is employed. In Norway, the boiling method has many

followers. A big (open) copper kettle is used. This is filled with

water, and the coffee is dumped in and boiled. In the poorer-class

country homes, the copper kettle is brought to the table and set upon a

wooden plate. The coffee is served directly from the kettle in cups. In

better-class homes, the coffee is poured from the kettle into silver

coffee pots in the kitchen, and the silver coffee pots are brought to

the table. The only thing approaching coffee houses are the "coffee

rooms" which are to be found in Christiania. These are small one-room

affairs in which the plainer sorts of foods, such as porridge, may be

purchased with the coffee. They are cheap, and are largely frequented by

the poorer class of students, who use them as places in which to study

while they drink their coffee.

In RUSSIA and SWITZERLAND, French and German methods obtain. Russia,

however, drinks more tea than coffee, which by the masses is prepared in

Turkish fashion, when obtainable. Usually, the coffee is only a cheap

"substitute." The so-called _café à la Russe_ of the aristocracy, is

strong black coffee flavored with lemon. Another Russian recipe calls

for the coffee to be placed in a large punch bowl, and covered with a

layer of finely chopped apples and pears; then cognac is poured over the

mass, and a match applied.

ROUMANIA and SERVIA drink coffee prepared after either the Turkish or

the French style, depending on the class of the drinker and where it is

served. Substitutes are numerous.

In SPAIN and PORTUGAL the French type of café flourishes as in Italy. In

Madrid, some delightful cafés are to be found around the Puerto del Sol,

where coffee and chocolate are the favorite drinks. The coffee is made

by the drip process, and is served in French fashion.

_Coffee Manners and Customs in North America_

The introduction of coffee and tea into North America effected a great

change in the meal-time beverages of the people. Malt beverages had been

succeeded by alcoholic spirits and by cider. These in turn were

supplanted by tea and coffee.

CANADA. In Canada, we find both French and English influences at work in

the preparation and serving of the beverage; "Yankee" ideas also have

entered from across the border. Some years back (about 1910) A. McGill,

chief chemist of the Canadian Inland Revenue Department, suggested an

improvement upon Baron von Liebig's method, whereby Canadians might

obtain an ideal cup of coffee. It was to combine two well-known methods.

One was to boil a quantity of ground coffee to get a maximum of body or

soluble matter. The other was to percolate a similar quantity to get the

needed caffeol. By combining the decoction and the infusion, a finished

beverage rich in body and aroma might be had. Most Canadians continue to

drink tea, however, although coffee consumption is increasing.

MEXICO. In Mexico, the natives have a custom peculiarly their own. The

roasted beans are pounded to a powder in a cloth bag which is then

immersed in a pot of boiling water and milk. The _vaquero_, however,

pours boiling water on the powdered coffee in his drinking cup, and

sweetens it with a brown sugar stick.

Among the upper classes in Mexico the following interesting method

obtains for making coffee:

Roast one pound until the beans are brown inside. Mix with the

roasted coffee one teaspoonful of butter, one of sugar, and a

little brandy. Cover with a thick cloth. Cool for one hour; then

grind. Boil one quart of water. When boiling, put in the coffee and

remove from fire immediately. Let it stand a few hours, and strain

through a flannel bag, and keep in a stone jar until required for

use; then heat quantity required.

[Illustration: SIDEWALK CAFÉ, LISBON]

UNITED STATES. In no country has there been so marked an improvement in

coffee making as in the United States. Although in many parts, the

national beverage is still indifferently prepared, the progress made in

recent years has been so great that the friends of coffee are hopeful

that before long it may be said truly that coffee making in America is a

national honor and no longer the national disgrace that it was in the

past.

[Illustration: THESE COFFEE POTS ARE WIDELY USED IN SWEDEN FOR BOILING

COFFEE

Left, copper pot with wooden handle and iron legs designed to stand in

the coals--Center, glass-globe pot, for stove use, enclosed in

felt-lined brass cosey--Right, hand-made hammered-brass kettle for stove

use]

Already, in the more progressive homes, and in the best hotels and

restaurants, the coffee is uniformly good, and the service all that it

should be. The American breakfast cup is a food-beverage because of the

additions of milk or cream and sugar; and unlike Europe, this same

generous cup serves again as a necessary part of the noonday and evening

meals for most people.

[Illustration: THE COFFEE ROOM OF THE HOTEL ADOLPHUS, DALLAS, TEXAS]

[Illustration: DAY-AND-NIGHT COFFEE ROOM, RICE HOTEL, HOUSTON, TEXAS]

[Illustration: HOTEL BARS REPLACED BY COFFEE ROOMS IN THE UNITED STATES

One effect of prohibition has been to lead many hotels to feature their

coffee service, bringing back the modern type of coffee room illustrated

above]

The important and indispensable part that sugar plays in the make-up of

the American cup of coffee was ably set forth by Fred Mason,[372]

vice-president of the American Sugar Refining Co., when he said:

The coffee cup and the sugar bowl are inseparable table companions.

Most of us did not realize this until the war came, with its

attendant restrictions on everything we did, and we found that the

sugar bowl had disappeared from all public eating places. No longer

could we make an unlimited number of trips to the sugar bowl to

sweeten our coffee; but we had to be content with what was doled

out to us with scrupulous care--a quantity so small at times that

it gave only a hint of sweetness to our national beverage.

Then it was that we really appreciated how indispensable the proper

amount of sugar was to a good, savory cup of coffee, and we missed

it as much as we would seasoning from certain cooked foods.

Secretly we consoled ourselves with the promise that if the day

ever came when sugar bowls made their appearance once more, filled

temptingly with the sweet granules that were "gone but not

forgotten," we should put an extra lump or an additional spoonful

of sugar into our coffee to help us forget the joyless war days.

Since sugar is so necessary to our enjoyment of this popular

beverage, it is obvious that a considerable part of all the sugar

we consume must find its way into the national coffee cup. The

stupendous amount of 40,000,000,000 cups of coffee is consumed in

this country each year. Taking two teaspoonfuls or two lumps as a

fair average per cup, we find that about 800,000,000 pounds of

sugar, almost one-tenth of our total annual consumption, are

required to sweeten Uncle Sam's coffee cup. This is specially

significant when one considers that, with the single exception of

Australia, the United States consumes more sugar per capita than

any country on earth.

Sugar adds high food value to the stimulative virtues of coffee.

The beverage itself stimulates the mental and physical powers,

while the sugar it contains is fuel for the body and furnishes it

with energy. Sugar is such a concentrated food that the amount used

by the average person in two cups of coffee is enough to furnish

the system with more energy than could be derived from 40 oysters

on the half-shell.

Since prohibition, the average citizen is drinking one hundred more cups

of coffee a year than he did in the old days; and a good part of the

increase is attributed to newly formed habits of drinking coffee between

meals, at soda fountains, in tea and coffee shops, at hotels, and even

in the homes. In other words, the increase is due to coffee drinking

that directly takes the place of malt and spirituous liquors. There have

come into being the hotel coffee room; the custom of afternoon coffee

drinking; and free coffee-service in many factories, stores, and

offices.

In colonial days, must or ale first gave way to tea, and then to coffee

as a breakfast beverage. The Boston "tea party" clinched the case for

coffee; but in the meantime, coffee was more or less of an after-dinner

function, or a between-meals drink, as in Europe. In Washington's time,

dinner was usually served at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at

informal dinner parties the company "sat till sunset--then coffee."

In the early part of the nineteenth century, coffee became firmly

intrenched as the one great American breakfast beverage; and its

security in this position would seem to be unassailable for all time.

Today, all classes in the United States begin and end the day with

coffee. In the home, it is prepared by boiling, infusion or steeping,

percolation, and filtration; in the hotels and restaurants, by infusion,

percolation, and filtration. The best practise favors true percolation

(French drip), or filtration.

Steeping coffee in American homes (an English heirloom) is usually

performed in a china or earthenware jug. The ground coffee has boiling

water poured upon it until the jug is half full. The infusion is stirred

briskly. Next, the jug is filled by pouring in the remainder of the

boiling water, the infusion is again stirred, then permitted to settle,

and finally is poured through a strainer or filter cloth before serving.

When a pumping percolator or a double glass filtration device is used,

the water may be cold or boiling at the beginning as the maker prefers.

Some wet the coffee with cold water before starting the brewing process.

For genuine percolator, or drip coffee, French and Austrian china drip

pots are mostly employed. The latest filtration devices are described in

chapter XXXIV.

The Creole, or French market, coffee for which New Orleans has long been

famous is made from a concentrated coffee extract prepared in a drip

pot. First, the ground coffee has poured over it sufficient boiling

water thoroughly to dampen it, after which further additions of boiling

water, a tablespoonful at a time, are poured upon it at five minute

intervals. The resulting extract is kept in a tightly corked bottle for

making _café au lait_ or _café noir_ as required. A variant of the

Creole method is to brown three tablespoonfuls of sugar in a pan, to add

a cup of water, and to allow it to simmer until the sugar is dissolved;

to pour this liquid over ground coffee in a drip pot, to add boiling

water as required, and to serve black or with cream or hot milk, as

desired.

In New Orleans, coffee is often served at the bedside upon waking, as a

kind of early breakfast function.

The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 served to introduce the

Vienna café to America. Fleischmann's Vienna Café and Bakery was a

feature of our first international exposition. Afterward, it was

transferred to Broadway, New York, where for many years it continued to

serve excellent coffee in Vienna style next door to Grace Church.

The opportunity is still waiting for the courageous soul who will bring

back to our larger cities this Vienna café or some Americanized form of

the continental or sidewalk café, making a specialty of tea, coffee, and

chocolate.

The old Astor House was famous for its coffee for many years, as was

also Dorlon's from 1840 to 1922.

