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Title: All About Coffee
Author: Ukers, William H. (William Harrison), 1873-1945
Language: English
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_All About
Coffee_
[Illustration]
ALL ABOUT COFFEE
[Illustration: COFFEE BRANCHES, FLOWERS, AND FRUIT
SHOWING THE BERRY IN ITS VARIOUS RIPENING STAGES FROM FLOWER TO CHERRY
(Inset: 1, green bean; 2, silver skin; 3, parchment; 4, fruit pulp.)
Painted from life by Blendon Campbell]
_ALL ABOUT
COFFEE_
_By_
_WILLIAM H. UKERS, M.A._
_Editor_
THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL COMPANY
1922
COPYRIGHT 1922
BY
THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL COMPANY
NEW YORK
_International Copyright Secured_
_All Rights Reserved in U.S.A. and
Foreign Countries_
PRINTED IN U.S.A.
_To My Wife_
_HELEN DE GRAFF UKERS_
PREFACE
Seventeen years ago the author of this work made his first trip abroad
to gather material for a book on coffee. Subsequently he spent a year in
travel among the coffee-producing countries. After the initial surveys,
correspondents were appointed to make researches in the principal
European libraries and museums; and this phase of the work continued
until April, 1922. Simultaneous researches were conducted in American
libraries and historical museums up to the time of the return of the
final proofs to the printer in June, 1922.
Ten years ago the sorting and classification of the material was begun.
The actual writing of the manuscript has extended over four years.
Among the unique features of the book are the Coffee Thesaurus; the
Coffee Chronology, containing 492 dates of historical importance; the
Complete Reference Table of the Principal Kinds of Coffee Grown in the
World; and the Coffee Bibliography, containing 1,380 references.
The most authoritative works on this subject have been Robinson's _The
Early History of Coffee Houses in England_, published in London in 1893;
and Jardin's _Le Café_, published in Paris in 1895. The author wishes to
acknowledge his indebtedness to both for inspiration and guidance. Other
works, Arabian, French, English, German, and Italian, dealing with
particular phases of the subject, have been laid under contribution; and
where this has been done, credit is given by footnote reference. In all
cases where it has been possible to do so, however, statements of
historical facts have been verified by independent research. Not a few
items have required months of tracing to confirm or to disprove.
There has been no serious American work on coffee since Hewitt's
_Coffee: Its History, Cultivation and Uses_, published in 1872; and
Thurber's _Coffee from Plantation to Cup_, published in 1881. Both of
these are now out of print, as is also Walsh's _Coffee: Its History,
Classification and Description_, published in 1893.
The chapters on The Chemistry of Coffee and The Pharmacology of Coffee
have been prepared under the author's direction by Charles W. Trigg,
industrial fellow of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.
The author wishes to acknowledge, with thanks, valuable assistance and
numerous courtesies by the officials of the following institutions:
British Museum, and Guildhall Museum, London; Bibliothéque Nationale,
Paris; Congressional Library, Washington; New York Public Library,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New York Historical Society, New York;
Boston Public Library, and Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Smithsonian
Institution, Washington; State Historical Museum, Madison, Wis.; Maine
Historical Society, Portland; Chicago Historical Society; New Jersey
Historical Society, Newark; Harvard University Library; Essex Institute,
Salem, Mass.; Peabody Institute, Baltimore.
Thanks and appreciation are due also to:
Charles James Jackson, London, for permission to quote from his
_Illustrated History of English Plate_;
Francis Hill Bigelow, author; and The Macmillan Company, publishers, for
permission to reproduce illustrations from _Historic Silver of the
Colonies_;
H.G. Dwight, author; and Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers, for
permission to quote from _Constantinople, Old and New_, and from the
article on "Turkish Coffee Houses" in _Scribner's Magazine_;
Walter G. Peter, Washington, D.C., for permission to photograph and
reproduce pictures of articles in the Peter collection at the United
States National Museum;
Mary P. Hamlin and George Arliss, authors, and George C. Tyler,
producer, for permission to reproduce the Exchange coffee-house setting
of the first act of _Hamilton_;
Judge A.T. Clearwater, Kingston N.Y.; R.T. Haines Halsey, and Francis P.
Garvan, New York, for permission to publish pictures of historic silver
coffee pots in their several collections;
The secretaries of the American Chambers of Commerce in London, Paris,
and Berlin;
Charles Cooper, London, for his splendid co-operation and for his
special contribution to chapter XXXV;
Alonzo H. De Graff, London, for his invaluable aid and unflagging zeal
in directing the London researches;
To the Coffee Trade Association, London, for assistance rendered;
To G.J. Lethem, London, for his translations from the Arabic;
Geoffrey Sephton, Vienna, for his nice co-operation;
L.P. de Bussy of the Koloniaal Institute, Amsterdam, Holland, for
assistance rendered;
Burton Holmes and Blendon R. Campbell, New York, for courtesies;
John Cotton Dana, Newark, N.J., for assistance rendered;
Charles H. Barnes, Medford, Mass., for permission to publish the
photograph of Peregrine White's Mayflower mortar and pestle;
Andrew L. Winton, Ph.D., Wilton, Conn., for permission to quote from his
_The Microscopy of Vegetable Foods_ in the chapter on The Microscopy of
Coffee and to reprint Prof. J. Moeller's and Tschirch and Oesterle's
drawings;
F. Hulton Frankel, Ph.D., Edward M. Frankel, Ph.D., and Arno Viehoever,
for their assistance in preparing the chapters on The Botany of Coffee
and The Microscopy of Coffee;
A.L. Burns, New York, for his assistance in the correction and revision
of chapters XXV, XXVI, XXVII, and XXXIV, and for much historical
information supplied in connection with chapters XXX and XXXI;
Edward Aborn, New York, for his help in the revision of chapter XXXVI;
George W. Lawrence, former president, and T.S.B. Nielsen, president, of
the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, for their assistance in the
revision of chapter XXXI;
Helio Lobo, Brazilian consul general, New York; Sebastião Sampaio,
commercial attaché of the Brazilian Embassy, Washington; and Th.
Langgaard de Menezes, American representative of the Sociedade Promotora
da Defeza do Café;
Felix Coste, secretary and manager, the National Coffee Roasters
Association; and C.B. Stroud, superintendent, the New York Coffee and
Sugar Exchange, for information supplied and assistance rendered in the
revision of several chapters;
F.T. Holmes, New York, for his help in the compilation of chronological
and descriptive data on coffee-roasting machinery;
Walter Chester, New York, for critical comments on chapter XXVIII.
The author is especially indebted to the following, who in many ways
have contributed to the successful compilation of the Complete Reference
Table in chapter XXIV, and of those chapters having to do with the early
history and development of the green coffee and the wholesale
coffee-roasting trades in the United States:
George S. Wright, Boston; A.E. Forbes, William Fisher, Gwynne Evans,
Jerome J. Schotten, and the late Julius J. Schotten, St. Louis; James H.
Taylor, William Bayne, Jr., A.J. Dannemiller, B.A. Livierato, S.A.
Schonbrunn, Herbert Wilde, A.C. Fitzpatrick, Charles Meehan, Clarence
Creighton, Abram Wakeman, A.H. Davies, Joshua Walker, Fred P. Gordon,
Alex. H. Purcell, George W. Vanderhoef, Col. William P. Roome, W. Lee
Simmonds, Herman Simmonds, W.H. Aborn, B. Lahey, John C. Loudon, J.R.
Westfal, Abraham Reamer, R.C. Wilhelm, C.H. Stewart, and the late August
Haeussler, New York; John D. Warfield, Ezra J. Warner, S.O. Blair, and
George D. McLaughlin, Chicago; W.H. Harrison, James Heekin, and Charles
Lewis, Cincinnati; Albro Blodgett and A.M. Woolson, Toledo; R.V.
Engelhard and Lee G. Zinsmeister, Louisville; E.A. Kahl, San Francisco;
S. Jackson, New Orleans; Lewis Sherman, Milwaukee; Howard F. Boardman,
Hartford; A.H. Devers, Portland, Ore.; W. James Mahood, Pittsburgh;
William B. Harris, East Orange, N.J.
New York, June 17, 1922.
[Illustration]
FOREWORD
_Some introductory remarks on the lure of coffee, its place in a
rational dietary, its universal psychological appeal, its use and
abuse_
Civilization in its onward march has produced only three important
non-alcoholic beverages--the extract of the tea plant, the extract of
the cocoa bean, and the extract of the coffee bean.
Leaves and beans--these are the vegetable sources of the world's
favorite non-alcoholic table-beverages. Of the two, the tea leaves lead
in total amount consumed; the coffee beans are second; and the cocoa
beans are a distant third, although advancing steadily. But in
international commerce the coffee beans occupy a far more important
position than either of the others, being imported into non-producing
countries to twice the extent of the tea leaves. All three enjoy a
world-wide consumption, although not to the same extent in every nation;
but where either the coffee bean or the tea leaf has established itself
in a given country, the other gets comparatively little attention, and
usually has great difficulty in making any advance. The cocoa bean, on
the other hand, has not risen to the position of popular favorite in any
important consuming country, and so has not aroused the serious
opposition of its two rivals.
Coffee is universal in its appeal. All nations do it homage. It has
become recognized as a human necessity. It is no longer a luxury or an
indulgence; it is a corollary of human energy and human efficiency.
People love coffee because of its two-fold effect--the pleasurable
sensation and the increased efficiency it produces.
Coffee has an important place in the rational dietary of all the
civilized peoples of earth. It is a democratic beverage. Not only is it
the drink of fashionable society, but it is also a favorite beverage of
the men and women who do the world's work, whether they toil with brain
or brawn. It has been acclaimed "the most grateful lubricant known to
the human machine," and "the most delightful taste in all nature."
No "food drink" has ever encountered so much opposition as coffee. Given
to the world by the church and dignified by the medical profession,
nevertheless it has had to suffer from religious superstition and
medical prejudice. During the thousand years of its development it has
experienced fierce political opposition, stupid fiscal restrictions,
unjust taxes, irksome duties; but, surviving all of these, it has
triumphantly moved on to a foremost place in the catalog of popular
beverages.
But coffee is something more than a beverage. It is one of the world's
greatest adjuvant foods. There are other auxiliary foods, but none that
excels it for palatability and comforting effects, the psychology of
which is to be found in its unique flavor and aroma.
Men and women drink coffee because it adds to their sense of well-being.
It not only smells good and tastes good to all mankind, heathen or
civilized, but all respond to its wonderful stimulating properties. The
chief factors in coffee goodness are the caffein content and the
caffeol. Caffein supplies the principal stimulant. It increases the
capacity for muscular and mental work without harmful reaction. The
caffeol supplies the flavor and the aroma--that indescribable Oriental
fragrance that wooes us through the nostrils, forming one of the
principal elements that make up the lure of coffee. There are several
other constituents, including certain innocuous so-called caffetannic
acids, that, in combination with the caffeol, give the beverage its rare
gustatory appeal.
The year 1919 awarded coffee one of its brightest honors. An American
general said that coffee shared with bread and bacon the distinction of
being one of the three nutritive essentials that helped win the World
War for the Allies. So this symbol of human brotherhood has played a not
inconspicuous part in "making the world safe for democracy." The new
age, ushered in by the Peace of Versailles and the Washington
Conference, has for its hand-maidens temperance and self-control. It is
to be a world democracy of right-living and clear thinking; and among
its most precious adjuncts are coffee, tea, and cocoa--because these
beverages must always be associated with rational living, with greater
comfort, and with better cheer.
Like all good things in life, the drinking of coffee may be abused.
Indeed, those having an idiosyncratic susceptibility to alkaloids should
be temperate in the use of tea, coffee, or cocoa. In every
high-tensioned country there is likely to be a small number of people
who, because of certain individual characteristics, can not drink coffee
at all. These belong to the abnormal minority of the human family. Some
people can not eat strawberries; but that would not be a valid reason
for a general condemnation of strawberries. One may be poisoned, says
Thomas A. Edison, from too much food. Horace Fletcher was certain that
over-feeding causes all our ills. Over-indulgence in meat is likely to
spell trouble for the strongest of us. Coffee is, perhaps, less often
abused than wrongly accused. It all depends. A little more tolerance!
Trading upon the credulity of the hypochondriac and the
caffein-sensitive, in recent years there has appeared in America and
abroad a curious collection of so-called coffee substitutes. They are
"neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring." Most of them have been
shown by official government analyses to be sadly deficient in food
value--their only alleged virtue. One of our contemporary attackers of
the national beverage bewails the fact that no palatable hot drink has
been found to take the place of coffee. The reason is not hard to find.
There can be no substitute for coffee. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley has ably
summed up the matter by saying, "A substitute should be able to perform
the functions of its principal. A substitute to a war must be able to
fight. A bounty-jumper is not a substitute."
It has been the aim of the author to tell the whole coffee story for the
general reader, yet with the technical accuracy that will make it
valuable to the trade. The book is designed to be a work of useful
reference covering all the salient points of coffee's origin,
cultivation, preparation, and development, its place in the world's
commerce and in a rational dietary.
Good coffee, carefully roasted and properly brewed, produces a natural
beverage that, for tonic effect, can not be surpassed, even by its
rivals, tea and cocoa. Here is a drink that ninety-seven percent of
individuals find harmless and wholesome, and without which life would be
drab indeed--a pure, safe, and helpful stimulant compounded in nature's
own laboratory, and one of the chief joys of life!
CONTENTS
A COFFEE THESAURUS
Encomiums and descriptive phrases applied to the plant, the berry, and the
beverage Page XXVII
THE EVOLUTION OF A CUP OF COFFEE
Showing the various steps through which the bean passes from plantation to
cup Page XXIX
CHAPTER I
DEALLING WITH THE ETYMOLOGY OF COFFEE
Origin and translation of the word from the Arabian into various
languages--Views of many writers Page 1
CHAPTER II
HISTORY OF COFFEE PROPAGATION
A brief account of the cultivation of the coffee plant in the Old World,
and of its introduction into the New--A romantic coffee adventure
Page 5
CHAPTER III
EARLY HISTORY OF COFFEE DRINKING
Coffee in the Near East in the early centuries--Stories of its
origin--Discovery by physicians and adoption by the Church--Its spread
through Arabia, Persia, and Turkey--Persecutions and
Intolerances--Early coffee manners and customs Page 11
CHAPTER IV
INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO WESTERN EUROPE
When the three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee, came
to Europe--Coffee first mentioned by Rauwolf in 1582--Early days of
coffee in Italy--How Pope Clement VIII baptized it and made it a truly
Christian beverage--The first European coffee house, in Venice,
1645--The famous Caffè Florian--Other celebrated Venetian coffee houses
of the eighteenth century--The romantic story of Pedrocchi, the poor
lemonade-vender, who built the most beautiful coffee house in the world
Page 25
CHAPTER V
THE BEGINNINGS OF COFFEE IN FRANCE
What French travelers did for coffee--the introduction of coffee by P.
de la Roque into Marseilles in 1644--The first commercial importation of
coffee from Egypt--The first French coffee house--Failure of the attempt
by physicians of Marseilles to discredit coffee--Soliman Aga introduces
coffee into Paris--Cabarets à caffè--Celebrated works on coffee by
French writers Page 31
CHAPTER VI
THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO ENGLAND
The first printed reference to coffee in English--Early mention of
coffee by noted English travelers and writers--The Lacedæmonian "black
broth" controversy--How Conopios introduced coffee drinking at
Oxford--The first English coffee house in Oxford--Two English botanists
on coffee Page 35
CHAPTER VII
THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO HOLLAND
How the enterprising Dutch traders captured the first world's market for
coffee--Activities of the Netherlands East India Company--The first
coffee house at the Hague--The first public auction at Amsterdam in
1711, when Java coffee brought forty-seven cents a pound, green
Page 43
CHAPTER VIII
THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO GERMANY
The contributions made by German travelers and writers to the literature
of the early history of coffee--The first coffee house in Hamburg opened
by an English merchant--Famous coffee houses of old Berlin--The first
coffee periodical and the first kaffee-klatsch--Frederick the Great's
coffee roasting monopoly--Coffee persecutions--"Coffee-smellers"--The
first coffee king Page 45
CHAPTER IX
TELLING HOW COFFEE CAME TO VIENNA
The romantic adventure of Franz George Kolschitzky, who carried "a
message to Garcia" through the enemy's lines and won for himself the
honor of being the first to teach the Viennese the art of making coffee,
to say nothing of falling heir to the supplies of the green beans left
behind by the Turks; also the gift of a house from a grateful
municipality, and a statue after death--Affectionate regard in which
"Brother-heart" Kolschitzky is held as the patron saint of the Vienna
_Kaffee-sieder_--Life in the early Vienna café's Page 49
CHAPTER X
THE COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD LONDON
One of the most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee--The first
coffee house in London--The first coffee handbill, and the first
newspaper advertisement for coffee--Strange coffee mixtures--Fantastic
coffee claims--Coffee prices and coffee licenses--Coffee club of the
Rota--Early coffee-house manners and customs--Coffee-house keepers'
tokens--Opposition to the coffee house--"Penny universities"--Weird
coffee substitutes--The proposed coffee-house newspaper
monopoly--Evolution of the club--Decline and fall of the coffee
house--Pen pictures of coffee-house life--Famous coffee houses of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--Some Old World pleasure
gardens--Locating the notable coffee houses Page 53
CHAPTER XI
HISTORY OF THE EARLY PARISIAN COFFEE HOUSES
The introduction of coffee into Paris by Thévenot in 1657--How Soliman
Aga established the custom of coffee drinking at the court of Louis
XIV--Opening of the first coffee houses--How the French adaptation of
the Oriental coffee house first appeared in the real French café of
François Procope--Important part played by the coffee houses in the
development of French literature and the stage--Their association with
the Revolution and the founding of the Republic--Quaint customs and
patrons--Historic Parisian café's Page 91
CHAPTER XII
INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO NORTH AMERICA
Captain John Smith, founder of the Colony of Virginia, is the first to
bring to North America a knowledge of coffee in 1607--The coffee grinder
on the Mayflower--Coffee drinking in 1668--William Penn's coffee
purchase in 1683--Coffee in colonial New England--The psychology of the
Boston "tea party," and why the United States became a nation of coffee
drinkers instead of tea drinkers, like England--The first coffee license
to Dorothy Jones in 1670--The first coffee house in New England--Notable
coffee houses of old Boston--A skyscraper coffee-house Page 105
CHAPTER XIII
HISTORY OF COFFEE IN OLD NEW YORK
The burghers of New Amsterdam begin to substitute coffee for "must," or
beer, for breakfast in 1668--William Penn makes his first purchase of
coffee in the green bean from New York merchants in 1683--The King's
Arms, the first coffee house--The historic Merchants, sometimes called
the "Birthplace of our Union"--The coffee house as a civic forum--The
Exchange, Whitehall, Burns, Tontine, and other celebrated coffee
houses--The Vauxhall and Ranelagh pleasure gardens Page 115
CHAPTER XIV
COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD PHILADELPHIA
Ye Coffee House, Philadelphia's first coffee house, opened about
1700--The two London coffee houses--The City tavern, or Merchants coffee
house--How these, and other celebrated resorts, dominated the social,
political, and business life of the Quaker City in the eighteenth
century Page 125
CHAPTER XV
THE BOTANY OF THE COFFEE PLANT
Its complete classification by class, sub-class, order, family, genus,
and species--How the Coffea arabica grows, flowers, and bears--Other
species and hybrids described--Natural caffein-free coffee--Fungoid
diseases of coffee Page 131
CHAPTER XVI
THE MICROSCOPY OF THE COFFEE FRUIT
How the beans may be examined under the microscope, and what is
revealed--Structure of the berry, the green, and the roasted beans--The
coffee-leaf disease under the microscope--Value of microscopic analysis
in detecting adulteration Page 149
CHAPTER XVII
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE COFFEE BEAN
_By Charles W. Trigg._
Chemistry of the preparation and treatment of the green bean--Artificial
aging--Renovating damaged coffees--Extracts--"Caffetannic
acid"--Caffein, caffein-free coffee--Caffeol--Fats and
oils--Carbohydrates--Roasting--Scientific aspects of grinding and
packaging--The coffee brew--Soluble coffee--Adulterants and
substitutes--Official methods of analysis Page 155
CHAPTER XVIII
PHARMACOLOGY OF THE COFFEE DRINK
_By Charles W. Trigg_
General physiological action--Effect on children--Effect on
longevity--Behavior in the alimentary régime--Place in dietary--Action
on bacteria--Use in medicine--Physiological action of "caffetannic
acid"--Of caffeol--Of caffein--Effect of caffein on mental and motor
efficiency--Conclusions Page 174
CHAPTER XIX
THE COMMERCIAL COFFEES OF THE WORLD
The geographical distribution of the coffees grown in North America,
Central America, South America, the West India Islands, Asia, Africa,
the Pacific Islands, and the East Indies--A statistical study of the
distribution of the principal kinds--A commercial coffee chart of the
world's leading growths, with market names and general trade
characteristics Page 189
CHAPTER XX
CULTIVATION OF THE COFFEE PLANT
The early days of coffee culture in Abyssinia and Arabia--Coffee
cultivation in general--Soil, climate, rainfall, altitude, propagation,
preparing the plantation, shade, wind breaks, fertilizing, pruning,
catch crops, pests, and diseases--How coffee is grown around the
world--Cultivation in all the principal producing countries
Page 197
CHAPTER XXI
PREPARING GREEN COFFEE FOR MARKET
Early Arabian methods of preparation--How primitive devices were
replaced by modern methods--A chronological story of the development of
scientific plantation machinery, and the part played by English and
American inventors--The marvelous coffee package, one of the most
ingenious in all nature--How coffee is harvested--Picking--Preparation
by the dry and the wet methods--Pulping--Fermentation and
washing--Drying--Hulling, or peeling, and polishing--Sizing, or
grading--Preparation methods of different countries Page 245
CHAPTER XXII
THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF COFFEE
A statistical study of world production of coffee by countries--Per
capita figures of the leading consuming countries--Coffee-consumption
figures compared with tea-consumption figures in the United States and
the United Kingdom--Three centuries of coffee trading--Coffee drinking
in the United States, past and present--Reviewing the 1921 trade in the
United States Page 273
CHAPTER XXIII
HOW GREEN COFFEES ARE BOUGHT AND SOLD
Buying coffee in the producing countries--Transporting coffee to the
consuming markets--Some record coffee cargoes shipped to the United
States--Transport over seas--Java coffee "ex-sailing vessels"--Handling
coffee at New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco--The coffee exchanges
of Europe and the United States--Commission men and brokers--Trade and
exchange contracts for delivery--Important rulings affecting coffee
trading--Some well-known green coffee marks Page 303
CHAPTER XXIV
GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE CHARACTERISTICS
The trade values, bean characteristics, and cup merits of the leading
coffees of commerce, with a "Complete Reference Table of the Principal
Kinds of Coffee Grown in the World"--Appearance, aroma, and flavor in
cup-testing--How experts test coffee--A typical sample-roasting and
cup-testing outfit Page 341
CHAPTER XXV
FACTORY PREPARATION OF ROASTED COFFEE
Coffee roasting as a business--Wholesale coffee-roasting
machinery--Separating, milling, and mixing or blending green coffee, and
roasting by coal, coke, gas, and electricity--Facts about coffee
roasting--Cost of roasting--Green-coffee shrinkage table--"Dry" and
"wet" roasts--On roasting coffee efficiently--A typical coal
roaster--Cooling and stoning--Finishing or glazing--Blending roasted
coffees--Blends for restaurants--Grinding and packaging--Coffee
additions and fillers--Treated coffees, and dry extracts Page 379
CHAPTER XXVI
WHOLESALE MERCHANDISING OF COFFEE
How coffees are sold at wholesale--The wholesale salesman's place in
merchandising--Some coffee costs analyzed--Handy coffee-selling
chart--Terms and credits--About package coffees--Various types of coffee
containers--Coffee package labels--Coffee package economies--Practical
grocer helps--Coffee sampling--Premium method of sales promotion
Page 407
CHAPTER XXVII
RETAIL MERCHANDISING OF ROASTED COFFEE
How coffees are sold at retail--The place of the grocer, the tea and
coffee dealer, the chain store, and the wagon-route distributer in the
scheme of distribution--Starting in the retail coffee business--Small
roasters for retail dealers--Model coffee departments--Creating a coffee
trade--Meeting competition--Splitting nickels--Figuring costs and
profits--A credit policy for retailers--Premiums Page 415
CHAPTER XXVIII
A SHORT HISTORY OF COFFEE ADVERTISING
Early coffee advertising--The first coffee advertisement in 1587 was
frank propaganda for the legitimate use of coffee--The first printed
advertisement in English--The first newspaper advertisement--Early
advertisements in colonial America--Evolution of advertising--Package
coffee advertising--Advertising to the trade--Advertising by means of
newspapers, magazines, billboards, electric signs, motion pictures,
demonstrations, and by samples--Advertising for retailers--Advertising
by government propaganda--The Joint Coffee Trade publicity campaign in
the United States--Coffee advertising efficiency Page 431
CHAPTER XXIX
THE COFFEE TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES
The coffee business started by Dorothy Jones of Boston--Some early
sales--Taxes imposed by Congress in war and peace--The first
coffee-plantation-machine, coffee-roaster, coffee-grinder, and
coffee-pot patents--Early trade marks for coffee--Beginnings of the
coffee urn, the coffee container, and the soluble-coffee
business--Chronological record of the most important events in the
history of the trade from the eighteenth century to the twentieth
Page 467
CHAPTER XXX
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE
BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES
A brief history of the growth of coffee trading--Notable firms and
personalities that have played important parts in green coffee in the
principal coffee centers--Green coffee trade organizations--Growth of
the wholesale coffee-roasting trade, and names of those who have made
history in it--The National Coffee Roasters Association--Statistics of
distribution of coffee-roasting establishments in the United States
Page 475
CHAPTER XXXI
SOME BIG MEN AND NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
B.G. Arnold, the first, and Hermann Sielcken, the last of the American
"coffee kings"--John Arbuckle, the original package-coffee man--Jabez
Burns, the man who revolutionized the roasted-coffee business by his
contributions as inventor, manufacturer, and writer--Coffee trade booms
and panics--Brazil's first valorization enterprise--War-time government
control of coffee--The story of soluble coffee Page 517
CHAPTER XXXII
A HISTORY OF COFFEE IN LITERATURE
The romance of coffee, and its influence on the discourse, poetry,
history, drama, philosophic writing, and fiction of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries and on the writers of today--Coffee quips and
anecdotes Page 541
CHAPTER XXXIII
COFFEE IN RELATION TO THE FINE ARTS
How coffee and coffee drinking have been celebrated in painting,
engraving, sculpture, caricature, lithography, and music--Epics,
rhapsodies, and cantatas in praise of coffee--Beautiful specimens of the
art of the potter and the silversmith as shown in the coffee service of
various periods in the world's history--Some historical relics
Page 587
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE EVOLUTION OF COFFEE APPARATUS
Showing the development of coffee-roasting, coffee-grinding,
coffee-making, and coffee-serving devices from the earliest time to the
present day--The original coffee grinder, the first coffee roaster, and
the first coffee pot--The original French drip pot, the De Belloy
percolator--Count Rumford's improvement--How the commercial coffee
roaster was developed--The evolution of filtration devices--The old
Carter "pull-out" roaster--Trade customs in New York and St. Louis in
the sixties and seventies--The story of the evolution of the Burns
roaster--How the gas roaster was developed in France, Great Britain, and
the United States Page 615
CHAPTER XXXV
WORLD'S COFFEE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
How coffee is roasted, prepared, and served in all the leading civilized
countries--The Arabian coffee ceremony--The present-day coffee houses of
Turkey--Twentieth century improvements in Europe and the United States
Page 655
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
Page 693
A COFFEE CHRONOLOGY
Giving dates and events of historical interest in legend, travel,
literature, cultivation, plantation treatment, trading, and in the
preparation and use of coffee from the earliest time to the present
Page 725
A COFFEE BIBLIOGRAPHY
A list of references gathered from the principal general and scientific
libraries--Arranged in alphabetic order of topics Page 738
INDEX
Page 769
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATIONS
_Color Plates_
_Facing page_
Coffee branches, flowers, and fruit (painted
by Blendon Campbell) _Frontispiece_ v
_Coffea arabica_; leaves, flowers, and fruit
(painted by M.E. Eaton) 1
The coffee tree bears fruit, leaf, and blossom
at the same time 16
A close-up of ripe coffee berries 32
Coffee under the Stars and Stripes 144
Coffee scenes in British India 160
Picking and sacking coffee in Brazil 176
Mild-coffee culture and preparation 192
Coffee scenes in Java 200
Coffee scenes in Sumatra 216
Coffee preparation in Central and South
America 248
Typical coffee scenes in Costa Rica 336
Principal varieties of green-coffee beans,
natural size and color 352
Coal-roasting plant, New York 408
Coffee scenes in the Near and Far East 544
Primitive transportation methods, Arabia 640
Hulling coffee in Aden, Arabia 656
_Black and White Illustrations_
_Page_
Coffee tree in flower 4
De Clieu and his coffee plant 7
Legendary discovery of coffee drink 10
Title page of Dufour's book 13
Frontispiece from Dufour's book 15
Turkish coffee house, 17th century 21
Serving coffee to a guest, Arabia 23
First printed reference to coffee 24
An 18th-century Italian coffee house 26
Nobility in an early Venetian café 27
Goldoni in a Venetian coffee house 28
Florian's famous coffee house 29
Title page of La Roque's work 32
Coffee tree as pictured by La Roque 32
Coffee branch in La Roque's work 33
First printed reference in English 37
Reference in Sherley's travels 39
References in Biddulph's travels 40
Mol's coffee house at Exeter 41
Reference in Sandys' travels 42
Richter's coffee house, Leipsic 46
Coffee house, Germany, 17th century 47
Kolschitzky in his Blue Bottle coffee house 48
First coffee house in Leopoldstadt 50
Statue of Kolschitzky 51
First advertisement for coffee 55
First newspaper advertisement 57
Coffee house, time of Charles II 60
London coffee house, 17th century 61
Coffee house, Queen Anne's time 62
Coffee-house keepers' tokens (plate 1) 63
A broadside of 1663 64
Coffee-house keepers' tokens (plate 2) 65
A broadside of 1667 68
A broadside of 1670 70
A broadside of 1672 70
A broadside of 1674 71
White's and Brooke's coffee houses 78
London coffee-house politicians 78
Great Fair on the frozen Thames 79
Lion's head at Button's 80
Trio of notables at Button's 81
Vauxhall Gardens on a gala night 82
Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens 83
Garraway's coffee house 84
Button's coffee house 84
Slaughter's coffee house 85
Tom's coffee house 85
Lloyd's coffee house 86
Dick's coffee house 87
Grecian coffee house 87
Don Saltero's coffee house 88
British coffee house 88
French coffee house in London 89
Ramponaux' Royal Drummer café 90
La Foire St.-Germain 92
Street coffee vender of Paris 92
Armenian decorations in Paris café 93
Corner of historic Café de Procope 93
Café de Procope, Paris 95
Cashier's desk in coffee house, Paris 96
Café Foy 97
Café des Mille Colonnes 99
Café de Paris 101
Interior of a typical Parisian café 103
Chess at the Café de la Régence 104
Types of colonial coffee roasters 106
Early family coffee roaster 106
Historic relics, early New England 107
Mayflower "coffee grinder" 108
Crown coffee house, Boston 108
Coffee devices, Massachusetts colony 109
Coffee devices of western pioneers 110
Coffee pots of colonial days 110
Green Dragon tavern, Boston 111
Metal coffee pots, New York colony 112
Exchange coffee house, Boston 113
President-elect Washington's official welcome
at Merchants Coffee House 114
King's Arms coffee house, New York 116
Burns coffee house 117
Merchants coffee house 119
Tontine coffee house 121
Tontine building of 1850 122
Niblo's Garden 122
Coffee relics, Dutch New York 122
New York's Vauxhall Garden of 1803 123
Tavern and grocers' signs, old New York 124
Second London coffee house, Philadelphia 127
Selling slaves, old London coffee house 128
City tavern, Philadelphia 129
Coffee-house scene in "Hamilton" 130
Coffee tree, flowers and fruit 132
Germination of the coffee plant 133
Brazil coffee plantation in flower 134
_Coffea arabica_, Porto Rico 135
_Coffea arabica_, flower and fruit, Costa Rica 135
Young _Coffea arabica_, Kona, Hawaii 136
Survivors of first Liberian trees in Java 136
_Coffea arabica_ in flower, Java 137
Liberian coffee tree, Lamoa, P.I. 138
_Coffea congensis_, 2-1/2 years old 138
Flowering of 5-year-old _Coffea excelsa_ 139
Branches of _Coffea excelsa_ 140
_Coffea stenophylla_ 140
Near view of _Coffea arabica_ berries 141
Wild caffein-free coffee tree 142
Coffee bean characteristics 142
_Coffea arabica_ berries 143
_Robusta_ coffee in flower 144
One-year-old _robusta_ estate 145
_Coffea Quillou_ flowers 146
_Quillou_ coffee tree in blossom 147
_Coffea Ugandæ_ 148
_Coffea arabica_ under the microscope 149
Cross-section of coffee bean 150
Cross-section of hull and bean 150
Epicarp and pericarp under microscope 151
Endocarp and endosperm under microscope 152
Spermoderm under microscope 152
Tissues of embryo under microscope 152
Coffee-leaf disease under microscope 153
Green and roasted coffee under microscope 153
Green and roasted Bogota under microscope 154
Cross-section of endosperm 156
Portion of the investing membrane 157
Structure of the green bean 157
Ground coffee under microscope 167
Coffee tree in bearing, Lamoa, P.I. 196
Early coffee implements 198
Cross-section of mountain slope, Yemen 198
First steps in coffee-growing 199
Coffee nursery, Guatemala 200
Coffee under shade, Porto Rico 201
Boekit Gompong estate, Sumatra 202
Estate in Antioquia, Colombia 203
Weeding and harrowing, São Paulo 204
Fazenda Dumont, São Paulo 205
Fazenda Guatapara, São Paulo 206
Picking coffee, São Paulo 207
Intensive cultivation, São Paulo 207
Private railroad, São Paulo 208
Coffee culture in São Paulo 209
Heavily laden coffee tree, Bogota 210
Picking coffee, Bogota 211
Altamira Hacienda, Venezuela 212
Carmen Hacienda, Venezuela 213
Heavy fruiting, _Coffea robusta_, Java 214
Road through coffee estate, Java 215
Native picking coffee, Sumatra 216
Administrator's bungalow, Java 216
Administrator's bungalow, Sumatra 217
Coffee culture in Guatemala 218
Indians picking coffee, Guatemala 219
Bungalow, coffee estate, Guatemala 220
Thirty-year-old coffee trees, Mexico 221
Mexican coffee picker 222
Receiving coffee, Mexico 223
Heavily laden coffee tree, Porto Rico 224
Coffee cultivation, Costa Rica 225
Picking Costa Rica coffee 226
Mountain coffee estate, Costa Rica 226
Mysore coffee estate 227
Coffee growing under shade, India 228
Coffee estate at Harar 229
Wild coffee near Adis Abeba 231
Mocha coffee growing on terraces 232
Picking Blue Mountain berries, Jamaica 233
Coffee pickers, Guadeloupe 234
Coffee in blossom, Panama 235
_Robusta_ coffee, Cochin-China 237
Bourbon trees, French Indo-China 238
Picking coffee in Queensland 239
Coffee in bloom, Kona, Hawaii 240
Coffee at Hamakua, Hawaii 241
Coffee trees, South Kona, Hawaii 242
Plantation near Sagada, P.I. 243
Coffee preparation, São Paulo 244
Walker's original disk pulper 246
Early English coffee peeler 246
Group of English cylinder pulpers 247
Copper covers for pulper cylinders 248
Granada unpulped coffee separator 249
Hand-power double-disk pulper 249
Tandem coffee pulper 250
Horizontal coffee washer 251
Vertical coffee washer 251
Cobán pulper, Venezuela 252
Niagara power coffee huller 252
British and American coffee driers 253
American Guardiola drier 254
Smout peeler and polisher 254
Smout peeler and polisher, exposed 255
O'Krassa's coffee drier 255
Six well-known hullers and separators 256
El Monarca coffee classifier 257
Hydro-electric installation, Guatemala 258
Preparing Brazil coffee for market 259
Working coffee on the drying flats 260
Fermenting and washing tanks, São Paulo 260
Drying grounds, Fazenda Schmidt 261
Preparing Colombian coffee for market 262
Old-fashioned ox-power huller 263
Street-car coffee transport, Orizaba 264
Coffee on drying floors, Porto Rico 264
Sun-drying coffee 265
Drying patio, Costa Rica 266
Early Guardiola steam drier 266
Indian women cleaning Mocha coffee 267
Cleaning-and-grading machinery, Aden 268
Drying coffee at Harar 269
Preparing Java coffee for market 270
Coffee transport in Java 271
Meeting of Amsterdam coffee brokers, 1820 291
Bill of public sale of coffee, 1790 292
Last sample before export, Santos 304
Stamping bags for export 304
Preparing Brazil coffee for export 305
Grading coffee at Santos 306
The test by the cups, Santos 306
New York importers' warehouse, Santos 307
Pack-mule transport in Venezuela 308
Coffee-carrying cart, Guatemala 308
Pack-oxen fording stream, Colombia 308
Coffee transport, Mexico and South America 309
Donkey coffee-transport at Harar 310
Coffee camels at Harar 310
Selling coffee by tapping hands, Aden 310
Packing and transporting coffee, Aden 311
Coffee camel train at Hodeida 312
Methods of loading coffee, Santos 313
Coffee freighter, Cauca River, Colombia 314
Coffee steamers on the Magdalena 314
Loading heavy cargo on Santa Cecilia 315
Unloading Java coffee from sailing vessel 317
Receiving piers for coffee, New York 318
Unloading coffee, covered pier, New York 319
Receiving and storing coffee, New York 320
Tester at work, Bush Terminal, New York 321
Loading lighters, Bush Docks, Brooklyn 321
New Terminal system on Staten Island 322
Motor tractor, Bush piers 322
Unloading with modern conveyor 323
Coffee handling, New Orleans piers 324
Coffee in steel-covered sheds, New Orleans 325
Unloading and storing coffee, San Francisco 326
Modern device for handling green coffee 327
Handling green coffee at European ports 328
New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange 329
Coffee section, Coffee and Sugar Exchange 330
Blackboards, Coffee Exchange 331
"Coffee afloat" blackboard 332
Well known green-coffee marks 339
Bourbon-Santos beans, roasted 343
Flat and Bourbon-Santos beans, roasted 343
Rio beans, roasted 343
Mexican beans, roasted 347
Guatemala beans, roasted 347
Bogota (Colombia) beans, roasted 348
Maracaibo beans, roasted 349
Mocha beans, roasted 351
Washed Java beans, roasted 353
Sample-roasting and cup-testing outfit 357
Modern gas coffee-roasting plant 380
Sixteen-cylinder coal roasting plant 382
Green-coffee separating and milling machines 384
English gas coffee-roasting plant 385
German gas coffee-roasting plant 386
French gas coffee-roasting plant 387
Jumbo coffee roaster, Arbuckle plant 388
Roasting plant of Reid, Murdoch & Co. 389
Complete gas coffee-plant installation 390
Burns Jubilee gas roaster 391
Burns coal roaster 392
Open perforated cylinder with flexible back head 392
Trying the roast 394
Monitor gas roaster 394
A group of roasting-room accessories 394
Dumping the roast 395
A four-bag coffee finisher 396
Burns sample-coffee roaster 396
Lambert coal coffee-roasting outfit 397
Coles No. 22 grinding mill 398
Monitor coffee-granulating machine 398
Challenge pulverizer 398
Burns No. 12 grinding mill 399
Monitor steel-cut grinder, separator, etc 399
Johnson carton-filling, weighing, and sealing machine 400
Ideal steel-cut mill 400
Smyser package-making and filling machine 401
Automatic coffee-packing machine 402
Complete coffee-cartoning outfit 403
Automatic coffee-weighing machines 404
Units in manufacture of soluble coffee 405
Types of coffee containers 411
Fresh-roasted-coffee idea in retailing 414
Premium tea and coffee dealer's display 416
Chain-store interior 417
Familiar A & P store front 418
Specialist idea in coffee merchandising 419
Monitor gas roaster, cooler, and stoner 420
Royal gas coffee roaster for retailers 420
Burns half-bag roaster, cooler, and stoner 421
Lambert Jr. roasting outfit for retailers 421
Faulder and Simplex gas roasters 422
Coffee roasters used in Paris shops 423
Small German roasters 424
Popular French retail roaster 424
Uno cabinet gas roaster and cooler 424
Educational window exhibit 425
Better-class American grocery, interior 426
Prize-winning window display 427
Americanized English grocer's shop 429
Famous package coffees 430
First coffee advertisement in U.S. 433
Coffee advertisement of 1790 434
First colored handbill for package coffee 435
Reverse side of colored handbill 435
St. Louis handbill of 1854 436
Advertising-card copy, 1873 437
Handbill copy of the seventies 437
Box-end sticker, 1833 438
Chase & Sanborn advertisement, 1888 438
A Goldberg cartoon, 1910 439
Copy used by Chase & Sanborn, 1900 439
An effective cut-out 442
How coffee is advertised to the trade 443
Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee 447
Magazine and newspaper copy, 1919 449
Copy that stressed helpfulness of coffee, 1919-20 450
Joint Committee's house organ 451
Introductory medical-journal copy 451
Telling the doctors the truth, 1920 452
Joint Committee's attractive booklets 453
More medical journal copy, 1920 454
Magazine and newspaper copy, 1921 455
Educating the doctor, 1922 456
Magazine and newspaper copy, 1922 457
Specimen of early Yuban copy 459
Historical association in advertising 459
Package coffee advertising in 1922 460
The social distinction argument 461
Drawing upon history for atmosphere 461
An impressive electric sign, Chicago 462
How coffee is advertised outdoors 463
Attractive car cards, spring of 1922 464
Effective iced-coffee copy 465
European advertising novelty, New York 465
Coenties Slip, in days of sailing vessels 466
First U.S. coffee-grinder patent 469
Carter's Pull-out roaster patent 469
First registered trade mark for coffee 470
Original Arbuckle coffee packages 471
Merchants coffee house tablet 473
Departed dominant figures in New York green coffee trade 476
"Their association with New York green coffee trade
dates back nearly fifty years" 477
Green coffee trade-builders who have passed on 478
"Their race is run, their course is done" 479
112 Front Street, New York, 1879 480
At 87 Wall Street, New York, years ago 480
Wall and Front Streets, New York, 1922 481
Front Street, New York, 1922 483
In the New Orleans coffee district 486
Green coffee district, New Orleans 487
California Street, San Francisco 488
San Francisco's coffee district 489
Pioneer coffee roasters, New York City 493
Oldtime New York coffee roasters 495
Pioneer coffee roasters of the North and East, U.S. 500
Pioneer coffee roasters of the South and West, U.S. 504
Ground coffee price list of 1862 507
Organization convention, N.C.R.A., 1911 510
Former presidents, N.C.R.A. 512
Earliest coffee manuscript 540
Song from "The Coffee House" 555
Dr. Johnson's seat, the Cheshire Cheese 567
Original coffee room, old Cock Tavern 568
Morning gossip in the coffee room 569
"His Warmest Welcome at an Inn" 571
Alexander Pope at Button's, 1730 577
Dutch coffee house, 1650 (by Van Ostade) 586
White's coffee house, 1733 (by Hogarth) 588
Tom King's, 1738 (by Hogarth) 589
Petit Déjeuner (by Boucher) 590
Coffee service in the home of Madame de Pompadour
(by Van Loo) 590
Madame Du Barry (by Decreuse) 591
Coffee house at Cairo (by Gérôme) 592
Kaffeebesuch (by Philippi) 593
Coffee comes to the aid of the Muse (by Ruffio) 593
Mad dog in a coffee house (by Rowlandson) 594
Napoleon and the Curé (by Charlet) 595
Coffee, a chanson (music by Colet) 596
Statue of Kolschitzky 597
Betty's Aria, Bach's coffee cantata 598
Café Pedrocchi, Padua 599
Coffee grinder set with jewels 600
Italian wrought-iron coffee roaster 600
Seventeenth-century tea and coffee pots 601
Lantern coffee pot, 1692 602
Folkingham pot, 1715-16 602
Wastell pot, 1720-21 603
Dish of coffee-boy design, 1692 603
Chinese porcelain coffee pot 604
Silver coffee pots, early 18th century 604
Silver coffee pots, 18th century 605
Pottery and porcelain pots 606
Silver coffee pots, late 18th century 607
Porcelain pots, Metropolitan Museum 608
Vienna coffee pot, 1830 609
Spanish coffee pot, 18th century 609
Silver coffee pots in American collections 610
Coffee pot by Win. Shaw and Wm. Priest 611
Pot of Sheffield plate, 18th century 611
Pot by Ephraim Brasher 611
French silver coffee pot 612
Green Dragon tavern coffee urn 612
Coffee pots by American silversmiths 613
Twentieth-century American coffee service 613
Turkish coffee set, Peter collection 614
Oldest coffee grinder 616
Grain mill used by Greeks and Romans 616
First coffee roaster 616
First cylinder roaster, 1650 616
Historical relics, U.S. National Museum 617
Turkish coffee mill 618
Early French wall and table grinders 618
Bronze and brass mortars, 17th century 619
Early American coffee roasters 619
Roaster with three-sided hood 620
Roasting, making, and serving devices, 17th century 620
English and French coffee grinders 621
Eighteenth-century roaster 621
Original French drip pot 621
Belgian, Russian, and French pewter pots 622
17th and 18th century pewter pots 623
Count Rumford's percolator 623
Drawings of early French coffee makers 624
Early French filtration devices 624
Early American coffee-maker patents 625
French coffee makers, 19th century 625
First English commercial roaster patent 626
Early French coffee-roasting machines 627
Battery of Carter pull-out machines 628
Early English and American roasters 630
Early Foreign and American coffee-making devices 632
Dakin roasting machine of 1848 633
Globe stove roaster of 1860 634
Hyde's combined roaster and stove 634
Original Burns roaster, 1864 635
Burns granulating mill, 1872-74 636
Napier's vacuum machine 637
German gas and coal roasting machines 638
Other German coffee roasters 639
Original Enterprise mill 640
Max Thurmer's quick gas roaster 640
An English gas coffee-roasting plant 641
French globular roaster 642
Sirocco machine (French) 642
English roasting and grinding equipment 643
Magic gas machine (French) 644
Burns Jubilee gas machine 644
Double gas roasting outfit (French) 645
Lambert's Victory gas machine 646
One of the first electric mills 647
English electric-fuel roaster 648
Ben Franklin electric coffee roaster 648
Enterprise hand store mill 649
Latest types electric store mills 650
Italian rapid coffee-making machines 651
Working of Italian rapid machines 652
La Victoria Arduino Mignonne 652
N.C.R.A. Home coffee mill 653
Manthey-Zorn rapid infuser and dispenser 653
Tricolette, single-cup filter device 654
Moorish coffee house in Algiers 656
Coffee house in Cairo 656
Coffee service in Cairo barber shop 657
Coffee-laden camels, Arabia 658
Arabian coffee house 658
Mahommedan brewing coffee for guest 659
Native café, Harar 661
Early coffee, tea, and chocolate service 661
Nubian slave girl with coffee service 662
Persian coffee service, 1737 663
In a Turkish coffee house 664
Roasting coffee outside a Turkish café 664
Turkish caffinet, early 19th century 665
Coffee-making in Turkey 666
Street coffee vender in the Levant 666
A coffee house in Syria 667
Cafetan--garb of oriental café-keeper 668
Street coffee service in Constantinople 668
Riverside café in Damascus 669
Coffee _al fresco_ in Jerusalem 671
Café Schrangl, Vienna 672
Favorite English way of making coffee 673
A café of Ye Mecca Company, London 673
Groom's coffee house, London 674
Café Monico, Piccadilly Circus, London 674
Gatti's, The Strand, London 675
Tea lounge, Hotel Savoy, London 675
Two popular places for coffee in London 676
Temple Bar restaurant, London 677
Tea balcony, Hotel Cecil, London 677
One of Slater's chain-shops, London 677
St. James's restaurant, Picadilly, London 678
An A.B.C. shop, London 678
Halt of caravaners at a serai, Bulgaria 678
Café de la Paix, Paris 679
Sidewalk annex, Café de la Paix 680
Café de la Régence, Paris 681
Café de la Régence in 1922 682
One of the Biard cafés, Paris 683
Restaurant Procope, 1922 683
Morning coffee at a Boulevard café 684
Café Bauer, Unter den Linden, Berlin 684
Café Bauer, exterior 685
Kranzler's Unter den Linden, Berlin 685
Swedish coffee boilers 687
Sidewalk café, Lisbon 687
Coffee rooms replacing hotel bars, U.S. 688
Britannia coffee pot--a Lincoln relic 690
Coffee service, Hotel Astor, New York 691
Early coffee-making in Persia 694
Napier vacuum coffee maker 700
Napier-List steam coffee machine 700
Finley Acker's filter-paper coffee pot 700
Kin-Hee pot in operation 701
Tricolator in operation 701
King percolator 701
Three American coffee-making machines in operation 702
How the Tru-Bru pot operates 702
Coffee-making devices used in U.S. 703
English hotel coffee-making machines 706
Well-known makes of large coffee urns 707
Popular German drip pot 708
Section of roasted bean, magnified 719
Cross-section of roasted bean, magnified 720
Coarse grind under the microscope 720
Medium grind under the microscope 721
Fine-meal grind under the microscope 721
_Portraits_
Ach, F.J. 447, 512
Akers, Fred 495
Ames, Allan P. 447
Arbuckle, John 523
Arnold, Benjamin Greene 476, 517
Arnold, F.B. 476
Bayne, William 479
Bayne, William, Jr. 447
Beard, Eli 493
Beard, Samuel 493
Bennett, William H. 479
Bickford, C.E. 478
Boardman, Thomas J. 500
Boardman, William 500
Brand, Carl W. 512
Brandenstein, M.J. 504
Burns, Jabez 527
Canby, Edward 500
Casanas, Ben C. 512
Cauchois. F.A. 493
Chase, Caleb 500
Cheek, J.O. 504, 515
Closset, Joseph 504
Coste, Felix 447
Crossman, Geo. W. 479
Devers, A.H. 504
Dwinell, James F. 500
Eppens, Fred 495
Eppens, Julius A. 495, 497
Eppens, W.H. 493, 495
Evans, David G. 504
Fischer, Benedickt 493
Flint, J.G. 500
Folger, J.A., Jr. 504
Folger, J.A., Sr. 504
Forbes, A.E. 504
Forbes, Jas. H. 504
Geiger, Frank J. 500
Gillies, Jas. W. 493
Gillies, Wright 493
Grossman, William 500
Harrison, D.Y. 500
Harrison, W.H. 500
Haulenbeek, Peter 493
Hayward, Martin 500
Heekin, James 500
Jones, W.T. 504
Kimball, O.G. 478
Kinsella, W.J. 504
Kirkland, Alexander 495
Kolschitzky, Franz George 50
McLaughlin, W.F. 500
Mahood, Samuel 500
Mayo, Henry 495
Meehan, P.C. 477
Menezes, Th. Langgaard de 446
Meyer, Robert 511
Peck, Edwin H. 477
Phyfe, Jas. W. 478
Pierce, O.W., Sr. 500
Pupke, John F. 495
Purcell, Joseph 476
Reid, Fred 495
Reid, Thomas 493, 495
Roome, Col. William P. 499
Russell, James C. 478
Sanborn, James S. 500
Schilling, A. 504
Schotten, Julius J. 504, 512
Schotten, William 504
Seelye, Frank R. 512
Sielcken, Hermann 476, 519
Simmonds, H. 477
Sinnot, J.B. 504
Smith, L.B. 493
Smith, M.E. 504
Sprague, Albert A. 500
Stephens, Henry A. 500
Stoffregen, Charles 504
Stoffregen, C.H. 447
Taylor, James H. 477
Thomson, A.M. 500
Van Loan, Thomas 498
Weir, Ross W. 447, 512
Westfeldt, George 479
Widlar, Francis 500
Wilde, Samuel 493
Withington, Elijah 493
Woolson, Alvin M. 500
Wright, George C. 500
Wright, George S. 447
Young, Samuel 500
Zinsmeister, J. 504
_Maps, Charts, and Diagrams_
Map of London coffee-house district, 1748 76
Formula for Caffein 160
Commercial coffee chart 191
Eiffel and Woolworth towers in coffee 272
World's coffee cup and largest ship 275
Coffee exports, 1850-1920 277
Coffee exports, 1916-1920 277
Brazil coffee exports, 1850-1920 278
World's coffee consumption, 1850 286
Coffee imports, 1916-1920 286
World trend of consumption of tea and coffee, 1860-1920 288
Coffee map of World (folded insert) _facing_ 288
Pre-war annual average production of coffee by continents 294
Pre-war annual average production of coffee by countries 294
Pre-war average annual imports of coffee into U.S. by continents 295
Pre-war average annual imports of coffee into U.S. by countries 295
Pre-war coffee-imports chart 297
Pre-war consumption and price chart 297
Coffee map, Brazil 342
Coffee map, São Paulo, Minãs, and Rio 344
Mild-coffee map, 1 346
Coffee map, Africa and Arabia 352
Mild-coffee map, 2 354
Complete reference table (21 pp.) 358
Plan of milling-machine connections 381
Plan of green-coffee-mixer connections 383
Layout for coffee and tea department 418
Chart, advertising of coffee and coffee substitutes, 1911-20 440
Charts, per capita consumption of coffee, and coffee and substitute
advertising 441
Chart, plan of advertising campaign 448
Chart, private-brand advertising, 1921 458
A COFFEE THESAURUS
_Encomiums and descriptive phrases applied to the plant, the berry, and
the beverage_
_The Plant_
The precious plant
This friendly plant
Mocha's happy tree
The gift of Heaven
The plant with the jessamine-like flowers
The most exquisite perfume of Araby the blest
Given to the human race by the gift of the Gods
_The Berry_
The magic bean
The divine fruit
Fragrant berries
Rich, royal berry
Voluptuous berry
The precious berry
The healthful bean
The Heavenly berry
The marvelous berry
This all-healing berry
Yemen's fragrant berry
The little aromatic berry
Little brown Arabian berry
Thought-inspiring bean of Arabia
The smoking, ardent beans Aleppo sends
That wild fruit which gives so beloved a drink
_The Beverage_
Nepenthe
Festive cup
Juice divine
Nectar divine
Ruddy mocha
A man's drink
Lovable liquor
Delicious mocha
The magic drink
This rich cordial
Its stream divine
The family drink
The festive drink
Coffee is our gold
Nectar of all men
The golden mocha
This sweet nectar
Celestial ambrosia
The friendly drink
The cheerful drink
The essential drink
The sweet draught
The divine draught
The grateful liquor
The universal drink
The American drink
The amber beverage
The convivial drink
The universal thrill
King of all perfumes
The cup of happiness
The soothing draught
Ambrosia of the Gods
The intellectual drink
The aromatic draught
The salutary beverage
The good-fellow drink
The drink of democracy
The drink ever glorious
Wakeful and civil drink
The beverage of sobriety
A psychological necessity
The fighting man's drink
Loved and favored drink
The symbol of hospitality
This rare Arabian cordial
Inspirer of men of letters
The revolutionary beverage
Triumphant stream of sable
Grave and wholesome liquor
The drink of the intellectuals
A restorative of sparkling wit
Its color is the seal of its purity
The sober and wholesome drink
Lovelier than a thousand kisses
This honest and cheering beverage
A wine which no sorrow can resist
The symbol of human brotherhood
At once a pleasure and a medicine
The beverage of the friends of God
The fire which consumes our griefs
Gentle panacea of domestic troubles
The autocrat of the breakfast table
The beverage of the children of God
King of the American breakfast table
Soothes you softly out of dull sobriety
The cup that cheers but not inebriates[1]
Coffee, which makes the politician wise
Its aroma is the pleasantest in all nature
The sovereign drink of pleasure and health[2]
The indispensable beverage of strong nations
The stream in which we wash away our sorrows
The enchanting perfume that a zephyr has brought
Favored liquid which fills all my soul with delight
The delicious libation we pour on the altar of friendship
This invigorating drink which drives sad care from the heart
EVOLUTION OF A CUP OF COFFEE
_Showing the various steps through which the bean passes from plantation
to cup_
1 Planting the seed in nursery
2 Transplanting into rows
3 Cultivating and pruning
4 Picking the cherries
5 Pulping
6 Fermenting
7 Washing
8 Drying in the parchment
9 Hulling
10 Polishing
11 Grading
12 Transporting to the seaport
13 Buying and selling for export
14 Transhipment overseas
15 Buying and selling at wholesale
16 Shipment to the point of manufacture
17 Separating
18 Milling
19 Mixing or blending
20 Roasting
21 Cooling and stoning
22 Buying and selling at retail
23 Grinding
24 Making the beverage
[Illustration: COFFEE ARABICA; LEAVES, FLOWERS AND FRUIT
Painted from nature by M.E. Eaton--Detail sketches show anther, pistil,
and section of corolla]
CHAPTER I
DEALING WITH THE ETYMOLOGY OF COFFEE
_Origin and translation of the word from the Arabian into various
languages--Views of many writers_
The history of the word coffee involves several phonetic difficulties.
The European languages got the name of the beverage about 1600 from the
original Arabic [Arabic] _qahwah_, not directly, but through its
Turkish form, _kahveh_. This was the name, not of the plant, but the
beverage made from its infusion, being originally one of the names
employed for wine in Arabic.
Sir James Murray, in the _New English Dictionary_, says that some have
conjectured that the word is a foreign, perhaps African, word disguised,
and have thought it connected with the name Kaffa, a town in Shoa,
southwest Abyssinia, reputed native place of the coffee plant, but that
of this there is no evidence, and the name _qahwah_ is not given to the
berry or plant, which is called [Arabic] _bunn_, the native name in
Shoa being _bun_.
Contributing to a symposium on the etymology of the word coffee in
_Notes and Queries_, 1909, James Platt, Jr., said:
The Turkish form might have been written _kahvé_, as its final _h_
was never sounded at any time. Sir James Murray draws attention to
the existence of two European types, one like the French _café_,
Italian _caffè_, the other like the English _coffee_, Dutch
_koffie_. He explains the vowel _o_ in the second series as
apparently representing _au_, from Turkish _ahv_. This seems
unsupported by evidence, and the _v_ is already represented by the
_ff_, so on Sir James's assumption _coffee_ must stand for
_kahv-ve_, which is unlikely. The change from _a_ to _o_, in my
opinion, is better accounted for as an imperfect appreciation. The
exact sound of a in Arabic and other Oriental languages is that
of the English short U, as in "cuff." This sound, so easy to us, is
a great stumbling-block to other nations. I judge that Dutch
_koffie_ and kindred forms are imperfect attempts at the notation
of a vowel which the writers could not grasp. It is clear that the
French type is more correct. The Germans have corrected their
_koffee_, which they may have got from the Dutch, into _kaffee_.
The Scandinavian languages have adopted the French form. Many must
wonder how the _hv_ of the original so persistently becomes _ff_ in
the European equivalents. Sir James Murray makes no attempt to
solve this problem.
Virendranath Chattopádhyáya, who also contributed to the _Notes and
Queries_ symposium, argued that the _hw_ of the Arabic _qahwah_ becomes
sometimes _ff_ and sometimes only _f_ or _v_ in European translations
because some languages, such as English, have strong syllabic accents
(stresses), while others, as French, have none. Again, he points out
that the surd aspirate _h_ is heard in some languages, but is hardly
audible in others. Most Europeans tend to leave it out altogether.
Col. W.F. Prideaux, another contributor, argued that the European
languages got one form of the word coffee directly from the Arabic
_qahwah_, and quoted from Hobson-Jobson in support of this:
_Chaoua_ in 1598, _Cahoa_ in 1610, _Cahue_ in 1615; while Sir
Thomas Herbert (1638) expressly states that "they drink (in Persia)
... above all the rest, _Coho_ or _Copha_: by Turk and Arab called
_Caphe_ and _Cahua_." Here the Persian, Turkish, and Arabic
pronunciations are clearly differentiated.
Col. Prideaux then calls, as a witness to the Anglo-Arabic
pronunciation, one whose evidence was not available when the _New
English Dictionary_ and Hobson-Jobson articles were written. This is
John Jourdain, a Dorsetshire seaman, whose _Diary_ was printed by the
Hakluyt Society in 1905. On May 28, 1609, he records that "in the
afternoone wee departed out of Hatch (Al-Hauta, the capital of the Lahej
district near Aden), and travelled untill three in the morninge, and
then wee rested in the plaine fields untill three the next daie, neere
unto a cohoo howse in the desert." On June 5 the party, traveling from
Hippa (Ibb), "laye in the mountaynes, our camells being wearie, and our
selves little better. This mountain is called Nasmarde (Nakil
Sumara), where all the cohoo grows." Farther on was "a little
village, where there is sold cohoo and fruite. The seeds of this cohoo
is a greate marchandize, for it is carried to grand Cairo and all other
places of Turkey, and to the Indias." Prideaux, however, mentions that
another sailor, William Revett, in his journal (1609) says, referring to
Mocha, that "Shaomer Shadli (Shaikh 'Ali bin 'Omar esh-Shadil) was
the fyrst inventour for drynking of coffe, and therefor had in
esteemation." This rather looks to Prideaux as if on the coast of
Arabia, and in the mercantile towns, the Persian pronunciation was in
vogue; whilst in the interior, where Jourdain traveled, the Englishman
reproduced the Arabic.
Mr. Chattopádhyáya, discussing Col. Prideaux's views as expressed above,
said:
Col. Prideaux may doubt "if the worthy mariner, in entering the
word in his log, was influenced by the abstruse principles of
phonetics enunciated" by me, but he will admit that the change from
_kahvah_ to _coffee_ is a phonetic change, and must be due to the
operation of some phonetic principle. The average man, when he
endeavours to write a foreign word in his own tongue, is
handicapped considerably by his inherited and acquired phonetic
capacity. And, in fact, if we take the quotations made in
"Hobson-Jobson," and classify the various forms of the word
_coffee_ according to the nationality of the writer, we obtain very
interesting results.
Let us take Englishmen and Dutchmen first. In Danvers's _Letters_
(1611) we have both "_coho_ pots" and "_coffao_ pots"; Sir T. Roe
(1615) and Terry (1616) have _cohu_; Sir T. Herbert (1638) has
_coho_ and _copha_; Evelyn (1637), _coffee_; Fryer (1673) _coho_;
Ovington (1690), _coffee_; and Valentijn (1726), _coffi_. And from
the two examples given by Col. Prideaux, we see that Jourdain
(1609) has _cohoo_, and Revett (1609) has _coffe_.
To the above should be added the following by English writers, given in
Foster's _English Factories in India_ (1618-21, 1622-23, 1624-29): cowha
(1619), cowhe, couha (1621), coffa (1628).
Let us now see what foreigners (chiefly French and Italian) write. The
earliest European mention is by Rauwolf, who knew it in Aleppo in 1573.
He has the form _chaube_. Prospero Alpini (1580) has _caova_; Paludanus
(1598) _chaoua_; Pyrard de Laval (1610) _cahoa_; P. Della Valle (1615)
_cahue_; Jac. Bontius (1631) _caveah_; and the _Journal d'Antoine
Galland_ (1673) _cave_. That is, Englishmen use forms of a certain
distinct type, _viz._, cohu, coho, coffao, coffe, copha, coffee, which
differ from the more correct transliteration of foreigners.
In 1610 the Portuguese Jew, Pedro Teixeira (in the Hakluyt Society's
edition of his _Travels_) used the word _kavàh_.
The inferences from these transitional forms seem to be: 1. The word
found its way into the languages of Europe both from the Turkish and
from the Arabic. 2. The English forms (which have strong stress on the
first syllable) have _o_ instead of _a_, and _f_ instead of _h_.
3. The foreign forms are unstressed and have no _h_. The original _v_ or
_w_ (or labialized _u_) is retained or changed into _f_.
It may be stated, accordingly, that the chief reason for the existence
of two distinct types of spelling is the omission of _h_ in unstressed
languages, and the conversion of _h_ into _f_ under strong stress in
stressed languages. Such conversion often takes place in Turkish; for
example, _silah dar_ in Persian (which is a highly stressed language)
becomes _zilif dar_ in Turkish. In the languages of India, on the other
hand, in spite of the fact that the aspirate is usually very clearly
sounded, the word _qahvah_ is pronounced _kaiva_ by the less
educated classes, owing to the syllables being equally stressed.
Now for the French viewpoint. Jardin[3] opines that, as regards the
etymology of the word coffee, scholars are not agreed and perhaps never
will be. Dufour[4] says the word is derived from _caouhe_, a name given
by the Turks to the beverage prepared from the seed. Chevalier
d'Arvieux, French consul at Alet, Savary, and Trevoux, in his
dictionary, think that coffee comes from the Arabic, but from the word
_cahoueh_ or _quaweh_, meaning to give vigor or strength, because, says
d'Arvieux, its most general effect is to fortify and strengthen.
Tavernier combats this opinion. Moseley attributes the origin of the
word coffee to Kaffa. Sylvestre de Sacy, in his _Chréstomathie Arabe_,
published in 1806, thinks that the word _kahwa_, synonymous with
_makli_, roasted in a stove, might very well be the etymology of the
word coffee. D'Alembert in his encyclopedic dictionary, writes the word
_caffé_. Jardin concludes that whatever there may be in these various
etymologies, it remains a fact that the word coffee comes from an
Arabian word, whether it be _kahua_, _kahoueh_, _kaffa_ or _kahwa_, and
that the peoples who have adopted the drink have all modified the
Arabian word to suit their pronunciation. This is shown by giving the
word as written in various modern languages:
French, _café_; Breton, _kafe_; German, _kaffee_ (coffee tree,
_kaffeebaum_); Dutch, _koffie_ (coffee tree, _koffieboonen_); Danish,
_kaffe_; Finnish, _kahvi_; Hungarian, _kavé_; Bohemian, _kava_; Polish,
_kawa_; Roumanian, _cafea_; Croatian, _kafa_; Servian, _kava_; Russian,
_kophe_; Swedish, _kaffe_; Spanish, _café_; Basque, _kaffia_; Italian,
_caffè_; Portuguese, _café_; Latin (scientific), _coffea_; Turkish,
_kahué_; Greek, _kaféo_; Arabic, _qahwah_ (coffee berry, _bun_);
Persian, _qéhvé_ (coffee berry, _bun_[5]); Annamite, _ca-phé_;
Cambodian, _kafé_; Dukni[6], _bunbund_[7]; Teluyan[8], _kapri-vittulu_;
Tamil[9], _kapi-kottai_ or _kopi_; Canareze[10], _kapi-bija_; Chinese,
_kia-fey_, _teoutsé_; Japanese, _kéhi_; Malayan, _kawa_, _koppi_;
Abyssinian, _bonn_[11]; Foulak, _legal café_[12]; Sousou, _houri
caff_[13]; Marquesan, _kapi_; Chinook[14], _kaufee_; Volapuk, _kaf_;
Esperanto, _kafva_.
[Illustration: THE FAIRY BEAUTY OF A COFFEE TREE IN FLOWER]
CHAPTER II
HISTORY OF COFFEE PROPAGATION
_A brief account of the cultivation of the coffee plant in the Old
World and its introduction into the New--A romantic coffee
adventure_
The history of the propagation of the coffee plant is closely interwoven
with that of the early history of coffee drinking, but for the purposes
of this chapter we shall consider only the story of the inception and
growth of the cultivation of the coffee tree, or shrub, bearing the
seeds, or berries, from which the drink, coffee, is made.
Careful research discloses that most authorities agree that the coffee
plant is indigenous to Abyssinia, and probably Arabia, whence its
cultivation spread throughout the tropics. The first reliable mention of
the properties and uses of the plant is by an Arabian physician toward
the close of the ninth century A.D., and it is reasonable to suppose
that before that time the plant was found growing wild in Abyssinia and
perhaps in Arabia. If it be true, as Ludolphus writes,[15] that the
Abyssinians came out of Arabia into Ethiopia in the early ages, it is
possible that they may have brought the coffee tree with them; but the
Arabians must still be given the credit for discovering and promoting
the use of the beverage, and also for promoting the propagation of the
plant, even if they found it in Abyssinia and brought it to Yemen.
Some authorities believe that the first cultivation of coffee in Yemen
dates back to 575 A.D., when the Persian invasion put an end to the
Ethiopian rule of the negus Caleb, who conquered the country in 525.
Certainly the discovery of the beverage resulted in the cultivation of
the plant in Abyssinia and in Arabia; but its progress was slow until
the 15th and 16th centuries, when it appears as intensively carried on
in the Yemen district of Arabia. The Arabians were jealous of their new
found and lucrative industry, and for a time successfully prevented its
spread to other countries by not permitting any of the precious berries
to leave the country unless they had first been steeped in boiling water
or parched, so as to destroy their powers of germination. It may be that
many of the early failures successfully to introduce the cultivation of
the coffee plant into other lands was also due to the fact, discovered
later, that the seeds soon lose their germinating power.
However, it was not possible to watch every avenue of transport, with
thousands of pilgrims journeying to and from Mecca every year; and so
there would appear to be some reason to credit the Indian tradition
concerning the introduction of coffee cultivation into southern India by
Baba Budan, a Moslem pilgrim, as early as 1600, although a better
authority gives the date as 1695. Indian tradition relates that Baba
Budan planted his seeds near the hut he built for himself at Chickmaglur
in the mountains of Mysore, where, only a few years since, the writer
found the descendants of these first plants growing under the shade of
the centuries-old original jungle trees. The greater part of the plants
cultivated by the natives of Kurg and Mysore appear to have come from
the Baba Budan importation. It was not until 1840 that the English began
the cultivation of coffee in India. The plantations extend now from the
extreme north of Mysore to Tuticorin.
_Early Cultivation by the Dutch_
In the latter part of the 16th century, German, Italian, and Dutch
botanists and travelers brought back from the Levant considerable
information regarding the new plant and the beverage. In 1614
enterprising Dutch traders began to examine into the possibilities of
coffee cultivation and coffee trading. In 1616 a coffee plant was
successfully transported from Mocha to Holland. In 1658 the Dutch
started the cultivation of coffee in Ceylon, although the Arabs are said
to have brought the plant to the island prior to 1505. In 1670 an
attempt was made to cultivate coffee on European soil at Dijon, France,
but the result was a failure.
In 1696, at the instigation of Nicolaas Witsen, then burgomaster of
Amsterdam, Adrian Van Ommen, commander at Malabar, India, caused to be
shipped from Kananur, Malabar, to Java, the first coffee plants
introduced into that island. They were grown from seed of the _Coffea
arabica_ brought to Malabar from Arabia. They were planted by
Governor-General Willem Van Outshoorn on the Kedawoeng estate near
Batavia, but were subsequently lost by earthquake and flood. In 1699
Henricus Zwaardecroon imported some slips, or cuttings, of coffee trees
from Malabar into Java. These were more successful, and became the
progenitors of all the coffees of the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch were
then taking the lead in the propagation of the coffee plant.
In 1706 the first samples of Java coffee, and a coffee plant grown in
Java, were received at the Amsterdam botanical gardens. Many plants were
afterward propagated from the seeds produced in the Amsterdam gardens,
and these were distributed to some of the best known botanical gardens
and private conservatories in Europe.
While the Dutch were extending the cultivation of the plant to Sumatra,
the Celebes, Timor, Bali, and other islands of the Netherlands Indies,
the French were seeking to introduce coffee cultivation into their
colonies. Several attempts were made to transfer young plants from the
Amsterdam botanical gardens to the botanical gardens at Paris; but all
were failures.
In 1714, however, as a result of negotiations entered into between the
French government and the municipality of Amsterdam, a young and
vigorous plant about five feet tall was sent to Louis XIV at the chateau
of Marly by the burgomaster of Amsterdam. The day following, it was
transferred to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, where it was received
with appropriate ceremonies by Antoine de Jussieu, professor of botany
in charge. This tree was destined to be the progenitor of most of the
coffees of the French colonies, as well as of those of South America,
Central America, and Mexico.
_The Romance of Captain Gabriel de Clieu_
Two unsuccessful attempts were made to transport to the Antilles plants
grown from the seed of the tree presented to Louis XIV; but the honor of
eventual success was won by a young Norman gentleman, Gabriel Mathieu de
Clieu, a naval officer, serving at the time as captain of infantry at
Martinique. The story of de Clieu's achievement is the most romantic
chapter in the history of the propagation of the coffee plant.
His personal affairs calling him to France, de Clieu conceived the idea
of utilizing the return voyage to introduce coffee cultivation into
Martinique. His first difficulty lay in obtaining several of the plants
then being cultivated in Paris, a difficulty at last overcome through
the instrumentality of M. de Chirac, royal physician, or, according to a
letter written by de Clieu himself, through the kindly offices of a lady
of quality to whom de Chirac could give no refusal. The plants selected
were kept at Rochefort by M. Bégon, commissary of the department, until
the departure of de Clieu for Martinique. Concerning the exact date of
de Clieu's arrival at Martinique with the coffee plant, or plants, there
is much conflict of opinion. Some authorities give the date as 1720,
others 1723. Jardin[16] suggests that the discrepancy in dates may arise
from de Clieu, with praiseworthy perseverance, having made the voyage
twice. The first time, according to Jardin, the plants perished; but the
second time de Clieu had planted the seeds when leaving France and these
survived, "due, they say, to his having given of his scanty ration of
water to moisten them." No reference to a preceding voyage, however, is
made by de Clieu in his own account, given in a letter written to the
_Année Littéraire_[17] in 1774. There is also a difference of opinion as
to whether de Clieu arrived with one or three plants. He himself says
"one" in the letter referred to.
According to the most trustworthy data, de Clieu embarked at Nantes,
1723.[18] He had installed his precious plant in a box covered with a
glass frame in order to absorb the rays of the sun and thus better to
retain the stored-up heat for cloudy days. Among the passengers one man,
envious of the young officer, did all in his power to wrest from him the
glory of success. Fortunately his dastardly attempt failed of its
intended effect.
"It is useless," writes de Clieu in his letter to the _Année
Littéraire_, "to recount in detail the infinite care that I was obliged
to bestow upon this delicate plant during a long voyage, and the
difficulties I had in saving it from the hands of a man who, basely
jealous of the joy I was about to taste through being of service to my
country, and being unable to get this coffee plant away from me, tore
off a branch."
[Illustration: CAPTAIN DE CLIEU SHARES HIS DRINKING WATER WITH THE
COFFEE PLANT HE IS CARRYING TO MARTINIQUE]
The vessel carrying de Clieu was a merchantman, and many were the trials
that beset passengers and crew. Narrowly escaping capture by a corsair
of Tunis, menaced by a violent tempest that threatened to annihilate
them, they finally encountered a calm that proved more appalling than
either. The supply of drinking water was well nigh exhausted, and what
was left was rationed for the remainder of the voyage.
"Water was lacking to such an extent," says de Clieu, "that for more
than a month I was obliged to share the scanty ration of it assigned to
me with this my coffee plant upon which my happiest hopes were founded
and which was the source of my delight. It needed such succor the more
in that it was extremely backward, being no larger than the slip of a
pink." Many stories have been written and verses sung recording and
glorifying this generous sacrifice that has given luster to the name of
de Clieu.
Arrived in Martinique, de Clieu planted his precious slip on his estate
in Prêcheur, one of the cantons of the island; where, says Raynal, "it
multiplied with extraordinary rapidity and success." From the seedlings
of this plant came most of the coffee trees of the Antilles. The first
harvest was gathered in 1726.
De Clieu himself describes his arrival as follows:
Arriving at home, my first care was to set out my plant with great
attention in the part of my garden most favorable to its growth.
Although keeping it in view, I feared many times that it would be
taken from me; and I was at last obliged to surround it with thorn
bushes and to establish a guard about it until it arrived at
maturity ... this precious plant which had become still more dear
to me for the dangers it had run and the cares it had cost me.
Thus the little stranger thrived in a distant land, guarded day and
night by faithful slaves. So tiny a plant to produce in the end all the
rich estates of the West India islands and the regions bordering on the
Gulf of Mexico! What luxuries, what future comforts and delights,
resulted from this one small talent confided to the care of a man of
rare vision and fine intellectual sympathy, fired by the spirit of real
love for his fellows! There is no instance in the history of the French
people of a good deed done by stealth being of greater service to
humanity.
De Clieu thus describes the events that followed fast upon the
introduction of coffee into Martinique, with particular reference to
the earthquake of 1727:
Success exceeded my hopes. I gathered about two pounds of seed
which I distributed among all those whom I thought most capable of
giving the plants the care necessary to their prosperity.
The first harvest was very abundant; with the second it was
possible to extend the cultivation prodigiously, but what favored
multiplication, most singularly, was the fact that two years
afterward all the cocoa trees of the country, which were the
resource and occupation of the people, were uprooted and totally
destroyed by horrible tempests accompanied by an inundation which
submerged all the land where these trees were planted, land which
was at once made into coffee plantations by the natives. These did
marvelously and enabled us to send plants to Santo Domingo,
Guadeloupe, and other adjacent islands, where since that time they
have been cultivated with the greatest success.
By 1777 there were 18,791,680 coffee trees in Martinique.
De Clieu was born in Angléqueville-sur-Saane, Seine-Inférieure
(Normandy), in 1686 or 1688.[19] In 1705 he was a ship's ensign; in 1718
he became a chevalier of St. Louis; in 1720 he was made a captain of
infantry; in 1726, a major of infantry; in 1733 he was a ship's
lieutenant; in 1737 he became governor of Guadeloupe; in 1746 he was a
ship's captain; in 1750 he was made honorary commander of the order of
St. Louis; in 1752 he retired with a pension of 6000 francs; in 1753 he
re-entered the naval service; in 1760 he again retired with a pension of
2000 francs.
In 1746 de Clieu, having returned to France, was presented to Louis XV
by the minister of marine, Rouillé de Jour, as "a distinguished officer
to whom the colonies, as well as France itself, and commerce generally,
are indebted for the cultivation of coffee."
Reports to the king in 1752 and 1759 recall his having carried the first
coffee plant to Martinique, and that he had ever been distinguished for
his zeal and disinterestedness. In the _Mercure de France_, December,
1774, was the following death notice:
Gabriel d'Erchigny de Clieu, former Ship's Captain and Honorary
Commander of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, died in
Paris on the 30th of November in the 88th year of his age.
A notice of his death appeared also in the _Gazette de France_ for
December 5, 1774, a rare honor in both cases; and it has been said that
at this time his praise was again on every lip.
One French historian, Sidney Daney,[20] records that de Clieu died in
poverty at St. Pierre at the age of 97; but this must be an error,
although it does not anywhere appear that at his death he was possessed
of much, if any, means. Daney says:
This generous man received as his sole recompense for a noble deed
the satisfaction of seeing this plant for whose preservation he had
shown such devotion, prosper throughout the Antilles. The
illustrious de Clieu is among those to whom Martinique owes a
brilliant reparation.
Daney tells also that in 1804 there was a movement in Martinique to
erect a monument upon the spot where de Clieu planted his first coffee
plant, but that the undertaking came to naught.
Pardon, in his _La Martinique_ says:
Honor to this brave man! He has deserved it from the people of two
hemispheres. His name is worthy of a place beside that of
Parmentier who carried to France the potato of Canada. These two
men have rendered immense service to humanity, and their memory
should never be forgotten--yet alas! Are they even remembered?
Tussac, in his _Flora de las Antillas_, writing of de Clieu, says,
"Though no monument be erected to this beneficent traveler, yet his name
should remain engraved in the heart of every colonist."
In 1774 the _Année Littéraire_ published a long poem in de Clieu's
honor. In the feuilleton of the _Gazette de France_, April 12, 1816, we
read that M. Donns, a wealthy Hollander, and a coffee connoisseur,
sought to honor de Clieu by having painted upon a porcelain service all
the details of his voyage and its happy results. "I have seen the cups,"
says the writer, who gives many details and the Latin inscription.
That singer of navigation, Esménard, has pictured de Clieu's devotion in
the following lines:
Forget not how de Clieu with his light vessel's sail,
Brought distant Moka's gift--that timid plant and frail.
The waves fell suddenly, young zephyrs breathed no more,
Beneath fierce Cancer's fires behold the fountain store,
Exhausted, fails; while now inexorable need
Makes her unpitying law--with measured dole obeyed.
Now each soul fears to prove Tantalus torment first.
De Clieu alone defies: While still that fatal thirst,
Fierce, stifling, day by day his noble strength devours,
And still a heaven of brass inflames the burning hours.
With that refreshing draught his life he will not cheer;
But drop by drop revives the plant he holds more dear.
Already as in dreams, he sees great branches grow,
One look at his dear plant assuages all his woe.
The only memorial to de Clieu in Martinique is the botanical garden at
Fort de France, which was opened in 1918 and dedicated to de Clieu,
"whose memory has been too long left in oblivion.[21]"
In 1715 coffee cultivation was first introduced into Haiti and Santo
Domingo. Later came hardier plants from Martinique. In 1715-17 the
French Company of the Indies introduced the cultivation of the plant
into the Isle of Bourbon (now Réunion) by a ship captain named
Dufougeret-Grenier from St. Malo. It did so well that nine years later
the island began to export coffee.
The Dutch brought the cultivation of coffee to Surinam in 1718. The
first coffee plantation in Brazil was started at Pará in 1723 with
plants brought from French Guiana, but it was not a success. The English
brought the plant to Jamaica in 1730. In 1740 Spanish missionaries
introduced coffee cultivation into the Philippines from Java. In 1748
Don José Antonio Gelabert introduced coffee into Cuba, bringing the seed
from Santo Domingo. In 1750 the Dutch extended the cultivation of the
plant to the Celebes. Coffee was introduced into Guatemala about
1750-60. The intensive cultivation in Brazil dates from the efforts
begun in the Portuguese colonies in Pará and Amazonas in 1752. Porto
Rico began the cultivation of coffee about 1755. In 1760 João Alberto
Castello Branco brought to Rio de Janeiro a coffee tree from Goa,
Portuguese India. The news spread that the soil and climate of Brazil
were particularly adapted to the cultivation of coffee. Molke, a Belgian
monk, presented some seeds to the Capuchin monastery at Rio in 1774.
Later, the bishop of Rio, Joachim Bruno, became a patron of the plant
and encouraged its propagation in Rio, Minãs, Espirito Santo, and São
Paulo. The Spanish voyager, Don Francisco Xavier Navarro, is credited
with the introduction of coffee into Costa Rica from Cuba in 1779. In
Venezuela the industry was started near Caracas by a priest, José
Antonio Mohedano, with seed brought from Martinique in 1784.
Coffee cultivation in Mexico began in 1790, the seed being brought from
the West Indies. In 1817 Don Juan Antonio Gomez instituted intensive
cultivation in the State of Vera Cruz. In 1825 the cultivation of the
plant was begun in the Hawaiian Islands with seeds from Rio de Janeiro.
As previously noted, the English began to cultivate coffee in India in
1840. In 1852 coffee cultivation was begun in Salvador with plants
brought from Cuba. In 1878 the English began the propagation of coffee
in British Central Africa, but it was not until 1901 that coffee
cultivation was introduced into British East Africa from Réunion. In
1887 the French introduced the plant into Tonkin, Indo-China. Coffee
growing in Queensland, introduced in 1896, has been successful in a
small way.
In recent years several attempts have been made to propagate the coffee
plant in the southern United States, but without success. It is
believed, however, that the topographic and climatic conditions in
southern California are favorable for its cultivation.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: OMAR AND THE MARVELOUS COFFEE BIRD]
[Illustration: KALDI AND HIS DANCING GOATS]
[Illustration: THE LEGENDARY DISCOVERY OF THE COFFEE DRINK
From drawings by a modern French artist]
CHAPTER III
EARLY HISTORY OF COFFEE DRINKING
_Coffee in the Near East in the early centuries--Stories of its
origin--Discovery by physicians and adoption by the Church--Its
spread through Arabia, Persia and Turkey--Persecutions and
intolerances--Early coffee manners and customs_
The coffee drink had its rise in the classical period of Arabian
medicine, which dates from Rhazes (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya El
Razi) who followed the doctrines of Galen and sat at the feet of
Hippocrates. Rhazes (850-922) was the first to treat medicine in an
encyclopedic manner, and, according to some authorities, the first
writer to mention coffee. He assumed the poetical name of Razi because
he was a native of the city of Raj in Persian Irak. He was a great
philosopher and astronomer, and at one time was superintendent of the
hospital at Bagdad. He wrote many learned books on medicine and surgery,
but his principal work is _Al-Haiwi_, or _The Continent_, a collection
of everything relating to the cure of disease from Galen to his own
time.
Philippe Sylvestre Dufour (1622-87)[22], a French coffee merchant,
philosopher, and writer, in an accurate and finished treatise on coffee,
tells us (see the early edition of the work translated from the Latin)
that the first writer to mention the properties of the coffee bean under
the name of _bunchum_ was this same Rhazes, "in the ninth century after
the birth of our Saviour"; from which (if true) it would appear that
coffee has been known for upwards of 1000 years. Robinson[23], however,
is of the opinion that _bunchum_ meant something else and had nothing to
do with coffee. Dufour, himself, in a later edition of his _Traitez
Nouveaux et Curieux du Café_ (the Hague, 1693) is inclined to admit that
_bunchum_ may have been a root and not coffee, after all; however, he is
careful to add that there is no doubt that the Arabs knew coffee as far
back as the year 800. Other, more modern authorities, place it as early
as the sixth century.
_Wiji Kawih_ is mentioned in a Kavi (Javan) inscription A.D. 856; and it
is thought that the "bean broth" in David Tapperi's list of Javanese
beverages (1667-82) may have been coffee[24].
While the true origin of coffee drinking may be forever hidden among the
mysteries of the purple East, shrouded as it is in legend and fable,
scholars have marshaled sufficient facts to prove that the beverage was
known in Ethiopia "from time immemorial," and there is much to add
verisimilitude to Dufour's narrative. This first coffee merchant-prince,
skilled in languages and polite learning, considered that his character
as a merchant was not inconsistent with that of an author; and he even
went so far as to say there were some things (for instance, coffee) on
which a merchant could be better informed than a philosopher.
Granting that by _bunchum_ Rhazes meant coffee, the plant and the drink
must have been known to his immediate followers; and this, indeed, seems
to be indicated by similar references in the writings of Avicenna (Ibn
Sina), the Mohammedan physician and philosopher, who lived from 980 to
1037 A.D.
Rhazes, in the quaint language of Dufour, assures us that "_bunchum_
(coffee) is hot and dry and very good for the stomach." Avicenna
explains the medicinal properties and uses of the coffee bean (_bon_ or
_bunn_), which he, also, calls _bunchum_, after this fashion:
As to the choice thereof, that of a lemon color, light, and of a
good smell, is the best; the white and the heavy is naught. It is
hot and dry in the first degree, and, according to others, cold in
the first degree. It fortifies the members, it cleans the skin, and
dries up the humidities that are under it, and gives an excellent
smell to all the body.
The early Arabians called the bean and the tree that bore it, _bunn_;
the drink, _bunchum_. A. Galland[25] (1646-1715), the French Orientalist
who first analyzed and translated from the Arabic the Abd-al-Kâdir
manuscript[26], the oldest document extant telling of the origin of
coffee, observes that Avicenna speaks of the _bunn_, or coffee; as do
also Prospero Alpini and Veslingius (Vesling). Bengiazlah, another great
physician, contemporary with Avicenna, likewise mentions coffee; by
which, says Galland, one may see that we are indebted to physicians for
the discovery of coffee, as well as of sugar, tea, and chocolate.
Rauwolf[27] (d. 1596), German physician and botanist, and the first
European to mention coffee, who became acquainted with the beverage in
Aleppo in 1573, telling how the drink was prepared by the Turks, says:
In this same water they take a fruit called _Bunnu_, which in its
bigness, shape, and color is almost like unto a bayberry, with two
thin shells surrounded, which, as they informed me, are brought
from the _Indies_; but as these in themselves are, and have within
them, two yellowish grains in two distinct cells, and besides,
being they agree in their virtue, figure, looks, and name with the
_Bunchum_ of Avicenna and _Bunco_, of _Rasis ad Almans_ exactly:
therefore I take them to be the same.
In Dr. Edward Pocoke's translation (Oxford, 1659) of _The Nature of the
Drink Kauhi, or Coffee, and the Berry of which it is Made, Described by
an Arabian Phisitian_, we read:
_Bun_ is a plant in _Yaman_ [Yemen], which is planted in _Adar_,
and groweth up and is gathered in _Ab_. It is about a cubit high,
on a stalk about the thickness of one's thumb. It flowers white,
leaving a berry like a small nut, but that sometimes it is broad
like a bean; and when it is peeled, parteth in two. The best of it
is that which is weighty and yellow; the worst, that which is
black. It is hot in the first degree, dry in the second: it is
usually reported to be cold and dry, but it is not so; for it is
bitter, and whatsoever is bitter is hot. It may be that the scorce
is hot, and the Bun it selfe either of equall temperature, or cold
in the first degree.
That which makes for its coldnesse is its stipticknesse. In summer
it is by experience found to conduce to the drying of rheumes, and
flegmatick coughes and distillations, and the opening of
obstructions, and the provocation of urin. It is now known by the
name of _Kohwah_. When it is dried and thoroughly boyled, it
allayes the ebullition of the blood, is good against the small poxe
and measles, the bloudy pimples; yet causeth vertiginous headheach,
and maketh lean much, occasioneth waking, and the Emrods, and
asswageth lust, and sometimes breeds melancholly.
He that would drink it for livelinesse sake, and to discusse
slothfulnesse, and the other properties that we have mentioned, let
him use much sweat meates with it, and oyle of pistaccioes, and
butter. Some drink it with milk, but it is an error, and such as
may bring in danger of the leprosy.
Dufour concludes that the coffee beans of commerce are the same as the
_bunchum_ (_bunn_) described by Avicenna and the _bunca_ (_bunchum_) of
Rhazes. In this he agrees, almost word for word, with Rauwolf,
indicating no change in opinion among the learned in a hundred years.
Christopher Campen thinks Hippocrates, father of medicine, knew and
administered coffee.
Robinson, commenting upon the early adoption of coffee into materia
medica, charges that it was a mistake on the part of the Arab
physicians, and that it originated the prejudice that caused coffee to
be regarded as a powerful drug instead of as a simple and refreshing
beverage.
_Homer, the Bible, and Coffee_
In early Grecian and Roman writings no mention is made of either the
coffee plant or the beverage made from the berries. Pierre (Pietro)
Delia Valle[28] (1586-1652), however, maintains that the _nepenthe_,
which Homer says Helen brought with her out of Egypt, and which she
employed as surcease for sorrow, was nothing else but coffee mixed with
wine.[29] This is disputed by M. Petit, a well known physician of Paris,
who died in 1687. Several later British authors, among them, Sandys,
the poet; Burton; and Sir Henry Blount, have suggested the probability
of coffee being the "black broth" of the Lacedæmonians.
George Paschius, in his Latin treatise of the _New Discoveries Made
since the Time of the Ancients_, printed at Leipsic in 1700, says he
believes that coffee was meant by the five measures of parched corn
included among the presents Abigail made to David to appease his wrath,
as recorded in the _Bible_, 1 Samuel, xxv, 18. The _Vulgate_ translates
the Hebrew words _sein kali_ into _sata polentea_, which signify wheat,
roasted, or dried by fire.
[Illustration: TITLE PAGE OF DUFOUR'S BOOK, EDITION OF 1693]
Pierre Étienne Louis Dumant, the Swiss Protestant minister and author,
is of the opinion that coffee (and not lentils, as others have supposed)
was the red pottage for which Esau sold his birthright; also that the
parched grain that Boaz ordered to be given Ruth was undoubtedly roasted
coffee berries.
Dufour mentions as a possible objection against coffee that "the use and
eating of beans were heretofore forbidden by Pythagoras," but intimates
that the coffee bean of Arabia is something different.
Scheuzer,[30] in his _Physique Sacrée_, says "the Turks and the Arabs
make with the coffee bean a beverage which bears the same name, and many
persons use as a substitute the flour of roasted barley." From this we
learn that the coffee substitute is almost as old as coffee itself.
_Some Early Legends_
After medicine, the church. There are several Mohammedan traditions that
have persisted through the centuries, claiming for "the faithful" the
honor and glory of the first use of coffee as a beverage. One of these
relates how, about 1258 A.D., Sheik Omar, a disciple of Sheik Abou'l
hasan Schadheli, patron saint and legendary founder of Mocha, by chance
discovered the coffee drink at Ousab in Arabia, whither he had been
exiled for a certain moral remissness.
Facing starvation, he and his followers were forced to feed upon the
berries growing around them. And then, in the words of the faithful Arab
chronicle in the Bibliothéque Nationale at Paris, "having nothing to eat
except coffee, they took of it and boiled it in a saucepan and drank of
the decoction." Former patients in Mocha who sought out the good
doctor-priest in his Ousab retreat, for physic with which to cure their
ills, were given some of this decoction, with beneficial effect. As a
result of the stories of its magical properties, carried back to the
city, Sheik Omar was invited to return in triumph to Mocha where the
governor caused to be built a monastery for him and his companions.
Another version of this Oriental legend gives it as follows:
The dervish Hadji Omar was driven by his enemies out of Mocha into
the desert, where they expected he would die of starvation. This
undoubtedly would have occurred if he had not plucked up courage to
taste some strange berries which he found growing on a shrub. While
they seemed to be edible, they were very bitter; and he tried to
improve the taste by roasting them. He found, however, that they
had become very hard, so he attempted to soften them with water.
The berries seemed to remain as hard as before, but the liquid
turned brown, and Omar drank it on the chance that it contained
some of the nourishment from the berries. He was amazed at how it
refreshed him, enlivened his sluggishness, and raised his drooping
spirits. Later, when he returned to Mocha, his salvation was
considered a miracle. The beverage to which it was due sprang into
high favor, and Omar himself was made a saint.
A popular and much-quoted version of Omar's discovery of coffee, also
based upon the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript, is the following:
In the year of the Hegira 656, the mollah Schadheli went on a
pilgrimage to Mecca. Arriving at the mountain of the Emeralds
(Ousab), he turned to his disciple Omar and said: "I shall die in
this place. When my soul has gone forth, a veiled person will
appear to you. Do not fail to execute the command which he will
give you."
The venerable Schadheli being dead, Omar saw in the middle of the
night a gigantic specter covered by a white veil.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The phantom drew back his veil, and Omar saw with surprise
Schadheli himself, grown ten cubits since his death. The mollah dug
in the ground, and water miraculously appeared. The spirit of his
teacher bade Omar fill a bowl with the water and to proceed on his
way and not to stop till he reached the spot where the water would
stop moving.
"It is there," he added, "that a great destiny awaits you."
Omar started his journey. Arriving at Mocha in Yemen, he noticed
that the water was immovable. It was here that he must stop.
The beautiful village of Mocha was then ravaged by the plague. Omar
began to pray for the sick and, as the saintly man was close to
Mahomet, many found themselves cured by his prayers.
The plague meanwhile progressing, the daughter of the King of Mocha
fell ill and her father had her carried to the home of the dervish
who cured her. But as this young princess was of rare beauty, after
having cured her, the good dervish tried to carry her off. The king
did not fancy this new kind of reward. Omar was driven from the
city and exiled on the mountain of Ousab, with herbs for food and a
cave for a home.
"Oh, Schadheli, my dear master," cried the unfortunate dervish one
day; "if the things which happened to me at Mocha were destined,
was it worth the trouble to give me a bowl to come here?"
To these just complaints, there was heard immediately a song of
incomparable harmony, and a bird of marvelous plumage came to rest
in a tree. Omar sprang forward quickly toward the little bird which
sang so well, but then he saw on the branches of the tree only
flowers and fruit. Omar laid hands on the fruit, and found it
delicious. Then he filled his great pockets with it and went back
to his cave. As he was preparing to boil a few herbs for his
dinner, the idea came to him of substituting for this sad soup,
some of his harvested fruit. From it he obtained a savory and
perfumed drink; it was coffee.
The Italian _Journal of the Savants_ for the year 1760 says that two
monks, Scialdi and Ayduis, were the first to discover the properties of
coffee, and for this reason became the object of special prayers. "Was
not this Scialdi identical with the Sheik Schadheli?" asks Jardin.[31]
The most popular legend ascribes the discovery of the drink to an
Arabian herdsman in upper Egypt, or Abyssinia, who complained to the
abbot of a neighboring monastery that the goats confided to his care
became unusually frolicsome after eating the berries of certain shrubs
found near their feeding grounds. The abbot, having observed the fact,
determined to try the virtues of the berries on himself. He, too,
responded with a new exhilaration. Accordingly, he directed that some be
boiled, and the decoction drunk by his monks, who thereafter found no
difficulty in keeping awake during the religious services of the night.
The abbé Massieu in his poem, _Carmen Caffaeum_, thus celebrates the
event:
The monks each in turn, as the evening draws near,
Drink 'round the great cauldron--a circle of cheer!
And the dawn in amaze, revisiting that shore,
On idle beds of ease surprised them nevermore!
According to the legend, the news of the "wakeful monastery" spread
rapidly, and the magical berry soon "came to be in request throughout
the whole kingdom; and in progress of time other nations and provinces
of the East fell into the use of it."
The French have preserved the following picturesque version of this
legend:
A young goatherd named Kaldi noticed one day that his goats, whose
deportment up to that time had been irreproachable, were abandoning
themselves to the most extravagant prancings. The venerable buck,
ordinarily so dignified and solemn, bounded about like a young kid.
Kaldi attributed this foolish gaiety to certain fruits of which the
goats had been eating with delight.
The story goes that the poor fellow had a heavy heart; and in the
hope of cheering himself up a little, he thought he would pick and
eat of the fruit. The experiment succeeded marvelously. He forgot
his troubles and became the happiest herder in happy Arabia. When
the goats danced, he gaily made himself one of the party, and
entered into their fun with admirable spirit.
One day, a monk chanced to pass by and stopped in surprise to find
a ball going on. A score of goats were executing lively pirouettes
like a ladies' chain, while the buck solemnly _balancé-ed_, and the
herder went through the figures of an eccentric pastoral dance.
The astonished monk inquired the cause of this saltatorial madness;
and Kaldi told him of his precious discovery.
Now, this poor monk had a great sorrow; he always went to sleep in
the middle of his prayers; and he reasoned that Mohammed without
doubt was revealing this marvelous fruit to him to overcome his
sleepiness.
[Illustration: ARAB DRINKING COFFEE; CHINAMAN, TEA; AND INDIAN,
CHOCOLATE
Frontispiece from Dufour's work]
Piety does not exclude gastronomic instincts. Those of our good
monk were more than ordinary; because he thought of drying and
boiling the fruit of the herder. This ingenious concoction gave us
coffee. Immediately all the monks of the realm made use of the
drink, because it encouraged them to pray and, perhaps, also
because it was not disagreeable.
In those early days it appears that the drink was prepared in two ways;
one in which the decoction was made from the hull and the pulp
surrounding the bean, and the other from the bean itself. The roasting
process came later and is an improvement generally credited to the
Persians. There is evidence that the early Mohammedan churchmen were
seeking a substitute for the wine forbidden to them by the Koran, when
they discovered coffee. The word for coffee in Arabic, _qahwah_, is the
same as one of those used for wine; and later on, when coffee drinking
grew so popular as to threaten the very life of the church itself, this
similarity was seized upon by the church-leaders to support their
contention that the prohibition against wine applied also to coffee.
La Roque,[32] writing in 1715, says that the Arabian word _cahouah_
signified at first only wine; but later was turned into a generic term
applied to all kinds of drink. "So there were really three sorts of
coffee; namely, wine, including all intoxicating liquors; the drink made
with the shells, or cods, of the coffee bean; and that made from the
bean itself."
Originally, then, the coffee drink may have been a kind of wine made
from the coffee fruit. In the coffee countries even today the natives
are very fond, and eat freely, of the ripe coffee cherries, voiding the
seeds. The pulp surrounding the coffee seeds (beans) is pleasant to
taste, has a sweetish, aromatic flavor, and quickly ferments when
allowed to stand.
Still another tradition (was the wish father to the thought?) tells how
the coffee drink was revealed to Mohammed himself by the Angel Gabriel.
Coffee's partisans found satisfaction in a passage in the _Koran_ which,
they said, foretold its adoption by the followers of the Prophet:
They shall be given to drink an excellent wine, sealed; its seal is
that of the musk.
The most diligent research does not carry a knowledge of coffee back
beyond the time of Rhazes, two hundred years after Mohammed; so there is
little more than speculation or conjecture to support the theory that it
was known to the ancients, in Bible times or in the days of The Praised
One. Our knowledge of tea, on the other hand, antedates the Christian
era. We know also that tea was intensively cultivated and taxed under
the Tang dynasty in China, A.D. 793, and that Arab traders knew of it in
the following century.
_The First Reliable Coffee Date_
About 1454 Sheik Gemaleddin Abou Muhammad Bensaid, mufti of Aden,
surnamed Aldhabani, from Dhabhan, a small town where he was born, became
acquainted with the virtues of coffee on a journey into Abyssinia.[33]
Upon his return to Aden, his health became impaired; and remembering the
coffee he had seen his countrymen drinking in Abyssinia, he sent for
some in the hope of finding relief. He not only recovered from his
illness; but, because of its sleep-dispelling qualities, he sanctioned
the use of the drink among the dervishes "that they might spend the
night in prayers or other religious exercises with more attention and
presence of mind.[34]"
It is altogether probable that the coffee drink was known in Aden before
the time of Sheik Gemaleddin; but the endorsement of the very learned
imam, whom science and religion had already made famous, was sufficient
to start a vogue for the beverage that spread throughout Yemen, and
thence to the far corners of the world. We read in the Arabian
manuscript at the Bibliothéque Nationale that lawyers, students, as well
as travelers who journeyed at night, artisans, and others, who worked at
night, to escape the heat of the day, took to drinking coffee; and even
left off another drink, then becoming popular, made from the leaves of a
plant called _khat_ or _cat_ (_catha edulis_).
Sheik Gemaleddin was assisted in his work of spreading the gospel of
this the first propaganda for coffee by one Muhammed Alhadrami, a
physician of great reputation, born in Hadramaut, Arabia Felix.
A recently unearthed and little known version of coffee's origin shows
how features of both the Omar tradition and the Gemaleddin story may be
combined by a professional Occidental tale-writer[35]:
Toward the middle of the fifteenth century, a poor Arab was
traveling in Abyssinia. Finding himself weak and weary, he stopped
near a grove. For fuel wherewith to cook his rice, he cut down a
tree that happened to be covered with dried berries. His meal being
cooked and eaten, the traveler discovered that these half-burnt
berries were fragrant. He collected a number of them and, on
crushing them with a stone, found that the aroma was increased to a
great extent. While wondering at this, he accidentally let the
substance fall into an earthen vessel that contained his scanty
supply of water.
A miracle! The almost putrid water was purified. He brought it to
his lips; it was fresh and agreeable; and after a short rest the
traveler so far recovered his strength and energy as to be able to
resume his journey. The lucky Arab gathered as many berries as he
could, and having arrived at Aden, informed the mufti of his
discovery. That worthy was an inveterate opium-smoker, who had been
suffering for years from the influence of the poisonous drug. He
tried an infusion of the roasted berries, and was so delighted at
the recovery of his former vigor that in gratitude to the tree he
called it _cahuha_ which in Arabic signifies "force".
Galland, in his analysis of the Arabian manuscript, already referred to,
that has furnished us with the most trustworthy account of the origin of
coffee, criticizes Antoine Faustus Nairon, Maronite professor of
Oriental languages at Rome, who was the author of the first printed
treatise on coffee only,[36] for accepting the legends relating to Omar
and the Abyssinian goatherd. He says they are unworthy of belief as
facts of history, although he is careful to add that there is _some_
truth in the story of the discovery of coffee by the Abyssinian goats
and the abbot who prescribed the use of the berries for his monks, "the
Eastern Christians being willing to have the honor of the invention of
coffee, for the abbot, or prior, of the convent and his companions are
only the mufti Gemaleddin and Muhammid Alhadrami, and the monks are the
dervishes."
Amid all these details, Jardin reaches the conclusion that it is to
chance we must attribute the knowledge of the properties of coffee, and
that the coffee tree was transported from its native land to Yemen, as
far as Mecca, and possibly into Persia, before being carried into Egypt.
Coffee, being thus favorably introduced into Aden, it has continued
there ever since, without interruption. By degrees the cultivation of
the plant and the use of the beverage passed into many neighboring
places. Toward the close of the fifteenth century (1470-1500) it reached
Mecca and Medina, where it was introduced, as at Aden, by the dervishes,
and for the same religious purpose. About 1510 it reached Grand Cairo in
Egypt, where the dervishes from Yemen, living in a district by
themselves, drank coffee on the nights they intended to spend in
religious devotion. They kept it in a large red earthen vessel--each in
turn receiving it, respectfully, from their superior, in a small bowl,
which he dipped into the jar--in the meantime chanting their prayers,
the burden of which was always: "There is no God but one God, the true
King, whose power is not to be disputed."
[Illustration: A BOUQUET OF RIPE FRUIT]
[Illustration: FLOWERS, FRUIT, AND LEAVES]
[Illustration: THE COFFEE TREE BEARS FRUIT, LEAF, AND BLOSSOM AT THE
SAME TIME]
After the dervishes, the bowl was passed to lay members of the
congregation. In this way coffee came to be so associated with the act
of worship that "they never performed a religious ceremony in public and
never observed any solemn festival without taking coffee."
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Mecca became so fond of the beverage that,
disregarding its religious associations, they made of it a secular drink
to be sipped publicly in _kaveh kanes_, the first coffee houses. Here
the idle congregated to drink coffee, to play chess and other games, to
discuss the news of the day, and to amuse themselves with singing,
dancing, and music, contrary to the manners of the rigid Mahommedans,
who were very properly scandalized by such performances. In Medina and
in Cairo, too, coffee became as common a drink as in Mecca and Aden.
_The First Coffee Persecution_
At length the pious Mahommedans began to disapprove of the use of coffee
among the people. For one thing, it made common one of the best
psychology-adjuncts of their religion; also, the joy of life, that it
helped to liberate among those who frequented the coffee houses,
precipitated social, political, and religious arguments; and these
frequently developed into disturbances. Dissensions arose even among the
churchmen themselves. They divided into camps for and against coffee.
The law of the Prophet on the subject of wine was variously construed as
applying to coffee.
About this time (1511) Kair Bey was governor of Mecca for the sultan of
Egypt. He appears to have been a strict disciplinarian, but lamentably
ignorant of the actual conditions obtaining among his people. As he was
leaving the mosque one evening after prayers, he was offended by seeing
in a corner a company of coffee drinkers who were preparing to pass the
night in prayer. His first thought was that they were drinking wine; and
great was his astonishment when he learned what the liquor really was
and how common was its use throughout the city. Further investigation
convinced him that indulgence in this exhilarating drink must incline
men and women to extravagances prohibited by law, and so he determined
to suppress it. First he drove the coffee drinkers out of the mosque.
The next day, he called a council of officers of justice, lawyers,
physicians, priests, and leading citizens, to whom he declared what he
had seen the evening before at the mosque; and, "being resolved to put a
stop to the coffee-house abuses, he sought their advice upon the
subject." The chief count in the indictment was that "in these places
men and women met and played tambourines, violins, and other musical
instruments. There were also people who played chess, mankala, and other
similar games, for money; and there were many other things done contrary
to our sacred law--may God keep it from all corruption until the day
when we shall all appear before him![37]"
The lawyers agreed that the coffee houses needed reforming; but as to
the drink itself, inquiry should be made as to whether it was in any way
harmful to mind or body; for if not, it might not be sufficient to close
the places that sold it. It was suggested that the opinion of the
physicians be sought.
Two brothers, Persian physicians named Hakimani, and reputed the best in
Mecca, were summoned, although we are told they knew more about logic
than they did about physic. One of them came into the council fully
prejudiced, as he had already written a book against coffee, and filled
with concern for his profession, being fearful lest the common use of
the new drink would make serious inroads on the practise of medicine.
His brother joined with him in assuring the assembly that the plant
_bunn_, from which coffee was made, was "cold and dry" and so
unwholesome. When another physician present reminded them that
Bengiazlah, the ancient and respected contemporary of Avicenna, taught
that it was "hot and dry," they made arbitrary answer that Bengiazlah
had in mind another plant of the same name, and that anyhow, it was not
material; for, if the coffee drink disposed people to things forbidden
by religion, the safest course for Mahommedans was to look upon it as
unlawful.
The friends of coffee were covered with confusion. Only the mufti spoke
out in the meeting in its favor. Others, carried away by prejudice or
misguided zeal, affirmed that coffee clouded their senses. One man arose
and said it intoxicated like wine; which made every one laugh, since he
could hardly have been a judge of this if he had not drunk wine, which
is forbidden by the Mohammedan religion. Upon being asked whether he had
ever drunk any, he was so imprudent as to admit that he had, thereby
condemning himself out of his own mouth to the bastinado.
The mufti of Aden, being both an officer of the court and a divine,
undertook, with some heat, a defense of coffee; but he was clearly in an
unpopular minority. He was rewarded with the reproaches and affronts of
the religious zealots.
So the governor had his way, and coffee was solemnly condemned as thing
forbidden by the law; and a presentment was drawn up, signed by a
majority of those present, and dispatched post-haste by the governor to
his royal master, the sultan, at Cairo. At the same time, the governor
published an edict forbidding the sale of coffee in public or private.
The officers of justice caused all the coffee houses in Mecca to be
shut, and ordered all the coffee found there, or in the merchants'
warehouses, to be burned.
Naturally enough, being an unpopular edict, there were many evasions,
and much coffee drinking took place behind closed doors. Some of the
friends of coffee were outspoken in their opposition to the order, being
convinced that the assembly had rendered a judgment not in accordance
with the facts, and above all, contrary to the opinion of the mufti who,
in every Arab community, is looked up to as the interpreter, or
expounder, of the law. One man, caught in the act of disobedience,
besides being severely punished, was also led through the most public
streets of the city seated on an ass.
However, the triumph of the enemies of coffee was short-lived; for not
only did the sultan of Cairo disapprove the "indiscreet zeal" of the
governor of Mecca, and order the edict revoked; but he read him a severe
lesson on the subject. How dared he condemn a thing approved at Cairo,
the capital of his kingdom, where there were physicians whose opinions
carried more weight than those of Mecca, and who had found nothing
against the law in the use of coffee? The best things might be abused,
added the sultan, even the sacred waters of Zamzam, but this was no
reason for an absolute prohibition. The fountain, or well, of Zamzam,
according to the Mohammedan teaching, is the same which God caused to
spring up in the desert to comfort Hagar and Ishmael when Abraham
banished them. It is in the enclosure of the temple at Mecca; and the
Mohammedans drink of it with much show of devotion, ascribing great
virtues to it.
It is not recorded whether the misguided governor was shocked at this
seeming profanity; but it is known that he hastened to obey the orders
of his lord and master. The prohibition was recalled, and thereafter he
employed his authority only to preserve order in the coffee houses. The
friends of coffee, and the lovers of poetic justice, found satisfaction
in the governor's subsequent fate. He was exposed as "an extortioner and
a public robber," and "tortured to death," his brother killing himself
to avoid the same fate. The two Persian physicians who had played so
mean a part in the first coffee persecution, likewise came to an unhappy
end. Being discredited in Mecca they fled to Cairo, where, in an
unguarded moment, having cursed the person of Selim I, emperor of the
Turks, who had conquered Egypt, they were executed by his order.
Coffee, being thus re-established at Mecca, met with no opposition until
1524, when, because of renewed disorders, the kadi of the town closed
the coffee houses, but did not seek to interfere with coffee drinking at
home and in private. His successor, however, re-licensed them; and,
continuing on their good behavior since then, they have not been
disturbed.
In 1542 a ripple was caused by an order issued by Soliman the Great,
forbidding the use of coffee; but no one took it seriously, especially
as it soon became known that the order had been obtained "by surprise"
and at the desire of only one of the court ladies "a little too nice in
this point."
One of the most interesting facts in the history of the coffee drink is
that wherever it has been introduced it has spelled revolution. It has
been the world's most radical drink in that its function has always been
to make people think. And when the people began to think, they became
dangerous to tyrants and to foes of liberty of thought and action.
Sometimes the people became intoxicated with their new found ideas; and,
mistaking liberty for license, they ran amok, and called down upon their
heads persecutions and many petty intolerances. So history repeated
itself in Cairo, twenty-three years after the first Mecca persecution.
_Coffee's Second Religious Persecution_
Selim I, after conquering Egypt, had brought coffee to Constantinople in
1517. The drink continued its progress through Syria, and was received
in Damascus (about 1530), and in Aleppo (about 1532), without
opposition. Several coffee houses of Damascus attained wide fame, among
them the Café of the Roses, and the Café of the Gate of Salvation.
Its increasing popularity and, perhaps, the realization that the
continued spread of the beverage might lessen the demand for his
services, caused a physician of Cairo to propound (about 1523) to his
fellows this question:
What is your opinion concerning the liquor called coffee which is
drank in company, as being reckoned in the number of those we have
free leave to make use of, notwithstanding it is the cause of no
small disorders, that it flies up into the head and is very
pernicious to health? Is it permitted or forbidden?
At the end he was careful to add, as his own opinion (and without
prejudice?), that coffee was unlawful. To the credit of the physicians
of Cairo as a class, it should be recorded that they looked with
unsympathetic eyes upon this attempt on the part of one of their number
to stir up trouble for a valuable adjunct to their materia medica, and
so the effort died a-borning.
If the physicians were disposed to do nothing to stop coffee's progress,
not so the preachers. As places of resort, the coffee houses exercised
an appeal that proved stronger to the popular mind than that of the
temples of worship. This to men of sound religious training was
intolerable. The feeling against coffee smouldered for a time; but in
1534 it broke out afresh. In that year a fiery preacher in one of
Cairo's mosques so played upon the emotions of his congregation with a
preachment against coffee, claiming that it was against the law and that
those who drank it were not true Mohammedans, that upon leaving the
building a large number of his hearers, enraged, threw themselves into
the first coffee house they found in their way, burned the coffee pots
and dishes, and maltreated all the persons they found there.
Public opinion was immediately aroused; and the city was divided into
two parties; one maintaining that coffee was against the law of
Mohammed, and the other taking the contrary view. And then arose a
Solomon in the person of the chief justice, who summoned into his
presence the learned physicians for consultation. Again the medical
profession stood by its guns. The medical men pointed out to the chief
justice that the question had already been decided by their predecessors
on the side of coffee, and that the time had come to put some check "on
the furious zeal of the bigots" and the "indiscretions of ignorant
preachers." Whereupon, the wise judge caused coffee to be served to the
whole company and drank some himself. By this act he "re-united the
contending parties, and brought coffee into greater esteem than ever."
_Coffee in Constantinople_
The story of the introduction of coffee into Constantinople shows that
it experienced much the same vicissitudes that marked its advent at
Mecca and Cairo. There were the same disturbances, the same unreasoning
religious superstition, the same political hatreds, the same stupid
interference by the civil authorities; and yet, in spite of it all,
coffee attained new honors and new fame. The Oriental coffee house
reached its supreme development in Constantinople.
Although coffee had been known in Constantinople since 1517, it was not
until 1554 that the inhabitants became acquainted with that great
institution of early eastern democracy--the coffee house. In that year,
under the reign of Soliman the Great, son of Selim I, one Schemsi of
Damascus and one Hekem of Aleppo opened the first two coffee houses in
the quarter called Taktacalah. They were wonderful institutions for
those days, remarkable alike for their furnishings and their comforts,
as well as for the opportunity they afforded for social intercourse and
free discussion. Schemsi and Hekem received their guests on "very neat
couches or sofas," and the admission was the price of a dish of
coffee--about one cent.
Turks, high and low, took up the idea with avidity. Coffee houses
increased in number. The demand outstripped the supply. In the seraglio
itself special officers (_kahvedjibachi_) were commissioned to prepare
the coffee drink for the sultan. Coffee was in favor with all classes.
The Turks gave to the coffee houses the name _kahveh kanes_
(_diversoria_, Cotovicus called them); and as they grew in popularity,
they became more and more luxurious. There were lounges, richly
carpeted; and in addition to coffee, many other means of entertainment.
To these "schools of the wise" came the "young men ready to enter upon
offices of judicature; kadis from the provinces, seeking re-instatement
or new appointments; muderys, or professors; officers of the seraglio;
bashaws; and the principal lords of the port," not to mention merchants
and travelers from all parts of the then known world.
_Coffee House Persecutions_
About 1570, just when coffee seemed settled for all time in the social
scheme, the imams and dervishes raised a loud wail against it, saying
the mosques were almost empty, while the coffee houses were always full.
Then the preachers joined in the clamor, affirming it to be a greater
sin to go to a coffee house than to enter a tavern. The authorities
began an examination; and the same old debate was on. This time,
however, appeared a mufti who was unfriendly to coffee. The religious
fanatics argued that Mohammed had not even known of coffee, and so could
not have used the drink, and, therefore, it must be an abomination for
his followers to do so. Further, coffee was burned and ground to
charcoal before making a drink of it; and the _Koran_ distinctly forbade
the use of charcoal, including it among the unsanitary foods. The mufti
decided the question in favor of the zealots, and coffee was forbidden
by law.
The prohibition proved to be more honored in the breach than in the
observance. Coffee drinking continued in secret, instead of in the open.
And when, about 1580, Amurath III, at the further solicitation of the
churchmen, declared in an edict that coffee should be classed with wine,
and so prohibited in accordance with the law of the Prophet, the people
only smiled, and persisted in their secret disobedience. Already they
were beginning to think for themselves on religious as well as political
matters. The civil officers, finding it useless to try to suppress the
custom, winked at violations of the law; and, for a consideration,
permitted the sale of coffee privately, so that many Ottoman
"speak-easies" sprung up--places where coffee might be had behind shut
doors; shops where it was sold in back-rooms.
This was enough to re-establish the coffee houses by degrees. Then came
a mufti less scrupulous or more knowing than his predecessor, who
declared that coffee was not to be looked upon as coal, and that the
drink made from it was not forbidden by the law. There was a general
renewal of coffee drinking; religious devotees, preachers, lawyers, and
the mufti himself indulging in it, their example being followed by the
whole court and the city.
After this, the coffee houses provided a handsome source of revenue to
each succeeding grand vizier; and there was no further interference with
the beverage until the reign of Amurath IV, when Grand Vizier Kuprili,
during the war with Candia, decided that for political reasons, the
coffee houses should be closed. His argument was much the same as that
advanced more than a hundred years later by Charles II of England,
namely, that they were hotbeds of sedition. Kuprili was a military
dictator, with nothing of Charles's vacillating nature; and although,
like Charles, he later rescinded his edict, he enforced it, while it was
effective, in no uncertain fashion. Kuprili was no petty tyrant. For a
first violation of the order, cudgeling was the punishment; for a second
offense, the victim was sewn in a leather bag and thrown into the
Bosporus. Strangely enough, while he suppressed the coffee houses, he
permitted the taverns, that sold wine forbidden by the _Koran_, to
remain open. Perhaps he found the latter produced a less dangerous kind
of mental stimulation than that produced by coffee. Coffee, says Virey,
was too intellectual a drink for the fierce and senseless administration
of the pashas.
Even in those days it was not possible to make people good by law.
Paraphrasing the copy-book, suppressed desires will arise, though all
the world o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. An unjust law was no more
enforceable in those centuries than it is in the twentieth century. Men
are humans first, although they may become brutish when bereft of
reason. But coffee does not steal away their reason; rather, it sharpens
their reasoning faculties. As Galland has truly said: "Coffee joins men,
born for society, in a more perfect union; protestations are more
sincere in being made at a time when the mind is not clouded with fumes
and vapors, and therefore not easily forgotten, which too frequently
happens when made over a bottle."
[Illustration: CHARACTERISTIC SCENE IN A TURKISH COFFEE HOUSE OF THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY]
Despite the severe penalties staring them in the face, violations of the
law were plentiful among the people of Constantinople. Venders of the
beverage appeared in the market-places with "large copper vessels with
fire under them; and those who had a mind to drink were invited to step
into any neighboring shop where every one was welcome on such an
account."
Later, Kuprili, having assured himself that the coffee houses were no
longer a menace to his policies, permitted the free use of the beverage
that he had previously forbidden.
_Coffee and Coffee Houses in Persia_
Some writers claim for Persia the discovery of the coffee drink; but
there is no evidence to support the claim. There are, however,
sufficient facts to justify a belief that here, as in Ethiopia, coffee
has been known from time immemorial--which is a very convenient phrase.
At an early date the coffee house became an established institution in
the chief towns. The Persians appear to have used far more intelligence
than the Turks in handling the political phase of the coffee-house
question, and so it never became necessary to order them suppressed in
Persia.
The wife of Shah Abbas, observing that great numbers of people were wont
to gather and to talk politics in the leading coffee house of Ispahan,
appointed a mollah--an ecclesiastical teacher and expounder of the
law--to sit there daily to entertain the frequenters of the place with
nicely turned points of history, law, and poetry. Being a man of wisdom
and great tact, he avoided controversial questions of state; and so
politics were kept in the background. He proved a welcome visitor, and
was made much of by the guests. This example was generally followed, and
as a result disturbances were rare in the coffee houses of Ispahan.
Adam Olearius[38] (1599-1671), who was secretary to the German Embassy
that traveled in Turkey in 1633-36, tells of the great diversions made
in Persian coffee houses "by their poets and historians, who are seated
in a high chair from whence they make speeches and tell satirical
stories, playing in the meantime with a little stick and using the same
gestures as our jugglers and legerdemain men do in England."
At court conferences conspicuous among the shah's retinue were always to
be seen the "kahvedjibachi," or "coffee-pourers."
_Early Coffee Manners and Customs_
Karstens Niebuhr[39] (1733-1815), the Hanoverian traveler, furnishes the
following description of the early Arabian, Syrian, and Egyptian coffee
houses:
They are commonly large halls, having their floors spread with
mats, and illuminated at night by a multitude of lamps. Being the
only theaters for the exercise of profane eloquence, poor scholars
attend here to amuse the people. Select portions are read, _e.g._
the adventures of Rustan Sal, a Persian hero. Some aspire to the
praise of invention, and compose tales and fables. They walk up and
down as they recite, or assuming oratorial consequence, harangue
upon subjects chosen by themselves.
In one coffee house at Damascus an orator was regularly hired to
tell his stories at a fixed hour; in other cases he was more
directly dependant upon the taste of his hearers, as at the
conclusion of his discourse, whether it had consisted of literary
topics or of loose and idle tales, he looked to the audience for a
voluntary contribution.
At Aleppo, again, there was a man with a soul above the common,
who, being a person of distinction, and one that studied merely for
his own pleasure, had yet gone the round of all the coffee houses
in the city to pronounce moral harangues.
In some coffee houses there were singers and dancers, as before, and
many came to listen to the marvelous tales, of the _Thousand and One
Nights_.
In Oriental countries it was once the custom to offer a cup of "bad
coffee," i.e., coffee containing poison, to those functionaries or other
persons who had proven themselves embarrassing to the authorities.
While coffee drinking started as a private religious function, it was
not long after its introduction by the coffee houses that it became
secularized still more in the homes of the people, although for
centuries it retained a certain religious significance. Galland says
that in Constantinople, at the time of his visit to the city, there was
no house, rich or poor, Turk or Jew, Greek or Armenian, where it was not
drunk at least twice a day, and many drank it oftener, for it became a
custom in every house to offer it to all visitors; and it was considered
an incivility to refuse it. Twenty dishes a day, per person, was not an
uncommon average.
Galland observes that "as much money must be spent in the private
families of Constantinople for coffee as for wine at Paris," and relates
that it is as common for beggars to ask for money to buy coffee, as it
is in Europe to ask for money to buy wine or beer.
At this time to refuse or to neglect to give coffee to their wives was a
legitimate cause for divorce among the Turks. The men made promise when
marrying never to let their wives be without coffee. "That," says
Fulbert de Monteith, "is perhaps more prudent than to swear fidelity."
Another Arabic manuscript by Bichivili in the Bibliothéque Nationale at
Paris furnishes us with this pen picture of the coffee ceremony as
practised in Constantinople in the sixteenth century:
In all the great men's houses, there are servants whose business it
is only to take care of the coffee; and the head officer among
them, or he who has the inspection over all the rest, has an
apartment allowed him near the hall which is destined for the
reception of visitors. The Turks call this officer _Kavveghi_, that
is, Overseer or Steward of the Coffee. In the harem or ladies'
apartment in the seraglio, there are a great many such officers,
each having forty or fifty _Baltagis_ under them, who, after they
have served a certain time in these coffee-houses, are sure to be
well provided for, either by an advantageous post, or a sufficient
quantity of land. In the houses of persons of quality likewise,
there are pages, called _Itchoglans_, who receive the coffee from
the stewards, and present it to the company with surprising
dexterity and address, as soon as the master of the family makes a
sign for that purpose, which is all the language they ever speak to
them.... The coffee is served on salvers without feet, made
commonly of painted or varnished wood, and sometimes of silver.
They hold from 15 to 20 china dishes each; and such as can afford
it have these dishes half set in silver ... the dish may be easily
held with the thumb below and two fingers on the upper edge.
[Illustration: SERVING COFFEE TO A GUEST.--AFTER A DRAWING IN AN EARLY
EDITION OF "ARABIAN NIGHTS"]
In his _Relation of a Journey to Constantinople in 1657_, Nicholas
Rolamb, the Swedish traveler and envoy to the Ottoman Porte, gives us
this early glimpse of coffee in the home life of the Turks:[40]
This [coffee] is a kind of pea that grows in _Egypt_, which the
_Turks_ pound and boil in water, and take it for pleasure instead
of brandy, sipping it through the lips boiling hot, persuading
themselves that it consumes catarrhs, and prevents the rising of
vapours out of the stomach into the head. The drinking of this
coffee and smoking tobacco (for tho' the use of tobacco is
forbidden on pain of death, yet it is used in _Constantinople_ more
than any where by men as well as women, tho' secretly) makes up all
the pastime among the _Turks_, and is the only thing they treat one
another with; for which reason all people of distinction have a
particular room next their own, built on purpose for it, where
there stands a jar of coffee continually boiling.
It is curious to note that among several misconceptions that were held
by some of the peoples of the Levant was one that coffee was a promoter
of impotence, although a Persian version of the Angel Gabriel legend
says that Gabriel invented it to restore the Prophet's failing
metabolism. Often in Turkish and Arabian literature, however, we meet
with the suggestion that coffee drinking makes for sterility and
barrenness, a notion that modern medicine has exploded; for now we know
that coffee stimulates the racial instinct, for which tobacco is a
sedative.
[Illustration: THE FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO COFFEE, AS IT APPEARS IN
RAUWOLF'S WORK, 1582]
CHAPTER IV
INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO WESTERN EUROPE
_When the three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee,
came to Europe--Coffee first mentioned by Rauwolf in 1582--Early
days of coffee in Italy--How Pope Clement VIII baptized it and made
it a truly Christian beverage--The first European coffee house, in
Venice, 1645--The famous Caffè Florian--Other celebrated Venetian
coffee houses of the eighteenth century--The romantic story of
Pedrocchi, the poor lemonade-vender, who built the most beautiful
coffee house in the world_
Of the world's three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee,
cocoa was the first to be introduced into Europe, in 1528, by the
Spanish. It was nearly a century later, in 1610, that the Dutch brought
tea to Europe. Venetian traders introduced coffee into Europe in 1615.
Europe's first knowledge of coffee was brought by travelers returning
from the Far East and the Levant. Leonhard Rauwolf started on his famous
journey into the Eastern countries from Marseilles in September, 1573,
having left his home in Augsburg, the 18th of the preceding May. He
reached Aleppo in November, 1573; and returned to Augsburg, February 12,
1576. He was the first European to mention coffee; and to him also
belongs the honor of being the first to refer to the beverage in print.
Rauwolf was not only a doctor of medicine and a botanist of great
renown, but also official physician to the town of Augsburg. When he
spoke, it was as one having authority. The first printed reference to
coffee appears as _chaube_ in chapter viii of _Rauwolf's Travels_, which
deals with the manners and customs of the city of Aleppo. The exact
passage is reproduced herewith as it appears in the original German
edition of Rauwolf published at Frankfort and Lauingen in 1582-83. The
translation is as follows:
If you have a mind to eat something or to drink other liquors,
there is commonly an open shop near it, where you sit down upon the
ground or carpets and drink together. Among the rest they have a
very good drink, by them called _Chaube_ [coffee] that is almost as
black as ink, and very good in illness, chiefly that of the
stomach; of this they drink in the morning early in open places
before everybody, without any fear or regard, out of _China_ cups,
as hot as they can; they put it often to their lips but drink but
little at a time, and let it go round as they sit.
In this same water they take a fruit called _Bunnu_ which in its
bigness, shape and color is almost like unto a bayberry, with two
thin shells surrounded, which, as they informed me, are brought
from the _Indies_; but as these in themselves are, and have within
them, two yellowish grains in two distinct cells, and besides,
being they agree in their virtue, figure, looks, and name with the
_Bunchum_ of _Avicenna_, and _Bunca_, of _Rasis ad Almans_ exactly;
therefore I take them to be the same, until I am better informed by
the learned. This liquor is very common among them, wherefore there
are a great many of them that sell it, and others that sell the
berries, everywhere in their _Batzars_.
_The Early Days of Coffee in Italy_
It is not easy to determine just when the use of coffee spread from
Constantinople to the western parts of Europe; but it is more than
likely that the Venetians, because of their close proximity to, and
their great trade with, the Levant, were the first acquainted with it.
Prospero Alpini (Alpinus; 1553-1617), a learned physician and botanist
of Padua, journeyed to Egypt in 1580, and brought back news of coffee.
He was the first to print a description of the coffee plant and drink in
his treatise _The Plants of Egypt_, written in Latin, and published in
Venice, 1592. He says:
I have seen this tree at Cairo, it being the same tree that
produces the fruit, so common in Egypt, to which they give the name
_bon_ or _ban_. The Arabians and the Egyptians make a sort of
decoction of it, which they drink instead of wine; and it is sold
in all their public houses, as wine is with us. They call this
drink _caova_. The fruit of which they make it comes from "Arabia
the Happy," and the tree that I saw looks like a spindle tree, but
the leaves are thicker, tougher, and greener. The tree is never
without leaves.
Alpini makes note of the medicinal qualities attributed to the drink by
dwellers in the Orient, and many of these were soon incorporated into
Europe's materia medica.
Johann Vesling (Veslingius; 1598-1649), a German botanist and traveler,
settled in Venice, where he became known as a learned Italian physician.
He edited (1640) a new edition of Alpini's work; but earlier (1638)
published some comments on Alpini's findings, in the course of which he
distinguished certain qualities found in a drink made from the husks
(skins) of the coffee berries from those found in the liquor made from
the beans themselves, which he calls the stones of the coffee fruit. He
says:
Not only in Egypt is coffee in much request, but in almost all the
other provinces of the Turkish Empire. Whence it comes to pass that
it is dear even in the Levant and scarce among the Europeans, who
by that means are deprived of a very wholesome liquor.
From this we may conclude that coffee was not wholly unknown in Europe
at that time. Vesling adds that when he visited Cairo, he found there
two or three thousand coffee houses, and that "some did begin to put
sugar in their coffee to correct the bitterness of it, and others made
sugar-plums of the berries."
_Coffee Baptized by the Pope_
Shortly after coffee reached Rome, according to a much quoted legend, it
was again threatened with religious fanaticism, which almost caused its
excommunication from Christendom. It is related that certain priests
appealed to Pope Clement VIII (1535-1605) to have its use forbidden
among Christians, denouncing it as an invention of Satan. They claimed
that the Evil One, having forbidden his followers, the infidel Moslems,
the use of wine--no doubt because it was sanctified by Christ and used
in the Holy Communion--had given them as a substitute this hellish black
brew of his which they called coffee. For Christians to drink it was to
risk falling into a trap set by Satan for their souls.
[Illustration: AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ITALIAN COFFEE HOUSE
After Goldoni, by Zatta]
It is further related that the pope, made curious, desired to inspect
this Devil's drink, and had some brought to him. The aroma of it was so
pleasant and inviting that the pope was tempted to try a cupful. After
drinking it, he exclaimed, "Why, this Satan's drink is so delicious that
it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We
shall fool Satan by baptizing it, and making it a truly Christian
beverage."
Thus, whatever harmfulness its opponents try to attribute to coffee, the
fact remains (if we are to credit the story) that it has been baptized
and proclaimed unharmful, and a "truly Christian beverage," by his
holiness the pope.
The Venetians had further knowledge of coffee in 1585, when
Gianfrancesco Morosini, city magistrate at Constantinople, reported to
the Senate that the Turks "drink a black water as hot as they can suffer
it, which is the infusion of a bean called _cavee_, which is said to
possess the virtue of stimulating mankind."
Dr. A. Couguet, in an Italian review, asserts that Europe's first cup of
coffee was sipped in Venice, toward the close of the sixteenth century.
He is of the opinion that the first berries were imported by Mocengio,
who was called the _pevere_, because he made a huge fortune trading in
spices and other specialties of the Orient.
In 1615 Pierre (Pietro) Delia Valle (1586-1652), the well known Italian
traveler and author of _Travels in India and Persia_, wrote a letter
from Constantinople to his friend Mario Schipano at Venice:
The Turks have a drink of black color, which during the summer is
very cooling, whereas in the winter it heats and warms the body,
remaining always the same beverage and not changing its substance.
They swallow it hot as it comes from the fire and they drink it in
long draughts, not at dinner time, but as a kind of dainty and
sipped slowly while talking with one's friends. One cannot find any
meetings among them where they drink it not.... With this drink,
which they call _cahue_, they divert themselves in their
conversations.... It is made with the grain or fruit of a certain
tree called _cahue_.... When I return I will bring some with me and
I will impart the knowledge to the Italians.
[Illustration: NOBILITY IN AN EARLY VENETIAN CAFFÈ
From the Grevembroch collection in the Museo Civico]
Della Valle's countrymen, however, were in a fair way to become well
acquainted with the beverage, for already (1615) it had been introduced
into Venice. At first it was used largely for medicinal purposes; and
high prices were charged for it. Vesling says of its use in Europe as a
medicine, "the first step it made from the cabinets of the curious, as
an exotic seed, being into the apothecaries' shops as a drug."
The first coffee house in Italy is said to have been opened in 1645, but
convincing confirmation is lacking. In the beginning, the beverage was
sold with other drinks by lemonade-venders. The Italian word
_aquacedratajo_ means one who sells lemonade and similar refreshments;
also one who sells coffee, chocolate, liquor, etc. Jardin says the
beverage was in general use throughout Italy in 1645. It is certain,
however, that a coffee shop was opened in Venice in 1683 under the
_Procuratie Nuove_. The famous Caffè Florian was opened in Venice by
Floriono Francesconi in 1720.
The first authoritative treatise devoted to coffee only appeared in
1671. It was written in Latin by Antoine Faustus Nairon (1635-1707),
Maronite professor of the Chaldean and Syrian languages in the College
of Rome.
During the latter part of the seventeenth century and the first half of
the eighteenth, the coffee house made great progress in Italy. It is
interesting to note that this first European adaptation of the Oriental
coffee house was known as a _caffè_. The double _f_ is retained by the
Italians to this day, and by some writers is thought to have been taken
from _coffea_, without the double _f_ being lost, as in the case of the
French and some other Continental forms.
To Italy, then, belongs the honor of having given to the Western world
the real coffee house, although the French and Austrians greatly
improved upon it. It was not long after its beginning that nearly every
shop on the Piazza di San Marco in Venice was a _caffè_[41]. Near the
Piazza was the Caffè della Ponte dell' Angelo, where in 1792 died the
dog Tabacchio, celebrated by Vincenzo Formaleoni in a satirical eulogy
that is a parody of the oration of Ubaldo Bregolini upon the death of
Angelo Emo.
In the Caffè della Spaderia, kept by Marco Ancilloto, some radicals
proposed to open a reading-room to encourage the spread of liberal
ideas. The inquisitors sent a foot-soldier to notify the proprietor that
he should inform the first person entering the room that he was to
present himself before their tribunal. The idea was thereupon abandoned.
[Illustration: GOLDONI IN A VENETIAN CAFFÈ
From a painting by P. Longhi]
Among other celebrated coffee houses was the one called Menegazzo, from
the name of the rotund proprietor, Menico. This place was much
frequented by men of letters; and heated discussions were common there
between Angelo Maria Barbaro, Lorenzo da Ponte, and others of their
time.
The coffee house gradually became the common resort of all classes. In
the mornings came the merchants, lawyers, physicians, brokers, workers,
and wandering venders; in the afternoons, and until the late hours of
the nights, the leisure classes, including the ladies.
For the most part, the rooms of the first Italian _caffè_ were low,
simple, unadorned, without windows, and only poorly illuminated by
tremulous and uncertain lights. Within them, however, joyous throngs
passed to and fro, clad in varicolored garments, men and women chatting
in groups here and there, and always above the buzz there were to be
heard such choice bits of scandal as made worthwhile a visit to the
coffee house. Smaller rooms were devoted to gaming.
In the "little square" described by Goldoni[42] in his comedy _The
Coffee House_, where the combined barber-shop and gambling house was
located, Don Marzio, that marvelous type of slanderous old romancer, is
shown as one typical of the period, for Goldoni was a satirist. The
other characters of the play were also drawn from the types then to be
seen every day in the coffee houses on the Piazza.
In the square of St. Mark's, in the eighteenth century, under the
_Procuratie Vecchie_, were the _caffè_ Re di Francia, Abbondanza, Pitt,
l'eroe, Regina d'Ungheria, Orfeo, Redentore, Coraggio-Speranza, Arco
Celeste, and Quadri. The last-named was opened in 1775 by Giorgio Quadri
of Corfu, who served genuine Turkish coffee for the first time in
Venice.
Under the _Procuratie Nuove_ were to be found the _caffè_ Angelo
Custode, Duca di Toscana, Buon genio-Doge, Imperatore Imperatrice della
Russia, Tamerlano, Fontane di Diana, Dame Venete, Aurora Piante d'oro,
Arabo-Piastrelle, Pace, Venezia trionfante, and Florian.
Probably no coffee house in Europe has acquired so world-wide a
celebrity as that kept by Florian, the friend of Canova the sculptor,
and the trusted agent and acquaintance of hundreds of persons in and out
of the city, who found him a mine of social information and a convenient
city directory. Persons leaving Venice left their cards and itineraries
with him; and new-comers inquired at Florian's for tidings of those whom
they wished to see. "He long concentrated in himself a knowledge more
varied and multifarious than that possessed by any individual before or
since," says Hazlitt[43], who has given us this delightful pen picture
of _caffè_ life in Venice in the eighteenth century:
Venetian coffee was said to surpass all others, and the article
placed before his visitors by Florian was the best in Venice. Of
some of the establishments as they then existed, Molmenti has
supplied us with illustrations, in one of which Goldoni the
dramatist is represented as a visitor, and a female mendicant is
soliciting alms.
So cordial was the esteem of the great sculptor Canova for him,
that when Florian was overtaken by gout, he made a model of his
leg, that the poor fellow might be spared the anguish of fitting
himself with boots. The friendship had begun when Canova was
entering on his career, and he never forgot the substantial
services which had been rendered to him in the hour of need.
In later days, the Caffè Florian was under the superintendence of a
female chef, and the waitresses used, in the case of certain
visitors, to fasten a flower in the button-hole, perhaps allusively
to the name. In the Piazza itself girls would do the same thing. A
good deal of hospitality is, and has ever been, dispensed at Venice
in the cafés and restaurants, which do service for the domestic
hearth.
There were many other establishments devoted, more especially in
the latest period of Venetian independence, to the requirements of
those who desired such resorts for purposes of conversation and
gossip. These houses were frequented by various classes of
patrons--the patrician, the politician, the soldier, the artist,
the old and the young--all had their special haunts where the
company and the tariff were in accordance with the guests. The
upper circles of male society--all above the actually
poor--gravitated hither to a man.
For the Venetian of all ranks the coffee house was almost the last
place visited on departure from the city, and the first visited on
his return. His domicile was the residence of his wife and the
repository of his possessions; but only on exceptional occasions
was it the scene of domestic hospitality, and rare were the
instances when the husband and wife might be seen abroad together,
and when the former would invite the lady to enter a café or a
confectioner's shop to partake of an ice.
[Illustration: FLORIAN'S FAMOUS CAFFÈ IN THE PIAZZA DI SAN MARCO,
VENICE, NINETEENTH CENTURY]
The Caffè Florian has undergone many changes, but it still survives as
one of the favorite _caffè_ in the Piazza San Marco.
By 1775 coffee-house history had begun to repeat itself in Venice.
Charges of immorality, vice, and corruption, were preferred against the
_caffè_; and the Council of Ten in 1775, and again in 1776, directed the
Inquisitors of State to eradicate these "social cankers." However, they
survived all attempts of the reformers to suppress them.
The Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua was another of the early Italian coffee
houses that became famous. Antonio Pedrocchi (1776-1852) was a
lemonade-vender who, in the hope of attracting the gay youth, the
students of his time, bought an old house with the idea of converting
the ground floor into a series of attractive rooms. He put all his ready
money and all he could borrow into the venture, only to find there were
no cellars, indispensable for making ices and beverages on the premises,
and that the walls and floors were so old that they crumbled when
repairs were started.
He was in despair; but, nothing daunted, he decided to have a cellar
dug. What was his surprise to find the house was built over the vault
of an old church, and that the vault contained considerable treasure.
The lucky proprietor found himself free to continue his trade of
lemonade-vender and coffee-seller, or to live a life of ease. Being a
wise man, he adhered to his original plan; and soon his luxurious rooms
became the favorite rendezvous for the smart set of his day. In this
period lemonade and coffee frequently went together. The Caffè Pedrocchi
is considered one of the finest pieces of architecture erected in Italy
in the nineteenth century. It was begun in 1816, opened in 1831, and
completed in 1842.
Coffee houses were early established in other Italian cities,
particularly in Rome, Florence, and Genoa.
In 1764, _Il Caffè_, a purely philosophical and literary periodical,
made its appearance in Milan, being founded by Count Pietro Verri
(1728-97). Its chief editor was Cesare Beccaria. Its object was to
counteract the influence and superficiality of the Arcadians. It
acquired its title from the fact that Count Verri and his friends were
wont to meet at a coffee house in Milan kept by a Greek named Demetrio.
It lived only two years.
Other periodicals of the same name appeared at later periods.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER V
THE BEGINNINGS OF COFFEE IN FRANCE
_What French travelers did for coffee--The introduction of coffee
by P. de la Roque into Marseilles in 1644--The first commercial
importation of coffee from Egypt--The first French coffee
house--Failure of the attempt by physicians of Marseilles to
discredit coffee--Soliman Aga introduces coffee into
Paris--Cabarets à caffè--Celebrated works on coffee by French
writers_
We are indebted to three great French travelers for much valuable
knowledge about coffee; and these gallant gentlemen first fired the
imagination of the French people in regard to the beverage that was
destined to play so important a part in the French revolution. They are
Tavernier (1605-89), Thévenot (1633-67), and Bernier (1625-88).
Then there is Jean La Roque (1661-1745), who made a famous "Voyage to
Arabia the Happy" (_Voyage de l'Arabie Heureuse_) in 1708-13 and to
whose father, P. de la Roque, is due the honor of having brought the
first coffee into France in 1644. Also, there is Antoine Galland
(1646-1715), the French Orientalist, first translator of the _Arabian
Nights_ and antiquary to the king, who, in 1699, published an analysis
and translation from the Arabic of the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript (1587),
giving the first authentic account of the origin of coffee.
Probably the earliest reference to coffee in France is to be found in
the simple statement that Onorio Belli (Bellus), the Italian botanist
and author, in 1596 sent to Charles de l'Écluse (1526-1609), a French
physician, botanist and traveler, "seeds used by the Egyptians to make a
liquid they call _cave_.[44]"
P. de la Roque accompanied M. de la Haye, the French ambassador, to
Constantinople; and afterward traveled into the Levant. Upon his return
to Marseilles in 1644, he brought with him not only some coffee, but
"all the little implements used about it in Turkey, which were then
looked upon as great curiosities in France." There were included in the
coffee service some findjans, or china dishes, and small pieces of
muslin embroidered with gold, silver, and silk, which the Turks used as
napkins.
Jean La Roque gives credit to Jean de Thévenot for introducing coffee
privately into Paris in 1657, and for teaching the French how to use
coffee.
De Thévenot writes in this entertaining fashion concerning the use of
the drink in Turkey in the middle of the seventeenth century:
They have another drink in ordinary use. They call it _cahve_ and
take it all hours of the day. This drink is made from a berry
roasted in a pan or other utensil over the fire. They pound it into
a very fine powder.
When they wish to drink it, they take a boiler made expressly for
the purpose, which they call an _ibrik_; and having filled it with
water, they let it boil. When it boils, they add to about three
cups of water a heaping spoonful of the powder; and when it boils,
they remove it quickly from the fire, or sometimes they stir it,
otherwise it would boil over, as it rises very quickly. When it has
boiled up thus ten or twelve times, they pour it into porcelain
cups, which they place upon a platter of painted wood and bring it
to you thus boiling.
One must drink it hot, but in several instalments, otherwise it is
not good. One takes it in little swallows[45] for fear of burning
one's self--in such fashion that in a _cavekane_ (so they call the
places where it is sold ready prepared), one hears a pleasant
little musical sucking sound.... There are some who mix with it a
small quantity of cloves and cardamom seeds; others add sugar.
[Illustration: TITLE PAGE OF LA ROQUE'S WORK, 1716]
It was really out of curiosity that the people of France took to coffee,
says Jardin; "they wanted to know this Oriental beverage, so much
vaunted, although its blackness at first sight was far from attractive."
About the year 1660 several merchants of Marseilles, who had lived for a
time in the Levant and felt they were not able to do without coffee,
brought some coffee beans home with them; and later, a group of
apothecaries and other merchants brought in the first commercial
importation of coffee in bales from Egypt. The Lyons merchants soon
followed suit, and the use of coffee became general in those parts. In
1671 certain private persons opened a coffee house in Marseilles, near
the Exchange, which at once became popular with merchants and travelers.
Others started up, and all were crowded. The people did not, however,
drink any the less at home. "In fine," says La Roque, "the use of the
beverage increased so amazingly that, as was inevitable, the physicians
became alarmed, thinking it would not agree with the inhabitants of a
country hot and extremely dry."
[Illustration: THE COFFEE TREE AS PICTURED BY LA ROQUE IN HIS "VOYAGE DE
L'ARABIE HEUREUSE"]
The age-old controversy was on. Some sided with the physicians, others
opposed them, as at Mecca, Cairo, and Constantinople; only here the
argument turned mainly on the medicinal question, the Church this time
having no part in the dispute. "The lovers of coffee used the physicians
very ill when they met together, and the physicians on their side
threatened the coffee drinkers with all sorts of diseases."
[Illustration: A CLOSE-UP OF RIPE COFFEE BERRIES]
Matters came to a head in 1679, when an ingenious attempt by the
physicians of Marseilles to discredit coffee took the form of having a
young student, about to be admitted to the College of Physicians,
dispute before the magistrate in the town hall, a question proposed by
two physicians of the Faculty of Aix, as to whether coffee was or was
not prejudicial to the inhabitants of Marseilles.
The thesis recited that coffee had won the approval of all nations, had
almost wholly put down the use of wine, although it was not to be
compared even with the lees of that excellent beverage; that it was a
vile and worthless foreign novelty; that its claim to be a remedy
against distempers was ridiculous, because it was not a bean but the
fruit of a tree discovered by goats and camels; that it was hot and not
cold, as alleged; that it burned up the blood, and so induced palsies,
impotence, and leanness; "from all of which we must necessarily conclude
that coffee is hurtful to the greater part of the inhabitants of
Marseilles."
Thus did the good doctors of the Faculty of Aix set forth their
prejudices, and this was their final decision upon coffee. Many thought
they overreached themselves in their misguided zeal. They were handled
somewhat roughly in the disputation, which disclosed many false
reasonings, to say nothing of blunders as to matters of fact. The world
had already advanced too far to have another decision against coffee
count for much, and this latest effort to stop its onward march was of
even less force than the diatribes of the Mohammedan priests. The coffee
houses continued to be as much frequented as before, and the people
drank no less coffee in their homes. Indeed, the indictment proved a
boomerang, for consumption received such an impetus that the merchants
of Lyons and Marseilles, for the first time in history, began to import
green coffee from the Levant by the ship-load in order to meet the
increased demand.
Meanwhile, in 1669, Soliman Aga, the Turkish ambassador from Mohammed IV
to the court of Louis XIV, had arrived in Paris. He brought with him a
considerable quantity of coffee, and introduced the coffee drink, made
in Turkish style, to the French capital.
[Illustration: A COFFEE BRANCH WITH FLOWERS AND FRUIT AS ILLUSTRATED IN
LA ROQUE'S "VOYAGE DE L'ARABIE HEUREUSE"]
The ambassador remained in Paris only from July, 1669, to May, 1670, but
long enough firmly to establish the custom he had introduced. Two years
later, Pascal, an Armenian, opened his coffee-drinking booth at the fair
of St.-Germain, and this event marked the beginning of the Parisian
coffee houses. The story is told in detail in chapter XI.
The custom of drinking coffee having become general in the capital, as
well as in Marseilles and Lyons, the example was followed in all the
provinces. Every city soon had its coffee houses, and the beverage was
largely consumed in private homes. La Roque writes: "None, from the
meanest citizen to the persons of the highest quality, failed to use it
every morning or at least soon after dinner, it being the custom
likewise to offer it in all visits."
"The persons of highest quality" encouraged the fashion of having
_cabaréts à caffé_; and soon it was said that there could be seen in
France all that the East could furnish of magnificence in coffee houses,
"the china jars and other Indian furniture being richer and more
valuable than the gold and silver with which they were lavishly
adorned."
In 1671 there appeared in Lyons a book entitled _The Most Excellent
Virtues of the Mulberry, Called Coffee_, showing the need for an
authoritative work on the subject--a need that was ably filled that same
year and in Lyons by the publication of Philippe Sylvestre Dufour's
admirable treatise, _Concerning the Use of Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate_.
Again at Lyons, Dufour published (1684) his more complete work on _The
Manner of Making Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate_. This was followed (1715)
by the publication in Paris of Jean La Roque's _Voyage de l'Arabie
Heureuse_, containing the story of the author's journey to the court of
the king of Yemen in 1711, a description of the coffee tree and its
fruit, and a critical and historical treatise on its first use and
introduction to France.
La Roque's description of his visit to the king's gardens is interesting
because it shows the Arabs still held to the belief that coffee grew
only in Arabia. Here it is:
There was nothing remarkable in the King's Gardens, except the
great pains taken to furnish it with all the kinds of trees that
are common in the country; amongst which there were the coffee
trees, the finest that could be had. When the deputies represented
to the King how much that was contrary to the custom of the Princes
of Europe (who endeavor to stock their gardens chiefly with the
rarest and most uncommon plants that can be found) the King
returned them this answer: That he valued himself as much upon his
good taste and generosity as any Prince in Europe; the coffee tree,
he told them, was indeed common in his country, but it was not the
less dear to him upon that account; the perpetual verdure of it
pleased him extremely; and also the thoughts of its producing a
fruit which was nowhere else to be met with; and when he made a
present of that that came from his own Gardens, it was a great
satisfaction to him to be able to say that he had planted the trees
that produced it with his own hands.
The first merchant licensed to sell coffee in France was one Damame
François, a bourgeois of Paris, who secured the privilege through an
edict of 1692. He was given the sole right for ten years to sell coffees
and teas in all the provinces and towns of the kingdom, and in all
territories under the sovereignty of the king, and received also
authority to maintain a warehouse.
To Santo Domingo (1738) and other French colonies the café was soon
transported from the homeland, and thrived under special license from
the king.
In 1858 there appeared in France a leaflet-periodical, entitled _The
Café, Literary, Artistic, and Commercial_. Ch. Woinez, the editor, said
in announcing it: "The Salon stood for privilege, the Café stands for
equality." Its publication was of short duration.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VI
THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO ENGLAND
_The first printed reference to coffee in English--Early mention of
coffee by noted English travelers and writers--The Lacedæmonian
"black broth" controversy--How Conopios introduced coffee drinking
at Oxford--The first English coffee house in Oxford--Two English
botanists on coffee_
English travelers and writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
were quite as enterprising as their Continental contemporaries in
telling about the coffee bean and the coffee drink. The first printed
reference to coffee in English, however, appears as _chaoua_ in a note
by a Dutchman, Paludanus, in _Linschoten's Travels_, the title of an
English translation from the Latin of a work first published in Holland
in 1595 or 1596, the English edition appearing in London in 1598. A
reproduction made from a photograph of the original work, with the
quaint black-letter German text and the Paludanus notation in roman, is
shown herewith.
Hans Hugo (or John Huygen) Van Linschooten (1563-1611) was one of the
most intrepid of Dutch travelers. In his description of Japanese manners
and customs we find one of the earliest tea references. He says:
Their manner of eating and drinking is: everie man hath a table
alone, without table-clothes or napkins, and eateth with two pieces
of wood like the men of Chino: they drinke wine of Rice, wherewith
they drink themselves drunke, and after their meat they use a
certain drinke, which is a pot with hote water, which they drinke
as hote as ever they may indure, whether it be Winter or Summer.
Just here Bernard Ten Broeke Paludanus (1550-1633), Dutch savant and
author, professor of philosophy at the University of Leyden, himself a
traveler over the four quarters of the globe, inserts his note
containing the coffee reference. He says:
The Turks holde almost the same manner of drinking of their
_Chaona_[46], which they make of certaine fruit, which is like unto
the Bakelaer[47], and by the Egyptians called _Bon_ or _Ban_[48]:
they take of this fruite one pound and a half, and roast them a
little in the fire and then sieth them in twenty pounds of water,
till the half be consumed away: this drinke they take every morning
fasting in their chambers, out of an earthen pot, being verie hote,
as we doe here drinke _aquacomposita_[49] in the morning: and they
say that it strengtheneth and maketh them warme, breaketh wind, and
openeth any stopping.
Van Linschooten then completes his tea reference by saying:
The manner of dressing their meat is altogether contrarie unto
other nations: the aforesaid warme water is made with the powder of
a certaine hearbe called _Chaa_, which is much esteemed, and is
well accounted among them.
The _chaa_ is, of course, tea, dialect _t'eh_.
In 1599, "Sir" Antony (or Anthony) Sherley (1565-1630), a picturesque
gentleman-adventurer, the first Englishman to mention coffee drinking in
the Orient, sailed from Venice on a kind of self-appointed, informal
Persian mission, to invite the shah to ally himself with the Christian
princes against the Turks, and incidentally, to promote English trade
interests in the East. The English government knew nothing of the
arrangement, disavowed him, and forbade his return to England. However,
the expedition got to Persia; and the account of the voyage thither was
written by William Parry, one of the Sherley party, and was published in
London in 1601. It is interesting because it contains the first printed
reference to coffee in English employing the more modern form of the
word. The original reference was photographed for this work in the Worth
Library of the British Museum, and is reproduced herewith on page 39.
The passage is part of an account of the manners and customs of the
Turks (who, Parry says, are "damned infidells") in Aleppo. It reads:
They sit at their meat (which is served to them upon the ground) as
Tailers sit upon their stalls, crosse-legd; for the most part,
passing the day in banqueting and carowsing, untill they surfet,
drinking a certaine liquor, which they do call _Coffe_, which is
made of seede much like mustard seede, which will soone intoxicate
the braine like our Metheglin.[50]
Another early English reference to coffee, wherein the word is spelled
"coffa", is in Captain John Smith's book of _Travels and Adventure_,
published in 1603. He says of the Turks: "Their best drink is _coffa_ of
a graine they call _coava_."
This is the same Captain John Smith who in 1607 became the founder of
the Colony of Virginia and brought with him to America probably the
earliest knowledge of the beverage given to the new Western world.
Samuel Purchas (1527-1626), an early English collector of travels, in
_Purchas His Pilgrimes_, under the head of "Observations of William
Finch, merchant, at Socotra" (Sokotra--an island in the Indian Ocean) in
1607, says of the Arab inhabitants:
Their best entertainment is a china dish of _Coho_, a blacke
bitterish drinke, made of a berry like a bayberry, brought from
Mecca, supped off hot, good for the head and stomache.[51]
Still other early and favorite English references to coffee are those to
be found in the _Travels_ of William Biddulph. This work was published
in 1609. It is entitled _The Travels of Certayne Englishmen in Africa,
Asia, etc.... Begunne in 1600 and by some of them finished--this yeere
1608_. These references are also reproduced herewith from the
black-letter originals in the British Museum (see page 40).
Biddulph's description of the drink, and of the coffee-house customs of
the Turks, was the first detailed account to be written by an
Englishman. It also appears in _Purchas His Pilgrimes_ (1625). But, to
quote:
Their most common drinke is _Coffa_, which is a blacke kinde of
drinke, made of a kind of Pulse like Pease, called _Coaua_; which
being grownd in the Mill, and boiled in water, they drinke it as
hot as they can suffer it; which they finde to agree very well with
them against their crudities, and feeding on hearbs and rawe
meates. Other compounded drinkes they have, called _Sherbet_, made
of Water and Sugar, or Hony, with Snow therein to make it coole;
for although the Countrey bee hot, yet they keepe Snow all the
yeere long to coole their drinke. It is accounted a great curtesie
amongst them to give unto their frends when they come to visit
them, a Fin-ion or Scudella of _Coffa_, which is more holesome than
toothsome, for it causeth good concoction, and driveth away
drowsinesse.
Some of them will also drinke Bersh or Opium, which maketh them
forget themselves, and talk idely of Castles in the Ayre, as though
they saw Visions, and heard Revelations. Their _Coffa_ houses are
more common than Ale-houses in England; but they use not so much to
sit in the houses, as on benches on both sides the streets, neere
unto a Coffa house, every man with his Fin-ionful; which being
smoking hot, they use to put it to their Noses & Eares, and then
sup it off by leasure, being full of idle and Ale-house talke
whiles they are amongst themselves drinking it; if there be any
news, it is talked of there.
Among other early English references to coffee we find an interesting
one by Sir George Sandys (1577-1644), the poet, who gave a start to
classical scholarship in America by translating Ovid's _Metamorphoses_
during his pioneer days in Virginia. In 1610 he spent a year in Turkey,
Egypt, and Palestine, and records of the Turks:[52]
Although they be destitute of Taverns, yet have they their
Coffa-houses, which something resemble them. There sit they
chatting most of the day; and sippe of a drinke called Coffa (of
the berry that it is made of) in little _China_ dishes as hot as
they can suffer it: blacke as soote, and tasting not much unlike it
(why not that blacke broth which was in use amongst the
_Lacedemonians_?) which helpeth, as they say, digestion, and
procureth alacrity: many of the Coffa-men keeping beautifull boyes,
who serve as stales to procure them customers.
Edward Terry (1590-1660), an English traveler, writes, under date of
1616, that many of the best people in India who are strict in their
religion and drink no wine at all, "use a liquor more wholesome than
pleasant, they call coffee; made by a black Seed boyld in water, which
turnes it almost into the same colour, but doth very little alter the
taste of the water [!], notwithstanding it is very good to help
Digestion, to quicken the Spirits and to cleanse the Blood."
[Illustration#: FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO COFFEE IN ENGLISH, 1598
It appears as _Chaona_ (_chaoua_) in the second line of the roman text
notation by Paludanus]
In 1623, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), in his _Historia Vitae et Mortis_
says: "The Turkes use a kind of herb which they call _caphe_"; and, in
1624, in his _Sylva Sylvarum_[53] (published in 1627, after his death),
he writes:
They have in Turkey a drink called _coffa_ made of a berry of the
same name, as black as soot, and of a strong scent, but not
aromatical; which they take, beaten into powder, in water, as hot
as they can drink it: and they take it, and sit at it in their
coffa-houses, which are like our taverns. This drink comforteth the
brain and heart, and helpeth digestion. Certainly this berry coffa,
the root and leaf betel, the leaf tobacco, and the tear of poppy
(opium) of which the Turks are great takers (supposing it expelleth
all fear), do all condense the spirits, and make them strong and
aleger. But it seemeth they were taken after several manners; for
coffa and opium are taken down, tobacco but in smoke, and betel is
but champed in the mouth with a little lime.
Robert Burton (1577-1640), English philosopher and humorist, in his
_Anatomy of Melancholy_[54] writes in 1632:
The Turkes have a drinke called coffa (for they use no wine), so
named of a berry as blacke as soot and as bitter (like that blacke
drinke which was in use amongst the Lacedemonians and perhaps the
same), which they sip still of, and sup as warme as they can
suffer; they spend much time in those coffa-houses, which are
somewhat like our Ale-houses or Taverns, and there they sit,
chatting and drinking, to drive away the time, and to be merry
together, because they find, by experience, that kinde of drinke so
used, helpeth digestion and procureth alacrity.
Later English scholars, however, found sufficient evidence in the works
of Arabian authors to assure their readers that coffee sometimes breeds
melancholy, causes headache, and "maketh lean much." One of these, Dr.
Pocoke, (1659: see chapter III) stated that, "he that would drink it for
livelinesse sake, and to discusse slothfulnesse ... let him use much
sweet meates with it, and oyle of pistaccioes, and butter. Some drink it
with milk, but it is an error, and such as may bring in danger of the
leprosy." Another writer observed that any ill effects caused by coffee,
unlike those of tea, etc., ceased when its use was discontinued. In this
connection it is interesting to note that in 1785 Dr. Benjamin Mosely,
physician to the Chelsea Hospital, member of the College of Physicians,
etc., probably having in mind the popular idea that the Arabic original
of the word coffee meant force, or vigor, once expressed the hope that
the coffee drink might return to popular favor in England as "a cheap
substitute for those enervating teas and beverages which produce the
pernicious habit of dram-drinking."
About 1628, Sir Thomas Herbert (1606-1681), English traveler and writer,
records among his observations on the Persians that:
"They drink above all the rest _Coho_ or _Copha_: by Turk and Arab
called _Caphe_ and _Cahua_: a drink imitating that in the Stigian
lake, black, thick, and bitter: destrain'd from _Bunchy_, _Bunnu_,
or Bay berries; wholesome, they say, if hot, for it expels
melancholy ... but not so much regarded for those good properties,
as from a Romance that it was invented and brew'd by Gabriel ... to
restore the decayed radical Moysture of kind hearted Mahomet."[55]
In 1634, Sir Henry Blount (1602-82), sometimes referred to as "the
father of the English coffee house," made a journey on a Venetian galley
into the Levant. He was invited to drink _cauphe_ in the presence of
Amurath IV; and later, in Egypt, he tells of being served the beverage
again "in a porcelaine dish". This is how he describes the drink in
Turkey:[56]
They have another drink not good at meat, called _Cauphe_, made of
a _Berry_ as big as a small _Bean_, dried in a Furnace, and beat to
Pouder, of a Soot-colour, in taste a little bitterish, that they
seeth and drink as hot as may be endured: It is good all hours of
the day, but especially morning and evening, when to that purpose,
they entertain themselves two or three hours in _Cauphe-houses_,
which in all Turkey abound more than _Inns_ and _Ale-houses_ with
us; it is thought to be the old black broth used so much by the
_Lacedemonians_, and dryeth ill Humours in the stomach, comforteth
the Brain, never causeth Drunkenness or any other Surfeit, and is a
harmless entertainment of good Fellowship; for there upon Scaffolds
half a yard high, and covered with Mats, they sit Cross-leg'd after
the _Turkish_ manner, many times two or three hundred together,
talking, and likely with some poor musick passing up and down.
[Illustration: FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO "COFFEE" IN ENGLISH, IN ITS
MODERN FORM, 1601
Photographed from the black-letter original of W. Parry's book in the
Worth Library of the British Museum]
This reference to the Lacedæmonian black broth, first by Sandys, then
by Burton, again by Blount, and concurred in by James Howell
(1595-1666), the first historiographer royal, gave rise to considerable
controversy among Englishmen of letters in later years. It is, of
course, a gratuitous speculation. The black broth of the Lacedæmonians
was "pork, cooked in blood and seasoned with salt and vinegar.[57]"
[Illustration: REFERENCES TO COFFEE AS FOUND IN BIDDULPH'S TRAVELS 1609
From the black-letter original in the British Museum]
William Harvey (1578-1657), the famous English physician who discovered
the circulation of the blood, and his brother are reputed to have used
coffee before coffee houses came into vogue in London--this must have
been previous to 1652. "I remember", says Aubrey[58], "he was wont to
drinke coffee; which his brother Eliab did, before coffee houses were
the fashion in London." Houghton, in 1701, speaks of "the famous
inventor of the circulation of the blood, Dr. Harvey, who some say did
frequently use it."
Although it seems likely that coffee must have been introduced into
England sometime during the first quarter of the seventeenth century,
with so many writers and travelers describing it, and with so much
trading going on between the merchants of the British Isles and the
Orient, yet the first reliable record we have of its advent is to be
found in the _Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S._[59],
under "Notes of 1637", where he says:
There came in my time to the college (Baliol, Oxford) one Nathaniel
Conopios, out of Greece, from Cyrill, the Patriarch of
Constantinople, who, returning many years after was made (as I
understand) Bishop of Smyrna. He was the first I ever saw drink
coffee; which custom came not into England till thirty years
thereafter.
Evelyn should have said thirteen years after; for then it was that the
first coffee house was opened (1650).
Conopios was a native of Crete, trained in the Greek church. He became
_primore_ to Cyrill, Patriarch of Constantinople. When Cyrill was
strangled by the vizier, Conopios fled to England to avoid a like
barbarity. He came with credentials to Archbishop Laud, who allowed him
maintenance in Balliol College.
It was observed that while he continued in Balliol College he made
the drink for his own use called Coffey, and usually drank it every
morning, being the first, as the antients of that House have
informed me, that was ever drank in Oxon.[60]
[Illustration: MOL'S COFFEE HOUSE, EXETER, ENGLAND, NOW WORTH'S ART
ROOMS]
In 1640 John Parkinson (1567-1650), English botanist and herbalist,
published his _Theatrum Botanicum_[61], containing the first botanical
description of the coffee plant in English, referred to as "_Arbor Bon
cum sua Buna._ The Turkes Berry Drinke".
His work being somewhat rare, it may be of historical interest to quote
the quaint description here:
Alpinus, in his Booke of Egiptian plants, giveth us a description
of this tree, which as hee saith, hee saw in the garden of a
certain Captaine of the _Ianissaries_, which was brought out of
_Arabia felix_ and there planted as a rarity, never seene growing
in those places before.
The tree, saith _Alpinus_, is somewhat like unto the _Evonymus_
Pricketimber tree, whose leaves were thicker, harder, and greener,
and always abiding greene on the tree; the fruite is called _Buna_
and is somewhat bigger then an Hazell Nut and longer, round also,
and pointed at the end, furrowed also on both sides, yet on one
side more conspicuous than the other, that it might be parted in
two, in each side whereof lyeth a small long white kernell, flat on
that side they joyne together, covered with a yellowish skinne, of
an acid taste, and somewhat bitter withall and contained in a
thinne shell, of a darkish ash-color; with these berries generally
in _Arabia_ and _Egipt_, and in other places of the _Turkes_
Dominions, they make a decoction or drinke, which is in the stead
of Wine to them, and generally sold in all their tappe houses,
called by the name of _Caova_; _Paludanus_ saith _Chaova_, and
_Rauwolfius_ _Chaube_.
This drinke hath many good physical properties therein; for it
strengthened a week stomacke, helpeth digestion, and the tumors and
obstructions of the liver and spleene, being drunke fasting for
some time together.
In 1650, a certain Jew from Lebanon, in some accounts Jacob or Jacobs by
name, in others Jobson[62], opened "at the Angel in the parish of St.
Peter in the East", Oxford, the earliest English coffee house and "there
it [coffee] was by some who delighted in noveltie, drank". Chocolate was
also sold at this first coffee house.
Authorities differ, but the confusion as to the name of the coffee-house
keeper may have arisen from the fact that there were two--Jacobs, who
began in 1650; and another, Cirques Jobson, a Jewish Jacobite, who
followed him in 1654.
The drink at once attained great favor among the students. Soon it was
in such demand that about 1655 a society of young students encouraged
one Arthur Tillyard, "apothecary and Royalist," to sell "coffey
publickly in his house against All Soules College." It appears that a
club composed of admirers of the young Charles met at Tillyard's and
continued until after the Restoration. This Oxford Coffee Club was the
start of the Royal Society.
Jacobs removed to Old Southhampton Buildings, London, where he was in
1671.
Meanwhile, the first coffee house in London had been opened by Pasqua
Rosée in 1652; and, as the remainder of the story of coffee's rise and
fall in England centers around the coffee houses of old London, we shall
reserve it for a separate chapter.
[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH REFERENCE TO COFFEE BY SIR GEORGE SANDYS
From the seventh edition of _Sandys' Travels_, London, 1673]
Of course, the coffee-house idea, and the use of coffee in the home,
quickly spread to other cities in Great Britain; but all the coffee
houses were patterned after the London model. Mol's coffee house at
Exeter, Devonshire, which is pictured on page 41, was one of the first
coffee houses established in England, and may be regarded as typical of
those that sprang up in the provinces. It had previously been a noted
club house; and the old hall, beautifully paneled with oak, still
displays the arms of noted members. Here Sir Walter Raleigh and
congenial friends regaled themselves with smoking tobacco. This was one
of the first places where tobacco was smoked in England. It is now an
art gallery.
When the Bishop of Berytus (Beirut) was on his way to Cochin China in
1666, he reported that the Turks used coffee to correct the
indisposition caused in the stomach by the bad water. "This drink," he
says, "imitates the effect of wine ... has not an agreeable taste but
rather bitter, yet it is much used by these people for the good effects
they find therein."
In 1686, John Ray (1628-1704), one of the most celebrated of English
naturalists, published his _Universal History of Plants_, notable among
other things for being the first work of its kind to extol the virtues
of coffee in a scientific treatise.
R. Bradley, professor of botany at Cambridge, published (1714) _A Short
Historical Account of Coffee_, all trace of which appears to be lost.
Dr. James Douglas published in London (1727) his _Arbor Yemensis fructum
Cofe ferens; or, a description and History of the Coffee Tree_, in which
he laid under heavy contribution the Arabian and French writers that had
preceded him.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VII
THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO HOLLAND
_How the enterprising Dutch traders captured the first world's
market for coffee--Activities of the Netherlands East India
Company--The first coffee house at the Hague--The first public
auction at Amsterdam in 1711, when Java coffee brought forty-seven
cents a pound, green_
The Dutch had early knowledge of coffee because of their dealings with
the Orient and with the Venetians, and of their nearness to Germany,
where Rauwolf first wrote about it in 1582. They were familiar with
Alpini's writings on the subject in 1592. Paludanus, in his coffee note
on _Linschoten's Travels_, furnished further enlightenment in 1598.
The Dutch were always great merchants and shrewd traders. Being of a
practical turn of mind, they conceived an ambition to grow coffee in
their colonial possessions, so as to make their home markets
headquarters for a world's trade in the product. In considering modern
coffee-trading, the Netherlands East India Company may be said to be the
pioneer, as it established in Java one of the first experimental gardens
for coffee cultivation.
The Netherlands East India Company was formed in 1602. As early as 1614,
Dutch traders visited Aden to examine into the possibilities of coffee
and coffee-trading. In 1616 Pieter Van dan Broeck brought the first
coffee from Mocha to Holland. In 1640 a Dutch merchant, named Wurffbain,
offered for sale in Amsterdam the first commercial shipment of coffee
from Mocha. As indicating the enterprise of the Dutch, note that this
was four years before the beverage was introduced into France, and only
three years after Conopios had privately instituted the breakfast coffee
cup at Oxford.
About 1650, Varnar, the Dutch minister resident at the Ottoman Porte,
published a treatise on coffee.
When the Dutch at last drove the Portuguese out of Ceylon in 1658, they
began the cultivation of coffee there, although the plant had been
introduced into the island by the Arabs prior to the Portuguese invasion
in 1505. However, it was not until 1690 that the more systematic
cultivation of the coffee plant by the Dutch was undertaken in Ceylon.
Regular imports of coffee from Mocha to Amsterdam began in 1663. Later,
supplies began to arrive from the Malabar coast.
Pasqua Rosée, who introduced the coffee house into London in 1652, is
said to have made coffee popular as a beverage in Holland by selling it
there publicly in 1664. The first coffee house was opened in the Korten
Voorhout, the Hague, under the protection of the writer Van Essen;
others soon followed in Amsterdam and Haarlem.
At the instigation of Nicolaas Witsen, burgomaster of Amsterdam and
governor of the East India Company, Adrian Van Ommen, commander of
Malabar, sent the first Arabian coffee seedlings to Java in 1696,
recorded in the chapter on the history of coffee propagation. These were
destroyed by flood, but were followed in 1699 by a second shipment, from
which developed the coffee trade of the Netherlands East Indies, that
made Java coffee a household word in every civilized country.
A trial shipment of the coffee grown near Batavia was received at
Amsterdam in 1706, also a plant for the botanical gardens. This plant
subsequently became the progenitor of most of the coffees of the West
Indies and America.
The first Java coffee for the trade was received at Amsterdam 1711. The
shipment consisted of 894 pounds from the Jakatra plantations and from
the interior of the island. At the first public auction, this coffee
brought twenty-three and two-thirds _stuivers_ (about forty-seven cents)
per Amsterdam pound.
The Netherlands East India Company contracted with the regents of
Netherlands India for the compulsory delivery of coffee; and the natives
were enjoined to cultivate coffee, the production thus becoming a forced
industry worked by government. A "general system of cultivation" was
introduced into Java in 1832 by the government, which decreed the
employment of forced labor for different products. Coffee-growing was
the only forced industry that existed before this system of cultivation,
and it was the only government cultivation that survived the abolition
of the system in 1905-08. The last direct government interest in coffee
was closed out in 1918. From 1870 to 1874, the government plantations
yielded an average of 844,854 piculs[63] a year; from 1875 to 1878, the
average was 866,674 piculs. Between 1879 and 1883, it rose to 987,682
piculs. From 1884 to 1888, the average annual yield was only 629,942
piculs.
Holland readily adopted the coffee house; and among the earliest coffee
pictures preserved to us is one depicting a scene in a Dutch coffee
house of the seventeenth century, the work of Adriaen Van Ostade
(1610-1675), shown on page 586.
History records no intolerance of coffee in Holland. The Dutch attitude
was ever that of the constructionist. Dutch inventors and artisans gave
us many new designs in coffee mortars, coffee roasters, and coffee
serving-pots.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VIII
THE INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO GERMANY
_The contributions made by German travelers and writers to the
literature of the early history of coffee--The first coffee house
in Hamburg opened by an English merchant--Famous coffee houses of
old Berlin--The first coffee periodical, and the first
kaffee-klatsch--Frederick the Great's coffee-roasting
monopoly--Coffee persecutions--"Coffee-smellers"--The first coffee
king_
As we have already seen, Leonhard Rauwolf, in 1573, made his memorable
trip to Aleppo and, in 1582, won for Germany the honor of being the
first European country to make printed mention of the coffee drink.
Adam Olearius (or Oelschlager), a German Orientalist (1599-1671),
traveled in Persia as secretary to a German embassy in 1633-36. Upon his
return he published an account of his journeys. In it, under date of
1637, he says of the Persians:
They drink with their tobacco a certain black water, which they
call _cahwa_, made of a fruit brought out of Egypt, and which is in
colour like ordinary wheat, and in taste like Turkish wheat, and is
of the bigness of a little bean.... The Persians think it allays
the natural heat.
In 1637, Joh. Albrecht von Mandelsloh, in his _Oriental Trip_, mentions
"the black water of the Persians called _Kahwe_", saying "it must be
drunk hot."
Coffee drinking was introduced into Germany about 1670. The drink
appeared at the court of the great elector of Brandenburg in 1675.
Northern Germany got its first taste of the beverage from London, an
English merchant opening the first coffee house in Hamburg in 1679-80.
Regensburg followed in 1689; Leipsic, in 1694; Nuremberg, in 1696;
Stuttgart, in 1712; Augsburg, in 1713; and Berlin, in 1721. In that year
(1721) King Frederick William I granted a foreigner the privilege of
conducting a coffee house in Berlin free of all rental charges. It was
known as the English coffee house, as was also the first coffee house in
Hamburg. And for many years, English merchants supplied the coffees
consumed in northern Germany; while Italy supplied southern Germany.
Other well known coffee houses of old Berlin were, the Royal, in Behren
_Strasse_; that of the Widow Doebbert, in the Stechbahn; the City of
Rome, in Unter-den-Linden; Arnoldi, in Kronen _Strasse_; Miercke, in
Tauben _Strasse_, and Schmidt, in Post _Strasse_.
Later, Philipp Falck opened a Jewish coffee house in Spandauer
_Strasse_. In the time of Frederick the Great (1712-1786) there were at
least a dozen coffee houses in the metropolitan district of Berlin. In
the suburbs were many tents where coffee was served.
The first coffee periodical, _The New and Curious Coffee House_, was
issued in Leipsic in 1707 by Theophilo Georgi. The full title was _The
New and Curious Coffee House, formerly in Italy but now opened in
Germany. First water debauchery. "City of the Well." Brunnenstadt by
Lorentz Schoepffwasser_ [draw-water] 1707. The second issue gave the
name of Georgi as the real publisher. It was intended to be in the
nature of an organ for the first real German kaffee-klatsch. It was a
chronicle of the comings and goings of the savants who frequented the
"Tusculum" of a well-to-do gentleman in the outskirts of the city. At
the beginning the master of the house declared:
I know that the gentlemen here speak French, Italian and other
languages. I know also that in many coffee and tea meetings it is
considered requisite that French be spoken. May I ask, however,
that he who calls upon me should use no other language but German.
We are all Germans, we are in Germany; shall we not conduct
ourselves like true Germans?
In 1721 Leonhard Ferdinand Meisner published at Nuremberg the first
comprehensive German treatise on coffee, tea, and chocolate.
During the second half of the eighteenth century coffee entered the
homes, and began to supplant flour-soup and warm beer at breakfast
tables.
Meanwhile coffee met with some opposition in Prussia and Hanover.
Frederick the Great became annoyed when he saw how much money was paid
to foreign coffee merchants for supplies of the green bean, and tried to
restrict its use by making coffee a drink of the "quality". Soon all the
German courts had their own coffee roasters, coffee pots, and coffee
cups.
Many beautiful specimens of the finest porcelain cups and saucers made
in Meissen, and used at court fêtes of this period, survive in the
collections at the Potsdam and Berlin museums. The wealthy classes
followed suit; but when the poor grumbled because they could not afford
the luxury, and demanded their coffee, they were told in effect: "You
had better leave it alone. Anyhow, it's bad for you because it causes
sterility." Many doctors lent themselves to a campaign against coffee,
one of their favorite arguments being that women using the beverage must
forego child-bearing. Bach's _Coffee Cantata_[64] (1732) was a notable
protest in music against such libels.
On September 13, 1777, Frederick issued a coffee and beer manifesto, a
curious document, which recited:
It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee
used by my subjects, and the amount of money that goes out of the
country in consequence. Everybody is using coffee. If possible,
this must be prevented. My people must drink beer. His Majesty was
brought up on beer, and so were his ancestors, and his officers.
Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on
beer; and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers
can be depended upon to endure hardship or to beat his enemies in
case of the occurrence of another war.
[Illustration: RICHTER'S COFFEE HOUSE IN LEIPSIC--SEVENTEENTH CENTURY]
For a time beer was restored to its honored place; and coffee continued
to be a luxury afforded only by the rich. Soon a revulsion of feeling
set in; and it was found that even Prussian military rule could not
enforce coffee prohibition. Whereupon, in 1781, finding that all his
efforts to reserve the beverage for the exclusive court circles, the
nobility, and the officers of his army, were vain, the king created a
royal monopoly in coffee, and forbade its roasting except in royal
roasting establishments. At the same time, he made exceptions in the
cases of the nobility, the clergy, and government officials; but
rejected all applications for coffee-roasting licenses from the common
people. His object, plainly, was to confine the use of the drink to the
elect. To these representatives of the cream of Prussian society, the
king issued special licenses permitting them to do their own roasting.
Of course, they purchased their supplies from the government; and as the
price was enormously increased, the sales yielded Frederick a handsome
income. Incidentally, the possession of a coffee-roasting license became
a kind of badge of membership in the upper class. The poorer classes
were forced to get their coffee by stealth; and, failing this, they fell
back upon numerous barley, wheat, corn, chicory, and dried-fig
substitutes, that soon appeared in great numbers.
This singular coffee ordinance was known as the "_Déclaration du Roi
concernant la vente du café brûlé_", and was published January 21, 1781.
[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE IN GERMANY--MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY]
After placing the coffee _regie_ (revenue) in the hands of a Frenchman,
Count de Lannay, so many deputies were required to make collections that
the administration of the law became a veritable persecution. Discharged
wounded soldiers were mostly employed, and their principal duty was to
spy upon the people day and night, following the smell of roasting
coffee whenever detected, in order to seek out those who might be found
without roasting permits. The spies were given one-fourth of the fine
collected. These deputies made themselves so great a nuisance, and
became so cordially disliked, that they were called "coffee-smellers" by
the indignant people.
Taking a leaf out of Frederick's book, the elector of Cologne,
Maximilian Frederick, bishop of Münster, (Duchy of Westphalia) on
February 17, 1784, issued a manifesto which said:
To our great displeasure we have learned that in our Duchy of
Westphalia the misuse of the coffee beverage has become so extended
that to counteract the evil we command that four weeks after the
publication of this decree no one shall sell coffee roasted or not
roasted under a fine of one hundred dollars, or two years in
prison, for each offense.
Every coffee-roasting and coffee-serving place shall be closed, and
dealers and hotel-keepers are to get rid of their coffee supplies
in four weeks. It is only permitted to obtain from the outside
coffee for one's own consumption in lots of fifty pounds. House
fathers and mothers shall not allow their work people, especially
their washing and ironing women, to prepare coffee, or to allow it
in any manner under a penalty of one hundred dollars.
All officials and government employees, to avoid a penalty of one
hundred gold florins, are called upon closely to follow and to keep
a watchful eye over this decree. To the one who reports such
persons as act contrary to this decree shall be granted one-half of
the said money fine with absolute silence as to his name.
This decree was solemnly read in the pulpits, and was published besides
in the usual places and ways. There immediately followed a course of
"telling-ons", and of "coffee-smellings", that led to many bitter
enmities and caused much unhappiness in the Duchy of Westphalia.
Apparently the purpose of the archduke was to prevent persons of small
means from enjoying the drink, while those who could afford to purchase
fifty pounds at a time were to be permitted the indulgence. As was to be
expected, the scheme was a complete failure.
While the king of Prussia exploited his subjects by using the state
coffee monopoly as a means of extortion, the duke of Württemberg had a
scheme of his own. He sold to Joseph Suess-Oppenheimer, an unscrupulous
financier, the exclusive privilege of keeping coffee houses in
Württemberg. Suess-Oppenheimer in turn sold the individual coffee-house
licenses to the highest bidders, and accumulated a considerable fortune.
He was the first "coffee king."
But coffee outlived all these unjust slanders and cruel taxations of too
paternal governments, and gradually took its rightful place as one of
the favorite beverages of the German people.
[Illustration: KOLSCHITZKY, THE GREAT BROTHER-HEART, IN HIS BLUE BOTTLE
CAFÉ, VIENNA, 1683
From a lithograph after the painting by Franz Schams, entitled "Das
Erste (Kulczycki'sche) Kaffee Haus"]
CHAPTER IX
TELLING HOW COFFEE CAME TO VIENNA
_The romantic adventure of Franz George Kolschitzky, who carried "a
message to Garcia" through the enemy's lines and won for himself
the honor of being the first to teach the Viennese the art of
making coffee, to say nothing of falling heir to the supplies of
the green beans left behind by the Turks; also the gift of a house
from a grateful municipality, and a statue after
death--Affectionate regard in which "brother-heart" Kolschitzky is
held as the patron saint of the Vienna kaffee-sieder--Life in the
early Vienna cafés_
A romantic tale has been woven around the introduction of coffee into
Austria. When Vienna was besieged by the Turks in 1683, so runs the
legend, Franz George Kolschitzky, a native of Poland, formerly an
interpreter in the Turkish army, saved the city and won for himself
undying fame, with coffee as his principal reward.
It is not known whether, in the first siege of Vienna by the Turks in
1529, the invaders boiled coffee over their camp fires that surrounded
the Austrian capital; although they might have done so, as Selim I,
after conquering Egypt in 1517, had brought with him to Constantinople
large stores of coffee as part of his booty. But it is certain that when
they returned to the attack, 154 years later, they carried with them a
plentiful supply of the green beans.
Mohammed IV mobilized an army of 300,000 men and sent it forth under his
vizier, Kara Mustapha, (Kuprili's successor) to destroy Christendom and
to conquer Europe. Reaching Vienna July 7, 1683, the army quickly
invested the city and cut it off from the world. Emperor Leopold had
escaped the net and was several miles away. Nearby was the prince of
Lorraine, with an army of 33,000 Austrians, awaiting the succor promised
by John Sobieski, king of Poland, and an opportunity to relieve the
besieged capital. Count Rudiger von Starhemberg, in command of the
forces in Vienna, called for a volunteer to carry a message through the
Turkish lines to hurry along the rescue. He found him in the person of
Franz George Kolschitzky, who had lived for many years among the Turks
and knew their language and customs.
On August 13, 1683, Kolschitzky donned a Turkish uniform, passed through
the enemy's lines and reached the Emperor's army across the Danube.
Several times he made the perilous journey between the camp of the
prince of Lorraine and the garrison of the governor of Vienna. One
account says that he had to swim the four intervening arms of the Danube
each time he performed the feat. His messages did much to keep up the
morale of the city's defenders. At length King John and his army of
rescuing Poles arrived and were consolidated with the Austrians on the
summit of Mount Kahlenberg. It was one of the most dramatic moments in
history. The fate of Christian Europe hung in the balance. Everything
seemed to point to the triumph of the crescent over the cross. Once
again Kolschitzky crossed the Danube, and brought back word concerning
the signals that the prince of Lorraine and King John would give from
Mount Kahlenberg to indicate the beginning of the attack. Count
Starhemberg was to make a sortie at the same time.
[Illustration: FRANZ GEORGE KOLSCHITZKY, PATRON SAINT OF VIENNA COFFEE
LOVERS]
The battle took place September 12, and thanks to the magnificent
generalship of King John, the Turks were routed. The Poles here rendered
a never-to-be-forgotten service to all Christendom. The Turkish invaders
fled, leaving 25,000 tents, 10,000 oxen, 5,000 camels, 100,000 bushels
of grain, a great quantity of gold, and many sacks filled with
coffee--at that time unknown in Vienna. The booty was distributed; but
no one wanted the coffee. They did not know what to do with it; that is,
no one except Kolschitzky. He said, "If nobody wants those sacks, I will
take them", and every one was heartily glad to be rid of the strange
beans. But Kolschitzky knew what he was about, and he soon taught the
Viennese the art of preparing coffee. Later, he established the first
public booth where Turkish coffee was served in Vienna.
This, then, is the story of how coffee was introduced into Vienna, where
was developed that typical Vienna café which has become a model for a
large part of the world. Kolschitzky is honored in Vienna as the patron
saint of coffee houses. His followers, united in the guild of coffee
makers (_kaffee-sieder_), even erected a statue in his honor. It still
stands as part of the facade of a house where the Kolschitzygasse merges
into the Favoritengasse, as shown in the accompanying picture.
Vienna is sometimes referred to as the "mother of cafés". Café Sacher is
world-renowned. Tart à la Sacher is to be found in every cook-book. The
Viennese have their "_jause_" every afternoon. When one drinks coffee at
a Vienna café one generally has a _kipfel_ with it. This is a
crescent-shaped roll--baked for the first time in the eventful year
1683, when the Turks besieged the city. A baker made these crescent
rolls in a spirit of defiance of the Turk. Holding sword in one hand and
_kipfel_ in the other, the Viennese would show themselves on top of
their redoubts and challenge the cohorts of Mohammed IV.
Mohammed IV was deposed after losing the battle, and Kara Mustapha was
executed for leaving the stores--particularly the sacks of coffee
beans--at the gates of Vienna; but Vienna coffee and Vienna _kipfel_ are
still alive, and their appeal is not lessened by the years.
[Illustration: THE FIRST COFFEE HOUSE IN THE LEOPOLDSTADT
From a cut so titled in Bermann's _Alt und Neu Wien_]
The hero Kolschitzky was presented with a house by the grateful
municipality; and there, at the sign of the Blue Bottle, according to
one account, he continued as a coffee-house keeper for many years.[65]
This, in brief, is the story that--although not authenticated in all
its particulars--is seriously related in many books, and is firmly
believed throughout Vienna.
It seems a pity to discredit the hero of so romantic an adventure; but
the archives of Vienna throw a light upon Kolschitzky's later conduct
that tends to show that, after all, this Viennese idol's feet were of
common clay.
It is said that Kolschitzky, after receiving the sacks of green coffee
left behind by the Turks, at once began to peddle the beverage from
house to house, serving it in little cups from a wooden platter. Later
he rented a shop in Bischof-hof. Then he began to petition the municipal
council, that, in addition to the sum of 100 ducats already promised him
as further recognition of his valor, he should receive a house with good
will attached; that is, a shop in some growing business section. "His
petitions to the municipal council", writes M. Bermann[66], "are amazing
examples of measureless self-conceit and the boldest greed. He seemed
determined to get the utmost out of his own self-sacrifice. He insisted
upon the most highly deserved reward, such as the Romans bestowed upon
their Curtius, the Lacedæmonians upon their Pompilius, the Athenians
upon Seneca, with whom he modestly compared himself."
At last, he was given his choice of three houses in the Leopoldstadt,
any one of them worth from 400 to 450 gulden, in place of the money
reward, that had been fixed by a compromise agreement at 300 gulden. But
Kolschitzky was not satisfied with this; and urged that if he was to
accept a house in full payment it should be one valued at not less than
1000 gulden. Then ensued much correspondence and considerable haggling.
To put an end to the acrimonious dispute, the municipal council in 1685
directed that there should be deeded over to Kolschitzky and his wife,
Maria Ursula, without further argument, the house known at that time as
30 (now 8) Haidgasse.
It is further recorded that Kolschitzky sold the house within a year;
and, after many moves, he died of tuberculosis, February 20, 1694, aged
fifty-four years. He was courier to the emperor at the time of his
death, and was buried in the Stefansfreithof Cemetery.
[Illustration: STATUE OF KOLSCHITZKY ERECTED BY THE COFFEE MAKERS GUILD
OF VIENNA]
Kolschitzky's heirs moved the coffee house to Donaustrand, near the
wooden Schlagbrücke, later known as Ferdinand's _brücke_ (bridge). The
celebrated coffee house of Franz Mosee (d. 1860) stood on this same
spot.
In the city records for the year 1700 a house in the
Stock-im-Eisen-Platz (square) is designated by the words "_allwo das
erste kaffeegewölbe_" ("here was the first coffee house").
Unfortunately, the name of the proprietor is not given.
Many stories are told of Kolschitzky's popularity as a coffee-house
keeper. He is said to have addressed everyone as _bruderherz_
(brother-heart) and gradually he himself acquired the name _bruderherz_.
A portrait of Kolschitzky, painted about the time of his greatest vogue,
is carefully preserved by the Innung der Wiener Kaffee-sieder (the
Coffee Makers' Guild of Vienna).
Even during the lifetime of the first _kaffee-sieder_, a number of
others opened coffee houses and acquired some little fame. Early in the
eighteenth century a tourist gives us a glimpse of the progress made by
coffee drinking and by the coffee-house idea in Vienna. We read:
The city of Vienna is filled with coffee houses, where the
novelists or those who busy themselves with the newspapers delight
to meet, to read the gazettes and discuss their contents. Some of
these houses have a better reputation than others because such
_zeitungs-doctors_ (newspaper doctors--an ironical title) gather
there to pass most unhesitating judgment on the weightiest events,
and to surpass all others in their opinions concerning political
matters and considerations.
All this wins them such respect that many congregate there because
of them, and to enrich their minds with inventions and foolishness
which they immediately run through the city to bring to the ears of
the said personalities. It is impossible to believe what freedom is
permitted, in furnishing this gossip. They speak without reverence
not only of the doings of generals and ministers of state, but also
mix themselves in the life of the Kaiser (Emperor) himself.
Vienna liked the coffee house so well that by 1839 there were eighty of
them in the city proper and fifty more in the suburbs.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER X
THE COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD LONDON
_One of the most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee--The
first coffee house in London--The first coffee handbill, and the
first newspaper advertisement for coffee--Strange coffee
mixtures--Fantastic coffee claims--Coffee prices and coffee
licenses--Coffee club of the Rota--Early coffee-house manners and
customs--Coffee-house keepers' tokens--Opposition to the coffee
house--"Penny universities"--Weird coffee substitutes--The proposed
coffee-house newspaper monopoly--Evolution of the club--Decline and
fall of the coffee house--Pen pictures of coffee-house life--Famous
coffee houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--Some Old
World pleasure gardens--Locating the notable coffee houses_
The two most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee have to do
with the period of the old London and Paris coffee houses of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Much of the poetry and romance of
coffee centers around this time.
"The history of coffee houses," says D'Israeli, "ere the invention of
clubs, was that of the manners, the morals and the politics of a
people." And so the history of the London coffee houses of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is indeed the history of the
manners and customs of the English people of that period.
_The First London Coffee House_
"The first coffee house in London," says John Aubrey (1626-97), the
English antiquary and folklorist, "was in St. Michael's Alley, in
Cornhill, opposite to the church, which was sett up by one ... Bowman
(coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey merchant, who putt him upon it) in or
about the yeare 1652. 'Twas about four years before any other was sett
up, and that was by Mr. Farr. Jonathan Paynter, over-against to St.
Michael's Church, was the first apprentice to the trade, viz., to
Bowman."[67]
Another account, for which we are indebted to William Oldys (1696-1761),
the bibliographer, relates that Mr. Edwards, a London merchant, acquired
the coffee habit in Turkey, and brought home with him from Ragusa, in
Dalmatia, Pasqua Rosée, an Armenian or Greek youth, who prepared the
beverage for him. "But the novelty thereof," says Oldys, "drawing too
much company to him, he allowed the said servant with another of his
son-in-law to set up the first coffee house in London at St. Michael's
Alley, in Cornhill."
From this it would appear that Pasqua Rosée had as partner in this
enterprise, the Bowman, who, according to Aubrey, was coachman to Mr.
Hodges, the son-in-law of Mr. Edwards, and a fellow merchant traveler.
Oldys tells us that Rosée and Bowman soon separated. John Timbs
(1801-1875), another English antiquary, says they quarreled, Rosée
keeping the house, and his partner Bowman obtaining leave to pitch a
tent and to sell the drink in St. Michael's churchyard.
Still another version of this historic incident is to be found in
_Houghton's Collection_, 1698. It reads:
It appears that a Mr. Daniel Edwards, an English merchant of
Smyrna, brought with him to this country a Greek of the name of
Pasqua, in 1652, who made his coffee; this Mr. Edwards married one
Alderman Hodges's daughter, who lived in Walbrook, and set up
Pasqua for a coffee man in a shed in the churchyard in St. Michael,
Cornhill, which is now a scrivener's brave-house, when, having
great custom, the ale-sellers petitioned the Lord Mayor against him
as being no freeman. This made Alderman Hodges join his coachman,
Bowman, who was free, as Pasqua's partner; but Pasqua, for some
misdemeanor, was forced to run the country, and Bowman, by his
trade and a contribution of 1000 sixpences, turned the shed to a
house. Bowman's apprentices were first, John Painter, then Humphry,
from whose wife I had this account.
This account makes it appear that Edwards was Hodges' son-in-law.
Whatever the relationship, most authorities agree that Pasqua Rosée was
the first to sell coffee publicly, whether in a tent or shed, in London
in or about the year 1652. His original shop-bill, or handbill, the
first advertisement for coffee, is in the British Museum, and from it
the accompanying photograph was made for this work. It sets forth in
direct fashion: "The Vertue of the _COFFEE_ Drink First publiquely made
and sold in England, by _Pasqua Rosée_ ... in St. _Michaels Alley_ in
_Cornhill_ ... at the Signe of his own Head."[68]
H.R. Fox Bourne[69] (about 1870) is alone in an altogether different
version of this historic event. He says:
"In 1652 Sir Nicholas Crispe, a Levant merchant, opened in London the
first coffee house known in England, the beverage being prepared by a
Greek girl brought over for the work."
There is nothing to substantiate this story; the preponderance of
evidence is in support of the Edwards-Rosée version.
Such then was the advent of the coffee house in London, which introduced
to English-speaking people the drink of democracy. Oddly enough, coffee
and the Commonwealth came in together. The English coffee house, like
its French contemporary, was the home of liberty.
Robinson, who accepts that version of the event wherein Edwards marries
Hodges's daughter, says that after the partners Rosée and Bowman
separated, and Bowman had set up his tent opposite Rosée, a zealous
partisan addressed these verses "To Pasqua Rosée, at the Sign of his own
Head and half his Body in St. Michael's Alley, next the first
Coffee-Tent in London":
Were not the fountain of my Tears
Each day exhausted by the steam
Of your Coffee, no doubt appears
But they would swell to such a stream
As could admit of no restriction
To see, poor Pasqua, thy Affliction.
What! Pasqua, you at first did broach
This Nectar for the publick Good,
Must you call Kitt down from the Coach
To drive a Trade he understood
No more than you did then your creed,
Or he doth now to write or read?
Pull Courage, Pasqua, fear no Harms
From the besieging Foe;
Make good your Ground, stand to your Arms,
Hold out this summer, and then tho'
He'll storm, he'll not prevail--your Face[70]
Shall give the Coffee Pot the chace.
Eventually Pasqua Rosée disappeared, some say to open a coffee house on
the Continent, in Holland or Germany. Bowman, having married Alderman
Hodges's cook, and having also prevailed upon about a thousand of his
customers to lend him sixpence apiece, converted his tent into a
substantial house, and eventually took an apprentice to the trade.
Concerning London's second coffee-house keeper, James Farr, proprietor
of the Rainbow, who had as his most distinguished visitor Sir Henry
Blount, Edward Hatton[71] says:
I find it recorded that one James Farr, a barber, who kept the
coffee-house which is now the Rainbow, by the Inner Temple Gate
(one of the first in England), was in the year 1657, prosecuted by
the inquest of St Dunstan's in the West, for making and selling a
sort of liquor called coffe, as a great nuisance and prejudice to
the neighborhood, etc., and who would then have thought London
would ever have had near three thousand such nuisances, and that
coffee would have been, as now, so much drank by the best of
quality and physicians?
[Illustration: FIRST ADVERTISEMENT FOR COFFEE--1652
Handbill used by Pasqua Rosée, who opened the first coffee house in
London From the original in the British Museum]
Hatton evidently attributed Fair's nuisance to the coffee itself,
whereas the presentment[72] clearly shows it was in Farr's chimney and
not in the coffee.
Mention has already been made that Sir Henry Blount was spoken of as
"the father of English coffee houses" and his claim to this distinction
would seem to be a valid one, for his strong personality "stamped itself
upon the system." His favorite motto, "_Loquendum est cum vulgo,
sentiendum cum sapientibus_" (the crowd may talk about it; the wise
decide it), says Robinson, "expresses well their colloquial purpose, and
was natural enough on the lips of one whose experience had been world
wide." Aubrey says of Sir Henry Blount, "He is now neer or altogether
eighty yeares, his intellectuals good still and body pretty strong."
Women played a not inconspicuous part in establishing businesses for the
sale of the coffee drink in England, although the coffee houses were not
for both sexes, as in other European countries. The London City
_Quaeries_ for 1660 makes mention of "a she-coffee merchant." Mary
Stringar ran a coffee house in Little Trinity Lane in 1669; Anne Blunt
was mistress of one of the Turk's-Head houses in Cannon Street in 1672.
Mary Long was the widow of William Long, and her initials, together with
those of her husband, appear on a token issued from the Rose tavern in
Bridge Street, Covent Garden. Mary Long's token from the "Rose coffee
house by the playhouse" in Covent Garden is shown among the group of
coffee-house keepers' tokens herein illustrated.
_The First Newspaper Advertisement_
The first newspaper advertisement for coffee appeared, May 26, 1657, in
the _Publick Adviser_ of London, one of the first weekly pamphlets. The
name of this publication was erroneously given as the _Publick
Advertiser_ by an early writer on coffee, and the error has been copied
by succeeding writers. The first newspaper advertisement was contained
in the issue of the _Publick Adviser_ for the week of May 19 to May 26,
and read:
In _Bartholomew_ Lane on the back side of the Old Exchange, the
drink called _Coffee_, (which is a very wholsom and Physical drink,
having many excellent vertues, closes the Orifice of the Stomack,
fortifies the heat within, helpeth Digestion, quickneth the
Spirits, maketh the heart lightsom, is good against Eye-sores,
Coughs, or Colds, Rhumes, Consumptions, Head-ach, Dropsie, Gout,
Scurvy, Kings Evil, and many others is to be sold both in the
morning, and at three of the clock in the afternoon).
Chocolate was also advertised for sale in London this same year. The
issue of the _Publick Adviser_ for June 16, 1657, contained this
announcement:
In Bishopgate Street, in Queen's Head Alley, at a Frenchman's house
is an excellent West India drink called chocolate, to be sold,
where you may have it ready at any time, and also unmade at
reasonable rates.
Tea was first sold publicly at Garraway's (or Garway's) in 1657.
_Strange Coffee Mixtures_
The doctors were loath to let coffee escape from the mysteries of the
pharmacopoeia and become "a simple and refreshing beverage" that any
one might obtain for a penny in the coffee houses, or, if preferred,
might prepare at home. In this they were aided and abetted by many
well-meaning but misguided persons (some of them men of considerable
intelligence) who seemed possessed of the idea that the coffee drink was
an unpleasant medicine that needed something to take away its curse, or
else that it required a complex method of preparation. Witness "Judge"
Walter Rumsey's _Electuary of Cophy_, which appeared in 1657 in
connection with a curious work of his called _Organon Salutis: an
instrument to cleanse the stomach_.[73] The instrument itself was a
flexible whale-bone, two or three feet long, with a small linen or silk
button at the end, and was designed to be introduced into the stomach to
produce the effect of an emetic. The electuary of coffee was to be taken
by the patient before and after using the instrument, which the "judge"
called his _Provang_. And this was the "judge's" "new and superior way
of preparing coffee" as found in his prescription for making electuary
of cophy:
Take equal quantity of Butter and Sallet-oyle, melt them well
together, but not boyle them: Then stirre them well that they may
incorporate together: Then melt therewith three times as much
Honey, and stirre it well together: Then add thereunto powder of
Turkish Cophie, to make it a thick Electuary.
A little consideration will convince any one that the electuary was most
likely to achieve the purpose for which it was recommended.
[Illustration: THE FIRST NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT FOR COFFEE--1657]
Another concoction invented by the "judge" was known as "wash-brew",
and included oatmeal, powder of "cophie", a pint of ale or any wine,
ginger, honey, or sugar to please the taste; to these ingredients butter
might be added and any cordial powder or pleasant spice. It was to be
put into a flannel bag and "so keep it at pleasure like starch." This
was a favorite medicine among the common people of Wales.
The book contained in a prefix an interesting historical document in the
shape of a letter from James Howell (1595-1666) the writer and
historiographer, which read:
Touching coffee, I concurre with them in opinion, who hold it to be
that black-broth which was us'd of old in Lacedemon, whereof the
Poets sing; Surely it must needs be salutiferous, because so many
sagacious, and the wittiest sort of Nations use it so much; as they
who have conversed with Shashes and Turbants doe well know. But,
besides the exsiccant quality it hath to dry up the crudities of
the Stomach, as also to comfort the Brain, to fortifie the sight
with its steem, and prevent Dropsies, Gouts, the Scurvie, together
with the Spleen and Hypocondriacall windes (all which it doth
without any violance or distemper at all.) I say, besides all these
qualities, 'tis found already, that this Coffee-drink hath caused a
greater sobriety among the nations; for whereas formerly
Apprentices and Clerks with others, used to take their mornings'
draught in Ale, Beer or Wine, which by the dizziness they cause in
the Brain, make many unfit for business, they use now to play the
Good-fellows in this wakefull and civill drink: Therefore that
worthy Gentleman, Mr. Mudiford[74], who introduced the practice
hereof first to London, deserves much respect of the whole nation.
The coffee drink at one time was mixed with sugar candy, and also with
mustard. In the coffee houses, however, it was usually served black;
"few people then mixed it with either sugar or milk."
_Fantastic Coffee Claims_
One can not fail to note in connection with the introduction of coffee
into England that the beverage suffered most from the indiscretions of
its friends. On the one hand, the quacks of the medical profession
sought to claim it for their own; and, on the other, more or less
ignorant laymen attributed to the drink such virtues as its real
champions among the physicians never dreamed of. It was the favorite
pastime of its friends to exaggerate coffee's merits; and of its
enemies, to vilify its users. All this furnished good "copy" for and
against the coffee house, which became the central figure in each new
controversy.
From the early English author who damned it by calling it "more
wholesome than toothsome", to Pasqua Rosée and his contemporaries, who
urged its more fantastic claims, it was forced to make its way through a
veritable morass of misunderstanding and intolerance. No harmless drink
in history has suffered more at hands of friend and foe.