Members of the family of the late Colonel Roosevelt began to promote a

Brazil coffee-house enterprise in New York in 1919. It was first called

Café Paulista, but it is now known as the Double R coffee house, or Club

of South America, with a Brazil branch in the 40's and an Argentine

branch on Lexington Avenue. Coffee is made and served in Brazilian

style; that is, full city roast, pulverized grind, filtration made;

service, black or with hot milk. Sandwiches, cakes, and crullers are

also to be had.

One of New York's newest clubs is known as the Coffee House. It is in

West Forty-fifth Street, and has been in existence since December, 1915,

when it was opened with an informal dinner, at which the late Joseph H.

Choate, one of the original members, outlined the purpose and policies

of the club.

The founders of the Coffee House were convinced--as the result of the

high dues and constantly increasing formality and discipline in the

social clubs in New York--that there was need here for a moderate-priced

eating and meeting place, which should be run in the simplest possible

way and with the least possible expense.

At the beginning of its career, the club framed, adopted, and has since

lived up to, a most informal constitution: "No officers, no liveries, no

tips, no set speeches, no charge accounts, no RULES."

The membership is made up, for the most part, of painters, writers,

sculptors, architects, actors, and members of other professions. Members

are expected to pay cash for all orders. There are no proposals of

candidates for membership. The club invites to join it those whom it

believes to be in sympathy with the ideals of its founders.

The method of preparing coffee for individual service in the

Waldorf-Astoria, New York, which has been adopted by many first-class

hotels and restaurants that do not serve urn-made coffee exclusively, is

the French drip plus careful attention to all the contributing factors

for making coffee in perfection, and is thus described by the hotel's

steward:

[Illustration: BRITANNIA COFFEE POT FROM WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS OFTEN

SERVED IN NEW SALEM

Its story is told on page 614]

A French china drip coffee pot is used. It is kept in a warm

heater; and when the coffee is ordered, this pot is scalded with

hot water. A level tablespoonful of coffee, ground to about the

consistency of granulated sugar, is put into the upper and

percolator part of the coffee pot. Fresh boiling water is then

poured through the coffee and allowed to percolate into the lower

part of the pot. The secret of success, according to our

experience, lies in having the coffee freshly ground, and the water

as near the boiling point as possible, all during the process. For

this reason, the coffee pot should be placed on a gas stove or

range. The quantity of coffee can be varied to suit individual

taste. We use about ten percent more ground coffee for after dinner

cups than we do for breakfast. Our coffee is a mixture of Old

Government Java and Bogota.

[Illustration: COFFEE SERVICE, HOTEL ASTOR, NEW YORK]

C. Scotty, chef at the Hotel Ambassador, New York, thus describes the

method of making coffee in that hostelry:

In the first place, it is essential that the coffee be of the

finest quality obtainable; secondly, better results are obtained by

using the French filterer, or coffee bag.

Twelve ounces of coffee to one gallon of water for breakfast.

Sixteen ounces of coffee to one gallon of water for dinner.

Boiling water should be poured over the coffee, sifoned, and put

back several times. We do not allow the coffee grounds to remain in

the urn for more than fifteen to twenty minutes at any time.

The coffee service at the best hotels is usually in silver pots and

pitchers, and includes the freshly made coffee, hot milk or cream

(sometimes both), and domino sugar.

Within the last year (1921) many of the leading hotels, and some of the

big railway systems, have adopted the custom of serving free a

demi-tasse of coffee as soon as the guest-traveler seats himself at the

breakfast table or in the dining car. "Small blacks," the waiters call

them, or "coffee cocktails," according to their fancy.

At the Pequot coffee house, 91 Water Street, New York, a noonday

restaurant in the heart of the coffee trade, an attempt has been made to

introduce something of the old-time coffee house atmosphere.

The Childs chain of restaurants recently began printing on its menus, in

brackets before each item, the number of calories as computed by an

expert in nutrition. Coffee with a mixture of milk and cream is credited

with eighty-five calories, a well known coffee substitute with seventy

calories, and tea with eighteen calories. The Childs chain of 92

restaurants serves 40,000,000 cups of coffee a year, made from 375 tons

of ground coffee, and figuring an average of 53 cups to the pound.

The Thompson chain of one hundred restaurants serves 160,000 cups of

coffee per day, or more than 58,000,000 cups per year.

_Coffee Customs in South America_

ARGENTINE. Coffee is very popular as a beverage in Argentina. _Café con

léche_--coffee with milk, in which the proportion of coffee may vary

from one-fourth to two-thirds--is the usual Argentine breakfast

beverage. A small cup of coffee is generally taken after meals, and it

is also consumed to a considerable extent in cafés.

BRAZIL. In Brazil every one drinks coffee and at all hours. Cafés making

a specialty of the beverage, and modeled after continental originals,

are to be found a-plenty in Rio de Janeiro, Santos, and other large

cities. The custom prevails of roasting the beans high, almost to

carbonization, grinding them fine, and then boiling after the Turkish

fashion, percolating in French drip pots, steeping in cold water for

several hours, straining and heating the liquid for use as needed, or

filtering by means of conical linen sacks suspended from wire rings.

The Brazilian loves to frequent the cafés and to sip his coffee at his

ease. He is very continental in this respect. The wide-open doors, and

the round-topped marble tables, with their small cups and saucers set

around a sugar basin, make inviting pictures. The customer pulls toward

him one of the cups and immediately a waiter comes and fills it with

coffee, the charge for which is about three cents. It is a common thing

for a Brazilian to consume one dozen to two dozen cups of black coffee a

day. If one pays a social visit, calls upon the president of the

Republic, or any lesser official, or on a business acquaintance, it is a

signal for an attendant to serve coffee. _Café au lait_ is popular in

the morning; but except for this service, milk or cream is never used.

In Brazil, as in the Orient, coffee is a symbol of hospitality.

In CHILE, PARAGUAY and URUGUAY, very much the same customs prevail of

making and serving the beverage.

_Coffee Drinking in Other Countries_

In AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND, English methods for roasting, grinding,

and making coffee are standard. The beverage usually contains thirty to

forty percent chicory. In the bush, the water is boiled in a billy can.

Then the powdered coffee is added; and when the liquid comes again to a

boil, the coffee is done. In the cities, practically the same method is

followed. The general rule in the antipodes seems to be to "let it come

to a boil", and then to remove it from the fire.

In CUBA the custom is to grind the coffee fine, to put it in a flannel

sack suspended over a receiving vessel, and to pour cold water on it.

This is repeated many times, until the coffee mass is well saturated.

The first drippings are repoured over the bag. The final result is a

highly concentrated extract, which serves for making _café au lait_, or

_café noir_, as desired.

In MARTINIQUE, coffee is made after the French fashion. In PANAMA,

French and American methods obtain; as also in the PHILIPPINES.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXXVI

PREPARATION OF THE UNIVERSAL BEVERAGE

_The evolution of grinding and brewing methods--Coffee was first a

food, then a wine, a medicine, a devotional refreshment, a

confection, and finally a beverage--Brewing by boiling, infusion,

percolation, and filtration--Coffee making in Europe in the

nineteenth century--Early coffee making in the United

States--Latest developments in better coffee making--Various

aspects of scientific coffee brewing--Advice to coffee lovers on

how to buy coffee, and how to make it in perfection_

The coffee drink has had a curious evolution. It began, not as a drink,

but as a food ration. Its first use as a drink was as a kind of wine.

Civilization knew it first as a medicine. At one stage of its

development, before it became generally accepted as a liquid

refreshment, the berries found favor as a confection. As a beverage, its

use probably dates back about six hundred years.

The protein and fat content, that is, the food value, of coffee, so far

as civilized man is concerned, is an absolute waste. The only

constituents that are of value are those that are water soluble, and can

be extracted readily with hot water. When coffee is properly made, as by

the drip method, either by percolation or filtration, the ground coffee

comes in contact with the hot water for only a few minutes; so the major

portion of the protein, which is not only practically insoluble, but

coagulates on heating, remains in the unused part of the coffee, the

grounds. The coffee bean contains a large percent of protein--fourteen

percent. By comparing this figure with twenty-one percent of protein in

peas, twenty-three percent in lentils, twenty-six percent in beans,

twenty-four percent in peanuts, about eleven percent in wheat flour, and

less than nine percent in white bread, we learn how much of this

valuable food stuff is lost with the coffee grounds[373].

Though civilized man (excepting the inhabitants of the Isle de Groix off

the coast of Brittany) does not use this protein content of coffee, in

certain parts of Africa it has been put to use in a very ingenious and

effective manner "from time immemorial" down to the present day. James

Bruce, the Scottish explorer, in his travels to discover the source of

the Nile in 1768-73, found that this curious use of the coffee bean had

been known for centuries. He brought back accounts and specimens of its

use as a food in the shape of balls made of grease mixed with roasted

coffee finely ground between stones.

Other writers have told how the Galla, a wandering tribe of Africa--and

like most wandering tribes, a warlike one--find it necessary to carry

concentrated food on their long marches. Before starting on their

marauding excursions, each warrior equips himself with a number of food

balls. These prototypes of the modern food tablet are about the size of

a billiard ball, and consist of pulverized coffee held in shape with

fat. One ball constitutes a day's ration; and although civilized man

might find it unpalatable, from the purely physiological standpoint it

is not only a concentrated and efficient food, but it also has the

additional advantage of containing a valuable stimulant in the caffein

content which spurs the warrior on to maximum effort. And so the savage

in the African jungle has apparently solved two problems; the

utilization of coffee's protein, and the production of a concentrated

food.

Further research shows that perhaps as early as 800 A.D. this practise

started by crushing the whole ripe berries, beans and hulls, in mortars,

mixing them with fats, and rounding them into food balls. Later, the

dried berries were so used. The inhabitants of Groix, also, thrive on a

diet that includes roasted coffee beans.

About 900, a kind of aromatic wine was made in Africa from the fermented

juice of the hulls and pulp of the ripe berries[374].

Payen says that the first coffee drinkers did not think of roasting but,

impressed by the aroma of the dried beans, they put them in cold water

and drank the liquor saturated with their aromatic principles. Crushing

the raw beans and hulls, and steeping them in water, was a later

improvement.

It appears that boiled coffee (the name is anathema today) was invented

about the year 1000 A.D. Even then, the beans were not roasted. We read

of their use in medicine in the form of a decoction. The dried fruit,

beans and hulls, were boiled in stone or clay cauldrons. The custom of

using the sun-dried hulls, without roasting, still exists in Africa,

Arabia, and parts of southern Asia. The natives of Sumatra neglect the

fruit of the coffee tree and use the leaves to make a tea-like infusion.

Jardin relates that in Guiana an agreeable tea is made by drying the

young buds of the coffee tree, and rolling them on a copper plate

slightly heated. In Uganda, the natives eat the raw berries; from

bananas and coffee they make also a sweet, savory drink which is called

_menghai_.

About 1200, the practise was common of making a decoction from the dried

hulls alone. There followed the discovery that roasting improved the

flavor. Even today, this drink known as Sultan or Sultana coffee, _café

à la sultane_, or _kisher_, continues in favor in Arabia. Credit for the

invention of this beverage has been wrongfully given by various French

writers to Doctor Andry, director of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris.

Dr. Andry had his own recipe for making _café à la sultane_, which was

to boil the coffee hulls for half an hour. This gave a lemon-colored

liquid which was drunk with a little sugar.

[Illustration: EARLY COFFEE MAKING IN PERSIA

Showing leather bag for green beans, roasting plate, grinder, boiler,

and serving cups]

The Oriental procedure was to toast the hulls in an earthenware pot over

a charcoal fire, mixing in with them a small quantity of the silver

skins, and turning them over until they were slightly parched. The hulls

and silver skins, in proportions of four to one, were then thrown into

boiling water and well boiled again for at least a half-hour. The color

of the drink had some resemblance to the best English beer, La Roque

assures us, and it required no sweetening, "there being no bitterness to

correct." This was still the coffee drink of the court of Yemen, and of

people of distinction in the Levant, when La Roque and his

fellow-travelers made their celebrated voyage to Arabia the Happy in

1711-13.

Some time in the thirteenth century, the practise began of roasting the

dried beans, after the hulling process. This was done first in crude

stone and earthenware trays, and later on metal plates, as described in

chapter XXXIV. A liquor was made from boiling the whole roasted beans.

The next step was to pound the roasted beans to a powder with a mortar

and pestle; and the decoction was then made by throwing the powder into

boiling water, the drink being swallowed in its entirety, grounds and

all. It was a decoction for the next four centuries.

When the long-handled Arabian metal boiler made its appearance in the

early part of the sixteenth century, the method of preparation and

service had much improved. The Arabs and the Turks had made it a social

adjunct, and its use was no longer confined to the physicians and the

churchmen. It had become a stimulating refreshment for all the people;

and at the same time, the Arabians and the Turks had developed a coffee

ceremony for the higher classes which was quite as wonderful as the tea

ceremony of Japan.

The common early method of preparation throughout the Levant was to

steep the powder in water for a day, to boil the liquor half away, to

strain it, and to keep it in earthen pots for use as wanted. In the

sixteenth century, the small coffee boiler, or _ibrik_, caused the

practise to be more of an instantaneous affair. The coffee was ground,

and the powder was dropped into the boiling water, to be withdrawn from

the fire several times as it boiled up to the rim. While still boiling,

cinnamon and cloves were sometimes added before pouring the liquid off

into the findjans, or little china cups, to be served with the addition

of a drop of essence of amber. Later, the Turks added sugar during the

boiling process.

From the first simple uncovered _ibrik_ there was developed, about the

middle of the seventeenth century, a larger-size covered coffee boiler,

the forerunner of the modern combination brewing and serving pot. This

was a copper-plated kettle patterned after the oriental ewer with a

broad base, bulbous body, and narrow neck. After having poured into it

one and a half times as much water as the dish (cup) in which the drink

was to be served would hold, the pot was placed on a lively fire. When

the water boiled, the powdered coffee was tossed into the pot; and, as

the liquid boiled up, it was taken from the fire and returned, probably

a dozen times. Then the pot was placed in hot ashes to permit the

grounds to settle. This done, the drink was served. Dufour, describing

this process as practised in Turkey and Arabia, says:

One ought not to drink coffee, but suck it in as hot as one can. In

order not to be burned, it is not necessary to place the tongue in

the cup but hold the edge against the tongue with the lips above

and below it, forcing it so little that the edges do not bear down,

and then suck in; that is to say, swallow it sip by sip. If one is

so delicate he can not stand the bitterness, he can temper it with

sugar. It is a mistake to stir the coffee in the pot, the grounds

being worth nothing. In the Levant it is only the scum of the

people who swallow the grounds.

La Roque says:

The Arabians, when they take their coffee off the fire, immediately

wrap the vessel in a wet cloth which fines the liquor instantly,

makes it cream at the top and occasion a more pungent steam, which

they take great pleasure in snuffing up as the coffee is pouring

into the cups. They, like all other nations of the East, drink

their coffee without sugar.

Some of the Orientals afterward modified the early coffee-making

procedure by pouring the boiling water on the powdered coffee in the

serving cups. They thus obtained "a foaming and perfumed beverage," says

Jardin, "to which we (the French) could not accustom ourselves because

of the powder which remains in suspension. Nevertheless, clarified

coffee may be obtained in the Orient. In Mecca, in order to filter it,

they strain it through stopples of dried herbs, put into the opening of

a jar."

Sugar seems to have been introduced into coffee in Cairo about 1625.

Veslingius records that the coffee drinkers in Cairo's three thousand

coffee houses "did begin to put sugar in their coffee to correct the

bitterness of it", and that "others made sugar plums of the coffee

berries". This coffee confection later appeared in Paris, and about the

same time (1700) at Montpellier was introduced a coffee water, "a sort

of rosa-folis of an agreeable scent that has somewhat of the smell of

coffee roasted." These novelties, however, were designed to please only

"the most nice lovers of coffee"; for _ennui_ and boredom demanded new

sensations then as now.

Boiling continued the favorite method of preparing the beverage until

well into the eighteenth century. Meanwhile, we learn from English

references that it was the custom to buy the beans of apothecaries, to

dry them in an oven, or to roast them in an old pudding dish or frying

pan before pounding them to a powder with mortar and pestle, to force

the powder through a lawn sieve, and then to boil it with spring water

for a quarter of an hour. The following recipe from a rare book

published in London, 1662, details the manner of making coffee in the

seventeenth century:

COFFEE MAKING IN 1662

To make the drink that is now much used called coffee.

The coffee-berries are to be bought at any Druggist, about three

shillings the pound; take what quantity you please, and over a

charcoal fire, in an old pudding-pan or frying-pan, keep them

always stirring until they be quite black, and when you crack one

with your teeth that it is black within as it is without; yet if

you exceed, then do you waste the Oyl, which only makes the drink;

and if less, then will it not deliver its Oyl, which must make the

drink; and if you should continue fire till it be white, it will

then make no coffee, but only give you its salt. The Berry prepared

as above, beaten and forced through a Lawn Sive, is then fit for

use.

Take clean water, and boil one-third of it away what quantity

soever it be, and it is fit for use. Take one quart of this

prepared Water, put in it one ounce of your prepared coffee, and

boil it gently one-quarter of an hour, and it is fit for your use;

drink one-quarter of a pint as hot as you can sip it.

In England, about this time, the coffee drink was not infrequently mixed

with sugar candy, and even with mustard. In the coffee houses, however,

it was usually served black, without sugar or milk.

About 1660, Nieuhoff, the Dutch ambassador to China, was the first to

make a trial of coffee with milk in imitation of tea with milk. In 1685,

Sieur Monin, a celebrated doctor of Grenoble, France, first recommended

_café au lait_ as a medicine. He prepared it thus: Place on the fire a

bowl of milk. When it begins to rise, throw in to it a bowl of powdered

coffee, a bowl of moist sugar, and let it boil for some time.

We read that in 1669 "coffee in France was a hot black decoction of

muddy grounds thickened with syrup."

Angelo Rambaldi in his _Ambrosia Arabica_ thus describes coffee making

in Italy and other European countries in 1691:

DESCRIPTION OF THE VASE FOR MAKING THE

DECOCTION, DOSE OF POWDER AND OF THE

WATER NECESSARY AND TIME OF

BOILING IT.

Two such vessels having a large paunch to reach the fire, two

others with long necks and narrow, with a cover to restrain their

spirituous and volatile particles which when thrown off by the heat

are easily lost. These vessels are called Ibriq in Arabia. They are

made of copper--coated with white outside and inside. We, who do

not possess the art of making them should select an earth vitriate,

sulphate of copper, or any other material adapted for kitchen ware:

it might even be of silver.

The quantity of water and powder has no certain rule, by reason of

the difference of our nature and tastes, and each one after some

experience will use his own judgment to adjust it to his desire and

liking.

Maronita infused two ounces of powder in three litres of water.

Cotovico in his voyage to Jerusalem affirms that he has observed

six ounces of the former to 20 litres of the latter, boiled until

it was reduced to half the quantity. Thévenot asserts that the

Turks in three cups of water are contented with a good spoonful of

powder. I have observed however that in Africa, France and England,

into about six ounces of water (which with them is one cup) a dram

of the powder is infused and this agrees with my taste--but I have

wished at times to change the dose.

Others put the water into the vase and when it begins to boil add

the powder, but because it is full of spirit at the first contact

with the heat it rises and boils over the edge of the vase. Take it

away from the fire till the boiling ceases, then put it on the fire

again and let it stay a short time boiling with the cover on: Stand

it on warm ashes until it settles, after which slowly pour a little

of the decoction into an earthen vessel, or one of porcelain or any

other kind, as hot as can be borne, and drink a sip; if it pleases

your taste, add a portion of cardamom, cloves, nutmeg or cinnamon,

and dissolve a little sugar in the water; yet because these

substances will alter the taste of this simple, they are not prized

by many experts.