Did its friends hail it as a panacea, its enemies retorted that it was a
slow poison. In France and in England there were those who contended
that it produced melancholy, and those who argued it was a cure for the
same. Dr. Thomas Willis (1621-1673), a distinguished Oxford physician
whom Antoine Portal (1742-1832) called "one of the greatest geniuses
that ever lived", said he would sometimes send his patients to the
coffee house rather than to the apothecary's shop. An old broadside,
described later in this chapter, stressed the notion that if you "do but
this Rare ARABIAN cordial use, and thou may'st all the Doctors Slops
Refuse."
As a cure for drunkenness its "magic" power was acclaimed by its
friends, and grudgingly admitted by its foes. This will appear presently
in a description of the war of the broadsides and the pamphlets. Coffee
was praised by one writer as a deodorizer. Another (Richard Bradley), in
his treatise concerning its use with regard to the plague, said if its
qualities had been fully known in 1665, "Dr. Hodges and other learned
men of that time would have recommended it." As a matter of fact, in
Gideon Harvey's _Advice against the Plague_, published in 1665, we find,
"coffee is commended against the contagion."
This is how the drink's sobering virtue was celebrated by the author of
the _Rebellious Antidote_:
Come, Frantick Fools, leave off your Drunken fits.
Obsequious be and I'll recall your Wits,
From perfect Madness to a modest Strain
For farthings four I'll fetch you back again,
Enable all your mene with tricks of State,
Enter and sip and then attend your Fate;
Come Drunk or Sober, for a gentle Fee,
Come n'er so Mad, I'll your Physician be.
Dr. Willis, in his _Pharmaceutice Rationalis_ (1674), was one of the
first to attempt to do justice to both sides of the coffee question. At
best, he thought it a somewhat risky beverage, and its votaries must,
in some cases, be prepared to suffer languor and even paralysis; it may
attack the heart and cause tremblings in the limbs. On the other hand it
may, if judiciously used, prove a marvelous benefit; "being daily drunk
it wonderfully clears and enlightens each part of the Soul and disperses
all the clouds of every Function."
It was a long time before recognition was obtained for the truth about
the "novelty drink"; especially that, if there were any beyond purely
social virtues to be found in coffee, they were "political rather than
medical."
Dr. James Duncan, of the Faculty of Montpellier, in his book _Wholesome
Advice against the Abuse of Hot Liquors_, done into English in 1706,
found coffee no more deserving of the name of panacea than that of
poison.
George Cheyne (1671-1743), the noted British physician, proclaimed his
neutrality in the words, "I have neither great praise nor bitter blame
for the thing."
_Coffee Prices and Coffee Licenses_
Coffee, with tea and chocolate, was first mentioned in the English
Statute books in 1660, when a duty of four pence was laid upon every
gallon made and sold, "to be paid by the maker." Coffee was classed by
the House of Commons with "other outlandish drinks."
It is recorded in 1662 that "the right coffee powder" was being sold at
the Turk's Head coffee house in Exchange Alley for "4s. to 6s. 8d. per
pound; that pounded in a mortar, 2s; East India berry, 1s. 6d.; and the
right Turkie berry, well garbled [ground] at 3s. The ungarbled [in the
bean] for less with directions how to use the same." Chocolate was also
to be had at "2s. 6d. the pound; the perfumed from 4s. to 10s."
At one time coffee sold for five guineas a pound in England, and even
forty crowns (about forty-eight dollars) a pound was paid for it.
In 1663, all English coffee houses were required to be licensed; the fee
was twelve pence. Failure to obtain a license was punished by a fine of
five pounds for every month's violation of the law. The coffee houses
were under close surveillance by government officials. One of these was
Muddiman, a good scholar and an "arch rogue", who had formerly "written
for the Parliament" but who later became a paid spy. L'Estrange, who had
a patent on "the sole right of intelligence", wrote in his
_Intelligencer_ that he was alarmed at the ill effects of "the ordinary
written papers of Parliament's news ... making coffee houses and all the
popular clubs judges of those councils and deliberations which they have
nothing to do with at all."
The first royal warrant for coffee was given by Charles II to Alexander
Man, a Scotsman who had followed General Monk to London, and set up in
Whitehall. Here he advertised himself as "coffee man to Charles II."
Owing to increased taxes on tea, coffee, and newspapers, near the end of
Queen Anne's reign (1714) coffee-house keepers generally raised their
prices as follows: Coffee, two pence per dish; green tea, one and a half
pence per dish. All drams, two pence per dram. At retail, coffee was
then sold for five shillings per pound; while tea brought from twelve to
twenty-eight shillings per pound.
_Coffee Club of The Rota_
"Coffee and Commonwealth", says a pamphleteer of 1665, "came in together
for a Reformation, to make 's a free and sober nation." The writer
argues that liberty of speech should be allowed, "where men of differing
judgements croud"; and he adds, "that's a coffee-house, for where should
men discourse so free as there?" Robinson's comments are apt:
Now perhaps we do not always connect the ideas of sociableness and
freedom of discussion with the days of Puritan rule; yet it must be
admitted that something like geniality and openness characterized
what Pepys calls the Coffee Club of the Rota. This "free and open
Society of ingenious gentlemen" was founded in the year 1659 by
certain members of the Republican party, whose peculiar opinions
had been timidly expressed and not very cordially tolerated under
the Great Oliver. By the weak Government that followed, these views
were regarded with extreme dislike and with some amount of terror.
"They met", says Aubrey, who was himself of their number, "at the Turk's
Head [Miles's coffee house] in New Palace Yard, Westminster, where they
take water, at one Miles's, the next house to the staires, where was
made purposely a large ovall table, with a passage in the middle for
Miles to deliver his coffee."
Robinson continues:
This curious refreshment bar and the interest with which the
beverage itself was regarded, were quite secondary to the
excitement caused by another novelty. When, after heated
disputation, a member desired to test the opinion of the meeting,
any particular point might, by agreement, be put to the vote and
then everything depended upon "our wooden oracle," the first
balloting-box ever seen in England. Formal methods of procedure and
the intensely practical nature of the subjects discussed, combined
to give a real importance to this Amateur Parliament.
[Illustration: A COFFEE HOUSE IN THE TIME OF CHARLES II
From a wood cut of 1674]
The Rota, or Coffee Club, as Pepys called it, was essentially a debating
society for the dissemination of republican opinions. It was preceded
only, in the reign of Henry IV, by the club called La Court de Bone
Compagnie; by Sir Walter Raleigh's Friday Street, or Bread Street, club;
the club at the Mermaid tavern in Bread Street, of which Shakespeare,
Beaumont, Fletcher, Raleigh, Selden, Donne, _et al._, were members; and
"rare" Ben Jonson's Devil tavern club, between Middle Temple Gate and
Temple Bar.
The Rota derived its name from a plan, which it was designed to promote,
for changing a certain number of members of parliament annually by
rotation. It was founded by James Harrington, who had painted it in
fairest colors in his _Oceana_, that ideal commonwealth.
Sir William Petty was one of its members. Around the table, "in a room
every evening as full as it could be crammed," says Aubrey, sat Milton
(?) and Marvell, Cyriac Skinner, Harrington, Nevill, and their friends,
discussing abstract political questions.
The Rota became famous for its literary strictures. Among these was "The
censure of the Rota upon Mr. Milton's book entitled _The ready and easie
way to establish a free commonwealth_" (1660), although it is doubtful
if Milton was ever a visitor to this "bustling coffee club." The Rota
also censured "Mr. Driden's _Conquest of Granada_" (1673).
_Early Coffee-House Manners and Customs_
Among many of the early coffee-house keepers there was great anxiety
that the coffee house, open to high and low, should be conducted under
such restraints as might secure the better class of customers from
annoyance. The following set of regulations in somewhat halting rhyme
was displayed on the walls of several of the coffee houses in the
seventeenth century:
THE RULES AND ORDERS OF THE COFFEE HOUSE.
Enter, Sirs, freely, but first, if you please,
Peruse our civil orders, which are these.
First, gentry, tradesmen, all are welcome hither,
And may without affront sit down together:
Pre-eminence of place none here should mind,
But take the next fit seat that he can find:
Nor need any, if finer persons come,
Rise up to assigne to them his room;
To limit men's expence, we think not fair,
But let him forfeit twelve-pence that shall swear;
He that shall any quarrel here begin,
Shall give each man a dish t' atone the sin;
And so shall he, whose compliments extend
So far to drink in _coffee_ to his friend;
Let noise of loud disputes be quite forborne,
No maudlin lovers here in corners mourn,
But all be brisk and talk, but not too much,
On sacred things, let none presume to touch.
Nor profane Scripture, nor sawcily wrong
Affairs of state with an irreverent tongue:
Let mirth be innocent, and each man see
That all his jests without reflection be;
To keep the house more quiet and from blame,
We banish hence cards, dice, and every game;
Nor can allow of wagers, that exceed
Five shillings, which ofttimes much trouble breed;
Let all that's lost or forfeited be spent
In such good liquor as the house doth vent.
And customers endeavour, to their powers,
For to observe still, seasonable hours.
Lastly, let each man what he calls for pay,
And so you're welcome to come every day.
The early coffee houses were often up a flight of stairs, and consisted
of a single large room with "tables set apart for divers topics." There
is a reference to this in the prologue to a comedy of 1681 (quoted by
Malone):
In a coffee house just now among the rabble
I bluntly asked, which is the treason table?
This was the arrangement at Man's and others favored by the wits, the
_literati_, and "men of fashionable instincts." In the distinctly
business coffee houses separate rooms were provided at a later time for
mercantile transactions. The introduction of wooden partitions--wooden
boxes, as at a tavern--was also of somewhat later date.
A print of 1674 shows five persons of different ranks in life, one of
them smoking, sitting on chairs around a coffee-house table, on which
are small basins, or dishes, without saucers, and tobacco pipes, while a
coffee boy is serving coffee.
In the beginning, only coffee was dispensed in the English coffee
houses. Soon chocolate, sherbert, and tea were added; but the places
still maintained their status as social and temperance factors.
Constantine Jennings (or George Constantine) of the Grecian advertised
chocolate, sherbert and tea at retail in 1664-65; also free instruction
in the part of preparing these liquors. "Drams and cordial waters were
to be had only at coffee houses newly set up," says Elford the younger,
writing about 1689. "While some few places added ale and beer as early
as 1669, intoxicating liquors were not items of importance for many
years."
[Illustration: A LONDON COFFEE HOUSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
From a wood cut of the period]
After the fire of 1666, many new coffee houses were opened that were not
limited to a single room up a flight of stairs. Because the coffee-house
keepers over-emphasized the sobering qualities of the coffee drink, they
drew many undesirable characters from the taverns and ale houses after
the nine o'clock closing hour. These were hardly calculated to improve
the reputation of the coffee houses; and, indeed, the decline of the
coffee houses as a temperance institution would seem to trace back to
this attitude of false pity for the victims of tavern vices, evils that
many of the coffee houses later on embraced to their own undoing. The
early institution was unique, its distinctive features being unlike
those of any public house in England or on the Continent. Later on, in
the eighteenth century, when these distinctive features became
obscured, the name coffee house became a misnomer.
[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE, QUEEN ANNE'S TIME--1702-14
Showing coffee pots, coffee dishes, and coffee boy]
However, Robinson says, "the close intercourse between the habitués of
the coffee house, before it lost anything of its generous social
traditions and whilst the issue of the struggle for political liberty
was as yet uncertain, was to lead to something more than a mere jumbling
or huddling together of opposites. The diverse elements gradually united
in the bonds of common sympathy, or were forcibly combined by
persecution from without until there resulted a social, political and
moral force of almost irresistible strength."
_Coffee-House Keepers' Tokens_
The great London fire of 1666 destroyed some of the coffee houses; but
prominent among those that survived was the Rainbow, whose proprietor,
James Farr, issued one of the earliest coffee-house tokens, doubtless in
grateful memory of his escape. Farr's token shows an arched rainbow
emerging from the clouds of the "great fire," indicating that all was
well with him, and the Rainbow still radiant. On the reverse the medal
was inscribed, "In Fleet Street--His Half Penny."
A large number of these trade coins were put out by coffee-house keepers
and other tradesmen in the seventeenth century as evidence of an amount
due, as stated thereon, by the issuer to the holder. Tokens originated
because of the scarcity of small change. They were of brass, copper,
pewter, and even leather, gilded. They bore the name, address, and
calling of the issuer, the nominal value of the piece, and some
reference to his trade. They were readily redeemed, on presentation, at
their face value. They were passable in the immediate neighborhood,
seldom reaching farther than the next street. C.G. Williamson writes:
Tokens are essentially democratic; they would never have been
issued but for the indifference of the Government to a public need;
and in them we have a remarkable instance of a people forcing a
legislature to comply with demands at once reasonable and
imperative. Taken as a whole series, they are homely and quaint,
wanting in beauty, but not without a curious domestic art of their
own.
Robinson finds an exception to the general simplicity in the tokens
issued by one of the Exchange Alley houses. The dies of these tokens are
such as to have suggested the skilled workmanship of John Roettier. The
most ornate has the head of a Turkish sultan at that time famed for his
horrible deeds, ending in suicide; its inscription runs:
Morat ye Great Men did mee call;
Where Eare I came I conquer'd all.
A number of the most interesting coffee-house keepers' tokens in the
Beaufoy collection in the Guildhall Museum were photographed for this
work, and are shown herewith. It will be observed that many of the
traders of 1660-75 adopted as their trade sign a hand pouring coffee
from a pot, invariably of the Turkish-ewer pattern. Morat (Amurath) and
Soliman were frequent coffee-house signs in the seventeenth century.
J.H. Burn, in his _Catalogue of Traders' Tokens_, recites that in 1672
"divers persons who presumed ... to stamp, coin, exchange and distribute
farthings, halfpence and pence of brass and copper" were "taken into
custody, in order to a severe prosecution"; but upon submission, their
offenses were forgiven, and it was not until the year 1675 that the
private token ceased to pass current.
[Illustration: PLATE 1--COFFEE-HOUSE KEEPERS' TOKENS OF THE 17TH
CENTURY
Drawn for this work from the originals in the British Museum, and in the
Beaufoy collection at the Guildhall Museum]
A royal proclamation at the close of 1674 enjoined the prosecution of
any who should "utter base metals with private stamps," or "hinder the
vending of those half pence and farthings which are provided for
necessary exchange." After this, tokens were issued stamped "necessary
change."
[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1663]
_Opposition to the Coffee House_
It is easy to see why the coffee houses at once found favor among men of
intelligence in all classes. Until they came, the average Englishman had
only the tavern as a place of common resort. But here was a public house
offering a non-intoxicating beverage, and its appeal was instant and
universal. As a meeting place for the exchange of ideas it soon attained
wide popularity. But not without opposition. The publicans and ale-house
keepers, seeing business slipping away from them, made strenuous
propaganda against this new social center; and not a few attacks were
launched against the coffee drink. Between the Restoration and the year
1675, of eight tracts written upon the subject of the London coffee
houses, four have the words "character of a coffee house" as part of
their titles. The authors appear eager to impart a knowledge of the
town's latest novelty, with which many readers were unacquainted.
One of these early pamphlets (1662) was entitled _The Coffee Scuffle_,
and professed to give a dialogue between "a learned knight and a
pitifull pedagogue," and contained an amusing account of a house where
the Puritan element was still in the ascendant. A numerous company is
present, and each little group being occupied with its own subject, the
general effect is that of another Babel. While one is engaged in quoting
the classics, another confides to his neighbors how much he admires
Euclid;
A third's for a lecture, a fourth a conjecture,
A fifth for a penny in the pound.
Theology is introduced. Mask balls and plays are condemned. Others again
discuss the news, and are deep in the store of "mercuries" here to be
found. One cries up philosophy. Pedantry is rife, and for the most part
unchecked, when each 'prentice-boy "doth call for his coffee in Latin"
and all are so prompt with their learned quotations that "'t would make
a poor Vicar to tremble."
The first noteworthy effort attacking the coffee drink was a satirical
broadside that appeared in 1663. It was entitled _A Cup of Coffee: or,
Coffee in its Colours_. It said:
For men and Christians to turn Turks, and think
T'excuse the Crime because 'tis in their drink,
Is more than Magick....
Pure English Apes! Ye may, for ought I know,
Would it but mode, learn to eat Spiders too.
The writer wonders that any man should prefer coffee to canary, and
refers to the days of Beaumont, Fletcher, and Ben Jonson. He says:
They drank pure nectar as the gods drink too,
Sublim'd with rich Canary....
shall then
These less than coffee's self, these coffee-men,
These sons of nothing, that can hardly make
Their Broth, for laughing how the jest doth take;
Yet grin, and give ye for the Vine's pure Blood
A loathsome potion, not yet understood,
Syrrop of soot, or Essence of old Shooes,
Dasht with Diurnals and the Books of news?
The author of _A Cup of Coffee_, it will be seen, does not shrink from
using epithets.
[Illustration: PLATE 2--COFFEE-HOUSE KEEPERS' TOKENS OF THE 17TH
CENTURY
Drawn for this work from the originals in the British Museum, and in the
Beaufoy collection at the Guildhall Museum]
_The Coffee Man's Granado Discharged upon the Maiden's Complaint
Against Coffee_, a dialogue in verse, also appeared in 1663.
_The Character of a Coffee House, by an Eye and Ear Witness_ appeared in
1665. It was a ten-page pamphlet, and proved to be excellent propaganda
for coffee. It is so well done, and contains so much local color, that
it is reproduced here, the text Museum. The title page reads:
The
CHARACTER
OF A
COFFEE-HOUSE
wherein
Is contained a Description of the Persons
usually frequenting it, with their Discourse
and Humors,
As Also
The Admirable Vertues of
COFFEE
By an Eye and Ear Witness
_When Coffee once was vended here,
The Alc'ron shortly did appear,
For our Reformers were such Widgeons.
New Liquors brought in new Religions._
Printed in the Year, 1665.
The text and the arrangement of the body of the pamphlet are as follows:
THE
CHARACTER
OF A
COFFEE-HOUSE
THE DERIVATION OF
A COFFEE-HOUSE
A _Coffee-house_, the learned hold
It is a place where _Coffee's_ sold;
This derivation cannot fail us,
For where _Ale's_ vended, that's an _Ale-house_.
This being granted to be true,
'Tis meet that next the _Signs_ we shew
Both _where_ and _how_ to find this house
Where men such _cordial broth_ carowse.
And if _Culpepper_ woon some glory
In turning the _Dispensatory_
From _Latin_ into _English_; then
Why should not all good _English men_
Give him much thanks who shews a _cure_
For all diseases men endure?
SIGNS: HOW TO
FIND IT OUT
As you along the streets do trudge,
To take the pains you must not grudge,
To view the Posts or Broomsticks where
The Signs of _Liquors_ hanged are.
And if you see the great _Morat_
With Shash on's head instead of hat,
Or any _Sultan_ in his dress,
Or picture of a _Sultaness_,
Or _John's_ admir'd curled pate,
Or th' great _Mogul_ in's Chair of State,
Or _Constantine_ the _Grecian_,
Who fourteen years was th' onely man
That made _Coffee_ for th' great _Bashaw_,
Although the man he never saw;
Or if you see a _Coffee_-cup
Fil'd from a Turkish pot, hung up
Within the clouds, and round it _Pipes_,
_Wax Candles_, _Stoppers_, these are types
And certain signs (with many more
Would be too long to write them 'ore,)
Which plainly do Spectators tell
That in that house they _Coffee_ sell.
Some wiser than the rest (no doubt,)
Say they can by the smell find't out;
In at a door (say they,) but thrust
Your Nose, and if you scent _burnt Crust_,
Be sure there's _Coffee_ sold that's good,
For so by most 'tis understood.
Now being enter'd, there's no needing
Of complements or gentile breeding,
For you may seat you any where,
There's no respect of persons there;
Then comes the _Coffee-man_ to greet you,
With welcome Sir, let me entreat you,
To tell me what you'l please to have,
For I'm your humble, humble slave;
But if you ask, what good does Coffee?
He'l answer, Sir, don't think I scoff yee,
If I affirm there's no disease
Men have that drink it but find ease.
THE VERTUES
OF COFFEE
Look, there's a man who takes the steem
In at his Nose, has an extreme
_Worm_ in his pate, and giddiness,
Ask him and he will say no less.
There sitteth one whose Droptick belly
Was hard as flint, now's soft as jelly.
There stands another holds his head
'Ore th' _Coffee_-pot, was almost dead
Even now with Rhume; ask him hee'l say
That all his Rhum's now past away.
See, there's a man sits now demure
And sober, was within this hour
Quite drunk, and comes here frequently,
For 'tis his daily Malady,
More, it has such reviving power
'Twill keep a man awake an houre,
Nay, make his eyes wide open stare
Both Sermon time and all the prayer.
Sir, should I tell you all the rest
O' th' cures 't has done, two hours at least
In numb'ring them I needs must spend,
Scarce able then to make an end.
Besides these vertues that's therein.
For any kind of _Medicine_,
The _Commonwealth-Kingdom_ I'd say,
Has mighty reason for to pray
That still _Arabia_ may produce
Enough of Berry for it's use:
For't has such strange magnetick force,
That it draws after't great concourse
Of all degrees of persons, even
From high to low, from morn till even;
Especially the _sober Party_,
And News-mongers do drink't most hearty
Here you'r not thrust into a _Box_
As _Taverns_ do to catch the _Fox_,
But as from th' top of _Pauls_ high steeple,
Th' whole _City's_ view'd, even so all _people_
May here be seen; no secrets are
At th' _Court_ for _Peace_, or th' _Camp_ for _War_,
But straight they'r here disclos'd and known;
Men in this Age so wise are grown.
Now (Sir) what profit may accrew
By this, to all good men, judge you.
With that he's loudly call'd upon
For _Coffee_, and then whip he's gone.
THE COMPANY
Here at a Table sits (perplext)
A griping _Usurer_, and next
To him a gallant _Furioso_,
Then nigh to him a _Virtuoso_;
A _Player_ then (full fine) sits down,
And close to him a _Country Clown_.
O' th' other side sits some _Pragmatick_,
And next to him some sly _Phanatick_.
THE SEVERAL
LIQUORS
The gallant he for _Tea_ doth call,
The _Usurer_ for nought at all.
The _Pragmatick_ he doth intreat
That they will fill him some _Beau-cheat_,
The _Virtuoso_ he cries hand me
Some _Coffee_ mixt with _Sugar-candy_.
_Phanaticus_ (at last) says come,
Bring me some _Aromaticum_.
The _Player_ bawls for _Chocolate_,
All which the _Bumpkin_ wond'ring at,
Cries, ho, my _Masters_, what d' ye speak,
D' ye call for drink in Heathen Greek?
Give me some good old _Ale_ or _Beer_,
Or else I will not drink, I swear.
Then having charg'd their _Pipes_ around.
THEIR DISCOURSE
They silence break; First the profound
And sage _Phanatique_, Sirs what news?
Troth says the _Us'rer_ I ne'r use
To tip my tongue with such discourse,
'Twere news to know how to disburse
A summ of mony (makes me sad)
To get ought by't, times are so bad.
The other answers, truly Sir
You speak but truth, for I'le aver
They ne'r were worse; did you not hear
What _prodigies_ did late appear
At _Norwich, Ipswich, Grantham, Gotam_?
And though prophane ones do not not'em,
Yet we--Here th' _Virtuoso_ stops
The current of his speech, with hopes
Quoth he, you will not tak'd amiss,
I say all's lies that's news like this,
For I have Factors all about
The Realm, so that no _Stars_ peep out
That are unusual, much less these
Strange and unheard-of _prodigies_
You would relate, but they are tost
To me in letters by first Post.
At which the _Furioso_ swears
Such chat as this offends his ears
It rather doth become this Age
To talk of bloodshed, fury, rage,
And t' drink stout healths in brim-fill'd _Nogans_.
To th' downfall of the _Hogan Mogans_.
With that the _Player_ doffs his Bonnet,
And tunes his voice as if a Sonnet
Were to be sung; then gently says,
O what delight there is in _Plays_!
Sure if we were but all in _Peace_,
This noise of _Wars_ and _News_ would cease;
All sorts of people then would club
Their pence to see a Play that's good.
You'l wonder all this while (perhaps)
The _Curioso_ holds his chaps.
But he doth in his thoughts devise,
How to the rest he may seem wise;
Yet able longer not to hold,
His tedious tale too must be told,
And thus begins, Sirs unto me
It reason seems that liberty
Of speech and words should be allow'd
Where men of differing judgements croud,
And that's a _Coffee-house_, for where
Should men discourse so free as there?
_Coffee_ and _Commonwealth_ begin
Both with one letter, both came in
Together for a _Reformation_,
To make's a free and sober _Nation_.
But now--With that _Phanaticus_
Gives him a nod, and speaks him thus,
Hold brother, I know your intent,
That's no dispute convenient
For this same place, truths seldome find
Acceptance here, they'r more confin'd
To _Taverns_ and to _Ale-house_ liquor,
Where men do vent their minds more quicker
If that may for a truth but pass
What's said, _In vino veritas_.
With that up starts the _Country Clown_,
And stares about with threatening frown.
As if he would even eat them all up.
Then bids the boy run quick and call up,
A _Constable_, for he has reason
To fear their Latin may be _treason_
But straight they all call what's to pay,
Lay't down, and march each several way.
THE COMPANY
At th' other table sits a Knight,
And here _a grave old man_ ore right
Against his _worship_, then perhaps
That _by_ and _by_ a _Drawer_ claps
His bum close by them, there down squats
_A dealer in old shoes and hats_;
And here withouten any panick
Fear, dread or care a bold _Mechanick_.
HEIR DISCOURSE
The _Knight_ (because he's so) he prates
Of matters far beyond their pates.
_The grave old man_ he makes a bustle,
And his wise sentence in must justle.
Up starts th' _Apprentice boy_ and he
Says boldly so and so't must be.
_The dealer in old shoes to_ utter
His saying too makes no small sputter.
Then comes the pert _mechanick blade_,
And contradicts what all have said.
* * * * *
There by the fier-side doth sit,
One freezing in an _Ague_ fit.
Another poking in't with th' tongs,
Still ready to cough up his lungs
Here sitteth one that's melancolick,
And there one singing in a frolick.
Each one hath such a prety gesture,
At Smithfield fair would yield a tester.
Boy reach a pipe cries he that shakes,
The songster no Tobacco takes,
Says he who coughs, nor do I smoak,
Then _Monsieur Mopus_ turns his cloak
Off from his face, and with a grave
Majestick beck his pipe doth crave.
They load their guns and fall a smoaking
Whilst he who coughs sits by a choaking,
Till he no longer can abide.
And so removes from th' fier side.
Now all this while none calls to drink,
Which makes the _Coffee boy_ to think
Much they his pots should so enclose,
He cannot pass but tread on toes.
With that as he the _Nectar_ fills
From pot to pot, some on't he spills
Upon the _Songster_. Oh cries he.
Pox, what dost do? thou'st burnt my knee;
No says the boy, (to make a bald
And blind excuse.) _Sir 'twill not scald_.
With that the man lends him a cuff
O' th' ear, and whips away in snuff.
The other two, their pipes being out,
Says _Monsieur Mopus_ I much doubt
My friend I wait for will not come,
But if he do, say I'm gone home.
Then says the _Aguish man_ I must come
According to my wonted custome,
To give ye' a visit, although now
I dare not drink, and so _adieu_.
The boy replies, O Sir, however
You'r very welcome, we do never
Our _Candles_, _Pipes_ or _Fier_ grutch
To daily customers and such,
They'r _Company_ (without expence,)
For that's sufficient recompence.
Here at a table all alone,
Sits (studying) _a spruce youngster_, (one
Who doth conceipt himself fully witty,
And's counted _one o' th' wits o' th' City_,)
Till by him (with a stately grace,)
A Spanish _Don_ himself doth place.
Then (cap in hand) a brisk _Monsieur_
He takes his seat, and crowds as near
As possibly that he can come.
Then next a _Dutchman_ takes his room.
The Wits glib tongue begins to chatter,
Though't utters more of noise than matter,
Yet 'cause they seem to mind his words,
His lungs more battle still affords
At last says he to _Don_, I trow
You understand me? _Sennor no_
Says th' other. Here the Wit doth pause
A little while, then opes his jaws,
And says to _Monsieur_, you enjoy
Our tongue I hope? _Non par ma foy_,
Replies the _Frenchman_: nor you, Sir?
Says he to th' _Dutchman, Neen mynheer_,
With that he's gone, and cries, why sho'd
He stay where _wit's_ not understood?
There in a place of his own chusing
(Alone) some _lover_ sits a musing,
With arms across, and's eyes up lift,
As if he were of sence bereft.
Till sometimes to himself he's speaking,
Then sighs as if his heart were breaking.
Here in a corner sits a _Phrantick_,
And there stands by a frisking Antick,
Of all sorts some and all conditions
Even _Vintners_, _Surgeons_ and _Physicians_.
The _blind_, the _deaf_, and _aged cripple_
Do here resort and Coffee tipple.
Now here (perhaps) you may expect
My _Muse_ some trophies should erect
In high flown verse, for to set forth
The _noble praises_ of its _worth_.
Truth is, _old Poets_ beat their brains
To find out high and lofty strains
To praise the (now too frequent) use
Of the bewitching _grapes strong juice_,
Some have strain'd hard for to exalt
The _liquor_ of our _English Mault_
Nay _Don_ has almost crackt his _nodle_
Enough t'applaud his _Caaco Caudle_.
The _Germans Mum_, _Teag's Usquebagh_,
(Made him so well defend _Tredagh_,)
_Metheglin_, which the _Brittains_ tope,
Hot _Brandy_ wine, the _Hogans_ hope.
Stout _Meade_ which makes the _Russ_ to laugh,
Spic'd _Punch_ (in bowls) the _Indians quaff_.
All these have had their pens to raise
Them _Monuments_ of lasting praise,
Onely poor _Coffee_ seems to me
No subject fit for _Poetry_
At least 'tis one that none of mine is,
So I do wave 't, and here write--
FINIS.
[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1667]
_News from the Coffe House; in which is shewn their several sorts of
Passions_ appeared in 1667. It was reprinted in 1672 as _The Coffee
House or News-mongers' Hall_.
Several stanzas from these broadsides have been much quoted. They serve
to throw additional light upon the manners of the time, and upon the
kind of conversation met with in any well frequented coffee house of the
seventeenth century, particularly under the Stuarts. They are finely
descriptive of the company characteristics of the early coffee houses.
The fifth stanza of the edition of 1667, inimical to the French, was
omitted when the broadside was amended and reprinted in 1672, the year
that England joined with France and again declared war on the Dutch. The
following verses with explanatory notes are from Timbs:
NEWS FROM THE COFFE HOUSE
You that delight in Wit and Mirth,
And long to hear such News,
As comes from all Parts of the _Earth_,
_Dutch_, _Danes_, and _Turks_, and _Jews_,
I'le send yee to a Rendezvouz,
Where it is smoaking new;
Go hear it at a _Coffe-house_,
_It cannot but be true_.
There Battles and Sea-Fights are Fought,
And bloudy Plots display'd;
They know more Things then ere was thought
Or ever was betray'd:
No Money in the Minting-house
Is halfe so Bright and New;
And comming from a _Coffe-house_
_It cannot but be true_.
Before the _Navyes_ fall to Work,
They know who shall be Winner;
They there can tell ye what the _Turk_
Last _Sunday_ had to Dinner;
Who last did Cut _Du Ruitters_[75] Corns,
Amongst his jovial Crew;
Or Who first gave the _Devil_ Horns,
_Which cannot but be true_.
A _Fisherman_ did boldly tell,
And strongly did avouch,
He Caught a Shoal of Mackarel,
That Parley'd all in _Dutch_,
And cry'd out _Yaw, yaw, yaw Myne Here_;
But as the Draught they Drew
They Stunck for fear, that _Monck[76] was there_,
_Which cannot but be true_.
* * * * *
There's nothing done in all the World,
From _Monarch_ to the _Mouse_
But every Day or Night 'tis hurld
Into the _Coffe-house_.
What _Lillie_[77] or what _Booker_[78] can
By Art, not bring about,
At _Coffe-house_ you'l find a Man,
_Can quickly find it out_.
They know who shall in Times to come,
Be either made, or undone,
From great _St. Peters street_ in _Rome_,
To _Turnbull-street_[79] in _London_;
* * * * *
They know all that is Good, or Hurt,
To Dam ye, or to Save ye;
There is the _Colledge_, and the _Court_,
The _Country_, _Camp_ and _Navie_;
So great a _Universitie_,
I think there ne're was any;
In which you may a Schoolar be
For spending of a Penny.
* * * * *
Here Men do talk of every Thing,
With large and liberal Lungs,
Like Women at a Gossiping,
With double tyre of Tongues;
They'l give a Broad-side presently,
Soon as you are in view,
With Stories that, you'l wonder at,
Which they will swear are true.
The Drinking there of _Chockalat_,
Can make a _Fool_ a _Sophie_:
'Tis thought the _Turkish Mahomet_
Was first Inspir'd with _Coffe_,
By which his Powers did Over-flow
The Land of _Palestine_:
Then let us to, the _Coffe-house_ go,
'Tis Cheaper farr then Wine.
You shall know there, what Fashions are;
How Perrywiggs are Curl'd;
And for a Penny you shall heare,
All Novells in the World.
Both Old and Young, and Great and Small,
And Rich, and Poore, you'l see;
Therefore let's to the _Coffe_ All,
Come All away with Mee.
FINIS.
Robert Morton made a contribution to the controversy in _Lines Appended
to the Nature, Quality and Most Excellent Vertues of Coffee_ in 1670.
There was published in 1672 _A Broad-side Against Coffee, or the
Marriage of the Turk_, verses that attained considerable fame because of
their picturesque invective. They also stressed the fact that Pasqua
Rosées partner was a coachman, and imitated the broken English of the
Ragusan youth:
A BROAD-SIDE AGAINST COFFEE;
OR, THE
MARRIAGE OF THE TURK
_Coffee_, a kind of _Turkish Renegade_,
Has late a match with _Christian water_ made;
At first between them happen'd a Demur,
Yet joyn'd they were, but not without great _stir_;
* * * * *
_Coffee_ was cold as _Earth, Water_ as _Thames_,
And stood in need of recommending Flames;
* * * * *
_Coffee_ so brown as berry does appear,
Too swarthy for a Nymph so fair, so clear:
* * * * *
A Coachman was the first (here) _Coffee_ made,
And ever since the rest _drive on_ the trade;
_Me no good Engalash_! and sure enough,
He plaid the Quack to salve his Stygian stuff;
_Ver boon for de stomach, de Cough, de Ptisick_
And I believe him, for it looks like Physick.
_Coffee_ a crust is charkt into a coal,
The smell and taste of the Mock _China_ bowl;
Where huff and puff, they labour out their lungs,
Lest _Dives_-like they should bewail their tongues.
And yet they tell ye that it will not burn,
Though on the Jury Blisters you return;
Whose furious heat does make the water rise,
And still through the Alembicks of your eyes.
Dread and desire, ye fall to't snap by snap,
As hungry Dogs do scalding porrige lap,
But to cure Drunkards it has got great Fame;
_Posset_ or _Porrige_, will't not do the same?
Confusion huddles all into one Scene,
Like _Noah's_ Ark, the clean and the unclean.
But now, alas! the Drench has credit got,
And he's no Gentleman that drinks it not;
That such a _Dwarf_ should rise to such a stature!
But Custom is but a remove from Nature.
A _little_ Dish, and a _large_ Coffee-house,
What is it, but a _Mountain_ and a _Mouse_?
* * * * *
_Mens humana novitatis avidissima._
[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1670]
And so it came to pass that coffee history repeated itself in England.
Many good people became convinced that coffee was a dangerous drink. The
tirades against the beverage in that far-off time sound not unlike the
advertising patter employed by some of our present-day coffee-substitute
manufacturers. It was even ridiculed by being referred to as "ninny
broth" and "Turkey gruel."
[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1672]
_A brief description of the excellent vertues of that sober and
wholesome drink called coffee_ appeared in 1674 and proved an able and
dignified answer to the attacks that had preceded it. That same year,
for the first time in history, the sexes divided in a coffee
controversy, and there was issued _The Women's Petition against Coffee,
representing to public consideration the grand inconveniences accruing
to their sex from the excessive use of the drying and enfeebling
Liquor_, in which the ladies, who had not been accorded the freedom of
the coffee houses in England, as was the custom in France, Germany,
Italy, and other countries on the Continent, complained that coffee made
men as "unfruitful as the deserts where that unhappy berry is said to be
bought." Besides the more serious complaint that the whole race was in
danger of extinction, it was urged that "on a domestic message a husband
would stop by the way to drink a couple of cups of coffee."
This pamphlet is believed to have precipitated the attempt at
suppression by the crown the following year, despite the prompt
appearing, in 1674, of _The Men's Answer to the Women's Petition Against
Coffee, vindicating ... their liquor, from the undeserved aspersion
lately cast upon them, in their scandalous pamphlet_.
The 1674 broadside in defense of coffee was the first to be illustrated;
and for all its air of pretentious grandeur and occasional bathos, it
was not a bad rhyming advertisement for the persecuted drink. It was
printed for Paul Greenwood and sold "at the sign of the coffee mill and
tobacco-roll in Cloath-fair near West-Smithfield, who selleth the best
Arabian coffee powder and chocolate in cake or roll, after the Spanish
fashion, etc." The following extracts will serve to illustrate its epic
character:
When the sweet Poison of the Treacherous Grape,
Had Acted on the world a General Rape;
Drowning our very Reason and our Souls
In such deep Seas of large o'reflowing Bowls.
* * * * *
When Foggy Ale, leavying up mighty Trains
Of muddy Vapours, had besieg'd our Brains;
* * * * *
Then Heaven in Pity, to Effect our Cure.
* * * * *
First sent amongst us this _All-healing-Berry_,
At once to make us both _Sober_ and _Merry_.
_Arabian_ Coffee, a Rich Cordial
To Purse and Person Beneficial,
Which of so many Vertues doth partake,
Its Country's called Felix for its sake.
From the Rich Chambers of the Rising Sun,
Where Arts, and all good Fashions first begun,
Where Earth with choicest Rarities is blest,
And dying _Phoenix_ builds Her wondrous Nest:
COFFEE arrives, that Grave and wholesome Liquor,
That heals the Stomack, makes the Genius quicker,
Relieves the Memory, Revives the Sad.
* * * * *
Do but this Rare ARABIAN Cordial Use,
And thou may'st all the Doctors Slops Refuse.
Hush then, dull QUACKS, your Mountebanking cease,
COFFEE'S a speedier Cure for each Disease;
How great its Vertues are, we hence may think,
The Worlds third Part makes it their common Drink:
In Breif, all you who Healths Rich Treasures Prize,
And Court not Ruby Noses, or blear'd Eyes,
But own Sobriety to be your Drift.
And Love at once good Company and Thrift;
To Wine no more make Wit and Coyn a Trophy,
But come each Night and Frollique here in Coffee.
[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1674
The first one to be illustrated]
An eight-page folio, the last argument to be issued in defense of coffee
before Charles II sought to follow in the footsteps of Kair Bey and
Kuprili, was issued in the early part of 1675. It was entitled _Coffee
Houses Vindicated. In answer to the late published Character of a Coffee
House. Asserting from Reason, Experience and good Authors the Excellent
Use and physical Virtues of that Liquor ... With the Grand Convenience
of such civil Places of Resort and ingenious Conversation_.
The advantage of a coffee house compared with a "publick-house" is thus
set forth:
First, In regard of easy expense. Being to wait for or meet a
friend, a tavern-reckoning soon breeds a purse-consumption: in an
ale house, you must gorge yourself with pot after pot.... But here,
for a penny or two, you may spend two or three hours, have the
shelter of a house, the warmth of a fire, the diversion of company;
and conveniency, if you please, of taking a pipe of tobacco; and
all this without any grumbling or repining. Secondly. For sobriety.
It is grown, by the ill influences of I know not what hydropick
stars, almost a general custom amongst us, that no bargain can be
drove, or business concluded between man and man, but it must be
transacted at some publick-house ... where continual sippings ...
would be apt to fly up into their brains, and render them drowsy
and indisposed ... whereas, having now the opportunity of a
coffee-house, they repair thither, take each man a dish or two (so
far from causing, that it cures any dizziness, or disturbant
fumes): and so, dispatching their business, go out more sprightly
about their affairs, than before.... Lastly, For diversion ...
where can young gentlemen, or shop-keepers, more innocently and
advantageously spend an hour or two in the evening than at a
coffee-house? Where they shall be sure to meet company, and, by the
custom of the house, not such as at other places stingy and
reserved to themselves, but free and communicative, where every man
may modestly begin his story, and propose to, or answer another, as
he thinks fit.... So that, upon the whole matter, spight of the
idle sarcasms and paltry reproaches thrown upon it, we may, with no
less truth than plainness, give this brief character of a
well-regulated coffee-house, (for our pen disdains to be an
advocate for any sordid holes, that assume that name to cloke the
practice of debauchery,) that it is the sanctuary of health, the
nursery of temperance, the delight of frugality, and academy of
civility, and free-school of ingenuity.
_The Ale Wives' Complaint Against the Coffee-houses_, a dialogue between
a victualer's wife and a coffee man, at difference about spiriting away
each other's trade, also was issued in 1675.
As early as 1666, and again in 1672, we find the government planning to
strike a blow at the coffee houses. By the year 1675, these "seminaries
of sedition" were much frequented by persons of rank and substance, who,
"suitable to our native genius," says Anderson,[80] "used great freedom
therein with respect to the courts' proceedings in these and like
points, so contrary to the voice of the people."
In 1672, Charles II, seemingly eager to emulate the Oriental intolerants
that preceded him, determined to try his hand at suppression. "Having
been informed of the great inconveniences arising from the great number
of persons that resort to coffee-houses," the king "desired the Lord
Keeper and the Judges to give their opinion in writing as to how far he
might lawfully proceed against them."
Roger North in his _Examen_ gives the full story; and D'Israeli,
commenting on it, says, "it was not done without some apparent respect
for the British constitution." The courts affected not to act against
the law, and the judges were summoned to a consultation; but the five
who met could not agree in opinion.
Sir William Coventry spoke against the proposed measure. He pointed out
that the government obtained considerable revenue from coffee, that the
king himself owed to these seemingly obnoxious places no small debt of
gratitude in the matter of his own restoration; for they had been
permitted in Cromwell's time, when the king's friends had used more
liberty of speech than "they dared to do in any other." He urged, also,
that it might be rash to issue a command so likely to be disobeyed.
At last, being hard pressed for a reply, the judges gave such a halting
opinion in favor of the king's policy as to remind us of the reluctant
verdict wrung from the physicians and lawyers of Mecca on the occasion
of coffee's first persecution.[81] "The English lawyers, in language
which, for its civility and indefiniteness," says Robinson, "would have
been the envy of their Eastern brethren," declared that:
Retailing coffee _might_ be an innocent trade, as it _might_ be
exercised; but as it is used at present, in the nature of a common
assembly, to discourse of matters of State, news and _great
Persons_, as they are Nurseries of Idleness and Pragmaticalness,
and hinder the expence of our native Provisions, they _might_ be
thought common nuisances.
An attempt was made to mold public opinion to a favorable consideration
of the attempt at suppression in _The Grand Concern of England
explained_, which was good propaganda for his majesty's enterprise, but
utterly failed to carry conviction to the lovers of liberty.
After much backing and filling, the king, on December 23, 1675, issued a
proclamation which in its title frankly stated its object--"for the
suppression of coffee houses." It is here given in a somewhat condensed
form:
BY THE KING: A PROCLAMATION
FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF
COFFEE HOUSES
_Charles R._
Whereas it is most apparent that the multitude of Coffee Houses of
late years set up and kept within this kingdom, the dominion of
Wales, and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the great resort of Idle
and disaffected persons to them, have produced very evil and
dangerous effects; as well for that many tradesmen and others, do
herein mispend much of their time, which might and probably would
be employed in and about their Lawful Calling and Affairs; but
also, for that in such houses ... divers false, malitious and
scandalous reports are devised and spread abroad to the Defamation
of his Majestie's Government, and to the Disturbance of the Peace
and Quiet of the Realm; his Majesty hath thought fit and necessary,
that the said Coffee Houses be (for the future) Put down, and
suppressed, and doth ... strictly charge and command all manner of
persons, That they or any of them do not presume from and after the
Tenth Day of January next ensuing, to keep any Public Coffee House,
or to utter or sell by retail, in his, her or their house or houses
(to be spent or consumed within the same) any Coffee, Chocolet,
Sherbett or Tea, as they will answer the contrary at their utmost
perils ... (all licenses to be revoked).
Given at our Court at Whitehall, this third-and-twentieth day of
Dec., 1675, in the seven-and-twentieth year of our Reign.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
And then a remarkable thing happened. It is not usual for a royal
proclamation issued on the 29th of one month to be recalled on the 8th
day of the next; but this is the record established by Charles II. The
proclamation was made on December 23, 1675, and issued December 29,
1675. It forbade the coffee houses to operate after January 10, 1676.
But so intense was the feeling aroused, that eleven days was sufficient
time to convince the king that a blunder had been made. Men of all
parties cried out against being deprived of their accustomed haunts. The
dealers in coffee, tea, and chocolate demonstrated that the proclamation
would greatly lessen his majesty's revenues. Convulsion and discontent
loomed large. The king heeded the warning, and on January 8, 1676,
another proclamation was issued by which the first proclamation was
recalled.
In order to save the king's face, it was solemnly recited that "His
Gracious Majesty," out of his "princely consideration and royal
compassion" would allow the retailers of coffee liquor to keep open
until the 24th of the following June. But this was clearly only a royal
subterfuge, as there was no further attempt at molestation, and it is
extremely doubtful if any was contemplated at the time the second
proclamation was promulgated.
"Than both which proclamations nothing could argue greater guilt nor
greater weakness," says Anderson. Robinson remarks, "A battle for
freedom of speech was fought and won over this question at a time when
Parliaments were infrequent and when the liberty of the press did not
exist."
"_Penny Universities_"
We read in 1677 that "none dare venture into the coffee houses unless he
be able to argue the question whether Parliament were dissolved or not."
All through the years remaining in the seventeenth century, and through
most of the eighteenth century, the London coffee houses grew and
prospered. As before stated, they were originally temperance
institutions, very different from the taverns and ale houses. "Within
the walls of the coffee house there was always much noise, much clatter,
much bustle, but decency was never outraged."
At prices ranging from one to two pence per dish, the demand grew so
great that coffee-house keepers were obliged to make the drink in pots
holding eight or ten gallons.
The seventeenth-century coffee houses were sometimes referred to as the
"penny universities"; because they were great schools of conversation,
and the entrance fee was only a penny. Two pence was the usual price of
a dish of coffee or tea, this charge also covering newspapers and
lights. It was the custom for the frequenter to lay his penny on the
bar, on entering or leaving. Admission to the exchange of sparkling wit
and brilliant conversation was within the reach of all.
So great a _Universitie_
I think there ne're was any;
In which you may a Schoolar be
For spending of a Penny.
"Regular customers," we are told, "had particular seats and special
attention from the fair lady at the bar, and the tea and coffee boys."
It is believed that the modern custom of tipping, and the word "tip,"
originated in the coffee houses, where frequently hung brass-bound boxes
into which customers were expected to drop coins for the servants. The
boxes were inscribed "To Insure Promptness" and from the initial letters
of these words came "tip."
The _National Review_ says, "before 1715 the number of coffee houses in
London was reckoned at 2000." Dufour, who wrote in 1683, declares, upon
information received from several persons who had staid in London, that
there were 3000 of these places. However, 2000 is probably nearer the
fact.
In that critical time in English history, when the people, tired of the
misgovernment of the later Stuarts, were most in need of a forum where
questions of great moment could be discussed, the coffee house became a
sanctuary. Here matters of supreme political import were threshed out
and decided for the good of Englishmen for all time. And because many of
these questions were so well thought out then, there was no need to
fight them out later. England's great struggle for political liberty was
really fought and won in the coffee house.
To the end of the reign of Charles II, coffee was looked upon by the
government rather as a new check upon license than an added luxury.
After the revolution, the London coffee merchants were obliged to
petition the House of Lords against new import duties, and it was not
until the year 1692 that the government, "for the greater encouragement
and advancement of trade and the greater importation of the said
respective goods or merchandises," discharged one half of the obnoxious
tariff.
_Weird Coffee Substitutes_
Shortly after the "great fire," coffee substitutes began to appear.
First came a liquor made with betony, "for the sake of those who could
not accustom themselves to the bitter taste of coffee." Betony is a herb
belonging to the mint family, and its root was formerly employed in
medicine as an emetic or purgative. In 1719, when coffee was 7s. a
pound, came bocket, later known as saloop, a decoction of sassafras and
sugar, that became such a favorite among those who could not afford tea
or coffee, that there were many saloop stalls in the streets of London.
It was also sold at Read's coffee house in Fleet Street.
_The Coffee Men Overreach Themselves_
The coffee-house keepers had become so powerful a force in the community
in 1729 that they lost all sense of proportion; and we find them
seriously proposing to usurp the functions of the newspapers. The
vainglorious coffee men requested the government to hand over to them a
journalistic monopoly; the argument being that the newspapers of the day
were choked with advertisements, filled with foolish stories gathered by
all-too enterprising newswriters, and that the only way for the
government to escape "further excesses occasioned by the freedom of the
press" and to rid itself of "those pests of society, the unlicensed
newsvendors," was for it to intrust the coffee men, as "the chief
supporters of liberty" with the publication of a _Coffee House Gazette_.
Information for the journal was to be supplied by the habitués of the
houses themselves, written down on brass slates or ivory tablets, and
called for twice daily by the _Gazette's_ representatives. All the
profits were to go to the coffee men--including the expected increase of
custom.
Needless to say, this amazing proposal of the coffee-house masters to
have the public write its own newspapers met with the scorn and the
derision it invited, and nothing ever came of it.
The increasing demand for coffee caused the government tardily to seek
to stimulate interest in the cultivation of the plant in British
colonial possessions. It was tried out in Jamaica in 1730. By 1732 the
experiment gave such promise that Parliament, "for encouraging the
growth of coffee in His Majesty's plantations in America," reduced the
inland duty on coffee coming from there, "but of none other," from two
shillings to one shilling six pence per pound. "It seems that the French
at Martinico, Hispaniola, and at the Isle de Bourbon, near Madagascar,
had somewhat the start of the English in the new product as had also the
Dutch at Surinam, yet none had hitherto been found to equal coffee from
Arabia, whence all the rest of the world had theirs." Thus writes Adam
Anderson in 1787, somewhat ungraciously seeking to damn England's
business rivals with faint praise. Java coffee was even then in the
lead, and the seeds of Bourbon-Santos were multiplying rapidly in
Brazilian soil.
The British East India Company, however, was much more interested in tea
than in coffee. Having lost out to the French and Dutch on the "little
brown berry of Arabia," the company engaged in so lively a propaganda
for "the cup that cheers" that, whereas the annual tea imports from 1700
to 1710 averaged 800,000 pounds, in 1721 more than 1,000,000 pounds of
tea were brought in. In 1757, some 4,000,000 pounds were imported. And
when the coffee house finally succumbed, tea, and not coffee, was firmly
intrenched as the national drink of the English people.
A movement in 1873 to revive the coffee house in the form of a coffee
"palace," designed to replace the public house as a place of resort for
working men, caused the Edinburgh Castle to be opened in London. The
movement attained considerable success throughout the British Isles, and
even spread to the United States.
_Evolution of the Club_
Every profession, trade, class, and party had its favorite coffee house.
"The bitter black drink called coffee," as Mr. Pepys described the
beverage, brought together all sorts and conditions of men; and out of
their mixed association there developed groups of patrons favoring
particular houses and giving them character. It is easy to trace the
transition of the group into a clique that later became a club,
continuing for a time to meet at the coffee house or the chocolate
house, but eventually demanding a house of its own.
_Decline and Fall of the Coffee House_
Starting as a forum for the commoner, "the coffee house soon became the
plaything of the leisure class; and when the club was evolved, the
coffee house began to retrograde to the level of the tavern. And so the
eighteenth century, which saw the coffee house at the height of its
power and popularity, witnessed also its decline and fall. It is said
there were as many clubs at the end of the century as there were coffee
houses at the beginning."
For a time, when the habit of reading newspapers descended the social
ladder, the coffee house acquired a new lease of life. Sir Walter Besant
observes:
They were then frequented by men who came, not to talk, but to
read; the smaller tradesmen and the better class of mechanic now
came to the coffee-house, called for a cup of coffee, and with it
the daily paper, which they could not afford to take in. Every
coffee-house took three or four papers; there seems to have been in
this latter phase of the once social institution no general
conversation. The coffee-house as a place of resort and
conversation gradually declined; one can hardly say why, except
that all human institutions do decay. Perhaps manners declined; the
leaders in literature ceased to be seen there; the city clerk began
to crowd in; the tavern and the club drew men from the
coffee-house.
A few houses survived until the early years of the nineteenth century,
but the social side had disappeared. As tea and coffee entered the
homes, and the exclusive club house succeeded the democratic coffee
forum, the coffee houses became taverns or chop houses, or, convinced
that they had outlived their usefulness, just ceased to be.
_Pen Pictures of Coffee-House Life_
From the writings of Addison in the _Spectator_, Steele in the _Tatler_,
Mackay in his _Journey Through England_, Macaulay in his history, and
others, it is possible to draw a fairly accurate pen-picture of life in
the old London coffee house.
In the seventeenth century the coffee room usually opened off the
street. At first only tables and chairs were spread about on a sanded
floor. Later, this arrangement was succeeded by the boxes, or booths,
such as appear in the Rowlandson caricatures, the picture of the
interior of Lloyds, etc.
The walls were decorated with handbills and posters advertising the
quack medicines, pills, tinctures, salves, and electuaries of the
period, all of which might be purchased at the bar near the entrance,
presided over by a prototype of the modern English barmaid. There were
also bills of the play, auction notices, etc., depending upon the
character of the place.
Then, as now, the barmaids were made much of by patrons. Tom Brown
refers to them as charming "Phillises who invite you by their amorous
glances into their smoaky territories."
Messages were left and letters received at the bar for regular
customers. Stella was instructed to address her letters to Swift, "under
cover to Addison at the St. James's coffee house." Says Macaulay:
Foreigners remarked that it was the coffee house which specially
distinguished London from all other cities; that the coffee house
was the Londoner's home, and that those who wished to find a
gentleman commonly asked, not whether he lived in Fleet Street or
Chancery Lane, but whether he frequented the Grecian or the
Rainbow.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF MANY OF THE OLD LONDON
COFFEE HOUSES PREVIOUS TO THE FIRE OF 1748]
So every man of the upper or middle classes went daily to his coffee
house to learn the news and to discuss it. The better class houses were
the meeting places of the most substantial men in the community. Every
coffee house had its orator, who became to his admirers a kind of
"fourth estate of the realm."
Macaulay gives us the following picture of the coffee house of 1685:
Nobody was excluded from these places who laid down his penny at
the bar. Yet every rank and profession, and every shade of
religious and political opinion had its own headquarters.
There were houses near St. James' Park, where fops congregated,
their heads and shoulders covered with black or flaxen wigs, not
less ample than those which are now worn by the Chancellor and by
the Speaker of the House of Commons. The atmosphere was like that
of a perfumer's shop. Tobacco in any form than that of richly
scented snuff was held in abomination. If any clown, ignorant of
the usages of the house, called for a pipe, the sneers of the whole
assembly and the short answers of the waiters soon convinced him
that he had better go somewhere else.
Nor, indeed, would he have far to go. For, in general, the
coffee-houses reeked with tobacco like a guard room. Nowhere was
the smoking more constant than at Will's. That celebrated house,
situated between Covent Garden and Bow street, was sacred to polite
letters. There the talk was about poetical justice and the unities
of place and time. Under no roof was a greater variety of figures
to be seen. There were earls in stars and garters, clergymen in
cassocks and bands, pert Templars, sheepish lads from universities,
translators and index makers in ragged coats of frieze. The great
press was to get near the chair where John Dryden sate. In winter
that chair was always in the warmest nook by the fire; in summer it
stood in the balcony. To bow to the Laureate, and to hear his
opinion of Racine's last tragedy, or of Bossu's treatise on epic
poetry, was thought a privilege. A pinch from his snuff-box was an
honour sufficient to turn the head of a young enthusiast.
There were coffee-houses where the first medical men might be
consulted. Dr. John Radcliffe, who, in the year 1685, rose to the
largest practice in London, came daily, at the hour when the
Exchange was full, from his house in Bow street, then a fashionable
part of the capital, to Garraway's, and was to be found, surrounded
by surgeons and apothecaries, at a particular table.
There were Puritan coffee-houses where no oath was heard, and where
lank-haired men discussed election and reprobation through their
noses; Jew coffee-houses, where dark-eyed money changers from
Venice and Amsterdam greeted each other; and Popish coffee-houses,
where, as good Protestants believed, Jesuits planned over their
cups another great fire, and cast silver bullets to shoot the King.
Ned Ward gives us this picture of the coffee house of the seventeenth
century. He is describing Old Man's, Scotland Yard:
We now ascended a pair of stairs, which brought us into an
old-fashioned room, where a gaudy crowd of odoriferous Tom-Essences
were walking backwards and forwards, with their hats in their
hands, not daring to convert them to their intended use lest it
should put the foretops of their wigs into some disorder. We
squeezed through till we got to the end of the room, where, at a
small table, we sat down, and observed that it was as great a
rarity to hear anybody call for a dish of politicians porridge, or
any other liquor, as it is to hear a beau call for a pipe of
tobacco; their whole exercise being to charge and discharge their
nostrils and keep the curls of their periwigs in their proper
order. The clashing of their snush-box lids, in opening and
shutting, made more noise than their tongues. Bows and cringes of
the newest mode were here exchanged 'twixt friend and friend with
wonderful exactness. They made a humming like so many hornets in a
country chimney, not with their talking, but with their whispering
over their new Minuets and Bories, with the hands in their pockets,
if only freed from their snush-box. We now began to be thoughtful
of a pipe of tobacco, whereupon we ventured to call for some
instruments of evaporation, which were accordingly brought us, but
with such a kind of unwillingness, as if they would much rather
been rid of our company; for their tables were so very neat, and
shined with rubbing like the upper-leathers of an alderman's shoes,
and as brown as the top of a country housewife's cupboard. The
floor was as clean swept as a Sir Courtly's dining room, which made
us look round to see if there were no orders hung up to impose the
forfeiture of so much mop-money upon any person that should spit
out of the chimney-corner. Notwithstanding we wanted an example to
encourage us in our porterly rudeness, we ordered them to light the
wax candle, by which we ignified our pipes and blew about our
whiffs; at which several Sir Foplins drew their faces into as many
peevish wrinkles as the beaux at the Bow Street Coffee-house, near
Covent Garden, did when the gentleman in masquerade came in amongst
them, with his oyster-barrel muff and turnip-buttons, to ridicule
their foperies.
In _A Brief and Merry History of Great Britain_ we read:
There is a prodigious number of Coffee-Houses in London, after the
manner I have seen some in Constantinople. These Coffee-Houses are
the constant Rendezvous for Men of Business as well as the idle
People. Besides Coffee, there are many other Liquors, which People
cannot well relish at first. They smoak Tobacco, game and read
Papers of Intelligence; here they treat of Matters of State, make
Leagues with Foreign Princes, break them again, and transact
Affairs of the last Consequence to the whole World. They represent
these Coffee-Houses as the most agreeable things in London, and
they are, in my Opinion, very proper Places to find People that a
Man has Business with, or to pass away the Time a little more
agreeably than he can do at home; but in other respects they are
loathsome, full of smoak, like a Guard-Room, and as much crowded. I
believe 'tis these Places that furnish the Inhabitants with
Slander, for there one hears exact Account of everything done in
Town, as if it were but a Village.
At those Coffee-Houses, near the Courts, called White's, St.
James's, Williams's, the Conversation turns chiefly upon the
Equipages, Essence, Horse-Matches, Tupees, Modes and Mortgages; the
Cocoa-Tree upon Bribery and Corruption, Evil ministers, Errors and
Mistakes in Government; the Scotch Coffee-Houses towards Charing
Cross, on Places and Pensions; the Tiltyard and Young Man's on
Affronts, Honour, Satisfaction, Duels and Rencounters. I was
informed that the latter happen so frequently, in this part of the
Town, that a Surgeon and a Sollicitor are kept constantly in
waiting; the one to dress and heal such Wounds as may be given, and
the other in case of Death to bring off the Survivor with a Verdict
of Se Devendendo or Manslaughter. In those Coffee-Houses about the
Temple the Subjects are generally on Causes, Costs, Demurrers,
Rejoinders and Exceptions; Daniel's the Welch Coffee-House in Fleet
Street, on Births, Pedigrees and Descents; Child's and the Chapter
upon Glebes, Tithes, Advowsons, Rectories and Lectureships; North's
Undue Elections, False Polling, Scrutinies, etc.; Hamlin's,
Infant-Baptism, Lay-Ordination, Free-Will, Election and
Reprobation; Batson's, the Prices of Pepper, Indigo and Salt-Petre;
and all those about the Exchange, where the Merchants meet to
transact their Affairs, are in a perpetual hurry about
Stock-Jobbing, Lying, Cheating, Tricking Widows and Orphans, and
committing Spoil and Rapine on the Publick.
[Illustration: WHITE'S AND BROOKES', ST. JAMES'S STREET]
In the eighteenth century beer and wine were commonly sold at the coffee
houses in addition to tea and chocolate. Daniel Defoe, writing of his
visit to Shrewsbury in 1724, says, "I found there the most coffee houses
around the Town Hall that ever I saw in any town, but when you come into
them they are but ale houses, only they think that the name coffee house
gives a better air."
Speaking of the coffee houses of the city, Besant says:
Rich merchants alone ventured to enter certain of the coffee
houses, where they transacted business more privately and more
expeditiously than on the Exchange. There were coffee houses where
officers of the army alone were found; where the city shopkeeper
met his chums; where actors congregated; where only divines, only
lawyers, only physicians, only wits and those who came to hear them
were found. In all alike the visitor put down his penny and went
in, taking his own seat if he was an habitue; he called for a cup
of tea or coffee and paid his twopence for it; he could call also,
if he pleased, for a cordial; he was expected to talk with his
neighbour whether he knew him or not. Men went to certain coffee
houses in order to meet the well-known poets and writers who were
to be found there, as Pope went in search of Dryden. The daily
papers and the pamphlets of the day were taken in. Some of the
coffee houses, but not the more respectable, allowed the use of
tobacco.
[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE POLITICIANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY]
[Illustration: THE GREAT FAIR ON THE FROZEN THAMES--1683
From a broadside entitled _Wonders on the Deep_. Figure 2 is the Duke of
York's Coffee House]
Mackay, in his _Journey Through England_ (1724), says:
We rise by nine, and those that frequent great men's levees find
entertainment at them till eleven, or, as in Holland, go to
tea-tables; about twelve the _beau monde_ assemble in several
coffee or chocolate houses; the best of which are the Cocoatree and
White's chocolate houses, St. James', the Smyrna, Mrs. Rochford's
and the British coffee houses; and all these so near one another
that in less than an hour you see the company of them all. We are
carried to these places in chairs (or sedans), which are here very
cheap, a guinea a week, or a shilling per hour, and your chairmen
serve you for porters to run on errands, as your gondoliers do at
Venice.
If it be fine weather we take a turn into the park till two, when
we go to dinner; and if it be dirty, you are entertained at picquet
or basset at White's, or you may talk politics at the Smyrna or St.
James'. I must not forget to tell you that the parties have their
different places, where, however, a stranger is always well
received; but a Whig will no more go to the Cocoatree than a Tory
will be seen at the Coffee House, St James'.
The Scots go generally to the British, and a mixture of all sorts
go to the Smyrna. There are other little coffee houses much
frequented in this neighborhood--Young Man's for officers; Old
Man's for stock jobbers, paymasters and courtiers, and Little Man's
for sharpers. I never was so confounded in my life as when I
entered into this last. I saw two or three tables full at faro, and
was surrounded by a set of sharp faces that I was afraid would have
devoured me with their eyes. I was glad to drop two or three half
crowns at faro to get off with a clear skin, and was overjoyed I so
got rid of them.
At two we generally go to dinner; ordinaries are not so common here
as abroad, yet the French have set up two or three good ones for
the convenience of foreigners in Suffolk street, where one is
tolerably well served; but the general way here is to make a party
at the coffee house to go to dine at the tavern, where we sit till
six, when we go to the play, except you are invited to the table of
some great man, which strangers are always courted to and nobly
entertained.
Mackay writes that "in all the coffee houses you have not only the
foreign prints but several English ones with foreign occurrences,
besides papers of morality and party disputes."
"After the play," writes Defoe, "the best company generally go to Tom's
and Will's coffee houses, near adjoining, where there is playing at
picquet and the best of conversation till midnight. Here you will see
blue and green ribbons and stars sitting familiarly and talking with the
same freedom as if they had left their equality and degrees of distance
at home."
[Illustration: THE LION'S HEAD AT BUTTON'S COFFEE HOUSE
Designed by Hogarth, and put up by Addison, 1713 From a water color by
T.H. Shepherd]
Before entering the coffee house every one was recommended by the
_Tatler_ to prepare his body with three dishes of bohea and to purge his
brains with two pinches of snuff. Men had their coffee houses as now
they have their clubs--sometimes contented with one, sometimes belonging
to three or four. Johnson, for instance, was connected with St. James's,
the Turk's Head, the Bedford, Peele's, besides the taverns which he
frequented. Addison and Steele used Button's; Swift, Button's, the
Smyrna, and St. James's; Dryden, Will's; Pope, Will's and Button's;
Goldsmith, the St. James's and the Chapter; Fielding, the Bedford;
Hogarth, the Bedford and Slaughter's; Sheridan, the Piazza; Thurlow,
Nando's.
_Some Famous Coffee Houses_
Among the famous English coffee houses of the seventeenth-eighteenth
century period were St. James's, Will's, Garraway's, White's,
Slaughter's, the Grecian, Button's, Lloyd's, Tom's, and Don Saltero's.
St. James's was a Whig house frequented by members of Parliament, with a
fair sprinkling of literary stars. Garraway's catered to the gentry of
the period, many of whom naturally had Tory proclivities.
One of the notable coffee houses of Queen Anne's reign was Button's.
Here Addison could be found almost every afternoon and evening, along
with Steele, Davenant, Carey, Philips, and other kindred minds. Pope was
a member of the same coffee house club for a year, but his inborn
irascibility eventually led him to drop out of it.
At Button's a lion's head, designed by Hogarth after the Lion of Venice,
"a proper emblem of knowledge and action, being all head and paws," was
set up to receive letters and papers for the _Guardian_.[82] The
_Tatler_ and the _Spectator_ were born in the coffee house, and probably
English prose would never have received the impetus given it by the
essays of Addison and Steele had it not been for coffee house
associations.
Pope's famous _Rape of the Lock_ grew out of coffee-house gossip. The
poem itself contains one charming passage on coffee.[83]
Another frequenter of the coffee houses of London, when he had the money
to do so, was Daniel Defoe, whose _Robinson Crusoe_ was the precursor of
the English novel. Henry Fielding, one of the greatest of all English
novelists, loved the life of the more bohemian coffee houses, and was,
in fact, induced to write his first great novel, _Joseph Andrews_,
through coffee-house criticisms of Richardson's _Pamela_.
Other frequenters of the coffee houses of the period were Thomas Gray
and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Garrick was often to be seen at Tom's in
Birchin Lane, where also Chatterton might have been found on many an
evening before his untimely death.
_The London Pleasure Gardens_
The second half of the eighteenth century was covered by the reigns of
the Georges. The coffee houses were still an important factor in London
life, but were influenced somewhat by the development of gardens in
which were served tea, chocolate, and other drinks, as well as coffee.
At the coffee houses themselves, while coffee remained the favorite
beverage, the proprietors, in the hope of increasing their patronage,
began to serve wine, ale, and other liquors. This seems to have been the
first step toward the decay of the coffee house.
[Illustration: A TRIO OF NOTABLES AT BUTTON'S IN 1730
The figure in the cloak is Count Viviani; of the figures facing the
reader, the draughts player is Dr. Arbuthnot, and the figure standing is
assumed to be Pope]
The coffee houses, however, continued to be the centers of intellectual
life. When Samuel Johnson and David Garrick came together to London,
literature was temporarily in a bad way, and the hack writers of the
time dwelt in Grub Street.
It was not until after Johnson had met with some success, and had
established the first of his coffee-house clubs at the Turk's Head, that
literature again became a fashionable profession.
This really famous literary club met at the Turk's Head from 1763 to
1783. Among the most notable members were Johnson, the arbiter of
English prose; Oliver Goldsmith; Boswell, the biographer; Burke, the
orator; Garrick, the actor; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, the painter. Among
the later members were Gibbon, the historian; and Adam Smith, the
political economist.
Certain it is that during the sway of the English coffee house, and at
least partly through its influence, England produced a better prose
literature, as embodied alike in her essays, literary criticisms, and
novels, than she ever had produced before.
The advent of the pleasure garden brought coffee out into the open in
England; and one of the reasons why gardens, such as Ranelagh and
Vauxhall, began to be more frequented than the coffee houses was that
they were popular resorts for women as well as for men. All kinds of
beverages were served in them; and soon the women began to favor tea as
an afternoon drink. At least, the great development in the use of tea
dates from this period; and many of these resorts called themselves tea
gardens.
The use of coffee by this time, however, was well established in the
homes as a breakfast and dinner beverage, and such consumption more than
made up for any loss sustained through the gradual decadence of the
coffee house. Yet signs of the change in national taste that arrived
with the Georges were not wanting; for the active propaganda of the
British East India Company was fairly well launched during Queen Anne's
reign.
The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century were unique. At
one time there was a "mighty maze" of them. Their season extended from
April or May to August or September. At first there was no charge for
admission, but Warwick Wroth[84] tells us that visitors usually
purchased cheese cakes, syllabubs, tea, coffee and ale.
The four best-known London gardens were Vauxhall; Marylebone; Cuper's,
where the charge for admission subsequently was fixed at not less than a
shilling; and Ranelagh, where the charge of half a crown included "the
Elegant Regale" of tea, coffee, and bread and butter.
The pleasure gardens provided walks, rooms for dancing, skittle grounds,
bowling greens, variety entertainments, and promenade concerts; and not
a few places were given over to fashionable gambling and racing.
The Vauxhall Gardens, one of the most favored resorts of
pleasure-seeking Londoners, were located on the Surrey side of the
Thames, a short distance east of Vauxhall Bridge. They were originally
known as the New Spring Gardens (1661), to distinguish them from the old
Spring Gardens at Charing Cross. They became famous in the reign of
Charles II. Vauxhall was celebrated for its walks, lit with thousands of
lamps, its musical and other performances, suppers, and fireworks. High
and low were to be found there, and the drinking of tea and coffee in
the arbors was a feature. The illustration shows the garden brightly
illuminated by lanterns and lamps on some festival occasion. Coffee and
tea were served in the arbors.
[Illustration: VAUXHALL GARDENS ON A GALA NIGHT]
The Ranelagh, "a place of public entertainment," erected at Chelsea in
1742, was a kind of Vauxhall under cover. The principal room, known as
the Rotunda, was circular in shape, 150 feet in diameter, and had an
orchestra in the center and tiers of boxes all around. Promenading and
taking refreshments in the boxes were the principal divertisements.
Except on gala nights of masquerades and fireworks, only tea, coffee,
bread and butter were to be had at Ranelagh.
[Illustration: THE ROTUNDA IN RANELAGH GARDENS WITH THE COMPANY AT
BREAKFAST--1751]
In the group of gardens connected with mineral springs was the Dog and
Duck (St. George's Spa), which became at last a tea garden and a dancing
saloon of doubtful repute.
Still another division, recognized by Wroth, consisted mainly of tea
gardens, among them Highbury Barn, The Canonbury House, Hornsey and
Copenhagen House, Bagnigge Wells, and White Conduit House. The two last
named were the classic tea gardens of the period. Both were provided
with "long rooms" in case of rain, and for indoor promenades with organ
music. Then there were the Adam and Eve tea gardens, with arbors for
tea-drinking parties, which subsequently became the Adam and Eve Tavern
and Coffee House. Well known were the Bayswater Tea Gardens and the Jews
Harp House and Tea Gardens. All these were provided with neat, "genteel"
boxes, let into the hedges and alcoves, for tea and coffee drinkers.
_Locating the Notable Coffee Houses_
GARRAWAY'S, 3 'Change Alley, Cornhill, was a place for great mercantile
transactions. Thomas Garway, the original proprietor, was a tobacconist
and coffee man, who claimed to be the first that sold tea in England,
although not at this address. The later Garraway's was long famous as a
sandwich and drinking room for sherry, pale ale, and punch, in addition
to tea and coffee. It is said that the sandwich-maker was occupied two
hours in cutting and arranging the sandwiches for the day's consumption.
After the "great fire" of 1666 GARRAWAY'S moved into the same place in
Exchange Alley where Elford had been before the fire. Here he claimed to
have the oldest coffee house in London; but the ground on which BOWMAN'S
had stood was occupied later by the VIRGINIA and the JAMAICA coffee
houses. The latter was damaged by the fire of 1748 which consumed
GARRAWAY'S and ELFORD'S (see map of the 1748 fire).
WILL'S, the predecessor of BUTTON'S, first had the title of the RED COW,
then of the ROSE. It was kept by William Urwin, and was on the north
side of Russell Street at the corner of Bow Street. "It was Dryden who
made Will's coffee house the great resort of the wits of his time."
(_Pope_ and _Spence_.) The room in which the poet was accustomed to sit
was on the first floor; and his place was the place of honor by the
fireside in the winter, and at the corner of the balcony, looking over
the street, in fine weather; he called the two places his winter and his
summer seat. This was called the dining-room floor. The company did not
sit in boxes as subsequently, but at various tables which were dispersed
through the room. Smoking was permitted in the public room; it was then
so much in vogue that it does not seem to have been considered a
nuisance. Here, as in other similar places of meeting, the visitors
divided themselves into parties; and we are told by Ward that the young
beaux and wits, who seldom approached the principal table, thought it a
great honor to have a pinch out of Dryden's snuff-box. After Dryden's
death WILL'S was transferred to a house opposite, and became BUTTON'S,
"over against THOMAS'S in Covent Garden." Thither also Addison
transferred much company from THOMAS'S. Here Swift first saw Addison.
Hither also came "Steele, Arbuthnot and many other wits of the time."
BUTTON'S continued in vogue until Addison's death and Steele's
retirement into Wales, after which the coffee drinkers went to the
BEDFORD, dinner parties to the SHAKESPEARE. BUTTON'S was subsequently
known as the CALEDONIEN.
[Illustration: GARRAWAY'S COFFEE HOUSE IN 'CHANGE ALLEY
Garway (or Garraway) claimed to have been first to sell Tea in England]
[Illustration: BUTTON'S COFFEE HOUSE, GREAT RUSSELL STREET
Afterward it became the Caledonien
From a water color by T.H. Shepherd]
SLAUGHTER'S, famous as the resort of painters and sculptors in the
eighteenth century, was situated at the upper end of the west side of
St. Martin's Lane. Its first landlord was Thomas Slaughter, 1692. A
second SLAUGHTER'S (NEW SLAUGHTER'S) was established in the same street
in 1760, when the original SLAUGHTER'S adopted the name of OLD
SLAUGHTER'S. It was torn down in 1843-44. Among the notables who
frequented it were Hogarth; young Gainsborough; Cipriani; Haydon;
Roubiliac; Hudson, who painted the Dilettanti portraits; M'Ardell, the
mezzotinto-scraper; Luke Sullivan, the engraver; Gardell, the portrait
painter; and Parry, the Welsh harper.
TOM'S, in Birchin Lane, Cornhill, though in the main a mercantile
resort, acquired some celebrity from having been frequented by Garrick.
TOM'S was also frequented by Chatterton, as a place "of the best
resort." Then there was TOM'S in Devereux Court, Strand, and TOM'S at 17
Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, opposite BUTTON'S, a celebrated
resort during the reign of Queen Anne and for more than a century after.
THE GRECIAN, Devereux Court, Strand, was originally kept by one
Constantine, a Greek. From this house Steele proposed to date his
learned articles in the _Tatler_; it is mentioned in No. 1 of the
_Spectator_, and it was much frequented by Goldsmith. The GRECIAN was
Foote's morning lounge. In 1843 the premises became the Grecian
Chambers, with a bust of Lord Devereux, earl of Essex, over the door.
[Illustration: SLAUGHTER'S COFFEE HOUSE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
It was taken down in 1843
From a water color by T.H. Shepherd, 1841]
[Illustration: TOM'S COFFEE HOUSE, 17 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
Used as a coffee house until 1804 and razed in 1865
From a water color by T.H. Shepherd]
LLOYD'S, Royal Exchange, celebrated for its priority of shipping
intelligence and its marine insurance, originated with Edward Lloyd, who
about 1688 kept a coffee house in Tower Street, later in Lombard Street
corner of Abchurch Lane. It was a modest place of refreshment for
seafarers and merchants. As a matter of convenience, Edward Lloyd
prepared "ships' lists" for the guidance of the frequenters of the
coffee house. "These lists, which were written by hand, contained,"
according to Andrew Scott, "an account of vessels which the underwriters
who met there were likely to have offered them for insurance." Such was
the beginning of two institutions that have since exercised a dominant
influence on the sea-carrying trade of the whole world--the Royal
Exchange Lloyd's, the greatest insurance institution in the world, and
Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Lloyd's now has 1400 agents in all parts
of the world. It receives as many as 100,000 telegrams a year. It
records through its intelligence service the daily movements of 11,000
vessels.
In the beginning one of the apartments in the Exchange was fitted up as
LLOYD'S coffee room. Edward Lloyd died in 1712. Subsequently the coffee
house was in Pope's Head Alley, where it was called NEW LLOYD'S coffee
house, but on September 14, 1784, it was removed to the northwest corner
of the Royal Exchange, where it remained until the partial destruction
of that building by fire.
[Illustration: LLOYD'S COFFEE HOUSE IN THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, SHOWING THE
SUBSCRIPTION ROOM]
In rebuilding the Exchange there were provided the Subscribers' or
Underwriters' room, the Merchants' room, and the Captains' room. _The
City_, second edition, 1848, contains the following description of this
most famous rendezvous of eminent merchants, shipowners, underwriters,
insurance, stock and exchange brokers:
Here is obtained the earliest news of the arrival and sailing of
vessels, losses at sea, captures, recaptures, engagements and other
shipping intelligence; and proprietors of ships and freights are
insured by the underwriters. The rooms are in the Venetian style
with Roman enrichments. At the entrance of the room are exhibited
the Shipping Lists, received from Lloyd's agents at home and
abroad, and affording particulars of departures or arrivals of
vessels, wrecks, salvage, or sale of property saved, etc. To the
right and left are "Lloyd's Books," two enormous ledgers. Right
hand, ships "spoken with" or arrived at their destined ports; left
hand, records of wrecks, fires or severe collisions, written in a
fine Roman hand in "double lines." To assist the underwriters in
their calculations, at the end of the room is an Anemometer, which
registers the state of the wind day and night; attached is a rain
gauge.
THE BRITISH, Cockspur Street, "long a house of call for Scotchmen," was
fortunate in its landladies. In 1759 it was kept by the sister of Bishop
Douglas, so well known for his works against Lauder and Bower, which may
explain its Scottish fame. At another period it was kept by Mrs.
Anderson, described in Mackenzie's _Life of Home_ as "a woman of
uncommon talents and the most agreeable conversation."
DON SALTERO'S, 18 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, was opened by a barber named
Salter in 1695. Sir Hans Sloane contributed of his own collection some
of the refuse gimcracks that were to be found in Salter's "museum."
Vice-Admiral Munden, who had been long on the coast of Spain, where he
had acquired a fondness for Spanish titles, named the keeper of the
house Don Saltero, and his coffee house and museum DON SALTERO'S.
SQUIRE'S was in Fulwood's Rents, Holburn, running up to Gray's Inn. It
was one of the receiving houses of the _Spectator_. In No. 269 the
_Spectator_ accepts Sir Roger de Coverley's invitation to "smoke a pipe
with him over a dish of coffee at Squire's. As I love the old man, I
take delight in complying with everything that is agreeable to him, and
accordingly waited on him to the coffee-house, where his venerable
figure drew upon us the eyes of the whole room. He had no sooner seated
himself at the upper end of the high table, but he called for a clean
pipe, a paper of tobacco, a dish of coffee, a wax candle and the
'Supplement' (a periodical paper of that time), with such an air of
cheerfulness and good humour, that all the boys in the coffee room (who
seemed to take pleasure in serving him) were at once employed on his
several errands, insomuch that nobody else could come at a dish of tea
until the Knight had got all his conveniences about him." Such was the
coffee room in the _Spectator's_ day.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF DICK'S COFFEE HOUSE
From the frontispiece to "The Coffee House--a dramatick Piece" (see
chapter XXXII)]
THE COCOA-TREE was originally a coffee house on the south side of Pall
Mall. When there grew up a need for "places of resort of a more elegant
and refined character," chocolate houses came into vogue, and the
COCOA-TREE was the most famous of these. It was converted into a club in
1746.
[Illustration: THE GRECIAN COFFEE HOUSE, DEVEREUX COURT
It was closed in 1843. From a drawing dated 1809]
WHITE'S chocolate house, established by Francis White about 1693 in St.
James's Street, originally open to any one as a coffee house, soon
became a private club, composed of "the most fashionable exquisites of
the town and court." In its coffee-house days, the entrance was
sixpence, as compared with the average penny fee of the other coffee
houses. Escott refers to WHITE'S as being "the one specimen of the class
to which it belongs, of a place at which, beneath almost the same roof,
and always bearing the same name, whether as coffee house or club, the
same class of persons has congregated during more than two hundred
years."
Among hundreds of other coffee houses that flourished during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the following more notable ones are
deserving of mention:
[Illustration: DON SALTERO'S COFFEE HOUSE, CHEYNE WALK
From a steel engraving in the British Museum]
[Illustration: THE BRITISH COFFEE HOUSE
IN COCKSPUR STREET
From a print published in 1770]
BAKER'S, 58 'Change Alley, for nearly half a century noted for its chops
and steaks broiled in the coffee room and eaten hot from the gridiron;
the BALTIC, in Threadneedle Street, the rendezvous of brokers and
merchants connected with the Russian trade; the BEDFORD, "under the
Piazza, in Covent Garden," crowded every night with men of parts and
"signalized for many years as the emporium of wit, the seat of criticism
and the standard of taste"; the CHAPTER, in Paternoster Row, frequented
by Chatterton and Goldsmith; CHILD'S, in St. Paul's Churchyard, one of
the _Spectator's_ houses, and much frequented by the clergy and fellows
of the Royal Society; DICK'S, in Fleet Street, frequented by Cowper, and
the scene of Rousseau's comedietta, entitled _The Coffee House_; ST.
JAMES'S, in St. James's Street, frequented by Swift, Goldsmith, and
Garrick; JERUSALEM, in Cowper's Court, Cornhill, frequented by merchants
and captains connected with the commerce of China, India, and Australia;
JONATHAN'S, in 'Change Alley, described by the _Tatler_ as "the general
mart of stock jobbers"; the LONDON, in Ludgate Hill, noted for its
publishers' sales of stock and copyrights; MAN'S, in Scotland Yard,
which took its name from the proprietor, Alexander Man, and was
sometimes known as OLD MAN'S, or the ROYAL, to distinguish it from YOUNG
MAN'S, LITTLE MAN'S, NEW MAN'S, etc., minor establishments in the
neighborhood;[85] NANDO'S, in Fleet Street, the favorite haunt of Lord
Thurlow and many professional loungers, attracted by the fame of the
punch and the charms of the landlady; NEW ENGLAND AND NORTH AND SOUTH
AMERICAN, in Threadneedle Street, having on its subscription list
representatives of Barings, Rothschilds, and other wealthy
establishments; PEELE'S, in Fleet Street, having a portrait of Dr.
Johnson said to have been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds; the PERCY, in
Oxford Street, the inspiration for the _Percy Anecdotes_; the PIAZZA, in
Covent Garden, where Macklin fitted up a large coffee room, or theater,
for oratory, and Fielding and Foote poked fun at him; the RAINBOW, in
Fleet Street, the second coffee house opened in London, having its token
money; the SMYRNA, in Pall Mall, a "place to talk politics," and
frequented by Prior and Swift; TOM KING'S, one of the old night houses
of Covent Garden Market, "well known to all gentlemen to whom beds are
unknown"; the TURK'S HEAD, 'Change Alley, which also had its tokens; the
TURK'S HEAD, in the Strand, which was a favorite supping house for Dr.
Johnson and Boswell; the FOLLY, a coffee house on a house-boat on the
Thames, which became quite notorious during Queen Anne's reign.
[Illustration: THE FRENCH COFFEE HOUSE IN LONDON, SECOND HALF OF THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
From the original water-color drawing by Thomas Rowlandson]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: RAMPONAUX' ROYAL DRUMMER, ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR OF THE
EARLY PARISIAN CAFÉS
Started originally as a tavern, this hostelry added coffee to its
cuisine and became famous in the reign of Louis XV The illustration is
from an early print used to advertise the "Royal Drummer's" attractions]
CHAPTER XI
HISTORY OF THE EARLY PARISIAN COFFEE HOUSES
_The introduction of coffee into Paris by Thévenot in 1657--How
Soliman Aga established the custom of coffee drinking at the court
of Louis XIV--Opening the first coffee houses--How the French
adaptation of the Oriental coffee house first appeared in the real
French café of François Procope--The important part played by the
coffee houses in the development of French literature and the
stage--Their association with the Revolution and the founding of
the Republic--Quaint customs and patrons--Historic Parisian cafés_
If we are to accept the authority of Jean La Roque, "before the year
1669 coffee had scarcely been seen in Paris, except at M. Thévenot's and
at the homes of some of his friends. Nor had it been heard of except in
the writings of travelers."
As noted in chapter V, Jean de Thévenot brought coffee into Paris in
1657. One account says that a decoction, supposed to have been coffee,
was sold by a Levantine in the Petit Châtelet under the name of _cohove_
or _cahoue_ during the reign of Louis XIII, but this lacks confirmation.
Louis XIV is said to have been served with coffee for the first time in
1664.
Soon after the arrival, in July, 1669, of the Turkish ambassador,
Soliman Aga, it became noised abroad that he had brought with him for
his own use, and that of his retinue, great quantities of coffee. He
"treated several persons with it, both in the court and the city." At
length "many accustomed themselves to it with sugar, and others who
found benefit by it could not leave it off."
Within six months all Paris was talking of the sumptuous coffee
functions of the ambassador from Mohammed IV to the court of Louis XIV.
Isaac D'Israeli best describes them in his _Curiosities of Literature_:
On bended knee, the black slaves of the Ambassador, arrayed in the
most gorgeous Oriental costumes, served the choicest Mocha coffee
in tiny cups of egg-shell porcelain, hot, strong and fragrant,
poured out in saucers of gold and silver, placed on embroidered
silk doylies fringed with gold bullion, to the grand dames, who
fluttered their fans with many grimaces, bending their piquant
faces--be-rouged, be-powdered and be-patched--over the new and
steaming beverage.
It was in 1669 or 1672 that Madame de Sévigné (Marie de Rabutin-Chantal;
1626-96), the celebrated French letter-writer, is said to have made that
famous prophecy, "There are two things Frenchmen will never
swallow--coffee and Racine's poetry," sometimes abbreviated into,
"Racine and coffee will pass." What Madame really said, according to one
authority, was that Racine was writing for Champmeslé, the actress, and
not for posterity; again, of coffee she said, "_s'en dégoûterait comme;
d'un indigne favori_" (People will become disgusted with it as with an
unworthy favorite).
Larousse says the double judgment was wrongly attributed to Mme. de
Sévigné. The celebrated aphorism, like many others, was forged later.
Mme. de Sévigné said, "Racine made his comedies for the Champmeslé--not
for the ages to come." This was in 1672. Four years later, she said to
her daughter, "You have done well to quit coffee. Mlle. de Mere has also
given it up."
[Illustration: COFFEE WAS FIRST SOLD AND SERVED PUBLICLY IN THE FAIR OF
ST.-GERMAIN
From a Seventeenth-Century Print]
However it may have been, the amiable letter-writer was destined to live
to see Frenchmen yielding at once to the lure of coffee and to the
poetical artifices of the greatest dramatic craftsman of his day.
While it is recorded that coffee made slow progress with the court of
Louis XIV, the next king, Louis XV, to please his mistress, du Barry,
gave it a tremendous vogue. It is related that he spent $15,000 a year
for coffee for his daughters.
Meanwhile, in 1672, one Pascal, an Armenian, first sold coffee publicly
in Paris. Pascal, who, according to one account, was brought to Paris by
Soliman Aga, offered the beverage for sale from a tent, which was also a
kind of booth, in the fair of St.-Germain, supplemented by the service
of Turkish waiter boys, who peddled it among the crowds from small cups
on trays. The fair was held during the first two months of spring, in a
large open plot just inside the walls of Paris and near the Latin
Quarter. As Pascal's waiter boys circulated through the crowds on those
chilly days the fragrant odor of freshly made coffee brought many ready
sales of the steaming beverage; and soon visitors to the fair learned to
look for the "little black" cupful of cheer, or _petit noir_, a name
that still endures.
When the fair closed, Pascal opened a small coffee shop on the Quai de
l'École, near the Pont Neuf; but his frequenters were of a type who
preferred the beers and wines of the day, and coffee languished. Pascal
continued, however, to send his waiter boys with their large coffee
jugs, that were heated by lamps, through the streets of Paris and from
door to door. Their cheery cry of "_café! café!_" became a welcome call
to many a Parisian, who later missed his _petit noir_ when Pascal gave
up and moved on to London, where coffee drinking was then in high favor.
[Illustration: STREET COFFEE VENDER OF PARIS--PERIOD, 1672 TO 1689--TWO
SOUS PER DISH, SUGAR INCLUDED]
Lacking favor at court, coffee's progress was slow. The French smart set
clung to its light wines and beers. In 1672, Maliban, another Armenian,
opened a coffee house in the rue Bussy, next to the Metz tennis court
near St.-Germain's abbey. He supplied tobacco also to his customers.
Later he went to Holland, leaving his servant and partner, Gregory, a
Persian, in charge. Gregory moved to the rue Mazarine, to be near the
Comédie Française. He was succeeded in the business by Makara, another
Persian, who later returned to Ispahan, leaving the coffee house to one
Le Gantois, of Liége.
About this period there was a cripple boy from Candia, known as le
Candiot, who began to cry "coffee!" in the streets of Paris. He carried
with him a coffee pot of generous size, a chafing-dish, cups, and all
other implements necessary to his trade. He sold his coffee from door to
door at two sous per dish, sugar included.
[Illustration: MANY OF THE EARLY PARISIAN COFFEE HOUSES FOLLOWED
PASCAL'S LEAD AND AFFECTED ARMENIAN DECORATIONS
From a Seventeenth-Century Print]
A Levantine named Joseph also sold coffee in the streets, and later had
several coffee shops of his own. Stephen, from Aleppo, next opened a
coffee house on Pont au Change, moving, when his business prospered, to
more pretentious quarters in the rue St.-André, facing St.-Michael's
bridge.
[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE HISTORIC CAFÉ DE PROCOPE SHOWING VOLTAIRE
AND DIDEROT IN DEBATE
From a rare water color]
All these, and others, were essentially the Oriental style of coffee
house of the lower order, and they appealed principally to the poorer
classes and to foreigners. "Gentlemen and people of fashion" did not
care to be seen in this type of public house. But when the French
merchants began to set up, first at St.-Germain's fair, "spacious
apartments in an elegant manner, ornamented with tapestries, large
mirrors, pictures, marble tables, branches for candles, magnificent
lustres, and serving coffee, tea, chocolate, and other refreshments",
they were soon crowded with people of fashion and men of letters.
In this way coffee drinking in public acquired a badge of
respectability. Presently there were some three hundred coffee houses in
Paris. The principal coffee men, in addition to plying their trade in
the city, maintained coffee rooms in St.-Germain's and St.-Laurence's
fairs. These were frequented by women as well as men.
_The Progenitor of the Real Parisian Café_
It was not until 1689, that there appeared in Paris a real French
adaptation of the Oriental coffee house. This was the Café de Procope,
opened by François Procope (Procopio Cultelli, or Cotelli) who came from
Florence or Palermo. Procope was a _limonadier_ (lemonade vender) who
had a royal license to sell spices, ices, barley water, lemonade, and
other such refreshments. He early added coffee to the list, and
attracted a large and distinguished patronage.
Procope, a keen-witted merchant, made his appeal to a higher class of
patrons than did Pascal and those who first followed him. He established
his café directly opposite the newly opened Comédie Française, in the
street then known as the rue des Fossés-St.-Germain, but now the rue de
l'Ancienne Comédie. A writer of the period has left this description of
the place: "The Café de Procope ... was also called the Antre [cavern]
de Procope, because it was very dark even in full day, and ill-lighted
in the evenings; and because you often saw there a set of lank, sallow
poets, who had somewhat the air of apparitions."
Because of its location, the Café de Procope became the gathering place
of many noted French actors, authors, dramatists, and musicians of the
eighteenth century. It was a veritable literary salon. Voltaire was a
constant patron; and until the close of the historic café, after an
existence of more than two centuries, his marble table and chair were
among the precious relics of the coffee house. His favorite drink is
said to have been a mixture of coffee and chocolate. Rousseau, author
and philosopher; Beaumarchais, dramatist and financier; Diderot, the
encyclopedist; Ste.-Foix, the abbé of Voisenon; de Belloy, author of the
_Siege of Callais_; Lemierre, author of _Artaxerce_; Crébillon; Piron;
La Chaussée; Fontenelle; Condorcet; and a host of lesser lights in the
French arts, were habitués of François Procope's modest coffee saloon
near the Comédie Française.
Naturally, the name of Benjamin Franklin, recognized in Europe as one of
the world's foremost thinkers in the days of the American Revolution,
was often spoken over the coffee cups of Café de Procope; and when the
distinguished American died in 1790, this French coffee house went into
deep mourning "for the great friend of republicanism." The walls, inside
and out, were swathed in black bunting, and the statesmanship and
scientific attainments of Franklin were acclaimed by all frequenters.
The Café de Procope looms large in the annals of the French Revolution.
During the turbulent days of 1789 one could find at the tables, drinking
coffee or stronger beverages, and engaged in debate over the burning
questions of the hour, such characters as Marat, Robespierre, Danton,
Hébert, and Desmoulins. Napoleon Bonaparte, then a poor artillery
officer seeking a commission, was also there. He busied himself largely
in playing chess, a favorite recreation of the early Parisian
coffee-house patrons. It is related that François Procope once compelled
young Bonaparte to leave his hat for security while he sought money to
pay his coffee score.
After the Revolution, the Café de Procope lost its literary prestige and
sank to the level of an ordinary restaurant. During the last half of the
nineteenth century, Paul Verlaine, bohemian, poet, and leader of the
symbolists, made the Café de Procope his haunt; and for a time it
regained some of its lost popularity. The Restaurant Procope still
survives at 13 rue de l'Ancienne Comédie.
History records that, with the opening of the Café de Procope, coffee
became firmly established in Paris. In the reign of Louis XV there were
600 cafés in Paris. At the close of the eighteenth century there were
more than 800. By 1843 the number had increased to more than 3000.
_The Development of the Cafés_
Coffee's vogue spread rapidly, and many cabaréts and famous eating
houses began to add it to their menus. Among these was the Tour d'Argent
(silver tower), which had been opened on the Quai de la Tournelle in
1582, and speedily became Paris's most fashionable restaurant. It still
is one of the chief attractions for the epicure, retaining the
reputation for its cooking that drew a host of world leaders, from
Napoleon to Edward VII, to its quaint interior.
[Illustration: THE CAFÉ DE PROCOPE IN 1743
From an engraving by Bosredon]
Another tavern that took up coffee after Procope, was the Royal
Drummer, which Jean Ramponaux established at the Courtille des
Porcherons and which followed Magny's. His hostelry rightly belongs to
the tavern class, although coffee had a prominent place on its menu. It
became notorious for excesses and low-class vices during the reign of
Louis XV, who was a frequent visitor. Low and high were to be found in
Ramponaux's cellar, particularly when some especially wild revelry was
in prospect. Marie Antoinette once declared she had her most enjoyable
time at a wild _farandole_ in the Royal Drummer. Ramponaux was taken to
its heart by fashionable Paris; and his name was used as a trade mark on
furniture, clothes, and foods.
[Illustration: THE CASHIER'S COUNTER IN A PARIS COFFEE HOUSE OF 1782
From a drawing by Rétif de la Bretonne]
The popularity of Ramponaux's Royal Drummer is attested by an
inscription on an early print showing the interior of the café.
Translated, it reads:
The pleasures of ease untroubled to taste,
The leisure of home to enjoy without haste,
Perhaps a few hours at Magny's to waste,
Ah, that was the old-fashioned way!
Today all our laborers, everyone knows,
Go running away ere the working hours close,
And why? They must be at Monsieur Ramponaux'!
Behold, the new style of café!
When coffee houses began to crop up rapidly in Paris, the majority
centered in the Palais Royal, "that garden spot of beauty, enclosed on
three sides by three tiers of galleries," which Richelieu had erected in
1636, under the name of Palais Cardinal, in the reign of Louis XIII. It
became known as the Palais Royal in 1643; and soon after the opening of
the Café de Procope, it began to blossom out with many attractive coffee
stalls, or rooms, sprinkled among the other shops that occupied the
galleries overlooking the gardens.
_Life In The Early Coffee Houses_
Diderot tells in 1760, in his _Rameau's Nephew_, of the life and
frequenters of one of the Palais Royal coffee houses, the Regency (_Café
de la Régence_):
In all weathers, wet or fine, it is my practice to go toward five
o'clock in the evening to take a turn in the Palais Royal.... If
the weather is too cold or too wet I take shelter in the Regency
coffee house. There I amuse myself by looking on while they play
chess. Nowhere in the world do they play chess as skillfully as in
Paris and nowhere in Paris as they do at this coffee house; 'tis
here you see Légal the profound, Philidor the subtle, Mayot the
solid; here you see the most astounding moves, and listen to the
sorriest talk, for if a man be at once a wit and a great chess
player, like Légal, he may also be a great chess player and a sad
simpleton, like Joubert and Mayot.
The beginnings of the Regency coffee house are associated with the
legend that Lefévre, a Parisian, began peddling coffee in the streets of
Paris about the time Procope opened his café in 1689. The story has it
that Lefévre later opened a café near the Palais Royal, selling it in
1718 to one Leclerc, who named it the Café de la Régence, in honor of
the regent of Orleans, a name that still endures on a broad sign over
its doors. The nobility had their rendezvous there after having paid
their court to the regent.
[Illustration: THE CAFÉ FOY IN THE PALAIS ROYAL, 1789
From an engraving by Bosredon]
To name the patrons of the Café de la Régence in its long career would
be to outline a history of French literature for more than two
centuries. There was Philidor the "greatest theoretician of the
eighteenth century, better known for his chess than his music";
Robespierre, of the Revolution, who once played chess with a
girl--disguised as a boy--for the life of her lover; Napoleon, who was
then noted more for his chess than his empire-building propensities; and
Gambetta, whose loud voice, generally raised in debate, disturbed one
chess player so much that he protested because he could not follow his
game. Voltaire, Alfred de Musset; Victor Hugo, Théophile Gautier, J.J.
Rousseau, the Duke of Richelieu, Marshall Saxe, Buffon, Rivarol,
Fontenelle, Franklin, and Henry Murger are names still associated with
memories of this historic café: Marmontel and Philidor played there at
their favorite game of chess. Diderot tells in his _Memoirs_ that his
wife gave him every day nine sous to get his coffee there. It was in
this establishment that he worked on his _Encyclopedia_.
Chess is today still in favor at the Régence, although the players are
not, as were the earlier patrons, obliged to pay by the hour for their
tables with extra charges for candles placed by the chess-boards. The
present Café de la Régence is in the rue St.-Honoré, but retains in
large measure its aspect of olden days.
Michelet, the historian, has given us a rhapsodic pen picture of the
Parisian cafés under the regency:
Paris became one vast café. Conversation in France was at its
zenith. There were less eloquence and rhetoric than in '89. With
the exception of Rousseau, there was no orator to cite. The
intangible flow of wit was as spontaneous as possible. For this
sparkling outburst there is no doubt that honor should be ascribed
in part to the auspicious revolution of the times, to the great
event which created new customs, and even modified human
temperament--the advent of coffee.
Its effect was immeasurable, not being weakened and neutralized as
it is today by the brutalizing influence of tobacco. They took
snuff, but did not smoke. The cabarét was dethroned, the ignoble
cabarét, where, during the reign of Louis XIV, the youth of the
city rioted amid wine-casks in the company of light women. The
night was less thronged with chariots. Fewer lords found a resting
place in the gutter. The elegant shop, where conversation flowed, a
salon rather than a shop, changed and ennobled its customs. The
reign of coffee is that of temperance. Coffee, the beverage of
sobriety, a powerful mental stimulant, which, unlike spirituous
liquors, increases clearness and lucidity; coffee, which suppresses
the vague, heavy fantasies of the imagination, which from the
perception of reality brings forth the sparkle and sunlight of
truth; coffee anti-erotic....
The three ages of coffee are those of modern thought; they mark the
serious moments of the brilliant epoch of the soul.
Arabian coffee is the pioneer, even before 1700. The beautiful
ladies that you see in the fashionable rooms of Bonnard, sipping
from their tiny cups--they are enjoying the aroma of the finest
coffee of Arabia. And of what are they chatting? Of the seraglio,
of Chardin, of the Sultana's coiffure, of the _Thousand and One
Nights_ (1704). They compare the ennui of Versailles with the
paradise of the Orient.
Very soon, in 1710-1720, commences the reign of Indian coffee,
abundant, popular, comparatively cheap. Bourbon, our Indian island,
where coffee was transplanted, suddenly realizes unheard-of
happiness. This coffee of volcanic lands acts as an explosive on
the Regency and the new spirit of things. This sudden cheer, this
laughter of the old world, these overwhelming flashes of wit, of
which the sparkling verse of Voltaire, the _Persian Letters_, give
us a faint idea! Even the most brilliant books have not succeeded
in catching on the wing this airy chatter, which comes, goes, flies
elusively. This is that spirit of ethereal nature which, in the
_Thousand and One Nights_, the enchanter confined in his bottle.
But what phial would have withstood that pressure?
The lava of Bourbon, like the Arabian sand, was unequal to the
demand. The Regent recognized this and had coffee transported to
the fertile soil of our Antilles. The strong coffee of Santo
Domingo, full, coarse, nourishing as well as stimulating, sustained
the adult population of that period, the strong age of the
encyclopedia. It was drunk by Buffon, Diderot, Rousseau, added its
glow to glowing souls, its light to the penetrating vision of the
prophets gathered in the cave of Procope, who saw at the bottom of
the black beverage the future rays of '89. Danton, the terrible
Danton, took several cups of coffee before mounting the tribune.
'The horse must have its oats,' he said.
The vogue of coffee popularized the use of sugar, which was then bought
by the ounce at the apothecary's shop. Dufour says that in Paris they
used to put so much sugar in the coffee that "it was nothing but a syrup
of blackened water." The ladies were wont to have their carriages stop
in front of the Paris cafés and to have their coffee served to them by
the porter on saucers of silver.
Every year saw new cafés opened. When they became so numerous, and
competition grew so keen, it was necessary to invent new attractions for
customers. Then was born the _café chantant_, where songs, monologues,
dances, little plays and farces (not always in the best taste), were
provided to amuse the frequenters. Many of these _cafés chantants_ were
in the open air along the Champs-Elysées. In bad weather, Paris provided
the pleasure-seeker with the Eldorado, Alcazar d'Hiver, Scala, Gaieté,
Concert du XIXme Siécle, Folies Bobino, Rambuteau, Concert Européen,
and countless other meeting places where one could be served with a cup
of coffee.
[Illustration: THE CAFÉ DES MILLE COLONNES IN 1811
From an engraving by Bosredon]
As in London, certain cafés were noted for particular followings, like
the military, students, artists, merchants. The politicians had their
favorite resorts. Says Salvandy:[86]
These were senates in miniature; here mighty political questions
were discussed; here peace and war were decided upon; here generals
were brought to the bar of justice ... distinguished orators were
victoriously refuted, ministers heckled upon their ignorance, their
incapacity, their perfidy, their corruption. The café is in reality
a French institution; in them we find all these agitations and
movements of men, the like of which is unknown in the English
tavern. No government can go against the sentiment of the cafés.
The Revolution took place because they were for the Revolution.
Napoleon reigned because they were for glory. The Restoration was
shattered, because they understood the Charter in a different
manner.
In 1700 appeared the _Portefeuille Galant_, containing conversations of
the cafés.
_The Cafés in the French Revolution_
The Palais Royal coffee houses were centers of activity in the days
preceding and following the Revolution. A picture of them in the July
days of 1789 has been left by Arthur Young, who was visiting Paris at
that time:
The coffee houses present yet more singular and astounding
spectacles; they are not only crowded within, but other expectant
crowds are at the doors and windows, listening _à gorge déployée_
to certain orators who from chairs or tables harangue each his
little audience; the eagerness with which they are heard, and the
thunder of applause they receive for every sentiment of more than
common hardiness or violence against the government, cannot easily
be imagined.
The Palais Royal teemed with excited Frenchmen on the fateful Sunday of
July 12, 1789. The moment was a tense one, when, coming out of the Café
Foy, Camille Desmoulins, a youthful journalist, mounted a table and
began the harangue that precipitated the first overt act of the French
Revolution. Blazing with a white hot frenzy, he so played upon the
passions of the mob that at the conclusion of his speech he and his
followers "marched away from the Café on their errand of Revolution."
The Bastille fell two days later.
As if abashed by its reputation as the starting point of the mob spirit
of the Revolution, Café Foy became in after years a sedate
gathering-place of artists and literati. Up to its close it was
distinguished among other famous Parisian cafés for its exclusiveness
and strictly enforced rule of "no smoking."
Even from the first the Parisian cafés catered to all classes of
society; and, unlike the London coffee houses, they retained this
distinctive characteristic. A number of them early added other liquid
and substantial refreshments, many becoming out-and-out restaurants.
_Coffee-House Customs and Patrons_
Coffee's effect on Parisians is thus described by a writer of the latter
part of the eighteenth century:
I think I may safely assert that it is to the establishment of so
many cafés in Paris that is due the urbanity and mildness
discernible upon most faces. Before they existed, nearly everybody
passed his time at the cabarét, where even business matters were
discussed. Since their establishment, people assemble to hear what
is going on, drinking and playing only in moderation, and the
consequence is that they are more civil and polite, at least in
appearance.
Montesquieu's satirical pen pictured in his _Persian Letters_ the
earliest cafés as follows:
In some of these houses they talk news; in others, they play
draughts. There is one where they prepare the coffee in such a
manner that it inspires the drinkers of it with wit; at least, of
all those who frequent it, there is not one person in four who does
not think he has more wit after he has entered that house. But what
offends me in these wits is that they do not make themselves useful
to their country.
Montesquieu encountered a geometrician outside a coffee house on the
Pont Neuf, and accompanied him inside. He describes the incident in this
manner:
I observe that our geometrician was received there with the utmost
officiousness, and that the coffee house boys paid him much more
respect than two musqueteers who were in a corner of the room. As
for him, he seemed as if he thought himself in an agreeable place;
for he unwrinkled his brows a little and laughed, as if he had not
the least tincture of geometrician in him.... He was offended at
every start of wit, as a tender eye is by too strong a light.... At
last I saw an old man enter, pale and thin, whom I knew to be a
coffee house politician before he sat down; he was not one of those
who are never to be intimidated by disasters, but always prophesy
of victories and success; he was one of those timorous wretches who
are always boding ill.
Café Momus and Café Rotonde figure conspicuously in the record of French
bohemianism. The Momus stood near the right bank of the River Seine in
rue des Prêtres St.-Germain, and was known as the home of the bohemians.
The Rotonde stood on the left bank at the corner of the rue de l'École
de Médecine and the rue Hautefeuille.
[Illustration: THE CAFÉ DE PARIS IN 1843
From an engraving by Bosredon]
Alexandre Schanne has given us a glimpse of bohemian life in the early
cafés. He lays his scene in the Café Rotonde, and tells how a number of
poor students were wont to make one cup of coffee last the coterie a
full evening by using it to flavor and to color the one glass of water
shared in common. He says:
Every evening, the first comer at the waiter's inquiry, "What will
you take, sir?" never failed to reply, "Nothing just at present, I
am waiting for a friend." The friend arrived, to be assailed by the
brutal question, "Have you any money?" He would make a despairing
gesture in the negative, and then add, loud enough to be heard by
the _dame du comptoir_, "By Jove, no; only fancy, I left my purse
on my console-table, with gilt feet, in the purest Louis XV style.
Ah! what a thing it is to be forgetful." He would sit down, and the
waiter would wipe the table as if he had something to do. A third
would come, who was sometimes able to reply, "Yes. I have ten
sous." "Good!" we would reply; "order a cup of coffee, a glass and
a water bottle; pay and give two sous to the waiter to secure his
silence." This would be done. Others would come and take their
places beside us, repeating to the waiter the same chorus, "We are
with this gentleman." Frequently we would be eight or nine sitting
at the same table, and only one customer. Whilst smoking and
reading the papers we would, however, pass the glass and bottle.
When the water began to run short, as on a ship in distress, one of
us would have the impudence to call out, "Waiter, some water!" The
master of the establishment, who understood our situation, had no
doubt given orders for us to be left alone, and made his fortune
without our help. He was a good fellow and an intelligent one,
having subscribed to all the scientific journals of Europe, which
brought him the custom of foreign students.
Another café perpetuating the best traditions of the Latin Quarter was
the Vachette, which survived until the death of Jean Moréas in 1911. The
Vachette is usually cited by antiquarians as a model of circumspection
as compared with the scores of cafés in the Quarter that were given up
to debaucheries. One writer puts it: "The Vachette traditions leaned
more to scholarship than sensuality."
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the Parisian café
was truly a coffee house; but as many of the patrons began to while away
most of their waking hours in them, the proprietors added other
beverages and food to hold their patronage. Consequently, we find listed
among the cafés of Paris some houses that are more accurately described
as restaurants, although they may have started their careers as coffee
houses.
_Historic Parisian Cafés_
Some of the historic cafés are still thriving in their original
locations, although the majority have now passed into oblivion. Glimpses
of the more famous houses are to be found in the novels, poetry, and
essays written by the French literati who patronized them. These
first-hand accounts give insights that are sometimes stirring, often
amusing, and frequently revolting--such as the assassination of
St.-Fargean in Février's low-vaulted cellar café in the Palais Royal.
There is Magny's, originally the haunt of such literary men as Gautier,
Taine, Saint-Victor, Turguenieff, de Goncourt, Soulie, Renan, Edmond. In
recent years the old Magny's was razed, and on its site was built the
modern restaurant of the same name, but in a style that has no
resemblance to its predecessor. Even the name of the street has been
changed, from rue Contrescarpe to the rue Mazet.
Méot's, the Véry, Beauvilliers', Massé's, the Café Chartres, the Troi
Fréres Provençaux, and the du Grand Commun, all situated in the Palais
Royal, are cafés that figured conspicuously in the French Revolution,
and are closely identified with the French stage and literature. Méot's
and Massé's were the trysting places of the Royalists in the days
preceding the outbreak, but welcomed the Revolutionists after they came
in power. The Chartres was notorious as the gathering place of young
aristocrats who escaped the guillotine, and, thus made bold, often
called their like from adjoining cafés to partake in some of their plans
for restoration of the empire. The Trois Fréres Provençaux, well known
for its excellent and costly dinners, is mentioned by Balzac, Lord
Lytton, and Alfred de Musset in some of their novels. The Café du Grand
Commun appears in Rousseau's _Confessions_ in connection with the play
_Devin du Village_.
Among the most famous of the cafés on the Rue St. Honoré were Venua's,
patronized by Robespierre and his companions of the Revolution, and
perhaps the scene of the inhuman murder of Berthier and its revolting
aftermath; the Mapinot, which has gone down in café history as the scene
of the banquet to Archibald Alison, the 22-year-old historian; and
Voisin's café, around which still cling traditions of such literary
lights as Zola, Alphonse Daudet, and Jules de Goncourt.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A TYPICAL PARISIAN CAFÉ OF THE EARLY
NINETEENTH CENTURY]
Perhaps the boulevard des Italiens had, and still has, more fashionable
cafés than any other section of the French capital. The Tortoni, opened
in the early days of the Empire by Velloni, an Italian lemonade vender,
was the most popular of the boulevard cafés, and was generally thronged
with fashionables from all parts of Europe. Here Louis Blanc, historian
of the Revolution, spent many hours in the early days of his fame.
Talleyrand; Rossini, the musician; Alfred Stevens and Edouard Manet,
artists, are some of the names still linked with the traditions of the
Tortoni. Farther down the boulevard were the Café Riche, Maison Dorée,
Café Anglais, and the Café de Paris. The Riche and the Dorée, standing
side by side, were both high-priced and noted for their revelries. The
Anglais, which came into existence after the snuffing out of the Empire,
was also distinguished for its high prices, but in return gave an
excellent dinner and fine wines. It is told that even during the siege
of Paris the Anglais offered its patrons "such luxuries as ass, mule,
peas, fried potatoes, and champagne."
Probably the Café de Paris, which came into existence in 1822, in the
former home of the Russian Prince Demidoff, was the most richly equipped
and elegantly conducted of any café in Paris in the nineteenth century.
Alfred de Musset, a frequenter, said, "you could not open its doors for
less than 15 francs."
The Café Littéraire, opened on boulevard Bonne Nouvelle late in the
nineteenth century, made a direct appeal to literary men for patronage,
printing this footnote on its menu: "Every customer spending a franc in
this establishment is entitled to one volume of any work to be selected
from our vast collection."
The names of Parisian cafés once more or less famous are legion. Some of
them are:
The Café Laurent, which Rousseau was forced to leave after writing an
especially bitter satire; the English café in which eccentric Lord
Wharton made merry with the Whig habitués; the Dutch café, the haunt of
Jacobites; Terre's, in the rue Neuve des Petits Champs, which Thackeray
described in _The Ballad of Bouillabaisse_; Maire's, in the boulevard
St.-Denis, which dates back beyond 1850; the Café Madrid, in the
boulevard Montmartre, of which Carjat, the Spanish lyric poet, was an
attraction; the Café de la Paix, in the boulevard des Capucines, the
resort of Second Empire Imperialists and their spies; the Café Durand,
in the place de la Madeleine, which started on a plane with the
high-priced Riche, and ended its career early in the twentieth century;
the Rocher de Cancale, memorable for its feasts and high-living patrons
from all over Europe; the Café Guerbois, near the rue de St. Petersburg,
where Manet, the impressionist, after many vicissitudes, won fame for
his paintings and held court for many years; the Chat Noir, on the rue
Victor Massé at Montmartre, a blend of café and concert hall, which has
since been imitated widely, both in name and feature.
[Illustration: CHESS HAS BEEN A FAVORITE PASTIME AT THE CAFÉ DE LA
RÉGENCE FOR TWO HUNDRED YEARS.]
CHAPTER XII
INTRODUCTION OF COFFEE INTO NORTH AMERICA
_Captain John Smith, founder of the Colony of Virginia, is the
first to bring to North America a knowledge of coffee in 1607--The
coffee grinder on the Mayflower--Coffee drinking in 1668--William
Penn's coffee purchase in 1683--Coffee in colonial New England--The
psychology of the Boston "tea party," and why the United States
became a nation of coffee drinkers instead of tea drinkers, like
England--The first coffee license to Dorothy Jones in 1670--The
first coffee house in New England--Notable coffee houses of old
Boston--A skyscraper coffee house_
Undoubtedly the first to bring a knowledge of coffee to North America
was Captain John Smith, who founded the Colony of Virginia at Jamestown
in 1607. Captain Smith became familiar with coffee in his travels in
Turkey.
Although the Dutch also had early knowledge of coffee, it does not
appear that the Dutch West India Company brought any of it to the first
permanent settlement on Manhattan Island (1624). Nor is there any record
of coffee in the cargo of the Mayflower (1620), although it included a
wooden mortar and pestle, later used to make "coffee powder."
In the period when New York was New Amsterdam, and under Dutch occupancy
(1624-64), it is possible that coffee may have been imported from
Holland, where it was being sold on the Amsterdam market as early as
1640, and where regular supplies of the green bean were being received
from Mocha in 1663; but positive proof is lacking. The Dutch appear to
have brought tea across the Atlantic from Holland before coffee. The
English may have introduced the coffee drink into the New York colony
between 1664 and 1673. The earliest reference to coffee in America is
1668[87], at which time a beverage made from the roasted beans, and
flavored with sugar or honey, and cinnamon, was being drunk in New York.
Coffee first appears in the official records of the New England colony
in 1670. In 1683, the year following William Penn's settlement on the
Delaware, we find him buying supplies of coffee in the New York market
and paying for them at the rate of eighteen shillings and nine pence per
pound.[88]
Coffee houses patterned after the English and Continental prototypes
were soon established in all the colonies. Those of New York and
Philadelphia are described in separate chapters. The Boston houses are
described at the end of this chapter.
Norfolk, Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans also had them. Conrad
Leonhard's coffee house at 320 Market Street. St. Louis, was famous for
its coffee and coffee cake, from 1844 to 1905, when it became a bakery
and lunch room, removing in 1919 to Eighth and Pine Streets.
In the pioneer days of the great west, coffee and tea were hard to get;
and, instead of them, teas were often made from garden herbs, spicewood,
sassafras-roots, and other shrubs, taken from the thickets[89]. In
1839, in the city of Chicago, one of the minor taverns was known as the
Lake Street coffee house. It was situated at the corner of Lake and
Wells Streets. A number of hotels, which in the English sense might more
appropriately be called inns, met a demand for modest accommodation[90].
Two coffee houses were listed in the Chicago directories for 1843 and
1845, the Washington coffee house, 83 Lake Street; and the Exchange
coffee house, Clarke Street between La Salle and South Water Streets.
[Illustration: TYPES OF COLONIAL COFFEE ROASTERS
The cylinder at the top of the picture was revolved by hand in the
fireplace; the skillets were set in the smouldering ashes]
The old-time coffee houses of New Orleans were situated within the
original area of the city, the section bounded by the river, Canal
Street, Esplanade Avenue and Rampart Street. In the early days most of
the big business of the city was transacted in the coffee houses. The
_brûleau_, coffee with orange juice, orange peel, and sugar, with cognac
burned and mixed in it, originated in the New Orleans coffee house, and
led to its gradual evolution into the saloon.
_How the United States Became a Nation of Coffee Drinkers_
Coffee, tea, and chocolate were introduced into North America almost
simultaneously in the latter part of the seventeenth century. In the
first half of the eighteenth century, tea had made such progress in
England, thanks to the propaganda of the British East India Company,
that, being moved to extend its use in the colonies, the directors
turned their eyes first in the direction of North America. Here,
however, King George spoiled their well-laid plans by his unfortunate
stamp act of 1765, which caused the colonists to raise the cry of "no
taxation without representation."
Although the act was repealed in 1766, the right to tax was asserted,
and in 1767 was again used, duties being laid on paints, oils, lead,
glass, and tea. Once more the colonists resisted; and, by refusing to
import any goods of English make, so distressed the English
manufacturers that Parliament repealed every tax save that on tea.
Despite the growing fondness for the beverage in America, the colonists
preferred to get their tea elsewhere to sacrificing their principles and
buying it from England. A brisk trade in smuggling tea from Holland was
started.
In a panic at the loss of the most promising of its colonial markets,
the British East India Company appealed to Parliament for aid, and was
permitted to export tea, a privilege it had never before enjoyed.
Cargoes were sent on consignment to selected commissioners in Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. The story of the subsequent
happenings properly belongs in a book on tea. It is sufficient here to
refer to the climax of the agitation against the fateful tea tax,
because it is undoubtedly responsible for our becoming a nation of
coffee drinkers instead of one of tea drinkers, like England.
[Illustration: AN EARLY FAMILY COFFEE ROASTER
This machine, known in Holland as a "Coffee Burner," was used late in
the 18th century in New England. It hung in the fireplace or stood in
the embers]
The Boston "tea party" of 1773, when citizens of Boston, disguised as
Indians, boarded the English ships lying in Boston harbor and threw
their tea cargoes into the bay, cast the die for coffee; for there and
then originated a subtle prejudice against "the cup that cheers", which
one hundred and fifty years have failed entirely to overcome. Meanwhile,
the change wrought in our social customs by this act, and those of like
nature following it, in the New York, Pennsylvania, and Charleston
colonies, caused coffee to be crowned "king of the American breakfast
table", and the sovereign drink of the American people.
[Illustration: HISTORICAL RELICS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EARLY DAYS OF
COFFEE IN NEW ENGLAND
These exhibits are in the Museum of the Maine Historical Society at
Portland. On the left is Kenrick's Patent coffee mill. In the center is
a Britannia urn with an iron bar for heating the liquid. The bar was
encased in a tin receptacle that hung inside the cover. On the right is
a wall type of coffee or spice grinder]
_Coffee in Colonial New England_
The history of coffee in colonial New England is so closely interwoven
with the story of the inns and taverns that it is difficult to
distinguish the genuine coffee house, as it was known in England, from
the public house where lodgings and liquors were to be had. The coffee
drink had strong competition from the heady wines, the liquors, and
imported teas, and consequently it did not attain the vogue among the
colonial New Englanders that it did among Londoners of the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Although New England had its coffee houses, these were actually taverns
where coffee was only one of the beverages served to patrons. "They
were", says Robinson, "generally meeting places of those who were
conservative in their views regarding church and state, being friends of
the ruling administration. Such persons were terms 'Courtiers' by their
adversaries, the Dissenters and Republicans."
Most of the coffee houses were established in Boston, the metropolis of
the Massachusetts Colony, and the social center of New England. While
Plymouth, Salem, Chelsea, and Providence had taverns that served coffee,
they did not achieve the name and fame of some of the more celebrated
coffee houses in Boston.
It is not definitely known when the first coffee was brought in; but it
is reasonable to suppose that it came as part of the household supplies
of some settler (probably between 1660 and 1670), who had become
acquainted with it before leaving England. Or it may have been
introduced by some British officer, who in London had made the rounds of
the more celebrated coffee houses of the latter half of the seventeenth
century.
_The First Coffee License_
According to early town records of Boston, Dorothy Jones was the first
to be licensed to sell "coffee and cuchaletto," the latter being the
seventeenth-century spelling for chocolate or cocoa. This license is
dated 1670, and is said to be the first written reference to coffee in
the Massachusetts Colony. It is not stated whether Dorothy Jones was a
vender of the coffee drink or of "coffee powder," as ground coffee was
known in the early days.
[Illustration: THE MAYFLOWER "COFFEE GRINDER"
Mortar and pestle for "braying" coffee to make coffee powder, brought
over in the Mayflower by the parents of Peregrine White]
There is some question as to whether Dorothy Jones was the first to sell
coffee as a beverage in Boston. Londoners had known and drunk coffee for
eighteen years before Dorothy Jones got her coffee license. British
government officials were frequently taking ship from London to the
Massachusetts Colony, and it is likely that they brought tidings and
samples of the coffee the English gentry had lately taken up. No doubt
they also told about the new-style coffee houses that were becoming
popular in all parts of London. And it may be assumed that their tales
caused the landlords of the inns and taverns of colonial Boston to add
coffee to their lists of beverages.
_New England's First Coffee House_
The name coffee house did not come into use in New England until late in
the seventeenth century. Early colonial records do not make it clear
whether the London coffee house or the Gutteridge coffee house was the
first to be opened in Boston with that distinctive title. In all
likelihood the London is entitled to the honor, for Samuel Gardner Drake
in his _History and Antiquities of the City of Boston_, published in
1854, says that "Benj. Harris sold books there in 1689." Drake seems to
be the only historian of early Boston to mention the London coffee
house.
Granting that the London coffee house was the first in Boston, then the
Gutteridge coffee house was the second. The latter stood on the north
side of State Street, between Exchange and Washington Streets, and was
named after Robert Gutteridge, who took out an innkeeper's license in
1691. Twenty-seven years later, his widow, Mary Gutteridge, petitioned
the town for a renewal of her late husband's permit to keep a public
coffee house.
The British coffee house, which became the American coffee house when
the crown officers and all things British became obnoxious to the
colonists, also began its career about the time Gutteridge took out his
license. It stood on the site that is now 66 State Street, and became
one of the most widely known coffee houses in colonial New England.
Of course, there were several inns and taverns in existence in Boston
long before coffee and coffee houses came to the New England metropolis.
Some of these taverns took up coffee when it became fashionable in the
colony, and served it to those patrons who did not care for the stronger
drinks.
[Illustration: THE CROWN COFFEE HOUSE, BOSTON
One of the first in New England to bear the distinctive name of coffee
house; opened in 1711 and burned down in 1780]
The earliest known inn was set up by Samuel Cole in Washington Street,
midway between Faneuil Hall and State Street. Cole was licensed as a
"comfit maker" in 1634, four years after the founding of Boston; and two
years later, his inn was the temporary abiding place of the Indian
chief Miantonomoh and his red warriors, who came to visit Governor Vane.
In the following year, the Earl of Marlborough found that Cole's inn was
so "exceedingly well governed," and afforded so desirable privacy, that
he refused the hospitality of Governor Winthrop at the governor's
mansion.
[Illustration: COFFEE MAKING AND SERVING DEVICES USED IN THE
MASSACHUSETTS COLONY
These exhibits are in the Museum of the Essex Institute at Salem, Mass.
Top row, left and right, Britannia serving pots; center, Britannia table
urn; bottom row, left end, tin coffee making pot; center, Britannia
serving pots; right end, tin French drip pot]
Another popular inn of the day was the Red Lyon, which was opened in
1637 by Nicholas Upshall, the Quaker, who later was hanged for trying to
bribe a jailer to pass some food into the jail to two Quakeresses who
were starving within.
Ship tavern, erected in 1650, at the corner of North and Clark Streets,
then on the waterfront, was a haunt of British government officials. The
father of Governor Hutchinson was the first landlord, to be succeeded in
1663 by John Vyal. Here lived the four commissioners who were sent to
these shores by King Charles II to settle the disputes then beginning
between the colonies and England.
Another lodging and eating place for the gentlemen of quality in the
first days of Boston was the Blue Anchor, in Cornhill, which was
conducted in 1664 by Robert Turner. Here gathered members of the
government, visiting officials, jurists, and the clergy, summoned into
synod by the Massachusetts General Court. It is assumed that the clergy
confined their drinking to coffee and other moderate beverages, leaving
the wines and liquors to their confrères.
_Some Notable Boston Coffee Houses_
In the last quarter of the seventeenth century quite a number of taverns
and inns sprang up. Among the most notable that have obtained
recognition in Boston's historical records were the King's Head, at the
corner of Fleet and North Streets; the Indian Queen, on a passageway
leading from Washington Street to Hawley Street; the Sun, in Faneuil
Hall Square, and the Green Dragon, which became one of the most
celebrated coffee-house taverns.
The King's Head, opened in 1691, early became a rendezvous of crown
officers and the citizens in the higher strata of colonial society.
The Indian Queen also became a favorite resort of the crown officers
from Province House. Started by Nathaniel Bishop about 1673, it stood
for more than 145 years as the Indian Queen, and then was replaced by
the Washington coffee house, which became noted throughout New England
as the starting place for the Roxbury "hourlies," the stage coaches that
ran every hour from Boston to nearby Roxbury.
[Illustration: COFFEE DEVICES THAT FIGURED IN THE PIONEERING OF THE
GREAT WEST
Photographed for this work in the Museum of the State Historical Society
of Wisconsin. Left to right, English decorated tin pot; coffee and spice
mill from Lexington, Mass.; Globe roaster built by Rays & Wilcox Co.,
Berlin, Conn., under Wood's patent; sheet brass coffee mill from
Lexington, Mass.; John Luther's coffee mill, Warren, R.I.; cast-iron
hopper mill]
The Sun tavern lived a longer life than any other Boston inn. Started in
1690 in Faneuil Hall Square, it was still standing in 1902, according to
Henry R. Blaney; but has since been razed to make way for a modern
skyscraper.
[Illustration: METAL AND CHINA COFFEE POTS USED IN NEW ENGLAND'S
COLONIAL DAYS
From the collection in the Museum of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial
Association, Deerfield, Mass.]
_New England's Most Famous Coffee House_
The Green Dragon, the last of the inns that were popular at the close of
the seventeenth century, was the most celebrated of Boston's
coffee-house taverns. It stood on Union Street, in the heart of the
town's business center, for 135 years, from 1697 to 1832, and figured in
practically all the important local and national events during its long
career. Red-coated British soldiers, colonial governors, bewigged crown
officers, earls and dukes, citizens of high estate, plotting
revolutionists of lesser degree, conspirators in the Boston Tea Party,
patriots and generals of the Revolution--all these were wont to gather
at the Green Dragon to discuss their various interests over their cups
of coffee, and stronger drinks. In the words of Daniel Webster, this
famous coffee-house tavern was the "headquarters of the Revolution." It
was here that Warren, John Adams, James Otis, and Paul Revere met as a
"ways and means committee" to secure freedom for the American colonies.
Here, too, came members of the Grand Lodge of Masons to hold their
meetings under the guidance of Warren, who was the first grand master of
the first Masonic lodge in Boston. The site of the old tavern, now
occupied by a business block, is still the property of the St. Andrew's
Lodge of Free Masons. The old tavern was a two-storied brick structure
with a sharply pitched roof. Over its entrance hung a sign bearing the
figure of a green dragon.
[Illustration: THE GREEN DRAGON, THE CENTER OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE
IN BOSTON FOR 135 YEARS
This tavern figured in practically all the important national affairs
from 1697 to 1832, and, according to Daniel Webster, was the
"headquarters of the Revolution"]
Patrons of the Green Dragon and the British coffee house were decidedly
opposed in their views on the questions of the day. While the Green
Dragon was the gathering place of the patriotic colonials, the British
was the rendezvous of the loyalists, and frequent were the encounters
between the patrons of these two celebrated taverns. It was in the
British coffee house that James Otis was so badly pummeled, after being
lured there by political enemies, that he never regained his former
brilliancy as an orator.
It was there, in 1750, that some British red coats staged the first
theatrical entertainment given in Boston, playing Otway's _Orphan_.
There, the first organization of citizens to take the name of a club
formed the Merchants' Club in 1751. The membership included officers of
the king, colonial governors and lesser officials, military and naval
leaders, and members of the bar, with a sprinkling of high-ranking
citizens who were staunch friends of the crown. However, the British
became so generally disliked that as soon as the king's troops evacuated
Boston in the Revolution, the name of the coffee house was changed to
the American.
The Bunch of Grapes, that Francis Holmes presided over as early as 1712,
was another hot-bed of politicians. Like the Green Dragon over the way,
its patrons included unconditional freedom seekers, many coming from the
British coffee house when things became too hot for them in that Tory
atmosphere. The Bunch of Grapes became the center of a stirring
celebration in 1776, when a delegate from Philadelphia read the
Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the inn to the crowd
assembled in the street below. So enthusiastic did the Bostonians become
that, in the excitement that followed, the inn was nearly destroyed when
one enthusiast built a bonfire too close to its walls. Another anecdote
told of the Bunch of Grapes concerns Sir William Phipps, governor of
Massachusetts from 1692-94, who was noted for his irascibility. He had
his favorite chair and window in the inn, and in the accounts of the
period it is written that on any fine afternoon his glowering
countenance could be seen at the window by the passers-by on State
Street.
After the beginning of the eighteenth century the title of coffee house
was applied to a number of hostelries opened in Boston. One of these was
the Crown, which was opened in the "first house on Long Wharf" in 1711
by Jonathan Belcher, who later became governor of Massachusetts, and
still later of New Jersey. The first landlord of the Crown was Thomas
Selby, who by trade was a periwig maker, but probably found the selling
of strong drink and coffee more profitable. Selby's coffee house was
also used as an auction room. The Crown stood until 1780, when it was
destroyed in a fire that swept the Long Wharf. On its site now stands
the Fidelity Trust Company at 148 State Street.
Another early Boston coffee house on State Street was the Royal
Exchange. How long it had been standing before it was first mentioned in
colonial records in 1711 is unknown. It occupied an ancient two-story
building, and was kept in 1711 by Benjamin Johns. This coffee house
became the starting place for stage coaches running between Boston and
New York, the first one leaving September 7, 1772. In the _Columbian
Centinel_ of January 1, 1800, appeared an advertisement in which it was
said: "New York and Providence Mail Stage leaves Major Hatches' Royal
Exchange Coffee House in State Street every morning at 8 o'clock."
In the latter half of the eighteenth century the North-End coffee house
was celebrated as the highest-class coffee house in Boston. It occupied
the three-storied brick mansion which had been built about 1740 by
Edward Hutchinson, brother of the noted governor. It stood on the west
side of North Street, between Sun Court and Fleet Street, and was one of
the most pretentious of its kind. An eighteenth century writer, in
describing this coffee-house mansion, made much of the fact that it had
forty-five windows and was valued at $4,500, a large sum for those days.
During the Revolution, Captain David Porter, father of Admiral David D.
Porter, was the landlord, and under him it became celebrated throughout
the city as a high-grade eating place. The advertisements of the
North-End coffee house featured its "dinners and suppers--small and
retired rooms for small company--oyster suppers in the nicest manner."
[Illustration: METAL COFFEE POTS USED IN THE NEW YORK COLONY
Left, tin coffee pot, dark brown, with "love apple" decoration in red,
New Jersey Historical Society, Newark; right, weighted bottom tin pot
with rose decoration, private owner]
_A "Skyscraper" Coffee House_
The Boston coffee-house period reached its height in 1808, when the
doors of the Exchange coffee house were thrown open after three years of
building. This structure, situated on Congress Street near State
Street, was the skyscraper of its day, and probably was the most
ambitious coffee-house project the world has known. Built of stone,
marble, and brick, it stood seven stories high, and cost a half-million
dollars. Charles Bulfinch, America's most noted architect of that
period, was the designer.
[Illustration: EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE, BOSTON, 1808, PROBABLY THE LARGEST
AND MOST COSTLY IN THE WORLD
Built of stone, marble and brick, it stood seven stories high and cost
$500,000. It was patterned after Lloyd's of London, and was the center
of marine intelligence in Boston]
Like Lloyd's coffee house in London, the Exchange was the center of
marine intelligence, and its public rooms were thronged all day and
evening with mariners, naval officers, ship and insurance brokers, who
had come to talk shop or to consult the records of ship arrivals and
departures, manifests, charters, and other marine papers. The first
floor of the Exchange was devoted to trading. On the next floor was the
large dining room, where many sumptuous banquets were given, notably the
one to President Monroe in July, 1817, which was attended by former
President John Adams, and by many generals, commodores, governors, and
judges. The other floors were given over to living and sleeping rooms,
of which there were more than 200. The Exchange coffee house was
destroyed by fire in 1818; and on its site was erected another, bearing
the same name, but having slight resemblance to its predecessor.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: PRESIDENT-ELECT WASHINGTON WELCOMED AT THE MERCHANTS
COFFEE HOUSE, NEW YORK
The reception took place April 23, 1789, one week before his
inauguration. From a painting by Charles P. Gruppe, owned by the author]
CHAPTER XIII
HISTORY OF COFFEE IN OLD NEW YORK
_The burghers of New Amsterdam begin to substitute coffee for
"must," or beer, at breakfast in 1668--William Penn makes his first
purchase of coffee in the green bean from New York merchants in
1683--The King's Arms, the first coffee house--The historic
Merchants, sometimes called the "Birthplace of our Union"--The
coffee house as a civic forum--The Exchange, Whitehall, Burns,
Tontine, and other celebrated coffee houses--The Vauxhall and
Ranelagh pleasure gardens_
The Dutch founders of New York seem to have introduced tea into New
Amsterdam before they brought in coffee. This was somewhere about the
middle of the seventeenth century. We find it recorded that about 1668
the burghers succumbed to coffee[91]. Coffee made its way slowly, first
in the homes, where it replaced the "must", or beer, at breakfast.
Chocolate came about the same time, but was more of a luxury than tea or
coffee.
After the surrender of New York to the British in 1674, English manners
and customs were rapidly introduced. First tea, and later coffee, were
favorite beverages in the homes. By 1683 New York had become so central
a market for the green bean, that William Penn, as soon as he found
himself comfortably settled in the Pennsylvania Colony, sent over to New
York for his coffee supplies[92]. It was not long before a social need
arose that only the London style of coffee house could fill.
The coffee houses of early New York, like their prototypes in London,
Paris, and other old world capitals, were the centers of the business,
political and, to some extent, of the social life of the city. But they
never became the forcing-beds of literature that the French and English
houses were, principally because the colonists had no professional
writers of note.
There is one outstanding feature of the early American coffee houses,
particularly of those opened in New York, that is not distinctive of the
European houses. The colonists sometimes held court trials in the long,
or assembly, room of the early coffee houses; and often held their
general assembly and council meetings there.
_The Coffee House as a Civic Forum_
The early coffee house was an important factor in New York life. What
the perpetuation of this public gathering place meant to the citizens is
shown by a complaint (evidently designed to revive the declining
fortunes of the historic Merchants coffee house) in the _New York
Journal_ of October 19, 1775, which, in part, said:
To the Inhabitants of New York:
It gives me concern, in this time of public difficulty and danger,
to find we have in this city no place of daily general meeting,
where we might hear and communicate intelligence from every quarter
and freely confer with one another on every matter that concerns
us. Such a place of general meeting is of very great advantage in
many respects, especially at such a time as this, besides the
satisfaction it affords and the sociable disposition it has a
tendency to keep up among us, which was never more wanted than at
this time. To answer all these and many other good and useful
purposes, coffee houses have been universally deemed the most
convenient places of resort, because, at a small expense of time or
money, persons wanted may be found and spoke with, appointments may
be made, current news heard, and whatever it most concerns us to
know. In all cities, therefore, and large towns that I have seen in
the British dominions, sufficient encouragement has been given to
support one or more coffee houses in a genteel manner. How comes it
then that New York, the most central, and one of the largest and
most prosperous cities in British America, cannot support one
coffee house? It is a scandal to the city and its inhabitants to be
destitute of such a convenience for want of due encouragement. A
coffee house, indeed, there is, a very good and comfortable one,
extremely well tended and accommodated, but it is frequented but by
an inconsiderable number of people; and I have observed with
surprise, that but a small part of those who do frequent it,
contribute anything at all to the expense of it, but come in and go
out without calling for or paying anything to the house. In all the
coffee houses in London, it is customary for every one that comes
in to call for at least a dish of coffee, or leave the value of
one, which is but reasonable, because when the keepers of these
houses have been at the expense of setting them up and providing
all necessaries for the accommodation of company, every one that
comes to receive the benefit of these conveniences ought to
contribute something towards the expense of them.
A FRIEND TO THE CITY.
_New York's First Coffee House_
Some chroniclers of New York's early days are confident that the first
coffee house in America was opened in New York; but the earliest
authenticated record they have presented is that on November 1, 1696,
John Hutchins bought a lot on Broadway, between Trinity churchyard and
what is now Cedar Street, and there built a house, naming it the King's
Arms. Against this record, Boston can present the statement in Samuel
Gardner Drake's _History and Antiquities of the City of Boston_ that
Benj. Harris sold books at the "London Coffee House" in 1689.
[Illustration: NEW YORK'S PIONEER COFFEE HOUSE, THE KING'S ARMS, OPENED
IN 1696
This view shows the garden side of the historic old house as it was
conducted by John Hutchins, near Trinity Church, on Broadway. The
observatory may have been added later]
The King's Arms was built of wood, and had a front of yellow brick, said
to have been brought from Holland. The building was two stories high,
and on the roof was an "observatory," arranged with seats, and
commanding a fine view of the bay, the river, and the city. Here the
coffee-house visitors frequently sat in the afternoons. It is not shown
in the illustration.
[Illustration: BURNS COFFEE HOUSE AS IT APPEARED ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY
It stood for many years on Broadway, opposite Bowling Green, in the old
De Lancey House, becoming known in 1763 as the King's Arms, and later
the Atlantic Garden House]
The sides of the main room on the lower floor were lined with booths,
which, for the sake of greater privacy, were screened with green
curtains. There a patron could sip his coffee, or a more stimulating
drink, and look over his mail in the same exclusiveness affected by the
Londoner of the time.
The rooms on the second floor were used for special meetings of
merchants, colonial magistrates and overseers, or similar public and
private business.
The meeting room, as above described, seems to have been one of the
chief features distinguishing a coffee house from a tavern. Although
both types of houses had rooms for guests, and served meals, the coffee
house was used for business purposes by permanent customers, while the
tavern was patronized more by transients. Men met at the coffee house
daily to carry on business, and went to the tavern for convivial
purposes or lodgings. Before the front door hung the sign of "the lion
and the unicorn fighting for the crown."
For many years the King's Arms was the only coffee house in the city; or
at least no other seems of sufficient importance to have been mentioned
in colonial records. For this reason it was more frequently designated
as "the" coffee house than the King's Arms. Contemporary records of the
arrest of John Hutchins of the King's Arms, and of Roger Baker, for
speaking disrespectfully of King George, mention the King's Head, of
which Baker was proprietor. But it is generally believed that this
public house was a tavern and not rightfully to be considered as a
coffee house. The White Lion, mentioned about 1700, was also a tavern,
or inn.
_The New Coffee House_
Under date of September 22, 1709, the _Journal of the General Assembly
of the Colony of New York_ refers to a conference held in the "New
Coffee House." About this date the business section of the city had
begun to drift eastward from Broadway to the waterfront; and from this
fact it is assumed that the name "New Coffee House" indicates that the
King's Arms had been removed from its original location near Cedar
Street, or that it may have lost favor and have been superseded in
popularity by a newer coffee house. The _Journal_ does not give the
location of the "New" coffee house. Whatever the case may be, the name
of the King's Arms does not again appear in the records until 1763, and
then it had more the character of a tavern, or roadhouse.
The public records from 1709 up to 1729 are silent in regard to coffee
houses in New York. In 1725 the pioneer newspaper in the city, the _New
York Gazette_, came into existence; and four years later, 1729, there
appeared in it an advertisement stating that "a competent bookkeeper may
be heard of" at the "Coffee House." In 1730 another advertisement in the
same journal tells of a sale of land by public vendue (auction) to be
held at the Exchange coffee house.
_The Exchange Coffee House_
By reason of its name, the Exchange Coffee House is thought to have been
located at the foot of Broad Street, abutting the sea-wall and near the
Long Bridge of that day. At that time this section was the business
center of the city, and here was a trading exchange.
That the Exchange coffee house was the only one of its kind in New York
in 1732 is inferred from the announcement in that year of a meeting of
the conference committee of the Council and Assembly "at the Coffee
House." In seeming confirmation of this conclusion, is the advertisement
in 1733 in the _New York Gazette_ requesting the return of "lost sleeve
buttons to Mr. Todd, next door to the Coffee House." The records of the
day show that a Robert Todd kept the famous Black Horse tavern which was
located in this part of the city.
Again we hear of the Exchange coffee house in 1737, and apparently in
the same location, where it is mentioned in an account of the "Negro
plot" as being next door to the Fighting Cocks tavern by the Long
Bridge, at the foot of Broad Street. Also in this same year it is named
as the place of public vendue of land situated on Broadway.
By this time the Exchange coffee house had virtually become the city's
official auction room, as well as the place to buy and to drink coffee.
Commodities of many kinds were also bought and sold there, both within
the house and on the sidewalk before it.
_The Merchants Coffee House_
In the year 1750, the Exchange coffee house had begun to lose its
long-held prestige, and its name was changed to the Gentlemen's Exchange
coffee house and tavern. A year later it had migrated to Broadway under
the name of the Gentlemens' coffee house and tavern. In 1753 it was
moved again, to Hunter's Quay, which was situated on what is now Front
Street, somewhere between the present Old Slip and Wall Street. The
famous old coffee house seems to have gone out of existence about this
time, its passing hastened, no doubt, by the newer enterprise, the
Merchants coffee house, which was to become the most celebrated in New
York, and, according to some writers, the most historic in America.
It is not certain just when the Merchants coffee house was first opened.
As near as can be determined, Daniel Bloom, a mariner, in 1737 bought
the Jamaica Pilot Boat tavern from John Dunks and named it the Merchants
coffee house. The building was situated on the northwest corner of the
present Wall Street and Water (then Queen) Street; and Bloom was its
landlord until his death, soon after the year 1750. He was succeeded by
Captain James Ackland, who shortly sold it to Luke Roome. The latter
disposed of the building in 1758 to Dr. Charles Arding. The doctor
leased it to Mrs. Mary Ferrari, who continued as its proprietor until
she moved, in 1772, to the newer building diagonally across the street,
built by William Brownejohn, on the southeast corner of Wall and Water
Streets. Mrs. Ferrari took with her the patronage and the name of the
Merchants coffee house, and the old building was not used again as a
coffee house.
The building housing the original Merchants coffee house was a two-story
structure, with a balcony on the roof, which was typical of the middle
eighteenth century architecture in New York. On the first floor were the
coffee bar and booths described in connection with the King's Arms
coffee house. The second floor had the typical long room for public
assembly.
During Bloom's proprietorship the Merchants coffee house had a long,
hard struggle to win the patronage away from the Exchange coffee house,
which was flourishing at that time. But, being located near the Meal
Market, where the merchants were wont to gather for trading purposes, it
gradually became the meeting place of the city, at the expense of the
Exchange coffee house, farther down the waterfront.
[Illustration: MERCHANTS COFFEE HOUSE (AT THE RIGHT) AS IT APPEARED FROM
1772 TO 1804
The original coffee house of this name was opened on the northwest
corner of Wall and Water Streets about 1737, the business being moved to
the southeast corner in 1772]
Widow Ferrari presided over the original Merchants coffee house for
fourteen years, until she moved across the street. She was a keen
business woman. Just before she was ready to open the new coffee house
she announced to her old patrons that she would give a house-warming, at
which arrack, punch, wine, cold ham, tongue, and other delicacies of the
day would be served. The event was duly noted in the newspapers, one
stating that "the agreeable situation and the elegance of the new house
had occasioned a great resort of company to it."
Mrs. Ferrari continued in charge until May 1, 1776, when Cornelius
Bradford became proprietor and sought to build up the patronage, that
had dwindled somewhat during the stirring days immediately preceding the
Revolution. In his announcement of the change of ownership, he said,
"Interesting intelligence will be carefully collected and the greatest
attention will be given to the arrival of vessels, when trade and
navigation shall resume their former channels." He referred to the
complete embargo of trade to Europe which the colonists were enduring.
When the American troops withdrew from the city during the Revolution,
Bradford went also, to Rhinebeck on the Hudson.
During the British occupation, the Merchants coffee house was a place of
great activity. As before, it was the center of trading, and under the
British régime it became also the place where the prize ships were sold.
The Chamber of Commerce resumed its sessions in the upper long room in
1779, having been suspended since 1775. The Chamber paid fifty pounds
rent per annum for the use of the room to Mrs. Smith, the landlady at
the time.
In 1781 John Stachan, then proprietor of the Queen's Head tavern, became
landlord of the Merchants coffee house, and he promised in a public
announcement "to pay attention not only as a Coffee House, but as a
tavern, in the truest; and to distinguish the same as the City Tavern
and Coffee House, with constant and best attendance. Breakfast from
seven to eleven; soups and relishes from eleven to half-past one. Tea,
coffee, etc., in the afternoon, as in England." But when he began
charging sixpence for receiving and dispatching letters by man-o'-war to
England, he brought a storm about his ears, and was forced to give up
the practise. He continued in charge until peace came, and Cornelius
Bradford came with it to resume proprietorship of the coffee house.
Bradford changed the name to the New York coffee house, but the public
continued to call it by its original name, and the landlord soon gave
in. He kept a marine list, giving the names of vessels arriving and
departing, recording their ports of sailing. He also opened a register
of returning citizens, "where any gentleman now resident in the city,"
his advertisement stated, "may insert their names and place of
residence." This seems to have been the first attempt at a city
directory. By his energy Bradford soon made the Merchants coffee house
again the business center of the city. When he died, in 1786, he was
mourned as one of the leading citizens. His funeral was held at the
coffee house over which he had presided so well.
The Merchants coffee house continued to be the principal public
gathering place until it was destroyed by fire in 1804. During its
existence it had figured prominently in many of the local and national
historic events, too numerous to record here in detail.
Some of the famous events were: The reading of the order to the
citizens, in 1765, warning them to stop rioting against the Stamp Act;
the debates on the subject of not accepting consignments of goods from
Great Britain; the demonstration by the Sons of Liberty, sometimes
called the "Liberty Boys," made before Captain Lockyer of the tea ship
Nancy which had been turned away from Boston and sought to land its
cargo in New York in 1774; the general meeting of citizens on May 19,
1774, to discuss a means of communicating with the Massachusetts colony
to obtain co-ordinated effort in resisting England's oppression, out of
which came the letter suggesting a congress of deputies from the
colonies and calling for a "virtuous and spirited Union;" the mass
meeting of citizens in the days immediately following the battles at
Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts; and the forming of the Committee
of One Hundred to administer the public business, making the Merchants
coffee house virtually the seat of government.
When the American Army held the city in 1776, the coffee house became
the resort of army and navy officers. Its culminating glory came on
April 23, 1789, when Washington, the recently elected first president of
the United States, was officially greeted at the coffee house by the
governor of the State, the mayor of the city, and the lesser municipal
officers.
As a meeting place for societies and lodges the Merchants coffee house
was long distinguished. In addition to the purely commercial
organizations that gathered in its long room, these bodies regularly met
there in their early days: The Society of Arts, Agriculture and Economy;
Knights of Corsica; New York Committee of Correspondence; New York
Marine Society; Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York; Lodge 169,
Free and Accepted Masons; Whig Society; Society of the New York
Hospital; St. Andrew's Society; Society of the Cincinnati; Society of
the Sons of St. Patrick; Society for Promoting the Manumission of
Slaves; Society for the Relief of Distressed Debtors; Black Friars
Society; Independent Rangers; and Federal Republicans.
Here also came the men who, in 1784, formed the Bank of New York, the
first financial institution in the city; and here was held, in 1790, the
first public sale of stocks by sworn brokers. Here, too, was held the
organization meeting of subscribers to the Tontine coffee house, which
in a few years was to prove a worthy rival.
_Some Lesser Known Coffee Houses_
Before taking up the story of the famous Tontine coffee house it should
be noted that the Merchants coffee house had some prior measure of
competition. For four years the Exchange coffee room sought to cater to
the wants of the merchants around the foot of Broad Street. It was
located in the Royal Exchange, which had been erected in 1752 in place
of the old Exchange, and until 1754 had been used as a store. Then
William Keen and Alexander Lightfoot got control and started their
coffee room, with a ball room attached. The partnership split up in
1756, Lightfoot continuing operations until he died the next year, when
his widow tried to carry it on. In 1758 it had reverted into its
original character of a mercantile establishment.
[Illustration: THE TONTINE COFFEE HOUSE (SECOND BUILDING AT THE LEFT),
OPENED IN 1792
This is the original structure, northwest corner of Wall and Water
Streets, which was succeeded about 1850 by a five-story building (see
page 122) that in turn was replaced by a modern office building]
Then there was the Whitehall coffee house, which two men, named Rogers
and Humphreys, opened in 1762, with the announcement that "a
correspondence is settled in London and Bristol to remit by every
opportunity all the public prints and pamphlets as soon as published;
and there will be a weekly supply of New York, Boston and other American
newspapers." This enterprise had a short life.
The early records of the city infrequently mention the Burns coffee
house, sometimes calling it a tavern. It is likely that the place was
more an inn than a coffee house. It was kept for a number of years by
George Burns, near the Battery, and was located in the historic old De
Lancey house, which afterward became the City hotel.
Burns remained the proprietor until 1762, when it was taken over by a
Mrs. Steele, who gave it the name of the King's Arms. Edward Barden
became the landlord in 1768. In later years it became known as the
Atlantic Garden house. Traitor Benedict Arnold is said to have lodged in
the old tavern after deserting to the enemy.
The Bank coffee house belonged to a later generation, and had few of the
characteristics of the earlier coffee houses. It was opened in 1814 by
William Niblo, of Niblo's Garden fame, and stood at the corner of
William and Pine Streets, at the rear of the Bank of New York. The
coffee house endured for probably ten years, and became the gathering
place of a coterie of prominent merchants, who formed a sort of club.
The Bank coffee house became celebrated for its dinners and dinner
parties.
Fraunces' tavern, best known as the place where Washington bade farewell
to his army officers, was, as its name states, a tavern, and can not be
properly classed as a coffee house. While coffee was served, and there
was a long room for gatherings, little, if any, business was done there
by merchants. It was largely a meeting place for citizens bent on a
"good time."
Then there was the New England and Quebec coffee house, which was also a
tavern.
[Illustration: THE TONTINE BUILDING OF 1850
Northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets; an omnibus of the
Broadway-Wall-Street Ferry line is passing]
_The Tontine Coffee House_
The last of the celebrated coffee houses of New York bore the name,
Tontine coffee house. For several years after the burning of the
Merchants coffee house, in 1804, it was the only one of note in the
city.
Feeling that they should have a more commodious coffee house for
carrying on their various business enterprises, some 150 merchants
organized, in 1791, the Tontine coffee house. This enterprise was based
on the plan introduced into France in 1653 by Lorenzo Tonti, with slight
variations. According to the New York Tontine plan, each holder's share
reverted automatically to the surviving shareholders in the association,
instead of to his heirs. There were 157 original shareholders, and 203
shares of stock valued at £200 each.
[Illustration: NIBLO'S GARDEN, BROADWAY AND PRINCE STREET, 1828]
The directors bought the house and lot on the northwest corner of Wall
and Water Streets, where the original Merchants coffee house stood,
paying £1,970. They next acquired the adjoining lots on Wall and Water
Streets, paying £2,510 for the former, and £1,000 for the latter.
The cornerstone of the new coffee house was laid June 5, 1792; and a
year later to the day, 120 gentlemen sat down to a banquet in the
completed coffee house to celebrate the event of the year before. John
Hyde was the first landlord. The house had cost $43,000.
[Illustration: COFFEE RELICS OF DUTCH NEW YORK
Spice-grinder boat, coffee roaster, and coffee pots at the Van Cortlandt
Museum]
A contemporary account of how the Tontine coffee house looked in 1794 is
supplied by an Englishman visiting New York at the time:
The Tontine tavern and coffee house is a handsome large brick
building; you ascend six or eight steps under a portico, into a
large public room, which is the Stock Exchange of New York, where
all bargains are made. Here are two books kept, as at Lloyd's [in
London] of every ship's arrival and clearance. This house was built
for the accommodation of the merchants by Tontine shares of two
hundred pounds each. It is kept by Mr. Hyde, formerly a woolen
draper in London. You can lodge and board there at a common table,
and you pay ten shillings currency a day, whether you dine out or
not.
[Illustration: NEW YORK'S VAUXHALL GARDEN OF 1803
From an old print]
The stock market made its headquarters in the Tontine coffee house in
1817, and the early organization was elaborated and became the New York
Stock and Exchange Board. It was removed in 1827 to the Merchants
Exchange Building, where it remained until that place was destroyed by
fire in 1835.
It was stipulated in the original articles of the Tontine Association
that the house was to be kept and used as a coffee house, and this
agreement was adhered to up to the year 1834, when, by permission of the
Court of Chancery, the premises were let for general business-office
purposes. This change was due to the competition offered by the
Merchants Exchange, a short distance up Wall Street, which had been
opened soon after the completion of the Tontine coffee house building.
As the city grew, the business-office quarters of the original Tontine
coffee house became inadequate; and about the year 1850 a new five-story
building, costing some $60,000, succeeded it. By this time the building
had lost its old coffee-house characteristics. This new Tontine
structure is said to have been the first real office building in New
York City. Today the site is occupied by a large modern office building,
which still retains the name of Tontine. It was owned by John B. and
Charles A. O'Donohue, well known New York coffee merchants, until 1920,
when it was sold for $1,000,000 to the Federal Sugar Refining Company.
The Tontine coffee house did not figure so prominently in the historic
events of the nation and city as did its neighbor, the Merchants coffee
house. However, it became the Mecca for visitors from all parts of the
country, who did not consider their sojourn in the city complete until
they had at least inspected what was then one of the most pretentious
buildings in New York. Chroniclers of the Tontine coffee house always
say that most of the leaders of the nation, together with distinguished
visitors from abroad, had foregathered in the large room of the old
coffee house at some time during their careers.
It was on the walls of the Tontine coffee house that bulletins were
posted on Hamilton's struggle for life after the fatal duel forced on
him by Aaron Burr.
The changing of the Tontine coffee house into a purely mercantile
building marked the end of the coffee-house era in New York. Exchanges
and office buildings had come into existence to take the place of the
business features of the coffee houses; clubs were organized to take
care of the social functions; and restaurants and hotels had sprung up
to cater to the needs for beverages and food.
_New York's Pleasure Gardens_
There was a fairly successful attempt made to introduce the London
pleasure-garden idea into New York. First, tea gardens were added to
several of the taverns already provided with ball rooms. Then, on the
outskirts of the city, were opened the Vauxhall and the Ranelagh
gardens, so named after their famous London prototypes. The first
Vauxhall garden (there were three of this name) was on Greenwich Street,
between Warren and Chambers Streets. It fronted on the North River,
affording a beautiful view up the Hudson. Starting as the Bowling Green
garden, it changed to Vauxhall in 1750.
Ranelagh was on Broadway, between Duane and Worth Streets, on the site
where later the New York Hospital was erected. From advertisements of
the period (1765-69) we learn that there were band concerts twice a week
at the Ranelagh. The gardens were "for breakfasting as well as the
evening entertainment of ladies and gentlemen." There was a commodious
hall in the garden for dancing. Ranelagh lasted twenty years. Coffee,
tea, and hot rolls could be had in the pleasure gardens at any hour of
the day. Fireworks were featured at both Ranelagh and Vauxhall gardens.
The second Vauxhall was near the intersection of the present Mulberry
and Grand Streets, in 1798; the third was on Bowery Road, near Astor
Place, in 1803. The Astor library was built upon its site in 1853.
William Niblo, previously proprietor of the Bank coffee house in Pine
Street, opened, in 1828, a pleasure garden, that he named Sans Souci, on
the site of a circus building called the Stadium at Broadway and Prince
Street. In the center of the garden remained the stadium, which was
devoted to theatrical performances of "a gay and attractive character."
Later, he built a more pretentious theater that fronted on Broadway. The
interior of the garden was "spacious, and adorned with shrubbery and
walks, lighted with festoons of lamps." It was generally known as
Niblo's garden.
Among other well known pleasure gardens of old New York were Contoit's,
later the New York garden, and Cherry gardens, on old Cherry Hill.
[Illustration: TAVERN AND GROCERS' SIGNS USED IN OLD NEW YORK
Left, Smith Richards, grocer and confectioner, "at the sign of the tea
canister and two sugar loaves" (1773); center, the King's Arms,
originally Burns coffee house (1767); right, George Webster, Grocer, "at
the sign of the three sugar loaves"]
CHAPTER XIV
COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD PHILADELPHIA
_Ye Coffee House, Philadelphia's first coffee house, opened about
1700--The two London coffee houses--The City tavern, or Merchants
coffee house--How these, and other celebrated resorts, dominated
the social, political, and business life of the Quaker City in the
eighteenth century_
William Penn is generally credited with the introduction of coffee into
the Quaker colony which he founded on the Delaware in 1682. He also
brought to the "city of brotherly love" that other great drink of human
brotherhood, tea. At first (1700), "like tea, coffee was only a drink
for the well-to-do, except in sips."[93] As was the case in the other
English colonies, coffee languished for a time while tea rose in favor,
more especially in the home.
Following the stamp act of 1765, and the tea tax of 1767, the
Pennsylvania Colony joined hands with the others in a general tea
boycott; and coffee received the same impetus as elsewhere in the
colonies that became the thirteen original states.
The coffee houses of early Philadelphia loom large in the history of the
city and the republic. Picturesque in themselves, with their distinctive
colonial architecture, their associations also were romantic. Many a
civic, sociological, and industrial reform came into existence in the
low-ceilinged, sanded-floor main rooms of the city's early coffee
houses.
For many years, Ye coffee house, the two London coffee houses, and the
City tavern (also known as the Merchants coffee house) each in its turn
dominated the official and social life of Philadelphia. The earlier
houses were the regular meeting places of Quaker municipal officers,
ship captains, and merchants who came to transact public and private
business. As the outbreak of the Revolution drew near, fiery colonials,
many in Quaker garb, congregated there to argue against British
oppression of the colonies. After the Revolution, the leading citizens
resorted to the coffee house to dine and sup and to hold their social
functions.
When the city was founded in 1682, coffee cost too much to admit of its
being retailed to the general public at coffee houses. William Penn
wrote in his _Accounts_ that in 1683 coffee in the berry was sometimes
procured in New York at a cost of eighteen shillings nine pence the
pound, equal to about $4.68. He told also that meals were served in the
ordinaries at six pence (equal to twelve cents), to wit: "We have seven
ordinaries for the entertainment of strangers and for workmen that are
not housekeepers, and a good meal is to be had there for six pence
sterling." With green coffee costing $4.68 a pound, making the price of
a cup about seventeen cents, it is not likely that coffee was on the
menus of the ordinaries serving meals at twelve cents each. Ale was the
common meal-time beverage.
There were four classes of public houses--inns, taverns, ordinaries, and
coffee houses. The inn was a modest hotel that supplied lodgings, food,
and drink, the beverages consisting mostly of ale, port, Jamaica rum,
and Madeira wine. The tavern, though accommodating guests with bed and
board, was more of a drinking place than a lodging house. The ordinary
combined the characteristics of a restaurant and a boarding house. The
coffee house was a pretentious tavern, dispensing, in most cases,
intoxicating drinks as well as coffee.
_Philadelphia's First Coffee House_
The first house of public resort opened in Philadelphia bore the name of
the Blue Anchor tavern, and was probably established in 1683 or 1684;
colonial records do not state definitely. As its name indicates, this
was a tavern. The first coffee house came into existence about the year
1700. Watson, in one place in his _Annals_ of the city, says 1700, but
in another 1702. The earlier date is thought to be correct, and is
seemingly substantiated by the co-authors Scharf and Westcott in their
_History_ of the city, in which they say, "The first public house
designated as a coffee house was built in Penn's time [1682-1701] by
Samuel Carpenter, on the east side of Front Street, probably above
Walnut Street. That it was the first of its kind--the only one in fact
for some years--seems to be established beyond doubt. It was always
referred to in old times as 'Ye Coffee House.'"
Carpenter owned also the Globe inn, which was separated from Ye coffee
house by a public stairway running down from Front Street to Water
Street, and, it is supposed, to Carpenter's Wharf. The exact location of
the old house was recently established from the title to the original
patentee, Samuel Carpenter, by a Philadelphia real-estate
title-guarantee company, as being between Walnut and Chestnut Streets,
and occupying six and a half feet of what is now No. 137 South Front
Street and the whole of No. 139.
How long Ye coffee house endured is uncertain. It was last mentioned in
colonial records in a real estate conveyance from Carpenter to Samuel
Finney, dated April 26, 1703. In that document it is described as "That
brick Messuage, or Tenement, called Ye Coffee House, in the possession
of Henry Flower, and situate, lying and being upon or before the bank of
the Delaware River, containing in length about thirty feet and in
breadth about twenty-four."
The Henry Flower mentioned as the proprietor of Philadelphia's first
coffee house, was postmaster of the province for a number of years, and
it is believed that Ye coffee house also did duty as the post-office for
a time. Benjamin Franklin's _Pennsylvania Gazette_, in an issue
published in 1734, has this advertisement:
_All persons who are indebted to Henry Flower, late postmaster of
Pennsylvania, for Postage of Letters or otherwise, are desir'd to
pay the same to him at the old Coffee House in Philadelphia._
Flower's advertisement would indicate that Ye coffee house, then
venerable enough to be designated as old, was still in existence, and
that Flower was to be found there. Franklin also seems to have been in
the coffee business, for in several issues of the _Gazette_ around the
year 1740 he advertised: "Very good coffee sold by the Printer."
_The First London Coffee House_
Philadelphia's second coffee house bore the name of the London coffee
house, which title was later used for the resort William Bradford opened
in 1754. The first house of this name was built in 1702, but there seems
to be some doubt about its location. Writing in the _American Historical
Register_, Charles H. Browning says: "William Rodney came to
Philadelphia with Penn in 1682, and resided in Kent County, where he
died in 1708; he built the old London coffee house at Front and Market
Streets in 1702." Another chronicler gives its location as "above Walnut
Street, either on the east side of Water Street, or on Delaware Avenue,
or, as the streets are very close together, it may have been on both.
John Shewbert, its proprietor, was a parishioner of Christ Church, and
his establishment was largely patronized by Church of England people."
It was also the gathering place of the followers of Penn and the
Proprietary party, while their opponents, the political cohorts of
Colonel Quarry, frequented Ye coffee house.
The first London coffee house resembled a fashionable club house in its
later years, suitable for the "genteel" entertainments of the well-to-do
Philadelphians. Ye coffee house was more of a commercial or public
exchange. Evidence of the gentility of the London is given by John
William Wallace:
The appointments of the London Coffee House, if we may infer what
they were from the will of Mrs. Shubert [Shewbert] dated November
27, 1751, were genteel. By that instrument she makes bequest of
two silver quart tankards; a silver cup; a silver porringer; a
silver pepper pot; two sets of silver castors; a silver soup spoon;
a silver sauce spoon, and numerous silver tablespoons and tea
spoons, with a silver tea-pot.
[Illustration: THE SECOND LONDON COFFEE HOUSE, OPENED IN 1754 BY WILLIAM
BRADFORD, THE PRINTER
Up to the outbreak of the American Revolution, it was more frequented
than any other tavern in the Quaker city as a place of resort and
entertainment, and was famous throughout the colonies]
One of the many historic incidents connected with this old house was the
visit there by William Penn's eldest son, John, in 1733, when he
entertained the General Assembly of the province on one day and on the
next feasted the City Corporation.
_Roberts' Coffee House_
Another house with some fame in the middle of the eighteenth century was
Roberts' coffee house, which stood in Front Street near the first London
house. Though its opening date is unknown, it is believed to have come
into existence about 1740. In 1744 a British army officer recruiting
troops for service in Jamaica advertised in the newspaper of the day
that he could be seen at the Widow Roberts' coffee house. During the
French and Indian War, when Philadelphia was in grave danger of attack
by French and Spanish privateers, the citizens felt so great relief when
the British ship Otter came to the rescue, that they proposed a public
banquet in honor of the Otter's captain to be held at Roberts' coffee
house. For some unrecorded reason the entertainment was not given;
probably because the house was too small to accommodate all the citizens
desiring to attend. Widow Roberts retired in 1754.
_The James Coffee House_
Contemporary with Roberts' coffee house was the resort run first by
Widow James, and later by her son, James James. It was established in
1744, and occupied a large wooden building on the northwest corner of
Front and Walnut Streets. It was patronized by Governor Thomas and many
of his political followers, and its name frequently appeared in the news
and advertising columns of the _Pennsylvania Gazette_.
_The Second London Coffee House_
Probably the most celebrated coffee house in Penn's city was the one
established by William Bradford, printer of the _Pennsylvania Journal_.
It was on the southwest corner of Second and Market Streets, and was
named the London coffee house, the second house in Philadelphia to bear
that title. The building had stood since 1702, when Charles Reed, later
mayor of the city, put it up on land which he bought from Letitia Penn,
daughter of William Penn, the founder. Bradford was the first to use the
structure for coffee-house purposes, and he tells his reason for
entering upon the business in his petition to the governor for a
license: "Having been advised to keep a Coffee House for the benefit of
merchants and traders, and as some people may at times be desirous to be
furnished with other liquors besides coffee, your petitioner apprehends
it is necessary to have the Governor's license." This would indicate
that in that day coffee was drunk as a refreshment between meals, as
were spirituous liquors for so many years before, and thereafter up to
1920.
[Illustration: SELLING SLAVES AT THE OLD LONDON COFFEE HOUSE]
Bradford's London coffee house seems to have been a joint-stock
enterprise, for in his _Journal_ of April 11, 1754, appeared this
notice: "Subscribers to a public coffee house are invited to meet at the
Courthouse on Friday, the 19th instant, at 3 o'clock, to choose trustees
agreeably to the plan of subscription."
The building was a three-story wooden structure, with an attic that some
historians count as the fourth story. There was a wooden awning
one-story high extending out to cover the sidewalk before the coffee
house. The entrance was on Market (then known as High) Street.
The London coffee house was "the pulsating heart of excitement,
enterprise, and patriotism" of the early city. The most active citizens
congregated there--merchants, shipmasters, travelers from other colonies
and countries, crown and provincial officers. The governor and persons
of equal note went there at certain hours "to sip their coffee from the
hissing urn, and some of those stately visitors had their own stalls."
It had also the character of a mercantile exchange--carriages, horses,
foodstuffs, and the like being sold there at auction. It is further
related that the early slave-holding Philadelphians sold negro men,
women, and children at vendue, exhibiting the slaves on a platform set
up in the street before the coffee house.
The resort was the barometer of public sentiment. It was in the street
before this house that a newspaper published in Barbados, bearing a
stamp in accordance with the provisions of the stamp act, was publicly
burned in 1765, amid the cheers of bystanders. It was here that Captain
Wise of the brig Minerva, from Pool, England, who brought news of the
repeal of the act, was enthusiastically greeted by the crowd in May,
1766. Here, too, for several years the fishermen set up May poles.
Bradford gave up the coffee house when he joined the newly formed
Revolutionary army as major, later becoming a colonel. When the British
entered the city in September, 1777, the officers resorted to the London
coffee house, which was much frequented by Tory sympathizers. After the
British had evacuated the city, Colonel Bradford resumed proprietorship;
but he found a change in the public's attitude toward the old resort,
and thereafter its fortunes began to decline, probably hastened by the
keen competition offered by the City tavern, which had been opened a few
years before.
Bradford gave up the lease in 1780, transferring the property to John
Pemberton, who leased it to Gifford Dally. Pemberton was a Friend, and
his scruples about gambling and other sins are well exhibited in the
terms of the lease in which said Dally "covenants and agrees and
promises that he will exert his endeavors as a Christian to preserve
decency and order in said house, and to discourage the profanation of
the sacred name of God Almighty by cursing, swearing, etc., and that the
house on the first day of the week shall always be kept closed from
public use." It is further covenanted that "under a penalty of £100 he
will not allow or suffer any person to use, or play at, or divert
themselves with cards, dice, backgammon, or any other unlawful game."
[Illustration: THE CITY TAVERN, BUILT IN 1773, AND KNOWN AS THE
MERCHANTS COFFEE HOUSE
The tavern (at the left) was regarded as the largest inn of the colonies
and stood next to the Bank of Pennsylvania (center). From a print made
from a rare Birch engraving]
It would seem from the terms of the lease that what Pemberton thought
were ungodly things, were countenanced in other coffee houses of the
day. Perhaps the regulations were too strict; for a few years later the
house had passed into the hands of John Stokes, who used it as dwelling
and a store.
_City Tavern or Merchants Coffee House_
The last of the celebrated coffee houses in Philadelphia was built in
1773 under the name of the City tavern, which later became known as the
Merchants coffee house, possibly after the house of the same name that
was then famous in New York. It stood in Second Street near Walnut
Street, and in some respects was even more noted than Bradford's London
coffee house, with which it had to compete in its early days.
The City tavern was patterned after the best London coffee houses; and
when opened, it was looked upon as the finest and largest of its kind in
America. It was three stories high, built of brick, and had several
large club rooms, two of which were connected by a wide doorway that,
when open, made a large dining room fifty feet long.
Daniel Smith was the first proprietor, and he opened it to the public
early in 1774. Before the Revolution, Smith had a hard struggle trying
to win patronage from Bradford's London coffee house, standing only a
few blocks away. But during and after the war, the City tavern gradually
took the lead, and for more than a quarter of a century was the
principal gathering place of the city. At first, the house had various
names in the public mind, some calling it by its proper title, the City
tavern, others attaching the name of the proprietor and designating it
as Smith's tavern, while still others used the title, the New tavern.
The gentlefolk of the city resorted to the City tavern after the
Revolution as they had to Bradford's coffee house before. However,
before reaching this high estate, it once was near destruction at the
hands of the Tories, who threatened to tear it down. That was when it
was proposed to hold a banquet there in honor of Mrs. George Washington,
who had stopped in the city in 1776 while on the way to meet her
distinguished husband, then at Cambridge in Massachusetts, taking over
command of the American army. Trouble was averted by Mrs. Washington
tactfully declining to appear at the tavern.
After peace came, the house was the scene of many of the fashionable
entertainments of the period. Here met the City Dancing Assembly, and
here was held the brilliant fête given by M. Gerard, first accredited
representative from France to the United States, in honor of Louis XVI's
birthday. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other leaders of public
thought were more or less frequent visitors when in Philadelphia.
The exact date when the City tavern became the Merchants coffee house is
unknown. When James Kitchen became proprietor, at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, it was so called. In 1806 Kitchen turned the house
into a bourse, or mercantile exchange. By that time clubs and hotels had
come into fashion, and the coffee-house idea was losing caste with the
élite of the city.
In the year 1806 William Renshaw planned to open the Exchange coffee
house in the Bingham mansion on Third Street. He even solicited
subscriptions to the enterprise, saying that he proposed to keep a
marine diary and a registry of vessels for sale, to receive and to
forward ships' letter bags, and to have accommodations for holding
auctions. But he was persuaded from the idea, partly by the fact that
the Merchants coffee house seemed to be satisfactorily filling that
particular niche in the city life, and partly because the hotel business
offered better inducements. He abandoned the plan, and opened the
Mansion House hotel in the Bingham residence in 1807.
[Illustration: EXCHANGE COFFEE HOUSE SCENE IN "HAMILTON"
In this setting for the first act of the play by Mary P. Hamlin and
George Arliss, produced in 1918, the scenic artist aimed to give a true
historical background, and combined the features of several inns and
coffee houses in Philadelphia, Virginia, and New England as they existed
in Washington's first administration]
CHAPTER XV
THE BOTANY OF THE COFFEE PLANT
_Its complete classification by class, sub-class, order, family,
genus, and species--How the Coffea arabica grows, flowers, and
bears--Other species and hybrids described--Natural caffein-free
coffee--Fungoid diseases of coffee_
The coffee tree, scientifically known as _Coffea arabica_, is native to
Abyssinia and Ethiopia, but grows well in Java, Sumatra, and other
islands of the Dutch East Indies; in India, Arabia, equatorial Africa,
the islands of the Pacific, in Mexico, Central and South America, and
the West Indies. The plant belongs to the large sub-kingdom of plants
known scientifically as the Angiosperms, or _Angiospermæ_, which means
that the plant reproduces by seeds which are enclosed in a box-like
compartment, known as the ovary, at the base of the flower. The word
Angiosperm is derived from two Greek words, _sperma_, a seed, and
_aggeion_, pronounced angeion, a box, the box referred to being the
ovary.
This large sub-kingdom is subdivided into two classes. The basis for
this division is the number of leaves in the little plant which develops
from the seed. The coffee plant, as it develops from the seed, has two
little leaves, and therefore belongs to the class _Dicotyledoneæ_. This
word _dicotyledoneæ_ is made up of the two Greek words, _di(s)_, two,
and _kotyledon_, cavity or socket. It is not necessary to see the young
plant that develops from the seed in order to know that it had two seed
leaves; because the mature plant always shows certain characteristics
that accompany this condition of the seed.
In every plant having two seed leaves, the mature leaves are
netted-veined, which is a condition easily recognized even by the
layman; also the parts of the flowers are in circles containing two or
five parts, but never in threes or sixes. The stems of plants of this
class always increase in thickness by means of a layer of cells known as
a cambium, which is a tissue that continues to divide throughout its
whole existence. The fact that this cambium divides as long as it lives,
gives rise to a peculiar appearance in woody stems by which we can, on
looking at the stem of a tree of this type when it has been sawed
across, tell the age of the tree.
In the spring the cambium produces large open cells through which large
quantities of sap can run; in the fall it produces very thick-walled
cells, as there is not so much sap to be carried. Because these
thin-walled open cells of one spring are next to the thick-walled cells
of the last autumn, it is very easy to distinguish one year's growth
from the next; the marks so produced are called annual rings.
We have now classified coffee as far as the class; and so far we could
go if we had only the leaves and stem of the coffee plant. In order to
proceed farther, we must have the flowers of the plant, as botanical
classification goes from this point on the basis of the flowers. The
class _Dicotyledoneæ_ is separated into sub-classes according to whether
the flower's corolla (the showy part of the flower which ordinarily
gives it its color) is all in one piece, or is divided into a number of
parts. The coffee flower is arranged with its corolla all in one piece,
forming a tube-shaped arrangement, and accordingly the coffee plant
belongs to the sub-class _Sympetalæ_, or _Metachlamydeæ_, which means
that its petals are united.
[Illustration: THE COFFEE TREE, SHOWING DETAILS OF FLOWERS AND FRUIT
From a drawing by Ch. Emonts in Jardin's _Le Caféier et Le Café_]
The next step in classification is to place the plant in the proper
division under the sub-class, which is the order. Plants are separated
into orders according to their varied characteristics. The coffee plant
belongs to an order known as _Rubiales_. These orders are again divided
into families. Coffee is placed in the family _Rubiaceæ_, or Madder
Family, in which we find herbs, shrubs or trees, represented by a few
American plants, such as bluets, or Quaker ladies, small blue spring
flowers, common to open meadows in northern United States; and partridge
berries (_Mitchella repens_).
The Madder Family has more foreign representatives than native genera,
among which are _Coffea_, _Cinchona_, and _Ipecacuanha_ (_Uragoga_), all
of which are of economic importance. The members of this family are
noted for their action on the nervous system. Coffee, as is well known,
contains an active principle known as caffein which acts as a stimulant
to the nervous system and in small quantities is very beneficial.
_Cinchona_ supplies us with quinine, while _Ipecacuanha_ produces
ipecac, which is an emetic and purgative.
The families are divided into smaller sections known as genera, and to
the genus _Coffea_ belongs the coffee plant. Under this genus _Coffea_
are several sub-genera, and to the sub-genus _Eucoffea_ belongs our
common coffee, _Coffea arabica_. _Coffea arabica_ is the original or
common Java coffee of commerce. The term "common" coffee may seem
unnecessary, but there are many other species of coffee besides
_arabica_. These species have not been described very frequently;
because their native haunts are the tropics, and the tropics do not
always offer favorable conditions for the study of their plants.
All botanists do not agree in their classification of the species and
varieties of the _coffea_ genus. M.E. de Wildman, curator of the royal
botanical gardens at Brussels, in his _Les Plantes Tropicales de Grande
Culture_, says the systematic division of this interesting genus is far
from finished; in fact, it may be said hardly to be begun.
_Coffea arabica_ we know best because of the important rôle it plays in
commerce.
COMPLETE CLASSIFICATION OF COFFEE
Kingdom _Vegetable_
Sub-Kingdom _Angiospermæ_
Class _Dicotyledoneæ_
Sub-class _Sympetalæ or Metachlamydeæ_
Order _Rubiales_
Family _Rubiaceæ_
Genus _Coffea_
Sub-genus _Eucoffea_
Species _C. arabica_
The coffee plant most cultivated for its berries is, as already stated,
_Coffea arabica_, which is found in tropical regions, although it can
grow in temperate climates. Unlike most plants that grow best in the
tropics, it can stand low temperatures. It requires shade when it grows
in hot, low-lying districts; but when it grows on elevated land, it
thrives without such protection. Freeman[94] says there are about eight
recognized species of _coffea_.
[Illustration: DETAILS OF THE GERMINATION OF THE COFFEE PLANT
From a drawing by Ch. Emonts in Jardin's _Le Caféier et Le Café_]
_Coffea Arabica_
_Coffea arabica_ is a shrub with evergreen leaves, and reaches a height
of fourteen to twenty feet when fully grown. The shrub produces
dimorphic branches, _i.e._, branches of two forms, known as uprights and
laterals. When young, the plants have a main stem, the upright, which,
however, eventually sends out side shoots, the laterals. The laterals
may send out other laterals, known as secondary laterals; but no lateral
can ever produce an upright. The laterals are produced in pairs and are
opposite, the pairs being borne in whorls around the stem. The laterals
are produced only while the joint of the upright, to which they are
attached, is young; and if they are broken off at that point, the
upright has no power to reproduce them. The upright can produce new
uprights also; but if an upright is cut off, the laterals at that
position tend to thicken up. This is very desirable, as the laterals
produce the flowers, which seldom appear on the uprights. This fact is
utilized in pruning the coffee tree, the uprights being cut back, the
laterals then becoming more productive. Planters generally keep their
trees pruned down to about six feet.
The leaves are lanceolate, or lance-shaped, being borne in pairs
opposite each other. They are three to six inches in length, with an
acuminate apex, somewhat attenuate at the base, with very short petioles
which are united with the short interpetiolar stipules at the base. The
coffee leaves are thin, but of firm texture, slightly coriaceous. They
are very dark green on the upper surface, but much lighter underneath.
The margin of the leaf is entire and wavy. In some tropical countries
the natives brew a coffee tea from the leaves of the coffee tree.
[Illustration: BRAZIL COFFEE PLANTATION IN FLOWER]
The coffee flowers are small, white, and very fragrant, having a
delicate characteristic odor. They are borne in the axils of the leaves
in clusters, and several crops are produced in one season, depending on
the conditions of heat and moisture that prevail in the particular
season. The different blossomings are classed as main blossoming and
smaller blossomings. In semi-dry high districts, as in Costa Rica or
Guatemala, there is one blossoming season, about March, and flowers and
fruit are not found together, as a rule, on the trees. But in lowland
plantations where rain is perennial, blooming and fruiting continue
practically all the year; and ripe fruits, green fruits, open flowers,
and flower buds are to be found at the same time on the same branchlet,
not mixed together, but in the order indicated.
[Illustration: COFFEA ARABICA--PORTO RICO]
The flowers are also tubular, the tube of the corolla dividing into five
white segments. Dr. P.J.S. Cramer, chief of the division of plant
breeding, Department of Agriculture, Netherlands India, says the number
of petals is not at all constant, not even for flowers of the same tree.
The corolla segments are about one-half inch in length, while the tube
itself is about three-eighths of an inch long. The anthers of the
stamens, which are five in number, protrude from the top of the corolla
tube, together with the top of the two-cleft pistil. The calyx, which is
so small as to escape notice unless one is aware of its existence, is
annular, with small, tooth-like indentations.
While the usual color of the coffee flower is white, the fresh stamens
and pistils may have a greenish tinge, and in some cultivated species
the corolla is pale pink.
The size and condition of the flowers are entirely dependent on the
weather. The flowers are sometimes very small, very fragrant, and very
numerous; while at other times, when the weather is not hot and dry,
they are very large, but not so numerous. Both sets of flowers mentioned
above "set fruit," as it is called; but at times, especially in a very
dry season, they bear flowers that are few in number, small, and
imperfectly formed, the petals frequently being green instead of white.
These flowers do not set fruit. The flowers that open on a dry sunny day
show a greater yield of fruit than those that open on a wet day, as the
first mentioned have a better chance of being pollinated by the insects
and the wind. The beauty of a coffee estate in flower is of a very
fleeting character. One day it is a snowy expanse of fragrant white
blossoms for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see, and two days
later it reminds one of the lines from Villon's _Des Dames du Temps
Jadis_.
Where are the snows of yesterday?
The winter winds have blown them all away.
[Illustration: COFFEA ARABICA, FLOWER AND FRUIT--COSTA RICA]
But here, the winter winds are not to blame: the soft, gentle breezes of
the perpetual summer have wrought the havoc, leaving, however, a not
unpleasing picture of dark, cool, mossy green foliage.
The flowers are beautiful, but the eye of the planter sees in them not
alone beauty and fragrance. He looks far beyond, and in his mind's eye
he sees bags and bags of green coffee, representing to him the goal and
reward of all his toil. After the flowers droop, there appear what are
commercially known as the coffee berries. Botanically speaking, "berry"
is a misnomer. These little fruits are not berries, such as are well
represented by the grape; but are drupes, which are better exemplified
by the cherry and the peach. In the course of six or seven months, these
coffee drupes develop into little red balls about the size of an
ordinary cherry; but, instead of being round, they are somewhat
ellipsoidal, having at the outer end a small umbilicus. The drupe of the
coffee usually has two locules, each containing a little "stone" (the
seed and its parchment covering) from which the coffee bean (seed) is
obtained. Some few drupes contain three, while others, at the outer ends
of the branches, contain only one round bean, known as the peaberry. The
number of pickings corresponds to the different blossomings in the same
season; and one tree of the species _arabica_ may yield from one to
twelve pounds a year.
[Illustration: YOUNG COFFEA ARABICA TREE AT KONA, HAWAII]
In countries like India and Africa, the birds and monkeys eat the ripe
coffee berries. The so-called "monkey coffee" of India, according to
Arnold, is the undigested coffee beans passed through the alimentary
canal of the animal.
[Illustration: SURVIVORS OF THE FIRST LIBERIAN COFFEE TREES INTRODUCED
INTO JAVA IN 1876]
The pulp surrounding the coffee beans is at present of no commercial
importance. Although efforts have been made at various times by natives
to use it as a food, its flavor has not gained any great popularity, and
the birds are permitted a monopoly of the pulp as a food. From the human
standpoint the pulp, or sarcocarp, as it is scientifically called, is
rather an annoyance, as it must be removed in order to procure the
beans. This is done in one of two ways. The first is known as the dry
method, in which the entire fruit is allowed to dry, and is then cracked
open. The second way is called the wet method; the sarcocarp is removed
by machine, and two wet, slimy seed packets are obtained. These packets,
which look for all the world like seeds, are allowed to dry in such a
way that fermentation takes place. This rids them of all the slime; and,
after they are thoroughly dry, the endocarp, the so-called parchment
covering, is easily cracked open and removed. At the same time that the
parchment is removed, a thin silvery membrane, the silver skin, beneath
the parchment, comes off, too. There are always small fragments of this
silver skin to be found in the groove of the coffee bean contained
within the parchment packet.
[Illustration: COFFEA ARABICA IN FLOWER ON A JAVA ESTATE
From a photograph made at Dramaga, Preanger, Java, in 1907]
[Illustration: LIBERIAN COFFEE TREE AT LAMOA, P.I.]
We have said that the coffee tree yields from one to twelve pounds a
year, but of course this varies with the individual tree and also with
the region. In some countries the whole year's yield is less than 200
pounds per acre, while there is on record a patch in Brazil which yields
about seventeen pounds to the tree, bringing the yield per acre much
higher.
The beans do not retain their vitality for planting for any considerable
length of time; and, if they are thoroughly dried, or are kept for
longer than three or four months, they are useless for that purpose. It
takes the seed about six weeks to germinate and to appear above ground.
Trees raised from seed begin to blossom in about three years; but a good
crop can not be expected of them for the first five or six years. Their
usefulness, save in exceptional cases, is ended in about thirty years.
The coffee tree can be propagated in a way other than by seeds. The
upright branches can be used as slips, which, after taking root, will
produce seed-bearing laterals. The laterals themselves can not be used
as slips. In Central America the natives sometimes use coffee uprights
for fences and it is no uncommon sight to see the fence posts "growing."
The wood of the coffee tree is used also for cabinet work, as it is much
stronger than many of the native woods, weighing about forty-three
pounds to the cubic foot, having a crushing strength of 5,800 pounds per
square inch, and a breaking strength of 10,900 pounds per square inch.
The propagation of the coffee plant by cutting has two distinct
advantages over propagation by seed, in that it spares the expense of
seed production, which is enormous, and it gives also a method of
hybridization, which, if used, might lead not only to very interesting
but also to very profitable results.
[Illustration: TWO-AND-ONE-HALF-YEAR-OLD C. CONGENSIS]
The hybridization of the coffee plant was taken up in a thoroughly
scientific manner by the Dutch government at the experimental garden
established at Bangelan, Java, in 1900. In his studies, twelve varieties
of _Coffea arabica_ are recognized by Dr. P.J.S. Cramer[95], namely:
_Laurina_, a hybrid of _Coffea arabica_ with C. _mauritiana_,
having small narrow leaves, stiff, dense branches, young leaves
almost white, berry long and narrow, and beans narrow and oblong.
_Murta_, having small leaves, dense branches, beans as in the
typical _Coffea arabica_, and the plant able to stand bitter cold.
_Menosperma_, a distinct type, with narrow leaves and bent-down
branches resembling a willow, the berries seldom containing more
than one seed.
[Illustration: A HEAVY FLOWERING OF FIVE-YEAR-OLD COFFEA EXCELSA
This is a comparatively new species, discovered in the Tchad Lake
district of West Africa in 1905. It is a small-beaned variety of _Coffea
liberica_]
[Illustration: BRANCHES OF COFFEA EXCELSA GROWN AT THE LAMAO EXPERIMENT
STATION, P.I.]
_Mokka_ (_Coffea Mokkæ_), having small leaves, dense foliage, small
round berries, small round beans resembling split peas, and
possessed of a stronger flavor than _Coffea arabica_.
_Purpurescens_, a red-leaved variety, comparable with the
red-leaved hazel and copper beech, a little less productive than
the _Coffea arabica_.
_Variegata_, having variegated leaves striped and spotted with
white.
_Amarella_, having yellow berries, comparable with the
white-fruited variety of the strawberry, raspberry, etc.
_Bullata_, having broad, curled leaves; stiff, thick, fragile
branches, and round, fleshy berries containing a high percentage of
empty beans.
_Angustifolia_, a narrow-leaved variety, with berries somewhat more
oblong and, like the foregoing, a poor producer.
_Erecta_, a variety that is sturdier than the typical _arabica_,
better suited to windy places, and having a production as in the
common _arabica_.
_Maragogipe_, a well-defined variety with light green leaves having
colored edges: berries large, broad, sometimes narrower in the
middle; a light bearer, the whole crop sometimes being reduced to a
couple of berries per tree.[96]
[Illustration: C. STENOPHYLLA, FROM WHICH IS OBTAINED THE HIGHLAND
COFFEE OF SIERRA LEONE]
_Columnaris_, a vigorous variety, sometimes reaching a height of 25
feet, having leaves rounded at the base and rather broad, but a shy
bearer, recommended for dry climates.
_Coffea Stenophylla_
_Coffea arabica_ has a formidable rival in the species _stenophylla_.
The flavor of this variety is pronounced by some as surpassing that of
_arabica_. The great disadvantage of this plant is the fact that it
requires so long a time before a yield of any value can be secured.
Although the time required for the maturing of the crop is so long, when
once the plantation begins to yield, the crop is as large as that of
_Coffea arabica_, and occasionally somewhat larger. The leaves are
smaller than any of the species described, and the flowers bear their
parts in numbers varying from six to nine. The tree is a native of
Sierra Leone, where it grows wild.
[Illustration: Copyright, 1909, by The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal
NEAR VIEW OF COFFEE BERRIES OF COFFEA ARABICA]
_Coffea Liberica_
The bean of _Coffea arabica_, although the principal bean used in
commerce, is not the only one; and it may not be out of place here to
describe briefly some of the other varieties that are produced
commercially. _Coffea liberica_ is one of these plants. The quality of
the beverage made from its berries is inferior to that of _Coffea
arabica_, but the plant itself offers distinct advantages in its hardy
growing qualities. This makes it attractive for hybridization.
[Illustration: WILD "CAFFEIN-FREE" COFFEE TREE
_Mantsaka_ or _Café Sauvage_--Madagascar]
The _Coffea liberica_ tree is much larger and sturdier than the _Coffea
arabica_, and in its native haunts it reaches a height of 30 feet. It
will grow in a much more torrid climate and can stand exposure to strong
sunlight. The leaves are about twice as long as those of _arabica_,
being six to twelve inches in length, and are very thick, tough, and
leathery. The apex of the leaf is acute. The flowers are larger than
those of _arabica_, and are borne in dense clusters. At any time during
the season, the same tree may bear flowers, white or pinkish, and
fragrant, or even green, together with fruits, some green, some ripe and
of a brilliant red. The corolla has been known to have seven segments,
though as a rule it has five. The fruits are large, round, and dull red;
the pulps are not juicy, and are somewhat bitter. Unlike _Coffea
arabica_, the ripened drupes do not fall from the trees, and so the
picking can be delayed at the planter's convenience.
[Illustration: DIFFERENTIATING CHARACTERISTICS OF COFFEE BEANS, IN
CROSS-SECTION
Col. I. Mature bean. Col. II. Embryo.
_A. Coffea arabica, R. Coffea robusta, L. Coffea liberica_]
Among the allied Liberian species Dr. Cramer recognizes:
_Abeokutæ_, having small leaves of a bright green, flower buds
often pink just before opening (in Liberian coffee never), fruit
smaller with sharply striped red and yellow shiny skin, and
producing somewhat smaller beans than Liberian coffee, but beans
whose flavor and taste are praised by brokers;
_Dewevrei_, having curled edged leaves, stiff branches,
thick-skinned berries, sometimes pink flowers, beans generally
smaller than in _C. liberica_, but of little interest to the trade;
_Arnoldiana_, a species near to _Coffea Abeokutæ_ having darker
foliage and the even colored small berries;
_Laurentii Gillet_, a species not to be confused with the _C.
Laurentii_ belonging to the _robusta_ coffee, but standing near to
_C. liberica_, characterized by oblong rather than thin-skinned
berries;
_Excelsa_, a vigorous, disease-resisting species discovered in 1905
by Aug. Chevalier in West Africa, in the region of the Chari River,
not far from Lake Tchad. The broad, dark-green leaves have an under
side of light green with a bluish tinge; the flowers are large and
white, borne in axillary clusters of one to five; the berries are
short and broad, in color crimson, the bean smaller than _robusta_,
very like _Mocha_, but in color a bright yellow like _liberica_.
The caffein content of the coffee is high, and the aroma is very
pronounced;
_Dybowskii_, another disease-resisting variety similar to
_excelsa_, but having different leaf and fruit characteristics;
_Lamboray_, having bent gutter-like leaves, and soft-skinned,
oblong fruit;
_Wanni Rukula_, having large leaves, a vigorous growth, and small
berries;
_Coffea aruwimensis_, being a mixture of different types.
[Illustration: COFFEA ARABICA BERRIES GROWN IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS]
The last three types were received by Dr. Cramer at Bangelan from Frère
Gillet in the Belgian Congo, and were still under trial in Java in 1919.
_Coffea Robusta_
Emil Laurent, in 1898, discovered a species of coffee growing wild in
Congo. This was taken up by a horticultural firm of Brussels, and
cultivated for the market. This firm gave to the coffee the name _Coffea
robusta_, although it had already been given the name of the discoverer,
being known as _Coffea Laurentii_. The plant differs widely from both
_arabica_ and _liberica_, being considerably larger than either. The
tree is umbrella-shaped, due to the fact that its branches are very long
and bend toward the ground.
The leaves of _robusta_ are much thinner than those of _liberica_,
though not as thin as those of _arabica_. The tree, as a whole, is a
very hardy variety and even bears blossoms when it is less than a year
old. It blossoms throughout the entire year, the flowers having
six-parted corollas. The drupes are smaller than those of _liberica;_
but are much thinner skinned, so that the coffee bean is actually not
any smaller. The drupes mature in ten months. Although the plants bear
as early as the first year, the yield for the first two years is of no
account; but by the fourth year the crop is large.
[Illustration: ROBUSTA COFFEE IN FLOWER, PREANGER, JAVA]
[Illustration: COFFEE ESTATE IN THE LUQUILLO MOUNTAINS, PORTO RICO]
[Illustration: JAPANESE LABORERS PICKING COFFEE ON KONA SIDE, ISLAND OF
HAWAII]
[Illustration: COFFEE UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES]
Arno Viehoever, pharmacognosist in charge of the pharmacognosy
laboratory of the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of
Agriculture, has recently announced findings confirming Hartwich which
appear to permit of differentiation between _robusta, arabica_, and
_liberica_.[97] These are mainly the peculiar folding of the endosperm,
showing quite generally a distinct hook in the case of the _robusta_
coffee bean. The size of the embryo, and especially the relation of the
rootlet to hypercotyl, will be found useful in the differentiation of
the species _Coffea arabica, liberica_, and _robusta_ (see cut, page
142).
[Illustration: ONE-YEAR-OLD ROBUSTA ESTATE, ON SUMATRA'S WEST COAST]
Viehoever and Lepper carried on a series of cup tests of _robusta_, the
results as to taste and flavor being distinctly favorable. They
summarized their studies and tests as follows:
The time when coffee could be limited to beans obtained from plants
of _Coffea arabica_ and _Coffea liberica_ has passed. Other
species, with qualities which make them desirable, even in
preference to the well reputed named ones, have been discovered and
cultivated. Among them, the species or group of _Coffea robusta_
has attained a great economic significance, and is grown in
increasing amounts. While it has, as reports seem to indicate, not
as yet been possible to obtain a strain that would be as desirable
in flavor as the old "standard" _Coffea_ _arabica_, well known as
Java or "Fancy Java" coffee, its merits have been established.
The botanical origin is not quite cleared up, and the
classification of the varieties belonging to the _robusta_ group
deserves further study. Anatomical means of differentiating
_robusta_ coffee from other species or groups, may be applied as
distinctly helpful....
As is usual in most of the coffee species, caffein is present. The
amount appears to be, on an average, somewhat larger (even
exceeding 2.0 percent) than in the South American coffee species.
In no instance, however, did the amount exceed the maximum limits
observed in coffee in general....
Due to its rapid growth, early and prolific yield, resistance to
coffee blight, and many other desirable qualities, _Coffea robusta_
has established "its own". In the writers' judgment, _robusta_
coffee deserves consideration and recognition.
Among the _robusta_ varieties, _Coffea canephora_ is a distinct species,
well characterized by growth, leaves, and berries. The branches are
slender and thinner than _robusta_; the leaves are dark green and
narrower; the flowers are often tinged with red; the unripe berries are
purple, the ripe berries bright red and oblong. The produce is like
_robusta_, only the shape of the bean, somewhat narrower and more
oblong, makes it look more attractive. _Coffea canephora_, like _C.
robusta_, seems better fitted to higher altitudes.
Other _canephora_ varieties include:
_Madagascar_, having small, slightly striped, bright red berries and
small round beans;
_Quillouensis_, having dark green foliage and reddish brown young
leaves; and,
_Stenophylla Paris_, with purplish young berries.
These last two named were under test at the Bangelan gardens in 1919.
Among other allied _robusta_ species are:
_Ugandæ_:, whose produce is said to possess a better flavor than
_robusta_;
_Bukobensis_, different from _Ugandæ_ in the color of its berries, which
are a dark red; and
_Quillou_, having bright red fruit, a copper-colored silver skin, three
pounds of fruit producing one pound of market coffee. Some people prefer
_Quillou_ to _robusta_ because of the difference in the taste of the
roasted bean.
_Some Interesting Hybrids_
The most popular hybrid belongs to a crossing of _liberica_ and
_arabica_. Cramer states that the beans of this hybrid make an excellent
coffee combining the strong taste of the _liberica_ with the fine flavor
of the old Government Java _(arabica_), adding:
The hybrids are not only of value to the roaster, but also to the
planter. They are vigorous trees, practically free from leaf
disease; they stand drought well and also heavy rains; they are not
particular in regard to shade and upkeep; never fail to give a fair
and often a rather heavy crop. The fruit ripens all the year
around, and does not fall so easily as in the case of _arabica_.
Among other hybrids (many were still under trial in 1919) may be
mentioned: _Coffea excelsia x liberica_; _C. Abeokutæ x liberica_; _C.
Dybowskii x excelsa_; _C. stenophylla x Abeokutæ_; _C. congensis x
Ugandæ_; _C. Ugandæ x congensis_; and _C. robusta x Maragogipe_.
There are many species of _Coffea_ that stand quite apart from the main
groups, _arabica, robusta_ and _liberica_; but while some are of
commercial value, most of them are interesting only from the scientific
point of view. Among the latter may be mentioned: _Coffea bengalensis_,
_C. Perieri_, _C. mauritiana_, _C. macrocarpa_, _C. madagascariensis_,
and _C. schumanniana_.
[Illustration: COFFEA QUILLOU FLOWERS IN FULL BLOOM]
M. Teyssonnier, of the experimental garden at Camayenne, French Guinea,
West Africa, has produced a promising species of coffee known as
_affinis_. It is a hybrid of _C. stenophylla_ with a species of
_liberica_.
Among other promising species recognized by Dr. Cramer are:
_Coffea congensis_, whose berry resembles that of _C. arabica_, when
well prepared for the market being green or bluish; and
_Coffea congensis var. Chalotii_, probably a hybrid of _C. congensis_
with _C. canephora_.
_Caffein-free Coffee_
Certain trees growing wild in the Comoro Islands and Madagascar are
known as caffein-free coffee trees. Just whether they are entitled to
this classification or not is a question. Some of the French and German
investigators have reported coffee from these regions that was
absolutely devoid of caffein. It was thought at first that they must
represent an entirely new genus; but upon investigation, it was found
that they belonged to the genus _Coffea_, to which all our common
coffees belong. Professor Dubard, of the French National Museum and
Colonial Garden, studied these trees botanically and classified them as
_C. Gallienii_, _C. Bonnieri_, _C. Mogeneti_, and _C. Augagneuri_. The
beans of berries from these trees were analyzed by Professor Bertrand
and pronounced caffein-free; but Labroy, in writing of the same coffee,
states that, while the bean is caffein-free, it contains a very bitter
substance, cafamarine, which makes the infusion unfit for use. Dr. O.W.
Willcox[98], in examining some specimens of wild coffee from Madagascar,
found that the bean was not caffein-free; and though the caffein content
was low, it was no lower than in some of the Porto Rican varieties.
Hartwich[99] reports that Hanausek found no caffein in _C. mauritiana_,
_C. humboltiana_, _C. Gallienii_, _C. Bonnerii_, and _C. Mogeneti_.
_Fungoid Disease of Coffee_
The coffee tree, like every other living thing, has specific diseases
and enemies, the most common of which are certain fungoid diseases where
the mycelium of the fungus grows into the tissue and spots the leaves,
eventually causing them to fall, thus robbing the plant of its only
means of elaborating food. Its most deadly enemy in the insect world is
a small insect of the lepidopterous variety, which is known as the
coffee-leaf miner. It is closely related to the clothes moth and, like
the moth, bores in its larval stage, feeding on the mesophyl of the
leaves. This gives the leaves an appearance of being shriveled or dried
by heat.
[Illustration: AN EIGHTEEN-MONTHS'-OLD COFFEA QUILLOU TREE IN BLOSSOM]
There are three principal diseases, due to fungi, from which the coffee
plants suffer. The most common is known as the leaf-blight fungus,
_Pellicularia tokeroga_, which is a slow-spreading disease, but one that
causes great loss. Although the fungus does not produce spores, the
leaves die and dry, and are blown away, carrying with them the dried
mycelium of the fungus. This mycelium will start to grow as soon as it
is supplied with a new moist coffee leaf to nourish it. The method of
getting rid of this disease is to spray the trees in seasons of drought.
It was a fungoid disease known as the _Hemileia vastatrix_ that attacked
Ceylon's coffee industry in 1869, and eventually destroyed it. It is a
microscopic fungus whose spores, carried by the wind, adhere to and
germinate upon the leaves of the coffee tree[100].
Another common disease is known as the root disease, which eventually
kills the tree by girdling it below the soil. It spreads slowly, but
seems to be favored by collections of decaying matter around the base of
the tree. Sometimes the digging of ditches around the roots is
sufficient to protect it. The other common disease is due to _Stilbium
flavidum_, and is found only in regions of great humidity. It affects
both the leaf and the fruit and is known as the spot of leaf and fruit.
[Illustration: COFFEA UGANDÆ BENT OVER BY A HEAVY CROP]
CHAPTER XVI
THE MICROSCOPY OF THE COFFEE FRUIT
_How the beans may be examined under the microscope, and what is
revealed--Structure of the berry, the green, and the roasted
bean--The coffee leaf disease under the microscope--Value of
microscopic analysis in detecting adulteration_
The microscopy of coffee is, on the whole, more important to the planter
than to the consumer and the dealer; while, on the other hand, the
microscopy is of paramount importance to the consumer and the dealer as
furnishing the best means of determining whether the product offered is
adulterated or not. Also, from this standpoint, the microscopy of the
plant is less important than that of the bean.
[Illustration: Fig. 331. Coffee (_Coffea arabica_). I--Cross-section of
berry, natural size; _Pk_, outer pericarp; _Mk_, endocarp; _Ek_,
spermoderm; _Sa_, hard endosperm; Sp, soft endosperm. II--Longitudinal
section of berry, natural size; _Dis_, bordered disk; _Se_, remains of
sepals; _Em_, embryo. III--Embryo, enlarged; _cot_, cotyledon; _rad_,
radicle. (Tschirch and Oesterle.)]
_The Fruit and the Bean_
The fruit, as stated in chapter XV, consists of two parts, each one
containing a single seed, or bean. These beans are flattened laterally,
so as to fit together, except in the following instances: in the
peaberry, where one of the ovules never develops, the single ovule,
having no pressure upon it, is spherical; in the rare instances where
three seeds are found, the grains are angular.
The coffee bean with which the consumer is familiar is only a small part
of the fruit. The fruit, which is the size of a small cherry, has, like
the cherry, an outer fleshy portion called the pericarp. Beneath this is
a part like tissue paper, spoken of technically as the parchment, but
known scientifically as the endocarp. Next in position to this, and
covering the seed, is the so-called spermoderm, which means the seed
skin, referred to in the trade as the silver skin. Small portions of
this silver skin are always to be found in the cleft of the coffee bean.