Modern Arabia, Bassa, Turkey, the Great Orient, those who are

travelling or in the army, infuse the powder in cold water, and

then boiling it as directed above, bear witness to its efficacy.

All times are opportune to take this salutary drink (beverage).

Among the Turks are those who take it even by night, nor is there a

business meeting or conversation, where coffee is not taken. Among

the Great it would be accounted an incivility, if with smoke,

coffee were not offered: and no one in the day is ashamed to

frequent the bazaars where it is sold. When I was in London, that

city of three million people, there were taverns for its special

use. It is a great stimulant. The sober take it to invigorate the

stomach. The scrofulous hated it because they thought it stirred up

the bile on an empty stomach--but experience proving the contrary

enjoy it as much as others.

In 1702, coffee in the American colonies was being used as a refreshment

between meals, "like spirituous liquors."

It was in 1711 that the infusion idea in coffee making appeared in

France. It came in the form of a fustian (cloth) bag which contained the

ground coffee in the coffee maker, and the boiling water was poured over

it. This was a decided French novelty, but it made slow headway in

England and America, where some people were still boiling the whole

roasted beans and drinking the liquor.

In England, as early as 1722, there arose a conscientious objector to

boiled coffee in the person of Humphrey Broadbent, a coffee merchant who

wrote a treatise on _the True Way of Preparing and Making Coffee_[375],

in which he condemned the "silly" practise of making coffee by "boiling

an ounce of the powder in a quart of water," then common in the London

coffee houses, and urging the infusion method. He favored the following

procedure:

Put the quantity of powder you intend, into your pot (which should

be either of stone, or silver, being much better than tin or

copper, which takes from it much of its flavour and goodness) then

pour boiling-hot water upon the aforesaid powder, and let it stand

to infuse five minutes before the fire. This is an excellent way,

and far exceeds the common one of boiling, but whether you prepare

it by boiling or this way, it will sometimes remain thick and

troubled, after it is made, except you pour in a spoonful or two of

cold water, which immediately precipitates the more heavy parts at

the bottom, and makes it clear enough for drinking.

Some, make coffee with spring water, but it is not so good as

river, or _Thames_-water, because the former makes it hard, and

distasteful, and the other makes it smooth and pleasant, lying soft

on the stomach. If you have a desire to make good coffee in your

families, I cannot conceive how you can put less than two ounces of

powder to a quart, or one ounce to a pint of water; some put two

ounces and a quarter.

By 1760, the decoction, or boiling, method in France had been generally

replaced by the infusion, or steeping, method.

In 1763, Donmartin, a tinsmith of St. Bendit, France, invented a coffee

pot, the inside of which was "filled by a fine sack put in its

entirety," and which had a tap to draw the coffee. Many inventions to

make coffee _sans ebullition_ (without boiling) appeared in France about

this time; but it was not until 1800 that De Belloy's pot, employing the

original French drip method, appeared, signaling another step forward in

coffee making--percolation.

_De Belloy and Count Rumford_

De Belloy's pot was probably made of iron or tin, afterward of

porcelain; and it has served as a model for all the percolation devices

that followed it for the next hundred years. It does not seem to have

been patented, and not much is known of the inventor. About this period,

it was the common practise in England to boil coffee in the good

old-fashioned way, and to "fine" (clarify) it with isinglass. This moved

Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson), an American-British scientist, then

living in Paris, to make a study of scientific coffee-making, and to

produce an improved drip device known as Rumford's percolator. He has

been generally credited with the invention of the percolator; but, as

pointed out in a previous chapter, this honor seems to be De Belloy's

and not Rumford's.

Count Rumford embodied his observations and conclusions in a verbose

essay entitled _Of the excellent qualities of coffee and the art of

making it in the highest perfection_, published in London in 1812. In

this treatise he describes and illustrates the Rumford percolator.

Brillat-Savarin, the famous French gastronomist, who also wrote on

coffee in his _VIme Meditation_, said of the De Belloy pot:

I have tried, in the course of time, all methods and of all those

which have been suggested to me up to today (1825) and with a full

knowledge of the matter in hand. I prefer the De Belloy method,

which consists of pouring the boiling water upon the coffee which

has been placed in the vessel of porcelain or silver, pierced with

very small holes. I have attempted to make coffee in a boiler at

high pressure, but I have had as a result a coffee full of extracts

and bitterness which would scrape the throat of a Cossack.

Brillat-Savarin had something also to say on the subject of grinding

coffee, his conclusion being that it was "better to pound the coffee

than to grind it."

He refers to M. Du Belloy, archbishop of Paris, "who loved good things

and was quite an epicure," and says that Napoleon showed him deference

and respect. This may have been Jean Baptiste De Belloy, who, according

to Didot, was born in 1709 and died in 1808, and, it is thought likely,

was the inventor of the De Belloy pot.

Count Rumford was born in Woburn, Mass., in 1753. He was apprenticed to

a storekeeper in Salem in 1766. He became an object of distrust among

the friends of the cause of American freedom: and, on the evacuation of

Boston by the Royal troops in 1776, he was selected by Governor

Wentworth of New Hampshire to carry dispatches to England. He left

England in 1802, and resided in France from 1804 until his death in

1814. In 1772, he had married, or rather, as he put it, he was married

by, a wealthy widow, the daughter of a highly respectable minister and

one of the first settlers at Rumford, now called Concord, New Hampshire.

It was from this town that he took his title of Rumford when he was

created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1791. His first wife having

died, he married in Paris, the wealthy widow of the celebrated chemist,

Lavoisier; and with her he lived an extremely uncomfortable life until

they agreed to separate.

In his essay on coffee and coffee making, Count Rumford gives us a good

pen picture of the preparation of the beverage in England at the

beginning of the nineteenth century. He says:

Coffee is first roasted in an iron pan, or in a hollow cylinder,

made of sheet iron, over a brisk fire; and when, from the colour of

the grain, and the peculiar fragrance which it acquires in this

process, it is judged to be sufficiently roasted, it is taken from

the fire, and suffered to cool. When cold it is pounded in a

mortar; or ground in a hand-mill to a coarse powder, and preserved

for use.

Formerly, the ground Coffee being put into a coffee-pot, with a

sufficient quantity of water, the coffee-pot was put over the fire,

and after the water had been made to boil a certain time, the

coffee-pot was removed from the fire, and the grounds having had

time to settle, or having been fined down with isinglass, the clear

liquor was poured off, and immediately served up in cups.

Count Rumford thought it a mistake to agitate the coffee powder in the

brewing process, and in this he agreed with De Belloy. His improvement

on the latter's pot is described in chapter XXXIV. He was a coffee

connoisseur; and as such was one of the first to advocate the use of

cream as well as sugar for making an ideal cup of the beverage. He

refers, though not by name, to De Belloy's percolation method and says,

"Its usefulness is now universally acknowledged."

_A Few Definitions_

Just here, in order to assure a better understanding of the subject, it

may be well to clear up sundry misconceptions regarding the words

percolation, filtration, decoction, infusion, etc., by the simple

expedient of definition.

A decoction is a liquid produced by boiling a substance until its

soluble properties are extracted. Thus the coffee drink was first a

decoction; and a decoction is what one gets today when coffee is boiled

in the good old-fashioned way--as "mother used to make it."

Infusion is the process of steeping--extraction without boiling. It is

extraction accomplished at any temperature below boiling, and is a

general classification of procedure capable of sub-division. As

generally and correctly applied, it is the operation wherein hot water

is merely poured upon ground coffee loose in a pot, or in a container

resting on the bottom of the pot. In the strictest sense of the term, an

infusion is also produced by percolation and filtration, when the water

is not boiled in contact with the coffee.

Percolation means dripping through fine apertures in china or metal as

in De Belloy's French drip pot.

Filtration means dripping through a porous substance, usually cloth or

paper.

Percolation and filtration are practically synonymous, although a shade

of distinction in their meaning has arisen so that often the latter is

considered as a step logically succeeding the former. Accomplishing

extraction of a material by permitting a liquid to pass slowly through

it is in fact percolation, whereas filtration of the resultant extract

is effected by interposing in its path some medium which will remove

solid or semi-solid material from it. Coffee-making practise has in

itself so applied these terms that each is considered a complete

process. Percolation is thus applied when the infusion is removed from

the grounds immediately by dripping through fine perforations in the

china or metal of which the device is constructed.

True percolation is not produced in the pumping "percolators" in which

the heated water is elevated and sprayed over the ground coffee held in

a metal basket in the upper part of the pot, the liquor being

recirculated until a satisfactory degree of extraction has been reached.

Rather, the process is midway between decoction and infusion, for the

weak liquor is boiled during the operation in order to furnish

sufficient steam to cause the pumping action.

Filtration is accomplished when the ground coffee is retained by cloth

or paper, generally supported by some portion of the brewing device, and

extraction effected by pouring water on the top of the mass, permitting

the liquid to percolate through, the filtering medium retaining the

grounds.

_Patents and Devices_

From the beginning, the French devoted more attention than any other

people to coffee brewing. The first French patent on a coffee maker was

granted in 1802 to Denobe, Henrion, and Rauch for "a

pharmacological-chemical coffee making device by infusion."

In 1802, Charles Wyatt obtained a patent in London on an apparatus for

distilling coffee.

The first French patent on an improved French drip pot for making coffee

"by filtration without boiling" was granted to Hadrot in 1806. Strictly

speaking, this was not a filtering device, as it was fitted with a tin

composition strainer, or grid. It was very like Count Rumford's

percolator announced six years later, as will be seen by comparing the

two in chapter XXXIV.

In 1815, Sené invented in France his _Cafetière Sené_, another device to

make coffee "without boiling."

About the year 1817, the coffee biggin appeared in England. It was

simply a squat earthenware pot with an upper, movable, strainer part

made of tin, after the French drip pot pattern. Later models employed a

cloth bag suspended from the rim of the pot. It was said to have been

invented by a Mr. Biggin; and Dr. Murray, of dictionary fame, seems to

have become convinced of this gentleman's existence, although others

have doubted it and thought the name was of Dutch origin, the article

having been first made for Holland. It has been suggested that, in all

probability, the name came from the Dutch word _beggelin_, to trickle,

or run down. One thing is certain, coffee biggins came originally from

France; so that if there was a Mr. Biggin, he merely introduced them

into England. The coffee biggin with which Americans are most familiar

is a pot containing a flannel bag or a cylindrical wire strainer to hold

the ground coffee through which the boiling water is poured. The Marion

Harland pot was an improved metal coffee biggin. The Triumph coffee

filter was a cloth-bag device which made any coffee pot a biggin.

In 1819, Morize, a Paris tinsmith, invented a double drip, reversible

coffee pot. The device had two movable "filters" and was placed bottom

up on the fire until the water boiled, when it was inverted to let the

coffee "filter" or drip through.

In 1819, Laurens was granted a French patent on the original

pumping-percolator device, in which the water was raised by steam

pressure and dripped over the ground coffee.

In 1820, Gaudet, another Paris tinsmith, invented a filtration device

that employed a cloth strainer.

In 1822, Louis Bernard Rabaut was granted an English patent on a

coffee-making device in which the usual French drip process was reversed

by the use of steam pressure to force the boiling water upward through

the coffee mass. Caseneuve, of Paris, was granted a patent on a similar

device in France in 1824.

In 1825, the first coffee-pot patent in the United States was granted to

Lewis Martelley on a machine "to condense the steam and essential oils

and return them to the infusion."

In 1827, the first really practicable pumping percolator, as we

understand the meaning today, was invented by Jacques-Augustin Gandais,

a manufacturer of plated jewelry in Paris. The boiling water was raised

through a tube in the handle and sprayed over the ground coffee

suspended in a filter basket, but could not be returned for a further

spraying.

In 1827, Nicholas Felix Durant, a manufacturer of Chalons-sur-Marne, was

granted a French patent on a "percolator" employing, for the first time,

an inner tube to raise the boiling water for spraying over the ground

coffee.

In 1839, James Vardy and Moritz Platow were granted an English patent on

a kind of urn "percolator", or filter, employing the vacuum process of

coffee making, the upper vessel being made of glass.

By this time, the pumping percolator, working by steam pressure and by

partial vacuum, was in general use in France, England, and Germany. And

then began the movement toward the next stage in coffee

making--filtration.

About this time (1840), Robert Napier (1791-1876) the Scottish marine

engineer, of the celebrated Clyde shipbuilding firm of Robert Napier &

Sons, invented a vacuum coffee machine to make coffee by distillation

and filtration. The device was never patented; but thirty years later,

it was being made in the works of Thomas Smith & Son (Elkington & Co.,

Ltd., successors) under the direction of Mr. Napier, the aged inventor.

The device consists of a silver globe, brewer syphon, and strainer, as

illustrated. It operates as follows: a half-cupful of water is put into

the globe, and the gas flame is lighted. The dry coffee is put into the

receiver, which is then filled up with boiling water. This will at once

become agitated, and will continue so for a few minutes. When it becomes

still, the gas flame is turned down, and clear coffee is syphoned over

into the globe through the syphon tube, on the end of which, as it rests

in the coffee liquid, there is a metal strainer covered with a filter

cloth.

[Illustration: NAPIER VACUUM COFFEE MAKER]

[Illustration: NAPIER-LIST STEAM COFFEE MACHINE]

The Napierian coffee machine has enjoyed great popularity in England.

The principle has in later years been incorporated in the Napier-List

steam coffee machine for use in hotels, ships, restaurants, etc. Steam

is used as a source of heat, but does not mix with the coffee. List's

patent is for an improvement on the Napierian system and was granted in

1891.

It is related that shortly before he died, old Mr. Napier, at the

termination of a dispute in Smith & Co.'s factory at Glasgow, where the

device was being made under his instruction, said to old Mr. Smith:

"You may be a guid silversmith, but I am a better engineer."

[Illustration: FINLEY ACKER'S FILTER-PAPER COFFEE POT

SHOWING METHOD OF OPERATION]

In 1841, William Ward Andrews was granted an English patent on an

improved pot employing a pump to force the boiling water through the

ground coffee while contained in a perforated cylinder screwed to the

bottom of the pot.

In 1842, the first French patent on a glass coffee-making device was

granted to Madame Vassieux of Lyons.

Following this, there were numerous patents issued in France and England

on double glass-globe coffee-making devices. They were first known as

double glass balloons, and most of them employed metal strainers.

After this, there were many "percolator" patents in France, England, and

the United States, some of which were for improved forms of the original

drip method of the De Belloy device. Others were for the type of machine

which came to be known as "percolators" because they employed the

principle of raising the heated water and spraying it over the ground

coffee in continuous fashion. The story is told in chronological order

in the chapter on the evolution of coffee apparatus; so it is not

necessary to repeat it here. Numerous filtration devices also were

produced abroad and in the United States.

[Illustration: THE KIN-HEE POT IN OPERATION]

Among the percolators, those of Manning, Bowman & Co., and of Landers,

Frary & Clark, became well known here. In the filtration field, the

following attained considerable distinction: Harvey Ricker's Half-Minute

pot, employing a cotton sack with re-inforced bottom, introduced about

1881; the Kin-Hee pot of 1900; Cauchois' Private Estate coffee maker,

using Japanese filter paper, introduced in 1905; Finley Acker's

percolator, introduced the same year, which also employed a filter paper

between two cylinders having side perforations; the Tricolator, 1908;

King's percolator, using filter paper, in 1912; and the "Make-Right",

1911, with its adaptation as presented in the Tru-Bru pot of 1920.

[Illustration: THE TRICOLATOR IN OPERATION]

The Make-Right was the invention of Edward Aborn, New York, and

comprised two telescoping open wire frames, or baskets, with a flat

piece of muslin between them. In the Tru-Bru pot, the same idea was

employed, except that the wire frames were so constructed as to furnish

four drip points to afford better distribution on the ground coffee and

to lessen the time of filtration. There was also a porcelain top, to

house and to raise the filtration device, above the brew with an opening

through which the boiling water could be poured without exposing the

ground coffee.

[Illustration: KING PERCOLATOR, AS APPLIED TO A HOTEL OR RESTAURANT URN]

Among later developments of the genuine percolator principle that have

attracted attention in this country, mention should be made of the

Phylax coffee maker, and the Galt pot.

In 1914-16, there was a revival of interest in the United States in the

double glass-globe method of making coffee, introduced into France as

"double glass balloons" in the first half of the nineteenth century.

American ingenuity produced several clever adaptations, and several

notable filter improvements. Advertising developed a great demand for

glass percolators, as they were first called; but although five attained

considerable prominence, only two survived and, at this writing, are

still being manufactured. Both are double glass-globe filters employing

a spirit lamp, gas, or electricity as heating agents.

[Illustration: THREE TYPES OF AMERICAN COFFEE MAKERS IN OPERATION

Left, Blanke's Cloth Filter--Center, Phylax--Right, Galt Vacuum device]

Within the last few years, it has become the fashion to obtain patents

in the United States on "the art of brewing coffee", or the "art of

making coffee". Instances are the patents issued to Messrs. Calkin and

Muller. In the Calkin patent (the Phylax device illustrated at the top

of this page) the "art" consists in controlling the flow of the boiling

water by means of the number and spacing of the holes in the

water-spreader, so as to restrict the volume and the speed, to effect a

quick initial extraction; and then, by means of a new spacing of holes

in the infuser, retarding the drip "to attain a prolonged extraction of

the tannin and other elements of slow extraction and combining the

liquids obtained during the initial and subsequent stages of the brew

for attaining a balanced liquid extract."

[Illustration: HOW THE TRU-BRU POT OPERATES]

Muller's "art" (the apparatus is described in chapter XXXIV) consisted

in so supplying and supporting the ground coffee in an urn that it is

never again subjected to the "decoction" after having been exposed to

the air and steam following the first application of the water.

In 1920, William G. Goldsworthy, San Francisco, was granted a United

States patent on a process for preparing the beans for making the

beverage. The process consisted of grinding the raw dried beans; then

packing the ground product in non-combustible and non-soluble porous

containers, which are securely closed to keep them unimpaired while the

contained coffee is being roasted; and, after cooling, sealing them with

gelatine. To brew, container and contents are dropped into a cup of hot

water.

[Illustration: COFFEE-MAKING DEVICES USED IN THE UNITED STATES

1--Marlon Harland Pot; 2--Universal Percolator; 3--Galt Vacuum Process

Coffee Maker; 4--Universal Electric Urn; 5--English Coffee Biggin

(Langley Ware); 6--Universal Cafenoira (Glass Filter); 7--Vienna

(Bohemian or Carlsbad) Coffee Machine; 8--Tru-Bru Pot; 9--Tricolator;

10--Manning-Bowman Percolator; 11--Blanke's Sanitary Coffee Pot;

12--Phylax Coffee Maker; 13--Private-Estate Coffee Maker; 14--American

French Drip Pot; 15--Kin-Hee Pot; 16--Silex Opalescent Glass Filter;

17--French Drip Pot (Langley Ware).]

This brief review of the evolution of coffee brews shows that coffee

making started with boiling, and next became an infusion. After that,

the best practise became divided between simple percolation and

filtration, which have continued to the present time. Boiling has also

continued to find advocates in every country, even in the United States,

where it seems to die hard, no matter how much is done to discredit it.

Percolation devices are subdivided into the simple drip pots and the

continuous percolation machines, as represented by numerous complicated

and high-priced contrivances on the market. Gradually, however, true

coffee lovers are realizing that the best results are to be obtained

through simple percolation or simple filtration. There are good

arguments for both methods.