The coffee bean is the embryo and its food supply; the embryo is that
part of the seed which, when supplied with food and moisture, develops
into a new plant. The embryo of the coffee is very minute (Fig. 331,
II, _Em_)[101]; and the greater part of the seed is taken up by the food
supply, consisting of hard and soft endosperm (Fig. 331, I and II, _Sa_,
_Sp_). The minute embryo consists of two small thick leaves, the
cotyledons (Fig. 331, III, _cot_), a short stem, invisible in the
undissected embryo, and a small root, the radicle (Fig. 331, III,
_rad_).
[Illustration: Fig. 332. Coffee. Cross section of bean showing folded
endosperm with hard and soft tissues. x6. (Moeller)]
_Fruit Structure_
In order to examine the structure of these layers of the fruit under the
microscope, it is necessary to use the pericarp dry, as it is not easily
obtainable in its natural condition. If desired, an alcoholic specimen
may be used, but it has been found that the dry method gives more
satisfactory results. The dried pericarp is about 0.5 mm thick. Great
difficulty is experienced in cutting microtome sections of pericarp when
the specimen is embedded in paraffin, because the outer layers are soft
and the endocarp is hard, and the two parts of the section separate at
this point. To overcome this, the sections might also be embedded in
celloidin. When the sections are satisfactory, they may be stained with
any of the double stains ordinarily used in the study of plant
histology.
[Illustration: Fig. 333. Coffee. Cross section of hull and bean.
Pericarp consists of: 1, epicarp; 2-3, layers of mesocarp, with 4,
fibro-vascular bundle; 5, palisade layer; and 6, endocarp; _ss_,
spermoderm, consists of 8, sclerenchyma, and 9, parenchyma; _End_,
endosperm (Tschirch and Oesterle)]
A section cut crosswise through the entire fruit would present the
appearance shown in Fig. 333. The cells of the epicarp are broad and
polygonal, sometimes regularly four-sided, about 15-35 µ broad. At
intervals along the surface of the epicarp are stomata, or breathing
pores, surrounded by guard cells. The next layer of the pericarp is the
mesocarp (Figs. 333, 334, 335), the cells of which are larger and more
regular in outline than the epicarp. The cells of the mesocarp become as
large as 100 µ broad, but in the inner parts of the layer they become
very much flattened. Fibrovascular bundles are scattered through the
compressed cells of the mesocarp. The cell walls are thick; and large,
amorphous, brown masses are found within the cell; occasionally, large
crystals are found in the outer part of the layer. The fibro-vascular
bundles consist mainly of bast and wood fibers and vessels. The bast
fibers are as large as 1 mm long and 25 µ broad, with thick walls and
very small _lumina_. Spiral and pitted vessels are also present.
[Illustration: Fig. 334. Coffee. Surface view of _ep_, epicarp, and _p_,
outer parenchyma of mesocarp. x160. (Moeller)]
The layer next to this is a soft tissue, parenchyma (Fig. 333, 5; Fig.
334, _p_). The parenchyma, or palisade cells as they are called, is a
thin-walled tissue in which the cells are elongated, from which fact
they receive their name. The walls of these cells, though very thin, are
mucilaginous, and capable of taking up large amounts of water. They
stain well with the aniline stains.
The endocarp (Fig. 336) is closely connected with the palisade layer and
has thin-walled cells that closely resemble, in all respects, the
endocarp of the apple. The outer layer consists of thick-walled fibers,
which are remarkably porous (Fig. 333, 6; Fig. 336) while the fibers of
the inner layer are thin-walled and run in the transverse direction.
_The Bean Structure_
Spermoderm, or silver skin, is not difficult to secure for microscopic
analysis; because shreds of it remain in the groove of the berry, and
these shreds are ample for examination. It can readily be removed
without tearing, if soaked in water for a few hours. The spermoderm is
thin enough not to need sectioning. It consists of two
elements--sclerenchyma and parenchyma cells. (Figs. 333, 337, _st_,
_p_).
[Illustration: Fig. 335. Coffee. Elements of pericarp in surface view.
_p_, parenchyma; _bp_, parenchyma of fibro-vascular bundle; _b_, bast
fiber; _sp_, spiral vessel. x160. (Moeller)]
Sclerenchyma forms an uninterrupted covering in the early stages of the
seed; but as the seed develops, surrounding tissues grow more rapidly
than the sclerenchyma, and the cells are pushed apart and scattered. The
cells occurring in the cleft of the berry are straight, narrow, and
long, becoming as long as 1 mm, and resemble bast fibers somewhat. On
the surface of the berry, and sometimes in the cleft, there are found
smaller, thicker cells, which are irregular in outline, club-shaped and
vermiform types predominating.
Parenchyma cells form the remainder of the spermoderm; and these are
partially obliterated, so that the structure is not easily seen,
appearing almost like a solid membrane. The raphe runs through the
parenchyma found in the cleft of the berry.
The endosperm (Figs. 333; 338) consist of small cells in the outer part,
and large cells, frequently as thick as 100 µ, in the inner part. The
cell walls are thickened and knotted. Certain of the inner cells have
mucilaginous walls which when treated with water disappear, leaving only
the middle lamellae, which gives the section a peculiar appearance. The
cells contain no starch, the reserve food supply being stored cellulose,
protein, and aleurone grains. Various investigators report the presence
of sugar, tannin, iron, salts, and caffein.
The embryo (Fig. 331, III) may be obtained by soaking the bean in water
for several hours, cutting through the cleft and carefully breaking
apart the endosperm. If it is now soaked in diluted alkali, the embryo
protrudes through the lower end of the endosperm. It is then cleared in
alkali, or in chloral hydrate. The cotyledons shown have three pairs of
veins, which are slightly netted. The radicle is blunt and is about 3/4
mm in length, while the cotyledons are 1/2 mm long.
[Illustration: Fig. 336. Coffee. Sclerenchyma fibers of endocarp. x160.
(Moeller)]
_The Coffee-Leaf Disease_
The coffee tree has many pests and diseases; but the disease most feared
by planters is that generally referred to as the coffee-leaf disease,
and by this is meant the fungoid _Hemileia vastatrix_, which as told in
chapter XV, destroyed Ceylon's once prosperous coffee industry. As it
has since been found in nearly all coffee-producing countries, it has
become a nightmare in the dreams of all coffee planters. The microscope
shows how the spores of this dreaded fungus, carried by the winds upon a
leaf of the coffee tree, proceed to germinate at the expense of the
leaf; robbing it of its nourishment, and causing it to droop and to die.
A mixture of powdered lime and sulphur has been found to be an effective
germicide, if used in time and diligently applied.
[Illustration: Fig. 337. Coffee. Spermoderm in surface view. _st._
sclerenchyma; _p_, compressed parenchyma. x160. (Moeller)]
[Illustration: Fig. 338. Coffee. Cross-section of outer layers of
endosperm, showing knotty thickenings of cell walls. x160. (Moeller)]
[Illustration: Fig. 339. Coffee. Tissues of embryo in section. x160.
(Moeller)]
_Value of Microscopic Analysis_
The value of the microscopic analysis of coffee may not be apparent at
first sight; but when one realizes that in many cases the microscopic
examination is the only way to detect adulteration in coffee, its
importance at once becomes apparent. In many instances the chemical
analysis fails to get at the root of the trouble, and then the only
method to which the tester has recourse is the examination of the
suspected material under the scope. The mixing of chicory with coffee
has in the past been one of the commonest forms of adulteration. The
microscopic examination in this connection is the most reliable. The
coffee grain will have the appearance already described.
Microscopically, chicory shows numerous thin-walled parenchymatous
cells, lactiferous vessels, and sieve tubes with transverse plates.
There are also present large vessels with huge, well-defined pits.
[Illustration: COFFEE LEAF DISEASE (HEMILEIA VASTATRIX)
1. under surface of affected leaf, x 1/2; 2, section through same
showing mycelium, haustoria, and a spore-cluster; 3, a spore-cluster
seen from below; 4, a uredospore; 5, germinating uredospore; 6,
appressorial swellings at tips of germ-tubes; 7, infection through stoma
of leaf; 8, teleutospores; 9, teleutospore germinating with promycelium
and sporidia; 10, sporidia and their germination (2 after Zimmermann, 3
after Delacroix, 4-10 after Ward)]
Roasted date stones have been used as adulterants, and these can be
detected quite readily with the aid of the microscope, as they have a
very characteristic microscopic appearance. The epidermal cells are
almost oblong, while the parenchymatous cells are large, irregular and
contain large quantities of tannin.
Adulteration and adulterants are considered more fully in chapter XVII.
[Illustration: GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Green bean, showing the size and form of the cells as well as the drops
of oil contained within their cavities. Drawn with the camera lucida,
and magnified 140 diameters.
A fragment of roasted coffee under the microscope. Drawn with the camera
lucida, and magnified 140 diameters.]
[Illustration: BOGOTA, GREEN
Longitudinal--Magnified 200 diameters]
[Illustration: BOGOTA, GREEN
Cross Section--Magnified 200 diameters]
[Illustration: BOGOTA, GREEN
Tangential--Magnified 200 diameters]
[Illustration: BOGOTA, ROASTED
Tangential--Magnified 200 diameters]
[Illustration: GREEN AND ROASTED BOGOTA COFFEE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
These pictures serve to demonstrate that the coffee bean is made up of
minute cells that are not broken down to any extent by the roasting
process. Note that the oil globules are more prominent in the green than
in the roasted product]
CHAPTER XVII
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE COFFEE BEAN
_Chemistry of the preparation and treatment of the green
bean--Artificial aging--Renovating damaged
coffees--Extracts--"Caffetannic acid"--Caffein, caffein-free
coffee--Caffeol--Fats and oils--Carbohydrates--Roasting--Scientific
aspects of grinding and packaging--The coffee brew--Soluble
coffee--Adulterants and substitutes--Official methods of analysis_
By Charles W. Trigg
Industrial Fellow of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research,
Pittsburgh, 1916-1920
When the vast extent of the coffee business is considered, together with
the intimate connection which coffee has with the daily life of the
average human, the relatively small amount of accurate knowledge which
we possess regarding the chemical constituents and the physiological
action of coffee is productive of amazement.
True, a painstaking compilation of all the scientific and
semi-scientific work done upon coffee furnishes quite a compendium of
data, the value of which is not commensurate with its quantity, because
of the spasmodic nature of the investigations and the non-conclusive
character of the results so far obtained. The following general survey
of the field argues in favor of the promulgation of well-ordered and
systematic research, of the type now in progress at several places in
the United States, into the chemical behavior of coffee throughout the
various processes to which it is subjected in the course of its
preparation for human consumption.
_Green Coffee_
One of the few chemical investigations of the growing tree is the
examination by Graf of flowers from 20-year-old coffee trees, in which
he found 0.9 percent caffein, a reducing sugar, caffetannic acid, and
phytosterol. Power and Chestnut[102] found 0.82 percent caffein in
air-dried coffee leaves, but only 0.087 percent of the alkaloid in the
stems of the plant separated from the leaves. In the course of a
study[103] instituted for the purpose of determining the best
fertilizers for coffee trees, it developed that the cherries in
different stages of growth show a preponderance of potash throughout,
while the proportion of P_2_O_5 attains a maximum in the fourth month
and then steadily declines.
Experiments are still in progress to ascertain the precise mineral
requirements of the crop as well as the most suitable stage at which to
apply them. During the first five months the moisture content undergoes
a steady decrease, from 87.13 percent to 65.77 percent, but during the
final ripening stage in the last month there is a rise of nearly 1
percent. This may explain the premature falling and failure to ripen of
the crop on certain soils, especially in years of low rainfall.
Malnutrition of the trees may result also in the production of oily
beans.[104]
The coffee berry comprises about 68 percent pulp, 6 percent parchment,
and 26 percent clean coffee beans. The pulp is easily removed by
mechanical means; but in order to separate the soft, glutinous,
saccharine parchment, it is necessary to resort to fermentation, which
loosens the skin so that it may be removed easily, after which the
coffee is properly dried and aged. There is first a yeast fermentation
producing alcohol; and then a bacterial action giving mainly inactive
lactic acid, which is the main factor in loosening the parchment. For
the production of the best coffee, acetic acid fermentation (which
changes the color of the bean) and temperature above 60° should be
avoided, as these inhibit subsequent enzymatic action.[105]
Various schemes have been proposed for utilizing the large amount of
pulp so obtained in preparing coffee for market. Most of these depend
upon using the pulp as fertilizer, since fresh pulp contains 2.61
percent nitrogen, 0.81 percent P_2_O_5, 2.38 percent potassium, and
0.57 percent calcium. One procedure[106] in particular is to mix pulp
with sawdust, urine, and a little lime, and then to leave this mixture
covered in a pit for a year before using. In addition to these mineral
matters, the pulp also contains about 0.88 percent of caffein and 18 to
37 percent sugars. Accordingly, it has been proposed[107] to extract the
caffein with chloroform, and the sugars with acidulated water. The
aqueous solution so obtained is then fermented to alcohol. The insoluble
portion left after extraction can be used as fuel, and the resulting ash
as fertilizer.
The pulp has been dried and roasted for use in place of the berry, and
has been imported to England for this purpose. It is stated that the
Arabs in the vicinity of Jiddah discard the kernel of the coffee berries
and make an infusion of the husk.[108]
Quality of green coffee is largely dependent upon the methods used and
the care taken in curing it, and upon the conditions obtaining in
shipment and storage. True, the soil and climatic conditions play a
determinative rôle in the creation of the characteristics of coffee, but
these do not offer any greater opportunity for constructive research and
remunerative improvement than does the development of methods and
control in the processes employed in the preparation of green coffee for
the market.
[Illustration: CROSS-SECTION OF THE ENDOSPERM OR HARD STRUCTURE OF THE
GREEN BEAN]
Storage prior and subsequent to shipment, and circumstances existing
during transportation, are not to be disregarded as factors contributory
to the final quality of the coffee. The sweating of mules carrying bags
of poorly packed coffee, and the absorption of strong foreign aromas and
flavors from odoriferous substances stored in too close proximity to the
coffee beans, are classic examples of damage that bear iterative
mention. Damage by sea water, due more to the excessive moisture than to
the salt, is not so common an occurrence now as heretofore. However, a
cheap and thoroughly effective means of ethically renovating coffee
which has been damaged in this manner would not go begging for
commercial application.
That green coffee improves with age, is a tenet generally accepted by
the trade. Shipments long in transit, subjected to the effects of
tropical heat under closely battened hatches in poorly ventilated holds,
have developed into much-prized yellow matured coffee. Were it not for
the large capital required and the attendant prohibitive carrying
charges, many roasters would permit their coffees to age more thoroughly
before roasting. In fact, some roasters do indulge this desire in regard
to a portion of their stock. But were it feasible to treat and hold
coffees long enough to develop their attributes to a maximum, still the
exact conditions which would favor such development are not definitely
known. What are the optimum temperature and the correct humidity to
maintain, and should the green coffee be well ventilated or not while in
storage? How long should coffee be stored under the most favorable
conditions best to develop it? Aging for too long a period will develop
flavor at the expense of body; and the general cup efficiency of some
coffees will suffer if they be kept too long.
[Illustration: PORTION OF THE INVESTING MEMBRANE, SHOWING ITS STRUCTURE
Drawn with the camera lucida, and magnified 140 diameters]
The exact reason for improvement upon aging is in no wise certain, but
it is highly probable that the changes ensuing are somewhat analogous to
those occurring in the aging of grain. Primarily an undefined enzymatic
and mold action most likely occurs, the nature of the enzymes and molds
being largely dependent upon the previous treatment of the coffee. Along
with this are a loss of moisture and an oxidation, all three actions
having more evident effects with the passage of time.
_Artificial Aging_
In consideration of the higher prices which aged products demand,
attempts have naturally been made to shorten by artificial means the
time necessary for their natural production. Some of these methods
depend upon obtaining the most favorable conditions for acceleration of
the enzyme action; others, upon the effects of micro-organisms; and
still others, upon direct chemical reaction or physical alteration of
the green bean.
One of the first efforts toward artificial maturing was that of
Ashcroft[109], who argued from the improved nature of coffee which had
experienced a delayed voyage. His method consisted of inclosing the
coffee in sweat-boxes having perforated bottoms and subjecting it to the
sweating action of steam, the boxes being enclosed in an oven or room
maintained at the temperature of steam.
[Illustration: STRUCTURE OF THE GREEN BEAN
Showing thick-walled cells enclosing drops of oil]
Timby[110] claimed to remove dusts, foreign odors, and impurities, while
attaining in a few hours or days a ripening effect normally secured only
in several seasons. In this process, the bagged coffee is placed in
autoclaves and subjected to the action of air at a pressure of 2 to 3
atmospheres and a temperature of 40° to 100° F. The temperature should
seldom be allowed to rise above 150° F. The pressure is then allowed to
escape and a partial vacuum created in the apparatus. This alteration of
pressure and vacuum is continued until the desired maturation is
obtained. Desvignes[111] employs a similar procedure, although he
accomplishes seasoning by treating the coffee also with oxygen or
ozone.[112] First the coffee is rendered porous by storage in a hot
chamber, which is then exhausted prior to admission of the oxygen. The
oxygen can be ozonized in the closed vessel while in contact with the
coffee. Complete aging in a few days is claimed.
Weitzmann[113] adopts a novel operation, by exposing bags of raw coffee
to the action of a powerful magnetic field, obtained with two adjustable
electro-magnets. The claim that a maturation naturally produced in
several years is thus obtained in 1/2 to 2 hours is open to considerable
doubt. A process that is probably attended with more commercial success
is that of Gram[114] in which the coffee is treated with gaseous
nitrogen dioxid.
By far the most notable progress in this field, both scientifically and
commercially, has been made by Robison[115] with his "culturing" method.
Here the green coffee is washed with water, and then inoculated with
selected strains of micro-organisms, such as _Ochraeceus_ or
_Aspergillus Wintii_. Incubation is then conducted for 6 to 7 days at
90° F. and 85 percent relative humidity. Subsequent to this incubation,
the coffee is stored in bins for about ten days; after which it is
tumbled and scoured. With this process it is possible to improve the
cupping qualities of a coffee to a surprising degree.
_Renovating Damaged Coffees_
Sophistication has often been resorted to in order ostensibly to improve
damaged or cheap coffee. Glazing, coloring, and polishing of the green
beans was openly and covertly practised until restricted by law. The
steps employed did not actually improve the coffee by any means, but
merely put it into condition for more ready sale. An apparently sincere
endeavor to renovate damaged coffee was made by Evans[116] when he
treated it with an aqueous solution of sulphuric acid having a density
of 10.5° Baumé. After agitation in this solution, the beans were washed
free from acid and dried. In this manner discolorations and impurities
were removed and the beans given a fuller appearance.
The addition of glucose, sucrose, lactose, or dextrin to green coffees
is practised by von Niessen[117] and by Winter[118], with the object of
giving a mild taste and strong aroma to "hard" coffees. The addition is
accomplished by impregnating, with or without the aid of vacuum, the
beans with a moderately concentrated solution of the sugar, the liquid
being of insufficient quantity to effect extraction. When the solution
has completely disseminated through the kernels, they are removed and
dried. Upon subsequent roasting, a decided amelioration of flavor is
secured.
Another method developed by von Niessen[119] comprises the softening of
the outer layers of the beans by steam, cold or warm water, or brine,
and then surrounding them with an absorbent paste or powder, such as
china clay, to which a neutralizing agent such as magnesium oxid may be
added. After drying, the clay can be removed by brushing or by causing
the beans to travel between oppositely reciprocated wet cloths. In the
development of this process, von Niessen evidently argued that the
so-called "caffetannic acid" is the "harmful" substance in coffee, and
that it is concentrated in the outer layers of the coffee beans. If
these be his precepts, the question of their correctness and of the
efficiency of his process becomes a moot one.
A procedure which aims at cleaning and refining raw coffee, and which
has been the subject of much polemical discussion, is that of Thum[120].
It entails the placing of the green beans in a perforated drum; just
covering them with water, or a solution of sodium chloride or sodium
carbonate, at 65° to 70° C.; and subjecting them to a vigorous brushing
for from 1 to 5 minutes, according to the grade of coffee being treated.
The value of this method is somewhat doubtful, as it would not seem to
accomplish any more than simple washing. In fact, if anything, the
process is undesirable; as some of the extractive matters present in the
coffee, and particularly caffein, will be lost. Both Freund[121] and
Harnack[122] hold briefs for the product produced by this method, and
the latter endeavors analytically to prove its merits; but as his
experimental data are questionable, his conclusions do not carry much
weight.
_The Acids of Coffee_
The study of the acids of coffee has been productive of much controversy
and many contradictory results, few of which possess any value. The acid
of coffee is generally spoken of as "caffetannic acid." Quite a few
attempts have been made to determine the composition and structure of
this compound and to assign it a formula. Among them may be noted those
of Allen,[123] who gives it the empirical formula C_14_H_16_O_7;
Hlasiwetz,[124] who represents it as C_15_H_18_O_8; Richter, as
C_30_H_18_O_16; Griebel,[125] as C_18_H_24_O_10, and Cazeneuve
and Haddon,[126] as C_21_H_28_O_14. It is variously supposed to
exist in coffee as the potassium, calcium, or magnesium salt. In regard
to the physical appearance of the isolated substance there is also some
doubt, Thorpe[127] describing it as an amorphous powder, and Howard[128]
as a brownish, syrup-like mass, having a slight acid and astringent
taste.
The chemical reactions of "caffetannic acid" are generally agreed upon.
A dark green coloration is given with ferric chloride; and upon boiling
it with alkalies or dilute acids, caffeic acid and glucose are formed.
Fusion with alkali produces protocatechuic acid.
K. Gorter[129] has made an extensive and accurate investigation into the
matter, and in reporting upon the same has made some very pertinent
observations. His claim is that the name "caffetannic acid" is a
misnomer and should be abandoned. The so-called "caffetannic acid" is
really a mixture which has among its constituents chlorogenic acid
(C_32_H_38_O_19), which is not a tannic acid, and coffalic acid.
Tatlock and Thompson[130] have expressed the opinion that roasted coffee
contains no tannin, and that the lead precipitate contains mostly
coloring matter. They found only 4.5 percent of tannin (precipitable by
gelatin or alkaloids) in raw coffee.
Hanausek[131] demonstrated the presence of oxalic acid in unripe beans,
and citric acid has been isolated from Liberian coffee. It also has been
claimed that viridic acid, C_14_H_20_O_11, is present in coffee. In
addition to these, the fat of coffee contains a certain percentage of
free fatty acids.
It is thus apparent that even in green coffee there is no definite
compound "caffetannic acid," and there is even less likelihood of its
being present in roasted coffee. The conditions, high heat and
oxidation, to which coffee is subjected in roasting would suffice to
decompose this hypothetical acid if it were present.
In the method of analysis for caffetannic acid (No. 24) given at the end
of this chapter, there are many chances of error, although this
procedure is the best yet devised. Lead acetate forms three different
compounds with "caffetannic acid," so that this reagent must be added
with extreme care in order to precipitate the compound desired. The
precipitate, upon forming, mechanically carries down with it any fats
which may be present, and which are removed from it only with
difficulty. The majority of the mineral salts in the solution will come
down simultaneously. All of the above-mentioned organic acids form
insoluble salts with lead acetate, and there will also be a tendency
toward precipitation of certain of the components of caramel, the acidic
polymerization products of acrolein, glycerol, etc., and of the proteins
and their decomposition products.
In view of this condition of uncertainty in composition, necessity for
great care in manipulation, and ever-present danger of contamination,
the significance of "caffetannic acid analysis" fades. It is highly
desirable that the nomenclature relevant to this analytical procedure be
changed to one, such as "lead number," which will be more truly
indicative of its significance.
_The Alkaloids of Coffee_
In addition to caffein, the main alkaloid of coffee, trigonellin--the
methylbetaine of nicotinic acid--sometimes known as caffearine, has been
isolated from coffee.[132] This alkaloid, having the formula
C_14_H_16_O_4_N_2, is also found in fenugreek, _Trigonella
foenum-græcum_, in various leguminous plants, and in the seeds of
strophanthus. When pure it forms colorless needles melting at 140° C.,
and, as with all alkaloids, gives a weak basic reaction. It is very
soluble in water, slightly soluble in alcohol, and only very slightly
soluble in ether, chloroform or benzol, so that it does not contaminate
the caffein in the determination of the latter. Its effects on the body
have not been studied, but they are probably not very great, as
Polstorff obtained only 0.23 percent from the coffee which he examined.
Caffein, thein, trimethylxanthin, or C_5_H(CH_3)_3_N_4_O_2, in
addition to being in the coffee bean is also found in guarana leaves,
the kola nut, maté, or Paraguay tea, and, in small quantities, in cocoa.
It is also found in other parts of these plants besides those commonly
used for food purposes.
A neat test for detecting the presence of caffein is that of A.
Viehoever,[133] in which the caffein is sublimed directly from the plant
tissue in a special apparatus. The presence of caffein in the sublimate
is verified by observing its melting point, determined on a special
heating stage used in connection with a microscope.
The chief commercial source of this alkaloid is waste and damaged tea,
from which it is prepared by extraction with boiling water, the tannin
precipitated from the solution with litharge, and the solution then
concentrated to crystallize out the caffein. It is further purified by
sublimation or recrystallization from water. Coffee chaff and
roaster-flue dust have been proposed as sources for medicinal caffein,
but the extraction of the alkaloid from the former has not proven to be
a commercial success. Several manufacturers of pharmaceuticals are now
extracting caffein from roaster-flue dust, probably by an adaptation of
the Faunce[134] process. The recovery of caffein from roaster-flue gases
may be facilitated and increased by the use of a condenser such as
proposed Ewé.[135]
Pure caffein forms long, white, silky, flexible needles, which readily
felt together to form light, fleecy masses. It melts at 235-7° C. and
sublimes completely at 178° C., though the sublimation starts at 120°.
Salts of an unstable nature are formed with caffein by most acids. The
solubility of caffein as determined by Seidell[136] is given in Table I.
TABLE I--THE SOLUBILITY OF CAFFEIN
Solubility:
Grm. Caffein
per 100
Grm. of Sp. Gr. of
Sp. Gr. of Temperature Saturated Saturated
Solvent Solvent of Solution Solution Solution
Water 0.997 25 2.14
Ether 0.716 25 0.27
Chloroform 1.476 25 11.0
Acetone 0.809 30-1 2.18 0.832
Benzene 0.872 30-1 1.22 0.875
Benzaldehyde 1.055 30-1 11.62 1.087
Amylacetate 0.860 30-1 0.72 0.862
Aniline 1.02 30-1 22.89 1.080
Amyl alcohol 0.814 25 0.49 0.810
Acetic acid 1.055 21.5 2.44
Xylene 0.847 32.5 1.11 0.847
Toluene 0.862 25 0.57 0.861
The similarity between caffein and theobromin (the chief alkaloid of
cocoa), xanthin (one of the constituents of meat), and uric acid, is
shown by the accompanying structural formulæ.
These formulæ show merely the relative position occupied by caffein in
the purin group, and do not in any wise indicate, because of its
similarity of structure to the other compounds, that it has the same
physiological action. The presence and position of the methyl groups
(CH_3) in caffein is probably the controlling factor which makes its
action differ from the behavior of other members of the series. The
structure of these compounds was established, and their syntheses
accomplished, in the course of various classic researches by Emil
Fischer.[137]
[Illustration: FORMULA FOR CAFFEIN, SHOWING ITS RELATION TO THE PURIN
GROUP]
Gorter states that caffein exists in coffee in combination with
chlorogenic acid as a potassium chlorogenate, C_32_H_36_O_19,
K_2(C_8_H_10_O_2_N_4)_2·2H_2_O, which he isolated in colorless
prisms. This compound is water-soluble, but caffein can not be extracted
from the crystals with anhydrous solvents. To this behavior can probably
be attributed the difficulty experienced in extracting caffein from
coffee with dry organic solvents. However, the fact that a small
percentage can be extracted from the green bean in this manner indicates
that some of the caffein content exists therein in a free state. This
acid compound of caffein will be largely decomposed during the process
of torrefaction, so that in roasted coffee a larger percentage will be
present in the free state. Microscopical examination of the roasted bean
lends verisimilitude to this contention.
[Illustration: PLANTER'S BUNGALOW WITH COFFEE TREES IN FLOWER, MYSORE]
[Illustration: COOLIES BAGGING COFFEE ON THE DRYING GROUNDS]
[Illustration: COFFEE SCENES IN BRITISH INDIA]
TABLE II--COFFEE ANALYSES
Santos Green
| Santos Roasted
| | Padang Green
| | | Padang Roasted
| | | | Guatemala Green
| | | | | Guatemala Roasted
| | | | | | Mocha Green
| | | | | | | Mocha
| | | | | | | Roasted
| | | | | | | |
Moisture 8.75 3.75 8.78 2.72 9.59 3.40 9.06 3.36
April 20th
Moisture
September 20th 8.12 6.45 8.05 6.03 8.68 6.92 8.15 7.10
Ash 4.41 4.49 4.23 4.70 3.93 4.48 4.20 4.43
Oil 12.96 13.76 12.28 13.33 12.42 13.07 14.04 14.18
Caffein 1.87 1.81 1.56 1.47 1.26 1.22 1.31 1.28
Caffein,
dry basis 2.03 .... 1.69 .... 1.39 .... 1.44 ....
Crude fiber 20.70 14.75 21.92 14.95 22.23 15.23 22.46 15.41
Protein 9.50 12.93 12.62 14.75 10.43 11.69 8.56 9.57
Protein,
dry basis 10.41 .... 13.68 .... 11.53 .... 9.41 ....
Water extract 31.11 30.30 30.83 30.21 31.04 30.47 31.27 30.44
Specific
gravity,
10 percent
extract 1.0109 1.0101 1.0107 1.0104 1.0105 1.0104 1.0108 1.0108
Bushelweight 47.0 28.2 45.2 27.8 52.2 27.2 48.8 30.2
1,000 kernel
weight 130.60 120.20 167.30 151.35 189.20 165.80 119.52 100.00
1,000 kernel
weight,
dry basis 119.1 115.7 154.1 147.2 171.0 160.1 108.6 96.6
Dextrose .... 0.72 .... 0.81 .... 0.54 .... 0.46
Caffetannic
acid 15.58 17.44 15.37 16.93 16.27 17.13 15.61 16.89
Acidity by
titration
apparent 1.50 2.08 1.47 2.00 1.39 2.13 1.11 1.87
As may be seen in Table II,[138] the caffein content of coffee varies
with the different kinds, a fair average of the caffein content being
about 1.5 percent for _C. arabica_, to which class most of our coffees
belong. However, aside from these may be mentioned _C. canephora_, which
yields 1.97 percent caffein; _C. mauritiana_, which contains 0.07
percent of the alkaloid (less than the average "caffein-free coffee");
and _C. humboltiana_, which contains no caffein, but a bitter principle,
cafemarin. Neither do the berries of _C. Gallienii_, _C. Bonnieri_, or
_C. Mogeneti_ contain any caffein; and there has also been reported[139]
a "Congo coffee" which contained no crystallizable alkaloid whatever.
Apparently the variation in caffein content is largely due to the genus
of the tree from which the berry comes, but it is also quite probable
that the nature of the soil and climatic conditions play an important
part. In the light of what has been accomplished in the field of
agricultural research, it does not seem improbable that a man of
Burbank's ability and foresight could successfully develop a series of
coffees possessed of all the cup qualities inherent in those now used,
but totally devoid of caffein. Whether this is desirable or not is a
question to be considered in an entirely different light from the
possibility of its accomplishment.
TABLE III--CAFFEIN IN DIFFERENT ROASTS
Rio Santos Guatemala
Green 1.68% 1.85% 1.82%
Cinnamon 1.70 1.72 1.80
Medium 1.66 1.66 1.56
City 1.36 1.66 1.46
The variation in the caffein content of coffee at different intensities
of roasting, as shown in Table III[140] is, of course, primarily
dependent upon the original content of the green. A considerable portion
of the caffein is sublimed off during roasting, thus decreasing the
amount in the bean. The higher the roast is carried, the greater the
shrinkage; but, as the analyses in the above table show, the loss of
caffein proceeds out of proportion to the shrinkage, for the percentage
of caffein constantly decreases with the increase in color. If the roast
be carried almost to the point of carbonization, as in the case of the
"Italian roast," the caffein content will be almost nil. This is not a
suitable coffee for one desiring an almost caffein-free drink, for the
empyreumatic products produced by this excessive roasting will be more
toxic by far than the caffein itself would have been.
_Caffein-free Coffee_
The demand for a caffein-free coffee may be attributed to two causes,
namely: the objectionable effect which caffein has upon neurasthenics;
and the questionable advertising of the "coffee-substitute" dealers, who
have by this means persuaded many normal persons into believing that
they are decidedly sub-normal. As a result of this demand, a variety of
decaffeinated coffees have been placed on the market. Just why the
coffee men have not taken advantage of naturally caffein-free coffees,
or of the possibility of obtaining coffees low in caffein content by
chemical selection from the lines now used, is a difficult question to
answer.
In the endeavor to develop a commercial decaffeinated coffee the first
method of procedure was to extract the caffein from roasted coffee. This
method had its advantages and its disadvantages, of which the latter
predominated. The caffein in the roasted coffee is not as tightly bound
chemically as in the green coffee, and is, therefore, more easily
extracted. Also, the structure of the roasted bean renders it more
readily penetrable by solvents than does that of the green bean.
However, the great objection to this method arises from the fact that at
the same time as the caffein is extracted, the volatile aromatic and
flavoring constituents of the coffee are removed also. These substances,
which are essential for the maintenance of quality by the coffee, though
readily separated from the caffein, can not be returned to the roasted
bean with any degree of certainty. This virtually insurmountable
obstacle forced the abandonment of this mode of attack.
In order to avoid this action, the attention of investigators was
directed to extraction of the alkaloid in question from the green bean.
Because of the difficulty of causing the solvent to penetrate the bean,
recourse to grinding resulted. This greatly facilitated the desired
extraction, but a difficulty was encountered when the subsequent
roasting was attempted. The irregular and broken character of the ground
green beans resisted all attempts to produce practically a uniformly
roasted, highly aromatic product from the ground material.
Avoidance of this lack of uniformity in the product, and the great
desirability to duplicate the normal bean as far as possible,
necessitated the development of a method of extraction of the caffein
from the whole raw bean without a permanent alteration of the shape
thereof. The close structure of the green bean, and its consequent
resistance to penetration by solvents, and the existence of the caffein
in the bean as an acid salt, which is not easily soluble, offered
resistance to successful extraction.
As a means of overcoming the difficulty of structure, the beans were
allowed to stand in water in order to swell, or the cells were expanded
by treatment with steam, or the beans were subjected to the action of
some "cellulose-softening acids," such as acetic acid or sulphur dioxid.
As a method of facilitating the mechanical side of extraction without
deleterious effects, the treatment of the coffee with steam under
pressure, as utilized in the patented process of Myer, Roselius, and
Wimmer,[141] is probably the safest.
Many ingenious methods have been devised for the ready removal of the
caffein from this point on. Several processes employ an alkali, such as
ammonium hydroxid, to free the caffein from the acid; or an acid, such
as acetic, hydrochloric, or sulphurous, is used to form a more soluble
salt of caffein. Other procedures effect the dissociation of the
caffein-acid salt by dampening or immersion in a liquid and subjecting
the mass to the action of an electric current.
The caffein is usually extracted from the beans by benzol or chloroform,
but a variety of solvents may be employed, such as petrolic ether,
water, alcohol, carbon tetrachloride, ethylene chloride, acetone, ethyl
ether, or mixtures or emulsions of these. After extraction, the beans
may be steam distilled to remove and to recover any residual traces of
solvent, and then dried and roasted. It is said[142] that by heating the
beans before bringing them into contact with steam, not only is an
economy of steam effected, but the quality of the resultant product is
improved.
One clever but expensive method[143] of preparing caffein-free coffee
consists in heating the beans under pressure, with some substance, such
as sodium salicylate, with the resultant formation of a more soluble and
more easily steam-distillable compound of caffein. The beans are then
steam distilled to remove the caffein, dried, and roasted.
Another process of peculiar interest is that of Hubner,[144] in which
the coffee beans are well washed and then spread in layers and kept
covered with water at 15° C. until limited germination has taken place,
whereupon the beans are removed and the caffein extracted with water at
50° C. It is claimed by the inventor that sprouting serves to remove
some of the caffein, but it is quite probable that the process does
nothing more than accomplish simple aqueous extraction.
In the majority of these processes the flavor of the resultant product
should be very similar to natural roasted coffee. However, in the cases
where aqueous extraction is employed, other substances besides caffein
are removed that are replaced in the bean only with difficulty. The
resultant product accordingly is very likely to have a flavor not
entirely natural. On the other hand, beans from which the caffein is
extracted with volatile solvents, if the operation be conducted
carefully, should give a natural-tasting roast. Any residual traces of
the solvent left in the bean are volatilized upon roasting.
Some of the caffein-free coffees on the market show upon analysis almost
as much caffein as the natural bean. Those manufactured by reliable
concerns, however, are virtually caffein-free, their content of the
alkaloid varying from 0.3 to 0.07 percent as opposed to 1.5 percent in
the untreated coffee. Thus, although actually only caffein-poor, in
order to get the reaction of one cup of ordinary coffee one would have
to drink an unusual amount of the brew made from these coffees.
_The Aromatic Principles of Coffee_
To ascertain just what substance or substances give the pleasing and
characteristic aroma to coffee has long been the great desire of both
practical and scientific men interested in the coffee business. This
elusive material has been variously called caffeol, caffeone, "the
essential oil of coffee," etc., the terms having acquired an ambiguous
and incorrect significance. It is now generally agreed that the aromatic
constituent of coffee is not an essential oil, but a complex of
compounds which usage has caused to be collectively called "caffeol."
These substances are not present in the green bean, but are produced
during the process of roasting. Attempts at identification and location
of origin have been numerous; and although not conclusive, still have
not proven entirely futile. One of the first observations along this
line was that of Benjamin Thompson in 1812. "This fragrance of coffee is
certainly owing to the escape of a volatile aromatic substance which did
not originally exist as such in the grain, but which is formed in the
process of roasting it." Later, Graham, Stenhouse, and Campbell started
on the way to the identification of this aroma by noting that "in common
with all the valuable constituents of coffee, caffeone is found to come
from the soluble portion of the roasted seed."[145]
Comparison of the aroma given off by coffee during the roasting process
with that of fresh-ground roasted coffee shows that the two aromas,
although somewhat different, may be attributed to the same substances
present in different proportions in the two cases. Recovery and
identification of the aromatic principles escaping from the roaster
would go far toward answering the question regarding the nature of the
aroma. Bernheimer[146] reported water, caffein, caffeol, acetic acid,
quinol, methylamin, acetone, fatty acids and pyrrol in the distillate
coming from roasting coffee. The caffeol obtained by Bernheimer in this
work was believed by him to be a methyl derivative of saligenin.
Jaeckle[147] examined a similar product and found considerable
quantities of caffein, furfurol, and acetic acid, together with small
amounts of acetone, ammonia, trimethylamin, and formic acid. The caffeol
of Bernheimer could not be detected. Another substance was separated
also, but in too small a quantity to permit complete identification.
This substance consisted of colorless crystals, which readily sublimed,
melted at 115° to 117° C., and contained sulphur. The crystals were
insoluble in water, almost insoluble in alcohol, but readily soluble in
ether.
By distilling roasted coffee with superheated steam, Erdmann[148]
obtained an oil consisting of an indifferent portion of 58 percent and
an acid portion of 42 percent, consisting mainly of a valeric acid,
probably alphamethylbutyric acid. The indifferent portion was found to
contain about 50 percent furfuryl alcohol, together with a number of
phenols. The fraction containing the characteristic odorous constituent
of coffee boiled at 93° C. under 13 mm. pressure. The yield of this
latter principle was extremely small, only about 0.89 gram being
procured from 65 kilos of coffee.
Pyridin was also shown to be present in coffee by Betrand and
Weisweiller[149] and by Sayre.[150] As high as 200 to 500 milligrams of
this toxic compound have been obtained from 1 kilogram of freshly
roasted coffee.
As stated above, the empyreumatic volatile aromatic constituents of the
coffee are without question formed during and by the roasting process.
According to Thorpe,[151] the most favorable temperature for development
of coffee odor and flavor is about 200° C. Erdmann claimed to have
produced caffeol by gently heating together caffetannic acid, caffein,
and cane sugar. Other investigators have been unable to duplicate this
work. Another authority,[152] giving it the empirical formula
C_8_H_10_O_2, states that it is produced during roasting, probably
at the expense of a portion of the caffein. These conceptions are in the
main incomplete and inaccurate.
By means of careful work, Grafe[153] came closer to ascertaining the
origin of the fugacious aromatic materials. His work with normal,
caffein-free coffee and with Thum's purified coffee led him to state
that a part of these substances was derived from the crude fiber,
probably from the hemi-cellulose of the thick endosperm cells.
Sayre[154] makes the most plausible proposal regarding the origin of
caffeol. He considers the roasting of coffee as a destructive
distillation process, summarizing the results, briefly, as the
production of furfuraldehyde from the carbohydrates, acrolein from the
fats, catechol and pyrogallol from the tannins, and ammonia, amins, and
pyrrols from the proteins. The products of roasting inter-react to
produce many compounds of varying degrees of complexity and toxicity.
The great difficulty which arises in the attempt to identify the
aromatic constituents of coffee is that the caffeols of no two coffees
may be said to be the same. The reason for this is apparent; for the
green coffees themselves vary in composition, and those of the same
constitution are not roasted under identical conditions. Therefore, it
is not to be expected that the decomposition products formed by the
action of the different greens would be the same. Also, these volatile
products occur in the roasted coffee in such a small amount that the
ascertaining of their percentage relationship and the recognition of all
that are present are not possible with the methods of analysis at
present at our disposal. Until better analytical procedures have been
developed we can not hope to establish a chemical basis for the grading
of coffees from this standpoint.
_Coffee Oil and Fat_
It is well to distinguish between the "coffee oils," as they are termed
by the trade, and true coffee oil. In speaking of the qualities of
coffee, connoisseurs frequently use erroneous terms, particularly when
they designate certain of the flavoring and aromatic constituents of
coffee as "oils" or "essential oils." Coffee does not contain any
essential oils, the aromatic constituent corresponding to essential oil
in coffee being caffeol, a complex which is water-soluble, a property
not possessed by any true oil. True, the oil when isolated from roasted
coffee does possess, before purification, considerable of the aromatic
and flavoring constituents of coffee. They are, however, no part of the
coffee fat, but are held in it no doubt by an enfleurage action in much
the same way that perfumes of roses, etc., are absorbed and retained by
fats and oils in the commercial preparation of pomades and perfumes.
This affinity of the coffee oil for caffeol assists in the retention of
aromatic substances by the whole roasted bean. However, upon extraction
of ground roasted coffee with water, the caffeol shows a preferential
solubility in water, and is dissolved out from the oil, going into the
brew.
The true oil of coffee has been investigated to a fair degree and has
been found to be inodorous when purified. Analysis of green and roasted
coffees shows them to possess between 12 percent and 20 percent fat.
Warnier[155] extracted ground unroasted coffee with petroleum ether,
washed the extract with water, and distilled off the solvent, obtaining
a yellow-brownish oil possessing a sharp taste. From his examination of
this oil he reported these constants: d_24-5, 0.942; refraction at
25°, 81.5; solidifying point, 6° to 5°; melting point, 8° to 9°;
saponification number, 177.5; esterification number, 166.7; acid number,
6.2; acetyl number, 0; iodin number, 84.5 to 86.3. Meyer and Eckert[156]
carefully purified coffee oil and saponified it with Li_2_O in alcohol.
In the saponifiable portion, glycerol was the only alcohol present, the
acids being carnaubic, 10 percent; daturinic acid, 1 to 1.5 percent;
palmitic acid, 25 to 28 percent; capric acid, 0.5 percent; oleic acid,
2 percent, and linoleic acid, 50 percent. The unsaponifiable wax
amounted to 21.2 percent, was nitrogen-free, gave a phytostearin
reaction, and saponification and oxidation indicated that it was
probably a tannol carnaubate. Von-Bitto[157] examined the fat extracted
from the inner husk of the coffee berry and found it to be faint yellow
in color, and to solidify only gradually after melting. Upon analysis,
it showed: saponification value, 141.2; palmitic acid, 37.84 percent,
and glycerids as tripalmitin, 28.03 percent.
_Carbohydrates of the Coffee Berry_
There has been considerable diversity of opinion regarding the sugar of
coffee. Bell believed the sugar to be of a peculiar species allied to
melezitose, but Ewell,[158] G.L. Spencer, and others definitely proved
the presence of sucrose in coffee. In fat-free coffee 6 percent of
sucrose was found extractable by 70 percent alcohol. Baker[159] claimed
that manno-arabinose, or manno-xylose, formed one of the most important
constituents of the coffee-berry substance and yielded mannose on
hydrolysis. Schultze and Maxwell state that raw coffee contains
galactan, mannan, and pentosans, the latter present to the extent of 5
percent in raw and 3 percent in roasted coffee. By distilling coffee
with hydrochloric acid Ewell obtained furfurol equivalent to 9 percent
pentose. He also obtained a gummy substance which, on hydrolysis, gave
rise to a reducing sugar; and as it gave mucic acid and furfurol on
oxidation, he concluded that it was a compound of pentose and galactose.
In undressed Mysore coffee Commaille[160] found 2.6 percent of glucose
and no dextrin. This claim of the presence of glucose in coffee was
substantiated by the work of Hlasiwetz,[161] who resolved a caffetannic
acid, which he had isolated, into glucose and a peculiar crystallizable
acid, C_8_H_8_O_4, which he named caffeic acid.
The starch content of coffee is very low. Cereals may readily be
detected and identified in coffee mixtures by the presence and
characteristics of their starch, in view of the fact that coffee
(chicory, too) is practically free from starch. On this score it is
inadvisable for diabetics to use any of the many cereal substitutes for
coffee. It is pertinent to note in this connection that persons
suffering from diabetes may sweeten their coffee with saccharin (1/2 to
1 grain per cup) or glycerol, thus obtaining perfect satisfaction
without endangering their health.
The cellulose in coffee is of a very hard and horny character in the
green bean, but it is made softer and more brittle during the process of
roasting. It is rather difficult to define under the microscope,
particularly after roasting, even though the chief characteristics of
the cellular tissue are more or less retained. Coffee cellulose gives a
blue color with sulphuric acid and iodin, and is dissolved by an
ammoniacal solution of copper oxid. Even after roasting, remnants of the
silver skin are always present, the structure of which, a thin membrane
with adherent, thick-walled, spindle-shaped, hollow cells, is peculiar
to coffee.
_The Chemistry of Roasting_
The effect of the heat in the roasting of coffee is largely evidenced as
a destructive distillation and also as a partial dehydration. At the
same time, oxidizing and reducing reactions probably occur within the
bean, as well as some polymerization and inter-reactions.
A loss of water is to be expected as the natural outcome of the
application of heat; and analyses show that the moisture content of raw
coffee varies from 8 to 14 percent, while after roasting it rarely
exceeds 3 percent, and frequently falls as low as 0.5 percent. The loss
of the original water content of the green bean is not the only moisture
loss; for many of the constituents of coffee, notably the carbohydrates,
are decomposed upon heating to give off water, so that analysis before
and after roasting is no direct indication of the exact amount of water
driven off in the process. If it be desired to ascertain this quantity
accurately, catching of the products which are driven off and
determination of their water content becomes necessary.
The carbohydrates both dehydrate and decompose. The result of the
dehydration is the formation of caramel and related products, which
comprise the principal coloring matters in coffee infusion. That portion
of the carbohydrates known as pentosans gives rise to furfuraldehyde,
one of the important components of caffeol.
The effect of roasting upon the fat content of the beans is to reduce
its actual weight, but not to change appreciably the percentage
present, since the decrease in quantity keeps pace fairly well with the
shrinkage. Some of the more volatile fatty acids are driven off, and the
fats break down to give a larger percentage of free fatty acids, some
light esters, acrolein, and formic acid. If the roast be a very heavy
one, or is brought up too rapidly, the fat will come to the surface,
through breaking of the fat cells, with a decided alteration in the
chemical nature of the fat and with pronounced expansion and cracking.
Decomposition of the caffein acid-salt and considerable sublimation of
the caffein also occur. The majority of the caffein undergoes this
volatilization unchanged, but a portion of it is probably oxidized with
the formation of ammonia, methylamin, di-methylparabanic acid, and
carbon dioxid. This reaction partly explains why the amount of caffein
recovered from the roaster flues is not commensurate with the amount
lost from the roasting coffee; although incomplete condensation is also
an important factor. Microscopic examination of the roasted beans will
show occasional small crystals of caffein in the indentations on the
surface, where they have been deposited during the cooling process.
The compound, or compounds, known as "caffetannic acid" are probably the
source of catechol, as the proteins are of ammonia, amins, and pyrrols.
The crude fiber and other unnamed constituents of the raw beans react
analogously to similar compounds in the destructive distillation of
wood, giving rise to acetone, various fatty acids, carbon dioxid and
other uncondensable gases, and many compounds of unknown identity.
During the course of roasting and subsequent cooling these decomposition
products probably interact and polymerize to form aromatic tar-like
materials and other complexes which play an important rôle among the
delicate flavors of coffee. In fact, it is not unlikely that these
reactions continue throughout the storage time after roasting, and that
upon them the deterioration of roasted coffee is largely dependent.
Speculation upon what complex compounds are thus formed offers much
attraction. A notable one by Sayre[162] postulates the reaction between
acrolein and ammonia to give methyl pyridin, which in turn with furfurol
forms furfurol vinyl pyridin. This upon reduction would produce the
alkaloid, conin, traces of which have been found in coffee.
Although furfuraldehyde is the natural decomposition product of
pentosans, furfuryl alcohol is the main furane body of coffee aroma.
This would indicate that active reducing conditions prevail within the
bean during roasting; and the further fact that carbon monoxid is given
off during roasting makes this seem quite probable. If one admits that
caffetannic acid exists in the green bean; that upon oxidation it gives
viridic acid; and that it is concentrated in the outer layers of the
bean, as certain investigators have claimed, then there is chemical
proof of the existence of oxidizing conditions about the exterior of the
bean. In any event, however, the fact that oxidizing conditions
predominate on the external portion of the bean is obvious. Accordingly,
our meager knowledge of the chemistry of roasting indicates that while
the external layers of the roasting beans are subjected to oxidizing
conditions, reducing ones exist in the interior. Future experimentation
will, no doubt, prove this to be the case.
Attempts have been made to retain in the beans the volatile products,
which normally escape, both by coating previous to roasting[163] and by
conducting the process under pressure.[164] However, the results so
obtained were not practical, since the cup values were decreased in the
majority of cases, and the physiological effects produced were
undesirable. In cases where the quality was improved, the gain was not
sufficient to recompense the roaster for the additional expense and
difficulty of operation.
Various persons have essayed to control the roasting process
automatically; but the extreme variance in composition of different
coffees, the effect of changing atmospheric conditions, and the lack of
constancy in the calorific power of fuels have conspired to defeat the
automatic roasting machine.[165] It is even doubtful whether De
Mattia's[166] process for roasting until the vapors evolved produce a
violet color when passed into a solution of fuchsin decolorized with
sulphur dioxid is commercially reliable.
Many patents have been granted for the treatment of coffees immediately
prior to or during roasting with the object of thus improving the
product. The majority of these depend upon adding solutions of
sugar,[167] calcium saccharate,[168] or other carbohydrates,[169] and in
the case of Eckhardt,[170] of small percentages of tannic acid and fat.
In direct opposition to this latter practise, Jurgens and Westphal[171]
apply alkali, ostensibly to lessen the "tannic acid" content.
Brougier[172] sprays a solution containing caffein upon the roasting
berries; and Potter[173] roasts the coffee together with chicory,
effecting a separation at the end.
[Illustration: GROUND COFFEE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE]
The exact effect which roasting with sugars has upon the flavor is not
well understood; but it is known that it causes the beans to absorb more
moisture, due to the hygroscopicity of the caramel formed. For instance,
berries roasted with the addition of glucose syrup hold an additional 7
percent of water and give a darker infusion than normally roasted
coffee. When the green coffee is glazed with cane sugar prior to
roasting, the losses during the process are much higher than ordinarily,
on account of the higher temperature required to attain the desired
results. Losses for ordinary coffee taken to a 16-percent roast are 9.7
percent of the original fat and 21.1 percent of the original caffein;
while for "sugar glazed" coffee the losses were 18.3 percent of the
original fat and 44.3 percent of the original caffein, using 8 to 9
percent sugar with Java coffee.
_Grinding and Packaging_
It is a curious fact that green coffee improves upon aging, whereas
after roasting it deteriorates with time. Even when packed in the best
containers, age shows to a disadvantage on the roasted bean. This is due
to a number of causes, among which are oxidation, volatilization of the
aroma, absorption of moisture and consequent hydrolysis, and alteration
in the character of the aromatic principles. Doolittle and Wright[174]
in the course of some extensive experiments found that roasted coffee
showed a continual gain in weight throughout 60 weeks, this gain being
mostly due to moisture absorption. An investigation by Gould[175] also
demonstrated that roasted coffee gives off carbon dioxid and carbon
monoxid upon standing. The latter, apparently produced during roasting
and retained by the cellular structure of the bean, diffuses therefrom;
whereas the former comes from an ante-roasting decomposition of unstable
compounds present.[176]
The surface of the whole bean forms a natural protection against
atmospheric influences, and as soon as this is broken, deterioration
sets in. On this account, coffee should be ground immediately before
extraction if maximum efficiency is to be obtained. The cells of the
beans tend to retain the fugacious aromatic principles to a certain
extent; so that the more of these which are broken in grinding, the
greater will be the initial loss and the more rapid the vitiation of the
coffee. It might, therefore, seem desirable to grind coarsely in order
to avoid this as much as possible. However, the coarser the grind, the
slower and more incomplete will be the extraction. A patent[177] has
been granted for a grind which contains about 90 percent fine coffee and
10 percent coarse, the patentee's claim being that in his "irregular
grind" the coarse coffee retains enough of the volatile constituents to
flavor the beverage, while the fine coffee gives a very high
extraction, thus giving an efficient brew without sacrificing
individuality.
In packaging roasted coffee the whole bean is naturally the best form to
employ, but if the coffee is ground first, King[178] found that
deterioration is most rapid with the coarse ground coffee, the speed
decreasing with the size of the ground particles. He explains this on
the ground of "ventilation"--the finer the grind, the closer the
particles pack together, the less the circulation of air through the
mass, and the smaller the amount of aroma which is carried away. He also
found that glass makes the best container for coffee, with the tin can,
and the foil-lined bag with an inner lining of glassine, not greatly
inferior.
Considerable publicity has been given recently to the method of packing
coffee in a sealed tin under reduced pressure. While thus packing in a
partial vacuum undoubtedly retards oxidation and precludes escape of
aroma from the original package, it would seem likely to hasten the
initial volatilizing of the aroma. Also, it would appear from
Gould's[179] work that roasted coffee evolves carbon dioxid until a
certain positive pressure is attained, regardless of the initial
pressure in the container. Accordingly, vacuum-packing apparently
enhances decomposition of certain constituents of coffee. Whether this
result is beneficial or otherwise is not quite clear.
_Brewing_
The old-time boiling method of making coffee has gone out of style,
because the average consumer is becoming aware of the fact that it does
not give a drink of maximum efficiency. Boiling the ground coffee with
water results in a large loss of aromatic principles by steam
distillation, a partial hydrolysis of insoluble portions of the grounds,
and a subsequent extraction of the products thus formed, which give a
bitter flavor to the beverage. Also, the maintenance of a high
temperature by the direct application of heat has a deleterious effect
upon the substances in solution. This is also true in the case of the
pumping percolator, and any other device wherein the solution is caused
to pass directly into steam at the point where heat is applied. Warm and
cold water extract about the same amount of material from coffee; but
with different rates of speed, an increase in temperature decreasing the
time necessary to effect the desired result.
It is a well known fact that re-warming a coffee brew has an undesirable
effect upon it. This is very probably due to the precipitation of some
of the water-soluble proteins when the solution cools, and their
subsequent decomposition when heat is applied directly to them in
reheating the solution. The absorption of air by the solution upon
cooling, with attendant oxidation, which is accentuated by the
application of heat in re-warming, must also be considered. It is
likewise probable that when an extract of coffee cools upon standing,
some of the aromatic principles separate out and are lost by
volatilization.
The method of extracting coffee which gives the most satisfaction is
practised by using a grind just coarse enough to retain the
individualistic flavoring components, retaining the ground coffee in a
fine cloth bag, as in the urn system, or on a filter paper, as in the
Tricolator, and pouring water at boiling temperature over the coffee.
During the extraction, a top should be kept on the device to minimize
volatilization, and the temperature of the extract should be maintained
constant at about 200° F. after being made. Whether a repouring is
necessary or not is dependent upon the speed with which the water passes
through the coffee, which in turn is controlled by the fineness of the
grind and of the filtering medium.
_The Water Extract_
Although many analyses of the whole coffee bean are available, but
little work has been reported upon the aqueous extracts. The total water
extract of roasted coffee varies from 20 to 31 percent in different
kinds of coffee. The following analysis of the extract from a Santos
coffee may be taken as a fair average example of the water-soluble
material.[180]
TABLE IV--ANALYSIS OF SANTOS COFFEE EXTRACT
(DRY BASIS)
Ether extract, fixed 1.06%
Total nitrogen 3.40%
Caffein 5.42%
Crude fiber 0.25%
Total ash 17.43%
Reducing sugar 2.70%
Caffetannic acid 15.33%
Protein 7.71%
It is difficult to make the trade terms, such as acidity, astringency,
etc., used in describing a cup of coffee, conform with the chemical
meanings of the same terms. However, a fair explanation of the cause of
some of these qualities can be made. Careful work by Warnier[181] showed
the actual acidities of some East India coffees to be:
TABLE V--ACIDITY OF SOME EAST INDIA COFFEES
Coffee from Acid Content
Sindjai 0.033%
Timor 0.028%
Bauthain 0.019%
Boengei 0.016%
Loewae 0.021%
Waloe Pengenten 0.018%
Kawi Redjo 0.015%
Palman Tjiasem 0.022%
Malang 0.013%
These figures may be taken as reliable examples of the true acid content
of coffee; and though they seem very low, it is not at all
incomprehensible that the acids which they indicate produce the acidity
in a cup of coffee. They probably are mainly volatile organic acids,
together with other acidic-natured products of roasting. We know that
very small quantities of acids are readily detected in fruit juices and
beer, and that variation in their percentage is quickly noticed, while
the neutralization of this small amount of acidity leaves an insipid
drink. Hence, it seems quite likely that this small acid content gives
to the coffee brew its essential acidity. A few minor experiments on
neutralization have proven that a very insipid beverage is produced by
thus treating a coffee infusion.
The body, or what might be called the licorice-like character, of
coffee, is due conceivably to the presence of bodies of a glucosidic
nature and to caramel. Astringency, or bitterness, is dependent upon the
decomposition products of crude fiber and chlorogenic acid, and upon the
soluble mineral content of the bean. The degree to which a coffee is
sweet-tasting or not is, of course, dependent upon its other
characteristics, but probably varies with the reducing sugar content.
Aside from the effects of these constituents upon cup quality, the
influence of volatile aromatic and flavoring constituents is always
evident in the cup valuation, and introduces a controlling factor in the
production of an individualistic drink.
_Coffee Extracts_
The uncertainty of the quality of coffee brews as made from day to day,
the inconvenience to the housewife of conducting the extraction, and the
inevitable trend of the human race toward labor-saving devices, have
combined their influences to produce a demand for a substance which will
give a good cup of coffee when added to water. This gave rise to a
number of concentrated liquid and solid "extracts of coffee," which,
because of their general poor quality, soon brought this type of product
into disrepute. This is not surprising; for these preparations were
mainly mixtures of caramel and carelessly prepared extracts of chicory,
roasted cereals, and cheap coffee.
Liquid extracts of coffee galore have appeared on the market only soon
to disappear. Difficulty is experienced in having them maintain their
quality over a protracted period of time, primarily due to the
hydrolyzing action of water on the dissolved substances. They also
ferment readily, although a small percentage of preservative, such as
benzoate of soda, will halt spoilage.[182]
So much trouble is not encountered with coffee-extract powders--the
so-called "soluble" or "instant" coffees. The majority of these powdered
dry extracts do, however, show great affinity for atmospheric moisture.
Their hygroscopicity necessitates packing and keeping them in air-tight
containers to prevent them running into a solid, slowly soluble mass.
The general method of procedure employed in the preparation of these
powders is to extract ground roasted coffee with water, and to evaporate
the aqueous solution to dryness with great care. The major difficulty
which seems to arise is that the heat needed to effect evaporation
changes the character of the soluble material, at the same time driving
off some volatile constituents which are essential to a natural flavor.
Many complex and clever processes have been developed for avoiding these
difficulties, and quite a number of patents on processes, and several on
the resultant product, have been allowed; but the commercial production
of a soluble coffee of freshly-brewed-coffee-duplicating-power is yet to
be accomplished. However, there are now on the market several
coffee-extract powders which dissolve readily in water, giving quite a
fair approximation of freshly brewed coffee. The improvement shown
since they first appeared augurs well for the eventual attainment of
their ultimate goal.
_Adulterants and Substitutes_
There would appear to be three reasons why substitutes for coffee are
sought--the high cost, or absence, of the real product; the acquiring of
a preferential taste, by the consumer, for the substitute; and the
injurious effects of coffee when used to excess. Makers of coffee
substitutes usually emphasize the latter reason; but many substitutes,
which are, or have been, on the market, seem to depend for their
existence on the other two. Properly speaking, there are scarcely any
real substitutes for coffee. The substances used to replace it are
mostly like it only in appearance, and barely simulate it in taste.
Besides, many of them are not used alone, but are mixed with real coffee
as adulterants.
The two main coffee substitutes are chicory and cereals. Chicory,
succory, _Cichorium Intybus_, is a perennial plant, growing to a height
of about three feet, bearing blue flowers, having a long tap root, and
possessing a foliage which is sometimes used as cattle food. The plant
is cultivated generally for the sake of its root, which is cut into
slices, kiln-dried, and then roasted in the same manner as coffee,
usually with the addition of a small proportion of some kind of fat. The
preparation and use of roasted chicory originated in Holland, about
1750. Fresh chicory[183] contains about 77 percent water, 7.5 gummy
matter, 1.1 of glucose, 4.0 of bitter extractive, 0.6 fat, 9.0
cellulose, inulin and fiber, and 0.8 ash. Pure roasted chicory[184]
contains 74.2 percent water-soluble material, comprised of 16.3 percent
water, 26.1 glucose, 9.6 dextrin and inulin, 3.2 protein, 16.4 coloring
matter, and 2.6 ash; and 25.8 percent insoluble substances, namely, 3.2
percent protein, 5.7 fat, 12.3 cellulose, and 4.6 ash. The effect of
roasting upon chicory is to drive off a large percentage of water,
increasing the reducing sugars, changing a large proportion of the
bitter extractives and inulin, and forming dextrin and caramel as well
as the characteristic chicory flavor.
The cereal substitutes contain almost every type of grain, mainly wheat,
rye, oats, buckwheat, and bran. They are prepared in two general ways,
by roasting the grains, or the mixtures of grains, with or without the
addition of such substances as sugar, molasses, tannin, citric acid,
etc., or by first making the floured grains into a dough, and then
baking, grinding, and roasting. Prior to these treatments, the grains
may be subjected to a variety of other treatments, such as impregnation
with various compounds, or germination. The effect of roasting on these
grains and other substitutes is the production of a destructive
distillation, as in the case of coffee; the crude fiber, starches, and
other carbohydrates, etc., being decomposed, with the production of a
flavor and an aroma faintly suggesting coffee.
The number, of other substitutes and imitations which have been employed
are too numerous to warrant their complete description; but it will
prove interesting to enumerate a few of the more important ones, such as
malt, starch, acorns, soya beans, beet roots, figs, prunes, date stones,
ivory nuts, sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, peas, and other vegetables,
bananas, dried pears, grape seeds, dandelion roots, rinds of citrus
fruits, lupine seeds, whey, peanuts, juniper berries, rice, the fruit of
the wax palm, cola nuts, chick peas, cassia seeds, and the seeds of any
trees and plants indigenous to the country in which the substitute is
produced.
Aside from adulteration by mixing substitutes with ground coffee, and an
occasional case of factitious molded berries, the main sophistications
of coffee comprise coating and coloring the whole beans. Coloring of
green and roasted coffees is practised to conceal damaged and inferior
beans. Lead and zinc chromates, Prussian blue, ferric oxid, coal-tar
colors, and other substances of a harmful nature, have been employed for
this purpose, being made to adhere to the beans with adhesives. As
glazes and coatings, a variety of substances have been employed, such as
butter, margarin, vegetable oils, paraffin, vaseline, gums, dextrin,
gelatin, resins, glue, milk, glycerin, salt, sodium bicarbonate,
vinegar, Irish moss, isinglass, albumen, etc. It is usually claimed that
coating is applied to retain aroma and to act as a clarifying agent; but
the real reasons are usually to increase weight through absorption of
water, to render low-grade coffees more attractive, to eliminate
by-products, and to assist in advertising.
METHODS OF ANALYSIS OF COFFEES[185]
(_Official and Tentative_)
(Sole responsibility for any errors in compilation or printing of
these methods is assumed by the author.)
GREEN COFFEE
1. _Macroscopic Examination--Tentative_
A macroscopic examination is usually sufficient to show the presence of
excessive amounts of black and blighted coffee beans, coffee hulls,
stones, and other foreign matter. These can be separated by hand-picking
and determined gravi-metrically.
2. _Coloring Matters--Tentative_
Shake vigorously 100 grams or more of the sample with cold water or 70
percent alcohol by volume. Strain through a coarse sieve and allow to
settle. Identify soluble colors in the solution and insoluble pigments
in the sediment.
ROASTED COFFEE
3. _Macroscopic Examination--Tentative_
Artificial coffee beans are apparent from their exact regularity of
form. Roasted legumes and lumps of chicory, when present in whole
roasted coffee, can be picked out and identified microscopically. In the
case of ground coffee, sprinkle some of the sample on cold water and
stir lightly. Fragments of pure coffee, if not over-roasted, will float;
while fragments of chicory, legumes, cereals, etc., will sink
immediately, chicory coloring the water a decided brown. In all cases
identify the particles that sink by microscopical examination.
4. _Preparation of Sample--Official_
Grind the sample to pass through a sieve having holes 0.5 mm. in
diameter and preserve in a tightly stoppered bottle.
5. _Moisture--Tentative_
Dry 5 grams of the sample at 105°--110°C. for 5 hours and subsequent
periods of an hour each until constant weight is obtained. The same
procedure may be used, drying _in vacuo_ at the temperature of boiling
water. In the case of whole coffee, grind rapidly to a coarse powder and
weigh at once portions for the determination without sifting and without
unnecessary exposure to the air.
6. _Soluble Solids--Tentative_
Place 4 grams of the sample in a 200-cc. flask, add water to the mark,
and allow the mass to infuse for eight hours, with occasional shaking;
let stand 16 hours longer without shaking, filter, evaporate 50 cc. of
filtrate to dryness in a flat-bottomed dish, dry at 100° C., cool and
weigh.
7. _Ash--Official_
Char a quantity of the substance, representing about 2 grams of the dry
material, and burn until free of carbon at a low heat, not to exceed
dull redness. If a carbon-free ash can not be obtained in this manner,
exhaust the charred mass with hot water, collect the insoluble residue
on a filter, burn till the ash is white or nearly so, and then add the
filtrate to the ash and evaporate to dryness. Heat to low redness, until
ash is white or grayish white, and weigh.
8. _Ash Insoluble in Acid--Official_
Boil the water-insoluble residue, obtained as directed under 9, or the
total ash obtained as directed under 7, with 25 cc. of 10-percent
hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. 1.050) for 5 minutes, collect the insoluble
matter on a Gooch crucible or an ashless filter, wash with hot water,
ignite and weigh.
9. _Soluble and Insoluble Ash--Official_
Heat 5 to 10 grams of the sample in a platinum dish of from 50 to 100
cc. capacity at 100° C. until the water is expelled, and add a few drops
of pure olive oil and heat slowly over a flame until swelling ceases.
Then place the dish in a muffle and heat at low redness until a white
ash is obtained. Add water to the ash, in the platinum dish, heat nearly
to boiling, filter through ash-free filter paper, and wash with hot
water until the combined filtrate and washings measure to about 60 cc.
Return the filter and contents to the platinum dish, carefully ignite,
cool and weigh. Compute percentages of water-insoluble ash and
water-soluble ash.
10. _Alkalinity of the Soluble Ash--Official_
Cool the filtrate from 9 and titrate with N/10 hydrochloric acid, using
methyl orange as an indicator.
Express the alkalinity in terms of the number of cc. of N/10 acid per 1
gram of the sample.
11. _Soluble Phosphoric Acid in the Ash--Official_
Acidify the solution of soluble ash, obtained in 9, with dilute nitric
acid and determine phosphoric acid (P_2_O_5). For percentages up to 5
use an aliquot corresponding to 0.4 gram of substance, for percentages
between 5 and 20 use an aliquot corresponding to 0.2 gram of substance,
and for percentages above 20 use an aliquot corresponding to 0.1 gram of
substance. Dilute to 75-100 cc., heat in a water-bath to 60°-65° C., and
for percentages below 5 add 20-25 cc. of freshly filtered molybdate
solution. For percentages between 5 and 20 add 30-35 cc. of molybdate
solution. For percentages greater than 20 add sufficient molybdate
solution to insure complete precipitation. Stir, let stand in the bath
for about 15 minutes, filter _at once_, wash once or twice with water by
decantation, using 25-30 cc. each time, agitate the precipitate
thoroughly and allow to settle; transfer to the filter and wash with
cold water until the filtrate from two fillings of the filter yields a
pink color upon the addition of phenolphthalein and one drop of the
standard alkali. Transfer the precipitate and filter to the beaker, or
precipitating vessel, dissolve the precipitate in a small excess of the
standard alkali, add a few drops of phenolphthalein solution, and
titrate with the standard acid.
12. _Insoluble Phosphoric Acid in the Ash--Official_
Determine phosphoric acid (P_2_O_5) in the Insoluble ash by the
foregoing method.
13. _Chlorides--Official_
Moisten 5 grams of the substance in a platinum dish with 20 cc. of a
5-percent solution of sodium carbonate, evaporate to dryness and ignite
as thoroughly as possible at a temperature not exceeding dull redness.
Extract with hot water, filter and wash. Return the residue to the
platinum dish and ignite to an ash; dissolve in nitric acid, and add
this solution to the water extract. Add a known volume of N/10 silver
nitrate in slight excess to the combined solutions. Stir well, filter
and wash the silver chloride precipitate thoroughly. To the filtrate and
washings add 5 cc. of a saturated solution of ferric alum and a few cc.
of nitric acid. Titrate the excess silver with N/10 ammonium or
potassium thiocyanate until a permanent light brown color appears.
Calculate the amount of chlorin.
14. _Caffein--The Fendler and Stüber Method--Tentative_
Pulverize the coffee to pass without residue through a sieve having
circular openings 1 mm. in diameter. Treat a 10-gram sample with 10
grams of 10-percent ammonium hydroxid and 200 grams of chloroform in a
glass-stoppered bottle and shake continuously by machine or hand for
one-half hour. Pour the entire contents of the bottle on a 12.5-cm.
folded filter, covering with a watch glass. Weigh 150 grams of the
filtrate into a 250-cc. flask and evaporate on the steam bath, removing
the last chloroform with a blast of air. Digest the residue with 80 cc.
of hot water for ten minutes on a steam bath with frequent shaking, and
let cool. Treat the solution with 20 cc. (for roasted coffee) or 10 cc.
(for unroasted coffee) of 1-percent potassium permanganate and let stand
for 15 minutes at room temperature. Add 2 cc. of 3-percent hydrogen
peroxid (containing 1 cc. of glacial acetic acid in 100 cc.). If the
liquid is still red or reddish, add hydrogen peroxid, 1 cc. at a time,
until the excess of potassium permanganate is destroyed. Place the flask
on the steam bath for 15 minutes, adding hydrogen peroxid in 0.5-cc.
portions until the liquid becomes no lighter in color. Cool and filter
into a separatory funnel, washing with cold water. Extract four times
with 25 cc. of chloroform. Evaporate the chloroform extract from a
weighed flask with aid of an air blast and dry at 100° C. to constant
weight (one-half hour is usually sufficient). Weigh the residue as
caffein and calculate on 7.5 grams of coffee. Test the purity of the
residue by determining nitrogen and multiplying by 3.464 to obtain
caffein.
15. _Caffein--Power-Chestnut Method--Official_
Moisten 10 grams of the finely powdered sample with alcohol, transfer to
a Soxhlet, or similar extraction apparatus, and extract with alcohol for
8 hours. (Care should be exercised to assure complete extraction.)
Transfer the extract with the aid of hot water to a porcelain dish
containing 10 grams of heavy magnesium oxid in suspension in 100 cc. of
water. (This reagent should meet the U.S.P. requirements.) Evaporate
slowly on the steam bath with frequent stirring to a dry, powdery mass.
Rub the residue with a pestle into a paste with boiling water. Transfer
with hot water to a smooth filter, cleaning the dish with a
rubber-tipped glass rod. Collect the filtrate in a liter flask marked at
250 cc. and wash with boiling water until the filtrate reaches the mark.
Add 10 cc. of 10-percent sulphuric acid and boil gently for 30 minutes
with a funnel in the neck of the flask. Cool and filter through a
moistened double paper into a separatory funnel and wash with small
portions of 0.5-percent sulphuric acid. Extract with six successive
25-cc. portions of chloroform. Wash the combined chloroform extracts in
a separatory funnel with 5 cc. of 1-percent potassium hydroxid solution.
Filter the chloroform into an Erlenmeyer flask. Wash the potassium
hydroxid with 2 portions of chloroform of 10 cc. each, adding them to
the flask together with the chloroform washings of the filter paper.
Evaporate or distil on the steam bath to a small volume (10-15 cc.),
transfer with chloroform to a tared beaker, evaporate carefully, dry for
30 minutes in a water oven, and weigh. The purity of the residue can be
tested by determining nitrogen and multiplying by the factor 3.464.
16. _Crude Fiber--Official_
Prepare solutions of sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxid of exactly
1.25-percent strength, determined by titration. Extract a quantity of
the substance representing about 2 grams of the dry material with
ordinary ether, or use residue from the determination of the ether
extract. To this residue in a 500-cc. flask add 200 cc. of boiling
1.25-percent sulphuric acid; connect the flask with a reflux condenser,
the tube of which passes only a short distance beyond the rubber stopper
into the flask, or simply cover a tall conical flask, which is well
suited for this determination, with a watch glass or short stemmed
funnel. Boil at once and continue boiling gently for thirty minutes. A
blast of air conducted into the flask may serve to reduce the frothing
of the liquid. Filter through linen, and wash with boiling water until
the washings are no longer acid; rinse the substance back into the flask
with 200 cc. of the boiling 1.25-percent solution of sodium hydroxid
free, or nearly so, of sodium carbonate; boil at once and continue
boiling gently for thirty minutes in the same manner as directed above
for the treatment with acid. Filter at once rapidly, wash with boiling
water until the washings are neutral. The last filtration may be
performed upon a Gooch crucible, a linen filter, or a tared filter
paper. If a linen filter is used, rinse the crude fiber, after washing
is completed, into a flat-bottomed platinum dish by means of a jet of
water; evaporate to dryness on a steam bath, dry to constant weight at
110° C., weigh, incinerate completely, and weigh again. The loss in
weight is considered to be crude fiber. If a tared filter paper is used,
weigh in a weighing bottle. In any case, the crude fiber after drying to
constant weight at 110° C., must be incinerated and the amount of the
ash deducted from the original weight.
17. _Starch--Tentative_
Extract 5 grams of the finely pulverized sample on a hardened filter
with five successive portions (10 cc. each) of ether, wash with small
portions of 95-percent alcohol by volume until a total of 200 cc. have
passed through, place the residue in a beaker with 50 cc. of water,
immerse the beaker in boiling water and stir constantly for 15 minutes
or until all the starch is gelatinized; cool to 55° C., add 20 cc. of
malt extract and maintain at this temperature for an hour. Heat again to
boiling for a few minutes, cool to 55° C., add 20 cc. of malt extract
and maintain at this temperature for an hour or until the residue
treated with iodin shows no blue color upon microscopic examination.
Cool, make up directly to 250 cc., and filter. Place 200 cc. of the
filtrate in a flask with 20 cc. of hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. 1.125);
connect with a reflux condenser and heat in a boiling water bath for 2.5
hours. Cool, nearly neutralize with sodium hydroxid solution, and make
up to 500 cc. Mix the solution well, pour through a dry filter and
determine the dextrose in an aliquot. Conduct a blank determination upon
the same volume of the malt extract as used upon the sample, and correct
the weight of reduced copper accordingly. The weight of the dextrose
obtained multiplied by 0.90 gives the weight of starch.
18. _Sugars--Tentative_
See original.[186]
19. _Petroleum Ether Extract--Official_
Dry 2 grams of coffee at 100° C., extract with petroleum ether (boiling
point 35° to 50° C.) for 16 hours, evaporate the solvent, dry the
residue at 100° C., cool, and weigh.
20. _Total Acidity--Tentative_
Treat 10 grams of the sample, prepared as directed under 4, with 75 cc.
of 80-percent alcohol by volume in an Erlenmeyer flask, stopper, and
allow to stand 16 hours, shaking occasionally. Filter and transfer an
aliquot of the filtrate (25 cc. in the case of green coffee, 10 cc. in
the case of roasted coffee) to a beaker, dilute to about 100 cc. with
water and titrate with N/10 alkali, using phenolphthalein as an
indicator. Express the result as the number of cc. of N/10 alkali
required to neutralize the acidity of 100 grams of the sample.
21. _Volatile Acidity--Tentative_
Into a volatile acid apparatus introduce a few glass beads, and over
these place 20 grams of the unground sample. Add 100 cc. of recently
boiled water to the sample, place a sufficient quantity of recently
boiled water in the outer flask and distil until the distillate is no
longer acid to litmus paper. Usually 100 cc. of distillate will be
collected. Titrate the distillate with N/10 alkali, using
phenolphthalein as an indicator. Express the result as the number of cc.
of N/10 alkali required to neutralize the acidity of 100 grams of the
sample.
UNOFFICIAL METHODS
22. _Protein_
Determine nitrogen in 3 grams of the sample by the Kjeldahl or Gunning
method. This gives the total nitrogen due to both the proteids and the
caffein. To obtain the protein nitrogen, subtract from the total
nitrogen the nitrogen due to caffein, obtained by direct determination
on the separated caffein or by calculation (caffein divided by 3.464
gives nitrogen). Multiply by 6.25 to obtain the amount of protein.
23. _Ten Percent Extract--McGill Method_
Weigh into a tared flask the equivalent of 10 grains of the dried
substance, add water until the contents of the flask weigh 110 grams,
connect with a reflux condenser and heat, beginning the boiling in 10 to
15 minutes. Boil for 1 hour, cool for 15 minutes, weigh again, making up
any loss by the addition of water, filter, and take the specific gravity
of the filtrate at 15° C.
According to McGill, a 10-percent extract of pure coffee has a specific
gravity of 1.00986 at 15° C., and under the same treatment chicory gives
an extract with a specific gravity of 1.02821. In mixtures of coffee and
chicory the approximate percentage of chicory may be calculated by the
following formula:
(1.02821 - sp. gr.)
Percent of chicory = 100 ------------------
0.01835
The index of refraction of the above solution may be taken with the
Zeiss immersion refractometer or with the Abbe refractometer.
With a 10-percent coffee extract, n_d 20° = 1.3377.
With a 10-percent chicory extract, n_d 20° = 1.3448.
Determinations of the solids, ash, sugar, nitrogen, etc., may be made in
the 10-percent extract, if desired.
24. _Caffetannic Acid--Krug's Method_[187]
Treat 2 grains of the coffee with 10 cc. of water and digest for 36
hours; add 25 cc. of 90-percent alcohol and digest 24 hours more,
filter, and wash with 90-percent alcohol. The filtrate contains tannin,
caffein, color, and fat. Heat the filtrate to the boiling point and add
a saturated solution of lead acetate. If this is carefully done, a
caffetannate of lead will be precipitated containing 49 percent of lead.
As soon as the precipitate has become flocculent, collect on a tared
filter, wash with 90-percent alcohol until free from lead, wash with
ether, dry and weigh. The precipitate multiplied by 0.51597 gives the
weight of the caffetannic acid.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XVIII
PHARMACOLOGY OF THE COFFEE DRINK
_General physiological action--Effect on children--Effect on
longevity--Behavior in the alimentary régime--Place in
dietary--Action on bacteria--Use in medicine--Physiological action
of "caffetannic acid"--Of caffeol--Of caffein--Effect of caffein on
mental and motor efficiency--Conclusions_
By Charles W. Trigg
Industrial Fellow of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research,
Pittsburgh, 1916-1920
The published information regarding the effects of coffee drinking on
the human system is so contradictory in its nature that it is hazardous
to make many generalizations about the physiological behavior of coffee.
Most of the investigations that have been conducted to date have been
characterized by incompleteness and a failure to be sufficiently
comprehensive to eliminate the element of individual idiosyncrasy from
the results obtained. Accordingly, it is possible to select statements
from literature to the effect either that coffee is an "elixir of life,"
or even a poison.
This is a deplorable state of affairs, not calculated to promote the
dissemination of accurate knowledge among the consuming public, but it
may be partly excused upon the grounds that experimental apparatus has
not always been at the level of perfection that it now occupies. Also,
to do justice to some of the able men who have interested themselves in
this problem, it should be said that some of their results were obtained
in researches, distinguished by painstaking accuracy, which have
effected the establishment of the major reactions of ingested coffee.
_The Physiological Action of Coffee_
Drinking of coffee by mankind may be attributed to three causes: the
demand for, and the pleasing effects of, a hot drink (a very small
percentage of the coffee consumed is taken cold), the pleasing reaction
which its flavors excite on the gustatory nerve, and the stimulating
effect which it has upon the body. The flavor is due largely to the
volatile aromatic constituents, "caffeol," which, when isolated, have a
general depressant action on the system; and the stimulation is caused
by the caffein. The general and specific actions of these individual
components, together with that of the hypothetical "caffetannic acid,"
are considered under separate headings.
Coffee may be considered a member of the general class of adjuvant, or
auxiliary, foods to which other beverages and condiments of negligible
inherent food value belong. Its position on the average menu may be
attributed largely to its palatability and comforting effects. However,
the medicinal value of coffee in the dietary and _per se_ must not be
overlooked.
The ingestion of coffee infusion is always followed by evidences of
stimulation. It acts upon the nervous system as a powerful
cerebro-spinal stimulant, increasing mental activity and quickening the
power of perception, thus making the thoughts more precise and clear,
and intellectual work easier without any evident subsequent depression.
The muscles are caused to contract more vigorously, increasing their
working power without there being any secondary reaction leading to a
diminished capacity for work. Its action upon the circulation is
somewhat antagonistic; for while it tends to increase the rate of the
heart by acting directly on the heart muscle, it tends to decrease it by
stimulating the inhibitory center in the medulla.[188]
The effect on the kidneys is more marked, the diuretic effect being
shown by an increase in water, soluble solids, and of uric acid directly
attributable to the caffein content of the coffee taken. In the
alimentary tract coffee seems to stimulate the oxyntic cells and
slightly to increase the secretion of hydrochloric acid, as well as to
favor intestinal peristalsis. It is difficult to accept reports of
coffee accomplishing both a decrease in metabolism and an increase in
body heat; but if the production of heat by the demethylation of caffein
to form uric acid and a possible repression of perspiration by coffee be
considered, the simultaneous occurrence of these two physiological
reactions may be credited.
The disagreement of medical authorities over the physiological effects
of coffee is quite pronounced. This may be observed by a careful perusal
of the following statements made by these men. It will be noticed that
the majority opinion is that coffee in moderation is not harmful. Just
how much coffee a person may drink, and still remain within the limits
of moderation and temperance, is dependent solely upon the individual
constitution, and should be decided from personal experience rather than
by accepting an arbitrary standard set by some one who professes to be
an authority on the matter.
A writer in the _British Homeopathic Review_[189] says that "the
exciting effects of coffee upon the nervous system exhibit themselves in
all its departments as a temporary exaltation. The emotions are raised
in pitch, the fancies are lively and vivid, benevolence is excited, the
religious sense is stimulated, there is great loquacity.... The
intellectual powers are stimulated, both memory and judgment are
rendered more keen and unusual vivacity of verbal expression rules for a
short time." He continues:
Hahnemann gives a characteristically careful account of the coffee
headache. If the quantity of coffee taken be immoderately great and
the body be very excitable and quite unused to coffee, there occurs
a semilateral headache from the upper part of the parietal bone to
the base of the brain. The cerebral membranes of this side also
seem to be painfully sensitive, the hands and feet becoming cold,
and sweat appears on the brows and palms. The disposition becomes
irritable and intolerant, anxiety, trembling and restlessness are
apparent.... I have met with headaches of this type which yielded
readily to coffee and with many more in which the indicated remedy
failed to act until the use of coffee as a beverage was abandoned.
The eyes and ears suffer alike from the super-excitation of coffee.
There is a characteristic toothache associated with coffee.
In apparent contradiction of this opinion, Dr. Valentin Nalpasse,[190]
of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, states:
When coffee is properly made and taken in moderation, it is a most
valuable drink. It facilitates the digestion because it produces a
local excitement. Its principal action gives clear and stable
imaginative power to the brain. By doing that, it makes
intellectual work easy, and, to a certain extent, regulates the
functions of the brain. The thoughts become more precise and clear,
and mental combinations are formed with much greater rapidity.
Under the influence of coffee, the memory is sometimes surprisingly
active, and ideas and words flow with ease and elegance.... Many
people abuse coffee without feeling any bad effect.
Discussing the use and abuse of coffee, I.N. Love[191] says:
The world has in the infusion of coffee one of its most valuable
beverages. It is a prompt diffusible stimulant, antiseptic and
encourager of elimination. In season it supports, tides over
danger, helps the appropriate powers of the system, whips up the
flagging energies, enhances the endurance; but it is in no sense a
food, and for this reason it should be used temperately.
Also Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson[192] makes the following weighty
pronouncement:
In reference to my suggestion to give children tea and coffee. I
may explain that it is done advisedly. There is probably no
objection to their use even at early ages. They arouse the dull,
calm the excitable, prevent headaches, and fit the brain for work.
They preserve the teeth, keep them tight in their place, strengthen
the vocal chords, and prevent sore throat. To stigmatize these
invaluable articles of diet as "nerve stimulants" is an erroneous
expression, for they undoubtedly have a right to rank as nerve
nutrients.
But Dr. Harvey Wiley[193] comes forth with evidence on the other side,
saying:
The effects of the excessive use of coffee, tea, and other natural
caffein beverages is well known. Although the caffein is combined
in these beverages naturally, and they are as a rule taken at meal
times, which mitigates the effects of the caffein, they are
recognized by every one as tending to produce sleeplessness, and
often indigestion, stomach disorders, and a condition which, for
lack of a better term, is described as nervousness.... The
excessive drinking of tea and coffee is acknowledged to be
injurious by practically all specialists.
Dr. V.C. Vaughn,[194] of the University of Michigan, speaking of tea and
coffee, expresses this opinion:
I believe that caffein used as a beverage and in moderation not
only is harmless to the majority of adults, but is beneficial.
This verdict is upheld by the results of a symposium[195] conducted by
the _Medical Times_, in which a large majority of the medical experts
participating, among whom may be enumerated Drs. Lockwood, Wood,
Hollingworth, Robinson, and Barnes, agreed that the drinking of coffee
is not harmful _per se_, but that over-indulgence is the real cause of
any ill effects. This is also true of any ingested material.
Insomnia is a condition frequently attributed to coffee, but that the
authorities disagree on this ground is shown by Wiley's[196] contention,
"We know beyond doubt that the caffein (in coffee) makes a direct attack
on the nerves and causes insomnia." While Woods Hutchinson[197]
observes:
Oddly enough, a cup of hot, weak tea or coffee, with plenty of
cream and sugar, will often help you to sleep, for the grateful
warmth and stimulus to the lining of the stomach, drawing the blood
into it and away from the head, will produce more soothing effects
than the small amount of caffein will produce stimulating and
wakeful ones.
The writer has often had people remark to him that while black coffee
sometimes kept them awake, coffee with cream or sugar or both made them
drowsy.
In the course of experiments conducted by Montuori and Pollitzer[198] it
was found that coffee prepared by hot infusion when given by mouth or
hypodermically with the addition of a small dose of alcohol proved an
efficient means of combating the pernicious effects of low temperatures.
Coffee prepared by boiling, and tea, showed negative effects.
The value of coffee as a strength-conserver, and its function of
increasing endurance, morale, and healthfulness, was demonstrated by the
great stress which the military authorities, in the late and in previous
wars, placed upon furnishing the soldiers with plenty of good coffee,
particularly at times when they were under the greatest strain. Various
articles[199] record this fact; and these statements are further borne
out by the data given below in the discussion of the physiological
effects of caffein, to which the majority of the stimulating effects of
coffee may be attributed.
According to Fauvel,[200] with a healthy patient on a vegetable diet,
chocolate and coffee increase the excretion of purins, diminishing the
excretion of uric acid and apparently hindering the precipitation of
uric acid in the organism. This diminution, however, was not due to
retention of uric acid in the organism.
"Habit-forming" is one of the adjectives often used in describing
coffee, but it is a fact that coffee is much less likely than alcoholic
liquors to cause ill effects. A man rarely becomes a slave of coffee;
and excessive drinking of this beverage never produces a state of moral
irresponsibility or leads to the commission of crime. Dr. J.W.
Mallet,[201] in testimony given before a Federal Court, stated that
caffein and coffee were not habit-forming in the correct sense of the
term. His definition of the expression is that the habit formed must be
a detrimental and injurious one--one which becomes so firmly fixed upon
a person forming it that it is thrown off with great difficulty and with
considerable suffering, continuous exercise of the habit increasing the
demand for the habit-forming drug. It is well known that the desire
ceases in a very short period of time after cessation of use of
caffein-containing beverages, so that in that sense, coffee is not
habit-forming.
[Illustration: MEN AND WOMEN LABORERS PICKING COFFEE ON A SÃO PAULO
ESTATE]
[Illustration: SACKING COFFEE IN A WAREHOUSE AT THE PORT OF SANTOS]
[Illustration: PICKING AND SACKING COFFEE IN BRAZIL]
It has been shown by Gourewitsch[202] that the daily administration of
coffee produces a certain degree of tolerance, and that the doses must
be increased to obtain toxic results. Harkness[203] has been quoted as
stating that "taken in moderation; coffee is one of the most wholesome
beverages known. It assists digestion, exhilarates the spirits, and
counteracts the tendency to sleep." Carl V. Voit,[204] the German
physiological chemist, says this about coffee:
The effect of coffee is that we are bothered less by unpleasant
experiences and become more able to conquer difficulties;
therefore, for the feasting rich, it makes intestinal work after a
meal less evident and drives away the deadly ennui; for the student
it is a means to keep wide awake and fresh; for the worker it makes
the day's fatigue more bearable.
Dr. Brady[205] believes that the so-called harmfulness of coffee is
mainly psychological, as evidenced by his expression, "Most of the
prejudice which exists against coffee as a beverage is based upon
nothing more than morbid fancy. People of dyspeptic or neurotic
temperament are fond of assuming that coffee must be bad because it is
so good, and accordingly, denying themselves the pleasure of drinking
it."
The recounting of evidence, both _pro_ and _con_, relevant to the
general effects of coffee could continue almost _ad infinitum_, but the
fairest unification of the various opinions is best quoted from Woods
Hutchinson[206]:
Somewhere from 1 to 3 percent of the community are distinctly
injured or poisoned by tea or coffee, even small amounts producing
burning of the stomach, palpitation of the heart, headache,
eruptions of the skin, sensations of extreme nervousness, and so
on; though the remaining 97 percent are not injured by them in any
appreciable way if consumed in moderation.
So, if one is personally satisfied that he belongs to the abnormal
minority, and has not been argued by fallacious reasoning into his
belief that coffee injures him, he should either reduce his consumption
of coffee or let it alone. Even those most vitally interested in the
commercial side of coffee will admit that this is the logical procedure.
_Effects of Coffee on Children_
The same sort of controversy has raged around the question of the
advisability of giving coffee to children as has occurred regarding its
general action. Dr. J. Hutchinson[207] advocates furnishing children
with coffee, while Dr. Charlotte Abbey[208] is strongly against such a
practise, claiming that use of caffein-containing beverages before the
attainment of full growth will weaken nerve power. Nalpasse[209]
observes that until fully developed the young are immoderately excited
by coffee; and Hawk[210] is of the opinion that to give such a stimulant
to an active school-child is both logically and dietetically incorrect.
Dr. Vaughn[211] advances this scientific argument against the drinking
of coffee by children under seven years of age:
In proportion to body weight the young contain more of the xanthin
bases than adults. They are already laden with these physiological
stimulants, and the additional dose given in tea or coffee may be
harmful.
In a study of the effects of coffee drinking upon 464 school children,
C.K. Taylor[212] found a slight difference in mental ability and
behavior, unfavorable to coffee. About 29 percent of these children
drank no coffee; 46 percent drank a cup a day; 12 percent, 2 cups; 8
percent, 3 cups; and the remainder, 4 or more cups a day. The
measurements of height, weight, and hand strength also showed a slight
advantage in favor of the non-coffee drinkers. If these results be taken
as truly representative, their indication is obvious. However, it seems
desirable to repeat these experiments upon other groups; at the same
time noting carefully the factors of environment, and other diet, before
any criterion is made.
As a refutation to this experimental evidence is the practical
experience of the inhabitants of the Island of Groix, off the Brittany
coast, whose annual consumption of coffee is nearly 30 pounds per
capita, being ingested both as the roasted bean and as an infusion. It
is reported that many of the children are nourished almost entirely on
coffee soup up to ten years of age, yet the mentality and physique of
the populace does not fall below that of others of the same stock and
educational opportunities.[213]
Pertinent in this connection is Hawk's[214] statement that young mothers
should refrain from the use of coffee, as caffein stimulates the action
of the kidneys and tends to bring about a loss from the body of some of
the salts necessary to the development of the unborn child as well as
for the proper production of milk during the nursing period. The caffein
of coffee also increases the flow of milk, but the milk produced is
correspondingly dilute and a later decreased secretion may be expected.
Furthermore, some of the caffein of the coffee may pass into the
mother's milk, thus reaching the child, so that the use of coffee during
the nursing period is undesirable on this ground also. Naturally, the
question arises as to whether this arraignment is purely theoretical or
based upon analytical and clinical data.
It is a difficult matter definitely to set an age below which coffee
should not be drunk, as the time of reaching maturity varies with
climate and ancestral origin. Yet, from a theoretical standpoint,
children before or during the adolescent period should be limited to the
use of a rather small amount of tea and coffee as beverages, as their
poise and nerve control have not reached a stage of development
sufficient to warrant the stimulation incident to the consumption of an
appreciable quantity of caffein.
_Coffee Drinking and Longevity_
There are many who would have us believe that the use of coffee is only
a means toward the end of quickly reaching the great beyond; but it is
known that the habitual coffee drinker generally enjoys good health, and
some of the longest-lived people have used it from their earliest youth
without any apparent injury to their health. Nearly every one has an
acquaintance who has lived to a ripe old age despite the use of coffee.
Quoting Metchnikoff[215]:
In some cases centenarians have been much addicted to the drinking
of coffee. The reader will recall Voltaire's reply when his doctor
described the grave harm that comes from the abuse of coffee, which
acts as a real poison. "Well", said Voltaire, "I have been
poisoning myself for nearly eighty years." There are centenarians
who have lived longer than Voltaire and have drunk still more
coffee. Elizabeth Durieux, a native of Savoy, reached the age of
114. Her principal food was coffee, of which she took daily as many
as forty small cups. She was jovial and a boon table companion, and
used black coffee in quantities that would have surprised an Arab.
Her coffee-pot was always on the fire, like the tea-pot in an
English cottage (Lejoncourt, p. 84; Chemin, p. 147).
The entire matter resolves itself into one of individual tolerance,
resistivity, and constitution. Numerous examples of young abstainers who
have died and coffee drinkers who have still lived on can be found, and
_vice versa_, the preponderance of instances being in neither direction.
Bodies of persons killed by accident have been painstakingly examined
for physiological changes attributable to coffee; but no difference
between those of coffee and of non-coffee drinkers (ascertained by
careful investigation of their life history) could be discerned.[216] In
the long run, it is safe to say that the effect of coffee drinking upon
the prolongation or shortening of life is neutral.
_Coffee in the Alimentary Tract_
When coffee is taken _per os_ it passes directly to the stomach, where
its sole immediate action is to dilute the previous contents, just as
other ingested liquids do. Eventually the caffein content is absorbed by
the system, and from thence on a stimulation is apparent. Considerable
conjecture has occurred over the difference in the effects of tea and
coffee, the most feasible explanation advanced being one appearing in
the London _Lancet_.[217]
The caffein tannate of tea is precipitated by weak acids, and the
presumption is that it is precipitated by the gastric juice and,
therefore, the caffein is probably not absorbed until it reaches
the alkaline alimentary tract. In the case of coffee, however, in
whatever form the caffein may be present, it is soluble in both
alkaline and acid fluids, and, therefore, the absorption of the
alkaloid probably takes place in the stomach.
This theory, if true, goes far toward explaining the more rapid
stimulation of coffee.
The statement has sometimes been made that milk or cream causes the
coffee liquid to become coagulated when it comes into contact with the
acids of the stomach. This is true, but does not carry with it the
inference that indigestibility accompanies this coagulation. Milk and
cream, upon reaching the stomach, are coagulated by the gastric juice;
but the casein product formed is not indigestible. These liquids, when
added to coffee, are partially acted upon by the small acid content of
the brew, so that the gastric juice action is not so pronounced, for the
coagulation was started before ingestion, and the coagulable
constituent, casein, is more dilute in the cup as consumed than it is in
milk. Accordingly, the particles formed by it in the stomach will be
relatively smaller and more quickly and easily digested than milk _per
se_. It has been observed that coffee containing milk or cream is not as
stimulating as black coffee. The writer believes that this is probably
due to mechanical inclusion of caffein in the casein and fat particles,
and also to some adsorption of the alkaloid by them. This would
materially retard the absorption of the caffein by the body, spread the
action over a longer period of time, and hence decrease the maximum
stimulation attained.
In a few instances, a small fraction of one percent of coffee users,
there is a certain type of distress, localized chiefly in the alimentary
tract, caused by coffee, which can not be blamed upon the much-maligned
caffein. The irritating elements may be generally classified as
compounds formed upon the addition of cream or milk to the coffee
liquor, volatile constituents, and products formed by hydrolysis of the
fibrous part of the grounds. It may be generally postulated that the
main causation of this discomfort is due to substances formed in the
incorrect brewing of coffee, the effect of which is accentuated by the
addition of cream or milk, when the condition of individual idiosyncrasy
is present.
Without enlarging upon his reason, Lorand[218] concludes that neither
tea nor coffee is advisable for weak stomachs. Nalpasse,[219] however,
believes that coffee taken after meals makes the digestion more perfect
and more rapid, augmenting the secretions, and that it agrees equally
well with people inclined to embonpoint and heavy eaters whose digestion
is slow and difficult. Thompson[220] also observes that coffee drunk in
moderation is a mild stimulant to gastric digestion.
Eder[221] reported, as the result of an inquiry into the action of
coffee on the activity of the stomachs of ruminants, that coffee
infusions produced a transitory increase in the number and intensity of
the movements of the paunch, but that the influence exercised was very
irregular.
An elaborate investigation of the action of tea and coffee on digestion
in the stomach was made by Fraser,[222] in which he found that both
retard peptic digestion, the former to a greater degree than the latter.
The digestion of white of egg, ham, salt beef, and roast beef was much
less affected than that of lamb, fowl, or bread. Coffee seemed actually
to aid the digestion of egg and ham. He attributed the retarding effect
to the tannic acid of the tea and the volatile constituents of the
coffee--the caffein itself favoring digestion rather than otherwise. Tea
increased the production of gas in all but salt foods, whereas coffee
did not. Coffee is, therefore, to be preferred in cases of flatulent
dyspepsia.
Hutchinson, in his _Food and Dietetics_, opines:
As regards the practical inferences to be drawn from experiences
and observations, it may be said that in health the disturbance of
digestion produced by the infused beverages (tea and coffee) is
negligible. Roberts, indeed, goes so far as to suggest that the
slight slowing of digestion which they produce may be favored
rather than otherwise, as tending to compensate for too rapid
digestibility which refinements of manufacture and preparation have
made characteristic of modern foods.
Regarding increase in secretory activity, Moore and Allanston[223]
report that in their experience meat extracts, tea, caffein solution,
and coffee call forth a greater gastric secretion than does water, while
with milk the flow of gastric juice seems to be retarded. Cushing[224]
and others support this statement. This action is partially explained by
Voit on the grounds that all tasty foods increase gastric secretion, the
action being partly psychological; but Cushing observed the same effects
upon introducing coffee directly into the stomachs of animals.
In general, a moderate amount of coffee stimulates appetite, improves
digestion and relieves the sense of plenitude in the stomach. It
increases intestinal peristalsis, acts as a mild laxative, and slightly
stimulates secretion of bile. Excessive use, however, profoundly
disturbs digestive function, and promotes constipation and
hemorrhoids.[225] There is much evidence to support the view that
"neither tea, coffee, nor chicory in dilute solutions has any
deleterious action on the digestive ferments, although in strong
solutions such an action may be manifest."[226] After conducting
exhaustive experiments with various types of coffee, Lehmann[227]
concluded that ordinary coffee is without effect on the digestion of the
majority of sound persons, and may be used with impunity.
_Coffee in the Dietary--Food Value_
There are three things to be considered in deciding upon the inclusion
of a substance in the dietary--palatability, digestibility without
toxicity or disarrangement, and calorific value. Coffee is as
satisfactory from these viewpoints as any other food product.
The palatability of a well-made cup of good coffee needs no eulogizing;
it speaks for itself. It adds enormously to the attractiveness of the
meal, and to our ability to eat with relish and appetite large amounts
of solid foods, without a subsequent uncomfortable feeling. Wiley[228]
says that the feeling of drowsiness after a full meal is a natural
condition incidental to the proper conduct of digestion, and that to
drive away this natural feeling with coffee must be an interference with
the normal condition. However, if by so doing, we can increase our
over-all efficiency without material harm to our digestive organs (and
we can and do), the procedure has much in its favor both psychologically
and dietetically.
The fact that coffee favors digestion without eventual disarrangement
has been demonstrated above. On the subject of the relative agreement
with the constitution of foods of daily consumption, Dr. English[229]
said:
It is well known that there is no species of diet which invariably
suits all constitutions, nor will that which is palatable and
salutary at one time be equally palatable and salutary at another
time to the same individual. I think the most natural food provided
for us is milk; yet I will engage to show twenty instances where
milk disagrees more than coffee.
Further in this regard, Hutchinson[230] considers that ninety percent of
the "dyspepsias" attributed to coffee are due to malnutrition, or to
food simultaneously ingested, no disease known to the medical profession
being directly attributable to it.
No one cognizant of the facts will contend that a cup of black coffee
has any direct food value; but not so with the roasted bean. This has
quite an appreciable content of protein and fat, both substances of high
calorific value. The inhabitants of the Island of Groix eat the whole
roasted coffee bean in considerable quantity, and seem to obtain
considerable nourishment therefrom. Also, the Galla, a wandering tribe
of Africa, make large use of food balls, about the size of billiard
balls, consisting of pulverized coffee held in shape with fat. One ball
is said to contain a day's ration; and, because of its food content and
stimulating power, serves to sustain them on long marches of days'
duration.
When an infusion, or decoction, of roasted coffee is made, about 1.25
percent of the extracted matter is protein, it being accompanied by
traces of dextrin and sugar. The same dearth of extraction of food
materials occurs upon infusing coffee substitutes. This small amount can
have but little dietetic significance. However, upon addition of sugar
and of milk or cream, with their content of protein, fat, and lactose,
the calorific value of the cup of coffee rises. Lusk and Gephart[231]
give the food value of an ordinary restaurant cup of coffee as 195.5
calories, and Locke[232] gives it as 156.
Mattei[233] found that 8 cc. of an infusion of roasted Mocha coffee of
five-percent strength suppressed incipient polyneuritis in pigeons
within a few hours' time. Their weight did not improve, but otherwise
they were completely restored to health. However, in from four to six
weeks after the apparent cure, the symptoms rapidly returned and the
pigeons perished, with symptoms of paralysis and cerebral complications.
The temporary cure was probably due to caffein stimulation and secondary
actions of the volatile constituents of coffee, which may be related to
the vitamines; for it is not likely that the vitamines would withstand
the heat of roasting. If B-vitamine does occur in roasted coffee, it is
present only in traces.[234]
The inclusion of coffee in the average dietary is warranted because of
its evident worth as an aid to digestion and for its assimilating power,
thus earning its characterization as an "adjuvant food."
_Action of Coffee on Bacteria_
The employment of coffee as an aid to sanitation has been but little
considered. Coffee, when freshly roasted and ground, is deodorant,
antiseptic, and germicidal, probably due to the empyreumatic products
developed during the process of roasting. An infusion of 0.5 percent
inhibits the growth of many pathogenic organisms, and those of 10
percent kill anthrax bacteria in three hours, cholera spirilla in four
hours, and many other bacteria, including those producing typhoid, in
two to six days.[235]
The maintenance of a low rate of contraction of typhoid fever has often
been attributed to drinking of coffee instead of water, the action of
the coffee being partly due to the bactericidal effect of the caffeol
and partly to the boiling of the water before infusion. The stimulating
tendency of the caffein to sustain and to "tide over" those of low
vitalities is also evidenced.
_Use of Coffee in Medicine_
Coffee has been employed in medicinal practise as a direct specific, as
a preventive, and as an antidote. The _United States Dispensatory_[236]
summarizes the uses of caffein and coffee as follows:
Caffein is a valuable remedy in practical medicine as a cerebral
and cardiac stimulant and as a diuretic. In undue _somnolence_, in
_nervous headache_, in _narcotism_, also, at times when the
exigencies of life require excessively prolonged wakefulness,
caffein may be used as the most powerful agent known for producing
wakefulness. In a series of experiments, J. Hughes Bennett found
that within narrow limits there is a direct physiological
antagonism between caffein and morphine. Coffee and caffein in
narcotic poisoning are of value as a means of keeping the patient
awake, and of stimulating the respiratory centres.
As a cardiac stimulant, caffein may be used in any form of heart
failure; the indications for its use are those which call for the
employment of digitalis. It is superior to digitalis in never
disagreeing with the stomach, in having no distinctive cumulative
tendency, and in the promptness of its action. It is pronouncedly
inferior to digitalis in the power and certainty of its action, and
in the permanence of its influence once asserted. As a diuretic it
is superior; it is very valuable in the treatment of _cardiac
dropsies_, and is often useful in _chronic Bright's disease_ when
there is no irritation of the kidneys.
On account of its tendency to produce wakefulness, it is usually
better to mass the doses early in the day, at least six hours being
left between the last dose and the ordinary time for sleep. From
eight to fifteen grams (of caffein) may be given in the course of a
day in severe cases. If tried, it would probably prove a useful
drug in cases of _sudden collapse_ from various causes.
Good effects of coffee are recounted by Thompson.[237]
It removes the sensation of fatigue in the muscles, and increases
their functional activity; it allays hunger to a limited extent; it
strengthens the heart action; it acts as a diuretic, and increases
the excretion of urea; it has a mildly sudorific influence; it
counteracts nervous exhaustion and stimulates nerve centers. It is
used sometimes as a nervine in cases of migraine, and there are
many persons who can sustain prolonged mental fatigue and strain
from anxiety and worry much better by the use of strong black
coffee. In low delirium, or when the nervous system is overcome by
the use of narcotics or by excessive hemorrhage, strong black
coffee is serviceable to keep the patient from falling into the
drowsiness which soon merges into coma. In such cases as much as
half a pint of strong black coffee may be injected into the rectum.
Strong coffee with a little lemon juice or brandy is often useful
in overcoming a malarial chill or a paroxysm of asthma. It is a
useful temporary cardiac stimulant for children suffering collapse.
Dr. Restrepo,[238] of Medellin, Colombia, claims to have cured many
cases of chronic malaria and related diseases with infusion of green
coffee, after quinine had failed. Wallace[239] states that tincture of
green coffee is a natural and efficacious specific for cholera, and that
she knows of more than a thousand eases of cholera and diarrhea which
have been treated with it without an isolated case of failure.
Landanabileo has been quoted as using raw coffee infusion in hepatic and
nephritic diseases, venal and hepatic colics, and in diabetes.
In the Civil War, surgeons utilized coffee in allaying malarial fever
and other maladies with which they had to contend, often under the most
trying conditions, and with severely limited means of combating
disease.[240] Its effect is to counteract the depressant action of low
and miasmatic atmospheres, opening the secretions which they have
checked. Travelers from the colder climes soon find that the fragrant
cup of coffee is a corrective to derangements of the liver resulting
from climatic conditions.[241]
Dr. Guillasse, of the French Navy, in a paper on typhoid fever, says:
Coffee has given us unhoped for satisfaction, and after having
dispensed it we find, to our great surprise, that its action is as
prompt as it is decisive. No sooner have our patients taken a few
tablespoonfuls of it, than their features become relaxed and they
come to their senses. The next day the improvement is such that we
are tempted to look upon coffee as a specific against typhoid
fever. Under its influence the stupor is dispelled, and the patient
arouses from the state of somnolency in which he has been since
the invasion of the disease. Soon all the functions take their
natural course, and he enters upon convalescence.[242]
Also it has been reported that in extreme cases of yellow fever, coffee
has been used most effectively by many physicians as the main reliance
after all other well known remedies have been administered and failed.
According to Lorand,[243] the use of coffee in gout is strictly
prohibited by Umber and Schittenhelm; but he considered it a mistake
absolutely to forbid coffee, as, when a person has good kidneys, the
small amount of uric acid furnished by the caffein can readily be
eliminated. A curious remedy for gout and rheumatism, the efficacy of
which the writer scouts, is said to be[244]--a pint of hot, strong,
black coffee, which must be perfectly pure, and seasoned with a
teaspoonful of pure black pepper, thoroughly mixed before drinking, and
the preparation taken just before going to bed. If this has any value,
it is probably purely psychological in its function.
Several writers[245] attribute amblyopia and other affections of the
sight to coffee and chicory, without giving much conclusive experimental
data. Beer,[246] a Vienna oculist, however, held that the vapor from
pure, hot, freshly-made coffee is beneficial to the eyes.
Coffee and caffein are physiologically antagonistic to the common
narcotics, nicotine, morphine, opium, alcohol, etc., and are frequently
used as antidotes for these poisons. Binz found that dogs that have been
stupified with alcohol could be awakened with coffee. It may thus be
prescribed for hard drinkers to counteract the baleful excitability
produced by alcohol; in fact, many topers taper off after a long debauch
with coffee containing small amounts of alcoholic beverages. Considering
its ability to counteract the slow intoxication of tobacco, it may be
inferred that coffee is indispensable for hard smokers.
In general, the medicinal value of coffee may be said to be directly
attributable to its caffein content, although its antiseptic properties
are dependent upon the volatile aromatic constituents. Its function is
to raise and to sustain vitalities which have been lowered by disease or
drugs. Although some of the cures attributed to it are probably purely
traditional; still, it must be admitted, that by utilizing its
stimulating qualities in many illnesses the patient may be carried past
the danger point into convalescence.
_Physiological Action of "Caffetannic Acid_"
It has been demonstrated in chapter XVII that there is no definite
compound "caffetannic acid," and that the heterogeneous material
designated by this name does not possess the properties of tanning.
Further substantiation of this contention, and more evidence of the
innocuous character of the tannin-like compounds in coffee, are
contained in the testimony of Sollmann.[247] "Tannins precipitate
proteins, gelatine, and connective tissue, and thus act as astringents,
styptics, and antiseptics. The different tannins are not equivalent in
these respects. Some (which are perhaps misnamed) such as those of
coffee and ipecac, are practically non-precipitant.... On the whole, one
may say that the small quantities of tannin ordinarily taken with the
food and drink are not injurious, but that large quantities (excessive
tea drinking) are certainly deleterious. The tannin of coffee is
scarcely astringent, and, therefore, lacks this action," which is proven
by the fact that it does not precipitate proteins.
"It has been claimed that 'caffetannic acid' injures the stomach walls,
but there is no evidence that this is so."[248] Wiley,[249] in reporting
some of his experiments, says: "Apparently the efforts to saddle the
injurious effects of coffee-drinking upon caffetannic acid in any form
in which it may exist in the coffee-extract are not supported by these
recent data." The fact that tannins retard intestinal peristalsis,
whereas coffee promotes this digestive action, lends further proof to
the non-existence of tannin in coffee. These statements by eminent
authorities may be consolidated into the verity that there is no tannin,
in the true sense of the term, in coffee; and that the constituents of
the coffee brew which have been so designated are physiologically
harmless.
_Physiological Action of Caffeol_
The evidence regarding the physiological action of caffeol is
contradictory in many cases. J. Lehmann found in 1853, that the
"empyreumatic oil of coffee, _caffeone_," is active; but more recent
investigations have yielded results at variance with this. Hare and
Marshall[250] believe that they proved it to be active. E.T.
Reichert,[251] however, found it inactive in dogs, excepting in so far
that, when given intravenously, it mechanically interfered with the
circulation. With it Binz[252] was able to produce in man only feeble
nervous excitement, with restlessness and increase in the rate and depth
of respirations.
The general effects, as summated by Sollmann[253] are, for _small
doses_, pleasant stimulation; increased respiration; increased heart
rate, but fall of blood pressure; muscular restlessness; insomnia;
perspiration; congestion; for _large doses_, increased peristalsis and
defecation; depression of respiration and heart; fall of blood pressure
and temperature; paralytic phenomena. It is doubtful whether the
quantities taken in the beverage cause any direct central stimulation.
Investigations have also been conducted with the various known
constituents of this "coffee oil." Erdmann[254] found that in doses of
between 0.5 and 0.6 gram per kilo of body weight, furane-alcohol kills a
rabbit by respiratory paralysis; and that the symptoms of poisoning are
a short primary excitement, salivation, diarrhea, respiratory
depression, continuous fall of the body temperature, and death from
collapse with respiratory failure. In man, doses of from 0.6 to 1 gram
of furane-alcohol increased respiratory activity without producing other
symptoms.
However, man is not as susceptible to these compounds as are the smaller
animals. But even if their relative susceptibility be assumed to be the
same, the lethal dose given the rabbit is equivalent to giving a
140-pound man one dose containing the furane-alcohol content of over
5,000 cups of coffee. Thus, in view of the very apparent minuteness of
the quantity of this compound present in one cup of coffee, together
with the fact that it is not cumulative in its physiological action, the
importance of its toxic properties becomes very inconsequential to even
the most profuse and inveterate coffee drinkers.
Burmann[255] reported the volatile principle to have a reducing action
on the hemoglobin; a depressing effect on the blood pressure; a
depressant action on the central nervous system, disturbing the cardiac
rhythm; and an action on the respiratory centers, causing dyspnea. The
report of Sayre[256] regarding the minimum lethal dose of the
concentrated combined active principles of coffee obtained from dry
distillation is, for frogs, administered intraperitoneally and
subcutaneously, 0.03 cubic centimeters per gram of body weight; for
guinea pigs per stomach, 7.0 cc. per kilogram of body weight, and
administered intravenously and intraperitoneally, about 1.0 cc. per
kilogram.
This evidence regarding the physiological action of caffeol can not in
any wise be construed to indicate a harmfulness of coffee. The
percentage of these volatile substances in a cup of coffee infusion is
so low as to be relatively negligible in its action. And, again, the
caffein content of the brew, as will be seen, tends to counteract any
possible desultory effects of the caffeol.
_General Physiological Action of Caffein_
More attention has been given to the study of the physiological action
of caffein than to that of the other individual constituents of coffee.
Since certain of the effects of coffee drinking have been attributed to
this alkaloid, a brief presentment of the pharmacology of caffein will
be given as an exposition of the many statements made regarding it.
According to the _British Pharmaceutical Codex_[257]:
Caffein exerts three important actions: (1) on the central nervous
system: (2) on muscles, including cardiac: and (3) on the kidney.
The action on the central nervous system is mainly on that part of
the brain connected with psychical functions. It produces a
condition of wakefulness and increased mental activity. The
interpretation of sensory impressions is more perfect and correct,
and thought becomes clearer and quicker. With larger doses of
caffein the action extends from the psychical areas to the motor
area and to the cord, and the patient becomes at first restless and
noisy, and later may show convulsive movements.
Caffein facilitates the performance of all forms of physical work,
and actually increases the total work which can be obtained from
muscle. On the normal man, however, it is impossible to say how
much of the action on the muscle is central and how much
peripheral, but, as fatigue shows itself first by an action on the
center, it is probable that the action of caffein in diminishing
fatigue is mainly central. Caffein accelerates the pulse and
slightly raises blood pressure. It has no action in any way
resembling digitalis; by increasing the irritability of the cardiac
muscle, its prolonged use rather tends to fatigue than to rest the
heart.
Caffein and its allies form a very important group of diuretics.
The urine is generally of a lower specific gravity than normal,
since it contains a lesser proportion of salt and urea; but the
total excretion of solids, both as regards urea, uric acid, and
salts, is increased. Caffein, by exciting the medulla, produces an
initial vaso-constriction of the kidneys, which tends at first to
retard the flow of urine. So in recent years, other drugs have been
introduced, allies of caffein, which act like it on the kidneys,
but are without the stimulant action on the brain. Theobromine is
such a drug.
Another authority states that[258]:
One of the most constant symptoms produced in man by over-doses of
caffein is excessive diuresis, and experiments made upon the lower
animals show that caffein acts as a diuretic not only by
influencing the circulation, but also by directly affecting the
secreting cells, the probabilities being in favor of the first of
these theories of action. According to Schroeder, not only the
water but also the solids of the urine are increased.
The question whether caffein has an influence upon tissue changes
and the consequent nitrogenous elimination can not be considered as
distinctly answered, though the most probable conclusion is that
the action of caffein upon urea elimination and upon general
nutrition is not direct or pronounced. While the therapeutic dose
of caffein is broken up in the body with the formation of
methylxanthin, which escapes with the urine, the toxic dose is at
least in part eliminated by the kidney unchanged.
The metabolism of the methyl purins, of which group caffein is a member,
appears to vary with the quantity ingested. The manner in which the
methyl group is liberated by the cell protoplasm is said[259] to
determine the amount of stimulus which the tissues receive from these
substances. The xanthin group is almost without any excitatory action,
and its metabolic end products are constant. Perhaps the variation in
the excretions of unchanged methylpurins is dependent upon the amount of
total reactive energy they invoke.
Baldi[260] found that caffein in small doses increases muscular
excitability in dogs and frogs. The spinal and muscular hyperic
excitability produced by caffein is, in his opinion, due to the methyl
groups attached to the xanthin nucleus. Fredericq[261] states that
caffein increases the irritability of the cardiac vagus and accelerates
the appearance of pseudofatigue of the vagus which is produced by
prolonged stimulation of the nerve. The action of caffein on the
mammalian heart has also been investigated by Pilcher,[262] who found
that, following the rapid intravenous injection of caffein, there is an
acute fall of blood pressure; and with a maximal quantity of caffein, 10
milligrams per kilogram, the cardiac volume and the amplitude of the
excursions are usually unchanged. With larger quantities, the volume
progressively increases and the amplitude of the excursion decreases.
Salant[263] found that the intravenous injection of 15 to 25 milligrams
of caffein per kilogram in animals was followed by a fall of blood
pressure amounting to 7 to 35 percent in most cases, which was
transitory, although in some animals it remained unchanged. A moderate
rise was rarely observed. Caffein aids the action of nitrates,
acetanilid, ethyl alcohol and amyl alcohol, and increases the toxicity
of barium chloride. In a very thorough study of the toxicity of caffein
which he made with Reiger,[264] a greater toxicity of about 15 to 20
percent by subcutaneous injection than by mouth, and but about one-half
this when injected peritoneally, was found. Intramuscularly the toxicity
is 30 percent greater than subcutaneously. In making the tests on
animals, they found that individuality, season, age, species, and
certain pathological conditions caused variation in the toxic effect of
the administered caffein. Low protein diet tends to decrease resistance
to caffein in dogs, and a milk or meat diet does the same for growing
dogs. Caffein is not cumulative for the rabbit or dog.
As a result of experiments on the action of caffein on the bronchiospasm
caused by peptone (Witte), silk peptone, B-imidoazolyl-ethylamin,
curare, vasodilation, and mucarin, Pal[265] concluded that caffein
stimulates certain branches of the peripheral sympathetic and is thus
enabled to widen the bronchi or remove bronchiospasm.
According to Lapicque[266], caffein produces a change in the
excitability of the medulla of the frog similar to that produced by
raising the temperature of the nerve centers. Schürhoff[267] has
pointed out that the continued use of large quantities of caffein will
produce cardiac irregularity and sleeplessness.
Cochrane[268] cited three cases where caffein was hypodermically
administered in cases of acute indigestion, etc., and concluded that the
cases prove that caffein, or a compound containing it as a synergist,
does indirectly make the injection of morphia a safe proceeding, and
directly increases the force of the heart and arterial tension. However,
Wood[269] found that medium doses of caffein do not produce any marked
rise in blood pressure, and cause a reduction in pulse rate. He
attributes the contradictory results which prior investigations gave, to
employment of unusually large doses and to inaccurate experimental
methods.
Caffein was found by Nonnenbruch and Szyszka[270] to have a slight
action toward accelerating the coagulation time of the blood, being
active over several hours. It inhibits coagulation _in vitrio_. Its
action in the body apparently rests on an increase of the fibrin
ferment. There is no reason to believe that the behavior is dependent on
a toxic action, but there is probably an action on the spleen; for in
several rabbits from which the spleen was removed, no action was
observed.
Experiments conducted by Levinthal[271] gave no positive information as
to the formation of uric acid from caffein in the human organism. The
elimination of caffein has also been studied by Salant and Reiger[272],
who found that larger amounts of caffein are demethylated in carnivora
than in herbivora, and resistance to caffein is inversely as
demethylation, caffein being much more toxic in the former class. In a
similar investigation, Zenetz[273] observed that caffein is very
slightly eliminated from the system by the kidneys, and that its action
on the heart is cumulative; therefore he concludes that it is
contra-indicated in all renal diseases, in arterio-sclerosis, and in
cardiac affections secondary to them. The inaccuracy of these
conclusions regarding the non-elimination of caffein and those of
Albanese,[274] Bondzynski and Gottlieb[275], Leven[276],
Schurtzkwer[277], and Minkowski[278], has been shown by Mendel and
Wardell[279], who point out that many of these experimenters worked with
dogs, in which the chief end-product of purin metabolism is not uric
acid, but allantoin. They observe that the increase in excretion of uric
acid after the addition of caffein to the diet seems to be proportional
to the quantity of caffein taken, and equivalent to from 10 to 15
percent of the ingested caffein. The remainder of the caffein is
probably eliminated as mono-methylpurins.
Regarding the alleged cumulative action of caffein, Pletzer[280],
Liebreich,[281] Szekacs[282], Pawinski,[283] and Seifert[284] all
concluded from their investigations that the action of caffein is
usually of brief duration, and does not have a cumulative effect,
because of its rapid elimination; so that there is no danger of
intoxication.
Dr. Oswald Schmiedeberg says:
Caffein is a means of refreshing bodily and mental activity, so
that this may be prolonged when the condition of fatigue has
already begun to produce restraint, and to call for more severe
exertion of the will, a state which, as is well known, is painful
or disagreeable.
This advantageous effect, in conditions of fatigue, of small
quantities of caffein, as it is commonly taken in coffee or tea,
might, however, by continued use become injurious, if it were in
all cases necessarily exerted; that is to say, if by caffein the
muscles and nerves were directly spurred on to increased activity.
This is not the case, however, and just in this lies the
peculiarity of the effect in question. The muscles and the
simultaneously-acting nerves only under the influence of caffein
respond more easily to the impulse of the will, but do not develop
spontaneous activity; that is, without the co-operation of the
will.
The character of caffein action makes plain that these food
materials do not injure the organism by their caffein content, and
do not by continued use cause any chronic form of illness.
According to Dr. Hollingworth's[285] deductions, caffein is the only
known stimulant that quickens the functions of the human body without a
subsequent period of depression. His explanation for this behavior is
that "caffein acts as a lubricator for the nervous system, having an
actual physical action whereby the nerves are enabled to do their work
more easily. Other stimulants act on the nerves themselves, causing a
waste of energy, and consequently, according to nature's law, a period
of depression follows, and the whole process tends to injure the human
machine." In not a single instance during his experiments at Columbia
University did depression follow the use of caffein.
Of course, caffein, like any other alkaloid, if used to excess will
prove harmful, due to the over-stimulation induced by it. However, taken
in moderate quantities, as in coffee and tea by normal persons, the
conclusions of Hirsch[286] may be taken as correct, namely: caffein is a
mild stimulant, without direct effect on the muscles, the effect
resulting from its own destruction and being temporary and transitory;
it is not a depressant either initially or eventually; and is not
habit-forming but a true stimulant, as distinguished from sedatives and
habit-forming drugs.
_Caffein and Mental and Motor Efficiency_
The literature on the influence of caffein on fatigue has been
summarized, and the older experiments clearly pointed out, by
Rivers[287]. A summary of the most important researches which have had
as their object the determination of the influence of caffein on mental
and motor processes has been made by Hollingworth[288], from whose
monograph much of the following material has been taken.
Increase in the force of muscular contractions was demonstrated in 1892
by De Sarlo and Barnardini[289] for caffein and by Kraepelin for tea.
These investigators used the dynamometer as a measure of the force of
contraction; however, most of the subsequent work on motor processes has
been by the ergographic method. Ugolino Mosso[290], Koch[291].
Rossi[292], Sobieranski[293], Hoch and Kraepelin,[294] Destrée,[295]
Benedicenti,[296] Schumberg,[297] Hellsten,[298] and Joteyko,[299] have
all observed a stimulating effect of caffein on ergographic performance.
Only one investigation of those reported by Rivers failed to find an
appreciable effect, that of Oseretzkowsky and Kraepelin,[300] while
Feré[301] affirms that the effect is only an acceleration of fatigue.
In spite of the general agreement as to the presence of stimulation
there is some dissension regarding whether only the height of the
contractions or their number or both are affected. As might be expected
from the great diversity of methods employed, the quantitative results
also have varied considerably. Carefully controlled experiments by
Rivers and Webber[302] "confirm in general the conclusion reached by all
previous workers that caffein stimulates the capacity for muscular work;
and it is clear that this increase is not due to the various psychical
factors of interest, sensory stimulation, and suggestion, which the
experiments were especially designed to exclude. The greatest increase
... falls, however, far short of that described by some previous
workers, such as Mosso; and it is probable that part of the effect
described by these workers was due to the factors in question."
Investigations of mental processes under the influence of caffein have
been much less frequent, most notable among which are those of Dietl and
Vintschgau,[303] Dehio,[304] Kraepelin and Hoch,[305] Ach,[306]
Langfeld,[307] and Rivers.[308] Kraepelin[309] observes: "We know that
tea and coffee increase our mental efficiency in a definite way, and we
use these as a means of overcoming mental fatigue ... In the morning
these drinks remove the last traces of sleepiness and in the evening
when we still have intellectual tasks to dispose of they aid in keeping
us awake." Their use induces a greater briskness and clearness of
thought, after which secondary fatigue is either entirely absent or is
very slight.
Tendency toward habituation of the pyschic functions to caffein has been
studied by Wedemeyer[310], who found that in the regular administration
of it in the course of four to five weeks there is a measurable
weakening of its action on psychic processes.
Rivers[311], who seems to have been the first to appreciate fully the
genuine and practical importance of thoroughly controlling the
psychological factors that are likely to play a rôle in such
experiments, concludes that "caffein increases the capacity for both
muscular and mental work, this stimulating action persisting for a
considerable time after the substance has been taken without there being
any evidence, with moderate doses, of reaction leading to diminished
capacity for work, the substance thus really diminishing and not merely
obscuring the effects of fatigue."
EFFECT OF CAFFEIN ON MENTAL AND MOTOR PROCESSES
Schematic Summary of All Results
St.=Stimulation. 0=No effect. Ret.=Retardation.
PRIMARY EFFECT
Small Doses
| Medium Doses
| | Large Doses
| | | Secondary Reaction
| | | | Action Time Hrs.
| | | | | Duration
| | | | | in Hrs.
Process Tests | | | | | |
Motor speed 1. Tapping St. St. St. None .75-1.5 2-4
Coordination 2. Three-hole St. 0 Ret. None 1-1.5 3-4
3. Typewriting
(a) Speed St. 0 Ret. None Results show
(b) Errors Fewer for all None only in total
doses days' work
Association 4. Color-naming St. St. St. None 2-2.5 3-4
5. Opposites St. St. St. None 2.5-3 Next
day
6. Calculation St. St. St. None 2.5 Next
day
Choice 7. Discrimination
reaction time Ret. 0 St. None 2-4 Next
day
8. Cancellation Ret. ? St. None 3-5 No
data
9. S-W illusion 0 0 0
General 10. Steadiness ? Unsteadiness None 1-3 3-4
11. Sleep quality Individual differences
12. Sleep quantity depending on body weight 2 ?
13. General health and conditions of
administration
Subsequent to these investigations was that of Hollingworth[312] which
is at once the most comprehensive, carefully conducted, and
scientifically accurate one yet performed. He employed an ample number
of subjects in his experimentation; and both his subjects, and the
assistants who recorded the observations, were in no wise cognizant of
the character or quantity of the dose of caffein administered, the other
experimental conditions being similarly rigorous and extensive.
The purpose of his study was to determine both qualitatively and
quantitatively the effect of caffein on a wide range of mental and motor
processes, by studying the performance of a considerable number of
individuals for a long period of time, under controlled conditions; to
study the way in which this influence is modified by such factors as the
age, sex, weight, idiosyncrasy, and previous caffein habits of the
subjects, and the degree to which it depends on the amount of the dose
and the time and conditions of its administration; and to investigate
the influence of caffein on the general health, quality and amount of
sleep, and food habits of the individual tested.
To obtain this information the chief tests employed were the steadiness,
tapping, coordination, typewriting, color-naming, calculations,
opposites, cancellation, and discrimination tests, the familiar
size-weight illusion, quality and amount of sleep, and general health
and feeling of well-being. A brief review of the results of these tests
is given in the tabular summary.
From these Hollingworth concluded that caffein influenced all the tests
in a given group in much the same way. The effect on motor processes
comes quickly and is transient, while the effect on higher mental
processes comes more slowly and is more persistent. Whether this result
is due to quicker reaction on the part of motor-nerve centers, or
whether it is due to a direct peripheral effect on the muscle tissue is
uncertain, but the indications are that caffein has a direct action on
the muscle tissue, and that this effect is fairly rapid in appearance.
The two principal factors which seem to modify the degree of caffein
influence are _body weight_ and _presence of food_ in the stomach at the
time of ingestion of the caffein. In practically all of the tests the
magnitude of the caffein influence varied inversely with the body
weight, and was most marked when taken on an empty stomach or without
food substance. This variance in action was also true for both the
quality and amount of sleep, and seemed to be accentuated when taken on
successive days; but it did not appear to depend on the age, sex, or
previous caffein habits of the individual. Those who had given up the
use of caffein-containing beverages during the experiment did not report
any craving for the drinks as such, but several expressed a feeling of
annoyance at not having some sort of a warm drink for breakfast.
It is interesting to note that he also found a complete absence of any
trace of secondary depression or of any sort of secondary reaction
consequent upon the stimulation which was so strikingly present in many
of the tests. The production of an increased capacity for work was
clearly demonstrated, the same being a genuine drug effect, and not
merely the effect of excitement, interest, sensory stimulation,
expectation, or suggestion. However, this study does not show whether
this increased capacity comes from a new supply of energy introduced or
rendered available by the drug action, or whether energy already
available comes to be employed more effectively, or whether fatigue
sensations are weakened and the individual's standard of performance
thereby raised. But they do show that from a standpoint of mental and
productive physical efficiency "the widespread consumption of caffeinic
beverages, even under circumstances in which and by individuals for whom
the use of other drugs is stringently prohibited or decried, is
justified."
_Conclusion_
Brief summarization of the information available on the pharmacology of
coffee indicates that it should be used in moderation, particularly by
children, the permissible quantity varying with the individual and
ascertainable only through personal observation. Used in moderation, it
will prove a valuable stimulant increasing personal efficiency in mental
and physical labor. Its action in the alimentary régime is that of an
adjuvant food, aiding digestion, favoring increased flow of the
digestive juices, promoting intestinal peristalsis, and not tanning any
portion of the digestive organs. It reacts on the kidneys as a diuretic,
and increases the excretion of uric acid, which, however, is not to be
taken as evidence that it is harmful in gout. Coffee has been indicated
as a specific for various diseases, its functions therein being the
raising and sustaining of low vitalities. Its effect upon longevity is
virtually _nil_. A small proportion of humans who are very nervous may
find coffee undesirable; but sensible consumption of coffee by the
average, normal, non-neurasthenic person will not prove harmful but
beneficial.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XIX
THE COMMERCIAL COFFEES OF THE WORLD
_The geographical distribution of the coffees grown in North
America, Central America, South America, the West India Islands,
Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the East Indies--A
statistical study of the distribution of the principal kinds--A
commercial coffee chart of the world's leading growths, with market
names and general trade characteristics_
A study of the geographical distribution of the coffee tree shows that
it is grown in well-defined tropical limits. The coffee belt of the
world lies between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn. The
principal coffee consuming countries are nearly all to be found in the
north temperate zone, between the tropic of cancer and the arctic
circle.
The leading commercial coffees of the world are listed in the
accompanying commercial coffee chart, which shows at a glance their
general trade character. The cultural methods of the producing countries
are discussed in chapter XX; statistics in chapter XXII; and the trade
characteristics, in detail, in chapter XXIV, which considers also
countries and coffees not so important in a commercial sense. Mexico is
the principal producing country in the northern part of the western
continent, and Brazil in the southern part. In Africa, the eastern coast
furnishes the greater part of the supply; while in Asia, the Netherlands
Indies, British India, and Arabia lead.
Within the last two decades there has been an expansion of the
production areas in South America, Africa, and in southeastern Asia; and
a contraction in British India and the Netherlands Indies.
_The Shifting Coffee Currents of the World_
Seldom does the coffee drinker realize how the ends of the earth are
drawn upon to bring the perfected beverage to his lips. The trail that
ends in his breakfast cup, if followed back, would be found to go a
devious and winding way, soon splitting up into half-a-dozen or more
straggling branches that would lead to as many widely scattered regions.
If he could mount to a point where he could enjoy a bird's-eye view of
these and a hundred kindred trails, he would find an intricate
criss-cross of streamlets and rivers of coffee forming a tangled pattern
over the tropics and reaching out north and south to all civilized
countries. This would be a picture of the coffee trade of the world.
It would be a motion picture, with the rivulets swelling larger at
certain seasons, but seldom drying up entirely at any time. In the main
the streamlets and rivers keep pretty much the same direction and volume
one year after another, but then there is also a quiet shifting of these
currents. Some grow larger, and others diminish gradually until they
fade out entirely. In one of the regions from which they take their
source a tree disease may cause a decline; in another, a hurricane may
lay the industry low at one quick stroke; and in still another, a rival
crop may drain away the life-blood of capital. But for the most part,
when times are normal, the shift is gradual; for international trade is
conservative, and likes to run where it finds a well-worn channel.
In recent times, of course, the big disturbing element in the coffee
trade was the World War. Whole countries were cut out of the market,
shipping was drained away from every sea lane, stocks were piled high in
exporting ports, prices were fixed, imports were sharply restricted, and
the whole business of coffee trading was thrown out of joint. To what
extent has the world returned to normal in this trade? Were the
stoppages in trade merely temporary suspensions, or are they to prove
permanent? How are the old, long-worn channels filling up again, now
that the dams have been taken away?
We are now far enough removed from the war to begin to answer these
questions. We find our answer in the export figures of the chief
producing countries, which for the most part are now available in detail
for one or two post-war years. These figures are given in the tables
below; and for comparison, there are also given figures showing the
distribution of exports in 1913 and in an earlier year near the
beginning of the century. These figures, of course, do not necessarily
give an accurate index to normal trade; as in any given year some
abnormal happening, such as an exceptionally large crop or a revolution,
may affect exports drastically as compared with years before and after.
But normally the proportions of a country's exports going to its various
customers are fairly constant one year after another, and can be taken
for any given year as showing approximately the coffee currents of that
period.
The figures following are for the calendar year unless the fiscal year
is indicated. Where figures could not be obtained from the original
statistical publications, they have been supplied as far as possible
from consular reports.
BRAZIL. The war naturally increased the dependence of Brazil on its
chief customer, and the proportion of the total crop coming to this
country since the war has continued to be large. Shipments to United
States ports in 1920 represented about fifty-four percent of the total
exports. Figures for that year indicate also that France and Belgium
were working back to their normal trade; but that Spain, Great Britain,
and the Netherlands were taking much less coffee than in the year just
before the war. Germany was buying strongly again, her purchases of
72,000,000 pounds being about half as much as in 1913. Shipments to
Italy were four times as heavy as in 1913. The natural return to normal
was much interfered with by speculation and valorization. Brazil seems
to have come through the cataclysmic period of the war in better style
than might have been expected.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM BRAZIL
1900 1913 1920
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
United States 566,686,345 650,071,337 826,425,340
France 78,408,862 244,295,282 203,694,212
Great Britain 6,442,739 32,559,715 9,597,378
Germany 235,131,881 246,767,144 72,196,934
Aus.-Hungary 71,696,556 134,495,310
Netherlands 102,711,887 196,169,240 49,760,767
Italy 17,559,107 31,364,656 132,543,798
Spain 868,617 14,407,906 6,057,833
Belgium 41,500,638 58,858,562 42,309,469
Other countries 59,432,882 145,896,327 181,796,919
------------- ------------- -------------
Total 1,180,439,514 1,754,885,479 1,524,382,650
The 1900 figures are for the ports of Rio, Santos, Bahia, and Victoria.
"Other countries" in 1913 included Argentina, 32,941,182 pounds; Sweden,
28,045,737 pounds; Cape Colony, 15,930,731 pounds; Denmark, 6,252,931
pounds. In 1920 they included Argentina, 37,736,498 pounds; Sweden,
51,026,591 pounds; Denmark, 18,764,483 pounds; Cape Colony, 26,936,653
pounds.
VENEZUELA. Venezuela's coffee trade was deeply affected by the war; both
because the Germans were prominent in the industry, and because the
regular shipping service to Europe was discontinued. Large amounts of
coffee were piled up at the ports and elsewhere; and when the
restrictions were swept away in 1919, an abnormal exportation resulted.
Although Germany had been one of the chief buyers before the war,
Venezuela was by no means dependent on the German market. In fact, her
combined shipments to France and the United States, just before the war,
were three times as great as her exports to Germany. These two countries
took two-thirds of her total exports in 1920. Spain and the Netherlands
were also prominent buyers.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM VENEZUELA
1906 1913 1920
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
United States 35,704,398 45,570,268 43,670,191
France 21,748,370 46,413,174 4,647,978
Germany 5,270,814 32,203,972 546,363
Aus.-Hungary 289,851 3,015,723
Spain 3,133,012 7,372,839 15,210,756
Netherlands 28,549,920 2,903,806 1,836,209
Italy 315,293 2,805,948 719,850
Great Britain 404,720 98,796 1,518,175
Other countries 2,663,507 1,631,143 5,577,110
------------- ------------- -------------
Total 98,079,885 142,015,669 73,726,632
COMMERCIAL COFFEE CHART
_The World's Leading Growths, with Market Names and General
Trade Characteristics_
--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------
Grand Division| Country |Principal|Best Known |Trade Characteristics
| | Shipping| Market |
| | Ports | Names |
--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------
North |Mexico |Vera Cruz|Coatepec |Greenish to yellow
America | | |Huatusco |bean; mild flavor.
| | |Orizaba |
Central |Guatemala |Puerto |Cobán |Waxy, bluish bean;
America | | Barrios |Antigua |mellow flavor.
|Salvador |La |Santa Ana |Smooth, green bean;
| |Libertad |Santa Tecla|neutral flavor.
|Costa |Puerto |Costa Ricas|Blue-greenish bean;
|Rica |Limon | |mild flavor.
--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------
West |Haiti |Cape |Haiti |Blue bean; rich,
Indies | |Haitien | |fairly acid; sweet
| | | |flavor.
|Santo |Santo |Santo |Flat, greenish-yellow
|Domingo |Domingo |Domingo |bean; strong flavor.
|Jamaica |Kingston |Blue |Bluish-green bean;
| | |Mountain |rich, full flavor.
|Porto | Ponce |Porto |Gray-blue bean;
|Rico | |Ricans |strong, heavy flavor.
--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------
South |Colombia |Savanilla|Medellin |Greenish-yellow bean;
America | | |Manizales, |rich, mellow flavor.
| | |Bogota |
| | |Bucaramanga|
|Venezuela |La Guaira|Merida |Greenish-yellow bean;
| |Maracaibo|Cucuta |mild, mellow flavor.
| | |Caracas |
|Brazil |Santos |Santos |Small bean; mild
| | | |flavor.
| |Rio de |Rio |Large bean; strong
| |Janeiro | |cup.
--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------
Asia |Arabia |Aden |Mocha |Small, short, green
| | | |to yellow bean;
| | | |unique, mild flavor.
|India |Madras |Mysore |Small to large,
| |Calicut |Coorg |blue-green bean;
| | |(Kurg) |strong flavor.
--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------
East India |Malay |Penang |Straits |Liberian and Robusta
Islands |States |(Geo't'n)| |growths from
| |Singapore|Liberian, |Malaysia.
| | |Robusta |
|Sumatra |Padang |Mandheling |Large, yellow to
| | |Ankola |brown bean; heavy
| | |Ayer |body; exquisite
| | |Bangies |flavor.
|Java |Batavia |Preanger |Small, blue to
| | |Cheribon, |yellow bean;
| | |Kroe |light in cup.
|Celebes |Menado |Minahassa |Large, yellow bean;
| |Macassar | |aromatic cup.
--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------
Africa |Abyssinia |Jibuti |Harar |Large, blue to yellow
| | |Abyssinia |bean; very like
| | | |Mocha.
Pacific |Hawaiian |Honolulu |Kona |Large, blue, flinty
Islands |Islands | |Puna |bean; mildly acid.
|Philippines|Manila |Manila |Yellow and brown large
| | | |bean; mild cup.
--------------+---------+-----------+-----------+---------------------
COLOMBIA. Colombian statistics of foreign trade are issued very
irregularly, and no figures are available to afford comparison between
pre-war and post-war trade. The figures below, however, will show the
comparative amounts of coffee going to the chief buying countries at
different periods. From these it will be seen that the countries mainly
interested in the trade in Colombian coffee are those prominent in the
trade in other tropical American sections. England, France, Germany, and
the United States took the great bulk of the exports. A consular report
written after the outbreak of the war says:
Prior to the war the United States took about seventy percent of
Colombia's coffee crop; the remainder being about equally divided
between England, France, and Germany, with England taking the
largest share.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM COLOMBIA[A]
(From Barranquilla only)
1899 1905 1916
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
Great Britain 22,573,828 7,268,429 442,026
France 6,873,722 496,120 1,685,454
Germany 9,348,028 8,568,131
United States 17,991,500 43,518,704 134,292,858
Other countries 7,396,385 23,753,678
---------- ---------- -----------
Total 56,787,078 67,247,769 160,174,016
[A] These figures are taken from a consular report, which gave
statistics only for the port of Barranquilla and did not include the
total shipments from that port. Shipments from Cartagena, the only other
exporting port of any consequence, amounted to 7,836,505 pounds,
destination not stated. The Barranquilla figures, in the absence of
official statistics, can be taken as fairly representative of the total
trade so far as destination is concerned. They are for fiscal years,
ending June 30.
"Other countries" in 1916 included Italy, 1,135,137 pounds; Venezuela,
20,564,321 pounds; Dutch West Indies, 400,132 pounds.
CENTRAL AMERICA. The three largest producing countries of Central
America, Guatemala, Salvador, and Costa Rica, were all closely linked to
Germany by the coffee trade before the war. German capital was heavily
invested in coffee plantations; German houses had branches in the
principal cities; and German ships regularly served the chief ports.
Accordingly, when the blockade became effective, these countries were
placed in a difficult position. But fortunately for them, a special
effort had been made shortly before by Pacific-coast interests in the
United States to divert a part of the coffee trade to San Francisco[313]
The market to the east being shut off, these countries turned naturally
to the north. This trade with the United States has apparently been
firmly established, and there has not yet been much of a return to
German ports.
GUATEMALA. Of the three countries named, Guatemala was the most heavily
involved in German trade. In 1913 she sent to Germany 53,000,000 pounds
of coffee, a fifth more than in 1900. Her shipments of more than
10,000,000 pounds to the United Kingdom were about the same as at the
beginning of the century. The war turned both these currents into United
States ports, and they continued to flow in that direction through 1920.
The figures follow:
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM GUATEMALA
1900 1913 1920
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
Germany 44,416,064 53,232,910 452,206
United States 14,057,120 21,188,444 78,226,508
United Kingdom 11,467,680 10,666,604 2,341,217
Other countries 3,041,584 6,641,936 13,185,638
---------- ---------- ----------
Total 72,982,448 91,729,894 94,205,569
"Other countries" in 1913 included Austria-Hungary, 4,205,400 pounds;
Netherlands, 407,900 pounds. In 1920, they included Netherlands,
10,355,625 pounds; Sweden, 422,421 pounds; Norway, 57,408 pounds; Spain,
97,519 pounds; France, 27,956 pounds.
SALVADOR. Salvador is one of the countries in which the publication of
foreign-trade statistics has been irregular in the past, and none is
available to show the full trade in coffee at the beginning of the
century. A consular report gives figures for the first half of 1900. The
most recent statistics show that the United States still holds much of
the trade gained during the war, although Salvador is sending to
Scandinavian countries many millions of pounds of her coffee that came
to the United States in war-time.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM SALVADOR
1900 (1st 6 mos.) 1913 1920
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
United States 6,700,101 10,779,655 46,262,256
France 22,948,712 15,955,920 6,686,714
Germany 6,607,892 12,120,133 813,166
Great Britain 4,396,465 3,415,187 4,226,061
Italy 4,322,003 9,538,976
Aus.-Hungary 1,335,626 3,557,482
Belgium 210,834 5,508 3,104
Spain 24,799 377,729 364,296
Other countries 3,920 7,193,107 24,509,071
---------- ---------- ----------
Total 46,550,352 62,943,697 82,864,668
"Other countries" in 1913 included Norway, 2,070,220 pounds; Sweden,
2,238,332 pounds; Netherlands, 738,694 pounds; Chile, 609,441 pounds;
Russia, 95,625 pounds; Denmark, 140,665 pounds. In 1920, they included
Norway, 10,726,375 pounds; Chile, 1,772,346 pounds; Netherlands,
1,071,614 pounds; Sweden, 9,635,947 pounds; Denmark, 1,061,772 pounds.
[Illustration: A FLOURISHING COFFEE ESTATE IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO]
[Illustration: LABORERS BRINGING IN THE DAY'S PICKINGS, NEAR BOGOTA,
COLOMBIA]
[Illustration: MILD-COFFEE CULTURE AND PREPARATION]
COSTA RICA. English, French, and German capital was heavily invested in
Costa Rica before the war, and all three nations were interested in the
coffee trade. For many years England had maintained the lead as a coffee
customer, and shipments continued in large volume after the war. The
following figures are for the crop year ending September 30:
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM COSTA RICA
1903 1913 1921
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
United States 6,388,236 1,625,866 14,137,605
Great Britain 27,756,661 23,464,827 13,418,527
France 1,241,816 741,548 313,538
Germany 2,676,841 2,581,055 376,649
Other countries 147,925 288,521 1,155,066
---------- ---------- ----------
Total 38,211,479 28,701,817 29,401,385
In 1900 total shipments were 35,496,055 pounds, of which 20,587,712
pounds went to Great Britain; 8,874,014 pounds to the United States; and
3,904,566 pounds to Germany.
"Other countries" in 1903 included Spain, 49,189 pounds; Italy, 4,104
pounds. In 1921, they included Netherlands, 837,496 pounds; Spain,
308,308 pounds; Chile, 9,259 pounds.
MEXICO. Mexico has naturally sent most of her coffee across the border
into the United States, and she continued to do so during and after the
war. But she had worked up a very important trade with Europe, chiefly
with Germany; and German capital, and German planters and merchants were
prominent in the industry. France and England also were interested in
the trade, and purchased annually several million pounds. During the
war, as shown by the exports in its final year, this trade almost
entirely ceased, and the United States and Spain remained as the only
consumers of Mexican coffee. Details of the after-war trade are not yet
available in published statistics. In the following table, 1900 and 1918
are calendar years, and 1913 is a fiscal year.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM MEXICO
1900 1913 1918
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
United States 28,882,954 28,012,655 23,816,044
Germany 10,074,001 10,461,382
Aus.-Hungary 163,934 30,864
Belgium 25,855 39,722
Spain 546,132 184,941 6,184,494
France 3,927,294 4,482,011
Netherlands 220,607 46,296
Great Britain 3,848,605 2,170,669
Cuba 467,201 37,921 171,527
Italy 157,653 347,758
Other countries 655,073
---------- ---------- ----------
Total 48,314,236 46,469,292 30,172,065
In 1913 "other countries" included Panama, 342,131 pounds; Canada,
276,567 pounds; Sweden, 3,079 pounds; British Honduras, 33,179 pounds;
Denmark, 112 pounds.
JAMAICA. The French, more than any other peoples in Europe, have
cultivated a taste for coffee from the West Indies; and France normally
has led all other countries in shipments from the larger producing
islands, including Jamaica, although the island is a British possession.
In the year before the war, France bought nearly 4,000,000 pounds of
Jamaican coffee, more than half the total production. In the year
1900-01 also she took about 4,000,000 pounds, leading all other
countries. This trade was very much cut down during the war, but was not
wiped out. As shown in the figures for 1918, England largely took the
place of France in that year, and Canada increased her purchases several
hundred percent.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM JAMAICA
1901 (fis. yr.) 1913 1918
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
Great Britain 1,849,456 671,440 6,919,808
Canada 109,536 263,872 1,819,328
United States 2,976,512 802,032 643,888
France 3,958,304 3,743,264 729,120
Aus.-Hungary 104,272 303,296
Cuba 114,800
Barbados 226,464 26,992
Other countries 508,704 507,248 97,440
---------- ---------- ----------
Total 9,621,584 6,517,616 10,236,576
"Other countries" in 1901 included British West Indies, 316,512 pounds.
In 1913, they included Netherlands, 125,216 pounds; Norway, 28,896
pounds; Sweden, 70,224 pounds; Italy, 46,592 pounds; Australia, 71,456
pounds.
HAITI. Prior to the taking over of the administration of the customs of
Haiti by the United States, detailed statistics of the exports are
almost wholly lacking. France took most of the annual production,
continuing a trade that dated back to old colonial times. An American
consular report says:
Before the war there was no market for Haitian coffee in the United
States, practically the entire crop going to Europe, with France as
the largest consumer. However, there has been for some time past a
determined effort made to create a demand in the United States, and
this is said to be meeting with ever-increasing success.
The actual success achieved can be measured by the following figures for
the fiscal year ended September 30, 1920:
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM HAITI
Exported to Pounds
United States 27,647,077
France 23,921,083
Great Britain 39,583
Other countries 10,362,351
__________
Total 61,970,094
These figures do not include 6,322,167 pounds of coffee triage, or
waste, of which the United States took 2,028,352 pounds; France,
1,491,507 pounds.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. The comparatively small production of the Dominican
Republic was divided among the United States and three or four European
countries before the war. Since the war the exports have been scattered
among the former customers in varying amounts. Germany is again a buyer,
although her purchases have not come back to anything like the pre-war
level.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
1906 1913 1920
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
United States 564,291 506,456 529,831
France 569,215 1,248,418 454,165
Germany 1,562,193 327,843 69,224
Italy [B] 195,294 51,543
Cuba [B] 25,628 132,569
Great Britain [B] 660 54,114
Other countries 221,028 8,154 70,220
_________ _________ _________
Total 2,916,727 2,312,453 1,361,666
[B] No shipments, or included in "other countries."
"Other countries" in 1920 included only the Netherlands.
PORTO RICO. In spite of several attempts on the part of Porto-Rican
planters to make their product popular in the markets of the United
States, the American consumer has never found the taste of that coffee
to his liking. The big market for the Porto-Rican product has been Cuba,
which has depended on her neighbor for most of her supply. This demand
takes a large part of the annual crop, including the lower grades. The
better grades, before the war, went largely to Europe, mostly to the
Latin countries. During the war, the Cuban market carried the
Porto-Rican planters through, although shipments of considerable size
continued to go to France and Spain. Recovery of the pre-war trade with
Europe, however, has been slow, Spain being the only country to take
over 1,000,000 pounds in 1920. Shipments to that country totaled
3,472,204 pounds; those to France, 900,868 pounds. Both countries
increased their purchases considerably in 1921.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM PORTO RICO
1900-01 (fis. yr.) 1913 1921
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
United States 29,565 628,843 211,531
France 3,348,025 6,020,170 1,625,065
Spain 2,590,096 6,851,235 5,705,932
Aus.-Hungary 386,158 6,729,726
Germany 493,891 876,315 363,993
Belgium 9,964 25,867 234,019
Italy 611,033 3,498,157 43,484
Netherlands 8,860 497,938 25,199
Sweden 32,390[C] 633,046 266,550
Cuba 4,633,538 23,179,690 21,135,397
Other countries 13,720 393,586 356,709
_________ _________ _________
Total 12,157,240 49,334,573 29,967,879
[C] Includes Norway.
HAWAII. The war disarranged Hawaii's coffee trade very little, as she
had for many years been shipping chiefly to continental United States.
Recently a considerable trade with the Philippines has developed.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM HAWAII
1901-02 (fis. yr.) 1913 1921
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
United States 1,082,994 3,393,009 4,183,046
Canada 77,900 10,200 11,355
Japan 24,155 49,167 23,950
Germany 2,100 1,612
Philippines [D] 932,640 747,700
Other countries 23,349 49,179 13,070
_________ _________ _________
Total 1,210,498 4,435,807 4,979,121
[D] No exports, or included in "other countries."
ADEN. Lying on the edge of the war area and on the road to India, Aden
felt the full force of the disarrangement of commercial traffic by the
war. Ordinarily, Aden is not only the chief outlet for the coffee of the
interior of Arabia--the original "Mocha"--but it is also the
transhipping point for large amounts from Africa and India. The figures
given below relate for the most part to this transhipped coffee. Exports
of coffee from Aden go chiefly to the United Kingdom, France, and the
United States, and to other ports of Arabia and Africa. Before the war
no great proportion went to the Central Powers. The following figures
apply to fiscal years ending March 31:
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM ADEN
1901 (fis. yr.) 1914 (fis. yr.) 1921 (fis. yr.)
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
Great Britain 1,563,632 696,976 466,928
United States 2,412,368 4,300,128 2,507,344
France 3,789,296 2,975,840 814,016
Egypt 1,024,576 3,108,336
Arab. Gulf Pts. 860,160 852,320 606,592
Germany 247,184 465,136
Aus.-Hungary 341,152 553,952
Italy 197,568 811,664 7,504
Br. Somaliland 280,224 23,408
[E] Africa 337,344 2,390,640 292,880
Other countries 1,114,848 2,500,456 1,659,504
_________ _________ _________
Total 12,168,352 15,570,520 9,463,104
[E] Including adjacent islands, but exclusive of British territory.
"Other countries" in 1914 included Australia, 222,320 pounds; Perim,
142,016 pounds; Zanzibar, 148,848 pounds; Mauritius, 154,672 pounds;
Seychelles, 116,704 pounds; Sweden, 118,720 pounds; Norway, 49,168
pounds; Russia, 196,448 pounds. In 1921, they included Denmark, 120,624
pounds; Spain, 124,208 pounds; Massowah, 410,704 pounds.
BRITISH INDIA. As India's trade before the war was chiefly with the
mother country, with France, and with Ceylon, the return to normal has
been rapid. In the year following the war, these three customers were
again credited with the largest amounts exported from India, except for
shipments to Greece, which took little before the war. The following
figures are for the fiscal years ending March 31:
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM BRITISH INDIA
1901 (fis. yr.) 1914 (fis. yr.) 1920(fis. yr.)
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
Great Britain 15,678,768 10,343,536 8,138,144
Ceylon 1,088,528 1,428,112 1,423,072
France 8,430,016 10,924,816 9,256,352
Belgium 617,792 1,021,664
Germany 126,560 1,033,088 25,312
Aus.-Hungary 123,312 1,358,896 8,400
Italy 23,968 22,624 30,912
United States 54,096 16,576
Turkey in Asia 232,176 501,984 986,720
[F] Africa 118,272 113,344 619,696
Other countries 1,106,784 2,360,736 10,021,648
---------- ---------- ----------
Total 27,600,272 29,108,800 30,526,832
[F] Including adjacent islands.
"Other countries" in 1914 included Netherlands, 238,560 pounds;
Australia, 748,608 pounds; Bahrein Islands, 757,568 pounds. In 1920,
they included Greece, 6,487,376 pounds; Australia, 481,152 pounds;
Bahrein Islands, 1,081,696 pounds; Aden and dependencies, 459,984
pounds; other Arabian ports, 890,176 pounds.
DUTCH EAST INDIES. The war played havoc with the coffee trade of the
Dutch East Indies, taking away shipping, closing trade routes, and
causing immense quantities of coffee to pile up in the warehouses. When
the war ended, this coffee was released; and trade was consequently
again abnormal, although in the opposite direction from that it took
during war years. The 1920 figures indicate that the trade is working
back into its old channels.
COFFEE EXPORTS FROM DUTCH EAST INDIES
1900 1913 1920[G]
Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds
Netherlands 81,489,000 33,323,748[H] [H]50,028,815
Great Britain 88,000 981,201 5,987,598
France 2,560,000 9,081,715[H] 5,410,582
Aus.-Hungary 1,153,000 996,988
Germany 71,000 997,715[H] 75,699
Egypt 5,494,000 104,868 1,418,313
United States 8,408,000 5,695,180 17,274,522
Singapore 9,952,000 4,785,580 8,349,415
Other countries 2,965,000 7,831,732 10,475,509
----------- ---------- -----------
Total 112,180,000 63,798,727 99,020,453
[G] These figures cover only Java and Madura.
[H] Includes shipments "for orders."
"Other countries" in 1920 included, Norway, 2,606,421 pounds; Sweden,
728,580 pounds; Australia, 1,553,495 pounds; British India, 1,912,541
pounds; Italy, 1,964,109 pounds; Denmark, 1,191,643 pounds; Belgium,
166,092 pounds.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: COFFEE TREE IN BEARING AT THE GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIMENT
STATION AT LAMOA, NEAR MANILA, P.I.]
CHAPTER XX
CULTIVATION OF THE COFFEE PLANT
_The early days of coffee culture in Abyssinia and Arabia--Coffee
cultivation in general--Soil, climate, rainfall, altitude,
propagation, preparing the plantation, shade and wind breaks,
fertilizing, pruning, catch crops, pests, and diseases--How coffee
is grown around the world--Cultivation in all the principal
producing countries_
For the beginnings of coffee culture we must go back to the Arabian
colony of Harar in Abyssinia, for here it was, about the fifteenth
century, that the Arabs, having found the plant growing wild in the
Abyssinian highlands, first gave it intensive cultivation. The complete
story of the early cultivation of coffee in the old and new worlds is
told in chapter II, which deals with the history of the propagation of
the coffee plant.
La Roque[314] was the first to tell how the plant was cultivated and the
berries prepared for market in Arabia, where it was brought from
Abyssinia.
The Arabs raised it from seed grown in nurseries, transplanting it to
plantations laid out in the foot-hills of the mountains, to which they
conducted the mountain streams by ingeniously constructed small channels
to water the roots. They built trenches three feet wide and five feet
deep, lining them with pebbles to cause the water to sink deep into the
earth with which the trenches were filled, to preserve the moisture from
too rapid evaporation. These were so constructed that the water could be
turned off into other channels when the fruit began to ripen. In
plantations exposed to the south, a kind of poplar tree was planted
along the trenches to supply needful shade.
La Roque noted that the coffee trees in Yemen were planted in lines,
like the apple trees in Normandy; and that when they were much exposed
to the sun, the shade poplars were regularly introduced between the
rows.
Such cultivation as the plant received in early Abyssinia and Arabia was
crude and primitive at best. Throughout the intervening centuries, there
has been little improvement in Yemen; but modern cultural methods obtain
in the Harar district in Abyssinia.
Like the Arabs in Yemen, the Harari cultivated in small gardens,
employing the same ingenious system of irrigation from mountain springs
to water the roots of the plants at least once a week during the dry
season. In Yemen and in Abyssinia the ripened berries were sun-dried on
beaten-earth barbecues.
The European planters who carried the cultivation of the bean to the Far
East and to America followed the best Arabian practise, changing, and
sometimes improving it, in order to adapt it to local conditions.
_Coffee Cultivation in General_
Today the commercial growers of coffee on a large scale practise
intensive cultivation methods, giving the same care to preparing their
plantations and maintaining their trees as do other growers of grains
and fruits. As in the more advanced methods of arboriculture, every
effort is made to obtain the maximum production of quality coffee
consistent with the smallest outlay of money and labor. Experimental
stations in various parts of the world are constantly working to improve
methods and products, and to develop types that will resist disease and
adverse climatic conditions.
While cultivation methods in the different producing countries vary in
detail of practise, the principles are unchanging. Where methods do
differ, it is owing principally to local economic conditions, such as
the supply and cost of labor, machinery, fertilizers, and similar
essential factors.
[Illustration: IMPLEMENTS USED IN EARLY ARABIAN COFFEE CULTURE
1, Plow. 2 and 3, Mattocks. 4, Hatchet and sickle. Top, Seeder
Implement]
SOIL. Rocky ground that pulverizes easily--and, if possible, of volcanic
origin--is best for coffee; also, soil rich in decomposed mold. In
Brazil the best soil is known as _terra roxa_, a topsoil of red clay
three or four feet thick with a gravel subsoil.
CLIMATE. The natural habitat of the coffee tree (all species) is
tropical Africa, where the climate is hot and humid, and the soil rich
and moist, yet sufficiently friable to furnish well drained seed beds.
These conditions must be approximated when the tree is grown in other
countries. Because the trees and fruit generally can not withstand
frost, they are restricted to regions where the mean annual temperature
is about 70° F., with an average minimum about 55°, and an average
maximum of about 80°. Where grown in regions subject to more or less
frost, as in the northernmost parts of Brazil's coffee-producing
district, which lie almost within the south temperate zone, the coffee
trees are sometimes frosted, as was the case in 1918, when about forty
percent of the São Paulo crop and trees suffered.
Generally speaking, the most suitable climate for coffee is a temperate
one within the tropics; however, it has been successfully cultivated
between latitudes 28° north and 38° south.
RAINFALL. Although able to grow satisfactorily only on well drained
land, the coffee tree requires an abundance of water, about seventy
inches of rainfall annually, and must have it supplied evenly throughout
the year. Prolonged droughts are fatal; while, on the other hand, too
great a supply of water tends to develop the wood of the tree at the
expense of the flowers and fruit, especially in low-lying regions.
ALTITUDE. Coffee is found growing in all altitudes, from sea-level up to
the frost-line, which is about 6,000 feet in the tropics. _Robusta_ and
_liberica_ varieties of coffee do best in regions from sea-level up to
3,000 feet, while _arabica_ flourishes better at the higher levels.
Carvalho says that the coffee plant needs sun, but that a few hours
daily exposure is sufficient. Hilly ground has the advantage of offering
the choice of a suitable exposure, as the sun shines on it for only a
part of the day. Whether it is the early morning or the afternoon sun
that enables the plant to attain its optimum conditions is a question of
locality.
[Illustration: CROSS SECTION OF MOUNTAIN SLOPE IN YEMEN, ARABIA, SHOWING
COFFEE TERRACES
These miniature plantations are found chiefly along the caravan route
between Hodeida and Sanaa]
[Illustration: CLEARING VIRGIN FOREST FOR A COFFEE ESTATE IN MEXICO]
[Illustration: COFFEE NURSERY UNDER A BAMBOO ROOF IN COLOMBIA]
[Illustration: THE FIRST STEPS IN COFFEE GROWING]
In Mexico, Romero tells us, the highlands of Soconusco have the
advantage that the sun does not shine on the trees during the whole of
the day. On the higher slopes of the Cordilleras--from 2,500 feet above
sea-level--clouds prevail during the summer season, when the sun is
hottest, and are frequently present in the other seasons, after ten
o'clock in the morning. These keep the trees from being exposed to the
heat of the sun during the whole of the day. Perhaps to this
circumstance is due the superior excellence of certain coffees grown in
Mexico, Colombia, and Sumatra at an altitude of 3,000 feet to 4,000 feet
above sea-level.
Richard Spruce, the botanist, in his notes on South America, as quoted
by Alfred Russel Wallace,[315] refers to "a zone of the equatorial Andes
ranging between 4,000 and 6,000 feet altitude, where the best flavored
coffee is grown."
PROPAGATION. Coffee trees are grown most generally from seeds selected
from trees of known productivity and longevity; although in some parts
of the world propagation is done from shoots or cuttings. The seed
method is most general, however, the seeds being either propagated in
nursery beds, or planted at once in the spot where the mature tree is to
stand. In the latter case--called planting at stake--four or five seeds
are planted, much as corn is sown; and after germination, all but the
strongest plant are removed.
Where the nursery method is followed, the choicest land of the
plantation is chosen for its site; and the seeds are planted in forcing
beds, sometimes called cold-frames. When the plants are to be
transplanted direct to the plantation, the seeds are generally sown six
inches apart and in rows separated by the same distance, and are covered
with only a slight sprinkling of earth. When the plants are to be
transferred from the first bed to another, and then to the plantation,
the seeds are sown more thickly; and the plants are "pricked" out as
needed, and set out in another forcing bed.
During the six to seven weeks required for the coffee seed to germinate,
the soil must be kept moist and shaded and thoroughly weeded. If the
trees are to be grown without shade, the young plants are gradually
exposed to the sun, to harden them, before they begin their existence in
the plantation proper.
[Illustration: COFFEE TREE NURSERY, PANAJABAL, POCHUTA, GUATEMALA]
[Illustration: DRYING GROUNDS AND FACTORY IN THE PREANGER REGENCY]
[Illustration: NATIVE TRANSPORT, FIELD TO FACTORY, AT DRAMAGA, NEAR
BUITENZORG]
[Illustration: COFFEE SCENES IN JAVA, NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES]
Considerable experimental work has been done in renewing trees by
grafting, notably in Java; but practically all commercial planters
follow the seed method.
[Illustration: COFFEE GROWING UNDER SHADE, PORTO RICO]
PREPARING THE PLANTATION. Before transplanting time has come, the
plantation itself has been made ready to receive the young plants.
Coffee plantations are generally laid out on heavily wooded and sloping
lands, most often in forests on mountainsides and plateaus, where there
is an abundance of water, of which large quantities are used in
cultivating the trees and in preparing the coffee beans for market. The
soil most suitable is friable, sandy, or even gravelly, with an
abundance of rocks to keep the soil comparatively cool and well drained,
as well as to supply a source of food by action of the weather. The
ideal soil is one that contains a large proportion of potassium and
phosphoric acid; and for that reason, the general practise is to burn
off the foliage and trees covering the land and to use the ashes as
fertilizer.
In preparing the soil for the new plantation under the intensive
cultivation method, the surface of the land is lightly plowed, and then
followed up with thorough cultivation. When transplanting time comes,
which is when the plant is about a year old, and stands from twelve to
eighteen inches high with its first pairs of primary branches, the
plants are set out in shallow holes at regular intervals of from eight
to twelve, or even fourteen, feet apart. This gives room for the root
system to develop, provides space for sunlight to reach each tree, and
makes for convenience in cultivating and harvesting. _Liberica_ and
_robusta_ type trees require more room than _arabica._ When set twelve
feet apart, which is the general practise, with the same distance
maintained between rows, there are approximately four hundred and fifty
trees to the acre. In the triangle, or hexagon, system the trees are
planted in the form of an equilateral triangle, each tree being the same
distance (usually eight or nine feet) from its six nearest neighbors.
This system permits of 600 to 800 trees per acre.
SHADE AND WIND BREAKS. Strong, chilly winds and intensely hot sunlight
are foes of coffee trees, especially of the _arabica_ variety.
Accordingly, in most countries it is customary to protect the plantation
with wind-breaks consisting of rugged trees, and to shade the coffee by
growing trees of other kinds between the rows. The shade trees serve
also to check soil erosion; and in the case of the leguminous kinds, to
furnish nutriment to the soil. Coffee does best in shade such as is
afforded by the silk oak (_Grevillea robusta_). In _Shade in Coffee
Culture_ (_Bulletin_ 25, 1901, division of botany, United States
Department of Agriculture), O.F. Cook goes extensively into this
subject.
The methods employed in the care of a coffee plantation do not differ
materially from those followed by advanced orchardists in the colder
fruit-belts of the world. After the young plants have gained their
start, they are cultivated frequently, principally to keep out the
weeds, to destroy pests, and to aerate the earth. The implements used
range from crude hand-plows to horse-drawn cultivators.
FERTILIZING. Comparatively little fertilizing is done on plantations
established on virgin soil until the trees begin to bear, which occurs
when they are about three years of age. Because the coffee tree takes
potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid from the soil, the scheme of
fertilizing is to restore these elements. The materials used to replace
the soil-constituents consist of stable manure, leguminous plants,
coffee-tree prunings, leaves, certain weeds, oil cake, bone and fish
meal, guano, wood ashes, coffee pulp and parchment, and such chemical
fertilizers as superphosphate of lime, basic slag, sulphate of ammonia,
nitrate of lime, sulphate of potash, nitrate of potash, and similar
materials.
The relative values of these fertilizers depend largely upon local
climate and soil conditions, the supply, the cost, and other like
factors. The chemical fertilizers are coming into increasing use in the
larger and more economically advanced producing countries. Brazil,
particularly, is showing in late years a tendency toward their adoption
to make up for the dwindling supply of the so-called natural manures. As
the coffee tree grows older, it requires a larger supply of fertilizer.
[Illustration: THE FAMOUS BOEKIT GOMPONG ESTATE, NEAR PADANG, ON
SUMATRA'S WEST COAST
Showing the healthy, regular appearance of well-cultivated coffee
bushes, twenty-six years old. Also note the line of feathery bamboo
wind-breaks]
PRUNING. On the larger plantations, pruning is an important part of the
cultivation processes. If left to their own devices, coffee trees
sometimes grow as high as forty feet, the strength being absorbed by the
wood, with a consequent scanty production of fruit. To prevent this
undesirable result, and to facilitate picking, the trees on the more
modern plantations are pruned down to heights ranging from six to twelve
feet. Except for pruning the roots when transplanting, the tree is
permitted to grow until after producing its first full crop before any
cutting takes place. Then, the branches are severely cut back; and
thereafter, pruning is carried on annually. Topping and pruning begin
between the first and the second years.
[Illustration: COFFEE ESTATE IN ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA, SHOWING
WIND-BREAKS]
Coffee trees as a rule produce full crops from the sixth to the
fifteenth year, although some trees have given a paying crop until
twenty or thirty years old. Ordinarily the trees bear from one-half
pound to eight pounds of coffee annually, although there are accounts of
twelve pounds being obtained per tree. Production is mostly governed by
the cultivation given the tree, and by climate, soil, and location. When
too old to bear profitable yields, the trees on commercial plantations
are cut down to the level of the ground; and are renewed by permitting
only the strongest sprout springing out of the stump to mature.
CATCH CROPS. On some plantations it has become the practise to grow
catch crops between the rows of coffee trees, both as a means of
obtaining additional revenue and to shade the young coffee plants. Corn,
beans, cotton, peanuts, and similar plants are most generally used.
PESTS AND DISEASES. The coffee tree, its wood, foliage, and fruit, have
their enemies, chief among which are insects, fungi, rodents (the
"coffee rat"), birds, squirrels, and--according to Rossignon--elephants,
buffalo, and native cattle, which have a special liking for the tender
leaves of the coffee plant. Insects and fungi are the most bothersome
pests on most plantations. Among the insects, the several varieties of
borers are the principal foes, boring into the wood of the trunk and
branches to lay _larvae_ which sap the life from the tree. There are
scale insects whose excretion forms a black mold on the leaves and
affects the nutrition by cutting off the sunlight. Numerous kinds of
beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and crickets attack the coffee-tree
leaves, the so-called "leaf-miner" being especially troublesome. The
Mediterranean fruit fly deposits _larvae_ which destroy or lessen the
worth of the coffee berry by tunneling within and eating the contents of
the parchment. The coffee-berry beetle and its grub also live within the
coffee berry.
Among the most destructive fungoid diseases is the so-called Ceylon leaf
disease, which is caused by the _Hemileia vastatrix_, a fungus related
to the wheat rust. It was this disease which ruined the coffee industry
in Ceylon, where it first appeared in 1869, and since has been found in
other coffee-producing regions of Asia and Africa. America has a similar
disease, caused by the _Sphaerostilbe flavida_, that is equally
destructive if not vigilantly guarded against. (See chapters XV and
XVI.)
The coffee-tree roots also are subject to attack. There is the root
disease, prevalent in all countries, and for which no cause has yet been
definitely assigned, although it has been determined that it is of a
fungoid nature. Brazil, and some other American coffee-producing
countries, have a serious disease caused by the eelworm, and for that
reason called the eelworm disease.
Coffee planters combat pests and diseases principally with sprays, as in
other lines of advanced arboriculture. It is a constant battle,
especially on the large commercial plantations, and constitutes a large
item on the expense sheet.
_Cultivation by Countries_
Coffee-cultivation methods vary somewhat in detail in the different
producing countries. The foregoing description covers the underlying
principles in practise throughout the world; while the following is
intended to show the local variations in vogue in the principal
countries of production, together with brief descriptions of the main
producing districts, the altitudes, character of soil, climate, and
other factors that are peculiar to each country. In general, they are
considered in the order of their relative importance as producing
countries.
BRAZIL. In Brazil, the Giant of South America, and the world's largest
coffee producer, the methods of cultivation naturally have reached a
high point of development, although the soil and the climate were not at
first regarded as favorable. The year 1723 is generally accepted as the
date of the introduction of the coffee plant into Brazil from French
Guiana. Coffee planting was slow in developing, however, until 1732,
when the governor of the states of Pará and Maranhao urged its
cultivation. Sixteen years later, there were 17,000 trees in Pará. From
that year on, slow but steady progress was made; and by 1770, an export
trade had been begun from the port of Pará to countries in Europe.
[Illustration: UP-TO-DATE WEEDING AND HARROWING, SÃO PAULO]
The spread of the industry began about this time. The coffee tree was
introduced into the state of Rio de Janeiro in 1770. From there its
cultivation was gradually extended into the states of São Paulo, Minãs
Geraes, Bahia, and Espirito Santo, which have become the great
coffee-producing sections of Brazil. The cultivation of the plant did
not become especially noteworthy until the third decade of the
nineteenth century. Large crops were gathered in the season of 1842-43;
and by the middle of the century, the plantations were producing
annually more than 2,000,000 bags.
[Illustration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.
GENERAL VIEW OF FAZENDA DUMONT, RIBEIRAO PRETO, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL]
Brazil's commercial coffee-growing region has an estimated area of
approximately 1,158,000 square miles, and extends from the river Amazon
to the southern border of the state of São Paulo, and from the Atlantic
coast to the western boundary of the state of Matto Grosso. This area is
larger than that section of the United States lying east of the
Mississippi River, with Texas added. In every state of the republic,
from Ceará in the north to Santa Catharina in the south, the coffee tree
can be cultivated profitably; and is, in fact, more or less grown in
every state, if only for domestic use. However, little attention is
given to coffee-growing in the north, except in the state of Pernambuco,
which has only about 1,500,000 trees, as compared, with the 764,000,000
trees of São Paulo in 1922.
The chief coffee-growing plantations in Brazil are situated on plateaus
seldom less than 1,800 feet above sea-level, and ranging up to 4,000
feet. The mean annual temperature is approximately 70° F., ranging from
a mean of 60.8° in winter to a mean of 72° in summer. The temperature
has been known, however, to register 32° in winter and 97.7° in summer.
While coffee trees will grow in almost any part of Brazil, experience
indicates that the two most fertile soils, the _terra roxa_ and the
_massape_, lie in the "coffee belts." The _terra roxa_ is a dark red
earth, and is practically confined to São Paulo, and to it is due the
predominant coffee productivity of that state. _Massape_ is a yellow,
dark red--or even black--soil, and occurs more or less contiguous to the
_terra roxa_. With a covering of loose sand, it makes excellent coffee
land.
Brazil planters follow the nursery-propagated method of planting, and
cultivate, prune, and spray their trees liberally. Transplanting is done
in the months from November to February.
Coffee-growing profits have shown a decided falling off in Brazil in
recent years. In 1900 it was not uncommon for a coffee estate to yield
an annual profit of from 100 to 250 percent. Ten years later the average
returns did not exceed twelve percent.
[Illustration: FAZENDA GUATAPARA, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL, WITH 800,000 TREES
IN BEARING]
In Brazil's coffee belt there are two seasons--the wet, running from
September to March; and the dry, running from April to August. The
coffee trees are in bloom from September to December. The blossoms last
about four days, and are easily beaten off by light winds or rains. If
the rains or winds are violent, the green berries may be similarly
destroyed; so that great damage may be caused by unseasonable rains and
storms.
The harvest usually begins in April or May, and extends well into the
dry season. Even in the picking season, heavy rains and strong
winds--especially the latter--may do considerable damage; for in Brazil
shade trees and wind-breaks are the exception.
Approximately twenty-five percent of the São Paulo plantations are
cultivated by machinery. A type of cultivator very common is similar to
the small corn-plow used in the United States. The Planet Junior,
manufactured by a well known United States agricultural-machinery firm,
is the most popular cultivator. It is drawn by a small mule, with a boy
to lead it, and a man to drive and to guide the plow.
The preponderance of the coffee over other industries in São Paulo is
shown in many ways. A few years ago the registration of laborers in all
industries was about 450,000; and of this total, 420,000 were employed
in the production and transportation of coffee alone. Of the capital
invested in all industries, about eighty-five percent was in coffee
production and commerce, including the railroads that depended upon it
directly. An estimated value of $482,500,000 was placed upon the
plantations in the state, including land, machinery, the residences of
owners, and laborers' quarters.
[Illustration: Copyright by Brown & Dawson.
PICKING COFFEE IN SÃO PAULO]
In all Brazil, there are approximately 1,200,000,000 coffee trees. The
number of bearing coffee trees in São Paulo alone increased from
735,000,000 in 1914-15 to 834,000,000 in 1917-18. The crop in 1917-18
was 1,615,000,000 pounds, one of the largest on record. In the
agricultural year of 1922-23 there were 764,969,500 coffee trees in
bearing in São Paulo, and in São Paulo, Minãs, and Parana, 824,194,500.
[Illustration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.
INTENSIVE CULTIVATION METHODS IN THE RIBEIRAO PRETO DISTRICT, SÃO PAULO]
Plantations having from 300,000 to 400,000 trees are common. One
plantation near Ribeirao Preto has 5,000,000 trees, and requires an army
of 6,000 laborers to work it. Another planter owns thirty-two adjacent
plantations containing, in all, from 7,500,000 to 8,000,000 coffee trees
and gives employment to 8,000 persons. There are fifteen plantations
having more than 1,000,000 trees each, and five of these have more than
2,000,000 trees each. In the municipality of Ribeirao Preto there were
30,000,000 trees in 1922.
[Illustration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.
PRIVATE RAILROAD ON A SÃO PAULO COFFEE FAZENDA
Showing coffee trees and laborers' houses in the middle distance at
right]
The largest coffee plantations in the world are the Fazendas Dumont and
the Fazendas Schmidt. The Fazendas Dumont were valued, in 1915, in cost
of land and improvements, at $5,920,007; and since those figures were
given out, the value of the investment has much increased. Of the
various Fazendas Schmidt, the largest, owned by Colonel Francisco
Schmidt, in 1918 had 9,000,000 trees with an annual yield of 200,000
bags, or 26,400,000 pounds, of coffee. Other large plantations in São
Paulo with a million or more trees, are the Companhia Agricola Fazenda
Dumont, 2,420,000 trees; Companhia São Martinho, 2,300,000 trees;
Companhia Dumont, 2,000,000 trees; São Paulo Coffee Company, 1,860,000
trees; Christiana Oxorio de Oliveira, 1,790,000 trees; Companhia
Guatapara, 1,550,000 trees; Dr. Alfredo Ellis, 1,271,000 trees;
Companhia Agricola Araqua, 1,200,000 trees; Companhia Agricola Ribeirao
Preto, 1,138,000 trees; Rodriguez Alves Irmaos, 1,060,000 trees;
Francisca Silveira do Val, 1,050,000 trees; Luiza de Oliveira Azevedo,
1,045,000 trees; and the Companhia Caféeria São Paulo, 1,000,000 trees.
The average annual yield in São Paulo is estimated at from 1,750 to
4,000 pounds from a thousand trees, while in exceptional instances it is
said that as much as 6,000 pounds per 1,000 trees have been gathered.
Differences in local climatic conditions, in ages of trees, in richness
of soil, and in the care exercised in cultivation, are given as the
reasons for the wide variation.
The oldest coffee-growing district in São Paulo is Campinas. There are
136 others.
Bahia coffee is not so carefully cultivated and harvested as the Santos
coffee. The introduction of capital and modern methods would do much for
Bahia, which has the advantage of a shorter haul to the New York and the
European markets.
On the average, something like seventy percent of the world's coffee
crop is grown in Brazil, and two-thirds of this is produced in São
Paulo. Coffee culture in many districts of São Paulo has been brought to
the point of highest development; and yet its product is essentially a
quantity, not a quality, one.
COLOMBIA. In Colombia, coffee is the principal crop grown for export. It
is produced in nearly all departments at elevations ranging from 3,500
feet to 6,500 feet. Chief among the coffee-growing departments are
Antioquia (capital, Medellin); Caldas (capital, Manizales); Magdalena
(capital, Santa Marta); Santander (capital, Bucaramanga); Tolima
(capital, Ibague); and the Federal District (capital, Bogota). The
department of Cundinamarca produces a coffee that is counted one of the
best of Colombian grades. The finest grades are grown in the foot-hills
of the Andes, in altitudes from 3,500 to 4,500 feet above sea level.
[Illustration: THE CONDUCTING SLUICEWAY AT GUATAPARA
The running water carries the picked coffee berries to pulpers and
washing tanks]
[Illustration: COFFEE PICKING AND FIELD TRANSPORT]
[Illustration: COFFEE CULTURE IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL]
[Illustration: A NEAR VIEW OF A HEAVILY LADEN COFFEE TREE ON A BOGOTA
PLANTATION]
[Illustration: PICKING COFFEE ON A BOGOTA PLANTATION]
Methods of planting, cultivation, gathering, and preparing the Colombian
coffee crop for the market are substantially those that are common in
all coffee-producing countries, although they differ in some small
particulars. About 700 trees are usually planted to the acre, and native
trees furnish the necessary shade. The average yield is one pound per
tree per year.
While _Coffea arabica_ has been mostly cultivated in Colombia, as in the
other countries of South America, the _liberica_ variety has not been
neglected. Seeds of the _liberica_ tree were planted here soon after
1880, and were moderately successful. Since 1900, more attention has
been given to _liberica_, and attempts have been made to grow it upon
banana and rubber plantations, which seem to provide all the shade
protection that is needed. _Liberica_ coffee trees begin to bear in
their third year. From the fifth year, when a crop of about 650 pounds
to the acre can reasonably be expected, the productiveness steadily
increases until after fifteen or sixteen years, when a maximum of over
one thousand pounds an acre is attained.
Antioquia is the largest coffee producing department in the republic,
and its coffee is of the highest grade grown. Medellin, the capital,
where the business interests of the industry are concentrated, is a
handsome white city located on the banks of the Aburra river, in a
picturesque valley that is overlooked by the high peaks of the Andean
range. It is a town of about 80,000 inhabitants, thriving as a
manufacturing center, abundant in modern improvements, and is the center
of a coffee production of 500,000 bags known in the market as Medellin
and Manizales. Another center in this coffee region is the town of
Manizales, perched on the crest of the Andean spurs to dominate the
valley extending to Medellin and the Cauca valley to the Pacific.
There-about many small coffee growers are settled, and several hundred
thousand bags of the beans pass through annually.
One of the interesting plantations of the country was started a few
years ago in a remote region by an enterprising American investor. It
was located on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains 3,000 to 5,000
feet above sea-level, about twenty-five miles from the city of Santa
Marta. An extended acreage of forest-covered land was acquired, about
600 acres of which were cleared and either planted in coffee or reserved
for pasturage and other kinds of agriculture. When the plantation came
to maturity, it had nearly 300,000 trees. In 1919, there were 425,000
trees producing 3,600 hundred-weight of coffee.
A typical Colombian plantation is the Namay, owned by one of the bankers
of the Banco de Colombia of Bogota. It is located a good half day's
travel by rail and horseback from the city, about 5,000 feet above the
level of the sea. There are 1,000 acres in the plantation, with 250,000
trees having an ultimate productive capacity of nearly 2,000 bags a
year. During crop times, which are from May to July, about two hundred
families are needed on an estate of this size.
VENEZUELA. Seeds of the coffee plant were brought into Venezuela from
Martinique in 1784 by a priest who started a small plantation near
Caracas. Five years later, the first export of the bean was made, 233
bags, or about 30,000 pounds. Within fifty years, production had
increased to upward of 50,000,000 pounds annually; and by the end of the
nineteenth century, to more than 100,000,000 pounds.
Situated between the equator and the twelfth parallel of north latitude,
in the world's coffee belt, this country has an area equal to that of
all the United States east of the Mississippi river and north of the
Ohio and Potomac rivers, or greater than that of France, Germany, and
the Netherlands combined--599,533 square miles.
The chain of the Maritime Andes, reaching eastward across Colombia and
Venezuela, approaches the Caribbean coast in the latter country. Along
the slopes and foot-hills of these mountains are produced some of the
finest grades of South American coffee. Here the best coffee grows in
the _tierra templada_ and in the lower part of the _tierra fria_, and is
known as the _café de tierra fria_, or coffee of the cold, or high,
land. In these regions the equable climate, the constant and adequate
moisture, the rich and well-drained soil, and the protecting forest
shade afford the conditions under which the plant grows and thrives
best. On the fertile lowland valleys nearer the coast grows the _café de
tierra caliente_, or coffee of the hot land.
[Illustration: ON THE ALTAMIRA HACIENDA, VENEZUELA
The long pipe crossing the center of the picture is a water sluiceway
bringing coffee down from the hills]
Coffee growing has become the main agricultural pursuit of the country.
In 1839 it was estimated that there were 8,900 acres of land planted in
coffee, and in 1888 there were 168,000,000 coffee trees in the country
on 346,000 acres of land. In the opening years of the twentieth century
not far from 250,000 acres were devoted to this cultivation, comprised
in upward of 33,000 plantations. The average yield per acre is about
250 pounds. The trees are usually planted from two to two and a quarter
meters apart, and this gives about 800 trees to the acre. The triangle
system is unknown.
[Illustration: CARMEN HACIENDA, FRONTING ON THE ESCALANTE RIVER,
VENEZUELA]
In this country, the coffee tree bears its first crop when four or five
years old. The trees are not subject to unusual hazards from the attacks
of injurious insects and animals or from serious parasitic diseases.
Nature is kind to them, and their only serious contention for existence
arises from the luxuriant tropical vegetation by which they are
surrounded. On the whole their cultivation is comparatively easy. On the
best managed estates there are not more than 1,000 trees to a
_fanegada_--about one and three-quarters acres of land--and it is
calculated that an average annual yield for such a _fanegada_ should be
about twenty quintals, a little more than 2,032 pounds of merchantable
coffee. It is to be noted, however, that the average yield per tree
throughout Venezuela is low--not more than four ounces.
There are no great coffee belts as in Mexico and Central America. Many
districts are days' rides apart. The plantations are isolated, and there
is lacking a co-operative spirit among the growers.
Methods of cultivating and preparing the berry for the market are
substantially those that prevail elsewhere in South America. Most
plantations are handled in ordinary, old-fashioned ways; but the better
estates employ machinery and methods of the most advanced and improved
character at all points of their operation, from the planting of the
seed to the final marketing of the berry.
JAVA. Java, the oldest coffee-producing country in which the tree is not
indigenous, was producing a high-grade coffee long before Brazil,
Colombia, and Venezuela entered the industry; and it held its supremacy
in the world's trade for many years before the younger American
producing countries were able to surpass its annual output. The first
attempt to introduce the plant into Java took place in 1696, the
seedlings being brought from Malabar in India and planted at Kadawoeng,
near Batavia. Earthquake and flood soon destroyed the plants; and in
1699 Henricus Zwaardecroon brought the second lot of seedlings from
Malabar. These became the progenitors of all the _arabica_ coffees of
the Dutch East Indies. The industry grew, and in 1711 the first Java
coffee was sold at public auction in Amsterdam. Exports amounted to
116,587 pounds in 1720; and in 1724 the Amsterdam market sold 1,396,486
pounds of coffee from Java.
From the early part of the nineteenth century up to 1905, cultivation
was carried on under a Dutch government monopoly--excepting for the
five years, 1811-16, when the British had control of the island. The
government monopoly was first established when Marshal Daendels, acting
for the crown of Holland, took control of the islands from the
Netherlands East India Company. Before that time, the princes of
Preanger had raised all the coffee under the provisions of a treaty made
in the middle of the eighteenth century, by which they paid an annual
tribute in coffee to the company for the privilege of retaining their
land revenues. When the Dutch government recovered the islands from the
British, the plantations, which had been permitted to go to ruin, were
put in order again, and the government system re-established.
[Illustration: A HEAVY FRUITING OF COFFEA ROBUSTA IN JAVA]
A modification of the first monopoly plan of the government was put into
effect later in the régime of Governor Van den Bosch, and was maintained
until into the twentieth century. Under the Daendels plan, each native
family was required to keep 1000 coffee trees in bearing on village
lands, and to give to the government two-fifths of the crop, delivered
cleaned and sorted, at the government store. The natives retained the
other three-fifths. Under the Van den Bosch system, each family was
required to raise and care for 650 trees and to deliver the crop cleaned
and sorted to the government stores at a fixed price. The government
then sold the coffee at public auctions in Batavia, Padang, Amsterdam,
or Rotterdam.
This method of fostering the new industry resulted in government control
of fully four-fifths of the area under the crop, only the small balance
being owned or worked independently by private enterprise. For many
years after the cultivation had been fully started, this condition of
the business persisted. Most of the privately-operated plantations had
been in existence before the government had set up its monopoly system.
Others were on the estates of native princes who, in treating with the
Dutch, had been able to retain some of their original sovereign rights.
While these plans worked well in encouraging the industry at the outset,
they were not conducive to the fullest possibilities in production.
Forced labor on the government plantations was naturally apt to be slow,
careless, and indifferent. Private ownership and operation bettered this
somewhat, the private estates being able to show annual yields of from
one to two pounds per tree as compared with only a little more than
one-half pound per tree on government-controlled estates.
In the course of time, the system of private ownership gradually
expanded beyond that of the government; and before the end of the
nineteenth century, private owners were growing and exporting more
coffee than did the Javanese government. The government withdrew from
the coffee business in Java in 1905, and the last government auction was
held in June of that year. The monopoly in Sumatra was given up in 1908.
After that, however, coffee continued to be grown on government lands,
but in much less quantity than in the years immediately preceding. The
Dutch government withdrew from all coffee cultivation in 1918-19.
According to statistics, the ground under cultivation for all kinds of
coffee in Java and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies in 1919
was 142,272 acres, of which 112,138 acres were in Java. Of this area,
110,903 acres were planted with _robusta_, 15,314 acres with _arabica_,
4,940 with _liberica_, and 11,115 with other varieties.
There were more than 400 European-managed estates in 1915, covering a
planted area of about 209,000 acres. Three hundred and thirty of these
estates, representing 165,000 acres, were in Java. On that island
production in 1904 was 47,927,000 pounds; in 1905, 59,092,000 pounds; in
1906, 66,953,000 pounds; in 1907, 31,044,000 pounds; 1908, 39,349,000
pounds. The total crop in 1919 for all the Netherlands East Indies was
97,361,000 pounds, as against 140,764,800 pounds for 1918.
Intensive cultivation methods on the European-operated plantations in
Java have been practised for many years; and the Netherlands East Indies
government has long maintained experimental stations for the purpose of
improving strains and cultivation methods.
[Illustration: ROAD THROUGH A COFFEE ESTATE IN EAST JAVA]
In some parts of the island, especially in the highlands, the climate
and soil are ideal for coffee culture. The _robusta_ tree grows
satisfactorily even at altitudes of less than 1,000 feet in some
regions; but its bearing life is only about ten years, as compared with
the thirty years of the _arabica_ at altitudes of from 3,000 to 4,000
feet. The low-ground trees generally produce earlier and more
abundantly. On some of the highland plantations, pruning is not
practised to any great extent, and the trees often reach thirty or forty
feet in height. This necessitates the use of ladders in picking; but
frequently the yield per tree has been from six to seven pounds.
[Illustration: NATIVE PICKING COFFEE, SUMATRA]
Coffee is produced commercially in nearly every political district in
Java, but the bulk of the yield is obtained from East Java. The names
best known to European and American traders are those of the regencies
of Besoeki and Pasoeroean; because their coffees make up eighty-seven
percent of Java's production. Some of the other better known districts
are: Preanger, Cheribon, Kadoe, Samarang, Soerabaya, and Tegal.
The _arabica_ variety has practically been driven out of the districts
below 3,500 feet altitude by the leaf disease, and has been succeeded by
the more hardy _robusta_ and _liberica_ coffees and their hybrids.
Illustrating the importance of _robusta_ coffee, Netherlands East India
government in a statement issued August, 1919, estimated the area under
cultivation on all islands as follows: _robusta_, eighty-four percent;
_arabica_, five and one-half percent; _liberica_, four and one-half
percent. The balance, six percent, was made up of scores of other
varieties, among the most important being the _canephora_, _Ugandæ_,
_baukobensis_, _suakurensis_, _Quillou_, _stenophylla_, and
_rood-bessige_. All of these are similar to _robusta_, and are exported
as _robusta-achtigen_ (_robusta_-like). The _liberica_ group includes
the _excelsa_, _abeokuta_, _Dewevrei_, _arnoldiana_, _aruwimiensis_, and
_Dybowskii_.
[Illustration: PALATIAL BUNGALOW OF ADMINISTRATOR, DRAMAGA, IN THE
PREANGER DISTRICT, JAVA]
SUMATRA. Practically all the coffee districts in Sumatra are on the west
coast, where the plant was first propagated early in the eighteenth
century. Padang, the capital city, is the headquarters for Sumatra
coffee. With climate and soil similar to Java, the island of Sumatra has
the added advantage that its land is not "coffee _moe_", or coffee
tired, as is the case in parts of Java. Some of the world's best coffees
are still coming from Sumatra; and the island has possibilities that
could make it an important factor in production. Sumatra produced
287,179 piculs of coffee in 1920. The total production of all the
islands that year was 807,591 piculs.
[Illustration: OLD-TIME SAILING VESSEL LOADING IN PADANG ROADS]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A DUTCH COFFEE-CLEANING FACTORY, PADANG]
[Illustration: COFFEE SCENES IN SUMATRA, NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES]
[Illustration: ADMINISTRATOR'S BUNGALOW ON THE GADOENG BATOE ESTATE,
SUMATRA]
The districts of Ankola, Siboga, Ayer Bangies, Mandheling, Palembang,
Padang, and Benkoelen, on the west coast, have some of the largest
estates on the island; and their products are well known in
international trade. The east coast has recently gone in for heavy
plantings of _robusta_.
As in Java, coffee for a century or more was cultivated under the
government-monopoly scheme. The compulsory system was given up in this
island in 1908, three years after it was abandoned in Java.
OTHER EAST INDIES. Coffee is grown in several of the other islands in
the Dutch East Indian archipelago, chiefly on the Celebes, Bali, Lombok,
the Moluccas, and Timor. Most of the estates are under native control,
and the methods of cultivation are not up to the standard of the
European-owned plantations on the larger islands of Java and Sumatra.
The most important of these islands is Celebes, where the first coffee
plant was introduced from Java about 1750, but where cultivation was not
carried on to any great extent until about seventy-five years later. In
1822 the production amounted to 10,000 pounds; in 1917, the yield was
1,322,328 pounds.
SALVADOR. Coffee, which is far and away the most important crop in
Salvador, constitutes in value more than one-half the total exports. It
has been cultivated since about 1852, when plants were brought from
Havana; but the development of the industry in its early years was not
rapid. The first large plantations were established in 1876 in La Paz,
and that department has become the leading coffee-producing section of
the country.
The berry is grown in all districts that have altitudes of from 1,500 to
4,000 feet. Besides those of La Paz, the most productive plantations are
in the departments of Santa Ana, Sonsonate, San Salvador, San Vincente,
San Miguel, Santa Tecla, and Ahuachapan. In contrast with several of the
adjoining Central American republics, native Salvadoreans are the owners
of most of the coffee farms, very few having passed into the hands of
foreigners. The laborers are almost entirely native Indians. A
considerable part of the work of cultivating and preparing the berry for
the market is still done by hand; but in recent years machinery has been
set up on the large estates and for general use in the receiving
centers.
[Illustration: WELL CULTIVATED YOUNG COFFEE TREES IN BLOSSOM]
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO A FINCA IN THE HIGHLANDS]
[Illustration: COFFEE CULTURE IN GUATEMALA]
It is estimated that now about 166,000 acres are under coffee, nearly
all the land in the country suitable for that purpose. As in most other
coffee-raising countries, the trees begin bearing when they are two or
three years old, reach full maturity at the age of seven or eight years,
and continue to bear for about thirty years. Intensive cultivation and a
more extensive use of fertilizers have been urged as necessary in order
to increase the crop; but, so far, with not much effect, the importation
of fertilizer being still very small. Crop gathering begins in the
lowlands in November, and gradually proceeds into the higher regions,
month by month, until the picking in the highest altitudes is finished
in the following March.
GUATEMALA. Guatemala began intensive coffee growing about 1875. Coffee
had been known in the country in a small way from about 1850, but now
serious attention began to be given to its cultivation, and it quickly
advanced to an industrial position of importance. Within a generation it
became the great staple crop of the country.
Guatemala has an area of 48,250 square miles, about the size of the
state of Ohio. Its population is about 2,000,000. Three mountain ranges,
intersecting magnificent table lands, traverse the country from north to
south; and there is the great coffee territory. The table lands are from
2,500 to 5,000 feet above sea-level, and have a temperate climate most
agreeable to the coffee tree. On the lower heights it is necessary to
protect the young trees from the extreme heat of the sun; and the banana
is most approved for this purpose, since it raises its own crop at the
same time that it is giving shade to its companion tree. On the higher
levels the plantations need protection from the cold north winds that
blow strongly across the country, especially in December, January, and
February. The range of hills to the north is the best protection, and
generally is all sufficient. When the weather becomes too severe, heaps
of rubbish mixed with pitch are thrown up to the north of the fields of
coffee trees and set afire, the resultant dense smoke driving down
between rows of trees and saving them from the frost.
[Illustration: INDIANS PICKING COFFEE, GUATEMALA]
Named in the order of their productivity, the coffee districts are Costa
Cuca, Costa Grande, Barberena, Tumbador, Cobán, Costa de Cucho,
Chicacao, Xolhuitz, Pochuta, Malacatan, San Marcos, Chuva, Panan, Turgo,
Escuintla, San Vincente, Pacaya, Antigua, Moran, Amatitlan, Sumatan,
Palmar, Zunil, and Motagua.
Estimates of coffee acreage vary. One authority, too conservatively,
perhaps, puts the figure at 145,000. Another estimate is 260,000 acres.
Under cultivation are from 70,000,000 to 100,000,000 trees from which an
annual crop averaging about 75,000,000 pounds is raised, and the
exceptional amounts of nearly 90,000,000 and 97,000,000 pounds have been
harvested. Several plantations of size can be counted upon for an annual
production of more than 1,000,000 pounds each.
Before the World War German interests dominated the coffee industry,
handling fully eighty percent of the crop, and growing nearly half of
it.
Planting and cultivation methods in Guatemala are about the same as
those prevailing in other countries. The trees are usually in flower in
February, March, and April, and the harvesting season extends from
August to January. All work on the plantation is done by Indian laborers
under a peonage system, families working in companies: wages are small,
but sufficient, conditions of living being easy. As elsewhere in these
tropical and sub-tropical countries, scarcity of labor is severely
felt, and is a grave obstacle to the development of the industry in a
land that is regarded as particularly well adapted to it.
[Illustration: THE COFFEE PLANTER'S LIFE IN GUATEMALA IS ONE OF
PLEASANTNESS AND PEACE]
HAITI. Haiti, the magic isle of the Indies, has grown coffee almost from
the beginning of the introduction of the tree into the western
hemisphere. Its cultivation was started there about 1715, but the trees
were largely permitted to fall into a wild natural state, and little
attention was given to them or to the handling of the crop. Fertility of
soil, climate, and moisture are favorable, and the advancement of the
industry has been retarded only by the political conditions of the negro
republic and a general lack of industry and enterprise on the part of
the people.
Haiti is an island with three names. Haiti is used to describe the
island as a whole, and to denote the Republic of Haiti, which occupies
the western third of its area. The island is also known as Santo
Domingo, and San Domingo, names likewise applied to the Dominican
Republic which occupies the eastern two-thirds of the land unit.
Plantations now existing in Haiti have had, with rare exceptions, a life
of more than ten or twenty years. It is estimated that they cover about
125,000 acres, with about 400 trees to the acre.
When the French acquired the island in 1789, the annual production was
88,360,502 pounds. During the following century that amount was not
approached in any year, the nearest to it being 72,637,716 pounds in
1875. The lowest annual production was 20,280,589 pounds in 1818. The
range during the hundred years, 1789-1890, was, with the exceptions
noted, from 45,000,000 to 71,000,000 pounds.
MEXICO. Opinions differ as to the exact date when coffee was introduced
into Mexico. It is said to have been transplanted there from the West
Indies near the end of the eighteenth century. A story is current that a
Spaniard set out a few trees, on trial, in southern Mexico, in 1800, and
that his experiments started other Mexican planters along the same line.
Coffee was grown in the state of Vera Cruz early in the nineteenth
century; and the books of the Vera Cruz custom house record that 1,101
quintals of coffee were exported through that port during the years
1802, 1803, and 1805.
In the Coatepec district, which eventually became famous in the annals
of Mexican coffee growing, trees were planted about the year 1808. Local
history says that seeds were brought from Cuba by Arias, a partner of
the house of Pedro Lopez, owners of the large _hacienda_ of Orduna in
Coatepec. The seeds were given to a priest, Andres Dominguez, who sowed
them near Teocelo. When he had succeeded in starting seedlings, he gave
them away to other planters there-about. The plants thrived, and this
was the beginning of coffee cultivation in that section of the country.
[Illustration: THIRTY-YEAR-OLD COFFEE TREES, LA ESPERANZA, HUATUSCO,
MEXICO]
It was, however, nearly ten years later before the cultivation was on a
scale approaching industrial and commercial importance. About 1816 or
1818 a Spaniard, named Juan Antonio Gomez, introduced the plant into the
neighborhood of Cordoba. This city, now on the line of the Mexican and
Vera Cruz Railroad, 200 miles from Mexico City, and sixty miles from
Vera Cruz, is 2,500 feet above sea-level, and is situated in the most
productive tropical region of the country.
Having been started in Coatepec and Cordoba, the industry was centered
for a long time in the state of Vera Cruz. For many years practically
all the coffee grown commercially in Mexico was produced in that state.
Gradually the new pursuit spread to the mountains in the adjacent states
of Oaxaca and Puebla, where it was taken up by the Indians almost
entirely, and is still followed by them, but not on a large scale.
Although cultivation is now widely distributed in most of the more
southern states of the republic, the principal coffee territory is still
in Vera Cruz, where lie the districts of Cordoba, Orizaba, Huatusco, and
Coatepec. In the same region are the Jalapa district, and the mountains
of Puebla, where a great deal of coffee is grown. Farther south are the
Oaxaca districts on the mountain slopes of the Pacific coast, and still
farther south the districts of the state of Chiapas. Planting in the
Pluma district in Oaxaca was begun about fifty years ago, and it now
produces annually, in good years, nearly 1,000,000 pounds. The youngest
district in this section is Soconusco, one of the most prolific in the
republic, having been developed within the last thirty years. The region
is near the border of Guatemala, and the coffee is held by many to
possess some of the quality of the coffee of that country. The influence
of Guatemalan methods has been felt also in its cultivation and
handling, especially in increasing plantation productiveness. On the
gulf slope of Oaxaca, there are plantations that annually produce
222,000 to 550,000 pounds. Several United States companies have become
interested in coffee growing in this state, and their output in recent
years has been put upon the market in St. Louis.
Two principal varieties of coffee are recognized in Mexico. A
sub-variety of _Coffea arabica_ is mostly cultivated. This is an
evergreen, growing only from five to seven feet. It flourishes well at
different altitudes and in different climes, from the temperate plains
of Puebla to the hot, damp, lower lands of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, and
other Pacific-coast regions. The range of elevation for it is from 1,500
to 5,000 feet, and it is satisfied with a temperature as low as 55° or
as high as 80°, with plenty of natural humidity or with irrigation in
the dry season. The other variety is called the "myrtle" and is widely
grown, although not in large quantities. It is distinguished from
_arabica_ by the larger leaf of the tree and by the smaller corolla of
the flower. It is a hardier plant than the _arabica_ and will stand the
higher temperature of low altitudes, thriving at an elevation of from
500 to 3,000 feet above sea-level. Mostly it is cultivated in the
Cordoba district.
It is claimed by many that the Mexican coffee of best quality is grown
in the western regions of the table lands of Colima and Michoacan, but
only a small quantity of that is available for export. The state of
Michoacan is especially favored by climate, altitude, soil, and
surroundings to produce coffee of exceptionally high grade, and the
Uruapan is considered to be its best.
Trees flower in January and March, and in high altitudes as late as June
or July. Berries appear in July and are ripe for gathering in October or
November, the picking season lasting until February.
Trees begin to yield when two or three years old, producing from two to
four ounces. They reach full production, which is about one and a half
pounds, at the age of six or seven years, though in the districts of
Chiapas, Michoacan, Oaxaca, and Puebla, annual yields of three to five
pounds per tree have been reported.
Since the World War American buyers have shown greater interest in the
Tapachula coffee grown in Chiapas.
[Illustration: MEXICAN COFFEE PICKER, COATEPEC DISTRICT]
PORTO RICO. Coffee culture in Porto Rico dates from 1755 or even
earlier, having been introduced from the neighboring islands of
Martinique and Haiti. Count O'Reilly, writing of the island in the
eighteenth century, mentions that the coffee exports for five years
previous to 1765 amounted in value to $2,078. Old records show that in
1770 there was a crop of 700,000 pounds and that seems to be the first
evidence that the new industry was growing to any noticeable
proportions. For a hundred years, at least, only slow progress was made.
In 1768 the king, of Spain issued a royal decree exempting coffee
growers on the island from the payment of taxes or charges for a period
of five years; but even that measure was not materially successful in
stimulating interest and in developing cultivation.
Porto Rico is a good coffee-growing country; soil, climate, and
temperature are well adapted to the berry. The coffee belt extends
through the western half of the island, beginning in the hills along the
south coast around Ponce, and extending north through the center of the
island almost to Arecibo, near the west end of the north coast. But some
coffee is grown in the other parts of the island, in sixty-four of the
sixty-eight municipalities. Mountain sections are considered to be
superior.
The largest plantations are in the region which includes the
municipalities of Utuado, Adjuntas, Lares, Las Marias, Yauco, Maricao,
San Sebastian, Mayaguez, Ciales, and Ponce. With the exception of Ponce
and Mayaguez, all these districts are back from the coast; but insular
roads of recent construction make them now easily accessible, and there
is no point on the island more than twenty miles distant from the sea.
[Illustration: RECEIVING AND MEASURING THE RIPE BERRIES FROM THE
PICKERS, MEXICO]
From the Sierra Luquillo range, which rises to a height of 1,500 feet,
and from Yauco, Utuado, and Lares, come excellent coffees; and, on the
whole, these are considered to be the best coffee regions of the island.
A fine grade of coffee is also grown in the Ciales district. Figures
compiled by the Treasury Department of the insular government for the
purpose of taxation showed that for the tax year 1915-16 there were
167,137 acres of land planted to coffee and valued at $10,341,592, an
average of $61.87 per acre. In 1910, there were 151,000 acres planted in
coffee. In 1916 there were more than 5,000 separate coffee plantations.
Originally the coffee trees of Porto Rico were all of the _arabica_
variety. In recent years numerous others have been introduced, until in
1917 there were more than 2,500 trees of new descriptions on the island.
The virgin land in the interior of the island is admirably adapted to
the coffee tree, and less labor is required to prepare it for plantation
purposes than in many other coffee-growing countries. It is cleared in
the usual manner, and the trees are planted about eight feet apart, an
average of 680 trees to the acre. The seeds are planted in February; and
if the seedlings are transplanted, that is done when they are a year or
a year and a half old. The guama, a big strong tree of dense foliage, is
used for a wind-break on the ridges; and the guava, for shade in the
plantation. Plow cultivation is generally impossible on account of the
lay of the land, and only hoeing and spade work are done. Pruning is
carefully attended to as the trees become full grown.
Flowering is generally in February and March, or even later. Heavy rains
in April make a poor crop. Harvesting begins in September and extends
into January, during which time ten pickings are made.
[Illustration: SINGLE PORTO RICO COFFEE TREE IN FULL BEARING, PROPPED
UP WITH STAKES]
The average yield per acre is between 200 and 300 pounds; but expert
authority--Prof. O.F. Cook--in a statement made to the Committee on
Insular Affairs of the United States House of Representatives, in 1900,
held that under better cultural methods the yield could be increased to
800 or 900 pounds per acre. One estimator has calculated that an average
plantation of 100 acres had cost its owner at the end of six or seven
years, the bearing age, about $13,100 with yields of 75 pounds per acre
in the third and in the fourth years, 400 pounds per acre in the fifth
year, and 500 pounds in the sixth year, the income from which would
practically have met the cost to that time. It is held by the same
authority that an intensively cultivated, well-situated farm of selected
trees, 880 to the acre, should yield some 880 pounds of cleaned coffee
to the acre.
COSTA RICA. Costa Rica ranks next to Guatemala and Salvador among the
Central American countries as a producer of coffee, showing an average
annual yield in recent years of 35,000,000 pounds as compared with
Guatemala's 80,000,000 and Salvador's 75,000,000 pounds. Nicaragua has
an average annual production of 30,000,000 pounds.
Coffee was introduced into Costa Rica in the latter part of the
eighteenth century; one authority saying that the plants were brought
from Cuba in 1779 by a Spanish voyager, Navarro, and another saying that
the first trees were planted several years later by Padre Carazo, a
Spanish missionary coming from Jamaica. For more than a century six big
coffee trees standing in a courtyard in the city of Cartago were pointed
out to visitors as the very trees that Carazo had planted.
The coffee-producing districts are principally on the Pacific slope and
in the central plateaus of the interior. Plantations are located in the
provinces of Cartago, Tres Rios, San José, Heredia, and Alajuela. In the
province of Cartago are several extensive new estates on the slope to
the Atlantic coast. The San José and the Cartago districts are
considered by many to be the best naturally for the coffee tree. The
soil is an exceedingly rich black loam made up of continuous layers of
volcanic ashes and dust from three to fifteen feet deep. Preferable
altitudes for plantations range from 3,000 to 4,500 feet, although a
height of 5,000 feet is not out of use and there are some estates that
do fairly well on levels as low as 1,500 feet.
[Illustration: THE MODERN IDEA IN COFFEE CULTIVATION, COSTA RICA]
INDIA. Tradition has it that a Moslem pilgrim in the seventeenth century
brought from Mecca to India the first coffee seeds known in that
country. They were planted near a temple on a hill in Mysore called Baba
Budan, after the pilgrim; and from there the cultivation of coffee
gradually spread to neighboring districts. Aside from this legend,
nothing further is heard about coffee in India until the early part of
the nineteenth century, when its existence there was confirmed by the
granting of a charter to Fort Gloster, near Calcutta, authorizing that
place to become a coffee plantation.
[Illustration: PICKING COSTA RICA COFFEE]
[Illustration: COFFEE ESTATE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF COSTA RICA]
Planting was begun on the flat land of the plains, but the trees did not
thrive. Then the cultivation was extended to the hills in southern
India, especially in Mysore, where better success was achieved. The
first systematic plantation was established in 1840. For the most part,
the production has always been confined to southern India in the
elevated region near the southwestern coast. The coffee district
comprises the landward slopes of the Western Ghats, from Kanara to
Travancore.
About one-half of the coffee-producing area is in Mysore; and other
plantations are in Kurg (Coorg), the Madras districts of Malabar, and in
the Nilgiri hills, those regions having 86 percent of the whole area
under cultivation. Some coffee is grown also in other districts in
Madras, principally in Madura, Salem, and Coimbator, in Cochin, in
Travancore, and, on a restricted scale, in Burma, Assam, and Bombay. The
area returned as under coffee in 1885 was 237,448 acres; in 1896, as
303,944 acres. Since then there has been a progressive decrease on
account of damage from leaf diseases difficult to combat, and by
competition with Brazilian coffee.
New land that had just been planted with coffee in plantations reported
for 1919-20 amounted to 7,012 acres; while the area abandoned was 8,725
acres, representing a net decrease in cultivated area of 1,713 acres.
[Illustration: BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF A COFFEE ESTATE IN MYSORE, INDIA]
Of the total area devoted to coffee cultivation (126,919 acres), 49
percent was in Mysore, which yielded 35 percent of the total production;
while Madras, with 23 percent of the total area, yielded 38 percent of
the production. The total production for the year 1920-21 is reported as
26,902,471 pounds.
Yield varies throughout the country according to the methods of
cultivation and the condition of the season. On the best estates in a
good season, the yield per acre may be as high as 1,100 or 1,200 pounds,
and on poor estates it may not be over 200 or 300 pounds. The _arabica_
variety is chiefly cultivated. The _robusta_ and _Maragogipe_ have been
tried, but without much success.
A representative plantation is the Santaverre in Mysore, comprising 400
acres, at an elevation of from 4,000 to 4,500 feet, where the coffee
trees, cultivated under shade, produce from 100 to 250 tons of coffee a
year. Other prominent estates in Mysore are Cannon's Baloor and
Mylemoney, the Hoskahn, and the Sumpigay Khan.
NICARAGUA. Coffee trees will grow well anywhere in Nicaragua, but the
best locations have altitudes of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea
level. At such elevations the yield varies from one pound to five pounds
per tree annually; but above or below those, the average production
diminishes to from one pound to one-half pound a tree.
Lands most suitable for the berry are on the Sierra de Managua, in
Diriambe, San Marcos, and Jinotega, and about the base of the volcano
Monbacho near Granada. Good land is also found on the island Omotepe in
Lake Nicaragua, and around Boaco in the department of Chontales, where
cultivation was begun in 1893.
There are also plantations in the vicinity of Esteli and Lomati in the
department of Neuva Segovia. The most extensive operations are in the
departments of Managua, Carazo, Matagalpa, Chontales, and Jinotega, and
from those regions the annual crop has attained to such quantity that it
has become the chief agricultural product of the republic. Poor and
costly means of transportation on the Atlantic slope have operated to
retard the development of the industry there, even though conditions of
climate are not unfavorable.
[Illustration: COFFEE GROWING UNDER SHADE, UBBAN ESTATE, INDIA]
ABYSSINIA. In the absence of any conclusive evidence to the contrary,
the claim that coffee was first made known to modern man by the trees on
the mountains of the northeastern part of the continent of Africa may be
accepted without reserve. Undoubtedly the plant grew wild all through
tropical Africa; but its value as an addition to man's dietary was
brought forth in Abyssinia.
Abyssinia, while it may have given coffee to the world, no longer
figures as a prime factor in supplying the world, and now exports only a
limited quantity. There are produced in the country two coffees known to
the trade as Harari and Abyssinian, the former being by far the more
important. The Harari is the fruit of cultivated _arabica_ trees grown
in the province of Harar, and mostly in the neighborhood of the city of
Harar, capital of the province. The Abyssianian is the fruit of wild
_arabica_ trees that grow mainly in the provinces of Sidamo, Kaffa, and
Guma.
The coffee of Harar is known to the trade as Mocha longberry or
Abyssinian longberry. Most of the plantations upon which it is raised
are owned by the native Hararis, Galla, and Abyssinians, although there
are a few Greek, German, and French planters. The trees are planted in
rows about twelve or fifteen feet apart, and comparatively little
attention is given to cultivation. Crops average two a year, and
sometimes even five in two years. The big yield is in December, January,
and February. The average crop is about seventy pounds, and is mostly
from small plots of from fifty to one hundred trees, there being no very
large plantations. All the coffee is brought into the city of Harar,
whence it is sent on mule-back to Dire-Daoua on the Franco-Ethiopian
Railway, and from there by rail to Jibuti. Some of it is exported
directly from Jibuti, and the rest is forwarded to Aden, in Arabia, for
re-exporting.
Abyssinian, or wild, coffee is also known as Kaffa coffee, from one of
the districts where it grows most abundantly in a state of nature. This
coffee has a smaller bean and is less rich in aroma and flavor than the
Harari; but the trees grow in such profusion that the possible supply,
at the minimum of labor in gathering, is practically unlimited. It is
said that in southwestern Abyssinia there are immense forests of it
that have never been encroached upon except at the outskirts, where the
natives lazily pick up the beans that have fallen to the ground. It is
shelled where it is found, in the most primitive fashion, and goes out
in a dirty, mixed condition.
Formerly, much of this Kaffa coffee was sent to market through Boromeda,
Harar, and Dire-Daoua. An average annual crop was about 6,000 bags, or
800,000 pounds, of which something more than one-half usually went
through Harar. A customs and trading station has lately been established
at Gambela, on the Sobat River: and with the development of this outlet,
there has been a substantial and increasing exploitation of the
wild-coffee plants since 1913. Large areas of land have been cleared,
with a view to cultivation, and attention is being given to improved
methods of harvesting and of preparing the coffee for the market. At one
time a fair amount of coffee from this region went to Adis Abeba on the
backs of pack mules, a journey of thirty-five or forty days, and then
was carried to Jibuti, nearly 500 miles, part of the way by rail. Now
practically all of it goes to Gambela, thence by steamers to Khartoum,
and by rail to the shipping-point at Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
OTHER AFRICAN COUNTRIES. Practically every part of Africa seems to be
suitable for coffee cultivation, even United South Africa, in the
southern part of the continent, producing 140,212 pounds in 1918. To
name all the countries in which it is grown would be to list nearly all
the political divisions of Africa. Among the largest producers are the
British East African Protectorate, 18,735,572 pounds in 1918; French
Somaliland, 11,222,736 pounds in 1917; Angola, 10,655,934 pounds in
1913; Uganda, 9,999,845 pounds in 1918; former German East Africa,
2,334,450 pounds in 1913; Cape Verde Islands, 1,442,910 pounds in 1916;
Madagascar, 707,676 pounds in 1918; Liberia, 761,300 pounds in 1917;
Eritrea, 728,840 pounds in 1918; St. Thomas and Prince's Islands,
484,350 pounds in 1916; and the Belgian Congo, 375,000 pounds in 1917.
[Illustration: A GALLA COFFEE GROWER, AND HIS HELPER, IN HIS GROVE OF
YOUNG TREES NEAR HARAR]
ANGOLA. Coffee is Angola's second product, and there are large areas of
wild-coffee trees. With a production of nearly 11,000,000 pounds, Angola
ranks about third in Africa as a coffee-growing country. The coffee is
gathered and sold by the natives, and there are also several European
companies engaged in the coffee business. The chief coffee belt extends
from the Quanza River northward to the Kongo at an altitude of 1,500 to
2,500 feet. In the Cazengo valley the wild trees are so thick that
thinning out is the only operation necessary to the plantation-owner.
When the trees become too tall, they are simply cut off about two feet
above ground; and new shoots appear from the trunks the following
season.
The largest coffee plantation, owned by the Companhia Agricola de
Cazengo, produced in 1913, a record year, nearly 1,500 tons.
LIBERIA. Coffee is native to Liberia, growing wild in the hinterland of
the negro republic, and in the natural state the trees often attain a
height of from thirty to forty feet. Cultivated Liberian coffee, _Coffea
liberica_, has become a staple of the civilized inhabitants of the
country, and is grown successfully in hot, moist lowlands or on hills
that are not much elevated. On account of the size of the trees, only
about four hundred can be planted to the acre. In recent years the
native Africans have been planting thousands of trees in the district of
Grand Cape Mount. Coffee is grown in all parts of the republic, but
chiefly in Grand Cape Mount and Montserrado.
GENERAL OUTLOOK IN AFRICA. In the African countries under control of
European governments much recent progress has been made in promoting
coffee growing and in improving methods of cultivation.
British interests were reported in 1919 as having started a movement
toward reviving interest in the coffee growing industry in the British
possessions in Africa. The report stated that Uganda, in the East
African Protectorate, had 21,000 acres under coffee cultivation, with
16,000 acres more in other parts of the Protectorate, and 1,300 acres in
Nyasaland; also that there is no hope of an immediate revival of the
industry in Natal, where it was killed twenty years ago by various
pests; "but it should certainly be established in the warmer parts of
Rhodesia; and in the northern part of the Transvaal an effort is being
made to bring this form of enterprise into practical existence."
Coffee growing possibilities in British East Africa (Kenya Colony) are
alluring, according to reports from planters in that region. Late in
1920, Major C.J. Ross, a British government officer there, said that
"British East Africa is going to be one of the leading coffee countries
of the world." Coffee grows wild in many parts of the Protectorate, but
the natives are too lazy to pick even the wild berries.
On the more advanced plantations in all parts of Africa the approved
cultivation methods of other leading countries are carefully followed;
especial care being given to weeding and pruning, because of the rank
growth of the tropics. On the whole, however, little attention is given
to intensive methods.
ARABIA. Whether the coffee tree was first discovered indigenous in the
mountains of Abyssinia, or in the Yemen district of Arabia, will
probably always be a matter of contention. Many writers of Europe and
Asia in the fifteenth century, when coffee was first brought to the
attention of the people of Europe, agree on Arabia; but there is good
reason to believe the plant was brought to Arabia from Abyssinia in the
sixth century.
Once all the coffee of Arabia went to the outside world through the port
of Mocha on the eastern coast of the Red Sea. Mocha, which never raised
any coffee, is no longer of commercial importance; but its name has been
permanently attached to the coffee of this country.
_Mocha_ (_Moka_, or _Morkha_) coffee (i.e. _Coffea arabica_) is raised
principally in the vilayet of Yemen, a district of southeastern Arabia.
Yemen extends from the north, southerly along the line of the Red Sea,
nearly to the Gulf of Aden. With the exception of a narrow strip of land
along the shores of the Red Sea, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the
Gulf of Aden, it is a rugged, mountainous region, in which innumerable
small valleys at high elevations are irrigated by waters from the
melting snows of the mountains.
Coffee can be successfully grown in any part of Yemen, but its
cultivation is confined to a few widely scattered districts, and the
acreage is not large. The principal coffee regions are in the mountains
between Taiz and Ibb, and between Ibb and Yerim, and Yerim and Sanaa, on
the caravan route from Taiz to Sanaa; between Zabeed and Ibb, on the
route from Taiz to Zabeed; between Hajelah and Menakha, on the route
from Hodeida to Sanaa, and in the wild mountain ranges both to the north
and south of that route; between Beit-el-Fakih and Obal; and between
Manakha and Batham to the north of Bajil. The plant does best at
elevations ranging from 3,500 to 6,500 feet.
[Illustration: WILD KAFFA COFFEE TREES NEAR ADIS ABEBA]
In the Yemen district, coffee is generally grown in small gardens. Large
plantations, as they exist in other coffee-growing countries, are not
seen in Arabia. Many of these small farms may be parts of a large estate
belonging to some rich tribal chief. The native Arabs do not use coffee
in the way it is used elsewhere in the world. They drink _kisher_, a
beverage brewed from the husks of the berry and not from the bean.
Consequently, the entire crop goes into export. But bad conditions of
trade routes, political disturbances, and small regional wars, absence
of good cultivation methods, and heavy transit taxes imposed by the
government, have combined to restrict the production of Yemen coffee.
Land for the coffee gardens is selected on hill-slopes, and is terraced
with soil and small walls of stone until it reaches up like an
amphitheater--often to a considerable height. The soil is well
fertilized. For sowing, the seeds are thoroughly dried in ashes, and
after being placed in the ground, are carefully watched, watered, and
shaded. In about a year the shrub has grown to a height of twelve or
more inches. Seedlings in that condition are set out in the gardens in
rows, about ten to thirteen feet apart. The young trees receive moisture
from neighboring wells or from irrigation ditches, and are shaded by
bananas.
At maturity the trees reach a height of ten or fifteen feet. Since they
never lose all their leaves at one time, they appear always green, and
bear at the same time flowers and fruits, some of which are still green
while others are ripe or approaching maturity. Thus, in some districts,
the trees are considered to have two or even three crops a year. All the
trees begin to bear about the end of the third year.
[Illustration: A RARE PICTURE SHOWING MOCHA COFFEE GROWING ON TERRACES
IN YEMEN, ARABIA]
CUBA. Coffee can be grown in practically every island of the West
Indies, but owing to the state of civilization in many of the lesser
islands, little is produced for international trade, excepting in
Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, and
Tobago. In past years a considerable quantity of good-quality coffee was
produced in Cuba, the annual export in the decade of 1840 averaging
50,000,000 pounds. Severe hurricanes, adverse legislation, the rise of
coffee-growing in Brazil, the increase in cultivation of sugar and other
more profitable crops, practically eliminated Cuba from the
international coffee-export trade.
MARTINIQUE. This is a name well known to coffee men, the world over, as
the pioneer coffee-growing country of the western hemisphere. Gabriel de
Clieu introduced the coffee plant to the island in 1723 by bringing it
through many hardships from France. For a time, coffee flourished there,
but now practically none is grown. Such coffee as bears the name
Martinique in modern trade centers is produced in Guadeloupe, and is
only shipped through Martinique.
JAMAICA. Coffee was introduced into Jamaica in 1730; and so highly was
it regarded as a desirable addition to the agricultural resources of the
island, that the British Parliament in 1732 passed a special act
providing for the encouraging and fostering of its cultivation. Later,
it became one of the great staples of the country. Disastrous floods in
1815, and the gradual exhaustion of the best lands since then, have
brought about a decline of the industry, which is now confined to a few
estates in the Blue Mountains and to scattered "settler" or peasant
cultivation in the same districts but at lower altitudes.
The tree was formerly grown at all altitudes, from sea-level to 5,000
feet; but the best height for it is about 4,500 feet. Four parishes lead
in coffee producing: Manchester, with an area of 5,045 acres; St.
Thomas, with 2,315 acres; Clarendon, with 2,172 acres; St. Andrew, with
1,584 acres. Nine other parishes that raise coffee have less than 1,000
acres each under cultivation. There were 24,865 acres devoted to coffee
in 1900. In addition, it was estimated that there were 80,000 acres
suitable for the cultivation, nearly all being owned by the government.
[Illustration: PICKING BLUE MOUNTAIN BERRIES, JAMAICA]
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Coffee was once the leading staple in the Dominican
Republic as in the adjoining Haitian Republic; but in recent years
cacao, sugar, and tobacco have become the predominating crops. Said to
have the world's richest and most productive soil, one-half of the
republic's area is particularly suited to the cultivation of a good
grade of coffee of the highland type. But political and industrial
conditions have made for neglect of its cultivation by efficient
methods. Lack of suitable roads has also militated against the
development of the coffee industry.
In spite of many drawbacks, it is to be noted that, from the beginning
of the twentieth century, the coffee-growing area has been gradually
expanded until exports increased from less than 1,000,000 pounds to
5,029,316 pounds in 1918, although in the next two years there was a
recession in the total exports to 1,358,825 pounds in 1920.
The principal plantations are in the vicinity of the town of Moca and in
the districts of Santiago, Bani, and Barahona. Generally speaking, the
methods of cultivation in the Dominican Republic are somewhat crude as
compared with the practise in the larger countries of production in
Central America and South America.
GUADELOUPE. Guadeloupe has an area of 619 square miles, and about
one-third of this area is under cultivation. About 15,000 acres are in
coffee, giving employment to upward of 10,000 persons. The average yield
of a plantation of mature trees is about 535 pounds to the acre.
In the early years of the industry in Guadeloupe, production and export
were considerable. From old records it appears that in 1784 the exports
amounted to 7,500,000 pounds. During the closing years of the eighteenth
century the annual exports were from 6,500,000 to 8,500,000 pounds, and
in the beginning of the next century they registered about 6,000,000
pounds. Toward the middle of the nineteenth century the growing of sugar
cane overtopped that of coffee in profit, and many planters abandoned
coffee. After 1884, with the decadence of the sugar industry, coffee was
again favored, the government giving substantial encouragement by paying
bounties ranging from $15 to $19 per acre for all new coffee
plantations.
In recent years, considerable _liberica_ and _robusta_ have been planted
in place of the exhausted _arabica_.
[Illustration: COFFEE PICKERS RETURNING FROM THE FIELDS, GUADELOUPE]
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago are small
factors in international coffee trading. Coffee can be grown almost any
place on the islands; but its cultivation is confined principally to the
districts of Maracas, Aripo, and North Oropouche. Both the _arabica_ and
the _liberica_ varieties are grown.
HONDURAS. Soil, surface, and climate in Honduras, as far as they relate
to the cultivation of coffee, are similar to those of the adjoining
regions of Central America. The tree grows in the uplands of the
interior, thriving best at an altitude of from 1,500 to 4,000 feet.
Scarcity of labor and insufficient means of transportation have been the
chief obstacles in the way of the large development of the industry.
The departments of Santa Barbara, Copan, Cortez, La Paz, Choluteca, and
El Paraiso have the principal plantations. The ports of shipment are
Truxillo and Puerto Cortés. Annual production in recent years has been
about 5,000,000 pounds. In 1889 the United States imported 3,322,502
pounds, but in 1915 its importations fell away to 665,912 pounds.
BRITISH HONDURAS. British Honduras has never undertaken to raise coffee
on a commercial scale despite the fact that conditions are not
unfavorable to its cultivation. It has failed to produce enough even for
domestic consumption, importing most of what it has needed. Annual
production, as recorded in recent years, has been upward of 10,000
pounds.
[Illustration: THREE-YEAR-OLD COFFEE TREES IN BLOSSOM, PANAMA]
PANAMA. Panama presents a very favorable field for the growing of
coffee. The best district is situated in the uplands of the district of
Bugaba, where vast areas of the best lands for coffee-growing exist, and
where climatic and other conditions are most favorable to its growth.
No shade is required in this country; and the only cultivation consists
of three or four cleanings a year to keep down the weeds, as no plowing,
etc., are necessary. Coffee matures from October to January. Water power
being abundant, it is used for running all machinery.
The annual output of the province of Chiriqui, which produces the bulk
of the coffee, is approximately 4,000 sacks of 100 pounds each; all of
which is produced in the Boquete district at present, as the coffee
planted in the Bugaba section is still young and unproductive. The local
supply does not meet the domestic demand; and instead of exporting, a
great deal is imported from adjoining countries, although, there is a
protective tariff of six dollars per hundred pounds.
THE GUIANAS. Coffee has had a precarious existence in the Guianas.
Plants are said to have been brought by Dutch voyagers from Amsterdam in
1718 or 1720. They flourished in the new habitat to which they were
introduced, and in 1725 were carried from Dutch Guiana into the district
of Berbice in British Guiana and into French Guiana. There the berry was
a considerable success for a time; Berbice coffee especially acquiring a
good reputation; and when Demerara was settled, coffee became a staple
of that region. Shortage of native labor, and the difficulty of
procuring cheap and capable workers from outside the country, ultimately
compelled the practical abandonment of the crop in all three sections,
Dutch, French, and British. In British Guiana it is now grown mainly for
domestic consumption, and the same is true of French Guiana, which also
imports.
From the time of its introduction, about 1718, until about 1880, the
only coffee grown in Surinam, or Dutch Guiana, was the _Coffea arabica_.
It was not a bountiful producer, and with labor scarce and unreliable,
its cultivation was expensive. Therefore experiment was made with the
_liberica_ plant. This proved to be very satisfactory, growing
luxuriantly, producing abundantly, and requiring minimum labor in care.
In 1918 some 16,000,000 pounds were produced.
ECUADOR. Though not of great commercial importance, coffee in Ecuador
grows on both the mainland and on the adjacent islands. The area planted
to coffee is estimated at 32,000 acres having an aggregate of about
8,000,000 trees. The trees blossom in December, and the picking season
is through April, May and June. Coffee ranks third in value among the
exports of the country.
PERU. Although possessed of natural coffee land and climate, little has
been done to develop the industry in Peru. A finely flavored coffee
grows at an altitude of 7,000 feet, while that grown in the lowlands
along the Pacific coast is not so desirable. Such small quantities as
are grown are cultivated in the mountain districts of Choquisongo,
Cajamarca, Perene, Paucartambo, Chaucghamayo, and Huanace. The
Pacific-coast district of Paces-mayo also grows a not unimportant crop.
BOLIVIA. Comparatively little attention is given to coffee cultivation
in Bolivia. Agricultural methods are crude, and are limited to cutting
down weeds and undergrowth twice a year. The coffee is planted in small
patches, or as hedges along the roads or around the fields of other
crops. The first crop is picked at the end of one and a half or two
years. The trees bear for fifteen to twenty years. The average yield is
from three to eight pounds per tree. The best grades of coffee are grown
at 2,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level.
Coffee is cultivated in the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa
Cruz, El Beni, and Chuquisca. In the department of Santa Cruz there are
plantations in the provinces of Sara, Velasco, Chiquitos and Cordillera.
In the Yungas and the Apolobamba districts of La Paz, its cultivation
reaches the greatest importance, but even there is not of large
proportions.
CHILE, PARAGUAY, AND ARGENTINA. Coffee is of minor, almost
insignificant, importance in the agriculture of Chile, Paraguay, and
Argentina. In Uruguay the climate is altogether unsuitable for it.
Argentina and Paraguay each have small growing districts. In the first
named, only the provinces of Salta and Jujuy have, at the latest
reports, a little more than 3,000 acres under cultivation. In Paraguay
some householders have grown coffee in their yards solely for their own
use. In the Paraguayan district of Altos, north of Asuncion, a small
group of plantations was started before the outbreak of the World War,
and produced about 300,000 pounds of coffee in a year.
CEYLON. Coffee planting in Ceylon was an important industry for a
century, until the so-called Ceylon leaf disease attacked the
plantations in 1869, and a few years later had practically destroyed all
the trees of the country. Although coffee raising has continued since
then, there has been, especially since the beginning of the twentieth
century, a steady decline in acreage. There were 4,875 acres under
cultivation in 1903, 2,433 acres in 1907, 1,389 in 1912, and 941.5 in
1919. Only 2,200 pounds were produced in 1917. However, the climate and
soil of Ceylon seem adapted to coffee culture, and the experimental
stations at Peradeniya and Anuradhapura have been experimenting in
recent years with _robusta_, _canephora_, _Ugandæ_, and a _robusta_
hybrid for the purpose of reviving the industry in the country.
Ceylon is one of the oldest coffee-growing countries, the Arabs having
experimented with it there, according to legend, long before the
Portuguese seized the island in 1505. The Dutch, who gained control in
1658, continued the cultivation, and in 1690 introduced more systematic
methods. They sent a few pounds in 1721 to Amsterdam, where the coffee
brought a higher price than Java or Mocha. However, it was not until
after the British occupied the island in 1796, that coffee growing was
carried on extensively. The first British-owned upland plantation was
started in 1825 by Sir Edward Barnes; and for more than fifty years
thereafter coffee was one of the island's leading products. An orgy of
speculation in coffee growing in Ceylon, in which £5,000,000 sterling
are said to have been invested, culminated in 1845 in the bursting of
the coffee bubble, and hundreds were ruined. The peak of the export
trade was reached in 1873, when 111,495,216 pounds of coffee were sent
out of the country. Even then, the plantations were suffering severely
from the leaf disease, which had appeared in 1869; and by 1887, the
coffee tree had practically disappeared from Ceylon. Ceylon's day in
coffee was a cycle of fifty-odd years.
[Illustration: ROBUSTA COFFEE GROWING ON THE SUZANNAH ESTATE,
COCHIN-CHINA]
FRENCH INDO-CHINA. Coffee culture in French Indo-China is a
comparatively small factor in international trade, although production
is on the increase, particularly from those plantations planted to
_robusta_, _liberica_, and _excelsa_ varieties. The average annual
export for the five-year period ended with 1918 was 516,978 pounds,
nearly all of it going to France.
The first experiments with coffee growing were begun in 1887, near Hanoi
in Tonkin. The seeds were of the _arabica_ variety, brought from
Réunion, and the production from the first years was distributed
throughout the country to foster the industry. Eventually _arabica_ was
found unsuitable to the soil and climate, and experiments were begun
with _robusta_ and other hardier types.
A survey of the industry of the country in 1916 showed that the plant
was being successfully grown in the provinces of Tonkin, Anam, and
Cochin-China, and that altogether there were about 1,000,000 trees in
bearing. The plantations are mostly in the foot-hills of the mountain
ranges or on the slopes, although a few are located near the coast line
at 1,000 feet, or even less, above sea-level.
The larger and more successful plantations follow advanced methods of
planting and cultivating, while the government maintains experimental
stations for the purpose of fostering the industry. It is believed that
French Indo-China in coming years will assume an important position in
the coffee trade of the world, particularly as a source of supply for
France.
FEDERATED MALAY STATES, INCLUDING STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. Rubber has been
the chief cause of the decline of coffee industry in the Federated Malay
States. Since the closing years of the nineteenth century coffee has
been steadily on the downward path in acreage and production, with the
possible exception of parts of Straits Settlements, which in 1918
exported, mostly to England, some 3,500,000 pounds of good grade coffee.
The other sections of the federation shipped less than 1,000,000 pounds.
In the early days, planters of the Malay Peninsula knew little about
proper methods of cultivating, and depended mostly upon what they
learned of the practises in Ceylon, which, unfortunately for them, were
not at all suited to the Malay country. They secured their best crops
from lowlands where peaty soil prevailed, and eventually all the coffee
grown on the peninsula came from such regions.
_Liberica_ is mostly favored, and is grown with some success as an
inter-crop with cocoanuts and rubber. The _robusta_ variety has also
been introduced, but does not seem to do as well as the _liberica_.
Between 2,300 and 2,600 acres, according to recent returns, have been
under coffee as a catch-crop with cocoanuts, out of a total of 40,000
acres in cocoanut estates. One planter has been reported as making quite
a success with this method of inter-cropping for coffee, but it is not
generally approved.
There has been a general decline in acreage, product, and exports since
the closing years of the nineteenth century, until now the industry is
regarded as practically at a stand-still and likely so to remain as long
as rubber shall continue to hold the commercially high position to which
it has attained. Unsatisfactory prices realized for the crop, poor
growth of the trees in some localities, and the gradual weakening of the
trees under rubber as they mature, are offered as the principal
explanations of this decrease in acreage. Nearly all the Malay crop in
recent years has been grown in Selangor, though Negri Sembilan, Pahang,
and Perak continue as factors in the trade.
[Illustration: COFFEE TREES OF THE BOURBON VARIETY, FRENCH INDO-CHINA]
AUSTRALIA. Although Australia is a prospective coffee-growing country of
large natural possibilities, the _Australian Year Book_ for 1921 states
that Queensland is the one state in which experiments have been tried,
and that in 1919-20 there were only twenty-four acres under cultivation.
Queensland soils are of volcanic origin, exceptionally rich, and
support trees that are vigorous and prolific with a bean of fine
quality. The _arabica_ is chiefly cultivated, and the trees can be
successfully grown on the plains at sea-level as well as up to a height
of 1,500 or 2,000 feet. The trees mature earlier than in some other
countries. Planted in January, they frequently blossom in December of
the next year, or a month later, and yield a small crop in July or
August; that is, in about two years and a half from the time of
planting. The bean closely resembles the choice Blue Mountain coffee of
Jamaica. For coffee cultivation the labor cost is almost prohibitive.
[Illustration: PICKING COFFEE ON A NORTH QUEENSLAND PLANTATION]
As much as fifteen hundred-weight of beans per acre have been gathered
from trees in North Queensland; and for years the average was ten
hundred-weight per acre. After thirty years of cultivation, no signs of
disease have appeared. At late as 1920, the government was proposing to
make advances of fourteen cents a pound upon coffee in the parchment to
encourage the development of the industry to a point where it would be
possible for local coffee growers to capture at least the bulk of the
commonwealth's import coffee trade of 2,605,240 pounds.
Coffee grows well in most all the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and in
some of them, as in the Philippines and Hawaii, the industry in past
years, reached considerable importance.
HAWAII. Coffee has been grown in Hawaii since 1825, from plants brought
from Brazil. It has also been said that seed was brought by Vancouver,
the British navigator, on his Pacific exploration voyage, 1791-94. Not,
however, until 1845 was an official record made of the crop, which was
then 248 pounds. The first plantations, started on the low levels, near
the sea, did not do well; and it was not until the trees were planted at
elevations of from 1,000 to 3,000 feet above sea-level that better
returns were obtained.
Coffee is grown on all the islands of the group, but nowhere to any
great extent except on Hawaii, which produces ninety-five percent of the
entire crop. Next in importance, though far behind, is the island of
Oahu. On Hawaii there are four principal coffee districts, Kona,
Hamakua, Puna, and Olaa. About four-fifths of the total output of the
islands is produced in Kona. At one time there were considerable coffee
areas in Maui and Kauai, but sugar cane eventually there took the place
of coffee.
[Illustration: COFFEE IN BLOSSOM, CAPTAIN COOK COFFEE COMPANY ESTATE,
KEALAKEKUA, KONA, HAWAII]
The Kona coffee district extends for many miles along the western slope
of the island of Hawaii and around famous Kealakekua Bay. The soil is
volcanic, and even rocky; but coffee trees flourish surprisingly well
among the rocks, and are said to bear a bean of superior quality.
Coffee trees in Kona are planted principally in the open, though
sometimes they are shaded by the native _kukui_ trees. They are grown
from seed in nurseries; and the seedlings, when one year old, are
transplanted in regular lines nine feet apart. In two years a small crop
is gathered, yielding from five to twelve bags of cleaned coffee per
acre. At three years of age the trees produce from eight to twenty bags
of cleaned coffee per acre, and from that time they are fully matured.
The ripening season is between September and January, and there are two
principal pickings. Many of the trees are classed as wild; that is, they
are not topped, and are cultivated in an irregular manner and are poorly
cared for; but they yield 700 or 800 pounds per acre. The fruit ripens
very uniformly, and is picked easily and at slight expense.
It is calculated that in the Hawaiian group more than 250,000 acres of
good coffee land are available and about 200,000 acres more of fair
quality. Comparatively little of this possible acreage has been put to
use. According to the census of 1889, there were then 6,451 acres
devoted to coffee, having, young and old, 3,225,743 bearing trees. The
yield, in that census year, was 2,297,000 pounds, of which 2,112,650
pounds were credited to Hawaii, the small remainder coming from Maui,
Oahu, Kauai, and Molokai.
A blight in 1855-56 set back the industry, many plantations being ruined
and then given over to sugar cane. After the blight had disappeared, the
plantations were re-established, and prosperity continued for years.
Following the American occupation of the islands in 1898, came another
period of depression. With the loss of the protective tariff that had
existed, prices fell to an unremunerativte figure; and the more
profitable sugar cane was taken up again. After 1912, the increased
demand for coffee, with higher prices, led again to hopes for the future
of the industry. Planting was encouraged; and it has been demonstrated
that from lands well selected and intelligently cultivated it is
possible to have a yield of from 1,200 to 2,100 pounds per acre.
Improvements have also been made in pulping and milling facilities. Many
of the plantations are cultivated by Japanese labor.
[Illustration: COFFEE GROWING UNDER SHADE, HAMAKUA, H.I.]
Exports of coffee from Hawaii to the principal countries of the world in
1920 were 2,573,300 pounds.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. Spanish missionaries from Mexico are said to have
carried the coffee plant to the Philippine Islands in the latter part of
the eighteenth century. At first it was cultivated in the province of La
Laguna; but afterward other provinces, notably Batangas and Cavite, took
it up; and in a short time the industry was one of the most important in
the islands. The coffee was of the _arabica_ variety. In the middle of
the eighteenth century, and after, the industry had a position of
importance; several provinces produced profitable crops that contributed
much to the wealth of the communities where the berry was cultivated. In
those days the city of Yipa was an important trading center. In the
period of its prime Philippine coffee enjoyed fine repute, especially in
Spain, Great Britain, and China (at Hong Kong), those three countries
being the largest consumers. At one time--in 1883 and 1884--the annual
export was 16,000,000 pounds, which demonstrates the importance of the
industry at the peak of its prosperity. The leaf blight appeared on the
island about 1889, causing destruction from which there has not yet been
complete recovery. The export of 3,086 pounds in 1917 shows the depths
into which the industry had fallen.
The Bureau of Agriculture at Manila announced in 1915 that an effort was
to be made to re-habilitate the coffee industry of the islands. Nothing
came of the effort, which died a-borning. Since then, several attempts
to introduce disease-resisting varieties of coffee from Java have failed
because of lack of interest on the part of the natives.
Despite the misfortunes that have overwhelmed it in the past and are now
retarding its growth, it is still believed that the industry in these
islands may be re-habilitated. Conditions of soil and climate are
favorable; land and labor are cheap, abundant, and dependable: railroads
run into the best coffee regions, and good cart roads are in process of
construction. Some plantations of consequence are still in existence,
and serious consideration is being given to their development and to
increasing their number.
[Illustration: THE COFFEE TREE THRIVES IN THE LAVA SOIL OF SOUTH KONA,
ISLAND OF HAWAII]
GUAM. Coffee is one of the commonest wild plants on the little island of
Guam. It grows around the houses like shade trees or flowering shrubs,
and nearly every family cultivates a small patch. Climate and soil are
favorable to it; and it flourishes, with abundant crops, from the
sea-level to the tops of the highest hills. The plants are set in
straight rows, from three and a half to seven feet apart, and are shaded
by banana trees or by cocoanut leaves stuck in the ground. There is no
production for export, scarcely enough for home consumption.
[Illustration: COFFEE PLANTATION NEAR SAGADA, BONTOC PROVINCE, P.I.]
OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDS. Other islands of the Pacific do not loom large in
coffee growing, though New Caledonia gives promise as a producer,
exporting 1,248,024 pounds in 1916, most of which was _robusta_. Tahiti
produces a fair coffee, but in no commercial quantity. In the Samoan
group there are plantations, small in number, in size, and in amount of
production. Several islands of the Fiji group are said to be well
adapted to coffee, but little is grown there and none for export.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: OWNER'S RESIDENCE ADJOINING DRYING GROUNDS ON ONE OF THE
LARGE ESTATES]
[Illustration: DRYING GROUNDS, FAZENDA SANTA ADELAIDE, RIBEIRAO PRETO]
[Illustration: COFFEE PREPARATION IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL]
CHAPTER XXI
PREPARING GREEN COFFEE FOR MARKET
_Early Arabian methods of preparation--How primitive devices were
replaced by modern methods--A chronological story of the
development of scientific plantation machinery, and the part played
by British and American inventors--The marvelous coffee package,
one of the most ingenious in all nature--How coffee is
harvested--Picking--Preparation by the dry and the wet
methods--Pulping--Fermentation and washing--Drying--Hulling; or
peeling, and polishing--Sizing, or grading--Preparation methods of
different countries_
La Roque[316], in his description of the ancient coffee culture, and the
preparation methods as followed in Yemen, says that the berries were
permitted to dry on the trees. When the outer covering began to shrivel,
the trees were shaken, causing the fully matured fruits to drop upon
cloths spread to receive them. They were next exposed to the sun on
drying-mats, after which they were husked by means of wooden or stone
rollers. The beans were given a further drying in the sun, and then were
submitted to a winnowing process, for which large fans were used.
_Development of Plantation Machinery_
The primitive methods of the original Arab planters were generally
followed by the Dutch pioneers, and later by the French, with slight
modifications. As the cultivation spread, necessity for more effective
methods of handling the ripened fruit mothered inventions that soon
began to transform the whole aspect of the business. Probably the first
notable advance was in curing, when the West Indian process, or wet
method, of cleaning the berries was evolved.
About the time that Brazil began the active cultivation of coffee,
William Panter was granted the first English patent on a "mill for
husking coffee." This was in 1775. James Henckel followed with an
English patent, granted in 1806, on a coffee drier, "an invention
communicated to him by a certain foreigner." The first American to enter
the lists was Nathan Reed of Belfast, Me., who in 1822 was granted a
United States patent on a coffee huller. Roswell Abbey obtained a United
States patent on a huller in 1825; and Zenos Bronson, of Jasper County,
Ga., obtained one on another huller in 1829. In the next few years many
others followed.
John Chester Lyman, in 1834, was granted an English patent on a coffee
huller employing circular wooden disks, fitted with wire teeth. Isaac
Adams and Thomas Ditson of Boston brought out improved hullers in 1835;
and James Meacock of Kingston, Jamaica, patented in England, in 1845, a
self-contained machine for pulping, dressing, and sorting coffee.
William McKinnon began, in 1840, the manufacture of coffee plantation
machinery at the Spring Garden Iron Works, founded by him in 1798 in
Aberdeen, Scotland. He died in 1873; but the business continues as Wm.
McKinnon & Co., Ltd.
About 1850 John Walker, one of the pioneer English inventors of
coffee-plantation machinery, brought out in Ceylon his cylinder pulper
for Arabian coffee. The pulping surface was made of copper, and was
pierced with a half-moon punch that raised the cut edges into half
circles.
The next twenty years witnessed some of the most notable advances in the
development of machinery for plantation treatment, and served to
introduce the inventions of several men whose names will ever be
associated with the industry.
John Gordon & Co. began the manufacture in London of the line of
plantation machinery still known around the world as "Gordon make" in
1850; and John Gordon was granted an English patent on his improved
coffee pulper in 1859.
Robert Bowman Tennent obtained English (1852) and United States (1853)
patents on a two-cylinder pulper.
George L. Squier began the manufacture of plantation machinery in
Buffalo, N.Y., in 1857. He was active in the business until 1893, and
died in 1910. The Geo. L. Squier Manufacturing Co. still continues as
one of the leading American manufacturers of coffee-plantation
machinery.
Marcus Mason, an American mechanical engineer in San José, Costa Rica,
invented (1860) a coffee pulper and cleaner which became the foundation
stone of the extensive plantation-machinery business of Marcus Mason &
Co., established in 1873 at Worcester, Mass.
[Illustration: WALKER'S ORIGINAL DISK PULPER, 1860
Much favored in Ceylon and India]
John Walker was granted (1860) an English patent on a disk pulper in
which the copper pulping surface was punched, or knobbed, by a blind
punch that raised rows of oval knobs but did not pierce the sheet, and
so left no sharp edges. During Ceylon's fifty years of coffee
production, the Walker machines played an important part in the
industry. They are still manufactured by Walker, Sons & Co., Ltd., of
Colombo, and are sold to other producing countries.
Alexius Van Gulpen began the manufacture of a green-coffee-grading
machine at Emmerich, Germany, in 1860.
Following Newell's United States patents of 1857-59, sixteen other
patents were issued on various types of coffee-cleaning machines, some
designed for plantation use, and some for treating the beans on arrival
in the consuming countries.
James Henry Thompson, of Hoboken, and John Lidgerwood were granted, in
1864, an English patent on a coffee-hulling machine. William Van Vleek
Lidgerwood, American chargé d'affaires at Rio de Janeiro, was granted an
English patent on a coffee hulling and cleaning machine in 1866. The
name Lidgerwood has long been familiar to coffee planters. The
Lidgerwood Manufacturing Co., Ltd., has its headquarters in London, with
factory in Glasgow. Branch offices are maintained at Rio de Janeiro,
Campinas, and in other cities in coffee-growing countries.
[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH COFFEE PEELER
Largely used in India and Ceylon]
Probably the name most familiar to coffee men in connection with
plantation methods is Guardiola. It first appears in the chronological
record in 1872, when J. Guardiola, of Chocola, Guatemala, was granted
several United States patents on machines for pulping and drying coffee.
Since then, "Guardiola" has come to mean a definite type of rotary
drying machine that--after the original patent expired--was manufactured
by practically all the leading makers of plantation machinery. José
Guardiola obtained additional United States patents on coffee hullers in
1886.
[Illustration: GROUP OF ENGLISH CYLINDER COFFEE-PULPING MACHINES]
William Van Vleek Lidgerwood, Morristown, N.J., was granted an English
patent on an improved coffee pulper in 1875.
Several important cleaning and grading machinery patents were granted by
the United States (1876-1878) to Henry B. Stevens, who assigned them to
the Geo. L. Squier Manufacturing Co., Buffalo, N.Y. One of them was on a
separator, in which the coffee beans were discharged from the hopper in
a thin stream upon an endless carrier, or apron, arranged at such an
inclination that the round beans would roll by force of gravity down the
apron, while the flat beans would be carried to the top.
C.F. Hargreaves, of Rio de Janeiro, was granted an English patent on
machinery for hulling, polishing, and separating coffee, in 1879.
The first German patent on a coffee drying apparatus was granted to
Henry Scolfield, of Guatemala, in 1880.
In 1885 Evaristo Conrado Engelberg of Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil,
invented an improved coffee huller which, three years later, was
patented in the United States. The Engelberg Huller Co. of Syracuse,
N.Y., was organized the same year (1888) to make and to sell Engelberg
machines.
Walker Sons & Co., Ltd., began, in 1886, experimenting in Ceylon with a
Liberian disk pulper that was not fully perfected until twelve years
later.
Another name, that has since become almost as well known as Guardiola,
appears in the record in 1891. It is that of O'Krassa. In that year
R.F.E. O'Krassa of Antigua, Guatemala, was granted an English patent on
a coffee pulper. Additional patents on washing, hulling, drying, and
separating machines were issued to Mr. O'Krassa in England and in the
United States in 1900, 1908, 1911, 1912, and 1913.
The Fried. Krupp A.G. Grusonwerk, Magdeburg-Buckau, Germany, began the
manufacture of coffee plantation machines about 1892. Among others it
builds coffee pulpers and hulling and polishing machines of the Anderson
(Mexican) and Krull (Brazilian) types.
Additional United States patents were granted in 1895 to Marcus Mason,
assignor to Marcus Mason & Co., New York, on machines for pulping and
polishing coffee. Douglas Gordon assigned patents on a coffee pulper and
a coffee drier to Marcus Mason & Co. in 1904-05.
The names of Jules Smout, a Swiss, and Don Roberto O'Krassa, of
Guatemala, are well known to coffee planters the world over because of
their combined peeling and polishing machines.
The Huntley Manufacturing Co., Silver Creek, N.Y., began in 1896 the
manufacture of the Monitor line of coffee-grading-and-cleaning machines.
_The Marvelous Coffee Package_
It is doubtful if in all nature there is a more cunningly devised food
package than the fruit of the coffee tree. It seems as if Good Mother
Nature had said: "This gift of Heaven is too precious to put up in any
ordinary parcel. I shall design for it a casket worthy of its divine
origin. And the casket shall have an inner seal that shall safeguard it
from enemies, and that shall preserve its goodness for man until the day
when, transported over the deserts and across the seas, it shall be
broken open to be transmuted by the fires of friendship, and made to
yield up its aromatic nectar in the Great Drink of Democracy."
To this end she caused to grow from the heart of the jasmine-like
flower, that first herald of its coming, a marvelous berry which, as it
ripens, turns first from green to yellow, then to reddish, to deep
crimson, and at last to a royal purple.
[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF COPPER COVERS FOR PULPER CYLINDERS
1--For Arabian coffee (_Coffea arabica_). 2--For Liberian coffee
(_Coffea liberica_). 3--Also for Arabian. 4--For _Coffea canephora_.
5--For _Coffea robusta_. 6--For larger Arabian, and for _Coffea
Maragogipe_.]
The coffee fruit is very like a cherry, though somewhat elongated and
having in its upper end a small umbilicus. But mark with what ingenuity
the package has been constructed! The outer wrapping is a thin,
gossamer-like skin which encloses a soft pulp, sweetish to the taste,
but of a mucilaginous consistency. This pulp in turn is wrapped about
the inner-seal--called the parchment, because of its tough texture. The
parchment encloses the magic bean in its last wrapping, a delicate
silver-colored skin, not unlike fine spun silk or the sheerest of tissue
papers. And this last wrapping is so tenacious, so true to its
guardianship function, that no amount of rough treatment can dislodge it
altogether; for portions of it cling to the bean even into the roasting
and grinding processes.
[Illustration: DRYING GROUNDS, PULPING HOUSE, AND FERMENTATION VATS,
BOA VISTA. BRAZIL]
[Illustration: PULPING HOUSE AND FERMENTATION TANKS, COSTA RICA]
[Illustration: COFFEE PREPARATION IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA]
[Illustration: GRANADA UNPULPED COFFEE SEPARATOR
Shown in combination with a Guatemala coffee pulper]
Coffee is said to be "in the husk," or "in the parchment," when the
whole fruit is dried; and it is called "hulled coffee" when it has been
deprived of its hull and peel. The matter forming the fruit, called the
coffee berry, covers two thin, hard, oval seed vessels held together,
one to the other, by their flat sides. These seed vessels, when broken
open, contain the raw coffee beans of commerce. They are usually of a
roundish oval shape, convex on the outside, flat inside, marked
longitudinally in the center of the flat side with a deep incision, and
wrapped in the thin pellicle known as the silver skin. When one of the
two seeds aborts, the remaining one acquires a greater size, and fills
the interior of the fruit, which in that case, of course, has but one
cellule. This abortion is common in the _arabica_ variety, and produces
a bean formerly called _gragé_ coffee, but now more commonly known as
peaberry, or male berry.
The various coverings of the coffee beans are almost always removed on
the plantations in the producing countries. Properly to prepare the raw
beans, it is necessary to remove the four coverings--the outer skin, the
sticky pulp, the parchment, or husk, and the closely adhering silver
skin.
There are two distinct methods of treating the coffee fruits, or
"cherries." One process, the one that until recent years was in general
use throughout the world, and is still in many producing countries, is
known as the dry method. The coffee prepared in this way is sometimes
called "common," "ordinary," or "natural," to distinguish it from the
product that has been cleaned by the wet or washed method. The wet
method, or, as it is sometimes designated, the "West Indian process"
(W.I.P.) is practised on all the large modern plantations that have a
sufficient supply of water.
In the wet process, the first step is called pulping; the second is
fermentation and washing; the third is drying; the fourth is hulling or
peeling; and the last, sizing or grading. In the dry process, the first
step is drying; the second hulling; and the last, sizing or grading.
[Illustration: HAND-POWER DOUBLE-DISK PULPER]
_Harvesting_
The coffee cherry ripens about six to seven months after the tree has
flowered, or blossomed; and becomes a deep purplish-crimson color. It is
then ready for picking. The ripening season varies throughout the world,
according to climate and altitude. In the state of São Paulo, Brazil,
the harvesting season lasts from May to September; while in Java, where
three crops are produced annually, harvesting is almost a continuous
process throughout the year. In Colombia the harvesting seasons are
March and April, and November and December. In Guatemala the crops are
gathered from October through December; in Venezuela, from November
through March. In Mexico the coffee is harvested from November to
January; in Haiti the harvest extends from November to March; in Arabia,
from September to March; in Abyssinia, from September through November.
In Uganda, Africa, there are two main crops, one ripening in March and
the other in September, and picking is carried on during practically
every month except December and January. In India the fruit is ready for
harvesting from October to January.
[Illustration: TANDEM COFFEE PULPER OF ENGLISH MAKE
Being a combination of a Bon-Accord-Valencia pulper with a Bon-Accord
repassing machine]
_Picking_
The general practise throughout the world has been to hand-pick the
fruit; although in some countries the cherries are allowed to become
fully ripe on the trees, and to fall to the ground. The introduction of
the wet method of preparation, indeed, has made it largely unnecessary
to hand-pick crops; and the tendency seems to be away from this practise
on the larger plantations. If the berries are gathered promptly after
dropping, the beans are not injured, and the cost of harvesting is
reduced.
The picking season is a busy time on a large plantation. All hands join
in the work--men, women and children; for it must be rushed. Over-ripe
berries shrink and dry up. The pickers, with baskets slung over their
shoulders, walk between the rows, stripping the berries from the trees,
using ladders to reach the topmost branches, and sometimes even taking
immature fruit in their haste to expedite the work. About thirty pounds
is considered a fair day's work under good conditions. As the baskets
are filled, they are emptied at a "station" in that particular unit of
the plantation; or, in some cases, directly into wagons that keep pace
with the pickers. The coffee is freed as much as possible of sticks,
leaves, etc., and is then conveyed to the preparation grounds.
A space of several acres is needed for the various preparation processes
on the larger plantations; the plant including concrete-surfaced drying
grounds, large fermentation tanks, washing vats, mills, warehouses,
stables, and even machine shops. In Mexico this place is known as the
_beneficio_.
_Washed and Unwashed Coffee_
Where water is plenty, the ripe coffee cherries are fed by a stream of
water into a pulping machine which breaks the outer skins, permitting
the pulpy matter enveloping the beans to be loosened and carried away in
further washings. It is this wet separation of the sticky pulp from the
beans, instead of allowing it to dry on them, to be removed later with
the parchment in the hulling operation, that makes the distinction
between washed and unwashed coffees. Where water is scarce the coffees
are unwashed.
Either method being well done, does washing improve the strength and
flavor? Opinions differ. The soil, altitude, climatic influences, and
cultivation methods of a country give its coffee certain distinctive
drinking qualities. Washing immensely improves the appearance of the
bean; it also reduces curing costs. Generally speaking, washed coffees
will always command a premium over coffees dried in the pulp.
[Illustration: Costa Rica Vertical Coffee Washer]
[Illustration: Continuous Working Horizontal Coffee Washer]
Whether coffee is washed or not, it has to be dried; and there is a kind
of fermentation that goes on during washing and drying, about which
coffee planters have differing ideas, just as tea planters differ over
the curing of tea leaves. Careful scientific study is needed to
determine how much, if any, effect this fermentation has on the ultimate
cup value.
_Preparation by the Dry Method_
The dry method of preparing the berries is not only the older method,
but is considered by some operators as providing a distinct advantage
over the wet process, since berries of different degrees of ripeness can
be handled at the same time. However, the success of this method is
dependent largely on the continuance of clear warm weather over quite a
length of time, which can not always be counted on.
In this process the berries are spread in a thin layer on open drying
grounds, or barbecues, often having cement or brick surfaces. The
berries are turned over several times a day in order to permit the sun
and wind thoroughly to dry all portions. The sun-drying process lasts
about three weeks; and after the first three days of this period, the
berries must be protected from dews and rains by covering them with
tarpaulins, or by raking them into heaps under cover. If the berries are
not spread out, they heat, and the silver skin sticks to the coffee
bean, and frequently discolors it. When thoroughly dry, the berries are
stored, unless the husks (outer skin and inner parchment) are to be
removed at once. Hot air, steam, and other artificial drying methods
take the place of natural sun-drying on some plantations.
In the dry method, the husks are removed either by hand (threshing and
pounding in a mortar, on the smaller plantations) or by specially
constructed machinery, known as hulling machines.
[Illustration: Cobán Pulper in Tachira, Venezuela]
_The Wet Method--Pulping_
The wet method of preparation is the more modern form, and is generally
practised on the larger plantations that have a sufficient supply of
water, and enough money to instal the quite extensive amount of
machinery and equipment required. It is generally considered that
washing results in a better grade of bean.
In this method the cherries are sometimes thrown into tanks full of
water to soak about twenty-four hours, so as to soften the outer skins
and underlying pulp to a condition that will make them easily removable
by the pulping machine--the idea being to rub away the pulp by friction
without crushing the beans.
On the larger plantations, however, the coffee cherries are dumped into
large concrete receiving tanks, from which they are carried the same day
by streams of running water directly into the hoppers of the pulping
machines.
At least two score of different makes of pulping machines are in use in
the various coffee-growing countries. Pulpers are made in various sizes,
from the small hand-operated machine to the large type driven by power;
and in two general styles--cylinder, and disk.
The cylinder pulper, the latest style--suggesting a huge
nutmeg-grater--consists of a rotary cylinder surrounded with a copper or
brass cover punched with bulbs. These bulbs differ in shape according to
the species, or variety, of coffee to be treated--_arabica_, _liberica_,
_robusta_, _canephora_, or what not. The cylinder rotates against a
breast with pulping edges set at an angle. The pulping is effected by
the rubbing action of the copper cover against the edges, or ribs, of
the breast. The cherries are subjected to a rubbing and rolling motion,
in the course of which the two parchment-covered beans contained in the
majority of the cherries become loosened. The pulp itself is carried by
the cover and is discharged through a pulp shoot, while the pulped
coffee is delivered through holes on the breast. Cylinder machines vary
in capacity from 400 pounds (hand power) to 4,800 pounds (motive power)
per hour.
Some cylinder pulpers are double, being equipped with rotary screens or
oscillating sieves, that segregate the imperfectly pulped cherries so
that they may be put through again. Pulpers are also equipped with
attachments that automatically move the imperfectly pulped material over
into a repassing machine for another rubbing. Others have attachments
partially to crush the cherries before pulping.
The breasts in cylinder machines are usually made with removable steel
ribs; but in Brazil, Nicaragua, and other countries, where, owing to the
short season and scarcity of labor, the planters have to pick,
simultaneously, green, ripe, and over-ripe (dry) cherries, rubber
breasts are used.
[Illustration: NIAGARA POWER COFFEE HULLER]
[Illustration: MCKINNON'S GUARDIOLA COFFEE DRIER]
[Illustration: THE SQUIER-GUARDIOLA COFFEE DRIER, WITH DIRECT-FIRE
HEATER]
[Illustration: BRITISH AND AMERICAN COFFEE DRIERS--GUARDIOLA SYSTEM
There are numerous makes of coffee driers based upon the original
invention of José Guardiola of Chocola, Guatemala. In the two
illustrated above both direct-fire heat and steam heat may be utilized]
The disk pulper (the earliest type, having been in use more than
seventy years) is the style most generally used in the Dutch East Indies
and in some parts of Mexico. The results are the same as those obtained
with the cylindrical pulper. The disk machine is made with one, two,
three, or four vertical iron disks, according to the capacity desired.
The disks are covered on both sides with a copper plate of the same
shape, and punched with blind punches. The pulping operation takes place
between the rubbing action of the blind punches, or bulbs, on the copper
plates and the lateral pulping bars fitted to the side cheeks. As in the
cylinder pulper, the distance between the surface of the bulbs and the
pulping bar may be adjusted to allow of any clearance that may be
required, according to the variety of coffee to be treated.
[Illustration: ANOTHER AMERICAN GUARDIOLA DRIER]
Disk pulpers vary in capacity from 1,200 pounds to 14,000 pounds of ripe
cherry coffee per hour. They, too, are made in combinations employing
cylindrical separators, shaking sieves, and repassing pulpers, for
completing the pulping of all unpulped or partially pulped cherries.
_Fermentation and Washing_
The next step in the process consists in running the pulped cherries
into cisterns, or fermentation tanks, filled with water, for the purpose
of removing such pulp as was not removed in the pulping machine. The
saccharine matter is loosened by fermentation in from twenty-four to
thirty-two hours. The mass is kept stirred up for a short time; and, in
general practise, the water is drawn off from above, the light pulp
floating at the top being removed at the same time. The same tanks are
often used for washing, but a better practise is to have separate tanks.
Some planters permit the pulped coffee to ferment in water. This is
called the wet fermentation process. Others drain off the water from the
tanks and conduct the fermenting operation in a semi-dry state, called
the dry fermentation process.
The coffee bean, when introduced into the fermentation tanks, is
enclosed in a parchment shell made slimy by its closely adhering
saccharine coat. After fermentation, which not only loosens the
remaining pulp but also softens the membranous covering, the beans are
given a final washing, either in washing tanks or by being run through
mechanical washers. The type of washing machine generally used consists
of a cylindrical tub having a vertical spindle fitted with a number of
stirrers, or arms, which, in rotating, stir and lift up the parchment
coffee. In another type, the cylinder is horizontal; but the operation
is similar.
_Drying_
The next step in preparation is drying. The coffee, which is still "in
the parchment," but is now known as washed coffee, is spread out thinly
on a drying ground, as in the dry method. However, if the weather is
unsuitable or can not be depended upon to remain fair for the necessary
length of time, there are machines which can be used to dry the coffee
satisfactorily. On some plantations, the drying is started in the open
and finished by machine. The machines dry the coffee in twenty-four
hours, while ten days are required by the sun.
[Illustration: THE SMOUT PEELER AND POLISHER]
The object of the drying machine is to dry the parchment of the coffee
so that it may be removed as readily as the skin on a peanut; and this
object is achieved in the most approved machines by keeping a hot
current of air stirring through the beans. One of the best-liked types,
the Guardiola, resembles the cylinder of a coffee-roasting machine. It
is made of perforated steel plates in cylinder form, and is carried on a
hollow shaft through which the hot air is circulated by a pressure fan.
The beans are rotated in the revolving cylinder; and as the hot air
strikes the wet coffee, it creates a steam that passes out through the
perforations of the cylinder. Within the cylinder are compartments
equipped with winged plates, or ribs, that keep the coffee constantly
stirred up to facilitate the drying process. Another favorite is the
O'Krassa. It is constructed on the principle just described, but differs
in detail of construction from the Guardiola, and is able to dry its
contents a few hours quicker. Hot air, steam, and electric heat are all
employed in the various makes of coffee driers. A temperature from 65°
to 85° centigrade is maintained during the drying process.
[Illustration: O'KRASSA'S COFFEE DRIER COMBINED WITH DIRECT-FIRE HEATER]
When thoroughly dry, the parchment can be crumbled between the fingers,
and the bean within is too hard to be dented by finger nail or teeth.
_Hulling, Peeling, and Polishing_
The last step in the preparation process is called hulling or peeling,
both words accurately describing the purpose of the operation. Some
husking machines for hulling or peeling parchment coffee are polishers
as well. This work may be done on the plantation or at the port of
shipment just before the coffee is shipped abroad. Sometimes the coffee
is exported in parchment, and is cleaned in the country of consumption;
but practically all coffee entering the United States arrives without
its parchment.
[Illustration: THE SMOUT PEELER AND POLISHER, WITH CYLINDER OPEN SHOWING
CONE]
Peeling machines, more accurately named hullers, work on the principle
of rubbing the beans between a revolving inner cylinder and an outer
covering of woven wire. Machines of this type vary in construction. Some
have screw-like inner cylinders, or turbines, others having plain
cone-shaped cores on which are knobs and ribs that rub the beans against
one another and the outer shell. Practically all types have sieve or
exhaust-fan attachments, which draw the loosened parchment and silver
skin into one compartment, while the cleaned beans pass into another.
[Illustration: KRULL HULLING MACHINE (German)]
[Illustration: ANDERSON HULLING MACHINE (German)]
[Illustration: EUREKA SEPARATOR AND GRADER (American)]
[Illustration: CARACOLILLO (PEABERRY) SEPARATOR (American)]
[Illustration: ENGELBERG HULLER AND SEPARATOR (American)]
[Illustration: THE AMERICAN COFFEE HULLER AND POLISHER]
[Illustration: WELL KNOWN AMERICAN AND GERMAN HULLING AND SEPARATING
MACHINES]
Polishers of various makes are sometimes used just to remove the silver
skin and to give the beans a special polish. Some countries demand a
highly polished coffee; and to supply this demand, the beans are sent
through another huller having a phosphor-bronze cylinder and cone. Much
Guadeloupe coffee is prepared in this way, and is known as _café
bonifieur_ from the fact that the polishing machine is called in
Guadeloupe the _bonifieur_ (improver). It is also called _café de luxe_.
Coffee that has not received the extra polish is described as
_habitant_; while coffee in the parchment is known as _café en parché_.
Extra polished coffee is much in demand in the London, Hamburg, and
other European markets. A favorite machine for producing this kind of
coffee is the Smout combined peeler and polisher, the invention of Jules
Smout, a Swiss. Don Roberto O'Krassa also has produced a highly
satisfactory combined peeler and polisher.
For hulling dry cherry coffee there are several excellent makes of
machines. In one style, the hulling takes place between a rotating disk
and the casing of the machine. In another, it takes place between a
rotary drum covered with a steel plate punched with vertical bulbs, and
a chilled iron hulling-plate with pyramidal teeth cast on the plate.
Both are adjustable to different varieties of coffee. In still another
type of machine, the hulling takes place between steel ribs on an
internal cylinder, and an adjustable knife, or hulling blade, in front
of the machine.
[Illustration: EL MONARCA COFFEE CLASSIFIER]
_Sizing or Grading_
The coffee bean is now clean, the processes described in the foregoing
having removed the outer skin, the saccharine pulp, the parchment, and
the silver skin. This is the end of the cleaning operations; but there
are two more steps to be taken before the coffee is ready for the trade
of the world--sizing and hand-sorting. These two operations are of great
importance; since on them depends, to a large extent, the price the
coffee will bring in the market.
[Illustration: Old rope-drive transmission on Finca Ona.]
[Illustration: Hydro-electric power plant on Finca Ona.
HYDRO-ELECTRIC INSTALLATION ON A GUATEMALA FINCA]
Sizing, or grading by sizes, is done in modern commercial practise by
machines that automatically separate and distribute the different beans
according to size and form. In principle, the beans are carried across a
series of sieves, each with perforations varying in size from the
others; the beans passing through the holes of corresponding sizes. The
majority of the machines are constructed to separate the beans into five
or more grades, the principal grades being triage, third flats, second
flats, first flats, and first and second peaberries. Some are designed
to handle "elephant" and "mother" sizes. The grades have local
nomenclature in the various countries.
After grading, the coffee is picked over by hand to remove the faulty
and discolored beans that it is almost impossible to remove thoroughly
by machine. The higher grades of coffee are often double-picked; that
is, picked over twice. When this is done on a large scale, the beans are
generally placed on a belt, or platform, that moves at a regulated speed
before a line of women and children, who pick out the undesirable beans
as they pass on the moving belt. There are small machines of this type
built for one person, who operates the belt mechanism by means of a
treadle.
_Preparation in the Leading Countries_
The foregoing description tells in general terms the story of the most
approved methods of harvesting, shelling, and cleaning the coffee beans.
The following paragraphs will describe those features of the processes
that are peculiar to the more important large producing countries and
that differ in details or in essentials from the methods just outlined.
_In the Western Hemisphere_
BRAZIL. The operation of some of the large plantations in Brazil, a
number of which have more than a million trees, requires a large number
and a great variety of preparation machines and equipment. Generally
considered, the State of São Paulo is better equipped with approved
machinery than any other commercial district in the world.
In Brazil, coffee plantations are known as _fazendas_, and the
proprietors as _fazendeiros_, terms that are the equivalent of "landed
estates" and "landed proprietors." Practically every _fazenda_ in Brazil
of any considerable commercial importance is equipped with the most
modern of coffee-cleaning equipment. Some of the larger ones in the
state of São Paulo, like the Dumont and the Schmidt estates, are
provided with private railways connecting the _fazendas_ with the main
railroad line some miles away, and also have miniature railway systems
running through the _fazendas_ to move the coffee from one harvesting
and cleaning operation to another. The coffee is carried in small cars
that are either pushed by a laborer or are drawn by horse or mule.
[Illustration: PICKING COFFEE ON A WELL KEPT FAZENDA]
[Illustration: MANAGER'S RESIDENCE ON ONE OF THE BIG SÃO PAULO FAZENDAS]
[Illustration: Photographs by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.
DRYING GROUNDS ON A MODERN ESTATE IN RIBEIRAO PRETO]
[Illustration: MAKING BRAZIL COFFEE READY TO MARKET]
Some of the larger _fazendas_ cover thousands of acres, and have
several millions of trees, giving the impression of an unending forest
stretching far away into the horizon. Here and there are openings in
which buildings appear, the largest group of structures usually
consisting of those making up the _cafezale_, or cleaning plant. Nearby,
stand the handsome "palaces" of the _fazendeiros_; but not so close that
the coffee princes and their households will be disturbed by the almost
constant rumble of machinery and the voices of the workers.
[Illustration: Copyright by Brown & Dawson.
WORKING COFFEE ON DRYING FLATS, SÃO PAULO]
Brazilian _fazendeiros_ follow the methods described in the foregoing in
preparing their coffee for market, using the most modern of the
equipment detailed under the story of the wet method of preparation. On
most of the _fazendas_ the machinery is operated by steam or
electricity, the latter coming more and more into use each year in all
parts of the coffee-growing region.
In some districts, however, far in the interior, there are still to be
found small plantations where primitive methods of cleaning are even now
practised. Producing but a small quantity of coffee, possibly for only
local use, the cherries may be freed of their parchment by macerating
the husks by hand labor in a large mortar. On still another plantation,
the old-time bucket-and-beam crusher perhaps may be in use.
This consists of a beam pivoted on an upright upon which it moves freely
up and down. On one end of the beam is an open bucket; and on the other,
a heavy stone. Water runs into the bucket until its weight causes the
stone end of the beam to rise. When the bucket reaches the ground, the
water is emptied, and the stone crashes down on the coffee cherries
lying in a large mortar.
[Illustration: FERMENTING AND WASHING TANKS ON A SÃO PAULO FAZENDA]
The workers on some of the largest Brazilian _fazendas_ would constitute
the population of a small city--more than a thousand families often
finding continuous employment in cultivating, harvesting, cleaning, and
transporting the coffee to market. For the most part, the workers are of
Italian extraction, who have almost altogether superseded the Indian and
Negro laborers of the early days. The workers live on the _fazendas_ in
quarters provided by the _fazendeiros_, and are paid a weekly or monthly
wage for their services; or they may enter upon a year's contract to
cultivate the trees, receiving extra pay for picking and other work.
Brazil in the past has experimented with the slave system, with
government colonization, with co-operative planting, with the harvesting
system, and with the share system. And some features of all these
plans--except slavery, which was abolished in 1888--are still employed
in various parts of the country, although the wage system predominates.
[Illustration: By Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.
DRYING GROUNDS ON FAZENDA SCHMIDT, THE LARGEST IN BRAZIL]
Brazil has six gradings for its São Paulo coffees, which are also
classified as Bourbon Santos, Flat Bean Santos, and Mocha-seed Santos.
Rio coffees are graded by the number of imperfections for New York, and
as washed and unwashed for Havre. (See chapter XXIV.)
COLOMBIA. Practically all the countries of the western hemisphere
producing coffee in large quantities for export trade use the
cleaning-and-grading machines specified in the first part of this
chapter; and the installation of the equipment is increasing as its
advantages become better known.
In Colombia, now (1922), next to Brazil the world's largest producer,
the wet method of preparing the coffee for market is most generally
followed, the drying processes often being a combination of sun and
drying machines. Many plantations have their own hulling equipment; but
much of the crop goes in the cherry to local commercial centers where
there are establishments that make a specialty of cleaning and grading
the coffee.
The Colombia coffee crop is gathered twice a year, the principal one in
March and April and the smaller one in November and December, although
some picking is done throughout the year. For this labor native Indian
and negro women are preferred, as they are more rapid, skilful, and
careful in handling the trees. Contrary to the method in Brazil, where
the tree at one handling is stripped of its entire bearings, ripe and
unripe fruit, here only the fully ripened fruit is picked. That
necessitates going over the ground several times, as the berries
progressively ripen. More time is consumed in this laborious operation,
but it is believed that thereby a better crop of more uniform grade is
obtained and in the aggregate with less waste of time and effort.
Colombian planters classify their coffees as _café trillado_ (natural or
sun-dried), _café lavado_ (washed), _café en pergamino_ (washed and
dried in the parchment). They grade them as _excelso_ (excellent),
_fantasia_ (_excelso_ and _extra_), _extra_ (extra), _primera_, (first),
_segundo_ (second), _caracol_ (peaberry), _monstruo_ (large and
deformed), _consumo_ (defective), and _casilla_ (siftings).
[Illustration: PREPARING COLOMBIAN COFFEE FOR THE MARKET]
VENEZUELA. Venezuela employs both the dry and the wet methods of
preparation, producing both "washed" and "commons" and also, like
Colombia, has a large part of the coffee cleaned in the trading centers
of the various coffee districts. Dry, or unwashed, coffees are known as
_trillado_ (milled), and compose the bulk of the country's output.
Venezuela's plantation-working forces are largely natives of Indian
descent and negroes, some of them coming during harvesting season from
adjoining Colombia and returning there after the picking is done. The
resident workers labor under a sort of peonage system which is tacitly
recognized by both employee and employer, although no laws of peonage or
slavery have ever existed in Venezuela. Under this system, the laborers
live in little colonies scattered over the _haciendas_, as the coffee
plantations are called in Venezuela. Company stores keep them supplied
with all their wants. Modern plantation machinery is very scarce; the
ancient method of hulling coffee in a circular trough where the dried
berries are crushed by heavy wooden wheels drawn by oxen, is still a
common sight in Venezuela. In preparing washed coffees, some planters
ferment the pulped coffee under water (wet fermentation process); while
others ferment without water (dry fermentation).
[Illustration: THIS OLD-FASHIONED HULLING MACHINE IS OPERATED BY OX
POWER IN VENEZUELA]
The principal ports of shipments for Venezuela coffees are La Guaira,
Puerto Cabello, and Maracaibo. Caracas, the capital, is five miles in an
air line from the port of La Guaira; but in ascending the three thousand
feet of altitude to the city the railroad twists and turns among the
mountains for a distance of twenty-four miles. By rail or motor the trip
is one of much charm and great beauty.
SALVADOR. The planters in Salvador favor the dry method of coffee
preparation; and the bulk of the crop is natural, or unwashed.
GUATEMALA. Most Guatemalas are prepared for market by the wet method.
The gathering of the crops furnishes employment for half the population.
German and American settlers have introduced the latest improvements in
modern plantation machinery into Guatemala.
MEXICO. In Mexico coffee is harvested from November to January, and
large quantities are prepared by both the dry and the wet methods, the
latter being practised on the larger estates that have the necessary
water supply and can afford the machinery. Here, too, one will find
coffee being cleaned by the primitive hand-mortar and wind-winnowing
method. Laborers are mostly half-breeds and Indians. Chinese coolies
have been tried and found satisfactory, and some Japanese are utilized,
though not largely.
[Illustration: STREET CAR COFFEE TRANSPORT IN ORIZABA, MEXICO]
HAITI. In Haiti the picking season is from November to March. In recent
years better attention has been paid to cultural and preparation
methods; and the product is more favorably regarded commercially. Large
quantities are shipped to France and Belgium; and much of that sent to
the United States is reshipped to France, Belgium, and Germany, where it
is sorted by hand. Both dry and wet methods are employed in Haiti.
PORTO RICO. Here planters favor the wet method of coffee preparation.
The crop is gathered from August to December. The coffees are graded as
_caracollilo_ (peaberry), _primero_ (hand-picked), _segundo_ (second
grade), _trillo_ (low grade).
[Illustration: COFFEE ON THE DRYING FLOORS IN PORTO RICO]
NICARAGUA. The wet method of coffee preparation is mostly favored in
Nicaragua. Many of the large plantations are worked by colonies of
Americans and Germans who are competent to apply the abundant natural
water power of the country to the operation of modern coffee cleaning
machinery.
COSTA RICA. Costa Rica was one of the first countries of the western
world to use coffee cleaning machinery. Marcus Mason, an American
mechanical engineer then managing an iron foundry in Costa Rica,
invented three machines that would respectively peel off the husk,
remove the parchment and pulp, and winnow the light refuse from the
beans.
The inventor gave his original demonstration to the planters of San José
in 1860, and duplicates were installed on all the large plantations. In
the course of the next thirty years, Mason brought out other machines
until he had developed a complete line that was largely used on coffee
plantations in all parts of the world.
_In the Eastern Hemisphere_
Modern cleaning machinery and methods of preparation are employed to
some extent in the large coffee-producing countries of the eastern
hemisphere, and do not differ materially from those of the western.
ARABIA. In Arabia the fruit ripens in August or September, and picking
continues from then until the last fruits ripen late in the March
following. The cherries, as they are picked, are left to dry in the sun
on the house-top terrace or on a floor of beaten earth. When they have
become partly dry, they are hulled between two small stones, one of
which is stationary, while the other is worked by the hand power of two
men who rotate it quickly. Further drying of the hulled berry follows.
It is then put into bags of closely woven aloe fiber, lined with matting
made of palm leaves. It is next sent to the local market at the foot of
the mountain. There, on regular market days, the Turkish or Arabian
merchants, or their representatives, buy and dispatch their purchases by
camel train to Hodeida or Aden. The principal primary market in recent
years has been the city of Beit-el-Fakih.
[Illustration: RAKING COFFEE ON DRYING FLOORS--CHUVA DISTRICT,
GUATEMALA]
[Illustration: COFFEE DRYING PATIOS, HACIENDA LONGA-ESPANA, VENEZUELA]
[Illustration: SUN-DRYING COFFEE AMID SCENES OF RARE TROPICAL BEAUTY]
In Aden and Hodeida the bean is submitted to further cleaning by the
principal foreign export houses to whom it has come from the mountains
in rather dirty condition. Indian women are the sole laborers employed
in these cleaning houses. First, the coffee beans are separated from the
dry empty husks by tossing the whole into the air from bamboo trays, the
workers deftly permitting the husks to fly off while the beans are
caught again in the tray. The beans are then surface-cleaned by passing
them gently between two very primitive grindstones worked by men. A
third process is the complete clearing of the bean from the silver skin,
and it is then ready for the final hand picking. Women are called into
service again, and they pick out the refuse husks, quaker or black,
beans, green or immature beans, white beans, and broken beans, leaving
the good beans to be weighed and packed for shipment. The cleaned beans
are known as _bun safi_; the husks become _kisher_. Some of the poorer
beans also are sold, principally to France and to Egypt. Hand-power
machinery is used to a slight extent; but mostly the old-fashioned
methods hold sway.
[Illustration: A DRYING PATIO ON A COSTA RICA ESTATE]
[Illustration: Photograph by R.C. Wilhelm.
EARLY GUARDIOLA STEAM DRIER, "EL CANIDA" PLANTATION, COSTA RICA]
The Yemen, or Arabian, bale, or package, is unique. It is made up of two
fiber wrappers, one inside the other. The inside one is called _attal_
or _darouf_. It is made from cut and plaited leaves of _nakhel douin_ or
_narghil_, a species of palm. The outer covering, called _garair_, is a
sack made of woven aloe fiber. The Bedouins weave these covers and bring
them to the export merchants at Aden and Hodeida. A Mocha bundle
contains one, two, or four fiber packages, or bales. When the bundle
contains one bale it is known as a half; when it contains two it is
known as quarters; and when it contains four it is known as eighths.
Arabian coffee for Boston used to be packed in quarters only; for San
Francisco and New York, in quarters and eighths. The longberry
Abyssinian coffees were formerly packed in quarters only. Since the
World War, however, there has been a scarcity of packing materials, and
packing in quarters and eighths has stopped. Now, all Mocha, as well as
Harar, coffee comes in halfs. A half weighs eighty kilos, or 176 pounds,
net--although a few exporters ship "halfs" of 160 pounds.
[Illustration: INDIAN WOMEN CLEANING MOCHA COFFEE IN AN ADEN WAREHOUSE
There are four processes in cleaning Mocha coffee. In order to separate
the dried beans from the broken hulls these women (brought over from
India) toss the beans in the air, very deftly permitting the empty hulls
to fly off, and catch the coffee beans on the bamboo trays. Then the
coffee is passed between two primitive grindstones, turned by men. After
this grinding process the beans are separated from the crushed outside
hulls and the loose silver skins. In the fourth process the Indian women
pick out by hand the remaining husks, the quakers, the immature beans,
the white beans and the broken beans. Being Mohammedans, their religion
does not permit such little vanities as picture posing, which explains
why their faces are covered and turned away from the camera.]
ABYSSINIA. Little machinery is used in the preparation of coffee in
Abyssinia; none, in preparing the coffee known as Abyssinian, which is
the product of wild trees; and only in a few instances in cleaning the
Harari coffee, the fruit of cultivated trees. Both classes are raised
mostly by natives, who adhere to the old-time dry method of cleaning. In
Harar, the coffee is sometimes hulled in a wooden mortar; but for the
most part it is sent to the brokers in parchment, and cleaned by
primitive hand methods after its arrival in the trading centers.
ANGOLA. In Angola the coffee harvest begins in June, and it is often
necessary for the government to lend native soldiers to the planters to
aid in harvesting, as the labor supply is insufficient. After picking,
the beans are dried in the sun from fourteen to forty days, depending
upon the weather. After drying, they are brought to the hulling and
winnowing machines. There are now about twenty-four of these machines in
the Cazengo and Golungo districts, all manufactured in the United States
and giving satisfactory results. They are operated by natives.
A condition adversely affecting the trade has been the low price that
Angola coffee commands in European markets. The cost of production per
_arroba_ (thirty-three pounds) on the Cazengo plantations is $1.23,
while Lisbon market quotations average $1.50, leaving only twenty-seven
cents for railway transport to Loanda and ocean freight to Lisbon. It
has been unprofitable to ship to other markets on account of the
preferential export duties. A part of the product is now shipped to
Hamburg, where it is known as the Cazengo brand. Next to Mocha, the
Cazengo coffee is the smallest bean that is to be found in the European
markets.
[Illustration: CLEANING AND GRADING COFFEE BY MACHINERY IN ADEN]
JAVA AND SUMATRA. The coffee industry in Java and Sumatra, as well as in
the other coffee-producing regions of the Dutch East Indies, was begun
and fostered under the paternal care of the Dutch government; and for
that reason, machine-cleaning has always been a noteworthy factor in the
marketing of these coffees. Since the government relinquished its
control over the so-called government estates, European operators have
maintained the standard of preparation, and have adopted new equipment
as it was developed. The majority of estates producing considerable
quantities of coffee use the same types of machinery as their
competitors in Brazil and other western countries.
[Illustration: DRYING COFFEE IN THE SUN AT THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, HARAR,
ABYSSINIA]
In Java, free labor is generally employed; while on the east coast of
Sumatra the work is done by contract, the workers usually being bound
for three years. In both islands the laborers are mostly Javanese
coolies.
Under the contract system, the worker is subject to laws that compel him
to work, and prevent him from leaving the estate until the contract
period expires. Under the free-labor system, the laborer works as his
whims dictate. This forces the estate manager to cater to his workers,
and to build up an organization that will hold together.
As an example of the working of the latter system, this outline--by John
A. Fowler, United States trade commissioner--of the organization of a
leading estate in Java will indicate the general practise in vogue:
The manager of this estate has had full control for twenty years
and knows the "adat" (tribal customs) of his people and the
individual peculiarities of the leaders. This estate has been
described as having one of the most perfect estate organizations in
Java. It consists of two divisions of 3,449 bouws (about 6,048
acres in all), of which 2,500 bouws are in rubber and coffee and
550 in sisal; the remainder includes rice fields, timber,
nurseries, bamboo, teak, pastures, villages, roads, canals, etc.
The foreign staff is under the supervision of a general manager,
and consists of the following personnel: A chief garden assistant
of section 1, who has under him four section assistants and a
native staff; a chief garden assistant of section 2, who has under
him three section assistants, an apprentice assistant, and a native
staff; a chief factory assistant, who has under him an assistant
machinist, an apprentice assistant, and a native staff; and,
finally, a bookkeeper. The term "garden" means the area under
cultivation.
The bookkeeper, a man of mixed blood, handles all the general
accounting, accumulating the reports sent in by the various
assistants. The two chief garden assistants are responsible to the
manager for all work outside the factory except the construction of
new buildings, which is in charge of the chief factory assistant.
The two divisions of the estate are subdivided into seven
agricultural sections, each section being in full charge of an
assistant. A section may include coffee, rubber, sisal, teak,
bamboo, a coagulation station and nurseries. The assistant's duties
include the supervision of road building and repairs, building
repairs, transportation, paying the labor, and the supervision of
section accounts.
[Illustration: OPEN-AIR DRYING GROUNDS ON A WEST JAVA ESTATE
The beans are being turned by native Sudanese men and women]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A MODERN COFFEE FACTORY IN EAST JAVA
Showing pulping machinery and fermentation tanks]
[Illustration: PREPARING JAVA COFFEE FOR THE MARKET]
The factory includes a water-power plant delivering, through an
American water wheel and by cable, 250 horse-power to the main
shafting, an auxiliary steam plant of 150 horse-power as a reserve,
a rubber mill, a coffee mill, three sisal-stripping machines,
smoke-houses, drying fields and houses for sisal, drying floors and
houses for coffee, sorting rooms, blacksmith shop, machine shop,
brass-fitting foundry, packing houses, warehouses, and other
equipment. The factory is in charge of a first assistant, who is a
machinist, with a European staff consisting of a machinist and an
apprentice assistant.
The chief garden assistant is paid 350 to 400 florins, and the
garden assistants start at 200 florins per month, with graduated
yearly increases up to 300 florins per month (florin=$0.40). The
chief factory assistant receives 300 florins, and the machinist and
bookkeeper 250 florins each.
The mandoer in charge of the air and kiln drying of coffee gets 25
florins per month, and the mandoer at the coffee mill 20 florins. A
woman mandoer in charge of the coffee sorters receives 0.50 florin
per day and 0.01 florin each for sewing the bags. This woman
supervises all the sorters, fixes their status, and inspects their
work. Unskilled labor (male) receives 0.40 florin per day in the
coffee sheds, and the women sorters are paid 0.50 florin per picul
of 136 pounds, measured before sorting. These women are graded into
three classes--those who can sort 1 picul in a day, those who can
sort three-fourths of a picul, and those who can sort but one-half
of a picul in a day. Some of these women become very expert in
sorting, and the quality of the output of a factory is largely
dependent on an ample supply of expert sorters. Many years are
required to develop an adequate personnel for this department.
[Illustration: COFFEE TRANSPORT IN JAVA]
[Illustration: THE WORLD'S COFFEE TOWER COMPARED WITH THE EIFFEL AND
WOOLWORTH TOWERS
The Woolworth Building, the world's loftiest office structure is 792
feet high from street to top of tower; its main section of 151 by 196
feet stretches up 386 feet, and its volume equals a total of 13,110,942
cubic feet. But a tower made of the year's supply of bags of green
coffee (132 pounds each) would equal 73,649,115 cubic feet, or nearly
six times the bulk of the Woolworth Building. In the same proportions it
would rise 1,386 feet, with the lower section 260 by 340 feet and 670
feet high. Its dimensions would be nearly double those of the Woolworth
Building in every direction. And the Eiffel Tower, reaching up 1,000
feet toward the sky would be lost in a tower made of a year's bags of
coffee. Such a tower would stand 1,425 feet high on a base area of 230
feet square, the size of the Eiffel's first floor.]
CHAPTER XXII
THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF COFFEE
_A statistical study of world production of coffee by
countries--Per capita figures of the leading consuming
countries--Coffee-consumption figures compared with tea-consumption
figures in the United States and the United Kingdom--Three
centuries of coffee trading--Coffee drinking in the United States,
past and present--Reviewing the 1921 trade in the United States_
The world's yearly production of coffee is on the average considerably
more than one million tons. If this were all made up into the refreshing
drink we get at our breakfast tables, there would be enough to supply
every inhabitant of the earth with some sixty cups a year, representing
a total of more than ninety billion cups. In terms of pounds the annual
world output amounts to about two and a quarter billions--an amount so
large that if it were done up in the familiar one-pound paper packages;
and if these packages were laid end to end in a row; they would form a
line long enough to reach to the moon. If this average yearly production
were left in the sacks in which the coffee is shipped, the total of
17,500,000 would be enough to form a broad six-foot pavement reaching
entirely across the United States, upon which a man could walk steadily
for more than five months at the rate of twenty miles a day. This vast
amount of coffee comes very largely from the western hemisphere; and
about three-fourths of it, from a single country. The production,
shipment, and preparation of this coffee, directly and indirectly
support millions of workers; and many countries are entirely dependent
on it for their prosperity and economic well-being.
During the crop year that ended June 30, 1921, this million-ton average
was considerably exceeded, though it did not approach the record yield
of all time in the crop year 1906-07, when the total amounted to almost
24,000,000 sacks; or, in round numbers, 3,000,000,000 pounds.
As indicated by the Statistical Record table, on page 274, Brazil
produces more than all the rest of the world put together. Coffee
growing, however, is general throughout tropical countries, and in most
of them constitutes one of the leading industries. Yet in most cases,
the actual production of these countries can only be estimated, as
accurate figures, showing the exact output, are seldom kept. But the
contribution which each country makes to the total world traffic in
coffee can be determined by its export figures, which are obtainable in
reasonably accurate and up-to-date form. The table on page 276 gives the
coffee export figures, in pounds, for practically every country that
produces coffee for sale outside its own borders. Figures are given for
the latest available year, and also for the average of the last five
years for which statistics are to be obtained. The figures are taken
from official statistics, from the publications of the International
Institute of Agriculture of Rome, and from other authoritative sources.
STATISTICAL RECORD FOR THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS
_Crops_
/---------------------------------\
Fiscal Rio and Other Total
Year Santos Countries (Bags)
(July 1 to (Bags)[I] (Bags)
June 30)
1883-84 5,047,000 4,526,000 9,573,000
1884-85 6,206,000 4,004,000 10,210,000
1885-86 5,565,000 3,505,000 9,070,000
1886-87 6,078,000 4,106,000 10,184,000
1887-88 3,033,000 3,214,000 6,247,000
1888-89 6,827,000 3,672,000 10,499,000
1889-90 4,260,000 3,965,000 8,225,000
1890-91 5,358,000 2,886,000 8,244,000
1891-92 7,397,000 4,453,000 11,850,000
1892-93 6,203,000 4,887,000 11,090,000
1893-94 4,309,000 5,307,000 9,616,000
1894-95 6,695,000 5,069,000 11,764,000
1895-96 5,476,000 4,901,000 10,377,000
1896-97 8,680,000 5,238,000 13,918,000
1897-98 10,462,000 5,596,000 16,058,000
1898-99 8,771,000 4,985,000 13,756,000
1899-00 8,959,000 4,842,000 13,801,000
1900-01 10,927,000 4,173,000 15,100,000
1901-02 15,439,000 4,296,000 19,735,000
1902-03 12,324,000 4,340,000 16,664,000
1903-04 10,408,000 5,575,000 15,983,000
1904-05 9,968,000 4,480,000 14,448,000
1905-06 10,227,000 4,565,000 14,792,000
1906-07 19,654,000 4,160,000 23,814,000
1907-08 10,283,000 4,551,000 14,834,000
1908-09 12,419,000 4,499,000 16,918,000
1909-10 14,944,000 4,181,000 19,125,000
1910-11 10,548,000 3,976,000 14,524,000
1911-12 12,491,000 4,918,000 17,409,000
1912-13 11,458,000 4,915,000 16,373,000
1913-14 13,816,000 5,796,000 19,612,000
1914-15 12,867,000 5,019,000 17,886,000
1915-16 14,992,000 4,764,000 19,756,000
1916-17 12,112,000 4,579,000 16,691,000
1917-18 15,127,000 3,720,000 18,847,000
1918-19 9,140,000 4,500,000 13,640,000
1919-20 6,700,000 8,463,000 15,163,000
1920-21 13,816,000 6,467,000 20,283,000
_Deliveries_
/---------------------------------\
Fiscal United
Year Europe States Total
(July 1 to (Bags) (Bags) (Bags)
June 30)
1883-84 6,774,000 2,635,000 9,409,000
1884-85 7,388,000 3,169,000 10,557,000
1885-86 7,198,000 2,938,000 10,136,000
1886-87 7,363,000 2,672,000 10,035,000
1887-88 5,888,000 2,164,000 8,052,000
1888-89 6,589,000 2,659,000 9,249,000
1889-90 6,716,000 2,704,000 9,420,000
1890-91 6,046,000 2,673,000 8,719,000
1891-92 6,392,000 4,412,000 10,804,000
1892-93 6,457,000 4,389,000 10,945,000
1893-94 6,272,000 4,298,000 10,570,000
1894-95 6,816,000 4,396,000 11,212,000
1895-96 6,803,000 4,339,000 11,142,000
1896-97 7,155,000 5,080,000 12,244,000
1897-98 8,535,000 6,036,000 14,571,000
1898-99 7,798,000 5,682,000 13,480,000
1899-00 8,937,000 6,035,000 14,972,000
1900-01 8,486,000 5,843,000 14,329,000
1901-02 8,853,000 6,663,000 15,516,000
1902-03 9,118,000 6,847,000 15,966,000
1903-04 9,280,000 6,853,000 16,133,000
1904-05 9,475,000 6,687,000 16,163,000
1905-06 9,934,000 6,806,000 16,741,000
1906-07 10,502,000 7,042,000 17,544,000
1907-08 10,481,000 7,043,000 17,525,000
1908-09 11,129,000 7,519,000 18,649,000
1909-10 10,811,000 7,287,000 18,098,000
1910-11 10,492,000 7,015,000 17,507,000
1911-12 10,712,000 6,762,000 17,474,000
1912-13 10,144,000 6,675,000 16,820,000
1913-14 11,027,000 7,545,000 18,573,000
1914-15 13,368,000 8,010,000 21,378,000
1915-16 11,050,000 8,834,000 19,884,000
1916-17 5,171,000 9,046,000 14,217,000
1917-18 6,209,000 8,624,000 14,833,000
1918-19 6,073,000 8,994,000 15,067,000
1919-20 7,047,000 9,683,000 16,730,000
1920-21 6,397,000 9,701,000 16,099,000
_Spot_
Fiscal _Visible_ _Quotations_,
Year _Supply_ _Rio No. 7_
(July 1 to _July 1._ _New York_,
June 30) (Bags) _July 1._
1883-84
1884-85 5,398,000 8-1/4
1885-86 5,051,000 7-1/8
1886-87 3,985,000 8-1/4
1887-88 4,134,000 16-7/8
1888-89 2,329,000 13-1/2
1889-90 3,579,000 14-1/2
1890-91 2,384,000 17-1/2
1891-92 1,909,000 17-3/8
1892-93 2,955,000 17-7/8
1893-94 3,100,000 16-5/8
1894-95 2,146,000 16-1/2
1895-96 3,115,000 15-3/4
1896-97 2,588,000 13
1897-98 3,975,000 7-3/8
1898-99 5,435,000 6-1/4
1899-00 6,200,000 6-1/8
1900-01 5,840,000 8-15/16
1901-02 6,867,000 6
1902-03 11,261,000 5-1/4
1903-04 11,900,000 5-3/16
1904-05 12,361,000 7-1/8
1905-06 11,265,000 7-3/4
1906-07 9,636,000 7-15/16
1907-08 16,400,000 6-3/8
1908-09 14,126,000 6-1/4
1909-10 12,841,000 7-3/4
1910-11 13,719,000 8-3/8
1911-12 11,070,000 13-1/8
1912-13 11,048,000 14-3/4
1913-14 10,285,000 9-5/8
1914-15 11,302,000 8-3/4
1915-16 7,523,000 7-1/2
1916-17 7,328,000 9-1/8
1917-18 7,793,000 9-1/2
1918-19 8,783,000 8-1/2
1919-20 7,173,000 22-1/4
1920-21 6,909,000 13-1/4
[I] 1 Bag=132.27 lbs.
[Illustration: THE WORLD'S COFFEE CUP AND THE WORLD'S LARGEST SHIP
The statistical sharks talk of the 17,566,000 bags, or 2,318,712,000
pounds of coffee that the world drinks every year; but how many really
appreciate what those huge figures mean? For instance, computing 40 cups
of beverage to the pound, there are more than 90,000,000,000 cups drunk
annually, or enough to fill a gigantic cup 4,000 feet in diameter and 40
feet deep, on which the "Majestic," the world's largest ship, would
appear floating approximately as shown in the drawing.]
For the most part, these figures of exportation are the only ones
available to indicate the actual coffee production in the countries
named. The following additional data, however, will serve to show the
extent to which the coffee-raising industry has developed in most of
these countries, and in a few places of minor importance not named in
the table:
BRAZIL. The coffee industry of Brazil, which has furnished seventy
percent of the world's coffee during the last ten years, has developed
in a century and a half. Brazilian soil first made the acquaintance of
the coffee plant at Pará in 1723. A small export trade to Europe had
developed by 1770, the year when the first plantation was established in
the state of Rio de Janeiro, and from which the country's great industry
really dates. Development at first was apparently slow, as no exports
are recorded until the beginning of the nineteenth century; so that the
history of Brazil's coffee trade is a matter entirely of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. Once started, however, the new line of export
made rapid progress. In 1800, the amount of coffee exported was 1720
pounds, contained in thirteen bags. Twenty years later, 12,896,000
pounds were shipped, the number of bags being 97,498. Ten years later,
in 1830, this amount had increased to 64,051,000 pounds; and in 1840, to
137,300,000 pounds. In 1852-53, the receipts for shipment at the ports
were double that amount, 284,592,000 pounds; in 1860-61 they were
420,420,000 pounds; in 1870-71 they had increased to 427,416,000 pounds;
in 1880-81 they were 764,945,000 pounds; in 1890-91, 739,654,000 pounds;
and at the beginning of this century, 1900-01, they were 1,504,424,000
pounds, having passed the one billion-pound mark in 1896-97. The highest
point of coffee receipts in the country's history was reached in 1906-07
with 2,699,644,694 pounds; and since that year, the amount has staid at
about one and one-half billion pounds. Further expansion in the last
fifteen years has been closely regulated to prevent overproduction.
EXPORTS OF COFFEE FROM THE COFFEE-PRODUCING COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD
_Country_ _Five-Year Average_
South America: _Year_ _Pounds_ _Pounds_
Brazil 1920 1,524,382,650 1,469,949,180
Colombia 1920 190,961,953[c] 172,862,121
Venezuela 1920 73,726,632 110,174,946
Guiana, Br. 1917 267,344 257,152
Guiana, Fr. 1918 1,100 970
Guiana, D. 1918 3,856 923,644[d]
Ecuador 1919 3,729,413 5,843,033
Peru 1919 370,655 455,212
Central America:
Salvador 1920 82,864,668 78,953,339
Nicaragua 1920 15,345,398 23,243,865
Costa Rica 1921[a] 29,401,683 28,667,262
Guatemala 1920 94,205,569 88,213,080
Honduras 1920[b] 1,091,977 646,574
Mexico 1918 30,172,065 47,555,514[d]
West Indies:
Haiti 1920[b] 61,970,694[e] 54,308,959[d]
Dominican Republic 1920 1,361,666 3,497,866
Jamaica 1919 8,246,672 7,918,781
Porto Rico 1921 29,967,879[f] 30,033,471[d][f]
Trinidad & Tobago 1920 73,201 19,639
Martinique 1918 10,358 17,219
Guadeloupe 1918 2,144,855 1,594,146
Dutch East Indies 1920 99,020,453[i] 103,701,297[h]
Pacific Islands:
Br. North Borneo 1918 1,984 6,618
New Caledonia 1916 1,248,024 784,176
New Hebrides 1917 625,224 608,410[g]
Hawaii 1921 4,979,121[f] 4,244,479[d][f]
Réunion 1918 3,527 26,455
Asia:
Aden (Arabia) 1921[b] 9,463,104 10,837,893
Br. India 1920[b] 30,526,832 23,767,744
French Indo-China 1918 79,145 516,978
Africa:
Eritrea 1918 728,840 315,698
Somaliland, Fr. 1917 11,222,736 9,321,930
Somaliland, Br. 1918 440,272 233,908
Somaliland, It. 1918 3,747 3,306
Abyssinia 1917 17,324,223 12,744,406
German East Africa (former) 1913 2,334,450 2,649,047[d]
Br. East African Protectorate 1918 18,735,572 8,397,541
Uganda 1918 9,999,845 5,076,091
Nyasaland 1918 122,796 92,593
Mayotte (including Comoro Is.)1914 3,306 660
Madagascar 1918 707,676 981,047
Angola 1913 10,655,934 10,459,724
Belgian Congo 1919 347,588 186,432[h]
Fr. Equatorial Africa 1916 48,060 47,046
Nigeria 1916 3,527 19,180
Ivory Coast 1918 66,358 49,162
Gold Coast 1917 660 220
French Guinea 1918 1,320 1,320
Spanish Guinea 1918 8,150 3,968[h]
St. Thomas & Prince's Is. 1916 484,350 1,125,448
Liberia 1917 761,300
Cape Verde Islands 1916 1,442,910 1,100,095
[a] Crop year.
[b] Fiscal year.
[c] Including small proportion of unhusked coffee.
[d] Four-year average.
[e] Not including 6,322,167 pounds "triage" or waste coffee.
[f] Including shipments to continental United States.
[g] Two-year average.
[h] Three-year average.
[i] Java and Madura only
It is estimated that the area in the coffee-growing section suitable
for coffee raising covers 1,158,000 square miles, or more than one-third
the area of continental United States. The state of São Paulo is the
chief producing state, and supplies practically half the world's annual
output. Most of this São Paulo coffee is exported through the port of
Santos, which is consequently the leading coffee port of the world.
Besides Santos, the ports of Rio de Janeiro and Victoria are of much
importance in the coffee trade, although some twenty or thirty million
pounds are exported each year through the port of Bahia, and smaller
amounts through various other ports. The crop year of Brazil runs from
July 1 to June 30, the heaviest receipts for shipment coming as a rule
in the months of August, September, and October of each year. One-third
of the season's crop is usually received at ports of shipment before the
last of October, sometimes as early as the latter part of September;
one-half comes in by the middle or last of November; and two-thirds is
usually received, by the end of January.
[Illustration: No. 1--COFFEE EXPORTS, 1850-1920
This diagram shows the exports of the principal coffee-producing
countries, omitting Brazil]
[Illustration: No. 21--1 COFFEE EXPORTS, 1916-1920
This diagram shows the exports of the leading coffee countries (except
Brazil) in a period covering most of the World War]
VENEZUELA. The coffee plant was introduced into Venezuela in 1784, being
brought from Martinique; and the first shipment abroad, consisting of
233 bags, was made five years later. By 1830-31, production had
increased to 25,454,000 pounds; and in the next twenty years, it more
than trebled, amounting to 83,717,000 pounds in 1850-51. Since then,
however, the increase has been much more gradual. In 1881-82, 94,369,000
pounds were produced; and about the same amount, 95,170,000 pounds, in
1889-90. Twentieth-century production has apparently exceeded the
hundred-million mark on the average, although there are no definite
statistics beyond export figures. These showed 86,950,000 pounds sent
abroad in 1904-05; 103,453,000 pounds in 1908-09; and 88,155,000 pounds
in 1918; the trade in the last-named year being cut down by war
conditions. In 1919, the extraordinary amount of 179,414,815 pounds was
exported, the high figure being due to the release of coffee stored from
previous years. It has been estimated that domestic consumption of
coffee would amount to a maximum of 25,000,000 pounds yearly, but may be
much less than that. The United States and France have in the past been
Venezuela's best customers.
COLOMBIA. Prior to 1912, the total production of coffee in Colombia was
around 80,000,000 pounds annually, of which some 3,000,000 or 4,000,000
pounds were consumed in the country itself. But in the last decade
production has been advancing rapidly, and the present production is the
heaviest in the history of the country. The industry has practically
grown up in the last seventy years, the exports for the decade 1852-53
to 1861-62 averaging only about 940,000 pounds; in the decade following,
about 5,700,000 pounds; and, in the ten years from 1872-73 to 1881-82,
about 12,600,000 pounds, according to an unofficial compilation.
Exportations had advanced to about 47,000,000 pounds by 1895; and to
80,000,000 pounds by 1906. As large quantities of Colombian coffee are
shipped out through Venezuela, and because of the lack of detailed
statistics in Colombia, the actual exportation each year is not easy to
determine; but the following figures, obtained by a trade commissioner
of the United States, may be taken as a fairly accurate estimate of
exports from 1906 to 1918:
COLUMBIAN COFFEE EXPORTS
_Year_ _Sacks (138 lbs.)_
1906 605,705
1907 541,300
1908 577,900
1909 673,350
1910 543,000
1911 601,600
1912 888,800
1913 972,000
1914 983,000
1915 1,074,600
1916 1,153,000
1917 1,093,000
1918 1,102,000
[Illustration: No. 3--BRAZIL'S COFFEE EXPORTS, 1850-1920
Diagram based on 5-year averages with quantities given in millions of
pounds]
ECUADOR. Annual production in Ecuador runs from 3,000,000 to 8,000,000
pounds, most of which is exported. The greater part of the production is
sent to Chile and the United States. Production has shown only a gradual
increase since the middle of the nineteenth century, when planters began
to give some attention to coffee cultivation. Exports were about 87,000
pounds in 1855; 296,000 pounds in 1870; and 985,000 pounds in 1877. By
the beginning of the present century, production had reached 6,204,000
pounds; in 1905, it was estimated at 4,861,000 pounds; and in 1910, at
8,682,000 pounds. Exports in 1912 were 6,101,700 pounds; and 7,671,000
pounds in 1918; but there was a falling off to 3,729,000 pounds in 1919.
Several years ago it was estimated that the coffee trees numbered
8,000,000, planted on 32,000 acres.
PERU. Coffee is one of the minor products of Peru, and the country does
not occupy a place of importance in the international coffee trade. The
larger part of the production is apparently consumed in the country
itself. Export figures indicate that the industry is steadily declining.
Exports amounted to 2,267,000 pounds in 1905; to 1,618,000 pounds in
1908; and in the five years ending with 1918, exports averaged only
529,000 pounds; while figures for 1919 show that in that year they fell
still lower, to 370,000 pounds. Production is mainly in the coast lands.
BRITISH GUIANA. The Guianas are the site of the first coffee planting on
the continent of South America; and according to some accounts, the
first in the New World. The plants were brought first into Dutch Guiana,
but there was no planting in what is now British Guiana (then a Dutch
colony) until 1752. Twenty-six years later, 6,041,000 pounds were sent
to Amsterdam from the two ports of Demarara and Berbice; and after the
colony fell into the hands of the English in 1796, cultivation continued
to increase. Exports amounted to 10,845,000 pounds in 1803; and to more
than 22,000,000 pounds in 1810. Then there was a falling off, and the
production in 1828 was 8,893,500 pounds and 3,308,000 pounds in 1836. In
1849 British Guiana exported only 109,600 pounds. For a long period
thereafter there was little production, and practically no exportation;
exports in 1907, for instance, amounting to only 160 pounds. With the
next year, however, a revival of exportation began, and it has continued
to grow since then. In 1908, exports were 88,700 pounds; and for the
succeeding years, up to 1917, the following amounts are recorded: 1909,
96,952 pounds; 1910, 108,378 pounds; 1911, 136,420 pounds; 1912, 144,845
pounds; 1913, 89,376 pounds; 1914, 238,767 pounds; 1915, 172,326 pounds;
1916, 501,183 pounds; 1917, 267,344 pounds. In the last-named year 4,953
acres were in coffee plantations.
FRENCH GUIANA. This colony raises a small amount of coffee for local
consumption, and exports a few hundred pounds; but it is really an
importing and not an exporting colony. Coffee cultivation was never of
much importance, although in 1775 some 72,000 pounds were exported. One
hundred and eighty thousand pounds were harvested in 1860; and 132,000
pounds in 1870, mostly for local consumption.
DUTCH GUIANA. Regular shipments of coffee from Dutch Guiana have been
made for two centuries, beginning--a few years after the plant was
introduced--with a shipment of 6,461 pounds to the mother country in
1723. Seven years later, 472,000 pounds were shipped; and in 1732-33
exportation reached 1,232,000 pounds. Exports were averaging 16,900,000
pounds a year by 1760; and reached almost 20,600,000 pounds in 1777. At
the beginning of the nineteenth century, they amounted to about
17,000,000 pounds; but a few years later fell off to some 7,000,000
pounds, where they remained until about 1840; after which they began
again to decline. Exportation had practically ceased by 1875, only 1,420
pounds going out of the country, although cultivation still continued,
as evidenced by a production of 82,357 pounds in that year. In 1890,
production was only 15,736 pounds, and exports only 476 pounds; but
since then there has been a considerable increase. In 1900, production
amounted to 433,000 pounds, and exports to 424,000 pounds. In 1908,
1,108,000 pounds were grown, of which 310,000 pounds were sent abroad;
and in 1909, the figures were 552,000 pounds produced and 405,000 pounds
exported. No figures are available for production in recent years; but
the exportation of 1,600,000 pounds in 1917 indicates that plantings
have been steadily growing.
OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES. Of the other South American countries,
Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are coffee-importing countries; and the
coffee-raising industry of Paraguay, although more or less promising,
has yet to be developed. In Argentina, a few hundred acres in the
sub-tropical provinces of the north have been planted to coffee; but
coffee-growing will always necessarily remain a very minor industry.
Many attempts have been made to establish the industry in Paraguay,
where favorable conditions obtain, but only a few planters have met with
success. Their product has all been consumed locally. Bolivia has much
land suitable for coffee raising; and it is estimated that production
has reached as high as 1,500,000 pounds a year, but transportation
conditions are such as to hold back development for an indefinite time.
Small amounts are now exported to Chile.
SALVADOR. Coffee was introduced into Salvador in 1852, and immediately
began to spread over the country. Exports were valued at more than
$100,000 in 1865; and by 1874-75 the amount exported had reached
8,500,000 pounds. The first large plantation was established in 1876;
and since then planting has continued, until now practically all the
available coffee land has been taken up. The area in plantations has
been estimated at 166,000 acres, and the annual production at 50,000,000
to 75,000,000 pounds, of which some 5,000,000 pounds are consumed in the
country. Since the beginning of the present century, exports have in
general shown a considerable increase, the figures for 1901 being
50,101,000 pounds; for 1905, 64,480,000 pounds; for 1910, 62,764,000
pounds; for 1915, 67,130,000 pounds; and for 1920, 82,864,000 pounds.
GUATEMALA. Cultivation of coffee in Guatamala became of importance
between 1860 and 1870. In 1860, exports were only about 140,000 pounds;
by 1863, they had increased to about 1,800,000 pounds; and by 1870, to
7,590,000 pounds. In 1880-81, they amounted to 28,976,000 pounds; and in
1883-84, to 40,406,000 pounds. Twenty years later, they had doubled. In
recent years, exports have ranged between 75,000,000 and 100,000,000
pounds; the years from 1909 to 1918 showing the following results,
according to a consular report:
GUATEMALA'S COFFEE EXPORTS
_Cleaned_ _Unshelled_
_Year_ (pounds) (pounds)
1900 92,639,800 23,654,600
1910 50,717,600 19,671,700
1911 60,689,500 20,959,500
1912 14,329,800 60,837,500
1913 70,749,100 20,980,700
1914 71,136,800 14,999,600
1915 69,649,500 9,892,000
1916 85,057,000 3,015,800
1917 89,259,600 1,410,200
1918 77,842,800 511,500
COSTA RICA. Coffee raising in Costa Rica dates from 1779, when the plant
was introduced from Cuba. By 1845, the industry had grown sufficiently
to permit an exportation of 7,823,000 pounds; and twenty years later,
11,143,000 pounds were shipped. Thereafter, production increased
rapidly; so that in 1874, the total exports were 32,670,000 pounds, and
in 1884 they were more than 36,000,000 pounds. In recent years, the
average production has been around 35,000,000 pounds. For the crop years
1916-17 to 1920-21 exports have been:
COSTA RICA'S COFFEE EXPORTS
_Year_ _Pounds_
1916-17 27,044,550
1917-18 25,246,715
1918-19 30,784,184
1919-20 30,860,634
1920-21 29,401,683
NICARAGUA. Production of coffee in Nicaragua began between 1860 and
1870; and in 1875, the yield was estimated at 1,650,000 pounds. By
1879-80, this had increased to 3,579,000 pounds; and by 1889-90, to
8,533,000 pounds. In 1890-91 production was 11,540,000 pounds; and in
1907-08 it was estimated at more than 20,000,000 pounds. Ten years
later, 25,000,000 pounds were produced; and the crop of 1918-19 was
estimated at about 30,000,000 pounds. Lack of transportation, and excess
of political troubles, have been important factors in holding back
development.
HONDURAS. The coffee of Honduras is of very good quality; but production
is small, and the country is not an important factor in international
trade. Exports usually run less than 1,000,000 pounds. The chief
obstacle to expansion is said to be lack of transportation facilities.
BRITISH HONDURAS. This colony grows a little coffee for its own use, but
imports most of what it needs. Production had reached almost 50,000
pounds in 1904; but the present average is only about 10,000 pounds,
raised on scattering trees over about 1,000 acres.
PANAMA. A small amount of coffee, of which occasionally as much as
200,000 or 250,000 pounds a year are exported, is raised in the uplands
of Panama, or is gathered from wild trees. The industry is not of great
importance, and the country imports considerable supplies, mostly from
the United States.
MEXICO. A very good grade of coffee is produced in Mexico; and it is
said that there is sufficient area of good coffee land to take care of
the demand of the world outside of that supplied by Brazil. Production,
however, is limited, and to a large extent goes to satisfy home needs,
leaving only about 50,000,000 pounds for export. In spite of much
government encouragement in past years, coffee cultivation has not made
rapid progress, when we remember that the country became acquainted with
the plant as early as 1790. Not until about 1870 did the country begin
to become important in the list of coffee-exporters; but by 1878-79,
shipments amounted to about 12,000,000 pounds. This steadily increased
to 29,400,000 pounds in 1891-92. Exports in recent years have averaged
about 50,000,000 pounds; but in 1918 were only 30,000,000. Production
has fluctuated greatly. In the years preceding the troubled
revolutionary period, the total output was estimated as follows: 1907,
45,000,000 pounds; 1908, 42,000,000 pounds; 1909, 81,000,000 pounds;
1910, 70,000,000 pounds. In the ten years preceding 1907, production
dropped as low as 22,000,000 pounds in 1902; and rose to 88,500,000
pounds in 1905. Next to the United States, Germany was the chief buyer
of Mexican coffee before the war; although France and Great Britain also
took several million pounds each.
HAITI. For well over a century Haiti has been shipping tens of millions
of pounds of coffee annually; and the product is the mainstay of the
country's economic life. In all that time, however, shipments have
maintained much the same level. The country has been a coffee producer
from the early years of the eighteenth century, when the plants began to
spread from the original sprigs in Guiana or Martinique. After half a
century of growth, exports had risen to 88,360,000 pounds in 1789-90, a
mark that has never again been reached. Since then, exports have ranged
between 40,000,000 and 80,000,000 pounds, keeping close to the lower
mark in recent years because of European conditions. They were
38,000,000 pounds in 1856; 55,750,000 pounds in 1866; and 52,300,000
pounds in 1876. They had reached 84,028,000 pounds in 1887-88; but fell
back to 67,437,000 pounds in 1897-98; and ten years later, were
63,848,000 pounds. In 1917-18, they were only about two-thirds that
amount, or 42,100,000 pounds. Some 8,000,000 pounds are consumed yearly
in the country itself. The coffee plantations cover about 125,000 acres.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Coffee production in the Dominican Republic ranges
between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 pounds, exports in recent years
averaging about 3,500,000 pounds. The quality of the coffee is good; but
the plantations are not well cared for. Until fifty years ago, the
industry was in a state of decline from a condition of former
importance; but it was revived, and by 1881 it supplied 1,400,000 pounds
for export. The amount was 1,480,000 pounds in 1888; 3,950,000 pounds in
1900; 1,540,000 pounds in 1909; and 4,870,000 pounds in 1919. Blight,
and disturbed political conditions, have hampered development. In normal
times, Europe takes most of the export.
JAMAICA. Jamaica began to raise coffee about 1730; and from that time on
there was a steady but slow increase in production. Shipments amounted
to about 60,000 pounds in 1752, and to about 1,800,000 pounds in 1775.
At the beginning of the new century, in 1804, exports of 22,000,000
pounds are recorded; and in 1814 the figure was 34,045,000 pounds. Then
exports gradually fell off, and in 1861 were only 6,700,000 pounds. They
were 10,350,000 pounds in 1874; and since then, have not varied much
from 9,000,000 or 10,000,000 pounds a year. They were 9,363,000 pounds
in 1900; 7,885,000 pounds in 1909; and 8,246,000 pounds in 1919. The
acreage in coffee remains fairly constant, being 24,865 in 1900; 22,275
in 1911; and 20,280 in 1917. It is said that there are 80,000 acres of
good coffee land still uncultivated.
PORTO RICO. The cultivation of coffee in Porto Rico dates back to the
middle of the eighteenth century; but exportation does not seem to have
been much more than a million pounds a year until the first years of the
nineteenth century. Between 1837 and 1840, the average exportation was
about 10,000,000 pounds; and by 1865, this had risen to 24,000,000
pounds. Ten years later, it was 25,700,000 pounds. In recent years, it
has averaged about 37,000,000 pounds; the 1921 figure, including
shipments to continental United States, being 29,968,000 pounds.
Production since 1881 has been between 30,000,000 and 50,000,000 pounds;
the heaviest being in 1896 when the total output was 62,628,337
pounds--the largest figure in the island's history. The industry was
greatly damaged by a disastrous storm in 1900, and was also adversely
affected by the European War, as a large part of Porto Rico's crop goes
to Europe. Porto Rican coffee has not been popular in the United States,
which takes only limited amounts. Cuba is one of the island's best
customers.
GUADELOUPE. Coffee production in Guadeloupe reached its highest point in
the latter part of the eighteenth century, when more than 8,000,000
pounds were raised. The figure was about 6,000,000 in 1808; but the
output declined during the succeeding decades, and forty years later was
only 375,000 pounds. The amount produced in 1885 was 986,000 pounds;
and there has been a gradual increase, so that the crop has been large
enough to permit the exportation of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 pounds, or
more, since the beginning of the present century. Exports in 1901 were
1,449,000 pounds; in 1908, 2,266,000 pounds; and in 1918, 2,144,000
pounds.
OTHER WEST INDIAN ISLANDS. Some little coffee is gathered for home
consumption in many other West Indian islands, but little is exported.
The island of Martinique, which is said to have seen the introduction of
the coffee plant into the western hemisphere, does not now raise enough
for its own use. Cuba was formerly one of the important centers of
production; but for various reasons the industry declined, and for many
years the country has imported most of its coffee supply. A century ago,
the plantations numbered 2,067; and the annual exportation amounted to
50,000,000 pounds. When the island became independent, steps were taken
to revive coffee planting; and in 1907 there were 1,411 plantations and
3,662,850 trees, producing 6,595,700 pounds of coffee. The Cubans,
however, now find it convenient to obtain their coffee from the
neighboring island of Porto Rico and from other sources; and
importations have remained around 20,000,000 pounds a year. In Trinidad
and Tobago, exports have reached as high as 1,000,000 pounds a year; but
in recent times they have fallen off heavily. St. Vincent exported 485
pounds in 1917, and Grenada, 251 pounds in 1916. The Leeward Islands
exported 1,415 pounds in 1917, and 2,946 pounds in 1916, the acreage
being 274, the same as for many years past.
ARABIA. The home of the famous Mocha coffee still produces considerable
quantities of that variety, although the output, comparatively speaking,
is not large. The chief district is the vilayet of Yemen; and the
product reaches the outside world mainly through the port of Aden,
although before the war much of this coffee was exported through
Hodeida. The port of Massowah, in the last two or three years, has been
drawing some of the supply of Mocha for export. No statistics are
available to show the production of Mocha coffee; but an estimate made
by the oldest coffee merchant in Aden places the average annual output
at 45,000 bags of 176 pounds each, or 7,920,000 pounds. Although this is
the only district in the world that can produce the particular grade of
coffee known as Mocha, there is little systematic cultivation, and large
areas of good coffee land are planted to other crops to provide food for
the natives. When transportation facilities are provided, so that this
food can be imported, it is predicted that the output of Mocha coffee
will be doubled.
Aden is a great transhipping port for coffee from Asia and Africa, and
more than half its exports are re-exports from points outside of Arabia.
The following figures will show the proportion of Arabian coffee coming
into Aden for export as compared with that from other producing
sections:
ADEN'S COFFEE RECEIPTS FOR RE-EXPORT
_Imports_ 1916-17 1917-18 1918-19
_from_ (pounds) (pounds) (pounds)
Abyssinia (via Jibuti) 4,529,280 6,174,896 4,337,760
Mocha and Ghizan 3,555,104 6,562,752 3,075,024
Somaliland (British) 394,128 396,592 245,840
Straits Settlements 672,224
Zanzibar and Pemba 92,512 795,312 764,288
All other countries 162,064 307,104 323,616
--------- ---------- ---------
Total 9,405,312 14,236,656 8,746,528
BRITISH INDIA. Cultivation of coffee was begun systematically in India
in 1840; and twenty years later, the country exported about 5,860,000
pounds. For the next eight years the exports remained at about that
figure; but in 1859 they amounted to 11,690,000 pounds; and by 1864 they
had doubled, rising in that year to 26,745,000 pounds. They have
continued at between 20,000,000 and 60,000,000 pounds ever since,
reaching their highest point in 1872 with 56,817,000 pounds. In recent
years, production and exportation have declined; the exports in 1920
being only 30,526,832 pounds. The area under coffee has been between
200,000 and 300,000 acres for fifty years or more, reaching its highest
point in 1896, with 303,944 acres. Recently the area has been slowly
decreasing.
CEYLON. The island of Ceylon was formerly one of the important producers
of coffee; and the industry was a flourishing one until about 1869, when
a disease appeared that in ten or fifteen years practically ruined the
plantations. Production has gone on since then, but at a steadily
declining rate. In late years, the island has not produced enough for
its own use, and is now ranked as an importer rather than as an
exporter. It is said that systematic cultivation was carried on in
Ceylon by the Dutch as early as 1690; and shipments of 10,000 to 90,000
pounds a year were made all through the eighteenth century, exports in
one year, 1741, going as high as 370,000 pounds. The English took the
island in 1795, and thirty years later, they began to expand
cultivation. Exports had risen to 12,400,000 pounds in 1836; and they
continued to increase to a high point of 118,160,000 pounds in 1870; but
in the next thirty years they declined, until they were only 1,147,000
pounds in 1900. The total acreage in coffee at one time reached as high
as 340,000; but as the coffee trees were affected by the leaf disease,
this land was turned to tea; and in 1917 there were only 810 acres left
in coffee.
DUTCH EAST INDIES. The year 1699 saw the importation from the Malabar
coast of India to Java of the coffee plants which were destined to be
the progenitors of the tens of millions of trees that have made the
Dutch East Indies famous for two hundred years. Twelve years afterward,
the first trickle of the stream of coffee that has continued to flow
ever since found its way from Java to Holland, in a shipment of 894
pounds. About 216,000 pounds were exported in 1721; and soon thereafter,
shipments rose into the millions of pounds.
From 1721 to 1730 the Netherlands East India Co. marketed 25,048,000
pounds of Java coffee in Holland; and in the decade following,
36,845,000 pounds. Shipments from Java continued at about the latter
rate until the close of the century, although in the ten years 1771-80
they reached a total of 51,319,000 pounds. The total sales of Java
coffee in Holland for the century were somewhat more than a quarter of a
billion pounds, which represented pretty closely the amount produced.
With the beginning of the nineteenth century, coffee production soon
became much heavier; and in 1825 Java exported, of her own production,
some 36,500,000 pounds, besides 1,360,000 pounds brought from
neighboring islands to which the cultivation had spread. In 1855, the
amount was 168,100,000 pounds of Java coffee, and 4,080,000 pounds of
coffee from the other islands. This is the highest record for the
half-century following the beginning of the regular reports of exports
in 1825. From 1875 to 1879 the average annual yield was 152,184,000
pounds. In 1900, production in Java was 84,184,000 pounds; in 1910, it
was 31,552,000 pounds, and in 1915 it had jumped to 73,984,000 pounds.
On the west coast of Sumatra coffee was regularly cultivated, according
to one account, as early as 1783; but it was not until about 1800, that
exportation began, with about 270,000 pounds. By 1840, exports were
averaging 11,000,000 to 12,250,000 pounds per year. Official records of
production date from 1852, in which year the figures were 16,714,000
pounds. Five years later the recorded yield was 25,960,000 pounds, the
high-water mark of Sumatra production. The total output in 1860 was
21,400,000 pounds; and 22,275,000 pounds in 1870. The average from 1875
to 1879 was 17,408,000 pounds; and from 1895 to 1899, it was 7,589,000
pounds. The yield was 5,576,000 pounds in 1900; 1,360,000 in 1910; and
7,752,000 in 1915.
In Celebes, the first plants were set out about 1750; but seventy years
later production was only some 10,000 pounds. This soon increased to
half a million pounds; and from 1835 to 1852 the yield ran between
340,000 and 1,768,000 pounds. From 1875 to 1879, production averaged
2,176,000 pounds; from 1885 to 1889, 2,747,000 pounds; and from 1895 to
1899, 707,000 pounds. In 1900, it was 680,000 pounds; in 1910, 272,000
pounds; and in 1915, 272,000 pounds.
Planting under government control, largely with forced labor, has been
the special feature of coffee cultivation in the Dutch East Indies. At
first the government exercised what was practically a monopoly; but
private planting was more and more permitted; and in the latter part of
the nineteenth century, the amount of coffee produced on private
plantations exceeded that raised by the government. The government has
now entirely given up the business of coffee production.
The total production of coffee in Java, Sumatra, and Celebes, in 1920,
in piculs of 136 pounds, was as follows:
DUTCH EAST INDIES' COFFEE PRODUCTION
_Kind of_ _Quantity Produced in_
_Coffee_ Java Sumatra Celebes Total
and Bali
(piculs) (piculs) (piculs) (piculs)
Liberica 14,972 6,243 2,074 23,289
Java 16,312 24,291 70,621 111,224
Robusta 411,235 256,645 4,998 672,878
------- ------- ------ -------
Total 442,519 287,179 77,693 807,391
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. Trade in coffee is a transhipping trade, Singapore
acting as a clearing center for large quantities of coffee from the
neighboring islands. In 1920, the imports were 25,914,267 pounds; and
the exports, 26,856,000 pounds.
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. The acreage in coffee in the Federated Malay
States is steadily declining. In 1903, coffee plantations covered 22,700
acres; in 1913, 7,695 acres; and in 1916, 4,312 acres. There was
formerly a considerable export; but apparently local production is now
required for home consumption, as in 1920 exports were practically
nothing, and about 9,800 pounds were imported.
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. Total exports of coffee have reached as high as
50,000 pounds, which was the figure in 1904; but they are much less now;
being 5,973 pounds in 1915; 15,109 pounds in 1916; and 1,980 pounds in
1918.
SARAWAK. Previous to 1912, the exportation of coffee from Sarawak, was
20,000 to 45,000 pounds annually. In 1912, a coffee estate of 300 acres
was abandoned, and since that time there have been no exports.
PHILIPPINES. Coffee raising was formerly one of the chief industries of
the Philippines; but it has now greatly declined, partly because of the
blight. Exports reached their highest point in 1883, when 16,805,000
pounds were shipped. Since then, they have fallen off steadily to
nothing; and the islands are now importers, although still producing
considerable for their own use. The area still under cultivation in 1920
was 2,700 acres; and the production in that year was given as 2,710,000
pounds, as compared with 1,580,000 pounds in 1919, and an average of
1,500,000 pounds for the previous five years.
GUAM. Coffee is a common plant on the island but is not systematically
cultivated. There is no exportation, but a Navy Department report says
that the possible export is not less than seventy-five tons annually.
HAWAII. A certain amount of coffee has been produced in the Hawaiian
Islands for many years, exports being recorded as 49,000 pounds in 1861;
as 452,000 pounds in 1870; and as 143,000 pounds in 1877. The trees grow
on all the islands; but nearly all the coffee produced is raised on
Hawaii. The trees are not carefully cultivated; but the coffee has an
excellent flavor. The amount of land planted to coffee is about 6,000
acres. The exports go mostly to continental United States. The exports
are increasing, the figures up to 1909 ranging usually between 1,000,000
and 2,000,000 pounds, and now usually running between 2,000,000 and
5,000,000 pounds. Including shipments to continental United States,
Hawaii exported 5,775,825 pounds in 1918; 3,649,672 pounds in 1919;
2,573,300 pounds in 1920; and 4,979,121 pounds in 1921.
AUSTRALIA. Queensland is the only state of the Commonwealth in which
coffee growing has been at all extensively tried; and here the results
have, up to the present time, been far from satisfactory. The total area
devoted to this crop reached its highest point in the season 1901-02
when an area of 547 acres was recorded. The area then continuously
declined to 1906-07, when it was as low as 256 acres. In subsequent
seasons the area fluctuated somewhat; but, on the whole, with a downward
tendency. In 1919-20, only 24 productive acres were recorded, with a
yield of 16,101 pounds. The country is now listed among the consuming
rather than the producing countries.
ABYSSINIA. This country, usually credited with being the original home
of the coffee plant, still has, in its southern part, vast forests of
wild coffee whose extent is unknown, but whose total production is
believed to be immense. It is of inferior grade, and reaches the market
as "Abyssinian" coffee. There is also a large district of coffee
plantations producing a very good grade called "Harari", which is
considered almost, if not quite, the equal of the Arabian Mocha. This is
usually shipped to Aden for re-export. Abyssinia's coffee reaches the
outside world through three different gateways; and as the neighboring
countries, through which the produce passes, also produce coffee, no
accurate statistics are available to show the country's annual export.
The total probably ranges from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 pounds a year.
Coffee was shipped from Abyssinia to the extent of 6,773,800 pounds in
1914, over the Franco-Ethiopian railroad; 10,054,000 pounds in 1915; and
9,064,000 pounds in 1916. Export figures of the port of Massowah include
a large amount of Abyssinian coffee, but the proportion is unknown. At
this port 108,680 pounds of coffee were exported in 1914; and 1,221,880
pounds in 1915. Abyssinian coffee exported by way of the Sudan amounted
to 232,616 pounds in 1914; to 140,461 pounds in 1915; and to 4,164,600
pounds in 1916.
BRITISH EAST AFRICAN PROTECTORATE. The acreage in coffee has greatly
increased in recent years. It was estimated at 1,000 acres in 1911; and
by 1916, it had grown to 22,200 acres. Production, as shown by the
exports, has likewise increased greatly; and exports in recent years
have averaged about 8,000,000 pounds a year. They were 10,984,000 pounds
in 1917; and were 18,735,000 pounds in 1918.
UGANDA PROTECTORATE. The acreage in coffee has been steadily increasing,
as shown by the following figures: 1910, 697 acres; 1914, 19,278 acres;
1916, 23,857 acres; 1917, 22,745 acres. In 1909, 33,440 pounds of coffee
were produced; and by 1918, this had grown to 10,000,000 pounds. The
average for the five years, 1914-18, was 5,076,000 pounds.
NYASALAND PROTECTORATE. Twenty-five years ago, this colony exported
coffee in amounts ranging from 300,000 to more than 2,000,000 pounds.
Production has now so declined, that only 122,000 pounds were exported
in 1918; and the average for recent years has been about 92,000 pounds.
The acreage in bearing in 1903 was 8,234; and in 1917 it was 1,237.
NIGERIA. Production has been falling off in recent years. Exports were
35,000 pounds in 1896; 57,000 pounds in 1901; and 70,000 pounds in 1909.
In 1916 and 1917, however, they were only about 3,000 pounds.
GOLD COAST. This colony formerly produced considerable coffee, exporting
142,000 pounds in 1896. There have been no exports in recent years,
except about 440 pounds in 1916, and 660 pounds in 1917.
SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE. Exports of coffee were more than 7,500,000
pounds in 1897, indicating a very extensive production. But since then,
there has been a steady decline; and in 1918 only about 440,000 pounds
were shipped.
SOMALI COAST (FRENCH). Exports of coffee from this colony amounted to
more than 5,000,000 pounds in 1902; and since then, they have remained
fairly steadily at that figure, showing considerable increase in late
years. Total exports in 1917 were 11,200,000 pounds.
ITALIAN SOMALILAND. Some coffee appears to be grown in this colony; but
exports have been inconsiderable for many years.
SIERRA LEONE. Production has been steadily declining for twenty years.
Exports were 33,376 pounds in 1903; 17,096 pounds in 1913; and 8,228
pounds in 1917.
MAURITIUS. In former times this island was an important coffee producer,
exports in the early part of the nineteenth century running as high as
600,000 pounds. Today there is practically no export, and only about 30
acres are in bearing, producing 4,000 to 8,000 pounds a year.
RÉUNION. This island also was once a notable grower of coffee. A century
ago, production was estimated as high as 10,000,000 pounds; and this
rate of output continued well through the nineteenth century. In the
present century, production has fallen off; and only about 530,000
pounds were exported in 1909. The decrease has continued, so that the
average in recent years has been only about 25,000 pounds.
_Coffee Consumption_
Of the million or more tons of coffee produced in the world each year,
practically all--with the exception of that which is used in the
coffee-growing countries themselves--is consumed by the United States
and western Europe, the British dominions, and the non-producing
countries of South America. Over that vast stretch of territory
beginning with western Russia, and extending over almost the whole of
Asia, coffee is very little known. In the consuming regions mentioned,
moreover, consumption is concentrated in a few countries, which together
account for some ninety percent of all the coffee that enters the
world's markets. These are, the United States, which now takes more than
one-half, and Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium,
Switzerland, and Scandinavia.
The United Kingdom stands out conspicuously among the nations of western
Europe as a small consumer of coffee, the per capita consumption in that
country being only about two-thirds of a pound each year. France and
Germany are by far the biggest coffee buyers of Europe so far as actual
quantity is concerned; although some of the other countries mentioned
drink much more coffee in proportion to the population. The
Mediterranean countries and the Balkans are of only secondary
importance as coffee drinkers. Among the British dominions, the Union of
South Africa takes much the largest amount, doubtless because of the
Dutch element in its population; while Canada, Australia, and New
Zealand show the influence of the mother country, consumption per head
in the last two being no greater than in England.
[Illustration: No. 4--WORLD'S COFFEE CONSUMPTION, 1850-1920
Diagram showing the relationship between the leading coffee-consuming
countries]
In South America, Brazil, Bolivia, and all the countries to the north,
are coffee producers. Of the southern countries, Argentina is the chief
coffee buyer, with Chile second. In the western hemisphere, however, the
largest per capita coffee consumer is the island of Cuba, which raises
some coffee of its own and imports heavily from its neighbors.
The list of coffee-consuming countries includes practically all those
that do not raise coffee, and also a few that have some coffee
plantations, but do not grow enough for their own use. These countries
are listed on page 287. Consumption figures can be determined with fair
accuracy by the import figures; although in some countries, where there
is a considerable transit trade, it is necessary to deduct export from
import figures to obtain actual consumption figures. The import figures
given are the latest available for each country named.
[Illustration: No. 5--COFFEE IMPORTS, 1916-1920
In this diagram a comparison is drawn between the coffee imports of the
leading consuming countries over a critical 5-year period]
GENERAL COFFEE CONSUMPTION TABLE
_Country_ _Year_ _Imports_ _Exports_ _Consumption_
(pounds) (pounds) (pounds)
United States 1921[j] 1,345,366,943[k] 41,813,197[k] 1,303,553,746
Canada 1921[l] 17,517,353 20,349 17,497,004
Newfoundland 1920[l] 46,813[m] 46,813
United Kingdom 1921[j] 34,363,728[m] 34,360,128
France 1921[j] 322,419,884 1,154,769 321,265,115
Spain 1920 48,518,854 5,033 48,513,821
Portugal 1919[j] 6,926,575 1,258,271 5,668,304
Belgium 1921[j] 105,365,586 21,541,049 83,824,537
Holland 1921[j] 135,566,943 66,567,702 69,999,241
Denmark 1921[j] 46,571,954 3,449,537 43,122,417
Norway 1921[j] 29,835,544 169,921 29,665,623
Sweden 1921[j] 89,660,766 89,660,766
Finland 1921[j] 27,968,355 27,968,355
Russia 1916 9,801,014 9,801,014
Austria-Hungary 1917 17,966,167 56,217 17,909,950
(former)
Austria 1921[n] 5,128,781 79,365 5,049,416
Germany (former) 1913 371,130,520 1,783,521 369,346,999
Germany (present) 1921[o] 167,675,258 210,535 167,464,723
Poland 1920 7,612,526 26,781 7,585,745
Bulgaria 1914 1,300,493 1,300,493
Rumania 1919 5,134,198 66,757 5,067,441
Greece 1920[p] 13,118,626 13,118,626
Switzerland 1921[j] 31,582,879 47,619 31,535,260
Italy 1920 66,509,255 14,330 66,494,925
Algeria 1920 17,273,041 17,273,041
Tunis 1920 3,458,018 3,458,018
Egypt 1921[j] 20,939,542 218,938 20,720,604
Union of S. Africa 1920 28,752,538 954,181[q] 27,798,357
Northern Rhodesia 1920 43,880 8,263 35,617
Southern Rhodesia 1920 325,900 10,064 315,836
Mozambique 1919 111,614 78,973 32,641
Ceylon 1920 1,853,537 2,240 1,851,297
China 1920 613,217 297,663 315,554
Japan 1920 684,826 684,826
Philippines 1920 3,475,530 26 3,475,504
Canary Islands 1917 529,104 529,104
Cyprus 1918 451,880 451,880
Australia 1920[l] 2,502,429 263,430[r] 2,238,999
New Zealand 1920 304,737 21,104 283,633
Cuba 1920[l] 39,983,001 1,305 39,981,696
Martinique 1918 335,099 10,362 324,737
Panama 1920 216,923 518 216,405
Argentina 1919 37,541,020 37,541,020
Chile 1920 12,357,929 12,357,929
Uruguay 1921[p] 4,896,507 4,896,507
Paraguay 1920 262,737 262,737
[j] Preliminary figures.
[k] Figures are for continental U.S. Imports include both foreign coffee
and coffee from our Island possessions. Exports Include both foreign and
domestic exports from continental U.S. and also exports to our island
possessions.
[l] Fiscal year.
[m] Entered for home consumption.
[n] First six months. Imports in 1920 were 6,042,808 pounds; exports
93,034 pounds.
[o] Eight months, May-December.
[p] First eleven months.
[q] Exports of foreign coffee. Domestic exports were 48,463 pounds.
[r] Exports of foreign coffee. Domestic exports were 208,445 pounds.
On account of the very wide fluctuations in imports during the war and
the period following the war, per capita figures of consumption are of
only relative value, as they have naturally changed radically in recent
years. For the most part, however, the trade has about swung back to
normal; and per capita figures based on the amounts retained for
consumption, as given in the General Coffee Consumption Table, are
fairly close to those for the years before the war. As per capita
calculations must take into account population as well as amounts of
coffee consumed; and as population figures are usually estimates, the
results arrived at by different authorities are likely to vary slightly,
although usually they are not far apart. In figuring the per capita
amounts in the table on page 288, latest available estimates of
population have been used. The figures show that the following are the
ten leading countries in the per capita consumption of coffee in pounds:
1. Sweden 15.25 6. Norway 10.95
2. Cuba 13.79 7. Holland 10.22
3. Denmark 13.19 8. Finland 8.25
4. United States 12.09 9. Switzerland 8.17
5. Belgium 11.06 10. France 7.74
The per capita consumption of the most important coffee-consuming
countries, based on the large table, is given with the 1913 per capita
figures for comparison:
PER CAPITA COFFEE CONSUMPTION TABLE
_Country Year Pounds Pds_., 1913
United States 1921 12.09 8.90[t]
Canada 1921[s] 1.93 2.17[u]
Newfoundland 1920[s] 0.19 0.19[t]
United Kingdom 1921 0.72 0.61[t]
France 1921 7.74 6.41
Spain 1920 2.33 1.64
Portugal 1919 0.86 1.16
Belgium 1921 11.06 12.27
Holland 1921 10.22 18.80
Denmark 1921 13.19 12.85
Norway 1921 10.95 12.29
Sweden 1921 15.25 13.41
Finland 1921 8.25 8.85
Russia 1916 0.05 0.16
Austria-Hungary 1917 0.34 2.54
Germany 1921 4.10 5.43
Roumania 1919 0.29 1.04
Greece 1920 2.97 1.19
Switzerland 1921 8.17 6.48
Italy 1920 1.84 1.79
Egypt 1921 1.53 1.15
Union of So. Africa 1920 3.80[v] 4.19[v]
Ceylon 1920 0.43 0.36
China 1920 0.001 0.01
Japan 1920 0.01 0.004
Cuba 1920[s] 13.79 10.00
Argentina 1919 4.40 3.74
Chile 1920 3.06 3.04
Uruguay 1921 3.61 [w]
Paraguay 1920 0.26 [w]
Australia 1920[s] 0.42 0.64
New Zealand 1920 0.24 0.29
[s] Fiscal year.
[t] Fiscal year 1913.
[u] Fiscal year ending March 31, 1914.
[v] Including both white and colored population.
[w] Not available.
_Tea and Coffee in England and the U. S_.
The rise of the United States as a coffee consumer in the last century
and a quarter has been marked, not only by steadily increased imports as
the population of the country increased, but also by a steady growth in
per capita consumption, showing that the beverage has been continually
advancing in favor with the American people. Today it stands at
practically its highest point, each individual man, woman, and child
having more than 12 pounds a year, enough for almost 500 cups, allotted
to him as his portion. This is four times as much as it was a hundred
years ago; and more than twice as much as it was in the years
immediately following the Civil War. In general it is fifty percent more
than the average in the twenty years preceding 1897, in which year a new
high level of coffee consumption was apparently established, the per
capita figure for that year being 10.12 pounds, which has been
approximately the average since then.
[Illustration: No. 6--WORLD'S CONSUMPTION OF TEA AND COFFEE
Diagram showing their relationship, 1860-1920]
Since the advent of country-wide prohibition in the United States on
July 1, 1919, about two pounds more coffee per person, or 80 to 100
cups, have been consumed than before. Part of this increase is doubtless
to be charged to prohibition; but it is yet too early to judge fairly as
to the exact effect of "bone-dry" legislation on coffee drinking. The
continued growth in the use of coffee in the United States has been in
decided contrast to the per capita consumption of tea, which is less now
than half a century ago.
In the United Kingdom, the reverse condition prevails. Tea drinking
there steadily maintains a popularity which it has enjoyed for
centuries; while coffee apparently makes no advance in favor. In this
respect, the country is sharply distinguished from its neighbors of
western Europe, in many of which coffee drinking has been much heavier,
considering the population, even than in the United States. The contrast
between the tastes of the two countries in beverages is shown clearly by
the per capita figures of tea and coffee consumption for half a century,
as they appear in the table, next column.
TEA AND COFFEE CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA
_Year United States United Kingdom_
Coffee Tea Coffee Tea
pounds pounds pounds pounds
1866 4.96 1.17 1.02 3.42
1867 5.01 1.09 1.04 3.68
1868 6.52 .96 1.00 3.52
1869 6.45 1.08 .94 3.63
1870 6.00 1.10 .98 3.81
1871 7.91 1.14 .97 3.92
1872 7.28 1.46 .98 4.01
1873 6.87 1.53 .99 4.11
1874 6.59 1.27 .96 4.23
1875 7.08 1.44 .98 4.44
1876 7.33 1.35 .99 4.50
1877 6.94 1.23 .96 4.52
1878 6.24 1.33 .97 4.66
1879 7.42 1.21 .99 4.68
1880 8.78 1.39 .92 4.57
1881 8.25 1.54 .89 4.58
1882 8.30 1.47 .89 4.69
1883 8.91 1.30 .89 4.82
1884 9.26 1.09 .90 4.90
1885 9.60 1.18 .91 5.06
1886 9.36 1.37 .87 4.92
1887 8.53 1.49 .80 5.02
1888 6.81 1.49 .83 5.03
1889 9.16 1.25 .76 4.99
1890 7.77 1.32 .75 5.17
1891 7.94 1.28 .76 5.36
1892 9.59 1.36 .74 5.43
1893 8.23 1.32 .69 5.40
1894 8.01 1.34 .68 5.51
1895 9.24 1.39 .70 5.65
1896 8.08 1.32 .69 5.75
1897 10.04 1.56 .68 5.79
1898 11.59 .93 .68 5.83
1899 10.72 .97 .71 5.95
1900 9.84 1.09 .71 6.07
1901 10.43 1.12 .76 6.16
1902 13.32 .92 .68 6.07
1903 10.80 1.27 .71 6.04
1904 11.67 1.31 .68 6.02
1905 11.98 1.19 .67 6.02
1906 9.72 1.06 .66 6.22
1907 11.15 .96 .67 6.26
1908 9.82 1.03 .66 6.24
1909 11.43 1.24 .67 6.37
1910 9.33 .89 .65 6.39
1911 9.29 1.05 .62 6.47
1912 9.26 1.04 .61 6.49
1913 8.90 .96 .61 6.68
1914 10.14 .91 .63 6.89
1915 10.62 .91 .71 6.87
1916 11.20 1.07 .66 6.56
1917 12.38 .99 1.02 6.03
1918 10.43 1.40 1.19 6.75
1919 9.13 .87 .76 8.43
1920 12.78 .84 .74 8.51
Figures for all except most recent years are taken
from the _Statistical Abstract_ publications of
the two countries. For the United States the figures
given apply to fiscal years ending June 30, and for
the United Kingdom to calendar years.
_Coffee Consumption in Europe_
On the continent of Europe, however, coffee enjoys much the same sort of
popularity that it does in the United States. The leading continental
coffee ports are Hamburg, Bremen, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam,
Antwerp, Havre, Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Trieste; and the nationalities
of these ports indicate pretty well the countries that consume the most
coffee. The northern ports are transhipping points for large quantities
of coffee going to the Scandinavian countries, as well as importing
ports for their own countries; and these countries have been among the
leading coffee drinkers, per head of population, for many decades.
Norway, for instance, in 1876 was consuming about 8.8 pounds of coffee
per person; Sweden, 5 pounds; and Denmark, 5.2 pounds. The per capita
consumption of various other countries at about the same period, 1875 to
1880, has been estimated as follows: Holland, 17.6 pounds; Belgium, 9.1
pounds; Germany, 5.1 pounds; Austria-Hungary, 2.2 pounds; Switzerland,
6.6 pounds; Prance, 3 pounds; Spain, 0.2 pounds; Portugal, 0.7 pounds;
and Greece, 1.6 pounds.
Today, the leading country of the world in point of per capita
consumption is Sweden (15.25 pounds); but Holland held that position for
a long while. During the World War the disturbance of trade currents,
and the high price of coffee, greatly reduced the amount of coffee
drinking; and the Dutch took to drinking tea in considerable
quantities.
FRANCE. Second only to the United States, in the total amount of coffee
consumed, is France; although that country before the war occupied third
place, being passed by Germany. Havre is one of the great coffee ports
of Europe; and has a coffee exchange organized in 1882, only a short
time after the Exchange in New York began operations. France draws on
all the large producing regions for her coffee; but is especially
prominent in the trade in the West Indies and the countries around the
Caribbean Sea. Imports in 1921 (preliminary) amounted to 322,419,884
pounds; exports to 1,154,769 pounds; and net consumption, to 321,265,115
pounds.
GERMANY. Hamburg is one of the world's important coffee ports; and in
normal times coffee is brought there in vast amounts, not only for
shipment into the interior of Germany, but also for transhipment to
Scandinavia, Finland and Russia. Up to the outbreak of the war, Germany
was the chief coffee-drinking country of Europe. During the blockade,
the Germans resorted to substitutes; and after the war because of high
prices, there was still some consumption of them. German coffee imports
since the war have not quite climbed back to their former high mark; and
the per capita consumption, judged by these figures is still somewhat
low. Importations amounted to 90,602,000 pounds in 1920. The amount of
total imports was 371,130,520 pounds in 1913; total exports, 1,783,521
pounds; and net imports, 369,346,999 pounds.
NETHERLANDS. Netherlands is one of the oldest coffee countries of
Europe, and for centuries has been a great transhipping agent,
distributing coffee from her East Indian possessions and from America
among her northern neighbors. Before sending these coffee shipments
along, however, she kept back enough plentifully to supply her own
people, so that for many years before the war she led the world in per
capita consumption. As far back as 1867-76, coffee consumption was
averaging more than 13 pounds per capita. In the year before the war,
the average was 18.8 pounds. The blockade, and other abnormal conditions
during the war, threw the trade off; and it is still sub-normal. In 1920
the net imports were about 96,000,000 pounds, which would give a per
capita consumption of about 14 pounds if it all went into consumption.
But part of it was probably stored for later exportation, as indicated
by the figures for 1921, which show heavy exports and a consequent lower
figure for consumption. Eighty percent of the Netherlands coffee trade
is handled through Amsterdam.
Consumption of coffee is now slowly going back to normal, but the change
in source of imports--which before the war came largely from Brazil but
which war conditions turned heavily toward the East Indies--is still in
evidence. Per capita consumption of coffee in Holland up to the outbreak
of the war was as follows:
COFFEE CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA IN HOLLAND
_Year Pounds Year Pounds_
1847-56 9.6 1907 14.9
1857-66 7.1 1908 14.3
1867-76 13.3 1909 16.7
1877-86 16.7 1910 15.7
1887-96 12.8 1911 15.8
1897-1906 16.7 1912 12.3
1906 17.2 1913 18.8
OTHER COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are all heavy
coffee drinkers. In 1921 Sweden had the highest per capita consumption
in the world, 15.25 pounds. Before the war, these three countries each
consumed about as much per capita as the United States does today, 12 to
13 pounds. The 1921 imports for consumption[317] were as follows:
Denmark, 43,122,417 pounds; Norway, 29,665,623 pounds; Sweden,
89,660,766 pounds. Austria-Hungary was formerly an important buyer of
coffee, large quantities coming into the country yearly through Trieste.
Imports in 1913 totaled 130,951,000 pounds; and in 1912, 124,527,000
pounds. In 1917 the war cut down the total to 17,910,000 pounds net
consumption. Finland shares with her neighbors of the Baltic a strong
taste for coffee, importing, in 1921, 27,968,000 pounds, about 8.25
pounds per capita. In the same year, Belgium had a net importation of
83,824,000 pounds.
Spain, in 1920, consumed 48,513,821 pounds. Portugal, in 1919, imported
6,926,575 pounds; and exported 1,258,271 pounds, leaving 5,668,304
pounds for home consumption. Coffee is not especially popular in the
Balkan States and Italy; importations into the last-named country in
1920 amounting to 66,494,925 pounds net. Switzerland is a steady coffee
drinker, consuming 31,535,260 pounds in 1921. Russia was never fond of
coffee; and her total imports in 1917, according to a compilation made
under Soviet auspices, were only 4,464,000 pounds.
[Illustration: A MEETING OF THE COFFEE BROKERS OF AMSTERDAM, 1820
Reproduced from an old print]
OTHER COUNTRIES. The Union of South Africa, in 1920, imported 27,798,000
pounds net, or about 3.8 pounds per capita. Cuba purchased 39,981,696
pounds in the fiscal year 1920; Argentina, 37,541,000 pounds in 1919;
Chile, 12,358,000 pounds in 1920; Australia, 2,239,000 pounds in 1920;
and New Zealand, 283,633 pounds in that year.
_Three Centuries of Coffee Trading_
The story of the development of the world's coffee trade is a story of
about three centuries. When Columbus sailed for the new world, the
coffee plant was unknown even as near its original home as his native
Italy. In its probable birthplace in southern Abyssinia, the natives had
enjoyed its use for a long time, and it had spread to southwestern
Arabia; but the Mediterranean knew nothing of it until after the
beginning of the sixteenth century. It then crept slowly along the coast
of Asia Minor, through Syria, Damascus, and Aleppo, until it reached
Constantinople about 1554. It became very popular; coffee houses were
opened, and the first of many controversies arose. But coffee made its
way against all opposition, and soon was firmly established in Turkish
territory.
In those deliberate times, the next step westward, from Asia to Europe,
was not taken for more than fifty years. In general, its introduction
and establishment in Europe occupied the whole of the seventeenth
century.
The greatest pioneering work in coffee trading was done by the
Netherlands East India Company, which began operations in 1602. The
enterprise not only promoted the spread of coffee growing in two
hemispheres; but it was active also in introducing the sale of the
product in many European countries.
Coffee reached Venice about 1615, and Marseilles about 1644. The French
began importing coffee in commercial quantities in 1660. The Dutch began
to import Mocha coffee regularly at Amsterdam in 1663; and by 1679 the
French had developed a considerable trade in the berry between the
Levant and the cities of Lyons and Marseilles. Meanwhile, the coffee
drink had become fashionable in Paris, partly through its use by the
Turkish ambassador, and the first Parisian _café_ was opened in 1672. It
is significant of its steady popularity since then that the name _café_,
which is both French and Spanish for coffee, has come to mean a general
eating or drinking place.
[Illustration: BILL OF PUBLIC SALE OF COFFEE, ETC., 1790
Reproduction of an advertisement by the Dutch East India Company]
Active trading in coffee began in Germany about 1670, and in Sweden
about 1674.
Trading in coffee in England followed swiftly upon the heels of the
opening of the first coffee house in London in 1652. By 1700, the trade
included not only exporting and importing merchants, but wholesale and
retail dealers; the latter succeeding the apothecaries who, up to then,
had enjoyed a kind of monopoly of the business.
Trade and literary authorities[318] on coffee trading tell us that in
the early days of the eighteenth century the chief supplies of coffee
for England and western Europe came from the East Indies and Arabia. The
Arabian, or--as it was more generally known--Turkey berry, was bought
first-hand by Turkish merchants, who were accustomed to travel inland in
Arabia Felix, and to contract with native growers.
It was moved thence by camel transport through Judea to Grand Cairo,
_via_ Suez, to be transhipped down the Nile to Alexandria, then the
great shipping port for Asia and Europe. By 1722, 60,000 to 70,000 bales
of Turkish (Arabian) coffee a year were being received in England, the
sale price at Grand Cairo being fixed by the Bashaw, who "valorized" it
according to the supply. "Indian" coffee, which was also grown in
Arabia, was brought to Bettelfukere (Beit-el-fakih) in the mountains of
southwestern Arabia, where English, Dutch, and French factors went to
buy it and to transport it on camels to Moco (Mocha), whence it was
shipped to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope.
In the beginning, "Indian" coffee was inferior to Turkish coffee;
because it was the refuse, or what remained after the Turkish merchants
had taken the best. But after the European merchants began to make their
own purchases at Bettelfukere, the character of the "Indian" product as
sold in the London and other European markets was vastly improved.
Doubtless the long journey in sailing vessels over tropic seas made for
better quality. It was estimated that Arabia in this way exported about
a million bushels a year of "Turkish" and "Indian" coffee.
The coffee houses became the gathering places for wits, fashionable
people, and brilliant and scholarly men, to whom they afforded
opportunity for endless gossip and discussion. It was only natural that
the lively interchange of ideas at these public clubs should generate
liberal and radical opinions, and that the constituted authorities
should look askance at them. Indeed the consumption of coffee has been
curiously associated with movements of political protest in its whole
history, at least up to the nineteenth century.
Coffee has promoted clear thinking and right living wherever introduced.
It has gone hand in hand with the world's onward march toward democracy.
As already told in this work, royal orders closed the coffee houses for
short periods in Constantinople and in London; Germany required a
license for the sale of the beverage; the French Revolution was fomented
in coffee-house meetings; and the real cradle of American liberty is
said to have been a coffee house in New York. It is interesting also to
note that, while the consumption of coffee has been attended by these
agitations for greater liberty for three centuries, its production for
three centuries, in the Dutch East Indies, in the West Indies, and in
Brazil, was very largely in the hands of slaves or of forced labor.
Since the spread of the use of coffee to western Europe in the
seventeenth century, the development of the trade has been marked,
broadly speaking, by two features: (1) the shifting of the weight of
production, first to the West Indies, then to the East Indies, and then
to Brazil; and (2) the rise of the United States as the chief coffee
consumer of the world. Until the close of the seventeenth century, the
little district in Arabia, whence the coffee beans had first made their
way to Europe, continued to supply the whole world's trade. But sprigs
of coffee trees were beginning to go out from Arabia to other promising
lands, both eastward and westward. As previously related, the year 1699
was an important one in the history of this expansion, as it was then
that the Dutch successfully introduced the coffee plant from Arabia into
Java. This started a Far Eastern industry, whose importance continues to
this day, and also caused the mother country, Holland, to take up the
rôle of one of the leading coffee traders of the world, which she still
holds. Holland, in fact, took to coffee from the very first. It is
claimed that the first samples were introduced into that country from
Mocha in 1616--long before the beans were known in England or
France--and that by 1663, regular shipments were being made. Soon after
the coffee culture became firmly established in Java, regular shipments
to the mother country began, the first of these being a consignment of
894 pounds in 1711. Under the auspices of the Netherlands East India Co.
the system of cultivating coffee by forced labor was begun in the East
Indian colonies. It flourished until well into the nineteenth century.
One result of this colonial production of coffee was to make Holland the
leading coffee consumer per capita of the world, consumption in 1913, as
recorded on page 290, having reached as high as 18.8 pounds. It has long
been one of the leading coffee traders, importing and exporting in
normal times before the war between 150,000,000 and 300,000,000 pounds a
year.
[Illustration: PRE-WAR AVERAGE ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF COFFEE BY CONTINENTS
Fiscal years: 1910-1914
Total pounds: 2,311,917,200]
The introduction of the coffee plant into the new world took place
between 1715 and 1723. It quickly spread to the islands and the mainland
washed by the Caribbean. The latter part of the eighteenth century saw
tens of millions of pounds of coffee being shipped yearly to the mother
countries of western Europe; and for decades, the two great coffee trade
currents of the world continued to run from the West Indies to France,
England, Holland, and Germany; and from the Dutch East Indies to
Holland. These currents continued to flow until the disruption of world
trade-routes by the World War; but they had been pushed into positions
of secondary importance by the establishing of two new currents, running
respectively from Brazil to Europe, and from Brazil to the United
States, which constituted the nineteenth century's contribution to the
history of the world's coffee trade.
[Illustration: PRE-WAR AVERAGE ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF COFFEE BY COUNTRIES
Fiscal years: 1910-1914
Total pounds: 2,311,917,200]
The chief feature of the twentieth century's developments has been the
passing by the United States of the half-way mark in world consumption;
this country, since the second year of the World War, having taken more
than all the rest of the world put together. The world's chief coffee
"stream," so to speak, is now from Santos and Rio de Janeiro to New
York, other lesser streams being from these ports to Havre, Antwerp,
Amsterdam, and (in normal times) Hamburg; and from Java to Amsterdam and
Rotterdam. It is said that a movement, fostered by Belgium and Brazil,
is under way to have Antwerp succeed Hamburg as a coffee port.
The rise of Brazil to the place of all-important source of the world's
coffee was entirely a nineteenth century development. When the coffee
tree found its true home in southern Brazil in 1770, it began at once to
spread widely over the area of excellent soil; but there was little
exportation for thirty or forty years. By the middle of the nineteenth
century Brazil was contributing twice as much to the world's commerce as
her nearest competitor, the Dutch East Indies, exports in 1852-53 being
2,353,563 bags from Brazil and 1,190,543 bags from the Dutch East
Indies. The world's total that year was 4,567,000 bags, so that
Brazilian coffee represented about one-half of the total. This
proportion was roughly maintained during the latter half of the
nineteenth century, but has gradually increased since then to its
present three-fourths.
[Illustration: PRE-WAR AVERAGE ANNUAL IMPORTS OF COFFEE INTO THE UNITED
STATES BY CONTINENTS
Fiscal years: 1910-1914
Total pounds: 899,339,327]
The most important single event in the history of Brazilian production
was the carrying out of the valorization scheme, by which the State of
São Paulo, in 1906 and 1907, purchased 8,474,623 bags of coffee, and
stored it in Santos, in New York, and in certain European ports, in
order to stabilize the price in the face of very heavy production. At
the same time, a law was passed limiting the exports to 10,000,000 bags
per year. This law has since been repealed. The story of valorization is
told more fully in chapter XXXI. The coffee thus purchased by the state
was placed in the hands of an international committee, which fed it into
the world's markets at the rate of several hundred thousand bags a year.
Good prices were realized for all coffee sold; and the plan was
successful, not only financially, but in the achievement of its main
object, the prevention of the ruin of planters through overproduction.
[Illustration: PRE-WAR AVERAGE ANNUAL IMPORTS OF COFFEE INTO THE UNITED
STATES BY COUNTRIES
Fiscal years: 1910-1914
Total pounds: 899,339,327]
Another valorization campaign was launched by Brazil in 1918, and a
third in 1921. Early in 1918, the São Paulo government bought about
3,000,000 bags. Subsequent events caused a sharp advance in prices, and
at one time it was said that the holdings showed a profit of
$60,000,000. The Brazil federal government appointed an official
director of valorization, Count Alexandre Siciliano. A federal loan of
£9,000,000, with 4,535,000 bags of valorized coffee as collateral, was
placed in London and New York in May, 1922.
European consumption during the last century has been marked by the
growth of imports into France and Germany; these being the two leading
coffee drinkers of the world, aside from the United States. Germany held
the lead in European consumption during the whole of the nineteenth
century, and also in this century until all imports were stopped by the
Allied navies; although, in actual imports, Holland for many years
showed higher figures. Both Holland and England have acted as
distributers, re-exporting each year most of the coffee which entered
their ports. In the last half-century, the chief consumers, in the order
named, have been Germany, France, Holland, Austria-Hungary, and Belgium.
However, with the removal of the duty on coffee in the last-named
country in 1904, imports trebled; and Belgium took third place. The
table at the top of this page shows the general trend of the trade for
the last seventy years.
TREND OF EUROPEAN COFFEE CONSUMPTION FOR SEVENTY YEARS
_Year_ _Germany_ _France_ _Holland_ _Aus.-Hung._ _Belgium_
(pounds) (pounds) (pounds) (pounds) (pounds)
1853 104,049,000 48,095,000 46,162,000 44,716,000 41,270,000
1863 146,969,000 87,524,000 30,299,000 44,966,000 39,305,000
1873 215,822,000 98,841,000 79,562,000 71,111,000 49,874,000
1883 251,706,000 150,468,000 130,380,000 74,145,000 62,846,000
1893 269,381,000 152,203,000 75,562,000 79,438,000 52,046,000
1903 403,070,000 246,122,000 78,328,000 104,200,000 51,859,000
1913 369,347,000 254,102,000 116,749,000 130,951,000 93,250,000
Most of the coffee for these countries has for many years been supplied
by Brazil, even Holland bringing in several times as much from Brazil as
from the Dutch East Indies. Special features of the European trade have
been the organization, in 1873, and successful operation, in Germany, of
the world's first international syndicate to control the coffee trade;
and the opening of coffee exchanges in Havre in 1882, in Amsterdam and
Hamburg, in 1887: in Antwerp, London, and Rotterdam, in 1890; and in
Trieste in 1905.
The advance of coffee consumption in the United States, the chief
coffee-consuming country in the world, has taken place through about the
same period as the advance of production in Brazil, the chief producing
country; but it has been far less rapid. From 1790 to 1800, coffee
imports for consumption ranged from 3,500,000 to 32,000,000 pounds. The
figures in the next column show the net importations of coffee into this
country since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The chief source of supply, of course, has been Brazil; and the
commercial and economic ties created by this immense coffee traffic has
knit the two countries closely together. Brazil is probably more
friendly to the United States than any other South American country, as
shown by her action in following this country into the World War against
Germany. She also grants the United States certain tariff preferentials
as a recognition of the continued policy of this country of admitting
coffee free of duty. The chief port of entry of coffee into the United
States is New York, which for decades has recorded entries amounting
from sixty to ninety percent of the country's total. Since 1902, New
Orleans has shown a big advance, and in 1910 imported some thirty-five
percent of the total. The only other port of importance is San
Francisco, where imports have been increasing in recent years because of
the growth of the trade in Central American coffee.
COFFEE IMPORTS, UNITED STATES, FOR 120 YEARS
_Net Imports_
Year Pounds Year Pounds
1800[x] 8,792,472 1906 804,808,594
1811[x] 19,801,230 1907 935,678,412
1821[x] 11,886,063 1908 850,982,919
1830[x] 38,363,687 1909 1,006,975,047
1840[x] 86,297,761 1910 813,442,972
1850 129,791,466 1911 869,489,902
1860 182,049,527 1912 880,838,776
1870 231,173,574 1913 859,166,618
1880 440,128,838 1914 991,953,821
1890 490,161,900 1915 1,051,716,023
1900 748,800,771 1916 1,131,730,672
1901 809,036,029 1917 1,267,975,290
1902 1,056,541,637 1918 1,083,480,622
1903 867,385,063 1919 968,297,668
1904 960,878,977 1920 1,364,252,073
1905 991,160,207 1921 1,309,010,452
[x] Fiscal year ending Sept. 30; all other years end June 30.
Throughout the century and a third of steady increase of importations of
coffee, Congress has for the most part permitted its free entry; as a
rule, resorting to taxation of "the poor man's breakfast cup" only when
in need of revenue for war purposes. At times, the free entry has been
qualified; but for the most part, coffee has been free from the burden
of customs tariff.
The country's coffee trade before the Civil War was without special
incident; but since that time, the continued growth has brought about
manipulations that have often resulted in highly dramatic crises;
organizations to exercise some sort of regulation in the trade; the
development of a trade in substitutes; the advance of the sale of
branded package coffee; the institution of large advertising campaigns;
and other interesting features. These are treated more in detail in
chapters that follow.
[Illustration: PRE-WAR CHART OF COFFEE IMPORTS
Quantity and value of net imports of coffee into the United States for
the fiscal years 1851 to 1914 in five-year averages. Solid line
represents quantity, figures in million pounds on left side. Dotted line
represents value, figures in million dollars on right side]
_Coffee Drinking in the United States_
Is the United States using more coffee than formerly, allowing for the
increase in population? Of course there are sporadic increases, in
particular years and groups of years, and they may indicate to the
casual observer that our coffee drinking is mounting rapidly. And then
there is the steadily growing import figure, double what it was within
the memory of a man still young.
[Illustration: PRE-WAR CONSUMPTION AND PRICE CHART
Import price and per capita consumption of coffee in the United States
for the fiscal years 1851 to 1914, in five-year averages. Solid line
represents import price per pound. Dotted line represents per capita
consumption]
But the apparent growth in any given year is a matter of comparison with
a nearby year, and there are declines as well as jumps; and, as for the
gradual growth, it must always be remembered that, according to the
Census Bureau, some 1,400,000 more people are born into this country
every year, or enter its ports, than are removed by death or emigration.
At the present rate this increase would account for about 17,000,000
pounds more coffee each year than was consumed in the year before.
The question is: Do Mr. Citizen, or Mrs. Citizen, or the little Citizens
growing up into the coffee-drinking age, pass his or her or their
respective cups along for a second pouring where they used to be
satisfied with one, or do they take a cup in the evening as well as in
the morning, or do they perhaps have it served to them at an afternoon
reception where they used to get something else? In other words, is the
coffee habit becoming more intensive as well as more extensive?
There are plenty of very good reasons why it should have become so in
the last twenty-five or thirty years; for the improvements in
distributing, packing, and preparing coffee have been many and notable.
It is a far cry these days from the times when the housewife snatched a
couple of minutes amid a hundred other kitchen duties to set a pan over
the fire to roast a handful of green coffee beans, and then took two or
three more minutes to pound or grind the crudely roasted product into
coarse granules for boiling.
For a good many years, the keenest wits of the coffee merchants, not
only of the United States but of Europe as well, have been at work to
refine the beverage as it comes to the consumer's cup; and their success
has been striking. Now the consumer can have his favorite brand not only
roasted but packed air-tight to preserve its flavor; and made up,
moreover, of growths brought from the four corners of the earth and
blended to suit the most exacting taste. He can buy it already ground,
or he can have it in the form of a soluble powder; he can even get it
with the caffein element ninety-nine percent removed. It is preserved
for his use in paper or tin or fiber boxes, with wrappings whose
attractive designs seem to add something in themselves to the quality.
Instead of the old coffee pot, black with long service, he has modern
shining percolators and filtration devices; with a new one coming out
every little while, to challenge even these. Last but not least, he is
being educated to make it properly--tuition free.
It would be surprising, with these and dozens of other refinements, if a
far better average cup of coffee were not produced than was served forty
years ago, and if the coffee drinker did not show his appreciation by
coming back for more.
As a matter of fact, the figures show that he does come back for more.
We do not refer to the figures of the last two years, which indeed are
higher than those for many preceding years, but to the only averages
that are of much significance in this connection; namely, those for
periods of years going back half a century or more. Five-year averages
back to the Civil War show increasing per capita consumption for
continental United States (see table).
FIVE-YEAR PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION FIGURES
_Five-year Per capita Five-year Per capita
Period Pounds Period Pounds_
1867-71 6.38 1897-1901 10.52
1872-76 7.03 1902-06 11.50
1877-81 7.53 1907-11 10.21
1882-86 9.09 1912-16 10.02
1887-91 8.07 1917-21 11.39
1892-96 8.63
It will be seen that the gain has been a decided one, fairly steady, but
not exactly uniform. In the fifty years, John Doe has not quite come to
the point where he hands up his cup for a second helping and keeps a
meaningful silence. Instead, he stipulates, "Don't fill it quite full;
fill it about five-sixths as full as it was before." That is a
substantial gain, and one that the next fifty years can hardly be
expected to duplicate, in spite of the efforts of our coffee
advertisers, our inventors, and our vigorous importers and roasters.
The most striking feature of this fifty-year growth was the big step
upward in 1897, when the per capita rose two pounds over the year before
and established an average that has been pretty well maintained since.
Something of the sort may have taken place again in 1920, when there was
a three-pound jump over the year before. It will be interesting to see
whether this is merely a jump or a permanent rise; whether our coffee
trade has climbed to a hilltop or a plateau.
In this connection it should be noted that the government's per capita
coffee figures apply only to continental United States, and that in
computing them all the various items of trade of the non-contiguous
possessions (not counting the Philippines, whose statistics are kept
entirely separate from those of the United States proper) are carefully
taken into account.
But for the benefit of students of coffee figures it should be added
that this method does not result in a final figure except for one year
in ten. The reason is that between censuses the population of the
country is determined only by estimates; and these estimates (by the
U.S. Bureau of the Census) are based on the average increase in the
preceding census decade. The increase between 1910 and 1920, for
instance, is divided by 120, the number of months in the period, and
this average monthly increase is assumed to be the same as that of the
current year and of other years following 1920. Until new figures are
obtained in 1930, the monthly increase will continue to be estimated at
the same rate as the increase from 1910 to 1920, or about 118,000. This
figure will be used in computing the per capita coffee consumption. But
when the 1930 figures are in, it may be found that the estimates were
too low or too high, and the per capita figures for all intervening
years will accordingly be subject to revision. This will not amount to
much, probably five-hundredths of a pound at most; but it is evident
that between 1920 and 1930 all per capita consumption figures issued by
the government are to be considered as provisional to that extent at
least.
In the 1920 _Statistical Abstract_ the government has revised its per
capita coffee and tea figures to conform to actual instead of estimated
population figures between 1910 and 1920, with the result that these
figures are slightly different from those published in previous editions
of the _Abstract_. Figures from 1890 to 1910 have also been slightly
changed, as they were originally computed by using population figures as
of June 1, whereas it is desirable to have computations based on July 1
estimates to make them conform to present per capita figures.
_Reviewing the 1921 Trade in the United States_
According to the latest available foreign trade summaries issued by the
government, the United States bought more coffee in 1921 than in any
previous calendar year of our history, although the total imports did
not quite reach the highest fiscal-year mark. Our purchases passed the
1920 mark by more than 40,000,000 pounds and were higher than those of
two years ago by 3,500,000 pounds.
But this record was made only in actual amounts shipped, as the value of
imported coffee was far below that of immediately preceding years.
Coffee values, however, fell off less than the average values for all
imports, the decrease for coffee being forty-three percent and for the
country's total imports fifty-two percent.
Exports of coffee were somewhat less in quantity than in 1920, and about
the same as in 1919; although the value, like that of imports, was
considerably less than in either previous year.
Re-exports of foreign coffee were considerably below the 1920 mark, in
both quantity and value, and indeed were less than in several years. The
amount of tea re-exported to foreign countries was only about half that
shipped out in 1920, showing a continuation of the tendency of the
United States to discontinue its services as a middleman, which raised
the through traffic in tea several million pounds during the dislocation
of shipping.
Actual figures of amounts and values of gross coffee imports for the
three calendar years, 1919-1921, have been as follows:
_Pounds_ _Value_
1921 1,340,979,776 $142,808,719
1920 1,297,439,310 252,450,651
1919 1,337,564,067 261,270,106
This represents a gain of three and three-tenths percent over 1920 in
quantity and of only about one-fifth of one percent over 1919. The
decrease in value in 1921 was forty-three percent from the figures for
1920 and forty-five percent from those of 1919.
Domestic exports of coffee, mostly from Hawaii and Porto Rico, amounted
to 34,572,967 pounds valued at $5,895,606, as compared with 36,757,443
pounds valued at $9,803,574 in the calendar year 1920, or a decrease of
six percent in quantity and forty percent in value. In 1919 domestic
exports were 34,351,554 pounds, having a value of $8,816,581,
practically the same in quantity, but showing a falling off of
thirty-three percent in value.
Re-exports of foreign coffee amounted to 36,804,684 pounds in 1921,
having a value of $3,911,847, a decline of twenty-five percent from the
49,144,691 pounds of 1920 and of fifty-four percent from the 81,129,691
pounds of 1919; whereas in point of value there was a decrease of
fifty-six percent from 1920, which was $9,037,882, and of eighty-eight
percent from that of 1919, which was $16,815,468.
The average value per pound of the imported coffee, according to these
figures, works out at little more than half that of either 1920 or 1919,
illustrating the precipitate drop of prices when the depression came on.
The pound value in 1921 was 10.6c.; for 1920, 19.4c.; and for 1919,
19.5c. These values are derived from the valuations placed on shipments
at the point of export, the "foreign valuation" for which the much
discussed "American valuation" is proposed as a substitute. They
accordingly do not take into account costs of freight, insurance, etc.
It is interesting to note that the average valuation of 10.6c. a pound
for coffee shipped during the calendar year is a substantial drop from
the 13.12c. a pound that was the average for the fiscal year 1921,
showing that the decline in values continued during the last half of the
calendar year.
Coffee imports in 1921 continued to run in about the same well-worn
channels as in previous years, according to the figures showing the
trade with the producing countries. The United States, as heretofore,
drew almost its whole supply from its neighbors on this side of the
globe; the countries to the south furnishing ninety-seven percent of the
total entering our ports. The three chief countries of South America
contributed eighty-five percent; and the share of Brazil alone was
sixty-two and five-tenths percent.
Brazil's progress to her normal pre-war position in our coffee trade is
rather slow, although she continues to show a gain in percentage each
year. Formerly we obtained seventy percent to seventy-five percent of
our coffee from that country; but war conditions, diverting nearly all
of Central America's production to our ports, reduced the proportion to
almost half. In 1919 this had risen to fifty-nine percent, in 1920 it
was somewhat over sixty percent, and in 1921 it attained a mark of
sixty-two and five-tenths percent. The actual amount shipped, which was
839,212,388 pounds having a value of $77,186,271, was about seven
percent higher than in 1920, which was 785,810,689 pounds valued at
$148,793,593; and about the same percent higher than that of
1919--787,312,293 pounds valued at $160,038,196. Although the actual
poundage showed an increase, it will be noted that the value fell off
almost one-half as compared with 1920, and more than one-half as
compared with the year before.
The real feature of the year, and perhaps the most interesting
development in the coffee trade of this country in recent years, is the
steady advance of Colombian coffee.
In the year before the war, we obtained from our nearest South American
neighbor 87,176,477 pounds of coffee valued at $11,381,675, which was
about ten percent of our total imports. In 1919, the first year after
the war, this amount was almost doubled, being 150,483,853 pounds with a
value of $30,425,162. In 1920, there was a further increase to
194,682,616 pounds valued at $41,557,669, and in 1921 the high mark of
249,123,356 pounds valued at $37,322,305 was reached. This was a gain of
twenty-eight percent over 1920 shipments; and, although the value was
less than in the year before, the decrease was only ten percent in a
year when the average fall in value was forty-three percent.
It will be news to many people interested in the coffee trade that the
value of Colombian coffee now imported into the United States is almost
half the value of the Brazilian coffee--$37,000,000 as compared with
$77,000,000. The number of pounds imported is a little less than
one-third the Brazilian contribution; but at the present rate of
increase, it will pass the half mark in a few years.
Colombia and Venezuela together now supply considerably more than half
as much coffee as Brazil in value, and more than one-third as much in
quantity. The average value of Colombian coffee in 1921 was about
fifteen cents a pound, as compared with eleven cents for Venezuelan,
nine cents for Brazilian, ten cents for Central American, and ten and
six-tenths cents for total coffee imports.
Shipments from Venezuela showed a drop in quantity of nine percent as
compared with 1920 imports, being 59,783,303 pounds valued at
$6,798,709; in 1920 they were 65,970,954 pounds valued at $13,802,995;
and in 1919, they were 109,777,831 pounds valued at $23,163,071.
The figures relating to imports from Central America are of interest as
showing to what extent we are continuing to hold the trade of the war
years, when nearly all coffee shipped from that region came to the
United States. Although there has probably been a considerable swing
back to the trade with Europe, the 1921 figures show that a large
percent of the trade that this country gained during the war is being
retained. Imports in 1921 were considerably lower than in 1920 or in
1919, but were still more than three times as heavy as in 1913, the last
year of normal trade.
The displacement of Central America's trade by the war, and the extent
to which it has so far returned to old channels, are illustrated in the
table of Imports into the United States from Central America in the last
nine years on page 301.
As Germany was very prominent in pre-war trade, it is likely that more
and more coffee will be diverted from the United States as German
imports gradually increase to their old level.
IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM
CENTRAL AMERICA
_Year_ _Pounds_ _Value_
1913 36,326,440 $4,635,359
1914 44,896,856 5,465,893
1915 71,361,288 8,093,532
1916 111,259,125 12,775,921
1917 148,031,640 15,751,761
1918 195,259,628 19,234,198
1919 131,638,695 19,375,179
1920 159,204,341 30,388,567
1921 118,607,382 12,308,250
Imports from Mexico in 1921 were greater by thirty-eight percent than in
1920, but were less than in 1919, and were still much below the normal
trade before the war. The total was 26,895,034 pounds having a value of
$3,475,122, as compared with 19,519,865 pounds valued at $3,873,217 in
the year before, and with 29,567,469 pounds valued at $5,434,884 in
1919. The imports in 1913 were more than 40,000,000 pounds, in 1914 more
than 43,000,000 pounds, and in 1915 more than 52,000,000 pounds.
West Indian coffees showed a gradual settling back to pre-war figures,
which ranged from 3,000,000 to 12,000,000 pounds annually, but which in
1918, the last year of the war, leaped to 52,000,000 pounds. In 1919
they amounted to 42,013,841 pounds valued at $7,575,051; and in 1920,
fell to 29,204,674 pounds valued at $5,711,993. In 1921 they continued
to drop, the total being 15,398,073 pounds valued at $1,518,784, a
decrease of forty-seven and three-tenths percent in quantity.
The year under review showed practically a return to normal for
importations from Aden, which up to 1917 ran about 3,000,000 pounds a
year. In that year the full effects of the war were felt in the Aden
district, and shipments of coffee to this country dropped to 187,817
pounds. They rose to 432,000 pounds in 1918; and in 1919, to 681,290
pounds valued at $141,391. In 1920 there was a further rise to 889,633
pounds valued at $200,505; and in 1921 they amounted to 2,799,824 pounds
valued at $476,672. But this trade is of little importance compared with
that of the producing countries of this hemisphere, being less than one
percent of our total imports.
Imports from the Dutch East Indies continued to decline, being
fifty-five percent less than in 1920. The total of 12,438,016 pounds,
however, valued at $1,771,602, is still two or three times the normal
pre-war importations.
Exports of coffee in 1921--33,389,805 pounds of green coffee valued at
$5,590,318 and 1,183,162 pounds of roasted valued at $305,288--were
about the same as those of the year before in quantity, although much
lower in value. The 1920 shipments were 34,785,574 pounds valued at
$9,223,966 of green coffee and 1,971,869 pounds of roasted valued at
$579,608.
In the re-export trade, shipments of coffee were lower than in several
years, total amounts for 1921, 1920, and 1919 being 36,804,684 pounds,
49,144,091 pounds, and 81,129,641 pounds, and total values $3,911,847,
$9,037,882, and $16,815,468.
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL COFFEE IMPORTS INTO UNITED STATES
_Percentage of_
_increase (+) or_
_decrease (-) of_
_1921 imports_
_compared_
1919 1920 1921 _with 1920_.
/ \ / \ / \
From Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity Value
Central America 9.80 7.40 12.30 12.00 8.80 8.60 -25.50 -50.00
Mexico 2.20 2.10 1.50 1.50 2.00 2.40 +37.80 -10.30
West Indies 3.10 2.90 2.20 2.20 1.10 1.00 -47.30 -73.40
Brazil 58.80 61.30 60.50 58.90 62.50 54.00 +6.80 -48.10
Colombia 11.20 11.60 15.00 16.40 18.50 26.10 +28.00 -10.20
Venezuela 8.20 8.90 5.10 5.10 4.40 4.80 -9.30 -50.70
Aden 0.05 0.05 0.07 0.08 0.20 0.30 214.80 +137.70
Dutch East Indies 4.20 3.80 2.10 2.00 0.90 1.20 -55.70 -65.40
Other countries 2.45 1.95 1.23 1.52 1.60 1.60 ... ...
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------- -------
Total 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 +3.40 -43.40
Re-exports to France fell off from 16,760,977 pounds in 1920 to
11,429,952 in 1921. Mexico took 3,236,245 pounds as compared with
9,892,639 in the previous year, and Cuba also reduced her purchases from
6,319,105 pounds to 2,831,109. Shipments to Denmark, 4,099,403 pounds,
were practically the same as in 1920, 3,951,166 pounds, as were also
those to Germany, 3,200,158 pounds as compared with 2,917,773 in 1920.
In the trade of the two coffee-exporting possessions of the United
States, Hawaii and Porto Rico, the 1921 figures show a considerable
increase in shipments from Hawaii to continental United States and to
foreign countries, while exports from Porto Rico fell off slightly.
Hawaii in 1921 sent 803,905 pounds valued at $123,347 to foreign
countries, which compared with 687,597 pounds valued at $200,180 in the
year before, and 4,183,046 valued at $650,036 to continental United
States, as against 1,885,703 pounds valued at $476,033 in the previous
year.
Porto Rico's crop, as usual, furnished the bulk of the domestic exports
of the United States to foreign countries--29,546,348 pounds valued at
$5,027,741, as against 1920 exports of 31,321,415 pounds valued at
$8,455,908. Shipments from Porto Rico to continental United States
amounted to 211,531 pounds valued at $35,780, as against 418,127 pounds
valued at $118,663 in 1920.
Following are the figures of re-exports of coffee by countries in the
calendar year 1921:
RE-EXPORTS OF COFFEE FROM UNITED STATES, 1921
_Country_ _Pounds_
Belgium 2,717,949
Denmark 4,099,403
France 11,429,952
Germany 3,200,158
Greece 539,933
Netherlands 920,855
Norway 237,155
Sweden 1,935,641
Canada 1,037,628
Mexico 3,236,245
Cuba 2,831,109
Other Countries 4,618,656
----------
Total 36,804,684
Per capita consumption of coffee in continental United States showed a
slight increase during the calendar year 1921 over that of 1920, the
figure being 12.09 pounds as against 11.70 for the previous year. This
calendar-year figure compares with the fiscal-year figure of 12.21
pounds, indicating that imports during the last half of 1920 were
somewhat heavier than during the last half of 1921.
The various items for the two calendar years 1920 and 1921 are shown as
follows:
1921 1920
_Calendar year_, _Calendar year_,
(_pounds_) (_pounds_)
(a) Total imports
into U.S. 1,340,979,776 1,297,439,310
(b) Imports into
non-contiguous
territory
from foreign
countries 7,410 27
------------- -------------
(c) (a) minus (b) 1,340,972,366 1,297,439,283
(d) Total exports from
U.S. 34,572,967 36,757,443
(e) Exports from
non-contiguous
territory
to foreign
countries 30,363,098 32,028,832
---------- ----------
(f) (d) minus (e) 4,209,869 4,728,611
(g) Total re-exports
from U.S. 36,804,684 49,144,691
(h) Re-exports from
non-contiguous
territory
to foreign
countries ... 20,008
--------- ----------
(i) (g) minus (h) 36,804,684 49,124,683
(j) Imports into
continental
U.S. from
non-contiguous
territory 4,394,577 2,303,830
(k) Exports to
non-contiguous
territory from
continental U.S. 798,644 972,303
---------- ---------
(l) (j) minus (k) 3,595,933 1,331,527
Net consumption,
continental U.S.:
(c) minus (f) minus
(i) plus (l) 1,303,553,746 1,244,917,516
Population, July 1 107,833,279 106,418,170
Per capita consumption,
1921 12.09 11.70
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXIII
HOW GREEN COFFEES ARE BOUGHT AND SOLD
_Buying coffee in the producing countries--Transporting coffee to
the consuming markets--Some record coffee cargoes shipped to the
United States--Transport over seas--Java coffee "ex-sailing
vessels"--Handling coffee at New York, New Orleans, and San
Francisco--The coffee exchanges of Europe and the United
States--Commission men and brokers--Trade and exchange contracts
for delivery--Important rulings affecting coffee trading--Some well
known green coffee marks_
In moving green coffee from the plantations to the consuming countries,
the shipments pass through much the same trade channels as other
foreign-grown food products. In general, the coffee goes from planter to
trader in the shipping ports; thence to the exporter, who sells it to an
importer in the consuming country; he in turn passing it on, to a
roaster, to be prepared for consumption. The system varies in some
respects in the different countries, according to the development of
economic and transportation methods; but, broadly considered, this is
the general method.
_Buying Coffee in the Producing Countries_
The marketing of coffee begins when the berries are swept up from the
drying patios, put in gunny sacks, and sent to the ports of export to be
sampled and shipped. In Brazil, four-wheeled wagons drawn by six mules,
or two-wheeled carts carry it to the nearest railroad or river.
Brazil, as the world's largest producer of coffee, has the most highly
developed buying system. Coffee cultivation has been the chief
agricultural pursuit in that country for many years; and large amounts
of government and private capital have been invested in growing,
transportation, storage, and ship-loading facilities, particularly in
the state of São Paulo.
The usual method in Brazil is for the _fazendeiro_ (coffee-grower) or
the _commisario_ (commission merchant) to load his shipments of coffee
at an interior railroad station. If his consignee is in Santos, he
generally deposits the bill of lading with a bank and draws a draft,
usually payable after thirty days, against the consignee. When the
consignee accepts the draft, he receives the bill of lading, and is then
permitted to put the coffee in a warehouse.
_Storing at Santos_
At Santos most of the storing is done in the steel warehouses of the
City Dock Company, a private corporation whose warehouses extend for
three miles along the waterfront at one end of the town. Railroad
switches lead to these warehouses, so that the coffee is brought to
storage in the same cars in which it was originally loaded up-country.
The warehouses are leased by _commisarios_. There are also many old
warehouses, built of wood, still operated in Santos, and to these the
coffee is transferred from the railroad station either by mule carts or
by automobile trucks.
At the receiving warehouses, samples of each bag are taken; the tester,
or sampler, standing at the door with a sharp tool, resembling a
cheese-tester, which he thrusts into the center of the bag as the men
pass him with the bags of coffee on their heads, removing a double
handful of the contents. The samples are divided into two parts; one for
the seller, and one that the _commisario_ retains until he has sold the
consignment of coffee covered by that particular lot of samples.
[Illustration: THE LAST SAMPLE BEFORE EXPORT, SANTOS]
_The Disappearing Ensaccador_
In the old days it was the custom every morning for the _ensaccadores_,
or baggers, and the exporters or their brokers, to visit the
_commisarios'_ warehouses and to bargain for lots of coffee made up by
the _commisario_.
In the Santos market, until recent years, the _ensaccador_, or
coffee-bagger, often stood between the _commisario_ and exporter. When
American importing houses began to establish their own buying offices in
the Brazilian ports (about 1910) to deal direct with the _fazendeiro_
and the _commisario_, the gradual elimination of the _ensaccador_ was
begun. Today he has entirely disappeared from the Santos market, and is
disappearing from Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Victoria.
Coffee reaches Santos in a mixed condition; that is, it has not been
graded, or separated according to its various qualities. This is the
work of the _commisario_, who puts each shipment into "lots" in new
"official" bags, each of which bears a mark stating that the contents
are São Paulo growth. If the coffee is offered for sale by the owner,
the _commisario_ will then put it on the "street," the section of Santos
given over to coffee trading.
The _commisario_ works with samples of the coffee he has to offer and
only puts out one set at a time. He names his "asking" price, known
locally as the _pedido_, which is the maximum rate he expects to get,
but seldom receives. A set of samples may be shown to twenty-five or
thirty exporting houses in a day, one at a time. When the sample is in
the hands of a firm for consideration, no other exporter has the right
to buy the lot even at the _pedido_ price, and the _commisario_ can not
accept other offers until he has refused the bid. On the other hand, if
a house refuses to give up the samples, it is understood that it is
willing to pay the _pedido_ price. The firm first offering a price
acceptable to the _commisario's_ broker gets the lot, even though other
houses have offered the same price.
When a lot is sold, the samples are turned over to the successful
bidder, and he then asks the _commisario_ for larger samples for
comparison with the first set.
[Illustration: STAMPING BAGS FOR EXPORT, SANTOS]
_Commisarios Make as High as Nine Percent_
Having sold the coffee of a given planter, the _commisario_ often gets
as much as nine percent for his share of the transaction. Unless the
bags have been furnished to the planter at a good rental, the coffee
must be transferred to the _commisario's_ bags; and for this the planter
pays a commission.
[Illustration: COFFEE FROM THE FAZENDAS IS DELIVERED AT THE
COMMISSARIOS' WAREHOUSES IN RIO]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A SANTOS CLEANING AND GRADING WAREHOUSE]
[Illustration: PREPARING BRAZIL COFFEE FOR EXPORT]
[Illustration: GRADING COFFEE AT SANTOS]
Formerly the coffee, being rebagged by the _ensaccador_, was manipulated
in what is called ligas; that is, mixing several neutral grades from
various lots to create an artificial grade; or, more properly speaking,
a "type," desirable for trading on the New York market.
_Grading and Testing in Brazil_
Having bought a lot of coffee, the exporter's next step is to grade and
to test it. Grading is generally done in the morning and late afternoon,
the hours from one to half-past four being devoted to making offers. The
afternoon grading is done by sight. The morning examinations are more
thorough, some progressive exporting houses even cup-testing the
samples. Samples are compared with house standards, and with the
requirements that have been cabled from the home office in the consuming
country. Some of the coffee is roasted to obtain a standard by which all
"chops" (varieties) are then graded and marked according to
quality--fine, good, fair, or poor. Quality is further classified by the
numerals from two to eight, which standards have been established on the
New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, and are described farther on in this
chapter. Some traders also use the terms large or small bean; fair,
good, or poor roasters; soft or hard bean; light or dark; and similar
descriptive terms.
When a lot is ready for shipment overseas, the _commisario_ stamps each
bag with his identifying mark, to which the buyer or exporter adds his
brand. If the _commisario_ is ordered before eleven in the morning to
ship a lot of coffee, he must be paid before three in the afternoon of
the same day; if he receives the order after eleven, payment need not be
made before three in the afternoon of the following day. Generally the
terms of sale are full settlement in thirty days, less discount at the
rate of six percent per annum for the unexpired time, if paid before the
period of grace is up.
_Dispatching and Capitazias_
The exporter collects his money by drawing a draft against his client on
deposit of bill of lading, cashing the draft through an exchange broker
who deducts his brokerage fee. The exporter must obtain a consular
invoice, a shipping permit from both federal and state authorities, and
pay an export tax, before the coffee goes aboard the ship. This process
is known as "dispatching," while the dock company's charges are known as
_capitazias_.
In practically all coffee-growing sections the small planter is helped
financially by the owners of processing plants or by the exporting
firms. The larger planters may even obtain advances on their crops from
the importing houses in New York, Havre, Hamburg, or other foreign
centers.
[Illustration: THE TEST BY CUPS, SANTOS]
_The Exchange at Santos_
A new coffee exchange began business at Santos on May 1, 1917, sitting
with the Coffee Brokers Board of Control. This Board consists of five
coffee brokers, four elected annually at a general meeting of the
brokers of Santos, and one chosen annually by the president of the state
of São Paulo. Among the duties of the Board are the classification and
valuation of coffee, adjustment of differences, etc.
[Illustration: WHERE COFFEES ARE SIGHT-GRADED BEFORE BEING SUBMITTED TO
CUP TESTS]
[Illustration: HAND & RAND BUILDING: FIRST FLOOR, STORAGE; SECOND FLOOR,
OFFICES]
[Illustration: NEW YORK COFFEE IMPORTERS' MODEL ESTABLISHMENT AT SANTOS]
[Illustration: PACK-MULE TRANSPORT IN VENEZUELA]
_Transporting Coffee to Points of Export_
Transportation methods from plantation to shipside naturally vary with
local topographical and economic conditions. In Venezuela, the bulk of
the coffee is transported by pack-mule from the plantations and shipping
towns to the head of the railroad system, and thence by rail to the
Catatumbo River, where it is carried in small steamers down the river
and across Lake Maracaibo to the city of Maracaibo. In Colombia, coffee
is sent down the Magdalena River aboard small steamers direct to the
seaboard. In Central America, transportation is one of the most serious
problems facing the grower. The roads are poor, and in the rainy season
are sometimes deep with mud; so much so that it may require a week to
drive a wagon-load of coffee to the railroad or the river shipping
point.
[Illustration: COFFEE-CARRYING CART, GUATEMALA]
_Buying Coffee in Abyssinia_
Coffee is generally grown in Abyssinia by small farmers, who mostly
finance themselves and sell the crop to native brokers, who in turn sell
it to representatives of foreign houses in the larger trading centers.
Trading methods between farmer and broker are not much more than the old
system of barter. In the southwestern section, where the Abyssinian
coffee grows wild, transport to the nearest trading center is by mule
train, and not infrequently by camel back. In the Harar district, the
women of the farmers living near Harar the market center, carry the
coffee in long shallow baskets on their heads to the native brokers. In
the more remote places the coffee farmer waits for the broker to call on
him. From the town of Harar the coffee is transported by mule or camel
train to Dire-Daoua, whence it is shipped by rail to Jibuti, to be sent
by direct steamers to Europe, or across the Gulf of Aden to Aden in
Arabia.
[Illustration: COFFEE-LADEN OXEN FORDING STREAM, COLOMBIA]
Ten different languages are spoken in Harar. In order successfully to
engage in the coffee business there, it is necessary either to become
proficient in all these tongues, or to engage some one who is.
[Illustration: TRANSPORTING COFFEE BY MULEBACK IN THE CITY OF CUCUTA,
COLOMBIA]
[Illustration: Schooner from Encontrados to Maracaibo]
[Illustration: One of the lake and river steamers]
[Illustration: COFFEE CARGO CARRIERS THAT OPERATE ON LAKE MARACAIBO AND
TRIBUTARY RIVERS]
[Illustration: DONKEY TRANSPORT TRAIN FOR COFFEE IN MEXICO]
[Illustration: COFFEE TRANSPORT IN MEXICO AND SOUTH AMERICA]
When the coffee is brought, partially cleaned, into Harar by donkey or
mule train, it is first taken to the open air custom-house (coffee
exchange) in the center of the town, where a ten-percent duty (in
coffee) is exacted by the local government, and one Abyssinian dollar
(fifty cents) is added for every thirty-seven and a half pounds, this
latter being Ras Makonnen's share. As soon as the native dealer has
released to him what remains of his shipment, he takes it out of the
custom-house enclosure and disposes of it through the native brokers,
who have their little "office" booths stretching in a long line up the
street just outside the custom-house entrance.
[Illustration: DONKEY COFFEE TRANSPORT ON THE WAY FROM HARAR TO
DIRE-DAOUA]
There, a brokerage charge of one piaster per bag is paid by the buyer,
and the coffee then becomes the property of the European merchant. In
some cases it is put through a further cleaning process; but usually it
is shipped to Jibuti or Aden uncleaned. Arriving at Jibuti, there is a
one-percent ad valorem duty to pay. At Aden, there is another tax of one
anna (two cents) to be paid to the British authorities.
[Illustration: COFFEE CAMELS IN THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, HARAR]
Since 1914, however, Abyssinian coffee has been exported largely through
the Sudan, a much shorter and less expensive trip than that to Adis
Abeba and Jibuti. Now the coffee is carried by pack-train to Gambela on
the Sobat River; and thence by river steamer to Khartoum, where it is
loaded on railroad trains and sent to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
_Buying Coffee in Arabia_
Most of the coffee in Arabia is grown in almost inaccessible mountain
valleys by native Arabs, and is transported by camel caravan to Aden or
Hodeida, where it is sold to agents of foreign importing houses. Mocha,
once the principal exporting city for coffee, was abandoned as a coffee
port early in the nineteenth century, chiefly because of the difficulty
of keeping the roadstead of the harbor free from sandbars.
[Illustration: SELLING COFFEE AT ADEN BY TAPPING HANDS UNDER COVER]
In Aden there is a kind of open-air coffee "exchange" (as in Harar)
where the camel trains unload their coffee from the interior. The
European coffee merchant does not frequent it, but is represented by
native brokers, through whom all coffee business is transacted. This
native broker is an important person, and one of the most picturesque
characters in Aden. He receives a commission of one and a half percent
from both buyer and seller. Certain grades of coffee are purchasable
only in Maria Theresa dollars; so a knowledge of exchange values is
essential to the broker's calling.
[Illustration: PACKING AND TRANSPORTING COFFEE AT ADEN]
In making coffee sales, the negotiations between buyer and seller are
carried on by means of finger taps under a handkerchief. The would-be
purchaser reaches out his hand to the seller under cover of the cloth
and makes his bid in the palm of the seller's hand by tapping his
fingers. The code is well understood by both. Its advantage lies in the
fact that a possible purchaser is enabled to make his bid in the
presence of other buyers without the latter knowing what he is offering.
_Buying Coffee in Netherlands India_
In the Dutch East Indies cultivation of _Coffea arabica_ has diminished,
the decay of the industry beginning when Brazil and Central America
became the dominant factors in the green market. Not so many years ago
coffee growing and coffee trading were virtually government monopolies.
Under government control each native family was required to keep from
six hundred to a thousand coffee trees in bearing, and to sell
two-fifths of the crop to the government. It was also compulsory to
deliver the coffee cleaned and sorted to the official godowns, and to
sell the crop at fixed prices--nine to twelve florins per picul previous
to 1874, although forty to fifty florins were offered in the open
market. Later, the price was advanced; until about 1900 the government
paid fifteen florins per picul for coffee in parchment. All government
coffee was sold at public auction in Batavia and Padang, these sales
being held four times a year in Batavia and three times a year in
Padang.
Coffee from private estates, not under government control and operated
by European corporations or individuals, has now succeeded the
government monopoly coffee. Private-estate crops are sold by public
tender, usually on or about January 28 of each year. If the owners do
not get the price they desire in Batavia or Padang, the coffee is sent
to Amsterdam for disposal. Some coffees always are sent to Holland;
because the directors of the company get a commission on all sales
there, and also because the coffees are prepared especially for the
Dutch market. The Hollander wants his coffee blue-green in color.
[Illustration: COFFEE CAMEL TRAIN ARRIVING AT THE HODEIDA CUSTOM-HOUSE
FROM THE INTERIOR OF YEMEN]
[Illustration: LOADING BY THE OLD-STYLE HAND-LABOR METHOD]
[Illustration: HERE THE AUTOMATIC BELT POURS INTO THE HOLD A CONTINUOUS
STREAM OF BAGS OF COFFEE]
[Illustration: OLD AND NEW METHODS OF LOADING COFFEE AT SANTOS]
_Loading Coffee at Santos_
In Brazil, when the coffee has been rebagged and marked by both the
_commisario_ and the exporter, the coffee is again sampled. These
samples are compared with those by which the purchase was made; and if
right, the bags are turned over to the dock-master, who sets his
laborers to work loading ship. Two methods are used at Santos. The old
familiar style of hand labor is still in evidence--men of all
nationalities, but largely Spaniards and Portuguese, take the bags on
their heads and carry them in single file up the gangplanks and into the
hold of the ship. The dock company, however, operates a huge automatic
loading machine, or belt, which saves a great deal of time and labor. In
other Brazilian ports all loading is done by manual labor.
[Illustration: A COFFEE FREIGHTER ON THE CAUCA RIVER, COLOMBIA]
Recently, at the suggestion of the Commercial Association of Santos, the
minister of transport of São Paulo ordered that coffees destined for
legitimate traders should be transported during four days of the week,
and those of a speculative nature during the remaining two days. A
premium of as much as five milreis a bag has been paid by speculators in
order to obtain immediate transport.
_Shipping Coffee from Colombia_
As Colombia ranks next to Brazil in coffee, a brief description of its
transportation methods, which are unique, should be of interest to
coffee shippers. A goodly portion of Colombia's coffee exports comes
from the district around the little city of Cucuta, whose official name
is San José de Cucuta. It is the capital of North Santander, is situated
in a beautiful valley of the Colombian Andes mountains that is watered
by several rivers, and is only about a half-hour's ride by motor from
the Venezuelan frontier.
Due to its geographical position, Cucuta serves as the most convenient
inland port and commercial center for most of the department of North
Santander. For the same reason, it is forced to depend on Maracaibo as
its seaport, even though the Venezuelan government has a number of
annoying laws controlling the commerce thus conducted. The Colombian
ports of Baranquilla and Cartagena on the Atlantic are too distant from
Cucuta to be available; and a large part of the traffic would have to be
done on mule-back across one of the most formidable ranges of the
Colombian Andes, involving high cost and delay in transportation. Yet
its frontier position makes it possible for Cucuta to have important
commercial relations with the neighboring republic of Venezuela, and to
enjoy exceptional privileges from the Colombian central government.