_Coffee Making in Europe in the Nineteenth Century_

ENGLAND. We have noted Count Rumford's efforts to reform coffee making

in England in the early part of the nineteenth century. Many other

scientific men joined the movement. Among them was Professor Donovan,

who in the _Dublin Philosophical Journal_ for May, 1826, told of his

experiments "to ascertain the best methods for extracting all the

virtues inherent in the berry." The _Penny Magazine_ for June 14, 1834,

after deploring "the straw-colored fluid commonly introduced under the

misnomer of coffee in England", thus digests Professor Donovan's

findings:

Mr. Donovan found, that what we shall call the medicinal quality of

coffee resides in it independent of its aromatic flavor,--that it

is possible to obtain the exhilarating effect of the beverage

without gratifying the palate,--and, on the other hand, that all

the aromatic quality may be enjoyed without its producing any

effect upon the animal economy. His object was to combine the two.

The roasting of coffee is requisite for the production of both

these qualities; but, to secure them in their full degree, it is

necessary to conduct the process with some skill. The first thing

to be done is to expose the raw coffee to the heat of a gentle

fire, in an open vessel, stirring it continually until it assumes a

yellowish colour. It should then be roughly broken,--a thing very

easily done,--so that each berry is divided into about four or five

pieces, when it must be put into the roasting apparatus. This, as

most commonly used, is made of sheet-iron, and is of a cylindrical

shape: it no doubt answers the purpose well, and is by no means a

costly machine, but coffee may be very well roasted in a common

iron or earthenware pot, the main circumstances to be observed

being the degree to which the process is carried, and the

prevention of partial burning, by constant stirring. One of the

requisites for having good coffee is that it shall have been

recently roasted.

Coffee should be ground very fine for use, and only at the moment

when it is wanted, or the aromatic flavour will in some measure be

lost. To extract all its good qualities, the powder requires two

separate and somewhat opposite modes of treatment, but which do not

offer any difficulty when explained. On the one hand, the fine

flavour would be lost by boiling, while, on the other, it is

necessary to subject the coffee to that degree of heat in order to

extract its medicinal quality. The mode of proceeding, which, after

many experiments, Mr. Donovan found to be the most simple and

efficacious for attaining both these ends, was the following:--

The whole water to be used must be divided into two equal parts.

One half must be put first to the coffee "cold", and this must be

placed over the fire until it "just comes to a boil", when it must

be immediately removed. Allowing it then to subside for a few

moments the liquid must be poured off as clear as it will run. The

remaining half of the water, which during this time should have

been on the fire, must then be added "at a boiling heat" to the

grounds, and placed on the fire, where it must be kept "boiling"

for about three minutes. This will extract the medicinal virtue,

and if then the liquid be allowed again to subside, and the clear

fluid be added to the first portion, the preparation will be found

to combine all the good properties of the berry in as great

perfection as they can be obtained. If any fining ingredient is

used it should be mixed with the powder at the beginning of the

process.

Several kinds of apparatus, some of them very ingenious in their

construction, have been proposed for preparing coffee, but they are

all made upon the principle of extracting only the aromatic

flavour, while Professor Donovan's suggestions not only enable us

to accomplish that desirable object, but superadd the less obvious

but equally essential matter of extracting and making our own all

the medicinal virtues.

When Webster and Parkes published their _Encyclopedia of Domestic

Economy_, London, 1844, they gave the following as "the most usual

method of making coffee in England":

Put fresh ground coffee into a coffee-pot, with a sufficient

quantity of water, and set this on the fire till it boils for a

minute or two; then remove it from the fire, pour out a cupful,

which is to be returned into the coffee-pot to throw down the

grounds that may be floating; repeat this, and let the coffee-pot

stand near the fire, but not on too hot a place, until the grounds

have subsided to the bottom; in a few minutes the coffee will be

clear without any other preparation, and may be poured into cups;

in this manner, with good materials in sufficient quantity, and

proper care, excellent coffee may be made. The most valuable part

of the coffee is soon extracted, and it is certain that long

boiling dissipates the fine aroma and flavour. Some make it a rule

not to suffer the coffee to boil, but only to bring it just to the

boiling point; but it is said by Mr. Donovan that it requires

boiling for a little time to extract the whole of the bitter, in

which he conceives much of the exhilarating qualities of the coffee

reside.

This work had also the following to say on the clearing of coffee, which

was then a much-mooted question:

The clearing of coffee is a circumstance demanding particular

attention. After the heaviest parts of the grounds have settled,

there are still fine particles suspended for some time, and if the

coffee be poured off before these have subsided, the liquor is

deficient in that transparency which is one test of its perfection;

for coffee not well cleared has always an unpleasant bitter taste.

In general, the coffee becomes clear by simply remaining quiet for

a few minutes, as we have stated; but those who are anxious to have

it as clear as possible employ some artificial means of assisting

the clearing. The addition of a little isinglass, hartshorn

shavings, skins of eels or soles, white of eggs, egg shells, etc.,

has been recommended for clearing; but it is evident that these

substances, to produce their effect, which is upon the same

principle as the fining of beer or wine, should be dissolved

previously, for if put in without, it would require so much time to

dissolve, that the flavour of the coffee would vanish.

Coffee-making devices of this period in England, in addition to the

Rumford type of percolator and the popular coffee biggin, included

Evans' machine provided with a tin air-float to which was attached a

filter bag containing the coffee; Jones' apparatus, a pumping

percolator; Parker's steam-fountain coffee maker, which forced the hot

water upward through the ground coffee; Platow's patent filter,

previously mentioned, a single vacuum glass percolator in combination

with an urn; Brain's vacuum or pneumatic filter employing a "muslin,

linen or shamoy leather filter" and an exhausting pump, designed for

kitchen use; and Palmer's and Beart's pneumatic filtering machines of

similar construction.

Cold infusions were common, the practise being to let them stand

overnight, to be filtered in the morning, and only heated, not boiled.

Coffee grinding for these various types of coffee makers was performed

by iron mills; the portable box mill being most favored for family use.

"It consisted of a square box either of mahogany or iron japanned,

containing in the interior a hollow cone of steel with sharp grooves on

the inside; into this fits a conical piece of hardened iron or steel

having spiral grooves cut upon its surface and capable of being turned

round by a handle." There was a drawer to receive the finely ground

coffee. Larger wall-mills employed the same grinding mechanism.

In 1855, Dr. John Doran wrote in his "Table Traits":

With regard to the making of coffee, there is no doubt that the

Turkish method of pounding the coffee in a mortar is infinitely

superior to grinding it in a mill, as with us. But after either

method the process recommended by M. Soyer may be advantageously

adopted; namely, "Put two ounces of ground coffee into a stew-pan,

which set upon the fire, stirring the coffee round with a spoon

until quite hot, then pour over a pint of boiling water; cover over

closely for five minutes, pass it through a cloth, warm again, and

serve."

From observations by G.W. Poore, M.D., London, 1883, we are given a

glimpse of coffee making in England in the latter part of the nineteenth

century. He said:

Those who wish to enjoy really good coffee must have it fresh

roasted. On the Continent, in every well-regulated household, the

daily supply of coffee is roasted every morning. In England this is

rarely done.

If roasted coffee has to be kept, it must be kept in an air-tight

vessel. In France, coffee used to be kept in a wrapper of waxed

leather, which was always closely tied over the contained coffee.

In this way the coffee was kept from contact with any air.

The Viennese say that coffee should be kept in a glass bottle

closed with a bung, and that coffee should on no account be kept in

a tin canister.

The coffee having been roasted, it has to be reduced to a coarse

powder before the infusion is made. The grinding and powdering of

coffee should be done just before it is wanted, for if the whole

coffee seeds quickly lose their aroma, how much more quickly will

the aroma be dissipated from coffee which has been reduced to a

fine powder? Nothing need be said in the matter of coffee mills.

They are common enough, varied enough, and cheap enough to suit all

tastes.

To insure a really good cup of coffee attention must be given to

the following points:

1. Be sure that the coffee is good in quality, freshly roasted, and

fresh ground.

2. Use sufficient coffee. I have made some experiments on this

point, and I have come to the conclusions that one ounce of coffee

to a pint of water makes poor coffee, 1-1/2 ounces of coffee to a

pint of water makes fairly good coffee, two ounces of coffee to a

pint of water makes excellent coffee.

3. As to the form of coffee pot I have nothing to say. The

varieties of coffee machines are very numerous and many of them are

useless incumbrances. At the best, they can not be regarded as

absolutely necessary. The Brazilians insist that coffee pots should

on no account be made of metal, but that porcelain or earthenware

is alone permissible. I have been in the habit of late of having my

coffee made in a common jug provided with a strainer, and I believe

there is nothing better.

[Illustration: COFFEE-MAKING MACHINES POPULAR IN ENGLISH HOTELS AND

RESTAURANTS]

4. Warm the jug, put the coffee into it, boil the water, and pour

the boiling water on the coffee, and the thing is done.

5. Coffee must not be boiled, or at most it must be allowed just to

"come to a boil", as cook says. If violent ebullition takes place,

the aroma of the coffee is dissipated, and the beverage is spoiled.

The most economical way of making coffee is to put the coffee into

a jug and pour cold water upon it. This should be done some hours

before the coffee is wanted--over night, for instance, if the

coffee be required for breakfast. The light particles of coffee

will imbibe the water and fall to the bottom of the jug in course

of time. When the coffee is to be used stand the jug in a saucepan

of water or a bainmarie and place the outer vessel over the fire

till the water contained in it boils. The coffee in this way is

gently brought to the boiling point without violent ebullition, and

we get the maximum extract without any loss of aroma.

Always make your coffee strong. _Café au lait_ is much better if

made with one-fourth strong coffee and three-fourths milk than if

made half-and-half with a weaker coffee; this is evident.