[Illustration: COFFEE STEAMERS ON THE MAGDALENA, COLOMBIA]
A cargo of coffee leaving Cucuta has to go through the following steps
on its way to a foreign market:
1. From Cucuta, it travels thirty-five miles by railroad to Puerto
Villamizar, a Colombian river port on the Zulia river.
2. At Puerto Villamizar it is loaded into small, flat-bottomed, steel
lighters that are taken to Puerto Encontrados by man power. Puerto
Encontrados, belonging to Venezuela, is on the Catatumbo river; and the
trip from Villamizar takes from two to four days, depending on the depth
of water in the river. During high water, river steamers are also used,
and make the trip in less than a day.
3. At Encontrados the cargo is loaded on river steamboats more or less
of the Mississippi river type, which take it to Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Coffee is also carried to Maracaibo by small sailing vessels.
4. At Maracaibo it is taken by ocean vessel, which either carries it
direct to New York or to Curaçao, Dutch West Indies, where it is
transhipped to steamers plying between New York and Curaçao. It is
obvious that the many transhipments that coffee coming from Cucuta has
to undergo greatly retard its arrival at a foreign port; and a cargo
sometimes takes a month or more to reach New York.
[Illustration: OLD AND NEW METHODS EMPLOYED IN LOADING HEAVY CARGO ON
THE SANTA CECILIA]
Coffee from Cucuta is stored in the Venezuelan custom-house, from which
it must be shipped for export within forty-five days, or the shipper
runs the risk of having it declared by the Venezuelan government for
_consumo_ (home consumption) at a prohibitory tariff. Arrangements can
be made at considerable cost to have the coffee taken to a private
warehouse; but it is no longer possible to make up the chops in
Maracaibo, as was done formerly with all the Cucutas. The Venezuelan
customs will not even allow the Maracaibo forwarding agent the same
chops, as a general rule. Special permission must be obtained to change
any bags that are stained or damaged. Schooners from Curaçao have, in
the past, carried a great deal of the Colombian coffee to Curaçao.
_Port Handling Charges in Brazil_
It is almost impossible to list all the various charges for the handling
of coffee at the port of shipment in Brazil, the figures not being
accessible to outsiders. Some figures, such as warehouse charges and
various forms of tax, are obtainable, however. For every bag of coffee
which is in warehouse over forty-eight hours from the time of its
arrival from the railroad there is a charge of two hundred reis (about
five cents). In São Paulo there is an export tax of nine percent ad
valorem levied by the state, and in Rio the state tax is eight and a
half percent. Then there is a surtax of five francs per bag in Santos,
and of three francs in Rio, which goes toward defraying the expenses of
valorization. For every bag of coffee that passes over the dock the dock
company charges one hundred reis (about two and a half cents).
_Some Record Coffee Cargoes_
With its superior loading and shipping facilities Brazil has been able
to send extraordinarily large cargoes of coffee to the United States
since the development of large modern freight-carrying steamships. While
75,000 or 90,000 bag cargoes were of common occurrence just prior to the
outbreak of the World War, several shipments of more than 100,000 bags
were made in the years 1915, 1916, and 1917. Up to January, 1919, the
record was held by the steamship Bjornstjerne Bjornson which unloaded
136,424 bags at New York on November 17, 1915. Other shipments of more
than 100,000 bags were by the Rossetti (December, 1900), 125,918 bags;
the Wascana (March 3, 1915), 108,781 bags; the Wagama (October, 1916),
105,650 bags; the American (October 23, 1916), 124,212 bags; the Santa
Cecilia (November 2, 1916), 105,500 bags, and the Dakotan (January 6,
1917), which carried 136,387 bags.
_Transport Overseas_
To bring green coffee to the consuming markets, both steamships and
sailing vessels are used, although the latter have almost wholly given
way to the speedier and more capacious modern steamers. Because of its
large consumption, a constant stream of vessels is always on the way to
the markets of the United States. The majority of these unload at New
York, which in 1920 received about fifty-nine percent of all the coffee
imported into this country. New Orleans came next, with about
twenty-five percent; and San Francisco third, with about twelve percent.
The approximate time consumed in transporting green coffee overseas from
the principal producing countries to the United States by freight
steamships is shown in the table in the next column.
In some cases, that of Guadeloupe, for instance, the vessels stop at a
number of ports, and this lengthens the time. This is also true of
vessels running on the west coast of Central America and of those from
Aden.
During the World War, one shipment of Timor coffee consumed three and a
half years coming from Java to New York. It was aboard the German
steamship Brisbane, which cleared from Batavia, July 4, 1914, and
fearing capture, took refuge in Goa, Portuguese India, where it lay
until Portugal joined the Allies. Then the Portuguese seized the vessel,
and turned it over to the British, who moved it to Bombay. Here the
cargo was finally transhipped to the City of Adelaide, reaching New York
in January, 1918, three and a half years after the coffee left Batavia.
TRANSPORTATION TIME FOR COFFEE[J]
Rio de Janeiro to New York 11 to 16 days
Santos " " " 14 to 18 "
Bahia " " " 17 "
Victoria " " " 19 "
Maracaibo " " " 10 "
Puerto Cabello " " " 10 "
La Guaira " " " 8 "
Costa Rica " " " 10 "
Salvador " " " 18 "
Mexico " " " 9 "
Guatemala " " " 11 "
(Puerto
Barrios)
Colombia " " " 10 "
Haiti " " " 7 "
Porto Rico " " " 5 "
Guadeloupe " " " 10 "
Hawaii " " " 28 "
(via P.C.)
Java " " " 30 "
(via Suez)
Sumatra " " " 30 "
(via Suez)
Singapore " " " 35 "
(via Suez)
India " " " 35 "
(via Suez)
Aden " " " 45 "
(via Suez)
Porto Rico " New Orleans 7 "
Guadeloupe " " " 10 "
Haiti " " " 7 "
Guatemala " " " 8 "
Costa Rica " " " 7 "
Colombia " " " 6 "
Mexico " " " 4 "
Salvador " " " 15 "
Guatemala " San Francisco 10 "
Costa Rica " " " 18 "
Salvador " " " 14 "
Mexico " " " 8 "
Hawaii " " " 8 "
Singapore " " " 30 "
India " " " 33 "
[J] The American Legion and the Southern Cross, of the Munson Line, make
the journey from Rio de Janeiro to New York in eleven days. These are
freight-and-passenger vessels, and have carried as many as 5,000 bags of
coffee at one time.
_Java Coffee "Ex-Sailing Ships"_
Up to 1915 it was the custom to ship considerable Java coffee to New
York in slow-going sailing vessels of the type in favor a hundred years
ago. Java coffees "ex-sailing ships" always commanded a premium because
of the natural sweating they experienced in transit. Attempts to imitate
this natural sweating process by steam-heating the coffees that reached
New York by the faster-going steamship lines, and interference therewith
by the pure-food authorities, caused a falling off in the demand for
"light," "brown," or "extra brown" Dutch East Indian growths; and
gradually the picturesque sailing vessels were seen no more in New York
harbor. At the end they were mostly Norwegian barks of the type of the
Gaa Paa.
It usually took from four to five months to make the trip from Padang or
Batavia to New York. Crossing the Equator twice, first in the Indian
Ocean, then in the South Atlantic, the trip was more than equal to
circumnavigating the earth in our latitude. In the hold of the vessel
the cargo underwent a sweating that gave to the coffee a rare shade of
color and that, in the opinion of coffee experts, greatly enhanced its
flavor and body. The captain always received a handsome gratuity if the
coffee turned "extra brown."
[Illustration: UNLOADING JAVA COFFEE FROM A SAILING VESSEL AT A BROOKLYN
DOCK
The ship is the Gaa Paa, which made the voyage from Padang in five
months in 1912]
The demand for sweated, or brown, Javas probably had its origin in the
good old days when the American housewife bought her coffee green and
roasted it herself in a skillet over a quick fire. Coffee slightly brown
was looked upon with favor; for every good housewife in those days knew
that green coffee changed its color in aging, and that of course aged
coffee was best.
And so it came about that Java coffees were preferably shipped in
slow-going Dutch sailing vessels, because it was desirable to have a
long voyage under the hot tropical sun suitably to sweat the coffee on
its way to market and to have it a handsome brown on arrival. The
sweating frequently produced a musty flavor which, if not too
pronounced, was highly prized by experts. When the ship left Padang or
Batavia the hatches were battened down, not to be opened again until New
York harbor was reached.
Many of the old-style Dutch sailing vessels were built somewhat after
the pattern of the Goed Vrouw, which Irving tells us was a hundred feet
long, a hundred feet wide, and a hundred feet high. Sometimes she sailed
forward, sometimes backward, and sometimes sideways. After dark, the
lights were put out, all sail was taken in, and all hands turned in for
the night.
The last of the coffee-carrying sailing vessels to reach the United
States was the bark Padang, which arrived in New York on Christmas day,
1914.
[Illustration: THE BUSH TERMINAL SYSTEM OF DOCKS AND WAREHOUSES
Much of the green coffee received in New York is discharged and stored
here, at one of the most modern waterfront and terminal developments in
the world]
[Illustration: AIRPLANE VIEW OF NEW YORK DOCK COMPANY'S PIERS AND
WAREHOUSES
This is the Fulton Street section of the Brooklyn waterfront, where more
than half the coffee received in New York is unloaded. The storage
warehouses are to be seen back of the piers]
[Illustration: RECEIVING PIERS FOR COFFEE AT NEW YORK]
_Handling Coffee at New York_
The handling of the cargoes of coffee when they arrive at their
destination is a source of wonder to the layman. There is probably no
better place to study the handling of coffee than in New York City--the
world's largest coffee center. Millions of bags of coffee pass into
consumption every year through its docks, and scarcely a day goes by
when there are not one or more ships discharging coffee upon the docks
lining the Brooklyn shore, the center of the coffee-warehouse district
for New York. In 1921, the New York Dock Company alone had 159 bonded
warehouses with a storage capacity of some 65,000,000 cubic feet; and 34
piers, the longest measuring 1,193 feet and containing more than 175,000
square feet. These piers have a total deck space of sixty-one and a half
acres. The wharfage distance is more than nine and a third miles. More
than twenty steamship lines berth their vessels there regularly, and
many of them are coffee ships. The warehouses have direct connections
with all the principal railway trunk lines running into the New York
district; and the whole property of the company stretches along the
waterfront opposite lower Manhattan for about two and one-half miles.
Although coffee is admitted to the United States free of duty, it is
subject to practically the same formalities as dutiable goods. Before
the cargo can be "broken out," a government permit to "land and deliver"
must be placed in the hands of the customs inspector on the dock. This
done, the ship's samples, which consist of the samples sent by the
exporter to the importer, are taken to the United States appraiser's
office for inspection, and are then delivered to the importer's
representative. Meanwhile the shipping documents covering the cargo,
including bills of lading and consular invoices, have been sent to the
post office for delivery to banks and bankers' agents, who check and
deliver them to the customs officers for entry. The government requires
that this entry shall be made within forty-eight hours of the vessel's
arrival, else the cargo will be stored in a United States bonded
warehouse under what is known as "general order" which makes the
consignee liable for storage and cartage charges.
[Illustration: UNLOADING COFFEE AT ONE OF THE COVERED PIERS OF THE NEW
YORK DOCK COMPANY]
When a coffee ship arrives in New York, not much time is lost in
discharging the cargo. As soon as the vessel is securely moored to the
pier, and the government's permission to "land and deliver" is secured,
the hatches are removed, the coffee is hauled out of the hold by block
and tackle and swung off in slings to the pier, where dock laborers
carry the bags to their proper places. If each cargo consisted of one
consignment to a single importer, and contained only one variety of
coffee, unloading would be a comparatively simple affair. In general
practise, however, the cargoes consist of a large number of consignments
and a variety of grades, necessitating a careful sorting as unloading
progresses. Accordingly, even before the unloading begins, the dock is
chalked off into squares, each square having a number, or symbol,
representing a particular consignment. As the bags come up out of the
hold, the foreman of the laborers, who has a key to the brand marks on
the bags, indicates where each bag is to be placed. Coffee to be
reshipped, either by lighter or rail, is heaped in piles by itself until
loaded on to the lighters or freight cars.
[Illustration: STORING COFFEE BY MARKS AND CHOPS]
[Illustration: HOISTING COFFEE INTO THE STORAGE WAREHOUSES ADJOINING THE
BROOKLYN PIERS]
[Illustration: RECEIVING AND STORING COFFEE AT NEW YORK]
The next step is to transfer the cargo to the warehouse, and to
separate each consignment according to the various kinds of coffee
making up the invoices. When the importer gives his orders to store, he
sends also a list of the different kinds of coffees in his consignment,
called "chops" by the trade, with directions how to divide the shipment.
To do this, the floor of the warehouse is chalked off into squares, as
was done on the dock; but now the numbers, or symbols, in each space
indicate the chops in each invoice, or consignment.
[Illustration: TESTER AT WORK, BUSH TERMINAL, NEW YORK]
[Illustration: LOADING LIGHTERS, BUSH DOCKS, NEW YORK]
The importer naturally is eager to sample the newly arrived coffee.
Sampling is generally done by trained warehouse employees, who are
equipped with coffee triers, sampling instruments resembling
apple-corers, which they thrust into the bags. The instrument is hollow,
and the coffee flows into the hand of the sampler, who places each
sample in a paper bag which is marked to indicate the chop. The total
sample of each chop usually consists of about ten pounds of coffee,
which the importer compares with the exporter's sample.
When sampling for trade delivery, about two-thirds of the bags in a chop
are tried. But when sampling for delivery on Coffee Exchange contract,
every bag must be tested, and care taken that each chop is uniform in
color, kind, and quality. Coffee for Exchange delivery must be stored in
a warehouse licensed by the Exchange; and the warehouseman is
responsible for the uniformity of grade of each chop.
When approximately ninety percent of the cargo has been unloaded and
stored, the warehouse issues what has become known as the "last bag
notice." In the majority of cases the coffee has been sold before
arrival; and on receipt of the last bag notice, the importer can
transfer ownership of the coffee and save interest.
In a cargo of 75,000 to 100,000 bags of coffee that have been hurriedly
loaded in the producing country and unloaded at destination in equal
haste, a small portion of the cargo is almost certain to be damaged.
Generally the damage is slight. If a bag is torn or stained, the coffee
is placed in a new bag. If the contents have become mildewed, the
damaged portion is taken to a warehouse for reconditioning; while the
sound coffee is thoroughly aired to remove the odor and is then placed
in a clean bag. The reconditioned lot is put into a separate package and
forwarded to the buyer with a "reconditioning statement" that shows what
has been done.
[Illustration: THE NEW TERMINAL SYSTEM ON STATEN ISLAND
On the left are three piers of the Pouch Terminal at Clifton; on the
right, four of the American Dock Terminal at Tompkinsville; and between
these are thirteen piers of the new Municipal Terminal]
Bags that have become torn in transit, and parts of their contents
spilled, are called "slacks." These are weighed as they arrive on the
dock by a licensed public weigher; and a sufficient quantity of the
coffee remaining on the floor of the ship's hold is put into the bag to
make it of the proper weight. The expense of reconditioning and
rebagging is generally borne by the marine insurance companies. When the
entire cargo is unloaded, and the slacks and bad-order bags are weighed
and marked, the warehouseman tallies up the records of his clerks, and
renders a corrected chop list to the consignee.
[Illustration: MOTOR TRACTOR MOVING COFFEE AT THE BUSH TERMINAL DOCKS,
BROOKLYN]
_Electric Tractors and Trailers_
Another district along the water front of Brooklyn where coffee is
discharged in large quantities is that between Thirty-third and
Forty-fourth Streets, south Brooklyn, occupied by the Bush Terminal
Stores. This plant is laid out with railroad spurs on every pier, so
that its own transfer cars, or the cars of the railroads running out of
New York, can be run into the sheds of the docks where coffee is being
discharged from the ships. The methods employed by the Bush Terminal are
similar to those just described, except that all the coffee is handled
by electrically-manipulated cars or trucks, in some instances the
powerful little tractors hauling many "trailers" to various parts of the
yards.
_Handling Charges at New York_
Before the World War, it cost approximately one-half cent a bag to
handle green coffee from the vessel to warehouse and in storage in New
York. The rate advanced nearly one hundred percent in the latter part of
1919, then dropped slightly, although it is still (1922) above the
pre-war price. Other handling charges are shown in the following
tabulation:
COFFEE HANDLING CHARGES AT NEW YORK
Pre-war prices Present prices
Cents per bag Cents per bag
(132 lbs.) (132 lbs.)
Storage 3 to 4 5 to 8
Labor 3 to 4 5 to 8
Sampling for damage 1 1
Cleaning 35 20
Dumping and mixing 10 15
Dumping and airing 10 15
Shoveling and airing 10 15
Transferring coffee
from floor to floor 4 8
Marking 1 1
Labor at vessel $9 per M $12.50 to $15 per M
The warehousemen in 1919 charged four cents per bag for loading into
railroad cars. This charge was discontinued in 1921. The cost of
weighing increased from two and one-half cents per bag in 1914 to four
and one-half cents in 1919, and then dropped to the present price of
three to three and one-half cents. Other handling charges at the port of
New York are:
OTHER HANDLING CHARGES, 1922
Cents per bag
(132 lbs.)
Drawing samples, each 10 lbs 17 to 20
Grading for variation 4
Matching in 12
Reducing or evening off slack 9
Transferring to new bag 10
Trucking to weigher in store 3
Collecting and preparing
sweepings 25
Delivering sample below Canal
Street 75
Each additional sample 10 to 15
New bags 15
Old bags 6
[Illustration: UNLOADING COFFEE WITH MODERN CONVEYOR, NEW ORLEANS]
A plan intended to cut down handling costs in New York, and to expedite
deliveries, was inaugurated by the National Coffee Roasters Association
at the beginning of 1920. The Association formed a freight-forwarding
bureau, and invited members to have their coffee shipments handled
through the bureau. The charges for forwarding direct importations are
two cents per bag. Cartage charges vary from six to eighteen cents per
hundred pounds. Claims are handled without charge.
_The Seven Stages of Transportation_
The foregoing story has taken the reader through the seven most direct
routes that lead from the plantation to the roaster: first, from the
patio to the railroad or river; then to the city of export; into the
warehouses there; then into the steamers; out of them, and upon the
wharf at the port of destination; from the wharf into the warehouses;
and, finally, from the warehouses to the roasting rooms. It will be
understood that in some instances where the plantation is hidden away in
the mountains, it is necessary to relay the coffee; and again, at this
end, the coffee is very often transhipped. In such cases, more handlings
are required.
[Illustration: UNLOADING A COFFEE SHIP BY BLOCK AND TACKLE AT THE PORT
OF NEW ORLEANS]
[Illustration: IN FOREGROUND--LOADING COFFEE BY MEANS OF AN AUTOMATIC
TRAVELING-BELT CONVEYOR, ON GOVERNMENT BARGES FOR ST. LOUIS]
[Illustration: COFFEE-HANDLING SCENES ON THE WHARVES AT NEW ORLEANS]
_Handling Coffee at New Orleans_
Coffee ships are unloaded in New Orleans, the second coffee port in the
United States, in about the same general manner as in New York, with the
important exception that the block-and-tackle system for transferring
the bags from the ship to the dock has been largely supplanted by the
automatic traveling-belt conveyor system. Another notable feature is New
Orleans' steel-roofed piers, whereon the coffee can be stored until
ready for shipment to the interior. Because of the class of
labor--mostly negro--employed in unloading ships, New Orleans has found
it expedient to retain the old flag system to indicate the part of the
pier where each mark of coffee is to be piled as taken from the vessel.
These little flags vary in shape, color and printed pattern, each
representing a particular lot of coffee, and they are firmly fixed at
the part of the pier where those bags should be stacked. Trained
checkers read the marks on the bags as the laborers carry them past, and
tell the carrier where the bag should be placed. To the illiterate
laborers the checker's cries of "blue check," "green ball," "red heart,"
"black hand," and the like, are more understandable than such
indications as letters or numbers.
[Illustration: SHOWING HOW COFFEE IS STORED UNDER STEEL-COVERED SHEDS AT
NEW ORLEANS]
_Handling Coffee at San Francisco_
San Francisco ranks third in the list of United States coffee ports,
having received its greatest development in the four years of the World
War, when the flow of Central American coffees was largely diverted from
Hamburg to the Californian port. In the course of these four years, the
annual volume of coffee imports increased from some 380,000 bags to more
than 1,000,000 bags in 1918. The bulk of these importations came from
Central America, though some came from Hawaii, India, and Brazil and
other South American countries. Because of its improved unloading and
distributing facilities, San Francisco claims to be able to handle a
cargo of coffee more rapidly than either New York or New Orleans.
Handling Central American coffees in San Francisco is distinctly
different from the business in Brazil. In order to secure the Central
American planter's crops, the importers find it necessary to finance his
operations to a large extent. Consequently, the Central American trade
is not a simple matter of buying and selling, but an intricate financial
operation on the part of the San Francisco importers. Practically all
the coffee coming in is either on consignment, or is already sold to
established coffee-importing houses. Brokers do not deal direct with the
exporters; and practically none of the roasters now import direct.
[Illustration: DISCHARGING COFFEE FROM A STEAMER JUST ARRIVED FROM
CENTRAL AMERICA]
[Illustration: HOW A LARGE CARGO OF COFFEE IS HANDLED ON THE PIER AS IT
IS UNLOADED FROM THE SHIP]
[Illustration: UNLOADING AND STORING COFFEE AT SAN FRANCISCO]
In recent years San Francisco has adopted the practise of buying a
large part of her coffee on the "to arrive" basis; that is the purchase
has been made before the coffee is shipped from the producing country,
or while in transit. This practise applies, of course, only to well
known marks and standard grades. Coffee that has not been sold before
arrival in San Francisco is generally sampled on the docks during
unloading, although this is sometimes postponed until the consignment is
in the warehouse. It is then graded and priced, and is offered for sale
by samples through brokers.
San Francisco is better equipped with modern unloading machinery and
other apparatus than either New Orleans or New York, even more liberal
use being made there than in New Orleans of the automatic-belt conveyors
both for transferring the bags from the ships to the docks and for
stacking them in high tiers on the pier. Another notable feature of the
modern coffee docks is that the newer ones are of steel and concrete
and, as in New Orleans, are covered to protect the coffee from wind and
storm.
_Europe's Great Coffee Markets_
Europe has three great coffee-trading markets--Havre, Hamburg, and
Antwerp. Rotterdam and Amsterdam are also important coffee centers, but
rank far below the others named. In point of volume of stocks, Havre led
the world before the war; while in respect to commercial transactions,
it ranked second, with New York first. In pre-war days, the largest part
of the world's visible supply of coffee was stored in the Havre bonded
warehouses, being available for shipment to any part of Europe on short
notice, or even to the United States in emergencies. Even during the
World War, this French port remained a powerful factor in international
coffee trading. Coffee trading in Havre, both exchange and "spot"
transactions, follows about the same general lines as in New York and
the other great coffee markets. Coffee "futures" are dealt in on the
Havre Bourse.
Green coffee is sold in London by auction in Mincing Lane. On arrival,
it is stored in bonded warehouses, and is released for domestic use only
when customs duty at the rate of four and one-half pence per pound has
been paid. The bulk of the coffee comes in parchment on consignment; and
before sale, it must be hulled and sorted in the milling establishments,
most of which are on the banks of the Thames.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE MODERN DEVICES USED IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR
HANDLING GREEN COFFEE]
The auctions are held four times a week, usually on Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday. The sales are advertised in the market
papers--chief among which is the _Public Ledger_--and also by the
auctioneers, who issue catalogs of their offerings. A few hours before
the beginning of the sale, samples are laid out for inspection by
prospective buyers, who may cup-test them if they desire. The actual
selling is done by competitive cash bidding, the highest bidder becoming
the owner. Two classes of brokers do the bidding, one for home trade and
the other for exporters.
Home trade takes about a tenth of the coffee, the remainder being sold
for export. If the coffee is bought for re-export, it can be transferred
to the shipping port, still in bond, and shipped out of the country
without paying duty. During the World War, auctions were held about
twice a week; but after the signing of the armistice in November 1918,
the London traders resumed the four times a week practise.
[Illustration: COFFEE AUCTION SAMPLES ON DISPLAY AT AMSTERDAM]
[Illustration: GREEN COFFEE STORED ON THE DOCKS AT HAVRE, FRANCE]
[Illustration: HANDLING GREEN COFFEE AT TWO EUROPEAN PORTS]
_Coffee Exchanges and Trading Methods_
Green-coffee buyers in the large importing centers of the United States
and Europe recognize two distinct markets in their operations. One of
these is called the "spot" market; because the importers, brokers,
jobbers, and roasters trading there deal in actual coffee in warehouses
in the consuming country. In New York the spot market is located in the
district of lower Wall Street, which includes a block or two each side
on Front and Water Streets. Here, coffee importers, coffee roasters,
coffee dealers, and coffee brokers conduct their "street" sales.
The other market is designated as the "futures" market; and the trading
is not concerned with actual coffee, but with the purchase or sale of
contracts for future delivery of coffee that may still be on the trees
in the producing country. Futures, or "options" as they are frequently
called, are dealt in only on a coffee exchange. The principal exchanges
are in New York, Havre, and Hamburg. New Orleans and San Francisco
exchange dealers trade on their local boards of trade.
Coffee-exchange contracts are dealt in just like stocks and bonds. They
are settled by the payment of the difference, or "margin"; and the
option of delivering actual coffee is seldom exercised. Generally, the
operations are either in the nature of ordinary speculation on margin or
for the legitimate purpose of effecting "hedges" against holdings or
short sales of actual coffees.
The New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange--the most important in the world,
because of the volume of its business--deals in all coffees from North,
South, and Central America, the West Indies and the East Indies (except
those of the Robusta variety) and uses Type No. 7 as the basis for all
Exchange quotations. All other types are judged in relation to it. In
determining the number of a type, the coffee is graded by the number of
imperfections contained in it.
[Illustration: NEW YORK COFFEE AND SUGAR EXCHANGE
The building fronts on Hanover Square and extends through to Beaver
Street. The exchange rooms are indicated by the arched windows on the
second floor. The rest of the building is devoted to offices. The
exchange was founded in 1881, and was the first national coffee trading
organization in the world.]
These imperfections are black beans, broken beans, shells, immature
beans ("quakers"), stones, and pods. For counting the imperfections, the
black bean has been taken as the basis unit, and all imperfections, no
matter what they may be, are calculated in terms of black beans,
according to a scale, which is practically as follows:
BLACK-BEAN SCALE
3 shells equal 1 black bean
5 "quakers" equal 1 " "
5 broken beans equal 1 " "
1 pod equals 1 " "
1 medium size stone equals 1 " "
2 small stones equal 1 " "
1 large stone equals 2 to 3 " "
[Illustration: THE COFFEE PIT IN THE NEW YORK COFFEE AND SUGAR EXCHANGE]
By this scale a coffee containing no imperfections would be classified
as Type No. 1. The test is made on one-pound samples. If a sample shows
six black beans, or equivalent imperfections, it is graded as No. 2; if
thirteen black beans, as No. 3; if twenty-nine black beans, as No. 4; if
sixty black beans, as No. 5; if one hundred and ten black beans, as No.
6, and if more than one hundred and ten black beans, as No. 7 or No. 8.
These two are graded by comparison with recognized exchange types.
Coffees grading lower than No. 8 are not admissible to this country.
The quotation relationship of other types with the basic Rio No. 7 is
shown in the table below.
By this scale one can determine that when Rio No. 7 is quoted at 17.10,
Rio No. 2 is 18.60, Santos No. 3, 19.10, and Bogota No. 5, 18.10. The
quotations are on the pound and cents basis.
SCALE OF QUOTATION RELATIONSHIP
BRAZILIAN COFFEE-- SANTOS COFFEE OTHER KINDS--NOT
NOT SANTOS BRAZILIAN
Type Type Type
No. 1--180 points above No. 1--260 points above No. 1--300 points above
No. 2--150 points above No. 2--230 points above No. 2--250 points above
No. 3--120 points above No. 3--200 points above No. 3--200 points above
No. 4---90 points above No. 4--150 points above No. 4--150 points above
No. 5---60 points above No. 5--100 points above No. 5--100 points above
No. 6---30 points above No. 6-- 50 points above No. 6--50 points above
No. 7---Basis No. 7--Basis No. 7--Basis
No. 8---50 points below No. 8--50 points below No. 8--50 points below
A point is the hundredth part of a cent
In the spot market, a trader may also buy or sell coffee "to arrive";
that is, a consignment that is aboard ship on the way to the market.
Coffee is shipped to New York either on a consignment basis and sold
for a commission, or it may have been bought in the shipping port and be
already the property of an importer. When shipped on consignment, a
wholesaler usually buys on the in-store contract, which provides that
the purchaser must take delivery at the warehouse, though he is
generally given a month's storage privilege before removal of the
coffee. The practise among New York importers at present is to buy
coffee on either the basis of F.O.B. delivery steamer at loading port,
or delivery C. & F. (cost and freight), or C.I.F. (cost, insurance, and
freight), port of destination. Payment is made by letter of credit drawn
on a New York or London bank, entitling the exporter to draw at ninety
days' sight against the shipping documents, so that the shipment will be
in the hands of the purchaser long before the draft is made. Frequently
a jobber acts as his own importer of Brazil coffee, buying direct from
the exporter without utilizing the agency of a broker or a regular
importing firm.
Brazil coffee is bought with the stipulation that differences between
samples and the coffee actually delivered may be adjusted either on
"Brazil grading," "half difference," or "full difference"; and with the
further provision that, if the delivery is a full type higher or lower
than specified in the contract, the entire shipment may be rejected.
Under the "Brazil grading" provision, the buyer must accept delivery if
the coffee is better than the next lower type, even though not up to the
type ordered; and if the coffee is of a higher type than contracted for,
he need not pay premium for it. In buying on the "half difference" or
"full difference" basis, the buyer is entitled to payment for half the
difference or the full difference, respectively, for any undergrading,
or must pay the seller accordingly if there is any overgrading. When a
buyer specifies special features of description, in addition to type,
some sellers protect themselves against claims for difference on this
score by inserting in the contract a clause to the effect that the
description is given in good faith, but is not guaranteed by the seller.
[Illustration: TWO OF THE COFFEE EXCHANGE BLACKBOARDS
The one on the right is a record of transactions in the coffee pit. As
soon as a trade is made, it is noted in the proper column on the lower
part, the entry showing the time of the transaction, the number of
"250-pound bag lots," and the price. The left-hand board gives Santos
and Rio future quotations. For a detailed description of these and other
exchange quotation boards, see page 457]
_How the New York Exchange Functions_
When the New York Coffee Exchange was incorporated in 1881, its charter
stated its purposes to be "to provide, regulate and maintain a suitable
building, room or rooms for the purchase and sales of coffees and other
similar grocery articles in the city of New York, to adjust
controversies between members, to inculcate and establish just and
equitable principles in the trade, to establish and maintain uniformity
in its rules, regulations and usages, to adopt standards of
classification, to acquire, preserve and disseminate useful and valuable
business information, and generally to promote the above mentioned trade
in the city of New York, increase its amount, and augment the facilities
with which it may be conducted."
In the promotion of trade at New York the Exchange has been highly
successful. From time to time it has been criticized; and, more than
once, coffee traders in the East and in the West have raised a question
as to its value to non-speculating members. There are those who believe
it serves a useful purpose, and others who call it a huge pool room. To
say that, on the whole, it is not of benefit to the trade would be
untrue. As one of its champions pointed out in 1914, when it shut down
for a period of four months on account of the World War:
The ability to discount the future is a necessity, and demands the
facilities that a unit of centralization like the Exchange affords.
There is no difference between a purchase of coffee and one of a
future month on options.
The experience gained here and abroad demonstrates that any check
placed upon such dealings is detrimental, with far-reaching effects
upon the whole body of the trade. Unquestionably the Exchange is a
powerful factor as a regulator of extremes in the market.
The experience gained in Germany, where an embargo was placed upon
transactions in futures, is illuminating. The disastrous effects
were so plain that the authorities were forced to abandon their
objections and permit a resumption of the business along the old
lines.
But a good thing can be abused, and the opportunity to gamble in
options availed of by so many is the increment that disturbs the
legitimacy of the market and creates the opposition to the whole
proposition. When the Exchange is ready to insist that every
transaction in futures must be a legitimate one, and that every
trader under its jurisdiction using the facilities of the Exchange
is made to realize that any operations that are purely of a
gambling nature will subject him to severe discipline, then the
Coffee Exchange will begin to stem the tide of an ever-growing
opposition by the general public.
[Illustration: THE "COFFEE AFLOAT" BLACKBOARD]
The New York State legislative committee on speculations in securities
and commodities had the following to say on the Coffee Exchange in its
report to Governor Charles E. Hughes in 1909:
It [the Coffee Exchange] was established in order to supply a daily
market where coffee could be bought and sold and to fix quotations
therefor, in distinction from the former method of alternate glut
and scarcity, with wide variations in price--in short, to create
stability and certainty in trading in an important article of
commerce. This it has accomplished; and it has made New York the
most important primary coffee market in the United States. But
there has been recently introduced a non-commercial factor known as
"valorization," a governmental scheme of Brazil, by which the
public treasury has assumed to purchase and hold a certain
percentage of the coffee grown there, in order to prevent a decline
of the price. This has created abnormal conditions in the coffee
trade.
All transactions must be reported by the seller to the
superintendent of the Exchange, with an exact statement of the time
and terms of delivery. The record shows that the average annual
sales in the past five years have been in excess of 16,000,000 bags
of 130 pounds each.
Contracts may be transferred or offset by voluntary clearings by
groups of members. There is no general clearing system.[319] There
is a commendable rule providing that, in case of a "corner," the
officials may fix a settlement price for contracts to avoid
disastrous failures.
The original initiation fee was $250. Seats on the Exchange once sold
for as low as $110. In January, 1916, there was a sale at $3,000; in
October, 1916, there was a sale for $5,000; in April, 1921, three seats
were sold for $5,500 each; but the record price of $8,600 was paid in
1919. Seats are now (1922) worth about $6,000.
The Exchange includes in its membership 323 brokers, importers, dealers,
and roasters. Membership is passed upon by a committee on membership;
but any one twenty-one years old, resident or non-resident, of good
character and commercial standing, is eligible when proposed and
seconded by Exchange members. The committee refers the application with
its recommendation to the board of managers, which takes a ballot. The
adverse vote of one-third of all votes cast rejects.
The Exchange elects annually a president, a vice-president, and a
treasurer, who perform the usual duties of Exchange officers. The real
governing body is the board of managers, consisting of the president,
vice-president, treasurer, and twelve other members. This governing
board, meeting monthly, appoints the necessary subordinate officers and
employees, and fixes their compensation, and may "summon before them any
officer or member for any purpose whatsoever." It appoints the secretary
of the Exchange from among its own number, a superintendent of the
Exchange, and the numerous committees which are in active charge of
specified activities. It also licenses the necessary coffee graders,
warehousemen, weighmasters, and samplers of the Exchange.
A brief discussion of the duties of the superintendent and the various
committees will help to explain the methods of the Exchange market. The
superintendent, under the direction of the board of managers, has charge
of the details of its work and of that of the various committees. He
keeps all the books and documents of the Exchange; collects and pays
over to the treasurer all moneys due the Exchange not otherwise provided
for; receives, deposits, and pays over all margins on coffee contracts;
has active charge of the Exchange rooms and the bulletin board; and
manages and appoints, with the consent of the board of managers, the
assistants needed to perform the details of the work under his charge.
One of the functions of the Exchange is to grade and to classify coffee,
in which it takes every possible precaution. The rules provide for eight
standard grades; and only licensed graders are permitted to pass upon
the product handled on the Exchange. There are twenty-five of these
graders; one of whom is appointed as a supervisor of types, to provide
fresh standards and to "maintain them as nearly as possible on an
equality." When these standards are approved by the board and the
Exchange, they remain in force for a year.
When coffee is received at a licensed warehouse, two official graders
are chosen, one by the buyer and one by the seller. These graders
receive four cents a bag if employed by a member; and eight cents a bag,
if employed by a non-member.
If the graders disagree, their differences are referred to the board of
coffee arbitrators, consisting of ten experts appointed by the board of
managers. The superintendent selects by lot three of these arbitrators,
who decide on the basis of the samples submitted, but will not make a
decision lowering the grade below that of the lowest submitted nor
higher than the highest. If the disputants do not change the grading to
come within the arbitrators' findings, the samples are sent to the
entire board of arbitrators, exclusive of those who may have been the
original graders, and final decision is made by majority vote. As soon
as the coffee is graded, a certificate is issued stating the grades, and
bearing the signatures of the superintendent and graders. This
certificate is conclusive evidence of the grade as far as the parties
involved are concerned, for the subsequent twelve months. The buyer
receives the original, and the seller a duplicate.
The rules provide that weights decided upon at the initial delivery are
good during the life of the grading certificate for re-delivery, with
definite allowances to the receiver, on re-delivery, of a quarter of a
pound a bag a month, instead of having to re-weigh and re-sample for
every separate delivery, as formerly.
As claims and trade controversies occasionally arise, the Exchange has
provided means for their peaceful settlement. The board of managers
elects annually an arbitration committee of five members, who swear to
decide disputes fairly. This is the only committee on the Exchange that
has power to adjudicate disputes between members and non-members; and
its services must be sought by the disputants, who must agree to abide
by its decision. An adjudication committee of seven is annually chosen
from the membership by the managers, to adjust all claims and
controversies between members arising out of any merchandise
transaction, "if notice in writing of such claim or controversy, and of
the intention to demand an adjudication thereon, be served by either
party thereto within ten days from the ascertainment thereof."
Within three days of the serving of this notice, each disputant selects
an Exchange member as his adjudicator; and these two name the third, who
must be a member of the adjudicating committee. Even this decision may
be appealed to the board of managers, which, if it finds the grounds of
appeal good (as decided by majority vote), appoints an appeal committee
of five, of whom three must be members of the board. This last
committee's decision is final. No new testimony bearing on the case may
be introduced after the case has been closed by the adjudicators.
Arbitration is voluntary with both parties; while adjudication is
compulsory upon the application of either.
Another committee of trade importance is the spot quotation committee of
five Exchange members. Each day at two o'clock, except on Saturday, when
it meets at 11:45, this committee by a majority vote establishes the
official daily market quotation of No. 7 coffee. There is likewise a
committee on quotations of futures. This committee of five meets daily
"immediately after the first call and at the close of the Exchange and
reports to the superintendent the tone and price of the contract market,
to be posted on the blackboard and transmitted to other Exchanges and
commercial bodies."
A committee of five on trade and statistics has the important function
of reporting to the board as to regulations for the "purchase, sale,
transportation and custody of merchandise," and it attempts to establish
uniformity in such matters between different markets. It has charge also
of "all matters pertaining to the supply of newspapers, market reports,
telegraphic and statistical information for the use of the Exchange. In
the early 80's the Exchange abolished the old method of keeping coffee
statistics, and the basis then adopted has since been accepted by all
the large coffee markets of the world."
The minimum rates of commission on coffee "per contract of 250 bags, for
members of the Exchange residing in the United States, are based upon a
price" as follows, quoting from the Exchange bylaws adopted June 8,
1920:
COFFEE EXCHANGE COMMISSION RATES
(Per contract of 250 bags)
Floor
Commission brokerage
for buying for buying
or selling or selling
Below 10 cents $6.25 $1.50
10 cents up to 19.99 cents 7.50 1.75
20 cents and above 10.00 2.00
For non-members residing within the United States, double the above
rates of commission shall be charged.
For members and non-members residing outside of the United States a
commission of $2.50 shall be charged in addition to the above
rates.
Whenever before thirty minutes after the close of the exchange a
member gives to another member for clearance purchases and sales of
contracts corresponding in all respects except as to price, made
during the day by himself or for his account _when present on the
floor_ of the Exchange, a charge for each contract shall be made
equal to the corresponding floor brokerage rate for buying and
selling, in addition to any floor brokerage incurred.
Members procuring business for other members may, by agreement, be
entitled to one-half the commission rates for non-members
prescribed in this Section, less the corresponding brokerage
charge, whether paid or not.
When a transferable notice is given or received by a customer in
fulfillment of a contract the brokerage in that case shall be not
less than one-half of the corresponding buying or selling
commission prescribed in Section 103.
Other committees are the finance committee (two) to audit bills and
claims against the Exchange, to direct deposits and investments, and to
audit the monthly and yearly accounts of the treasurer; a law committee
(three), to deal with matters of legislation; a membership and floor
committee (five); and a nominating committee (five). Organized as above
outlined, and with a well established code of trade rules, the Exchange
annually transacts a large number of sales in a business-like way.
There is considerable trading in future contracts; and a standard form
has been adopted by the Exchange. No future contracts are valid unless
they are made in the following form:
BRAZILIAN COFFEE--NOT SANTOS
Office of _____________
New York__________ 19__
Sold for M_______________________
To M_______________________
Thirty-two thousand five hundred pounds in about 250 bags coffee,
growth of North, South or Central America, West Indies or East
Indies, excepting coffee known as "Robusta," and also any coffee of
new or unknown growth, deliverable from licensed warehouse in the
port of New York, between the first and last days of ________ next,
inclusive. The delivery within such time to be at seller's option,
upon a notice to buyer of either five, six or seven days, as may be
prescribed by the trade rules. The coffee to be of any grade, from
No. 8 to No. 1 inclusive (no coffee to grade below No. 8) provided
the average grade of Brazilian coffees shall not be above No. 3.
Nothing in this contract, however, shall be construed as
prohibiting a delivery averaging above No. 3 at the No. 3 grade. At
the rate of __________ cents per pound for No. 7, with additions or
deductions for other grades according to the rates of the New York
Coffee and Sugar Exchange, Inc., existing on the afternoon of the
day previous to the date of the notice of delivery. Either party to
have the right to call for margins as the variations of the market
for like deliveries may warrant, which margins shall be kept good.
This contract is made in view of, and in all respect subject to the
rules and conditions established by the New York Coffee and Sugar
Exchange, Inc., and in full accordance with section 102 of the
bylaws.
_____________________________
Brokers
Across the face is the following:
For and in consideration of one dollar to __________________ in
hand paid, receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, ______________
accept this contract with all its obligations and conditions.
All deliveries on such future contracts must be made from licensed
warehouses. There is a separate "to arrive contract"; but this likewise
requires delivery at a licensed warehouse, unless the buyer and the
seller have a mutual understanding to deliver the coffee from dock or
ex-ship. Margins to protect the contract may be called for by either
party. The largest deposit for margins was made in 1904, when
$22,661,710 was deposited with the superintendent as required by the
Exchange rules.
The basic grade in a future sale is No. 7; but variations are provided
as follows: 30 points for Rio, Victoria, and Bahia of all grades between
7 and 1, and of 50 points between 7 and 8; 50 points is allowed on
Santos and all other coffees except between grades 1 and 2 and 2 and 3
Santos, which are allowed 30 points. Thus the buyer and the seller when
entering upon a transaction know exactly what the difference will be
between the standard No. 7 and the coffee that can be delivered. The
right to deliver any grade in a future transaction has done much to
lessen the probability of corners in coffee; but this protection is
further given by the stringent rule that the maximum fluctuations on the
Exchange can be only two cents a pound on coffee in one day and one cent
on sugar. If greater changes should threaten, the Exchange operations
would automatically cease.
False or fictitious sales are prohibited, and all contracts must be
reported to the superintendent. All contracts are binding and call for
actual delivery.
The future contract, besides being used for the delivery of coffee
during stated months in the future at a given price, is also used for
hedging purposes. As in the grain and cotton markets, dealers protect
themselves against price fluctuations by hedging in the future market.
Importers, for instance, when purchasing coffee abroad, frequently sell
an equal amount for future delivery on the Exchange. When the time for
delivery arrives, it is simply a question of calculation of the market
conditions whether it is more advantageous to repurchase the sales made
as a hedge, or as a kind of insurance to protect themselves against
loss, and free the coffee so engaged, or to make delivery of the coffee
as it comes in.
The board of managers has power to close the Exchange or to suspend
trading on such days or parts of days as would in their judgment be for
the Exchange's best interest.
The Clearing Association is a recent outgrowth of the Exchange, and is
composed exclusively of Exchange members. Every member has to bring his
contracts up to market closing every night, either by making a deposit
with the Association to cover his balances, or by withdrawing in case he
should be over. Members deposit $15,000 at the time of joining as a
guaranty fund; and if the surplus is not sufficient to take care of
balances, the bylaws provide for the levying of assessments.
The daily quotations on the coffee exchanges of New York, Havre, and
(before the war) of Hamburg, determined to a large extent the price of
green coffee the world over. The prices prevailing on the New York
Coffee and Sugar Exchange are studied by coffee traders in all
countries, the fluctuations being reflected in foreign markets as the
reports come from the United States. Quotations are cabled from one
great market to another; and as each must heed those of the others to
some extent, the coffee trade thus obtains a world price, and the
effect on supply and demand is universal rather than local, as would be
the case if quotations were not exchanged.
In 1921 the Exchange adopted an amendment to the trade rules, and
abolished the one day transferable notice for both coffee and sugar.
_Foreign Coffee Quotations_
Brazil coffee cable quotations are the market prices, in Rio or Santos,
of ten kilograms of coffee, the price being stated in milreis, the
monetary unit of Brazil money. The basic grade of coffee at Rio is the
No. 7 of the New York Coffee Exchange; and at Santos, the international
standard of good average ("g. a.") Santos. One kilogram (often written
kilo, or abbreviated to K.) is equal to two and one-fifth pounds; and
the ten-kilogram standard of quantity is, therefore, equivalent to
twenty-two pounds, or just one-sixth of a standard Brazil bag.
The money value is not so simple, since Brazilian paper currency is
unstable; and the milreis quotation means nothing unless it is
considered in connection with the rate of exchange for the same day,
i.e., the current gold value of the milreis. This gold value is always
given with the daily quotations from Brazil, and is expressed in British
pence. The par value of the milreis (1000 reis) is 54.6 cents (gold) of
United States money; but its present actual value is only about 15
cents, and it has been as low as 11-1/4 cents. Our dollar sign is used
to denote milreis, placing it after the whole number, and before the
fractional part expressed in one-thousandths. Thus, 8-1/4 milreis would
be written 8$250 RS.
Suppose, for example, a Rio quotation is given at 8$400, with exchange
at 7-1/2 d. This means that 22 pounds of coffee have a gold value of 63
British pence (8.4 × 7-1/2 = 63.0), or 5/3, as the Englishman would
write it, which is equal to $1.27-1/2, making the coffee worth 5.8 cents
per pound. Of course the person familiar with Brazil quotations will not
need to make this reduction to the pound-cent term in order to
understand the figures. They will have a proper relative meaning to him
in their original form; and it must not be overlooked that it is in this
form only that they express correctly the value of the coffee in Brazil.
It may make a great difference to the Brazilian planter or exporter
whether an increased gold value of his coffee arises through a higher
milreis bid or an appreciated exchange, simply on account of local
currency considerations. That is to say, the purchasing power of a
milreis in Brazil will not necessarily vary exactly as the rate of
exchange on London.
London quotations are made in shillings and pence, on one hundred-weight
(cwt) of coffee. This "cwt" is not 100 pounds but 112 pounds, one
twentieth of the English ton (our long ton) of 2,240 pounds. And in all
English coffee statistics the coffee quantities are expressed in this
ton. A London quotation of 30/9 (30 shillings and 9 pence) for example,
is equivalent to $7.44 for 112 pounds of coffee, or 6.64 cents per pound
at the normal rate of exchange, $4.80 to $4.86 the pound sterling.
At Havre, the coffee price is given in francs, on a quantity of 50
kilograms. This is 110 pounds and almost as much, therefore, as the
British cwt. In normal times the franc is equal to 19.3 cents. A French
quotation of 37-1/2, for instance, means, therefore, $7.19 for 110
pounds of coffee, or 6.53 cents per pound.
The Hamburg quotation (formerly from Brazil per fifty kilos) is made on
one pound German, equal to 1/2 kilogram, and is expressed in pfennigs.
One pfennig is one-hundredth of a mark, and the mark once was equal to
23.8 cents. A German quotation of, say, 31, means, therefore, 7.38 cents
(31 × .238 = 7.378) for 1.1 pounds, or 6.71 cents per pound.
_Three Kinds of Brokers_
In the coffee trade there are three kinds of brokers--floor, spot, and
cost and freight.
Floor brokers are those who buy and sell options on the Coffee Exchange
for a fixed consideration per lot of 250 bags. The coffee commission
rate put into effect June 8, 1920, for round term (buying and selling)
by the New York Coffee Exchange was as follows:
COMMISSION RATE ON 250 BAGS
(For Round Term--Buying and Selling)
Up to 10¢ to
9.99c 19.99c 20c & up
per lb. per lb. per lb.
Members $12.50 $15.00 $20.00
Non-members 25.00 30.00 40.00
Foreign members 17.50 20.00 25.00
Foreign non-members 30.00 35.00 45.00
Floor brokerage--
Buying or selling 1.50 1.75 2.00
There is at present (1922) a stamp tax of two cents on each hundred
dollars value, or fraction thereof, figured on each separate lot.
[Illustration: SUN-CURING THE WASHED GREEN BEANS ON CEMENT DRYING
PATIOS]
[Illustration: NEAR VIEW OF HEAVILY LADEN TREES READY FOR THE PICKERS]
[Illustration: TYPICAL COFFEE SCENES IN COSTA RICA]
Spot brokers are those who deal in actual coffee, selling from jobber
to jobber, or representing out-of-town houses; the seller paying a
commission of about fifteen cents a bag in small lots, and half of one
percent in large lots.
Cost and freight brokers represent Brazilian accounts, and generally
receive a brokerage of one and one-quarter percent. On out-of-town
business, they usually split the commission with the out-of-town or
"local" brokers. The out-of-town brokers sometimes, however, deal direct
with the importer. All brokers except floor brokers are sometimes called
"street brokers." Most of the large New York, New Orleans, and San
Francisco brokerage houses also do a commission business, handling one
or more Brazilian or other coffee-producing-country accounts.
_Important Rulings Affecting Coffee Trading_
The United States have no coffee law as they have a tea law--prescribing
"purity, quality and fitness for consumption"--but buyers and sellers of
green coffees are required to observe certain well defined federal rules
and regulations relating specifically to coffee. Up to the year 1906,
when the Pure Food and Drugs Act became law, the green coffee trade was
practically unhampered; and several irregularities developed, calling
into existence federal laws that were designed to protect the consumer
against trade abuses, and at the same time to raise the standards of
coffee trading.
Under these regulations it is illegal to import into this country a
coffee that grades below a No. 8 Exchange type, which generally contains
a large proportion of sour or damaged beans, known in the trade as
"black jack," or damaged coffee, as found in "skimmings." "Black jack"
is a term applied to coffee that has turned black during the process of
curing, or in the hold of a ship during transportation; or it may be due
to a blighting disease.
Another ruling is intended to prevent the sale of artificially "sweated"
coffee, which has been submitted to a steaming process to give the beans
the extra-brown appearance of high grade East Indian and Mocha coffees
which have been naturally "sweated" in the holds of sailing vessels
during the long journey to American ports. Up to the time that the Pure
Food and Drugs Act went into effect, artificial "sweating" was resorted
to by some coffee firms; and out of that practise grew a suit[320] that
resulted in a federal court decision sustaining the Pure Food Act, and
classifying the practise as adulteration and misbranding.
The Act also is intended to prevent the sale of coffees under trade
names that do not properly belong to them. For example, only coffees
grown on the island of Java can properly be labeled and sold as Javas;
coffees from Sumatra, Timor, etc., must be sold under their respective
names. Food Inspection Decision No. 82, which limited the use of the
term Java to coffee grown on the island of Java, was sustained in a
service and regulatory announcement issued in January, 1916. Likewise
the name Mocha may be used only for coffees of Arabia. Before the
pure-food law was enacted, it was frequently the custom to mix Bourbon
Santos with Mocha and to sell the blend as Mocha. Also, Abyssinian
coffees were generally known in the trade as Longberry Mocha, or just
straight Mocha; and Sumatra growths were practically always sold as
Javas. Traders used the names of Mocha and Java because of the high
value placed upon these coffees by consumers, who, before Brazil
dominated the market, had practically no other names for coffee.
One of the most celebrated coffee cases under the Pure Food Act was
tried in Chicago, February, 1912. The question was, whether in view of
the long-standing trade custom, it was still proper to call an
Abyssinian coffee (Longberry Mocha) Mocha. The defendant was charged
with misbranding, because he sold as Java and Mocha a coffee containing
Abyssinian coffee. The court decided that the product should be called
Abyssinian Mocha;[321] but since then, general acceptance has obtained
of the government's viewpoint as expressed in F.I.D. No. 91, which was
that only coffee grown in the province of Yemen in Arabia could properly
be known as Mocha coffee.
Another important ruling, concerning coffee buyers and sellers,
prohibits the importation of green coffees coated with lead chromate,
Prussian blue, and other substances, to give the beans a more stylish
appearance than they have normally. Such "polished" coffees find great
favor in the European markets, but are now denied admittance here.
The Board of Food and Drug Inspection decided in 1910 against a trade
custom that had prevailed until then of calling Minãs coffee Santos when
shipped through Santos, instead of Rio.[322]
For years a practise obtained of rebagging certain Central American
growths in New York. In this way Bucaramangas frequently were
transformed into Bogotas, Rios became Santos, Bahias and Victorias were
sold as Rios, and the misbranding of peaberry was quite common. A
celebrated case grew out of an attempt by a New York coffee importer and
broker to continue one of these practises after the Pure Food Act made
it a criminal offense. The defendants, who were found guilty of
conspiracy, and who were fined three thousand dollars each, mixed,
re-packed and sold under the name P.A.L. Bogota, a well known Colombian
mark, eighty-four bags of washed Caracas coffee.[323]
After an exchange of views with the United States Board of Food and Drug
Inspection, the New York Coffee Exchange decided that, after June 1,
1912, it would abolish all grades of coffee under the Exchange type No.
8.
The practise in Holland of grading Santos coffees--by selecting beans
most like Java beans, and polishing and coloring them to add
verisimilitude--known as "manipulated Java," became such a nuisance in
1912 that United States consuls refused to certify invoices to the
United States unless accompanied by a declaration that the produce was
"pure Java, neither mixed with other kinds nor counterfeited."
The United States Bureau of Chemistry ruled in February, 1921, that
_Coffea robusta_ could not be sold as Java coffee, or under any form of
labeling which tended either directly or indirectly to create the
impression that it was _Coffea arabica_, so long and favorably known as
Java coffee. This was in line with the Department of Agriculture's
previous definition that coffee was the seed of the _Coffea arabica_ or
_Coffea liberica_, and that Java coffee was _Coffea arabica_ from Java.
_Coffea robusta_ was barred from deliveries on the New York Coffee
Exchange in 1912.
During the greater part of the year 1918, the United States government
assumed virtually full control of coffee trading. It was a war-time
measure, and was intended to prevent speculation in coffee contracts and
freight rates, to cut down the number of vessels carrying coffee to this
country so as to provide more ships for transporting food and soldiers
to Europe, and to put the coffee merchants on rations during the stress
of war. On February 4, 1918, importers and dealers were placed under
license; and two days later, rules were issued through the Food
Administration fixing the maximum price for coffee for the spot month in
the "futures" markets at eight and a half cents, prohibiting dealers
from taking more than normal pre-war profits, or holding supplies in
excess of ninety days' requirements, and greatly limiting resales. On
May 8, the United States Shipping Board fixed the "official" freight
rate from Rio de Janeiro to New York at one dollar and fifty cents per
bag, which, without control, had risen to as high as four dollars and
more, as compared with the ordinary rate of thirty-five cents before the
war. On January 12, 1919, two months after the armistice was signed, the
rules were withdrawn, and the coffee trade was left to carry on its
business under its own direction.
_Some Well Known Green Coffee Marks_
Practically every bag of good quality green coffee is imprinted with a
brand which indicates by whom it was shipped. These imprints are known
in the trade as "green coffee marks." Many of them, through long usage,
have become celebrated in international trade. One of the most famous
was HLOG. This stood for "Heaven's Light Our Guide," and was owned by
John O'Donohue's Sons. For many years it was used on Mocha coffee, but
it is now out of existence. Other well-known Mocha marks are M R
(Maurice Ries) with the figure of a camel, a star, or deer's head
between the letters; L F or L B (Livierato Frères); C F or C B
(Caracanda Frères).
Bogota marks includes PAL (in triangle) Bogota (P.A. Lopez & Co.);
Camelia; Pinzon & Co.; Salazar; AOL (in triangle) Bogota; and Carmencita
Manizales Excelso (Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co.).
[Illustration: SOME WELL KNOWN GREEN-COFFEE MARKS]
Among the best known Medellin marks are FAC & H (F.A. Correa & Sons):
PEC & C (Pedro Estrado Co.); LMT & C (Louis M. Torro & Co.); A & C (A.
Angel & Co.); E C S Medellin Excelso (Eppens, Smith Co.); Balzacbro
Medellin Excelso (Balzac Bros.); La Rambla (Banco Lopez); and Don Carlos
Medellin Excelso (Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co.).
Caracas marks show J P P & H (Juan Pablo Perez & Sons); HLB & C (H.L.
Boulton & Co.); FST & C (Filipe S. Toledo & Co.); JLG (J.L. Garrondona);
and many others. Kolster (Kolster & Co.) is a well known Puerto Cabello
mark.
Maracaibos bear numerous marks, chief among which are: M & C (Menda &
Co.); Cogollo (Cogollo & Co.); Fossi (Fossi & Co.); B M & C (Breur.
Moller & Co.); B & C (Blohm & Co.); FST & C (Filipe S. Toledo & Co.); V
D R & C (Van Dessel, Rodo & Co.); and J E C & C over R G E (J.E. Carret
& Co.).
A prominent Mexican mark is P A N (Rafael del Castillo & Co.).
Brazil coffee is usually marked merely with the initials of the firm or
bank financing the shipment. Some representative Brazilian marks are:
Aronco (in rectangle) Brazil; J A & Co (in rectangle) Brazil Rosebud; J
A & Co (in rectangle) Brazil Bourbona--all used by J. Aron & Company; S
S C (in circle) Rio; S S C (in triangle) Santos; both used by
Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co.; Sions M/M Bourbns (Sion & Co.); and
Nossack V S S C (in swastika), used by Nossack & Co.
There are hundreds of other marks. In most countries they change so
often that one rarely stands out above the rest.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXIV
GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE CHARACTERISTICS
_The trade values, bean characteristics, and cup merits of the
leading coffees of commerce, with a "Complete Reference Table of
the Principal Kinds of Coffee Grown in the World"--Appearance,
aroma, and flavor in cup-testing--How experts test coffee--A
typical sample-roasting and cup-testing outfit_
More than a hundred different kinds of coffee are bought and sold in the
United States. All of them belong to the same botanical genus, and
practically all to the same species, the _Coffea arabica_; but each has
distinguishing characteristics which determine its commercial value in
the eyes of the importers, roasters, and distributers.
The American trade deals almost exclusively in _Coffea arabica_,
although in the latter years of the World War increasing quantities of
_robusta_ and _liberica_ growths were imported, largely because of the
scarcity of Brazilian stocks and the improvement in the preparation
methods, especially in the case of _robustas_. Considerable quantities
of _robusta_ grades were sold in the United States before 1912, but
trading in them fell off when the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange
prohibited their delivery on Exchange contracts after March 1, 1912.
All coffees used in the United States are divided into two general
groups, Brazils and Milds. Brazils comprise those coffees grown in São
Paulo, Minãs Geraes, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Victoria, and other
Brazilian states. The Milds include all coffees grown elsewhere. In 1921
Brazils made up about three-fourths of the world's total consumption.
They are regarded by American traders as the "price" coffees, while
Milds are considered as the "quality" grades.
Brazil coffees are classified into four great groups, which bear the
names of the ports through which they are exported; Santos, Rio,
Victoria, and Bahia. Santos coffee is grown principally in the state of
São Paulo; Rio, in the state of Rio de Janeiro and the state of Minãs
Geraes; Victoria, in the state of Espirito Santo; and Bahia in the state
of Bahia. All of these groups are further subdivided according to their
bean characteristics and the districts in which they are produced.
_Brazil Coffee Characteristics_
SANTOS. Santos coffees, considered as a whole, have the distinction of
being the best grown in Brazil. Rios rank next, Victorias coming third
in favor, and Bahias fourth. Of the Santos growths the best is that
known in the trade as Bourbon, produced by trees grown from Mocha seed
(_Coffea arabica_) brought originally from the French island colony of
Bourbon (now Réunion) in the Indian Ocean. The true Bourbon is obtained
from the first few crops of Mocha seed. After the third or fourth year
of bearing, the fruit gradually changes in form, yielding in the sixth
year the flat-shaped beans which are sold under the trade name of Flat
Bean Santos. By that time, the coffee has lost most of its Bourbon
characteristics. The true Bourbon of the first and second crops is a
small bean, and resembles the Mocha, but makes a much handsomer roast
with fewer "quakers". The Bourbons grown in the Campinas district often
have a red center.
[Illustration: _Coffee Map of Brazil_
_Showing the Principal Coffee-Producing States and Shipping Ports_
Copyright 1922 by The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Co.]
As regards flavor, a good Bourbon Santos is considered the best coffee
for its price, and is the most satisfactory low-cost blending coffee to
be obtained. It is used with practically any of the high-priced coffees
to reduce the cost of the blend. When properly made, this coffee
produces a drink that is smooth and palatable, without tang or special
character, and is suitable to the average taste. When aged, Bourbon
Santos decreases in acidity, and increases somewhat in size of bean.
The Santos coffee described as Flat Bean usually has a smooth surface,
varying in size from small to large bean, and in color from a pale
yellow to a pale green. The cup has a good and smooth body of neutral
character, and the bean can be used straight or in a blend with
practically any Mild coffee.
Another Santos growth, known in the trade as Harsh Santos, grows near
the boundary between São Paulo and Minãs Geraes. It often has some of
the Rio characteristics, and commands a lower price than other Santos
coffees.
Some trade authorities are of the opinion that Santos coffees are an
exception to the rule that most green coffees improve with age. They
argue that careful cup-testing will reveal that a new crop Santos is to
be preferred to an old crop.
RIOS. Rio coffee is not generally liked in the United States, though in
former years it had some following even in the better trade. The demand
for all grades of Rios has been decreasing, Santos taking their place in
the United States. Rio coffee has a peculiar, rank flavor. It has a
heavy, pungent, and harsh taste which traders do not consider of value
either in straight coffee or in blends. However, its low price
recommends it to some packers, and it is often found in the cheapest
brands of package coffees and also in many compounds. In color, the bean
runs from light green to dark green; but when it is stored for any
length of time--a common practise in the past--the color changes to a
golden yellow; and the coffee is then known as golden Rio. The bean
also expands with age.
[Illustration: BOURBON SANTOS BEANS--ROASTED]
All Rio coffee is described by the name Rio; but the American trade
recognizes eight different grades, designated by numerals from one to
eight. These grades are determined by standards adopted by the New York
Coffee and Sugar Exchange, and are classified by the number of
imperfections found in the chops exported. No. 1 Rio contains no
imperfections, such as black beans, shells, stones, broken beans, pods
or immature beans ("quakers"). Such a chop is rarely found. No. 2 has
six imperfections. No. 3 has thirteen. No. 4 has twenty-nine, No. 5 has
sixty, No. 6 has one hundred and ten, No. 7 has two hundred, and No. 8
has about four hundred, although on the Exchange these last two are
graded by standard types.
[Illustration: FLAT AND BOURBON SANTOS BEANS--ROASTED]
VICTORIAS. Up to about the year 1917, Victoria coffees were held in even
less favor by American traders than were Rios. As a rule the bean was
large and punky, of a dark brown or dingy color, and its flavor was
described as muddy. Then, the coffee growers began to introduce modern
machinery for handling the crops, with the result that the character of
the produce has been much improved, and the demand for it has been
steadily growing. Many roasters who formerly used Rios straight for
their lower grades, have changed to Victorias, not only to improve the
appearance of the roast, but to soften the harsh drinking qualities of
the low-grade Rios.
[Illustration: RIO BEANS--ROASTED]
BAHIAS. Until recent years Bahia coffee has been decidedly unpopular in
the United States, largely because of its peculiar smoky flavor, due to
drying the coffee by means of wood fires, instead of by the usual sun
method. This practise has been abandoned; Bahia coffee has shown a
marked improvement in quality; and importations into the United States
have increased. The Bahia coffee produced in the Chapada district is
considered to be the best of the group. The bean is light-colored and of
fair size. Other types are Caravella and Nazareth, both of which are
below the standards demanded by the majority of the American trade.
[Illustration: _Coffee Map
of
São Paulo, Minãs, and Rio_]
MARAGOGIPE. This is a variety of _Coffea arabica_ first observed
growing near the town of Maragogipe on All Saints Bay, county of
Maragogipe, Bahia, Brazil, where it is called _Coffea indigena_. The
green bean is of huge size, and varies in color from green to dingy
brown. It is the largest of all coffee beans, and makes an elephantine
roast, free from quakers, but woody and generally disagreeable in the
cup. However, Dr. P.J.S. Cramer of the Netherlands government's
experimental garden in Bangelan, Java, regards it very highly, referring
to it as "the finest coffee known", and as having "a highly developed,
splendid flavor." This coffee is now found in practically all the
producing countries, and shows the characteristics of the other coffees
produced in the same soil.
_The Characteristics of Mild Coffees_
Among the Mild coffees there is a much greater variation in
characteristics than is found among the Brazilian growths. This is due
to the differences in climate, altitude, and soil, as well as in the
cultural, processing, storage, and transportation methods employed in
the widely separated countries in which Milds are produced.
Mild coffees generally have more body, more acidity, and a much finer
aroma than Brazils; and from the standpoint of quality they are far more
desirable in the cup. As a rule they have also better appearance, or
"style", both in the green and in the roast, due to the fact that
greater care is exercised in picking and preparing the higher grades.
Milds are important for blending purposes, most of them possessing
distinctive individual characteristics, which increase their value as
blending coffees.
_Not All Coffees Improve with Age_
Although it has long been held that green coffee improves with age, and
there is little doubt that this is true in so far as roasting merits are
concerned; the question has been raised among coffee experts as to
whether age improves the drinking qualities of all coffees alike.
Rio coffees should improve with age, as they are naturally strong and
earthy. Age might be expected to soften and to mellow them and others
having like characteristics. If, however, the coffee is mild in cup
quality in the first instance, then it may be asked if age does not
weaken it so that in time it must become quite insipid. Several years
ago, a New York coffee expert pointed out that this was what happened to
Santos coffees. The new crop, he said, was always a more pleasant and
enjoyable drink than the old crop, because it was a more pronounced mild
coffee in the cup.
MEXICANS. Considering those coffees grown nearest the American market
first, we come to the coffees of Mexico. All coffees grown in this
republic are known as Mexicans. They are further divided according to
the states and districts in which they are produced, and as to whether
they are prepared according to the wet or the dry method. The types best
known in the American market are Coatepec, Huatusco, Orizaba, Cordoba,
Oaxaca, and Jalapa. The lesser known are the Uruapan, Michoacan, Colima,
Chiapas, Triunfo, Tapachula, Sierra, Tabasco, Tampico, and
Coatzacoalcos. Some of these are rarely seen in the markets of the
United States.
The coffee most cultivated in Mexico is supposed to have come from Mocha
seed. Of this species is the Oaxaca coffee, which is valued because of
its sharp acidity and excellent flavor, two qualities that make it
desirable for blending. The bean of the Sierra Oaxaca (common unwashed)
is not large, nor is the appearance stylish. The Pluma Oaxaca (washed)
coffee, however, is a fancy bean and good for blending purposes.
Coatepec coffees are among the finest grown in Mexico, and take rank
with the world's best grades. They are quite acidy, but have a desirable
flavor; and when blended with coffees like Bourbon Santos, make a
satisfactory cup.
The Orizaba, Huatusco, and Jalapa growths resemble Coatepecs, of which
they are neighbors in the state of Vera Cruz. They are thin in body but
are stylish roasters, and have a good cup qualities. As a class they do
not possess the heavy body and acidity of genuine Coatepecs. Some
Huatuscos are exceptions. Orizaba is superior to Jalapa. Chiapas and
Tapachula coffees are generally more like Guatemalan growths than any
others produced in Mexico, which is natural in view of the proximity of
the districts to the northern boundary of Guatemala. The Sierra,
Tampico, Tabasco, and Coatzacoalcos coffees are uncertain in quality;
mostly they are low grade, some of them frequently possessing a groundy,
flat, or Rioy flavor.
[Illustration: _Mild Coffee Map--No. 1_
_Showing the Mild Coffee-Producing Countries of the Western Hemisphere_
Copyright 1922 by The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Co.]
Cordoba coffees lack the acidity and tang of the Oaxacas, but make a
handsome roast. They are considered too neutral to form the basis of a
blend, but can be used to balance the tang of other grades.
CENTRAL AMERICANS. Central American coffee is the general trade name
applied to the growths produced in Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, the countries comprising Central
America.
GUATEMALA. This country sends the largest quantity to the United States,
and also produces the best average grades of the Central American
districts. Guatemalas are mostly washed and are very stylish. The bean
has a waxy, bluish color. It splits open when roasting and shows a white
center. Low-grown Guatemalas are thin in the cup, but the coffees grown
in the mountainous districts of Cobán and Antigua are quite acidy and
heavy in body. Some Cobáns border on bitterness because of the extreme
acidity. The Antiguas are medium, flinty beans; while Cobáns are larger.
Both grades are spicy and aromatic in the cup, and are particularly good
blenders. Properly roasted to a light cinnamon color, and blended with a
high-grade combination, Cobáns make one of the most serviceable coffees
on the American market.
Guatemalas are generally classified as noted in the Complete Reference
Table.
[Illustration: MEXICAN BEANS--ROASTED]
[Illustration: GUATEMALA BEANS--ROASTED]
HONDURAS. While the upland coffee of Honduras is of good quality, the
general run of the country's production seldom brings as high a price as
Santos of equal grade. Nearly all Honduras coffee consists of small,
round berries, bluish green in color. Very little of this growth comes
to the United States; the bulk of the exports going to Europe, where it
commands a high price, especially in France.
SALVADOR. Salvador coffee is inferior to Guatemala's product, grade for
grade. Only a small proportion is washed; and the bulk of the crops is
"naturals"; that is, unwashed. The bean is large and of fair average
roast. The washed grades are fancy roasters, with very thin cup. The
largest part of the production goes to Europe; some twenty-five percent
of the exports are brought into the United States through San Francisco.
NICARAGUA. The ordinary run of Nicaragua coffee (the naturals) is looked
upon in the United States as being of low quality, though the washed
coffees from the Matagalpa district have plenty of acid in the cup and
usually are fine roasters. Matagalpa beans are large and blue-tinged.
Germany, Great Britain, and France take about all the Honduras coffee
exported, only about six percent of the total coming to the United
States. These coffees are described more in detail in the Complete
Reference Table.
COSTA RICA. Good grades of Costa Rican coffee, such as are grown in the
Cartago, San José, Alajuela, and Grecia districts at high altitudes, are
highly esteemed by blenders. They are characterized by their fine
flavor, rich body, and sharp acidity. It is frequently declared that
some of these coffees are often acidy enough to sour cream if used
straight. Due to careless methods of handling, sour or "hidey" beans are
sometimes found in chops of Costa Ricans from the lowlands.
PANAMA. Panama grows coffee only for domestic use, and consequently it
is little known in foreign markets. The bean is of average size and
tends toward green in color. In the cup it has a heavy body and a strong
flavor. The coffee grown in Boquette Valley is considered to be of fine
quality, due no doubt to the care given in cultivation by the American
and English planters there.
_South America_
COLOMBIANS. Colombia produces some of the world's finest coffees, of
which the best known are Medellins, Manizales, Bogotas, Bucaramangas,
Tolimas, and Cucutas. Old-crop Colombians of the higher grades, when
mellowed with age, have many of the characteristics of the best East
Indian coffees, and in style and cup are difficult to distinguish from
the Mandhelings and the Ankolas of Sumatra. Such coffees are scarce on
the American market, practically all the shipments coming to the United
States being new crop and lacking some of the qualities of the mellowed
beans. Compared with Santos coffee, good grade Colombians give
one-fourth more liquor to a given strength with better flavor and aroma.
They are classed and graded as noted in the Complete Reference Table.
Medellins are a fancy mountain-grown coffee, and are esteemed for their
good qualities. The beans vary in size, and the color ranges from light
to dark green, making a rather rough roast. In the cup they have a fine,
rich, distinctive flavor, and in the American grading are regarded as
the best of the Colombian commercial growths.
Manizales rank next to Medellins, and have nearly the same
characteristics.
[Illustration: BOGOTA (COLOMBIA) BEANS--ROASTED]
Bogotas of good grade are noted for their acidity, body, and flavor.
When the acidity is tempered with age, the coffee can be drunk
"straight" which can not be done with many other growths. The Bogota
green bean ranges from a blue-green bean to a fancy yellow. It is long,
and generally has a sharp turn in one end of the center stripe. It is a
smooth roaster, and has a rich mellow flavor.
Bucaramangas, grown in the district of that name, are regarded favorably
in the American markets as good commercial coffees for blending
purposes; the naturals have heavy body, but lack acidity and decided
flavor, and are much used to give "back-bone" to blends. The fancies
sometimes push the superior East Indian growths hard for first place.
Tolimas are considered a good grade average coffee, and are
characterized by a fair-sized bean, attractive style, and good cup
quality.
Cucuta coffees, though grown in Colombia, are generally classified among
the Maracaibos of Venezuela, because they are mostly shipped from that
port. They are described, accordingly, with the Venezuelan coffees.
VENEZUELA. The coffees of Venezuela are generally grouped under the
heads of Caracas, Puerto Cabello, and Maracaibo, the names of the ports
through which they are exported. Each group is further subdivided by the
names of the districts in which the principal plantations lie. La Guaira
coffee includes that produced in the vicinity of Caracas and Cumana.
Caracas coffee is one of the best known in the American market. The
washed Caracas is in steady demand in France and Spain. The bean is
bluish in color, somewhat short, and of a uniform size. The liquor has a
rather light body. Some light-blue washed Caracas coffees are very
desirable, and have a peculiar flavor that is quite pleasant to the
educated palate. Caracas chops rarely hold their style for any length of
time, as the owners usually are not willing to dry properly and
thoroughly before milling. When, however, the price is right, American
buyers will use some Caracas chops instead of Bogotas. At equal prices
the latter have the preference, as they have more body in the cup.
Puerto Cabello and Cumana coffees are valued just below Caracas. They
are grown at a lower altitude, and are somewhat inferior in flavor.
Not less than one-third of Puerto Cabello coffees come across the
thirty-mile gulf to the westward from the port of Tucacas, in a little
steamer called the Barquisimento, which is famous all along the coast as
the "cocktail shaker." C.H. Stewart[324] solemnly asserts that "Barky"
can do the "shimmy" when lying at anchor in quiet waters.
[Illustration: MARACAIBO BEANS--ROASTED]
Merida and Tachira coffees are considered the best of the Maracaibo
grades, Tovars and Trujillos being classed as lower in trade value.
Though Cucuta coffee is grown in the Colombian district of that name, it
is largely shipped through Maracaibo; and hence is classed among the
Maracaibo types. It ranks with Meridas and fine grade Boconos, and
somewhat resembles the Java bean in form and roast, but is decidedly
different in the cup. Washed Cucutas are noted for their large size,
roughness, and waxy color. They make a good-appearing roast, splitting
open, and showing irregular white centers. New-crop beans are sometimes
sharply acid, though they mellow with age and gain in body.
Until recent years, Tachira coffee was always sold as Cucuta; but now
there is a tendency to ship it under the name Tachira-Venezuela, while
true Cucuta is marked Cucuta-Colombia. Tachiras closely resemble the
true Cucutas, grade for grade. Up to about 1905 the coffees grown near
Salazar, in Colombia, came to market under the name of Salazar; but
since then, they have been included among the Cucuta grades and are sold
under that name.
The state of Tachira lies next to the Colombian boundary, and its
mountains produce much fine washed coffee. This has size and fair style,
as a rule, but does not possess cup qualities to make it much sought. It
ages well and, being of good body, the old crops, other things being
equal, frequently bring a tidy premium.
The Rubio section of Tachira produces the best of its washed coffees.
Here are several of the largest and best-equipped estates in all
Venezuela. Washed when fresh, the coffees from these estates are usually
sold somewhat under the fancy Caracas; but the trillados of the Tachira
rank with the best of the country, owing to their large bean, solid
color, and good quality. They roast well, and cup with good body, though
not much character. Good Tachira trillados are sold on the same basis as
the Cucutas, which they resemble.
The Meridas are raised at higher altitudes than Cucutas, and good grades
are sought for their peculiarly delicate flavor--which is neither acidy
nor bitter--and heavy body. They rank as the best by far of the
Maracaibo type. The bean is high-grown, of medium size, and roundish. It
is well knit, and brings the highest price while it still holds its
bluish style, as it then retains its delicate aroma and character. The
trillados of Merida run unevenly.
Tovars rank between Trujillos and Tachiras. They are fair to good body
without acidity; make a duller roast than Cucutas, but contain fewer
quakers. They are used for blending with Bourbon Santos. Boconos are
light in color and body. They are of two classes; one a round, small to
medium, bean; and the other larger and softer. Their flavor is rather
neutral, and they are frequently used as fillers in blends. Trujillos
lack acidity and make a dull, rough roast, unless aged. They are blended
with Bourbon Santos to make a low-priced palatable coffee. Some coffees
of merit are produced at Santa Ana, Monte Carmelo, and Bocono in
Trujillo.
_Other South American Countries_
The coffees from other South American countries, even where there is an
appreciable production, are not important factors in international
trade. The coffee of Ecuador, shipped through the port of Guayaquil,
goes mostly to Chile, a comparatively small quantity being exported to
the United States. The bean is small to medium in size, pea-green in
color, and not desirable in the cup. The coffee is about equal to
low-grade Brazil, and is used principally as a filler. Peru produces an
ever-lessening quantity of coffee, the bulk of the exports in pre-war
years going to Germany, Chile, and the United Kingdom. It is a
low-altitude growth, and is considered poor grade. The bean ranges from
medium to bold in size, and from bluish to yellow in color. Bolivia is
an unimportant factor in the international coffee trade, most of its
exports going to Chile. The chief variety produced is called the Yunga,
which is considered to be of superior quality; but only a small quantity
is grown. Guiana's coffee trade is insignificant. The three best-known
types are the Surinam, Demerara, and Cayenne, named after the ports
through which they are shipped.
_The West Indies_
Coffee either is, or can be, grown practically everywhere in the West
Indies; but the chief producing districts are found on the islands of
Porto Rico, Haiti (and Santo Domingo), Jamaica, Guadeloupe, and Curaçao.
Coffees coming from these islands are generally known by the name of the
country of production, and may be further identified by the names of the
districts in which they are grown.
PORTO RICO. Since the United States took possession of Porto Rico, soil
experts have endeavored to raise the quality of the coffee grown there,
especially the lower grades, which had peculiarly wild characteristics.
Today, the superior grades of Porto Rican coffees rank among the best
growths known to the trade. The bean is large, uniform, and stylish;
ranging in color from a light gray-blue to a dark green-blue. Some of
these are artificially colored for foreign markets. The coffee roasts
well, and has a heavy body, similar to the fanciest Mexicans and
Colombians. Its cup is not as rich, but it makes a good blend. Porto
Rican coffees command a higher price in France than in the United
States, which accounts for the larger proportion of exports to Europe,
excepting when the French market was cut off during the World War.
JAMAICA. Jamaica produces two distinct types of coffee, the highland and
the lowland growths. Among the first-named is the celebrated Blue
Mountain coffee, which has a well developed pale blue-green bean that
makes a good-appearing roast and a pleasantly aromatic cup. It is
frequently compared with the fancy Cobáns of Guatemala. The lowland
coffee is a poorer grade, and consists largely of a mixture of different
growths produced on the plains. It is a fair-sized bean, green to yellow
in the "natural", and blue-green when washed. In the cup it has a grassy
flavor, but is flat when drunk with cream. It is used chiefly as a
filler in blends, and for French roasts.
HAITI AND SANTO DOMINGO. The coffees of these two republics have like
characteristics, being grown on the same island and in about the same
climatic and soil conditions. Careless cultivation and preparation
methods are responsible for the generally poor quality of these coffees.
When properly grown and cured, they rank well with high-grade washed
varieties, and have a rich, fairly acid flavor in the cup. The bean is
blue-green, and makes a handsome roast.
GUADELOUPE. Guadeloupe coffee is distinguishable by its green, long, and
slightly thick bean, covered by a pellicle of whitish silvery color,
which separates from the bean in the roast. It has excellent cup
qualities.
MARTINIQUE. This island formerly produced a coffee closely resembling
the Guadeloupe; but no coffee is now grown there, though some Guadeloupe
growths are shipped from Martinique, and bear its name.
OTHER WEST INDIAN ISLANDS. Among the other West Indian islands
producing small quantities of coffee are Cuba, Trinidad, Dominica,
Barbados, and Curaçao. The growths are generally good quality, bearing a
close resemblance to one another. In the past, Cuba produced a fine
grade; but the industry is now practically extinct.
_Asia_
ARABIA. For many generations Mocha coffee has been recognized throughout
the world as the best coffee obtainable; and until the pure food law
went into effect in the United States, other high-grade coffees were
frequently sold by American firms under the name of Mocha. Now, only
coffees grown in Arabia are entitled to that valuable trade name. They
grow in a small area in the mountainous regions of the southwestern
portion of the Arabian peninsula, in the province of Yemen, and are
known locally by the names of the districts in which they are produced.
Commercially they are graded as follows: Mocha Extra, for all extra
qualities; Mocha No. 1, consisting of only perfect berries; No. 1-A,
containing some dust, but otherwise free of imperfections; No. 2,
showing a few broken beans and quakers; No. 3, having a heavier
percentage of brokens and quakers and also some dust.
[Illustration: MOCHA BEANS--ROASTED]
Mocha beans are very small, hard, roundish, and irregular in form and
size. In color, they shade from olive green to pale yellow, the bulk
being olive green. The roast is poor and uneven; but the coffee's
virtues are shown in the cup. It has a distinctive winy flavor, and is
heavy with acidity--two qualities which make a straight Mocha brew
especially valuable as an after-dinner coffee, and also esteemed for
blending with fancy, mild, washed types, particularly East Indian
growths.
As in other countries, the coffees grown on the highlands in Yemen are
better than the lowland growths. As a rule, the low altitude bean is
larger and more oblong than that grown in the highlands, due to its
quicker development in the regions where the rainfall, though not great,
is more abundant.
While Mocha coffees are known commercially by grade numbers, the
planters and Arabian traders also designate them by the name of the
district or province in which each is grown. Among the better grades
thus labeled are, the Yaffey, the Anezi, the Mattari, the Sanani, the
Sharki, and the Haimi-Harazi. For the poorer grades, these names are
used: Remi, Bourai, Shami, Yemeni, and Maidi. Of these varieties, the
Mattari, a hard and regular bean, pale yellow in color, commands the
highest price, with the Yaffey a close second. Harazi coffee heads the
market for quantity coupled with general average of quality.
INDIAN AND CEYLON. Coffees from India and Ceylon are marketed almost
exclusively in London, little reaching the American trade. Of the Indian
growths, Malabars, grown on the western slope of the Ghaut mountains,
are classed commercially as the best. The bean is rather small and
blue-green in color. In the cup it has a distinctive strong flavor and
deep color. Mysore coffee ranks next in favor on the English market. It
is mountain grown, and the bean is large and blue-green in color.
Tellicherry is another good grade coffee, closely resembling Malabar.
Coorg (Kurg) coffee is an inferior growth. It is lowland type, and in
the cup is thin and flat. The bean is large and flat, and tends toward
dark green in color. Travancore is another lowland growth, ranking about
with Coorg, and has the same general characteristics. See the Complete
Reference Table for details.
Ceylon, although it once was one of the world's most important
producers, has been losing ground as a coffee-producing country since
1890. Ceylon coffees are classified commercially as "native",
"plantation", and "mountain". The native is a poor-grade, lowland
growth, with large flat bean and low cup quality. The plantation, so
named because more carefully cultivated on highland plantations, is a
stylish roaster, and gives a rich flavor and strong fragrance in the
cup. The mountain, grown at high altitudes, is a small, steel-blue bean,
and is considered by British traders as equal to the best varieties
grown anywhere. It was formerly shipped to Aden to be mixed with Mocha.
[Illustration: _Coffee Map of Africa and Arabia_
_Showing the Principal Coffee-Producing Countries on the Continent and
Adjacent Islands._
Copyright 1922 by The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Co.]
FRENCH INDO-CHINA. The coffee of French Indo-China is highly prized in
France, where the bulk of the exports goes. The coffee tree grows well
in the provinces of Tonkin, Annam, Cambodia, and Cochin-China. Tonkin is
the largest producer, and grows the best varieties. In the cup, Tonkin
coffee is thought by French traders to compare favorably with Mocha. Of
the several varieties of _Coffea arabica_ grown in Indo-China, the
_Grand Bourbon_, _Bourbon rond_, and the _Bourbon Le Roy_, are the best
known. The first-named is a large bean of good quality; the second is a
small, round bean of superior grade; and the third is a still smaller
bean of fair cup quality.
[Illustration: JAVA (Washed)]
[Illustration: SUMATRA (Mandheling)]
[Illustration: ARABIAN (Mocha)]
[Illustration: COLOMBIAN (Bogota)]
[Illustration: GUATEMALA (Washed)]
[Illustration: MEXICAN (Washed)]
[Illustration: COSTA RICA (Washed)]
[Illustration: SANTOS (Peaberry)]
[Illustration: VENEZUELA (Maracaibo)]
[Illustration: SANTOS (Flat Bean)]
[Illustration: SANTOS (Bourbon)]
[Illustration: RIO (Natural)]
[Illustration: PRINCIPAL VARIETIES OF GREEN COFFEE BEANS, NATURAL SIZE
AND COLOR]
_Africa_
ABYSSINIA. The coffee grown in Abyssinia is classified commercially into
two varieties: Harari, which is grown principally in the district around
Harar; and Abyssinian, produced mainly in the provinces of Kaffa,
Sidamo, and Guma. Harari coffee is the fruit of cultivated trees; while
Abyssinian comes from wild trees. The first-named produces a long and
well-shaped berry, and is often referred to as Longberry Harari. The
bean is larger than the Mocha, but similar in general appearance. Its
color shades from blue-green to yellow. Good grades of Harari have cup
characteristics resembling Mocha, and by some are preferred to Mocha,
because of their winier cup flavor. The Abyssinian coffee is considered
much inferior to Harari; and chops generally contain many imperfections.
The bean is dark gray in color. Little Abyssinian coffee comes to the
United States.
Many other African countries produce coffee; but little of it ever
reaches the North American market. Uganda, in British East Africa, grows
a good grade of _robusta_ coffee which is valued on the London market.
Liberian coffee, grown on the west coast, used to be mixed with Bourbon
Santos to some extent; but it is generally considered low grade,
although it makes a handsome, elephantine roast. The product of Guinea
is a very small bean, half-way between a peaberry and a flat bean, and
has a dingy brown color. It is considered worthless as a drink. A
medium-sized, strong-flavored bean that is rich in the cup, is grown in
the African Congo district. In Angola a fair quantity of coffee is
produced. In the cup it has a strong and pungent flavor, but lacks
smoothness and aroma. Zanzibar produces a pleasing coffee in very
limited quantities. The bean is medium size, and regular in shape.
Mozambique's coffee is greenish in color, of medium size, and mellow.
The production is small. Madagascar produces an insignificant quantity
for export, although the coffee is considered fair average, with rich
flavor, and considerable fragrance. Bourbon coffee, grown on the island
of Réunion, commands a high price in the French market, where
practically all exports go. It is a small, flinty bean, and gives a rich
cup and fragrance.
[Illustration: WASHED JAVA BEANS--ROASTED]
_East Indian Islands_
Some of the coffees from the East Indian islands rank among the best in
the world, particularly those from Sumatra. East India coffees are
distinguished by their smooth, heavy body in the cup, the fancy grades
giving an almost syrupy richness.
JAVA. Java coffees are generally of a smaller bean than those from
Sumatra, and are not considered as high grade. The bulk of the new-crop
growths have a grassy flavor which most people find unpleasant when
drunk straight. Under the old culture system, coffee was bought by the
government, and held in godowns from two to three years, until it had
become mellow with age. In late years, this system has been abandoned;
and the planters now sell their product as they please, and in most
cases without mellowing, excepting as they age during the long sea
voyage from Batavia to destination. Before the advent of large fleets of
steamers in the East Indian trade, the coffee was brought to America in
sailing vessels that required from three to four months for the trip.
During the voyage, the coffee went through a sweating process which
turned the beans from a light green to a dark brown, and considerably
enhanced their cup values. The sweating was due to the coffee being
loaded while moist, and then practically sealed in the vessel's hold
during all its trip through the tropical seas. As a consequence, the
cargo steamed and foamed; and as a rule, part of the coffee became
moldy, the damage seldom extending more than an inch or two into the
mats. Sweated coffees commanded from three to five cents more than those
that came in "pale".
[Illustration: _Mild Coffee Map--No. 2_
_Showing the Mild Coffee-Producing Countries of Asia, Netherlands India,
and Australasia_
Copyright, 1922 by The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Co.]
Before the Java coffee trade began to decline in the latter part of the
nineteenth century, _Coffea arabica_ was grown abundantly throughout the
island. Each residency had numerous estates, and their names were given
to the coffees produced. The best coffees came from Preanger, Cheribon,
Buitenzorg, and Batavia, ranking in merit in the order named. All Java
coffees are known commercially either as private growth, or as blue bean
washed, the former being cured by either the washing or the dry hulling
method, while the latter are washed. Private growths are usually a pale
yellow, the bean being short and round and slightly convex. It makes a
handsome even roast, showing a full white stripe. The washed variety is
a pale blue-green, the bean closely resembling the private growth in
form and roast. These coffees have a distinctive character in the cup
that is much different from any other coffee grown. Their liquor is
thin.
All the better known coffees of Java, which are designated by the
districts in which they are grown, are listed in the Complete Reference
Table. Coffee from few of the many districts comes to the North American
market. Among those that are sold in the United States are the Kadoe and
Semarang, both of which are small, yellowish green; and the Malang, a
green, hard bean which makes a better roast than Kadoe and Semarang, but
is inferior to them in the cup.
SUMATRA. Sumatra has the reputation of producing some of the finest and
highest-priced coffees in the world, such as Mandheling, Ankola, Ayer
Bangies, Padang Interior, and Palembang. Mandheling coffee is a large,
brownish bean which roasts dull, but is generally free from quakers. It
is very heavy in body, and has a unique flavor that easily distinguishes
it from any other growth. The Ankola bean is shorter and
better-appearing than Mandheling, but otherwise bears a close
resemblance. Its flavor is only slightly under Mandheling; and, like
that coffee, is recommended for blending with the best grades of Mocha.
While the Ayer Bangies bean is somewhat larger than the other two just
mentioned, it is not so dark brown in color, and is not quite so heavy
in body; the flavor is very delicate. These three growths are known in
the trade as the "Fancies" and are considered the best of Sumatra's
production.
The Sumatra coffee best known to the American trade is the Padang
Interior, which is shipped through the port of Padang on Sumatra's west
coast. The bean is irregular in form and color, and makes a dull roast.
However, the flavor is good, although it lacks the richness of the
Fancies. Another celebrated coffee grown on the west coast is the Boekit
Gompong, grown on the estate of that name near Padang. It is a
high-grade coffee, making a handsome roast, and possessing a delicate
flavor. The foregoing coffees are produced on what were formerly termed
government estates, and during the heyday of government control were
sold by auction and came mostly to the United States.
Among the private estate coffees, Corinchies take first rank for
quality, some traders saying that they are the best in international
commerce. They closely resemble Ankolas, but range a cent or two lower
in price. Next in order of merit is Timor coffee, grown on the island of
that name. It is not as attractive in appearance, roast, or cup quality
as the Corinchie. A grade below Timors is Boengie coffee, which is
seldom seen on the North American market. Kroe coffee is better known
and more widely used in the United States. The bean is large, but has an
attractive appearance. Kroes are of heavy body, of somewhat groundy
flavor when new crop, and are good roasters and blenders. Other East
Indian coffees are Teagals, Balis, and Macassars, all of which are
second-rate growths as compared with the bulk of Sumatras, grade for
grade. The Macassars are produced in the district of that name on island
of Celebes. The best coffee grown in Celebes comes from the province of
Menado, and is known by that name. It is thought to be of a superior
quality, and commands a high price in Europe.
_The Pacific Islands_
The Philippine Islands have not figured in international coffee trade
since 1892, although in preceding years the Philippines exported several
million pounds of an average good grade of coffee. While coffee is one
of the shade trees used by householders in Guam, none of the fruit is
exported. Coffee production is an unimportant industry in Samoa,
Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and other Pacific islands, and
none is grown for export.
HAWAII. Since the beginning of the twentieth century the Hawaiian
islands have taken a position of increasing importance, shipping some
two million pounds of good quality coffee to the United States, their
biggest customer. Coffee grows to some extent on all the islands of the
group, but fully ninety-five percent is raised in the districts of Kona,
Puna, and Hamakua on the main island of Hawaii. All Hawaiian coffee is
high grade; and is generally large bean, blue-green in color when new
crop, and yellow-brown when aged. It makes a handsome roast, and has a
fine flavor that is smooth and not too acid. It blends well with any
high-grade mild coffee. Kona coffee, grown in the district of that name,
commands the highest price. Old-crop Kona coffee is said by some trade
authorities to be equal to either Mocha or Old Government Java.
_Appearance, Aroma, and Flavor in Cup-Testing_
Before the beginning of the twentieth century, practically all the
coffees bought and sold in the United States were judged for merit
simply by the appearance of the green or of the roasted bean. Since that
time, the importance of testing the drinking qualities has become
generally recognized; and today every progressive coffee buyer has his
sample-roasting and testing outfit with which to carry out painstaking
cup tests. Both buyers and sellers use the cup test, the former to
determine the merits of the coffee he is buying, and the latter to
ascertain the proper value of the chop under consideration. Frequently a
test is made to fix the relative desirability of various growths
considered as a whole, using composite samples that are supposed to give
representation to an entire crop.
The first step in testing coffee is to compare the appearance of the
green bean of a chop with a sample of known standard value for that
particular kind of coffee. The next step is to compare the appearance
when roasted. Then comes the appearance and aroma test, when it is
ground; and finally, the most difficult of all, the trial of the flavor
and aroma of the liquid.
Naturally the tester gives much care to proper roasting of the samples
to be examined. He recognizes several different kinds of roasts which he
terms the light, the medium, the dark, the Italian, and the French
roasts, all of which vary in the shadings of color, and each of which
gives a different taste in the cup. The careful tester watches the roast
closely to see whether the beans acquire a dull or bright finish, and to
note also if there are many quakers, or off-color beans. When the proper
roasting point is reached, he smells the beans while still hot to
determine their aroma. In some growths and grades, he will frequently
smell of them as they cool off, because the character changes as the
heat leaves them, as in the case of many Maracaibo grades.
After roasting, the actual cup-testing begins. Two methods are employed,
the blind cup test, in which there is no clue to the identity of the
kind of coffee in the cup; and the open test, in which the tester knows
beforehand the particular coffee he is to examine. The former is most
generally employed by buyers and sellers; although a large number of
experts who do not let their knowledge interfere with their judgment,
use the open method.
In both systems the amount of ground coffee placed in the cup is
carefully weighed so that the strength will be standard. Generally, the
cups are marked on the bottom for identification after the examination.
Before pouring on the hot water to make the brew, the aroma of the
freshly ground coffee is carefully noted to see if it is up to standard.
In pouring the water, care is exercised to keep the temperature constant
in the cups, so that the strength in all will be equal. When the water
is poured directly on the grounds, a crust or scum is formed. Before
this crust breaks, the tester sniffs the aroma given off; this is called
the wet-smell, or crust, test, and is considered of great importance.
Of course, the taste of the brew is the most important test. Equal
amounts of coffee are sipped from each cup, the tester holding each sip
in his mouth only long enough to get the full strength of the flavor. He
spits out the coffee into a large brass cuspidor which is designed for
the purpose. The expert never swallows the liquor.
Cup-testing calls for keenly developed senses of sight, smell, and
taste, and the faculty for remembering delicate shadings in each sense.
By sight, the coffee man judges the size, shape, and color of the green
and roasted bean, which are important factors in determining commercial
values. He can tell also whether the coffee is of the washed or unwashed
variety, and whether it contains many imperfections such as quakers,
pods, stones, brokens, off-colored beans, and the like. By his sense of
smell of the roast and of the brew, he gauges the strength of the aroma,
which also enters into the valuation calculation. His palate tells him
many things about a coffee brew--if the drink has body and is smooth,
rich, acidy, or mellow; if it is winy, neutral, harsh, or Rioy; if it is
musty, groundy, woody, or grassy; or if it is rank, hidey (sour), muddy,
or bitter. These are trade designations of the different shades of
flavor to be found in the various coffees coming to the North American
market; and each has an influence on the price at which they will be
sold.
The up-to-date cup-tester requires special equipment to get the best
results. A typical installation consists of a gas sample-roasting
outfit, employing at least a single cylinder holding about six ounces of
coffee, and perhaps a battery of a dozen or more; an electric grinding
mill; a testing table, with a top that can be revolved by hand; a pair
of accurately adjusted balance scales; one or more brass kettles; a gas
stove for heating water; sample pans; many china or glass cups; silver
spoons; and a brass cuspidor that stands waist high and is shaped like
an hour glass.
Since the World War, there have been some notable changes in the buying
of coffees, particularly in European markets. For example, the old idea
of buying fancy coffees at fancy prices is probably gone for good in
Europe.
[Illustration: TYPICAL SAMPLE-ROASTING AND CUP-TESTING OUTFIT
In the middle of the picture is a standard revolving table (3-1/2 feet
in diameter), with scale mounted over the center, and with a "Mitchell
Tray" for holding one cup independent of the table-top movement. There
are two cuspidors, a double kettle outfit, a 6-cylinder sample roaster
and a motor-driven sample grinder; also a set of sample separator sieves
in the overhead rack, a bag sampler (lying on the lower shelf of the
counter), and some coffee crushers (one on the end of the counter and
one on the revolving table)]
COMPLETE REFERENCE TABLE
OF
THE PRINCIPAL KINDS OF COFFEE GROWN IN THE WORLD
_Together with Their Trade Values and Cup Characteristics_
_t_, indicates town or trading center; _m n_, market name; _d_, district
or state.
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------|---------------
| | |State, or |Trade Values
Grand Division | Country |Shipping Ports |District, | and Cup
| | |Market Names |Characteristics
| | | Gradings |
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------+---------------
North America |Mexico |Vera Cruz |Mexicans |_In general_:
| |on Gulf of Mex.| |Mexicans are
| | | |mild or mellow.
| | | |The green beans
| | | |are greenish to
| | | |yellow (when
| | | |aged) and of
| | | |large size. The
| | | |washed coffees
| | | |make a handsome
| | | |roast, showing
| | | |pronounced white
| | | |central stripe.
| | | |In the cup they
| | | |have a full rich
| | | |body, fine
| | | |acidity, and a
| | | |wonderful
| | | |_bouquet_.
| | | |
| | |Vera Cruz, d |Acid, of
| | |Coatepec, m n |excellent heavy
| | |(pro., |and rich
| | | co-at-e-pec) |flavor;fine for
| | | |blending.
| | | |
| | |Huatusco, t |Fine appearing
| | |(pro., |washed coffee;
| | | wha-toos-co) |next to
| | | |Coatepec for
| | | |acid and
| | | |blending
| | | |qualities.
| | | |
| | |Orizaba, t |Regarded as
| | | |next to
| | | |Huatusco;
| | | |good cup
| | | |quality.
| | | |
| | |Jalapa, t |Stylish
| | |(pro., |roaster;
| | | ha-lap-a) |frequently
| | | |light body.
| | | |
| | |Cordoba, t |Neutral, smooth
| | | |in flavor,
| | | |without acid
| | | |tang; good
| | | |body.
| | | |
| |Puerto Mexico |Tabasco, d & |Of uncertain
| |on Gulf of Mex.| m n |character; many
| | |Coatzacoalcos,|of them Rioy,
| | | t & m n |flat, and
| | | |groundy.
| | | |Unsatisfactory
| | | |in the cup.
| | | |
| |Salina Cruz |Chiapas, d |Resembles
| | on Pacific | Soconusco, t,|Guatemala
| | | m n |
| |Coatzacoalcos | or |coffees;
| |(Puerto Mexico)| Tapachula, |smooth in
| |on Gulf of Mex.| t, m n |character,
| | | |and without
| | | |decided tang.
| | | |
| | |Oaxaca, d, m n|Small bean;
| | | & t (pr., |excellent
| | | wah-hock-ah)|quality, sharply
| | | Sierra Oaxaca|acid, fine
| | | (common - |flavor, but not
| | | unwashed) |stylish in
| | | Pluma Oaxaca |appearance.
| | | (hidalgo- |The Pluma is a
| | | washed) |very fancy bean
| | | |coffee, also
| | | |acid and fine
| | | |for blending.
| | | |
| |Acapulco |Guerrero, d |Inferior in
| | on Pacific | Sierra, m n |quality; low
| | | |growth and
| | | |woody.
| | | |
| |Manzanillo |Michoacan, d |A superior
| | on Pacific | Unrapan, t |coffee, but not
| | | |produced in
| | | |commercial
| | | |quantity.
| | | |
| | Do. |Colima, d, m n|Very like
| | | & t |Uruapan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------|---------------
| | |State, or |Trade Values
Grand Division | Country |Shipping Ports |District, | and Cup
| | |Market Names |Characteristics
| | | Gradings |
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------+---------------
North America |Mexico |Vera Cruz |Puebla, d |Low-grade
(Cont'd) | (Cont'd) | |Sierra, m n |mountain coffee.
| | | |
| |Tampico |Tamaulipas, d |An inferior
| | | Tampico, m n |grade.
| | | & t |
| | | |
| | | Tepic |So called
| | | |"Mexican Mocha."
| | | |Raised for local
| | | |consumption. Not
| | | |a commercial
| | | |factor.
| | |-------------------------------
| | | Classes for all Mexicans
| | |1. Commons (customary or
| | | natural).
| | |2. Washed (W.I.P.)
| | |3. Caracolillo (peaberry.)
---------------+------------+---------------+-------------------------------
Central America|Guatemala |Puerto Barrios |Guatemala |_In general_:
| | and Livingston| |Guatemalas are
| | on Caribbean | |mild or mellow
| | | |and mostly
| | | |washed.
| | | |The green beans
| | | |are greenish to
| | | |yellow (when
| | | |aged), and of
| | | |large size. The
| | | |mountain-grown
| | | |coffees make a
| | | |handsome roast,
| | | |are of full
| | | |heavy body and
| | | |excellent cup
| | | |quality. The
| | | |lower-altitude
| | | |coffees are light
| | | |in cup, but
| | | |flavory.
| | | |
| |Ocos, |Cobán, t & m n|Waxy, bluish
| |Champerico, and| |bean; handsome
| |San José | |uniform roast
| | on Pacific | |with white
| | | |center. Heavy
| | | |body, fine
| | | |acidity.
| |Belize |Alta Verapaz, |Gray-blue bean;
| | (Br. Honduras)| d |fine mellow
| | | Sehenaju, t |flavor. See
| | | |Belize.
| | |Antigua, d |Medium flinty
| | |Costa Cuca, d |bean; lighter in
| | |Costa Grande, d|body; flavory,
| | |Barberena, d |acid.
| | |Tumbador, d | _Classes for_
| | |Costa de Cucho|_All Guatemalas_
| | |Chicacao |Most Guatemalas
| | | Xolhuitz, d |are washed and
| | |Pochuta |may be
| | | Malacatan, d|classified as
| | |San Marcos, d |follows:
| | |Chuva, d |1. Small flinty
| | |Escuintla, d |bean, extremely
| | |San Vincente, d|acid and flavory,
| | |Pacaya, d |produced in the
| | |Moran, d |highest altitudes
| | |Amatitlan, d |of the Antigua,
| | |Palmar, d |Moran, and
| | |Motagua, d |Amatitlan
| | | |districts.
| | | |2. Waxy, bluish
| | | |bean, flinty,
| | | |but large roast;
| | | |heavy body with
| | | |fine acidity.
| | | |Produced in the
| | | |mountainous
| | | |regions of the
| | | |Cobán, Costa
| | | |Cuca, Tumbador,
| | | |and Chuva
| | | |districts.
| | |3. Waxy, bluish bean, handsome
| | |uniform roast, heavy-bodied but
| | |non-acid coffees produced in
| | |almost every district of the
| | |republic at an altiture of from
| | |2,000 to 3,000 feet.
| | |
| | |4. Stylish, green bean,
| | |handsome large uniform roast,
| | |very white center, mild cupping
| | |coffees produced practically
| | |everywhere in the republic at
| | |an altitude of from 1,500 to
| | |2,500 feet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------|---------------
| | | State, or |Trade Values
Grand Division | Country |Shipping Ports |District, | and Cup
| | |Market Names |Characteristics
| | | Gradings |
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------+---------------
Central America|Guatemala | |5. The lower altitudes of the
(Cont'd) | (Cont'd) | |various districts produce either
| | |medium bean, neutral cupping,
| | |colory coffees, or the Bourbon
| | |type of small bean, greenish
| | |coffee.
| | |------------------------------
|British |Belize |Belize, m n |A Cobán coffee
| Honduras | | |from the
| | | |Honduras Alta
| | | |Verapaz district
| | | |in Guatemala.
| | | |
| |Trujillo and |Honduras |_In general_:
| |Puerto Cortés | Santa Barbara|Honduras coffees
| | on Caribbean | d |are small,
| | | Copan, d |rounded, and
| | | Cortez d |bluish-green.
| |Amapala | La Paz, d |They are of a
| | on Pacific | Choluteca, d |hard flinty
| | | El Paraiso, d|character; make a
| | | |fair roast and
| | | |are neutral in
| | | |flavor. While the
| | | |upland grades are
| | | |of good quality,
| | | |the run of the
| | | |country's
| | | |production
| | | |seldom brings as
| | | |high a price as
| | | |Santos of equal
| | | |grade.
| | | |
|Salvador |Acajutla |Salvador |_In general_:
| |La Union | Usulutan, d |Salvador's
| | La Libertad | La Libertad, |coffees are
| | | d |mostly inferior
| | | Santa Ana, d |in quality to
| | | Santa Tecla, |those of
| | | d |Guatemala. The
| | | La Paz, d |bulk of the crop
| | | Ahuachapan, d|is natural
| | | Juayua, d |unwashed. Green
| | | Santiago de |beans are smooth
| | | Maria, d |and handsome and
| | | Sonsonate, d |make a cinnamon
| | | San Miguel, d|roast. Flavor is
| | | San Salvador,|neutral. Useful
| | | d |as a filler. The
| | | San Vincente,|washed coffee is
| | | d |a fancy roaster,
| | | Cuscatlan, d |with a very thin
| | | Morazan, d |cup.
| | | Cabanas, d |
| | | Chalatenango,|Classes and
| | | d |Gradings for All
| | | La Union, d |Salvadors: Washed
| | | |1. Flinty, colory,
| | | |greenish to bluish
| | | |bean, fine white
| | | |centered roasters,
| | | |extremely stylish
| | | |coffees with
| | | |full-bodied cup
| | |--------------|merit.
| | |2. Grayish green to bluish green
| | |neutral-cupping coffees.
| | |
| | | _Unwashed_
| | |
| | |1. Screened, large bean, fine
| | |roaster.
| | |
| | |2. Average run, unscreened,
| | |so-called Current Unwashed. All
| | |unwashed coffees vary greatly
| | |in cup merit, much the same as
| | |with Santos coffees.
| | |--------------+----------------
|Nicaragua |Corinto |Nicaragua |_In general_: The
| | on Pacific | |washed coffees of
| | | |Nicaragua have
| | | |merit, and are
| | | |fine roasters; but
| | | |the naturals,
| | | |comprising the
| | | |bulk of the crop,
| | | |are of ordinary
| | | |quality.
| | | |
| |San Juan del |Matagalpa, d |Large, handsome,
| |Norte | |blue, washed bean
| | (Greytown) | |making fancy
| | on Caribbean | |roast with plenty
| | | |of acid in the
| | | |cup.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------|---------------
| | |State, or |Trade Values
Grand Division | Country |Shipping Ports |District, | and Cup
| | |Market Names |Characteristics
| | | Gradings |
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------+---------------
Central America|Nicaragua | |Jinotega, d |
(Cont'd) | (Cont'd) | |Los Pueblos, d|
| | |Los Altos, d |
| | +--------------+
| | | _Classes for All Nicaraguas_:
| | |
| | |1. Large, handsome, pale
| | |greenish to blue, washed coffee
| | |of the Matagalpa district,
| | |often showing fancy roast and
| | |acidly full-bodied cup.
| | |
| | |2. Washed coffees of the lower
| | |regions; small in size, but
| | |greenish, colory, fine roasters
| | |and neutral cupping.
| | |
| | |3. Unwashed coffee (bulk of the
| | |output) the merit of which
| | |depends entirely on the
| | |respective crop. Often a large
| | |proportion of the crop is mild
| | |cupping and as desirable as any
| | |other unwashed coffee; while
| | |another crop may produce a large
| | |quantity of Rio-flavored coffees.
| | +-------------------------------
|Costa Rica |Puerto Limon |Costa Rica |_In general_: The
| | on Caribbean | Cartago, d |high-altitude
| |Punta Arenas | San José d |coffees of Costa
| | on Pacific | Alajuela, d |Rica are
| | | Grecia, d |blue-greenish,
| | | Tres Rios, d |large, rich in
| | | Heredia, d |body, of fine,
| | | |mild flavor,
| | | |sharply acid,
| | | |and superior for
| | | |blending
| | | |purposes. These
| | | |coffees are famous
| | | |for their fine
| | | |preparation and
| | | |careful
| | | |screening. The
| | | |lower regions
| | | |produce coffees
| | | |of more
| | | |neutral-cupping
| | | |qualities.
|Panama |Panama City |Panama |_In general_: The
| | | Chiriqui, d |green bean is of
| | | Boquete, m n |average size,
| | | |greenish in
| | | |color. In the
| | | |cup it has a
| | | |heavy body and a
| | | |strong flavor.
| | | |Grown chiefly for
| | | |domestic
| | | |consumption. Not
| | | |a commercial
| | | |factor.
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------+----------------
West Indies |Cuba |Havana |Cuba |_In general_:
(Greater | |Santiago | Oriente, d |Cuban coffee is
Antilles) | | | Guatanamo, t |of good quality.
| | | Santa Clara, |The bean is of
| | | d |medium size,
| | | Pinar del Rio|light green, and
| | | d |makes a uniform
| | | Vuelta Abaja|roast. The flavor
| | | m n |resembles the fine
| | | |washed coffees of
| | | |Santo Domingo. Not
| | | |commercially
| | | |important.
| | | |
|Haiti |Port au Prince |Haiti |_In general_: The
| |Cap Haitien | St. Marc, d |Haitian washed
| | | Gonaive, d |coffee is a blue
| | | Cap Haitien, |bean and makes an
| | | d |attractive roast.
| | | Jacmel, d |It has a rich,
| | | Les Cayes, d |fairly acid,
| | | Jeremie, d |mildly-sweet
| | | |flavor; of average
| | | |quality. The
| | | |naturals are used
| | | |extensively for
| | | |French roasts.
---------------+------------+---------------+--------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
West Indies |Santo |Santo Domingo |Santo Domingo |_In general_: Santo
(Greater | Domingo |Porto Plata | Cape, m n | Domingo coffee is
Antilles) | | | Mocha, d | a large, flat,
(Cont'd) | | | Santiago, d | pointed,
| | | Porto Plata, d | greenish-yellow
| | | Bani, d | bean. The
| | | Barahona, d | high-grown washed
| | | | is of good body and
| | | | fair flavor. The
| | | | low grade is
| | | | strong, approaching
| | | | Rio in flavor. The
| | | | natural coffees are
| | | | used extensively
| | | | for French roasts.
| | | |
|Jamaica |Kingston |Jamaica |_In general_:
| (British) | | Classes: | Jamaica coffee is
| | | Blue Mountain | bluish-green when
| | | (high-grown) | washed, and green
| | | Settlers' | to yellow when
| | | (ordinary, or | patio-dried. The
| | | plain-grown) | washed high-grown
| | | | makes a fancy
| | | | roast, and is rich,
| | | | full and mellow in
| | | | the cup. The
| | | | ordinary
| | | | plain-grown makes
| | | | a bright roast,
| | | | and has a fairly
| | | | good cup quality.
| | | | The naturals are
| | | | used extensively
| | | | for French roasts.
| | | |
|Porto Rico |San Juan |Porto Rico |_In general_: Porto
| (U.S.) |Ponce | Sierra | Rico coffee
| |Mayaguez | Luquillo, | is a large,
| |Arecibo | m n | handsome, washed
| |Aguadilla | Yauco, d, t | bean, light
| | | & m n | gray-blue to dark
| | | Ciales, d & t | greenish blue in
| | | Cayey, d & t | color, and makes
| | | Utuado, d & t | a fancy roast
| | | | without quakers.
| | | Lares, d & t | Strong or heavy
| | | Moca, d & t | body; peculiar
| | | Adjuntas, d & | flavor similar
| | | t | to a washed
| | | Las Larias, d | Caracas, but
| | | & t | smoother.
| | | Maricao, d & |
| | | t |
| | | San Sebastian | _Classes for All
| | | d | Porto Ricos_
| | | Mayaguez, d & |
| | | t |Caracolillo, a round
| | | Ponce, d & t | bean peaberry;
| | | | Primero, a superior
| | | | grade of good size
| | | | and color, usually
| | | | hand-picked;
| | | | Segundo, second
| | | | grade, inferior to
| | | | Primero in size and
| | | | color; Trillo,
| | | | lowest grade, sold
| | | | locally.
| | | |
(Lesser |British West| | |
Antilles) | Indies | | |
|Antigua |Saint John |Antigua |_In general_: While
|Dominica |Portsmouth |Dominica | the quantity grown
| | | (Soufrière) | is small, the
|Barbados |Bridgetown |Barbados | coffee is of good
|Trinidad |Port of Spain |Trinidad | quality, and
|Tobago |Scarborough |Tobago | includes ten
| | | | different
| | | | varieties. That
| | | | grown in Barbados
| | | | is similar to that
| | | | of Martinique, but
| | | | a larger bean. This
| | | | group is not an
| | | | important
| | | | commercial factor.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
West Indies |Guadeloupe |Pointe-à-Pitre|Guadeloupe |_In general_: The
(Lesser | (French) | |Classes: | Guadeloupe coffee
Antilles) | | | 1. Bonifieur, | bean is glossy,
(Cont'd) | | | or Café Lustre | hard, long, and
| | | (glossy) | has an even green
| | | 2. Habitant, | color, somewhat
| | | or Café plus | grayish. It is of
| | | Pellicule | excellent quality.
| | | (with | The Saints Bean is
| | | pellicles) | superior. The
| | | | Ordinary is a
| | | | smaller, rounder,
| | | | curved bean.
| | | | Guadeloupe coffees
| | | | are mostly sold as
| | | | Martinique.
| | | |
|Martinique |Fort-de-France|Martinique |_In general_: The
| (French) | | Grades: | Martinique bean is
| | | Fine Green | green, long,
| | | Common Green | somewhat thick, and
| | | Good Commercial| is usually shipped
| | | Common " | in the silver skin.
| | | Picked " | It is of fine
| | | Common | quality, but
| | | | commercially
| | | | unimportant.
| | | | Guadeloupe coffees
| | | | are not
| | | | infrequently sold
| | | | as Martinique.
| | | |
|Curaçao |Willemstad |Curaçao |_In general_: The
| (Dutch) | | | Curaçao coffee bean
| | | | is small, of light
| | | | color and flavor.
| | | | It makes a bright
| | | | cinnamon roast;
| | | | useful as a filler.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
South America|Colombia |Puerto |Colombians, m |_In general_: The
| | Colombia | n | Colombian coffee
| | (Savanilla) | | bean is greenish,
| |Barranquilla | | yellow, and brown,
| |Cartagena | | depending on age,
| |Santa Marta | | and is rich and
| | on Atlantic | | mild in the cup.
| | | | The fancy grades
| |Buenaventura | | compare favorably
| |Tumaco | | with the world's
| | on the | | best growths. They
| | Pacific | | produce one-quarter
| | | | more liquor of
| | | | given strength than
| | | | Santos coffees, and
| | | | possess much finer
| | | | flavor and aroma.
| | | |
| | |Antioquia, d |Light to dark green;
| | | Medellin, t | handsome roasters;
| | | & m n | not as smooth as
| | | | some Central
| | | | American types, but
| | | | best of Colombians;
| | | | fine flavor and
| | | | body.
| | | |
| | |Caldas, d |Similar to Medellins
| | | Manizales, | in cup quality, but
| | | t & m n | not as heavy-bodied
| | | | or as acid.
| | | |
| | | Jerico |A favorably regarded
| | | | Colombian.
| | | |
| | |Magdalena, d |Full, solid, blue,
| | | Santa Marta, | washed bean, making
| | | t & m n | a fancy roast, but
| | | | too acid to be
| | | | used straight.
| | | |
| | |Cundinamarca, |The green bean is
| | | d | blue-green to fancy
| | | Bogota, t & | yellow and Java
| | | m n | brown, depending on
| | | | age; long, with a
| | | | sharp turn in one
| | | | end of the center
| | | | stripe. It makes
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
South America|Colombia | | | a smooth roast. The
(Cont'd) | (Cont'd). | | | fancy has a rich,
| | | | mellow flavor.
| | | Cauca, t & | Sometimes sold as
| | | m n | imitation Bogota or
| | | | Bucaramanga; but
| | | | inferior in
| | | | appearance, roast,
| | | | and drink.
| | | |
| | | Santander, d |Large bean, spongy
| | | Bucaramanga | and open, making a
| | | t & m n | dull Java-style
| | | | roast. The naturals
| | | | lack acidity and
| | | | flavor; but have a
| | | | heavy body. The
| | | | fancies are almost
| | | | the equals of fine
| | | | Javas and Sumatras.
| | | |
| | | Cucuta, t & |Attractive in style
| | | m n | and cup.
| | | | (See Venezuela.)
| | | |
| | | Ocana, t |Sometimes sold as an
| | | Savanilla, | imitation Bogota or
| | | m n | Bucaramanga; but
| | | | inferior in
| | | | appearance and cup.
| | | |
| | | Tolima, d |Fair size bean,
| | | Ibague, t | attractive in
| | | Honda, t | style and cup.
| | | |
| | | _Classes for All Colombians_:
| | | Café Trillado (natural or sun dried),
| | | Café Lavado (washed).
| | |
| | | _Gradings for All Colombians_:
| | | Excelso (excellent), fantasia
| | | (excelso and extra), extra (extra),
| | | primera (first), segunda (second),
| | | caracol (peaberry), monstruo (large
| | | and deformed), consumo (defective),
| | | pasilla (siftings).
| | |-----------------+-----------------
|Venezuela |La Guaira |Venezuela |_In general_: The
| |Puerto Cabello| | coffee of Venezuela
| |Maracaibo | | is greenish-yellow
| | | | to yellow; large
| | | | bean, ranging next
| | | | to Santos in
| | | | quality and price.
| | | | It is mild or
| | | | mellow in the cup.
| | | | The unwashed, or
| | | | _trillado_,
| | | | comprises the bulk
| | | | of the crop.
| | | |
| | | Caracas, d |Short, bluish bean,
| | | | uniform in color,
| | | | and making a light
| | | | cinnamon roast, but
| | | | containing quakers.
| | | | The natural has a
| | | | fair cup quality.
| | | | The washed gives
| | | | the best results in
| | | | roast and cup.
| | | |
| | | Puerto |The washed is a
| | | Cabello, d | handsome bean, but
| | | | inferior in flavor
| | | | to Caracas. The
| | | | unwashed is flinty;
| | | | fair roast, no
| | | | special merit
| | | | in cup.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
South America|Venezuela | |Cumana, d |Valued just below
(Cont'd) | (Cont'd) | | | Caracas.
| | | |
| | |Coro, d |Valued a trifle
| | | | below Rio of the
| | | | same grade.
| | | |
| | |Trujillo, d & |A low grade, making
| | | m n | a dull rough roast.
| | | |
| | | Santa Ana |Light in color and
| | | | body.
| | | |
| | | Monte Carmelo |Light in color and
| | | | body.
| | | |
| | | Bocono |Light in color and
| | | | body; neutral
| | | | flavor. Two
| | | | classes.
| | | |
| | |Merida, d & |The best of the
| | | m n | Maracaibos. The
| | | | washed makes a good
| | | | roast, and has a
| | | | peculiar delicate
| | | | flavor much prized
| | | | by experts. It
| | | | ranks among the
| | | | world's best.
| | | |
| | | Tovar, m n |Ranks between
| | | | Trujillos and
| | | | Tachiras. Fair to
| | | | good body; without
| | | | acidity. Used as
| | | | filler in blends.
| | | |
| | | Tachira, m |Formerly sold as
| | | n | Cucuta, (San
| | | | Cristobal) to which
| | | | it is nearest
| | | | in quality,
| | | | appearance, and
| | | | flavor.
| | | |
| | | Cucuta, t & |Grown in Colombia.
| | | m n | Resembles Java bean
| | | Salazar, m | in form and roast.
| | | n | The natural makes
| | | | a full roast. The
| | | | washed is a
| | | | stylish, large
| | | | bean, a beautiful
| | | | roaster, splitting
| | | | open with irregular
| | | | white center;
| | | | sharply acid in the
| | | | cup.
| | | |
| | | Angostura |A small bean, light
| | | | in color and body,
| | | | without much weight
| | | | or character.
| | | |
| | | Carupano |A low grade valued
| | | | at about the same
| | | | as a Brazil coffee
| | | | of similar grade.
| | | |
|British |Georgetown |Demerara, m |_In general_: Not a
| Guiana | | n | commercial factor.
| | | |
|Dutch Guiana|Paramaribo |Surinam, m |_In general_: The
| (Surinam) | | n | production is
| | | | limited and
| | | | commercially
| | | | unimportant.
| | | |
|French |Cayenne |Cayenne, m |_In general_:
| Guiana | | n | Similar to
| (Cayenne) | | | Martinique. The
| | | | production is
| | | | limited and
| | | | commercially
| | | | unimportant.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
South |Brazil | |Brazils, m n |_In general_: The
American | | | | coffees of Brazil,
(Cont'd) | | | | which are generally
| | | | known in the trade
| | | | as "Brazils" (to
| | | | distinguish them
| | | | from "Milds," the
| | | | higher grades),
| | | | are the "price"
| | | | coffees of the
| | | | world. Brazil
| | | | produces about 70%
| | | | of the world's
| | | | supply.
| | | |
| |Santos |São Paulo, d |The largest coffee
| | | | district, producing
| | | | between 50% and 60%
| | | | of the world's
| | | | supply.
| | | |
| | |Classes: |
| | | Bourbon, |Small bean,
| | | Santos m n | resembling Mocha,
| | | | but making a
| | | | handsomer roast
| | | | with fewer quakers.
| | | | In color it varies
| | | | from dark to light
| | | | green, and from
| | | | yellow to a pale
| | | | straw, often with
| | | | a red center. True
| | | | Bourbons are first
| | | | crop beans. In the
| | | | cup they are smooth
| | | | and palatable
| | | | without tang.
| | | |
| | | Flat Bean |Smooth surface,
| | | Santos m n | small to large,
| | | | pale green and
| | | | greenish-yellow to
| | | | pale yellow. It is
| | | | a sixth year crop
| | | | of Bourbon Santos.
| | | | Good full smooth
| | | | body. Used straight
| | | | and in combination
| | | | with all milds.
| | | |
| | | Mocha-Seed |A grade of Bourbon
| | | Santos m n | designed as a
| | | | substitute for true
| | | | Mocha on the
| | | | European markets.
| | | |
| | | Campinas, d |The oldest coffee
| | | & t | district in São
| | | | Paulo. There are
| | | | 136 others.
| | |
| | | _Gradings for All São Paulo_:
| | | 1--Fine 4--Regular
| | | 2--Superior 5--Ordinary
| | | 3--Good 6--Escalba
| | +-----------------+-----------------
| |Rio de |Minãs Geraes |Various shades of
| | Janeriro | Rio, m n | green, medium to
| | | | large. Peculiar
| | | | pungent flavor and
| | | | aroma.
| | |
| | | _Gradings for All Rios_:
| | | (N.Y. Coffee Exchange)
| | | 1--No imperfections
| | | 2--6 imperfections
| | | 3--13 imperfections
| | | 4--20 imperfections
| | | 5--60 imperfections
| | | 6--110 imperfections
| | | 7--About 200 imperfections
| | | 8--About 400 imperfections
| | |
| | | (On Havre Exchange)
| | | Washed--Inferior and ordinary
| | | Unwashed--Superior, 1st good, 1st
| | | regular, 1st ordinary, 2nd good,
| | | 2nd ordinary.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
South America|Brazil |Victoria |Espirito Santo |Large, dingy-green
(Cont'd) | (Cont'd) | | d | or brown bean
| | | Victoria, t | making a roast free
| | | Capitania, m | from quakers but
| | | n | but muddy in the
| | | | cup.
| | | |
| |Bahia |Bahia, d, t, & |Low grade, having a
| | | m n | peculiar smoky
| | | | flavor.
| | | |
| | | Chapada, t & | Light-colored,
| | | m n | fair-sized bean;
| | | | attractive roast,
| | | | but no cup
| | | | character.
| | | |
| | | Caravellas, t |Similar to Chapada.
| | | & m n |
| | | |
| | | Nazareth, t & |Small bean, fair
| | | m n | roast, undesirable
| | | | cup.
| | | |
| | | Maragogipe, |A variety of
| | | t & m n | _Coffea arabica_;
| | | | large bean,
| | | | elephantine roast,
| | | | woody in the cup.
| | | |
| |Ceará | Ceará, t |Small, flinty, green
| | | Cuaruaru, m | bean; value like
| | | n | Santos of the same
| | | | grade.
| | | |
|Ecuador |Guayaquil |Ecuador |_In general_: The
| | | | Ecuador coffee bean
| | | | is small, pea-green
| | | | in color, and not
| | | | high grade. It
| | | | resembles Ceará,
| | | | and when old makes
| | | | a bright roast. It
| | | | is poor in cup
| | | | quality and useful
| | | | only as a filler.
| | | | Not an important
| | | | commercial factor.
| | | |
|Peru |Callao |Peru |_In general_: The
| |Mollendo | Choquisongo, d | green coffee bean
| | | Cajamarca, d | of Peru ranges from
| | | Perene, d | medium to bold in
| | | Paucartambo, d | size, and from
| | | Chauchamayo, d | bluish to yellow in
| | | Huanuaco, d | color. The highland
| | | Pacasmayo, d | variety has been
| | | | compared with the
| | | | high-grade
| | | | Mexicans, but the
| | | | lowland growths are
| | | | not favorably
| | | | regarded.
| | | | Unimportant
| | | | commercially.
| | | |
|Bolivia | |Bolivia |_In general_:
| | | La Paz, d | Bolivia's coffee,
| | | Apolobamba, | though of superior
| | | t | quality and
| | | Yungas, m | sometimes compared
| | | n | favorably with
| | | Cochabamba, d | Arabian growths, is
| | | Santa Cruz, d | an unimportant
| | | Sara | factor in
| | | Velasco | international
| | | Chiquitos | coffee trading.
| | | Cordillera |
| | | El Beni, d |
| | | Chuquisca, d |
| | | |
|Argentina | |Argentina |_In general_:
| | | Salta, d | Argentina's coffee
| | | Jujuy, d | is grown chiefly
| | | | for home
| | | | consumption.
| | | | Unimportant
| | | | commercially.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
South America|Paraguay | |Paraguay |_In general_:
(Cont'd) | | | Altos, d | Paraguay's coffee
| | | Asuncion, d | is all marketed in
| | | | Asuncion, where it
| | | | is sold as
| | | | Brazilian coffee.
| | | | It is commercially
| | | | important.
| | | |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Asia |Arabia |Aden |Mocha |_In general_:
| |Hodeida | | Arabian, or Mocha,
| |Maidi | | beans are very
| |Leheya | | small, hard, round
| | | | irregular in form
| | | | and size; in color,
| | | | olive green shading
| | | | off to pale yellow.
| | | | The roast is poor
| | | | and irregular. In
| | | | the cup they have
| | | | a unique acid
| | | | character, heavy
| | | | body; in flavor,
| | | | smooth and
| | | | delicious.
| | |Yemen |
| | | Marttari, d |From the Beni-Mattar
| | | (Mohtari) | country; the best;
| | | | a yellow-green
| | | | translucent bean.
| | | |
| | | Yaffey, d |From the Yaffey
| | | | country near Taiz;
| | | | second best.
| | | |
| | | Sharki, d |A long light yellow
| | | (Shergi) | bean, from the
| | | | east, "Esh Shark" a
| | | | superior Mocha with
| | | | a rich full body.
| | | |
| | | |
| | | Sanani, d |From the Sanaa
| | | | region; a green
| | | | bean. A grade lower
| | | | than Sharki.
| | | |
| | | Haimi-Harazi, |A quality green bean
| | | d | from a mountain
| | | (Hemi or | near Mattari.
| | | Heimah) |
| | | |
| | | Anezi, d |From the El Anz
| | | (Anisi) | country. Pale
| | | | yellow and very
| | | | hard.
| | | |
| | | Sharsh, d |Superior qualities
| | | Menakha, d | of the above due
| | | Hifash, d | to different
| | | | methods of curing.
| | | |
| | | Remi, d |A poorer grade,
| | | (Reimah) | reddish bean, from
| | | | Djebel Remi.
| | | |
| | | Bourai, d |A poorer grade from
| | | (Bura) | Djebel Boura.
| | | |
| | | Shami, d |A poorer grade from
| | | | from the north; Esh
| | | | Sham.
| | | |
| | | Yemeni, d |A poorer grade from
| | | (Taizi) | the south; El
| | | | Yemen.
| | | |
| | | Maidi, d |A poorer grade from
| | | | the port of Maidi.
| | | |
| | |Abyssinia |Formerly known as
| | | (Africa) | Longberry Mocha,
| | | | but still shipped
| | | | through Aden _via_
| | | | Jibuti. See
| | | | Africa--Abyssinia.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Asia |Arabia | |_Gradings for All Mochas_: Mocha
(Cont'd) | (Cont'd) | | Extra--For all extra qualities as
| | | Yaffey, Anezi, Matari, Sharki. Mocha
| | | No. 1--For Anezi, Matari, Sharki;
| | | only perfect berries. No. 1A, same as
| | | No. 1, but with some dust. Mocha No.
| | | 2--Some broken and quakers. Mocha No.
| | | 3--Broken, quakers and dust.
| | | Magrache--Triage or screenings.
| | |-----------------+-----------------
|India |Madras | Indias, m n |_In general_: The
| |Calicut | | Indian coffee bean
| |Mangalore | | is small to large
| |Tellicherry | | and blue-green in
| |Tuticorin | | color. In the cup
| |Bombay | | it has a
| | | | distinctive strong
| | | | flavor and deep
| | | | color.
| | | |
| | | Mysore, d |Mountain-grown,
| | | Mysore, t | large, blue-green
| | | | bean, heavy body.
| | | |
| | | Madras, d |Small bean, solid
| | | Malabar, m | and meaty; handsome
| | | n (Wynaad) | roast, peculiar
| | | | rich flavor.
| | | |
| | | Nilgiri, d |Small to large bean
| | | Nilgiris, m | with slight acidity
| | | n | in the cup;
| | | | plantation Ceylon
| | | | character.
| | | |
| | | Madura, d |No marked
| | | (Palni Hills) | characteristics.
| | | |
| | | Salem, d |Same as Nilgiris.
| | | (Shevaroys) |
| | | |
| | | Coimbatore, d |Same as Nilgiris.
| | | |
| | | Tellicherry, |A good grade
| | | d | resembling Malabar;
| | | | somewhat similar
| | | | Nilgiris.
| | | |
| | | Coorg (or |A large, flat, dark
| | | Kurg), d | green bean, thin in
| | | | the cup; a lowland
| | | | variety.
| | | |
| | | Travancore, d |Similar to
| | | | Nilgiris.
| | | |
| | | Cochin, d |A native cherry.
| | | Cochin, m |
| | | n |
| | | |
| | | Bombay, d |Commercially
| | | Kanara | unimportant.
| | | |
| | | Bengal, d |Commercially
| | | Chittagong | unimportant.
| | | |
| | | Assam |Commercially
| | | | unimportant.
| | | |
| | | South Sylhet |Commercially
| | | | unimportant.
| | | |
|Burma |Rangoon |Burma |Large spongy bean;
| | | Tavoy, d | grassy cup. Not a
| | | | commercial factor.
| | | |
| | | _Classes for All Indias_:
| | | 1--Native cherry (sun dried and
| | | then hulled)
| | | 2--Plantation (washed)
| | | Sizes: Nos. 1, 2 and 3; Peaberry
| | | and Triage
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Asia |Ceylon |Colombo |Ceylon |_In general_:
(Cont'd) | | | Gampola, d | Ceylon's coffees
| | | Dumbara, d | are no longer the
| | | Kotmale, d | commercial factor
| | | Pussellawa, d | they were before
| | | | the coffee blight
| | | | practically
| | | | destroyed the
| | | | industry. Those
| | | | left, however,
| | | | still retain much
| | | | of their original
| | | | character, the
| | | | hill-grown washed
| | | | being unique in
| | | | appearance and
| | | | flavor. In the old
| | | | days they were
| | | | classed as native,
| | | | or plain-grown,
| | | | plantation,
| | | | mountain, and
| | | | Liberian.
| | | |
|Malay States|Penang | Straits |_In general_: The
| (British) | (Georgetown) | Liberian, m | coffee from the
| |Singapore | n | Malay States is
| | | Straits | mostly Liberian
| | | Robusta, m | and Robusta and is
| | | n | not important
| | | | commercially,
| | | | although the
| | | | Robusta variety
| | | | promises to become
| | | | an important
| | | | factor.
| | | |
| | | Perak, d |Most important of
| | | | the Federated
| | | | States coffees.
| | | |
| | | Selangor, d |Native state coffee.
| | | |
| | | Negri- |Nine states
| | | Sembilan, d | Federation district
| | | | coffees.
| | | |
| | | Bali, d & m |From the island in
| | | n | Netherlands East
| | | | Indies (See p.
| | | | 374.)
| | | |
| | | Timor, d & |From the island in
| | | m n | Netherlands East
| | | | Indies (See p.
| | | | 374.)
| | | |
|French |Haiphong |Indo-China, m |_In general_: The
| Indo-China| | n | coffees of French
| | | Tonkin | Indo-China, while
| | | Annam | comparatively new,
| | | Cambodia | give promise; but
| | | Cochin-China | as yet are not
| | | | commercially
| | | | important. The
| | | | original arabica
| | | | plantings have been
| | | | succeeded by
| | | | liberica and
| | | | robusta growths.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Malay |Sunda | | East Indies, |_In general_:
Archipelago | Islands | | m n | Included in this
| | | | group are the
| | | | best-known coffees
| | | | from Sumatra, Java,
| | | | Timor, Celebes,
| | | | etc.
| | | |
|Netherlands | | |
| East Indies| | |
|Sumatra |Padang |Sumatra |_In general___:
| |Kroe (West | | Included among the
| | Coast) | | coffees of Sumatra
| |Batavia (Java)| | are several that
| | | | are conceded to be
| | | | the finest the
| | | | world produces. The
| | | | green beans are
| | | | large, uniform, and
| | | | vary in color from
| | | | pale straw to deep
| | | | mahogany. They have
| | | | a smooth, heavy
| | | | body, the
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Malay |Netherlands |Padang | | fancies possessing
Archipelago | East Indies|Kroe (West | | an almost syrupy
(Cont'd) |Sumatra | Coast) | | richness. They are
| (Cont'd) |Batavia (Java)| | graded as Private
| | | | Estate (washed or
| | | |dry hulled) and Blue
| | | | Bean (washed).
| | | |
| | |Padang, d & |The best coffee in
| | | t | the world"; also
| | | Mandheling, m | the highest priced.
| | | n | Formerly a
| | | | Government coffee.
| | | | Yellow to brown,
| | | | large-sized bean;
| | | | dully roast, but
| | | | free from quakers.
| | | | It is of heavy
| | | | body, exquisite
| | | | flavor and aroma.
| | | |
| | | Ankola, m n |Formerly a
| | | | Government coffee.
| | | | Large fat bean,
| | | | making a dull
| | | | roast. Second only
| | | | to Mandhelings; it
| | | | has a heavy body
| | | | and rich, musty
| | | | flavor.
| | | |
| | | Siboga, m n |A harder bean
| | | | Ankola; sometimes
| | | | called Private
| | | | Estate Ankola.
| | | |
| | | Ayer Bangies, |Formerly a
| | | m n | Government
| | | | coffee. Large
| | | | even bean, with
| | | | Mandheling and
| | | | Ankola; of a
| | | | delicate flavor
| | | | but not much
| | | | body.
| | | |
| | | Corinchie, m |Formerly a native
| | | n | cultivation. The
| | | | bean is large,
| | | | handsome, brown in
| | | | color. It makes an
| | | | attractive roast.
| | | | Good body, plenty
| | | | of bitter acid,
| | | | delicious flavor.
| | | |
| | | Interior, m |Formerly all
| | | n | Government coffee.
| | | | The true type of
| | | | Old Government
| | | | Java. Poor roast,
| | | | good cup.
| | | |
| | | Painan |Formerly a
| | | | Government coffee.
| | | | Mixed green and
| | | | brown beans; poor
| | | | roast. Heavy body,
| | | | pungent flavor.
| | | | Grades next to
| | | | Inferior.
| | | |
| | | Kroe, t & m |Formerly a native
| | | n | cultivated coffee.
| | | | Large even bean,
| | | | fine roast, heavy
| | | | body, somewhat
| | | | groundy flavor.
| | | |
| | | Lahat, t & |Former native
| | | m n | cultivation.
| | | | Smaller than Kroe;
| | | | good roaster, flat
| | | | cup.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Malay |Netherlands |Padang | Palembang, t |Former Private
Archipelago | East Indies|Kroe (West | & m n | Estates. Smaller
(Cont'd) |Sumatra | Coast) | | than the Padang
| (Cont'd) |Batavia (Java)| | bean; light color,
| | | | strong cup.
| | | |
| | | Indrapoera, |Former Private
| | | t & m n | Estates. An
| | | | inferior grade of
| | | | Sumatra.
| | | |
| | | Benkoelen, |Formerly a native
| | | t & m n | cultivation. Good
| | | | roast and cup.
| | | |
| | | Libaya, m n |Formerly a native
| | | | cultivation.
| | | |
| | | Boekit Gompong, |Formerly a Private
| | | m n | Estate. A perfect
| | | | coffee, of heavier
| | | | body than
| | | | Mandheling, good
| | | | roast; very
| | | | delicate flavor.
| | | |
| | | Kagoe Kaleh, |Formerly a Private
| | | m n | Estate.
| | | |
| | | Batang Baros, |Formerly a Private
| | | m n | Estate.
| | | |
| | | Telok Goenoeng, |Formerly a Private
| | | m n | Estate.
| | | |
| | | Aker Gedang, |Formerly a Private
| | | m n | Estate. Small bean,
| | | | good roast, fine
| | | | flavor.
| | | |
| | | Soerian, m |Formerly a Private
| | | n | Estate. Large bean,
| | | | fine roast, good
| | | | cup. Ranks next to
| | | | Boekit Gompong.
| | | |
| | | Liki, m n |Formerly a Private
| | | | Estate. Fine roast,
| | | | light cup. It ranks
| | | | next to Soerian.
| | | |
| | | Loebor Sampir, |Formerly a Private
| | | m n | Estate.
| | | |
| | | Soengei, m |Former Private
| | | n | Estate.
| | | Landei, m n |Former Private
| | | | Estate.
| | | Ramboetan, m |Former Private
| | | n | Estate.
| | | Gadoeng Batoe, |Former Private
| | | m n | Estate.
| | | |
| | | Merapi, m n |Formerly a Private
| | | | Estate. Large bean,
| | | | good roast, good
| | | | cup.
| | | |
| | | Si Barasap, m |Formerly a Private
| | | n | Estate.
| | | |
| | | Laboe Raya, m |Formerly a Private
| | | n | Estate. Large bean,
| | | | good roast, good
| | | | cup.
| | | |
| |Balawan-Deli |East Coast |These coffees are
| |Panai | Deli, d | comparatively new.
| | | Bintangmariah, | They partake of the
| | | d | qualities common to
| | | Oelakmedan, d | the general run of
| | | Panai, d | Sumatras without
| | | | distinguishing
| | | | characteristics.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Malay |Netherlands |Batavia |Java, m n |_In general_: Java
Archipelago | East Indies| | | coffees do not
(Cont'd) | (Cont'd) | | | compare with
|Java | | | Sumatras in
| | | | quality. They are
| | | | smaller in the
| | | | bean, with a grassy
| | | | flavor in the cup.
| | | | Blue to pale
| | | | yellow, short round
| | | | bean. The washed
| | | | makes a good smooth
| | | | roast, light in the
| | | | cup.
| | | |
| | | Preager, d |Best of the Java
| | | | growths.
| | | |
| | | Cheribon, d |Ranks next to
| | | | Preanger.
| | | |
| | | Kadoe, d |Small
| | | | yellowish-green
| | | | shelly bean; light
| | | | in cup.
| | | |
| | | Semarang, d |Ranks next to Kadoe
| | | | in roast and cup
| | | | quality.
| | | |
| | | Malang, d |Hard green bean;
| | | | better roaster than
| | | | the above, but
| | | | inferior in cup
| | | | quality.
| | | |
| | | Bantam, t & |Medium-sized
| | | m n | yellowish bean.
| | | |
| | | Buitenzorg, |One of the best of
| | | t & m n | the Javas.
| | | |
| | | Krawang, t & |Irregular bean; fair
| | | m n | roaster; fair cup.
| | | |
| | | Tegal, t & |One of the best of
| | | m n | the Java growths.
| | | |
| | | Banjoemas, t |Medium-sized bean;
| | | & m n | creamy and fragrant
| | | | in the cup.
| | | |
| | | Pekalongan, |With characteristics
| | | t & m n | like Pasuruan.
| | | |
| | | Baquilan, t |No marked
| | | & m n |characteristics.
| | | |
| | | Japara, t & |Bean light in weight
| | | m n | and color; cup
| | | | neutral.
| | | |
| | | Surakarta, t |Large bean, handsome
| | | & m n | roast, creamy body,
| | | | aromatic flavor in
| | | | the cup.
| | | |
| | | Jokjakarta, |Similar to
| | | t & m n | Surakarta.
| | | |
| | | Madiun, t & |Yellow bean, light
| | | m n | in weight and body,
| | | | but good cup.
| | | |
| | | Rembang, t & |Similar to Kadoe.
| | | m n |
| | | |
| | | Surabaya, t |Similar to Kadoe.
| | | & m n |
| | | |
| | | Kediri, t & |Small hard bean;
| | | m n | good drinker.
| | | |
| | | Pasurauan, t |Brown, uniform
| | | & m n | bean; fragrant in
| | | | cup.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Malay |Netherlands |Batavia | Probolingo, |Small hard bean:
Archipelago | East Indies| | t & m n | poor roast.
(Cont'd) |Java | | |
| (Cont'd) | | Bejreki, t |Bold yellow bean;
| | | & m n | full body and
| | | | flavor.
| | | |
| | | Banjoewangi, |Heavy bean; rich
| | | t & m n | flavor.
| | | |
| | | Pamanukin, t |A Liberian growth.
| | | & m n |
| | | |
| | | Robusta, m |Small,
| | | n |yellowish-green,
| | | |round bean; quality
| | | |approximately that
| | | |of middling Arabian,
| | | |ranking a little
| | | |under good average
| | | |Santos. Natural,
| | | |poor roast. Washed,
| | | |good roast. Fair
| | | |cup.
| | | |
|Bali (Dutch)|Singaraja | Bali, m n |Fair-size bean of
| | (Boeleleng) | | little merit.
| | | | Poor roast.
| | | |
|Timor |Kupang | Timor, m n |Medium bean of good
| (Dutch & | | | quality.
| Portuguese)| | |
| | | |
|Celebes | | Celebes, m |In general: With the
| (Dutch) | | n | exception of the
| | | | Minahassa product,
| | | | the coffees grown
| | | | in the Celebes have
| | | | little merit and
| | | | are of
| | | | inconsiderable
| | | | importance.
| | | |
| |Menado | Minahassa, |Large, deep-yellow
| | | m n | bean, making a
| | | | handsome roast, and
| | | | having an aromatic
| | | | cup.
| | | |
| |Macassar | Boengie, |Inferior in
| | | m n | appearance, but
| | | | fair roast and
| | | | cup quality.
| | | |
| |Bonthain | Bontbain, |Medium, flat,
| | | m n | reddish bean, poor
| | | | roast; undesirable
| | | | cup.
| | | |
| | | Sindjai, |Not commercially
| | | m n | important.
| | | |
|Moluccas |Ternate | Boengie, |Superior to the Java
| (Dutch) | | m n | _arabica_.
| | | |
|Borneo | | |
| British |Sandakan | Borneo, |_In general_: The
| North | | m n | coffees of Borneo
| Sarawak |Kuching | Borneo, m n | are mostly Liberian
| Dutch |Banjermasin | Borneo, m n | growths and are not
| | | | a trade factor.
| | | |
|New Guinea |Ternate | New Guinea, |_In general_: These
| (Dutch) | (Moluccas) | m n | coffees are of the
| |Dorey | | mild variety, but
| | | | the production is
| | | | commercially
| | | | unimportant.
| | | |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Melanesia |New |Noumea |New Caledonia |A fair Robusta
| Caledonia | | La Foa | coffee, but
| (France) | | | commercially
| | | | unimportant.
| | | |
|New Hebrides| | |
| (Great | | |
| Britain | | |
| and France)| | |
| | | |
|Efate |Vila |New Hebrides |A fair coffee, but
| | | | not a trade factor.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Micronesia |Samoan | | |
| Islands | | |
| Tutuila |Pago Pago |Samoa |Commercially
| | (U.S.) | | unimportant.
| | | |
|Fiji | | |
| (British) | | |
| Vita Levu |Suva |Fiji |Medium-sized green
| | | | bean; grassy cup.
| | | | Not a trade factor.
| | | |
|Tonga | | |
| (Friendly | | |
| Islands) | | |
| Tongatabu |Nukualofa |Tonga |For local
| | | | consumption only.
| | | |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Philippine |Luzon |Manila |Manila |_In general_:
Islands | | | La Laguna, d | Manila, or
(U.S.) | | | Batangas, d | Philippine, coffee
| | | Cavite, d | is not an important
| | | Benguet, d | trade factor. The
| | | Lepanto, d | bean is medium
| | | Bontoc, d | size, grayish-green
| | | | in color, having
| | | | fine aroma and
| | | | excellent flavor.
| | | | It compares
| | | | favorably with
| | | | Costa Rica and
| | | | Guatemala.
| | | |
|Panay |Iloilo |Panay |No marked
| | | | characteristics.
| | | |
|Cebu |Cebu |Cebu |No marked
| | | | characteristics.
| | | |
|Palawan |Puerto |Palawan |No marked
| | Princessa | | characteristics.
| | | |
|Mindanao |Zamboanga |Zamboanga |Large bean; thin
| | | | liquor.
| | | |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Marianas or |Guam (U.S.) |Apra |Guam |No production for
Ladrone | | | | export.
Islands | | | |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Oceania |Hawaiian |Honolulu |Hawaiian, |_In general_:
Polynesia | Islands | (Oahua) | m n | Hawaiian coffee is
| (U.S.) | Hilo | | a large bean,
| | Kailua | | blue-green to
| | | | yellow-brown in
| | | | color; handsome
| | | | roaster, fine
| | | | smooth flavor.
| | | |
| | | Kona, d |Large, blue, flinty
| | | | bean, mildly acid;
| | | | striking character.
| | | |
| | | Puna, d |Quality good but
| | | | quantity small.
| | | |
| | | Olaa, d |Quality good but
| | | | quantity small.
| | | |
| | | Hamakua, d |Quality good but
| | | | quantity small.
| | | |
| | | Maui, d |Production small.
| | | |
| | | Oahu, d |Production small.
| | | |
| | | Kauai, d |Production small.
| | | |
|Society |Papeete |Tahiti |A fair coffee, but
| Islands | | | not a trade factor.
| (French) | | |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Australia |Queensland |Cairns |Queensland |_In general_: The
| |Mackay | Mackay, d | coffee is from
| |Brisbane | | Ceylon or Coorg
| | | | seed and is for
| | | | local consumption.
| | | | Not a commercial
| | | | factor.
| | | |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Africa |Egypt |Alexandria | Egyptian, |_In general_:
| | | m n | Coffees from the
| | | | upper Nile region,
| | | | Kaffa Land,
| | | | Anglo-Egyptian
| | | | Sudan, and Nubia
| | | | are generally
| | | | spoken of as
| | | | Egyptians. They
| | | | have some Mocha
| | | | characteristics,
| | | | but are not
| | | | important
| | | | commercially.
| | | |
|Anglo- |Suakin | Nubian, m |Small, flinty,
| Egyptian |Alexandria | n | pale-green, oval
| Sudan | (Egypt) | | bean; heavy body;
| | | | rich flavor.
| | | |
| | | Berber, d |Some superior
| | | | drinking coffees
| | | | come from this
| | | | district.
| | | |
|Eritrea |Massowah | Abyssinian, |The coffee is of the
| (Italy) | | m n | Abyssinian type,
| | | | but the output is
| | | | not an important
| | | | trade factor.
| | | |
|Somaliland | | |
| French |Jibuti | Harar, d, t |These coffees are
| | | Abyssinian, | not grown in French
| | | m n | Somaliland, but
| | | | come from Abyssinia
| | | | to Jibuti and Aden
| | | |for export to Europe
| | | | and America. See
| | | | Abyssinia.
| | | |
| British |Berbera | Harar, d, t |Grown, as above, in
| |Zeila | Abyssinian, | Abyssinia.
| | | m n |
| | | |
| Italian |Mukdishu | Benadir, |Abyssinian type, but
| | | d & m n | not an important
| | | | trade factor.
| | | |
|Abyssinia |Jibuti (French| Harar, d_, t |_In general_: The
| | Somaliland) | Abyssinian, | Harari coffee is
| |Zeila | m n | more carefully
| | | | cultivated and
| | | | cured than the
| | | | Abyssinian, which
| | | | is its inferior.
| | | |
| |Berbera | Harar, d, t |The original Mocha
| | (British | Harari, m n | Longberry. Large,
| | Somaliland) | | long blue-green to
| | | | yellow bean.
| | | |
| |Massowah | |(Graded No. 1 or No.
| | (Eritrea) | | 2, according to
| | | | size) roasting with
| |Aden (Arabia) | | few quakers,
| | | | similar to Mocha,
| | | | having an excellent
| | | | flavor but not
| | | | quite so delicate.
| | | |
| | | Dire-Daoua, t |Railway trading
| | | | center for Harari
| | | | and Abyssinian
| | | | coffees.
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Africa |Abyssinia | |Abyssinia |The native coffee
(_Cont'd_) | (_Cont'd_) | | Kaffa, d |grown wild in this
| | | (Gomara) |district has little
| | | |commercial
| | | |importance. The
| | | |bean is dark gray,
| | | |and it has a
| | | |groundy flavor.
| | | |
| | | Bonga, t |Trading center for
| | | |Abyssinia.
| | | |
| | | Jimma, d |Trading center for
| | | Jiren, t |Abyssinia.
| | | |
| | | Shoa, d |Mostly Abyssinian
| | | Adis-Abeba, t |growths are
| | | |exported from this
| | | |trading center to
| | | |Harar or
| | | |Dire-Daoua.
| | | |
|Kenya |Mombasa | Nairobi, d |Having Mysore
|Colony | | & t |characteristics
|(Formerly | | Kikuyu |with a touch of
|British | | Kyambu |Mocha flavor.
|East Africa)| | |
| | | |
|Uganda |Mombasa |Uganda |Greenish-gray to
|Protectorate| | Bunganda, d |light-brown
|(British) | | |Robusta. Poor to
| | | |fairly good liquor.
| | | |
|Zanzibar |Zanzibar |Zanzibar |Medium-sized bean;
|Protectorate| | |full body, pleasing
|(British) | | |flavor.
| | | |
|Tanganyika |Dar-es-Salaam | East Africa, |Not a commercial
|Territory | | m n |factor.
|(formerly | | or |
|German East | | Tanganyika, |
|Africa) | | m n |
| | | |
| | | |
|Nyasaland |Chinde |Nyasaland |Some high-grown and
|Protectorate|(Portuguese | Shire Highlands,|of fine quality. Not
|(British) |East Africa) | d |a commercial factor.
| | | Blantyre, d |
| | | |
|Rhodesia |Beira |Rhodesia |For local
|(British) |(Portuguese | |consumption.
| |East Africa) | |Not a trade factor.
| | | |
|Portuguese |Mozambique |Mozambique |Medium-sized
|East Africa | | |greenish bean,
| | | |heavy body; mild
| | | |and mellow in the
| | | |cup.
| | | |
|Natal |Durban |Natal |Large, light-brown
|(British) | | |Liberian growth.
| | | |Not a trade factor.
| | | |
|Angola |Loanda |Angola |Medium-size bean,
|(Portugal) | | |brownish color,
| | | |strong in the cup.
| | | |
| | | Encoje, d, |Light weight, dark
| | | m n |brown Robusta;
| | | |strong in the cup.
| | | |
|Belgian |Banana | Congo, m n |_In general_: The
|Congo | | Equator, d |coffees of the
| | | Aruwimi, d |Belgian Congo are
| | | Bangala, d |mostly Liberian and
| | | Lake Leopold, |Robusta growths.
| | | d |There is produced a
| | | |medium-sized bean,
| | | |making a handsome
| | | |roast and having a
| | | |rich cup.
| | | |
|French |Loango | Loango, d, |Formerly Encoje
|Congo |Libreville | m n |from Angola.
| | | |Inferior to
| | | |Liberian.
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
=============+============+==============+=================+=================
Grand | Country | Shipping | State, or | Trade Values
Division | | Ports | District, | and Cup
| | | Market Names |Characteristics
| | | and Gradings |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
Africa |Nigeria |Lagos |Nigeria |Commercially
(Cont'd) | (British) | | | unimportant.
| | | |
|Gold Coast |Accra |Gold Coast |Not a commercial
| (British) | | | factor.
| | | |
|Liberia |Monrovia | Liberian, m |Large, brown bean;
| | | n | big, handsome
| | | | roaster; strong in
| | | | cup.
| | | |
|Sierra Leone|Freetown |Sierra Leone |_C. stenophylla_, a
| (British) | | | native growth. Not
| | | | a trade factor.
| | | |
|French |Konakry | Guinea, m n |Commercially
| Guinea | | | unimportant.
| | | |
|Portuguese |Bissao | Guinea, m n |Commercially
| Guinea | | | unimportant.
| | | |
| | | |
|Comoro |Maroni | Comoro, m n |A wild natural
| Islands | | | caffein-free coffee
| (French) | | | (_C. humboltiana_);
| | | | also found in
| | | | Madagascar. Not a
| | | | commercial factor.
| | | |
|Madagascar |Tamatave |Madagascar |Light-green
| (French) | | | _liberica_ and
| | | | _robusta_ bean;
| | | | full rich flavor.
| | | |
|Réunion, |St. Denis | Bourbon, m |Nearest to Mocha in
| formerly | | n | character (q. v.).
| Bourbon | | | Round and pointed
| (French) | | | bean, pale green
| | | | or pale yellow. Not
| | | | a trade factor.
| | | |
|Mauritius |Port Louis |Mauritius |Similar to Bourbon.
| (British) | | | Medium light green,
| | | | full body, mild and
| | | | mellow flavor. Not
| | | | a trade factor.
| | | |
-------------+------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------------
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXV
FACTORY PREPARATION OF ROASTED COFFEE
_Coffee roasting as a business--Wholesale coffee-roasting
machinery--Separating, milling, and mixing or blending green
coffee, and roasting by coal, coke, gas, and electricity--Facts
about coffee roasting--Cost of roasting--Green-coffee shrinkage
table--"Dry" and "wet" roasts--On roasting coffee efficiently--A
typical coal roaster--Cooling and stoning--Finishing or
glazing--Blending roasted coffees--Blends for restaurants--Grinding
and packaging--Coffee additions and fillers--Treated coffees, and
dry extracts_
The coffee bean is not ready for beverage purposes until it has been
properly "manufactured", that is, roasted, or "cooked". Only in this way
can all the stimulating, flavoring, and aromatic principles concealed in
the minute cells of the bean be extracted at one time. An infusion from
green coffee has a decidedly unpleasant taste and hardly any color.
Likewise, an underdone roast has a disagreeable "grassy" flavor; while
an overdone roast gives a charred taste that is unpalatable to the
average citizen of the United States.
_Coffee Roasting as a Business_
In spite of the generally admitted fact that freshly roasted coffee
makes the best infusion, most of the coffee used today is not roasted at
or near the place where it is brewed, but in factories that are provided
with special equipment for the roasting of coffee in a wholesale way.
The reasons for this are various, partly relating to the mere economy of
buying and manufacturing on a large scale, and partly relating to the
trained skill that is needed both for selecting suitable green coffees
to make a satisfactory blend, and for the roasting work itself. The
proportion of consumers (including restaurants and hotels) who roast
their own coffee is so small as to be negligible, at least in the United
States. The average person who buys coffee today, for brewing use, never
sees green coffee at all, unless as an "educational exhibit" in some
dealer's display window.
The reasons just mentioned, which have made coffee roasting a real
business, all tend, of course, to make the roasting establishments of
large size; but this tendency is offset by the problem of distributing
the roasting coffee so that it will reach the ultimate consumer in good
condition. Roasting enterprises on a comparatively small scale (not by
consumers, but by sufficiently expert dealers) would probably be much
more numerous on account of the "fresh-roast" argument, except for the
fact that coffee-roasting machines can not be installed so easily as the
grinding mills, meat-choppers, and slicing machines, that find extended
use in small stores. The steam, smoke, and chaff given off by the coffee
as it is roasted must be disposed of by an outdoor connection, without
annoying the neighbors or creating a fire hazard.
From these general remarks, it can easily be seen that the size of
individual roasting establishments will vary greatly, according to the
skill of the proprietor in meeting the disadvantages of working on
either the smallest or the largest scale. A wholesale plant may be
considered to be one in which coffee is roasted in batches of one bag or
more at a time; and with this definition, nearly all the roasting in the
United States is done in a wholesale way.
[Illustration: A MODERN GAS COFFEE-ROASTING PLANT WITH A CAPACITY OF
1,000 BAGS A DAY
General view of the roasting room of the Jewel Tea Co., Hoboken, N.J.
The equipment consists of twelve Jubilee gas machines in four groups;
each group having a smoke-suction fan, and a drag conveyor over the
three feed hoppers. To the left is a line of flexible-arm cooler cars]
For many years the regular factory machines have been of a size
suitable for roasting two bags of coffee at a time; but roasters of
larger size have recently come into considerable use.
Plants treating from fifty to a hundred and fifty bags per day are the
most common; but the daily capacity runs up to a thousand bags or more.
The minimum cost of equipping a plant is somewhere between five thousand
dollars and ten thousand dollars. The individual machines are of
standard construction; but the arrangement in a particular building,
especially for the larger plants, is worked out with great care and with
numerous special features, so that the goods can be handled from start
to finish with minimum expense for floor space, labor, power, etc.
The practical coffee roaster locates his roasting room in the top floor
of his factory building, where light and ventilation are generally best.
He usually has a large skylight in the roof, directly over the roasting
equipment. In addition to the advantage as regards good light and the
convenient discharge of smoke, steam, and odors, through the roof, the
top-story location makes it possible to send the roasted coffee by
gravity through the various bins which may be needed in connection with
subsequent operations, such as grinding, and for temporary storage
before the final packaging and shipping.
_Wholesale Coffee-Roasting Machinery_
The indispensable coffee operations are roasting and cooling; and in
practically all United States plants the cooling is followed by
"stoning". This is an air-suction operation that effects, aided by
gravity, the removal of any stones or other hard material that would
damage the grinding mill. The best commercial cleaning and grading of
the green coffee has usually left in every bag a few small stones. These
can be got rid of better after the coffee is roasted; because it is then
not only lighter, but more bulky.
[Illustration: MILLING-MACHINE CONNECTIONS FOR A TWO-ROASTER PLANT]
Besides these three operations of roasting, cooling, and stoning, the
plant may have machinery for treating the coffee both before it is
roasted and after it leaves the stoner.
[Illustration: A SIXTEEN-CYLINDER COAL ROASTING PLANT IN A NEW YORK
FACTORY
This is a view of the roasting room of B. Fischer & Co. and shows a
battery of Burns coal roasters]
Treatment of the green coffee in roasting establishments is of less
importance now than in years gone by; first, because most coffees now
come to market more perfectly graded and cleaned than formerly; and
second, because the whole-bean appearance of the coffee has become of
less account, as wholesale grinding operations have increased.
Nevertheless, many plants consider it highly important to have a
separator for grading the coffee closely as regards the size of the
beans--and particularly for the separation of round beans, or
"peaberry"--as well as milling machinery for making the coffee as clean
as possible before it is roasted. One green coffee operation that has
lost none of its old-time importance, but on the contrary is more needed
as the plants increase in size, is the mixing of different varieties of
coffee--in proportions that have been decided on by sample tests--so as
to get a uniform blend.
The mixer does not blend the various coffees any more surely than a good
roaster cylinder will do it, but treats batches of much larger size.
This means saving a great amount of labor that would be necessary for
putting the desired quantity of component coffees into each individual
roaster.
A proper installation of green coffee machinery requires various bins of
ample capacity, and bucket elevators by which the coffee can be sent
without manual labor from one operation to another. In modern plants,
all the bins and elevators are constructed of metal. The separator, with
its bins and elevator, may be installed independently of the rest of the
plant, the graded coffee being all bagged up again and treated as new
raw stock--some of it to be held for later use, or perhaps sold again
unroasted. The milling machine and the mixer, however, are usually so
placed and connected that the coffee can be sent from one to the other,
and to the roaster feed hoppers, without any manual labor.
When the roaster sells his product in package form ready for the
consumer, he will have a packaging department in which are grinding,
weighing, labeling, and packing machines and equipment. In some of the
more progressive plants, particularly in the United States, all the
packing units are incorporated in one machine, so that the different
steps in the work are carried on automatically and in one continuous
operation.
[Illustration: GREEN-COFFEE-MIXER CONNECTIONS
To operate at full capacity, without using the story above as well as
below the mixer, requires a bucket elevator and three bins, each holding
a full mixing batch. The above diagram explains this setting. The mixed
coffee in the discharge bin is either drawn out into bags or sent by an
elevator to a milling machine or direct to the coffee roasters. A batch
ready for mixing can always be accumulated in the feed bin while the
previous batch is being mixed or discharged.
The fan is usually hung to the ceiling over the mixer as indicated, and
connected to the suction box by a 1-in. round pipe. The fan outlet can
be carried directly out-of-doors; but the dusty discharge is
objectionable in most installations, and this pipe is usually carried to
a dust collector from the top of which the roof outlet is connected.]
The efficient roaster-executive equips his entire plant with approved
labor-saving devices. In the better establishments, the coffee is
carried along by mechanical conveyors through all the operations from
the first cleaning machine to the final packaging.
_Separating_
As already mentioned, a machine frequently found in wholesale plants is
the separator, or grader. This apparatus, which is the same in principle
in all countries, but varies in size and form according to local
requirements, consists of a series of perforated screens. The
perforations differ in size; and as the coffee is shaken on them, the
small beans drop through the holes, the larger ones passing across the
screen and dropping into a receptacle or chute ready for the next
operation. The screens are made to grade the beans into large and small
peaberry; large, medium, and small flat beans; brokens; and other
commercial sizes. The average separator will grade fifteen to twenty
bags of coffee in an hour.
[Illustration: Green-coffee-milling machine having a capacity of forty
bags of green coffee per hour; with sifter, feed-pipe suction, and a
final separate suction at the discharge hopper]
[Illustration: Green-coffee separator without fan; with feed elevator,
discharge chutes, and motor drive. View of right-hand side and feed end]
[Illustration: GREEN-COFFEE SEPARATING AND MILLING MACHINES]
_Milling_
Milling machines, for cleaning the green coffee, operate on practically
the same principle the world over, varying in capacity and details of
construction. A popular type used in the United States has two metal
cylinders, one set within the other, and revolving in opposite
directions. The inner cylinder is ribbed with flanges, and the outer one
is lined with wire cloth. As these cylinders revolve, the beans pass
between them rubbing against themselves and the rough sides of the
cylinders. This action serves to remove dirt and other foreign matter
that may be clinging to the beans, and also gives them an attractive
polish. An exhaust fan sucks away the dirt milled off in the process.
This type of machine will mill about forty bags of green coffee in an
hour.
_Mixing or Blending Green Coffee_
Most roasters blend the different types of coffee while green. Some
blend them after they have been roasted separately. When blended before
roasting, the coffees are mixed by a machine built especially for that
purpose. The mixing machine in general use in all countries consists of
a large metal cylinder which, in wholesale operations, is revolved by
the factory's general power plant or by a separate motor. The cylinder
is equipped on the inside with sets of reverse-screw mixing flanges that
tumble the beans around until they are thoroughly blended; and there is
usually a fan attachment to remove dust. This operation serves also to
smooth down and to polish the surfaces of the beans, which adds to the
style of the coffee when roasted. The average blending machine will mix
from ten to twenty bags of coffee at a time. The actual mixing requires
less than five minutes, but a longer period is needed for feeding and
discharging. This is the last of the so-called "green-coffee
operations". The next step is roasting.
_Roasting by Coal, Coke, Gas, and Electricity_
Coffee is roasted commercially in cylinder or ball receptacles revolving
in heated chambers, the degree of heat reaching about 420° Fahr. The
cylinder type of roaster is invariably used in the United States; while
both the cylinder and the ball types are popular in England, France,
Germany, Holland, and other foreign countries.
[Illustration: AN ENGLISH FOUR-MACHINE GAS COFFEE-ROASTING PLANT
The equipment includes three Morewood indirect-flame, and one quick
direct-flame machines]
Each roasterman has his own opinion about the fuel that gives the best
result, and throughout the world the choice lies between anthracite
coal, coke, and gas; though hard wood is frequently used in countries
where other fuels are not available or not economical. Electric heat has
been tried for commercial roasting in Germany (1906), in England (1909),
and in the United States (1918); but the experimenters have always found
the cost of electric fuel to be prohibitive in competition with coal and
gas. An electric roaster was demonstrated at the Food Conservation Show
in New York, in 1918, at a time when the federal government was urging
the necessity of conserving coal as a war economy measure. The inventor
claimed that his machine would reduce roasting cost, improve the flavor
and the aroma, and maintain a constant and easily controlled heat. He
declared also that when roasted in his devices, less coffee was required
for brewing.
An expert coffee-roasting-machinery man who has been working on the
development of a practical electric roaster says that if it were
possible to bake the coffee in an oven, just as the baker does his
bread, the fuel cost would then compare favorably with that of gas or
coal. It is because the heat chamber must have an exhaust to release the
chaff and smoke that the use of electricity to replace the heat loss
proves prohibitive when compared with coal or gas.
In all types of coal and coke burning roasters, the cylinders are heated
by a fire underneath; while in gas roasters, the flame may be underneath
or within the cylinder itself. Roasters in which the heat is within the
cylinder are known as direct-flame or inner-heated machines. All three
systems are used in the United States and Europe.
_Facts About Coffee Roasting_
The modern commercial roasting outfit is as near fool-proof as human
genius has been able to devise. The more advanced types are almost
automatic in operation, and are designed to insure uniformity of roasts.
In such machines the green coffee is conveyed to the roasting cylinder
by means of bucket elevators, which pour the beans into a feed hopper.
From the feed hopper, the coffee is dumped through the opening in the
front head-piece into the cylinder. The cylinder is perforated, and has
inside flanges which keep tossing the coffee about while the cylinder
revolves, so that the coffee will not burn during the roasting process.
[Illustration: GERMAN GAS COFFEE-ROASTING PLANT EQUIPPED WITH
IDEAL-RAPID MACHINES]
To roast coffee by coal or coke usually requires from twenty-five to
thirty minutes, depending on the moisture-content of the beans; whether
they are spongy or flinty; whether a light, medium, or dark roast is
desired; and on the skill of the operator. Gas roasting requires from
fifteen to twenty minutes. The quicker the roast, the better the coffee,
is the opinion of many trade leaders, one of whom[325] says:
It is a growing belief that in roasts of short duration the largest
percentage of the aromatic properties is retained. A slow roast has
the effect of baking and does not give full development; also, slow
roasts seldom produce bright roasts, and they usually make the
coffee hard instead of brittle, even when the color standard has
been attained.
[Illustration: FRENCH GAS COFFEE-ROASTING PLANT EQUIPPED WITH MODERNE
MACHINES]
While coffees of widely varying degrees of moisture require somewhat
different treatment, the consensus of opinion is that the best results
are obtained from a slow fire at the beginning, until some of the
moisture has been driven off, when the stronger application of heat may
be given for development. An intense heat in the beginning often results
in "tipping", or charring, the little germ at the end, the most
sensitive part of the bean.
Scorched beans have been caught at some point in the cylinder, often in
a bent flange. Burning on one face, sometimes called "kissing the
cheeks", is caused by the too rapid revolution of the cylinder, so that
some of the coffee "carries over". In the best practise, crowding of
cylinders is avoided; many roasters making it a rule not to exceed
ninety percent of the rated capacity of the cylinder.
Those operating gas roasters may effect a fuel economy by running a low
grade coffee in the cylinder after the last roast has been drawn and the
gas extinguished; five minutes' revolution absorbs the heat and drives
off a proportion of moisture. The coffee, which may then be left in the
cylinder, requires less time and fuel in the morning, and the roast is
finished while the cylinder is warming up. Double roasting brightens a
roast, but is a detriment to the cup quality. A dull roasting coffee may
be improved by revolving the green coffee in a cylinder without heat for
twenty minutes, which has the effect of milling.
The use of a small amount of water upon roasts gives better control by
checking the roast at the proper point--the crucial time of its greatest
heat; also, it swells and brightens the coffee, and tends to close the
outer pores. While the addition of water is open to abuse, few roasters
have soaked their coffees enough to offset the natural shrinkage as much
as three or four percent. Such practise would result greatly to the
detriment of the cup quality.
There is no universal standard for the degree to which coffee should be
roasted. In the United States, there are demands for all degrees; from
the light roast, in favor in England, to the extremely dark roast in
vogue in France, Italy, Brazil, Turkey, and in the producing countries.
The North American trade recognizes these different roasts: light,
cinnamon, medium, high, city, full city, French, and Italian. The city
roast is a dark bean, while full city is a few degrees darker. In the
French roast, the bean is cooked until the natural oil appears on the
surface; and in the Italian, it is roasted to the point of actual
carbonization, so that it can be easily powdered. Germany likes a roast
similar to the French type; while Scandinavia prefers the high Italian
roast.
In the United States, the lighter roast is favored on the Pacific coast;
the darkest, in the South; and a medium-colored roast, in the Eastern
states. The cinnamon roast is most favored by the trade in Boston.
While coffee roasting in the United States usually takes from fifteen to
thirty minutes, depending on the fuel and the machine employed,
manufacturers of gas machines on the German market claim to roast it in
superior fashion in from three and a half to ten minutes.[326] This
subject is discussed more in detail in chapter XXXIV.
Coffee loses weight during the roasting process, the loss varying
according to the degree of roasting and the nature of the bean. Coffee
roasters figure, however, that the average loss is sixteen percent of
the weight of the green bean. It has been estimated that one hundred
pounds of coffee in the cherry produces twenty-five pounds in the
parchment; that one hundred pounds in parchment produces eighty-four
pounds of cleaned coffee; and that one hundred pounds of cleaned coffee
produces eighty-four pounds roasted.
[Illustration: JUMBO COFFEE ROASTER, IN THE ARBUCKLE COFFEE-ROASTING
PLANT, NEW YORK
There are four of these machines. The cylinders are twelve feet in
diameter, six feet deep, and can roast 5,000 pounds of coffee every
half-hour. The hard-coal brick furnace is seen at the left, from which a
blower forces the heated air through a pipe into the revolving cylinder
of coffee. The coffee is fed from above and is emptied into the cooling
pans beneath]
[Illustration: AN EIGHT-CYLINDER GAS COFFEE-ROASTING PLANT
A view of Reid, Murdoch & Co.'s roasting room, Chicago, equipped with
Monitor machines]
During the roasting process the coffee undergoes a great chemical
change. After it has been in the cylinder a short time, the color of the
bean becomes a yellowish brown, which gradually deepens as it cooks.
Likewise, as the beans become heated, they shrivel up until about half
done, or at the "developing" point. At this stage, they begin to swell,
and then "pop open", increasing fifty percent in bulk.[327] This is when
the experienced roasterman turns on all the heat he can command to
finish the roasting as quickly as possible.
_"Dry" and "Wet" Roasts_
At frequent intervals, he thrusts his "trier"--an instrument shaped
somewhat like an elongated spoon--into the cylinder, and takes out a
sample of coffee to compare with his type sample. When the coffee is
done, he shuts off the heat and checks the cooking by reducing the
temperature of the coffee and of the cylinder as quickly as can be done.
In the wet roast method he will spray the coffee, while the cylinder is
still revolving, with three to four quarts of water to every 130 pounds
of coffee. In the dry method he depends altogether upon his cooling
apparatus.
Roasters generally are not in favor of the excessive watering of coffee
in and after the roasting process for the purpose of reducing shrinkage.
"Heading" the coffee, or checking the roast before turning it out of the
roasting cylinder, is quite another matter and is considered legitimate.
Where coffees are watered in the cylinder at the close of the roast to
reduce the shrinkage, it is possible to get back only about four percent
of the shrinkage by such treatment and the practise is frowned upon by
the best roasters.
Generally speaking, water is turned into the roasting cylinder to quench
the roast. The amount varies with the style of machine, whether gas or
coal. Usually the water turns to steam, and the result is not an
absorption of the water but a momentary checking of the roast with a
tendency to swell and to brighten the coffee. This is, comparatively
speaking, a "dry roast", but not an absolutely dry roast. It is doubtful
if more than one percent of American coffee roasters employ an
absolutely "dry" roast--it does not give satisfactory results. The word
has been abused for advertising purposes. Of course, a dry roasted
coffee is a better article for making a satisfactory beverage than one
that has been soaked with water; but the word "dry" must be given a
definite meaning, which the trade generally will agree to uphold, if it
is to have any real meaning or value to the consumer. Until some
standard for roasted coffee shall be established, it is to be feared the
term "dry roast" will continue to be used for coffee roasted by almost
any other process.
[Illustration: UPPER-STORY VIEW OF A JUBILEE PLANT, SHOWING ROASTER,
COOLER, AND STONER EQUIPMENT
The parts under roasting-room floor are shown in the illustration below]
[Illustration: LOWER-STORY VIEW OF THE SAME PLANT FROM ABOUT THE SAME
ANGLE
Showing connection from floor hopper to stoner on the left, and
suspended bucket-elevator boot with four-bag dump hopper on the right]
[Illustration: COMPLETE GAS COFFEE-PLANT INSTALLATION]
The Bureau of Chemistry held a hearing in 1914 at Washington, at which
the question of a ruling on watering coffees was discussed. The trade
was well represented, but no agreement was reached. It was deemed
inadvisable to make a definite rule on the watering of coffee; because
the water content can not be controlled, as the bean starts to absorb
moisture as soon as it leaves the roaster.
_On Roasting Coffee Efficiently_
A.L. Burns, New York, is well qualified to speak on this subject. He
says:
Roasting coffee is not so difficult a matter as is often claimed by
operators and "experts" who seek thus to magnify their importance;
but it is nevertheless a process about which a great deal may be
learned in the school of practical experience. With one of our
modern machines anybody with ordinary intelligence and nerve can
take off a roast after one trial which would pass muster in many
establishments, but that same person applying himself to the
roasting job for a week will either be turning out vastly better
roasts or will have demonstrated that he never can excel as a
roasterman.
Modern coffee roasting machines provide for easy control of the
heat (from coal, coke, or gas fuel), for constantly mixing the
coffee in such a manner that the heat is transmitted uniformly to
the entire batch, for carrying away all steam and smoke rapidly,
for easy testing of the progress of the roast, and for immediate
discharge when desired. The operator's problem therefore is the
regulation of the heat and deciding just when the desired roasting
has been accomplished.
If all coffees were alike, roasting would soon be almost automatic.
In some plants most of the work is on one uniform grade or blend.
But coffees which vary greatly in moisture-content, in flinty or
spongy nature, and in various other characteristics, will puzzle
the operator until he establishes a personal acquaintance with them
in various combinations in repeated roasting operations. The
roasterman therefore must be able to observe closely, to draw
sensible conclusions, and to remember what he learns. Roasting
coffee is work of a sort which anybody can do, which a few people
can do really well, and no one so well but that further improvement
is possible.
There is no absolute standard of what the best roasting results
are. Some dealers want the coffee beans swelled up to the bursting
point, while others would object to so showy a development. Some
care nothing at all about appearance as compared with cup value,
while others insist on a bright style even at some sacrifice of
quality. Business judgment must decide what goods can be sold most
profitably.
The loss of coffee in weight in the roasting operation, or
shrinkage as it is called, is a matter which offers opportunities
for false claims of advantage in roasting processes. Anybody can
see that if just as good roasted coffee could be produced with a
lessened shrinkage there would be a chance for a decided increase
in profits. It is a sort of finding-money proposition which always
turns out to be too good to be true. The purpose of roasting coffee
is to produce an article entirely different from green coffee,
which is accomplished mainly by driving out moisture. If coffee is
roasted thoroughly, inside as well as outside, so as to give the
greatest roasted coffee value, it must sustain a proper loss in
weight which there is no legitimate way to avoid. The amount of
shrinkage varies a great deal with the kind of coffee and its age,
also with the kind of roasting desired.
Adding a little water to the coffee at the end of the operation has
the advantage of checking the roast at the desired point and
helping to swell and brighten the coffee, but it is a practice
which is sometimes abused by soaking the coffee with water so as to
reduce the shrinkage. This is done either dishonestly, to steal
coffee which belongs to somebody else, or foolishly; for the
heavier coffee has a lessened cup value which more than
counterbalances the apparent gain.
[Illustration: BURNS JUBILEE GAS ROASTER]
_A Typical Coal Roaster_
A typical United States coal roaster is shown in the accompanying cut.
It is the latest form of that type of Burns machine which requires a
brickwork setting. The picture shows the roaster ready to operate,
except for smoke pipe and power connections.
[Illustration: BURNS COAL ROASTER WITH BRICKWORK SETTING]
The front of the machine shown has a cast-iron plate having brackets
which support the cylinder front bearing, and double fire doors below
for the furnace and the ash pit. The movable part of the roaster is
hidden by the front head, a heavy casting which stands still except when
moved by hand through a half-turn for feeding and discharging.
The cylinder is driven by gears at the back, revolving constantly at
uniform speed. The inside of the cylinder is arranged with
reverse-spiral flanges which mix the coffee perfectly and make uneven
roasting impossible; and they discharge promptly every grain of coffee
when the front-head opening is turned to the lower position. The roaster
is generally operated with coal fuel, but can be used with gas by
installing a suitable burner under the cylinder.
[Illustration: OPEN PERFORATED CYLINDER WITH FLEXIBLE BACK HEAD]
COST CARD FOR ROASTERS
_Showing the value added to the cost of green coffee by
roasting_
By A.C. Aborn
BASIS: 16 percent Shrinkage.
3/4 cent a pound for Roasting.
Cost Green, Cost Roasted,
Cents per Lb. Cents per Lb.
5 6.85
5-1/8 6.99
5-1/4 7.14
5-3/8 7.29
5-1/2 7.44
5-5/8 7.59
5-3/4 7.74
5-7/8 7.89
6 8.04
6-1/8 8.19
6-1/4 8.33
6-3/8 8.48
6-1/2 8.63
6-5/8 8.78
6-3/4 8.93
6-7/8 9.08
7 9.23
7-1/8 9.37
7-1/4 9.52
7-3/8 9.67
7-1/2 9.82
7-5/8 9.97
7-3/4 10.12
7-7/8 10.27
8 10.42
8-1/8 10.57
8-1/4 10.71
8-3/8 10.86
8-1/2 11.01
8-5/8 11.16
8-3/4 11.31
8-7/8 11.46
9 11.61
9-1/8 11.76
9-1/4 11.90
9-3/8 12.05
9-1/2 12.20
9-5/8 12.35
9-3/4 12.50
9-7/8 12.65
10 12.80
10-1/8 12.95
10-1/4 13.10
10-3/8 13.24
10-1/2 13.39
10-5/8 13.54
10-3/4 13.69
10-7/8 13.84
11 13.99
11-1/8 14.14
11-1/4 14.29
11-3/8 14.43
11-1/2 14.58
11-5/8 14.73
11-3/4 14.88
11-7/8 15.03
12 15.18
12-1/8 15.33
12-1/4 15.48
12-3/8 15.63
12-1/2 15.77
12-5/8 15.92
12-3/4 16.07
12-7/8 16.22
13 16.37
13-1/8 16.52
13-1/4 16.67
13-3/8 16.82
13-1/2 16.97
13-5/8 17.11
13-3/4 17.26
13-7/8 17.41
14 17.56
14-1/8 17.71
14-1/4 17.86
14-3/8 18.01
14-1/2 18.15
14-5/8 18.30
14-3/4 18.45
14-7/8 18.60
15 18.75
15-1/8 18.90
15-1/4 19.05
15-3/8 19.20
15-1/2 19.35
15-5/8 19.49
15-3/4 19.64
15-7/8 19.79
16 19.94
16-1/8 20.09
16-1/4 20.24
16-3/8 20.39
16-1/2 20.54
16-5/8 20.68
16-3/4 20.83
16-7/8 20.98
17 21.13
17-1/8 21.28
17-1/4 21.43
17-3/8 21.58
17-1/2 21.73
17-5/8 21.87
17-3/4 22.02
17-7/8 22.17
18 22.32
18-1/8 22.47
18-1/4 22.62
18-3/8 22.77
18-1/2 22.92
18-5/8 23.07
18-3/4 23.21
18-7/8 23.36
19 23.51
19-1/8 23.66
19-1/4 23.81
19-3/8 23.96
19-1/2 24.11
19-5/8 24.26
19-3/4 24.40
19-7/8 24.55
20 24.70
20-1/8 24.85
20-1/4 25.00
20-3/8 25.15
20-1/2 25.30
20-5/8 25.45
20-3/4 25.60
20-7/8 25.75
21 25.89
21-1/8 26.04
21-1/4 26.19
21-3/8 26.34
21-1/2 26.49
21-5/8 26.64
21-3/4 26.79
21-7/8 26.93
22 27.08
22-1/8 27.23
22-1/4 27.38
22-3/8 27.53
22-1/2 27.68
22-5/8 27.83
22-3/4 27.98
22-7/8 28.13
23 28.27
23-1/8 28.42
23-1/4 28.57
23-3/8 28.72
23-1/2 28.87
23-5/8 29.02
23-3/4 29.17
23-7/8 29.32
24 29.46
24-1/8 29.61
24-1/4 29.76
24-3/8 29.91
24-1/2 30.06
24-5/8 30.21
24-3/4 30.36
24-7/8 30.51
25 30.65
25-1/8 30.80
25-1/4 30.95
25-3/8 31.10
25-1/2 31.25
25-5/8 31.40
25-3/4 31.55
25-7/8 31.70
26 31.85
26-1/8 31.99
26-1/4 32.14
26-3/8 32.29
26-1/2 32.44
26-5/8 32.59
26-3/4 32.74
26-7/8 32.89
27 33.04
27-1/8 33.18
27-1/4 33.33
27-3/8 33.48
27-1/2 33.63
27-5/8 33.78
27-3/4 33.93
27-7/8 34.08
28 34.23
28-1/8 34.38
28-1/4 34.52
28-3/8 34.67
28-1/2 34.82
28-5/8 34.97
28-3/4 35.12
28-7/8 35.27
29 35.42
29-1/8 35.57
29-1/4 35.71
29-3/8 35.86
29-1/2 36.01
29-5/8 36.16
29-3/4 36.31
29-7/8 36.46
30 36.61
30-1/8 36.76
30-1/4 36.90
30-3/8 37.05
30-1/2 37.20
30-5/8 37.35
30-3/4 37.50
30-7/8 37.65
31 37.80
31-1/8 37.95
31-1/4 38.10
31-3/8 38.24
31-1/2 38.39
31-5/8 38.54
31-3/4 38.69
31-7/8 38.84
32 38.90
32-1/8 39.14
32-1/4 39.29
32-3/8 39.43
32-1/2 39.58
32-5/8 39.73
32-3/4 39.88
32-7/8 40.03
FACTORY PREPARATION
A GREEN COFFEE SHRINKAGE TABLE
_Showing shrinkage in roasting of raw coffee in quantities from sixty
pounds up to three hundred pounds, and at six different shrinkage
percentages_
Compiled by R.C. Wilhelm, New York
RAW 12% 13% 14% 15% 16% 17%
60 52-3/4 52-1/4 51-1/2 51 50-1/2 49-3/4
61 53-3/4 53 52-1/2 51-3/4 51-1/4 50-3/4
62 54-1/2 54 53-1/4 52-1/4 52 51-1/2
63 55-1/2 54-3/4 54 53-1/2 53 52-1/4
64 56-1/4 55-3/4 55 54-1/2 53-3/4 53
65 57-1/4 56-1/2 56 55-1/4 54-1/2 54
66 58 57-1/2 56-3/4 56 55-1/2 54-3/4
67 59 58-1/4 57-3/4 57 56-1/4 55-1/2
68 59-3/4 59-1/4 58-1/2 57-3/4 57 56-1/2
69 60-3/4 60 59-1/4 58-3/4 58 57-1/4
70 61-1/2 61 60-1/4 59-1/2 58-3/4 58
71 62-1/2 61-3/4 61 60-1/4 59-3/4 59
72 63-1/4 62-3/4 62 61 60-1/2 59-3/4
73 64-1/4 63-1/2 62-3/4 62 61-1/4 60-1/2
74 65 64-1/2 63-3/4 63 62-1/4 61-1/2
75 66 65-1/4 64-1/2 63-3/4 63 62-1/4
76 67 66 65-1/4 64-1/2 63-3/4 63
77 67-3/4 67 66-1/4 65-1/2 64-3/4 64
78 68-3/4 68 67 66-1/4 65-1/2 64-3/4
79 69-1/2 68-3/4 68 67-1/4 66-1/2 65-3/4
80 70-1/2 69-3/4 68-3/4 68 67-1/4 66-1/2
81 71-1/4 70-1/2 69-3/4 69 68 67-1/4
82 72-1/4 71-1/2 70-1/2 69-3/4 69 68
83 73 72-1/4 71-1/2 70-1/2 69-3/4 69
84 74 73-1/4 72-1/4 71-1/2 70-1/2 69-3/4
85 74-3/4 74 73-1/4 72-1/4 71-1/4 70-1/2
86 75-3/4 74-3/4 74 73-1/4 72-1/4 71-1/4
87 76-1/2 75-3/4 75 74 73-1/4 72-1/4
88 77-1/2 76-1/2 75-3/4 74-3/4 73-3/4 73
89 78-1/2 77-1/2 76-1/2 75-3/4 74-3/4 74
90 79-1/4 78-1/4 77-1/2 76-1/2 75-3/4 75
91 80-1/2 79-1/4 78-1/4 77-1/2 76-1/2 75-1/2
92 81 80 79-1/4 78-1/4 77-1/4 76-1/2
93 82 81 80 79 78-1/4 77-1/4
94 82-3/4 81-3/4 80-3/4 80 79 78
95 83-3/4 82-3/4 81-3/4 80-3/4 79-3/4 79
96 84-1/2 83-1/2 82-1/2 81-3/4 80-3/4 79-3/4
97 85-1/2 84-1/2 83-1/2 82-1/2 81-1/2 80-1/2
98 86-1/4 85-1/4 84-1/4 83-1/4 82-1/2 81-1/2
99 87-1/4 86-1/4 85-1/4 84-1/4 83-1/4 82-1/4
100 88 87 86 85 84 83
101 89 87-1/2 86-1/2 85-1/2 84-1/2 83-1/2
102 89-3/4 88-3/4 87-3/4 86-3/4 85-3/4 84-3/4
103 90-3/4 89-3/4 88-3/4 87-1/2 86-1/2 85-1/2
104 91-1/2 90-1/2 89-1/2 88-1/2 87-1/2 86-1/2
105 92-1/2 91-1/2 90-1/4 89-1/4 88-1/4 87-1/4
106 93-1/4 92-1/4 91-1/4 90-1/4 89 88
107 94-1/4 93-1/4 92 91 90 88-3/4
108 95 94 93 91-3/4 90-3/4 89-3/4
109 96 95 93-3/4 92-3/4 91-1/2 90-1/2
110 96-3/4 95-3/4 94-3/4 93-1/2 92-1/2 91-3/4
111 97-3/4 96-3/4 95-1/2 94-1/2 93-1/4 92-1/4
112 98-1/2 97-1/2 96-1/2 95-1/4 94-1/4 93
113 99-1/2 98-1/4 97-1/4 96 95 93-3/4
114 100-1/2 99-1/4 98 97 95-3/4 94-3/4
115 101-1/4 100-1/2 99 97-3/4 96-3/4 95-1/2
116 102 101 99-3/4 98-1/2 97-1/2 96-1/4
117 103 101-3/4 100-1/2 99-1/2 98-1/4 97
118 103-3/4 102-1/2 101-1/2 100-1/4 99 98
119 104-3/4 103-1/2 102-1/4 101 100 98-3/4
120 105-1/2 104-1/2 103 102 101 99-1/2
121 106-1/2 105-1/4 104 102-3/4 101-1/2 100-1/2
122 107-1/2 106 105 103-1/2 102-1/2 101-1/2
123 108-1/4 107 105-3/4 104-1/2 103-1/4 102
124 109 108 106-1/2 105-1/2 104 103
125 110 108-3/4 107-1/2 106-1/4 105 103-3/4
126 111 109-1/2 108 107 106 104-1/2
127 111-3/4 110-1/2 109-1/4 108 106-3/4 105-1/2
128 112-1/2 111-1/2 110 109 107-1/2 106
129 113-1/2 112-1/4 111 109-3/4 108-1/4 107
130 114-1/2 113 112 110-1/2 109 108
131 115-1/4 114 112-3/4 111-1/4 110 108-3/4
132 116 115 113-1/2 112 111 109-1/2
133 117 115-3/4 114-1/4 113 111-3/4 110-1/4
134 118 116-1/2 115-1/2 114 112-1/2 111
135 118-3/4 117-1/2 116 114-3/4 113-1/4 112
136 119-1/2 118-1/2 117 115-1/2 114 113
137 120-1/2 119-1/4 117-3/4 116-1/2 115 113-3/4
138 121-1/2 120 118-1/2 117-1/2 116 114-1/2
139 122-1/4 121 119-1/2 118-1/4 116-3/4 115-1/4
140 123-1/4 121-3/4 120-1/2 119 117-1/2 116-1/4
141 124 122-3/4 121-1/4 119-3/4 118-1/2 117
142 125 123-1/2 122 120-3/4 119-1/4 117-3/4
143 125-3/4 124-1/2 123 121-1/2 120 118-3/4
144 126-3/4 125-1/4 123-3/4 122-1/2 121 119-1/2
145 127-1/2 126-1/4 124-3/4 123-1/4 121-3/4 120-1/4
146 128-1/2 127 125-1/2 124 122-3/4 121-1/4
147 129-1/4 128 126-1/2 125 123-1/2 122
148 130-1/4 128-3/4 127-1/4 125-3/4 124-1/4 122-3/4
149 131 129-3/4 128-1/4 126-3/4 125-1/4 123-3/4
150 132 130-1/2 129 127-1/2 126 124-1/2
151 133 131-1/4 129-3/4 128-1/4 126-3/4 125-1/4
152 133-3/4 132-1/4 130-3/4 129-1/4 127-3/4 126-1/4
153 134-3/4 133 131-1/2 130 128-1/2 127
154 135-1/2 134 132-1/2 131 129-1/4 127-3/4
155 136-1/2 134-3/4 133-1/4 131-3/4 130-1/4 128-3/4
156 137-1/4 135-3/4 134-1/4 132-1/2 131 129-1/2
157 138-1/4 136-1/2 135 133-1/2 132 130-1/4
158 139 137-1/2 136 134-1/4 132-3/4 131-1/4
159 140 138-1/4 136-3/4 135-1/4 133-1/2 132
160 140-3/4 139-1/4 137-1/2 136 134-1/2 132-3/4
161 141-3/4 140 138-1/2 136-3/4 135-1/4 133-3/4
162 142-1/2 141 139-1/4 137-3/4 136 134-1/2
163 143-1/2 141-3/4 140-1/4 138-1/2 137 135-1/4
164 144-1/4 142-3/4 141 139-1/2 137-3/4 136
165 145-1/4 143-1/2 142 140-1/4 138-1/2 137
166 146 144-1/2 142-3/4 141 139-1/2 137-3/4
167 147 145-1/4 143-1/2 142 140-1/4 138-1/2
168 147-3/4 146-1/4 144-1/2 142-3/4 141 139-1/2
169 148-3/4 147 145-1/4 143-3/4 142 140-1/4
170 149-1/2 148 146-1/4 144-1/2 142-1/4 141
171 150-1/2 148-3/4 147 145-1/4 143-3/4 142
172 151-1/4 149-3/4 148 146-1/4 144-1/2 142-3/4
173 152-1/4 150-1/2 148-3/4 147 145-1/4 143-1/2
174 153 151-1/2 149-3/4 148 146-1/4 144-1/2
175 154 152-1/4 150-1/2 148-3/4 147 145-1/4
176 155 153 151-1/4 149-1/2 147-3/4 146
177 155-3/4 154 152-1/4 150-1/2 148-3/4 147
178 156-3/4 154-3/4 153 151-1/4 149-1/2 147-3/4
179 157-1/2 155-3/4 154 152-1/4 150-1/4 148-1/2
180 158-1/2 156-1/2 154-3/4 153 151-1/4 149-1/2
181 159-1/4 157-1/2 155-3/4 153-3/4 152 150-1/4
182 160-1/4 158-1/4 156-1/2 154-3/4 153 151
183 161 159-1/4 157-1/2 155-1/2 153-3/4 152
184 162 160 158-1/4 156-1/2 154-1/2 152-3/4
185 162-3/4 161 159 157-1/4 155-1/2 153-1/2
186 163-3/4 161-3/4 160 158 156-1/4 154-1/2
187 164-1/2 162-3/4 160-3/4 159 157 155-1/4
188 165-1/2 163-1/2 161-3/4 160 158 156
189 166-1/4 164-1/2 162-1/2 160-3/4 156-3/4 156-3/4
190 167-1/4 165-1/4 163-1/2 161-1/2 159-1/2 157-3/4
191 168 166-1/4 164-1/4 162-1/4 160-1/2 158-1/2
192 169 167 165 163-1/4 161-1/4 159-1/4
193 169-3/4 168 166 164 162 160-1/4
194 170-3/4 168-3/4 166-3/4 165 163 161
195 171-1/2 169-3/4 167-3/4 165-3/4 163-3/4 161-3/4
196 172-1/2 170-1/2 168-1/2 166-1/2 164-3/4 162-3/4
197 173-1/4 171-1/2 169-1/2 167-1/2 165-1/2 163-1/2
198 174-1/4 172-1/4 170-1/4 168-1/4 166-1/4 164-1/4
199 175 173-1/4 171-1/4 169-1/4 167-1/4 165-1/4
200 176 174 172 170 168 166
201 177 174-3/4 173 170-3/4 168-3/4 166-3/4
202 177-3/4 175-3/4 173-3/4 171-3/4 169-3/4 167-3/4
203 178-3/4 176-1/2 174-1/2 172-1/2 170-1/2 168-1/2
204 179-1/2 177-1/2 175-1/2 173-1/2 171-1/4 169-1/4
205 180-1/2 178-1/4 176-1/4 174-1/4 172-1/4 170-1/4
206 181-1/4 179-1/4 177-1/4 175 173 171
207 182-1/4 180 178 176 174 171-3/4
208 183 181 179 176-3/4 174-3/4 172-3/4
209 184 181-3/4 179-3/4 177-3/4 175-1/2 173-1/2
210 184-3/4 182-3/4 180-1/2 178-1/2 176-1/2 174-1/4
211 185-3/4 183-1/2 181-1/2 179-1/4 177-1/4 175-1/4
212 186-1/2 184-1/2 182-1/4 180-1/4 178 176
213 187-1/2 185-1/4 183-1/4 181 179 176-3/4
214 188-1/4 186-1/4 184 182 179-3/4 177-1/2
215 189-1/4 187 185 182-3/4 180-1/2 178-1/2
216 190 188 185-3/4 183-1/2 181-1/2 179-1/4
217 191 188-3/4 186-1/2 184-1/2 182-1/4 180
218 191-3/4 189-3/4 187-1/2 185-1/4 183 181
219 192-3/4 190-1/2 188-1/4 186-1/4 184 181-3/4
220 193-1/2 191-1/2 189-1/4 187 184-3/4 182-1/2
221 194-1/2 192-1/4 190 187-3/4 185-3/4 183-1/2
222 195-1/4 193-1/4 191 188-3/4 186-1/2 184-1/4
223 196-1/4 194 191-3/4 189-1/2 187-1/4 185
224 197 195 192-3/4 190-1/2 188-1/4 186
225 198 195-3/4 193-1/2 191-1/4 189 186-3/4
226 199 196-1/2 194-1/4 192 189-3/4 187-1/2
227 199-3/4 197-1/2 195-1/4 193 190-3/4 188-1/2
228 200-3/4 198-1/4 196 193-3/4 191-1/2 189-1/4
229 201-1/2 199-1/4 197 194-3/4 192-1/4 190
230 202-1/2 200 198 195-1/2 193-1/2 191
231 203-1/4 201 198-3/4 196-1/2 194-1/4 192
232 204 202 199-1/2 197 195 192-1/2
233 205 202-3/4 200-1/4 198 195-3/4 193-1/4
234 206 203-1/2 201 199 196-1/2 194
235 206-3/4 204-1/2 202 199-3/4 197-1/2 195
236 207-1/2 205 203 200-1/2 198 196
237 208-1/2 206-1/4 203-3/4 201-1/2 199 196-3/4
238 209-1/2 207 204-1/2 202-1/4 200 197-1/2
239 210-1/4 208 205-1/2 203-1/4 200-3/4 198-1/4
240 211 208-3/4 206-1/4 204 201-1/2 199
241 212 209-3/4 207-1/4 204-3/4 202-1/2 200
242 213 210-1/2 208 205-3/4 203 201
243 213-3/4 211-1/2 209 206-1/2 204 201-3/4
244 214-3/4 212-1/4 210 207-1/4 205 202-1/2
245 215-1/2 213 210-3/4 208-1/4 205-3/4 203-1/4
246 216-1/2 214 211-1/2 209 206-1/2 204
247 217-1/4 215 212-1/2 210 207-1/2 205
248 218 216 213 211 208 206
249 219 216-3/4 214-1/2 211-1/2 209-1/4 207
250 220 217-1/2 215 212-1/2 210 207-1/2
251 221 218-1/4 215-3/4 213-1/4 210-3/4 208-1/4
252 222 219 216-3/4 214 212 209
253 222-1/2 220 217-1/2 215 212-1/2 210
254 223-1/2 221 218-1/2 216 213-1/4 211
255 224-1/4 222 219-3/4 216-3/4 214-1/4 211-1/2
256 225 223 220 218 215 212
257 226 223-3/4 221 218-3/4 216 213
258 227 224-1/2 222 219-1/2 216-3/4 214
259 228 225-1/4 222-3/4 220-1/4 217-1/2 215
260 229 226 224 221 218 216
261 229-3/4 227 225 222 219 216-3/4
262 230-1/2 228 225-1/2 222-3/4 220 217-1/2
263 231-1/2 229 226-1/4 223-1/2 221 218-1/4
264 232 230 227 224 222 219
265 233 230-3/4 228 225 222-3/4 220
266 234 231-1/2 228-3/4 226 223-1/2 220-3/4
267 235 232-1/4 229-1/2 227 224-1/4 221-1/2
268 236 233 230-1/2 228 225 222
269 236-3/4 234 231-1/4 228-1/2 226 223-1/4
270 237-1/2 235 232 229-1/2 226-3/4 224
271 238-1/2 235-3/4 233 230-1/4 227-1/2 225
272 239 237 234 231 228 226
273 240 237-3/4 234-3/4 232 229 226-3/4
274 241 238-1/2 235-1/2 233 230 227-1/2
275 242 239-1/4 236-1/2 233-3/4 231 228-1/4
276 243 240 237-1/4 234-1/2 232 229
277 243-3/4 241 238-1/4 235-1/2 232-3/4 230
278 244-1/2 242 239 236-1/2 233-1/2 230-3/4
279 245-1/2 243 240 237 234-1/2 231-1/2
280 246-1/2 243-3/4 241 238 235-1/4 232-1/2
281 247-1/4 244-1/2 241-3/4 238-3/4 236 233-1/4
282 248 245-1/2 242-1/2 239-1/2 237 234
283 249 246-1/4 243-1/4 240-1/2 237-3/4 235
284 250 247 244 241-1/2 238-1/2 235-3/4
285 250-3/4 248 245 242-1/4 239-1/4 236-1/2
286 251-1/2 249 246 243 240 237-1/2
287 252-1/2 249-3/4 246-3/4 244 241 238-1/4
288 253-1/2 250-1/2 247-1/2 245 242 239
289 254-1/4 251-1/2 248-1/2 245-3/4 242-3/4 239-3/4
290 255 252-1/2 249-1/2 246-1/2 243-1/2 240-3/4
291 256 253-1/4 250-1/4 247-1/4 244-1/2 241-1/2
292 257 254 251 248 245-1/2 242-1/2
293 257-3/4 255 252 249 246-1/4 243-1/4
294 258-1/2 256 253 250 247 244
295 259-1/2 256-3/4 253-3/4 250-3/4 247-3/4 244-3/4
296 260-1/2 257-1/2 254-1/2 251-1/2 248-1/2 245-1/2
297 261-1/4 258-1/2 255-1/2 252-1/2 249-1/2 246-1/2
298 262 259-1/4 256-1/2 253-1/2 250-1/2 247-1/2
299 263 260 257-1/4 254-1/4 251-1/4 248-1/4
[Illustration: TRYING THE ROAST]
_Cooling and Stoning_
"Coffee which leaves the roaster beautifully uniform in appearance",
says A.L. Burns, "may lose all uniformity by delayed or inadequate
cooling. Separated beans of coffee will cool off by themselves; but when
heaped together, the inner part of the mass will get hotter and even
take fire.... Coffee must be spread over a considerable surface, or all
kept moving, and have at the same time a lot of air forced through it.
Otherwise, there will be some darkening and over-development of part of
the coffee, and a loss of the uniformity which is the first requirement
of good roasting."
[Illustration: MONITOR GAS ROASTER]
[Illustration: A GROUP OF ROASTING-ROOM ACCESSORIES]
The cooling apparatus consists of a movable, box-like metal car which
can be brought up to the front of the roaster to the revolving
cylinders. The car has a perforated false bottom, to which is attached a
powerful exhaust-fan system that sucks the heat out of the coffee. In
large plants, utilizing two or more floors, the tilting-type cooling
car is favored. This car permits instant discharge through an opening in
the floor into a receiving tank suspended from the ceiling below and
connected with the stoning apparatus. Recently, a flexible-arm cooler
has been invented that provides full fan suction to a cooler car at all
points in its track travel from the roaster to the emptying position.
[Illustration: DUMPING THE ROAST IN A COAL ROASTING PLANT
The roasted coffee is being turned into the cooling car, equipped with a
swinging "flexarm" that keeps it always in connection with a suspended
header pipe; the cooling being started as soon as the coffee leaves the
roaster. The cooled coffee, by tipping the box, goes into a floor
hopper]
The stoner, an essential part of the modern roasting plant, has for its
function the removal of stones and other foreign matter of which the
green-coffee operations have failed to get rid. The stoner is usually
built in direct combination with the cooling equipment, and does its
work by means of a gravity separation in an upward-moving column of air.
The coffee passes into the suction boot of the stoner, either directly
from the cooler box or from a floor hopper into which the cooler dumps,
and is carried up the stoner pipe, or "riser", by an air current of
ample power which can be accurately regulated. This insures the carrying
up of coffee only, the stones remaining at the bottom of the machine and
being dumped at intervals into a pan underneath. The coffee, passing up
the riser pipe, is delivered into a large "stoner hopper" which is
usually hung to the ceiling of the roasting room. The correct
construction of this hopper is of great importance, as the coffee must
be deposited completely without breakage, and the air must pass on
through the suction fan carrying nothing except bits of loose chaff.