It is a mistake to suppose that coffee can not be made without a

great deal of costly and cumbersome apparatus.

THE CONTINENT. Rossignon has given us a general view of coffee making on

the continent of Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. He

says:

Formerly small bags of baize were used to percolate coffee. The

water was poured on the coffee, and when they were new the coffee

percolated through them was pretty good, but when they had been

used a few times they became greasy and it was very difficult to

clean them by any means. The greasy baize altered the quality of

the coffee, and in spite of all efforts to keep it clean the coffee

had a tarnished appearance very disagreeable to the view. Very few

persons use them at present. The apparatus most in use for the

percolation of coffee is a tin coffee-pot composed of two parts.

The upper one has a filter or sieve on which the coffee powder is

placed and through which the filtered coffee must pass. Boiling

water is poured on the coffee. The liquor which percolates falls in

the second part. Then the upper part is removed and the coffee is

ready as a beverage. There are very many systems of coffee pots.

One of the best is the Russian one, which consists of a receptacle

composed of two parts resembling two halves of an egg screwed

together. One part contains the hot water and the other the ground

coffee. In the center there is a filter. Turning the pot upside

down the percolation takes place very slowly and no aroma is lost.

The tin plate which is generally used to make the coffee pot has

many drawbacks. One of them is the dissolution of iron which takes

place after it has been used for a short time.

The quality of coffee, as a beverage, depends principally on the

degree of heat of the water. Experience has shown that a medium

class of coffee prepared at a moderate heat gives a very good

liquor, while excellent coffee on which boiling water has been

poured did not give a very good liquor. Therefore, instead of

pouring boiling water at 100°C. in a porcelain or silver

coffee-pot, those who desire to make a perfect coffee must use

water heated from 60° to 75°C.

[Illustration: The Duparquet Still's machine The Kellum

THREE WELL KNOWN MAKES OF LARGE COFFEE URNS]

FRANCE. Also about the middle of the nineteenth century the French

naturalist, Du Tour, thus describes one manner of making coffee in

France:

Let the powder be poured into the coffee-pot filled with boiling

water, in the proportion of two ounces and a half to two pounds, or

two English pints of water. Let the mixture be stirred with a

spoon, and the coffee-pot be soon taken off the fire, but suffered

to remain closely shut, for about at least two hours, on the warm

ashes of a wood fire. During the infusion the liquor should be

several times agitated by a chocolate frother, or something of the

same kind, and be finally left for about a quarter of an hour to

settle.

_Café au lait_ was not made by boiling coffee and milk together, as milk

was not proper to extract the coffee; the coffee was first made as _café

noir_, only stronger; as much of this coffee was poured in the cup as

was required, and the cup was then filled up with _boiled_ milk. _Café a

la crème_, was made by adding boiled cream to strong clear coffee and

heating them together.

In France, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, coffee was

roasted over charcoal fires in earthenware dishes or saucepans, stirred

with a spatula or wooden spoon, or in small cylinder or globular

roasters of iron. Gas roasting was also practised. When roasted in large

batches, the beans were cooled in wicker baskets, tossed into the air.

The grinding was preferably done in mortars or in box mills of pyramid

shape with receiving drawers, and was not too fine.

The usual method of making coffee in France among the better classes at

this time was by means of improved De Belloy drip devices, double glass

vacuum filters, pumping percolators (double circulation devices), the

Russian egg-shaped pots, and the Viennese machines. The last-named were

metal pumping percolators with glass tops, usually swung between the

uprights of a carry arrangement, the base of which held a spirit lamp.

Among the numerous French machines which became well known were:

Reparlier's glass "filter"; Egrot's steam cloth-filter machine and

Malen's percolator apparatus, both designed for barracks and ships,

where previously the coffee had been brewed in soup kettles; Bouillon

Muller's steam percolator; Laurent's whistling coffee pot, a steam

percolator which announced when the coffee was ready; Ed. Loysel's rapid

filter, a hydrostatic percolator; and those pots to which Morize,

Lemare, Grandin, Crepaux, and Gandais gave their names.

In 1892, the French minister of war directed that, in the army roasting

and grinding operations, the coffee chaff should no longer be thrown

away, as it had been found that it was rich in caffein and aroma

constituents.

[Illustration: POPULAR GERMAN DRIP POT]

Coffee _à la minute_, which appeared in France in the nineteenth

century, was made by decoction or infusion through a funnel pierced with

holes and covered inside with blotting paper, or a woolen strainer

cloth. This system, says Jardin, suggested the economical coffee pot.

A popular German drip coffee maker of the late nineteenth century

employs a plug in the spout which provides air pressure to hold back the

infusion until the plug is removed.

Pierre Joseph Buc'hoz, physician to the king of Poland, in 1787, made a

business of supplying roasted coffee in small packets, each sufficient

for one cup. He built up quite a trade until one day he was caught

substituting roasted rye for coffee. This was the Buc'hoz method of

making coffee, much practised by the lower classes because he was looked

upon as an authority:

Boil the water in a coffee pot. When it boils, draw it from the

fire long enough to add an ounce of coffee powder to a pound of

water. Stir with a spoon. Return it to the fire and when it boils

move it back somewhat from the heat and let it simmer for eight

minutes. Clarify with sugar or deer horn powder.

_Early Coffee Making in the United States_

The coffee drink reached the colonies, first as a beverage for the

well-to-do, about 1668. When introduced to the general public through

the coffee houses about 1700, it was first sipped from small dishes as

in England; and no one inquired too closely as to how it was made. When,

half a century later, it had displaced beer and tea for breakfast, its

correct making became a matter of polite inquiry. It was not until well

into the nineteenth century that there was any suggestion of scientific

interest, and not until within the last decade was any real chemical

analysis of brewed coffee undertaken with a view to producing a

scientific cup of the beverage.

At first, owing to the great distances, and difficulties surrounding

communications, between the colonies, news of improvements in coffee

makers and coffee making traveled slowly, and coffee customs brought

from Europe by the early settlers became habits that were not easily

changed. Some of the worst have clung on, ignoring the march of

improvement, and seem as firmly entrenched in suburban and rural

communities today as they were two hundred years ago.

Indeed, despite the fact that the United States have been the largest

consumer of coffee among the nations for nearly half a century, it is

only within the last ten years that coffee properly prepared could be

obtained outside the principal cities. Even today, the average consumer

is sadly in need of education in correct coffee brewing. It would be an

excellent idea if all the coffee propaganda funds could be concentrated

on a study of this one phase of the coffee question for several years,

and the recommendations published in such fashion as firmly to fix in

the minds of the rising generation a knowledge of correct coffee

brewing. The facts of the case are that, generally speaking, coffee is

still prepared in slovenly fashion in the average American home.

However, with the good work done in recent years by organized trade

effort to correct this abuse of our national beverage, signs are

plentiful that the time is not far distant when a lasting reformation in

coffee making will have been accomplished.

In colonial times the coffee drink was mostly a decoction. Esther

Singleton tells us that in New Amsterdam coffee was boiled in a copper

pot lined with tin and drunk as hot as possible With sugar or honey and

spices. "Sometimes a pint of fresh milk was brought to the boiling point

and then as much drawn tincture of coffee was added, or the coffee was

put in cold water with the milk and both were boiled together and drunk.

Rich people mixed cloves, cinnamon or sugar with ambergris in the

coffee.[376]"

Ground cardamom seeds were also used to flavor the decoction.

In the early days of New England, the whole beans were frequently boiled

for hours with not wholly pleasing results in forming either food or

drink[377].

In New Orleans, the ground coffee was put into a tin or pewter coffee

dripper, and the infusion was made by slowly pouring the boiling water

over it after the French fashion. The coffee was not considered good

unless it actually stained the cup. This method still obtains among the

old Creole families.

Boiling coarsely pounded coffee for fifteen minutes to half an hour was

common practise in the colonies before 1800.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the best practise was to

roast the coffee in an iron cylinder that stood before the hearth fire.

It was either turned by a handle or wound up like a jack to go by

itself. The grinding was done in a lap or wall mill; and among the best

known makes were Kenrick's, Wilson's, Wolf's, John Luther's, George W.M.

Vandegrift's, and Charles Parker's Best Quality.

To make coffee "without boiling" the cookery books of the period advised

the housewife to obtain "a biggin, the best of which is what in France

is called a Grecque."

In 1844, the _Kitchen Directory and American Housewife's_ advice on the

subject of coffee making was the following:

Coffee should be put in an iron pot and dried near a moderate fire

for several hours before roasting (in pot over hot coals and

stirring constantly). It is sufficiently roasted when biting one of

the lightest colored kernels--if brittle the whole is done. A

coffee roaster is better than an open pot. Use a tablespoonful

ground to a pint of boiling water. Boil in tin pot twenty to

twenty-five minutes. If boiled longer it will not taste fresh and

lively. Let stand four or five minutes to settle, pour off grounds

into a coffee pot or urn. Put fish skin or isinglass size of a nine

pence in pot when put on to boil or else the white and shell of

half an egg to a couple of quarts of coffee. French coffee is made

in a German filter, the water is turned on boiling hot and

one-third more coffee is needed than when boiled in the common way.

In 1856 the _Ladies' Home Magazine_ (now the _Ladies' Home Journal_)

printed the following, which fairly sums up the coffee making customs of

that period:

Coffee, if you would have its best flavor, should be roasted at

home; but _not in an open pan_, for this permits a large amount of

aroma to escape. The roaster should be a closed sphere or

cylinder. The aroma, upon which the good taste of the coffee

depends, is only developed in the berry by the roasting process,

which also is necessary to diminish its toughness, and fit it for

grinding. While roasting, coffee loses from fifteen to twenty-five

percent of its weight, and gains from thirty to fifty percent in

bulk. More depends upon the proper roasting than upon the quality

of the coffee itself. One or two scorched or burned berries will

materially injure the flavor of several cupfuls. Even a slight

overheating diminishes the good taste.