A different type of cooler is in the form of an upright cylinder,
consisting of two metal perforated drums, one set within the other. The
inner drum is sufficiently small to allow the coffee to move freely
between the drums. Inside the smaller one is an exhaust pipe which draws
the heat and chaff out of the coffee. This device is recommended for use
only in connection with wet roasted coffee.
Still another type consists of a single perforated cylinder set
horizontal with the floor, and revolving alongside of an exhaust box
which sucks out the heat and chaff as the coffee is tumbled about in the
cylinder. A rocking type, that is not generally employed, is constructed
on the principle of the screen used by housebuilders to separate coarse
sand from the fine, and is pivoted at the middle so that it can be
rocked end to end.
[Illustration: A FOUR-BAG COFFEE FINISHER]
_Finishing or Glazing_
Finishing whole-bean roasted coffee, by giving it a friction polish
while it is still moist, using a glaze solution or water only, is a
practise not harmful if the proper solutions are employed. Roasted
coffee dulls in ordinary handling, and it is claimed that coating not
only improves its appearance, but serves also to preserve the natural
flavor and aroma of the bean. A machine having flat-sided wooden
cylinders with ventilated heads, and operated two-thirds full of coffee
so as to get an effective rolling motion, is generally employed.
Coatings composed of sugar and eggs are popular, but their use should be
stated on the label.
Coffee roasters are divided on this question of coffee-coating. The best
thought of the trade is undoubtedly opposed to the practise when it is
done to conceal inferiority or abnormally to reduce shrinkage. Some New
York coffee roasters, who made a thorough investigation of the matter,
found coating coffee with a wholesome material not injurious and the
coated coffee better in the cup. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley found, in the
celebrated Ohio case against Arbuckle Brothers, that coating coffee with
sugar and eggs produced beneficial results, and that the coating
preserved the bean. The Bureau of Chemistry has never issued any ruling
on the subject of coating coffee.
_Blending Roasted Coffee_
After cooling and stoning, unless it is to be polished or glazed, the
coffee is ready for grinding and packing if it has been blended in the
green state. Otherwise, the next step will be to mix the different
varieties before grinding, although some packers blend the different
kinds after they have been ground. To mix whole-bean roasted coffee
without hurting its appearance is rather difficult, and there is no
regular machine for such work.
[Illustration: BURNS SAMPLE-COFFEE ROASTER]
Rarely is a single kind of coffee drunk straight. The common practise in
all countries is to mix different varieties having opposing
characteristics so as to obtain a smoother beverage. This is called
blending, a process that has attained the standing of an art in the
United States. Most package coffees are blends. In addition to other
qualities, the practical coffee blender must have a natural aptitude for
the work. He must also have long experience before he becomes
proficient, and must be acquainted with the different properties of all
the coffees grown, or at least of those that come to his market.
Furthermore, he must know the variations in characteristics of current
crops; for in most coffees no two crops are equal in trade values.
Innumerable blends are possible with more than a hundred different
coffees to draw upon.
A blend may consist of two or more kinds of coffee, but the general
practise is to employ several kinds; so that, if at any time one can not
be obtained, its absence from the blend will not be so noticeable as
would be the case if only two or three kinds were used.
In blending coffees, consideration is given first to the shades of
flavor in the cup and next to price. The blender describes flavors as,
acidy, bitter, smooth, neutral, flat, wild, grassy, groundy, sour,
fermented, and hidey; and he mixes the coffees accordingly to obtain the
desired taste in the cup. Naturally the wild, sour, groundy, fermented,
and hidey kinds are avoided as much as possible. Coffees with a Rio
flavor are used only in the cheaper blends.
Generally speaking, a properly balanced blend should have a full rich
body as a basis; and to this should be added a growth to give it some
acid character, and one to give it increased aroma.
Personal preference is the determining factor in making up a blend. Some
blenders prefer a coffee with plenty of acid taste; while others choose
the non-acid cup. For the first-named kind, the blender will mix
together the coffees that have an acidy characteristic; while for a
non-acidy blend, he will mix an acidy growth with one having a neutral
flavor.
[Illustration: LAMBERT ECONOMIC COFFEE-ROASTING OUTFIT FOR COAL FIRE
This is a self-contained plant for one or two bags, and comprises a
roaster, rotary cooler, elevator feed hopper, electric motor, and
stoning and chaffing attachments. It may be equipped for gas]
Coffees can be divided into four great classes, the neutral-flavored,
the sweet, the acidy, and the bitter. All East Indian coffees, except
Ceylons, Malabars, and the other Hindoostan growths, are classified as
bitter, as are old brown Bucaramangas, brown Bogotas, and brown Santos.
The acid coffees are generally the new-crop washed varieties of the
western hemisphere, such as Mexicans, Costa Ricas, Bogotas, Caracas,
Guatemalas, Santos, etc. However, the acidity may be toned down by age
so that they become sweet or sweet-bitter. Red Santos is generally a
sweet coffee, and is prized by blenders. High-grade washed Santo Domingo
and Haiti coffees are sweet both when new crop and when aged.
Practical coffee blenders do not mix two new-crop acid coffees, or two
old-crop bitter kinds, unless their bitterness or acidity is
counteracted by coffees with opposite flavors. One blender insists that
every blend should contain three coffees.
[Illustration: CHALLENGE PULVERIZER]
Some Bourbon and flat-beaned Santos coffees are better when new, and
some are better when old; but a blend of fine old-crop coffee with a
snappy new-crop coffee gives a better result than either separately. A
new-crop Bourbon and an old yellow flat bean make a better blend than a
new-crop flat bean and an old-crop Bourbon. Probably the very best
result in a low-priced blend may be obtained by using one-half old-crop
Bourbon Santos with one-half new-crop Haiti or Santo Domingo of the
cheaper grades.
Typical low-priced coffee blends in the United States may be made up of
a good Santos, possibly a Bourbon, and some low-cost Mexican, Central
American, Colombian, or Venezuelan coffee, the Santos counteracting
these acidy Milds.
Going next higher in the scale of price, fancy old Bourbon Santos is
used with one-third fancy old Cucuta or a good Trujillo.
For a blend costing about five cents more a pound retail, one-third
fancy old Cucuta or Merida is blended with fancy old Bourbon Santos.
[Illustration: MONITOR COFFEE-GRANULATING MACHINE]
The highest-priced blend may contain two-thirds of a fine private estate
Sumatra and one-third Mocha or Longberry Harari.
[Illustration: COLES NO. 22 GRINDING MILL]
Alfred W. McCann, while advertising manager for Francis H. Leggett &
Co., New York, in 1910, evolved a new coffee distinction based on the
argument that certain coffees like Mochas, Mexicans, Bourbons, and Costa
Ricas were developed in the cup through the action on them of cream or
milk; while others, such as Bogotas, Javas, Maracaibos, etc., flattened
out when cream or milk was added. He argued, accordingly, that breakfast
coffees should be made up from the former, but that the latter should
not be used except for after-dinner coffees, to be drunk black.[328]
William B. Harris, then coffee expert for the United States Department
of Agriculture, took issue with Mr. McCann, claiming that if a coffee is
watery and lacks body, it will not take kindly to milk or cream, not
because the chemical action of milk or cream flattens it out, but
because there is nothing there in the first place. The strength of the
brew being equal, all coffees will take cream or milk, Mr. Harris
held.[329]
[Illustration: BURNS NO. 12 GRINDING MILL
Designed for hotel and restaurant trade]
[Illustration: MONITOR STEEL-CUT GRINDER, SEPARATOR, AND CHAFFER]
M.J. McGarty said in 1915 that he had tried out many coffees in the cup,
and could not see that adding milk made any difference. However, he
found that sometimes a line of coffees will contain a sample that
flattens out at the drinking point (the point where the boiling water
has cooled to permit of its being drunk); and he thought this was what
Mr. McCann had in mind, as, by adding milk to such a coffee, it was
brought back to the drinking point. In other words, it was Mr. McGarty's
opinion that, in blending coffees, those coffees which hold their own
from the start, or boiling point, until they become cold, or even
improve right through, are more desirable for blending purposes; and
that those that are best at the drinking point should be given the
preference.[330]
_Coffee Blends for Restaurants_
William B. Harris[331] believes that the coffee of prime importance in
preparing restaurant blends is Bogota. He advises the use of a
full-bodied Bogota and an acid Bourbon Santos in the proportion of
three-fourths Bogota to one-fourth Santos. Blends may also be made up
from combinations of Bogota, Mexicans, and Guatemalas.
According to Mr. Harris, the average blend of good coffee when made up,
two and one-half pounds of coffee to five gallons of water, will produce
a liquor of good color and strength. For many hotels, however, this may
not answer, as it is not heavy enough. More coffee must then be used, or
ten percent of chicory added. A blend with chicory can be made by using
two-thirds Bogota, one-third Bourbon Santos, and ten percent chicory.
No steward, hotel man, or restaurant man should, however, advertise
"coffee" on his menu, and then serve a drink employing chicory; because,
while there is no federal law against such a practise, there are state
laws against it. Chicory is all right in its place; and many prefer a
drink made from coffee and chicory; but such a drink can not properly be
called coffee.
Hotel men should purchase their coffee in the bean, and do their own
grinding. Then they need never have cause to complain that their coffee
man deceived them, or that some salesman misled them. The hotel steward
wishing to furnish his patrons with a heavy-bodied coffee, particularly
a black after-dinner coffee, _without chicory_, will use three, four, or
even four and one-half pounds of ground coffee to five gallons of water.
With so wide a choice of coffees to choose from, a coffee blender can
make up many combinations to meet the demands of his trade. Probably no
two blenders use exactly the same varieties in exactly the same
proportions to make up a blend to sell at the same price. However, they
all follow the same general principles laid down in the foregoing flavor
classification of the world's coffees.
_Grinding and Packaging Coffee_
[Illustration: JOHNSON CARTON-FILLING, WEIGHING, AND SEALING MACHINE]
Unless the coffee is to be sold in the bean, it is sent to the grinding
and packing department, to be further prepared for the consumer. Since
the federal food law has been in effect, the public has gained
confidence in ground and bean coffee in packages; and today a large part
of the coffee consumed in the United States is sold in one and two pound
cartons and cans, already blended and ready for brewing.
[Illustration: THE IDEAL STEEL-CUT MILL]
A progressive coffee-packing house may have three different styles of
grinding machines; one called the granulator for turning out the
so-called "steel-cut" coffee; the second, a pulverizer for making a
really fine grind; and the third, a grinding mill for general factory
work and producing a medium-ground coffee.
Commercial coffee-grinding machines are alike in principle in all
countries, the beans being crushed or broken between toothed or
corrugated metal or stone members, one revolving and the other being
stationary. While all grinding machines are alike in principle, they may
vary in capacity and design. The average granulator will turn out about
five hundred pounds of "steel-cut" coffee in an hour; the pulverizer,
from seventy-five to two hundred pounds; and the average grinding mill
from five hundred to six hundred pounds. Some types of grinding machines
have chaff-removing attachments to remove, by air suction, the chaff
from the coffee as it is being ground.
A large number of trade terms for designating different grinds of coffee
are used in the United States, some of them meaning the same thing,
while similar names are sometimes contradictory. A canvass of the
leading American coffee packers in 1917[332] discovered that there were
fifteen terms in use, and that there were thirty-four different meanings
attached to them. For the term "fine" there were five different
definitions; "medium" had five; "coarse", seven; "pulverized", four;
"steel-cut", seven; "ground", two; "powdered", one; "percolator", two;
"steel-cut-chaff-removed", one; "Turkish ground", one; while
"granulated", "Greek ground", "extra fine", "standard", and "regular"
were not defined.
The term "steel-cut" is generally understood to mean that in the
grinding process the chaff has been removed and an approximate
uniformity of granules has been obtained by sifting. The term does not
necessarily mean that the grinding mills have steel burrs. In fact, most
firms employ burrs made of cast-iron or of a composition metal known as
"burr metal", because of its combined hardness and toughness.
The "steel-cut" idea is another of those sophistries for which American
advertising methods have been largely responsible in the development of
the package-coffee business in the United States. The term "steel-cut"
lost all its value as an advertising catchword for the original user
when every other dealer began to use it, no matter how the ground coffee
was produced. When the public has been taught that coffee should be
"steel-cut", it is hard to sell it ground coffee unless it is called
"steel-cut"; although a truer education of the consumer would have
caused him to insist on buying whole bean coffee to be ground at home.
[Illustration: SMYSER PACKAGE-MAKING-AND-FILLING MACHINE AT THE ARBUCKLE
PLANT, NEW YORK
This machine was invented by Henry E. Smyser of Philadelphia, who
secured the first patent in 1880, but it has been much improved by the
Arbuckle engineers. The half shown on the left makes the one-pound paper
bags complete, including the separate lining of parchment, fills the
bag, automatically inserts a premium list at the same time, packs it
down, seals it, and delivers it on a short conveyor to the other half
(shown on the right) where the package is wrapped in the outside
glassine paper and pushed out on a table for the girls to put into
shipping cases]
"Steel-cut" coffee, that is, a medium-ground coffee with the chaff blown
out, does not compare in cup test with coffee that has been more
scientifically ground and not given the chaff removal treatment that is
largely associated in the public mind with the idea of the steel-cut
process.
[Illustration: MACHINE FOR AUTOMATICALLY PACKING COFFEE IN CARTONS
Five distinct operations are performed by the units comprising this
Pneumatic installation, viz., carton-feeding, bottom-sealing, lining,
weighing and top-sealing]
According to the results of the trade canvass previously referred to, it
would appear that the terms most suited to convey the right idea of the
different grades of grinding, and likely to be acceptable to the
greatest number, would be "coarse" (for boiling, and including all the
coarser grades); "medium" (for coffee made in the ordinary pot,
including the so-called "steel-cut"); "fine" (like granulated sugar, and
used for percolators); "very fine" (like cornmeal, and used for drip or
filtration methods); "powdered" (like flour, and used for Turkish
coffee).
Coffee begins to lose its strength immediately after roasting, the rate
of loss increasing rapidly after grinding. In a test carried out by a
Michigan coffee packer,[333] it was discovered that a mixture of a very
fine with a coarse grind gives the best results in the cup. It was also
determined that coarse ground coffee loses its strength more rapidly
than the medium ground; while the latter deteriorates more quickly than
a fine ground; and so on, down the scale. His conclusions were that the
most satisfactory grind for putting into packages that are likely to
stand for some time before being consumed is a mixture consisting of
about ninety percent finely ground coffee and ten percent coarse. His
theory is that the fine grind supplies sufficiently high body
extraction; the coarse, the needful flavor and aroma. On this irregular
grind a United States patent (No. 14,520) has been granted, in which the
inventor claims that the ninety percent of fine eliminates the
interstices--that allow too free ventilation in a coarse ground
coffee--and consequently prevents the loss of the highly volatile
constituents of the ten percent of coarse-ground particles, and at the
same time gives a full-body extraction.
_Making and Filling Containers_
As stated before, a large proportion of the coffee sold in the United
States is put up into packages, ready for brewing. Such containers are
grouped under the name of the material of which they are made; such as
tin, fiber, cardboard, paper, wood, and combinations of these materials,
such as a fiber can with tin top and bottom. Generally, coffee
containers are lined with chemically treated paper or foil to keep in
the aroma and flavor, and to keep out moisture and contaminating odors.
As the package business grew in the United States, the machinery
manufacturers kept pace; until now there are machines that, in one
continuous operation, open up a "flat" paper carton, seal the bottom
fold, line the carton with a protecting paper, weigh the coffee as it
comes down from an overhead hopper into the carton, fold the top and
seal it, and then wrap the whole package in a waxed or paraffined
paper, delivering the package ready for shipment without having been
touched by a human hand from the first operation to the last. Such a
machine can put out fifteen to eighteen thousand packages a day.
Another type of machine automatically manufactures two and three-ply
paper cans such as are used widely for cereal packages. It winds the
ribbons of heavy paper in a spiral shape, automatically gluing the
papers together to make a can that will not permit its contents to leak
out. The machine turns out its product in long cylinders, like mailing
tubes, which are cut into the desired lengths to make the cans. The
paper or tin tops and bottoms are stamped out on a punch press.
Coffee cans are generally filled by hand; that is, the can is placed
under the spout of an automatic filling and weighing machine by an
operator who slips on the cover when the can is properly filled. The
weighing machine has a hopper which lets the coffee down into a device
that gauges the correct amount, say a pound or two pounds, and then
pours it into the can. The machine weighs the can and its contents, and
if they do not show the exact predetermined weight, the device
automatically operates to supply the necessary quantity. After weighing,
the can is carried on a traveling belt to the labeling machine, where
the label is automatically applied and glued. Then the can is put
through a drying compartment to make the label stick quickly.
[Illustration: COMPLETE COFFEE-CARTONING OUTFIT IN OPERATION
The girl is feeding the "flats" into an Improved Johnson bottom-sealer.
The carton travels to a Scott weigher on the right and thence to the
top-sealer on the left]
Paper bags are filled much the same way as the tin and the fiber cans.
In fact, some packers fill their paper and fiber cartons by the same
system; although the tendency among the largest companies is to instal
the complete automatic packaging equipment, because of its speed and
economy in packaging. Frequently, the weighing machines are used in
filling wooden and fiber drums holding twenty-five, fifty, and one
hundred pounds of coffee, to be sold in bulk to the retailer.
[Illustration: THREE TYPES OF AUTOMATIC COFFEE-WEIGHING MACHINES
Left--Duplex net weigher. Center--Pneumatic cross-weight machine.
Right--Scott net weigher]
_Coffee Additions and Fillers_
In all large coffee-consuming countries, coffee additions and fillers
have always been used. Large numbers of French, Italian, Dutch, and
German consumers insist on having chicory with their coffee, just as do
many Southerners in the United States.
The chief commercial reason for using coffee additions and fillers is to
keep down the cost of blends. For this purpose, chicory and many kinds
of cooked cereals are most generally used; while frequently roasted and
ground peas, beans, and other vegetables that will not impair the flavor
or aroma of the brew, are employed in foreign countries. Before
Parliament passed the Adulterant Act, some British coffee men used as
fillers cacao husks, acorns, figs, and lupins, in addition to chicory
and the other favorite fillers.
Up to the year 1907, when the United States Food and Drugs Act became
effective, chicory and cereal additions were widely used by coffee
packers and retailers in this country. With the enforcement of the law
requiring the label of a package to state when a filler is employed, the
use of additions gradually fell off in most sections.
In botanical description and chemical composition chicory, the most
favored addition, has no relationship with coffee. When roasted and
ground, it resembles coffee in appearance; but it has an entirely
different flavor. However, many coffee-drinkers prefer their beverage
when this alien flavor has been added to it.
_Treated Coffees and Dry Extracts_
The manufacture of prepared, or refined, coffees has become an important
branch of the business in the United States and Europe. Prepared coffees
can be divided into two general groups: treated coffees, from which the
caffein has been removed to some degree; and dry coffee extracts
(soluble coffee), which are readily dissolved in a cup of hot or cold
water.
To decaffeinate coffee, the most common practise is to make the green
beans soft by steaming under pressure, and then to apply benzol or
chloroform or alcohol to the softened coffee to dissolve and to extract
the caffein. Afterward, the extracting solvents are driven out of the
coffee by re-steaming. However, chemists have not yet been able to expel
all the caffein in treating coffee commercially, the best efforts
resulting in from 0.3 to 0.07 percent remaining. After treatment, the
coffee beans are then roasted, packed, and sold like ordinary coffee.
[Illustration: VACUUM DRUM DRIER
Vacuum drum drier, No. 1 size; diameter of drum, 12 inches; length, 20
inches; used for converting coffee extract and other liquids into dry
powder form. This is the smallest size, and was developed for drying
smaller quantities of liquids than could be handled economically in the
larger sizes. To provide accessibility of the interior for cleansing,
the outer casing may be moved back on the track of the bedplate (as
shown in the cut), so that free access may be had to the drum and
interior of the casing.
RAPID-CIRCULATION EVAPORATOR
Used to concentrate coffee extracts and other liquids. The tubes are
easily reached through the open door for cleansing. Interior of the
vapor body is reached through a manhole.
REAR VIEW OF DRUM DRIER
Vacuum drum dryer. No. 1 size; rear view, showing outer casing rolled
back from the drum.
CROSS-SECTION OF VACUUM DRIER
This shows the interior arrangement and principle of operation. The
drawing represents a larger size than the photograph, and while the
arrangement of some parts is slightly different, the principle of
operation is the same.
UNITS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE COFFEE]
In manufacturing dry coffee extract in the form of a powder that is
readily soluble in water, the general method is to extract the drinking
properties from ground roasted coffee by means of water, and to
evaporate the resulting liquid until only the coffee powder is left.
Several methods have been developed and patented to prevent the valuable
flavor elements from being evaporated with the water.
A typical dry-coffee-extract-making equipment consists of a battery of
percolators, or "leachers", a vacuum evaporating device, and a vacuum
drier. The leachers do not differ materially from the ordinary
restaurant percolators, a battery usually including from three to seven
units, each charge of water going through all the percolations. The
resulting heavy liquid then goes to the evaporator to be concentrated
into a thick liquor. The evaporator consists of a horizontal cylindrical
vapor compartment connected with an inclined cylindrical steam chest in
which are numerous tubes, or flues, that occupy almost the whole chest.
These tubes are heated by steam. The coffee liquor is passed through the
tubes at high speed and thrown with great force against a baffle plate
at the opening to the vapor chest. The vapor passes around the baffle
plate to a separator. The liquor drops to the lower part of the
steam-chest (which is free from tubes), and is ready to be drawn out for
the next process, the drying.
At this stage, the extract is a heavily concentrated syrup and is ready
to be converted into powder. This is done in the vacuum drier, which
consists of a hollow revolving drum surrounded by a tightly sealed
cast-iron casing. The drum is heated by steam injected into its
interior, and is revolved in a high vacuum. In operation, a coating of
coffee liquor is applied automatically, by means of a special device, to
the outside of the drum. The liquor is taken by gravity from the
reservoir containing the liquid supply and is forced upward by means of
a pump into the liquid supply pan, directly under the drum, with
sufficient pressure to cause the liquid to adhere to the drum, the
excess liquor overflowing from the pan into the reservoir. The coating
on the drum is controlled or regulated by a spreader. The heat and the
vacuum reduce the extract to a dry powder in less than one revolution of
the drum. As the drum completes three-quarters of a turn, a scraper
knife removes the coffee powder, which is delivered to a receiver below
the drum. Modern vacuum-drum driers have a capacity of from twenty-five
to five hundred pounds of dry soluble coffee per hour.
C.W. Trigg and W.A. Hamor were granted a patent in the United States in
1919 on a new process for making an aromatized coffee extract. In this
process, the caffeol of the coffee is volatilized and is then brought
into contact with an absorbing medium such as is used in the extraction
of perfumes. The absorbing medium is then treated with a solvent of the
caffeol, and the solution is separated from the petrolatum. Then the
coffee solution is concentrated to an extract by evaporation; after
which, the extract and the caffeol are combined into a soluble coffee.
Five additional patents were granted on this same process in 1921.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXVI
WHOLESALE MERCHANDISING OF COFFEE
_How coffees are sold at wholesale--The wholesale salesman's place
in merchandising--Some coffee costs analyzed--Handy coffee-selling
chart--Terms and credits--About package coffees--Various types of
coffee containers--Coffee package labels--Coffee package
economies--Practical grocer helps--Coffee sampling--Premium method
of sales promotion_
Coffee is sold at wholesale in the United States chiefly by about 4,000
wholesale grocers, who handle also many other items of food; and by
roasters, who make a specialty of preparing the green coffee for
consumption, and who feature either bulk or trade-marked package goods.
Much the largest proportion of the wholesale coffee trade today is made
up of roasted coffees, though some wholesalers still sell the green bean
to retail distributers who do their own roasting. Most of the roasted
coffee sold is ground; although in some parts of the United States there
is at present a growing consumer demand for coffee in the bean. Of the
coffee sold in trade-marked packages in 1919 in the United States, about
seventy-five percent was ground ready for brewing.
The larger wholesale houses generally confine their operations to the
section of the country in which they are located, but some of the
biggest coffee-packing firms seek national distribution. In both cases,
branch houses are usually established at strategic points to facilitate
the serving of retail customers with freshly roasted coffee at all
times.
In recent years, too, it has become a general practise for the home
offices, or main headquarters, to advertise their product in magazines,
newspapers, street cars, and by mail and on billboards; while the
branches solicit trade in their territories by means of traveling
salesmen, local newspaper advertisements, booklets, circulars, and
demonstrations at food shows.
_The Wholesale Salesman_
The traveling salesman is probably the most effective agency in securing
the retailer's orders for coffee. A good coffee salesman not only sells
coffee, but he teaches his customer how he can best build up and hold
his coffee trade. He acquaints the retailer with all the talking points
about the coffee he handles, how to feature it in store displays and
advertisements, how to stage demonstrations and to work up special
sales.
If he is a _good_ salesman, he does not permit the merchant to buy more
coffee than he can dispose of while it is still fresh. And he shows the
dealer the folly of handling too many brands of package coffees. If he
sells coffee in bulk, the efficient salesman has also a sound working
knowledge of blending principles, and is able to suggest the kinds of
coffee to blend to suit the particular requirements of each grocer's
trade. In short, he takes an intelligent interest in his customer's
business, and co-operates with him in building up a local coffee trade.
_Some Coffee Costs Analyzed_
In estimating the price at which he must sell his coffee to make a fair
profit, the wholesale coffee merchant has many items of expense to
consider. To the cost of the green coffee he must add: the cost of
transportation to his plant; the loss in shrinkage in roasting, which
ranges from fifteen to twenty percent; packaging costs, if he is a
packer; the items of expense in doing business, such as wages and
salaries, advertising, buying and selling, freight, express, warehouse
and cartage, postage and office supplies, telephone and telegraph,
credit and collection; and the fixed overhead charges for interest,
heat, light, power, insurance, taxes, repairs, equipment, depreciation,
losses from bad debts, and miscellaneous items.[334] The average loss
for bad debts among grocers in 1916 was 0.03 percent of the total sales,
according to the director of business research, Harvard University, who
estimated also that the common figure for credit and collection expense
was 0.06 percent. The total cost of doing business has been estimated as
ranging between twelve and twenty percent of the total annual sales, so
that a bag of green coffee costing $16 in New York or New Orleans costs
the coffee packer in the Middle West from $22.33 to $24.56, according to
the expense of carrying on his business.
_Terms and Credits_
Wholesale coffee trade contract terms and credits are not dissimilar
from those in other lines of commerce. The wholesaler helps the retailer
finance his business to the extent of granting him thirty to sixty days
in which to pay his bill, offering him a cash discount if the invoice is
paid within ten days of date of sale. Until recent years, these terms
were frequently abused, the customer demanding much longer credits and
often taking a ten-day cash discount after thirty or more days had
elapsed. This abuse was particularly prevalent from 1907 to 1913, when
coffee prices were low and competition was especially keen.[335] In
addition, the retailers often demanded special deliveries of supplies,
which added to the wholesalers' costs; and some retailers refused to pay
the cost of cartage from the cars to their stores.
With the coming of high prices after the close of the World War, the
wholesalers showed a tendency to tighten up their credit and discount
terms, the National Coffee Roasters Association especially recommending
thirty days' credit, or at most sixty days, and a maximum cash discount
rate of two percent.
Another trade abuse which has been corrected almost altogether was the
practise of "selling coffee to be billed as shipped"; that is, the
wholesaler held coffee on order, and billed only when delivered, even
though several weeks or months had passed before shipment.
_About Package Coffees_
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the sale of coffee in
packages has increased steadily until now (1922) this form of
distribution competes strongly with bulk coffee sales. While bulk coffee
is still preferred in some eastern sections of the United States, coffee
packers are making deep inroads there, to the extent that practically
all high and medium grade retailers feature package coffees, either
under their own brand name, or that of a coffee specialty house.
The prime requisite for success in any package coffee is the composition
of the blend. One of the leaders in the field, which we will call Y, is
said to be composed of Bogota, Bourbon Santos, and Mexican. In March,
1922, it was being sold at retail in New York for 42 cents. A competing
brand, which we will call Z, is said to be a blend of Bogota and Bourbon
Santos. It was being sold at retail in New York, at the same period for
the same price. Simultaneously, in the retail stores of a well known
chain system, a bulk blend composed of sixty percent Bourbon Santos and
forty percent Bogota was to be had loose for 29 cents.
The second important factor that contributes to package coffee success
is the container. It must be of such a character as will best preserve
the freshness--the flavor and the aroma of the coffee--until it reaches
the consumer.
Package coffee has not yet won universal favor. Some of the arguments
used against it are: that the price is generally higher than the same
grade in bulk; that it leads to price-cutting by stores that can afford
to sell it at about cost as a leader for other articles; that the margin
of profit is frequently too close for some retailers: that when the
market advances, some packers change their blends to keep down cost and
to maintain the advertised price; and that, when packed ground, there is
a rapid loss of flavor, aroma, and strength.
[Illustration: COAL ROASTING PLANT IN A NEW YORK FACTORY
THE ROASTED BEANS HAVE JUST BEEN DUMPED INTO THE COOLER BOX]
COFFEE-SELLING CHART
BY A.J. DANNEMILLER
Showing Prices to Be Obtained to Realize Certain Percents _on Sales_
of Roasted Coffee
_Cost Roasted_
_& Packed_ 10% 11% 12% 13% 14% 15% 16% 17%
4 4.44 4.50 4.55 4.61 4.67 4.72 4.77 4.82
4-1/2 5.00 5.06 5.12 5.18 5.24 5.30 5.36 5.43
5 5.55 5.62 5.68 5.75 5.82 5.89 5.96 6.03
5-1/2 6.11 6.18 6.25 6.33 6.41 6.49 6.57 6.65
6 6.67 6.74 6.81 6.89 6.97 7.06 7.15 7.24
6-1/2 7.23 7.31 7.38 7.47 7.55 7.84 7.74 7.84
7 7.78 7.87 7.95 8.05 8.15 8.25 8.35 8.45
7-1/2 8.34 8.43 8.52 8.62 8.72 8.83 8.93 9.04
8 8.89 8.99 9.09 9.20 9.31 9.42 9.53 9.65
8-1/2 9.45 9.55 9.66 9.77 9.87 9.99 10.12 10.25
9 10.00 10.12 10.23 10.35 10.47 10.59 10.72 10.85
9-1/2 10.56 10.68 10.80 10.92 11.04 11.17 11.31 11.45
10 11.11 11.24 11.37 11.49 11.63 11.77 11.90 12.05
10-1/2 11.66 11.81 11.93 12.07 12.21 12.36 12.49 12.65
11 12.22 12.37 12.50 12.64 12.85 12.95 13.08 13.26
11-1/2 12.77 12.93 13.07 13.21 13.37 13.54 13.68 13.86
12 13.33 13.49 13.64 13.79 13.95 14.12 14.28 14.46
12-1/2 13.89 14.05 14.21 14.37 14.53 14.71 14.88 15.06
13 14.44 14.62 14.78 14.93 15.11 15.30 15.47 15.66
13-1/2 15.00 15.18 15.33 15.51 15.69 15.88 16.07 16.27
14 15.55 15.73 15.90 16.08 16.28 16.48 16.67 16.84
14-1/2 16.11 16.29 16.48 16.65 16.86 17.05 17.26 17.47
15 16.66 16.85 17.05 17.23 17.44 17.65 17.85 18.07
15-1/2 17.23 17.43 17.61 17.80 18.03 18.22 18.45 18.67
16 17.78 17.98 18.18 18.38 18.60 18.83 19.05 19.28
16-1/2 18.33 18.54 18.75 18.97 19.18 19.41 19.64 19.88
17 18.89 19.10 19.33 19.52 19.76 20.01 20.24 20.48
17-1/2 19.44 19.66 19.89 20.10 20.35 20.59 20.83 21.08
18 20.00 20.22 20.45 20.67 20.93 21.18 21.43 21.69
18-1/2 20.55 20.79 21.02 21.24 21.51 21.77 22.02 22.29
19 21.11 21.35 21.59 21.84 22.09 22.36 22.62 22.90
19-1/2 21.66 21.91 22.16 22.41 22.68 22.95 23.21 23.50
20 22.22 22.47 22.73 22.99 23.25 23.54 23.81 24.11
20-1/2 22.77 23.03 23.30 23.55 23.83 24.14 24.40 24.70
21 23.33 23.60 23.87 24.14 24.42 24.70 25.00 25.30
21-1/2 23.88 24.16 24.43 24.71 25.00 25.29 25.59 25.90
22 24.44 24.72 25.00 25.28 25.58 25.92 26.19 26.51
22-1/2 24.99 25.29 25.57 25.85 26.16 26.47 26.78 27.12
23 25.55 25.85 26.14 26.42 26.74 27.06 27.38 27.71
23-1/2 26.11 26.41 26.70 27.00 27.32 27.66 27.97 28.32
24 26.67 26.97 27.26 27.58 27.90 28.24 28.57 28.92
24-1/2 27.22 27.54 27.84 28.15 28.49 28.83 29.16 29.52
25 27.78 28.09 28.41 28.73 29.07 29.41 29.76 30.12
_Cost Roasted_
_& Packed_ 18% 19% 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 25%
4 4.88 4.94 5.00 5.07 5.13 5.20 5.26 5.33
4-1/2 5.49 5.57 5.63 5.70 5.77 5.84 5.91 6.00
5 6.10 6.18 6.25 6.33 6.42 6.50 6.55 6.68
5-1/2 6.72 6.80 6.88 6.97 7.06 7.15 7.24 7.33
6 7.33 7.42 7.50 7.60 7.70 7.80 7.90 8.00
6-1/2 7.94 8.03 8.13 8.24 8.33 8.45 8.56 8.67
7 8.54 8.65 8.75 8.86 8.96 9.09 9.21 9.33
7-1/2 9.15 9.26 9.30 9.50 9.63 9.75 9.87 10.00
8 9.76 9.88 10.00 10.13 10.26 10.39 10.53 10.67
8-1/2 10.37 10.40 10.63 10.76 10.90 11.04 11.19 11.33
9 10.98 11.12 11.25 11.40 11.54 11.70 11.85 12.00
9-1/2 11.59 11.73 11.88 12.03 12.18 12.34 12.51 12.67
10 12.20 12.34 12.50 12.66 12.82 12.98 13.16 13.33
10-1/2 12.81 12.95 13.12 13.29 13.46 13.63 13.81 14.00
11 13.43 13.57 13.75 13.93 14.10 14.28 14.47 14.67
11-1/2 14.03 14.19 14.38 14.56 14.74 14.93 15.13 15.33
12 14.65 14.81 15.00 15.19 15.38 15.58 15.79 16.00
12-1/2 15.24 15.43 15.63 15.83 16.02 16.23 16.45 16.67
13 15.85 16.05 16.25 16.45 16.67 16.87 17.10 17.33
13-1/2 16.46 16.67 16.88 17.08 17.31 17.53 17.76 18.00
14 17.07 17.28 17.50 17.72 17.95 18.17 18.40 18.67
14-1/2 17.68 17.90 18.13 18.35 18.59 18.83 19.07 19.33
15 18.29 18.51 18.75 18.98 19.23 19.48 19.74 20.00
15-1/2 18.90 19.13 19.38 19.61 19.87 20.12 20.39 20.67
16 19.51 19.75 20.00 20.25 20.51 20.77 21.05 21.33
16-1/2 20.12 20.38 20.63 20.88 21.16 21.42 21.70 22.00
17 20.73 21.99 21.25 21.51 21.78 22.07 22.36 22.67
17-1/2 21.34 21.60 22.88 22.15 22.43 22.72 23.03 23.33
18 21.95 22.22 22.50 22.78 23.05 23.37 23.68 24.00
18-1/2 22.56 22.84 23.13 23.42 23.70 24.02 24.34 24.67
19 23.17 23.45 23.75 24.05 24.34 24.67 25.00 25.33
19-1/2 23.78 24.07 24.38 24.68 24.99 25.32 25.66 26.00
20 24.39 24.68 25.00 25.31 25.64 25.97 26.32 26.67
20-1/2 25.00 25.30 25.63 25.94 26.28 26.61 26.97 27.33
21 25.62 25.92 26.25 26.58 26.92 27.26 27.63 28.00
21-1/2 26.22 26.54 26.88 27.22 27.56 27.91 28.28 28.67
22 26.83 27.16 27.50 27.86 28.10 28.56 28.94 29.33
22-1/2 27.44 27.78 28.13 28.48 28.85 29.22 29.61 30.00
23 28.06 28.38 28.75 29.11 29.48 29.86 30.26 30.67
23-1/2 28.66 29.00 29.38 29.76 30.12 30.51 30.92 31.33
24 29.27 29.62 30.00 30.38 30.77 31.17 31.58 32.00
24-1/2 29.88 30.24 30.63 31.02 31.41 31.81 32.24 32.67
25 30.49 30.86 31.25 31.65 32.05 32.47 32.90 33.33
NOTE, FOR EXAMPLE: Coffee costing 13.50 per 100 pounds
(see first column), to realize 17% _on sales_, must bring
16.27; which really represents 21% _on cost_
Friends of package coffees point to the saving in time in handling in
the store; to the fact that the contents of a package are not
contaminated by odors or dirt; that the blends are prepared by experts
and are always uniform; that the coffee is always properly roasted; and,
in the case of package ground coffee, properly ground; that the brand
names are widely and consistently advertised; and that the retailer has
the benefit of the packer's co-operation in building up sales campaigns,
by means of booklets and local advertising.
_Various Types of Coffee Containers_
Five types of containers are used for packing coffee, namely, cardboard
cartons, paper bags, fiber or paper cans, tin cans, and composite (tin
and fiber) cans and packages. Fiber packages include paraffin-lined as
well as those that have been chemically treated with other water-proof
and flavor-retaining substances.
The carton is popular, because it takes up less room in storage and in
shipment to the packing plant, and also because the label can be printed
directly on the package. Another economy feature is its adaptability to
the automatic packaging machine, which transforms it from a flat sheet
into a wrapped and sealed package of coffee. Moisture-proof and
flavor-retaining inner liners and outside wrappers are generally used to
prevent rapid deterioration of the coffee's strength and aroma.
Paper bags are the least expensive containers to be obtained; and when
lined with foil or prepared paper, they are considered to be
satisfactory. Like the carton, the label can be printed directly on the
bag. They also lend themselves to close packing in shipping cases.
Another popular type of container is the paper, or fiber, can which is
made of fiber board with a slip cover. Fiber cans are also made with
tin tops and bottoms, the metal parts supplying a measure of rigidity to
the package. These composite packages are made round, square, oblong, or
cylindrical.
Paraffined containers are characterized by an outer covering of glossy
paraffin, and are made in various shapes. In some makes, the paraffin is
forced into the pores of the paper base, making for added
flavor-retaining and moisture-proof properties. In this type of package
the label may also be printed direct on the package.
In recent years, vacuum packed coffee has won great favor, first in the
West and latterly in the East. Tin cans are used. Vacuum sealing
machines close the containers at the rate of forty to fifty a minute.
Private tests by responsible coffee men are said to have shown that
coffee in the bean or ground, when vacuum packed, retains its freshness
for a longer period than when packed by any other method.
_Labels_
Coffee packers must give due attention to certain well defined laws
bearing on package labels. Before the Federal Pure Food Act went into
effect on January 1, 1907, many coffee labels bore the magic names of
"Mocha" and "Java," when in fact neither of those two celebrated coffees
were used in the blend. Even mixtures containing a large percentage of
chicory, or other addition, were labeled "Pure Mocha and Java Coffee."
The enactment of the pure food law ended this practise, making it
compulsory that the label should state either the actual coffees used in
the blend, or a brand name, together with the name of either the packer
or the distributer. When chicory or other addition is used, the fact
must be stated in clear type directly following the brand name. The
reading matter on the label should contain facts only, and should not
bear extravagant claims of superior quality or of methods of preparing
or packing that have not been followed.
_Coffee Packaging Economies_
During the United States' participation in the World War, tin became
practically unobtainable, and coffee packers turned to paper and fiber
containers as substitutes in packaging nearly all grades. In this war
period, commercial economy became a fetish in the business world; and
coffee packers worked to save not only material, but shipping space,
labor, and time. Paper and fiber containers proved to be not only
practical but economical packages. Because of their war-time experience,
many packers changed permanently to square and oblong containers. They
found these containers could be packed "solid" in shipping cases,
leaving no unfilled space between packages as is the case with
cylindrical cans; also, smaller shipping cases could be used. As a
further measure of economy, several packers changed from the square
"knocked-down" paper or fiber carton to the oblong carton that is made
up, filled, and sealed by automatic machinery from a flat, printed sheet
of cardboard. This type of container is generally lined or wrapped with
a moisture-proof and flavor-retaining paper.
There has been a tendency in recent years to standardize coffee packages
as a means of working out packaging and shipping economies. One of the
leading American proponents[336] of standardization said:
One of the first arguments raised against standardization is that
it eliminates individuality, and individuality is one of the big
guns covering the front line trenches in the war of competition.
The folly of recommending that every one-pound coffee carton, for
instance, should be of exactly the same size and shape is
immediately apparent; but let us not confuse such unification with
standardization.
Assuming that a pound of coffee may be safely contained in
seventy-two cubic inches, we find that a carton three inches thick
by four inches wide by six inches high will serve our purpose; and,
as an illustration of extremes, a carton three inches thick by
three inches wide by eight inches high, or one [carton] two inches
thick by six inches wide by six inches high, will each have exactly
the same cubical contents. In fact, there is an almost infinite
variety of combinations of dimensions which will contain
substantially seventy-two cubic inches.
As an example of how coffee packages can be standardized this authority
cites the following sizes of flat-sheet containers and their respective
dimensions and capacities:
THICK AND WIDE HIGH CONTENTS
Size Inches Inches Cubic Ins.
1 lb. 2-5/8 by 4-1/2 6-1/4 73.83
1/2 lb. 2-1/4 by 3-1/8 5-1/4 36.91
1/4 lb. 1-9/16 by 2-5/8 4-1/2 18.46
[Illustration: VARIOUS TYPES OF COFFEE CONTAINERS
THIS GROUP OF LEADING TRADE-MARKED COFFEES ILLUSTRATES THE WIDE VARIANCE
IN STYLES OF CONTAINERS USED BY COFFEE-ROASTERS. THE PACKAGES SHOWN ARE
AS FOLLOWS:
1--Double carton. 2, 3--Cartons. 4--Fiber sides, tin top and bottom,
friction cover. 5--Vacuum tin can. 6--Fancy paper bag.
7--Machine-wrapped paper package. 8--Fancy paper bag. 9--Carton with
patented opening and closing device. 10--Wrapped paper package. 11--Tin
can with slip cover. 12--All-fiber can with slip cover. 13--Tin can with
slip cover. 14--Lithographed tin can with friction cover. 15, 16--Tin
cans with slip covers. 17--Squat tin can. 18--Napa-can. 19, 20,
21--Vacuum tin cans.]
The advantages claimed for these packages are that each is well
proportioned and makes a good selling appearance; each bears a direct
relation to the other two; and all may be handled with uniformly good
results on the same set of standardized packaging machinery. One size of
shipping case, instead of three, may be used to hold exactly the same
number of pounds of coffee, regardless of whether shipped in one-pound,
half-pound, or quarter-pound cartons. For smaller dealer assortments,
any two, or all three sizes also exactly fit the following standard
shipping cases:
For 36 lbs., 13-7/8" by 16-1/2" by 12-3/4" high
For 54 lbs., 13-7/8" by 16-1/2" by 19-1/8" high
This standardization of packages and shipping containers results in a
lower cost of containers and a smaller stock to carry, with attendant
reductions in details in purchasing and billing departments, in
inventories, and in many other overhead expense factors.
_Practical Grocer Helps_
Wholesale coffee merchandising does not properly end with the delivery
of a shipment of coffee to a retailer. The progressive wholesaler knows
that it is to his best interest to help that grocer sell his coffee as
quickly as possible; to make a good profit on a quick turn-over; and to
dispose of it before the coffee has deteriorated.
Practical co-operation between wholesaler and retailer is one of the
most important factors in coffee merchandising. In these days of keen
and unremitting competition, neither agency can stand alone for long.
The progressive wholesaler does not sell a retailer a poorer quality of
coffee for any particular grade than his trade calls for, and he does
not load him up with more than can be disposed of while still fresh. He
gauges the capacity and facilities of each retail customer, and then
gives him practical help to keep the stock moving.
The packer of branded coffees helps by advertising to the consumer in
magazines and newspapers, always featuring the name of his brands; and
he supplies the grocer with educational pamphlets and booklets on the
growing, preparation, and merits of coffee in general, with an added
fillip about the desirability of his particular brand. Through his
salesmen the packer shows the grocer how to display the coffee on the
counter and in the window, and often supplies him with placards and
cut-outs featuring his brand. He co-operates in staging special coffee
demonstrations in the store; instructs the retailer in the importance of
teaching his clerks how to talk and to sell coffee intelligently; and
how to prepare advertising copy for his local newspaper, so as to get
the fullest measure of profit from the wholesaler's national or
sectional advertising.
_Coffee Sampling_
The sampling method of creating a demand for merchandise has been tried
in the wholesale coffee trade, only to be abandoned by the majority of
packers. With other and more satisfactory ways of creating consumer
interest, promiscuous sampling was found to be too expensive, in view of
the comparatively small returns. One indictment against sampling is that
it does not make any more impression on the average person than does an
advertisement that appears only once, and is then abandoned. Wideawake
merchants have learned that the public's memory is exceedingly short;
and that they must keep "hammering" with advertisements to establish and
to maintain a demand for their products.
It would seem that the logical place for sampling is in the retailer's
store, especially in connection with demonstrations. Many progressive
grocers stimulate interest in their coffees by serving, on special
demonstration days, small cups of freshly brewed coffee, giving the
customer a small sample of the brand or blend used, to be taken home to
see if the same pleasing results can be obtained there also. Generally
this form of sampling, when properly conducted, has shown a larger
percentage of returns than any other method.
_Premium Method of Sales Promotion_
For many years, the premium method of sales promotion has been an
important factor in wholesale coffee merchandising, as well as in retail
distribution. The premium system has been characterized as a form of
advertising; and many coffee packers and wholesalers prefer to spend
their advertising appropriations in that way rather than in transitory
printed advertisements in newspapers and general magazines.
While certain forms of the system have been legislated out of existence
in some states, friends of the plan claim that it is a true
profit-sharing method which "blesses both him that gives and him that
takes"; and that it is an advanced and legitimate means of promoting
business, when properly conducted. They assert that it is a system of
sales promotion whereby the advertising expense, plus a large
percentage of the profits of the business stimulated thereby, is
automatically returned to the dealer buyer, without increasing cost or
lowering the quality of the product so advertised; that it eliminates
advertising waste by producing a given volume of sales for a given
expenditure of money; that it reduces the cost of advertising by
prompting a continuous series of purchases at one advertising expense;
that it promotes cash payments and discourages credit business. Premium
users claim that the force of a printed advertisement is often spent in
stimulating the first purchase; while to secure a premium, the purchaser
must continue to buy the commodity carrying the premium, or trade with
the giver of the premium until merchandise of a stipulated value or
quantity has been purchased.
In general practise, the premium-giving coffee packer or wholesaler may
either offer the retailer an inducement in the form of a desirable store
fixture, household article, or item for his personal use; or he may
offer it to the consumer through the retailer.
The methods of giving the premium are numerous. To the retailer he may
give the article outright with each purchase of a stipulated quantity of
his coffee; or he may offer it as a prize to the retail distributer
selling the most coffee in a certain period in a specified territory.
Frequently the premium is of such value that the wholesaler can not give
it with any quantity of coffee a distributer can dispose of in a short
time; so he issues coupons or certificates with each purchase,
permitting the retailer to redeem the premium when he has saved the
required number. Or, the retailer may get the premium with the first
purchase by paying the difference in cash.
In giving premiums to consumers, the wholesaler follows the same general
plan used with retailers, except that in most cases the coupons are
packed with the coffee and are redeemable at the retailer's store.
Sometimes, however, the consumer sends the coupons or certificates to
the wholesaler, getting the premium direct from him. In another phase of
the premium system, the retailer works independently of the wholesaler,
buying and giving away his own premiums to promote or to hold trade for
his store. This phase is explained in the chapter on retail coffee
merchandising.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: LUHRS, OF POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., FEATURES FRESHLY ROASTED
COFFEE IN HIS WINDOW
Smoke from the roasters is blown into street through the coffee pot
hanging over the door]
[Illustration: JOHNSON, OF RED OAK, IOWA, ROASTS BEFORE THE CUSTOMER
Showing a Royal roasting and grinding equipment]
[Illustration: FRESH ROASTED-COFFEE IDEA IN RETAIL MERCHANDISING]
CHAPTER XXVII
RETAIL MERCHANDISING OF ROASTED COFFEE
_How coffees are sold at retail--The place of the grocer, the tea
and coffee dealer, the chain store, and the wagon-route distributer
in the scheme of distribution--Starting in the retail coffee
business--Small roasters for retail dealers--Model coffee
departments--Creating a coffee trade--Meeting
competition--Splitting nickels--Figuring costs and profits--A
credit policy for retailers--Premiums_
Coffee is sold at retail in the United States through seven distinct
channels of trade; the independent retail grocers (about 350,000)
handling about forty percent of the 1,300,000,000 pounds sold annually;
and the other sixty percent being sold by chain stores, mail-order
houses, house-to-house wagon-route distributers, specialty tea and
coffee stores, department stores, and drug stores. Since the beginning
of the twentieth century, the independent grocers' monopoly in retail
coffee-merchandising has been dwindling at a rate that has seriously
alarmed those interests and their friends.
B.C. Casanas of New Orleans, addressing a convention of the National
Association of Retail Grocers in the United States, in 1916, said that
the wholesale coffee roasters of the country had invested in their
business $60,000,000; and that $135,000,000 worth of roasted coffee was
sold by them every year.
Considering the methods of merchandising, the seven retail distributing
agencies may be grouped into three distinct classes. The first class
would comprise the independent grocer, the chain store, the department
store, the drug store, and the specialty store, all of which maintain
stores where the consumer comes to buy. The second class takes in the
mail-order house, which solicits orders and delivers its coffee by mail,
and sometimes by freight or express. The third class covers the
wagon-route dealer, who goes from house to house seeking trade, and
delivers his coffee on order at regular periods direct to the consumer
in the home. As an inducement to contracting for large quantities to be
delivered in weekly or bi-weekly periods, the house-to-house dealer
generally gives some household article, or the like, as a premium to
establish good-will and to retain the trade of his customers.
New impetus was given to the method of selling coffee by mail when the
parcel post system was adopted by the federal government in 1912; and
since then this plan has become an important factor in retail
coffee-merchandising. Generally, the mail-order houses confine their
sales efforts to agricultural districts and small towns, soliciting
trade by catalogs, by circular letters, and by advertisements in local
newspapers, and in magazines which circulate chiefly among dwellers in
rural districts.
The majority of wagon-route distributers depend upon the lure of their
premiums, and on personal calls, to develop and to hold their coffee
trade. The leading wagon-route companies, sometimes called "premium
houses", maintain offices and plants in large cities adjacent to the
territories to which they confine their sales efforts. At strategic
points, they have district agents who engage the wagon men that do the
actual soliciting of orders and that deliver the coffee. All wagon-route
companies handle other products besides coffee, specializing in tea,
spices, extracts, and such household goods as soap, perfumes, and other
toilet requisites that promise a quick sale and frequent re-orders. Some
of their competitors complain that they handle only the more profitable
lines, leaving the independent local grocer to supply the housekeeper
with the items on which the margin of profit is comparatively small.
Wagon-route coffee-retailing began to make itself felt seriously about
the year 1900. At first, the premiums usually consisted of a cup and
saucer with the first order, the customer being led to continue buying
until at least a full set of dishes had been acquired. Later, the range
of premiums was expanded; until today the wagon man offers several
hundred different articles that can be used in the home or for personal
wear or adornment. Practically all the leading wagon-route concerns
favor the advance premium method; that is, a special canvasser induces a
consumer to contract for a large quantity of coffee and other products
in return for receiving the premium at once, though the coffee is
delivered only as the customer wants it, generally two pounds every two
weeks. The wagon man delivers the coffee, and is usually held
responsible for the customer fulfilling the agreement, and is expected
to secure repeat orders with other premiums.
[Illustration: A PREMIUM TEA AND COFFEE DEALER'S DISPLAY ROOM
This is the headquarters store of the Geo. F. Hellick Co., Easton, Pa.,
a successful wagon coffee distributer. The premium merchandise is shown
in the foreground: the sales counter, coffee mill, and display of teas,
coffees, extracts, spices, etc., being in the right background]
The importance of the wagon-route plan of coffee-retailing is shown by
the fact that in 1921 there were six hundred houses of this kind in the
United States; and it was estimated that they distributed eight percent
of the total amount of the coffee consumed in the country. The biggest
company was capitalized at $16,000,000, and operated eleven hundred
wagons. Most of the wagon-route concerns were operating in the central
states, practically one-third of them covering the states of Illinois,
Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa. Pennsylvania is also a wagon-route-dealer
center.
[Illustration: TYPICAL CHAIN-STORE INTERIOR EQUIPMENT
This is the Atlantic & Pacific Co.'s store in Rhinebeck, New York. There
are nearly 5,000 other stores like it in the United States]
The premium wagon-route distributers have an organization called the
National Retail Tea and Coffee Merchants' Association. It is composed of
126 members--all of whom use premiums--who operate over two thousand
wagons. The largest single wagon-route operator is the Jewel Tea Company
of Chicago. The members of this organization claimed to have served more
than 2,000,000 families in 1920.
In the chain-store system of merchandising we see the opposite extreme
of coffee retailing. The wagon-route man features his delivery service;
while in the chain-store plan, all customers must pay cash and carry
home their parcels. Though the earliest established chain stores gave
premiums, the practise has now been generally abandoned. Roasting,
blending, and packing coffee in a large central plant, the chain-store
operator advertises that he can sell coffee at a price lower than his
competitors. As a rule, only one grade of coffee is offered for sale.
While it is generally a good medium value, many consumers prefer better
quality and go to the independent grocer for it. Others patronize the
grocer because of his convenient delivery service, and because he gives
credit on purchases. Chain-store organizations seem to be growing
rapidly, however; the largest of the chains, the Great Atlantic &
Pacific Tea Co., reporting in 1921 that it had nearly five thousand
branches throughout the country, which sell 40,000,000 pounds of coffee
annually. This chain has a capitalization of $12,000,000, and in 1920
sold $225,000,000 worth of groceries, as compared with $154,718,124 in
the preceding year. This company opens about five hundred new stores
every year.
The chain-store men are organized in the National Chain Store Grocers
Association, having thirty members, representing 12,000 stores,
operating in eighteen states. It is estimated that there are fifty
responsible chain-store grocery organizations in the United States,
representing about 30,000 stores. The chain-store grocer turns his stock
over from twelve to twenty-five times a year, sells for cash, makes no
deliveries, and claims to save the consumer an average of fifteen
percent in buying. These stores do business on a net margin not
exceeding three percent on sales, as against the average retail grocer's
thirty percent, while their average gross cost of doing business has
been stated as between thirteen and one-half percent (lowest) and
eighteen and one-half percent (highest).
According to Alfred H. Beckmann, secretary-treasurer of the National
Chain Store Grocers' Association,[337] "Public appreciation of the chain
grocery store is rapidly growing. Ten years ago it was estimated that
chain stores in what is known as the Metropolitan district of New York
did about 12-1/2 percent of the volume of business in their line, while
today it is estimated at about fifty percent".
It is estimated that the fifty-odd chain store organizations in the
United States distribute through their 30,000 stores 270,000,000 pounds
of coffee a year, or about twenty percent of the total amount consumed
in the United States.
_Starting in the Retail Coffee Business_
When taking up the retail merchandising of coffee, the practical grocer
learns all he can about the popular grades to be had in the principal
markets, and how the coffees are grown, roasted, blended, and ground. He
also ascertains the best methods of brewing, testing out each grade and
kind on his own table, if he does not have testing facilities in his
store. He studies the relative trade values of different varieties of
coffee, and the requirements of his particular clientèle.
An interesting analysis of some 250 grocery stores in the United
States[338] made in 1919, showed that twenty-nine percent of the dealers
bought all their coffee from wholesale grocers, forty-eight percent
exclusively from roasters and specialty wholesalers, ten percent got
over one-half of their coffee from wholesale grocers, and thirteen
percent bought less than one-half from the wholesale grocery houses.
[Illustration: THE FAMILIAR A & P STORE FRONT]
[Illustration: LAYOUT FOR COFFEE AND TEA DEPARTMENT]
There are two fundamental plans on which a retailer builds a successful
coffee business--by buying coffee already roasted, and by buying it
green and roasting it in the store. Each plan has its advantages; but
its practicability depends upon conditions in different localities.
Beyond acquiring a general talking knowledge about coffees, the retailer
buying his stocks roasted in bulk or package form does not generally
need the intimate knowledge of his goods required by the grocer who
roasts his own coffee. If he grinds the coffee for his customers he must
know the type of grind best suited to the way the coffee is to be
brewed, and must be able to tell the best brewing method.
The practical grocer who makes up his own blend is acquainted with
blending principles and methods. "While he can not expect to be as
expert as the large wholesale blender, he should know that green coffees
are generally classified by blenders in five great divisions; (1)
Brazils, including Santos, Bourbon and flat bean, Rios, Victorias, and
Bahias; (2) Washed milds, embracing, as of the most commercial value,
Bogotas, Bucaramangas, Guatemalas, Mexicans, Costa Ricans, Maracaibos,
and Meridas; (3) Unwashed milds, such as Maracaibos, Bucaramangas, La
Guairas, and Mexicans; (4) Javas, Sumatras, and Padangs; (5) Mocha, and
Harari."
[Illustration: ONE OF THE RETAIL COFFEE-ROASTING STATIONS IN SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA]
[Illustration: CLOSE-UP OF THE MINIATURE MANUFACTURING PLANT, SHOWING
THE ROASTING AND GRINDING EQUIPMENT]
[Illustration: APPLYING THE SPECIALIST IDEA TO COFFEE MERCHANDISING
The Pacific Stores Co., Los Angeles, cutting out deliveries, premiums,
and solicitors, has built up a business of more than 100 bags of coffee
daily, selling direct to the consumer in a chain of 100 booths patterned
after the country-roadside gasoline stations; each one having its own
roaster]
[Illustration: SELF-CONTAINED MONITOR GAS ROASTER, COOLER, AND STONER]
It has been found by experience that a good assortment for the average
retailer to carry consists of Santos, because of price; a natural
unwashed Maracaibo or Bucaramanga, because of full body and general
blending values; and a washed coffee, preferably a Bogota, which gives
quality and character to a blend. In stocking up with these coffees, the
practical merchant avoids Santos with a strong or Rioy flavor, bitter or
"hidey" Maracaibos, and acidy or thin Bogotas.[339]
A grocer equipped with these coffees has the Santos for his low-priced
seller. For his medium grade he blends Santos and Maracaibo,
half-and-half. The next higher grade is made up of one-third each of the
three coffees; while the best blend consists either of half-and-half
Bogota and Maracaibo, or three-quarters Bogota and one-quarter
Maracaibo.
The chief advantage of these three coffees is that they blend well in
any way they are mixed; and the dealer with a little experience, and
working with the two necessary ideas in mind--satisfactory coffee and
price--can make up various combinations.
In view of the fact that the United States imports coffee from more than
a hundred different sections of the world, and that there are wide
variations in flavor among the coffees produced in each of the hundred,
it is easy to understand that the blender has an almost unlimited supply
from which to make up a blend with a distinctive individuality.
Practically all coffee importers, and most wholesalers, are thoroughly
acquainted with the relative trade values of the different coffees, and
help their customers make up desirable blends.
_Small Roasters for Retail Dealers_
While the wholesale coffee roaster is obliged to instal a large and
somewhat complex equipment, the retailer must use a small, compact,
self-contained unit that does not take up much space in his store, and
that is easily operated. Retail roasting machines are constructed on the
same general principle as the wholesale roaster. The roasting cylinder
is generally revolved by electric power, and the heat is derived from
gas or gasoline fuel. Cooling is by air suction in a box attached to the
roaster. The capacities of the machines range from ten to three hundred
pounds, the operating cost running from approximately eight cents per
hundred pounds for gas fuel and ten cents for electric power. The
roasters cost from three hundred dollars for the smaller sizes, to
fifteen hundred for the one-bag type; and to two thousand or three
thousand dollars for the two-bag type.
One coffee-roaster-machinery manufacturer has recently brought out a
gas-fired, electrically operated fifty-pound miniature coffee-roasting
plant designed for retail stores, which comprises a roaster, a rotary
cooler, and a stoning device, that sells for six hundred and fifty
dollars.
[Illustration: ROYAL GAS COFFEE ROASTER FOR RETAIL STORES]
Retail coffee roasting is similar to the wholesale operation. When the
cylinder has become heated, the green coffee is run in and allowed to
roast in the revolving cylinder for about half an hour. If the coffee is
the average green kind, the full heat may be applied at once; but if old
and dry, a lesser degree is used. When the roast begins to snap, the
flame is turned lower to allow the beans to cook through evenly; and
when nearly done, it is almost extinguished. During the operation, the
roasterman, who may be the proprietor or a clerk delegated to the work,
frequently "samples" the coffee by taking out a small quantity with his
"trier" and comparing the color of the roast with a type sample. When
the colors match exactly, the coffee is dumped automatically into the
cooler box just below the cylinder opening; and when sufficiently cooled
off, is ready for grinding to order.
A large number of retailers roast coffee in their stores; and the most
successful find that besides being able to make a feature of freshly
roasted coffee, they can save money and increase their sales. One
progressive grocer found that he was able to get eighty-eight pounds of
roasted coffee out of one hundred pounds of green coffee, as compared
with the wholesaler's eighty-four pounds; that he could buy green coffee
at a closer price than roasted; and that it cost him less for labor,
fuel, overhead, and similar items, than it did the wholesale roaster to
turn out a roast.[340]
[Illustration: BURNS HALF-BAG GAS ROASTING, COOLING, AND STONING OUTFIT]
[Illustration: LAMBERT JUNIOR GAS ROASTING, COOLING, AND STONING OUTFIT
FOR RETAIL STORES (Capacity fifty pounds)]
A chain of coffee specialty stores in which the coffee is roasted fresh
every day was started in California about the year 1916; and according
to reports, it met with almost instant success. In this system, the
proprietor buys the green coffee in large quantities, and it is roasted
in each of his specialty stores, which are located in public markets,
store windows, and alongside heavily traveled highways. The roasting
machinery is invariably set up in front of the store where passers-by
can easily see it in operation--and also smell the coffee roasting. Four
years after starting the first store, there were fifty in operation
along the Pacific Coast, doing an annual business of about $600,000,
some units taking in more than $7,000 a month.
_Model Coffee Departments_
Authorities generally agree that a well laid out coffee department not
only increases a grocer's coffee business, but speeds up sales in other
departments as well. Coffee lovers, and they are legion in the United
States, are inclined to "shop around" for a coffee that suits their
taste; and when they have found the store that sells it, they buy their
other groceries there also. Another argument advanced in favor of a
coffee department is that coffee pays more money into the retailer's
cash drawer than any other grocery item.[341]
Most successful retail coffee merchandisers establish the coffee
department near the entrance to the store, where it can be seen through
a window by passers-by, especially if there is an ornamental roasting
and grinding equipment. It has been found that a department situated at
the left of the entrance is almost certain to draw attention because
people are inclined to glance in that direction first. Some merchants,
having the space, erect attractive booths, designed somewhat like the
familiar food-show booths, directly in front of the door, after the
fashion of department stores when holding a special sale on a certain
article. Such a booth is generally used for demonstration purposes, and
is decorated with signs and possibly with bunting. A permanent
department is usually less ornamental, but still attractive. In telling
how he made a success of his department, one American grocer said that
he was careful that his fixtures were not so ornamental as to draw
attention from the goods. While the decorations were always attractive,
they were subordinated sufficiently to form a background for his coffee
display.
[Illustration: FAULDER AND SIMPLEX GAS ROASTERS IN AN ENGLISH FACTORY
The Faulder (on the left) is a 28-lb. indirect machine and the Simplex
(also 28 lbs. capacity) is of the direct-flame, quick-roaster type]
The most popular layout is the conventional counter system behind which
the clerk stands to serve the customer on the other side. There are many
advocates of the counter that is built into the shelving, believing that
the closer the customers are brought to the coffee, the more they will
be inclined to buy. This system also makes for cleanliness, doing away
with the possibility of the runway behind the counter becoming a
catch-all for dirt, torn paper, bits of wood, and the like.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATING THE COFFEE ROASTERS USED BY THE SHOP-KEEPERS
OF FRANCE
These machines are of the ball-cylinder type, and use gas as fuel; the
cylinder is revolved by electric power. Invariably they stand where they
can be seen from the street]
The modern coffee department has counters divided into compartments
having glass fronts. This type serves both as a storage place for coffee
and for display purposes. The top of the counter is used for wrapping up
parcels, etc., and also for displaying bulk and package coffees. In the
well regulated store, the counter top is never used for storage, all
stock being kept on shelves or in the counter's compartments. Good
merchants find that cleanliness pays; and that a "littered up" store
drives away desirable custom. The wise proprietor never allows a clerk
to weigh out coffee after handling cheese, onions, and other odorous
articles, without first thoroughly washing his hands. He knows that few
food products in his store will more quickly absorb undesirable odors
and flavors than coffee; and consequently he is careful to protect his
coffee from contamination. In the better stores, the proprietor will
either take charge of the coffee department himself, or will delegate a
competent man who will do nothing else.
The wide-awake retail coffee roaster always features his roasting
machine, which is generally highly ornamental and draws attention even
when not in use. Some progressive merchants plan to roast coffee at noon
time and at night, when homeward-bound passers-by are hungry and are
particularly susceptible to the pungent aroma of roasting coffee. It is
a quite common plan for the retail roaster to arrange the exhaust of the
machine so that the full strength of the odor is blown into the street.
_Creating a Coffee Trade_
Because of steady sales and quick profits, there is keener competition
in retail coffee-merchandising than in other food products. But, all
things being equal, any intelligent person can create and hold a
profitable trade if he follows approved business methods--and works. The
best practise among coffee merchants shows that the prime essential is
good coffee, freshly roasted and ground. After that comes intelligent
and unremitting sales-promotion work.
[Illustration: SMALL GERMAN ROASTERS
On the left is a hand roaster for wood or coal fuel; on the right is a
gas machine.]
The many ingenious trade-building plans worked out successfully by
grocers in all parts of the country are too numerous to describe in a
book of this character; but the methods cited in the following, all of
which have been tested in actual working conditions, will serve to
indicate the fundamentals of good retail coffee-sales promotion.
Among the chief sales-winning methods are demonstrations in the store,
at local food shows, and at church socials, picnics or functions,
judicious sampling either in person or by mail, personal canvassing from
house to house, circularizing by mail, linking up window displays with
current happenings, local newspaper and outdoor poster advertising, and
selling coffee by telephone. Most of the foregoing plans are worked
intermittently. The telephone, however, is a most important sales factor
and should be employed constantly and consistently.[342] Many successful
stores consider the telephone, properly used, the greatest single
sales-help in retail coffee-merchandising.
[Illustration: POPULAR FRENCH RETAIL ROASTER
Employing coal, charcoal, or wood fuel]
One grocer had such faith in this method that he paid half the annual
telephone rental for a large number of his best-paying customers.
Another large merchandiser put in an individual telephone for each of
his salesmen, who called up his regular customers each day to suggest
articles for that day's order, always of course mentioning their
"superior brand of coffee." Telephoning is the next step to personal
contact; and if tactfully done, is considered to be even more
advantageous, because of the time it saves both the customer and the
store keeper.
[Illustration: UNO CABINET GAS ROASTER WITH COOLING UNIT
A popular English type]
Coffee demonstrations in stores are easily arranged, in most cases. The
main consideration is fresh coffee of good quality served daintily and
hot. Lacking a coffee urn, some grocers make their brews in large-size
home-service coffee-making devices. Those most advanced in the correct
method of brewing use the drip process. It is generally agreed that
demonstrations should not be held too often. They not only cut into
profits, but lose much of their advertising value. Food-show
demonstrations require more elaborate equipment, consisting of a
decorated booth, educational booklets, posters, and exhibits of
different kinds of coffee, both green and roasted, whole bean and
ground. Generally, coffee packers co-operate with retail demonstrators
by supplying gratis the coffee to be brewed, if the names of their
brands are suitably displayed. They supply also posters, signs, samples,
and booklets for free distribution.
Window displays form one of the best means of advertising at the command
of the average grocer, and one of the least expensive. A popular coffee
display consists of a series of educational "windows," starting with
green beans in the bags in which they are shipped from the growing
country. Generally the bags, mats, or bundles are obtained from the
wholesale house, and are filled almost to the top with some inexpensive
stuffing, the green coffee being spread over the top to give the
appearance of a full bag. Pictures showing how the coffee is grown,
harvested, prepared, and shipped, are frequently used in such a display.
The next exhibit consists of whole roasted coffee spread thickly over
the window floor to create the impression of bulk, accompanied by a few
pans of green coffee by way of contrast, and with pictures showing
scenes in coffee roasting plants. A barrel, lined with blue paper, and
lying on its side with roasted coffee beans spilling out, serves as a
centerpiece for such a display. Following this, comes a coffee package
window, accompanied by pictures showing how coffee is roasted, ground,
and packed. This completes the series; but there are many variations
that have proved successful as trade builders.
[Illustration: EDUCATIONAL WINDOW EXHIBIT
This window won first prize for the western district in the $2,000
window-trimming contest of National Coffee Week in 1920. Action was
furnished by a small electric pump, which kept a steady stream of coffee
flowing from a coffee pot into the coffee cup]
_Meeting Competition_
Since the advent of the wagon-route distributer and the chain store, the
independent retail grocer has been faced with the problem of how to
regain at least a fair measure of the coffee trade he has lost. The
grocer is not only concerned about his profits on coffee sales, but on
other goods as well; for a trade investigation has shown that a large
percentage of the regular customers of the retailer are held to the
store by their purchases of coffee and tea. This means that if coffees
and teas are bought from the wagon-route distributer and the chain
store, the balance of a family's order is "shopped around."
To meet this competition, the best authorities agree that the
independent grocer should feature coffee in every practical way, such as
soliciting coffee trade from each customer that enters the store; give
up offering coffee on a price basis, and make up his own blends from
good quality growths; perhaps make up his own brand and push it at every
opportunity; display coffee artistically, with frequent changes of
layouts; and have occasional store demonstrations. He should see that
the coffee is roasted properly, and that it is always fresh; that the
selling effort is not expended on the lowest-priced blend, but on a
grade that can be recommended for cup merit. This should be a leader,
but a lower-price coffee could be carried to suit the trade that buys on
price. Persistent efforts should be made to educate the last-named class
of customers to use the better grades, which in the end are cheaper and
give better satisfaction. In short, the grocer should work consistently
to establish a vogue for his leader blend on the basis of merit.
[Illustration: A BETTER-CLASS AMERICAN GROCERY INTERIOR
Showing the coffee bins in orderly array, and the electric coffee
grinder]
_Profits and Costs_
Because of its influence on other grocery items, coffee can often be
sold at a close margin of profit, particularly if a competitor's store
or wagons are cutting into a grocer's neighborhood trade. Twenty-five
percent is recommended as a reasonable gross profit on coffee in most
cases, although some grocers make less, and not a few make more; the
range being usually from twenty to thirty-nine percent. The independent
dealer should meet chain-store competition in coffee on a price basis,
making a special on a superior grade and figuring to get not more than
three cents profit per pound, like his competitor. A bag of roasted
coffee will bring back three dollars gain, and the cash to pay for
another--and the grocer has kept his customers, ninety percent of whom,
theoretically, will have bought their other food supplies from him. As a
matter of fact, in the last year of the World War retailers showed a
tendency to demand cash on sales of all grocery items. This practise
reduces the cost of operation and allows the storekeeper to reduce his
prices. A large number of grocers charge a small percentage of the total
sale for credit privileges, and five or ten cents for each delivery
below a certain total value of the purchase price of the articles to be
delivered. As a result, they have been able to meet chain-store
competition. Collective buying has also been a factor in offsetting the
inroads of the "chains."
[Illustration: A PRIZE-WINNING WINDOW DISPLAY
This unusual display of coffee-flavored eatables won first prize for the
southern district in the National Coffee Week window-trimming contest.
The cakes, pies, tarts, and other pastries which constituted the main
feature rested in a bed of green coffee. The customer's interest was
cleverly attracted to the dealer's brand by a pyramid of large coffee
cans in the center background and by two miniature dining-room sets.]
_Splitting Nickels_
One of the reasons advanced for the loss of coffee trade by retail
grocers is that they price their blends in "round numbers", that is 20,
25, 30, or 40 cents; while their competitors "split nickels", selling
their product at 18, 23, 28, or 38 cents.
Most of the retail enterprises in other lines of trade have built up
their business on the penny-change plan; and many coffee men believe
this should become the universal merchandising method among retail
distributers of coffee.[343]
One of the leading advocates of "splitting nickels" has worked out a
chart to show how coffee should be priced to make predetermined profits.
(See next page.)
TABLE SHOWING PROFIT PERCENTAGE ON SALES
If Your
Coffee And You Sell At
Costs 25c. 26c. 27c. 28c. 29c. 30c. 31c. 32c. 33c.
20c. 20% 23% 26% 28% 31% 33% 35% 37% 39%
20-1/2c. 18% 21% 24% 26% 29% 31% 33% 35% 37%
21c. 16% 19% 22% 25% 27% 30% 32% 34% 36%
21-1/2c. 14% 17% 20% 23% 25% 28% 30% 32% 34%
22c. 12% 15% 18% 21% 24% 26% 29% 31% 33%
22-1/2c. 10% 13% 16% 19% 22% 25% 27% 29% 31%
23c. 8% 11% 14% 17% 20% 23% 25% 28% 30%
23-1/2c. 6% 9% 13% 16% 19% 21% 24% 26% 28%
24c. 4% 7% 11% 14% 17% 20% 22% 25% 27%
24-1/2c. 2% 5% 9% 12% 15% 18% 21% 23% 25%
25c. 0% 3% 7% 10% 13% 16% 19% 21% 24%
25-1/2c. 2% 5% 8% 12% 15% 17% 20% 22%
26c. 0% 3% 7% 10% 13% 16% 18% 21%
26-1/2c. 1% 5% 8% 11% 14% 17% 19%
27c. 0% 3% 6% 10% 12% 15% 18%
27-1/2c. 1% 5% 8% 11% 14% 16%
28c. 0% 3% 6% 9% 12% 15%
_Figuring Costs and Profits_
While the cost of conducting a retail grocery business naturally varies
according to local conditions and the size of the enterprise, an
investigation among some 250 stores in small and large cities made in
1919 by the Bureau of Business Research, Harvard University, showed that
the average cost was fourteen percent; that the net profit averaged two
and three-tenths percent; and that stock was turned about seven times a
year. Gross profits ran from ten and one-half percent to twenty-six and
four-one-hundredths percent of the net sales, the most typical figure
being sixteen and nine-tenths percent. Sales cost formed the largest
single item of expense, varying from three and forty-one hundredths to
nine and ninety-four hundredths percent, with the bulk of figures
showing around one and eight-tenths percent.
According to advanced business practise the cost of doing business
should be based on these fourteen points:
1. Charge interest on the net amount of the total investment at the
beginning of the business year, exclusive of real estate.
2. Charge rental on real estate or buildings at a rate equal to
that which would be received if renting or leasing to others.
3. Charge, in addition to what is paid for hired help, an amount
equal to what the proprietor's services would be worth to others;
also treat in like manner the services of any member of the family
employed in the business and not on the regular payroll.
4. Charge depreciation on all goods carried over on which a less
price may have to be made because of damage or any other cause.
5. Charge depreciation on buildings, tools, fixtures, or anything
else suffering from age or wear and tear.
6. Charge donations and subscriptions paid.
7. Charge all fixed expenses, such as taxes, insurance, water,
lights, fuel, etc.
8. Charge all incidental expenses, such as drayage, postage, office
supplies, livery expenses of horses and wagons, telegrams and
telephones, advertising, canvassing, etc.
9. Charge losses of every character, including goods stolen, or
sent out and not charged, allowances made customers, all debts,
etc.
10. Charge collection expense.
11. Charge any other expense not enumerated above.
12. When it is ascertained what the sum of all the foregoing items
amounts to, prove it by the books, which will give the total
expense for the year; divide this figure by the total of sales, and
it will show the percent which it has cost to do business.
13. Take this percent and deduct it from the price of any article
sold, then subtract from the remainder what it cost (invoice price
and freight), and the result will show the net profit or loss on
the article.
14. Go over the selling prices of the various articles and see what
are profits; then get busy in putting your selling figures on a
profitable basis and talk it over with your competitor as well.
_A Credit Policy for Retailers_
While the minor factors governing a credit policy for retailers vary
with local conditions, the fundamental principles are alike everywhere,
and should have the thoughtful consideration of all retail distributers
of coffee. After a retail grocery store experience of twenty-five years,
a past president of the National Association of Retail Grocers of the
United States[344] found that a grocer should insist upon references and
a thorough investigation of every new applicant for credit, refusing the
privilege when the prospective customer hesitates to give the needed
information; that he should arrange a date for periodical payments,
explaining that this is necessary so that the storekeeper can arrange to
meet his own bills, which will enable him to discount his invoices and
to sell his goods cheaper; that statements of accounts should be sent
out promptly and never a few days late; that he should insist on payment
in full when due, requesting the customer to call if an extension of
time is asked; that he should not let the customers decide when they
will pay bills, bearing in mind that the possible loss of a few
customers who do not pay promptly is offset by the advantages of cash
when promised; that he should never abandon the hope of collecting an
old account, but should try the method of sending statements only to the
surest customers, sending a clerk for the collection of all other
accounts; that he should personally examine all uncollected accounts
every month, insisting on a reason for failure to pay; that he should
study his customers and not trust those who give a bad impression; that
he should have the courage to say "No" when necessary; not to be
satisfied with merely a financial rating on a credit applicant, but to
ascertain his general reputation and character; and to help to eliminate
the "dead beats" by giving careful attention to all requests received
from other retailers for credit information.
_Premiums for Retailers_
House-to-house dealers are the largest users of premiums among coffee
distributers. Most of them operate under what is known as the
advance-premium method.
The plan followed by house-to-house dealers until about 1910 was to
issue checks redeemable in premiums after a certain amount of tea,
coffee, or other products had been purchased. This practise has not been
entirely abandoned; but in most instances, the premium is now handed to
the consumer in advance of the initial purchase, in consideration of the
buyer's promise to use a stipulated quantity of tea, coffee, or other
merchandise. The driver of the wagon generally carries a portfolio
illustrating numerous premium items redeemable through the purchase of
varying amounts of merchandise.
Many retail coffee stores also employ premiums, using both the old-style
and "advance" methods. This type of store, however, is being supplanted
by the chain grocery store.
Some independent retail grocers use premiums to a limited extent. These
usually carry a small line of premiums, featuring a piece of
kitchenware, or other inexpensive item, with bulk coffee.
It is significant that one of the largest chain-store organizations in
the United States--the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company--uses few
premiums today, although its business was founded on the premium idea.
[Illustration: AN AMERICANIZED ENGLISH GROCER'S SHOP
Ernest Carter's store at St. Albans, England, operated under the name of
Thomas Oakley & Co., has a distinctly American atmosphere, accounted for
by the fact that the fittings were supplied by an American manufacturer,
the Walker Bin Co., of Penn Yan, N.Y. The tea and coffee department is
shown in the foreground. The coffee is roasted in the window]
Trading stamps, which are sold to grocers and other merchants by firms
making a specialty of this form of premium-giving are little used
nowadays. The average retail grocer is antagonistic to trading stamps,
as a result of the methods of certain unscrupulous stamp-dealers.
Legislation against trading stamps is in effect in many states.
[Illustration: SOME PACKAGE COFFEES THAT ADVERTISING HAS MADE FAMOUS]
CHAPTER XXVIII
A SHORT HISTORY OF COFFEE ADVERTISING
_Early coffee advertising--The first coffee advertisement in 1587
was frank propaganda for the legitimate use of coffee--The first
printed advertisement in English--The first newspaper
advertisement--Early advertisements in colonial America--Evolution
of advertising--Package coffee advertising--Advertising to the
trade--Advertising by means of newspapers, magazines, billboards,
electric signs, motion pictures, demonstrations, and by
samples--Advertising for retailers--Advertising by government
propaganda--The Joint Coffee Trade publicity campaign in the United
States--Coffee advertising efficiency_
In a work of this character the chapter on advertising must of necessity
be in story form. It may tell what has been accomplished in advertising
coffee, and perhaps point the way to greater achievement. In so far as
possible, the story is supplemented by illustrations, which here tell
the story even better than words.
Advertising to the trade or the consumer calls for expert advice. There
are successful trade journalists who are competent to supply such
advertising counsel; and new-comers in the field should consult them
first. These men are in the best position to suggest the means for
successful accomplishment. They know the men who are best qualified to
render assistance for all media, and are glad to recommend those who can
be most helpful.
Jarvis A. Wood has said that advertising is causing another to know, to
remember, and to do. If we agree with this excellent definition, then
the first coffee advertisers were the early physicians and writers who
told their fellows something about the berry and the beverage made from
it.
Rhazes and Avicenna told the story in Latin, and appear to have
recommended a coffee decoction as a stomachic, as far back as the tenth
century. Many other early physicians refer to it. Thus it was that
coffee was solemnly introduced to the consumer as a medicine. The first
step made by the berry from the cabinets of the curious, where it was
known as an exotic seed, was into the apothecaries' shops, where it was
sold and advertised as a drug. Next, the coffee drink was advertised and
sold by lemonade venders; then by the proprietors of the coffee houses
and cafés; and finally the coffee merchant sold and advertised the green
and roasted bean.
Rauwolf told the Germans about it in 1582; Abd-al-Kâdir wrote his famous
_Argument in favor of the legitimate use of coffee_ in Arabic about
1587; Alpini carried the news to Italy in 1592; English travelers wrote
about the beverage in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; French
Orientalists described it about the same time; and America learned about
it long before the green beans were offered for sale in Boston in 1670.
Because of its frank propaganda character, Abd-al-Kâdir's manuscript may
rightly be called the earliest advertisement for coffee. The author was
a lawyer-theologian, a follower of Mahomet, and as such was eager to
convince his contemporaries that coffee drinking was not incompatible
with the prophet's law.
Soon the news of the day became the advertising of the morrow. In 1652
appeared the first printed advertisement for coffee in English. It was
in the form of a shop-bill, or handbill, issued by Pasqua Rosée from the
first London coffee house in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill; and the
original is preserved in the British Museum.
It is pictured on page 55, chapter X, and is worthy of close
examination. It reads:
The Vertue of the _COFFEE_ Drink
First publiquely made and sold in England, by _Pasqua Rosée_.
The Grain or Berry called _Coffee_, groweth upon little Trees, only
in the _Deserts of Arabia_.
It is brought from thence, and drunk generally throughout all the
Grand Seigniors Dominions.
It is a simple innocent thing, composed into a Drink, by being
dryed in an Oven, and ground to Powder, and boiled up with Spring
water, and about half a pint of it to be drunk, fasting an hour
before, and not Eating an hour after, and to be taken as hot as
possibly can be endured; the which will never fetch the skin off
the mouth, or raise any Blisters, by reason of that Heat.
The Turks drink at meals and other times, is usually _Water_, and
their Dyet consists much of _Fruit_, the _Crudities_ whereof are
very much corrected by this Drink.
The quality of this Drink is cold and Dry; and though it be a
Dryer, yet It neither _heats_, nor _inflames_ more then _hot
Posset_.
It so closeth the Orifice of the Stomack, and fortifies the heat
within, that it's very good to help digestion, and therefore of
great use to be taken about 3 or 4 a Clock afternoon, as well as in
the morning.
It much quickens the _Spirits_, and makes the Heart _Lightsome_. It
is good against sore Eys, and the better if you hold your Head over
it, and take in the Steem that way.
It suppresseth Fumes exceedingly, and therefore good against the
_Head-ach_, and will very much stop any _Defluxion of Rheums_, that
distil from the _Head_ upon the _Stomack_, and so prevent and help
_Consumptions_; and the _Cough of the Lungs_.
It is excellent to prevent and cure the _Dropsy_, _Gout_, and
_Scurvy_.
It is known by experience to be better than any other Drying Drink
for _People in years_, or _Children_ that have any _running humors_
upon them, as the _Kings Evil_,&c.
It is very good to prevent _Mis-carryings_ in _Child-bearing
Women_.
It is a most excellent Remedy against the _Spleen_, _Hypocondriack
Winds_, or the like.
It will prevent _Drowsiness_, and make one fit for business, if one
have occasion to _Watch_; and therefore you are not to Drink of it
_after Supper_, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will
hinder sleep for 3 or 4 hours.
_It is observed that in Turkey, where this is generally drunk, that
they are not trobled with the Stone, Gout, Dropsie, or Scurvey, and
that their Skins are exceedingly cleer and white._
It is neither _Laxative_ nor _Restringent_.
Made and sold in St. _Michaels Alley_ in _Cornhill_, by Pasqua
Rosée, at the Signe of his own Head.
The noteworthy thing about this advertisement is, that in comparison
with the best copy of today, it has high merit. For this early
advertisement seems to have embodied in it superbly well those
qualifications which modern advertising experts agree are essential
requirements for success--measured in terms of sales to the consumer. We
shall return to it later.
The first newspaper advertisement for coffee appeared in the form of a
"reader" in the issue of _The Publick Adviser_, London, for the week of
Tuesday, May 19, to Tuesday, May 26, 1657. _The Publick Adviser_ was a
weekly pamphlet partaking of the nature of a commercial news-letter. The
advertisement was sandwiched between a reader advertising a doctor of
physick and one for an "artificer," the latter being a ladies'
hair-dresser. It was as follows:
In _Bartholomew_ Lane on the back side of the Old Exchange, the
drink called _Coffee_, (which is a very wholesom and Physical drink,
having many excellent vertues, closes the Orifice of the Stomack,
fortifies the heat within, helpeth Digestion, quickneth the
Spirits, maketh the heart lightsom, is good against Eye-sores,
Coughs, or Colds, Rhumes, Consumptions, Head-ach, Dropsie, Gout,
Scurvy, Kings Evil, and many others is to be sold both in the
morning, and at three of the clock in the afternoon.)
About the time that Pascal opened the first coffee house in Paris in
1672, the Paris shop-keepers began to advertise coffee by broadsides. A
good example is the following,[345] the text of which closely resembles
the original by Pasqua Rosée:
_The most excellent Virtue of the Berry called_ Coffee.
_Coffee_ is a Berry which only grows in the desert of _Arabia_,
from whence it is transported into all the Dominions of the Grand
Seigniour, which being drunk dries up all the cold and moist
humours, disperses the wind, fortifies the Liver, eases the dropsie
by its purifying quality, 'tis a Sovereign medicine against the
itch, and corruptions of the blood, refreshes the heart, and the
vital beating thereof, it relieves those that have pains in their
Stomach, and cannot eat; It is good also against the indispositions
of the brain, cold, moist, and heavy, the steam which rises out of
it is good against the _Rheums_ of the eyes, and drumming in the
ears: 'Tis excellent also against the shortness of the breath,
against _Rheums_ which trouble the Liver, and the pains of the
Spleen; It is an extraordinary ease against the Worms: After having
eat or drunk too much: Nothing is better for those that eat much
Fruit.
The daily use hereof in a little while will manifest the aforesaid
effect to those, that being indisposed shall use it from time to
time.
The following are typical London trade advertisements of 1662 and 1663.
The first is from the _Kingdom's Intelligencer_ of June 5, 1662, and
reads as follows:
At the Exchange Ally from Cornhill into Lumber Street neer the
Conduit, at the Musick-Room belonging to the Palsgrave's Hall, is
sold by retayle the right coffee powder; likewise that termed the
Turkey Berry, well cleansed at 30d. per pound ... the East India
berry (so called) of the best sorts at 20d. per pound, of which at
present in divers places there is very bad, which the ignorant for
cheapness do buy, and is the chief cause of the now bad coffee
drunk in many plaies (sic).
The _Intelligencer_ for December 21, 1663, contained the following
advertisement:
There is a Parcel of Coffee-Berry to be put to publique sale upon
Wednesday, the 23, instant, at 6 a clock in the evening at the
Globe Coffee-house at the end of St. Bartholomew Lane, over against
the North Gate of the Royall Exchange.... And if any desire to be
further informed they may repair to Mr. Brigg, Publique Notary at
the said Globe Coffee-house.
Dufour's treatise on _The Manner of Making Coffee, Tea and Chocolate_,
published in Lyons, 1684, was generally regarded as propaganda for the
beverage; and, indeed, it proved an excellent advertisement, being
quickly translated into English and several other languages.
In 1691 we find advertised in the _Livre Commode_ of Paris a portable
coffee-making outfit to fit the pocket.
The first coffee periodical, _The New and Curious Coffee House_, was
issued at Leipzig by Theophilo Georgi in 1707, being a kind of house
organ for what was, perhaps, the first kaffee-klatsch; the
publisher-proprietor, however, admitted that the idea of making his
coffee salon a resort for the literati was obtained from Italy.
[Illustration: FIRST NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT SOLELY FOR COFFEE IN THE
UNITED STATES
_New York Daily Advertiser_, February 9, 1790]
In chapter X we have described a number of broadsides, handbills, and
pamphlets having to do with the introduction of the coffee drink into
London between 1652 and 1675. The advertising student would do well to
refer to them because they serve to show how completely the true merits
of the beverage were lost sight of by those who urged its more fantastic
claims. It is interesting to note, however, that this early copy was of
a high order of typographical excellence; indeed, the display letter
used for the word coffee is often like that found in copy in the United
States two hundred and fifty years after. Also, it should be noted that
"apt 'illustration's' artful aid" was first employed in 1674. Again,
note this curious contrast. Two hundred and sixty-nine years ago all the
resources of advertising were being laid under contribution to make
propaganda for coffee as the great _cure_ for many ailments of which
nowadays the enemies of coffee would have us believe coffee is the
cause! Those who have possessed themselves of the facts about coffee
know that both arguments are equally fantastic.
Coffee was mentioned in shop-keepers' announcements appearing in the
_Boston News Letter_ as early as 1714, and in other newspapers of the
colonies during the eighteenth century, usually being offered for sale
at retail with strange companions. In 1748 "tea, coffee, indigo,
nutmegs, sugar, etc.," were advertised for sale at a shop in Dock
Square, Boston. The following advertisement from the _Columbian
Centinel_, Boston, April 26, 1794, is typical:
GROCERIES AT NO. 44 _CORNHILL_ Norton and Holyoke Respectfully
inform their friends and the publick, that they have for sale, at
their Shop, No. 44 _Cornhill_, formerly the Post-Office.
A GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF GROCERIES among which are the following
articles: Teas, Spices, Coffee, Cotton, Indigo, Starch, Chocolate,
Raisins, Figs, Almonds, and Olives; West India Rum, best French
Brandy, excellent Cherry Wine, pure as imported, etc., etc., all
which they will sell as low as any store in Boston.
_Any article not liked will be taken again, and the money
returned._
It appears that the first advertisement dealing with coffee alone was
published in the _New York Daily Advertiser_ for February 9, 1790; and
this was primarily an advertisement of a wholesale coffee roasting
factory rather than an advertisement of coffee per se.
This advertisement, and a later one published in Loudon's _New York
Packet_ for January 1, 1791, also of a coffee manufactory, are
reproduced herewith.
Not until package coffee began to come into vogue in the sixties was
there any change in the stereotyped business-card form followed by all
dealers in coffee. And even then the monotony was varied only by
inserting the brand name, such as "Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java
Coffee. Put up only by Lewis A. Osborn"; "Government coffee in tin foil
pound papers put out by Taber & Place's Rubia Mills."
_Evolution of Coffee Advertising_
Real progress in coffee advertising, as in publicity for other lines of
trade and industry, began in the United States. Here too, it has been
brought to its lowest degradation and to its highest efficiency. The
entire process has taken something less than fifty years.
[Illustration: EARLY COFFEE ADVERTISING IN UNITED STATES
Printed in the _New York Packet_, January 1, 1791]
The first step forward was the picture handbill. The handbill, or
dodger, had been common enough in England and on the Continent, where,
for upward of two hundred years it had served as an advertising medium,
in company with the more robust broadside, and in competition with the
pamphlet and newspaper. It remained for America, however, to glorify the
handbill by means of colored pictures; and one of the earliest and best
specimens of the picture handbill is the Arbuckle circular here
illustrated.
[Illustration: FIRST HANDBILL IN COLORS FOR PACKAGE COFFEE ABOUT 1872]
Soon the handbill copy began to appear in the newspapers, but mostly
without the illustrations. Later newspaper developments were to
introduce more of the picture element, decorative border, and design.
The ideas of European artists were freely drawn upon, but put to so
utilitarian uses that their originators would scarce have recognized
them.
In the _Ladies Home Journal_ for December, 1888, the Great London Tea
Company, Boston, an early mail-order house, advertised, "We have made a
specialty since 1877 of giving premiums to those who buy tea and coffee
in large quantities." In the same issue, there was an advertisement of
Seal Brand and Crusade Brand coffee by Chase & Sanborn, Boston. Dilworth
Bros., Pittsburgh, were also among the early users of magazine space.
The menace of the cereal coffee-substitute evil had grown to such
proportions at the beginning of the twentieth century, that the coffee
men began to be concerned about it. Misleading and untruthful
"substitute" copy was freely accepted by nearly all media. The package
labels were as bad, if not worse. With the advent of the pure food law
of 1906, the cereal label abuse was reformed; but not until the "truth
in advertising" movement became a power to be reckoned with, nearly ten
years later, were the coffee men granted a substantial measure of
protection in the magazines and newspapers. Meanwhile, many coffee men,
lacking organization and a knowledge of the facts about coffee,
unwittingly played into the hands of the substitute-fakers by publishing
unfortunate defensive copy which made confusion worse confounded in the
consumer's mind.
[Illustration: REVERSE SIDE OF THE ARBUCKLE HANDBILL (IN COLORS) OF
1872]
[Illustration: A ST. LOUIS HANDBILL OF 1854]
At one time there were nearly one hundred coffee-substitute concerns
engaged in a bitter, untruthful campaign directed against coffee. The
most conspicuous offender employed the principle of auto-suggestion and
found a goodly number of pseudo-physicians and bright advertising minds
that were quite willing to prostitute their finest talents to aid him in
attacking an honorable business.
[Illustration: ADVERTISING-CARD COPY, 1873]
In one year $1,765,000 was spent in traducing the national beverage. The
burden of the cereal-faker's song was that coffee was the cause of all
the ills that flesh is heir to, and that by stopping its use for ten
days and substituting his panacea, these ills would vanish.
Of course, there were many people (but they were the minority) who knew
that the caffein content of coffee was a pure, safe stimulant that did
not destroy the nerve cells like such false stimulants as alcohol,
morphine, etc.; and that while too much could be ingested from abuse of
any beverage containing it, nature always effected a cure when the abuse
was stopped.
However, there was undoubtedly created in the public mind a suspicion,
that threatened to develop into a prejudice, and that affected otherwise
sane and normal people, that perhaps coffee was not good for them.
Then came the winter of the coffee men's discontent. Floundering about
in a veritable slough of cereal slush, without secure foothold or a true
sense of direction, coffee advertising went miserably astray when its
writers began to assure the public that _their_ brands were guiltless of
the crimes charged in the cereal men's indictment. In this, of course,
they unwittingly aided and abetted the cereal fakers. For example, one
roaster-packer advertised, "The harmful ingredient in coffee is the
tannin-bearing chaff, which our roasting and grinding process completely
removes." Scientific research has since proved the fallacy of this idea.
[Illustration: HANDBILL COPY OF THE SEVENTIES]
[Illustration: BOX-END STICKER, 1833]
Another roaster said, "if coffee works havoc with your nerves and
digestion, it is because you are not using a fresh roasted, thoroughly
cleaned, correctly cured coffee. Our method of preparing gives you the
strength and aroma without its nerve-destroying qualities." A well known
coffee packer advertised, "Our coffee is free from the dust and bitter
tannin--the only injurious property in coffee." Still another packer
informed the consumer that "by a very special steel cutting process" he
sliced the coffee beans "so that the little cells containing the
volatile oil (the food product) are not broken."
A prominent Chicago packer put out a new brand of coffee which he
claimed was "non-intoxicating," "poisonless," and the "only pure
coffee." A New Yorker, not to be out-done, brought out a coffee that he
said contained all the stimulative properties of the original coffee
berries, but with every trace of acid removed, every undesirable element
eliminated. "Also," he added for good measure, "this coffee may be used
freely without harming the digestive organs or impairing the nervous
system."
And one package-coffee man became so exercised over cereal competition
that he brought out a _grain_ "coffee" of his own, which he actually
advertised as "the nearest approach to coffee ever put on the market,
having all the merits without any objectionable features, strengthening
without stimulating, satisfying without shattering the nerves."
And so history again repeated itself in America. Five hundred years
after the first religious persecution of the drink in Arabia, we find it
being persecuted by commercial zealots in the United States. And even in
the house of its friends, coffee was being stabbed in the back. The
coffee merchants themselves presented the spectacle of "knocking" it by
inference and innuendo.
Something had to be done. As cereal drinks, standing on their own feet,
the coffee "substitutes" would have attracted little notice. It was only
by trading on the allegation that they were _substitutes for coffee_
that they made any headway. The original offender sold his product as
"coffee," which was an untruth, as he later admitted there was not a
bean of coffee in it. He boldly advertised: "Blank coffee for persons
who can't digest ordinary coffee."
When it became no longer possible to perpetrate an untruth on the
package label, there still remained the newspapers and billboards. For
years before fake-advertising laws and an outraged public opinion made
recourse to these no longer possible, it was a common practise to use
the newspapers and billboards to promote the idea that here was a
different coffee; and in this way to create a demand for a package,
which, when purchased, was found to tell a different story.
[Illustration: A CHASE & SANBORN ADVERTISEMENT, 1888
As printed in _Harper's_ and _Scribner's Magazines_]
As late as 1911, one of our most respected New York dailies was carrying
an advertisement calling the product "coffee," although fairness
demands it be recorded that the coffee part of the announcement was
stricken out when _The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_ called the
attention of the publisher to its misleading character. This trade
paper, from its start, had been urging the coffee men to organize for
defense. The agitation bore fruit at last, first in the starting of the
National Coffee Roasters Association, and later in the inception of the
movement that resulted in the international advertising campaign for
coffee now in progress in the United States.
Meanwhile, the cereal coffee-substitute had been thoroughly discredited
by governmental analysis, although even today newspaper publishers are
to be found here and there who are willing to "take a chance" with
public opinion and who will admit to their advertising columns such
misleading statements for the substitute, as "it has a coffee-like
flavor."
[Illustration: A GOLDBERG CARTOON, 1910]
[Illustration: NEWSPAPER COPY USED BY CHASE AND SANBORN ABOUT 1900]
In the United States today, coffee advertising has reached a high plane
of copy excellence. Our coffee advertisers lead all nations. The
educational work started by _The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_, fostered
by the National Coffee Roasters Association, and developed by the Joint
Coffee Trade Publicity Committee, has laid low many of the bugaboos
raised by the cereal sinners. The coffee men, however, have left
considerable room for improvement. There are still some who are given to
making exaggerated claims in their publicity, who make reflections upon
competitors in a way to destroy public confidence in coffee, and who
display an ignorance of, or a lack of confidence in, their product by
continuing to claim that their brands do not contain what they assert
are injurious or worthless constituents. It is to be hoped that in time
these abuses will yield to the further enlightening influence of the
trade press, and of the organizations that are continually working for
trade betterment.
Before the international coffee campaign started in 1919, the National
Coffee Roasters Association promoted two national coffee weeks, one in
1914 and another in 1915, wherein excellent groundwork was done for the
big joint coffee trade propaganda that followed. Some original research
also was done along lines of proper grinding and correct coffee brewing.
A better-coffee-making committee, under the direction of Edward Aborn of
New York, rendered yeoman's service to the cause. Much educational work
was done in schools and colleges, among newspaper editors, and in the
trade. This campaign was the first co-operative publicity for coffee.
Among other things, it put a nation-wide emphasis on iced coffee as a
delectable summer drink and, for the first time, stressed the correct
making of the beverage by drip and filtration methods instead of by
boiling, which had long been one of the most crying evils of the
business.
[Illustration: CHART SHOWING MONEY SPENT ON ADVERTISING COFFEE AND
SUBSTITUTES
Only advertisements printed in magazines and periodicals are considered
in making this calculation]
_Package Coffee Advertising_
Coffee advertising began to take on a distinctive character with the
introduction of Ariosa by John Arbuckle in 1873. Some of the early
publicity for this pioneer package coffee appears typographically crude,
judged by modern standards; but the copy itself has all the needful
punch, and many of the arguments are just as applicable today as they
were a half-century ago. Take the handbill copy illustrated. It was done
in three colors, and the argument was new and most convincing. The
reverse side copy is also extremely effective. Note the expert-roaster
argument and coffee-making directions; some of these may still be found
in current coffee advertising.
Most of the original Arbuckle advertising was by means of circulars or
broadsides, although some newspaper space was employed. Premiums were
first used by John Arbuckle as an advertising sales adjunct, and they
proved a big factor in putting Ariosa on the map. Mr. Arbuckle created
the kind of word-of-mouth publicity for his goods that is the most
difficult achievement in the business of advertising. It caused so deep
and lasting an impression, that in some sections it has persisted
through at least five decades. The advertising moral is: Get people to
_talk_ your brand.
Since the death of its founder, the Arbuckle copy has been changed to
fit modern conditions. That it has kept pace with all the forward
movements in business and advertising is evident from the specimens
which help to illustrate this chapter. A significant change is to be
noted in the fact that, for the first time in its history, "the greatest
coffee business in the world" has adopted a policy of advertising to the
trade as well as to the consumer, thus giving its publicity a well
rounded character which it formerly lacked.
The evolution of other notable package coffees is also shown by
illustration. Several concerns blazed new trails that have since been
picked up and followed by competing brands.
[Illustration: CHARTS SHOWING PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION AND COFFEE AND
SUBSTITUTE ADVERTISING]
Among the many long-established advertised package-coffee successes may
be mentioned:
Arbuckle's Yuban and Ariosa; McLaughlin's XXXX; Chase & Sanborn's Seal
Brand; Dwinell-Wright's White House; Weir's Red Ribbon; B. Fischer &
Company's Hotel Astor; Brownell & Field's Autocrat; Bour's Old Master;
Scull's Boscul; Seeman Brothers' White Rose; Blanke's Faust; Baker's
Barrington Hall; Woolson Spice Company's Golden Sun; International
Coffee Company's Old Homestead; Kroneberger's Old Reserve; Western
Grocer Company's Chocolate Cream; Leggett's Nabob; Clossett & Dever's
Golden West; R.C. Williams' Royal Scarlet; Merchants Coffee Company's
Alameda; Widlar Company's C.W. brand; Meyer Bros.' Old Judge; Nash-Smith
Tea and Coffee Company's Wedding Breakfast; J.A. Folger & Company's
Golden Gate; Ennis Hanley Blackburn Coffee Company's Golden Wedding;
M.J. Brandenstein & Company's M.J.B.; Hills Brothers' Red Can, the Young
& Griffin Coffee Company's Franco-American, and the Cheek-Neal Coffee
Company's Maxwell House.
It was estimated that the amount of money spent by the larger coffee
roasters upon all forms of publicity in the United States in 1920 was
about $3,000,000.
Charts prepared by Charles Coolidge Parlin of the division of commercial
research of the Curtis Publishing Company, and checked by the
Publishers' Information Bureau, show the advertising for coffee and for
coffee substitutes in thirty leading publications from 1911 to 1920; and
compare the advertising for coffee and coffee substitutes in 1920 with a
chart of per capita consumption. It should be noted that the figures
exclude all other forms of advertising, such as newspapers,
bill-posting, street-car signs, electric signs, and so forth.
Experience has proven that a package coffee, to be successful, must have
back of it expert knowledge on buying, blending, roasting, and packing,
as well as an efficient sales force. These things are essential: (1) a
quality product; (2) a good trade-mark name and label; (3) an efficient
package. With these, an intelligently planned and carefully executed
advertising and sales campaign will spell success. Such a campaign
comprehends advertising directed to the dealer and to the consumer. It
may include all the approved forms of publicity, such as newspapers,
magazines, billboards, electric signs, motion pictures, demonstrations,
and samples. One phase of trade advertising which should not be
overlooked is dealer helps. The extent to which the roaster-packer, or
the promoter of a new package coffee, should utilize the various
advertising media or go into dealer helps must, of course, depend upon
the size of the advertising appropriation.
[Illustration: AN EFFECTIVE CUT-OUT]
Many roaster-packers supply grocers handling their coffee with dealer
helps in the shape of weather-proof metal signs for outside display,
display racks, store and window display signs, cut-outs, blotters,
consumer booklets, newspaper electros, stereopticon slides, moving
pictures, demonstrations, samples, etc. Dealer selling schemes based on
points have also been found helpful in promoting sales.
_Advertising to the Trade_
Until a comparatively recent date, the green coffee importer, selling
the roasting trade, has not realized the need of advertising. He has
inclined to the belief that he did not need to advertise, because, in
most instances, green coffee is not sold by the mark; and, to a certain
extent, price has been the determining factor.
During late years, however, many green coffee firms have come to realize
that there is a good-will element that enters into the equation which
can be fostered by the intelligent use of advertising space in the
coffee roaster's trade journal. Also, a few importers are now featuring
trade marks in their advertising, thus building up a tangible trade-mark
asset in addition to good will.
For a number of years the green coffee trade used the business card type
of advertisement; but some are now utilizing a more up-to-date style of
copy, as typified by the advertisements of Leon Israel & Brothers and
W.R. Grace & Company. Specimens of other green coffee advertising of the
better kind are here reproduced.
Advertising campaigns in behalf of package coffees can not be fully
effective without the proper use of trade publications. Advertising in
the dealer's paper has many advantages. It is good missionary work for
the salesman. It creates confidence in the mind of the dealer. It is an
excellent means for demonstrating to the retailer that he is being
considered in the scheme of distribution--that no attempt is being made
to force the goods upon him through consumer advertising alone.
Trade-paper advertising also offers the packer the opportunity to
acquaint the dealer with the selling points in favor of the brand
advertised, thus saving the time of the salesman. An increasing number
of coffee packers are now using the advertising columns of trade papers,
and some typical advertisements are reproduced herewith.
_Advertising by Various Mediums_
Billboard and other outdoor advertising, also car cards, are being used
to a considerable extent for coffee publicity. Painted outdoor signs
have been the back-bone of one middle-west roaster's campaign for a
number of years. Both car cards and billboards are growing in popularity
because they enable the coffee packer to reproduce his package in its
natural colors and permit also of striking displays. Such firms as
Arbuckle Brothers, New York; Dayton Spice Mills, Dayton, Ohio; W.F.
MCLaughlin & Company, Chicago; the Puhl-Webb Company, Chicago; the Bour
Company, Toledo; B. Fischer & Company, New York; and the Cheek-Neal
Coffee Company, Nashville and New York, are consistent users of this
character of advertising. Electric signs also have proved effective for
coffee advertising. Reproductions of some characteristic outdoor and
car-card advertisements are to be found in these pages.
Motion pictures are a comparatively new development in coffee
advertising. One of the first coffee roasters to adopt this plan of
publicity was S.H. Holstad & Company, Minneapolis. The film used
depicted the cultivation and preparation of coffee for the market, also
the complete roasting and packaging operations. The A.J. Deer Company,
manufacturers of coffee mills and roasters, Hornell, N.Y., was another
pioneer in the use of coffee films. Jabez Burns & Sons, coffee-machinery
manufacturers, followed with an educational coffee picture. The National
Packaging Machinery Company, of Boston, is another concern that has
utilized films for advertising purposes, showing its machines in
operation in a coffee-packing plant. Many roasters made use of the
coffee film produced by the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee.
In using advertising films, it is customary for the roaster to arrange
for a showing at one or more theaters. The advertising in the local
papers features the coffee brands, also the name of the local dealer,
the latter being furnished with tickets which he distributes among his
retail customers. There are several concerns making a business of
supplying commercial films and of getting distribution for them.
Another form of theater publicity is that of the advertising
slide--stereopticon views thrown upon the screen between feature
pictures. Many packers find these are effective for cultivating the
dealer, it being customary to show the brand name, together with that of
the local distributer.
_Advertising for Retailers_
When retailers analyze the people to whom they sell coffee, they usually
find three types. First, there is the woman who thinks she is an expert
judge of coffee, but who is unable to find anything to suit her
cultivated taste. Then there is the new housewife, possibly a bride of a
few months, who knows very little about coffee, but wants to find a good
blend that both she and her husband will like. The third is the most
acceptable class, the satisfied people who have found coffee that
delights them, day after day.
[Illustration: HOW COFFEE IS ADVERTISED TO THE TRADE
Left to right, good examples of green coffee publicity--center,
well-arranged package-coffee copy]
W. Harry Longe, a Texas retailer, has prepared the following "ready
made" copy appeals for the three classes. To "Mrs.
Know-it-all-about-Coffee," this style has been found effective:
IMPROVE THE COFFEE AND YOU IMPROVE THE MEAL
The corner of the table that holds the coffee urn is the balancing
point of your dinner. If the coffee is a "little off" for some
reason or other--probably it's the coffee's own fault--things don't
seem as good as they might; but when it is "up to taste" the meal
is a pleasure from start to finish. If the "balancing point" is
giving you trouble, let ANY BLEND Coffee properly regulate it for
you. 35 cents, three pounds for $1.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
For the good lady who is anxious to find a suitable blend of coffee, and
who desires information, this is a good appeal:
A SUCCESSFUL SELECTION
Of the coffee that goes into the every-morning cup will arrive on
the day when ANY BLEND is first purchased. Many homes have been
without such a success now for a long time, but, of course, they
didn't know of ANY BLEND--and even now it is hard to really know
ANY BLEND till you try it. That is why we seem to insist that you
ask for an introduction by ordering a pound.
ANY BLEND TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
Taking both classes and dealing with them alike:
"BLENDED TO BALANCE"
Is a good descriptive phrase of ANY BLEND coffee, for care is taken
in the preparation that the strength does not overpower the flavor.
The aim of the blender is to get an acceptable and delightful
drinking quality. He has been more than successful, as you will see
when you try ANY BLEND, 35 cents, three pounds for $1.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
The satisfied class, of course, is not averse to making a change, and it
is well, occasionally, for the dealer to let his own satisfied customers
know he still believes in his goods. The argument might take this form:
A SERVICE THAT SAVES
Is the serving of ANY BLEND, when coffee is desired. ANY BLEND
saves many things. It saves worry, for it is always uniform in
flavor and strength. It saves time, for when you order ANY BLEND we
grind it just as fine or just as coarse as your percolator or pot
demands. ANY BLEND also saves expense, because there is no waste,
as you know just how much to use, every time, to make a certain
number of cups. 35 cents, three pounds for $1.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
Again, possible new customers may listen to this appeal:
TO PROVE YOUR APPROVAL
Of ANY BLEND coffee, you are asked to try just one pound. We know
you will like it, for it is blended and roasted and ground as an
exceptional coffee should be, with the care that a good coffee
demands. Prove to yourself that you approve of this method of
preparing coffee. 35 cents, three pounds for $1.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
In some households the cook is permitted to do the ordering, and usually
the cook does not read the daily papers with an eye for coffee ads. To
reach this individual through her mistress:
CAN YOU NAME YOUR COFFEE?
Or is it one of those many unknown brands that comes from the store
at the order of your cook? Let the cook do the ordering, for you
are lucky if you have one you can rely upon, but tell her you
prefer ANY BLEND to the No-Name Blend you may now be using. ANY
BLEND has one distinct advantage over all others; It Is freshly
roasted. Tell the kitchen-lady, now, to order ANY BLEND.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
_Advertising by Government Propaganda_
Advertising coffee by government propaganda has been indulged in with
more or less success by the British government in behalf of certain of
its colonial possessions; by the French and the Dutch; by Porto Rico,
Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Brazil. The markets most cultivated have been
Italy, France, England, Russia, Japan, and the United States.
Great Britain began the development of coffee cultivation in its
colonies in 1730. Parliament first reduced the inland duties. In many
ways it has since sought to encourage British-grown coffee, building up
a favoritism for it that is still reflected in Mincing Lane quotations.
The Netherlands government did the same thing for Java and Sumatra; and
France rendered a similar service to her own colonies.
Since Porto Rico became a part of the United States, several attempts
have been made by the island government and the planters to popularize
Porto Rico coffee in the United States. Scott Truxtun opened a
government agency in New York in 1905. Acting upon the counsel and
advice of the author, he prosecuted for several years a vigorous
campaign in behalf of the Porto Rico Planters' Protective Association.
The method followed for coffee was to appoint official brokers, and to
certify the genuineness of the product. Owing to insufficient funds and
the number of different products for which publicity was sought, the
coffee campaign was only moderately successful.
Mortimer Remington, formerly with the J. Walter Thompson Company, a New
York advertising agency, was appointed in 1912 commercial agent for the
Porto Rico Association, composed of island producers and merchants. Some
effective advertising in behalf of Porto Rico coffee was done in the
metropolitan district, where a number of high-class grocers were
prevailed upon to stock the product, which was packed under seal of the
association. As before, however, the other products handled--including
cigars, grape-fruit, pineapples, etc.--handicapped the work on coffee,
and the enterprise was abandoned. Subsequent efforts by the Washington
government to assist the Porto Ricans in evolving a practical plan to
extend their coffee market in the United States came to naught because
of too much "politics."
Beginning with the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915,
the government of Guatemala started a propaganda for its coffee in the
United States; as the European market, which had up till then absorbed
seventy-five percent of its product, was closed to it, owing to the
World War. E.H. O'Brien, a coffee broker of San Francisco, directed the
publicity. Some full pages were used in newspapers, but the main efforts
were directed at the coffee-roasting trade. The campaign, so far as it
went, was highly successful.
Costa Rica also gave special encouragement to coffee-trade interests
that offered to expand the United States market for Costa Rica coffee
during the World War.
For many years Colombia has been talking of making propaganda here for
its coffee, but thus far nothing of a constructive character has been
done.
São Paulo began in 1908 to make propaganda for its coffee by subsidizing
companies and individuals in consuming countries to promote consumption
of the Brazil product. A contract was entered into between the state of
São Paulo and the coffee firms of E. Johnston & Company and Joseph
Travers & Son, of London, to exploit Brazil coffee in the United
Kingdom. Similar contracts were made with coffee firms in other European
countries, notably in Italy and France. The subsidies were for five
years and took the form of cash and coffee. The English company was
known as the "State of São Paulo (Brazil) Pure Coffee Company, Ltd."
Fifty thousand pounds sterling was granted this enterprise, which
roasted and packed a brand known as "Fazenda;" promoted demonstrations
at grocers' expositions; and advertised in somewhat limited fashion. The
general effect upon the consumption of coffee in England was negligible,
however, although at one time some five thousand grocers were said to
have stocked the Fazenda brand. A feature of this propaganda was the use
of the Tricolator (an American device since better known in the United
States) to insure correct making of the beverage, Brazil also made
propaganda for its coffee in Japan, in 1915, as part of certain
undertakings involving the immigration of Japanese laborers to Brazil.
The Comité Français du Café was formed in Paris in July, 1921, to
co-operate with Brazil in an enterprise designed to increase the
consumption of coffee in France.
The chief fault in most of the coffee propagandas here and abroad has
been the doubtful practise of subsidizing particular coffee concerns
instead of spending the funds in a manner designed to distribute the
benefits among the trade as a whole. This mistake, and local politics in
the producing countries, have made for ultimate failure. A notable
exception is the latest propaganda for Brazil coffee in the United
States, where all the various interests, the the São Paulo government,
the growers, exporters, importers, roasters, jobbers, and dealers, have
co-operated in a plan of campaign to advertise coffee _per se_, and not
to secure special privilege to any individual, house, or group.
_Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Campaign_
Twenty years ago the author began an agitation for co-operative
advertising, by the coffee trade. He suggested as a slogan, "Tell the
truth about coffee;" and it is gratifying to find that many of his
original ideas have been embodied in the present joint coffee trade
publicity campaign, now in its fourth year.
[Illustration: THEODORE LANGGAARD DE MENEZES]
The coffee roasters at first were slow to respond to the co-operative
advertising suggestion, because in those days competition was more
unenlightened than now, and therefore more ruthless. It needed
organization to bring the trade to a better understanding of the
benefits certain to be shared by all when their individual interests
were pooled in a common cause. Leaders of the best thought in the trade,
however, were quick to realize that only by united effort was it
possible to achieve real progress; and when it was suggested that the
first step was to organize the roasting trade, the idea took so firm a
hold that it only needed some one to start it to bring together in one
combination the keenest minds in the business.
The coffee roasters organized their national association in 1911. The
author of this work urged that co-operative advertising based upon
scientific research should be done by the roasters themselves
independently of the growers; but it was found impracticable to unite
diverging interests on such an issue, and so the leaders of the movement
bent all their energies toward promoting a campaign that would be backed
jointly by growers and distributers, since both would receive equal
benefit from any resulting increase in consumption. Brazil, the source
of nearly three-quarters of the world's coffee, was the logical ally;
and an appeal was made to the planters of that country. A party of ten
leading United States roasters and importers visited Brazil in 1912 at
the invitation of the federal government.
In Brazil, as in the United States, progress resulted from organization.
The planters of the state of São Paulo, who produce more than one-half
of all coffee used in the United States, were the first to appreciate
the propaganda idea. After their attempts to interest the national
government failed, the São Paulo coffee men founded the _Sociedade
Promotora da Defesa do café_ (Society to Promote the Defense of Coffee),
and persuaded their state legislature to pass a law taxing every bag of
coffee shipped from the plantations of that state in a period of four
years. This tax, amounting to one hundred reis per bag of 132 pounds, or
about two and one-half cents United States money at even exchange rates,
is collected by the railroads from the shippers, and turned over to the
_Sociedade_.
The Brazilian Society sent to the United States a special envoy,
Theodore Langgaard de Menezes, to conclude arrangements; and on March 4,
1918, in New York, the pact was signed whereby São Paulo was to
contribute to the publicity campaign in the United States approximately
$960,000 at the rate of $240,000 a year for four years; and the members
of the trade in the United States were to contribute altogether
$150,000[346]. The success of the negotiations was due to the skilful
management of Ross W. Weir in the United States, and to the superior
salesmanship of Louis R. Gray, the Arbuckle representative in Brazil.
[Illustration: JOINT COFFEE TRADE PUBLICITY COMMITTEE IN UNITED STATES]
Supervision of the advertising in the United States was delegated to
five men, representing both the importing and roasting branches of the
trade, and designated as the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee of
the United States. Three of these committeemen, Ross W. Weir, of New
York; F.J. Ach, of Dayton, Ohio; and George S. Wright, of Boston, are
roasters; and two, William Bayne, Jr., and C.H. Stoffregen, both of New
York, are importers and jobbers, or green-coffee men. The committee
organized with Mr. Weir as chairman, Mr. Wright as treasurer, and Mr.
Stoffregen as secretary. At the invitation of the committee, C.W. Brand
of Cleveland, then president of the National Coffee Roasters
Association, attended committee meetings, and assisted in determining
the policies of the campaign. Headquarters were established at 74 Wall
Street, in the heart of the New York coffee district, with Felix Coste
as secretary-manager, and Allan P. Ames as publicity director. N.W. Ayer
& Son, advertising agents of Philadelphia, who had engineered the plan
of campaign from the start of the movement in the National Coffee
Roasters Association, handle the advertising account.
[Illustration: CHART SHOWING PLAN OF ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN]
São Paulo's contribution to the advertising fund is sent in monthly
instalments to the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee under an
agreement that it shall be expended only for magazine and newspaper
space.
[Illustration: JOINT-COMMITTEE MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER COPY, 1919]
[Illustration: COPY THAT STRESSED THE HEALTHFULNESS OF COFFEE,
1919-1920]
Supplementing this Brazilian contribution, is the fund raised by
voluntary subscriptions from the coffee trade of the United States on
the basis of one cent per bag handled annually. This American fund is
used for the expenses of administration, for educational advertising
outside of magazine and newspaper space, and for various kinds of trade
promotion and dealer stimulation.
[Illustration: THE JOINT COMMITTEE'S HOUSE ORGAN]
The first advertising appeared in April, 1919, in 306 leading newspapers
in 182 large cities, with a total circulation of more than 16,000,000.
The cities chosen represented all the centers of wholesale coffee
distribution.
Magazine advertising began in June of the same year, using twenty-one
periodicals, all of national circulation. This list has been changed
from time to time to meet the special needs of the campaign.
More than fifty grocery-trade magazines have carried the committee's
dealer advertising, although not all of these have been used
continuously. Every part of the country was represented on the
trade-paper list.
Full pages have been run each month in nine of the leading national
medical journals. These advertisements were written by a physician of
national reputation. Under the caption, "The Case for Coffee," these
advertisements have discussed the properties of coffee from the
physiological standpoint, and have asked the doctors to judge it fairly.
From the start the committee's advertising has been broadly educational.
The properties of coffee have been discussed; charges against coffee
have been answered. The housekeeper has been told how to get the best
results from the coffee she buys; hotel and restaurant proprietors have
been reminded that many of them owe their prosperity largely to a
reputation for serving good coffee; new uses have been exploited for
coffee, as a flavoring agent for desserts and other sweets; employers
have been taught the important service good coffee may render in
increasing the comfort and efficiency of their working forces.
[Illustration: INTRODUCTORY MEDICAL-JOURNAL COPY]
Magazine and newspaper advertising is only the nucleus of the campaign.
The effect of such "white space" publicity is increased by simultaneous
efforts to "merchandise" the campaign, to stimulate the interest of the
wholesale and retail trade, to encourage private-brand advertising, and
to reach the consumer by other kinds of publicity recognized as
essential factors in a well rounded national advertising effort. These
activities may be summarized as follows:
[Illustration: TELLING THE DOCTORS THE TRUTH ABOUT COFFEE, 1920]
INFORMATION SERVICE. This department answers inquiries and supplies
material for household editors, and for newspaper and magazine writers.
Through a national clipping service, it keeps in touch with all
published matter relating to coffee. Its special duty is to answer
attacks on coffee and the coffee trade. Merchants and dealers make it a
practise, when they find misleading articles or editorials in their
local newspapers, to send clippings to the committee's headquarters to
be handled there as the situation warrants.
SCIENTIFIC COFFEE RESEARCH. Twenty-two thousand, five hundred dollars of
the American fund have been appropriated thus far for scientific coffee
research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The reports of
this research will be distributed to the coffee trade throughout the
country, and should prove valuable in all branches of coffee
merchandising. The findings will be distributed by the committee to
schools and colleges, and to consumers through national advertising.
[Illustration: SOME OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE'S ATTRACTIVE BOOKLETS]
THE COFFEE CLUB. This organization was established for the purpose of
educating the consumer through constructive team work by the roasters'
and jobbers' salesman and the retail dealer. Under this plan, the
committee has distributed 50,000 transparent signs for dealers' windows,
and 5,000 bronze coffee-club buttons for coffee salesmen. By reference
to the Coffee Club in national magazine and newspaper advertising, the
retailer is given a chance to tie up with the campaign. Membership in
the club is limited to those who are contributing to the publicity fund,
and to their salesmen and customers. The club publishes a monthly
bulletin in newspaper form, giving the news of the campaign. This has a
circulation of 27,000 among wholesalers, salesman, and dealers.
[Illustration: MORE MEDICAL JOURNAL COPY, 1920]
BOOKLETS. The committee has published six booklets, which have reached
a total circulation of more than one and a half million copies. These
booklets are sold at cost to the coffee trade. The committee reports
that, on an average, one hundred requests for them are received daily at
its office from consumers in different parts of the country, and that
the booklets are the means of a constant campaign of education in
American homes and schools.
BRAND ADVERTISING. The committee is constantly making efforts to
increase the amount of private advertising by coffee roasters, and it
estimates that brand advertising has increased at least three hundred
percent since the national campaign began. Reproductions of the
committee's advertisements, proofs of advertising electrotypes, and copy
suggestions are circulated in advance to all roasters and to a large
number of retailers, by means of the monthly organ, _The Coffee Club_.
COFFEE WEEK. During the week of March 29 to April 4, 1920, the committee
organized and financed the third national coffee week, which was
observed by retailers throughout the country. The feature of this week
was a window-trimming contest for which prizes of $2,000 were
distributed among several hundred grocers. The contest resulted in
displays of coffee in nearly 10,000 grocery windows, and greatly
increased the sale and consumption of coffee during this period.
MOTION PICTURES. The United States fund financed the production and
distribution of a coffee motion picture, 128 prints of which were sold
to roasters, who exhibited them throughout the country. This picture was
shown during coffee week to more than six hundred theater audiences, and
it remains in the possession of the trade as an active advertising
medium.
[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF THE 1921 MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER COPY]
[Illustration: EDUCATING THE DOCTOR IN THE FACTS ABOUT COFFEE, 1922]
NEW USES FOR COFFEE. An important factor in increasing consumption has
been the promotion of new uses for coffee. In winter, this has taken the
form or recipes and suggestions for coffee as a flavoring agent; and in
warm weather, there has been a publicity drive for iced coffee.
_Propaganda Results_
The joint coffee trade publicity campaign is progressive. New features
are being developed, and plans are laid well in advance. It is expected
that the reports of the scientific research will furnish fresh material
for both direct and indirect advertising.
One of the interesting prospects is a school exhibit, demand for which
has been revealed by requests from a large number of teachers,
principals, and school superintendents. Efforts to increase the
popularity of a product as widely used as coffee suggest almost
unlimited opportunities.
The campaign has brought into co-operation producers in one country, and
manufacturers and distributers in another country, several thousand
miles apart. Its international character, and also the fact that it
deals with a product of almost universal use, may account for the
attention this campaign has received, not only in the United States, but
in every country where advertising is a business factor.
This kind of coffee publicity has given the consumer a better knowledge
of coffee, and broken down much of the prejudice against coffee that
rested upon popular misunderstanding of its physiological effects.
As best evidence of its sincere wish to give the public the whole truth
about coffee, the committee points to the fact that a portion of its
funds is being used to finance the scientific investigation at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Felix Coste, the secretary-manager of the campaign, spends much of his
time traveling about the country and addressing gatherings of coffee
wholesalers and dealers. By this means, and by continuous
circularization and correspondence, the trade is kept constantly in
touch with the developments of the campaign.
[Illustration: MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING COPY, SPRING OF 1922]
[Illustration: PRIVATE BRAND COFFEE ADVERTISING IN 1921
Report from 77 Advertisers]
Although Brazil is the only coffee-producing country at present
co-operating, the advertising has treated all coffees alike. Efforts are
being made to have the coffee growers of other countries contribute on a
basis proportionate to the benefit they derive. Support from all the
coffee countries on the same scale as that on which the producers of São
Paulo are contributing would almost double the size of the fund.
[Illustration: SPECIMEN OF EARLY YUBAN COPY]
_Coffee Advertising Efficiency_
Reverting to the original advertisement for coffee in English, when we
compare it with the latest examples of advertising art, it is of the
same order of merit. But Pasqua Rosée had no advertising experts to
advise him and no precedents to follow. Pasqua Rosée was a native of
Smyrna, who was brought to London by a Mr. Edwards, a dealer in Turkish
merchandise, to whom he acted as a sort of personal servant. One of his
principal duties was the preparation of Mr. Edwards' morning drink of
Turkish coffee.
"But the novelty thereof," history tells us, "drawing too much company
to him, he [Mr. Edwards] allowed his said servant, with another of his
son-in-law, to sell it publicly." So it came about that Pasqua Rosée set
up a coffee house in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill.
And since Pasqua Rosée's idea, naturally, was to acquaint the London
public with the virtues and delectable qualities of the product of which
his prospective customers were naturally uniformed, he put into his
advertisement those facts and arguments which he felt would be most
likely to attract attention, to excite interest, and to convince. If the
reader will glance at Rosée's advertisement, which is reproduced on page
55, he will be struck with the well-nigh irresistible charm of his
unaffected, straightforward bid for patronage. Having no advertising
fetishes to warp his judgment, he told an interesting story in a natural
manner, carrying conviction. It matters not that some of the virtues
attributed to the drink have since been disallowed. He believed them to
be true. Few there were in those days who knew the real "truth about
coffee."
Even his typography, unstudied from the standpoint of modern "display,"
is attractive, appropriate, and exceedingly pleasant to the eye. And
since at that time there was no cereal substitute or other bugaboos to
contend against, and to hinder him from doing the simple, obvious thing
in advertising, he did that very thing--and did it exceedingly well.
[Illustration: HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION IN ADVERTISING]
[Illustration: PACKAGE-COFFEE ADVERTISING IN 1922
Specimens of newspaper copy used by some of the most enterprising
package-coffee advertisers, East and West]
In fact, in the historic advertisement, Pasqua Rosée set an example and
established a copy standard which had a very beneficial effect on all
the coffee advertising of that early date. This will be evident from a
glance at the accompanying exhibits of other early advertisements. It
was not until the days of so-called "modern" advertising that coffee
publicity reached low-water mark in efficiency and value. In these dark
days most coffee advertisers ignored the principles discovered and
applied in other lines of grocery merchandising. Instead of telling
their public how good their product was, they actually followed the
opposite course, and warned the public against the dangers of coffee
drinking! Instead of saying to the public, "Coffee has many virtues, and
our brand is one of the best examples," their text said in effect,
"Coffee has many deleterious properties; some, or most, of which have
been eliminated in our particular brand."
They were, for the most part, apostles of negation.
[Illustration: EMPHASIZING THE SOCIAL-DISTINCTION ARGUMENT]
[Illustration: DRAWING UPON HISTORY FOR SOCIAL-INTERCOURSE ATMOSPHERE]
Hopeful signs, however, are multiplying that this condition of things in
the coffee industry has passed, and that the practise of telling the
coffee story with certitude will soon become general.
We may well applaud the publicity work of all coffee advertisers who
follow where Pasqua Rosée led--those who tell the public how good coffee
is to drink and how much good it does you if you drink it. Considering
the advertising and typographical resources available to the modern
advertiser, it certainly should be possible for this message to be
conveyed to the public with at least some of the charm of the first
coffee message.
One of the most notable examples of how to advertise coffee well is that
set by Yuban coffee. Unquestionably, Yuban is doing in a thoroughly
up-to-date and appropriate fashion what Pasqua Rosée started out to do
in 1652.
The effect on those who give only a superficial glance at a Yuban
advertisement is to arouse a keen desire to enjoy a cup of Yuban coffee.
To induce such a state of mind is, of course, the object of all good
advertising.
[Illustration: AN ELECTRIC SIGN THAT IMPRESSED CHICAGO
There were 4,000 bulbs in this advertisement, which measured 50 x 55
feet. The rental was $3,500 a month]
Yuban advertisements have utilized two vital principles in influencing
the minds of consumers. In the first place, they have made a cup of
coffee seem to be a very delectable drink. In the second place, they
have made the serving of a cup of coffee seem to be of the greatest
social value.
One does not see in a Yuban advertisement any reference to the "removal
of caffein", or to Yuban's "freedom from defects common to other
coffees." There is no reference to the ill effects of drinking ordinary
coffee. Yuban wastes no valuable space in unselling coffee. Instead, the
whole intent, effectively carried out, is to paint an enticing picture
by descriptive phraseology, typographic "manner", and illustrative
treatment.
Until Yuban came, those of us in the coffee trade who had given the
matter thought had often wondered why, with the wealth of material
available to writers of coffee advertisements, so little had been done
to make the product alluring--why so little had been done to give
atmosphere to the product. So many interesting things may be said about
the history of coffee; the spread of the industry through various
countries; how Brazil came to be the coffee-producing country of the
world; how coffee is cultivated, harvested, and shipped; how it is
stored, roasted, handled, delivered--in short, the entire process by
which coffee reaches the breakfast table from the plantations of the
tropics. Yuban made effective use of this material.
Simply to tell these things in an interesting, natural, convincing way
makes coffee appear as a healthful, delicious drink; whereas the
negative, defensive sort of advertising, that plays into the hands of
the substitutes, puts coffee in the wrong light.
[Illustration: HOW THREE WELL KNOWN BRANDS OF COFFEE HAVE BEEN
ADVERTISED OUTDOORS]
[Illustration: ATTENTION-ATTRACTING CAR CARDS, SPRING OF 1922]
[Illustration: EFFECTIVE ICED-COFFEE COPY--ADAPTABLE FOR ANY BRAND]
When one reads Yuban advertisements, they are seen to be an entirely
acceptable and appropriate presentation of coffee merit and thoroughly
in accord with the principles of good advertising, as exemplified in all
other lines of trade. The wonder grows why so many coffee advertisers
have been content to remain in the defensive, controversial position
into which the alarmist coffee-substitute advertising has jockeyed them.
The Yuban advertisements are not without their faults; errors of
historical facts can be found in them; definitions are sometimes mixed;
some of the drawings might be better; but, in the main, the copy is
convincing and praiseworthy.
In Yuban advertisements the things that have been so long left undone
have now been done in a masterful way. If we refer to the accompanying
illustrations, we can see how effectively the public is being led to
realize and believe in:
1. The intrinsic desirability of coffee--the actual pleasure to be
derived from the act of partaking of it.
2. That it is delightful medium for social intercourse--part of the
essential equipment for an intimate chat or more general assemblage of
friends.
3. That its proper service is a badge of social distinction--the mark of
a successful hostess.
These three thoughts, dominant in Yuban advertising, should be woven
into the fabric of all coffee advertising. For with these three
thoughts, Arbuckle Brothers have blazed the trail for the right thing in
coffee advertising.
The Yuban case has been so largely dwelt upon here because it sets so
bright and shining an example. Much that is praiseworthy in it and more
along the same lines is true of White House, Hotel Astor, and Seal
Brand; but the copy shown will illustrate this better than any comment.
[Illustration: EUROPEAN ADVERTISING NOVELTY IN NEW YORK
The absence of visible wheels aroused much curiosity in this slow-moving
vehicle]
[Illustration: COENTIES SLIP, NEW YORK, IN THE DAYS OF SAILING VESSELS
Many coffee ships from the West Indies, Arabia and the Dutch East Indies
unloaded their cargoes here--From a copper-plate etching by F. Lee
Hunter]
CHAPTER XXIX
THE COFFEE TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES
_The coffee business started by Dorothy Jones of Boston--Some early
sales--Taxes imposed by Congress in war and peace--The first coffee
plantation-machine, coffee-roaster, coffee-grinder, and coffee-pot
patents--Early trade marks for coffee--Beginnings of the coffee
urn, the coffee container, and the soluble-coffee
business--Statistics of distribution of coffee-roasting
establishments in the trade from the eighteenth century to the
twentieth_
It appears from the best evidence obtainable that the coffee trade of
the United States was started by a woman, one Dorothy Jones of Boston.
At least, Dorothy Jones was the first person in the colonies to whom a
license was issued, in 1670, to sell coffee. It is not clear whether she
sold the product in the green bean, roasted, "garbled" (ground), or
"ungarbled".
Soon after the introduction of the coffee drink into the New England,
New York, and Pennsylvania colonies, trading began in the raw product.
William Penn bought his green coffee supplies in the New York market in
1683, paying for them at the rate of $4.68 a pound. Benjamin Franklin
engaged in the retail coffee business in Philadelphia, in 1740, as a
kind of side line to his printing business.
"Tea, coffee, indigo, nutmegs, sugar etc." were being advertised for
sale in 1748 at a shop in Boston, "under the vendue-room in
Dock-Square." Coffee was also to be had in that year at the shop of
Ebenezer Lowell in King Street, and at the Sign of the Four Sugar Loaves
near the head of Long Wharf.
During the sway of the coffee houses, coffee fell from $4.68 a pound to
40 cents a pound in 1750, and to 22 cents a pound just before the
Revolution. As the war came on, however, dealers began to force up
prices on a dwindling market. The situation became so serious that in
January, 1776, the Philadelphia Commission of Inspection issued a
fair-price list, setting an arbitrary price of eleven pence per pound on
coffee in bag lots. Persons found violating this price were to be
"exposed to public view as sordid vultures preying on the vitals of the
country."
Despite this threat, J. Peters in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, wrote to a
Philadelphia friend, "I cannot purchase any coffee without taking, too,
one bill a tierce of Claret & Sour, and at £6.8 per gall.... I have been
trying day for day, & never could get a grain of Coffee so as to sell it
at the limited price these six weeks. It may be bought, but at 25/ per
lb."
The important part played by the coffee houses of colonial America,
beginning with the establishment of the London coffee house in Boston,
in 1689, the King's Arms in New York in 1696, and Ye coffee house in
Philadelphia in 1700, has been related.
"Females" of ye olde Boston, staging in 1777 a "coffee party" which
rivaled in a small way the famous Tea Party in 1773, personally
chastised a profiteer hoarder of foodstuffs, and confiscated some of his
stock, according to a letter from Abigail Adams to her distinguished
husband, later second president of the United States.
Writing at Boston, under date of July 31, 1777, Abigail wrote to John,
then attending the Continental Congress at Philadelphia:
There is a great scarcity of sugar and coffee, articles which the
female part of the state is very loath to give up, especially
whilst they consider the great scarcity occasioned by the merchants
having secreted a large quantity. It is rumored that an eminent
stingy merchant, who is a bachelor, had a hogshead of coffee in his
store, which he refused to sell under 6 shillings per pound.
A number of females--some say a hundred, some say more--assembled
with a cart and trunk, marched down to the warehouse, and demanded
the keys.
Upon his finding no quarter, he delivered the keys, and they then
opened the warehouse, hoisted out the coffee themselves, put it
into a trunk, and drove off. A large concourse of men stood amazed,
silent spectators of the whole transaction.
In 1783-84 the Congress of the United States considered the imposition
of a duty on "seven classes of goods consumed by the rich or in general
use; liquors, sugars, teas, coffees, cocoa, molasses and pepper; the tax
to be determined by the yearly imports."
At that time there was being imported twelve times as much Bohea tea as
of all others, but tea consumption was only one-twelfth pound per
capita. Total tea imports were 325,000 pounds. "Low as was the
importation of tea", says John Bach McMaster, "that of coffee was lower
still by a third. Indeed, it was scarcely used outside of the great
cities." The average annual coffee imports at that period were 200.000
pounds.
Governor Bowdoin of Massachusetts introduced chicory into the United
States in 1785.
The first import duty, of two and one-half cents a pound, was levied on
coffee by the United States in 1789. The principal sources of supply up
to that time were the Dutch East Indies, Arabia, Haiti, and Jamaica; and
most of the business was in the hands of Dutch and English traders.
What is thought to be the first wholesale coffee-roasting plant in
America began operations at 4 Great Dock (now Pearl) Street, New York,
early in 1790. In that same year the first American advertisement for
coffee appeared in the _New York Daily Advertiser_. A second "coffee
manufactory" started up at 232 Queen (also Pearl) Street, New York, late
in 1790.
In the same year, 1790, the government increased the import duty on
coffee to four cents a pound. In 1794 the tax was raised to five cents a
pound.
In George Washington's household account book for 1793 appears an entry
showing a purchase of coffee from Benjamin Dorsay, a Philadelphia
grocer, for eight dollars. The quantity is not given.
About 1804 Captain Joseph Ropes in the ship Recovery, of Salem, Mass.,
brought from Mocha the first cargo of coffee and other East Indian
produce in an American bottom.
The first cargo of Brazil coffee, consisting of 1,522 bags, was received
at Salem, Mass., per ship Marquis de Someruelas in 1809. Brazil's total
production that year was less than 30,000 bags; but by 1871 more than
2,000,000 bags were exported.
Java coffee could be bought on the Amsterdam market in 1810 for 42 to 46
cents. By 1812, there had been an advance to $1.08 per pound. Holland,
not Brazil, ruled the world's coffee markets in those days.
When the war of 1812 made necessary more revenue, imports of coffee were
taxed ten cents a pound. A war-time fever of speculation in tea and
coffee followed, and by 1814 prices to the consumer had advanced to such
an extent (coffee was 45 cents a pound) that the citizens of
Philadelphia formed a non-consumption association, each member pledging
himself "not to pay more than 25 cents a pound for coffee and not to
consume tea that wasn't already in the country."
The coffee duty was reduced in 1816 to five cents a pound; in 1830, to
two cents; in 1831, to one cent; and in 1832 coffee was placed on the
free list. It remained there until 1861, when a duty of four cents a
pound was again imposed as a war-revenue measure. This was increased to
five cents in 1862. It was reduced to three cents in 1871; and the duty
was repealed in 1872. Coffee has remained on the free list ever since.
The manufacture of machinery required in the coffee business began in
the eighteenth century. The first coffee-grinder patent in the United
States was issued to Thomas Bruff, Sr., in 1798. The first United States
patent on an improvement on a roaster was issued to Peregrine Williamson
of Baltimore in 1820. The first United States patent on a
coffee-plantation machine, a coffee huller, was granted to Nathan Reed
of Belfast, Me., in 1822. The first United States coffee-maker patent
was issued to Lewis Martelley of New York, in 1825.
[Illustration: FIRST UNITED STATES COFFEE-GRINDER PATENT]
Charles Parker, of Meriden, Conn., began work on the original Parker
coffee mill in 1828.
A complete English coffee roasting and grinding plant was installed in
New York City by James Wild in 1833-34.
About 1840, Central America began making shipments of coffee to the
United States.
James Carter, of Boston, was granted (1846) a United States patent on an
improved form of cylindrical coffee roaster, which subsequently was
largely adopted by the trade in the United States, being popularly known
as the Carter "pull-out".
[Illustration: CARTER'S PULL-OUT ROASTER PATENT]
The Geo. L. Squier Manufacturing Co. of Buffalo began in 1857 the
manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery. Marcus Mason invented his
first pulper in 1860; but the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery
under the firm name of Marcus Mason & Co. did not begin in the United
States until 1873.
The first paper-bag factory in the United States to make bags for loose
coffee, began operations in Brooklyn in 1862.
The first ground-coffee package was put on the New York market about
1860-63 by Lewis A. Osborn. It was known as Osborn's Celebrated Prepared
Java Coffee and was later exploited by Thomas Reid as Osborn's Old
Government Java.
In 1864, Jabez Burns was granted a patent on the Burns roaster which was
to revolutionize the coffee-roasting business.
In 1865, John Arbuckle brought out in Pittsburgh the first roasted
coffee in individual packages "like peanuts", the forerunner of the
Ariosa package.
In 1869, B.G. Arnold started the first big speculation in coffee and for
ten years thereafter he was absolute dictator of the American coffee
trade.
In 1869, three United States patents on a copper coffee urn lined with
block tin were granted to Élie Moneuse and L. Duparquet of New York.
In 1870, John Gulick Baker, one of the founders of the Enterprise
Manufacturing Company of Pennsylvania, was granted a United States
patent on a coffee grinder which subsequently became one of the most
popular store mills.
The first trade mark registered for coffee or coffee essence bears the
number 425, with date August 22, 1871, first use 1870, and is in the
name of Butler, Earhart & Co., Columbus, Ohio. The words "essence of
coffee" appeared on the label. The next coffee mark was registered by
Butler, Earhart & Co., October 3, 1871, number 455, first use, 1870. It
consists of the word "Buckeye" with a branch of the buckeye
(horse-chestnut) tree.
[Illustration: FIRST REGISTERED TRADE MARK FOR COFFEE, 1871]
The next registration for coffee was in the name of John Ashcroft of
Brooklyn. It is numbered 533, and the date is November 28, 1871. It
consists of an anchor and chain enclosing a star. Ashcroft registered
also a design of a coffee pot with the words "Mocha Steam", January 2,
1872.
Today there are nearly three thousand registered trade-mark names used
for coffee on file in the United States Patent Office in Washington.
In 1873, Ariosa, the first successful national brand of package coffee,
was launched in Pittsburg by John Arbuckle.
In the same year, 1873, the first United States patent on a coffee
substitute was issued to E. Dugdale of Griffin, Ga.
In 1878, Chase & Sanborn, the Boston coffee roasters, were the first to
pack and to ship roasted coffee in sealed cans. A lead seal was used for
the large packages of bulk coffee; the smaller sizes being sealed by the
label, which was made to cover the body of the can and to reach up over
the slip cover, so as to make a sealed package, to open which the label
must be broken.
In 1878, Jabez Burns, the coffee-machinery man, founded the _Spice
Mill_, the first publication in America devoted to the coffee and spice
trades.
In 1879, Charles Halstead brought out the first metal coffee pot with a
china interior.
In 1880, Henry E. Smyser, of Philadelphia, invented a
package-making-and-filling machine for coffee, the forerunner of the
weighing-and-packing machine, the control of which later on by John
Arbuckle led to the coffee-sugar war with the Havemeyers. Smyser was
superintendent at the plant of the Weikel & Smith Spice Company,
Philadelphia. Other patents on weighing and package-making machines were
granted him in 1884, 1888, and 1891. In 1892, he began to assign his
patents to Arbuckle Brothers, some fifteen in all being granted him from
1892 to 1898. He died in 1899.
The year 1880 was notable for the many failures in the American coffee
trade, as a result of syndicate planting and speculative buying of
coffees in Brazil, Mexico, and Central America.
In 1881, Steele & Price, of Chicago, were the first to introduce to the
trade all-paper cans, made of strawboard, for coffee.
In 1881, the New York Coffee Exchange was incorporated, beginning
business the year following at Beaver and Pearl Streets. In 1885, the
property of the Exchange was transferred to the Coffee Exchange of the
City of New York, incorporated by special charter.
In 1884, the Chicago Liquid Sack Company brought out the first
combination paper and tin-end containers for coffee.
The year 1887-88 was marked by a big boom in coffee, the total sales on
the Coffee Exchange amounting to 47,868,750 bags. Between July 1886 and
June 1887 prices advanced 1,485 points.
In 1888, the Engelberg Huller Company of Syracuse, New York, began the
manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery.
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL ARBUCKLE COFFEE PACKAGES]
In 1891, the New England Automatic Weighing Machine Company, Boston,
Mass. began the manufacture of machines to weigh coffee into cartons and
other packages; and in 1894, installed in the Chase & Sanborn plant at
Boston the first automatic weighing machine in the coffee trade. The New
England concern was subsequently (1901) succeeded by the Automatic
Weighing Machine Company of Newark, N.J.
In 1893, the first direct-flame gas coffee roaster in America
(Tupholme's English machine) was installed by F.T. Holmes at the plant
of the Potter-Parlin Company, New York.
In 1893, Cirilo Mingo, of New Orleans, was granted a United States
patent on a method of aging green coffee to give it the characteristics
of green coffee stored in a confined space for a long period. The
operation consisted in placing layers of green coffee between dry and
wet empty coffee bags, and permitting the beans to absorb eight to ten
percent of the moisture in a period extending from six to sixteen hours.
This was one of the earliest efforts to mature and age green coffee in
the United States.
In 1894, the business of the Pneumatic Scale Corporation, Norfolk Downs,
Mass., had its start in Quincy, Mass. where the first pneumatic weighing
machine was installed by the Purity Dried Fruits Cleansing Company. In
1895, the Electric Scale Company was organized to build the machines,
the subsequent development of this line of packaging machinery for
coffee being directed by the Pneumatic Scale Corporation, Ltd., which
succeeded it.
In 1895, Adolph Kraut introduced the German-made grease-proof lined
paper bags for coffee to the American coffee trade. That same year,
Thomas M. Royal, of Philadelphia, began the manufacture in the United
States of a fancy duplex-lined paper bag for coffee.
In 1896, natural gas was first used in the United States as a fuel for
roasting coffee.
In 1897, Joseph Lambert, Vermont, first introduced to the coffee trade a
self-contained coffee roasting outfit without the brick setting required
until then.
In 1897, the Enterprise Manufacturing Company of Pennsylvania was the
first regularly to employ an electric motor to drive a coffee mill.
The overproduction of coffee began to be so serious a question by 1898,
that J.D. Olavarria, a distinguished Venzuelan, proposed a plan for the
restriction of coffee cultivation and the regulation of coffee exports
from countries suffering from overproduction. In this same year, the
bears forced Rio 7's down to four and one-half cents on the New York
Coffee Exchange.
In 1898, Edward Norton, of New York, was granted a United States patent
on a vacuum process for canning foods, subsequently applied to coffee.
Others followed. Hills Brothers, of San Francisco, were the first to
pack coffee in a vacuum, under the Norton patents, in 1900. M.J.
Brandenstein & Company, of San Francisco, began to pack coffee in vacuum
cans in 1914. Vacuum sealing machines to pack coffee under the Norton
patents are now made by the Perfect Vacuum Canning Company of New York.
About 1899, Dr. Sartori Kato of Tokio, who had invented a soluble tea in
Japan, came to Chicago and produced a soluble coffee (introduced to the
consumer in 1901) on which he was granted a patent in 1903. In 1906, G.
Washington of New York, an American chemist living in Guatemala City,
produced a refined soluble coffee which was put on the United States
market three years later. The full story of soluble coffee in America is
told in chapter XXXI. (See page 538.)
The first gear-driven electric coffee mill was introduced to the trade
by the Enterprise Manufacturing Company of Pennsylvania in 1900.
In 1901, there appeared in New York the first issue of _The Tea and
Coffee Trade Journal_, devoted to the interests of the tea and coffee
trades.
In 1900-01, Santos permanently displaced Rio as the world's largest
source of supply.
In 1901, the American Can Company began the manufacture and sale of tin
coffee cans in the United States. In this year Landers, Frary & Clark's
Universal coffee percolator was granted a United States patent; and
Joseph Lambert, of Marshall, Mich., brought out one of the earliest
machines to employ gas as a fuel for the indirect roasting of coffee. It
was in 1901, also, that F.T. Holmes joined the Huntley Manufacturing
Company, of Silver Creek, N.Y., which began to build the Monitor
gas-fired direct-flame coffee roasters.
In 1902, the Coles Manufacturing Company (Braun Company, successor) and
Henry Troemner, of Philadelphia, began the manufacture and sale of
gear-driven electric coffee grinders.
As a result of the agitation for some way to deal with the
overproduction of coffee, the Pan-American Congress, meeting in Mexico
City in 1902, called an international coffee congress for New York in
the fall of that same year. It met from October 1 to October 30; but at
the close, the problem seemed no nearer solution than at the beginning.
In 1906, Brazil produced its record-breaking crop of 20,000,000 bags,
and the state of São Paulo inaugurated a plan to valorize coffee.
In 1902, the first fancy duplex paper bag made by machinery from a roll
of paper was produced by the Union Bag & Paper Corporation. It was of
sulphite fiber inside, and glassine outside; a style afterward reversed,
so as to have the glassine the inner tube.
In 1902, the Jagenberg Machine Company, Inc. (absorbed by the Pneumatic
Scale Corporation in 1921) began the introduction to the trade of the
United States of a line of German-made automatic packaging-and-labeling
machines for coffee. Subsequently, the Johnson Automatic Sealer Company,
Battle Creek, Mich., became well known as manufacturers of a line of
automatic adjustable carton-sealing, wax-wrapping machines, package
conveyors, and automatic scales. Among other automatic weighers that
have figured in the development of the coffee business, mention should
be made of The National Packaging Machinery Company's Scott machine, of
E.D. Anderson's Triumph, and of Hoepner's Unit System.
In 1903, as a result of overproduction in Brazil, Santos 4's dropped to
three and fifty-five hundredths cents on the New York Coffee Exchange,
the lowest price ever recorded for coffee.
In 1903, also, there was granted the first United States patent on an
electric coffee-roaster, the patentee being George C. Lester of New
York.
In 1904, green coffee prices on the New York Coffee Exchange were forced
up to eleven and eighty-five hundredths cents by a speculative clique
led by D.J. Sully.
In 1905, the A.J. Deer Co., Buffalo, N. Y. (now of Hornell, N.Y.) began
the sale of its Royal electric coffee mills direct to dealers on the
instalment plan, revolutionizing the former practise of selling coffee
mills through hardware jobbers.
In 1905, F.A. Cauchois introduced to the trade his Private Estate coffee
maker, a filtration device employing Japanese filter paper. Finley
Acker, of Philadelphia, obtained a patent the same year on a
side-perforation percolator employing "porous or bibulous paper" as a
filtering medium.
In 1906, H.D. Kelly, of Kansas City, was granted a United States patent
on an urn coffee machine employing a coffee extractor in which the
ground coffee was continually agitated before percolation by a vacuum
process.
In 1907, P.E. Edtbauer (Mrs. E. Edtbauer), of Chicago, was granted a
United States patent on a duplex automatic weighing machine, the first
simple, fast, accurate and moderate-priced machine for weighing coffee.
Eight others followed up to 1920.
In 1907, the new Pure Food and Drugs Act came into force in the United
States, making it obligatory to label all coffees correctly and causing
many trade practises to be altered or thrown into the discard. The most
important rulings that followed are referred to in more detail in
chapter XXIII, telling how green coffees are bought and sold.
In 1908, the Porto Rico coffee planters, presented a memorial to the
Congress asking for a protective tariff of six cents a pound on all
foreign coffees. Hawaii and the Philippines, also were to have
benefited by the protection asked for. The Congress failed to grant the
planters' prayer. This appeal for protection was repeated in 1921, when
the Congress was asked to place a duty of five cents a pound on all
foreign coffees.
In 1908, J.C. Prims, of Battle Creek, Mich. was granted a United States
patent on a corrugated cylinder improvement for a gas and coal coffee
roaster of fifty to one hundred and thirty pounds capacity designed for
retail stores. This machine was acquired the year following by the A.J.
Deer Company, and was re-introduced to the trade as the Royal roaster.
In 1908, Brazil's valorization-of-coffee enterprise was saved from
disaster by a combination of bankers and the Brazil Government. A loan
of $75,000,000 was placed, through Hermann Sielcken of New York, with
banking houses in England, Germany, France, Belgium, and America. The
complete story of this undertaking is told in chapter XXXI.
In 1909, Ludwig Roselius brought to America from Germany the
caffein-free coffee which for several years had been manufactured and
sold in Bremen under the Myer, Roselius, and Wimmer patent. In 1910, the
product was first sold here by Merck & Company under the name of Dekafa,
later Dekofa, and in 1914, by the Kaffee Hag Corporation as Kaffee Hag.
In 1911 all-fiber parchment-lined Damptite cans for coffee were
introduced to the trade by the American Can Company.
As a result of preliminary meetings of Mississippi Valley coffee
roasters held in St. Louis in May and June, 1911, when the Coffee
Roasters Traffic and Pure Food Association was organized, a national
association under the same name was started in Chicago, November 16-17,
1911. The complete story of the growth of this most important coffee
trade organization in the United States is told in the next chapter.
In 1912, the United States government, after having examined into the
valorization enterprise, brought suit against Hermann Sielcken, _et
al._, to force the sale of valorized coffee stocks held in this country
under the valorization agreement.
In October, 1914, the first national coffee week to advertise coffee was
promoted by the National Coffee Roasters Association.
_Merchants Coffee House Memorial_
On May 23, 1914, the Lower Wall Street Business Men's Association
unveiled a bronze memorial tablet set in the wall of the nine-story
office building occupied by the Federal Refining Company on the
southeast corner of Wall and Water Streets, the former site of the
Merchants' coffee house. This is the building where _The Tea and Coffee
Trade Journal_ had its offices for nine years before moving to 79 Wall
Street.
[Illustration: MERCHANTS COFFEE HOUSE TABLET
Bronze marker, placed May 23, 1914, on the building occupying the site
of the old coffee house]
Seth Low, introduced by William Bayne, Jr., president of the Lower Wall
Street Business Men's Association, gave an interesting sketch of the
history of the coffee house. Abram Wakeman, secretary of the
association, spoke, followed by Wilberforce Eames, of the American
history division of the New York Public Library.
After the flag that veiled the memorial tablet had been drawn aside,
attention was called to a bronze chest which was hermetically sealed,
and in which had been placed papers and other documents reflecting the
life of New York today. The chest was given over to the keeping of the
New York Historical Society, with the understanding that it was not to
be opened until 1974, which will be the two-hundredth anniversary of the
union of the Colonies.
It was from the Merchants' coffee house that the letter of May 23, 1774,
was written in reply to the Committee of Correspondence in Boston. The
letter suggested a "Congress of Deputies" from the Colonies, and called
for a "virtuous and spirited Union." The coffee house is consequently
regarded as the birthplace of the Union.
_Recent Activities_
A second national coffee week was held in October, 1915, under the
auspices of the National Coffee Roasters' Association.
In 1916, the Coffee Exchange of the City of New York changed its name to
the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, to admit of sugar trading.
In 1916, the National Paper Can Company of Milwaukee first introduced to
the trade its new hermetically sealed all-paper can for coffee.
In 1916, Jules Le Page, Darlington, Ind., was granted two United States
patents on cutting rolls to cut and not grind or crush corn, wheat, or
coffee. This idea was incorporated in the Ideal steel cut coffee mill
subsequently marketed by the B.F. Gump Company, Chicago.
In 1918, the World War caused the United States government to place
coffee importers, brokers, jobbers, roasters, and wholesalers under a
war-time licensing system to control imports and prices.
In 1918, John E. King, of Detroit, was granted a United States patent on
an irregular grind of coffee consisting of coarsely grinding ten percent
of the product and finely grinding ninety percent.
The most notable event of the year 1919 was the inauguration by the
Brazil planters, in co-operation with an American joint coffee trade
publicity committee, of the million-dollar campaign to advertise coffee
in the United States.
In 1919, as a result of frost damage, and of an orgy of speculation in
Brazil, prices for green coffee on the New York Exchange were forced to
the highest levels since 1870; and a new high record was established for
futures, twenty-four and sixty-five hundredths cents for July contracts.
In 1919, Floyd W. Robison, of Detroit, was granted a United States
patent on a process for aging green coffee by treating it with
micro-organisms, the product being known as Cultured coffee.
In the spring of 1920, there was held the third national coffee week,
this time under the auspices of the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity
Committee.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXX
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREEN AND ROASTED COFFEE BUSINESS IN THE UNITED
STATES
_A brief history of the growth of coffee trading--Notable firms and
personalities that have played important parts in green coffee in
the principal coffee centers--Green coffee trade
organizations--Growth of the wholesale coffee-roasting trade, and
names of those who have made history in it--The National Coffee
Roasters Association--Statistics of distribution of coffee-roasting
establishments in the United States_
Coffee trading in the American colonies probably had its beginnings
about the middle of the seventeenth century. Tea seems to have preceded
coffee as an article of merchandise. Several merchants in the New
England and New York settlements imported small quantities of coffee
with other foodstuffs toward the close of the seventeenth century.
The early supplies of the green bean were brought from the Dutch East
Indies, Arabia, Haiti, and Jamaica. About 1787, the French opened
Mauritius and Bourbon to American ships, which then began to bring back
coffee and tea to the Atlantic-coast cities. Mocha coffee was being
imported direct in American bottoms about 1804. Coffee from Brazil was
first imported by the United States in 1809. Central America began
shipping coffee to the United States in 1840. The total coffee imports
in 1876 were 339,789,246 pounds, valued at $56,788,997, and received
chiefly from Brazil, Haiti, British and Dutch East Indies, the West
Indies, and Mexico.
New York early became the leading green-coffee market of the country.
There was a number of large importing merchants in New York in 1760,
nearly all of whom brought in coffee. Among them were Isaac and Nicholas
Gouverneur, Robert Murray, Walter and Samuel Franklin, John and Henry
Cruger, the Livingstons, the Beekmans, Lott & Low, Philip Cuyler,
Anthony Van Dam, Hugh and Alexander Wallace, Leonard and Anthony
Lispenard, Theophylact Bache, and William Walton.
Some early green-coffee prices per pound were as follows:
1683--18s. 9d.; 1743--5s.; 1746--5s.; 1774--9s.; 1781[347]--96s. O.T.;
1782--2s. 1d. O.T.; 1783--1s.; 1789--10 cents.
Leading New York coffee importers in 1786 were Henry Sheaff, on the dock
between Burling Slip and the Fly Market; John Rooney, 26 Cherry Street;
William Eccles, 10 Hunters Key; Ludlow & Goold, 47 Wall Street; Scriba,
Schroppel & Starmen, 17 Queen Street; and William Taylor, Crane Wharf.
The wholesale coffee roaster appeared about 1790; and from that time the
separation between the green-coffee trader and the coffee roaster became
more marked. In 1794 the principal green-coffee importers in New York
were: Lawrence & Van Zandt; D. Smith & Co., 323 Pearl Street; Gilchrist
Dickinson, 17 Taylor's Wharf; Armstrong & Barnewall, 129 Water Street;
William Bowne, 265 Pearl Street; Stephen Cole & Son, 26 Ferry Street;
J.S. De Lessert & Co., 123 Front Street; Joseph Thebaud, 262 Pearl
Street; Nathaniel Cooper & Co., 38 Little Dock Street; Coll. M'Gregor,
28 Wall Street; David Wagstaff, 137 Front Street; Conkling & Lloyd, 15
Taylor's Wharf; and S.B. Garrick, Westphal & Co., 43 Cherry Street.
[Illustration: Hermann Sielcken
B.G. Arnold
F.B. Arnold
Joseph Purcell
SOME DEPARTED DOMINANT FIGURES IN THE NEW YORK GREEN COFFEE TRADE]
The leading New York coffee importers in 1848 were Henry and William
Delafield, 108 Front Street; and Des Arts & Henser, 78 Water Street.
There were seven leading New York coffee importers in 1854, as follows:
Aymar & Co., 34 South Street; Henry Coit & Son, 43 South Street; Henry
Delafield, 129 Pearl Street; Howland & Aspinwall, 54 South Street; Mason
& Thompson, 33 Pearl Street; J.L. Phipps & Co., 19 Cliff Street; and
Moses Taylor & Co., 44 South Street.
Following the so-called "consortium" of 1868, the ramifications of which
centered in Frankfort-on-the-Main--its speculations finally ending in
disaster to many--the green-coffee trade was in a precarious condition
until well into the eighties. "Previously," says a contemporary writer,
"it had been the safest and prettiest of all colonial produce."
About 1868, "iron steamers began to be freely availed of as carriers of
coffee; and later on, the telegraph became a factor, rendering the
business more exciting and expensive".
Coffee consumption in the United States had, moreover, increased from
one pound per capita in 1790 to nine pounds per capita in 1882.
1892-93 the biggest figure in the world's coffee trade was George
Kaltenbach, a German living in Paris, whose resources were estimated at
twelve million to fifteen million dollars, and whose holdings at one
time were said to be one million bags. He was reported to have made
$1,500,000 on his coffee corner. In September, 1892, he bested a bull
clique and forced prices down to twelve cents. Aided by three other
European operators, he then started a bull syndicate, and put the price
up to seventeen cents. The story of this corner, and of other notable
coffee booms and panics, is told in more detail in chapter XXXI.
_Early Days of the Green Coffee Business_.
For a long time New York was the only important entry port for green
coffee. Before the rise of New Orleans and San Francisco, many inland
coffee roasters and grocers had their own buyers in the New York market.
The coffee district that still clings about lower Wall Street is rich in
memories of by-gone merchants who once were big factors in the trade,
and whose names, in many instances, have been handed down from
generation to generation in the businesses that have survived them.
Any reference to the early days of the green-coffee importing, jobbing,
and brokerage business in New York would not be complete without mention
of a few of the pioneers:
P.C. Meehan is eighty-four years old at the time of writing (1922) and
is dean of the New York green-coffee trade. With James H. Briggs he
formed the firm of Briggs & Meehan. This later became Meehan & Schramm,
with Arnold Schramm. The latter withdrew, and the firm became Creighton,
Morrison & Meehan. Finally, Mr. Meehan established the present firm of
P.C. Meehan & Co.
[Illustration: James H. Taylor
H. Simmonds
Edwin H. Peck
P.C. Meehan
THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH THE NEW YORK GREEN COFFEE TRADE DATES BACK NEARLY
FIFTY YEARS]
When Mr. Schramm withdrew from the firm of Meehan & Schramm he founded
the house of Arnold Schramm, Inc. Upon his retirement, this was
succeeded by Sprague & Rhodes, the firm being composed of Benjamin
Rhodes and Irvin A. Sprague.
Next oldest to P.C. Meehan in the New York green-coffee trade is
Clarence Creighton, who started with Youngs & Amman, later C. Amman &
Co., then Waite, Creighton & Morrison, then Creighton, Morrison &
Meehan. Upon the breaking up of this firm, Mr. Creighton formed a
partnership with James Ashland, under the name of Creighton & Ashland.
He later operated alone, and died August 15, 1922.
James H. Taylor is another "old-timer" who is still active. He began
with T.T. Barr & Co. Later, with F.T. Sherman, he formed the firm of
Sherman & Taylor. When Mr. Sherman withdrew, the firm became James H.
Taylor & Co. Mr. Taylor is now with Minford, Lueder & Co. He has been
five years president, eleven years treasurer, and twenty-six years on
the board of governors of the New York Coffee Exchange.
One of the most honored names in the green coffee trade of New York is
that of Peck. Edwin H. Peck began, at the age of seventeen years, with
Hart & Howell, butter and cheese merchants. He then went in the same
business for himself. Four years later, he abandoned this to go into the
coffee brokerage business with his brother, Walter J. Peck. In about
five years, the brothers branched into the coffee importing and jobbing
business under the firm name of Edwin H. Peck & Co. Later it was changed
to the present style of E.H. & W. J. Peck. Since the death of Walter J.
Peck in 1909, Edwin H. has conducted the business. The latter was a
member of the board of governors of the New York Coffee Exchange for
twelve years, and has been an important factor in the upbuilding of that
institution.
William D. Mackey began with Small Bros. & Co. He then went into
partnership with C.K. Small as Mackey & Small. Later, he formed the firm
of Arnold, Mackey & Co. with Francis B. Arnold. The latter dropped out,
and the firm became Mackey & Co. He is now operating alone. Mr. Mackey
was another of the incorporators of the New York Coffee Exchange.
Alexander H. Purcell, a brother of Joseph Purcell, entered the employ of
Bowie Dash & Co. as a boy. From there he went to Williams, Russell &
Co., then to the Union Coffee Co., and later to Hard & Rand. He is now
head of the firm of Alex. H. Purcell & Co.
Robert C. Stewart first became known with Booth & Linsley. He later went
with Joseph J. O'Donohue & Sons, leaving there to establish the present
firm of R.C. Stewart & Co.
Another old-timer, Joseph D. Pickslay, may be seen at his desk in
Williams, Russell & Co.'s office every day, although Frank Williams, who
began with Winthrop G. Ray & Co., and Frank C. Russell, both of
Williams, Chapin & Russell, and then of Williams, Russell & Co., have
passed on. Fred P. Gordon, now head of Fred P. Gordon & Co., was
formerly with Williams, Russell & Co.
The Mitchell brothers, William L. and George, forming the firm of
Mitchell Bros., have been familiar Front Street figures for many years.
A. Wakeman, "the historian of the coffee trade," as he is often called,
began with Olendorf, Case & Gillespie. Later he went with Thompson &
Bowers, and then became a member of the firm of Baiz & Wakeman. He is
now in business alone. For thirty-eight years Mr. Wakeman has been
secretary of the Lower Wall Street Business Men's Association. He is the
author of _History and Reminiscences of Lower Wall Street and Vicinity_.
H. Simmonds, of Simmonds & Bayne; later, of Simmonds & Newton; then, of
the Brazil Coffee Co.; and finally, of H. Simmonds & Co., is at the time
of writing one of the oldest coffee merchants on Front Street, having
been in business in Baltimore and New York for more than fifty years. He
has a desk in the office of his son, W. Lee Simmonds, of W. Lee Simmonds
& Co.
Bayne is another well known Front Street name. The firm of William Bayne
& Co. was established by William Bayne, Sr., in Baltimore. The business
was moved to New York about 1885. The founder's three sons, William,
Jr., Daniel K., and L. P., entered the employ of the firm in Baltimore,
and moved with it to New York.
Daniel K. Bayne became associated with Henry Sheldon & Co., and later
was a member of Simmonds & Bayne. He then returned to William Bayne &
Co. and was senior partner at the time of his death in 1915. William
Bayne, Jr., for many years one of the governors and a past-president and
vice-president of the New York Coffee Exchange, and his brother, L.P.
Bayne, now conduct the business.
John T. Foley, now of the Commercial Coffee Co., began with Kirkland
Bros. From there he went to Ezra Wheeler & Co., then to H.W. Banks &
Co., Thompson, Shortridge & Co., and William Hosmer Bennett & Son.
Joshua Walker formed a partnership with James Stewart as Stewart &
Walker. Since the retirement of Mr. Stewart some years ago, Mr. Walker
has been in business alone.
Three other veterans of the trade are still in the harness: Louis
Seligsberg, formerly of Wolf & Seligsberg, is now alone; Henry Schaefer
has been at the head of S. Gruner & Co. since the death of Siegfried
Gruner; Col. William P. Roome, who operated for some time as Wm. P.
Roome & Co., is now head of the coffee department of Acker, Merrall &
Condit Co.
[Illustration: O.G. Kimball Boston
James C. Russell New York
James W. Phyfe New York
C.E. Bickford San Francisco
GREEN COFFEE TRADE BUILDERS WHO HAVE PASSED ON]
Gregory B. Livierato, who founded the business of Livierato Bros. at
Port Said, with branches at Aden and Marseilles, and later at Hodeida
and Harar, entered the green coffee trade of New York in 1855, although
his L F Mocha marks had been introduced here many years before. He
remained here for eighteen years, returned to his home in Cephalonia,
Greece, in 1904, and died there in 1905. His nephew, B.A. Livierato,
then assumed charge of the New York coffee business, which in 1913
became the Livierato-Kidde Co., with B.A. Livierato and Frank Kidde.
Benjamin Green Arnold, one-time "coffee king," first became well known
as a member of Arnold, Sturgess & Co., afterward B.G. Arnold & Co. Mr.
Arnold was one of the incorporators, and the first president, of the New
York Coffee Exchange. Francis B. Arnold, with Arnold, Sturgess & Co.,
later of Arnold, Mackey & Co., afterward Arnold, Dorr & Co., was a son
of Benjamin Greene Arnold; and to him and to Major John R. McNulty
belongs a great part of the credit for the organization of the New York
Coffee Exchange. Major McNulty was with Minford, Thompson & Co., and
then formed the firm of J.R. McNulty & Co.
Bowie Dash, a member of the famous Arnold-Kimball-Dash triumvirate,
began with Scott & Meiser, later Scott, Meiser & Co., then Scott & Dash,
afterward Scott, Dash & Co., and finally Bowie Dash & Co. Other well
known men with this last company were L.F. Mason, A.C. Foster, S.L.
Swazey, L.J. Purdy, and John B. Overton.
Then there were: Rufus G. Story; Thomas Minford, Francis Skiddy, and
George J. Nevers, of Skiddy, Minford & Co.; W.D. Thompson, of Minford,
Thompson & Co., later L.W. Minford & Co., afterward Minford, Lueder &
Co., Thompson, Shortridge & Co., later Thompson Bros., then Thompson &
Davis; John Randall, with L.W. Minford & Co., later, with J.C. Runkle &
Co.; Eugene and James O'Sullivan of Eugene O 'Sullivan & Co.
The following names figured prominently in the trade's early history:
Charles Maguire, of James H. Taylor & Co.; George F. Gilman, organizer
of the Great American Tea Co. and of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea
Co.; H.W. Banks, of Reeve, Case & Banks, afterward of Stanton, Sheldon &
Co., later Sheldon, Banks & Co., and then of H.W. Banks & Co.; Henry
Sheldon, of Stanton, Sheldon & Co., later Sheldon, Banks & Co.; and then
Henry Sheldon & Co.; William McCready, with Small Bros. & Co., later
with H.W. Banks & Co., and then with B.H. Howell, Son & Co., C.R.
Blakeman, with Gross, March & Co., afterward with Wm. Scott's Sons &
Co.; William Scott, of William Scott & Sons, later Wm. Scott's Sons &
Co., including George W. Vanderhoef, who later succeeded to the business
under the name of George W. Vanderhoef & Co.; Christopher and Leander S.
Risley, of C. Risley & Co.; and Charles Naphew, with C. Risley & Co.,
later with Edwin H. Peck & Co.
[Illustration: William Bayne New York
George W. Crossman New York
George Westfeldt New Orleans
Wm. H. Bennett New York
THEIR RACE IS RUN, THEIR COURSE IS DONE]
Another group of old-timers includes: William Newbold, with Ezra Wheeler
& Co., later alone; Augustus Ireland, with Ezra Wheeler & Co.; J.M.
Edwards, of Edwards & Maddux, later of J.M. Edwards & Co.; Frank M.
Anthony, of J.M. Edwards & Co.; H. Clay Maddux, one of the incorporators
of the New York Coffee Exchange, of Edwards & Maddux; Baron Thomsen, of
Thomsen & Co.; Gustave Amsinck, of G. Amsinck & Co.; James N. Jarvie,
with Small Bros. & Co., later of Arbuckle Bros.; John C. Lloyd, of John
C. Lloyd & Co., afterward with Arbuckle Bros.; John Small, of Smalls &
Bacon, later Small Bros. & Co.; Williamson Bacon, of Smalls & Bacon,
afterward of Williamson Bacon & Co.; C.K. Small, of Mackey & Small,
Anson Wales Hard and George Rand, of Hard & Rand; Joseph Purcell, first
of W.J. Porter & Co., and then of Hard & Rand; Henry F. McCreery, with
O'Shaughnessy & Sorley, later of Hard & Rand; William Sorley and John W.
O'Shaughnessy, of O'Shaughnessy & Sorley, Mr. O'Shaughnessy later
forming John W. O'Shaughnessy & Co., and Mr. Sorley going to Hard &
Rand. Mr. Sorley was one of the incorporators of the New York Coffee
Exchange.
[Illustration: 112 FRONT STREET, NEW YORK, IN 1879
A group of old-time green coffee men, including R. C. Stewart, J.D.
Pickslay, Frank Williams, Charles P. Chapin, and Fred P. Gordon]
Special mention should be made of: Kirkland & von Sacks; A. Kirkland,
one of the incorporators of the New York Coffee Exchange, with Small
Bros. & Co., then with W.J. Kirkland as Kirkland Bros., and, upon the
dissolution of that firm, with F.H. Leggett & Co.; Thomas Rutter & Co.;
Teacle Wallace Lewis, with Rowland, Humphreys & Co., later head of the
coffee department of Carter, Macy & Co., and still later, head of T.W.
Lewis & Co.; Abraham Sanger, of Sanger, Beers & Fisher, later Sanger &
Wells; J.W. Wilson & Co.; Dykes & Wilson; Peter, John, and Joseph J.
O'Donohue, of John O'Donohue's Sons; Joseph J. O'Donohue & Sons; Otis W.
Booth, of Booth & Linsley; A.G. Hildreth; James H. Kirby, of B.G. Arnold
& Co., later of Kirby, Halstead & Chapin, afterward Kirby & Halstead;
Major Henry D. Tyler; Thomas H. Messenger & Co.; Harvey H. Palmer, of
H.H. Palmer & Co.; B. O. Bowers, of Wilson & Bowers, later Thompson &
Bowers; and August Haeussler, first with C. Risley & Co., then with J.
H. Labaree & Co., and finally with the green coffee department of Geo.
H. McFadden & Brother.
John Hanley, with Carey & Co., later of Hanley & Kinsella, St. Louis;
Robert C. Hewitt, Jr., who wrote one of the early books on coffee
(_Coffee, its History, Cultivation, and Uses_, 1872), of Hewitt & Phyfe,
later Jas. W. Phyfe & Co.; James W. Phyfe of Hewitt & Phyfe, later Jas.
W. Phyfe & Co.; Daniel A. Shaw, of Jas. W. Phyfe & Co.; B. Lahey, of
Jas. W. Phyfe & Co.; and Winthrop G. Ray & Co.
These names, too, will live long in green coffee history: Reid, Murdock
& Fischer, New York and Chicago; Charles A. and Watts Miller, and David
Palmer, of D.J. Ely & Co., formerly D.J. & Z.S. Ely Co., New York and
Baltimore; Harry Miller, with D.J. Ely & Co., later of Miller &
Walbridge; Augustus Walbridge, of Smith & Walbridge, afterward Augustus
M. Walbridge, Inc.; Clarence Smith, of M.V.R. Smith's Sons, later of
Smith & Walbridge; Stevens, Armstrong & Hartshorn, later Stevens &
Armstrong, then Stevens Bros. & Co., and finally Reamer, Turner & Co.,
including Abraham Reamer, Sr., and William F. Turner.
[Illustration: AT 87 WALL STREET, N.Y., YEARS AGO
Among the green coffee men in this picture are Clarence Creighton, John
Enright, Chris Arndt, W. Lee Simmonds, John Ashlin, F. Loderose, Julius
Steinwender, and Clinton Whiting]
[Illustration: WALL AND FRONT STREETS, NEW YORK, SPRING OF 1922
Looking up Wall Street from the East River. The first cross street is
Front; beyond are to be seen the Munson, Stock Exchange, and Bankers'
Trust Company's buildings, with Trinity Church marking the Broadway
gateway]
Other familiar old-time names were: George W. Pritchard, of George W.
Pritchard & Sons; Dayton & Co.; Dimond & Lally, later Dimond & Gardes;
Arthur W. Brown; Robert Russell, of Russell & Co.; J. F. Pupke and
Thomas Reid, of Pupke & Reid, later Eppens, Smith & Wiemann, afterward
Eppens, Smith & Co., with William H. and Frederick P. Eppens; Joseph A.
O'Brien, with Pupke & Reid, and later in business for himself; R.P.
McBride, of the Union Pacific Tea Co.; Ripley Ropes; Saportas Bros.;
Mayer Bros. & Co. of Hamburg, with Moses G. Hanauer, manager, and D.K.
Young and Herman Hanauer, salesmen; H.M. Humphreys, with J.W. Doane &
Co., later with Arbuckle Bros.; Henry Nordlinger, of Henry Nordlinger &
Co.; Charles Campbell, of W.R. Grace & Co.; D.A. DeLima, of D.A. & J.
DeLima, later D.A. DeLima & Co.; Henry Kunhardt and George F. Kuhlke, of
Kunhardt & Co.; Boulton, Bliss & Dallett, later Bliss, Dallett & Co.,
general managers of the Red D line of steamships; Prendergast Bros.;
W.H. and George W. Crossman, of W.H. Crossman & Bros., later Crossman &
Sielcken, with Hermann Sielcken, afterward Sorenson & Nielson; F. Probst
& Co.; H. H. Swift & Co.; J.L. Phipps & Co.; James Bennett and Joseph
Becker, of Bennett & Becker; and Arnold, Hines & Co. (Diamond A Mocha),
later Arnold, Cheney & Company.
Honorable mention should be accorded: Samuel Wilde (Old Dutch Mills);
John Phoenix, with Husted, Ferguson & Titus, later of J.W. Phoenix &
Co.; H.K. Thurber, of H.K. & F.B. Thurber & Co.; Michael Barnicle, with
Walter Storm, later Storm, Smith & Co., then Abbey, Freeman & Co., then
with Husted, Wetmore & Titus, and finally alone; August Stumpp, of
August Stumpp & Co.; J.K. and E.B. Place; Beards & Cummings, later
Beards & Cottrell, then S.S. Beard & Co.; Philip and Henry Dater, of
Philip Dater & Co.; Hugh Edwards, of Edwards & Raworth; William Bennett,
of Wm. Hosmer Bennett & Son; Kalman Haas, of Haas Bros.; J.C. Runkle &
Co.; Thomas T. Barr and Fred T. Sherman, of Barr, Lally & Co., later
T.T. Barr & Co.; Henry Hentz & Co.; Elmenhorst & Co.; A.S. Lascelles &
Co.; D. Henderson (Harry) and John Wells, of Wells Bros.; G. Weyl & Co.,
later Norton, Weyl & Beven, and then Weyl & Norton; Warren & Co.; J.H.
Labaree & Co.; Schultz & Ruckgaber; Henry Eyre; Rowland, Terry &
Humphreys, later Rowland & Humphreys; Bentley, Benton & Co.; Winter &
Smilie; Weston & Gray; John S. Wright, one of the incorporators of the
New York Coffee Exchange, of Wright, Hard & Co.; Watjen, Toel & Co.; A.
Behrens & Co.; "Steve" Matheson, of S. Matheson, Jr. & Co.; C. Wessels &
Bros., later Wessels, Kulenkampff & Co., and finally Fromm & Co.; Julius
Steinwender, of Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co.; Leon Israel, of Leon
Israel & Bros.; Herklotz, Corn & Co.; Ponfold, Schuyler & Co.; Maitland,
Phelps & Co., later Maitland, Coppell & Co.; F.H. Leggett, of F.H.
Leggett & Co.; Carhart & Brother; George W. Flanders, of George W.
Flanders & Co.; Jonas P. O'Brien; George S. Wallen, of George S. Wallen
& Co.; Charles F. Blake, of Blake & Bullard; and Martin J. Glynn, of
McDonald & Glynn, later Martin J. Glynn & Co., who had their office at
Front Street and Old Slip for twenty-five years.
Three other names closely associated with the early days of the New York
green-coffee trade were: Glover, Force & Co., later Waterbury & Force,
then W.H. Force & Co., and finally W.S. Force & Co., weighers and
forwarders; Daniel Reeve, of Reeve & Van Riper, mixers and hullers; and
John H. Draper & Co., auctioneers.
_Growth of the Leading Coffee Ports_
Twenty-two years ago, when the century opened, New York passed over her
docks a total of 676,000,000 pounds of coffee, which represented
eighty-six percent of the total for the country. In 1920, juggling the
figures a little, she imported 767,000,000 pounds, which was fifty-nine
percent of the total. While she was thus practically marking time, she
watched New Orleans run wild with an increase from 44,000,000 pounds to
380,000,000 pounds, or 763 percent gain; this meaning also the supplying
of twenty-nine percent of the country's demands instead of five percent,
while San Francisco in the same time jumped from 24,000,000 pounds to
137,000,000 pounds, or 470 percent gain, her share of the total trade
now being ten percent instead of three percent in 1900. These gains,
however, have not all been made at the expense of the city on the
Hudson. In 1900, Baltimore was a close rival of New Orleans and was far
ahead of all other ports except New York; but a decline in her imports
began about 1903, and was so swift, that five years later her imports
were almost negligible.
[Illustration: LOOKING SOUTH FROM WALL STREET INTO THE HEART OF THE
GREEN COFFEE DISTRICT
On the left-hand corner is Hard & Rand's, opposite Leon Israel & Bros.'
building, and beyond are many other leading green coffee firms.]
[Illustration: LOOKING NORTH FROM WALL STREET. HERE A FEW WELL KNOWN
COFFEE FIRMS ARE LOCATED
The trend of the trade is south from Wall St. rather than north]
[Illustration: FRONT STREET, NEW YORK'S GREEN COFFEE DISTRICT, IN 1922]
IMPORTS OF COFFEE AT LEADING PORTS OF ENTRY IN THE UNITED STATES
New York New Orleans San Francisco Total Imports
_Pounds_ _Pounds_ _Pounds_ _Pounds_
1900 676,227,269 44,335,717 24,562,578 787,991,911
1913 554,571,449 263,382,962 36,067,073 863,130,757
1914 633,400,209 308,008,145 46,721,824 1,001,528,317
1915 758,160,133 307,868,932 45,844,060 1,118,690,524
1916 814,394,074 308,513,290 71,346,788 1,201,104,485
1917 932,098,113 274,989,692 97,821,069 1,319,870,802
1918 779,025,781 219,330,461 134,729,019 1,143,890,889
1918[K] 757,710,001 146,621,857 130,178,288 1,052,201,501
1919[K] 804,177,446 356,608,477 160,426,467 1,333,564,067
1920[K] 767,242,636 380,293,701 137,043,281 1,297,439,310
1921[K] 790,559,919 331,036,770 139,069,286 1,340,979,776
[K] Calendar years. All others fiscal years.
New Orleans began her advance at about the same time that Baltimore
began to fall off, so that her rise to a place of importance as a coffee
port has been practically coincident with the twentieth century. Her
first big step upward was in 1901, from 44,000,000 to 72,000,000 pounds,
and was followed by another the next year to 115,000,000. Thereafter
there was a steady gain to 213,000,000 pounds in 1906 and to 301,000,000
pounds in 1910, and after that wide fluctuations, especially during the
war. In 1918, doubtless because of the draining of shipping to the North
Atlantic service, there was a heavy slump; but immediately after the
war, in the calendar year 1919, there was a big jump to a record mark,
up to that time, of 356,000,000 pounds. This was followed by the record
of 380,000,000 pounds in the calendar year 1920, although the 1921
figure of 331,036,770 shows a falling off of nearly 50,000,000 pounds.
San Francisco's growth, on the other hand, is of recent occurrence. The
story is told farther along in this chapter, how the city was definitely
placed on the coffee map by the provision of adequate shipping
facilities to Central America. The outbreak of the war in Europe,
however, which loosened the grip of European nations on the coffee crops
of Central America, was the prime cause of San Francisco's rise in the
coffee world, affording her an opportunity of which she had the
enterprise to take full advantage. In 1913, her imports were only about
36,000,000 pounds, at which mark they had stood for many years. There
was only a slight gain until 1916, when 71,000,000 pounds were recorded;
but this increased to 97,000,000 pounds in 1917, to 134,000,000 pounds
in 1918 (fiscal year), and to 160,000,000 pounds in the calendar year
1919. In 1920, there was a falling off to 137,000,000 pounds, and it may
be that the high figure reached the year before represents about the
maximum that her natural market, the Pacific-coast region, can well
absorb.
For the benefit of those who like to do their own interpreting of
figures, we present in the table at the top of this page the official
record for recent years.
The leading importers of Brazil coffee direct to New York and Baltimore
in 1894, as compiled by William H. Force & Co., were as follows.
Included in this list are a number of names well known in the green and
roasted coffee trades of other cities:
DIRECT IMPORTERS OF BRAZIL COFFEE
_New York, 1894_
_Bags_
Arbuckle Bros. 688,726
W.H. Crossman & Bro. 355,864
Hard & Rand. 345,541
W.F. McLaughlin & Co. 227,935
J.W. Doane & Co. 207,170
Steinwender, Stoffregen Co. 132,482
J.L. Phipps & Co. 54,617
Dannemillers & Co. 49,449
E. Levering & Co. 47,322
Aug. Stumpp. 44,959
Thomson & Taylor Spice Co. 44,017
G. Amsinck & Co. 38,350
E.H. & W.J. Peck. 33,278
J.H. Labaree & Co. 32,071
Fitch & Howland. 31,515
Shinkle, Wilson & Kreis Co. 25,951
C.D. Lathrop & Co. 23,263
Taylor & Levering. 21,501
Heinrich Haase. 18,976
William T. Levering. 18,796
T.G. Lurman & Co. 18,017
Elmenhorst & Co. 16,221
Sprague, Warner & Co. 14,856
Sorver, Damon & Co. 14,675
Sutton & Vansant 13,957
John O'Donohue's Sons 13,681
Hoffman, Lee & Co. 13,598
S.R. Alexander 12,805
Eppens, Smith & Wiemann Co. 12,719
Baker & Young 11,906
Hanley & Kinsella C. & S. Co. 11,318
Durand & Kasper Co. 11,124
Wm. Schotten & Co. 11,005
C.G. Bullard & Co. 10,653
H.W. Banks & Co. 10,351
Ellis Bros. 10,282
Jacob Baiz 9,146
A. Lueder & Co. 8,492
C.F. Pitt & Sons 8,262
G.F. Gillman 7,927
Bell, Conrad & Co. 6,528
N. Martin & Co. 6,507
J.B. O'Donohue & Co. 6,102
Steele, Wedeles Co. 5,700
G.O. Gordon 5,550
Sherman Bros. & Co. 4,998
F. MacVeagh & Co. 4,763
Benedict & Co. 4,717
Chase & Sanborn 4,505
West & Melchers 4,500
Mokaska Mfg. Co. 4,013
Haebler & Co. 4,000
Robt. Crooks & Co. 3,509
M.M. Levy & Co. 3,037
J.A. Tolman Co. 3,004
Tracy & Avery Co. 3,000
Wells Bros. 2,800
Kirby, Halsted & Chapin Co. 2,754
W.M. Hoyt Co. 2,252
Gt. A. & P. Tea Co. 2,250
Foote & Knevals 2,000
L.W. Minford & Co. 1,800
Wm. Bayne & Co. 1,755
Indiana Coffee Co. 1,650
W.K. Carson & Co. 1,501
Miller, Smith & Co. 1,500
Rufus Woods 1,498
J.G. Flint 1,345
Davenport & Morris 1,250
Canada 1,140
Westfeldt Bros. 1,000
Edw. Westen T. & S. Co. 800
Corbin, May & Co. 750
F. Cannon & Co. 618
Adam Roth Gro. Co. 500
Scudder, Gale Gro. Co. 500
J.H. Taylor & Co. 500
Wm. B. Willson 500
Dwinell, Wright & Co. 500
Swift, Billings & Co. 500
New Orleans Coffee Co. 500
B. Fischer & Co. 401
Smith & Schipper 300
Ulman, Lewis & Co. 281
Ridenour, Baker Gro. Co. 250
W.H. Minor 250
Nave & McCord Merc. Co. 202
Skiddy, Minford & Co. 196
Rossbach & Bro. 184
L. Wolff 149
Reimers & Meyer 50
W.F. Jackson 5
---------
Total 2,791,642
DIRECT IMPORTERS OF BRAZIL COFFEE
_Baltimore, 1894_
_Bags_
E. Levering & Co. 40,965
T.G. Lurman & Co. 29,325
C.M. Stewart & Co. 25,499
Thornton Rollins 21,436
William T. Levering 15,884
Steinwender, Stoffregen 12,852
W.B. Willson 11,540
Hoffman, Lee & Co. 8,953
Rufus Woods 8,020
P.T. George & Co. 7,463
Taylor & Levering 6,440
Benedict & Co. 5,434
Brazil Trading Co. 2,666
C.F. Pitt & Sons 2,505
J.W. Doane & Co. 2,500
Enterprise Coffee Co. 1,811
H.M. Wagner & Co. 504
C.D. Lathrop & Co. 503
Mokaska Manufacturing Co. 500
Hanley & Kinsella C. & S. Co. 500
Shinkle, Wilson & Kreis Co. 404
G. Amsinck & Co. 400
Indiana Coffee Co. 251
-------
Total 206,355
_Early Days of Green Coffee in New Orleans_
The history of New Orleans as a coffee port may be considered as
beginning with the transfer of Louisiana by Napoleon Bonaparte to the
United States in 1803. In this year, according to Martin's _History of
Louisiana_, New Orleans imported 1438 bags of coffee of 132 pounds each.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, settlers in large numbers
had crossed the Allegheny Mountains from the Atlantic states into the
valley of the Ohio River; and their crops of grain and provisions were
exported by means of cheaply constructed rafts and boats, which were
floated down the river to New Orleans, where they were generally broken
up and sold for use as lumber and firewood--there being, at that time,
no power available for propelling them back against the current of the
river.
From 1803 until 1820, on account of the difficulty of navigating
upstream, New Orleans imports did not increase as rapidly as exports. In
1814, however, the first crude steamboat had begun to carry freight on
the river; and by 1820, the supremacy of New Orleans as the gateway of
the Mississippi Valley had been for the time established by this new
means of transportation. The coffee-importing business flourished; and,
from its modest beginning in 1803, grew to 531,236 bags in 1857.
By this time, however, New Orleans had begun to feel the competition of
the Erie Canal, and of the systems of east and west railroad lines which
had been in the course of active construction during the preceding
fifteen years. The railroad systems which had as their ports Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, entered upon a desperate war of
freight rates, each in the endeavor to establish the supremacy of its
own port. As the building of railroads had been entirely east and west,
and no large amount of capital had been invested in north and south
lines, much of the business of the valley was diverted to the Atlantic
ports, apparently never to return to New Orleans.
In 1862, on account of the blockade of the port, not a bag of coffee was
imported through New Orleans, and practically none came in until the
year 1866, when the small amount of 55,000 bags was the total for the
year. At about this time, Boston and Philadelphia became negligible
importing quantities; the business of Baltimore continued to be quite
prosperous; and New York rapidly increased her imports and took the
commanding position.
[Illustration: IN THE NEW ORLEANS COFFEE DISTRICT]
New Orleans had increased her coffee imports to 250,000 bags in 1871,
and the yearly imports continued at about this figure until the last
decade of the century, when the business began to expand. The imports
had reached a total of 337,000 bags in 1893-1894; and of 373,000 in
1896-97. This was the beginning of a new era, and the coffee business of
New Orleans entered upon the period of its greatest growth. Imports were
514,000 bags in 1900-01, and were slightly more than twice that by
1903-04. In 1909-10 the imports had again doubled, and had reached a
total for the twelve months ending July 1, 1909, of slightly more than
2,000,000 bags; while the figures for the calendar year 1909 totaled
2,500,000 bags.
Borino & Bro., 77 Gravier Street, were the largest importers of coffee
in New Orleans in 1869. The principal importers in 1880 were P. Poursine
& Co., Westfeldt Bros., Dymond & Gardes, Schmidt & Ziegler, J.L. Phipps
& Co., Geo. O. Gordon & Co., and Smith Bros.
Shipments were by sailing vessels, a full cargo being about 5000 bags.
Fancy grades, like Golden Rios, washed and peaberries, were shipped in
double bags. Musty coffees were common, and every bag in a cargo was
sampled for must. S. Jackson was first to issue regular manifests. With
the entry of steamers into the coffee transport business, New Orleans
was placed at a disadvantage as steamer rates were about twenty cents a
bag higher to New Orleans than to New York, and imports were limited.
The subsequent revival of the business was due largely to Hard & Rand.
Being unable to obtain steamer rates equal to those quoted in New York,
Hard & Rand chartered steamers for New Orleans; and soon the trade began
to offer cost and freight to New Orleans, and the business grew from
about 350,000 bags of green coffee per annum to 2,500,000 bags.
One of the best remembered names in the green coffee trade of New
Orleans is that of Charles Dittman (1848-1920), who for nearly fifty
years was one of the leading coffee commission merchants of the country.
Mr. Dittman entered the coffee business with Napier & Co., representing
E. Johnston & Co., of Rio de Janeiro. In 1875, upon the death of Mr.
Napier, the firm changed to Johnston, Gordon & Co., later to G.O.
Gordon, and in 1886 to the Charles Dittmann Co. Since his death in
1920, the business has been continued by F.V. Allain and Charles
Dittmann, Jr.
[Illustration: A SECTION OF THE GREEN COFFEE DISTRICT OF NEW ORLEANS
Most of the buildings shown here are occupied by green coffee importing
houses. The one on the right with the balconies is the old Board of
Trade Building]
_Green Coffee in San Francisco_
In the early days of the green coffee business in San Francisco these
names stood out as most important among the coffee importers: Hellmann
Bros. & Co., Montealegre & Co., E.L.G.S. Steele & Co., and Urruella &
Urioste.
From their many friends in Central America, they, and others in their
line, obtained small consignments that were bought by the roasters
according to their immediate needs. Often as many as five or six buyers
would share in a parcel of fifty bags, as they were not in the custom of
filling up the larder for days of want. There always seemed to be
sufficient for every one, and bull movements and corners had not then
become the vogue.
Just as today, the mainstays of the early San Francisco trade were
coffees produced in Costa Rica, Salvador, and Guatemala, although some
were brought from the Colima district of Mexico. The broker had a
comparatively easy job in selling his wares. Samples of the lots would
be given to him in carefully sealed glass bottles, and usually the buyer
would trust his discerning eye to judge correctly the quality of the
goods, not even taking the trouble to uncork the bottle. Size, color,
and imperfections would be his criterion.
The leading coffee importers at San Francisco in 1875 were B.E. Auger &
Co., 409 Battery; S.A. Carit & Co., 405 Front Street; Hellmann Bros. &
Co., 525 Front Street; Adolphe Low & Co., 208 California Street; S.C.
Merrill & Co., 204 California Street; Parrott & Co., 306 California
Street; and Urruella & Urioste, 405 Front Street.
The annual consumption of green coffee in San Francisco in the early
eighties was estimated at 100,000 bags.
A marked change in the coffee business of San Francisco was brought
about by the discovery that the differences in the taste of coffees
could not be accurately detected from their color or from the size of
bean. To Clarence E. Bickford belongs the credit of having discovered
the cup qualities of high-grown Central American coffees. He was
employed at the time by a broker named Hockhofler, and probably did not
realize what far-reaching effect his discovery would have on the future
of San Francisco's coffee trade; but no other factor has contributed so
much to its growth. When the roasters began to examine coffees for their
taste, values were of course revolutionized. Antiguas, and other
high-grown coffees, that had theretofore been penalized for the small
size of bean, soon brought a premium, and have ever since been in great
demand. It goes without saying that the new classification was of
material assistance to the roasters in bettering their output, as
blending was then put on a scientific basis.
About the middle of the nineties San Francisco began to function as a
distributing center, and shipments were made from there to St. Louis and
Cincinnati. The selection of coffees on their cup merit was undoubtedly
a factor of considerable importance in creating new outlets; although it
is generally conceded that the winning personality of C.E. Bickford
helped considerably. Mr. Bickford, by this time, had succeeded his
former employer. He served the trade by living up to the best standards
of business practise until his death in 1908; when the institution he
founded was continued by E.H. O'Brien under the name of C.E. Bickford &
Co.
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA STREET, THE COFFEE-TRADING CENTER OF SAN
FRANCISCO]
San Francisco imported 175,293 bags of coffee in 1900. Imports had grown
to 256,183 bags by 1906; and the following were the leading importers,
as taken from a compilation by C.E. Bickford & Co.:
IMPORTERS OF COFFEE BY SEA
_San Francisco, 1906_
_Bags_
Haas Bros. 38,947
Otis, McAllister & Co. 34,342
Jno. T. Wright 21,741
Geo. A. Moore & Co. 17,851
Castle Bros. 17,397
Lastreto & Co. 15,609
Bloom Bros. 14,372
W.R. Grace & Co. 14,143
Baruch & Co. 9,400
Schwartz Bros. 7,310
Dieckmann & Co. 6,981
H. Hackfeld & Co., Ltd. 4,466
M.J. Brandenstein & Co. 4,281
Urioste & Co. 4,081
Goldtree, Liebes & Co. 3,962
J.Z. Posadas. 3,950
Mohns-Frese Com. Co. 3,714
Welch & Co. 3,385
Thannhauser & Co. 3,328
E. Mejia 2,965
Hind, Rolph & Co. 2,814
Hellmann Bros. & Co. 2,170
Parrott & Co. 2,137
J.A. Folger & Co. 2,094
S.L. Jones & Co. 2,042
Ariza & Lombard 1,133
Hamberger-Polhemus Co. 1,096
Theo. H. Davies & Co., Ltd. 955
Livierato Frères 927
J.D. Spreckels & Bros. Co. 828
McCarthy Bros. 795
W. Loaiza & Co. 642
Wm. Halla 591
H.W. Burmester 582
Williams, Dimond & Co. 399
M. Phillips & Co. 381
Alexander & Baldwin 358
London, Paris & Am. Bank, Ltd. 333
P.J. Knudsen Co. 309
Ballou & Cosgrove 300
M. Schweitzer & Co. 300
Johnson-Locke Merc. Co. 270
The Lewin-Meyer Co. 250
Sperry Flour Co. 231
Canadian Bank of Commerce 200
Porto Rico Coffee Co. 148
McChesney & Sons 145
Bowring & Co. 145
China & Java Export Co. 140
John Weissman 126
Montealegre & Co. 120
W.H. Miller 109
Maldonado & Co. 105
De Fremery & Co. 100
Sundries 683
-------
Total 256,183
[Illustration: BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO'S COFFEE DISTRICT]
The imports of green coffee at San Francisco in 1914-15 amounted to
about 400,000 bags. The beginning of the World War was almost
coincidental with an energetic campaign waged by San Francisco coffee
interests to popularize Central American coffees, and particularly
Guatemalas, in this country. The time was well chosen, as the world's
exposition at San Francisco offered a good opportunity to acquaint the
public with the fine qualities of Guatemala growths. Furthermore, it was
necessary to create new markets for these coffees, which in former years
had been very extensively used in Europe. Figures show that San
Francisco's efforts were crowned with success. In 1916, the importation
increased by fifty percent; and in 1917, importations were double those
of 1915. In 1918, a total of nearly 1,000,000 bags was reached; and this
mark was passed by almost 200,000 in 1919. In 1920, 971,567 bags were
imported.
The origin of San Francisco's fight for control of Central American
coffee dates back to the years 1908 to 1910, when the German Kosmos Line
was fighting the Pacific Mail for the Central and South American
shipping business. W.R. Grace & Co., at that time, were already the
heaviest shippers of American merchandise to the Latin-American
countries; and while their own steamers were not touching at Central
American ports, they were handling merchandise from the United States
and nitrates from the South American countries in their own bottoms, and
were also engaged as general carriers for that trade. The fight directed
by the Kosmos Line against the Pacific Mail, which at that time was
under the control of the Southern Pacific Company, was accordingly
directed against the Grace interests also, so far as South American
countries were concerned. The fight was long and bitter, and costly to
both sides. At times, the contenders offered to take freight, not only
without charge, but to pay the shipper a premium for the privilege of
carrying his freight.
Differences were finally settled in conference; but the experience
taught the American interests that they could survive in any territory
only if at all times they were able to provide their own cargoes for
their own boats, as had been accomplished with nitrate in South America.
J.H. Rosseter, the Grace manager, who later became well known as
director of operations of the United States Shipping Board during the
war, undertook an extended trip to Central America in 1912 to study the
situation at close range. There was only one product of Central America
that was available in cargo quantities, namely coffee; and naturally his
attention was drawn to the possibility of carrying coffee to San
Francisco to provide return cargoes for ships of the Pacific Mail, or
associated lines, carrying merchandise for the Central American
countries.
While in Guatemala, Mr. Rosseter outlined a future policy in regard to
Central American coffees; the basis being his firm determination that
coffees grown in Central America, and logically and geographically
tributary to San Francisco distribution, should come to San Francisco in
largely increasing quantities.
Up to that time San Francisco had received, on an average, only 200,000
bags of Central American coffee annually for the ten preceding years;
while Europe had received about 1,500,000 bags a year. The quantity
necessary to make San Francisco a factor would call for an importation,
on an average, of 750,000 bags--a quantity almost four times as large as
then established.
This was an extremely ambitious undertaking, considering the conditions
then prevailing in Central America. European countries were firmly
entrenched in the coffee business in Central America, with Germany
leading in Guatemala, France in Salvador and Nicaragua, England and
France contending for superiority in Costa Rica, and the United States
getting only the leavings.
The European countries held their position in the Central American
Coffee trade by liberal financing, and a thorough knowledge of the
varying qualities of coffee produced on the different plantations. San
Francisco, the only important port in the United States dealing in
Central American coffees, had neither strong financial entrenchment in
Central America nor expert knowledge of coffee quality. Year after year,
San Francisco merchants had depended on consignments chosen by the
consignors. This rendered quality selection of coffees by the importers
impossible.
Rosseter, being primarily a steamship man, tackled the proposition from
the standpoint of transportation, figuring that if he could establish
and maintain preferential steamer service to San Francisco, and steady
freight rates, a great step would be accomplished toward the desired
end. This led to his interest in the Pacific Mail Company, of which the
final outcome was his present position as vice-president of the
reorganized Pacific Mail Company. In that capacity he maintained,
practically throughout the entire period of the World War, freight rates
on coffee from Central America to San Francisco that gave that Pacific
port an immediate and definite advantage.
This gave merchants in San Francisco the chance to build up a steady
trade, and prevented other ports in the United States from entering into
serious competition with San Francisco as a distributing point for
Central American coffees. The view taken by Rosseter was as far-sighted
as it was broad. He argued that with the end of the war there would be
no strength in a scattering distribution of Central American coffees by
New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco; and the only promise of
maintenance of the business for the United States would be in
maintaining unity of distribution in one port of the United States,
namely San Francisco.
The first year open to European competition after the war showed that
San Francisco was well able to maintain its lead in Central American
coffees. Today, the mortgages formerly held by European merchants on the
native coffee plantations, and the control thereby of the produce of
these plantations, are in the hands of American merchants; and what is
more, out of general merchandising and importing by merchants of San
Francisco there have developed expert coffee departments in all of the
larger houses. The years of the war brought the product of virtually all
plantations in Central America to the intimate knowledge of these expert
coffee departments; and today the advantage that Europe formerly had--of
knowing exactly what a specific plantation produced--is possessed by
San Francisco merchants.
This is no small advantage when we consider that in Guatemala and Costa
Rica, qualities vary from plantation to plantation, and that often on
adjoining plantations there is from three to five cents a pound
difference in quality, from the standpoint of cup merit.
One can not buy coffee in Central America as in Brazil, as these
countries are not highly organized commercially, and the importers here
are forced to assume the rôle of the Brazilian _commisario_ and banker.
The crop has to be financed from six to nine months before it is brought
to the port; and the securities covering such advances are at best of
questionable value, on account of political insecurity, and the
ever-threatening earthquakes, and the uncertainty of the elements.
Distribution of the coffee after it has been brought to San Francisco
also involves many difficulties, notwithstanding that the demand is
good. This will be better realized when we consider that the Pacific
coast, from Alaska to Mexico, and eastward as far as the Rocky
Mountains, embraces a population of about 8,000,000, whose annual
consumption is estimated at 400,000 bags; and that, as already stated,
treble that quantity was imported to San Francisco in 1919.
In 1900, ninety-nine firms were engaged in the green coffee importing
business (some were roasters also) in New York; six in Philadelphia;
twenty-eight in San Francisco; twelve in New Orleans. In 1920, there
were two hundred and sixteen in New York; thirty-one in San Francisco;
fifteen in New Orleans.
_Green Coffee Trade Organizations_
Previous to the organization of the roasters, the only kind of coffee
organization in this country of more than local importance was the New
York Coffee Exchange, which came into existence in 1881, the
organization meeting being held in the offices of B.G. Arnold & Co., at
166 Pearl Street, New York. The Exchange was incorporated December 7,
1881, the incorporators being Benjamin Green Arnold, Francis B. Arnold,
William D. Mackey, John S. Wright, William Sorley, Joseph A. O'Brien, H.
Clay Maddux, C. McCulloch Beecher, Geo. W. Flanders, and John R.
McNulty. B.G. Arnold was the first president. Soon afterward, rooms were
rented and fitted up for trading purposes at 135 Pearl Street, at the
junction of Beaver and Pearl Streets, and only two blocks away from the
more pretentious structure now housing the Coffee Exchange. Actual
trading operations did not begin until March 7, 1882.
The New York Coffee Exchange was the world's first coffee-trade
organization of national proportions. Havre's exchange was inaugurated
in 1882, under the name of the Coffee Terminal Market. Five years later,
coffee exchanges were opened in Amsterdam and Hamburg; while the
exchanges of London, Antwerp, and Rotterdam did not come into existence
until the year 1890. The exchange in Trieste, Italy, was organized in
1905; while the Coffee Trade Association of London was started in 1916.
The first exchange in Santos was started in 1914.
The success of the New York Coffee Exchange led to its imitation in
other coffee ports of the United States. Baltimore started a similar
organization, early in 1883, under the name of the Baltimore Coffee
Exchange; but after a short existence, it petered out. New Orleans
organized a green coffee trading association in 1889, as a coffee
committee of the Board of Trade. It is still active. The Green Coffee
Association of New Orleans, Inc., which is distinct from the Coffee
Committee, was established January 7, 1920. San Francisco did not have a
trading exchange until 1918, in which year the Green Coffee Association
of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce began operations.
_Growth of the Coffee-Roasting Trade_
The wholesale coffee roasting business in the United States seems to
have started in the closing years of the eighteenth century. In
February, 1790, a "new coffee manufactory" began business at 4 Great
Dock Street, New York, and the proprietor announced that he had provided
himself at considerable expense with the proper utensils "to burn, grind
and classify coffee on the European plan." He sold the freshly roasted
product "in pots of various sizes from one to twenty weight, well packed
down, either for sea or family use so as to keep good for twelve
months."
A second roasting plant started up at 232 Queen Street, New York, nearly
opposite the governor's house, toward the close of 1790. This second
coffee roasting plant was known in 1794 as the City Coffee Works. James
Thompson operated a "coffee manufactory" at 25 Thames Street in 1795. In
this year there was also the "Old Ground Coffee Works" in Pearl Street,
formerly Hanover Square, "three doors below the bank at number 110,"
operating "two mills, one pair French burr stones" but no orders were
accepted here for less than six pounds, at "two pence advanced from the
roasting loss."
Other coffee manufactories followed in the large towns of the new
states; and, always, the coffee was treated "on the European plan." This
meant that it was "burnt over a slow coal fire, making every grain a
copper color and ridding it all of dust and chaff." There was usually a
difference in price of three to four pence a pound between the green and
roasted product. Packages of roasted coffee under the half-dozen weight
were sold in New York in 1791 for two shillings and three pence per
pound, allowance being made for grocers at a distance. In those days,
the favorite container was a narrow-mouthed pot or jar of any size. This
was the first crude coffee package. In retailing the product,
cornucopias made of newspapers, or any other convenient wrapping, were
first employed; but, with the introduction of paper bags in the early
sixties, the housekeeper soon became educated to this more sanitary form
of carry package, and its permanence was quickly assured.
The following were listed in Longworth's _Almanack_ as coffee roasters
in New York in 1805: John Applegate; Cornelius Cooper; Benjamin Cutler,
104 Division Street; George Defendorf, 83 Chapel Street; William Green;
Cornelius Hassey, 14 Augustus Street; Joseph M'Ginley, 28 Moore Street;
John W. Shaw, 43 Oliver Street; John Sweeney, Mulberry Street; Patience
Thompson, 23 Thames Street.
Elijah Withington came from Boston to New York in 1814. He set up a
coffee roaster in an alley behind the City Hall and engaged a big,
raw-boned Irishman to run it. This was the beginning of a coffee
roasting business that has continued until the present day. Withington
dealt in Padang interiors, Jamaica, and West Indian coffees, and
numbered many society folk among his customers. Withington's business
removed to 7 Dutch Street in 1829: and the firm became Withington & Pine
in 1830.
The roasted coffee business in New York had grown to such proportions in
1833 and gave such promise, that James Wild considered it a good
investment to bring over from England for his new coffee manufactory in
New York a complete power machinery equipment for roasting and grinding
coffee. There was also an engine to run it. It was set up in Wooster
Street opposite the present Washington Square.
Samuel Wilde, son of Joseph Wilde, of Dorchester, Mass., came to New
York about 1840 to make his fortune. He was a young man with vision; and
first applied himself with diligence to the hardware and looking-glass
business. When he found that most of his customers were theaters and
saloons, his religious scruples bade him abandon it, which he did.
Meanwhile, in 1844, Withington's pioneer roasting enterprise had
admitted Norman Francis and Amos S. Welch as general partners, and
Samuel and Charles C. Colgate as special partners, under the style of
Withington, Francis & Welch. It so continued until 1848, when Samuel
Wilde--who had selected the coffee business as more honorable than the
one in which he started--was admitted, and the firm became Withington &
Wilde.
Mr. Withington retired in 1851, and Samuel Wilde associated with him in
the business his sons Joseph and Samuel, Jr., the title becoming Samuel
Wilde & Sons. Samuel Wilde, Sr., died in 1862. The title then became
Samuel Wilde's Sons. Joseph Wilde died in 1878, and Samuel Wilde, Jr. in
1890, the business being left to and continuing with a younger brother,
John, from 1878 to 1894, when John's son, Herbert W. Wilde, became a
member of the firm, which continues the old title at 466 Greenwich
Street, as Samuel Wilde's Sons Company, having been incorporated in
1902. John Wilde died in 1914.
Another grandson of Samuel Wilde is William B. Harris, who engaged in
the coffee roasting business in Front Street from 1904 to 1917. From
1908 to 1918 he acted as coffee expert for the United States Department
of Agriculture. William B. Harris is a son of Samuel L. Harris, who
married a daughter of Samuel Wilde, and who for a number of years was
connected with Samuel Wilde's Sons.
[Illustration: PIONEERS IN THE ROASTED COFFEE BUSINESS OF NEW YORK CITY
With approximate dates of their entry into the trade]
Although a number of roasters and grinders for family use were patented
in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century, the
coffee merchants depended almost entirely on English manufacturers for
their wholesale equipment until 1846, when James W. Carter of Boston
brought out his "pull-out" roaster. This machine, and others like it,
encouraged the development of the coffee-roasting business, so that when
the Civil War came, coffee manufactories were well scattered over the
country. The demand for something better in coffee-machinery equipment
was answered by Jabez Burns with his machine for filling and discharging
without moving the roasting cylinder from the fire.
Among the early grocery concerns in New York that were also coffee
roasters were: R.C. Williams & Co., starting as Mott & Williams in 1811,
changing to R.S. Williams & Co. in 1821, to Williams & Potter in 1851,
and to its present title in 1882; Acker, Merrall & Condit Co., founded
in 1820; Park & Tilford, founded in 1840; Austin, Nichols & Co., founded
in 1855; and Francis H. Leggett & Co., founded in 1870.
There were twenty-one "coffee roasters and spice factors" in New York in
1848. Among them were: Beard & Cummings. 281 Front Street; Henry B.
Blair, 129 Washington Street; Colgate Gilbert, 93 Fulton Street; Wright
Gillies, 236 Washington Street; and Withington, Wilde & Welch, 7 Dutch
Street. In this year, two coffee importers, fourteen tea importers, and
forty-one tea dealers were listed in the _City Directory_.
The _Directory_ for 1854 listed twenty-seven coffee roasters and spice
factors, among them, in addition to the above, being Peter Haulenbeek,
328 Washington Street; Levi Rowley, 102 West Street; William J. Stitt,
159 Washington Street; and George W. Wright, 79 Front Street. In those
days not all the wholesale coffee factors were roasters; there was much
trade roasting by a few large plants.
While the coffee-roasting business of Samuel Wilde's Sons appears to be
the oldest in New York, having descended in a practically unbroken line
from 1814, several others continued considerably past the half-century
mark, and among them special mention should be accorded to: Levi
Rowley's Star Mills, dating back to 1823; Beard & Cummings, 1834; Wright
Gillies & Bro., 1840; Loudon & Son, the Metropolitan Mills, 1853; and
the Eppens Smith Co., present day successors of Thomas Reid's Globe
Mills of 1855.
The Star Mills in Duane Street became a real factor in the wholesale
coffee-roasting business on Manhattan Island about 1823. At a later
date, Levi Rowley secured control, and under his able direction the
business flourished. Benedict & Gaffney bought the Star Mills from
Rowley in 1885. A few years later the firm became Benedict & Thomas,
then Thomas & Turner, and finally the R.G. Thomas Co. R.G. Thomas sold
the equipment in 1920, ending the manufacturing end of the business just
about a century from the time it started. Mr. Thomas is now with Russell
& Co. Before being identified with the Star Mills, he was for twenty
years with Packard & James, 123 Maiden Lane.
While still a lad of nineteen, Wright Gillies came from a Newburgh farm
in 1838, and obtained a clerkship in a tea store in Chatham Street, now
Chambers and Duane Street. He branched out for himself in the tea and
coffee business at 232 Washington Street in 1840, removing in 1843 to
236, which had a courtyard where he installed a horse-power coffee
roaster. In the same building, over the store, lived Thomas McNell and
his wife. Mr. McNell afterward became a member of the firm of Smith &
McNell, proprietors of the Washington Street hotel and restaurant, for
many years one of New York City's landmarks.
The coffee business, thus started by Wright Gillies, is still conducted,
as the Gillies Coffee Co., by the same family and at practically the
same location; and it is interesting to note that the roasting room
still has the original arrangement, partly below the street level but
with the machinery in view from the sidewalk. This arrangement was
characteristic of the old roasting establishments.
[Illustration: GROUP OF OLD-TIME NEW YORK COFFEE ROASTERS, 1892
Standing, left to right, W.H. Eppens, Fred Reid, unknown, Julius A.
Eppens, Fred Eppens. Seated, left to right, John F. Pupke, Thomas Reid,
Henry Mayo, Fred Akers, Alexander Kirkland]
James W. Gillies, a younger brother, came from Newburgh in 1848 to
assist in the enterprise. Young Gillies superintended the horse-power
roaster and drove the light spring delivery cart. Soon the firm became
Wright Gillies & Bro. Fires visited the business in 1849 and in 1858;
but each time it arose the stronger for the experience. Wright Gillies
retired in 1884, and James W. Gillies assumed entire charge under the
name of the Gillies Coffee Co. He continued active until his death in
1899. The business was incorporated by his children under the same name
in 1906.
Edwin J. Gillies, son of James W. Gillies, started a separate coffee
business at 245 Washington Street, in 1882. In 1883 he admitted as a
partner James H. Schmelzel, a fellow Columbia alumnus. The enterprise
was successful for many years, being incorporated under the title of
Edwin J. Gillies & Co., Inc. It was consolidated in 1915 with the
business of Ross W. Weir & Co., 60 Front Street, Edwin J. Gillies
becoming a vice-president (with L. S. Cooper also vice-president) of the
corporation of Ross W. Weir, Inc.
Burns & Brown started in the coffee roasting business in 1853 in an old
building at the corner of Washington and Chambers Streets for which they
paid an annual rental of one thousand dollars. This was the beginning of
the Metropolitan Mills, opposite to the present location of Loudon &
Son, 181 Chambers Street, the latest successors to the business. Burns &
Brown continued for two years, when they failed, and Wright Gillies &
Bro. succeeded, and put in Ebenezer Welsh as manager. Later, Wright
Gillies & Co. sold out the plant to Capt. Edward C. Russell, who
associated with him his son-in-law, Edward A. Phelps, Jr. At the
dissolution of this partnership in 1870, the firm became Trusdell &
Phelps. Mr. Phelps succeeded Trusdell, and sold out to Loudon & Stellwag
in 1877. They were succeeded by Loudon & Johnson in 1879, and this firm
continued until 1910, when James D. Johnson retired, and the firm of
Loudon & Son took charge. These were J. Carlyle Loudon and his son,
Howard C. Loudon, who died in 1911. The firm name of Loudon & Son
continues.
One of the most vigorous personalities of the sixties, and one whose
influence extended well into this generation, was Thomas Reid. Born in
Bridgeport, England, he came to the United States as a boy, and started
his business career as a grocer's clerk in Brooklyn. Within three months
after landing, he bought out his employer. He entered the wholesale
coffee-roasting business at 105 Murray Street, New York, in 1855, in
partnership with a Mr. Townsend under the style of the Globe Mills,
which were the predecessors of the Eppens Smith Co. now in Warren
Street. Jabez Burns, inventor of the Burns coffee roaster, before this a
teamster for Henry Blair, was at one time bookkeeper for the Globe
Mills. In 1864, Mr. Burns sold to the Globe Mills the first roasters of
his manufacture--two one-bag, four-foot machines that were given a place
alongside of four of the old-style Carter pull-outs.
Mr. Townsend died the first year of the Globe Mills' existence; and
Thomas Reid continued without a partner until 1863, when he became
associated with John F. Pupke, as Pupke & Reid. The business was then at
269 Washington Street. Thomas Reid was resourceful and enterprising;
also he had vision. He saw the day of package coffee coming, and nearly
"beat" John Arbuckle to it. As early as 1861 we find him advertising in
the _City Directory_, "spices put up in every variety of package."
Lewis A. Osborn, 69 Warren Street, New York, and 81-83 South Water
Street, Chicago, was advertising "Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java
Coffee--put up only by Lewis A. Osborn" in 1863-64. Thomas Reid appears
to have acquired this brand and to have begun its exploitation as
"Osborn's Old Government Java," a ground package coffee, and certainly
one of the earliest package coffees. However, this brand never attained
the national vogue achieved by John Arbuckle's package coffee, which
first appeared in 1865, although the name Ariosa was not given it until
1873.
Between 1855 and 1865 there were only half-a-dozen wholesale coffee
roasters on Manhattan Island, and Thomas Reid was their leader. Much of
his work was roasting for the trade, and this undoubtedly interfered
with the logical development of his package-coffee ideas.
The firm became Pupke, Reid & Phelps in 1882. In 1885, it became the
original Eppens-Smith Co.; later, the Eppens, Smith & Wiemann Co., and
lastly, the Eppens Smith Co. Thomas Reid was vice-president of the
Eppens, Smith & Wiemann Co., and continued in that position until his
death in 1902. Julius Eppens is the present head of the business.
Other package coffees of the sixties were Government coffee put out by
Taber & Place's Rubia Mills, 353-355 Washington Street, in "tin foil
pound papers," and L. Bruckmann & Co.'s London Club, packed at 107
Warren Street.
Another old-time New York coffee-roasting business is that of Samuel S.
Beard & Co. This business was founded in 1834 on Front Street by Eli
Beard (father of Samuel S. Beard,) and W.A. Cummings as Beard &
Cummings. In 1872, the firm moved to Duane Street, where it was joined
by Messrs. S.S. Beard and Cottrell, and the new firm became Beards &
Cottrell. Mr. Cottrell retired in 1883, and the firm became Samuel S.
Beard & Co. Upon the death of S.S. Beard in 1905, James H. Murray, who
had been with the concern for many years, became head of the house. Mr.
Murray died six months later. The business moved in 1913 to 92 Front
Street, where it continues as a stock company, with J.R. Westfal as
manager.
Austin C. Fitzpatrick, well known among New York coffee roasters, is a
graduate of the Thomas Reid school, having entered the business of this
pioneer roaster in 1865. He was western salesman for Pupke & Reid until
1871, when he became associated with Rufus G. Story under the firm name
of R. G. Story & Co. Later, he formed a partnership with Howard E. Case,
buying out the old house of Beard & Howell. When Mr. Case retired in
1887, the firm became A.C. Fitzpatrick & Co. This title continued for
twelve years, when the Knickerbocker Mills were taken over, and the
business was incorporated as the Knickerbocker Mills Co., with Mr.
Fitzpatrick as president. The Knickerbocker Mills, acquired by the
corporation, had been founded in 1842 and were for more than forty years
at 154-156 Chambers Street. The business is now at 196-198 Chambers
Street.
[Illustration: JULIUS A. EPPENS, NEW YORK]
Many of the pioneers in the coffee roasting business of this country
were men who came from the British Isles and Germany. A notable figure
from the latter country was Benedickt Fischer, who knew coffee in
Germany before coming to New York in his nineteenth year. He started at
323-329 Greenwich Street, near Duane Street, in 1859. His first roaster
was a primitive affair built under the E.J. Hyde patent by the Coffee
Roaster & Mill Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia. It was turned by hand
by Fischer and his helper. This was about 1862. In 1864, the business
required larger quarters, and was removed to the corner of Duane and
Greenwich Streets. A new plant was erected at the corner of Beach and
Greenwich Streets in 1894, and the present plant was erected at the
corner of Franklin and Greenwich Streets in 1906. Upon the death of
Benedickt Fischer in 1903, the business passed under the control of
William H. Fischer, son of Benedickt, and Benedickt's son-in-law,
Charles E. Diefenthaler, for many years associated with the house. At
present, the company is a corporation, with C.E. Diefenthaler,
president; T.F. Diefenthaler, vice-president and treasurer; and T.O.
Budenbach, secretary.
Bowie Dash, a commanding figure in the New York green coffee trade,
founded the Holland Coffee Co., roasters, in 1885. He placed H. Bartow
in charge. Mr. Dash himself was never active in the affairs of the
company. J. Bowie Dash, son of Bowie Dash, entered the Holland Coffee
Co. as a boy. Bowie Dash died in 1894. Mr. Bartow left The Holland
Coffee Co. in 1897 and J. Bowie Dash became president. He sold the
company in 1917 to S.B. Morrison, who consolidated it with his Esperanza
Coffee Co. The business is still conducted as the Holland Coffee Co.,
with Mr. Morrison as president, at 162 Front Street.
George Fisher was a well known coffee roaster of the sixties. He began
in the old Hope Mills, 71 Fulton Street, and, at the age of thirty,
entered into partnership with D.C. Ripley, establishing the Hudson
Mills. The firm became Sanger, Beers & Fisher in 1868; Mr. Fisher
retired in 1882; and died in 1896.
Peter Haulenbeek began work as delivery boy in a grocery store. He
entered the coffee business in the sixties in the employ of Wright
Gillies, and went into the wholesale coffee-roasting trade under his own
name at 170 Duane Street in 1876. His son, John W. Haulenbeek, Sr., came
into his father's business in 1887. Peter Haulenbeek died January 15,
1894, and the firm name was changed to John W. Haulenbeek & Co. The
business remained in the same building up to 1916, when it was moved to
its present location at 393 Greenwich Street. John W. Haulenbeek, Jr.,
of the third generation, is now active in the business.
A leading figure in the sixties was James Brown, who started as an
engineer, rose to a partnership, and retired after the Civil War, a
wealthy man. He was a partner with Thomas Reid in the old Globe Mills.
He was also associated with B. Fischer in the firm of Fischer, Kirby &
Brown, and established the firm of Brown & Scott in Duane Street, where
Peter Haulenbeek succeeded to the business. Afterward, he continued in
the firms of Brown & Jones and Bisland & Brown, and died in 1898.
Van Loan, Maguire & Gaffney was a formidable combination in the
coffee-roasting business in its day. Thomas Van Loan was for thirty
years a partner in the firm of W.J. Stitt & Co. (William J. Stitt was in
business at 173 Washington Street in the fifties). Joseph Maguire was a
practical spice grinder. Hugh Gaffney was with Brown & Scott until the
firm retired in 1879, and for ten years thereafter he traveled for B.
Fischer & Co. Then he became a member of the firm of Benedict &
Gaffney. Ill health caused his temporary retirement; but he returned to
the business in 1897 when he organized the firm of Van Loan, Maguire &
Gaffney. Joseph Maguire died in 1904.
[Illustration: THOMAS VAN LOAN, NEW YORK]
Mr. Gaffney died on March 20, 1912, and the name of the business was
changed to Van Loan & Co., with Thomas Van Loan as the head of the
business, under which name and management it still continues at 64 North
Moore Street.
O'Donohue is a well known name in the development of both the green and
roasted coffee trade of New York City. John O'Donohue was a leader in
the green coffee business in 1830. It was John O'Donohue's Sons in 1873.
John B. O'Donohue, son of Peter O'Donohue and grandson of the original
John, after leaving John O'Donohue's Sons, formed a partnership with
Robert C. Stewart (the present head of R.C. Stewart & Co.) to engage in
the green coffee jobbing business as O'Donohue & Stewart. This
partnership was dissolved in 1893. For a few years, John O'Donohue was
associated with the coffee-roasting firm of Wing Bros. & Hart. About
1898, he formed the O'Donohue Coffee Co. at 284 Front Street. In 1910,
this was consolidated with the Potter Coffee Co. and Bennett, Sloan &
Co. to form the Potter, Sloan, O'Donohue Co. The firm dissolved in 1915.
Ellis M. Potter came to New York from the Potter-Parlin Spice Mills in
Cincinnati. Mr. O'Donohue died in 1918.
In the seventies Frederick Akers was proprietor of the oldest and best
known trade roasting establishment in New York. The plant was known as
the Atlas Mills, and was at 17 Jay Street. Mr. Akers died in 1901. The
same year, William J. Morrison and Walter B. Boinest, former employees
of Akers, formed a partnership to carry on the same kind of business at
413 Greenwich Street. It is still at that address under the name of
Morrison & Boinest Co.
Col. William P. Roome, a Chesterfieldian figure among New York coffee
roasters, came into the trade in 1876, when he established the firm of
William P. Roome & Co., with T.L. Vickers as partner. In the Civil War
that had preceded, young Roome (he was then nineteen) had distinguished
himself as a conspicuous hero of the Sixth Army Corps, having entered
the service as a second lieutenant in the Sixty-fifth New York
Volunteers.
William P. Roome & Co. first engaged in the importation of tea, but they
added coffee to the business in 1889. Col. Roome disposed of it in 1903
to assume charge of the tea and coffee department of the Acker, Merrall
& Condit Company, a position which he still holds.
Frederick A. Cauchois, another picturesque figure among New York coffee
roasters, entered the trade as a clerk in the New York office of Chase &
Sanborn in 1875. After further tutelage under Frank Williams in the
coffee brokerage business, he bought the old Fulton Mills (Colgate
Gilbert & Co., 1848), in Fulton Street, where he did some of the most
original advertising for coffee that the trade has seen. His Private
Estate coffee in little burlap bags, his donkey train that carried the
bags of green coffee through the streets of the metropolis, his system
of delivering fresh coffee daily to the grocery trade, and his Japanese
paper filter device to insure the proper making of the coffee, made him
famous. He brought something of the spirit of the old English coffee
house to America, and incorporated it in Keen's Chop House in New York.
He died in 1918.
The business of Russell & Co. was founded by Robert S. Russell & Frank
Smith at 107 Water Street in 1875. In 1895, S.L. Davis, one of the
present owners, formerly with Merrit & Ronaldson, became a partner. In
1900, Frank C. Russell, son of the senior member, was admitted to a
partnership; and upon the death of his father in 1904, he and Mr. Davis
became owners of the business.
Ross W. Weir, who, in addition to being a successful New York coffee
roaster, has also attained prominence as president of the National
Coffee Roasters Association and chairman of the Joint Coffee Trade
Publicity Committee, handling the million dollar coffee advertising
campaign, was born in New York in 1859, the son of J.B. Weir, one of the
pioneer forty-niners, who at one time was engaged in the export
commission business in San Francisco.
Mr. Weir began his business career as a general utility boy in the
jobbing grocery house of S.H. Williamson, 36 Broadway, New York, in
1875. Then he was a clerk for Park & Tilford, office man with Arbuckle
Bros, and with Geo. C. Chase & Co., tea importers, for two years,
afterward being admitted to a junior partnership. In 1886, the firm of
Ross W. Weir & Co. was formed to engage in the roasting of coffee and
importing and jobbing of teas at 105 Front Street. In 1887, the business
was removed to 58-60 Front Street. When the corporation of Ross W. Weir,
Inc. was formed in 1915 to take over the business of E.J. Gillies & Co.
Inc., Mr. Weir became president and treasurer of the combined
organization.
[Illustration: COL. WILLIAM P. ROOME, NEW YORK]
_Pioneer Wholesale Coffee Roasters_
A reference to other pioneers in the wholesale coffee-roasting trade may
not be amiss here, even though it involves a repetition of some names
that have been given special mention in the case of New York. In the
list that follows are included the most prominent firms and the best
known names that helped make roasted coffee history in the United States
in the nineteenth century, particularly from 1845 to 1900:
NEW YORK. The most prominent firms in the business in New York in the
sixties were: Thomas Reid & Co., Globe Mills; Geo. A. Merwin & Co.; Levi
Rowley, Star Mills; A.B. Thorn; Fischer & Lehmann, later Fischer &
Thurber, and Fischer, Kirby & Brown; Knickerbocker & Cooke; A.D.
Thurber; Wm. J. Stitt & Co.; Samuel Wilde's Sons.
In the seventies, in addition to most of the above list, there were:
Pupke & Reid; Arbuckle Bros.; Edward A. Phelps, Jr.; Bonnett, Schenck &
Earle; Fischer & Lansing; J.G. Worth; Jackson & Co.; Charles Conway;
Neidlinger & Schmidt; James L. Arcularius; S.M. Beard, Sons & Co.; H.K.
Thurber & Co.; Wright Gillies & Bro.; Bennett & Becker; Great American
Tea Co.; Brown & Scott.
Between 1876 and 1900 the following well known names appeared in the
trade: Frederick Akers; Eppens-Smith Co., afterward Eppens, Smith &
Wiemann Co., and later Eppens Smith Co.; B. Fischer & Co.; R.P. McBride;
Fitzpatrick & Case, afterward A.C. Fitzpatrick & Co.; Great Atlantic &
Pacific Tea Co.; Loudon & Johnson; Edwin Scott; Peter Haulenbeek,
afterward Haulenbeek & Mitchell, and Haulenbeek Roasting & Milling Co.;
Joseph Stiner & Co.; Austin, Nichols & Co.; Bennett, Sloan & Co.;
Gillies Coffee Co.; Benedict & Gaffney, afterward Van Loan, Maguire &
Gaffney; Ross W. Weir & Co.; Union Pacific Tea Co.; Hillis Plantation
Co.; Edwin J. Gillies & Co.; Jones Bros.; Holland Coffee Co.; Samuel
Crooks & Co.; Benedict & Thomas.
[Illustration: PIONEER COFFEE ROASTERS OF THE NORTHERN AND EASTERN
UNITED STATES
1--W.F. McLaughlin, Chicago; 2--J.G. Flint, Milwaukee; 3--Frank J.
Geiger, Indianapolis; 4--Samuel Mahood, Pittsburgh; 5--Henry A.
Stephens, Cleveland; 6--W.H. Harrison, Cincinnati; 7--Albert A. Sprague,
Chicago; 8--D.Y. Harrison, Cincinnati; 9--William Grossman, Milwaukee;
10--Edward Canby, Dayton; 11--Thomas J. Boardman, Hartford; 12--Francis
Widlar, Cleveland; 13--O.W. Pierce, Sr., Lafayette. Ind.; 14--A.M.
Thomson Chicago; 15--Samuel Young, Pittsburgh; 16--Alvin M. Woolson,
Toledo; 17--Martin Hayward, Boston; 18--George C. Wright, Boston;
19--William Boardman, Hartford; 20--James S. Sanborn, Boston; 21--James
Heekin, Cincinnati; 22--James F. Dwinell, Boston; 23--Caleb Chase,
Boston]
BOSTON. Among the pioneers in the coffee-roasting business in Boston
were: N. Berry & Sons; Blanchard & Bro.; Carter, Mann & Co.; Noah Davis
& Co.; Dyer & Co.; E. Emerson; Flint Bros. & Co.; J.T. & N. Glines;
Hayward & Co.; Geo. W. Higgins & Co.; Hill, Dwinell & Co.; H.B. Newhall;
Richardson & Lane; N. Robinson & Co.; Russell & Fessenden; Stickney &
Poor; E.H. Swett; the Tremont Coffee & Spice Mills; Swain, Earle & Co.;
and the Martin L. Hall Co.
Between 1876 and 1900 these names were among those added: Shapleigh
Coffee Co.; Gilman L. Parker; W.S. Quinby & Co.; Thomas Wood & Co.
Dwinell & Co. and Hayward & Co. both engaged in the coffee roasting
business about 1845. In 1876, they, James F. Dwinell, Martin Hayward,
and his brother-in-law George C. Wright, joined hands under the name of
Dwinell, Hayward & Co. In 1894, Mr. Hayward having previously retired,
the name of the firm was changed to Dwinell, Wright & Co. Mr. Dwinell
died in 1898; and in 1899, Mr. Wright formed a Massachusetts corporation
under the present name, Dwinell-Wright Co. George C. Wright died, 1910,
and his son, George S. Wright, who had been treasurer, became president.
A grandson, Warren M. Wright, and a nephew, G. E. Crampton, together
with R.O. Miller and Charles H. Holland, are active in the present
conduct of the business.
Caleb Chase with Messrs. Carr and Raymond founded the firm of Carr,
Chase & Raymond at 32 Broad Street in 1864. The name was changed to
Chase, Raymond & Ayer in 1871. James S. Sanborn, who had formerly been
in the coffee and spice trade at Lewiston, Me., with a branch office in
Boston, combined with Caleb Chase to form Chase & Sanborn in 1878.
Charles D. Sias was admitted to the firm in 1882. A Montreal office was
opened in 1884. Charles E. Sanborn, son of James S., was admitted in
1888. James S. Sanborn died in 1903, and Charles E. Sanborn died two
years later. Charles D. Sias died in 1913.
Swain, Earle & Co. were established about 1868. In the same year, Byron
T. Thayer entered the employ of the firm as a bookkeeper. He was taken
into partnership in 1884, and upon the death of Mr. Earle, became
managing partner. In 1915, he was the sole surviving partner of the
company. He died in the latter part of 1921; and the business was
absorbed by Alexander H. Bill & Co. in January, 1922.
PHILADELPHIA. The following were the most prominent Philadelphia coffee
roasters in 1861: Grever & Bro.; Henry Hinkle; William Johnston; George
Kelly; Thornley & Ryan; Thornley & Bro.; Vankorn, Guggenheimer & Co.;
D.J. Chapman; Bohler & Weikel; Charles Kroberger; and James R. Webb &
Son.
Later came: Robert J. Rule & Bro.; G. Boyd & Co.; Nutrio Mfg. Co.; C.J.
Fell & Bro.; R.R. & A. Deverall; C. Thomas; William H. Cheetham, Jr.;
Hill & Thornley; George Ogden & Co.; Weikel & Smith; and Alexander
Sheppard.
Between 1876 and 1900 these names appear; Henry A. Fry & Co.; Robert
Smith & Sons; B.S. Janney, Jr. & Co.; and Weikel & Smith Spice Co.
Robert Smith came as a country lad to Philadelphia, and drove a wagon
for Jesse Thornley, a coffee roaster. In a few years, he had secured an
interest in the firm; and in 1860, the name was changed to Thornley &
Smith. Mr. Thornley died in 1872, and Mr. Smith bought out the Thornley
interests and traded as Robert Smith until 1889. In that year, he
admitted his eldest son, Robert A. Smith, into the firm, which became
Robert Smith & Son. William T., another son, was admitted in 1889, the
firm name being changed again to Robert Smith & Sons. Robert Smith, Sr.,
retired in 1902. In the same year his youngest son, George H. Smith, was
admitted to the firm, and it became Robert Smith's Sons, the active
members being William T. and George H. Smith.
James R. Webb established the coffee roasting business of James R. Webb
& Son in 1833. It was taken over by Alexander Sheppard in 1870. Later it
became Alex. Sheppard & Sons, Inc. Mr. Sheppard died in 1916, and the
business has been conducted by a corporation in which his four children
are the principal stockholders.
CHICAGO. Some pioneers in the Chicago trade were: Alfred H. Blackall;
Excelsior Mills (Downer & Co.); Huntoon & Towner; W.F. McLaughlin;
Knowles, Cloyes & Co.; Thomson & Taylor; H.F. Griswold; G.M. Hall; John
L. Davies & Co.; Bell, Conrad & Webster; Sprague, Warner & Co.; Lee &
Murbach; A. Stephens & Co.; and Whiting, Goeble & Co.
In the period between 1876 and 1900 the following became well known:
Sprague, Warner & Griswold; Reid, Murdoch & Fischer; E.B. Millar Spice
Co.; Wm. M. Hoyt Co.; Franklin MacVeagh & Co.; Sherman Bros. & Co.; H.C.
& C. Durand; A.H. Pratt; McNeil & Higgins Co.; J.H. Bell & Co.; J.H.
Conrad & Co.; Steele-Wedeles Co.; Krag-Reynolds Co.; Arbuckle Bros., and
Puhl-Webb Co.
H.C. Durand organized the wholesale grocery house of Durand & Co. in
1851. Calvin Durand entered the firm in 1879, and the name was changed
to H.C. & C. Durand. Adam J. Kaspar began to work in a retail grocery.
In 1875, he went with the wholesale grocery firm of James Forsythe & Co.
and two years later with H.C. & C. Durand. In 1894, the name was changed
to Durand & Kasper. H.C. Durand died in 1901, and Calvin Durand died in
1911. Durand & Kasper merged, 1921, with Henry Horner & Co. and McNeil &
Higgins into the Wholesale Grocers Corporation.
Samuel A. Downer founded the Excelsior Mills (Downer & Co.) in 1853.
Sidney O. Blair entered the employ of the company in 1871. E.B. Millar &
Co. took over the business in 1878, incorporating under that name in
1882. Mr. Blair retired in 1913, and W.S. Rice was elected president. He
died in 1918, and Mr. Blair was re-elected president; with W.C. Shope,
vice-president; and C.S. Mauran, secretary and treasurer.
In the spring of 1862, Albert A. Sprague came to Chicago from Vermont.
With Z. B. Stetson he formed the firm of Sprague & Stetson, wholesale
grocers. Mr. Stetson retired the following year, and a new partnership
was formed with Ezra J. Warner, under the name of Sprague & Warner. In
1864, O.S.A. Sprague, a young brother of the senior partner, was
admitted to the firm, which was reorganized under the style of Sprague,
Warner & Co. Under this name it has since continued. About the year
1876, machinery was installed, and the roasting of coffee began. Oscar
Remmer entered the employ of the company in 1878 at the age of 16, and
became manager of the mill department in 1895. In 1912, he was made a
member of the board of directors, and was elected vice-president in
1919. O.S.A. Sprague died in 1909, Ezra J. Warner Sr. in 1910, and
Albert A. Sprague in 1915.
In 1865, A.M. Thomson, at that time a salesman for A.H. Blackall, owner
of the American Mills, arranged with a Mr. Berg and a Mr. Davis to go in
the coffee-roasting business with him as Berg, Thomson & Davis. After a
year, however, the name became A.M. Thomson. James Thomson, a brother,
came into the firm in 1868, and it was then called A.M. & James Thomson.
A year later, it became A.M. Thomson again. In 1872, immediately after
the fire, Mr. Taylor, a member of the firm of Whiting & Taylor, joined
Mr. Thomson under the firm name of Thomson & Taylor. They continued the
business under this name about ten years, until it was incorporated in
1883 under the name of Thomson & Taylor Spice Co. Among the wholesale
grocers who became stockholders at that time was W.S. Warfield, of
Quincy, Ill., who, in 1901, with his son, John D. Warfield, bought most
of Mr. Thomson's holdings and obtained a controlling interest. The name
was changed in 1920 to the Thomson & Taylor Co.
William F. McLaughlin founded the firm of W.F. McLaughlin & Co. in 1865.
He died in 1905; and the business was incorporated with his son, George
D., as president, and another son, Frederick, as secretary and
treasurer.
The Puhl-Webb Company, founded, 1882, as a partnership by Thomas J. Webb
and John Puhl, was incorporated in 1896.
ST. LOUIS. The following were among the pioneer coffee firms of St.
Louis, dating back to the 1860-70 decade: James H. Forbes; Flint, Evans
& Co.; Wm. Schotten & Co.; Fred W. Meyer; H. & J. Menown; Cavanaugh,
Rearick & Co.; and Frederick A. Churchill & Co.
From 1876 to 1900 there were added: Nash, Smith & Co.; Fink & Nasse Co.;
Hanley & Kinsella Coffee & Spice Co.; Flugel & Popp; C.F. Blanke Tea &
Coffee Co.; Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co.; David G. Evans & Co.; and the
Aroma Coffee & Spice Co.
David Nicholson established a tea and coffee business under the name of
the Franklin Tea Warehouse in 1853. A year later, James H. Forbes, born
in Kinross, Scotland, bought out Nicholson. In 1857, A.E. Forbes, his
son, came into the store after school hours, and was admitted to
partnership in 1870. The retail end of the business was dropped in 1880.
Robert M., the younger son of James H., was taken into the firm a few
years after A.E. Forbes. James H. Forbes died in 1890, and the business
has since been carried on by his sons as the James H. Forbes Tea &
Coffee Co. James H. Forbes installed the first Burns roaster in St.
Louis, and always claimed to have been the first man to roast coffee in
the middle west.
William Schotten began his roasting business in 1862, although he had
been in the grocery business since 1847. A short time later, a brother,
Christian Schotten, came to the United States from Germany and was
admitted to partnership, the firm becoming William Schotten & Bro.
Christian died in 1866, and a brother-in-law, Henry Verborg, was
admitted, the name being changed to William Schotten & Co. William died
in 1874, and the business devolved upon his eldest son, Hubertus. In
1878, another son, Julius J., was taken in at the age of 17. Hubertus
died in 1897, and Julius became manager and sole proprietor. He died in
1919. Since that time, his son, Jerome J., has carried on the business,
which continues under the name of the Wm. Schotten Coffee Co.
The firm of David G. Evans & Co. was founded in 1856 by David G. Evans
under the style of Flint, Evans & Co., changed in 1870 to David G. Evans
& Co. David G. Evans died in 1916, and the name of the company was
changed in 1917, to the David G. Evans Coffee Co., with Gwynne Evans, a
son of David G., as president of the corporation.
The George Nash Grocery Co. bought the Eagle Coffee and Spice Mills from
the estate of Mathew Hunt in 1870. About this time Michael E. Smith, who
had been with the concern for a number of years, was made a partner. The
firm was incorporated in 1887 as the Nash-Smith Tea & Coffee Co. George
Nash, Sr., died in 1910.
CINCINNATI. Among the pioneer coffee roasters in Cincinnati were: John
C. Appenzeller; Blook & Varwig; J. Brock; Cincinnati Spice Mills; Eagle
Spice Mills; Harrison & Wilson; Parker & Dixon; Kilgour & Taylor; J.M.
Krout; Succop & Lips; and H.R. Droste.
After the centennial year and previous to 1900, the following names were
added: Potter & Parlin; James Heekin & Co.; Flugel & Popp; Utter, Adams
& Ellen; J. Henry Koenig & Co.; F.W. Hinz; and the Woolson Spice Co.
D.Y. Harrison, then thirty-five years old, came from Newark, N.J., and
settled in Cincinnati in 1843, opening a coffee roasting business as
Harrison & Wilson. He used an old pull-out roaster with first a negro,
and then a horse-power tread-mill, for power. A few years later, W.H.
Harrison, a son of the founder, was admitted to the firm, the name at
that time being Parker & Harrison. D.Y. Harrison died in 1872. Fire
totally destroyed the plant in 1875. W.H. Harrison then formed a
partnership with J.W. Utter, and started in again. He sold out to his
partner in 1883 and went in business for himself as W.H. Harrison & Co.
D.Y. Harrison is said to have been the first man to roast coffee west of
Pittsburg.
The Heekin Company was established in 1870 by James Heekin and Barney
Corbett as a partnership under the name of Corbett & Heekin. In a short
time, Corbett died; and the name of the firm was then changed to James
Heekin & Co. Alexander Stuart was admitted to the partnership about
1883, and retired four years later. James J. Heekin, older son of James
Heekin, was admitted to partnership in 1892. Charles Lewis, after twenty
years' experience in the coffee trade in Louisville, Cincinnati, and New
York, was admitted to the firm in 1895. James Heekin died in 1904. Upon
his death, a corporation was formed under the name of the James Heekin
Company, with Charles Lewis as president, continuing until he retired in
1919. In this year a new corporation, called the Heekin Company, was
formed, taking over the business of the James Heekin Co. and the Heekin
Spice Co., the latter having been organized in 1899. James J. Heekin was
chosen president of the new company, with Albert E. Heekin,
vice-president; and Robert E. Heekin, secretary and general manager.
[Illustration: PIONEER COFFEE ROASTERS OF THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN
UNITED STATES
1--J.B. Sinnot, New Orleans; 2--Julius J. Schotten, St. Louis;
3--Charles Stoffregen, St. Louis; 4--W.T. Jones, New Orleans; 5--J.A.
Folger. jr., San Francisco; 6--M.E. Smith, St. Louis; 7--A.E. Forbes,
St. Louis; 8--David G. Evans, St. Louis; 9--W.J. Kinsella, St. Louis;
10--James H. Forbes, St. Louis; 11--J.A. Folger, Sr., San Francisco;
12--Joseph Closset, Portland, Ore.; 13--J. Zinsmeister, Louisville;
14--Wm. Schotten, St. Louis; 15--A. Schilling, San Francisco; 16--M.J.
Brandenstein, San Francisco; 17--J.O. Cheek, Nashville; 18--A.H. Devers,
Portland, Ore.]
LOUISVILLE. Pioneers in this early center of coffee roasting in the
south were: Thornton & Hawkins; Charles J. Bouche; H.N. Gage; A.
Engelhard; and Jacob Zinsmeister.
R.J. Thornton & Co. were founded in 1837 by Richard J. Thornton and
Thomas Hawkins, as Thornton & Hawkins. Thornton died in 1860. His
interests remained, but the firm changed to Hawkins & Thornton. Hawkins
died in 1877, and Mrs. Thornton, having purchased the Hawkins interest,
ran the business as R.J. Thornton & Co. until her death in 1885. John
Hayes, her son-in-law, then bought the company; and when he died in
1904, his widow ran the business with Thomas A. Crawford as manager.
Mrs. Hayes, the last of the Thornton family, died in 1919, and her
interests were sold to Crawford and R.H. Dorn, an old employee. The firm
first roasted coffee about 1846. It is interesting to note that the
plant has occupied the present site since its founding, eighty-four
years ago.
Albert Engelhard, Sr., founded in 1855 a wholesale grocery house which
later became A. Engelhard & Sons, Inc. In 1879, George; in 1882, Victor
H.; and in 1883, Albert, Jr.; all sons of the founder, entered the
business. Upon moving into larger quarters in 1890, all of the sons were
taken in as partners. Albert Engelhard, Sr., retired in 1892, and the
management was assumed by Victor H. The business increased rapidly, and
in 1897 the firm moved to its present location. Incorporated in 1901,
the wholesale grocery end was abandoned in 1903, and the concern became
a strictly coffee, tea, and spice house. Victor H. Engelhard died in
1918; and his sons, Victor, Jr., and R.W. Engelhard, who had been in the
business for several years, assumed active management. Victor Engelhard,
Sr., was prominent in coffee affairs and in the early work of the
National Coffee Roasters Association.
Jacob Zinsmeister, of J. Zinsmeister & Sons, was another old-time
Louisville coffee man. Before he started roasting, he was a big factor
in the green coffee trade. The business was established in 1866 at New
Albany, Ind., by Frank Zinsmeister, Sr., but was later moved to
Louisville. Jacob Zinsmeister was taken into the business in 1872, and
the name was changed to Frank Zinsmeister & Son. He is still active in
business, although he has turned the management over to his three sons.
NEW ORLEANS. Men and firms active in early coffee roasting in New
Orleans were: Shaw's Louisiana Coffee and Spice Mills; Ruliff, Clark &
Co.; R. Poursini & Co.; and Smith & McKenna.
Between 1876 and 1900 were added: New Orleans Coffee Co.; Smith Bros. &
Co.; Southern Coffee Polishing Mills; and Cage & Drew.
Smith Bros. & Co. were organized in 1863 as Smith & McKenna. Mr. McKenna
died in 1872, and the firm name was changed to Smith Bros. & Co. The two
Smith brothers died in 1891, and 1892. About 1900, the name became Smith
Bros. & Co., Ltd., and J.B. Sinnot, who had been employed for a number
of years by the firm, gained control. The company failed in 1913. Mr.
Sinnot then entered the coffee brokerage business, in which he remained
until his death in 1917.
Born in New Orleans in 1865, Daniel H. Hoffman started work as a sample
clerk in the office of E.P. Cottraux, who was at that time the only
coffee broker in New Orleans. In 1887, Mr. Hoffman started in business
for himself. In 1894, he opened the Southern Coffee Polishing Mills,
which have since become the Southern Coffee Mills, Inc.
W.T. Jones, for many years in business as a coffee broker in Keokuk,
Iowa, founded the New Orleans Coffee Co. in 1890. He died in 1919.
R.H. Cage and J.C. Drew organized in 1898 the firm of Cage & Drew. In
1900, they established the Louisiana Coffee Mills, under the name and
style of Cage, Drew & Co., Ltd.
Ben C. Casanas joined the New Orleans Coffee Co. as a city salesman, and
later became a road salesman. He withdrew in 1901 to organize the
Merchants Coffee Co. of New Orleans, Ltd.
SAN FRANCISCO. Pioneer coffee roasters in San Francisco were: J.A.
Folger & Co.; Charles Berhard; H. Gates; D. Ghirardelli & Co.; E. Loeven
& Co.; Marden & Myrick; Maine & Eckerenkotter; G. Venard; and Charles
Zwick.
Between 1876 and 1900 the following were added: A. Schilling & Co.; W.H.
Miner; Siegfried & Brandenstein; George W. Caswell.
J.A. Folger & Co. were established in 1850 as Wm. H. Bovee & Co. A few
years later, the name became Marden & Folger, Mr. Folger having been
connected with the old firm. In the early sixties the name was changed
to J.A. Folger & Co. Two employees were taken into the firm in 1878.
These were A. Schilling and a Mr. Lamb. The company was now called
Folger, Schilling & Co. This partnership was dissolved in 1881, and the
business continued as J. A. Folger & Co. Mr. Folger died in 1890, and
the firm was then incorporated under the same name.
Shortly after Folger, Schilling & Co. was dissolved, A. Schilling and
George Volkman formed the firm of A. Schilling & Co. Mr. Schilling began
his career as an office boy with J.A. Folger in 1871.
M.J. Brandenstein and John C. Siegfried formed a co-partnership under
the name of Siegfried & Brandenstein in 1880. Mr. Brandenstein bought
out his partner in 1894, and took in his brothers, Manfred and Edward,
the firm name becoming M. J. Brandenstein & Co.
George W. Caswell started in the retail tea and coffee business in San
Francisco under his own name in 1885. In 1898, the business became
wholesale only. It was incorporated in 1901 as the George W. Caswell Co.
The company took over the brands and travelling organization of Lievre,
Frick & Co., which went into a dissolution of partnership in 1902.
MILWAUKEE. Prominent among early coffee roasters of Milwaukee were: W. &
J. G. Flint; James Ryan & Co.; J.B. Reynolds; Jewett & Sherman; and C.E.
Andrews & Co. Later we find added the Wm. Grossman Co.
J.G. Flint and Wyman Flint founded the business known as W. & J.G. Flint
in 1858. J.G. Flint bought out his brother in 1880 and continued as the
J.G. Flint Co., owner of the Star Coffee and Spice Mills. He died in
1896. The business was incorporated in 1901 as the J.G. Flint Co., with
W.K. Flint, a son of J.G., as president. The Jewett & Sherman Co. took
control in 1911.
Professor Milo P. Jewett, Professor S.S. Sherman, and his brother,
William Sherman, founded the firm of Jewett, Sherman & Co. in 1867, and
continued under that name until 1875, when it was incorporated as Jewett
& Sherman Co., with Milo P. Jewett as president, and Henry B. Sherman,
secretary and treasurer. Professor S.S. Sherman and his sons, Fred and
Henry B., sold out their interests in 1878 and formed a new business in
Chicago under the name of Sherman Bros. & Co. William M. Sherman then
became president of Jewett & Sherman Co., and Charles A. Murdock, a
nephew of S.S. and William Sherman, was made secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Murdock withdrew in 1881 and established the C.A. Murdock Mfg. Co.
in Kansas City. In that same year, William H. Sherman, another nephew,
became a stockholder and one of the directors of Jewett & Sherman Co.
Dr. Lewis Sherman succeeded his father as president of the company in
1891, and served in that capacity until his death in 1915, when he was
succeeded by his son, Lewis Sherman, who is president of the company at
the present time (1922). John Horter, who is now secretary, joined the
business in 1877.
William Grossman started in the wholesale grocery business in 1886. John
and Henry Dahlman were admitted to partnership in 1889. About three
years later, the latter closed out his interests to J.F.W. Imbusch. The
present corporation was established in 1892 as Wm. Grossman & Co. The
firm was incorporated August 1, 1916, as the Wm. Grossman Co., with Wm.
Grossman as president, George A. Grossman as vice-president, and Paul E.
Apel as secretary and treasurer.
Another old-time coffee man of Milwaukee was Charles A. Clark, who had
been in the coffee business for nearly twenty years before he organized
the present business of Clark & Host Co.
TOLEDO. The pioneer roasting firms here seem to have been: Warren &
Bedwell; and J.B. Baldy & Co. Later, after 1876, we find added the Bour
Company, and the Woolson Spice Co.
The latter company was founded in 1882 by A.M. Woolson, who up to that
time had conducted a successful retail grocery business for several
years. The Woolson Spice Co. was sold to H.O. Havemeyer of New York in
1896, the reputed sale price being $2,000,000. A.M. Woolson retired from
business at that time. Upon the death of Mr. Havemeyer, the company
passed into the hands of Hermann Sielcken; and when he died, an
American company secured control.
[Illustration: GROUND COFFEE PRICE LIST OF 1862]
The Bour Company was incorporated in 1892, following a partnership which
had succeeded to a small business concern under the name of the Eagle
Spice Company. The principal stockholders were: J.M. Bour, F.G.
Kendrick, and Albro Blodgett. Mr. Blodgett bought the Bour interests in
1909 and with S.W. Beckley, who had been sales manager for a number of
years, acquired practically all the other outside interests. The name
was changed in 1921 to the Blodgett-Beckley Co., the officers being
Albro Blodgett, president, S.W. Beckley, vice-president and manager, and
Henry P. Blodgett, secretary and treasurer.
CLEVELAND. Pioneers in Cleveland were: Smith & Curtis; A. Stephens &
Sons; John H. Ganse; and W.D. Drake & Co. In 1870, we find Edwards,
Townsend & Co.; Knight, Eberman & Co.; Talbot, Winslow & Co.; Williams &
Tait; and Lemmon & Son, added.
Beards & Cummings, coffee roasters of New York City, established a
branch in Cleveland under the management of Alvan Stephens in 1855.
Later, Stephens took over the business for himself and changed the name
to Frisbie & Stephens. In 1861 Alvan's sons, Henry A. and Samuel R.,
were admitted and the firm became A. Stephens & Sons. Alvan Stephens
died in 1873, and Samuel moved to Chicago to open a branch. He died in
1878. Henry A. continued the business until 1881, when Francis Widlar
was admitted to partnership, and the name was changed to Stephens &
Widlar. Henry A. Stephens died in 1897, and A.L. Somers, H.H. Hewitt,
and D.D. Hudson, all old employees, were admitted, and the firm name was
changed to F. Widlar & Co. Carl W. Brand, a nephew of Francis Widlar,
joined the company in 1898. Upon the death of his uncle, the business
was incorporated as the Widlar Co., and Mr. Brand became president in
1910.
PITTSBURGH. Next to New York, Pittsburg was one of the first cities to
forge to the front as a coffee-roasting center. These are the firms that
were among the leaders in the period between 1860 and 1870: Arbuckles &
Co.; W.T. Bown & Bro.; Dilworth Bros.; Rinehart & Stevens; T.C. Jenkins
& Bro.; Carter Bros. & Co.; J.S. Dilworth & Co.; Jesse H. Lippincott;
Shields & Boucher; and Haworth & Dewhurst.
Samuel Young, Samuel Mahood, and E. B. Mahood formed a partnership as
Young, Mahood & Co. in 1879. E.B. Mahood withdrew in 1890. Samuel Mahood
retired in 1906, and the company was incorporated as the Young-Mahood
Company, with Samuel Young as president, and W. James Mahood as
vice-president and general manager.
PORTLAND, OREGON. Early roasters in the trade of this city were: J.F.
Jones; H. C. Hudson & Co.; Marden & Folger; Verdier & Closset; and
Closset & Devers.
Joseph and Emile Closset formed a partnership as Closset Bros, in 1880.
A.H. Devers, who had been a salesman with Folger, Schilling & Co., San
Francisco, and later with A. Schilling & Co., bought out Emile Closset
in 1883, and the firm became Closset & Devers. Joseph Closset died in
1915.
BALTIMORE. Pioneer roasters in Baltimore were: Joseph Braas; Daniel
Many; George Pearson; Sylvester Ruth; and John G. Siegman. These were
quickly followed by Barclay & Hasson; Zoller & Little; Benjamin Berry;
Jesse Lazear; and others.
Later, after 1876, came: E. Levering & Co.; the Enterprise Coffee Co.;
C.D. Kenny; J.W. Laughlin & Co., now Le Morgan Coffee Co.; and the Saxon
Coffee Company.
DETROIT. In Detroit in 1860-70 were: Evans & Walker; Farrington,
Campbell & Co.; A.R. & W.F. Linn; J.H. Riggs; and Palmer, Warner & Co.
After 1876 were added Sinclair, Evans & Elliot; Huber & Stendel; and
J.A. Parent & Co.
OTHER CITIES. Names of pioneer roasters of other towns in 1860 and 1870
were: George Boardman, Albany, N.Y.; Chubuck & Saunders, Binghamton,
N.Y.; George W. Hayward, and P.J. Ferris, Buffalo, N.Y.; Lorimore Bros.,
and George R. Forrester, Elmira, N.Y.; Hatch & Jenks, Jamestown, N.Y.;
N.B. Beede, Newburgh, N.Y.; A.F. Booth, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Ethridge,
Tuller & Co., Rome, N.Y.; M.N. Van Zandt & Co., L.B. Eddy & Co., and
C.T. Moore, Rochester, N.Y.; Ostrander, Loomis & Co., and Jacob Crouse &
Co., Syracuse, N.Y.; C.H. Garrison, Troy, N.Y.; Hinchman & Howard, and
J. Griffiths & Co., Utica, N.Y.; B.F. Hoopes, Bloomington, Ill.; C.P.
Farrell, and Charles Richards, Peoria, Ill.; Slemmons & Conkling,
Springfield, Ill.; Henry Wales, Bridgeport, Conn.; A.B. Gillett, Wm.
Boardman & Sons, Hartford Steam Coffee & Spice Mills, and Park, Fellowes
& Co., Hartford, Conn.; Benj. Peck & Kellum, and Steele & Emery, New
Haven, Conn.; W.S. Scull & Co., Camden, N.J.; Theo. F. Johnson & Co.,
and the Pioneer Mills, Newark, N.J.; Charles A. Dunham, New Brunswick,
N.J.; James Ronan and Wm. Dolton & Co., Trenton, N.J.; Butler, Earhart &
Co., Columbus, Ohio; C.A. Trentman & Bro., and J.D. Beach & Co., Dayton,
Ohio; W. & S. Stevens, and F.C. Dietz, Zanesville, Ohio; J.E. Tone, Des
Moines, Iowa; H.P. Hess, Cornell & Smith, and E. Warne, Easton, Pa.;
E.S. Forster, Erie, Pa.; Haehnlen Bros., Harrisburg, Pa.; D.G.
Yuengling, Pottsville, Pa.; A. G. Zilmore & Co., Scranton, Pa.; Granger
& Co., Titusville, Pa.; Huestis & Hamilton, and B. Trentman & Son, Ft.
Wayne, Ind.; S. Hamill & Co., Keokuk, Ia.; H.H. Lee, and Maguire &
Gillespie, Indianapolis, Ind.; Joseph Strong, Terre Haute, Ind.; Curtis
& Burnham, Leavenworth, Kan.; Yates & Dudley, Lexington, Ky.; A. Turner,
Wheeling, W. Va.; Granger & Hodge, and Nathaniel Crocker, St. Paul,
Minn.; W.W. Totten & Bro., Nashville, Tenn.; Henry Burns, Savannah, Ga.;
A. McFarland, Springfield, Mass.; Alexander Wills & Co., Montreal,
Canada; and Peter Hendershot, St. Catherine, Canada.
Between 1876 and 1900, many other names came into prominence, and among
them mention should be made of: H. Hulman, Terre Haute, Ind.; A.B. Gates
& Co., and Schnull & Krag, Indianapolis, Ind.; O.W. Pierce Co., and
Geiger-Tinney Co., Lafayette, Ind.; Twitchell, Champlin & Co., Portland,
Me.; Nave-McCord Mfg. Co., Mokaska Mfg. Co., and the Midland Spice Co.,
St. Joseph, Mo.; Beaham-Moffatt Mfg. Co., and C.A. Murdock & Co., Kansas
City, Mo.; Clarke Bros. & Co., T. S. Grigor & Co., Consolidated Coffee
Co., and McCord, Brady Co., Omaha, Neb.; Dayton Spice Mills Co., and
Canby, Ach & Canby, Dayton, Ohio; Ohio Coffee & Spice Co., and Butler,
Crawford & Co., Columbus, Ohio; Bacon, Stickney & Co., Albany, N.Y.;
Charles R. Groff Co., St. Paul, Minn.; John G. Schuler, Covington, Ky.;
J.W. Thomas & Son, Nashville, Tenn.; Geo. F. Hanley & Co., Los Angeles,
Cal.; C.S. Morey Mercantile Co., Denver, Col.; and W.G. Lown Coffee Co.,
Washington, D.C.
William Boardman, founder of Wm. Boardman & Sons Co., Hartford, Conn.,
began roasting coffee at Wethersfield in 1841 with a hand-power roaster,
using wood for fuel. He moved his plant to Hartford in 1850. In the same
year, his son Thomas J., after serving a fifteen-year apprenticeship in
a country store, entered his father's employ. Three years later, he and
his brother, William F.J. Boardman, were admitted to the firm, the name
being changed to Wm. Boardman & Sons. Howard F. Boardman, a son of
Thomas J., began working in the business in 1880, and was admitted to
partnership in 1888. The same year, the founder died and William F.J.
retired. The business has since been conducted by Thomas J. and Howard
F. Boardman.
The company was incorporated in 1898, and John Pepion was admitted. The
president of the company, Thomas J. Boardman, is at the time of writing
ninety years old. He still takes a very active interest in the
business, and his "cup sense" is as acute as ever.
The O.W. Pierce Company, Lafayette, Ind. was founded in 1847 by Oliver
Webster Pierce, Sr. Except for three years in the fifties, when the firm
was known as Reynolds, Hatcher & Pierce, it has been known as the O.W.
Pierce Company since it was established. The company was incorporated in
1905 with O.W. Pierce, Jr. as its head. The senior Mr. Pierce died in
1921. The firm first roasted coffee in 1891. Prior to that time it had
been in the wholesale grocery business.
The William S. Scull Co., Camden, N.J., was established in 1858 by
William S. Scull, whose father had been in the retail tea and coffee
business. William Scull died in 1916. H. Newmark founded H. Newmark &
Co. in Los Angeles in 1865. He retired in 1886, and Maurice H. Newmark
was made a full partner. The present name is M.A. Newmark & Co.
In 1868, Major David B. Hamill entered, as junior partner, the firm of
S. Hamill & Co., Keokuk, Iowa, of which his father, Smith Hamill, was
the head. Smith Hamill died in 1890, and David B. became head of the
firm. He died in 1916.
William Tackaberry was a junior partner in the firm of S. Hamill & Co.,
Keokuk, Iowa. He began a business of his own in the same city in 1868.
Ten years later, he moved the company to Sioux City, and continued there
as the Wm. Tackaberry Co.
Joel O. Cheek began traveling for the wholesale grocery house of Webb,
Hughes & Co., Nashville, Tenn., in 1873. Later, he was admitted to
partnership, the firm becoming Webb, Cheek & Co., and then Cheek, Norton
& Neal. He formed the Nashville Coffee & Mfg. Co., in 1899. It was
merged in 1901 into the Cheek-Neal Coffee Co.
Jekiel and Isaac E. Tone began the business of Tone Bros. at Des Moines,
Iowa, in March, 1873, with one roaster and one spice mill. The business
was incorporated in 1897. Jekiel Tone died in 1900, and Isaac E. Tone in
1916. The business is now (1922) carried on by W.E. and Jay E. Tone.
Edward Canby began business in Dayton, Ohio, in 1875, succeeding the
firm of J.D. Beach & Co. He retired in 1886, and the business was left
in charge of Frank L. Canby and P.J. Ach. The latter had entered the
employ of Canby in 1877. He secured an interest in the business in 1882,
and became a partner in 1890. When the company was incorporated as
Canby, Ach & Canby in 1904, he was elected president. Mr. Ach has been
very prominent in the affairs of the National Coffee Roasters
Association since its organization.
Frank J. Geiger began in the tea, coffee, and spice business in
Lafayette, Ind., under the name of Culver & Geiger. Mr. Culver, who had
never been active, died in 1889, and in 1892 the Geiger-Tinney Company
was formed with F.J. Geiger as president. The plant was moved to
Indianapolis in 1901 with William L. Horn as vice-president, and Henry
C. Tinney as secretary and treasurer. The name was changed to the
Geiger-Fishback Co. in 1912, and Mr. Geiger retired. Frank S. Fishback
acquired all the stock of the company in 1918, and the name was changed
to the Fishback Co. with F.S. Fishback, president; John S. Fishback,
treasurer; and F. C. Fishback, secretary.
S. Holstad joined the Thomson & Taylor Spice Co of Chicago in 1892. He
left in 1901 and went to Minneapolis, where he became a member of the
firm of Atwood & Hoisted. He withdrew in 1908 to form the firm of S.
Holstad & Co., with Charles Ekelund and Alexander W. Kreiser as
partners. After the withdrawal of Mr. Holstad from Atwood & Holstad, Mr.
Atwood continued as Atwood & Co.
F.P. Atha began work as a coffee salesman with Holman & Co., Terre
Haute, Ind. He went to San Francisco in 1899 and entered the employ of
J.A. Folger & Co., and introduced Folger products east of the Rockies.
He opened the Kansas City branch in 1907; and a year later, he was
admitted to the firm and made vice-president and general manager.
_The National Coffee Roasters Association_
The first effort to organize the coffee roasters of the United States
dates back to 1885, when several St. Louis coffee roasters came together
in a kind of gentlemen's agreement not to cut the price of roasting
green coffee, which had declined, owing to ruthless competition, from
$1.00 to 10 cents a bag. The various parties to the agreement posted
$500 checks each as forfeits, not to violate the price as fixed. After
one year, a check was cashed; but the principal claimed his lapse was
clerical and not in violation of the agreement. However, as a result of
the argument that followed, the organization was disbanded.
[Illustration: MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZATION CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL
COFFEE ROASTERS ASSOCIATION, ST. LOUIS, MAY 26, 1911
Reading from left to right: W.B. Johnson, St. Louis; W.T. Jones, New
Orleans; George Schulte, St. Louis; C.F. Blanke, St. Louis; Ben Casanas,
New Orleans; Carl Stoffregen, St. Louis; Edward D. Hanly, Kansas City;
H.C. Grote, St. Louis; James Menown, St. Louis; Frank P. Atha, Kansas
City; Henry Petring, St. Louis; J.M. McFadden, Dubuque, Iowa; Joseph
Maury, Memphis; T.F. Halligan, Davenport; F.J. Ach, Dayton; Carl Brand,
Cleveland; Wm. Fisher, St. Louis; M.H. Gasser, Toledo; Julius J.
Schotten, St. Louis; E.W. Bockman, Paducah, Ky.; Louis Christopherson,
St. Louis; Felix Coste, St. Louis; W.E. Tone, Des Moines; Robert Meyer,
St. Louis; Fred Roth, St. Louis; M.E. Smith. St. Louis; J.B.
Dubrouilett, St. Louis; Floyd Norwine, St. Louis]
As early as 1900, leaders of the trade's best thought began to urge the
need of a national organization among coffee roasters.
As a result of informal meetings between men like Robert M. Forbes,
Julius J. Schotten, Robert Meyer, and Messrs. Roth and Homeyer, around
the luncheon table in St. Louis, to discuss trade abuses and bring about
better trade co-operation, the subject of a St. Louis organization of
coffee roasters began to be agitated about 1906. It was not until four
years later, however, that the idea took definite form.
On September 14, 1910, the Traffic Association of St. Louis Coffee
Importers was organized, starting out with a membership of ten firms,
its chief object being to obtain an adjustment of freight rates to and
from St. Louis as advantageous as those prevailing for Chicago and New
York.
This association--of which Robert Meyer was the first president, and
H.L. Homeyer, vice-president, J.S. Hartman, secretary, and G.H. Petring,
treasurer--was the forerunner of the National Coffee Roasters Traffic
and Pure Food Association organized in 1911 and now known as the
National Coffee Roasters Association.
At the organization meeting of the national association twenty-six
coffee-roasting establishments in the Mississippi Valley were
represented at the conference held May 26-27 in the Planters Hotel, St.
Louis. The objects of the new body were announced in the constitution,
as:
_First_: To foster and promote a feeling of fellowship and good
will among its members, and on broad and equitable lines to advance
the welfare of the coffee trade and the consumer.
_Second_: To eliminate or minimize abuses, methods and practises
inimical to the proper conduct of business.
_Third_: To assist in the enactment and enforcement of uniform pure
food laws which in their operations shall deal justly and equitably
with the rights of the consumer and the trade.
The association started with these officers: Julius J. Schotten, St.
Louis, President; M.H. Gasser, Toledo, vice-president; W.E. Tone, Des
Moines, treasurer, and W.J.H. Bown, St. Louis, secretary.
Meanwhile, as a result of an agitation started by _The Tea and Coffee
Trade Journal_, a meeting of New York and eastern coffee roasters was
called at the Fulton Club, New York, October 27, 1911, to discuss plans
for a national organization. M. H. Gasser attended this meeting, and
told of the plan of the western roasters to organize such an
organization at a meeting called for Chicago the following month. The
promoters of the eastern organization subsequently abandoned their
efforts in favor of the western group.
[Illustration: ROBERT MEYER, ST. LOUIS
First president of the Coffee Roasters' original organization]
At the first convention of the National Coffee Roasters Traffic and Pure
Food Association, held in Chicago, November 16-17, 1911, all the
foregoing officers were retained, the office of second vice-president
was created, and Frank R. Seelye was selected to fill it.
That the organization idea was popular among the roasters was evident
from the fact that at the close of the convention it was announced that
the membership was then seventy-one firms in cities as far east as
Virginia and as far west as Kansas City. The convention demonstrated
that the association was really a national organization, which quieted
suspicions prevalent in some quarters of the trade in the east that it
was chiefly a Mississippi Valley unit.
The first convention is remembered principally because of Hermann
Sielcken's defense of the Brazil coffee valorization plan, which was
then the big question of the coffee trade. The titles of some of the
other addresses will serve to indicate how the scope of the association
had enlarged since its organization a few months before: "An Attack on
Valorization" by Thomas J. Webb, of Chicago; "Uniform Food Laws", by
W.T. Jones, of New Orleans; "Penny-Change Systems," by R.W. McCreery, of
Marshalltown, Ia; "Traffic and Freight Abuses," by W.E. Tone, of Des
Moines; "Transportation Problems," by Carl H. Stoffregen, St. Louis;
"Coffee Publicity," by F.H. Henrici, of Chicago; "Coffee Roasters' Costs
and Accounting," by F.J. Ach, Chicago. The first convention proved a
success, and attracted attention.
The second annual convention, held in New York, November 13-15, 1912,
showed that the association had grown to a membership of 135 firms
located in all parts of the country, and that its influence had extended
throughout the whole trade. Valorization continued to be a much
discussed subject. Hermann Sielcken and others again defending it in
speeches; but the majority of the association seemed opposed to the
scheme. Probably the most important feature of the convention was the
report of the committee of nine men who had visited Brazil to
investigate conditions there and to interest the Brazilian coffee
growers in an advertising campaign. An address on this subject was made
by the editor of _The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_, in which he
suggested a plan for propaganda and advocated scientific research to
find out the truth about coffee.
The election of officers resulted in the selection of F.J. Ach, Dayton,
as president; Frank R. Seelye, Chicago, first vice-president; Ross W.
Weir, New York, second vice-president; and Robert Meyer, St. Louis,
treasurer.
The 1912 convention changed the name of the association to the National
Coffee Roasters Association, dropping the words "Traffic and Pure Food"
from the original title.
[Illustration: JULIUS J. SCHOTTEN--1911-12]
[Illustration: F.J. ACH--1912-14]
[Illustration: ROSS W. WEIR--1914-16]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: FRANK R. SEELYE--1916-17]
[Illustration: BEN C. CASANAS--1917-18]
[Illustration: CARL W. BRAND--1918-21]
[Illustration: FORMER PRESIDENTS, NATIONAL COFFEE ROASTERS ASSOCIATION]
The third convention, which was held November 12-14, 1913, in
Cincinnati, demonstrated that the scope of usefulness of the association
was still growing, as shown by the resolutions which approved better
coffee-making publicity; favored a national coffee day; urged the
appointment of inspectors at ports of entry to prevent the importation
of green coffee under government standard No. 8; condemned the excessive
watering of coffee and all coffee coatings; and provided for the
appointment of an agent to visit Brazil to furnish members with
"reliable" reports on crop flowering.
F.J. Ach was re-elected president; Ross W. Weir succeeded F.R. Seelye as
first vice-president; W.T. Jones succeeded Mr. Weir as second
vice-president, and Robert Meyer was retained as treasurer.
Secretary G.W. Toms, who had been appointed in April, 1913, reported
that the association had made a net gain of thirteen members, bringing
the total up to 144.
The membership of the association had been increased by twenty names
when the fourth annual convention was opened in New Orleans, November
16-19, 1914, making the total 164.
Better coffee making, roasting economies, a national coffee week, and
improved methods of handling green coffee in ports and warehouses, were
the principal topics considered at the 1914 meeting. As a result of the
discussions, the association went on record in its resolutions as being
against the misbranding of both green and roasted coffee; favored the
creation of a United States board of coffee experts; and the
establishment of an association trade-mark bureau.
For the ensuing year Ross W. Weir, New York, was chosen president; J.O.
Cheek, Nashville, first vice-president; T.F. Halligan, Davenport, second
vice-president; and W.T. Morley, Worcester, treasurer.
The decision to get together on a comprehensive national publicity
campaign in the interest of coffee was the outstanding feature of the
fifth annual convention, which was held in St. Louis, November 8-11,
1915, in the same room in the Planters Hotel in which the association
was organized in 1911. From a body of twenty-six roasters, the
association had grown in five years to a membership of 201 firms and
individuals.
Among the more important things done at this convention was the decision
to undertake a practical publicity plan to advertise coffee; the
adoption of a uniform cost-and-freight contract; the proposal to prepare
educational matter on coffee for the schools; and the recommendation to
employ a chemist to carry on research work. There were spirited
discussions also on gas, coal, and coke as roasting fuels; on the best
way to get retailer co-operation, and whether it was advisable to
continue the national coffee week idea. President Weir, Vice-Presidents
Cheek and Halligan, and Treasurer Morley were re-elected.
The sixth annual convention, held in Atlantic City, November 14-17,
1916, placed emphasis on research into grinding and brewing; on plans
for doing something practical to help grocers regain their lost coffee
trade; and on an investigation into the scientific costs of roasting.
The admittance of green coffee and allied interests into the association
was also discussed, and it was resolved to make the subject an order of
business for special consideration at the next convention.
At this meeting Frank R. Seelye, Chicago, was elected president; Ben C.
Casanas, New Orleans, first vice-president; J.M. McFadden, Dubuque,
second vice-president; and M.H. Gasser, Toledo, treasurer. The
membership was reported as being 204, showing a net increase of three
during the year.
The seventh convention, held in Chicago, November 14-15, 1917, came when
the first movement of American soldiers to European battlefields was
begun, and patriotism was the keynote of the meeting. Because of the
stress of the times, the program was cut to two days, instead of the
three days of former meetings.
The outstanding features of the convention were: the decision not to
admit green coffee men to the association; the decision to establish a
permanent headquarters; the announcement that Brazil was then collecting
funds for its part in the national advertising campaign; and the
proposal by John E. King, Detroit, that the term "lead number" be used
instead of "caffetannic acid", which he asserted was a misnomer. The
executive committee was authorized to employ a secretary-manager. The
shorter terms and credits idea was endorsed by the association.
These officers were elected for the next year; Ben C. Casanas, New
Orleans, president; S.H. Holstad, Minneapolis, first vice-president;
Edward Aborn, New York, second vice-president; M.H. Gasser, Toledo,
treasurer.
The influenza epidemic, which swept the country the latter part of 1918,
caused the postponement of many business and public gatherings, and the
eighth annual roasters convention did not assemble until December 5-6,
in Cleveland--at only ten days' notice. Unlike previous occasions, this
was in reality a combined convention of all roasted and green coffee men
in the trade, both association members and non-members. No regular
program was followed, the meeting being somewhat in the character of a
trade conference.
The salient features of the convention were the decisions: to double the
annual dues, in order to provide for a paid secretary-manager and to
establish permanent headquarters; to organize a spice grinders' section;
and to ask the government to remove all restrictions on coffee trading.
The Food Administration's coffee regulations came in for severe
criticism.
The election of officers resulted in Carl W. Brand, Cleveland, becoming
president; Robert M. Forbes, St. Louis, first vice-president; J.A.
Folger, San Francisco, second vice-president; and Lewis Sherman,
Milwaukee, treasurer.
The ninth convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association was of
greater import to all branches of the coffee trade than any that had
preceded it. The results of the meeting showed the association had gone
far since the organization meeting in St. Louis in 1911. As in 1916, the
convention was held in Atlantic City, November 12-14, 1919, and drew
delegates from as far west as San Francisco and Seattle.
The most important subjects before the meeting were the reports of the
Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee, read by Ross W. Weir, chairman,
and Felix Coste, secretary-manager. The committee had been organized
during the year to carry on the national coffee-advertising campaign,
and announced at the convention its publicity plans for the next year,
which included a national coffee week, a national showing of the
committee's coffee film, and the issuance of several educational
booklets. Other outstanding features included the description of how the
association planned to conduct a research into the cost of doing a
wholesale coffee-roasting business, the investigation to be made by
Columbia University; addresses attacking the meat packers' invasion of
the coffee roasting and distributing field; a paper, and discussions, on
shorter terms and uniform discounts; the recommendation to employ a
traveling field secretary who would hold periodical meetings with local
branches; and the condemnation of guaranteeing prices against decline
and giving advance notices of changes of prices.
The convention unanimously agreed to the re-election of President Brand,
Vice-Presidents Forbes and Folger, and Treasurer Sherman.
The tenth annual meeting was held in St. Louis, November 10-12, 1920.
Scientific cost finding, short terms and discounts, the national
advertising campaign, the activities of the N.C.R.A. freight-forwarding
bureau, and laboratory-research were the main topics of this years'
gathering. The membership was reported to be 310. A feature of the
meeting was the first industrial exhibit by twenty-five supply houses.
Among the things accomplished were:
The recommendation that members co-operate in determining the invisible
supply of coffee in the United States at stated periods; increasing
annual dues from $50 to $60 for members having $50,000 or less
capitalization, and from $100 to $120 for firms having more than $50,000
capital; restricting membership to purely wholesale coffee roasters and
distributers; and offering co-operation to hotel-men and
restaurant-keepers in standardizing and improving their coffee
beverages.
The St. Louis meeting was notable in violating association precedent by
unanimously electing Carl W. Brand president for the third consecutive
term. Other officers were: J.A. Folger, San Francisco, first
vice-president, R.O. Miller, Chicago, second vice-president; Charles A.
Clark, Milwaukee, treasurer.
The eleventh annual meeting, held in New York, November 1-3, 1921, set
the high-water mark of the organization's record of achievement. This
convention took the first definite steps toward the amalgamation of the
green and roasted coffee interests in one association. Brazil sent a
delegation of coffee men to invite a similar delegation to pay a return
visit to Brazil. It was announced also that São Paulo was about to
double its tax contribution to the national advertising campaign. Among
other things done, were: the appropriation of $1500 to work out a
uniform cost-accounting system for roasters; the recommendation that
coffee importers insist upon the use of American ships by Brazilian
exporters; the formulation of a cost-and-freight arbitration contract
for use with São Paulo exporters; the formation of a new membership
class roasting up to 6000 bags a year; and the decision to make a
national campaign to put the selling of coffee on a uniform thirty-days
credit, two percent cash in ten days basis. Professor S.C. Prescott,
reporting on the research work being done at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, said a better brew of coffee could be obtained at a
temperature of 185 degrees than at the boiling point; that glass, china,
or enameled-ware pots were to be preferred, and that the filtration
method is superior to that employed in the pumping percolator.
[Illustration: JOEL O. CHEEK, NASHVILLE
President of the National Coffee Roasters Association, 1922]
The Industrial Exposition included displays by twenty-eight
manufacturers of machinery and supplies, and was voted a success. Many
of the exhibits were of a distinctly educational character.
The following officers were elected for 1921-22: President, Joel O.
Cheek, Nashville, Tenn.; first vice-president, Webster Jones, San
Francisco; second vice-president, Joseph E. Maury, Memphis, Tenn.;
treasurer, Frank Ennis, Kansas City.
_Coffee Roaster Statistics_
As might be expected, considering the leading place that New York holds
as a port of entry for coffee, the roasting and grinding of coffee is
more important in the eastern section of the country than in any other.
But there are many establishments for preparing coffee scattered
throughout the south and the middle west, and the business has grown to
considerable proportions on the Pacific coast. New York state leads in
number of establishments and is followed by Pennsylvania, California,
Missouri, Ohio, and Illinois. The chief southern state is Texas,
followed by Louisiana and Kentucky, although Maryland and Louisiana lead
in value of product. Missouri has more plants than any other state in
the middle west, and is followed by Illinois, though the capital
invested and the value of the output are much greater in the latter than
in the former.
COFFEE AND SPICE ROASTING AND GRINDING
ESTABLISHMENTS--CENSUS OF 1914
_Value of_
_States_ _Number_ _Capital_ _product_
Alabama 8 $155,000 $331,000
California 43 3,619,000 9,584,000
Colorado 9 445,000 1,168,000
Connecticut 7 136,000 435,000
Dist. of Col. 5 294,000 428,000
Florida 19 219,000 697,000
Georgia 6 80,000 169,000
Illinois 34 8,159,000 22,045,000
Indiana 12 941,000 1,790,000
Iowa 14 1,752,000 3,804,000
Kansas 6 144,000 396,000
Kentucky 17 541,000 1,561,000
Louisiana 17 1,657,000 4,241,000
Maryland 14 1,643,000 4,393,000
Massachusetts 21 3,678,000 8,675,000
Michigan 16 502,000 1,618,000
Minnesota 11 1,531,000 4,729,000
Mississippi 5 27,000 94,000
Missouri 37 6,152,000 14,299,000
Nebraska 6 405,000 1,262,000
New Jersey 17 828,000 3,451,000
New York 136 9,910,000 31,675,000
Ohio 35 6,578,000 13,312,000
Oklahoma 6 191,000 757,000
Oregon 9 757,000 2,050,000
Pennsylvania 77 2,454,000 6,967,000
Tennessee 7 465,000 1,648,000
Texas 36 970,000 3,326,000
Virginia 9 413,000 1,137,000
Washington 25 1,023,000 2,237,000
West Virginia 3 73,000 71,000
Wisconsin 8 362,000 809,000
Other states 21 492,000 1,590,000
____ ___________ ____________
Total 696 $56,596,000 $150,749,000
The distribution of the business of preparing coffee is shown by the
figures of the Census Bureau, which reports for 1914 a total of 696
establishments under the designation "Coffee and spice, roasting and
grinding." It was found to be necessary to adopt this classification
inasmuch as most establishments handle both coffee and spices. Of the
696, however, 658 had coffee as their principal product, and the figures
may thus be taken as indicating fairly well the general distribution of
the coffee-manufacturing industry. These figures, for the various
states, are shown on page 515.
Preliminary figures for the 1919 census show that the value of the
product almost doubled in the five years 1914-19, amounting to
$304,740,000 in 1919, while the number of establishments increased from
696 to 794, of which 769 specialize in coffee.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXXI
SOME BIG MEN AND NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
_B.G. Arnold, the first, and Hermann Sielcken, the last of the
American "coffee kings"--John Arbuckle, the original package-coffee
man--Jabez Burns, the man who revolutionized the roasted coffee
business by his contributions as inventor, manufacturer, and
writer--Coffee-trade booms and panics--Brazil's first valorization
enterprise--War-time government control of coffee--The story of
soluble coffee_
In the history of the coffee trade of the United States, several names
stand out because of sensational accomplishments, and because of notable
contributions made to the development of the industry. In green coffee,
we have B.G. Arnold, the first, and Hermann Sielcken the last, of the
"coffee kings"; in the roasting business, there was John Arbuckle, the
original national-package-coffee man; and in the coffee-roasting
machinery business, Jabez Burns, inventor, manufacturer, and writer.
_The First "Coffee King"_
Benjamin Green Arnold came to New York from Rhode Island in 1836 and
took a job as accountant with an east-side grocer. He was thrifty,
industrious, and kept his own counsel. He was a born financial leader.
Fifteen years later he was made a junior partner in the firm. By 1868,
the bookkeeper of 1836 was the head of the business, with a line of
credit amounting to half a million dollars--a notable achievement in
those days.
Mr. Arnold embarked upon his big speculation in coffee in 1869. For ten
years he maintained his mastery of the market, and in that time amassed
a fortune. It is related that one year's operations of this daring
trader yielded his firm a profit of a million and a quarter of dollars.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN GREEN ARNOLD]
B.G. Arnold was the first president of the New York Coffee Exchange. He
was one of the founders of the Down Town Association in 1878. The
president of the United States was his friend, and a guest at his
luxurious home. But the high-price levels to which Arnold had forced the
coffee market started a coffee-planting fever in the countries of
production. Almost before he knew it, there was an overproduction that
swamped the market and forced down prices with so amazing rapidity that
panic seized upon the traders. Few that were caught in that memorable
coffee maelstrom survived financially.
Arnold himself was a victim, but such was the man's character that his
failure was regarded by many as a public misfortune. Some men differed
with him as to the wisdom of promoting a coffee corner, and protested
that it was against public policy; but Arnold's personal integrity was
never questioned, and his mercantile ability and honorable business
dealings won for him an affectionate regard that continued after his
fortune had been swept away.
After the collapse of the coffee corner, Mr. Arnold resumed business
with his son, F.B. Arnold. He died in New York, December 10, 1894, in
his eighty-second year. The son died in Rome in 1906. The business which
the father founded, however, continues today as Arnold, Dorr & Co., one
of the most honored and respected names in Front Street.
_Hermann Sielcken, the Last Coffee King_
If B.G. Arnold was first coffee king, Hermann Sielcken was last, for it
is unlikely that ever again, in the United States, will it be possible
for one man to achieve so absolute a dictatorship of the green coffee
business.
There never was a coffee romance like that of Hermann Sielcken's. Coming
to America a poor boy in 1869, forty-five years later, he left it many
times a millionaire. For a time, he ruled the coffee markets of the
world with a kind of autocracy such as the trade had never seen before
and probably will not see again. And when, just before the outbreak of
the World War, he returned to Germany for the annual visit to his
Baden-Baden estate, from which he was destined never again to sally
forth to deeds of financial prowess, his subsequent involuntary
retirement found him a huge commercial success, where B.G. Arnold was a
colossal failure. It was the World War and a lingering illness that, at
the end, stopped Hermann Sielcken. But, though he had to admit himself
bested by the fortunes of war, he was still undefeated in the world of
commerce. He died in his native Germany in 1917, the most commanding,
and the most cordially disliked, figure ever produced by the coffee
trade.
Hermann Sielcken was born in Hamburg in 1847, and so was seventy years
old when he died at Baden-Baden, October 8, 1917. He was the son of a
small baker in Hamburg; and before he was twenty-one, he went to Costa
Rica to work for a German firm there. He did not like Costa Rica, and
within a year he went to San Francisco, where, with a knowledge of
English already acquired, he got a job as a shipping clerk. This was in
1869. A wool concern engaged him as buyer, and for about six years he
covered the territory between the Rockies and the Pacific, buying wool.
On one of these trips he was in a stage-coach wreck in Oregon and nearly
lost his life. He received injuries affecting his back from which he
never fully recovered, and which caused the stooped posture which marked
his carriage through life thereafter. When he recovered, he came to New
York seeking employment, and obtained a clerical position with L.
Strauss & Sons, importers of crockery and glassware. In 1880, married
Josephine Chabert, whose father kept a restaurant in Park Place.
Sielcken had learned Spanish in Costa Rica, and this knowledge aided him
to a place with W.H. Crossman & Bro. (W.H. and George W. Crossman)
merchandise commission merchants in Broad Street. He was sent to South
America to solicit consignments for the Crossmans, and was surprisingly
successful. For six or eight months every South American mail brought
orders to the house. Then, as the story goes, his reports suddenly
ceased. Weeks and months passed, and the firm heard nothing from him.
The Crossmans speculated concerning his fate. It was thought he might
have caught a fever and died. It was almost impossible to trace him; at
the same time it distressed them to lose so promising a representative.
Giving up all hope of hearing from him again, they began to look around
for some one to take his place. Then, one morning, he walked into the
office and said, "How do you do?" just as if he had left them only the
evening before. The members of the firm questioned him eagerly. He
answered some of their questions; but most of them he did not. Then he
laid a package on the table.
[Illustration: HERMANN SIELCKEN]
"Gentlemen", he said, "I have given a large amount of business to you,
far more than you expected, as the result of my trip. I have a lot more
business which I can give to you. It's all in black and white in the
papers in this package. I think any person who has worked as hard as I
have, and so well, deserves a partnership in this firm. If you want
these orders, you may have them. They represent a big profit to you.
Good work deserves proper reward. Look these papers over, and then tell
me if you want me to continue with you as a member of this firm."
After the Crossmans had looked those papers over they had no doubt of
the advisability of taking Sielcken into partnership. He was admitted as
a junior in 1881-82 and became a full partner in 1885. For more than
twenty years Hermann Sielcken was the human dynamo that pushed the firm
forward into a place of world prominence. He was the best informed man
on coffee in two continents; and when, in 1904, the firm name was
changed to Crossman & Sielcken--W.H. Crossman having died ten years
before--he was well prepared to assert his rights as king of the trade.
He proved his kingship by his masterful handling of valorization three
years later.
Sielcken was many times credited with working "corners" in coffee; but
he would never admit that a corner was possible in anything that came
out of the ground; and to the end, he was insistent in his denials of
ever having cornered coffee. As a daring trader, he won his spurs in a
sensational tilt with the Arbuckles in the bull campaign of 1887.
Because of this, he became one of the most feared and hated men in the
Coffee Exchange. For a while, coffee did not offer enough play for his
tremendous energy and ambition. He embarked in various
enterprises--among them, the steel industry and railroads. No one was
too big for Sielcken to cross lances with. He bested John W. Gates in a
titanic fight, in American Steel and Wire. He quarreled with E.H.
Harriman and George J. Gould over the possession of the Kansas City,
Pittsburgh, and Gulf Railroad, now known as the Kansas City Southern,
and, backed by a syndicate of Hollanders, obtained control.
While still busy with the Kansas City Southern enterprise Sielcken began
work on the coffee valorization scheme that he carried to a successful
conclusion in spite of the law of supply and demand and the interference
of the Congress of the United States. Valorization by the São Paulo
government, and by coffee merchants, having proved a failure; Sielcken
showed how it could be done with all the American coffee merchants
eliminated--except himself. In this way, he secured for himself the
opportunity he had long been seeking--the chance to bestride the coffee
trade like a colossus. The story is told farther along in this chapter.
When his partner, George W. Crossman, died in 1913, it was discovered
that the two men had a remarkable contract. Each had made a will giving
one million dollars to the other. Then Sielcken bought his late
partner's interest in the firm for $5,166,991.
His first wife having died at Mariahalden, his home in Baden-Baden,
seven years before, Sielcken married at Tessin, Germany, in 1913, Mrs.
Clara Wendroth, a widow with two children, and the daughter of the late
Paul Isenberg, a wealthy sugar planter of the Hawaiian Islands. At that
time the coffee king was dividing his time between the Waldorf-Astoria,
New York, which he called his American home, and his wonderful estate in
the fatherland. This latter was a two-hundred-acre private park
containing four villas and a marvelous bath-house for guests besides the
main villa; a rose-garden in which were cultivated one hundred
sixty-eight varieties on some twenty thousand bushes; a special
greenhouse for orchids; and landscaped grounds calling for the service
of six professional gardeners and forty assistants. Here he delighted to
entertain his friends. Frequently, there were fifteen to twenty of them
for dinner on the garden terrace; and, as the moon came up through the
tall hemlocks and shone through the majestic pines brought from Oregon,
a full military band from Heidelberg, adown the hillside among the rose
trees, mingled its music with the dinner discussions. There was nothing
at that dinner table but peace and harmony, although every language in
Europe was spoken; for Sielcken knew them all from his youth. Sometimes
he entertained his guests with stories of his California life, and
sometimes with those of shipwrecks in South America.
All the post-telegraph boys in Baden knew every foot of the sharply
winding road up the Yburg Strasse to Villa Mariahalden; and the guests
therein have counted more than eighty cables received, and more than
thirty sent in a single day. And those daily cable messages were to and
from all quarters of the globe, and to and from the master, who handled
them all, without even a secretary or typewriter. Nowhere in the entire
establishment was there even an appearance of business, except as the
messages came and went on the highway. Sielcken manifested his greatest
delight in showing his friends his orchids, his roses, his pigeons, his
trout, and his trees.
Like Napoleon, this merchant prince required only five hours sleep. It
was his custom to go to bed at one and to be up at six. Did he wish to
know anything that the cables did not bring him, he jumped into his
eighty-horse-power Mercedes with a party of guests and was off with the
sunrise, down the Rhine Valley, on his way to Paris or Hamburg; and
before one realized that he was gone, he was back again.
In 1913, Sielcken admitted to partnership in his firm two employees of
long service, John S. Sorenson and Thorlief S.B. Nielsen. He went to
Germany in 1914, shortly before the beginning of the World War, and
remained at Mariahalden until he died in 1917. Sielcken never would
believe that war was possible until it had actually started. Up to the
last moment in July, 1914, he was cabling his New York partner that
there would probably be no hostilities. He lost a bet of a thousand
pounds made with a visiting Brazilian friend a few days before war was
declared. The guest believed war inevitable and won. A few days before
Sielcken's death the old firm was dissolved under the Trading with the
Enemy Act, being succeeded by the firm of Sorenson & Nielsen. The former
had been with the business thirty-four years, and the latter thirty-two
years. The alien property custodian took over Sielcken's interest for
the duration of the war.
Rumors in 1915 that the German government was extorting large sums of
money from Sielcken brought denials from his associates here. After the
war, it was confirmed that no such extortions took place.
Sielcken always claimed American citizenship. There was a widely
circulated story, never proved, that he tore up his citizenship papers
in 1912 when the United States government began its suit to force the
sale of coffee stocks held here under the valorization agreement. The
Supreme Court of California in 1921 decided that he _was_ a citizen, and
his interests and those of his widow, amounting to $4,000,000, held by
the alien property custodian, were thereupon released to his heirs. It
appeared in evidence that he took out his citizenship papers in San
Francisco in 1873-74, but lost them in a shipwreck off the coast of
Brazil in 1876. The San Francisco fire destroyed the other records; but
under act of legislature re-establishing them, the citizenship claim was
declared valid.
Hermann Sielcken never liked the title of "coffee king." He was once
asked about this appellation, and turned smartly upon the interviewer.
"Nonsense," he said. "I am no king. I don't like the term, because I
never heard of a 'king' who did not fail."
Sielcken had no use for titles. T.S.B. Nielsen says that at a dinner
party in Germany in 1915 he heard Sielcken explain to a large number of
guests that the United States was the best country because there a man
was appraised at his real value. What he did, and how he lived,
counted--not birth or titles.
While his greatest achievement was, of course, the valorization
enterprise, he played a not unimportant rôle in the Havemeyer-Arbuckle
sugar-trust fight. He aided the late Henry O. Havemeyer to secure
control of the Woolson Spice Co. of Toledo in 1896, so as to enable the
Havemeyer's to retaliate with Lion brand coffee for the Arbuckles'
entrance into the sugar business. The Woolson Spice Co. sold the Lion
brand in the middle west, and the American Coffee Co. sold it in the
east. That was the beginning of a losing price-war that lasted ten
years. At the end, Sielcken took over the Woolson property at a price
considerably lower than originally paid for it. In 1919, the Woolson
Spice Co. brought suit against the Sielcken estate, alleging a loss of
$932,000 on valorization coffee sold to it by Sielcken just after the
federal government began its suit in 1912 to break up the valorization
pool in the United States. The Woolson Spice Co. paid the "market
price", as did the rest of the buyers of valorization coffee; but it was
charged that Sielcken, as managing partner of Crossman & Sielcken, sold
the coffee to the Woolson Spice Co., of which he was president, "at
artificially enhanced prices and in quantities far in excess of its
legitimate needs, concealing his knowledge that before the plaintiff
could use the coffee, the price would decline." Sielcken collected for
the coffee sold $3,218,666.
When the United States government crossed lances with Sielcken in 1912
over the valorization scheme, it looked for a time as if he would be
unhorsed. But men and governments were all the same to Sielcken; and at
the end of the fight it was discovered that not only was he
undefeated--for the government never pressed its suit to conclusion--but
that his prestige as king and master mind of the coffee trade had gained
immeasurably by the adventure.
Hermann Sielcken typified German efficiency raised to the nth power. He
was a colossus of commerce with the military alertness of a Bismarck.
His mental processes were profound, and his vision was far-reaching. He
was a resourceful trader, an austere friend, a shrewd and uncompromising
foe. Physically, he was a big man with a bull neck and black, piercing
eyes. His policy in coffee was one of blood and iron. He brooked no
interference with his plans, and he was ruthless in his methods of
dealing with men and governments. Usually silent and uncommunicative,
occasionally he exploded under stress; and when he did so, there was no
mincing of words. He knew no fear. Newspaper criticism annoyed him but
little; and he had a kind of contempt for the fourth estate as a whole,
although he knew how to use it when it suited his purpose. He avoided
the limelight, and never courted publicity for himself. Socially he was
a princely host; but few knew him intimately, except perhaps in his
native Germany.
Sielcken's widow was married in New York, February 11, 1922, to Joseph
M. Schwartz, the Russian baritone of the Chicago Opera Company.
_The Story of John Arbuckle_
John Arbuckle, for nearly fifty years the honored dean of the American
coffee trade, pioneer package-coffee man, some time coffee king, sugar
merchant, philanthropist, and typical American, came from fine, rugged
Scotch stock. He was the son of a well-to-do Scottish woolen-mill owner
in Allegheny, Pa., where he was born, July 11, 1839. He often said he
was raised on skim milk. He received a common school education in
Pittsburgh and Allegheny. He and Henry Phipps, the coke and steel head,
are said to have occupied adjoining desks in one of the public schools,
Andrew Carnegie being at that time in another grade of the same school.
He had a strong bent for science and machinery; and, although he chose
the coffee instead of the steel business for his career, the basis of
his success was invention. He also attended Washington and Jefferson
College at Washington, Pennsylvania.[348]
The Arbuckle business was founded at Pittsburg, in 1859, when Charles
Arbuckle, his uncle Duncan McDonald, and their friend William Roseburg,
organized the wholesale grocery firm of McDonald & Arbuckle. One year
later John Arbuckle, the younger brother of Charles Arbuckle, was
admitted to the firm, and the firm name was changed to McDonald &
Arbuckles. McDonald and Roseburg retired from the firm a few years
later, leaving the business in the hands of the two youthful, hopeful,
and energetic brothers, who under the firm name of Arbuckles & Co., soon
made their firm one of the important wholesale grocery houses in
Pennsylvania. Although little thinking at the time that their greatest
success was to be achieved in coffee, and that a new idea of one of the
partners--that of marketing roasted coffee in original packages--would
make their name familiar in every hamlet in the country, yet the first
two entries in the original day-book of McDonald & Arbuckles record
purchases of coffee.
Prior to the sixties, coffee was not generally sold roasted or ground,
ready for the coffee pot. Except in the big cities, most housewives
bought their coffee green, and roasted it in their kitchen stoves as
needed. John Arbuckle, having become impressed with the wasteful methods
and unsatisfactory results of this kitchen roasting, had already begun
his studies of roasting and packaging problems, studies that he never
gave up. How, first to roast coffee scientifically, and then to preserve
its freshness in the interval between the roaster and the coffee pot,
continued to be an absorbing study until his death. The range of his
work may be illustrated by reference to his first and his last patents.
In 1868, he patented a process of glazing coffee, which had for its
object the preservation of the flavor and aroma of coffee by sealing the
pores of the coffee bean. Thirty-five years later, he patented a huge
coffee roaster in which, more closely than in any other roaster, he felt
he could approach his ideal of roasting coffee--that ideal being to hold
the coffee beans in suspension in superheated air during the entire
roasting process, and not to allow them to come in contact with a heated
iron surface.
By 1865, John Arbuckle had satisfied himself that a carefully roasted
coffee, packed while still warm in small individual containers, would
measurably overcome the objections to selling loose coffee in a roasted
state. So in that year (1865), although not without the misgivings of
his elder brother, and even in the face of the ridicule of competitors,
who derided the plan of selling roasted coffee "in little paper bags
like peanuts", Arbuckles & Co. introduced the new idea, namely, roasted
coffee in original packages. The story of the development of that simple
idea, which soon spread from coast to coast, and of how it laid the
foundations of a great fortune, is one of the romances of American
business.
Although Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java Coffee, a ground-coffee
package, first put on the New York market by Lewis A. Osborn, and later
exploited by Thomas Reid in the early sixties, appears to have been the
original package coffee, much of the fame attached to the name of
Arbuckle comes from its association with the Ariosa coffee package,
which was the first successful national brand of package coffee. It was
launched in 1873. The Ariosa premium list (premiums have been a feature
of the Arbuckle business since 1895) includes a hundred articles. Almost
anything from a pair of suspenders or a toothbrush, to clocks, wringers,
and corsets may be obtained in exchange for Ariosa coupons.
The common belief that the name Ariosa was made up from the words Rio
and Santos (said to be the component parts of the original blend) is
erroneous. It was arbitrarily coined, though it is not known what
considerations prompted it. One story has it that the "A" stands for
Arbuckle, the "rio" for Rio, and the "sa" for South America.
Early in the seventies, the great business opportunities of New York
City had attracted the two brothers, and a branch was established in New
York in charge of John Arbuckle, the main business in Pittsburg being
left in the care of his brother Charles. The growth of the New York
branch soon made it necessary for Charles Arbuckle to leave the
Pittsburg business in charge of trusted employees, and to come to New
York. In time, the coffee business of the New York house overshadowed
the grocery lines; and the latter were abandoned there, so that the
entire energy of the firm in New York might be devoted to the coffee
business, which thenceforth was operated under the firm name of Arbuckle
Bros. The Arbuckle coffee business, which began with a single roaster in
1865, had eighty-five machines running in Pittsburg and New York in
1881.
Charles Arbuckle died in 1891, and John Arbuckle admitted as partners
his nephew, William Arbuckle Jamison, and two employees, William V.R.
Smith and James N. Jarvie, the business continuing under the former name
of Arbuckle Bros. The most important step taken by the firm while thus
constituted was its entrance into the sugar refining business in 1896.
That entrance had to be forced against the bitterest opposition of a
so-called sugar trust, and brought on a "war" signalized by the most
ruthless cutting of prices of both coffee and sugar. This war was costly
to both sides; but when it had ended, Arbuckle Bros. remained unshaken
in the preeminence of their package-coffee business and had acquired
also great publicity and a fine trade in refined sugar.
[Illustration: JOHN ARBUCKLE]
Arbuckles were always large consumers of sugar in connection with their
coffee glaze, and having introduced the package sugar idea with their
customers some years before, they at last made up their minds to refine
for their own needs and thus to save the profits paid to "the
Havemeyers". It is generally conceded that John Arbuckle's shrewdness
and business sagacity in having previously acquired the Smyser patents
on a weighing and packing machine, and his control of it, really led to
the coffee-sugar war. "This packing machine", said the _Spice Mill_,
when Henry E. Smyser died in 1899, "puts him [Smyser] with the greatest
inventors of our day."
The sugar trust met the Arbuckle challenge by invading the
coffee-roasting field. This they accomplished by securing a controlling
interest for $2,000,000 in one of the largest competing roasting plants
in the country, that of the Woolson Spice Co., of Toledo, Ohio, that had
in the Lion brand, a ready-made package coffee wherewith to fight
Ariosa. The re-organization of the Woolson Spice Co. in 1897, when A. M.
Woolson was relieved of the office of president, disclosed, among
others, the names of Hermann Sielcken in close juxtaposition to that of
H.O. Havemeyer on the board of directors. Both men helped to make
coffee-trade history.
The trade found the coffee-sugar war the all-absorbing topic for several
years. Hot debates were held on the question as to whether, on one hand,
the Arbuckles had the right to enter the sugar-refining business and, on
the other, as to whether the sugar-trust had a right to retaliate. The
answer seemed to be "yes" in both instances.
In two years, John Arbuckle's model sugar refinery in Brooklyn was
turning out package sugar at the rate of five thousand barrels a day.
The Woolson Spice Co. was credited with spending unheard-of sums of
money in advertising Lion brand coffee. The eastern newspaper displays
alone exceeded anything ever before attempted in this line. However,
many people are of the opinion that it was a tactical error on the part
of the sugar interests to spend so much money advertising a Rio coffee
in the central and New England states, while John Arbuckle was confining
his activities to the south and the west, where there already existed a
Rio taste among consumers.
The legal fight which the Arbuckles carried on with the Havemeyers for
the control of the sugar business in this celebrated coffee-sugar war is
said to have cost millions on both sides.
Eventually, the Havemeyers were glad to be relieved of their coffee
interests, but John Arbuckle continued to sell both coffee and sugar.
Mr. Arbuckle married Miss Mary Alice Kerr in Pittsburg, in 1868. She
died in 1907. His many charities included boat trips for children,
luxurious farm vacations for tired wage-earners, boat-raising and
life-saving schemes, a low-priced home for working girls and men on an
old full-rigged ship lying off a New York dock, which he called his
"Deep Sea Hotel," and a vacation enterprise for young men and young
women at New Paltz, N.Y., which was known as the "Mary and John Arbuckle
Farm." A magazine for children, called _Sunshine_, was another
benevolent enterprise of his.
When John Arbuckle died at his Brooklyn home, March 27, 1912, he had
been ill only four days. The New York Coffee Exchange closed at two
o'clock the day following, after adopting appropriate resolutions and
appointing a committee to attend the funeral. His estate in New York was
valued at $33,000,000.
W.V.R. Smith and James N. Jarvie retired from the firm in 1906; and John
Arbuckle and his nephew W.A. Jamison continued it as sole owners and
partners until Mr. Arbuckle's death in 1912. Mr. Arbuckle died childless
and a widower, leaving as his only heirs his two sisters, Mrs. Catherine
Arbuckle Jamison and Miss Christina Arbuckle. Mrs. Jamison is the widow
of the late Robert Jamison, who had been a prominent drygoods merchant
in Pittsburg. William A. Jamison is her eldest and only living son.
Following the death of John Arbuckle, a new partnership was formed in
which Mrs. Jamison, Miss Arbuckle, and Mr. Jamison became the partners
and owners, and that partnership, without change of name, continues.
Probably there is no other mercantile establishment of similar size in
the country that is carried on as a partnership, and none which after
more than sixty years is so exclusively owned by members of the
immediate family of its founders.
The Arbuckle business, as it is today, is John Arbuckle's best monument.
All that it is he foresaw; for behind those keen, penetrating eyes,
there was wonderful vision. Simple in his tastes; democratic in his
dress, in his habits and his speech; he was one of the most approachable
of our first captains of industry. Many of the younger generation in the
coffee business have found inspiration in contemplating John Arbuckle's
achievements. As represented in what has been called "the world's
greatest coffee business", these include other package coffees, such as
Yuban, Arbuckle's Breakfast, Arbuckle's Drinksum, and Arbuckle's
Certified Java and Mocha. The pioneer Ariosa brand is still being sold;
although it is interesting to note that the demand for ground Ariosa is
increasing, marking the swing of the pendulum of public taste away from
the original bean package to the so-called "steel-cut," or ground,
coffee package. Will it swing back again, some day? Many coffee men
believe it will. If it does, good old Ariosa, with its coating of sugar
and eggs, will no doubt be on the job to meet it.
Yuban was launched in the fall of 1913. It is a high-grade package
coffee, whereas Ariosa is popular-priced. In addition to the package
coffee business, Arbuckle Bros. have many other activities. They deal in
green coffee as well as roasted coffee in bulk. The wholesale grocery
business in Pittsburg continues under the old name of Arbuckles & Co.;
while in Chicago, Arbuckle Bros. have a branch equipped with a
coffee-roasting-and-packaging plant, also spice-grinding and
extract-manufacturing plants, and do a large business in teas. A branch
in Kansas City distributes the products manufactured in New York and
Chicago. In Brazil, offices are maintained at Rio de Janeiro, Santos,
and Victoria, as Arbuckle & Co. In Mexico, Arbuckle Bros. are
established at Jalapa, with branches at Cordoba and Coatepec. In season,
the warehouses and hulling plants at those points employ as many as 650
hands preparing Mexican coffee for shipment to New York.
Arbuckle Bros. are direct importers of green coffee on a large scale,
and are known also as heavy buyers "on the street." The roasting
capacity of their Brooklyn plant is from 8,000 to 9,000 bags per day.
The cylinder equipment of twenty-four Burns roasters is supplemented by
four "Jumbo" roasters of Arbuckle build, each capable of roasting
thirty-five bags at one time. The Ariosa package business grew from the
smallest beginnings to more than 800,000 packages per day. Individual
brands have not held their lead of late years; but the volume of
package-coffee business is greater than ever. Many jobbers now pack
brands of their own, besides handling the Arbuckle brands.
Distribution of roasted coffees outside Chicago and Kansas City is
accomplished through the medium of more than one hundred stock depots
in as many different cities of the United States.
To operate the world's greatest coffee business is no small undertaking;
and when this is coupled with an important sugar-refining business and a
waterfront warehouse-and-terminal business, plenty of room is needed. So
we find the plant along the Brooklyn waterfront occupying an area of a
dozen city blocks. An idea of the extent and diversity of the activities
of the plant may be gained from a brief reference to the utilities, and
the trades, and even the professions, that are required to make the
wheels go round.
To ship more than one hundred cars of coffee and sugar in a single day
calls for shipping facilities that could be had only by organizing a
railroad and waterfront terminal, known as Jay Street Terminal, equipped
with freight station, locomotives, tugboats, steam lighters, car floats,
and barges. City deliveries of coffee and sugar call for a fleet of
thirty-five large motor trucks that are housed in the firm's own garage
and kept in repair in their own shops. Although motor trucks are fast
replacing the faithful horse; and the time will never come again when
Arbuckle Bros. will boast of their stable of nearly two hundred horses
that were generally acknowledged to be the finest string of draft horses
in the city, some fifty or sixty of their faithful animals still are in
harness; and so the stable, with blacksmith shop, harness shop, and
wagon-repair shops, are serving their respective purposes, though on a
reduced scale. A printing shop vibrates with the whirr of mammoth
printing presses turning out thousands upon thousands of coffee-wrappers
and circulars; and doubtless it will be news to many that the first
three-color printing press ever built was expressly designed and built
for Arbuckle Bros. Then there is a sunny first-aid hospital on top of
the Pearl Street warehouse where a physician is ever ready to relieve
sudden illness and accidental injuries. On the eleventh floor there is a
huge dining room where the Brooklyn clerical forces get their noonday
lunches. This feeding of the inner man (and woman) is matched by the
power-house where twenty-six large steam boilers must be fed their quota
of coal. In the winter months, when Warmth must come for the workers as
well as power for the wheels, the coal consumption runs up as high as
four hundred tons per day.
The barrel factory, with a daily capacity of 6,800 sugar barrels, is
located about a mile away, where barrel staves and heads are received
from the firm's own stave mill in Virginia, made from logs cut on their
own timber lands in Virginia and North Carolina. A more self-contained
plant would be hard to imagine, and so we find that even the last
activity in its operations--that of washing and drying the emptied sugar
bags--is also provided for. That this is "some laundry" goes without
saying, when it is recalled that in the busy sugar season the firm dumps
from eight to ten thousand bags of raw sugar per day, and that these
bags are washed and dried daily as emptied. A huge rotary drier of the
firm's own design does the work of about three miles of clothes lines.
Even after the coffees have been sold and paid for, there still remains
an important task, and that is to redeem the signature coupons which the
consumers cut from the packages and return for premiums. Lest some
regard this as an insignificant phase of the business, it may be stated
that in a single year the premium department has received over one
hundred and eight million coupons calling for more than four million
premiums. These premiums included 818,928 handkerchiefs; 261,000 pairs
of lace curtains; 238,738 shears; and 185,920 Torrey razors. Finger
rings are perennial favorites, and so insistent is the demand for the
rings offered as premiums, that Arbuckle Bros. are regarded as the
largest distributors of finger rings in the world. One of their premium
rings is a wedding ring; and if all the rings of this pattern serve
their intended purpose, it is estimated that the firm has assisted at
eighty thousand weddings in a year.
Turning from the utilities at the plant to the trades and professions
represented, other than the trained sugar and coffee workers, the
following are constantly employed: physicians, chemists, mechanical
engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, railroad engineers and
brakemen, steamboat captains and engineers, chauffeurs, teamsters,
wagon-makers, harness-makers, machinists, draughtsmen, blacksmiths,
tinsmiths, coppersmiths, coopers, carpenters, masons, painters,
plumbers, riggers, typesetters and pressmen, and last but not least,
the chef and table waiters.
One of the most remarkable things about the growth of this business
enterprise is that it is not the result of buying out, or consolidating
with, competitors; but has resulted from a steady wholesome growth along
conservative business lines. Consolidations are often desirable and
effective; but when a great business has been built without any such
consolidations, the conclusion is inevitable that somewhere in the
establishment there must have been a corresponding amount of wisdom,
foresight, energy, and honorable business dealing. Those were the things
for which John Arbuckle stood firm, and for which he will always be
remembered.
_Jabez Burns, Inventor, Manufacturer, Writer_
Jabez Burns was a person of real importance to the American coffee trade
from 1864, when he began to manufacture his improved roaster, until his
death, at the age of sixty-two, in 1888. His success depended more on
unusual character than unusual ability, although he was really gifted as
regards mechanical invention. He loved to acquire practical information,
and arrived confidently at common-sense conclusions; and he exercised a
wide and helpful influence, because he liked to give expression to
opinions that he considered sound and useful.
Mr. Burns was born in London in 1826. The family moved soon after to
Dundee, Scotland, and came to New York in 1844. They were people of
small means and independent thinking. The father, William G. Burns, had
been more interested in the Chartist social movement than in any settled
business activity. An uncle, also named Jabez Burns, became a popular
Baptist preacher in London.
The first winter in America found youthful Jabez teaching a country
school at Summit, N.J. Then he began in New York (1844-45) as teamster
for Henry Blair, a prosperous coffee merchant who attended a little
"Disciples" church in lower Sixth Avenue where many Scottish families
congregated. There also Burns met Agnes Brown, daughter of a Paisley
weaver, and married her in 1847. A brave young pair they were, who found
all sorts of odd riches--just as if a fast-growing family could somehow
make up for a slow-growing income. There were hopes, too, that the
contrivances Burns kept inventing might bring wealth; and some extra
money did come from the sale of early patents, including one in 1858 for
the Burns Addometer, a primitive adding machine.
But Mr. Burns had continued regularly in the employ of coffee and spice
firms, and at one time he was bookkeeper for Thomas Reid's Globe Mills.
He advanced slowly, because he lacked real trading talent; but he was
learning all about the handling of goods, from purchase to final
delivery; and when he quit bookkeeping for the old Globe Mills, and
began to build his patent roaster, he could advise clients reliably
about every factory detail.
He was soon looked on as an authority. He wrote some articles for the
_American Grocer_, a series on "Food Adulteration" being reprinted; and
in 1878, he began the quarterly publication of his thirty-two-page
_Spice Mill_, which soon became a monthly, and gained the interested
attention of practically the entire coffee and spice trade.
Through the columns of this paper, in circulars, by letters, and in a
pocket volume called the _Spice Mill Companion_, he distributed
information on coffee, spices, and baking powder, and gave valuable
advice to beginners in the coffee-roasting business. Not a few coffee
roasters were started on the way to fortune by the counsel of Jabez
Burns. He died in New York, September 16, 1888.
Jabez Burns founded the business of Jabez Burns & Sons in 1864,
beginning the manufacture of his patent coffee roaster at 107 Warren
Street, New York. Since then, there have been four removals. In
December, 1908, the business moved to its present uptown location, at
the northwest corner of Eleventh Avenue and Forty-third Street,
occupying a six-story building which was doubled in size in 1917. This
Burns factory has been referred to as "the unique coffee-machinery
workshop", the greatest establishment of its kind in the United States.
Upon the death of its founder the business was continued; first, as the
firm of Jabez Burns & Sons, composed of his sons, Jabez, Robert, and A.
Lincoln Burns; and later, in 1906, incorporated as Jabez Burns & Sons,
Inc., with Robert Burns as president, Jabez Burns as vice-president,
and A. Lincoln Burns as secretary and treasurer. Jabez Burns died August
6, 1908. The present officers are: Robert Burns, president; A. Lincoln
Burns, vice-president; William G. Burns, general manager; and C.H.
Maclachlan, secretary and treasurer.
[Illustration: JABEZ BURNS]
A. Lincoln Burns succeeded his father as editor of the _Spice Mill_.
William H. Ukers was made editor in 1902, and he continued until 1904,
when he left to assume editorial direction of _The Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal_.
_Coffee-Trade Booms and Panics_
In the last fifty years there have been many spectacular attempts to
corner the coffee market in Europe and the United States. The first
notable occurrence of this kind did not originate in the trade itself.
It took place in 1873, and was known as the "Jay Cooke panic", being
brought about by the famous panic of that name in the stock market.
As a result of the Jay Cooke failure, it was impossible to obtain money
from the banks. Hence buyers were forced to keep out of the coffee
market; and as a consequence, the price for Rios dropped from
twenty-four cents to fifteen cents in the course of the trading period
of one day[349].
Another interesting development during that year was of foreign origin.
A coffee syndicate was organized in Europe, financed by the powerful
German Trading Company of Frankfort, with agencies in London, Rotterdam,
Antwerp, and Brazil. For more than eight years this proved to be a
highly successful undertaking, largely controlling the principal
producing and consuming markets.
As far as the American coffee trade is concerned, the first sensational
upheaval took place in 1880-81. This period witnessed the collapse of
the first great coffee trade combination in this country--the so-called
"syndicate", comprising O.G. Kimball, B.G. Arnold, and Bowie Dash,
sometimes known as the "trinity".
The period of high coffee prices, commencing in 1870, had greatly
stimulated production in many Mild-coffee producing countries, as well
as in Brazil, and as a consequence the syndicate found its burden
becoming extremely heavy early in 1880. In January of that year our
visible supply amounted roughly to 767,000 bags. While this was reduced
to about 740,000 bags in July, the latter likewise proved to be
decidedly burdensome, especially as another liberal crop was beginning
to move in producing countries. The excessive volume of supplies was
especially marked, because distributing trade during the summer was
strikingly dull, as the majority of buyers were holding off, in view of
the prospective liberal new crops. At that time Java coffee was a big
item in American markets, whereas Santos was just about beginning to be
a factor.
The syndicate found that it had its hands full supporting the Brazil
grades, and hence had to let the Javas go. As a result, the latter,
which had sold at twenty-four and three-quarters cents in January, 1880,
fell to nineteen and one-half cents in July, to eighteen cents in
November and to sixteen cents in December. As a matter of fact, the
syndicate was practically the only buyer of Brazil coffee during the
fall of 1880; and as a consequence, Rios, which had started the year at
fourteen and one-half to sixteen and one-quarter cents, were down to
twelve and three-quarters cents in December, 1880, and had dropped nine
and one-half cents when the break in the market culminated in June,
1881.
The first whispers of financial troubles growing out of these adverse
conditions were heard in October, 1880; and on the 27th of that month
the first failure was announced--that of C. Risley & Co., with
liabilities placed at $800,000 and assets at $400,000. This firm had
been doing business in the local market for about thirty years. The
efforts of the receivers to dispose of this company's large stock
naturally served to accelerate the decline; and the final impetus came
on December 6, when the New York trade heard of the death, two days
previously, of O.G. Kimball, of Boston, one of the most prominent
merchants there. This precipitated the big crash of December 7, when
B.G. Arnold & Co., the largest New York firm, suspended with estimated
liabilities of $750,000 to $1,000,000. The official statement later
placed the liabilities at $2,157,914, and assets at $1,400,000, of which
$884,198 were secured. Within three days this failure was followed by
the suspension of Bowie Dash & Co., with liabilities estimated at
$1,400,000.
For weeks thereafter there was virtually no market. With all of these
distress holdings pressing for liquidation, buyers, as was natural, were
extremely timid. In the meantime, the import arrivals showed further
enlargement at various southern ports, as well as at New York. Total
arrivals at this port during 1881 were almost 12,400,000 pounds heavier
than for the preceding year. The growing importance of Santos as a
market factor was demonstrated by the fact that shipments from there in
1881 were 1,198,625 bags, compared with about 628,900 bags in 1876-77.
According to the best informed members of the trade at that time, the
losses sustained by the various firms that were forced to the wall
aggregated between $5,000,000 and $7,000,000.
The utterly demoralized conditions prevailing while this collapse was in
progress, and the practical elimination of a market in the true sense of
the word, furnished the principal impetus for the organization of the
New York Coffee Exchange. At that time, the Havre market was the only
one with an exchange. The local body was organized in December, 1881,
and started business in March, 1882.
_The Cable Break of 1884_
The second noteworthy movement, embracing an advance of four to four and
one-half cents and a recession of slightly more than three cents,
covered a period of about eight months shortly after the Exchange was
organized. Various local and out-of-town firms were interested in the
bulge which carried Rio coffee in this market from about seven cents in
July, 1883, up to eleven and one-half cents late in November. By the
middle of December, the price had fallen to nine and one-quarter cents,
the final break to eight and one-quarter cents occurring late in March
of the following year. At that time, there was no direct cable
communication with Brazil; and as a result of a temporary break in the
roundabout service by way of Portugal, the New York and Baltimore agents
of the Brazilian syndicate were unable to put up additional margins in
this market, and their accounts were closed out. This happened on a
Saturday; and by the following Monday, partial cable remittances arrived
and all accounts were settled in full with interest from Saturday to
Monday.
_The Great Boom_
What is generally described as "the great boom" of the coffee trade
occurred in 1886-87, and had its inception in unsatisfactory crop news
from Brazil. The crop of 1887-1888, it was estimated, would be extremely
small; and it turned out to be only 3,033,000 bags. These advices and
low estimates led to the formation of a "bull" clique, comprising
operators in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Brazil, and Europe, who set
a price of twenty-five cents for December contracts as their goal.
Toward the end of June, 1886, when this campaign started, No. 7 Rio in
New York was worth about seven and one-half cents, with June contracts
on the Exchange quoted at seven and sixty-five hundredths cents. With
Brazilian crop news still more discouraging, the advance thereafter was
almost continuous, and on June 1, 1887, December contracts sold at
twenty-two and one-quarter cents--a new high price record, that was not
exceeded for thirty-two years, when twenty-four and sixty-five
hundredths cents were paid for July contracts in June, 1919. After
reaching twenty-two and one-quarter cents, prices suffered an abrupt
reversal. Ten days later the closing price for December was twenty-one
and four-tenth cents. Then the real crash began. On Saturday, June 11,
the panic started with another claim of cable trouble; and in the short
session, December coffee broke from twenty and fifteen-hundredths to
eighteen and sixty-five hundredths cents, closing at a loss for the day
of 275 points. The first sale of December on Monday was at seventeen and
four-tenths cents, or 125 points lower; and after numerous erratic
variations, the price broke to sixteen cents, a drop of six and
one-quarter cents in less than two weeks. Business on that day was of
enormous volume, in round numbers 412,000 bags; and approximately
$1,500,000 was put up in margins. For the next three days the decline
was temporarily halted, and December, at one time, was up three and
one-quarter cents from the bottom (nineteen and one-quarter cents). On
June 17, another battle commenced, December dropping back to seventeen
cents. Then came a rally to eighteen and one-tenth cents, a drop to
sixteen and one-half cents; another rally to eighteen and one-tenth,
and, on June 24, another break to the previous low level of sixteen
cents for December. This sharp reversal in less than a month was
traceable largely to more favorable news from Brazil, the 1888-89 crop
being estimated at 6,827,000 bags.
Following a rally to nineteen and six-tenths cents during the next month
(July, 1887), the pendulum again swung downward. The climax came with
the culmination of the "European fiasco" of the spring of 1888. Reports
were received that various European coffee firms had failed; and future
contracts in the American market sold as low as nine cents in March.
_A Famous European Bull Campaign_
The next campaign of interest lasted more than two and a half years. In
September, 1891, there was a corner in the local market which forced the
September price up to seventeen and one-quarter cents. George
Kaltenbach, a wealthy speculator living in Paris, combining with three
operators in Havre, Hamburg, and Antwerp, succeeded in breaking the
corner, forcing the price down to ten and eight-tenths cents. They then
changed to the bull side, buying heavily in all markets of the world.
This was continued until early in 1893, bringing the price back to
fifteen cents. Although his associates then returned to the bear side,
Kaltenbach kept on buying; and aided by bad crop reports from Brazil, he
worked the price up as high as seventeen and seven-tenths cents. At one
time it was said that his profits were more than one million dollars.
The collapse of this deal occurred in May, 1893, involving thirty firms
in Hamburg, Havre, and Rotterdam. As Kaltenbach could not keep his large
New York holdings margined, they were thrown on the market, bringing
about a sharp break, and causing the failure of his New York agents,
T.M. Barr & Co.
The present era of large crops began in 1894, Brazil's production for
1894-95 being placed at 6,695,000 bags. Nevertheless, Guzman Blanco, a
former president of Venezuela, then living in Paris, and said to be
worth about $20,000,000, attempted to run a corner in April, 1895. He
bought 200,000 bags of spot coffee in Havre warehouses and accumulated a
big line of futures in various markets. Assisted by reports of cholera
in Rio and some reduction in Brazilian crops, he enjoyed temporary
success, the price of Rio 7s in New York rising to fifteen and one-half
cents in October, 1895. Thereafter, there was an almost continuous
decline. In the spring of 1898, a vigorous bear campaign was conducted,
largely in the form of market letters; and by November, Rio 7s here had
dropped to four and one-half cents.
_The Bubonic Plague Boom_
The so-called "bubonic plague boom" halted this prolonged downward
movement for a time in 1899-1900. The boom derived its name from the
outbreak of bubonic plague in Brazil, as a result of which the ports of
that country were quarantined. In addition, Brazilian steamers arriving
at New York were placed in quarantine; and the impossibility of
unloading their cargoes caused a temporary shortage. As a result, prices
rose from four and one-quarter cents in September, 1899, to eight and
one-quarter cents in July, 1900. The quarantine being lifted, the bears
again became aggressive; and by April, 1901, they had forced the price
back to five cents.
There was another short-lived attempt to establish a corner in
September, 1901. Receipts at Rio and Santos had been running light,
encouraging a local clique embracing Skiddy, Minford & Company; W.H.
Crossman & Bro.; and Gruner & Company, to endeavor to gain control. The
arrivals at Brazilian ports suddenly increased to the largest volume
ever known up to that time; and, with vigorous opposition from operators
in Havre, the corner here was speedily broken.
The opening of the new century witnessed the beginning of another new
coffee era, Santos permanently displacing Rio as the world's largest
source of supply. The figures for 1900-01 were: Santos, 2,945,000 bags;
Rio, 2,413,000 bags.
Huge crops then became a regular thing in Brazil. That of 1901-02 was
far in excess of estimates, being 15,000,000 bags; while 20,000,000 bags
were produced in 1902-03. As a result, the world's coffee trade became
completely demoralized for the time being. In August, 1902, contracts
for July, 1903, delivery sold at six and one-tenths cents. By June,
1903, they had fallen to three and fifty-five hundredths cents, the
lowest price ever recorded for coffee.
_The Southern Boom_
As is invariably the case when prices reach extreme levels, either high
or low, the pendulum swung back rapidly in the other direction. Based on
the unprecedentedly low prices, the so-called "cotton crowd" started
what was generally known as "the southern boom". Various cotton traders
in New York and the South, under the leadership of D.J. Sully, the
one-time "cotton king", and ably assisted by prominent local coffee
firms, became extremely active on the buying side; and by February,
1904, they had forced the price up to eleven and eighty-five hundredths
cents. This figure, the highest since 1896, was reached on February 2,
which proved to be another day of enormous speculative dealings,
involving roundly 462,000 bags. This marked another turning point; the
three succeeding days of record-breaking operations on the Exchange
witnessing a break of roughly two cents. Mr. Sully went on a vacation on
February 3, and the Sielcken interests sold on a large scale. Business
for that day was placed at 555,000 bags, closing prices being about
one-half cent lower. This brought on enormous liquidation by western
bulls on the following day, approximately 500,000 bags. As a result,
prices lost twenty-five to sixty-five points on a turn-over of about
642,000 bags. All records for business were smashed on the following
day, February 5. The official record was 689,000 bags, but trade
estimates made it more than 1,000,000 bags. On that day, southern
interests liquidated heavily, causing net losses of eighty to ninety
points. Doubtless the break would have been more severe had it not been
for buying by the Sielcken people and several other strong interests at
and below seven and one-quarter cents for September contracts.
_The Story of Valorization_
The valorization, or equalization, of coffee originated in Brazil. When
the original plan was threatened with disaster, Hermann Sielcken stepped
in and saved the Brazil planters from ruin; the Brazil government from
possible revolution; and, incidentally, won for himself and those who
were his partners in the enterprise much unenviable notoriety.
The principle of valorization is generally conceded to be economically
unsound, because it encourages overproduction. And valorization in
Brazil would have been a failure, had it not been for a fortuitous
combination of short crops, Hermann Sielcken's genius, and the World
War. Because of the lessons learned in this experience, Brazil's
subsequent valorization enterprises have run more smoothly.
A rapidly increasing world demand, a wonderfully fertile soil, and cheap
labor kept the Brazil coffee industry in a flourishing condition nearly
to the close of 1889. Coffee consumption was increasing, especially in
the United States. By April 1890, the average import price per pound of
Rio No. 7 in this country was nineteen cents; and Brazil was supplying
only about half our needs. Virgin soil was still available in Brazil,
and immigration furnished all the needful labor. Easy profits led to
increased investment and careless methods. Her planters were drunk with
prosperity. For six years, nearly all the three million inhabitants of
São Paulo, Brazil's largest coffee producing state, "entirely gave up
planting corn, rice, beans, everything they needed. They bought them
because coffee was so immensely profitable that they put all their labor
in coffee."
Brazil had been going through a period of low exchange. Paper money fell
below par. The exaggerated issues of it, which provoked the collapse of
exchange, suddenly endowed Brazil with an abundant circulation of money.
Production was enormously stimulated. New undertakings sprang up on
every hand. Armies of agricultural laborers were recruited in Europe and
shipped into the coffee districts. And then, to make the story short,
supply passed demand, surplus stocks began to appear, prices began to
fall, and fell until they dropped below the cost of production.
It was in 1896-97, when the new trees came into bearing by the tens and
hundreds of thousands, that São Paulo's folly began to tell. By October
of that year the price of Rio No. 7 in New York had fallen to about
seven cents. The decline continued, until, in 1903, it hung around five
cents. Then began the winter of São Paulo's discontent. Too late, the
state government tried by taxing new coffee estates, to force the
planters to raise crops to supply their own necessities. The times grew
harder.
Mortgages held by large coffee houses and bankers were being foreclosed.
The industry was passing into European hands. The smaller planters were
becoming desperate; and desperation is only a step from revolution. The
government of the state of São Paulo knew this; and to save the state,
it finally promised it would buy the next coffee crop, and would hold it
for the planters at such a price as would be necessary to continue the
industry. The protagonists of this plan to valorize coffee were Dr.
Jorge Tibiriçá, Dr. Augusto Ramos, and Dr. Albuquerque Lins.
During all the period covering São Paulo's rise and fall in coffee, the
financial genius who was to lead her again into the land of plenty had
been quietly acquiring a knowledge of her problems--also, the ability to
make money out of their solution.
Valorization was undertaken to save the coffee industry. Its intent was
good, even if the theory was bad. The scheme was not new, and there were
no encouraging precedents to augur its success. The situation was
desperate and seemed to justify the trial of a desperate remedy. São
Paulo attempted to carry the load; but her resources were insufficient.
The bumper world crop of 19,090,000 bags in 1901-02 was followed, in
1906-07, with another extraordinary yield of 24,307,000 bags, of which
Brazil alone produced 20,192,000 bags. To make good its promise to the
planters, ready cash was needed; and so the São Paulo government sent a
special commissioner to Europe to get it. For sixty years the
Rothschilds had acted as Brazil's bankers. The commissioner went to the
Rothschilds first. He was flatly refused. After that, he was turned down
by practically every bank on the continent. It looked as if the bankers
had entered into a gentlemen's agreement to make it unanimous. Then the
commissioner bethought himself of the coffee merchants; and that thought
naturally suggested Hermann Sielcken, who, singularly enough, happened
to be conveniently resting at nearby Baden-Baden. In August, 1906, the
commissioner waited upon Mr. Sielcken and begged his aid.
It was Sielcken's hour of triumph. For years he had been soliciting
Brazil. Now the tables were turned, and Brazil was asking favors of
Sielcken.
The rest of the story is best told by Robert Sloss, who wrote it for
_World's Work_ from information furnished by trade authorities--and even
by Mr. Sielcken, himself, in various speeches, newspaper articles, and
on the witness stand. It is presented here with certain minor
corrections by the author:
"Well, what do you want me to do?" asked Hermann Sielcken of the
commissioner from the state of São Paulo.
"We want you to finance for us five to eight million bags of
coffee," said the commissioner blandly.
Here was an adventure. Here was a proposition to lift bodily out of
the market half as much coffee as the world's total production had
averaged for the ten preceding years when prices had been so low.
Presumably, if this were done, prices would be doubled. But Hermann
Sielcken shook his head.
"No," he said, "there is not the slightest chance for it, not the
slightest." And then he pointed out that there would be "no
financial assistance coming from anywhere" if the São Paulo
planters kept on raising such ridiculously large crops of coffee.
The commissioner assured him that the prospect was for smaller
crops in future. Hermann Sielcken was not so sure about it "At a
price low enough," he mused, "I might be able to raise funds to pay
eighty percent on a value of seven cents a pound for Rio No. 5."
The commissioner was dismayed. His government had already promised
to take coffee from the planters at about a cent a pound above the
market, and the market then stood at nearly eight cents. The
government would have to dig to make up the difference. Hermann
Sielcken's terms were the best that could be got, however, and the
commissioner accepted them.
From that time forth Hermann Sielcken was the head of the movement.
He approached a few large coffee merchants, including his former
rivals, Arbuckle Brothers, and drew up a contract. The merchants
agreed to advance eighty percent of the sum required to buy two
million bags of coffee at seven cents a pound. If the market went
above seven cents, the government was to make no purchases. If it
fell below seven cents, the government was to make good the
difference to the merchants by cable.
Before the season was well advanced the unexpected happened. Brazil
was reaping the largest coffee harvest in the history of the world.
The two million bags of coffee purchased by the government were as
a drop in a bucket. Financed by Hermann Sielcken, Schroeder, the
great London banker, and a few prominent European merchants, the
government was forced to buy almost nine million bags. Toward the
end of 1907, the government had lifted half of the world's visible
supply of coffee, but the market stood only a trifle above six
cents a pound. The government was practically bankrupt.
Hermann Sielcken now enlisted the Rothschilds on his side, and
shifted the financial burden from the shoulders of the coffee
merchants to those of the Paris bankers and their American
associates. Then the Rothschilds imposed their conditions on the
government of Brazil. A national law was passed determining a heavy
penalty for any one who planted a new coffee tree in Brazil. The
government guaranteed that not more than mine million bags of the
next coffee crop and not more than ten million bags of any
succeeding crop should be exported.
By the end of 1911, the coffee market stood well above thirteen
cents. Here was a rise of more than one hundred percent in two
years, more than sixty percent in six months. Evidently,
valorization coffee in the hands of the bankers' committee had
become a gilt-edged security. But how?
During the five crop years since the "plan" was launched on the
heights above Baden, nearly 90,000,000 bags of coffee had been
raised in the world. The bankers' committee still held 5,108,000
bags of this. At the highest estimate, consumption had exceeded
production by only 4,000,000 bags. Here was a shortage of only a
little more than ten percent in supply as against demand, so far as
crops go. Yet there had been a rise of more than one hundred
percent in two years in the price of coffee on the New York Coffee
Exchange.... Upon the merchant's ability to deliver coffee on the
New York Coffee Exchange depends the price of coffee in the world.
That explains why the bankers' committee from the beginning refused
absolutely to sell valorization coffee on the public exchanges of
the world. In Europe, they put it up at auction; and when it didn't
go, it was bought in for them. In America, they announced in a
printed circular that valorization coffee would be sold only on
condition that the purchaser would not deliver it on the New York
Coffee Exchange.
Hermann Sielcken absolutely refused to sell coffee to the merchants
on the Exchange. Arbuckle Brothers kept on buying coffee heavily,
as if they would corner the market. They resold the coffee,
however, at private sales, exacting a written contract from the
buyer that he would not deliver the coffee on the New York Coffee
Exchange, or resell it to any one that would so deliver it. The
Coffee Exchange began an investigation, but nothing ever came of
it.
Shortly after the valorization committee had apparently cleared up
$25,000,000 in one year, the restriction as to the delivery of
valorization coffee on the New York Coffee Exchange was officially
removed. Yet neither from Hermann Sielcken nor from Arbuckle
Brothers, it is charged, could one buy any coffee to deliver for
that purpose. In 1911, coffee rose to sixteen cents per pound.
At the end, it was found that the committee's holdings had been marketed
at the various sales on a basis, for Santos 4s, from eight and
five-eighths cents minimum, to the final sale here forced by the United
States government, at which time the price realized was sixteen and
three-quarter cents for Santos 4s, and fourteen cents for Rio 7s.
The one fly in the valorization ointment was Senator G.W. Norris, of
Nebraska, who early in 1911 called for a congressional investigation of
the operations of the valorization syndicate, which he said was costing
the American people $35,000,000 a year. The attorney-general was
instructed to report as to whether or not there was a coffee trust. It
was a leisurely investigation, which encountered many snags placed in
its way by those who believed it would be against international policy
to question too closely the participation of the Brazil government in
the enterprise. Politics played no inconsiderable part in the
investigation, which dragged along until May 18, 1912, when an action
was begun in the Federal District Court for the southern district of New
York, alleging conspiracy in restraint of trade on the part of Hermann
Sielcken; Bruno Schroeder, of J. Henry Schroeder & Co.; Edouard Bunge;
the Vicomte des Touches; Dr. Paulo da Silva Prado; Theodor Wille; the
Société Generale; and the New York Dock Co.; also praying for injunction
and receivership of the valorization coffee then stored in the United
States, and amounting to 746,539 bags. The injunction was denied.
Immediately thereafter, rumors began to circulate that the government's
coffee suit would never be tried. The Brazilian ambassador threatened
diplomatic interference, and Attorney-General Wickersham let it be known
that a friendly settlement might be effected. Sielcken boldly challenged
the authorities to prosecute the case, and even seemed to invite
criminal proceedings against himself. Saving the government's face, and
Brazil's face, at one and the same time, proved to be a long and tedious
process.
Meanwhile, Senator Norris introduced in Congress a bill designed to give
the government power to seize importations of coffee when restraint of
trade was proved. It was vigorously opposed by many prominent
green-coffee men and roasters; but in February, 1913, it became enacted
into a law. It effectively killed all future valorization schemes in so
far as direct participation by this country is concerned.
About December 1, 1912, Attorney-General Wickersham accepted good-faith
assurances from Mr. Sielcken's attorney--who represented also the Brazil
government--and agreed that if the valorization coffee stored here was
sold to bona-fide purchasers before April 1, 1913, the government's suit
would be dismissed. In May, 1913, the attorney-general of the new Wilson
administration, which came into office in March of that year, issued a
statement saying that, good-faith assurances having been received from
the Brazil government that the understanding was fulfilled in letter and
spirit before the date set by the previous attorney-general, and the
entire amount of coffee disposed of to eighty dealers in thirty-three
cities, the suit would be dismissed.
In the United States Senate about the same time, Senator Norris renewed
his attack on "the international coffee trust". He charged that the
coffee sale was not as represented, but merely a transfer, and called
upon the Department of Justice for the facts, with names of the alleged
purchasers.
Attorney-General McReynolds, on May 7, 1913, declined to send to the
Senate the official correspondence in regard to the Brazil
coffee-valorization matter, because it was "incompatible with the public
interests." He did, however, send other papers on the subject. The
secretary of state sent copies of some correspondence; but the documents
were not made public. This ended the matter, although Senator Norris
called for a congressional investigation, charging that the
attorney-general had been handed a "gold brick".
Sielcken contented himself with remarking that the suit was a mistake in
the first place, and that it was a foregone conclusion the government
would be defeated. Also, he offered $5,000 to any one who could explain
the Norris bill.
Valorization, then, was started by the state of São Paulo in 1905, when
a law was passed authorizing the state to enter into an agreement with
the other Brazil states and the federal government for the adoption of
measures which would assure the valorization of coffee and facilitate a
propaganda abroad for increased consumption.
The states of São Paulo, Minãs Geraes, and Rio de Janeiro proposed,
early in 1906, to withdraw from the markets such quantities of coffee as
would keep down exports and maintain profitable prices. The plan
comprehended the interested states borrowing about $75,000,000 from
European and United States bankers with which to buy up the surplus
coffee. To take care of interest and amortization, a tax of three francs
per bag of 132 pounds (about 57 cents) was to be levied on all coffee
exports, collectable at Santos and Rio de Janeiro. Further
coffee-planting was to be checked by enforcing the law which carried a
tax sufficiently high to operate toward restriction.
When it was understood that Brazil's federal government would not
endorse the plan _in toto_, it was abandoned by Rio de Janeiro and Minãs
Geraes. However, the state of São Paulo in the course of the next two
years borrowed some $30,000,00 on its own account for valorization
purposes, obtaining half the amount direct from foreign banking
interests, and the remainder, through the Brazilian federal government,
from London sources.
This first valorization was abandoned in favor of the Sielcken plan,
which the federal government ratified in July, 1908. By this new plan
São Paulo borrowed $75,000,000 from the syndicate composed of American,
English, German, French, and Belgian bankers. Out of this it repaid the
$30,000,000 loan. The 1908 loan was to expire in ten years, in 1919.
Under the plan of the new loan, it was agreed that certain amounts of
the valorized coffee should be stored as collateral in warehouses in
New York and Europe in charge of a committee of seven, who were
authorized to sell the coffee in the market in specified quantities and
at prices that would not disturb the price of other coffees. The
composition of the committee was as follows: Dr. Francisco Ferreira
Ramos, of São Paulo and Antwerp; who was succeeded by Dr. Paulo da Silva
Prado; the Vicomte des Touches, of Havre; the Société Generale, of
Paris; the firm of Theodor Wille, of Hamburg; Hermann Sielcken, of New
York; Edouard Bunge, of Antwerp; and Baron Bruno Schroeder, of J. Henry
Schroeder & Co., of London.
Brazil agreed to purchase 10,000,000 bags and to hold them off the
market until conditions warranted their sale. It was also agreed that
the total exports of unvalorized stocks from Brazil would be restricted
to 10,000,000 bags for 1907-08, and to 10,500,000 bags for 1909-10. In
addition, a surtax of five francs gold per bag (96-1/4 cents) was placed
on every bag exported to pay carrying charges. The management of the
government's holdings was placed in the hands of the international
committee. This committee issued bonds which were quickly subscribed
for; and because of its efficient handling of its huge holdings, prices
held steady in spite of the record-breaking Brazilian crop of nearly
20,192,000 bags in 1906-07, and a later one in 1909-10 of about
15,000,000 bags. Indeed, there was an advance of about ten dollars a bag
between 1904 and 1911.
Valorization had the effect of stabilizing the Brazil market, and giving
the planters and allied interests the assistance they needed to ward off
the disaster that threatened them through overproduction. The United
States government action in 1912 forced the sale of the valorized stocks
held in this country, and the Congress passed the law making it
impossible again to offer for sale in America stocks of coffee held
under similar valorization agreements.
The coffee situation became so serious in 1913, that São Paulo again
entered the money market for another loan, borrowing $37,500,000 through
the good offices of the Brazilian federal government, following this up
two years later with another loan of $21,000,000. According to a
semi-official statement issued in Brazil early in 1919, the status of
valorization at that time was that the first loan of $75,000,000 of
1908, had been entirely liquidated, and the two later loans were greatly
reduced. At the same time, it was announced by the president of the
state of São Paulo that the surtax of five frances would be withdrawn as
soon as the liquidation of the loans had been completed. This surtax,
however, is still in effect. In 1919, the São Paulo government proposed
advancing the _pauta_, or export duty, very materially. A strong protest
was made by all the exporters; and a compromise was at last effected by
which the proposed increase in the _pauta_ was canceled, and the
existing surtax of five francs per bag continued as an offset.
The valorization project just described was the second of its kind, a
former attempt having proved a failure. At that time (1870), the
Brazilian government had been a large purchaser of Rio coffee, buying it
in lieu of exchange, as it had large remittances to make. The coffee was
sold through G. Amsinck & Co., and it is believed that heavy losses were
sustained.
Since the Sielcken valorization enterprise, the Brazilian government has
promoted two more valorizations, one in 1918, another early in 1922.
_War-Time Government Control of Coffee_
The board of managers of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, Inc.,
had realized, late in 1917, that war-time government control of coffee
trading was likely in view of the government's activities in other
commodities. To guard against the danger of a sudden announcement of
such action, the president of the Exchange was empowered from month to
month, at each meeting of the board, to suspend trading at any time that
conditions warranted; so that, when President Wilson announced, on
January 31, 1918, that all dealers in green coffees were to be licensed,
the Exchange was fully prepared. Trading was suspended pending further
information, and owing to the farsightedness of the board of managers,
all danger of a panic in the market was averted.
By 1917, the allies had stopped shipments of coffee to Germany through
neighbors who had been her sole source of supply. Stocks in all the
producing countries were accumulating, and São Paulo had embarked on
another valorization scheme to protect her planters. The markets of
Europe were entirely controlled by the governments; and the United
States was practically the only free and open market. The market here
was steady and without particular animation, and showed none until the
end of November, 1917. At that time, speculation activities, steamer
scarcity, and the steady advance in freights, became decided influences
in the market; and prices began to advance.
Freights on shipments from Brazil had advanced from one dollar and
twenty cents per bag early in the year to unheard-of prices; and, before
the bubble burst, had reached as high as four dollars per bag. With this
steadily advancing freight, speculation in coffee became more active;
and prices naturally began to rise. The relative cheapness of coffee
compared with all other commodities; the fact that coffee here had shown
very little advance; the prospect of an early peace; the large European
demand to follow; were favorite bull arguments. The market became
excited; speculative buying was general, every one, apparently, wanted
to buy coffee; and twenty cents per pound for Santos 4s in the near
future was a common prediction.
The United States food administrator had shown his antipathy to
uncontrolled exchange operations by his action on sugar, wheat, corn,
and other commodities, dealt in on the exchanges; consequently, the
proclamation of President Wilson regarding coffee was not a surprise to
those who had been watching the situation closely, especially as on
January 30, 1918 (the day before the proclamation) the president of the
Coffee Exchange was summoned by telegraph to appear in Washington to
discuss ways for a proper control of the article, and the best means to
bring about such control. As a result of this summons, a committee of
the entire trade, representing the Exchange, the green-coffee dealers
and importers, the roasters, and the brokers, was appointed by the
Exchange to confer with the food administrator at once, in order to work
out a plan whereby the business could be kept going. After a long
conference, rules agreed upon were approved that became the basis on
which business was conducted until the withdrawal of all regulations
regarding coffee in January, 1919. Much trade criticism followed the
publication of some of these rules.
George W. Lawrence, president of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange,
was called to Washington on February 28, 1918, to take charge of a newly
created coffee division under Theodore F. Whitmarsh, chief of the
distribution division of the food administration. In this position he
rendered a signal service to the trade and to his country. Although
subjected to a cross-fire of criticism from many green and roasted
coffee interests, he never wavered in the performance of his full duty;
and his good judgment, tact, and loyalty to American ideals, won for him
a high place in the regard of all those who had the best interests of
the country at heart. He was ably assisted in his work by Walter F.
Blake, of Williams, Russell & Company, New York; and by F.T. Nutt, Jr.,
treasurer of the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange.
A coffee advisory board was appointed in June 1918, to serve as a
go-between for the trade and the food administration. Those who served
on this committee were: Henry Schaefer, of S. Gruner & Co., New York,
chairman; Carl H. Stoffregen, of Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co., New
York, secretary; and William Bayne, Jr., of William Bayne & Co., New
York; S.H. Dorr, of Arnold, Dorr & Co., New York; A. Schierenberg, of
Corn, Schwarz & Co., New York; Leon Israel, of Leon Israel & Bro., New
York; Joseph Purcell, of Hard & Rand, New York; B.F. Peabody, of T.
Barbour Brown & Co., New York; J.D. Pickslay, of Williams, Russell &
Co., New York; Charles L. Meehan, of P.C. Meehan & Co., New York; B.C.
Casanas, of Merchants Coffee Co., New Orleans; John R. Moir, of Chase &
Sanborn, Boston; and B. Meyer, of Stewart, Carnal & Co., New Orleans.
Others in the trade who served the food administration during the period
of the World War were George E. Lichty, president of the Black Hawk
Coffee & Spice Co., Waterloo, Iowa; and Theodore F. Whitmarsh,
vice-president and treasurer of Francis H. Leggett & Co., New York.
The visible supply of coffee for the United States on January 1, 1918,
was 2,887,308 bags. The world's visible supply was given as 10,012,000
bags; but to be added to this were more than 3,000,000 bags held by the
São Paulo government. Thus there was little reason to fear a coffee
shortage. That coffee should be permitted, with this large amount in
view, to run wild as to price, was certainly not the intention of the
food administrator, whose purpose was to keep foods moving to the United
States forces and allies, and as far as possible, to keep reasonable
prices for the United States consumers. Steadily advancing prices of
foods meant increasing cost of labor, general unrest, and a difficult
situation to meet at a period when the situation as a whole was most
critical.
Trouble for the coffee trade was imminent early in 1918, when the
shipping board, backed by experts, decided, or attempted to decide, that
coffee was not a food product; that no vessels could be had for its
transportation; and that it must be put on the list of prohibited or
restricted commodities. Mr. Hoover, however, insisted that coffee was a
very necessary essential, and that tonnage must be provided for an
amount sufficient at all times to keep the visible supply for the United
States up to at least 1,500,000 bags of Brazil coffee; and this figure
was ultimately accepted and carried out by the shipping board.
These figures, based on the deliveries of the two preceding years, and
with dealers limited to ninety days stock in the country, were deemed
ample to care for all requirements. It was figured that by November 1,
1918, the freight situation would be relieved to such an extent by the
new vessels building, that the amount could be increased should it be
found necessary. The food administration, through the war trade board,
offered steamer room to importers of record of the years 1916-17 at
$1.70 per bag. The first few vessels were promptly filled on a basis of
nine and one-quarter to nine and five-eighths cents, c. & f., for Santos
4s, well described. About the same time, our army and navy were able to
buy at eight to eight and three-eighths cents f.o.b. Santos, for
shipment by their own vessels. After the first few vessels offered by
the War Trade Board were filled, the trade became indifferent. The
warehouses in Brazil were loaded with stocks; vessels to carry coffee
were assured buyers at a fixed rate (profits limited); and, as there was
no apparent reason for an advance, buyers were willing to let the
producing countries carry the stock.
The last week in June brought very cold weather in São Paulo, and cables
reported heavy frost. The news was not taken seriously by the trade at
large. "Frost news" from Brazil was no novelty, and in the past had
always been looked upon as a regular and seasonable method of bulling
the market. This year, however, the frost was a fact, and the market
began to move upward with surprising speed. Reports of the damage to the
trees varied from forty to eighty percent. Quotations from Santos
advanced two cents per pound in as many days. United States buyers were
not disposed to follow the advance; offerings of steamer room were
declined; and boats booked for coffee, owing to the lack of cargoes,
were transferred elsewhere. Meanwhile the market continued to advance
rapidly. The allies were holding the enemy, and peace prospects were
brighter. From September 1 to November 15, the records of the food
administration showed very small purchases. The buyers did not believe
in the frost. With the news of the armistice, Brazil markets went wild;
and Santos 4s, which had sold at eight and one-quarter cents in May,
were quoted at twenty and one-half cents by December 10.
The food administration had decided, on February 6, 1918, after
consulting the committee appointed by the Exchange, and on their advice
and recommendation, to permit trading in futures on the following plan:
a fixed maximum price of eight and one-half cents per pound for the spot
month, with a carrying charge not to exceed fifteen points per pound for
delivery for each succeeding month. Thus the price for March delivery
was fixed at eight and one-half cents, while July delivery could be sold
at nine and one-tenths cents; but when July arrived, it became the spot
month, and eight and one-half cents was the maximum at which it could be
sold.
This rule effectively stopped speculation, but failed to work out
satisfactorily to the trade. Experience proved that a maximum fixed
price at which coffee could be traded in would have produced much better
results. Business on the Exchange followed its usual course, and the
customary hedging of purchases was done by dealers. The indifference of
buyers, already referred to, had resulted in a heavy decrease of the
United States visible supply; and it had shrunk to 2,445,000 bags on
September 1; to 2,173,098 bags on October 1; to 1,857,260 bags on
November 1. Included in these amounts were at least 500,000 bags, held
in New York by foreign owners, which could not be sold; and of the
balance left, there was undoubtedly a liberal amount sold against on the
Exchange for future delivery. By October, the situation had become
acute. Dealers who had classified themselves as jobbers or importers had
gone into the retail classification in order to evade the limitations of
profit allowed jobbers, and were limiting their sales to lots of
twenty-five bags or fewer. Dealers who had legitimately hedged their
holdings were unable to buy in.
The Exchange officials showed no disposition to relieve the situation;
and as all prices had reached the maximum price for every month
permitted, the food administration, on November 1, 1918, ordered the
liquidation of all contracts outstanding, bought or sold, by not later
than November 9. This was done; and the coffee covered by such contracts
was released to the trade.
The regulations governing transactions on the Exchange were withdrawn on
December 5, 1918; and, after a long argument, the Exchange decided to
re-open for trading on December 26, 1918. Opening transactions amounted
to 25,000 bags on a basis of seventeen and one-half cents per pound or
nine cents over the prices at which contracts had been liquidated. On
December 28 the price had declined to fifteen and one-half cents. In the
opinion of many of our best merchants, the Exchange should have been
closed during the war, as it failed to be of any real service. That it
was operating at a fixed price for the spot month only, made it of no
value to the trade during this period. Of its loyalty to the government,
and its evident desire to assist there can be no question; but its
cheerful acceptance of the burdens laid upon it proved largely futile.
The action of the food administration in confining the coffee business
solely to licensed dealers and to a fixed profit on actual cost; in
limiting dealers to ninety days stock; and in prohibiting resales, was
the cause of much unjust criticism. The regulations were based on the
general rules of the food administration, and applied to coffee quite as
equitably as did the regulations governing other food commodities under
control and license. As a matter of fact, they were much less rigorous
in some ways than the regulations applying to many other articles. For
example, ninety days stock based on sales for 1916-17 was allowed on
coffee. There was no other article on the food list to which this
liberality was permitted. A forty to sixty days stock would probably be
found to be the maximum permitted to be carried of other food products.
The general proclamation of the food administration of November 1, 1917,
declared:
These general and special rules and regulations are promulgated by
the President to accomplish three principal objects, viz: 1st, to
limit the prices charged by every licensee "to a reasonable amount
over expenses and forbid the acquisition of speculative profits
from a rising market"; 2d, to keep all food commodities moving in
as direct a line as possible and with as little delay as
practicable to the consumer; 3d, to limit as far as practicable
contracts for future delivery and dealing in future contracts.
From the foregoing it will be apparent that a profit to be allowed based
on "market value" for coffees was an impossibility, unless this law had
been altered to allow all licensees of other commodities to share.
Coffee profits were fixed by the food administration on the advice of,
and with acceptance by, the coffee committee. They started too low; and
were made more liberal, when the first figures were shown to be
impossible. George W. Lawrence reports a conversation that he had with
the food administrator on this particular subject, and that was
characteristic of his broadness. Mr. Hoover said, "The coffee dealers
are complaining of the profits permitted them. I want them satisfied;
and if the profits are not reasonable, I shall put them where they will
be. This war is not going to last always; and at its conclusion I want
every American merchant in a position to be able to continue his
business and be no worse off than when the war started."
Resales were prohibited, or limited to one transaction, in order to
prevent an accumulation of profits, that, added to each transfer, would
result ultimately in higher prices to the consumer.
The fixing of profit based on cost, and not on market or replacement
value, is a thing that is impossible in normal times. Carried to the
last degree, it would mean ruination; for no provision is made for
declines in the market, and resulting losses. As a war measure it was
inevitable, and so endured. In normal times it is like trying to make
water run uphill. With a united people, it worked; but one can not have
a World War always to unite the people. It has been said that government
regulation of coffees caused a large increase in price to the consumer.
This would be hard to prove. The trade, generally, that refused to buy
at ten to twelve cents per pound because it did not, or would not
believe the reports of frost damage, and thought prices too high, was
frantically bidding up to twenty and twenty-two cents for 4s in March
and April, 1919. According to the ideas of some enthusiasts, fifty cents
was not an impossibility. Naturally such a bubble must burst eventually.
Government control had nothing to do with such natural conditions as
frost, or as the buyers' indifference. Expansion and inflation were in
the air, and had to run their course. The year 1920 brought the
aftermath; and in the deflation, coffee, with all other commodities,
went down to prices far below its intrinsic value. The expected European
demand did not materialize; the interior buyer was overloaded with
stock; and the losses of the coffee trade in 1920 will, it is to be
hoped, never be repeated.
_The Story of Soluble Coffee_
For nearly two decades, many coffee men and chemists have been seeking a
soluble coffee, or dried coffee extract, that would simplify the
preparation of the beverage. Thus far, all the products that have
appeared on the market are somewhat deficient in aroma and in the more
delicate flavors of coffee. A satisfying average cup of coffee can be
prepared from the better brands; the chief advantages of which are
rapidity of preparation, absence of any grounds, and uniformity of
drink.
Considerable progress has been made in certain directions; enough to
warrant telling here, though briefly, the story of soluble coffee to
date.
Some there are among trade experts and coffee connoisseurs who maintain
soluble coffee is an _ignis fatuus_; that it can never be manufactured
without destroying the aromatic principle; that at best it is a delusion
and a snare. Certainly, many absurd claims have been made for some of
the soluble coffees on the market. However, there are others that are
not without their merits; and the story of their introduction to the
trade and the consuming public is entertaining and instructive.
Dr. Sartori Kato, a Japanese chemist, of Tokio, brought a soluble tea to
Chicago about 1899. It was not a commercial success; but it served to
bring him in touch with some coffee men and chemists, for whom he
produced a soluble coffee in the same year. A company was organized to
promote the product. It was called the Kato Coffee Co., and included, in
addition to Dr. Kato; Fillip Kreissel, a chemist; W.R. Ruffner, a
green-coffee broker; and I.D. Richheimer, a coffee roaster. Kato's
soluble coffee was first sold to the public at the Pan-American
Exposition in 1901. The first quantity order was received from Captain
Baldwin and by him used with satisfaction on the Ziegler Arctic
expedition. United States patents on a coffee concentrate, and process
for making the same (soluble coffee), were granted to Sartori Kato of
Chicago, assignor to the Kato Coffee Co., of the same place, on August
11, 1903.
G. Washington, who was born in Belgium of English parents, and who was
living temporarily in Guatemala City, invented about 1906, a soluble
coffee that was made ready for the market in 1909.
The George Washington Coffee Refining Co. was organized in 1910 to put
the Washington product on the market, which it did first under the name,
Red E coffee. This was later changed to G. Washington's Prepared Coffee,
as an alternative to Washington's Coffee Extract, a name which was
favorably regarded by all except certain authorities at the national
capital. Associated with Mr. Washington at the start of the enterprise
were: E. Van Etten, former vice-president of the New York Central
Railroad; W.J. Arkell; Bartlett Arkell, of the Beechnut Packing Co.;
C.M. Warner, of the Warner Sugar Refining Co.; and Charles E. Proctor,
of the Singer Sewing Machine Co.
The G. Washington Coffee Refining Company has its coffee-roasting and
preparing plant in Brooklyn; but its process is a secret one, and has
never been patented.
F. Lehnhoff Wyld, who was the Washingtons' family physician when they
lived in Guatemala City, and with whom Mr. Washington had discussed his
work in soluble coffee, duplicated the Washington product in 1913; and,
with E.T. Cabarrus, he organized the _Société du Café Soluble Belna_,
Brussels, Belgium, to put on the European market a refined soluble
coffee under the brand name Belna.
Eight or ten United States patents have been granted on soluble coffees
that have never been applied commercially.
Nowhere has soluble coffee met with such success as in the United
States, where a number of brands followed the Kato and G. Washington
products. Among them, mention should be made of the C.F. Blanke Tea &
Coffee Company's Magic Cup, afterward Fairy Cup, and later, Faust brand,
brought out in 1912; the Baker Importing Co.'s Barrington Hall Soluble
Coffee, brought out in 1917; and the Charles G. Hires Co.'s brand,
introduced to the trade in 1918.
It was the World War that brought soluble coffee to the front. E.F.
Holbrook, formerly in charge of the coffee section, subsistence
division, United States War Department, said, "The use of mustard gas by
the Germans made it one of the most important articles of subsistence
used by the army." Early in the war, soluble coffee was added to the
reserve ration, three-quarters of an ounce being considered at first the
proper amount per ration. After trying to put it up in sticks, tablets,
capsules, and other forms, it was determined that the best method was to
pack it in envelopes. A month before the signing of the armistice, the
New York depot was notified that after January 1, 1919, the requirements
of soluble coffee were to be 25,000 pounds per day in addition to
quantities packed in reserve rations, bringing the total daily output to
42,500 pounds per day. Arrangements were made to have the total output
of the New York zone, 40,000 pounds per day, packed in quarter-ounce
envelopes, twenty-four to a sealed can.
I.D. Richheimer, promoter of the original soluble coffee of Kato and the
Kato patent, organized the Soluble Coffee Co. of America in 1918, to
supply soluble coffee to the American army overseas. After the
armistice, the company began licensing other merchants under the Kato
patent or offering to process the merchants' own coffee for them if
desired.
William A. Hamor and Charles W. Trigg, Pittsburgh, assignors to John E.
King, Detroit, were granted a United States patent in 1919 on a process
for making a new soluble coffee. Their process consists in bringing the
volatilized caffeol in contact with a petrolatum, or absorbing medium,
where it is held until needed for combination with the evaporated coffee
extract. The King Coffee Products Corp. of Detroit was organized in 1920
to manufacture this product, known as Minute coffee, and a coffee base
for soft drinks, the latter being marketed under the name of Coffee Pep.
Mr. King had believed for many years that soluble coffee was destined to
solve many of the vexations of the coffee business, and had been
experimenting with the idea since 1906. To facilitate his
investigations, he established a fellowship at the Mellon Institute of
Industrial Research, Pittsburgh, in 1914, in charge of Charles W. Trigg.
This chemically controlled research evolved a product which, after
passing through the laboratory stage, was placed upon a small unit plan
basis, and then patented. Five additional patents on the product were
granted Messrs. Trigg and David S. Pratt in 1921; and all were assigned
to John E. King.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE EARLIEST COFFEE MANUSCRIPT, 1587
Pages from the Arabian writing by Abd-al-Kâdir, photographed for this
work in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris.]
CHAPTER XXXII
A HISTORY OF COFFEE IN LITERATURE
_The romance of coffee, and its influence on the discourse, poetry,
history, drama, philosophic writing, and fiction of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries and on the writers of today--Coffee quips
and anecdotes_
Any study of the literature of coffee comprehends a survey of selections
from the best thought of civilized nations, from the time of Rhazes
(850-922) to Francis Saltus. We have seen in chapter III how Rhazes, the
physician-philosopher, appears to have been the first writer to mention
coffee; and was followed by other great physicians, like Bengiazlah, a
contemporary, and Avicenna (980-1037).
Then arose many legends about coffee, that served as inspiration for
Arabian, French, Italian, and English poets.
Sheik Gemaleddin, mufti of Mocha, is said to have discovered the virtues
of coffee about 1454, and to have promoted the use of the drink in
Arabia. Knowledge of the new beverage was given to Europeans by the
botanists Rauwolf and Alpini toward the close of the sixteenth century.
The first authentic account of the origin of coffee was written by
Abd-al-Kâdir in 1587. It is the famous Arabian manuscript commending the
use of coffee, preserved in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris, and
catalogued as "Arabe, 4590."
Its title written in Arabic is as follows:
[Arabic]
___ ___ ___ ___
4 3 2 1
which is pronounced (reading right to left):
omdat as safwa fi hall al kahwa
___ ___ ___ _____
1 2 3 4
or; in the literary style: omdatu s safwati fi hallu 'l kahwati which
means--literally, (the corresponding words being underlined and
numbered)
"The maintenance of purity as
___________ ______
1 2
regards the legitimacy of coffee."
_________ ______
3 4
or, more freely, "Argument in favor of the legitimate use of coffee."
[Arabic] kahwa, is the Arabic word for coffee.
The author is Abd-al-Kâdir ibn Mohammad al Ansâri al Jazari al Hanbali.
That is, he was named Abd-al-Kâdir, son of Mohammed.
_Abd-al-Kâdir_ means "slave of the strong one" (i.e., of God); while _al
Ansâri_ means that he was a descendant of the _Ansâri_ (i.e., "helpers"),
the people of Medina who received and protected the Prophet Mohammed
after his flight from Mecca; _al Jazari_ means that he was a man of
Mesopotamia; and _al Hanbali_ that in law and theology he belonged to
the well known sect, or school, of the Hanbalites, so called after the
great jurist and writer, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, who died at Bagdad A.H. 241
(A.D. 855). The Hanbalites are one of the four great sects of the Sunni
Mohammedans.
Abd-al-Kâdir ibn Mohammed lived in the tenth century of the Hegira--the
sixteenth of our era--and wrote his book in 996 A.H., or 1587 A.D.
Coffee had then been in common use since about 1450 A.D. in Arabia. It
was not in use in the time of the Prophet, who died in 632 A.D.; but he
had forbidden the drink of strong liquors which affect the brain, and
hence it was argued that coffee, as a stimulant, was unlawful. Even
today, the community of the Wahabis, very powerful in Arabia a hundred
years ago, and still dominant in part of it, do not permit the use of
coffee.
Abd-al-Kâdir's book is thought to have been based on an earlier writing
by Shihâb-ad-Dîn Ahmad ibn Abd-al-Ghafâr al Maliki, as he refers to the
latter on the third page of his manuscript; but if so, this previous
work does not appear to have been preserved. La Roque says Shihâb-ad-Dîn
was an Arabian historian who supplied the main part of Abd-al-Kâdir's
story. La Roque refers also to a Turkish historian.
Research by the author has failed to disclose anything about
Shihâb-ad-Dîn save his name (_al Maliki_ means that he belonged to the
Malikites, another of the four great Sunni sects), and that he wrote
about a hundred years before Abd-al-Kâdir. No copy of his writings is
known to exist.
The illustrations show the title page of Abd-al-Kâdir's manuscript, the
first page, the third page, and the fly leaf of the cover, the latter
containing an inscription in Latin made at the time the manuscript was
first received or classified. It reads:
Omdat al safouat fl hall al cahuat.
De usu legitimo et licito potionis quae vulgo Café nuncupatur.
Authore Abdalcader Ben Mohammed al Ansâri. Constat hic liber
capitibus septem, et ab authore editus est anno hegirae 996 quo
anno centum et viginti anni effluxerant ex quo huius potionis usus
in Arabia felice invaluerat
The translation of the Latin is:
Concerning the legitimate and lawful use of the drink commonly
known as café by Abdalcader Ben Mohammed al Ansâri. The book is
composed in seven chapters and was brought out by the author in the
year of the Hegira 996 at which time a hundred and twenty years had
passed since the use of this drink had become firmly established in
Arabia Felix.
_Coffee in Poetry_
The Abd-al-Kâdir work immortalized coffee. It is in seven chapters. The
first treats of the etymology and significance of the word cahouah
(kahwa), the nature and properties of the bean, where the drink was
first used, and describes its virtues. The other chapters have to do
largely with the church dispute in Mecca in 1511, answer the religious
objectors to coffee, and conclude with a collection of Arabic verses
composed during the Mecca controversy by the best poets of the time.
De Nointel, ambassador from the court of Louis XIV to the Ottoman Porte,
brought back with him to Paris from Constantinople the Abd-al-Kâdir
manuscript, and another by Bichivili, one of the three general
treasurers of the Ottoman Empire. The latter work is of a later date
than the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript, and is concerned chiefly with the
history of the introduction of coffee into Egypt, Syria, Damascus,
Aleppo, and Constantinople.
The following are two of the earliest Arabic poems in praise of coffee.
They are about the period of the first coffee persecution in Mecca
(1511), and are typical of the best thought of the day:
IN PRAISE OF COFFEE
_Translation from the Arabic_
O Coffee! Thou dost dispel all cares, thou art the object of desire
to the scholar.
This is the beverage of the friends of God; it gives health to
those in its service who strive after wisdom.
Prepared from the simple shell of the berry, it has the odor of
musk and the color of ink.
The intelligent man who empties these cups of foaming coffee, he
alone knows truth.
May God deprive of this drink the foolish man who condemns it with
incurable obstinacy.
Coffee is our gold. Wherever it is served, one enjoys the society
of the noblest and most generous men.
O drink! As harmless as pure milk, which differs from it only in
its blackness.
Here is another, rhymed version of the same poem:
IN PRAISE OF COFFEE
_Translation from the Arabic_
O coffee! Doved and fragrant drink, thou drivest care away,
The object thou of that man's wish who studies night and day.
Thou soothest him, thou giv'st him health, and God doth favor those
Who walk straight on in wisdom's way, nor seek their own repose.
Fragrant as musk thy berry is, yet black as ink in sooth!
And he who sips thy fragrant cup can only know the truth.
Insensate they who, tasting not, yet vilify its use;
For when they thirst and seek its help, God will the gift refuse.
Oh, coffee is our wealth! for see, where'er on earth it grows,
Men live whose aims are noble, true virtues who disclose.
COFFEE COMPANIONSHIP
_Translation from the Arabic_
Come and enjoy the company of coffee in the places of its
habitation; for the Divine Goodness envelops those who partake of
its feast.
There the elegance of the rugs, the sweetness of life, the society
of the guests, all give a picture of the abode of the blest.
It is a wine which no sorrow could resist when the cup-bearer
presents thee with the cup which contains it.
It is not long since Aden saw thy birth. If thou doubtest this, see
the freshness of youth shining on the faces of thy children.
Grief is not found within its habitations. Trouble yields humbly to
its power.
It is the beverage of the children of God, it is the source of
health.
It is the stream in which we wash away our sorrows. It is the fire
which consumes our griefs.
Whoever has once known the chafing-dish which prepares this
beverage, will feel only aversion for wine and liquor from casks.
Delicious beverage, its color is the seal of its purity.
Reason pronounces favorably on the lawfulness of it.
Drink of it confidently, and give not ear to the speech of the
foolish, who condemn it without reason.
During the period of the second religious persecution of coffee in the
latter part of the sixteenth century, other Arabian poets sang the
praises of coffee. The learned Fakr-Eddin-Aboubeckr ben Abid Iesi wrote
a book entitled _The Triumph of Coffee_, and the poet-sheikh
Sherif-Eddin-Omar-ben-Faredh sang of it in harmonious verse, wherein,
discoursing of his mistress, he could find no more flattering comparison
than coffee. He exclaims, "She has made me drink, in long draughts, the
fever, or, rather, the coffee of love!"
The numerous contributions by early travelers to the literature of
coffee have been mentioned in chronological order in the history
chapters. After Rauwolf and Alpini, there were Sir Antony Sherley,
Parry, Biddulph, Captain John Smith, Sir George Sandys, Sir Thomas
Herbert, and Sir Henry Blount in England; Tavernier, Thévenot, Bernier,
P. de la Roque, and Galland in France; Delia Valle in Italy; Olearius
and Niebhur in Germany; Nieuhoff in Holland, and others.
Francis Bacon wrote about coffee in his _Hist. Vitae et Mortis_ and
_Sylva Sylvarum_, 1623-27. Burton referred to it in his "_Anatomy of
Melancholy_" in 1632. Parkinson described it in his _Theatrum Botanicum_
in 1640. In 1652, Pasqua Rosée published his famous handbill in London,
a literary effort as well as a splendid first advertisement.
Faustus Nairon (Banesius) produced in Rome, in 1671, the first printed
treatise devoted solely to coffee. The same year Dufour brought out the
first treatise in French. This he followed in 1684 with his work, _The
manner of making coffee, tea, and chocolate_. John Ray extolled the
virtues of coffee in his _Universal Botany of Plants_, published in
London in 1686. Galland translated the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript into
French in 1699, and Jean La Roque published his _Voyage de l'Arabie
Heureuse_ in Paris in 1715. Excerpts from nearly all these works appear
in various chapters of this work.
Leonardus Ferdinandus Meisner published a Latin treatise on coffee, tea,
and chocolate in 1721. Dr. James Douglas published in London (1727) his
_Arbor yemensis fructum cofè ferens, or a description and history of the
Coffee Tree_. This work laid under contribution many of the Italian,
German, French, and English scholars mentioned above; and the author
mentioned as other sources of information: Dr. Quincy, Pechey, Gaudron,
de Fontenelle, Professor Boerhaave, Figueroa, Chabraeus, Sir Hans
Sloane, Langius, and Du Mont.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the poets and dramatists of
France, Italy, and England found a plentiful supply in what had already
been written on coffee; to say nothing of the inspiration offered by the
drink itself, and by the society of the cafés of the period.
French poets, familiar with Latin, first took coffee as the subject of
their verse. Vaniére sang its praises in the eighth book of his
_Praedium rusticum_; and Fellon, a Jesuit professor of Trinity College,
Lyons, wrote a didactic poem called, _Faba Arabica, Carmen_, which is
included in the _Poemata didascalica_ of d'Olivet.
Abbé Guillaume Massieu's _Carmen Caffaeum_, composed in 1718, has been
referred to in chapter III. It was read at the Academy of Inscriptions.
One of the panegyrists of this author, de Boze, in his _Elogé de
Massieu_, says that if Horace and Virgil had known of coffee, the poem
might easily have been attributed to them; and Thery, who translated it
into French, says "it is a pearl of elegance in a rare jewel case."
The following translation of the poem from the Latin original was made
for this work:
COFFEE
_A Poem by Guillaume Massieu of the French Academy_
(A literal prose translation from the original Latin in the British
Museum.)
How coffee first came to our shores,
What the nature of the divine drink is, what its use,
How it brings ready aid to man against every kind of evils,
I shall here begin to tell in simple verse.
You soft-spoken men, who have often tried the sweetness of this drink,
If it has never deceived your wishes or mocked your hopes
With its empty results, be propitious and lend a willing ear to our song.
And may you, O Phoebus, kindly be present, to acknowledge
As your gift the power of herbs and healthful plants, and to
Dispel sad diseases from our bodies; for they say you are
The author of this blessing, and may you spread your
Gifts among peoples, and everywhere far and wide throughout the entire
world.
Across Libya afar, and the seven mouths of the swollen Nile,
Where Asia most joyfully spreads in immense fields
Rich in various resources and filled with fragrant woods,
A region extends. The Sabeans of old inhabited it.
I believe indeed Nature, that best parent of all things,
Loved this place more than all others with a tender love.
Here the air of Heaven always breathes more mildly.
The sun has a gentler power; here are flowers of a different clime;
And the earth with fertile bosom brings forth various fruits,
Cinnamon, casia, myrrh, and fragrant thyme.
Amid the resources and gifts of this blessed land,
Turned to the sun and the warm south winds,
A tree spontaneously lifts itself into the upper air.
Growing nowhere else, and unknown in earlier centuries,
By no means great in size, it stretches not far its
Spreading branches, nor lifts a lofty top to heaven;
But lowly, after the manner of myrtle or pliant broom,
It rises from the ground. Many a nut bends its rich branches.
Small, like a bean, dark and dull in color,
Marked by a slight groove in the centre of its hull.
To transplant this growth to our own fields
Many have tried, and to cultivate it with great care.
In vain; for the plant has not responded to the zeal
And desires of the planters, and has rendered vain their long labor;
Before day the root of the tender herb has withered away.
Either this has happened through fault of climate, or grudging
Earth refuses to furnish fit nourishment to the foreign plant.
Therefore come thou, whoever shall be possesed by a love for coffee,
Do not regret having brought the healthful bean from the far
Remote world of Arabia; for this is its bountiful mother country.
The soothing draught first flowed from those regions through other
Peoples; thence through all Europe and Asia,
and next made its way through the entire world.
Therefore, what you shall know to be sufficient for your needs,
Do you prepare long beforehand; let it be your care to have collected
Yearly a copious store, and providently fill small granaries,
As of yore the farmer, early mindful and provident of the future,
Collected crops from his fields and garnered them in his barns,
And turned his attention to the coming year.
None the less, meanwhile, must the utensils for coffee be cared for. Let
not vessels suited for drinking the beverage be lacking, And a pot,
whose narrow neck should be topped by a small cover And whose body
should swell gradually into an oblong shape. When these things shall
have been provided by you, let your Next care be to roast well the beans
with flames, and to grind them when roasted. Nor should the hammer cease
to crush them with many a blow, Until they lay aside their hardness, and
when thoroughly ground, Become fine powder; which forthwith pack either
in a bag or a box made for such uses. And wrap it in leather, and smear
it over with soft wax, lest Narrow chinks be open, or hidden channels.
Unless you prevent these, by a secret path gradually small Particles and
whatever of value exists, and the entire strength, Would leave, wasting
into empty air.
[Illustration: CAMEL TRANSPORT BETWEEN HARAR AND DIRE-DAOUA, ABYSSINIA]
[Illustration: SUN-DRYING IN LA LAGUNA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS]
[Illustration: COFFEE SCENES IN THE NEAR AND THE FAR EAST]
There is also a hollow machine, like a small tower, which they
Call a mill, in which you can bruise the useful fruit of the
Roasted bean and crush it with frequent rubbing;
A revolving pivot in the middle, on an easy wheel turning,
Twists its metal joints on a creaking stem.
The top of the wheel, you know, is pierced with an ivory handle
Which will have to be turned by hand, through a thousand revolutions,
And through a thousand circles it moves the pivot.
When you put a kernel in, you will turn the handle with quick hand--
No delay--and you will wonder how the crackling kernel is
With much grinding quickly reduced to a powder.
Once only the lower compartment receives on its kindly bosom
The crushed grains, which are placed in the very depths of the box.
But why do we linger over these less important matters? Greater things
call us. Then is it time to drain the sweet Draught, either under the
new light of the early sun In the morning, when an empty stomach demands
food; Or, when, after the splendid feasts of a magnificent table The
overburdened stomach suffers from too heavy load, and Unequal to the
demands made upon it, seeks the aid of external heat. Then come, when
now the pot grows ruddy in the fire Crackling beneath, and you shall
behold the liquid, swelling With mingled powdered coffee, now bubble
around the brim, Draw it from the fire. Unless you should do this, the
force of The water would break forth suddenly, overflowing, and would
Sprinkle the beverage on the fire beneath. Therefore, let no such
accident disturb your joys. You should keep watch carefully when the
water no longer Restrains itself and bubbles with the heat; then return
The pot to the fire thrice and four times, until the powdered Coffee
steams in the midst of the fire and blends thoroughly with the
surrounding water.
This soothing drink ought to be boiled with skill, to be drunk With
art--not in the way men are wont to drink other beverages--And with
reason; for when you shall have taken it steaming from A quick fire, and
gradually all the dregs have settled to the Very bottom, you shall not
drink it impatiently at one gulp. But rather, sip it little by little,
and between draughts Contrive pleasant delays; and sipping, drain it in
long draughts, So long as it is still hot and burns the palate. For then
it is better, then it permeates our inmost bones, and Penetrating within
to the center of our vitals and our marrow, It pervades all our body
with its vivifying strength. Often even merely inhaling the odor with
their nostrils, men Have welcomed it, when it has bubbled up from the
bottom, More refreshing than the breeze. So much pleasure is there in a
delicious odor.
And now there remains awaiting us the other part of our task, To make
known the secret strength of the divine draught. But who could hope to
understand this wonderful blessing Or to be able to pursue so great a
miracle in verse? For really, when coffee has quietly glided into your
body, Taking itself within, it sheds a vital warmth through your Limbs,
and inspires joyous strength in your heart. Then if There is anything
undigested, with fire's help, it heats the Hidden channels, and loosens
the thin pores, through which the Useless moisture exudes, and seeds of
diseases flee from all your veins.
Wherefore come, O you who have a care for your health! You, whose triple
chin hangs on your breast, Who drag your heavy stomach of great bulk, It
is fitting for you, first of all, to indulge in the warm Beverage; for
indeed it will dry the hideous flow of moisture Which oppresses your
limbs, and sends forth streams of perspiration from your whole body. And
in a short time, the swelling of your fat belly will Gradually begin to
decrease, and it will lighten your members, now oppressed by their heavy
weight.
O happy peoples, on whom Titan, rising, looks with his first light!
Here, a rather free use of wine has never done harm. Law and religion
forbid us to quaff the flowing wine. Here one lives on coffee. Here,
then, flourishing with joyous strength One pursues life and knows not
what diseases are, Nor that child of Bacchus and companion of high
living--Gout; Nor what innumerable diseases through this union are ready
to attack our world.
Yet, indeed, the soothing power of this invigorating drink Drives sad
cares from the heart, and exhilarates the spirits. I have seen a man,
when he had not yet drained a mighty Draught of this sweet nectar, walk
silently with slow gait, His brow sad, and forehead rough with
forbidding wrinkles. This same man who had hardly bathed his throat with
the sweet Drink--no delay--clouds fled from his wrinkled brow; and He
took pleasure in teasing all with his witty sayings. Nor yet did he
pursue any one with bitter laughter. For this Harmless drink inspires no
desire of offending, the venom Is lacking, and pleasant laughter without
bitterness pleases.
And in the entire East this custom of coffee drinking Has been accepted.
And, now, France; you adopt the foreign custom, So that public shops,
one after the other, are opened for Drinking Coffee. A hanging sign of
either ivy or laurel invites the passers-by. Hither in crowds from the
entire city they assemble, and While away the time in pleasant drinking.
And when once the feelings have grown warm, acted upon by The gentle
heat, then good-humored laughter, and pleasant Arguments increase.
General gaiety ensues, the places about resound with joyous applause.
But never does the liquid imbibed overpower weary minds, but Rather, if
ever slumber presses their heavy eyes and dulls The brain; and their
strength, blunted, grows torpid in the Body, coffee puts sleep to flight
from the eyes, and slothful inactivity from the whole frame. Therefore
to absorb the sweet draught would be an advantage For those whom a great
deal of long-continued labor awaits And those who need to extend their
study far into the night.
And here I shall make known who taught the use of this pleasant Drink;
for its virtue, unknown, has lain hidden through many Years; and
reviewing, I shall relate the matter from the very beginning.
An Arab shepherd was driving his young goats to the well-known Pastures.
They were wandering through lonely wastes and cropping The grasses, when
a tree heavy with many berries--never seen before--met their eyes. At
once, as they were able to reach the low branches, they began To pull
off the leaves with many a nibble, and to pluck the tender Growth. Its
bitterness attracts. The shepherd, not knowing this, Was meanwhile
singing on the soft grass and telling the story of his loves to the
woods. But when the evening star, rising, warned him to leave the field,
And he led back his well-fed flock to their stalls, he perceived That
the beasts did not close their eyes in sweet sleep, but Joyous beyond
their wont, with wonderful delight throughout the Whole night jumped
about with wanton leaps. Trembling with sudden Fear, the shepherd stood
amazed; and crazed by the sound, he Thought these things were being done
through some wicked trick of a neighbor, or by magic art.
Not far from here a holy band of brethren had built their Humble home in
a remote valley; their lot it was to chant Praises of God, and to load
his altars with fitting gifts. Although throughout the night the
deep-toned bell resounded With great din, and summoned them to the
sacred temple, often The coming of dawn found them lingering on their
couches, Having forgotten to rise in the middle of the night. So great
was their love of sleep!
In charge of the sacred temple, revered and obeyed by his Willing
brethren, was the master, an aged man, a heavy mass of white hair on
head and chin. The shepherd, hastening, came to him and told him the
story, Imploring his aid. The old man smiled to himself; but He agreed
to go, and investigate the hidden cause of the miracle.
When he has come to the hills, he observes the lambs, together With
their mothers, gnawing the berries of an unknown plant, And cries, "This
is the cause of the trouble!" And saying no More, he at once picks the
smooth fruit from the heavily-laden Tree, and carries it home, places
it, when washed, in pure Water, cooking it over the fire, and fearlessly
drinks a large Cup of it. Forthwith a warmth pervades his veins, a
living Force is diffused through his limbs, and weariness is dispelled
from his aged body. Then, at length, the old man exulting in the
blessing thus found, Rejoices, and kindly shares with all his brothers.
They eagerly At early night-fall, indulge in pleasant banquets and drain
great bowls. No longer is it hard for them to break off sweet sleep and
to leave their soft beds as formerly. O fortunate ones! whose hearts the
sweet draught has often Bathed. No sluggish torpor holds their minds,
they briskly Rise for their prescribed duties and rejoice to outstrip
the rays of the first light.
You also, whose care it is to feed minds with divine eloquence And to
terrify with your words the souls of the guilty, you also Should indulge
in the pleasant drink; for, as you know, it Strengthens weakness. Keen
vigor is gained for the limbs from This source, and spreads through the
whole body. From this source, Too, shall come new strength and new power
to your voice. You also, whom oft harmful vapors harass, whose sick
brain the dangerous vertigo shakes, Ah, come! In this sweet liquid is a
ready medicine And none other better to calm undue agitation. Apollo
planted this power for himself, they say, The story is worthy to be
sung.
Once a disease most deadly to life assailed the disciples of Apollo's
Mount. It spread far and wide, and attacked the brain itself. Already
all the people of genius were suffering with this Disease; and the arts,
deserted, were languishing along with The workers. Some even pretended
to have the disease, and Assuming feigned suffering, gave themselves
over to an idle life. Unpleasing work grew distasteful, and deadly
inertia increased Everywhere. It pleased all, now released from work and
labors, To indulge in care-free quiet. Apollo, full of indignation, did
not endure longer that the deadly Contagion of such easy ruin should
creep over them thus. And, That he might take away from seers all means
of deception, he Enticed from the rich bosom of the earth this friendly
plant, Than which no other is more ready either to refresh for work the
Mind wearied by long studies, or to sooth troublesome sorrows of the
head.
O plant, given to the human race by the gift of the Gods! No other out
of the entire list of plants has ever vied with you. On your account
sailors sail from our shores And fearlessly conquer the threatening
winds, sandbanks and Dreadful rocks. With your nourishing growth you
surpass dittany, Ambrosia, and fragrant panacea. Grim diseases flee from
you. To You trusting health clings as a companion, and also the merry
Crowd, conversation, amusing jokes, and sweet whisperings.
The poet Belighi toward the close of the sixteenth century composed a
poem, which, freely translated, runs:
In Damascus, in Aleppo, in great Cairo,
At every turn is to be found
That mild fruit which gives so beloved a drink,
Before coming to court to triumph.
There this seditious disturber of the world,
Has, by its unparalleled virtue,
Supplanted all wines from this blessed day.
Jacques Delille (1738-1813) the didactic poet of nature, in _chant vi_
of his "_Three Reigns of Nature_," thus apostrophizes the "divine
nectar" and describes its preparation:
DIVINE COFFEE
_Translation from the French_
A liquid there is to the poet most dear,
'T was lacking to Virgil, adored by Voltaire,
'T is thou, divine coffee, for thine is the art,
Without turning the head yet to gladden the heart.
And thus though my palate be dulled by age,
With joy I partake of thy dear beverage.
How glad I prepare me thy nectar most precious,
No soul shall usurp me a rite so delicious;
On the ambient flame when the black charcoal burns,
The gold of thy bean to rare ebony turns,
I alone, 'gainst the cone, wrought with fierce iron teeth.
Make thy fruitage cry out with its bitter-sweet breath;
Till charmed with such perfume, with care I entrust
To the pot on my hearth the rare spice-laden dust:
First to calm, then excite, till it seethingly whirls,
With an eye all attention I gaze till it boils.
At last now the liquid comes slow to repose;
In the hot, smoking vessel its wealth I depose,
My cup and thy nectar; from wild reeds expressed,
America's honey my table has blest;
All is ready; Japan's gay enamel invites--
And the tribute of two worlds thy prestige unites:
Come, Nectar divine, inspire thou me,
I wish but Antigone, dessert and thee;
For scarce have I tasted thy odorous steam,
When quick from thy clime, soothing warmths round me stream,
Attentive my thoughts rise and flow light as air,
Awaking my senses and soothing my care.
Ideas that but late moved so dull and depressed,
Behold, they come smiling in rich garments dressed!
Some genius awakes me, my course is begun;
For I drink with each drop a bright ray of the sun.
Maumenet addressed to Galland the following verses:
If slumber, friend, too near, with some late glass should creep--
Dull, poppy-perfumed sleep--
If a too fumous wine confounds at length thy brain--
Take coffee then--this juice divine
Shall banish sleep and steam of vap'rous wine,
And with its timely aid fresh vigor thou shalt find.
Castel, in his poem, _Les Plantes_ (The Plants) could not omit the
coffee trees of the tropics. He thus addressed them in 1811:
Bright plants, the favorites of Phoebus,
In these climes the rarest virtues offer,
Delicious Mocha, thy sap, enchantress,
Awakens genius, outvalues Parnasse!
In a collection of the _Songs of Brittany_ in the Brest library there
are many stanzas in praise of coffee. A Breton poet has composed a
little piece of ninety-six verses in which he describes the powerful
attraction that coffee has for women and the possible effects on
domestic happiness. The first time that coffee was used in Brittany,
says an old song of that country, only the nobility drank it, and now
all the common people are using it, yet the greater part of them have
not even bread.
A French poet of the eighteenth century produced the following:
LINES ON COFFEE
_Translation from the French_
Good coffee is more than a savory cup,
Its aroma has power to dry liquor up.
By coffee you get upon leaving the table
A mind full of wisdom, thoughts lucid, nerves stable;
And odd tho' it be, 't is none the less true,
Coffee's aid to digestion permits dining anew.
And what 's very true, tho' few people know it,
Fine coffee 's the basis of every fine poet;
For many a writer as windy as Boreas
Has been vastly improved by the drink ever glorious.
Coffee brightens the dullness of heavy philosophy,
And opens the science of mighty geometry.
Our law-makers, too, when the nectar imbibing,
Plan wondrous reforms, quite beyond the describing;
The odor of coffee they delight in inhaling,
And promise the country to alter laws ailing.
From the brow of the scholar coffee chases the wrinkles,
And mirth in his eyes like a firefly twinkles;
And he, who before was but a hack of old Homer,
Becomes an original, and that 's no misnomer.
Observe the astronomer who 's straining his eyes
In watching the planets which soar thro' the skies;
Alas, all those bright bodies seem hopelessly far
Till coffee discloses his own guiding star.
But greatest of wonders that coffee effects
Is to aid the news-editor as he little expects;
Coffee whispers the secrets of hidden diplomacy,
Hints rumors of wars and of scandals so racy.
Inspiration by coffee must be nigh unto magic,
For it conjures up facts that are certainly tragic;
And for a few pennies, coffee's small price per cup,
"Ye editor's" able to swallow the Universe up.
Esménard celebrated Captain de Clieu's romantic voyage to Martinique
with the coffee plants from the Jardin des Plantes, in some admirable
verses quoted in chapter II.
Among other notable poetic flights in praise of coffee produced in
France mention should be made of: "_L'Elogé du Café_" (Eulogy of Coffee)
a song in twenty-four couplets, Paris, Jacques Estienne, 1711; _Le Café_
(Coffee), a fragment from the fourth _chant_ (song) of _La Grandeur de
Dieu dans les merveilles de la Nature_ (The Grandeur of God in the
Wonders of Nature) Marseilles; _Le Café_, extract from the fourth
gastronomic song, by Berchoux; "_A Mon Café_" (To My Coffee), stanzas
written by Ducis; _Le Café_, anonymous stanzas inserted in the
_Macedoine Poetique_, 1824; a poem in Latin in the Abbé Olivier's
collection; _Le Bouquet Blanc et le Bouquet Noir, poesie en quatre
chants; Le Café_, C.D. Mery, 1837; _Elogé du Café_, S. Melaye, 1852.
Many Italian poets have sung the praises of coffee. L. Barotti wrote his
poem, _Il Caffè_ in 1681. Giuseppe Parini (1729-1799), Italy's great
satirical and lyric poet and critic of the eighteenth century, in _Il
Giorno_ (_The Day_), gives a delightful pen picture of the manners and
customs of Milan's polite society of the period. William Dean Howells
quotes as follows from these poems (his own translation) in his _Modern
Italian Poets_. The feast is over, and the lady signals to the cavalier
that it is time to leave the table:
Spring to thy feet
The first of all, and, drawing near thy lady,
Remove her chair and offer her thy hand,
And lead her to the other room, nor suffer longer
That the stale reek of viands shall offend
Her delicate sense. Thee with the rest invites
The grateful odor of the coffee, where
It smokes upon a smaller table hid
And graced with Indian webs. The redolent gums
That meanwhile burn, sweeten and purify
The heavy atmosphere, and banish thence
All lingering traces of the feast. Ye sick
And poor, whom misery or whom hope, perchance!
Has guided in the noonday to these doors.
Tumultuous, naked, and unsightly throng,
With mutilated limbs and squalid faces,
In litters and on crutches from afar
Comfort yourselves, and with expanded nostrils
Drink in the nectar of the feast divine
That favourable zephyrs waft to you;
But do not dare besiege these noble precincts,
Importunately offering her that reigns
Within your loathsome spectacle of woe!
And now, sir, 't is your office to prepare
The tiny cup that then shall minister,
Slow sipped, its liquor to thy lady's lips;
And now bethink thee whether she prefer
The boiling beverage much or little tempered
With sweet; or if, perchance, she likes it best,
As doth the barbarous spouse, then when she sits
Upon brocades of Persia, with light fingers,
The bearded visage of her lord caressing.
This is from _Il Mezzogiorno_ (_Noon_). The other three poems, rounding
out _The Day_, are _Il Mattino_ (_Morning_), _Il Vespre_ (_Evening_),
and _La Notte_ (_Night_). In _Il Mattino_, Parini sings:
Should dreary hypochondria's woes oppress thee,
Should round thy charming limbs in too great measure
Thy flesh increase, then with thy lips do honor
To that clear beverage, made from the well-bronzed,
The smoking, ardent beans Aleppo sends thee,
And distant Mocha too, a thousand ship-loads;
When slowly sipped it knows no rival.
Belli's _Il Caffè_ supplies a partial bibliography of the Italian
literature on coffee. There are many poems, some of them put to music.
As late as 1921, there were published in Bologna some advertising verses
on coffee by G.B. Zecchini with music by Cesare Cantino.
Pope Leo XIII, in his Horatian poem on _Frugality_ composed in his
eighty-eighth year, thus verses his appreciation of coffee:
Last comes the beverage of the Orient shore,
Mocha, far off, the fragrant berries bore.
Taste the dark fluid with a dainty lip,
Digestion waits on pleasure as you sip.
Peter Altenberg, a Vienna poet, thus celebrated the cafés of his native
city:
TO THE COFFEE HOUSE!
When you are worried, have trouble of one sort or another--to the coffee
house!
When she did not keep her appointment, for one reason or other--to the
coffee house!
When your shoes are torn and dilapidated--coffee house!
When your income is four hundred crowns and you spend five hundred--coffee
house!
You are a chair warmer in some office, while your ambition led you to seek
professional honors--coffee house!
You could not find a mate to suit you--coffee house!
You feel like committing suicide--coffee house!
You hate and despise human beings, and at the same time you can not be
happy without them--coffee house!
You compose a poem which you can not inflict upon friends you meet in the
street--coffee house!
When your coal scuttle is empty, and your gas ration exhausted--coffee
house!
When you need money for cigarettes, you touch the head waiter in
the--coffee house!
When you are locked out and haven't the money to pay for unlocking the
house door--coffee house!
When you acquire a new flame, and intend provoking the old one, you take
the new one to the old one's--coffee house!
When you feel like hiding you dive into a--coffee house!
When you want to be seen in a new suit--coffee house!
When you can not get anything on trust anywhere else--coffee house!
English poets from Milton to Keats celebrated coffee. Milton (1608-1674)
in his _Comus_ thus acclaimed the beverage:
One sip of this
Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight
Beyond the bliss of dreams.
Alexander Pope, poet and satirist (1688-1744), has the oft-quoted lines:
Coffee which makes the politician wise,
And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.
In Carruthers' _Life of Pope_, we read that this poet inhaled the steam
of coffee in order to obtain relief from the headaches to which he was
subject. We can well understand the inspiration which called forth from
him the following lines when he was not yet twenty:
As long as Mocha's happy tree shall grow,
While berries crackle, or while mills shall go;
While smoking streams from silver spouts shall glide,
Or China's earth receive the sable tide,
While coffee shall to British nymphs be dear,
While fragrant steams the bended head shall cheer,
Or grateful bitters shall delight the taste,
So long her honors, name and praise shall last.
Pope's famous _Rape of the Lock_ grew out of coffee-house gossip. The
poem contains the passage on coffee already quoted:
For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned;
The berries crackle and the mill turns round;
On shining altars of Japan they raise
The silver lamp: the fiery spirits blaze:
From silver spouts the grateful liquors glide,
While China's earth receives the smoking tide.
At once they gratify their scent and taste.
And frequent cups prolong the rich repast
Straight hover round the fair her airy band;
Some, as she sipped, the fuming liquor fanned:
Some o'er her lap their careful plumes displayed,
Trembling, and conscious of the rich brocade.
Coffee (which makes the politician wise,
And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.)
Sent up in vapors to the baron's brain
New stratagems, the radiant lock to gain.
Pope often broke the slumbers of his servant at night by calling him to
prepare a cup of coffee; but for regular serving, it was his custom to
grind and to prepare it upon the table.
William Cowper's fine tribute to "the cups that cheer but not
inebriate", a phrase which he is said to have borrowed from Bishop
Berkeley, was addressed to tea and not to coffee, to which it has not
infrequently been wrongfully attributed. It is one of the most pleasing
pictures in _The Task_.
Cowper refers to coffee but once in his writings. In his _Pity for Poor
Africans_ he expresses himself as "shocked at the ignorance of slaves":
I pity them greatly, but I must be mum
For how could we do without sugar and rum?
Especially sugar, so needful we see;
What! Give up our desserts, our coffee and tea?
thus contenting himself, like many others, with words of pity where more
active protest might sacrifice his personal ease and comfort.
Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), and John Keats (1795-1834), were worshippers at
the shrine of coffee; while Charles Lamb, famous poet, essayist,
humorist, and critic, has celebrated in verse the exploit of Captain de
Clieu in the following delightful verses:
THE COFFEE SLIPS
Whene'er I fragrant coffee drink,
I on the generous Frenchman think,
Whose noble perseverance bore
The tree to Martinico's shore.
While yet her colony was new,
Her island products but a few;
Two shoots from off a coffee tree
He carried with him o'er the sea.
Each little tender coffee slip
He waters daily in the ship.
And as he tends his embryo trees.
Feels he is raising 'midst the seas
Coffee groves, whose ample shade
Shall screen the dark Creolian maid.
But soon, alas! His darling pleasure
In watching this his precious treasure
Is like to fade--for water fails
On board the ship in which he sails.
Now all the reservoirs are shut.
The crew on short allowance put;
So small a drop is each man's share.
Few leavings you may think there are
To water these poor coffee plants--
But he supplies their grasping wants,
Even from his own dry parched lips
He spares it for his coffee slips.
Water he gives his nurslings first,
Ere he allays his own deep thirst,
Lest, if he first the water sip,
He bear too far his eager lip.
He sees them droop for want of more;
Yet when they reach the destined shore,
With pride the heroic gardener sees
A living sap still in his trees.
The islanders his praise resound;
Coffee plantations rise around;
And Martinico loads her ships
With produce from those dear-saved slips.
In John Keats' amusing fantasy, _Cap and Bells_, the Emperor Elfinan
greets Hum, the great soothsayer, and offers him refreshment:
"You may have sherry in silver, hock in gold, or glass'd champagne
... what cup will you drain?"
"Commander of the Faithful!" answered Hum,
"In preference to these, I'll merely taste
A thimble-full of old Jamaica rum."
"A simple boon," said Elfinan; "thou mayst
Have Nantz, with which my morning coffee's laced."
But Hum accepts the glass of Nantz, without the coffee, "made racy with
the third part of the least drop of _crème de citron_, crystal clear."
Numerous broadsides printed in London, 1660 to 1675, have been referred
to in chapter X. Few of them possess real literary merit.
"Coffee and Crumpets" has been much quoted. It was published in
_Fraser's Magazine_, in 1837. Its author calls himself "Launcelot
Littledo". The poem is quite long, and only those portions are printed
here that refer particularly to "Yemen's fragrant berry":
COFFEE AND CRUMPETS
_By Launcelot Littledo of Pump Court, Temple, Barrister-at-law._
There's ten o'clock! From Hampstead to the Tower
The bells are chanting forth a lusty carol;
Wrangling, with iron tongues, about the hour,
Like fifty drunken fishwives at a quarrel;
Cautious policemen shun the coming shower;
Thompson and Fearon tap another barrel;
"_Dissolve frigus, lignum super foco.
Large reponens._" Now, come Orinoco!
To puff away an hour, and drink a cup,
A brimming _breakfast_-cup of ruddy Mocha--
Clear, luscious, dark, like eyes that lighten up
The raven hair, fair cheek, and _bella boca_
Of Florence maidens. I can never sup
Of perigourd, but (_guai a chi la tocca!_)
I'm doomed to indigestion. So to settle
This strife eternal,--Betty, bring the kettle!
Coffee! oh, Coffee! Faith, it is surprising.
'Mid all the poets, good, and bad, and worse.
Who've scribbled (Hock or Chian eulogizing)
Post and papyrus with "Immortal verse"--
Melodiously similitudinising
In Sapphics languid or Alcaics terse
No one, my little brown Arabian berry,.
Hath sung thy praises--'tis surprising! very!
Were I a poet now, whose ready rhymes.
Like Tommy Moore's, came tripping to their places--
Reeling along a merry troll of chimes,
With careless truth,--a dance of fuddled Graces;
Hear it--_Gazette_, _Post_, _Herald_, _Standard_, _Times_,
I'd write an epic! Coffee for its basis;
Sweet as e'er warbled forth from cockney throttles
Since Bob Montgomery's or Amos Cottle's.
Thou sleepy-eyed Chinese--enticing siren,
Pekoe! the Muse hath said in praise of thee,
"That cheers but not inebriates"; and Byron
Hath called thy sister "Queen of Tears", Bohea!
And he, Anacreon of Rome's age of iron,
Says, how untruly "_Quis non potius te_."
While coffee, thou--bill-plastered gables say,
Art like old Cupid, "roasted every day."
I love, upon a rainy night, as this is,
When rarely and more rare the coaches rattle
From street to street, to sip thy fragrant kisses;
While from the Strand remote some drunken battle
Far-faintly echoes, and the kettle hisses
Upon the glowing hob. No tittle-tattle
To make a single thought of mine an alien
From thee, my coffee-pot, my fount Castalian.
The many intervening verses cover an unhappy termination to an otherwise
delightful ball. He is sitting with his charming "Mary", about to ask
her to be his bride, when the unfortunate overturning of a glass of red
wine into her white satin gown, at the same time overthrows all his
dreams of bliss, "for the shrew displaces the angel he adored", and he
resigns himself to the life of "a man in chambers."
'Tis thus I sit and sip, and sip and think.
And think and sip again, and dip in _Fraser_,
A health, King Oliver! to thee I drink:
Long may the public have thee to amaze her.
Like _Figaro_, thou makest one's eyelids wink,
Twirling on practised palm thy polished razor--
True Horace temper, smoothed on attic strop;
Ah! thou couldst "_faire la barbe a tout l'Europe_."
* * * * *
Come, Oliver, and tell us what the news is;
An easy chair awaits thee--come and fill 't.
Come, I invoke thee, as they do the muses,
And thou shalt choose thy tipple as thou wilt.
And if thy lips my sober cup refuses,
For ruddier drops the purple grape has spilt,
We can sing, sipping in alternate verses,
Thy drink and mine, like Corydon and Thyrsis.
* * * * *
Fill the bowl, but not with wine.
Potent port, or fiery sherry;
For this milder cup of mine
Crush me Yemen's fragrant berry.
* * * * *
Gentle is the grape's deep cluster,
But the wine's a wayward child;
Nectar _this_! of meeker lustre--
_This_ the cup that "draws it mild."
Deeply drink its streams divine--
Fill the cup, but not with wine.
Prior and Montague inserted the following poetic vignette in their _City
Mouse and Country Mouse_, written in burlesque of Dryden's _Hind and
Panther_:
Then on they jogg'd; and since an hour of talk
Might cut a banter on the tedious walk,
As I remember, said the sober mouse,
I've heard much talk of the Wits' Coffee-house;
Thither, says Brindle, thou shalt go and see
Priests supping coffee, sparks and poets tea;
Here rugged frieze, there quality well drest,
These baffling the grand Senior, those the Test,
And there shrewd guesses made, and reasons given,
That human laws were never made in heaven;
But, above all, what shall oblige thy sight,
And fill thy eyeballs with a vast delight,
Is the poetic judge of sacred wit,
Who does i' th' darkness of his glory sit;
And as the moon who first receives the light,
With which she makes these nether regions bright,
So does he shine, reflecting from afar
The rays he borrowed from a better star;
For rules, which from Corneille and Rapin flow,
Admired by all the scribbling herd below,
From French tradition while he does dispense
Unerring truths, 't is schism, a damned offense,
To question his, or trust your private sense.
Geoffrey Sephton, an English poet and novelist, many years resident in
Vienna, whose fantastic stories and fairy tales are well known in
Europe, has written the following sonnets on coffee:
TO THE MIGHTY MONARCH, KING KAUHEE[350]
_By Geoffrey Sephton_
I
Away with opiates! Tantalising snares
To dull the brain with phantoms that are not.
Let no such drugs the subtle senses rot
With visions stealing softly unawares
Into the chambers of the soul. Nightmares
Ride in their wake, the spirits to besot.
Seek surer means, to banish haunting cares:
Place on the board the steaming Coffee-pot!
O'er luscious fruit, dessert and sparkling flask,
Let proudly rule as King the Great Kauhee,
For he gives joy divine to all that ask,
Together with his spouse, sweet _Eau de Vie_
Oh, let us 'neath his sovran pleasure bask.
Come, raise the fragrant cup and bend the knee!
II
O great Kauhee, thou democratic Lord,
Born 'neath the tropic sun and bronzed to splendour
In lands of Wealth and Wisdom, who can render
Such service to the wandering Human Horde
As thou at every proud or humble board?
Beside the honest workman's homely fender,
'Mid dainty dames and damsels sweetly tender,
In china, gold and silver, have we poured
Thy praise and sweetness, Oriental King.
Oh, how we love to hear the kettle sing
In joy at thy approach, embodying
The bitter, sweet and creamy sides of life;
Friend of the People, Enemy of Strife,
Sons of the Earth have born thee labouring.