The best mode of roasting, where it is done at home, is to dry the

coffee first, in an open vessel, until its color is slightly

changed. This allows the moisture to escape. Then cover it closely

and scorch it, keeping up a constant agitation, so that no portion

of a kernel may be unequally heated. Too low and too slow a heat

dries it up without producing the full aromatic flavor; while too

great heat dissipates the oily matter and leaves only bitter

charred kernels. It should be heated so as to acquire a uniform

deep cinnamon color, and an oily appearance, but never a deep, dark

brown color. It then should be taken from the fire and kept closely

covered until cold, and further until used. While unroasted coffee

improves by age, the roasted berries will very generally lose their

aroma if not covered very closely. The ground stuff kept on sale in

barrels, or boxes, or in papers, is not worthy the name of coffee.

Coffee should not be ground until just before using. If ground over

night, it should be covered: or, what is quite as well, put into

the boiler and covered with water. The water not only retains the

valuable oil and other aromatic elements, but also prepares it by

soaking for immediate boiling in the morning.

If the coffee pot (the "_Old Dominion_", of course, for in a common

boiler this process would ruin the coffee by wasting the aroma) be

set on the range or stove, or near the fire, so as to be kept hot

all night preparatory to boiling in the morning, the beverage will

be found in the morning, rich, mellow, and of a most delicious

flavor.

Coffee used at supper time should be placed on or near the fire

immediately after dinner and kept hot or simmering--not

boiling--all the afternoon.

Try this method if you wish coffee in perfection.

Wood's improved coffee roaster is acknowledged to be the best

article of the kind now in use.

This patent coffee roaster has been improved by the introduction of

a triangular flange inside of each of the hemispheres, as seen in

the cut. These flanges, as the roaster is turned, catch the coffee

and throw it from the inner surface, thus insuring a perfect

uniformity in the burning.

The Woods roaster (1849) and the Old Dominion Coffee Pot (1856) have

been referred to in chapter XXXIV.

From the _Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery_, we learn some more about

the customs prevailing "among the first cooks in the country" in

roasting and making coffee in the United States about the middle of the

nineteenth century. For example:

ROASTING COFFEE BEANS

Put the beans in the roaster, set this before a moderate fire, and

turn slowly until the Coffee takes a good brown colour; for this it

should require about twenty-five minutes. Open the cover to see

when it is done. If browned, transfer it to an earthen jar, cover

it tightly, and use when needed.

Or a more simple plan, and even more effectual, is to take a tin

baking-dish, butter well the bottom, put the Coffee in it, and set

it in a moderate oven until the beans take a strong golden colour,

twenty minutes sufficing for this. Toss them frequently with a

wooden spoon as they are cooking.

Another plan is to put in a small frying-pan 1 1b. of raw

Coffee-beans and set the pan on the fire, stirring and shaking

occasionally till the beans are yellow: then cover the frying-pan

and shake the Coffee about till it is a dark brown. Move the pan

off the fire, keep the cover on, and when the beans are a little

cool, break an egg over them and stir them until they are all well

coated with the egg. Then store the Coffee in tins or jars with

tight-fitting lids, and grind it as wanted for use.

Coffee should always be bought in the bean and ground as required,

otherwise it is liable to extensive adulteration with chicory (or

succory); some persons like the addition, but the epicure who is

really fond of Coffee would not admit of its introduction.

MAKING BREAKFAST COFFEE.

Allow 1 tablespoonful of Coffee to each person. The Coffee when

ground should be measured, put into the Coffee-pot, and boiling

water poured over it in the proportion of 3/4 pint to each

tablespoonful of Coffee, and the pot put on the fire; the instant

it boils, take the pot off, uncover it, and let it stand a minute

or two; then cover it again, put it back on the fire, and let it

boil up again. Take it from the fire and let it stand for five

minutes to settle. It is then ready to pour out.

This work recommended as among the latest and best devices for coffee

making, all those manufactured or sold in this country by Adams & Son;

the English coffee biggin; General Hutchinson's coffee pot and urn,

combining De Belloy's and Rumford's ideas; Le Brun's Cafetiére for

making coffee by distillation and by steam pressure, passing it directly

into the cup; a Vienna coffee-making machine, and a Russian coffee

reversible pot called the Potsdam.

Among two score of coffee recipes for making various kinds of extracts,

ices, candies, cakes, etc., flavored with coffee, there is a curious one

for coffee beer, the invention of Frenchman named Pluehart. "The

ingredients and quantities in a thousand parts are--Strong coffee 300;

rum 300; syrup thickened with gum senegal 65; alcoholic extract of

orange peel 10; and water 325."

"It does not appear to have reached any important degree of popularity",

adds the editor.

In 1861, Godey's _Lady's Book and Magazine_ noted with approval the

growing custom of hotel and restaurant guests to order coffee instead of

wines or spirits with their dinners. On the subject of "How to make a

cup of coffee" it had this to say:

Which is the best way of making coffee? In this particular notions

differ. For example, the Turks do not trouble themselves to take

off the bitterness by sugar, nor do they seek to disguise the

flavor by milk, as is our custom. But they add to each dish a drop

of the essence of amber, or put a couple of cloves in it, during

the process of preparation. Such flavoring would not, we opine,

agree with western tastes. If a cup of the very best coffee,

prepared in the highest perfection and boiling hot, be placed on a

table in the middle of a room and suffered to cool, it will, in

cooling, fill the room with its fragrance: but becoming cold, it

will lose much of its flavor. Being again heated, its taste and

flavor will be still further impaired, and heated a third time, it

will be found vapid and nauseous. The aroma diffused through the

room proved that the coffee has been deprived of its most volatile

parts, and hence of its agreeableness and virtue. By pouring

boiling water on the coffee, and surrounding the containing vessel

with boiling water, the finer qualities of the coffee will be

preserved.

Boiling coffee in a coffee-pot is neither economical or judicious,

so much of the aroma being wasted by this method. Count Rumford (no

mean authority) states that one pound of good Mocha, when roasted

and ground, will make fifty-six cups of the very best coffee, but

it must be ground finely, or the surfaces of the particles only

will be acted upon by the hot water, and much of the essence will

be left in the grounds.

In the East, coffee is said to arouse, exhilarate, and keep awake,

allaying hunger, and giving to the weary renewed strength and

vigor, while it imparts a feeling of comfort and repose. The

Arabians, when they take their coffee off the fire, wrap the vessel

in a wet cloth, which fines the liquor instantly, and makes it

cream at the top. There is one great essential to be observed,

namely, that coffee should not be ground before it is required for

use, as in a powdered state its finer qualities evaporate.

We pass over the usual modes of making coffee, as being familiar to

every lady who presides over every household; and content ourselves

with the most modern and approved Parisian methods, though we may

add that a common recipe for good coffee is--two ounces of coffee

and one quart of water. Filter or boil ten minutes, and leave to

clear ten minutes.

The French make an extremely strong coffee. For breakfast, they

drink one-third of the infusion, and two-thirds of hot milk. The

_café noir_ used after dinner, is the very essence of the berry.

Only a small cup is taken, sweetened with white sugar or

sugar-candy, and sometimes a little _eau de vie_ is poured over the

sugar in a spoon held above the surface, and set on fire; or after

it, a very small glass of _liqueur_, called a _chasse-café_, is

immediately drunk. But the best method, prevalent in France, for

making coffee (and the infusion may be strong or otherwise as taste

may direct) is to take a large coffee-pot with an upper receptacle

made to fit close into it, the bottom of which is perforated with

small holes, containing in its interior two movable metal

strainers, over the second of which the powder is to be placed, and

immediately under the third. Upon this upper strainer pour boiling

water, and continue to do so gently; until it bubbles up through

the strainer: then shut the cover of the machine close down, place

it near the fire, and so soon as the water has drained through the

coffee, repeat the operation until the whole intended quantity be

passed. No finings are required. Thus all the fragrance of its

perfume will be retained with all the balsamic and stimulating

powers of its essence. This is a true Parisian mode, and _voila!_ a

cup of excellent coffee.

This article is most interesting in that it shows the revolt against

boiling coffee had started in the United States; also that the

importance of fine grinding was being recognized and emphasized by the

leaders of the best thought of the nation.

Probably the first scientific inquiry into the subject of coffee

roasting and brewing in the United States was that detailed by August T.

Dawson and Charles M. Wetherill, Ph.D., M.D., in the _Journal of the

Franklin Institute_ for July and August, 1855. The following is a

digest:

There are two classes of beverages: 1, alcoholic, and 2,

nitrogenized. Nitrogenized foods are effective to replace the

substance of the different organs of the body wasted away by the

process of vitality. Coffee is one of these.

Besides the tannin, the coffee berry contains two substances, one

the nitrogenized quality, caffeine, which is about one percent and

is not altered in roasting, and the other a volatile oil which is

developed in roasting and which gives the coffee its flavor. Dr.

Julius Lehmann (Liebig's Annales LXXXVII. 205) says that coffee

retards the waste tissues of the body and diminishes the amount of

food necessary to preserve life. This effect is due to the oil.

Much of the nutritive portion of coffee is lost by European methods

of making.

Good coffee is very rare. These experiments were made to ascertain

whether a potable coffee could not be offered to the public at as

low a price as the raw or roasted now is. In order to be successful

we needed to extract a larger portion of the nutritive substance

than is extracted in the household. The experiments have proved

vain.

As a result of our experiments with different ways of roasting and

brewing coffee, we have found the following plan to be the most

convenient and the best: the coffee will taste the same every time

and it will taste good. If a good berry be properly roasted and the

infusion be of the proper strength, good coffee must result. A

Mocha berry should be selected and roasted seven or eight pounds at

a time in a cylindrical drum. After roasting it should be placed in

a stone jar with a mouth three inches in diameter. The jar should

be closed air-tight. This will furnish two cups of coffee daily for

six months. A quart should be taken from the jar at a time and

ground. The ground coffee should be kept in covered glass jars.