In America, too, poets have sung in praise of coffee. The somewhat
doubtful "kind that mother used to make" is celebrated in James Whitcomb
Riley's classic poem:
LIKE HIS MOTHER USED TO MAKE[351]
_"Uncle Jake's Place," St. Jo., Mo., 1874._
"I was born in Indiany," says a stranger, lank and slim,
As us fellers in the restaurant was kindo' guyin' him,
And Uncle Jake was slidin' him another punkin pie
And a' extry cup o' coffee, with a twinkle in his eye--
"I was born in Indiany--more'n forty years ago--
And I hain't ben back in twenty--and I'm work-in' back'ards slow;
But I've et in ever' restarunt twixt here and Santy Fee,
And I want to state this coffee tastes like gittin' home, to me!"
"Pour us out another. Daddy," says the feller, warmin' up,
A-speakin' crost a saucerful, as Uncle tuk his cup--
"When I see yer sign out yander," he went on, to Uncle Jake--
"'Come in and git some coffee like yer mother used to make'--
I thought of _my_ old mother, and the Posey county farm,
And me a little kid again, a-hangin' in her arm,
As she set the pot a-bilin', broke the eggs and poured 'em in"--
And the feller kindo' halted, with a trimble in his chin;
And Uncle Jake he fetched the feller's coffee back, and stood
As solemn, fer a minute, as a' undertaker would;
Then he sorto' turned and tiptoed to'rds the kitchen door--and next,
Here comes his old wife out with him, a-rubbin' of her specs--
And she rushes fer the stranger, and she hollers out, "It's him!--
Thank God we've met him comin'!--Don't you know yer mother, Jim?"
And the feller, as he grabbed her, says,--"You bet I hain't forgot--
But," wipin' of his eyes, says he, "yer coffee's mighty hot!"
One of the most delightful coffee poems in English is Francis Saltus'
(d. 1889) sonnet on "the voluptuous berry", as found in _Flasks and
Flagons_:
COFFEE
Voluptuous berry! Where may mortals find
Nectars divine that can with thee compare,
When, having dined, we sip thy essence rare,
And feel towards wit and repartee inclined?
Thou wert of sneering, cynical Voltaire,
The only friend; thy power urged Balzac's mind
To glorious effort; surely Heaven designed
Thy devotees superior joys to share.
Whene'er I breathe thy fumes, 'mid Summer stars,
The Orient's splendent pomps my vision greet.
Damascus, with its myriad minarets, gleams!
I see thee, smoking, in immense bazaars,
Or yet, in dim seraglios, at the feet
Of blond Sultanas, pale with amorous dreams!
Arthur Gray, in _Over the Black Coffee_ (1902) has made the following
contribution to the poetry of coffee, with an unfortunate reflection on
tea, which might well have been omitted:
COFFEE
O, boiling, bubbling, berry, bean!
Thou consort of the kitchen queen--
Browned and ground of every feature,
The only aromatic creature,
For which we long, for which we feel,
The breath of morn, the perfumed meal.
For what is tea? It can but mean,
Merely the mildest go-between.
Insipid sobriety of thought and mind
It "cuts no figure"--we can find--
Save peaceful essays, gentle walks,
Purring cats, old ladies' talks--
* * * * *
But coffee! can other tales unfold.
Its history's written round and bold--
Brave buccaneers upon the "Spanish Main",
The army's march across the lenght'ning plain,
The lone prospector wandering o'er the hill,
The hunter's camp, thy fragrance all distill.
So here's a health to coffee! Coffee hot!
A morning toast! Bring on another pot.
_The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_ published in 1909 the following
excellent stanzas by William A. Price:
AN ODE TO COFFEE
Oh, thou most fragrant, aromatic joy, impugned, abused, and often stormed
against,
And yet containing all the blissfulness that in a tiny cup could be
condensed!
Give thy contemners calm, imperial scorn--
For thou wilt reign through ages yet unborn!
Some ancient Arab, so the legend tells, first found thee--may his memory be
blest!
The world-wide sign of brotherhood today, the binding tie between the East
and West!
Good coffee pleases in a Persian dell,
And Blackfeet Indians make it more than well.
The lonely traveler in the desert range, if thou art with him, smiles at
eventide--
The sailor, as thy perfume bubbles forth, laughs at the ocean as it rages
wide--
And where the camps of fighting men are found
Thy fragrance hovers o'er each battleground.
"Use, not abuse, the good things of this life"--that is a motto from the
Prophet's days,
And, dealing with thee thus, we ne'er shall come to troublous times or
parting of the ways.
Comfort and solace both endure with thee,
Rich, royal berry of the coffee tree!
The _New York Tribune_ published in 1915 the following lines by Louis
Untermeyer, which were subsequently included in his "---- _and Other
Poets_."[352]
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON RISES TO THE TOAST OF COFFEE
Strong wine it is a mocker; strong wine it is a beast.
It grips you when it starts to rise; it is the Fabled Yeast.
You should not offer ale or beer from hops that are freshly picked,
Nor even Benedictine to tempt a benedict.
For wine has a spell like the lure of hell, and the devil has mixed the
brew;
And the friends of ale are a sort of pale and weary, witless crew--
And the taste of beer is a sort of a queer and undecided brown--
But, comrades, I give you coffee--drink it up, drink it down.
With a fol-de-rol-dol and a fol-de-rol-dee, etc.
Oh, cocoa's the drink for an elderly don who lives with an elderly niece;
And tea is the drink for studios and loud and violent peace--
And brandy's the drink that spoils the clothes when the bottle breaks in
the trunk;
But coffee's the drink that is drunken by men who will never be drunk.
So, gentlemen, up with the festive cup, where Mocha and Java unite;
It clears the head when things are said too brilliant to be bright!
It keeps the stars from the golden bars and the lips of the tipsy town;
So, here's to strong, black coffee--drink it up, drink it down!
With a fol-de-rol-dol and a fol-de-rol-dee, etc.
The American breakfast cup is celebrated in up-to-date American style in
the following by Helen Rowland in the _New York Evening World_:
WHAT EVERY WIFE KNOWS
Give me a man who drinks good, hot, dark, strong coffee for breakfast!
A man who smokes a good, dark, fat cigar after dinner!
You may marry your milk-faddist, or your anti-coffee crank, as you will!
But I know the magic of the coffee pot!
Let me make my Husband's coffee--and I care not who makes eyes at him!
Give me two matches a day--
One to start the coffee with, at breakfast, and one for his cigar, after
dinner!
And I defy all the houris in Christendom to light a new flame in his heart!
Oh, sweet supernal coffee-pot!
Gentle panacea of domestic troubles,
Faithful author of that sweet nepenthe which deadens all the ills that
married folks are heir to.
Cheery, glittering, soul-soothing, warmed hearted, inanimate friend!
What wife can fail to admit the peace and serenity she owes to _you_?
To you, who stand between her and all her early morning troubles--
Between her and the before-breakfast grouch--
Between her and the morning-after headache--
Between her and the cold-gray-dawn scrutiny?
To you, who supply the golden nectar that stimulates the jaded masculine
soul,
Soothes the shaky masculine nerves, stirs the fagged masculine mind,
inspires the slow masculine sentiment,
And starts the sluggish blood a-flowing and the whole day right!
What is it, I ask you, when he comes down to breakfast dry of mouth, and
touchy of temper--
That gives him pause, and silences that scintillating barb of sarcasm on
the tip of his tongue,
With which he meant to impale you?
It is the sweet aroma of the coffee-pot--the thrilling thought of that
first delicious sip!
What is it, on the morning after the club dance,
That hides your weary, little, washed-out face and straggling, uncurled
coiffure from his critical eyes?
It is the generous coffee-pot, standing like a guardian angel between you
and him!
And in those many vital psychological moments, during the honeymoon, which
decide for or against the romance and happiness of all the rest of married
life--
Those critical before-breakfast moments when temperament meets temperament,
and will meets "won't"--
What is it that halts you on the brink of tragedy,
And distracts you from the temptation to answer back?
It is the absorbing anxiety of watching the coffee boil!
What is it that warms his veins and soothes your nerves,
And turns all the world suddenly from a dismal gray vale of disappointment
to a bright rosy garden of hope--
And starts _another_ day gliding smoothly along like a new motor car?
What is it that will do more to transform a man from a fiend into an angel
than baptism in the River Jordan?
_It is the first cup of coffee in the morning!_
_Coffee in Dramatic Literature_
Coffee was first "dramatized", so to speak, in England, where we read
that Charles II and the Duke of Yorke attended the first performance of
_Tarugo's Wiles, or the Coffee House_, a comedy, in 1667, which Samuel
Pepys described as "the most ridiculous and insipid play I ever saw in
my life." The author was Thomas St. Serf. The piece opens in a lively
manner, with a request on the part of its fashionable hero for a change
of clothes. Accordingly, Tarugo puts off his "vest, hat, perriwig, and
sword," and serves the guests to coffee, while the apprentice acts his
part as a gentleman customer. Presently other "customers of all trades
and professions" come dropping into the coffee house. These are not
always polite to the supposed coffee-man; one complains of his coffee
being "nothing but warm water boyl'd with burnt beans," while another
desires him to bring "chocolette that's prepar'd with water, for I hate
that which is encouraged with eggs." The pedantry and nonsense uttered
by a "schollar" character is, perhaps, an unfair specimen of
coffee-house talk; it is especially to be noticed that none of the
guests ventures upon the dangerous ground of politics.
In the end, the coffee-master grows tired of his clownish visitors,
saying plainly, "This rudeness becomes a suburb tavern rather than my
coffee house"; and with the assistance of his servants he "thrusts 'em
all out of doors, after the schollars and customers pay."
In 1694, there was published Jean Baptiste Rosseau's comedy, _Le Caffè_,
which appears to have been acted only once in Paris, although a later
English dramatist says it met with great applause in the French capital.
_Le Caffè_ was written in Laurent's café, which was frequented by
Fontenelle, Houdard de la Motte, Dauchet, the abbé Alary Boindin, and
others. Voltaire said that "this work of a young man without any
experience either of the world of letters or of the theater seems to
herald a new genius."
About this time it was the fashion for the coffee-house keepers of
Paris, and the waiters, to wear Armenian costumes; for Pascal had
builded better than he knew. In _La Foire Saint-Germain_, a comedy by
Dancourt, played in 1696, one of the principal characters is old
"Lorange, a coffee merchant clothed as an Armenian". In scene 5, he says
to Mlle. Mousset, "a seller of house dresses" that he has been "a
naturalized Armenian for three weeks."
Mrs. Susannah Centlivre (1667?-1723), in her comedy, _A Bold Stroke for
a Wife_, produced about 1719, has a scene laid in Jonathan's coffee
house about that period. While the stock jobbers are talking in the
first scene of act II, the coffee boys are crying, "Fresh Coffee,
gentlemen, fresh coffee?... Bohea tea, gentlemen?"
Henry Fielding (1707-1754) published "_The Coffee-House Politician, or
Justice caught in his own trap_," a comedy, in 1730.
_The Coffee House, a dramatick Piece by James Miller_, was performed at
the Theater Royal in Drury Lane in 1737. The interior of Dick's coffee
house figured as an engraved frontispiece to the published version of
the play.
The author states in the preface that "this piece is partly taken from a
comedy of one act written many years ago in French by the famous
Rosseau, called 'Le Caffè', which met with great applause in Paris."
The coffee house in the play is conducted by the Widow Notable, who has
a pretty daughter for whom, like all good mothers, she is anxious to
arrange a suitable marriage.
In the first scene, an acrimonious conversation takes place between
Puzzle, the Politician, and Bays, the poet, in which squabble the Pert
Beau and the Solemn Beau, and other habitués of the place take part.
Puzzle discovers that a comedian and other players are in the room, and
insists that they be ejected or forbidden the house. The Widow is justly
incensed, and indignantly replies:
Forbid the Players my House, Sir! Why, Sir, I get more by them in a
Week than I do by you in seven Years. You come here and hold a
paper in your hand for an Hour, disturb the whole Company with your
Politics, call for Pen and Ink, Paper and Wax, beg a Pipe of
Tobacco, burn out half a Candle, eat half a Pound of Sugar, and
then go away, and pay Two-pence for a Dish of Coffee. I could soon
shut up my doors, if I had not some other good People to make
amends for what I lose by such as you, Sir.
All join the Widow in scoffing and jeering, and exit the highly
discomfited Puzzle. The pretty little Kitty tricks her mother with the
aid of the Player, and marries the man of her choice, but is forgiven
when he is found to be a gentleman of the Temple.
The play is in one act and has several songs. The last is one of five
stanzas, with music "set by Mr. Caret:"
SONG
What Pleasures a Coffee-House daily bestows!
To read and hear how the World merrily goes;
To laugh, sing and prattle of This, That, and T' other;
And be flatter'd and ogl'd and kiss'd too, like Mother.
Here the Rake, after Roving and Tipling all Night,
For his Groat in the Morning may set his Head right.
And the Beau, who ne'er fouls his White fingers with Brass,
May have his Sixpen' worth of--Stare in the Glass.
The Doctor, who'd always be ready to kill,
May ev'ry Day here take his Stand, if he will;
And the soldier, who'd bluster and challenge secure,
May draw boldly here, for--we'll hold him he's sure.
The Lawyer, who's always in quest of his Prey,
May find fools here to feed upon every Day;
And the sage Politician, in Coffee-Grounds known,
May point out the Fate of each Crown but--his own.
Then, Gallants, since ev'rything here you may find
That pleasures the Fancy or profits the Mind,
Come all, and take each a full Dish of Delight,
And crowd up our Coffee-House every night.
[Illustration: SONG FROM "THE COFFEE HOUSE"]
John Timbs tells us this play "met with great opposition on its
representation, owing to its being stated that the characters were
intended for a particular family (that of Mrs. Yarrow and her daughter)
who kept Dick's, the coffee-house which the artist had inadvertently
selected as the frontispiece. It appears," Timbs continues, "that the
landlady and her daughter were the reigning toast of the Templars, who
then frequented Dick's; and took the matter up so strongly that they
united to condemn the farce on the night of its production; they
succeeded, and even extended their resentment to everything suspected to
be this author's (the Rev. James Miller) for a considerable time after."
Carlo Goldoni, who has been called the Molière of Italy, wrote _La
Bottega di Caffè_, (The Coffee House), a naturalistic comedy of
bourgeois Venice, satirizing scandal and gambling, in 1750. The scene is
a Venetian coffee house (probably Florian's), where several actions take
place simultaneously. Among several remarkable studies is one of a
prattling slanderer, Don Marzio, which ranks as one of the finest bits
of original character drawing the stage has ever seen. The play was
produced in English by the Chicago Theatre Society in 1912.
Chatfield-Taylor[353] thinks Voltaire probably imitated _La Bottega di
Caffè_ in his _Le Café, ou l'Ecossaise_. Goldoni was a lover of coffee,
a regular frequenter of the coffee houses of his time, from which he
drew much in the way of inspiration. Pietro Longhi, called the Venetian
Hogarth, in one of his pictures presenting life and manners in Venice
during the years of her decadence, shows Goldoni as a visitor in a café
of the period, with a female mendicant soliciting alms. It is in the
collection of Professor Italico Brass.
Goldoni, in the comedy _The Persian Wife_, gives us a glimpse of coffee
making in the middle of the eighteenth century. He puts these words into
the mouth of Curcuma, the slave:
Here is the coffee, ladies, coffee native of Arabia,
And carried by the caravans into Ispahan.
The coffee of Arabia is certainly always the best.
While putting forth its leaves on one side, upon the other the flowers
appear;
Born of a rich soil, it wishes shade, or but little sun.
Planted every three years is this little tree in the surface of the soil.
The fruit, though truly very small,
Should yet grow large enough to become somewhat green.
Later, when used, it should be freshly ground.
Kept in a warm and dry place and jealously guarded.
* * * * *
But a small quantity is needed to prepare it.
Put in the desired quantity and do not spill it over the fire;
Heat it till the foam rises, then let it subside again away from the fire;
Do this seven times at least, and coffee is made in a moment.
In 1760 there appeared in France _Le Café, ou l'Ecossaise, comédie_,
which purported to have been written by a Mr. Hume, an Englishman, and
to have been translated into French. It was in reality the work of
Voltaire, who had brought out another play, _Socrates_, in the same
manner a short time before. _Le Café_, was translated into English the
same year under the title _The Coffee House, or Fair Fugitive_. The
title page says the play is written by "Mr. Voltaire" and translated
from the French. It is a comedy in five acts. The principal characters
are: Fabrice, a good-natured man and the keeper of the coffee house;
Constantia, the fair fugitive; Sir William Woodville, a gentleman of
distinction under misfortune; Belmont, in love with Constantia, a man of
fortune and interest; Freeport, a merchant and an epitome of English
manners; Scandal, a sharper; and Lady Alton, in love with Belmont.
_Il Caffè di Campagna_, a play with music by Galuppi, appeared in Italy
in 1762.
Another Italian play, a comedy called _La Caffettiéra da Spirito_ was
produced in 1807.
_Hamilton_, a play by Mary P. Hamlin and George Arliss, the latter also
playing the title rôle, was produced in America by George C. Tyler in
1918. The first-act scene is laid in the Exchange coffee house of
Philadelphia, during the period of Washington's first administration.
Among the characters introduced in this scene are James Monroe, Count
Tallyrand, General Philip Schuyler, and Thomas Jefferson.
The authors very faithfully reproduce the atmosphere of the coffee house
of Washington's time. As Tallyrand remarks, "Everybody comes to see
everybody at the Exchange Coffee House.... It is club, restaurant,
merchants' exchange, everything."
_The Autocrat of the Coffee Stall_, a play in one act, by Harold Chapin,
was published in New York in 1921.
_Coffee and Literature in General_
An interesting book might be written on the transformation that tea and
coffee have wrought in the tastes of famous literary men. And of the two
stimulants, coffee seems to have furnished greater refreshment and
inspiration to most. However, both beverages have made civilization
their debtor in that they weaned so many fine minds from the heavy wines
and spirits in which they once indulged.
Voltaire and Balzac were the most ardent devotees of coffee among the
French _literati_. Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), the Scottish
philosopher and statesman, was so fond of coffee that he used to assert
that the powers of a man's mind would generally be found to be
proportional to the quantity of that stimulant which he drank. His
brilliant schoolmate and friend, Robert Hall (1764-1831), the Baptist
minister and pulpit orator, preferred tea, of which he sometimes drank a
dozen cups. Cowper; Parson and Parr, the famous Greek scholars; Dr.
Samuel Johnson; and William Hazlitt, the writer and critic, were great
tea drinkers; but Burton, Dean Swift, Addison, Steele, Leigh Hunt, and
many others, celebrated coffee.
Dr. Charles B. Reed, professor in the medical school of Northwestern
University, says that coffee may be considered as a type of substance
that fosters genius. History seems to bear him out. Coffee's essential
qualities are so well defined, says Dr. Reed, that one critic has
claimed the ability to trace throughout the works of Voltaire those
portions that came from coffee's inspiration. Tea and coffee promote a
harmony of the creative faculties that permits the mental concentration
necessary to produce the masterpieces of art and literature.
Voltaire (1694-1778) the king of wits, was also king of coffee drinkers.
Even in his old age he was said to have consumed fifty cups daily. To
the abstemious Balzac (1799-1850) coffee was both food and drink.
In Frederick Lawton's _Balzac_ we read: "Balzac worked hard. His habit
was to go to bed at six in the evening, sleep till twelve, and, after,
to rise and write for nearly twelve hours at a stretch, imbibing coffee
as a stimulant through these spells of composition."
In his _Treatise on Modern Stimulants_, Balzac thus describes his
reaction to his most beloved stimulant:
This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a
general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the
Grand Army on the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things
remembered arrive at full gallop, ensign to the wind. The light
cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the
artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the
shafts of wit start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper
is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded
with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.
When Balzac tells how Doctor Minoret, Ursule Minoret's guardian, used to
regale his friends with a cup of "Moka," mixed with Bourbon and
Martinique, which the Doctor insisted on personally preparing in a
silver coffee pot, it is his own custom that he is detailing. His
Bourbon he bought only in the rue Mont Blanc (now the chaussé d'Antin);
the Martinique, in the rue des Vielles Audriettes; the Mocha, at a
grocer's in the rue de l'Université. It was half a day's journey to
fetch them.
There have been notable contributions to the general literature of
coffee by French, Italian, English, and American writers. Space does not
permit of more than passing mention of some of them.
The reactions of the early French and English writers have been touched
upon in the chapters on the coffee houses of old London and the early
Parisian coffee houses, and in the history chapters dealing with the
evolution of coffee drinking and coffee manners and customs.
After Dufour, Galland, and La Roque in France, there were Count Rumford,
John Timbs, Douglas Ellis, and Robinson in England; Jardin and Franklin
in France; Belli in Italy; Hewitt, Thurber, and Walsh in America.
Mention has been made of coffee references in the works of Aubrey,
Burton, Addison, Steele, Bacon, and D'Israeli.
Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) the great French epicure, knew coffee as few
men before him or since. In his historical elegy, contained in
_Gastronomy as a Fine Art, or the Science of Good Living_, he exclaims:
You crossed and mitred abbots and bishops who dispensed the favors
of Heaven, and you the dreaded templars who armed yourselves for
the extermination of the Saracens, you knew nothing of the sweet
restoring influence of our modern chocolate, nor of the
thought-inspiring bean of Arabia--how I pity you!
O. de Gourcuff's _De la Café, épître attribué à Senecé_, is deserving of
honorable mention.
An early French writer pays this tribute to the inspirational effects of
coffee:
It is a beverage eminently agreeable, inspiring and wholesome. It
is at once a stimulant, a cephalic, a febrifuge, a digestive, and
an anti-soporific; it chases away sleep, which is the enemy of
labor; it invokes the imagination, without which there can be no
happy inspiration. It expels the gout, that enemy of pleasure,
although to pleasure gout owes its birth; it facilitates digestion,
without which there can be no true happiness. It disposes to
gaiety, without which there is neither pleasure nor enjoyment; it
gives wit to those who already have it, and it even provides wit
(for some hours at least) to those who usually have it not. Thank
heaven for Coffee, for see how many blessings are concentrated in
the infusion of a small berry. What other beverage in the world can
compare with it? Coffee, at once a pleasure and a medicine; Coffee,
which nourishes at the same moment the mind, body and imagination.
Hail to thee! Inspirer of men of letters, best digestive of the
gourmand. Nectar of all men.
In Bologna, 1691, Angelo Rambaldi published _Ambrosia arabica, caffè
discorso_. This work is divided into eighteen sections, and describes
the origin, cultivation, and roasting of the bean, as well as telling
how to prepare the beverage.
During the time that Milan was under Spanish rule, Cesare Beccaria
directed and edited a publication entitled _Il Caffè_, which was
published from June 4, 1764, to May, 1766, "edited in Brescia by
Giammaria Rizzardi and undertaken by a little society of friends,"
according to the salutatory. Besides the Marchese Beccaria, other
editors and contributors were Pietro and Alexander Verri, Baillon,
Visconti, Colpani, Longhi, Albertenghi, Frisi, and Secchi. The same
periodical, with the same editorial staff, was published also in Venice
in the Typografia Pizzolato.
Another publication called _Il Caffè_, devoted to arts, letters, and
science, was published in Venice in 1850-52. Still another, having the
same name, a national weekly journal, was published in Milan, 1884-89.
An almanac, having the title _Il Caffè_, was published in Milan in 1829.
A weekly paper, called _Il Caffè Pedrocchi_, was published in Padua in
1846-48. It was devoted to art, literature and politics.
A publication called _Coffee and Surrogates_ (tea, chocolate, saffron,
pepper, and other stimulants) was founded by Professor Pietro Polli, in
Milan, in 1885; but was short-lived.
An early English magazine (1731) contains an account of divination by
coffee-grounds. The writer pays an unexpected visit, and "surprised the
lady and her company in close cabal over their coffee, the interest very
intent upon one whom, by her address and intelligence, he guessed was a
tire woman, to which she added the secret of divining by coffee grounds.
She was then in full inspiration, and with much solemnity observing the
atoms around the cup; on the one hand sat a widow, on the other a maiden
lady. They assured me that every cast of the cup is a picture of all
one's life to come, and every transaction and circumstance is delineated
with the exactest certainty."
The advertisement used by this seer is quite interesting:
An advise is hereby given that there has lately arrived in this
city (Dublin) the famous Mrs. Cherry, the only gentlewoman truly
learned in the occult science of _tossing of coffee grounds_; who
has with uninterrupted success for some time past practiced to the
general satisfaction of her female visitants. Her hours are after
prayers are done at St. Peter's Church, until dinner.
(N.B. She never requires more than 1 oz. of coffee from a single
gentlewoman, and so proportioned for a second or third person, but
not to exceed that number at any one time.)
If the one ounce of coffee represented her payment for reading the
future, the charge could not be considered exorbitant!
English writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were
noticeably affected by coffee, and the coffee-houses of the times have
been immortalized by them; and in many instances they themselves were
immortalized by the coffee houses and their frequenters. In the chapters
already referred to and at the close of this chapter, will be found
stories, quips, and anecdotes, in which occur many names that are now
famous in art and literature.
Modern journalism dates from the publication, April 12, 1709, of the
_Tatler_, whose editor was Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) the Irish
dramatist and essayist. He received his inspiration from the coffee
houses; and his readers were the men that knew them best. In the first
issue he announced:
All accounts of gallantry, pleasure and entertainment shall be
under the article of White's Coffee House; poetry under that of
Will's Coffee House; learning under the title of Grecian; foreign
and domestic news you will have from St. James's Coffee House, and
what else I shall on any other subject offer shall be dated from my
own apartment.
Steele's _Tatler_ was issued three times weekly until 1711, when it
suspended to be succeeded by the _Spectator_, whose principal
contributor was Joseph Addison (1672-1719), the essayist and poet, and
Steele's school-fellow.
Sir Richard Steele immortalized the Don and Don Saltero's coffee house
in old Chelsea in No. 34 of the _Tatler_, wherein he tells us of the
necessity of traveling to know the world, by his journey for fresh air,
no farther than the village of Chelsea, of which he fancied that he
could give an immediate description--from the five fields, where the
the robbers lie in wait, to the coffee house, where the literati sit in
council. But he found, even in a place so near town as this, that there
were enormities and persons of eminence, whom he before knew nothing of.
The coffee house was almost absorbed by the museum, Steele says:
When I came into the coffee-house, I had not time to salute the
company, before my eyes were diverted by ten thousand gimcracks
round the room, and on the ceiling. When my first astonishment was
over, comes to me a sage of thin and meagre countenance, which
aspect made me doubt whether reading or fretting had made it so
philosophic; but I very soon perceived him to be that sort which
the ancients call "gingivistee", in our language "tooth-drawers". I
immediately had a respect for the man; for these practical
philosophers go upon a very practical hypothesis, not to cure, but
to take away the part affected. My love of mankind made me very
benevolent to Mr. Salter, for such is the name of this eminent
barber and antiquary.
The Don was famous for his punch, and for his skill on the fiddle. He
drew teeth also, and wrote verses; he described his museum in several
stanzas, one of which is:
Monsters of all sorts are seen:
Strange things in nature as they grew so;
Some relicks of the Sheba Queen,
And fragments of the fam'd Bob Crusoe.
Steele then plunges into a deep thought why barbers should go farther in
hitting the ridiculous than any other set of men; and maintains that Don
Saltero is descended in a right line, not from John Tradescant, as he
himself asserts, but from the memorable companion of the Knight of
Mancha. Steele certifies to all the worthy citizens who travel to see
the Don's rarities, that his double-barreled pistols, targets, coats of
mail, his sclopeta (hand-culverin) and sword of Toledo, were left to his
ancestor by the said Don Quixote; and by his ancestor to all his progeny
down to Saltero. Though Steele thus goes far in favor of Don Saltero's
great merit, he objects to his imposing several names (without his
license) on the collection he has made, to the abuse of the good people
of England; one of which is particularly calculated to deceive religious
persons, to the great scandal of the well-disposed and may introduce
heterodox opinions. (Among the curiosities presented by Admiral Munden
was a coffin, containing the body or relics of a Spanish saint, who had
wrought miracles.) Says Steele:
He shows you a straw hat, which I know to be made by Madge Peskad,
within three miles of Bedford; and tells you "It is Pontius
Pilate's wife's chambermaid's sister's hat." To my knowledge of
this very hat, it may be added that the covering of straw was never
used among the Jews, since it was demanded of them to make bricks
without it. Therefore, this is nothing but, under the specious
pretense of learning and antiquities, to impose upon the world.
There are other things which I can not tolerate among his rarities,
as, the china figure of the lady in the glass-case; the Italian
engine, for the imprisonment of those who go abroad with it; both
of which I hereby order to be taken down, or else he may expect to
have his letters patent for making punch superseded, be debarred
wearing his muff next winter, or ever coming to London without his
wife.
Babillard says that Salter had an old grey muff, and that, by wearing it
up to his nose, he was distinguishable at the distance of a quarter of a
mile. His wife was none of the best, being much addicted to scolding;
and Salter, who liked his glass, if he could make a trip to London by
himself, was in no haste to return.
Don Saltero's proved very attractive as an exhibition, and drew crowds
to the coffee house. A catalog was published of which were printed more
than forty editions. Smollett, the novelist, was among the donors. The
catalog, in 1760, comprehended the following rarities:
Tigers' tusks; the Pope's candle; the skeleton of a Guinea-pig; a
fly-cap monkey, a piece of the true Cross; the Four Evangelists'
heads cut out on a cherry stone; the King of Morocco's
tobacco-pipe; Mary Queen of Scots' pincushion; Queen Elizabeth's
prayer-book; a pair of Nun's stockings; Job's ears, which grew on a
tree; a frog in a tobacco stopper; and five hundred more odd
relics!
The Don had a rival, as appears by _A Catalogue of the Rarities to be
seen at Adam's, at the Royal Swan, in Kingsland-road, leading from
Shoreditch Church, 1756_. Mr. Adams exhibited, for the entertainment of
the curious:
Miss Jenny Cameron's shoes; Adam's eldest daughter's hat; the heart
of the famous Bess Adams, that was hanged at Tyburn with Lawyer
Carr, January 18, 1736-37; Sir Walter Raleigh's tobacco pipe; Vicar
of Bray's clogs; engine to shell green peas with; teeth that grew
in a fish's belly; Black Jack's ribs; the very comb that Abraham
combed his son Isaac and Jacob's head with; Wat Tyler's spurs;
rope that cured Captain Lowry of the head-ach, ear-ach, tooth-ach,
and belly-ach; Adam's key of the fore and back door of the Garden
of Eden, etc., etc.
These are only a few out of five hundred other equally marvellous
exhibits.
The success of Don Saltero in attracting visitors to his coffee house,
induced the proprietor of the Chelsea bunhouse to make a similar
collection of rarities, to attract customers for his buns; and to some
extent it was successful.
In the first number of the _Spectator_, Addison says:
There is no place of general resort wherein I do not often make my
appearance. Sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of
politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the
narratives that are made in those little circular audiences.
Sometimes I smoke a pipe at Child's, and while I seem attentive to
nothing but the _Postman_, overhear the conversation of every table
in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at St. James' coffee house,
and _sometimes_ join the little committee of politics in the inner
room as one who comes there to hear and improve. My face is
likewise very well known at the Grecian, the Cocoa Tree, and in the
theatres both of Drury Lane and the Hay Market. I have been taken
for a merchant upon the Exchange for above these ten years, and
sometimes pass for a Jew in the assembly of stock jobbers at
Jonathan's; in short, wherever I see a cluster of people, I always
mix with them, though I never open my lips, but in my own club.
In the second number he tells that:
I am now settled with a widow woman, who has a great many children
and complies with my humor in everything. I do not remember that we
have exchanged a word together for these five years; my coffee
comes into my chamber every morning without asking for it, if I
want fire I point to the chimney, if water, to my basin; upon which
my landlady nods as much as to say she takes my meaning, and
immediately obeys my signals.
Three of Addison's papers in the _Spectator_ (Nos. 402, 481, and 568)
are humorously descriptive of the coffee houses of the period. No. 403
opens with the remark that:
The courts of two countries do not so much differ from one another,
as the Court and the City, in their peculiar ways of life and
conversation. In short, the inhabitants of St. James,
notwithstanding they live under the same laws, and speak the same
language, are a distinct people from those of Cheapside, who are
likewise removed from those of the Temple on the one side, and
those of Smithfleld on the other, by several climates and degrees
in their way of thinking and conversing together.
For this reason, the author takes a ramble through London and
Westminster, to gather the opinions of his ingenious countrymen upon a
current report of the king of France's death.
I know the faces of all the principal politicians within the bills
of mortality; and as every coffee-house has some particular
statesman belonging to it, who is the mouth of the street where he
lives, I always take care to place myself near him, in order to
know his judgment on the present posture of affairs. And, as I
foresaw the above report would produce a new face of things in
Europe, and many curious speculations in our British coffee-houses,
I was very desirous to learn the thoughts of our most eminent
politicians on that occasion.
That I might begin as near the fountain-head as possible, I first
of all called in at St. James's, where I found the whole outward
room in a buzz of politics; the speculations were but very
indifferent towards the door, but grew finer as you advanced to the
upper end of the room, and were so much improved by a knot of
theorists, who sat in the inner room, within the steams of the
coffee-pot, that I there heard the whole Spanish monarchy disposed
of, and all the line of Bourbons provided for in less than a
quarter of an hour.
I afterwards called in at Giles's, where I saw a board of French
gentlemen sitting upon the life and death of their grand monarque.
Those among them who had espoused the Whig interest very positively
affirmed that he had departed this life about a week since, and
therefore, proceeded without any further delay to the release of
their friends in the galleys, and to their own re-establishment;
but, finding they could not agree among themselves, I proceeded on
my intended progress.
Upon my arrival at Jenny Man's I saw an alert young fellow that
cocked his hat upon a friend of his, who entered just at the same
time with myself, and accosted him after the following manner:
"Well, Jack, the old prig is dead at last. Sharp's the word. Now or
never, boy. Up to the walls of Paris, directly;" with several other
deep reflections of the same nature.
I met with very little variation in the politics between Charing
Cross and Covent Garden. And, upon my going into Will's, I found
their discourse was gone off, from the death of the French King, to
that of Monsieur Boileau, Racine, Corneille, and several other
poets, whom they regretted on this occasion as persons who would
have obliged the world with very noble elegies on the death of so
great a prince, and so eminent a patron of learning.
At a coffee-house near the Temple, I found a couple of young
gentlemen engaged very smartly in a dispute on the succession to
the Spanish monarchy. One of them seemed to have been retained as
advocate for the Duke of Anjou, the other for his Imperial Majesty.
They were both for regarding the title to that kingdom by the
statute laws of England; but finding them going out of my depth, I
pressed forward to Paul's Churchyard, where I listened with great
attention to a learned man, who gave the company an account of the
deplorable state of France during the minority of the deceased
king.
I then turned on my right hand into Fish-street, where the chief
politician of that quarter, upon hearing the news, (after having
taken a pipe of tobacco, and ruminated for some time) "If," says
he, "the King of France is certainly dead, we shall have plenty of
mackerel this season: our fishery will not be disturbed by
privateers, as it has been for these ten years past." He afterwards
considered how the death of this great man would affect our
pilchards, and by several other remarks infused a general joy into
his whole audience.
I afterwards entered a by-coffee-house that stood at the upper end
of a narrow lane, where I met with a Nonjuror engaged very warmly
with a laceman who was the great support of a neighboring
conventicle. The matter in debate was whether the late French King
was most like Augustus Caesar, or Nero. The controversy was carried
on with great heat on both sides, and as each of them looked upon
me very frequently during the course of their debate, I was under
some apprehension that they would appeal to me, and therefore laid
down my penny at the bar and made the best of my way to Cheapside.
I here gazed upon the signs for some time before I found one to my
purpose. The first object I met in the coffee-room was a person who
expressed a great grief for the death of the French King; but upon
his explaining himself, I found his sorrow did not arise from the
loss of the monarch, but for his having sold out of the Bank about
three days before he heard the news of it. Upon which a
haberdasher, who was the oracle of the coffee-house, and had his
circle of admirers about him, called several to witness that he had
declared his opinion, above a week before, that the French King was
certainly dead; to which he added, that considering the late
advices we had received from France, it was impossible that it
could be otherwise. As he was laying these together, and debating
to his hearers with great authority, there came a gentlemen from
Garraway's, who told us that there were several letters from France
just come in, with advice that the King was in good health, and was
gone out a hunting the very morning the post came away; upon which
the haberdasher stole off his hat that hung upon a wooden peg by
him, and retired to his shop with great confusion. This
intelligence put a stop to my travels, which I had prosecuted with
so much satisfaction; not being a little pleased to hear so many
different opinions upon so great an event, and to observe how
naturally, upon such a piece of news, every one is apt to consider
it to his particular interest and advantage.
Johnson wrote in his _Life of Addison_ concerning the _Tatler_ and the
_Spectator_ that they were:
Published at a time when two parties, loud, restless and violent,
each with plausible declarations, and both perhaps without any
distinct determination of its views, were agitating the nation; to
minds heated with political contest they supplied cooler and more
inoffensive reflections.... They had a perceptible influence on the
conversation of the time, and taught the frolic and the gay to
unite merriment with decency, effects which they can never wholly
lose.
Harold Routh in the Cambridge _History of Literature_, speaking of the
_Spectator_, says:
It surpassed the _Tatler_ in style and in thought. It gave
expression to the _power_ of commerce. For more than a century
traders had been characterized as dishonest and avaricious, because
playwrights and pamphleteers generally wrote for the leisure
classes, and were themselves too poor to have any but unpleasant
relations with men of business. Now merchants were becoming
ambassadors of civilization, and had developed intellect so as to
control distant and, as it seemed, mysterious sources of wealth; by
a stroke of the pen and largely through the coffee houses they had
come to know their own importance and power.
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was very fond of good eating, and almost daily
entries were made in his _Diary_ of dinner delicacies that he had
enjoyed. One dinner, that he considered a great success, was served to
eight persons, and consisted of oysters, a hash of rabbits, a lamb, a
rare chine of beef; next a great dish of roasting fowl ("cost me about
30 s.") a tart, then fruit and cheese. "My dinner was noble enough ... I
believe this day's feast will cost me near 5 pounds." But it will be
noted that coffee was not mentioned as a part of the menu.
He makes countless references to visits paid to this and that coffee
house, but records only one instance of actually drinking coffee:
Up betimes to my office, and thence at seven o'clock to Sir G.
Carteret, and there with Sir J. Minnes made an end of his accounts,
but staid not to dinner my Lady having made us drink our morning
draft there of several wines, but I drank nothing but some of her
coffee, which was poorly made, with a little sugar in it.
This note which he considered worthy of record was certainly not
inspired by the excellence of the good lady's matutinal coffee.
William Cobbett (1762-1835) the English-American politician, reformer,
and writer on economics, denounced coffee as "slops"; but he was one of
a remarkably small minority. Before his day, one of England's greatest
satirists, Dean Swift, (1667-1745) led a long roll of literary men who
were devotees of coffee.
Swift's writings are full of references to coffee; and his letters from
Stella came to him under cover, at the St. James coffee house. There is
scarcely a letter to Esther (Vanessa) Vanhomrigh which does not contain
a significant reference to coffee, by which the course of their
friendship and clandestine meetings may be traced. In one dated August
13, 1720, written while traveling from place to place in Ireland, he
says:
We live here in a very dull town, every valuable creature absent,
and Cad says he is weary of it, and would rather prefer his coffee
on the barrenest mountain in Wales than be king here.
A fig for partridges and quails,
Ye dainties I know nothing of ye;
But on the highest mount in Wales,
Would choose in peace to drink my coffee.
In another letter, about two years later, replying to one in which
Vanessa has reproached him and begged him to write her soon, he advises:
The best maxim I know in life, is to drink your coffee when you
can, and when you cannot, to be easy without it; while you continue
to be splenetic, count upon it I will always preach. Thus much I
sympathize with you, that I am not cheerful enough to write, for, I
believe, coffee once a week is necessary, and you know very well
that coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical.
These various references to coffee are thought to have been based upon
an incident in the early days of their friendship, when on the occasion
of the Vanhomrigh family journeying from Dublin to London, Vanessa
accidentally spilt her coffee in the chimney-place at a certain inn,
which Swift considered a premonition of their growing friendship.
Writing from Clogher, Swift reminds Vanessa:
Remember that riches are nine parts in ten of all that is good in
life, and health is the tenth--drinking coffee comes long after,
and yet it is the eleventh, but without the two former you cannot
drink it right.
In another letter he writes facetiously, in memory of her playful
badinage:
I long to drink a dish of coffee in the sluttery and hear you dun
me for a secret, and "Drink your coffee; why don't you drink your
coffee?"
Leigh Hunt had very pleasant things to say about coffee, giving to it
the charm of appeal to the imagination, which he said one never finds in
tea. For example:
Coffee, like tea, used to form a refreshment by itself, some hours
after dinner; it is now taken as a digester, right upon that meal
or the wine, and sometimes does not even close it; or the digester
itself is digested by a liquor of some sort called a _Chasse-Café_
[coffee-chaser]. We like coffee better than tea for taste, but tea
"for a constancy." To be perfect in point of relish (we do not say
of wholesomeness) coffee should be strong and hot, with little milk
and sugar. It has been drunk after this mode in some parts of
Europe, but the public have nowhere, we believe, adopted it. The
favorite way of taking it at a meal, abroad, is with a great
superfluity of milk--very properly called, in France _café au lait_
(coffee _to the_ milk). One of the pleasures we receive in drinking
coffee is that, being the universal drink in the East, it reminds
of that region of the "Arabian Nights" as smoking does for the same
reason; though neither of these refreshments, which are identified
with Oriental manners, is to be found in that enchanting work. They
had not been discovered when it was written; the drink then was
sherbet. One can hardly fancy what a Turk or a Persian could have
done without coffee and a pipe, any more than the English ladies
and gentlemen, before the civil wars, without tea for breakfast.
In his old age, Immanuel Kant, the great metaphysician, became extremely
fond of coffee; and Thomas de Quincey relates a little incident showing
Kant's great eagerness for the after-dinner cup.
At the beginning of the last year of his life, he fell into a
custom of taking, immediately after dinner, a cup of coffee,
especially on those days when it happened that I was of his party.
And such was the importance that he attached to his little pleasure
that he would even make a memorandum beforehand, in the blank paper
book that I had given him, that on the next day I was to dine with
him, and consequently "_that there was to be coffee_." Sometimes in
the interest of conversation, the coffee was forgotten, but not for
long. He would remember and with the querulousness of old age and
infirm health would demand that coffee be brought "upon the spot."
Arrangements had always been made in advance, however; the coffee
was ground, and the water was boiling: and in the very moment the
word was given, the servant shot in like an arrow and plunged the
coffee into the water. All that remained, therefore, was to give it
time to boil up. But this trifling delay seemed unendurable to
Kant. If it were said, "Dear Professor, the coffee will be brought
up in a moment," he would say, _"Will be!_ There's the rub, that it
only _will_ be." Then he would quiet himself with a stoical air,
and say, "Well, one can die after all; it is but dying; and in the
next world, thank God, there is no drinking of coffee and
consequently no waiting for it."
When at length the servant's steps were heard upon the stairs, he
would turn round to us, and joyfully call out: "Land, land! my dear
friends, I see land."
Thackeray (1811-1863) must have suffered many tea and coffee
disappointments. In the _Kickleburys on the Rhine_ he asks: "Why do they
always put mud into coffee aboard steamers? Why does the tea generally
taste of boiled boots?"
In _Arthur's_, A. Neil Lyons has preserved for all time the atmosphere
of the London coffee stall. "I would not," he says, "exchange a night at
Arthur's for a week with the brainiest circle in London." The book is a
collection of short stories. As already recorded, Harold Chapin
dramatized this picturesque London institution in _The Autocrat of the
Coffee Stall_.
In General Horace Porter's _Campaigning with Grant_, we have three
distinct coffee incidents within fifty-odd pages; or explicitly, see
pages 47, 56, 101; where, deep in the fiercest snarls of The Wilderness
campaign we are treated to:
General Grant, slowly sipping his coffee ... a full ration of that
soothing army beverage.... The general made rather a singular meal
preparatory to so exhausting a day as that which was to follow. He
took a cucumber, sliced it, poured some vinegar over it, and
partook of nothing else except a cup of strong coffee.... The
general seemed in excellent spirits, and was even inclined to be
jocose. He said to me, "We have just had our coffee, and you will
find some left for you." ... I drank it with the relish of a
shipwrecked mariner.
One of the first immediate supplies General Sherman desired from
Wilmington, on reaching Fayetteville and lines of communication in
March, 1865, was, expressly, coffee; does he not say so himself, on page
297 of the second volume of his _Memoirs_?
Still more expressly, towards the close of his _Memoirs_, and among
final recommendations, the fruit of his experiences in that whole vast
war, General Sherman says this for coffee:
Coffee has become almost indispensable, though many substitutes
were found for it, such as Indian corn, roasted, ground and boiled
as coffee, the sweet potato, and the seed of the okra plant
prepared in the same way. All these were used by the people of the
South, who for years could procure no coffee, but I noticed that
the women always begged of us real coffee, which seemed to satisfy
a natural yearning or craving more powerful than can be accounted
for on the theory of habit. Therefore I would always advise that
the coffee and sugar ration be carried along, even at the expense
of bread, for which there are many substitutes.
George Agnew Chamberlain's novel _Home_ contains a vivid description of
coffee-making on an old plantation, and could only have been written by
a devoted lover of this drink. Gerry Lansing, the American, has escaped
drowning in the river, and is now lost in the Brazilian forest. He finds
his way at last to an old plantation house:
A stove was built into the masonry, and a cavernous oven gaped from
the massive wall. At the stove was an old negress, making coffee
with shaky deliberation.... The girl and the wrinkled old woman
made him sit down at the table, and then placed before him crisp
rusks of mandioc flour and steaming coffee whose splendid aroma
triumphed over the sordidness of the scene and through the nostrils
reached the palate with anticipatory touch. It was sweetened with
dark, pungent syrup and was served black in a capacious bowl, as
though one could not drink too deeply of the elixir of life. Gerry
ate ravenously and sipped the coffee, at first sparingly, then
greedily.... Gerry set down the empty bowl with a sigh. The rusks
had been delicious. Before the coffee the name of nectar dwindled
to impotency. Its elixir rioted in his veins.
In the _Rosary_, Florence L. Barclay has a Scotch woman tell how she
makes coffee. She says:
Use a jug--it is not what you make it in; it is how ye make it. It
all hangs upon the word fresh--freshly roasted--freshly
ground--water freshly boiled. And never touch it with metal. Pop it
into an earthenware jug, pour in your boiling water straight upon
it, stir it with a wooden spoon, set it on the hob ten minutes to
settle; the grounds will all go to the bottom, though you might not
think it, and you pour it out, fragrant, strong and clear. But the
secret is, _fresh, fresh, fresh_, and don't stint your coffee.
Cyrus Townsend Brady's _The Corner in Coffee_ is "a thrilling romance of
the New York coffee market."
Coffee, Du Barry, and Louis XV figure in one scene of the story of _The
Moat with the Crimson Stains_, as told by Elizabeth W. Champney in her
_Romance of the Bourbon Chateaux_.[354] It tells of the German
apprentice Riesener, who assisted his master Oeben in designing for
Louis XV a beautiful desk with a secret drawer, which it took ten years
of unremitting industry to execute. At the end, Riesener was to be
accepted by his master as a partner and a son-in-law. Little Victoire,
who loved to sit in a punt and trail her doll in the waters of the
Bievre to see to what color its frock would be changed by the dyes of
the Gobelin factory, was then only five, and Madam Oeben twenty-three.
As the years rolled by, Riesener grew to love the mother and not the
daughter, who, meanwhile, shot up into a slim girl, not of her mother's
beauty, but of a loveliness all her own. Then there was a quarrel
because the young apprentice thought the master should have resented the
suggestion of M. Duplessis that his wife pose in the nude for the
statuettes which were to hold the sconces on the king's desk; and
Riesener left in a fine youthful frenzy, vowing he would never return
while the _maître_ lived. The latter, unable to complete the masterpiece
which he loved more than anything else on earth, sought death, and
perished in the crimson waters of the Bievre.
The _maître_ had no enemies, but his quarrel with Riesener caused a fear
to spring up in the widow's heart that the apprentice might have been
guilty of his murder, so she refused to see him when, hearing of his
master's death, he returned, stricken with remorse, to finish the desk.
On it were the statuettes modeled in perfect likeness of Mlle. de
Vaubernier, a wily little milliner of Riesener's bohemian set who had
taken this way to bring herself to the attention of Louis XV. The ruse
was successful; and after the acceptance of the desk, there was
installed a new _maîtresse en titre_, the notorious Madame Du Barry,
erstwhile the pretty milliner, Mlle. de Vaubernier.
Later, Madame Du Barry sent for the now famous _ebeniste_ (cabinet
maker); and, when her negro page Zamore admitted him, he found His
Majesty Louis XV kneeling in front of the fireplace, making coffee for
her while she laughed at him for scalding his fingers. He had been
summoned to show the king the mechanism of the secret drawer, so
cunningly concealed in the king's desk that no one could find it. But
Riesener knew not the secret of his master, who had died without
revealing it. Then the red revolution came; and when the pretty pavilion
at Louveciennes was sacked, and its costly furniture hurled down the
cliff to the Seine, the king's desk, shattered almost beyond repair, was
carried to the Gobelins' factory and presented to Mme. Oeben in
recognition of her husband's workmanship. Then the secret compartment
was found to have been disclosed, and Riesener was absolved by a letter
therein, from the _maître_, who intimated he was about to end it all
because of paralysis. Riesener marries the widow and all ends happily.
James Lane Allen, in _The Kentucky Warbler_, tells a tale of the Blue
Grass country and of a young hero who wanders after a bird's note to
find romance and the key to his own locked nature. Here is an incident
from his first forest adventure:
There was one tree he curiously looked around for, positive that he
should not be blind to it if fortunate enough to set his eyes on
one--the coffee tree. That is, he felt sure he'd recognize it if it
yielded coffee ready to drink, of which never in his life had they
given him enough. Not once throughout his long troubled experience
as to being fed had he been allowed as much coffee as he craved.
Once, when younger, he had heard some one say that the only tree in
all the American forests that bore the name of Kentucky was the
Kentucky coffee tree, and he had instantly conceived a desire to
pay a visit in secret to that corner of the woods. To take his cup
and a few lumps of sugar and sit under the boughs and catch the
coffee as it dripped down.... No one to hold him back ... as much
as he wanted at last.... The Kentucky coffee tree--his favorite in
Nature!
John Kendrick Bangs relates, in _Coffee and Repartee_[355], some amusing
skirmishes indulged in at the boarding-house table, between the Idiot
and the guests, where coffee served the purpose of enlivening the tilt:
"Can't I give you another cup of coffee?" asked the landlady of the
School Master.
"You may," returned the School Master, pained at the lady's
grammar, but too courteous to call attention to it save by the
emphasis with which he spoke the word "may".
Said the Idiot: "You may fill my cup too, Mrs. Smithers."
"The coffee is all gone," returned the landlady, with a snap.
"Then, Mary," said the Idiot, gracefully turning to the maid, "you
may give me a glass of ice water. It is quite as warm, after all,
as the coffee and not quite so weak."
One other little skit remains at the expense of Mrs. Smithers' coffee.
At the breakfast table, where the air, as usual, is charged with
repartee, Mr. Whitechoker, the minister, says to his landlady:
"Mrs. Smithers, I'll have a dash of hot water in my coffee, this
morning." Then with a glance toward the Idiot, he added, "I think it
looks like rain."
"Referring to the coffee, Mr. Whitechoker?" queried the Idiot....
"Ah,--I don't quite follow you," replied the Minister with some
annoyance.
"You said something looked like rain, and I asked you if the thing
referred to was the coffee, for I was disposed to agree with you,"
said the Idiot.
"I am sure," put in Mrs. Smithers, "that a gentleman of Mr.
Whitechoker's refinement would not make any such insinuation, sir.
He is not the man to quarrel with what is set before him."
"I must ask your pardon, Madam," returned the Idiot politely. "I
hope I am not the man to quarrel with my food, either. Indeed, I
make it a rule to avoid unpleasantness of all sorts, particularly
with the weak, under which category I find your coffee."
_Coffee Quips and Anecdotes_
Coffee literature is full of quips and anecdotes. Probably the most
famous coffee quip is that of Mme. de Sévigné, who, as already told in
chapter XI, was wrongfully credited with saying, "Racine and coffee will
pass." It was Voltaire in his preface to _Irene_ who thus accused the
amiable letter-writer; and she, being dead, could not deny it.
That Mme. de Sévigné was at one time a coffee drinker is apparent from
this quotation from one of her letters: "The cavalier believes that
coffee gives him warmth, and I at the same time, foolish as you know me,
do not take it any longer."
La Roque called the beverage "the King of Perfumes", whose charm was
enriched when vanilla was added.
Emile Souvestre (1806-1854) said: "Coffee keeps, so to say, the balance
between bodily and spiritual nourishment."
Isid Bourdon said: "The discovery of coffee has enlarged the realm of
illusion and given more promise to hope."
An old Bourbon proverb says: "To an old man a cup of coffee is like the
door post of an old house--it sustains and strengthens him."
Jardin says that in the Antilles, instead of orange blossoms, the brides
carry a spray of coffee blossoms; and when a woman remains unmarried,
they say she has lost her coffee branch. "We say in France, that she has
_coiffé_ Sainte-Catherine."
Fontenelle and Voltaire have both been quoted as authors of the famous
reply to the remark that coffee was a slow poison: "I think it must be,
for I've been drinking it for eighty-five years and am not dead yet."
In Meidinger's _German Grammar_ the "slow-poison" _bon mot_ is
attributed to Fontenelle.
It seems reasonable to give Fontenelle credit for this _bon mot_.
Voltaire died at eighty-four. Fontenelle lived to be nearly a hundred
years. Of his cheerfulness at an advanced age an anecdote is related. In
conversation, one day, a lady a few years younger than Fontenelle
playfully remarked, "Monsieur, you and I stay here so long, methinks
Death has forgotten us." "Hush! Speak in a whisper, madame," replied
Fontenelle, "_tant mieux!_ (so much the better!) don't remind him of
us."
Flaubert, Hugo, Baudelaire, Paul de Kock, Théophile Gautier, Alfred de
Musset, Zola, Coppée, George Sand, Guy de Maupassant, and Sarah
Bernhardt, all have been credited with many clever or witty sallies
about coffee.
Prince Talleyrand (1754-1839), the French diplomat and wit, has given us
the cleverest summing up of the ideal cup of coffee. He said it should
be "_Noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, doux
comme l'amour._" Or in English, "black as the devil, hot as hell, pure
as an angel, sweet as love."
This quip has been wrongfully attributed to Brillat-Savarin. Talleyrand
said also:
A cup of coffee lightly tempered with good milk detracts nothing
from your intellect; on the contrary, your stomach is freed by it,
and no longer distresses your brain; it will not hamper your mind
with troubles, but give freedom to its working. Suave molecules of
Mocha stir up your blood, without causing excessive heat; the organ
of thought receives from it a feeling of sympathy; work becomes
easier, and you will sit down without distress to your principal
repast, which will restore your body, and afford you a calm
delicious night.
Among coffee drinkers a high place must be given to Prince Bismarck
(1815-1898). He liked coffee unadulterated. While with the Prussian army
in France, he one day entered a country inn and asked the host if he had
any chicory in the house. He had. Bismarck said: "Well, bring it to me;
all you have." The man obeyed, and handed Bismarck a canister full of
chicory.
"Are you sure this is all you have?" demanded the chancellor.
"Yes, my lord, every grain."
"Then," said Bismarck, keeping the canister by him, "go now and make me
a pot of coffee."
This same story has been related of François Paul Jules Grévy
(1807-1891), president of France, 1879-1887. According to the French
story, Grévy never took wine, even at dinner. He was, however,
passionately fond of coffee. To be certain of having his favorite
beverage of the best quality, he always, when he could, prepared it
himself. Once he was invited, with a friend, M. Bethmont, to a hunting
party by M. Menier, the celebrated manufacturer of chocolate, at
Noisiel. It happened that M. Grévy and M. Bethmont lost themselves in
the forest. Trying to find their way out, they stumbled upon a little
wine house, and stopped for a rest. They asked for something to drink.
M. Bethmont found his wine excellent; but, as usual, Grévy would not
drink. He wanted coffee, but he was afraid of the decoction which would
be brought him. He got a good cup, however, and this is how he managed
it:
"Have you any chicory?" he said to the man.
"Yes, sir."
"Bring me some."
Soon the proprietor returned with a small can of chicory.
"Is that all you have?" asked Grévy.
"We have a little more."
"Bring me the rest."
When he came again, with another can of chicory, Grévy said:
"You have no more?"
"No, sir."
"Very well. Now go and make me a cup of coffee."
As already told, Louis XV had a great passion for coffee, which he made
himself. Lenormand, the head gardener at Versailles, raised six pounds
of coffee a year which was for the exclusive use of the king. The king's
fondness for coffee and for Mme. Du Barry gave rise to a celebrated
anecdote of Louveciennes which was accepted as true by many serious
writers. It is told in this fashion by Mairobert in a pamphlet
scandalizing Du Barry in 1776:
His Majesty loves to make his own coffee and to forsake the cares
of the government. One day the coffee pot was on the fire and, his
Majesty being occupied with something else, the coffee boiled over.
"Oh France, take care! Your coffee _f---- le camp_!" cried the
beautiful favorite.
Charles Vatel has denied this story.
It is related of Jean Jacques Rousseau that once when he was walking in
the Tuileries he caught the aroma of roasting coffee. Turning to his
companion, Bernardino de Saint-Pierre, he said, "Ah, that is a perfume
in which I delight; when they roast coffee near my house, I hasten to
open the door to take in all the aroma." And such was the passion for
coffee of this philosopher of Geneva that when he died, "he just missed
doing it with a cup of coffee in his hand".
Barthez, confidential physician of Napoleon the first, drank a great
deal of it, freely, calling it "the intellectual drink."
Bonaparte, himself, said: "Strong coffee, and plenty, awakens me. It
gives me a warmth, an unusual force, a pain that is not without
pleasure. I would rather suffer than be senseless."
Edward R. Emerson[356] tells the following story of the Café Procope.
One day while M. Saint-Foix was seated at his usual table in this café
an officer of the king's body-guard entered, sat down, and ordered a cup
of coffee, with milk and a roll, adding, "It will serve me for a
dinner." At this, Saint-Foix remarked aloud that a cup of coffee, with
milk and a roll, was a confoundedly poor dinner. The officer
remonstrated. Saint-Foix reiterated his remark, adding that nothing he
could say to the contrary would convince him that it was _not_ a
confoundedly poor dinner. Thereupon a challenge was given and accepted,
and the whole company present adjourned as spectators to a duel which
ended by Saint-Foix receiving a wound in the arm.
"That is all very well," said the wounded combatant; "but I call you to
witness, gentlemen, that I am still profoundly convinced that a cup of
coffee, with milk and a roll, is a confoundedly poor dinner."
At this moment the principals were arrested and carried before the Duke
de Noailles, in whose presence Saint-Foix, without waiting to be
questioned, said:
"Monseigneur, I had not the slightest intention of offending this
gallant officer who, I doubt not, is an honorable man; but your
excellency can never prevent my asserting that a cup of coffee, with
milk and a roll, is a confoundedly poor dinner."
"Why, so it is," said the Duke.
"Then I am not in the wrong," persisted Saint-Foix; "and a cup of
coffee"--at these words magistrates, delinquents, and auditory burst
into a roar of laughter, and the antagonists forthwith became warm
friends.
"Boswell in his _Life of Johnson_ tells a story of an old chevalier de
Malte, of _ancienne noblesse_, but in low circumstances, who was in a
coffee house in Paris, where was also Julien, the great manufacturer at
Gobelins, of fine tapestry, so much distinguished for the figures and
the colours. The chevalier's carriage was very old. Says Julien with a
plebeian insolence, 'I think, sir, you had better have your carriage new
painted.'
"The chevalier looked at him with indignant contempt, and answered:
"'Well, sir, you may take it home and dye it.'
"All the coffee house rejoiced at Julien's confusion."
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) the English clergyman and humorist, once said:
"If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee; it is the
intellectual beverage."
Our own William Dean Howells pays the beverage this tribute: "This
coffee intoxicates without exciting, soothes you softly out of dull
sobriety, making you think and talk of all the pleasant things that ever
happened to you."
The wife of the president of the United States prefers coffee to tea.
Afternoon guests at the White House may be refreshed, if they choose, by
a sip of tea. But while tea is on tap for callers, Mrs. Harding always
has coffee for those who, like herself, prefer it.
_Old London Coffee-House Anecdotes_
A good-sized volume might be compiled of the many anecdotes that have
been written about habitués of the London coffee houses of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
[Illustration: DR. JOHNSON'S SEAT AT THE CHESHIRE CHEESE]
Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the lexicographer, was one of the most
constant frequenters of the coffee houses of his day. His big, awkward
figure was a familiar sight as he went about attended by his satellite,
young James Boswell, who was to write about him for the delight of
future generations in his marvelous _Life of Johnson_. The intellectual
and moral peculiarities of the man found a natural expression in the
coffee house. Johnson was fifty-four and Boswell only twenty-three when
the two first met in Tom Davies' book-shop in Covent Garden. The story
is told by Boswell with great particularity and characteristic naiveté:
Mr. Davies mentioned my name, and respectfully introduced me to
him. I was much agitated, and recollecting his prejudice against
the Scotch, of which I had heard so much, I said to Davies, "Don't
tell him where I come from." "From Scotland," cried Davies
roguishly. "Mr. Johnson," said I, "I do indeed come from Scotland,
but I cannot help it." I am willing to flatter myself that I meant
this as a light pleasantry to sooth and conciliate him, and not as
a humiliating abasement at the expense of my country. But however
that might be, this speech was somewhat unlucky, for with that
quickness of wit for which he was so remarkable, he seized the
expression, "come from Scotland!" which I used In the sense of
being of that country; and, as if I had come away from it, or left
it, he retorted, "That, sir, I find is what a great many of your
countrymen cannot help."
Nothing daunted, however, Boswell within a week called upon Johnson in
his chambers. This time the doctor urged him to tarry. Three weeks later
he said to him, "Come to me as often as you can." Within a fortnight
thereafter Boswell was giving the great man a sketch of his own life and
Johnson was exclaiming, "Give me your hand; I have taken a liking to
you."
[Illustration: ORIGINAL COFFEE ROOM, OLD COCK TAVERN]
When people began to ask, "Who is this Scotch cur at Johnson's heels?"
Goldsmith replied: "He is not a cur; he is only a bur. Tom Davies flung
him at Johnson in sport, and he has the faculty of sticking."
Thus began one of the strangest friendships, out of which developed the
most delightful biography in all literature. Boswell's taste for
literary adventures, and Johnson's literary vagrancy met in a
companionship that found much satisfaction in the bohemianism of the
inns and coffee houses of old London. Boswell thus describes the
eccentric doctor's outlook on this mode of living:
We dined today at an excellent inn at Chapel-House, where Mr.
Johnson commented on English coffee houses and inns remarking that
the English triumphed over the French in one respect, in that the
French had no perfection of tavern life. There is no private house,
(said he) in which people can enjoy themselves so well, as at a
capital tavern. Let there be ever so great plenty of good things,
ever so much grandeur, ever so much elegance, ever so much desire
that everybody should be easy; in the nature of things it cannot
be: there must always be some degree of care and anxiety. The
master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests
are anxious to be agreeable to him; and no man, but a very impudent
dog indeed, can as freely command what is in another man's house,
as if it were his own. Whereas, at a tavern, there is a general
freedom from anxiety. You are sure you are welcome: and the more
noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you
call for, the welcomer you are. No servants will attend you with
the alacrity which waiters do, who are incited by the prospect of
an immediate reward in proportion as they please. No, Sir, there is
nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much
happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn. He then repeated,
with great emotion, Shenstone's lines:
"Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
His warmest welcome at an inn."
Patient delving into Johnsoniana is rewarded with many anecdotes about
the mad doctor philosopher and his faithful reporter who delighted in
translating his genius to the world.
Boswell was a wine-bibber, but Johnson confessed to being "a hardened
and shameless tea drinker." When Boswell twigged him for abstaining from
the stronger drink, the doctor replied: "Sir, I have no objection to a
man's drinking wine if he can do it in moderation. I find myself apt to
go to excess in it and therefore, after having been for some time
without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to
it."
Another time he said of tea: "What a delightful beverage must that be
that pleases all palates at a time when they can take nothing else at
breakfast."
[Illustration: FIREPLACE IN THE COFFEE ROOM OF THE OLD COCK TAVERN]
[Illustration: MORNING GOSSIP IN THE COFFEE ROOM OF THE OLD COCK
TAVERN]
In his early days Johnson had David Garrick as an unwilling pupil. After
the actor had become famous and his prosperity had turned his head, he
was wont to "put the table in a roar" by mimicking the doctor's
grimaces. There is a story that on the occasion of a certain dinner
party where both were guests, Garrick indulged in a coarse jest on the
great man's table manners. After the merriment had subsided, Doctor
Johnson arose solemnly and said:
"Gentlemen, you must doubtless suppose from the extreme familiarity with
which Mr. Garrick has thought fit to treat me that I am an acquaintance
of his; but I can assure you that until I met him here, I never saw him
but once before--and then I paid five shillings for the sight."
A certain sycophant, thinking to curry favor with Johnson, took to
laughing loud and long at everything he said. Johnson's patience at last
became exhausted, and after a particularly objectionable outburst, he
turned upon the boor with:
"Pray sir, what is the matter? I hope I have not said anything which you
can comprehend!"
Because of his physical and mental disabilities Dr. Johnson was not a
good social animal. Nevertheless, when it pleased his humor, he could be
the cavalier, for his mind overcame every impediment.
It is related of him that once when a lady who was showing him around
her garden expressed her regret at being unable to bring a particular
flower to perfection, he arose gallantly to the occasion by taking her
hand and remarking:
"Then, madam, permit me to bring perfection to the flower!"
Again, when Mrs. Siddons, the great English tragedienne, called upon him
in his chambers and the servant did not promptly bring her a chair, his
quick wit made capital of the incident by the remark:
"You see, madam, wherever you go there are no seats to be had!"
John Thomas Smith in his _Antiquarian Rambles in the Streets of London_
(1846), tells an amusing incident in the life of Sir George Etherege,
the playright, who having run up a bill at Locket's ordinary, a coffee
house much frequented by dramatists of the period, and finding himself
unable to pay, began to absent himself from the place. Mrs. Locket
thereupon sent a man to dun and to threaten him with prosecution if he
did not pay. Sir George sent back word that if she stirred a step in the
matter he would kiss her. On receiving this answer, the good lady, much
exasperated, called for her hood and scarf, and told her husband, who
interposed, that "she would see if there was any fellow alive who would
have the impudence--" "Prithee! my dear, don't be so rash," said her
husband; "there is no telling what a man may do in his passion."
Richard Savage, the English poet and friend of Johnson, who included him
in his famous _Lives of the Poets_, was arrested for the murder of James
Sinclair after a drunken brawl in Robinson's coffee house in 1727. He
was found guilty, but narrowly escaped the death penalty by the
intercession of the countess of Hertford. A feature of his trial was the
extraordinary charge to the jury of Judge Page, who for his hard words
and his love of hanging, is damned to everlasting fame in the verse of
Pope. The charge was:
Gentlemen of the jury! You are to consider that Mr. Savage is a
very great man, a much greater man than you or I, gentlemen of the
jury; that he wears very fine clothes, much finer than you or I,
gentlemen of the jury; that he has an abundance of money in his
pocket, much more money than you or I, gentlemen of the jury; but,
gentlemen of the jury, is it not a very hard case, gentlemen of the
jury, that Mr. Savage should therefore kill you or me, gentlemen of
the jury?
Albert V. Lally[357] has made a collection of old coffee-house
anecdotes. Among them are the following:
The story is told of how Sir Richard Steele in Button's Coffee
House was once made the umpire in an amusing difference between two
unnamed disputants. These two were arguing about religion, when one
of them said: "I wonder, sir, you should talk of religion, when
I'll hold you five guineas you can't say the Lord's prayer."
"Done," said the other, "and Sir Richard Steele shall hold the
stakes." The money being deposited the gentleman began with, "I
believe in God", and so went right through the creed. "Well," said
the other when he had finished, "I didn't think he could have done
it."
* * * * *
There is another story of a famous judge, Sir Nicholas Bacon, who
was importuned by a criminal to spare his life on account of
kinship. "How so," demanded the judge. "Because my name is Hog and
yours is Bacon; and hog and bacon are so near akin that they cannot
be separated."
"Ay," responded the judge dryly, "but you and I cannot yet be
kindred, for hog is not bacon until it is well hanged."
* * * * *
On another occasion a nervous barrister, pleading before this same
judge, began with repeated references to his "unfortunate client."
"Go on, sir," said the judge, "so far the Court is with you."
* * * * *
Of Jonathan Swift it is related that a gentleman who had sought to
persuade him to accept an invitation to dinner said, in way of
special inducement, "I'll send you my bill of fare." "Send me
rather your bill of company," retorted Swift, showing his
appreciation of the truth that not that which is eaten, but those
who eat, form the more important part of a good dinner.
On the occasion when the "dreadful Judge Jeffreys" was trying Compton,
bishop of London, before the Court of High Commission, that prelate, as
Campbell relates in his _Lives of the Lord Chancellors_, complained of
having no copy of the indictment. Jeffreys replied to this excuse that
"all the coffee houses had it for a penny." The case being resumed after
the lapse of a week, the bishop again protested that he was unprepared,
owing to his continued difficulty in obtaining a copy of the necessary
document. Jeffreys was obliged once more to adjourn the case, and in so
doing offered this bantering apology:
"My lord," said he, "in telling you our commission was to be seen in
every coffee house, I did not speak with any design to reflect on your
lordship, as if you were a haunter of coffee houses. I abhor the
thoughts of it!"
As the Judge had once been distinctly opposed to the party and
principles which he went to such a length in supporting, so had he
formerly owed something to the very institution against which his last
blow was directed. Roger North relates (and Campbell repeats the story)
that, "after he was called to the bar, he used to sit in coffee houses
and order his man to come and tell him that company attended him at his
chamber; at which he would huff and say, 'let them stay a little, I will
come presently,' and thus made a show of business."
John Timbs, in his _Clubs and Club Life in London_, has a host of
anecdotes and stories of the old London coffee houses, among them the
following:
Garraway's noted coffee-house, situated in Change-alley, Cornhill,
had a threefold celebrity; tea was first sold in England here; it
was a place of great resort in the time of the South Sea Bubble;
and was later a place of great mercantile transactions. The
original proprietor was Thomas Garway, tobacconist and coffee-man,
the first who retailed tea, recommending it as a cure of all
disorders.
[Illustration: "HIS WARMEST WELCOME AT AN INN"
The George Inn of today has retained a portion of its old
galleries, the original of which completely surrounded the
courtyard in typical "Dickens Inn" style. The visitor can imagine
Mr. Pickwick emerging from the door of one of the bedrooms and
calling into the yard to Sam Weller. In the old-fashioned coffee
room on the ground floor one may still lunch and dine enclosed in
high bench seats]
Ogilby, the compiler of the _Britannia_, had his standing lottery
of books at Mr. Garway's Coffee-house from April 7, 1673, till
wholly drawn off. And, in the "Journey through England," 1722,
Garraway's, Robins's, and Joe's are described as the three
celebrated coffee-houses: "In the first, the People of Quality, who
have business in the City, and the most considerable and wealthy
citizens frequent. In the second the Foreign Banquiers, and often
even Foreign Ministers. And in the third, the buyers and sellers of
stock."
Wines were sold at Garraway's in 1673, "by the candle", that is, by
auction, while an inch of candle burns. In the _Tatler_, No. 147,
we read: "Upon my coming home last night, I found a very handsome
present of French wine, left for me, as a taste of 216 hogshead,
which are to be put on sale at 20£ a hogshead, at Garraway's
Coffee-house, in Exchange alley" etc. The sale by candle is not,
however, by candlelight, but during the day. At the commencement of
the sale, when the auctioneer has read a description of the
property, and the conditions on which it is to be disposed of, a
piece of candle, usually an inch long, is lighted, and he who is
the last bidder at the time the light goes out is declared the
purchaser.
Swift, in his _Ballad on the South Sea Scheme_, 1721, did not
forget Garraway's:
There is a gulf, where thousands fell,
Here all the bold adventurers came,
A narrow sound, though deep as hell,
'Change alley is the dreadful name.
Subscribers here by thousands float,
And jostle one another down,
Each paddling in his leaky boat,
And here they fish for gold and drown.
Now buried in the depths below,
Now mounted up to heaven again,
They reel and stagger to and fro,
At their wits' end, like drunken men.
Meantime secure on Garway cliffs,
A savage race, by shipwrecks fed,
Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs,
And strip the bodies of the dead.
Dr. Jno. Radcliff, who was a rash speculator in the South Sea
Scheme, was usually planted at a table at Garraway's about Exchange
time, to watch the turn of the market; and here he was seated when
the footman of his powerful rival, Dr. Edward Hannes, came into
Garraway's and inquired by way of a puff, if Dr. H. was there. Dr.
Radcliff, who was surrounded with several apothecaries and
chirurgeons that flocked about him, cried out, "Dr. Hannes is not
here," and desired to know "who wants him?" The fellow's reply was,
"such a lord and such a lord;" but he was taken up with the dry
rebuke, "No, no, friend, you are mistaken; the Doctor wants those
lords." One of Radcliff's ventures was five thousand guineas upon
one South Sea project. When he was told at Garraway's that 'twas
all lost, "Why," said he, "'tis but going up five thousand pair of
stairs more." "This answer," says Tom Brown, "deserved a statue."
* * * * *
Jonathan's Coffee-house was another Change-alley coffee-house,
which is described in the _Tatler_, No. 38, as "the general mart of
stock-jobbers," and the _Spectator_, No. 1, tells us that he
"sometimes passes for a Jew in the assembly of stock-jobbers at
Jonathan's." This was their rendezvous, where gambling of all sorts
was carried on, notwithstanding a former prohibition against the
assemblage of the jobbers, issued by the City of London, which
prohibition continued unrepealed until 1825.
* * * * *
The _Spectator_, No. 16, notices some gay frequenters of the
Rainbow Coffee-house in Fleet Street: "I have received a letter
desiring me to be very satirical upon the little muff that is now
in fashion; another informs me of a pair of silver garters buckled
below the knee, that have been lately seen at the Rainbow
Coffee-house in Fleet Street."
Mr. Moncrieff, the dramatist, used to tell that about 1780, this
house was kept by his grandfather, Alexander Moncrieff, when it
retained its original title of "The Rainbow Coffee-house."
* * * * *
Nando's Coffee-house at the east corner of Inner Temple-lane, No.
17, Fleet-Street, by some confused with Groom's house, No. 16, was
the favourite haunt of Lord Thurlow before he dashed into law
practice. At this coffee-house a large attendance of professional
loungers was attracted by the fame of the punch and the charms of
the landlady, which, with the small wits, were duly admired by and
at the bar. One evening, the famous cause of Douglas _v._ the Duke
of Hamilton was the topic of discussion, when Thurlow being
present, it was suggested, half in earnest, to appoint him junior
counsel, which was done. This employment brought him acquaintance
with the Duchess of Queensberry, who saw at once the value of a man
like Thurlow, and recommended Lord Bute to secure him by a silk
gown.
* * * * *
Dick's Coffee-house, at No. 8, Fleet-street, (south side, near
Temple Bar) was originally "Richard's", named from Richard Torner,
or Turner, to whom the house was let in 1680. Richard's was
frequented by Cowper, when he lived in the Temple. In his own
account of his insanity, Cowper tells us:
"At breakfast I read the newspaper, and in it a letter, which, the
further I perused it, the more closely engaged my attention. I
cannot now recollect the purport of it; but before I had finished
it, it appeared demonstratively true to me that it was a libel or
satire upon me. The author appeared to be acquainted with my
purpose of self-destruction, and to have written that letter on
purpose to secure and hasten the execution of it. My mind,
probably, at this time began to be disordered; however it was, I
was certainly given to a strong delusion. I said within myself,
'Your cruelty shall be gratified; you shall have your revenge,' and
flinging down the paper in a fit of strong passion, I rushed
hastily out of the room; directing my way towards the fields, where
I intended to find some house to die in; or, if not, determined to
poison myself in a ditch, where I could meet with one sufficiently
retired."
* * * * *
Lloyd's Coffee-house was one of the earliest establishments of its
kind; it is referred to in a poem printed in the year 1700, called
the _Wealthy Shopkeeper, or Charitable Christian_:
Now to Lloyd's Coffee-house he never fails,
To read the letters, and attend the sales.
In 1710, Steele (_Tatler_, No. 246) dates from Lloyd's his Petition
on Coffee-house Orators and Newsvendors. And Addison, in
_Spectator_, April 23, 1711, relates this droll incident: "About a
week since there happened to me a very odd accident, by reason of
one of these my papers of minutes which I had accidentally dropped
at Lloyd's Coffee-house, where the auctions are usually kept.
Before I missed it, there were a cluster of people who had found
it, and were diverting themselves with it at one end of the
coffee-house. It had raised so much laughter among them before I
observed what they were about, that I had not the courage to own
it. The boy of the coffee-house, when they had done with it,
carried it about in his hand, asking everybody if they had dropped
a written paper; but nobody challenging it, he was ordered by those
merry gentlemen who had before perused it, to get up into the
auction pulpit, and read it to the whole room, that if anybody
would own it they might. The boy accordingly mounted the pulpit,
and with a very audible voice read what proved to be minutes, which
made the whole coffee-house very merry; some of them concluded it
was written by a madman, and others by somebody that had been
taking notes out of the _Spectator_. After it was read, and the boy
was coming put of the pulpit, the _Spectator_ reached his arm out,
and desired the boy to given it him; which was done according. This
drew the whole eyes of the company upon the _Spectator_; but after
casting a cursory glance over it, he shook his head twice or thrice
at the reading of it, twisted it into a kind of match, and lighted
his pipe with it. 'My profound silence,' says the _Spectator_,
'together with the steadiness of my countenance, and the gravity of
my behaviour during the whole transaction, raised a very loud
laugh on all sides of me; but as I had escaped all suspicion of
being the author, I was very well satisfied, and applying myself to
my pipe and the _Postman_, took no further notice of anything that
passed about me.'"
* * * * *
The Smyrna Coffee-house in Pall Mall, was, in the reign of Queen
Anne, famous for "that cluster of wise-heads" found sitting every
evening from the left side of the fire to the door. The following
announcement in the _Tatler_, No. 78, is amusing: "This is to give
notice to all ingenious gentlemen in and about the cities of London
and Westminster, who have a mind to be instructed in the noble
sciences of music, poetry and politics, that they repair to the
Smyrna Coffee-house, in Pall Mall, betwixt the hours of eight and
ten at night, where they may be instructed gratis, with elaborate
essays 'by word of mouth', on all or any of the above-mentioned
arts."
* * * * *
St. James's Coffee-house was the famous Whig coffee-house from the
time of Queen Anne till late in the reign of George III. It was the
last house but one on the southwest corner of St. James's street,
and is thus mentioned in No. 1 of the _Tatler_: "Foreign and
Domestic News you will have from St. James's Coffee-house." It
occurs also in the passage quoted previously from the _Spectator_.
The St. James's was much frequented by Swift; letters for him were
left here. In his Journal to Stella he says: "I met Mr. Harley, and
he asked me how long I had learnt the trick of writing to myself?
He had seen your letter through the glass case at the Coffee-house,
and would swear it was my hand."
Elliott, who kept the coffee-house, was, on occasions, placed on a
friendly footing with his guests. Swift, in his Journal to Stella,
November 19, 1710, records an odd instance of this familiarity:
"This evening I christened our coffee-man Elliott's child; when the
rogue had a most noble supper, and Steele and I sat amongst some
scurvy company over a bowl of punch."
In the first advertisement of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's "Town
Eclogues," they are stated to have been read over at the St.
James's Coffee-house, when they were considered by the general
voice to be productions of a Lady of Quality. From the proximity of
the house to St. James's Palace, it was much frequented by the
Guards; and we read of its being no uncommon circumstance to see
Dr. Joseph Warton at breakfast in the St. James's Coffee-house,
surrounded by officers of the Guards, who listened with the utmost
attention and pleasure to his remarks.
To show the order and regularity observed at the St. James's, we
may quote the following advertisement, appended to the _Tatler_.
No. 25; "To prevent all mistakes that may happen among gentlemen of
the other end of the town, who come but once a week to St. James's
Coffee-house, either by miscalling the servants, or requiring such
things from them as are not properly within their respective
provinces, this is to give notice that Kidney, keeper of the
book-debts of the outlying customers, and observer of those who go
off without paying, having resigned that employment, is succeeded
by John Sowton; to whose place of enterer of messages and first
coffee-grinder, William Bird is promoted; and Samuel Burdock comes
as shoe-cleaner in the room of the said Bird."
But the St. James's is more memorable as the house where originated
Goldsmith's celebrated poem, "Retaliation." The poet belonged to a
temporary association of men of talent, some of them members of the
Club, who dined together occasionally here. At these dinners he was
generally the last to arrive. On one occasion, when he was later
than usual, a whim seized the company to write epitaphs on him as
"the late Dr. Goldsmith", and several were thrown off in a playful
vein. The only one extant was written by Garrick, and has been
preserved, very probably, by its pungency:
Here lies poet Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll;
He wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll.
Goldsmith did not relish the sarcasm, especially coming from such a
quarter; and, by way of _retaliation_, he produced the famous poem,
of which Cumberland has left a very interesting account, but which
Mr. Forster, in his "Life of Goldsmith", states to be "pure
romance". The poem itself, however, with what was prefixed to it
when published, sufficiently explains its own origin. What had
formerly been abrupt and strange in Goldsmith's manners, had now so
visibly increased, as to become matter of increased sport to such
as were ignorant of its cause; and a proposition made at one of the
dinners, when he was absent, to write a series of epitaphs upon him
(his "country dialect" and his awkward person) was agreed to, and
put in practice by several of the guests. The active aggressors
appear to have been Garrick, Doctor Bernard, Richard Burke, and
Caleb Whitefoord. Cumberland says he, too, wrote an epitaph; but it
was complimentary and grave, and hence the grateful return he
received. Mr. Forster considers Garrick's epitaph to indicate the
tone of all. This, with the rest, was read to Goldsmith when he
next appeared at the St. James's Coffee-house, where Cumberland,
however, says he never again met his friends. But "the Doctor was
called on for Retaliation," says the friend who published the poem
with that name, "and at their next meeting produced the following,
which I think adds one leaf to his immortal wreath."
"'Retaliation'", says Sir Walter Scott, "had the effect of placing
the author on a more equal footing with his Society than he had
ever before assumed."
Cumberland's account differs from the version formerly received,
which intimates that the epitaphs were written before Goldsmith
arrived: whereas the pun, "the late Dr. Goldsmith" appears to have
suggested the writing of the epitaphs. In the "Retaliation",
Goldsmith has not spared the characters and failings of his
associates, but has drawn them with satire, at once pungent and
good-humoured. Garrick is smartly chastised; Burke, the Dinner-bell
of the House of Commons, is not let off; and of all the more
distinguished names of the Club, Thomson, Cumberland, and Reynolds
alone escape the lash of the satirist. The former is not mentioned,
and the two latter are even dismissed with unqualified and
affectionate applause.
Still we quote Cumberland's account of the "Retaliation" which is
very amusing from the closely circumstantial manner in which the
incidents are narrated, although they have so little relationship
to truth: "It was upon a proposal started by Edmund Burke, that a
party of friends who had dined together at Sir Joshua Reynolds's
and my house, should meet at the St. James's Coffee-house, which
accordingly took place, and was repeated occasionally with much
festivity and good fellowship. Dr. Bernard, Dean of Derry; a very
amiable and old friend of mine, Dr. Douglas, since Bishop of
Salisbury; Johnson, David Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Oliver
Goldsmith, Edmund and Richard Burke, Hickey, with two or three
others, constituted our party. At one of these meetings, an idea
was suggested of extemporary epitaphs upon the parties present; pen
and ink were called for, and Garrick, offhand, wrote an epitaph
with a good deal of humour, upon poor Goldsmith, who was the first
in jest, as he proved to be in reality, that we committed to the
grave. The Dean also gave him an epitaph, and Sir Joshua
illuminated the Dean's verses with a sketch of his bust in pen and
ink, inimitably caricatured. Neither Johnson nor Burke wrote
anything, and when I perceived that Oliver was rather sore, and
seemed to watch me with that kind of attention which indicated his
expectation of something in the same kind of burlesque with theirs;
I thought it time to press the joke no further, and wrote a few
couplets at a side-table, which, when I had finished, and was
called upon by the company to exhibit, Goldsmith, with much
agitation, besought me to spare him; and I was about to tear them,
when Johnson wrested them out of my hand, and in a loud voice read
them at the table. I have now lost recollection of them, and, in
fact, they were little worth remembering; but as they were serious
and complimentary, the effect upon Goldsmith was the more pleasing
for being so entirely unexpected. The concluding line, which was
the only one I can call to mind, was:
"All mourn the poet, I lament the man.
"This I recollect, because he repeated it several times, and seemed
much gratified by it. At our next meeting he produced his epitaphs
... and this was the last time he ever enjoyed the company of his
friends."
* * * * *
Will's Coffee-house, the predecessor of Button's, and even more
celebrated than that coffee-house, was kept by William Urwin. It
first had the title of the Red Cow, then of the Rose, and, we
believe, is the same house alluded to in the pleasant story in the
second number of the _Tatler_. "Supper and friends expect we at the
Rose."
Dean Lockier has left this life-like picture of his interview with
the presiding genius (Dryden) at Will's.
"I was about seventeen when I first came up to town," says the
Dean, "an odd-looking boy, with short rough hair, and that sort of
awkwardness which one always brings up at first out of the country
with one. However, in spite of my bashfulness and appearance, I
used, now and then, to thrust myself into Will's to have the
pleasure of seeing the most celebrated wits of that time, who then
resorted thither. The second time that ever I was there, Mr. Dryden
was speaking of his own things, as he frequently did, especially of
such as had been lately published. 'If anything of mine is good,'
says he, ''tis 'Mac-Flecno', and I value myself the more upon it,
because it is the first piece of ridicule written in heroics.' On
hearing this I plucked up my spirit so far as to say, in a voice
but just loud enough to be heard, 'that "Mac-Flecno" was a very
fine poem, but that I had not imagined it to be the first that was
ever writ that way.' On this, Dryden turned short upon me, as
surprised at my interposing; asked me how long 'I had been a dealer
in poetry'; and added, with a smile, 'Pray, Sir, what is it that
you did imagine to have been writ so before?'--I named Boileau's
'Lutrin' and Tassoni's 'Secchia Rapita,' which I had read, and knew
Dryden had borrowed some strokes from each. ''Tis true,' said
Dryden, 'I had forgot them.' A little after, Dryden went out, and
in going, spoke to me again, and desired me to come and see him the
next day. I was highly delighted with the invitation; went to see
him accordingly; and was well acquainted with him after, as long as
he lived."
* * * * *
Will's Coffee-house was the open market for libels and lampoons,
the latter named from the established burden formerly sung to them:
_Lampone, lampone, camerada lampone._
There was a drunken fellow, named Julian, who was a characterless
frequenter of Will's, and Sir Walter Scott has given this account
of him and his vocation:
"Upon the general practice of writing lampoons, and the necessity
of finding some mode of dispersing them, which should diffuse the
scandal widely while the authors remained concealed, was founded
the self-erected office of Julian, Secretary, as he called himself,
to the Muses. This person attended Will's, the Wits' Coffee-house,
as it was called; and dispersed among the crowds who frequented
that place of gay resort copies of the lampoons which had been
privately communicated to him by their authors. 'He is described,'
says Mr. Malone, 'as a very drunken fellow, and at one time was
confined for a libel.'"
* * * * *
Tom Brown describes 'a Wit and a Beau set up with little or no
expense. A pair of red stockings and a swordknot set up one, and
peeping once a day in at Will's, and two or three second-hand
sayings, the other.'
* * * * *
Pepys, one night, going to fetch home his wife, stopped in Covent
Garden, at the Great Coffee-house there, as he called Will's, where
he never was before: "Where," he adds, "Dryden, the poet (I knew at
Cambridge), and all the Wits of the town, and Harris the player,
and Mr. Hoole of our College. And had I had time then, or could at
other times, it will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive,
is very witty and pleasant discourse. But I could not tarry, and,
as it was late, they were all ready to go away."
Addison passed each day alike, and much in the manner that Dryden
did. Dryden employed his mornings in writing, dined _en famille_,
and then went to Will's, "only he came home earlier o' nights."
Pope, when very young, was impressed with such veneration for
Dryden, that he persuaded some friends to take him to Will's
Coffee-house, and was delighted that he could say that he had seen
Dryden. Sir Charles Wogan, too, brought up Pope from the Forest of
Windsor, to dress _a la mode_, and introduce at Will's
Coffee-house. Pope afterwards described Dryden as "a plump man with
a down look, and not very conversible," and Cibber could tell no
more "but that he remembered him a decent old man, arbiter of
critical disputes at Will's." Prior sings of--
The younger Stiles,
Whom Dryden pedagogues at Will's!
Most of the hostile criticism on his Plays, which Dryden has
noticed in his various Prefaces, appear to have been made at his
favourite haunt, Will's Coffee-house.
Dryden is generally said to have been returning from Will's to his
house in Gerard Street, when he was cudgelled in Rose Street by
three persons hired for the purpose by Wilmot, Earl of Rochester,
in the winter of 1679. The assault, or "the Rose-alley Ambuscade,"
certainly took place; but it is not so certain that Dryden was on
his way from Will's, and he then lived in Long-acre, not Gerard
Street.
It is worthy of remark that Swift was accustomed to speak
disparagingly of Will's, as in his "Rhapsody on Poetry:"
Be sure at Will's the following day
Lie snug, and hear what critics say;
And if you find the general vogue
Pronounces you a stupid rogue,
Damns all your thoughts as low and little;
Sit still, and swallow down your spittle.
Swift thought little of the frequenters of Will's: "he used to say,
the worst conversation he ever heard in his life was at Will's
Coffee-house, where the wits (as they were called) used formerly to
assemble; that is to say, five or six men who had writ plays or at
least prologues, or had a share in a miscellany, came thither, and
entertained one another with their trifling composures, in so
important an air as if they had been the noblest efforts of human
nature, or that the fate of kingdoms depended on them."
In the first number of the _Tatler_, poetry is promised under the
article of Will's Coffee-house. The place, however, changed after
Dryden's time: "you used to see songs, epigrams, and satires in the
hands of every man you met, you have now only a pack of cards; and
instead of the cavils about the turn of the expression, the
elegance of the style, and the like, the learned now dispute only
about the truth of the game." "In old times, we used to sit upon a
play here, after it was acted, but now the entertainment's turned
another way."
The _Spectator_ is sometimes seen "thrusting his head into a round
of politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the
narratives that are made in these little circular audiences." Then,
we have as an instance of no one member of human society but that
would have some little pretension for some degree in it, "like him
who came to Will's Coffee-house upon the merit of having writ a
posie of a ring." And, "Robin, the porter who waits at Will's, is
the best man in town for carrying a billet: the fellow has a thin
body, swift step, demure looks, sufficient sense, and knows the
town."
After Dryden's death, in 1701, Will's continued for about ten years
to be still the Wits' Coffee-house, as we see by Ned Ward's
account, and by the "Journey through England" in 1722.
Pope entered with keen relish into society, and courted the
correspondence of the town wits and coffee-house critics. Among his
early friends was Mr. Henry Cromwell, one of the _cousinry_ of the
Protector's family: he was a bachelor, and spent most of his time
in London; he had some pretensions to scholarship and literature,
having translated several of Ovid's Elegies, for Tonson's
Miscellany. With Wycherly, Gay, Dennis, the popular actors and
actresses of the day, and with all the frequenters of Will's,
Cromwell was familiar. He had done more than take a pinch out of
Dryden's snuff-box, which was a point of high ambition and honor at
Will's; he had quarrelled with him about a frail poetess, Mrs.
Elizabeth Thomas, whom Dryden had christened Corinna, and who was
also known as Sappho. Gay characterized this literary and eccentric
beau as
Honest, hatless Cromwell, with red breeches:
it being his custom to carry his hat in his hand when walking with
ladies. What with ladies and literature, rehearsals and reviews,
and critical attention to the quality of his coffee and Brazil
snuff, Henry Cromwell's time was fully occupied in town. Cromwell
was a dangerous acquaintance for Pope at the age of sixteen or
seventeen, but he was a very agreeable one. Most of Pope's letters
to his friends are addressed to him at the Blue Hall, in Great
Wild-street, near Drury Lane, and others to "Widow Hambledon's
Coffee-house, at the end of Princes-street, near Drury-lane,
London." Cromwell made one visit to Binfield; on his return to
London, Pope wrote to him, "referring to the ladies in particular,"
and to his favorite coffee.
* * * * *
Will's was the great resort for the wits of Dryden's time, after
whose death it was transferred to Button's. Pope describes the
houses as "opposite each other, in Russell-street, Covent Garden,"
where Addison established Daniel Button, in a new house, about
1712; and his fame, after the production of _Cato_, drew many of
the Whigs thither. Button had been servant to the Countess of
Warwick. The house is more correctly described as "over against
Tom's, near the middle of the south side of the street."
Addison was the great patron of Button's; but it is said that when
he suffered any vexation from his Countess, he withdrew from
Button's house. His chief companions, before he married Lady
Warwick, were Steele, Budgell, Philips, Carey, Davenant, and
Colonell Brett. He used to breakfast with one or other of them in
St. James's-place, dine at taverns with them, then to Button's, and
then to some tavern again, for supper in the evening; and this was
the usual round of his life, as Pope tells us in Spencer's
Anecdotes, where Pope also says: "Addison usually studied all the
morning, then met his party at Button's, dined there, and stayed
five or six hours; and sometimes far into the night. I was of the
company for about a year, but found it too much for me; it hurt my
health, and so I quitted it." Again: "There had been a coldness
between me and Mr. Addison for some time, and we had not been in
company together for a good while anywhere but at Button's
Coffee-house, where I used to see him almost every day."
Here Pope is reported to have said of Patrick, the lexicographer,
that "a dictionary-maker might know the meaning of one word, but
not of two put together."
Button's was the receiving house for contributions to _The
Guardian_, for which purpose was put up a lion's head letter box,
in imitation of the celebrated lion at Venice, as humorously
announced. Thus:
"N.B.--Mr. Ironside has, within five weeks last past, muzzled three
lions, gorged five, and killed one. On Monday next the skin of the
dead one will be hung up, _in terrorem_, at Button's Coffee-house."
* * * * *
"I intend to publish once every week the roarings of the Lion, and
hope to make him roar so loud as to be heard over all the British
nation. I have, I know not how, been drawn into tattle of myself,
more majorum, almost the length of a whole _Guardian_. I shall
therefore fill up the remaining part of it with what still relates
to my own person, and my correspondents. Now I would have them all
know that on the 20th instant, it is my intention to erect a Lion's
Head, in imitation of those I have described in Venice, through
which all the private commonwealth is said to pass. This head is to
open a most wide and voracious mouth, which shall take in such
letters and papers as are conveyed to me by my correspondents, it
being my resolution to have a particular regard to all such matters
as come to my hands through the mouth of the Lion. There will be
under it a box, of which the key will be in my own custody, to
receive such papers as are dropped into it. Whatever the Lion
swallows I shall digest for the use of the publick. This head
requires some time to finish, the workmen being resolved to give it
several masterly touches, and to represent it as ravenous as
possible. It will be set up in Button's Coffee-house, in Covent
Garden, who is directed to show the way to the Lion's Head, and to
instruct any young author how to convey his works into the mouth of
it with safety and secrecy."
* * * * *
"I think myself obliged to acquaint the publick, that the Lion's
Head, of which I advertised them about a fortnight ago, is now
erected at Button's Coffee-house, in Russell-street, Covent Garden,
where it opens its mouth at all hours for the reception of such
intelligence as shall be thrown into it. It is reckoned an
excellent piece of workmanship, and was designed by a great hand in
imitation of the antique Egyptian lion, the face of it being
compounded out of that of a lion and a wizard. The features are
strong and well furrowed. The whiskers are admired by all that have
seen them. It is planted on the western side of the Coffee-house,
holding its paws under the chin, upon a box, which contains
everything that he swallows. He is, indeed, a proper emblem of
knowledge and action, being all head and paws."
* * * * *
"Being obliged, at present, to attend a particular affair of my
own, I do empower my printer to look into the arcana of the Lion,
and select out of them such as may be of publick utility; and Mr.
Button is hereby authorized and commanded to give my said printer
free ingress and egress to the lion, without any hindrance, let, or
molestation whatsoever, until such time as he shall receive orders
to the contrary. And, for so doing, this shall be his warrant."
* * * * *
"My Lion, whose jaws are at all times open to intelligence, informs
me that there are a few enormous weapons still in being; but that
they are to be met with only in gaming houses and some of the
obscure retreats of lovers, in and about Drury-lane and Covent
Garden."
* * * * *
This memorable Lion's Head was tolerably well carved: through the
mouth the letters were dropped into a till at Button's; and beneath
were inscribed these two lines from Martial:
_Cervantur magnis isti Cervicibus ungues;
Non nisi delicta pascitur ille fera._
The head was designed by Hogarth, and is etched in Ireland's
"Illustrations." Lord Chesterfield is said to have once offered for
the Head fifty guineas. From Button's it was removed to the
Shakspeare's Head Tavern, under the Piazza, kept by a person named
Tomkyns; and in 1751, was, for a short time, placed in the Bedford
Coffee-house immediately adjoining the Shakspeare, and there
employed as a letter-box by Dr. John Hill, for his _Inspector_. In
1769, Tomkyns was succeeded by his waiter, Campbell, as proprietor
of the tavern and lion's head, and by him the latter was retained
until November 8, 1804, when it was purchased by Mr. Charles
Richardson, of Richardson's Hotel, for 17£ 10s., who also possessed
the original sign of the Shakspeare's Head. After Mr. Richardson's
death in 1827, the Lion's Head devolved to his son, of whom it was
bought by the Duke of Bedford, and deposited at Woburn Abbey, where
it still remains.
Pope was subjected to much annoyance and insult at Button's. Sir
Samuel Garth wrote to Gay, that everybody was pleased with Pope's
Translation, "but a few at Button's;" to which Gay adds, to Pope,
"I am confirmed that at Button's your character is made very free
with, as to morals, etc."
[Illustration: ALEXANDER POPE AT BUTTON'S COFFEE HOUSE--1730
From a drawing by Hogarth. The man opposite the seated figure is thought
to be Pope]
Cibber, in a letter to Pope, says: "When you used to pass your
hours at Button's, you were even there remarkable for your
satirical itch of provocation; scarce was there a gentleman of any
pretension to wit, whom your unguarded temper had not fallen upon
in some biting epigram, among which you once caught a pastoral
Tartar, whose resentment, that your punishment might be
proportionate to the smart of your poetry, had stuck up a birchen
rod in the room, to be ready whenever you might come within reach
of it; and at this rate you writ and rallied and writ on, till you
rhymed yourself quite out of the coffee-house." The "pastoral
Tartar" was Ambrose Philips, who, says Johnson, "hung up a rod at
Button's, with which he threatened to chastise Pope."
Pope, in a letter to Crags, thus explains the affair: "Mr. Philips
did express himself with much indignation against me one evening at
Button's Coffee-house (as I was told), saying that I was entered
into a cabal with Dean Swift and others, to write against the Whig
interest, and in particular to undermine his own reputation and
that of his friends, Steele and Addison; but Mr. Philips never
opened his lips to my face, on this or any like occasion, though I
was almost every night in the same room with him, nor ever offered
me any indecorum. Mr. Addison came to me a night or two after
Philips had talked in this idle manner, and assured me of his
disbelief of what had been said, of the friendship we should always
maintain, and desired I would say nothing further of it. My Lord
Halifax did me the honour to stir in this matter, by speaking to
several people to obviate a false aspersion, which might have done
me no small prejudice with one party. However, Philips did all he
could secretly to continue to report with the Hanover Club, and
kept in his hands the subscriptions paid for me to him, as
secretary to that Club. The heads of it have since given him to
understand, that they take it ill; but (upon the terms I ought to
be with such a man) I would not ask him for this money, but
commissioned one of the players, his equals, to receive it. This is
the whole matter; but as to the secret grounds of this malignity,
they will make a very pleasant history when we meet."
Another account says that the rod was hung up at the bar of
Button's, and that Pope avoided it by remaining at home--"his
usual custom." Philips was known for his courage and superior
dexterity with the sword; he afterwards became justice of the
peace, and used to mention Pope, whenever he could get a man in
authority to listen to him, as an enemy to the Government.
At Button's the leading company, particularly Addison and Steele,
met in large flowing flaxen wigs. Sir Godfrey Kneller, too, was a
frequenter.
The master died in 1731, when in the _Daily Advertiser_, October 5
appeared the following:
"On Sunday morning, died, after three days' illness, Mr. Button,
who formerly kept Button's Coffee-house, in Russell-street, Covent
Garden: a very noted house for wits, being the place where the Lyon
produced the famous _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_, written by the late
Mr. Secretary Addison and Sir Richard Steele, Knt., which works
will transmit their names with honour to posterity."
* * * * *
Among other wits who frequented Button's were Swift, Arbuthnot,
Savage, Budgell, Martin Folkes, and Drs. Garth and Armstrong. In
1720, Hogarth mentions "four drawings in Indian ink" of the
characters at Button's Coffee-house. In these were sketches of
Arbuthnot, Addison, Pope (as it is conjectured) and a certain Count
Viviani, identified years afterwards by Horace Walpole, when the
drawings came under his notice. They subsequently came into
Ireland's possession.
Jemmy Maclaine, or M'Clean, the fashionable highwayman, was a
frequent visitor at Button's. Mr. John Taylor, of the _Sun_
newspaper, describes Maclaine as a tall, showy, good-looking man. A
Mr. Donaldson told Taylor that, observing Maclaine paid particular
attention to the barmaid of the Coffee-house, the daughter of the
landlord, he gave a hint to the father of Maclaine's dubious
character. The father cautioned the daughter against the
highwayman's addresses, and imprudently told her by whose advice he
put her on her guard; she as imprudently told Maclaine. The next
time Donaldson visited the coffee-room, and sitting in one of the
boxes, Maclaine entered, and in a loud tone said, "Mr. Donaldson, I
wish to _spake_ to you in a private room." Mr. D. being unarmed,
and naturally afraid of being alone with such a man, said, in
answer, that as nothing could pass between them that he did not
wish the whole world to know, he begged leave to decline the
invitation. "Very well," said Maclaine, as he left the room, "we
shall meet again." A day or two after, as Mr. Donaldson was walking
near Richmond, in the evening, he saw Maclaine on horseback; but
fortunately, at that moment, a gentleman's carriage appeared in
view, when Maclaine immediately turned his horse towards the
carriage, and Donaldson hurried into the protection of Richmond as
fast as he could. But for the appearance of the carriage, which
presented better prey, it is possible that Maclaine would have shot
Mr. Donaldson immediately.
Maclaine's father was an Irish Dean; his brother was a Calvinist
minister in great esteem at the Hague. Maclaine himself had been a
grocer in Welbeck-street, but losing a wife that he loved
extremely, and by whom he had one little girl, he quitted his
business with two hundred pounds in his pockets which he soon
spent, and then took to the road with only one companion, Plunket,
a journeyman apothecary.
Maclaine was taken in the autumn of 1750, by selling a laced
waistcoat to a pawnbroker in Monmouth-street, who happened to carry
it to the very man who had just sold the lace. Maclaine impeached
his companion, Plunket, but he was not taken. The former got into
verse: Gray, in his "Long Story," sings:
A sudden fit of ague shook him;
He stood as mute as poor M'Lean.
Button's subsequently became a private house, and here Mrs.
Inchbald lodged, probably, after the death of her sister, for whose
support she practised such noble and generous self-denial. Mrs.
Inchbald's income was now 172£ a year, and we are told that she now
went to reside in a boarding-house, where she enjoyed more of the
comforts of life. Phillips, the publisher, offered her a thousand
pounds for her Memoirs, which she declined. She died in a
boarding-house at Kensington, on the 1st of August, 1821, leaving
about 6,000£ judiciously divided amongst her relatives. Her simple
and parsimonious habits were very strange. "Last Thursday," she
writes, "I finished scouring my bedroom, while a coach with a
coronet and two footmen waited at my door to take me an airing."
"One of the most agreeable memories connected with Button's," says
Leigh Hunt, "is that of Garth, a man whom, for the sprightliness
and generosity of his nature, it is a pleasure to name. He was one
of the most amiable and intelligent of a most amiable and
intelligent class of men--the physicians."
It was just after Queen Anne's accession that Swift made
acquaintance with the leaders of the wits at Button's. Ambrose
Philips refers to him as the strange clergyman whom the frequenters
of the Coffee-house had observed for some days. He knew no one, no
one knew him. He would lay his hat down on a table, and walk up and
down at a brisk pace for half an hour without speaking to any one,
or seeming to pay attention to anything that was going forward.
Then he would snatch up his hat, pay his money at the bar, and walk
off, without having opened his lips. The frequenters of the room
had christened him "the mad parson." One evening, as Mr. Addison
and the rest were observing him, they saw him cast his eyes several
times upon a gentleman in boots, who seemed to be just come out of
the country. At last, Swift advanced towards this bucolic
gentleman, as if intending to address him. They were all eager to
hear what the dumb parson had to say, and immediately quitted their
seats to get near him. Swift went up to the country gentleman, and
in a very abrupt manner, without any previous salute, asked him,
"Pray, Sir, do you know any good weather in the world?" After
staring a little at the singularity of Swift's manner and the
oddity of the question, the gentleman answered, "Yes, Sir, I thank
God I remember a great deal of good weather in my time."--"That is
more," replied Swift, "than I can say; I never remember any weather
that was not too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry; but, however
God Almighty contrives it, at the end of the year 'tis all very
well."
* * * * *
Sir Walter Scott gives, upon the authority of Dr. Wall, of
Worcester, who had it from Dr. Arbuthnot himself, the following
anecdote--less coarse than the version generally told. Swift was
seated by the fire at Button's; there was sand on the floor of the
coffee-room, and Arbuthnot, with a design to play upon this
original figure, offered him a letter, which he had been just
addressing, saying at the same time, "There--sand that"--"I have
got no sand," answered Swift, "but I can help you to a little
_gravel_." This he said so significantly, that Arbuthnot hastily
snatched back his letter, to save it from the fate of the capital
of Lilliput.
* * * * *
Tom's Coffee-house in Birchin-lane, Cornhill, though in the main a
mercantile resort, acquired some celebrity from its having been
frequented by Garrick, who, to keep up an interest in the City,
appeared here about twice in a winter at 'Change time, when it was
the rendezvous of young merchants.
* * * * *
Hawkins says: "After all that has been said of Mr. Garrick, envy
must own that he owed his celebrity to his merit; and yet, of that
himself so diffident, that he practiced sundry little but innocent
arts, to insure the favour of the public:" yet, he did more. When a
rising actor complained to Mrs. Garrick that the newspapers abused
him, the widow replied, "You should write your own criticisms;
David always did."
* * * * *
One evening, Murphy was at Tom's, when Colley Cibber was playing at
whist, with an old general for his partner. As the cards were dealt
to him, he took up every one in turn, and expressed his
disappointment at each indifferent one. In the progress of the game
he did not follow suit, and his partner said, "What! have you not a
spade, Mr. Cibber?" The latter, looking at his cards, answered, "Oh
yes, a thousand;" which drew a very peevish comment from the
general. On which, Cibber, who was shockingly addicted to swearing,
replied, "Don't be angry, for--I can play ten times worse if I
like."
* * * * *
The celebrated Bedford Coffee-house, in Covent Garden, once
attracted so much attention as to have published, "Memoirs of the
Bedford Coffee-house," two editions, 1751 and 1763. It stood "under
the Piazza, in Covent Garden," in the northwest corner, near the
entrance to the theatre, and has long ceased to exist.
* * * * *
In the _Connoisseur_, No. 1, 1754, we are assured that "this
Coffee-house is every night crowded with men of parts. Almost every
one you meet is a polite scholar and a wit. Jokes and bon-mots are
echoed from box to box: every branch of literature is critically
examined, and the merit of every production of the press, or
performance of the theatres, weighed and determined."
And in the above-named "Memoirs" we read that "this spot has been
signalized for many years as the emporium of wit, the seat of
criticism, and the standard of taste.--Names of those who
frequented the house: Foote, Mr. Fielding, Mr. Woodward, Mr. Leone,
Mr. Murphy, Mopsy, Dr. Arne. Dr. Arne was the only man in a suit of
velvet in the dog-days."
Stacie kept the Bedford when John and Henry Fielding, Hogarth,
Churchill, Woodward, Lloyd, Dr. Goldsmith and many others met there
and held a gossiping shilling rubber club. Henry Fielding was a
very smart fellow.
The _Inspector_ appears to have given rise to this reign of the
Bedford, when there was placed here the Lion from Button's, which
proved so serviceable to Steele, and once more fixed the dominion
of wit in Covent Garden.
The reign of wit and pleasantry did not, however, cease at the
Bedford at the demise of the _Inspector_. A race of punsters next
succeeded. A particular box was allotted to this occasion, out of
hearing of the lady of the bar, that the _double entendres_, which
were sometimes very indelicate, might not offend her.
The Bedford was beset with scandalous nuisances, of which the
following letter, from Arthur Murphy to Garrick, April 10, 1768,
presents a pretty picture:
"Tiger Roach (who used to bully at the Bedford Coffee-house because
his name was Roach) is set up by Wilke's friends to burlesque
Luttrel and his pretensions. I own I do not know a more ridiculous
circumstance than to be a joint candidate with the Tiger. O'Brien
used to take him off very pleasantly, and perhaps you may, from his
representation, have some idea of this important wight. He used to
sit with a half-starved look, a black patch upon his cheek, pale
with the idea of murder, or with rank cowardice, a quivering lip,
and a downcast eye. In that manner he used to sit at a table all
alone, and his soliloquy, interrupted now and then with faint
attempts to throw off a little saliva, was to the following
effect:--'Hut! hut! a mercer's 'prentice with a bag-wig;--d---- n
my s---- l, if I would not skiver a dozen of them like larks! Hut!
hut! I don't understand such airs!--I'd cudgel him back, breast and
belly, for three skips of a louse!--How do you do, Pat? Hut! hut!
God's blood--Larry, I'm glad to see you; 'Prentices! a fine thing
indeed!--Hut! hut! How do you do, Dominick!--D---- n my s---- l,
what's here to do!' These were the meditations of this agreeable
youth. From one of these reveries he started up one night, when I
was there, called a Mr. Bagnell out of the room, and most
heroically stabbed him in the dark, the other having no weapon to
defend himself with. In this career, the Tiger persisted, till at
length a Mr. Lennard brandished a whip over his head, and stood in
a menacing attitude, commanding him to ask pardon directly. The
Tiger shrank from the danger, and with a faint voice
pronounced--'Hut! what signifies it between you and me? Well! well!
I ask your pardon.' 'Speak louder, Sir; I don't hear a word you
say.' And indeed he was so very tall, that it seemed as if the
sound, sent feebly from below, could not ascend to such a height.
This is the hero who is to figure at Brentford."
* * * * *
Foote's favourite coffee-house was the Bedford. He was also a
constant frequenter of Tom's, and took a lead in the Club held
there, and already described.
Dr. Barrowby, the well-known newsmonger of the Bedford, and the
satirical critic of the day, has left this whole-length sketch of
Foote:
"One evening (he says) he saw a young man extravagantly dressed out
in a frock suit of green and silver lace, bag-wig, sword, bouquet,
and point ruffles, enter the room (at the Bedford), and immediately
join the critical circle at the upper end. Nobody recognized him;
but such was the ease of his bearing, and the point of humor and
remark with which he at once took up the conversation, that his
presence seemed to disconcert no one, and a sort of pleased buzz of
'who is he?' was still going round the room unanswered, when a
handsome carriage stopped at the door; he rose, and quitted the
room, and the servants announced that his name was Foote, and that
he was a young gentleman of family and fortune, a student of the
Inner Temple, and that the carriage had called for him on its way
to the assembly of a lady of fashion". Dr. Barrowby once turned the
laugh against Foote at the Bedford, when he was ostentatiously
showing his gold repeater, with the remark--'Why, my watch does not
go!' 'It soon _will go_,' quietly remarked the Doctor. Young
Collins, the poet, who came to town in 1744 to seek his fortune,
made his way to the Bedford, where Foote was supreme among the wits
and critics. Like Foote, Collins was fond of fine clothes, and
walked about with a feather in his hat, very unlike a young man who
had not a single guinea he could call his own. A letter of the time
tells us that "Collins was an acceptable companion everywhere; and
among the gentlemen who loved him for a genius, may be reckoned the
Doctors Armstrong, Barrowby, Hill, Messrs. Quin, Garrick, and
Foote, who frequently took his opinions upon their pieces before
they were seen by the public. He was particularly noticed by the
geniuses who frequented the Bedford and Slaughter's Coffee-houses."
* * * * *
Ten years later (1754) we find Foote again supreme in his critical
corner at the Bedford. The regular frequenters of the room strove
to get admitted to his party at supper; and others got as near as
they could to the table, as the only humor flowed from Foote's
tongue. The Bedford was now in its highest repute.
Foote and Garrick often met at the Bedford, and many and sharp were
their encounters. They were the two great rivals of the day. Foote
usually attacked, and Garrick, who had many weak points, was mostly
the sufferer. Garrick, in early life, had been in the wine trade,
and had supplied the Bedford with wine; he was thus described by
Foote as living in Durham-yard, with three quarts of vinegar in the
cellar, calling himself a wine-merchant. How Foote must have abused
the Bedford wine of this period!
One night, Foote came into the Bedford, where Garrick was seated,
and there gave him an account of a most wonderful actor he had just
seen. Garrick was on the tenters of suspense, and there Foote kept
him a full hour. Foote brought the attack to a close by asking
Garrick what he thought of Mr. Pitt's histrionic talents, when
Garrick, glad of the release, declared that if Pitt had chosen the
stage, he might have been the first actor upon it.
Another night, Garrick and Foote were about to leave the Bedford
together, when the latter, in paying the bill, dropped a guinea;
and not finding it at once, said, "Where on earth can it be gone
to?"--"Gone to the devil, I think," replied Garrick, who had
assisted in the search.--"Well said, David!" was Foote's reply,
"let you alone for making a guinea go further than anybody else."
Churchill's quarrel with Hogarth began at the shilling rubber club,
in the parlour of the Bedford; when Hogarth used some very
insulting language towards Churchill, who resented it in the
_Epistle_. This quarrel showed more venom than wit. "Never," says
Walpole, "did two angry men of their abilities throw mud with less
dexterity."
Woodward, the comedian, mostly lived at the Bedford, was intimate
with Stacie, the landlord, and gave him his (W.'s) portrait, with a
mask in his hand, one of the early pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Stacie played an excellent game at whist. One morning about two
o'clock, one of the waiters awoke him to tell him that a nobleman
had knocked him up, and had desired him to call his master to play
a rubber with him for one hundred guineas. Stacie got up, dressed
himself, won the money, and was in bed and asleep, all within an
hour.
* * * * *
After Macklin had retired from the stage, in 1754, he opened that
portion of the Piazza-houses, in Covent Garden, afterwards known as
the Tavistock Hotel. Here he fitted up a large coffee-room, a
theatre for oratory, and other apartments. To a three-shilling
ordinary he added a shilling lecture, or "School of Oratory and
Criticism;" he presided at the dinner table, and carved for the
company; after which he played a sort of "Oracle of Eloquence."
Fielding has happily sketched him in his "Voyage to Lisbon":
"Unfortunately for the fishmongers of London, the Dory only resides
in the Devonshire seas; for could any of this company only convey
one to the Temple of luxury under the piazza, where Macklin, the
high priest, daily serves up his rich offerings, great would be the
reward of that fishmonger."
In the Lecture, Macklin undertook to make each of his audience an
orator, by teaching him how to speak. He invited hints and
discussions; the novelty of the scheme attracted the curiosity of
numbers; and this curiosity he still further excited by a very
uncommon controversy which now subsisted, either in imagination or
reality, between him and Foote, who abused one another very
openly--"Squire Sammy," having for his purpose engaged the Little
Theatre in the Haymarket.
Besides this personal attack, various subjects were debated here
in the manner of the Robin Hood Society, which filled the Orator's
pocket, and proved his rhetoric of some value.
Here is one of his combats with Foote. The subject was Duelling In
Ireland, which Macklin had illustrated as far as the reign of
Elizabeth. Foote cried, "Order;" he had a question to put. "Well,
Sir," said Macklin, "what have you to say on this subject," "I
think, Sir" said Foote, "this matter might be settled in a few
words. What o'clock is it, Sir?" Macklin could not possibly see
what the clock had to do with a dissertation upon Duelling, but
gruffly reported the hour to be half-past nine. "Very well," said
Foote, "about this time of the night every gentleman in Ireland
that can possibly afford it is in his third bottle of claret, and
therefore in a fair way of getting drunk; and from drunkenness
proceeds quarrelling, and from quarrelling, duelling, and so
there's an end of the chapter." The company were much obliged to
Foote for his interference, the hour being considered; though
Macklin did not relish this abridgment.
The success of Foote's fun upon Macklin's Lectures, led him to
establish a summer entertainment of his own at the Haymarket. He
took up Macklin's notion of applying Greek tragedy to modern
subjects, and the squib was so successful that Foote cleared by it
500£ in five nights, while the great Piazza Coffee-room in Covent
Garden was shut up, and Macklin in the _Gazette_ as a bankrupt.
But when the great plan of Mr. Macklin proved abortive, when as he
said in a former prologue, upon a nearly similar occasion--
From scheming, fretting, famine and despair.
We saw to grace restor'd an exiled player;
when the town was sated with the seemingly-concocted quarrel
between the two theatrical geniuses, Macklin locked his doors, all
animosity was laid aside, and they came and shook hands at the
Bedford; the group resumed their appearance, and, with a new
master, a new set of customers was seen.
* * * * *
Tom King's Coffee-house was one of the old night-houses of Covent
Garden Market; it was a rude shed immediately beneath the portico
of St. Paul's Church, and was one "well known to all gentlemen to
whom beds are unknown." Fielding in one of his Prologues says:
What rake is ignorant of King's Coffee-house?
It is in the background of Hogarth's print of _Morning_ where the
prim maiden lady, walking to church, is soured with seeing two
fuddled _beaux_ from King's Coffee-house caressing two frail women.
At the door there is a drunken row, in which swords and cudgels are
the weapons[358].
Harwood's _Alumni Etonenses_, p. 239, in the account of the Boys
elected from Eton to King's College, contains this entry: "A.D.
1713, Thomas King, born at West Ashton, in Wiltshire, went away
scholar in apprehension that his fellowship would be denied him;
and afterwards kept that Coffee-house in Covent Garden, which was
called by his own name."
Moll King was landlady after Tom's death: she was witty, and her
house was much frequented, though it was little better than a shed.
"Noblemen and the first _beaux_," said Stacie, "after leaving Court
would go to her house in full dress, with swords and bags, and in
rich brocaded silk coats, and walked and conversed with persons of
every description. She would serve chimney-sweepers, gardeners, and
the market-people in common with her lords of the highest rank. Mr.
Apreece, a tall thin man in rich dress, was her constant customer.
He was called Cadwallader by the frequenters of Moll's." It is not
surprising that Moll was often fined for keeping a disorderly
house. At length, she retired from business--and the pillory--to
Hempstead, where she lived on her ill-earned gains, but paid for a
pew in church, and was charitable at appointed seasons, and died in
peace in 1747.
* * * * *
The Piazza Coffee-house at the northeastern angle of Covent Garden
Piazza, appears to have originated with Macklin's; for we read in
an advertisement in the _Publick Adviser_, March 5, 1756; "The
Great Piazza Coffee-room, in Covent Garden."
The Piazza was much frequented by Sheridan; and here is located the
well-known anecdote told of his coolness during the burning of
Drury-lane Theatre, in 1809. It is said that as he sat at the
Piazza, during the fire, taking some refreshment, a friend of his
having remarked on the philosophical calmness with which he bore
his misfortune, Sheridan replied:
"A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his _own
fireside_."
* * * * *
Sheridan and John Kemble often dined together at the Piazza, to be
handy to the theatre. During Kemble's management, Sheridan had
occasion to make a complaint, which brought a "nervous" letter from
Kemble, to which Sheridan's reply is amusing enough. Thus, he
writes: "that the management of a theatre is a situation capable of
becoming _troublesome_, is information which I do not want, and a
discovery which I thought you made long ago." Sheridan then treats
Kemble's letter as "a nervous flight," not to be noticed seriously,
adding his anxiety for the interest of the theatre, and alluding to
Kemble's touchiness and reserve; and thus concludes:
"If there is anything amiss in your mind not arising from the
_troublesomeness_ of your situation, it is childish and unmanly not
to disclose it. The frankness with which I have dealt towards you
entitles me to expect that you should have done so.
"But I have no reason to believe this to be the case; and
attributing your letter to a disorder which I know ought not to be
indulged, I prescribe that thou shalt keep thine appointment at the
Piazza Coffee-house, tomorrow at five, and, taking four bottles of
claret instead of three, to which in sound health you might stint
yourself, forget that you ever wrote the letter, as I shall that I
ever received it."
"R.B. Sheridan."
The Piazza facade, and interior, were of Gothic design. When the
house was demolished, in its place was built the Floral Hall, after
the Crystal Palace model.
* * * * *
The Chapter Coffee-house was a literary place of resort in
Paternoster Row, more especially in connection with the
Wittinagemot of the last century. A very interesting account of the
Chapter, at a later period (1848) is given by Mrs. Gaskell.
Goldsmith frequented the Chapter, and always occupied one place,
which for many years after was the seat of literary honor there.
There are leather tokens of the Chapter Coffee-house in existence.
* * * * *
Child's Coffee-house, in St. Paul's Churchyard, was one of the
_Spectator's_ houses. "Sometimes," he says, "I smoke a pipe at
Child's and whilst I seem attentive to nothing but the _Postman_,
overhear the conversation of every table in the room." It was much
frequented by the clergy; for the _Spectator_, No. 609, notices the
mistake of a country gentleman in taking all persons in scarfs for
Doctors of Divinity, since only a scarf of the first magnitude
entitles him to "the appellation of Doctor from his landlady and
the _Boy at Child's_."
Child's was the resort of Dr. Mead, and other professional men of
eminence. The Fellows of the Royal Society came here. Whiston
relates that Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Halley and he were once at
Child's when Dr. H. asked him, W., why he was not a member of the
Royal Society? Whiston answered, because they durst not choose a
heretic. Upon which Dr. H. said, if Sir Hans Sloane would propose
him, W., he, Dr. H., would second it, which was done accordingly.
The propinquity of Child's to the Cathedral and Doctors' Commons,
made it the resort of the clergy, and ecclesiastical loungers. In
that respect, Child's was superseded by the Chapter, in Paternoster
Row.
* * * * *
The London Coffee-house was established previous to the year 1731,
for we find of it the following advertisement:
"May, 1731.
"Whereas, it is customery for Coffee-houses and other
Public-houses, to take 8s. for a quart of Arrack, and 6s. for a
quart of Brandy or Rum, made into Punch:
"This is to give notice,
"That James Ashley has opened on Ludgate Hill, the London
Coffee-house, Punch-house, Dorchester Beer and Welsh Ale Warehouse,
where the finest and best old Arrack, Rum and French Brandy is made
into Punch, with the other of the finest Ingredients--viz., A quart
of Arrack made into Punch for six shillings; and so in proportion
to the smallest quantity, which is half-a-quartern for fourpence
half-penny. A quart of Rum or Brandy made into Punch for four
shillings; and so in proportion to the smallest quantity, which is
half-a-quartern for fourpence half-penny; and gentlemen may have it
as soon made as a gill of Wine can be drawn."
The premises occupied a Roman site; for, in 1800, in the rear of
the house, in a bastion of the City Wall, was found a sepulchral
monument dedicated to Claudina Martina by her husband, a provincial
Roman soldier; here also were found a fragment of a statue of
Hercules and a female head. In front of the Coffee-house
immediately west of St. Martin's Church, stood Ludgate.
* * * * *
The London Coffee-house was noted for its publishers' sales of
stock and copyrights. It was within the rules of the Fleet prison;
and in the Coffee-house were "locked up" for the night such juries
from the Old Bailey Sessions, as could not agree upon verdicts. The
house was long kept by the grandfather and father of Mr. John
Leech, the celebrated artist.
A singular incident occurred at the London Coffee-house, many years
since: Mr. Brayley, the topographer, was present at a party here,
when Mr. Broadhurst, the famous tenor, by singing a high note,
caused a wine-glass on the table to break, the bowl being separated
from the stem.
* * * * *
From _The Kingdom's Intelligencer_, a weekly paper, published by
authority, in 1662, we learn that there had just been opened a "new
coffee-house," with the sign of the Turk's Head, where was sold by
retail "the right coffee-powder," from 4s. to 6s. 8d. per pound;
that pounded in a mortar, 2s; East Indian berry, 1s. 6d.; and the
right Turkie berry, well garbled, at 3s. "The ungarbled for lesse,
with directions how to use the same." Also Chocolate at 2s. 6d. per
pound; the perfumed from 4s. to 10s.; "also, Sherbets made in
Turkie, of lemons, roses and violets perfumed; and Tea, or Chaa,
according to its goodness. The house seal is Morat the Great.
Gentlemen customers and acquaintances are (the next New Year's Day)
invited to the sign of the Great Turk at this new Coffee-house,
where Coffee will be on free cost." Morat figures as a tyrant in
Dryden's "Aurung Zebe." There is a token of this house, with the
sultan's head, in the Beaufoy collection[359].
Another token in the same collection, is of unusual excellence,
probably by John Roettier. It has on the obverse, Morat ye Great
Men did mee call,--Sultan's head; reverse, Where eare I came I
conquered all.--In the field, Coffee, Tobacco, Sherbet, Tea,
Chocolate, retail in Exchange Alee. "The word Tea," says Mr. Burn,
"occurs on no other tokens than those issued from 'the Great Turk'
Coffee-house, in Exchange alley;" in one of its advertisements,
1662, tea is from 6s. to 60s. a pound.
Competition arose. One Constantine Jennings in Threadneedle-street,
over against St. Christopher's Church, advertised that coffee,
chocolate, sherbet, and tea, the right Turkey berry, may be had as
cheap and as good of him as is anywhere to be had for money; and
that people may there be taught to prepare the said liquors gratis.
Pepys, in his "Diary," tells, September 25, 1669, of his sending
for "a cup of Tea, a China Drink, he had not before tasted." Henry
Bennet, Earl of Arlington, about 1666, introduced tea at Court.
And, in his "Sir Charles Sedley's Mulberry Garden," we are told
that "he who wished to be considered a man of fashion always drank
wine-and-water at dinner, and a dish of tea afterwards." These
details are condensed from Mr. Burn's excellent "Beaufoy
Catalogue," 2nd edition, 1855.
* * * * *
In Gerard-street, Soho, also, was another Turk's Head Coffee-house,
where was held a Turk's Head Society; in 1777, we find Gibbon
writing to Garrick: "At this time of year (August 14) the Society
of the Turk's Head can no longer be addressed as a corporate body,
and most of the individual members are probably dispersed: Adam
Smith, in Scotland; Burke in the shades of Beaconsfield; Fox, the
Lord or the devil knows where."
The place was a kind of headquarters for the Loyal Association
during the Rebellion of 1745. Here was founded "The Literary Club"
and a select body for the Protection and Encouragement of Art.
Another Society of Artists met in Peter's-court, St. Martin's-lane,
from the year 1739 to 1769. After continued squabbles, which lasted
for many years, the principal artists met together at the Turk's
Head, where many others having joined them, they petitioned the
King (George III) to become patron of a Royal Academy of Art. His
Majesty consented; and the new Society took a room in Pall Mall,
opposite to Market-lane, where they remained until the King, in the
year 1771, granted them apartments in Old Somerset House.
* * * * *
The Turk's Head Coffee-house, No. 142, in the Strand, was a
favourite supping-house with Dr. Johnson and Boswell, in whose Life
of Johnson are several entries, commencing with 1763--"At night,
Mr. Johnson and I supped in a private room at the Turk's Head
Coffee-house, in the Strand; 'I encourage this house,' said he,
'for the mistress of it is a good civil woman, and has not much
business'." Another entry is--"We concluded the day at the Turk's
Head Coffee-house very socially." And, August 3, 1673--"We had our
last social meeting at the Turk's Head Coffee-house, before my
setting out for foreign parts."
The name was afterwards changed to "The Turk's Head, Canada and
Bath Coffee-house," and was a well frequented tavern and hotel.
* * * * *
At the Turk's Head, or Miles's Coffee-house, New Palace-yard,
Westminster, the noted Rota Club met, founded by Harrington, in
1659; where was a large oval table, with a passage in the middle,
for Miles to deliver his coffee.[360]
* * * * *
For many years previous to the streets of London being completely
paved, "Slaughter's Coffee-house" was called "The Coffee-house on
the Pavement." Besides being the resort of artists, Old Slaughter's
was the house of call for Frenchmen.
St. Martin's-lane was long one of the headquarters of the artists
of the last century. "In the time of Benjamin West," says J.T.
Smith, "and before the formation of the Royal Academy,
Greek-street, St. Martin's-lane, and Gerard-street, was their only
colony. Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, in St. Martin's-lane, was
their grand resort in the evenings, and Hogarth was a constant
visitor." He lived at the Golden Head, on the eastern side of
Leicester Fields, in the northern half of the Sabloniere Hotel. The
head he cut out himself from pieces of cork, glued and bound
together; it was placed over the street-door. At this time, young
Benjamin West was living in chambers, in Bedford-street, Covent
Garden, and had there set up his easel; he was married in 1765, at
St. Martin's Church. Roubiliac was often to be found at Slaughter's
in early life; probably before he gained the patronage of Sir
Edward Walpole, through finding and returning to the baronet the
pocket-book of bank-notes which the young maker of monuments had
picked up in Vauxhall Gardens. Sir Edward, to remunerate his
integrity, and his skill, of which he showed specimens, promised to
patronize Roubiliac through life, and he faithfully performed this
promise. Young Gainsborough, who spent three years amid the works
of the painters in St. Martin's-lane, Hayman, and Cipriani, who
were all eminently convival, were, in all probability, frequenters
of Slaughter's. Smith tells us that Quin and Hayman were
inseparable friends, and so convival, that they seldom parted till
daylight.
Mr. Cunningham relates that here, "in early life, Wilkie would
enjoy a small dinner at a small cost. I have been told by an old
frequenter of the house, that Wilkie was always the last dropper-in
for dinner, and that he was never seen to dine in the house by
daylight. The truth is, he slaved at his art at home till the last
glimpse of daylight had disappeared."
Haydon was accustomed, in the early days of his fitful career, to
dine here with Wilkie. In his "Autobiography," in the year 1808,
Haydon writes: "This period of our lives was one of great
happiness; painting all day, then dining at the Old Slaughter
Chop-house, then going to the Academy until eight to fill up the
evening, then going home to tea--that blessing of a studious
man--talking over respective exploits, what he, Wilkie, had been
doing and what I had been doing, and, then frequently to relieve
our minds fatigued by their eight and twelve hours' work, giving
vent to the most extraordinary absurdities. Often have we made
rhymes on odd names, and shouted with laughter at each new line
that was added. Sometimes lazily inclined after a good dinner, we
have lounged about, near Drury Lane or Covent Garden, hesitating
whether to go in, and often have I (knowing first that there was
nothing I wished to see) assumed a virtue I did not possess, and
pretending moral superiority, preached to Wilkie on the weakness of
not resisting such temptations for the sake of our art and our
duty, and marched him off to his studies, when he was longing to
see Mother Goose."
J.T. Smith refers to Old Slaughter's as "formerly the rendezvous of
Pope, Dryden and other wits, and much frequented by several
eminently clever men of his day."
Thither came Ware, the architect, who, when a little sickly boy,
was apprenticed to a chimney-sweeper, and was seen chalking the
street-front of Whitehall, by a gentleman who purchased the
remainder of the boy's time; gave him an excellent education; then
sent him to Italy, and, upon his return, employed him, and
introduced him to his friends as an architect. Ware was heard to
tell this story while he was sitting to Roubiliac for his bust.
Ware built Chesterfield House and several other noble mansions, and
compiled a Palladio, in folio: he retained the soot in his skin to
the day of his death. He was very intimate with Roubiliac, who was
an opposite eastern neighbour of Old Slaughter's. Another
architect, Gwynn, who competed with Mylne for designing and
building Blackfriars Bridge, was also a frequent visitor at Old
Slaughter's, as was Gravelot, who kept a drawing-school in the
Strand, nearly opposite to Southampton-street.
Hudson, who painted the Dilettanti portraits; M'Ardell, the
mezzotinto-scraper; and Luke Sullivan, the engraver of Hogarth's
March to Finchley, also frequented Old Slaughter's; likewise
Theodore Gardell, the portrait painter, who was executed for the
murder of his landlady: and Old Moser, keeper of the Drawing
Academy in Peter's-court.
Parry, the Welsh harper, though totally blind, was one of the first
draught-players in England, and occasionally played with the
frequenters of Old Slaughter's; and here in consequence of a bet.
Roubiliac introduced Nathaniel Smith (father of John Thomas), to
play at draughts with Parry; the game lasted about half an hour;
Parry was much agitated, and Smith proposed to give in; but as
there were bets depending, it was played out, and Smith won. This
victory brought Smith numerous challenges; and the dons of the
Barn, a public-house, in St. Martin's-lane, nearly opposite the
church, invited him to become a member; but Smith declined. The
Barn, for many years, was frequented by all the noted players of
chess and draughts; and it was there that they often decided games
of the first importance, played between persons of the highest
rank.
* * * * *
The Grecian Coffee-house, Devereux-court, Strand, (closed in 1843)
was named from Constantine, of Threadneedle street, the _Grecian_
who kept it. In the _Tatler_ announcement, all accounts of learning
are to be "under the title of the Grecian;" and, in the _Tatler_,
No. 6: "While other parts of the town are amused with the present
actions (Marlborough's) we generally spend the evening at this
table (at the Grecian) in inquiries into antiquity, and think
anything new, which gives us new knowledge. Thus, we are making a
very pleasant entertainment to ourselves in putting the actions of
Homer's Iliad into an exact journal."
The _Spectator's_ face was very well known at the Grecian, a
coffee-house "adjacent to the law." Occasionally it was the scene
of learned discussion. Thus Dr. King relates that one evening, two
gentlemen, who were constant companions, were disputing here,
concerning the accent of a Greek word. This dispute was carried to
such a length, that the two friends thought proper to determine it
with their swords; for this purpose they stepped into
Devereux-court, where one of them (Dr. King thinks his name was
Fitzgerald) was run through the body, and died on the spot.
The Grecian was Foote's morning lounge. It was handy, too, for the
young Templar, Goldsmith, and often did it echo with Oliver's
boisterous mirth; for "it had become the favourite resort of the
Irish and Lancashire Templars, whom he delighted in collecting
around him, in entertaining with a cordial and unostentatious
hospitality, and in occasionally amusing with his flute, or with
whist, neither of which he played very well!" Here Goldsmith
occasionally wound up his "Shoemaker's Holiday" with supper.
It was at the Grecian that Fleetwood Shephard told this memorable
story to Dr. Tancred Robinson, who gave Richardson permission to
repeat it. "The Earle of Dorset was in Little Britain, beating
about for books to his taste: there was 'Paradise Lost'. He was
surprised with some passages he struck upon, dipping here and there
and bought it; the bookseller begged him to speak in his favour, if
he liked it, for they lay on his hands as waste paper.... Shephard
was present. My Lord took it home, read it, and sent it to Dryden,
who in a short time returned it. 'This man,' says Dryden, 'cuts us
all out, and the ancients, too!'"
* * * * *
George's Coffee-house, No. 213, Strand, near Temple Bar, was a
noted resort in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When it
was a coffee-house, one day, there came in Sir James Lowther, who
after changing a piece of silver with the coffee-woman, and paying
twopence for his dish of coffee, was helped into his chariot, for
he was very lame and infirm, and went home: some little time
afterwards, he returned to the same coffee-house, on purpose to
acquaint the woman who kept it, that she had given him a bad
half-penny, and demanded another in exchange for it. Sir James had
about £40,000 per annum.
Shenstone, who found "the warmest welcome at an inn," found
George's to be economical. "What do you think," he writes, "must be
my expense, who love to pry into everything of the kind? Why, truly
one shilling. My company goes to George's Coffee-house, where, for
that small subscription I read all pamphlets under a three
shillings' dimension; and indeed, any larger would not be fit for
coffee-house perusal." Shenstone relates that Lord Oxford was at
George's, when the mob, that were carrying his Lordship in effigy,
came into the box where he was, to beg money of him, amongst
others; this story Horace Walpole contradicts, adding that he
supposes Shenstone thought that after Lord Oxford quitted his place
he went to the coffee-house to learn news.
Arthur Murphy frequented George's, "where the town wits met every
evening." Lloyd, the law-student, sings:
By law let others toil to gain renown!
Florio's a gentleman, a man o' the town.
He nor courts clients, or the law regarding,
Hurries from Nando's down to Covent Garden.
Yet, he's a scholar; mark him in the pit,
With critic catcall sound the stops of wit!
Supreme at George's, he harangues the throng,
Censor of style, from tragedy to song.
* * * * *
The Percy Coffee-house, Rathbone-place, Oxford-street, no longer
exists; but it will be kept in recollection for its having given
name to one of the most popular publications of its class, namely,
the "Percy Anecdotes," by Sholto and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the
Benedictine Monastery of Mont Benger, in forty-four parts,
commencing in 1820. So said the title pages, but the names and the
locality were _supposé_. Reuben Percy was Thomas Byerly, who died
in 1824; he was the brother of Sir John Byerley, and the first
editor of the _Mirror_, commenced by John Limbird, in 1822. Sholto
Percy was Joseph Clinton Robertson, who died in 1852; he was the
projector of the _Mechanics' Magazine_, which he edited from its
commencement to his death. The name of the collection of Anecdotes
was not taken, as at the time supposed, from the popularity of the
"Percy Reliques," but from the Percy Coffee-house, where Byerley
and Robertson were accustomed to meet to talk over their joint
work. The _idea_ was, however, claimed by Sir Richard Phillips, who
stoutly maintained that it originated in a suggestion made by him
to Dr. Tilloch and Mr. Mayne, to cut the anecdotes from the many
years' files of the _Star_ newspaper, of which Dr. Tilloch was the
editor; and Mr. Byerley assistant editor; and to the latter
overhearing the suggestion, Sir Richard contested, might the "Percy
Anecdotes" be traced. They were very successful, and a large sum
was realised by the work.
* * * * *
Peele's Coffee-house, Nos. 177 and 178, Fleet-street, east corner
of Fetter-lane, was one of the coffee-houses of the Johnsonian
period; and here was long preserved a portrait of Dr. Johnson, on
the keystone of a chimney-piece, stated to have been painted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds. Peele's was noted for files of newspapers from
these dates: _Gazette_, 1759; _Times_, 1780; _Morning Chronicle_,
1773; _Morning Post_, 1773; _Morning Herald_, 1784; _Morning
Advertiser_, 1794; and the evening papers from their commencement.
The house is now a tavern.
_Coffee Literature and Ideals_
The bibliography at the end of this work will serve to indicate the
nature and extent of the general literature of coffee. Not that it is
complete or nearly so; it would require twice the space to include
mention of all the fugitive bits of verse, essays, and miscellaneous
writings in newspapers, and periodicals, dealing with the poetry and
romance, history, chemistry, and physiological effects of coffee. Only
the early works, and the more notable contributions of the last three
centuries, are included in the bibliography; but there is sufficient to
enable the student to analyze the lines of general progress.
A study of the literature of coffee shows that the French really
internationalized the beverage. The English and Italians followed. With
the advent of the newspaper press, coffee literature began to suffer
from its competition.
The complexities of modern life suggest that coffee drinking in
perfection, the esthetics, and a new literature of coffee may once more
become the pleasure of a small caste. Are the real pleasures of life,
the things truly worth while, only to the swift--the most efficient? Who
shall say? Are not some of us, particularly in America, rather prone to
glorify the gospel of work to such an extent that we are in danger of
losing the ability to understand or to enjoy anything else?
Granted that this is so, coffee, already recognized as the most grateful
lubricant known to the human machine, is destined to play another part
of increasing importance in our national life as a kind of national
shock-absorber as well. But its rôle is something more than this,
surely. When life is drab, it takes away its grayness. When life is sad,
it brings us solace. When life is dull, it brings us new inspiration.
When we are a-weary, it brings us comfort and good cheer.
The lure of coffee lies in its appeal to our finer sensibilities; and
signs are not wanting that that pursuit of the long, sweet happiness
that every one is seeking will lead some of us (even in big bustling
America) into footpaths that end in places where coffee will offer much
of its pristine inspiration and charm. It probably will not be a coffee
house anything like that of the long ago, but perhaps it will be a kind
of modernized coffee club. Why not?
[Illustration: A COFFEE HOUSE IN HOLLAND, ABOUT 1650
After the etching by J. Beauvarlet from a painting by Adriaen Van Ostade
(1610-1675), which is said to be the earliest picture of a coffee house
in western Europe]
CHAPTER XXXIII
COFFEE IN RELATION TO THE FINE ARTS
_How coffee and coffee drinking have been celebrated in painting,
engraving, sculpture, caricature, lithography, and music--Epics,
rhapsodies, and cantatas in praise of coffee--Beautiful specimens
of the art of the potter and the silversmith as shown in the coffee
service of various periods in the world's history--Some historical
relics_
Coffee has inspired the imagination of many poets, musicians, and
painters. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries those whose genius
was dedicated to the fine arts seem to have fallen under its spell and
to have produced much of great beauty that has endured. To the painters,
engravers, and caricaturists of that period we are particularly indebted
for pictures that have added greatly to our knowledge of early coffee
customs and manners.
Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685), the Dutch genre painter and etcher,
pupil of Frans Hals, in his "Dutch Coffee House" (1650), shows the
genesis of the coffee house of western Europe about the time it still
partook of some of the tavern characteristics. Coffee is being served to
a group in the foreground. It is believed to be the oldest existing
picture of a coffee house. The illustration is after the etching by J.
Beauvarlet in the graphic collection at Munich.
William Hogarth (1697-1764), the famous English painter and engraver of
satirical subjects, chose the coffee houses of his time for the scenes
of a number of his social caricatures. In his series, "Four Times of the
Day," which throws a vivid light on the street life of London of the
period of 1738, we are shown Covent Garden at 7:55 A.M. by the clock on
St. Paul's Church. A prim maiden lady (said to have been sketched from
an elderly relation of the artist, who cut him out of her will) on her
way home from early service, accompanied by a shivering foot-boy, is
scandalized by the spectacle presented by some roystering blades issuing
from Tom King's notorious coffee house to the right. The _beaux_ are
forcing their attentions upon the more comely of the market women in the
foreground. Tom King was a scholar at Eton before he began his ignoble
career. At the date of this picture, it is thought he had been succeeded
by his widow, Moll King, also of scandalous repute.
Scene VI of the "Rake's Progress" by Hogarth is laid at the club in
White's chocolate (coffee) house, which Dr. Swift described as "the
common rendezvous of infamous sharpers and noble cullies." The rake has
lost all his recently acquired wealth, pulls off his wig and flings
himself upon the floor in a paroxysm of fury and execration. In allusion
to the burning of White's in 1733, flames are seen bursting from the
wainscot, but the pre-occupied gamblers take no heed, even of the
watchman crying "Fire!" To the left is seated a highwayman, with horse
pistol and black mask in a skirt pocket of his coat. He is so engrossed
in his thoughts that he does not notice the boy at his side offering a
glass of liquor on a tray. The scene well depicts the low estate to
which White's had fallen. It recalls a bit of dialogue from Farquhar's
_Beaux' Stratagem_ (act III, scene 2), where Aimwell says to Gibbet, who
is a highwayman: "Pray, sir, ha'nt I seen your face at Will's Coffee
House?" "Yes sir, and at White's, too," answers the highwayman.
[Illustration: IN THE CLUB AT WHITE'S COFFEE HOUSE, 1733
From a painting in the series, "The Rake's Progress," by William
Hogarth]
After the fire, the club and chocolate house were removed to Gaunt's
coffee house. The removal was thus announced in the _Daily Post_ of May
3:
This is to acquaint all noblemen and gentlemen that Mr. Arthur
having had the misfortune to be burnt out of White's Chocolate
House is removed to Gaunt's Coffee House, next the St. James Coffee
House in St. James Street, where he humbly begs they will favour
him with their company as usual.
Alessandro Longhi (1733-1813) the Italian painter and engraver, called
the Venetian Hogarth, in one of his pictures presenting life and manners
in Venice during the years of her decadence, shows Goldoni, the
dramatist, as a visitor in a café of the period, with a female mendicant
soliciting alms.
In the Louvre at Paris hangs the "Petit Déjeuner" by François Boucher
(1703-1770), famous court painter of Louis XV. It shows a French
breakfast-room of the period of 1744, and is interesting because it
illustrates the introduction of coffee into the home; it shows also the
coffee service of the time.
In Van Loo's portrait of Madame de Pompadour, second mistress and
political adviser of Louis XV of France, the coffee service of a later
period of the eighteenth century appears. The Nubian servant is shown
offering the marquise a demi-tasse which has just been poured from the
covered oriental pot which succeeded the original Arabian-Turkish
boiler, and was much in vogue at the time.
Coffee and Madame du Barry (or would it be more polite to say Madame du
Barry and coffee?) inspired the celebrated painting of Madame de
Pompadour's successor in the affections of Louis "the well beloved."
This is entitled "Madame du Barry at Versailles", and in the Versailles
catalog it is described as painted by Decreuse after Drouais. Decreuse
was a pupil of Gros, and painted many of the historical portraits at
Versailles.
[Illustration: TOM KING'S COFFEE HOUSE IS COVENT GARDEN, 1738
From a printing in the series, "Four Times of the Day," by William
Hogarth]
Malcolm C. Salaman, in his _French Color Prints of the XVIII Century_,
referring to Dagoty's print of this picture, done in 1771, says, "the
original has been attributed to François Hubert Drouais, but there can
be little doubt that the original portraiture was from the hand of the
engraver (Dagoty), as the style is far inferior to Drouais." He thus
describes it:
Here we see the last of Louis XV's mistresses, sitting in her
bedroom in that alluring retreat of hers at Louveciennes, near the
woods of Marly, as she takes her cup of coffee from her pet
attendant, the little negro boy, Zamore, as the Prince de Conti had
named him, all brave in red and gold. Doubtless she is expecting
the morning visit of the King, no longer the handsome young
gallant, but old and leaden-eyed, and puffy-cheeked; and perhaps it
will be on this very morning that she will wheedle Louis, in a
moment of extravagant badinage, into appointing the negro boy to be
Governor of the Chateau and Pavilion of Louveciennes at a handsome
salary, just as, on another day, she playfully teased the jaded old
sensualist into decorating with the cordon bleu her cuisinière when
it was triumphantly revealed to him that the dinner he had been
praising with enthusiastic gusto was, after all, the work of a
woman cook, the very possibility of which he had contemptuously
doubted. But as we look at these two, the royal mistress and her
little black favorite, we forget the "well beloved" and his
voluptuous pleasures and indulgences, for in the shadows we see
another picture, some twenty years on, when the proud
unconscionable beauty, no longer _reine de la main gauche_, stands
before the dreaded Tribunal of the Terror, while Zamore, the
treacherous, ungrateful negro, dismissed from his service at
Louveciennes and now devoted to the committee of public safety, and
one of her implacable accusers, sends her shrieking to the
guillotine.
[Illustration: "PETIT DÉJEUNER," BY BOUCHER
Showing the home coffee service of the period of 1744]
[Illustration: COFFEE SERVICE IN THE HOME OF MADAME DE
POMPADOUR--PAINTING BY VAN LOO]
The introduction of the coffee house into Europe was memorialized by
Franz Schams, the genre painter, pupil of the Vienna Academy, in a
beautiful picture entitled "The First Coffee House in Vienna, 1684,"
owned by the Austrian Art Society. A lithographic reproduction was
executed by the artist and printed by Joseph Stoufs in Vienna. There are
several specimens in the United States; and the illustration printed on
page 48 has been made from one of these in the possession of the author.
The picture shows the interior of the Blue Bottle, where Kolschitzky
opened the first coffee house in Vienna. The hero-proprietor stands in
the foreground pouring a cup of the beverage from an oriental coffee
pot, and another is suspended from the coffee-house sign that hangs over
the fireplace. In the fire alcove a woman is pounding coffee in a
mortar. Men and women in the costumes of the period are being served
coffee by a Vienna _mädchen_.
[Illustration: MADAME DU BARRY AND HER SLAVE BOY ZAMORE--PAINTING BY
DECREUSE]
The painters Marilhat, Descamps, and de Tournemine have pictured café
scenes; the first in his "Café sur une route de Syrie", which was shown
at the Salon of 1844; the second in his "Café Turc", which figured at
the Exposition of 1855; and the third in his "Café en Asia Mineure",
which received honors at the Salon of 1859, and attracted attention at
the Universal Exposition of 1867.
A decorative panel designed for the buffet at the Paris Opera House by
S. Mazerolles was shown at the Exposition of 1878. A French artist,
Jacquand, has painted two charming compositions; one representing the
reading room, and the other the interior, of a café.
Many German artists have shown coffee manners and customs in pictures
that are now hanging in well known European galleries. Among others,
mention should be made of C. Schmidt's "The Sweets Shop of Josty in
Berlin", 1845; Milde's "Pastor Rautenberg and His Family at the Coffee
Table", 1833; and his "Manager Classen and His Family at the Afternoon
Coffee Table", 1840; Adolph Menzel's "Parisian Boulevard Café", 1870;
Hugo Meith's "Saturday Afternoon at the Coffee Table"; John Philipp's
"Old Woman with Coffee Cup"; Friedrich Walle's "Afternoon Coffee in the
Court Gardens at Munich"; Paul Meyerheim's "Oriental Coffee House"; and
Peter Philippi's (Dusseldorf) "Kaffeebesuch."
At the Exposition des Beaux Arts, Salon of 1881, there was shown P.A.
Ruffio's picture, "Le café vient au secours de la Muse" (Coffee comes to
the aid of the Muse), in which the graceful form of an oriental ewer
appears.
The "Coffee House at Cairo," a canvas by Jean Léon Gérôme (1824-1904)
that hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, has been much
admired. It shows the interior of a typical oriental coffee house with
two men near a furnace at the left preparing the beverage; a man seated
on a wicker basket about to smoke a hooka; a dervish dancing; and
several persons seated against the wall in the background.
[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE AT CAIRO--PAINTING BY GÉRÔME IN THE
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK]
The New York Historical Society acquired in 1907 from Miss Margaret A.
Ingram an oil painting of the "Tontine Coffee House." It was painted in
Philadelphia by Francis Guy, and was sold at a raffle, after having been
admired by President John Adams. It shows lower Wall Street in
1796-1800, with the Tontine coffee house on the northwest corner of Wall
and Water Streets, where its more famous predecessor, the Merchants
coffee house, was located before it moved to quarters diagonally
opposite.
Charles P. Gruppe's (_b._ 1860) painting showing General "Washington's
Official Welcome to New York by City and State Officials at the
Merchants Coffee House," April 23, 1789, just one week before his
inauguration as first president of the United States, is a colorful
canvas that has been much praised for its atmosphere and historical
associations. It is the property of the author.
The art museums and libraries of every country contain many beautiful
water-colors, engravings, prints, drawings, and lithographs, whose
creators found inspiration in coffee. Space permits the mention of only
a few.
T.H. Shepherd has preserved for us Button's, afterward the Caledonien
coffee house, Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, in a water-color
drawing of 1857; Tom's coffee house, 17 Great Russell Street, Covent
Garden, 1857; Slaughter's coffee house in St. Martin's Lane, 1841; also,
in 1857, the Lion's Head at Button's, put up by Addison and now the
property of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn.
[Illustration: "KAFFEEBESUCH"
From the painting by Peter Philippi]
[Illustration: "COFFEE COMES TO THE AID OF THE MUSE"
From the painting by Ruffio]
Hogarth figures in the Sam Ireland collection with several original
drawings of frequenters of Button's in 1730.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) the great English caricaturist and
illustrator, has given us several fine pictures of English coffee-house
life. His "Mad Dog in a Coffee House" presents a lively scene; and his
water-color of "The French Coffee House" is one of the best pictures we
have of the French coffee house in London as it looked during the latter
half of the eighteenth century.
During the campaign in France in 1814, Napoleon arrived one day,
unheralded, in a country presbytery, where the good curé was quietly
turning his hand coffee-roaster. The emperor asked him, "What are you
doing there, abbé?" "Sire", replied the priest, "I am doing like you. I
am burning the colonial fodder." Charlet (1792-1845) made a lithograph
of the incident.
Several French poet-musicians resorted to music to celebrate coffee.
Brittany has its own songs in praise of coffee, as have other French
provinces. There are many epics, rhapsodies, and cantatas--and even a
comic opera by Meilhat, music by Deffes, bearing the title, _Le Café du
Roi_, produced at the Théâtre Lyrique, November 16, 1861.
[Illustration: "MAD DOG IN A COFFEE HOUSE"--CARICATURE BY ROWLANDSON]
Fuzelier wrote, in honor of coffee, a cantata, set to music by Bernier.
This is the burden of the poet's song:
Ah coffee, what climes yet unknown,
Ignore the clear fires that thy vapors inspire!
Thou countest, in thy vast empire
Those realms that Bacchus' reign disown.
Favored liquid, which fills all my soul with delights,
Thy enchantments to life happy hours persuade,
We vanquish e'en sleep by thy fortunate aid,
Thou hast rescued the hours sleep would rob from our nights.
Favored liquid which fills all my soul with delights,
Thy enchantments to life happy hours persuade.
Oh liquid that I love,
Triumphant stream of sable,
E'en for the gods above,
Drive nectar from the table.
Make thou relentless war
On treacherous juices sly,
Let earth taste and adore
The sweet calm of the sky.
Oh liquid that I love,
Triumphant stream of sable,
E'en for the gods above,
Drive nectar from the table.
During the early vogue of the café in Paris, a _chanson_, entitled
_Coffee_, reproduced here, was set to music with accompaniment for the
piano by M.H. Colet, a professor of harmony at the Conservatoire.
Printed in the form of a placard, and put up in cafés, it received the
approbation of, and was signed by, de Voyer d'Argenson, at that time
(1711) lieutenant of police. The poetry is not irreproachable. It can
hardly be attributed to any of the well known poets of the time; but
rather to one of those bohemian rimesters that wrote all too abundantly
on all sorts of subjects. It is the development of a theory concerning
the properties of coffee and the best method of making it. It is
interesting to note that the uses of advertising were known and
appreciated in Paris in 1711; for in the _chanson_ there appears the
name and address of one Vilain, a merchant, rue des Lombards, who was
evidently in fashion at that period. The translation of the stanza
reproduced is as follows:
COFFEE--A CHANSON
If you, with mind untroubled,
Would flourish, day by day,
Let each day of the seven
Find coffee on your tray.
It will your frame preserve from every malady,
Its virtues drive afar, la! la!
Migrain and dread catarrh--ha! ha!
Dull cold and lethargy.
The most notable contribution to the "music of coffee," if one may be
permitted the expression, is the _Coffee Cantata_ of Johann Sebastian
Bach (1685-1750) the German organist and the most modern composer of the
first half of the eighteenth century. He hymned the religious sentiment
of protestant Germany; and in his _Coffee Cantata_ he tells in music the
protest of the fair sex against the libels of the enemies of the
beverage, who at the time were actively urging in Germany that it should
be forbidden women, because its use made for sterility! Later on, the
government surrounded the manufacture, sale, and use of coffee with many
obnoxious restrictions, as told in chapter VIII.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON AND THE CURÉ--LITHOGRAPH BY CHARLET]
Bach's _Coffee Cantata_ is No. 211 of the _Secular Cantatas_, and was
published in Leipzig in 1732. In German it is known as _Schweigt stille,
plaudert nicht_ (Be silent, do not talk). It is written for soprano,
tenor, and bass solos and orchestra. Bach used as his text a poem by
Piccander. The cantata is really a sort of one-act operetta--a jocose
production representing the efforts of a stern parent to check his
daughter's propensities in coffee drinking, the new fashioned habit. One
seldom thinks of Bach as a humorist; but the music here is written in a
mock-heroic vein, the recitatives and arias having a merry flavor,
hinting at what the master might have done in light opera.
[Illustration: COFFEE--A CHANSON; MUSIC BY COLET, 1711]
The libretto shows the father Schlendrian, or Slowpoke, trying by
various threats to dissuade his daughter from further indulgence in the
new vice, and, in the end, succeeding by threatening to deprive her of a
husband. But his victory is only temporary. When the mother and the
grandmother indulge in coffee, asks the final trio, who can blame the
daughter?
Bach uses the spelling coffee--not _kaffee_. The cantata was sung as
recently as December 18, 1921, at a concert in New York by the Society
of the Friends of Music, directed by Arthur Bodanzky.
Lieschen, or Betty, the daughter, has a delightful aria, beginning, "Ah,
how sweet coffee tastes--lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far
than muscatel wine!" the opening bars of which are reproduced on page
598.
As the text is not long, it is printed here in its entirety.
[Illustration: STATUE OF KOLSCHITZKY IN VIENNA]
_CHARACTERS_
MESSENGER AND NARRATOR _Tenor_
SLOWPOKE _Bass_
BETTY, DAUGHTER TO SLOWPOKE _Soprano_
TENOR (_Recitative_): Be silent, do not talk, but notice what will
happen! Here comes old Slowpoke with his daughter Betty. He's
grumbling like a common bear--just listen to what he says.
(_Enter_ SLOWPOKE _muttering_): What vexatious things one's
children are! A hundred thousand naughty ways! What I tell my
daughter Betty might as well be told to the moon! (_Enter_ BETTY.)
SLOWPOKE (_Recitative_): You naughty child, you mischievous girl,
oh when can I have my way--give up your coffee!
BETTY: Dear father, do not be so strict! If I can't have my little
demi-tasse of coffee three times a day, I'm just like a dried up
piece of roast goat!
BETTY (_Aria_): Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a
thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! I must have my
coffee, and if any one wishes to please me, let him present me
with--coffee!
SLOWPOKE _(Recitative_): If you won't give up coffee, young lady, I
won't let you go to any wedding feasts--I won't even let you go
walking!
BETTY: O yes! Do let me have my coffee!
SLOWPOKE: What a little monkey you are, anyway! I will not let you
have any whale-bone skirts of the present fashionable size!
BETTY: Oh, I can easily fix _that_!
SLOWPOKE: But I won't let you stand at the window and watch the new
styles!
BETTY: That doesn't bother me, either. But be good and let me have
my coffee!
SLOWPOKE: But from my hands you'll get no silver or gold ribbon for
your hair!
BETTY: Oh well! so long as I have what does satisfy me!
SLOWPOKE: You wretched Betty, you! You won't give in to me?
SLOWPOKE (_Air_): Oh these girls--what obstinate dispositions they
do have! They certainly are not easy to manage! But if one hits the
right spot--oh well, one _may_ succeed!
SLOWPOKE, _with an air of being sure of success this time_
(_Recitative_): Now please do what father says.
BETTY: In everything, except about coffee.
SLOWPOKE: Well, then, you must make up your mind to do without a
husband.
BETTY: Oh--yes? Father, a husband?
SLOWPOKE: I swear you can't have him--
BETTY: Till I give up coffee? Oh well--coffee--let it be
forgotten--dear father--I will not drink--none!
SLOWPOKE: _Then_ you can have one!
BETTY (_Aria_): Today, dear father--do it _today_. (_He goes out._)
Ah, a husband! Really this suits me exactly! When they know I must
have coffee, why, before I go to bed to-night I can have a valiant
lover! (_Goes out._)
TENOR (_Recitative_): Now go hunt up old Slowpoke, and just watch
him get a husband for his daughter--for Betty is secretly making it
known "that no wooer may come to the house, unless he promises me
himself, and has it put in the marriage contract that he will allow
me to make coffee whenever I will!"
[Illustration: "AH, HOW SWEET COFFEE TASTES--LOVELIER THAN A THOUSAND
KISSES, SWEETER FAR THAN MUSCATEL WINE!"
Opening bars of Betty's aria in Bach's _Coffee Cantata_, 1732]
(_Enter_ SLOWPOKE _and_ BETTY, _singing--as chorus--with_ TENOR.)
TRIO: The cat will not give up the mouse, old maids continue
"coffee-sisters!"--the mother loves her drink of coffee--grandma,
too, is a coffee fiend--_who_ now will blame the daughter!
[Illustration: THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COFFEE HOUSE IN THE WORLD
The Caffè Pedrocchi in Padua, Italy, empire period, erected by the poor
lemonade vendor and coffee seller, Antonio Pedrocchi.]
Research has discovered only one piece of sculpture associated with
coffee--the statue of the Austrian hero Kolschitzky, the patron saint of
the Vienna coffee houses. It graces the second-floor corner of a house
in the Favoriten Strasse, where it was erected in his honor by the
Coffee Makers' Guild of Vienna. The great "brother-heart" is shown in
the attitude of pouring coffee into cups on a tray from an oriental
service pot.
The celebrated Caffè Pedrocchi, the center of life in the city of Padua,
Italy, in the early part of the nineteenth century, is one of the most
beautiful buildings erected in Italy. Its use is apparent at first
glance. It was begun in 1816, opened June 9, 1831, and completed in
1842. Antonio Pedrocchi (1776-1852), an obscure Paduan coffee-house
keeper, tormented by a desire for glory, conceived the idea of building
the most beautiful coffee house in the world, and carried it out.
Artists and craftsmen of all ages since the discovery of coffee have
brought their genius into play to fashion various forms of apparatus
associated with the preparation of the coffee drink. Coffee roasters and
grinders have been made of brass, silver, and gold; coffee mortars, of
bronze; and coffee making and serving pots, of beautiful copper, pewter,
pottery, porcelain, and silver designs.
In the Peter collection in the United States National Museum there is to
be seen a fine specimen of the Bagdad coffee pot made of beaten copper
and used for making and serving; also, a beautiful Turkish coffee set.
In the Metropolitan Museum in New York there are some beautiful
specimens of Persian and Egyptian ewers in faience, probably used for
coffee service. Also, in American and continental museums are to be seen
many examples of seventeenth-century German, Dutch, and English bronze
mortars and pestles used for "braying" coffee beans to make coffee
powder.
[Illustration: COFFEE GRINDER SET WITH JEWELS
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]
A very beautiful specimen of the oriental coffee grinder, made of brass
and teakwood, set with red and green glass jewels, and inlaid in the
teakwood with ivory and brass, is at the Metropolitan. This is of
Indo-Persian design of the nineteenth century.
The Metropolitan Museum shows also many specimens of pewter coffee pots
used in India, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Russia, and England in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
One can guess at the luxuriousness of the coffee pots in use in France
throughout the eighteenth century by noting that from March 20, 1754, to
April 16, 1755, Louis XV bought no fewer than three gold coffee pots of
Lazare Duvaux. They had carved branches, and were supplied with "chafing
dishes of burnished steel" and lamps for spirits of wine. They cost,
respectively, 1,950, 1,536, and 2,400 francs. In the "inventory of
Marie-Josephe de Saxe, Dauphine of France", we note, too, a "two cup
coffee pot of gold with its chafing dish for spirits of wine in a
leather case."
The Italian wrought-iron coffee roaster of the seventeenth century was
often a work of art. The specimen illustrated is rich in decorative
motifs associated with the best in Florentine art.
Madame de Pompadour's inventory disclosed a "gold coffee mill, carved in
colored gold to represent the branches of a coffee tree." The art of
gold, which sought to embellish everything, did not disdain these homely
utensils; and one may see at the Cluny Museum in Paris, among many mills
of graceful form, a coffee mill of engraved iron dating from the
eighteenth century, upon which are represented the four seasons. We are
told, however, that it graced the "sale after the death of Mme. de
Pompadour", which, of course, makes it much more valuable.
[Illustration: ITALIAN WROUGHT-IRON COFFEE ROASTER
Courtesy of _Edison Monthly_]
"The tea pot, coffee pot and chocolate pot first used in England closely
resembled each other in form", says Charles James Jackson in his
_Illustrated History of English Plate_, "each being circular in plan,
tapering towards the top, and having its handle fixed at a right angle
with the spout."
[Illustration: Tea Pot, 1670
Coffee Pot, 1681
Coffee Pot, 1689
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TEA POTS AND COFFEE POTS]
He says further:
The earliest examples were of oriental ware and the form of these
was adopted by the English plate workers as a model for others of
silver. It apparently was not until after both tea and coffee had
been used for several years in this country [England] that the tea
pot was made proportionately less in height and greater in diameter
than the coffee pot. This distinction, which was probably due to
copying the forms of Chinese porcelain tea pots, was afterwards
maintained, and to the present day the difference between the tea
pot and the coffee pot continued to be mainly one of height.
The coffee pot illustrated (1681) formerly belonged to the East India
Company, and is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is
almost identical with a tea pot (1670) in the same museum, except that
its straight spout is fixed nearer to the base, as is its
leather-covered handle, which, with the sockets into which it fits,
forms a long recurving scroll fixed opposite to and in line with the
spout. Its cover, which is hinged to the upper handle socket, is high
like that of the 1670 tea-pot; but instead of the straight outline of
that cover, this is slightly waved and surmounted by a somewhat flat
button-shaped knob. Engraved on the body is a shield of arms, a chevron
between three crosses fleury, surrounded by tied feathers. The
inscription is, "The Guift of Richard Sterne Eq to ye Honorable East
India Compa."
This pot is nine and three-quarters inches in height by four and
seven-eighths inches in diameter at the base; it bears the London
hall-marks of 1681-82 and the maker's mark "G.G." in a shaped shield,
thought by Jackson to be George Garthorne's mark.
The 1689 coffee pot illustrated is the property of King George V. It
bears the London hall-marks of 1689-90, and the mark of Francis
Garthorne. Its tall, round body tapers toward the top, and has applied
moldings on the base and rim. Its spout is straight and tapers upward to
the level of the rim of the pot. Its handle is of ebony,
crescent-shaped, and riveted into two sockets fixed at a right angle
with the spout. The lid is a high cone surmounted by a small vase-shaped
finial, and is hinged to the upper socket of the handle. On no part of
the pot is there any ornamentation other than the royal cipher of King
William III and Queen Mary, which is engraved on the reverse side of the
body. This example, which measures nine inches in height to the top of
its cover, resembles very closely in form the East India Company's
tea-pot just referred to; but as teapots with much lower bodies appear
to have come into fashion before 1689, this pot was probably used as a
coffee pot from the first.
The 1692 coffee pot of lantern shape is the property of H.D. Ellis, and
has its spout curved upward at the top, being furnished with a small,
hinged flap and a scroll-shaped thumb-piece attached to the rim of the
cover. The body and cover were originally quite plain, the embossing and
chasing with symmetrical rococo decoration being added later, probably
about 1740. Jackson says the wooden handle is not the original one,
which was probably C-shaped. The pot bears the usual London hall-marks
for the year 1692 and the maker's mark is "G G" upon a shaped shield, a
mark recorded upon the copper plate belonging to the Goldsmiths'
company, which Mr. Cripps thinks was that of George Garthorne. The
characteristics of this lantern shaped coffee pot are:
1. The straight sides, so rapidly tapering from the base upward
that in a height of only six inches the base diameter of four and
three-eighths inches tapers to a diameter of no more than two and
one-half inches at the rim.
2. The nearly straight spout, furnished with a flap or shutter.
3. The true cone of the lid.
4. The thumb-piece, which is a familiar feature upon the tankards
of the period.
5. The handle fixed at right angles to the spout.
[Illustration: LANTERN COFFEE POT, 1692]
[Illustration: FOLKINGHAM POT, 1715-16]
Mr. Ellis, in a paper before the Society of Antiquaries[361] on the
earliest form of coffee pot, says:
If coffee was first introduced into this country by the Turkey
merchants, nothing is more probable than that those who first
brought the berry, brought also the vessel in which it was to be
served. Such a vessel would be the Turkish ewer whose shape is
familiar to us, the same today as two hundred years ago, for in the
East things are slow to change. And throughout the reign of the
second Charles, so long as the extended use of coffee in the houses
of the people was retarded by the opposition of the Women of
England, and by the scarcely less powerful influence of the King's
Court, the small requirements of a mere handful of coffee-houses
would be easily met by the importation of Turkish vessels.
Reference to the coffee-house keepers' tokens in the Beaufoy
collection in the Guildhall Museum shows that many of the traders
of 1660-1675 adopted as their trade sign a hand pouring coffee from
a pot. This pot is invariably of the Turkish ewer pattern. It is
true that there is nothing to show that the Turks themselves ever
served coffee from the ewer, but it is scarcely conceivable that
the English coffee-house keepers should have adopted as their trade
sign, their pictorial advertisement, so to speak, a vessel which
had no connection with the commodity in which they dealt, and which
would convey no meaning associated with coffee to the public. But
as soon as the extended use of the beverage created a demand which
stimulated a home manufacture of coffee-pots, a new departure is
apparent. The undulating outlines beloved by the Orientals, bowed
as their scimitars, curvilinear as their graceful flowing script,
do not commend themselves to the more severe Western taste of the
period which had then declared its preference for sweet simplicity
in silversmiths' work, such as we see in the basons, cups, and
especially the flat-topped tankards of that day. The beauty of the
straight line had asserted its power, and fashion felt its sway.
Such was the feeling that produced the coffee-pot of 1692, the
straight lines of which continued in vogue until the middle of the
following century, when a reaction in favour of bulbous bodies and
serpentine spouts set in.
[Illustration: WASTELL POT, 1720-21]
Some of the more notable of the coffee-house-keepers' tokens in the
Guildhall Museum were photographed for this work. They are described and
illustrated in chapter X.
There are illustrated other silver coffee pots in the Victoria and
Albert Museum, by Folkingham (1715-16), and by Wastell (1720-21), the
latter pot being octagonal.
There is illustrated also a design in tiles that were let into the wall
of an ancient coffee house in Brick Lane, Spitalfields, known as the
"Dish of Coffee Boy" in the catalog of the collection of London
antiquities in the Guildhall Museum. Mr. Ellis thinks this belongs to a
period a little earlier, but certainly not later, than 1692; the coffee
pot represented being exactly of the lantern shape. It is an oblong sign
of glazed Delft tiles, decorated in blue, brown, and yellow,
representing a youth pouring coffee. Upon a table, by his side, are a
gazette, two pipes, a bowl, a bottle, and a mug; above, on a scroll, is,
"dish of coffee boy."
[Illustration: "DISH OF COFFEE BOY" DESIGN IN DELFT TILES 1692]
Modifications of the lantern began to appear with great rapidity in
England. In the coffee pot of Chinese porcelain, illustrated, probably
made in China from an English model a few years later than the 1692 pot,
Mr. Ellis observes that "the spout has already lost its straightness,
the extreme taper of the body is diminished, and the lid betrays the
first tendency to depart from the straightness of the cone to the curved
outline of the dome." He adds:
These variations rapidly intensified, and at the commencement of
the eighteenth century we find the body still less tapering and the
lid has become a perfect dome. As we approach the end of Queen
Anne's reign the thumb piece disappears and the handle is no longer
set on at right angles to the spout. Through the reign of George I
but little modification took place, save that the taper of the body
became less and less. In the Second George's time we find the
taper has almost entirely disappeared, so that the sides are
nearly parallel, while the dome of the lid has been flattened down
to a very low elevation above the rim. In the second quarter of the
eighteenth century the pear shaped coffee pot was the vogue. In the
earlier years of George III, when many new and beautiful designs in
silversmiths' work were created, a complete revolution in
coffee-pots takes place, and the flowing outlines of the new
pattern recall the form of the Turkish ewer, which had been
discarded nearly one hundred years previously.
[Illustration: CHINESE PORCELAIN COFFEE POT
Late seventeenth century]
The evolution is shown by illustrations of Lord Swaythling's pot of
1731; the coffee jug of 1736; the Vincent pot of 1738; the Viscountess
Wolseley's coffee pot of copper plated with silver; the Irish coffee pot
of 1760; and the silver coffee pots of 1773-76 and of 1779-80 (see
illustrations on pages 604, 605 and 607).
[Illustration: Vincent Pot, Hall-marked, London, 1738
Lord Swaythling's Pot, 1731
SILVER COFFEE POTS, EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
From Jackson's "Illustrated History of English Plate"]
There are illustrated in this connection specimens of coffee pots in
stoneware by Elers (1700), and in salt glaze by Astbury, and another of
the period about 1725. These are in the department of British and
medieval antiquities of the British Museum, where are to be seen also
some beautiful specimens of coffee-service pots in Whieldon ware, and in
Wedgwood's jasper ware.
[Illustration: IRISH COFFEE POT, 1760
Hall-marked Dublin; the property of Col. Moore-Brabazon]
[Illustration: VISCOUNTESS WOLSELEY'S COFFEE POT]
[Illustration: A SCOFIELD POT OF 1779-80]
[Illustration: COFFEE JUG, 1736]
[Illustration: SILVER COFFEE POTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]
[Illustration: SALT-GLAZE POT
By John Astbury]
[Illustration: ELERS WARE COFFEE POT
Stoneware, about 1700]
[Illustration: SALT-GLAZE POT
About 1725]
[Illustration: POTS IN POTTERY AND PORCELAIN 18TH TO 20TH CENTURIES
1--Staffordshire; 2--English, eighteen to twentieth centuries;
3--English, blue printed ware, eighteenth to nineteenth centuries;
4--Leeds, 1760-1790; 5--Staffordshire, nineteenth to twentieth
centuries]
Illustrated, too, are some beautiful examples of the art of the potter,
applied to coffee service, as found in the Metropolitan Museum, where
they have been brought from many countries. Included are Leeds and
Staffordshire examples of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth
centuries; a Sino-Lowestoft pot of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries;
an Italian (_capodimonte_) pot of the eighteenth century; German pots of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; a Vienna coffee pot of the
eighteenth century; a French (_La Seine_) coffee pot of 1774-1793, a
Sèvres pot of 1792-1804; and a Spanish eighteenth-century coffee pot
decorated in copper luster.
At the Metropolitan may be seen also Hatfield and Sheffield-plate pots
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and many examples of silver
tea and coffee service and coffee pots by American silversmiths.
[Illustration: SILVER COFFEE POTS, LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Left, 1776-77. Right, 1773-4.]
Silver tea pots and coffee pots were few in America before the middle of
the eighteenth century. Early coffee-pot examples were tapering and
cylindrical in form, and later matched the tea pots with swelling drums,
molded bases, decorated spouts, and molded lids with finials.
From notes by R.T. Haines Halsey and John H. Buck, collected by Florence
N. Levy and woven into an introduction to the Metropolitan Museum's art
exhibition catalog for the Hudson-Fulton celebration of 1909, we learn
that:
The first silver made in New England was probably fashioned by
English or Scotch emigrants who had served their time abroad. They
were followed by craftsmen who were either born here, or, like John
Hull, arriving at an early age, learned their trade on this side.
In England it was required that every master goldsmith should have
his mark and set it upon his work after it was assayed and marked
with the king's mark (hall-mark) testifying to the fineness of the
metal.
[Illustration: Sino-Lowestoft, Eighteenth To Nineteenth Centuries]
[Illustration: ITALIAN CAPODIMONTE, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]
[Illustration: LA SEINE, 1774
SÈVRES, 1792
GERMAN POTS, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]
[Illustration: PORCELAIN POTS IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK]
The Colonial silversmiths marked their wares with their initials,
with or without emblems, placed in shields, circles, etc., without
any guide as to place of manufacture or date. After about 1725 it
was the custom to use the surname, with or without an initial, and
sometimes the full name. Since the establishment of the United
States the name of the town was often added and also the letters D
or C in a circle, probably meaning dollar or coin, showing the
standard or coin from which the wares were made.
In the New York colony there were evolved silver tea pots of a unique
design, that was not used elsewhere in the colonies. Mr. Halsey says
they were used indiscriminately for both tea and coffee. In style they
followed, to a certain extent, the squat pear-shaped tea pots of the
period of 1717-18 in England, but had greater height and capacity.
The colonial silversmiths wrought many beautiful designs in coffee, tea,
and chocolate pots. Fine specimens are to be seen in the Halsey and
Clearwater loan collections in the Metropolitan Museum. Included in the
Clearwater collection is a coffee pot by Pygan Adams (1712-1776); and
recently, there was added a coffee pot by Ephraim Brasher, whose name
appears in the _New York City Directory_ from 1786 to 1805. He was a
member of the Gold and Silversmiths' Society, and he made the die for
the famous gold doubloon, known by his name, a specimen of which
recently sold in Philadelphia for $4,000. His brother, Abraham Brasher,
who was an officer in the continental army, wrote many popular ballads
of the Revolutionary period, and was a constant contributor to the
newspapers.
[Illustration: VIENNA COFFEE POT, 1830
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art]
[Illustration: SPANISH COFFEE POT, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
In the Metropolitan Museum]
Judge Clearwater's collection of colonial silver in the Metropolitan
Museum, to which he is constantly adding, is a magnificent one; and the
coffee pot is worthy of it. It is thirteen and one-half inches high,
weighs forty-four ounces, exclusive of the ebony handle, has a curved
body and splayed base, with a godrooned band to the base and a similar
edge to the cover. The spout is elaborate and curved; the cover has an
urn-shaped finial; and there is a decoration of an engraved medallion
surrounded by a wreath with a ribbon forming a true lover's knot.
[Illustration:
By Samuel Minott By Charles Hatfield By Pygan Adams
Halsey Collection Metropolitan Museum of Art Clearwater Collection
]
[Illustration:
London Pot, 1773-74 By Jacob Hurd By Paul Revere
FROM FRANCIS HILL BIGELOW'S "HISTORIC SILVER OF THE COLONIES"
]
[Illustration: ENGLISH SHEFFIELD PLATE COFFEE POTS AND COFFEE URN,
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]
[Illustration: SILVER COFFEE POTS IN AMERICAN COLLECTIONS]
[Illustration: COFFEE POT BY WM. SHAW AND WM. PRIEST
Made for Peter Faneuil (about 1751-52), who gave to Boston Faneuil Hall,
called the cradle of American liberty]
[Illustration: POT OF SHEFFIELD PLATE, 18TH CENTURY
In the Metropolitan Museum]
[Illustration: SILVER POT BY EPHRAIM BRASHER
In the Clearwater Collection, Metropolitan Museum]
In the Halsey collection is shown a silver coffee pot by Samuel Minott,
and several beautiful specimens of the handiwork of Paul Revere, whose
name is more often connected with the famous "midnight ride" than with
the art of the silversmith. Of all the American silversmiths, Paul
Revere was the most interesting. Not only was he a silversmith of
renown, but a patriot, soldier, grand master Mason, confidential agent
of the state of Massachusetts Bay, engraver, picture-frame designer, and
die-sinker. He was born in Boston in 1735, and died in 1818. He was the
most famous of all the Boston silversmiths, although he is more widely
known as a patriot. He was the third of a family of twelve children, and
early entered his father's shop. When only nineteen, his father died;
but he was able to carry on the business. The engraving on his silver
bears witness to his ability. He engraved also on copper, and made many
political cartoons. He joined the expedition against the French at Crown
Point, and in the war of the Revolution was a lieutenant-colonel of
artillery. After the close of the war, he resumed his business of a
goldsmith and silversmith in 1783. Decidedly a man of action, he well
played many parts; and in all his manifold undertakings achieved
brilliant success. There clings, therefore, to the articles of silver
made by him an element of romantic and patriotic association which
endears them to those who possess them.
[Illustration: FRENCH SILVER COFFEE POT
Grand Prize, Union Centrale, 1886.]
Revere had a real talent that enabled him to impart an unwonted elegance
to his work, and he was famous as an engraver of the beautiful crests,
armorial designs, and floral wreaths that adorn much of his work. His
tea pots and coffee pots are unusually beautiful.
Revere coffee pots are to be seen in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts as
well as in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The Boston Museum of
Fine Arts has also a coffee pot made by William Shaw and William Priest
in 1751-52 for Peter Faneuil, the wealthiest Bostonian of his time, who
gave to Boston Faneuil Hall, New England's cradle of American liberty.
Among other American silversmiths who produced striking designs in
coffee pots, mention should be made of G. Aiken (1815); Garrett Eoff
(New York, 1785-1850); Charles Faris (who worked in Boston about 1790);
Jacob Hurd (1702-1758, known in Boston as Captain Hurd); John McMullin
(mentioned in the Philadelphia _Directory_ for 1796); James Musgrave
(mentioned in Philadelphia directories of 1797, 1808, and 1811); Myer
Myers (admitted as freeman, New York, 1746; active until 1790; president
of the New York Silversmiths Society, 1786); and Anthony Rasch (who is
known to have worked in Philadelphia, 1815).
In the museums of the many historical societies throughout the United
States are to be seen interesting specimens of coffee pots in pewter,
Britannia metal, and tin ware, as well as in pottery, porcelain, and
silver. Some of these are illustrated.
[Illustration: THE GREEN DRAGON TAVERN COFFEE URN]
As in other branches of art during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, the United States were indebted to England, Holland, and
France for much of the early pottery and porcelain. Elers, Astbury,
Whieldon, Wedgwood, their imitators, and the later Staffordshire
potters, flooded the American market with their wares. Porcelain was not
made in this country previous to the nineteenth century. Decorative
pottery was made here, however, from an early period. Britannia ware
began to take the place of pewter in 1825; and the introduction of
japanned tin ware and pottery gradually caused the manufacture of pewter
to be abandoned.
[Illustration:
By an unknown silversmith By Paul Revere By Paul Revere
COFFEE POTS BY AMERICAN SILVERSMITHS]
[Illustration: TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN COFFEE SERVICE
The Portsmouth Pattern, by the Gorham Co.]
An interesting relic is in the collection of the Bostonian Society. It
is a coffee urn of Sheffield ware, formerly in the Green Dragon tavern,
which stood on Union Street from 1697 to 1832, and was a famous meeting
place of the patriots of the Revolution. It is globular in form, and
rests on a base; and inside is still to be seen the cylindrical piece of
iron which, when heated, kept the delectable liquid contents of the urn
hot until imbibed by the frequenters of the tavern. The iron bar was set
in a zinc or tin jacket to keep such fireplace ashes as still clung to
it from coming in contact with the coffee, which was probably brewed in
a stew kettle before being poured into the urn for serving. The Green
Dragon tavern site, now occupied by a business structure, is owned by
the St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons of Boston; and at a recent
gathering of the lodge on St. Andrew's Day, the urn was exhibited to the
assembled brethren.
When the contents of the tavern were sold, the urn was bought by Mrs.
Elizabeth Harrington, who then kept a famous boarding-house on Pearl
Street, in a building owned by the Quincy family. The house was razed in
1847, and was replaced by the Quincy Block; and Mrs. Harrington removed
to High Street, and from there to Chauncey Place. Some of the prominent
men of Boston boarded with her for many years. At her death, the urn was
given to her daughter, Mrs. John R. Bradford. It was presented to the
society by Miss Phebe C. Bradford, of Boston, granddaughter of Mrs.
Elizabeth Harrington.
A somewhat similar urn, made of pewter, is in the Museum of the Maine
Historical Society of Portland, Me.; another in the Museum of the Essex
Institute at Salem, Mass.
Among the many treasured relics of Abraham Lincoln is an old Britannia
coffee pot from which he was regularly served while a boarder with the
Rutledge family at the Rutledge inn in New Salem (now Menard), Ill. It
was a valued utensil, and Lincoln is said to have been very fond of it.
It is illustrated on page 690.
The pot is now the property of the Old Salem Lincoln League, of
Petersburg, Ill., and was donated to it, with other relics, by Mrs.
Saunders, of Sisquoc, Cal., the only surviving child of James and Mary
Ann Rutledge. Mrs. Rutledge carefully preserved this and other relics of
New Salem days; and shortly before her death in 1878, she gave them into
the keeping of her daughter, Mrs. Saunders, advising her to preserve
them until such time as a permanent home for them would be provided by a
grateful people back at New Salem, where they were associated with the
immortal Lincoln and his tragic romance with her daughter Ann.
[Illustration: TURKISH COFFEE SET, PETER COLLECTION, UNITED STATES
NATIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON]
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE EVOLUTION OF COFFEE APPARATUS
_Showing the development of coffee-roasting, coffee-grinding,
coffee-making, and coffee-serving devices from the earliest time to
the present day--The original coffee grinder, the first coffee
roaster, and the first coffee pot--The original French drip pot,
the De Belloy percolator--Count Rumford's improvement--How the
commercial coffee roaster was developed--The evolution of
filtration devices--The old Carter "pull-out" roaster--Trade
customs in New York and St. Louis in the sixties and seventies--The
story of the evolution of the Burns roaster--How the gas roaster
was developed in France, Great Britain, and the United States_
A book could be written on the subject of this chapter. We shall have to
be content to touch briefly upon the important developments in the
devices employed. The changes that have taken place in the preparation
of the drink itself will be discussed in chapter XXXVI.
In the beginning, that is, in Ethiopia, about 800 A.D., coffee was
looked upon as a food. The whole ripe berries, beans and hulls, were
crushed, and molded into food balls held in shape with fat. Later, the
dried berries were so treated. So the primitive stone mortar and pestle
were the original coffee grinder.
The dried hulls and the green beans were first roasted, some time
between 1200 and 1300, in crude burnt clay dishes or in stone vessels,
over open fires. These were the original roasting utensils.
Next, the coffee beans were ground between little mill-stones, one
turning above the other. Then came the mill used by the Greeks and
Romans for grain. This mill consisted of two conical mill stones, one
hollow and fitted over the other, specimens of which have been found in
Pompeii. The idea is the same as that employed in the most modern metal
grinder.
Between 1400 and 1500, individual earthenware and metal coffee-roasting
plates appeared. These were circular, from four to six inches in
diameter, about 1/16 inch thick, slightly concave and pierced with small
holes, something like the modern kitchen skimmer. They were used in
Turkey and Persia for roasting a few beans at a time over braziers (open
pans, or basins, for holding live coals). The braziers were usually
mounted on feet and richly ornamented.
About the same time we notice the first appearance of the familiar
Turkish pocket cylinder coffee mill and the original Turkish _ibrik_, or
coffee boiler, made of metal. Little drinking cups of Chinese porcelain
completed the service.
The original coffee boiler was not unlike the English ale mug with no
cover, smaller at the top than at the bottom, fitted with a grooved lip
for pouring, and a long straight handle. They were made of brass, and in
sizes to hold from one to six tiny cupfuls. A later improvement was of
the ewer design, with bulbous body, collar top, and cover.
The Turkish coffee grinder seems to have suggested the individual
cylinder roaster which later (1650) became common, and from which
developed the huge modern cylinder commercial roasting machines.
[Illustration: THE OLDEST COFFEE GRINDER
Ancient Egyptian mortar and pestle, probably used for pounding coffee]
The individual coffee service of early civilization first employed crude
clay bowls or dishes for drinking; but as early as 1350, Persian,
Egyptian, and Turkish ewers, made of pottery, were used for serving. In
the seventeenth century, ewers of similar pattern, but made of metal,
were the favorite coffee-serving devices in oriental countries and in
western Europe.
Between 1428 and 1448, a spice grinder standing on four legs was
invented; and this was later used for grinding coffee. The drawer to
receive the ground coffee was added in the eighteenth century.
Between 1500 and 1600, shallow iron dippers with long handles and
foot-rests, designed to stand in open fires, were used in Bagdad, and by
the Arabs in Mesopotamia, for roasting coffee. These roasters had
handles about thirty-four inches long, and the bowls were eight inches
in diameter. They were accompanied by a metal stirrer (spatula) for
turning the beans.
[Illustration: GRAIN MILL OF GREEKS AND ROMANS
Also used for grinding coffee]
Another type of roaster was developed about 1600. It was in the shape of
an iron spider on legs, and was designed, like that just described, to
sit in open fires. At this period pewter serving pots were first used.
Between 1600 and 1632, mortars and pestles of wood, iron, brass, and
bronze came into common use in Europe for braying the roasted beans. For
several centuries, coffee connoisseurs held that pounding the beans in a
mortar was superior to grinding in the most efficient mill. Peregrine
White's parents brought to America on the _Mayflower_, in 1620, a wooden
mortar and pestle that were used for braying coffee to make coffee
"powder."
[Illustration: THE FIRST COFFEE ROASTER, ABOUT 1400]
When La Roque speaks of his father bringing back to Marseilles from
Constantinople in 1644 the instruments for making coffee, he undoubtedly
refers to the individual devices which at that time in the Orient
included the roaster plate, the cylinder grinder, the small long-handled
boiler, and _fenjeyns_ (findjans), the little porcelain drinking cups.
[Illustration: THE FIRST CYLINDER ROASTER, ABOUT 1650]
When Bernier visited Grand Cairo about the middle of the seventeenth
century, in all the city's thousand-odd coffee houses he found but two
persons who understood the art of roasting the bean.
About 1650, there was developed the individual cylinder coffee roaster
made of metal, usually tin plate or tinned copper, suggested by the
original Turkish pocket grinder. This was designed for use over open
fires in braziers. There appeared about this time also a combined
making-and-serving metal pot which was undoubtedly the original of the
common type of pot that we know today.
There appeared in England about 1660, Elford's white iron machine (sheet
iron coated with tin) which was "turned on a spit by a jack.[362]" This
was simply a larger size of the individual cylinder roaster, and was
designed for family or commercial use. Modifications were developed by
the French and Dutch. In the seventeenth century the Italians produced
some beautiful designs in wrought-iron coffee roasters.
[Illustration: HISTORICAL RELICS IN THE PETER COLLECTION, UNITED STATES
NATIONAL MUSEUM
1--Bagdad coffee-roasting pan and stirrer. 2--Iron mortar and pestle
used for pounding coffee. 3--Coffee mill used by General and Mrs.
Washington. 4--Coffee-roasting pan used at Mt. Vernon. 5--Bagdad coffee
pot with crow-bill spout]
Before the advent of the Elford machine, and indeed, for two centuries
thereafter, it was the common practise in the home to roast coffee in
uncovered earthenware tart dishes, old pudding pans, and fry pans.
Before the time of the modern kitchen stove, it was usually done over
charcoal fires without flame.
The improved Turkish combination coffee grinder with folding handle and
cup receptacle for the beans, used for grinding, boiling, and drinking,
was first made in Damascus in 1665. About this period, the Turkish
coffee set, including the long-handled boiler and the porcelain drinking
cups in brass holders, also came into vogue.
In 1665, Nicholas Book, "living at the Sign of the Frying Pan in St.
Tulies street," London, advertised that he was "the only known man for
making of mills for grinding of coffee powder, which mills are sold by
him from forty to forty-five shillings the mill."
By combining the long-handle idea contained in the Bagdad roaster with
that of the original cylinder roaster, the Dutch perfected a small,
closed, sheet-iron cylinder-roaster with a long handle that permitted
its being held and turned in open fire places. From 1670, and well into
the middle of the nineteenth century, this type of family roaster
enjoyed great favor in Holland, France, England, and the United States,
more especially in the country districts. The museums of Europe and the
United States contain many specimens. The iron cylinder measured about
five inches in diameter, and was from six to eight inches long, being
attached to a three or four foot iron rod provided with a wooden handle.
The green coffee was put into the cylinder through a sliding door.
Balancing the roaster over the blaze by resting the end of the iron rod
projecting from the far end of the roasting cylinder in a hook of the
usual fireplace crane, the housekeeper was wont slowly to revolve the
cylinder until the beans had turned the proper color.
[Illustration: TURKISH COFFEE MILL
A fine specimen in the Peter collection, United States National Museum]
Portable coffee-making outfits to fit the pocket were much in vogue in
France in 1691. These included a roaster, a grinder, a lamp, the oil,
cups, saucers, spoons, coffee, and sugar. The roaster was first made of
tin plate or tinned copper; but for the aristocracy silver and gold were
used. In 1754, a white-silver coffee roaster eight inches long and four
inches in diameter was mentioned among the deliveries made to the army
of the king at Versailles.
[Illustration: EARLY FRENCH WALL AND TABLE GRINDERS
Left, seventeenth-century coffee grinder in the Musée de la Porte de
Hal--Center, wall mill, eighteenth century--Right, iron mill, eighteenth
century]
Humphrey Broadbent, "the London coffee man" wrote in 1722:
I hold it best to roast coffee berries in an iron vessel full of
little holes, made to turn on a spit over a charcoal fire, keeping
them continually turning, and sometimes shaking them that they do
not burn, and when they are taken out of the vessel, spread 'em on
some tin or iron plate 'till the vehemency of the heat is vanished;
I would recommend to every family to roast their own coffee, for
then they will be almost secure from having any damaged berries, or
any art to increase the weight, which is very injurious to the
drinkers of coffee. Most persons of distinction in Holland roast
their own berries.
[Illustration: BRONZE AND BRASS MORTARS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY USED
FOR MAKING COFFEE POWDER
Left, bronze (Germany)--Center, brass (England)--Right, bronze (Holland,
1632)]
Between 1700 and 1800, there was developed a type of small portable
household stove to burn coke or charcoal, made of iron and fitted with
horizontal revolving cylinders for coffee roasting. These were provided
with iron handles for turning. A modification of this type of roaster
under a three-sided hood, and standing on three legs, was designed to
sit on the hearth of open fireplaces, close to the fire or in the
smoldering ashes. Because of its greater capacity, it was probably used
in the inns and coffee houses for roasting large batches. Still another
type, which made its appearance late in the eighteenth century, was the
sheet-iron roaster suspended at the top of a tall, iron, box-like
compartment, or stove, in which the fire was built. This, too, was
designed to roast coffee in comparatively large quantities. In some
examples it was provided with legs.
Great silver coffee pots ("with all the utensils belonging to them of
the same metal") were first used by Pascal at St.-Germain's fair in
Paris in 1672. It remained for the English and American silversmiths to
produce the most beautiful forms of silver coffee pots; and there are
some notable collections of these in England and the United States.
The oriental serving pot was nearly always of metal, tall, and, in old
models, of graceful curve, with a slightly twisted ornamental beak in
the form of an S, attached below the middle of the vessel. A handle
ornamented in the same way formed a decorative balance.
In 1692, the lantern straight-line coffee serving pot with true cone
lid, thumb-piece, and handle fixed at right angle to the spout, was
introduced into England, succeeding the curved oriental serving pot. In
1700, coffee pots made of cheaper metals, like tin and Britannia ware,
began to appear on the home tables of the people. In 1701, silver coffee
pots appeared in England having perfect domes and bodies less tapering.
Between 1700 and 1800, silver, gold, and delicate porcelain serving pots
were the vogue among European royalty.
[Illustration: EARLY AMERICAN COFFEE ROASTERS
Both the cast-iron spiders and the long-handled roasters were used in
open fireplaces previous to 1770]
In 1704, Bull's machine for roasting coffee was patented in England.
This probably marks the first use of coal for commercial roasting.
In 1710, the popular coffee roaster in French homes was a dish of
varnished earthenware. This same year a novelty was introduced in France
in the shape of a fustian (linen) bag for infusing ground coffee.
By 1714, the thumb-piece on English serving pots had disappeared, and
the handle was no longer set at a right angle to the spout. English
coffee-pot bodies showed a further modification in 1725, the taper
becoming less and less.
Coffee grinders were so common in France in 1720 that they were to be
had for a dollar and twenty cents each. Their development by the French
had been rapid from the original spice grinder. At first, they were
known as coffee mills; but in the eighteenth century, roasters came to
be known by that name. They were made of iron, retaining the same
principle of the horizontal mill-stones--one of which is fixed while the
other moves--that the ancients employed for grinding wheat. They were
squat, box-shaped affairs, having in the center a shank of iron that
revolved upon a fixed, corrugated iron plate. There was also the style
that fastened to the wall. At first, the drawer to receive ground coffee
was missing, but this was supplied in later types. Before its invention,
the ground coffee was received in a sack of greased leather, or in one
treated on the outside with beeswax--probably the original of the duplex
paper bag for conserving the flavor.
[Illustration: ROASTER WITH THREE-SIDED HOOD
It succeeded the cast-iron spider, and was suspended from a crane, or
stood in the embers]
[Illustration: ROASTING, MAKING, AND SERVING DEVICES
Early seventeenth century, as pictured by Dufour]
The French brought their innate artistic talents to bear upon coffee
grinders, just as they did upon roasters and serving pots. In many
instances they made the outer parts of silver and of gold.
By 1750, the straight-line serving pot in England had begun to yield to
the reactionary movement in art favoring bulbous bodies and serpentine
spouts.
About 1760, French inventors began to devote themselves to improvements
in coffee-making devices. Donmartin, a Paris tinsmith, in 1763, invented
an urn pot that employed a flannel sack for infusing. Another infusion
device, produced the same year by L'Ainé, also a tinsmith of Paris, was
known as a _diligence_.
A complete revolution in the style of English serving pots took place in
1770, with a return to the flowing lines of the Turkish ewer; and
between 1800 and 1900, there was a gradual return to the style of
serving pot having the handle at a right angle to the spout.
[Illustration: ENGLISH AND FRENCH COFFEE GRINDERS
Nineteenth century]
In 1779, Richard Dearman was granted an English patent on a new method
of making mills for grinding coffee. In 1798, the first American patent
on an improved coffee grinding mill was granted to Thomas Bruff, Sr. It
was a wall mill, fitted with iron plates, in which the coffee was ground
between two circular nuts, three inches broad and having coarse teeth
around their centers and fine shallow teeth at the edges.
De Belloy's (or Du Belloy's) coffee pot appeared in Paris about 1800. It
was first made of tin; but later, of porcelain and silver--the original
French drip pot. This device was never patented; but it appears to have
furnished the inspiration for many inventors in France, England, and the
United States. The first French patent on a coffee maker was granted to
Denobe, Henrion, and Rouch in 1802. It was for a
"pharmacological-chemical coffee-making device by infusion." Charles
Wyatt obtained a patent the same year in London on an apparatus for
distilling coffee. The De Belloy pot is illustrated on page 622.
In 1806, Hadrot was granted a French patent on a device "for filtering
coffee without boiling and bathed in air." This use of the word
filtering was misleading, as it was many times after in French, English,
and American patent nomenclature, where it often meant percolation or
something quite different from filtration. True percolation means to
drip through fine interstices of china or metal. Filtration means to
drip through a porous substance, usually cloth or paper. De Belloy's pot
was a percolator. So was Hadrot's. The improvement on which Hadrot got
his patent was to "replace the white iron filter (sic) used in ordinary
filtering pots by a filter composed of hard tin and bismuth" and to use
"a rammer of the same metal, pierced with holes." The rammer was
designed to press down and to smooth out the powdered coffee in an even
and uniform fashion. "It also," says Hadrot in his specification, "stops
the derangement which boiling water poured from a height can produce. It
is held by its stem a half inch from the surface of the powder so that
it receives only the action of the water which it divides and
facilitates thus the extraction which it must produce in each of the
particles."
[Illustration: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ROASTER
Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.]
A coffee percolator was invented in Paris about 1806 by Benjamin
Thompson, F.R.S., an American-British scientist, philanthropist, and
administrator. He was known as Count Rumford, a title bestowed on him by
the Pope. Rumford's invention was first given to the public in London in
1812. He has gained great credit for his device, because of an elaborate
essay that he wrote on it in Paris under the title of _The excellent
qualities of coffee and the art of making it in the highest perfection_,
and that he caused to be published in London in 1812. It was a simple
percolator pot provided with a hot-water jacket, and was a real
improvement on the French drip or percolator coffee pot invented by De
Belloy, but not at all unlike Hadrot's patented device. Count Rumford,
however, was a picturesque character, and a good advertiser. He is
generally credited with the invention of the coffee percolator; but
examination of his device shows that, strictly speaking, the De Belloy
pot was just as much a percolator, and apparently antedated it by about
six years.
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL FRENCH DRIP POT
_Cafetière à la_ De Belloy]
De Belloy employed the principle of having the boiling water drip
through the ground coffee when held in suspension by a perforated metal
or porcelain grid. This is true percolation. Hadrot did the same thing
with the improvements noted above. Count Rumford in his essay admits
that this method of making coffee was not new, but claims his
improvement was. This was to provide a rammer for compressing the ground
coffee in the upper or percolating device into a definite thickness,
this being accomplished by providing the perforated circular tin disk
water-spreader that rested on the ground coffee with four projections,
or feet, that kept the spreader within half an inch of the grid holding
the powder in suspension and free from "agitation."
His argument was that two-thirds of an inch of ground coffee should be
leveled and compressed into a half-inch thickness before the boiling
water was introduced. Practically the same result was achieved in the De
Belloy and Hadrot pots, also provided with water-spreaders and pluggers,
but the same mathematical exactitude in the matter of the depth of the
ground coffee before the percolation started was not assured. De
Belloy's spreader did not have the projections on the under side upon
which Count Rumford laid such stress. Then there was the hot-water
jacket, which was an improvement on Hadrot's hot air bath. Inventors
that followed Rumford have made light of the importance that he attached
to scientific accuracy in coffee-making; but it is interesting to note
how many of the features of the De Belloy, Hadrot, and Rumford pots have
been retained in the modern complex coffee machines, and in most of the
filtration devices.
[Illustration: BELGIAN, RUSSIAN, AND FRENCH PEWTER SERVING POTS
These are in the Metropolitan Museum and are of nineteenth century
design]
French inventors continued to apply themselves to coffee-roasting and
coffee-making problems, and many new ideas were evolved. Some of these
were improved upon by the Dutch, the Germans, and the Italians; but the
best work in the line of improvements that have survived the test of
time was done in England and the United States.
In 1815, Sené was granted a French patent on "a device to make coffee
without boiling." In 1819, Laurens produced the original of the
percolation device in which the boiling water is raised by a tube and
sprayed over the ground coffee. The same year Morize, a Paris tinsmith
and lamp-maker, followed with a reversible, double drip pot which was
the pioneer of all the reversible filtration pots of Europe and America.
Gaudet, another tinsmith, in 1820, patented an improvement on the
percolator idea, that employed a cloth filter. By 1825, the pumping
percolator, working by steam pressure and by partial vacuum, was much
used in France, Holland, Germany, and Austria.
Meanwhile, it was common practise to roast coffee in England in "an iron
pan or in hollow cylinders made of sheet iron"; while in Italy, the
practise was to roast it in glass flasks, which were fitted with loose
corks. The flasks were "held over clear fires of burning coals and
continually agitated." Anthony Schick was granted an English patent in
1812, on a method, or process, for roasting coffee; but as he never
filed his specifications, we shall probably never know what the process
was. The custom of the day in England was to pound the roasted beans in
a mortar, or to grind them in a French mill.
[Illustration: COUNT RUMFORD'S PERCOLATOR]
In 1822, Louis Bernard Rabaut was granted an English patent in which the
French drip process was reversed by using steam pressure to force the
boiling water upward through the coffee mass. Casseneuve, a Paris
tinsmith, seems to have patented practically the same idea in France in
1824. Casseneuve employed a paper filter in his machine.
In America, a United States patent was granted in 1813 to Alexander
Duncan Moore of New Haven on a mill "for grinding and pounding coffee."
This was followed by a patent granted to Increase Wilson, of New London,
in 1818, on a steel mill for grinding coffee.
[Illustration: PEWTER POTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
Left to right, they are German, Flemish, English, and Dutch specimens in
the Metropolitan Museum]
[Illustration: PATENT DRAWINGS OF EARLY FRENCH COFFEE MAKERS
Left, drip pot of 1806--Next two, Durant's inner-tube pot, 1827--Next
(fourth), Gandais' first practicable percolator, 1827--Right, Grandin &
Crepeaux' percolator, 1832]
In 1815, Archibald Kenrich was granted a patent in England on "mills for
grinding coffee."
The coffee biggin, said to have been invented by a Mr. Biggin, came into
common use in England for making coffee about 1817. It was usually an
earthenware pot. At first it had in the upper part a metal strainer like
the French drip pots. Suspended from the rim in later models there was a
flannel or muslin bag to hold the ground coffee, through which the
boiling water was poured, the bag serving as a filter. The idea was an
adaptation of the French fustian infusion bag of 1711, and of other
early French drip and filtration devices, and it attained great
popularity. Any coffee pot with such a bag fitted into its mouth came to
be spoken of as a coffee biggin. Later, there was evolved the metal pot
with a wire strainer substituted for the cloth bag. The coffee biggin
still retains its popularity in England.
[Illustration: EARLY FRENCH FILTRATION DEVICES
Left, Casseneuve's filter-paper machine, 1824--Center, Gaudet's
cloth-filter pot, 1820--Right, Raparlier's percolator]
While French inventors were busy with coffee makers, English and
American inventors were studying means to improve the roasting of the
beans. Peregrine Williamson, of Baltimore, was granted the first patent
in the United States for an improvement on a coffee roaster in 1820. In
1824, Richard Evans was granted a patent in England for a commercial
method of roasting coffee, comprising a cylindrical sheet-iron roaster
fitted with improved flanges for mixing; a hollow tube and trier for
sampling coffee while roasting; and a means for turning the roaster
completely over to empty it.
The next year, 1825, the first coffee-pot patent in the United States
was granted to Lewis Martelley of New York. It marked the first American
attempt to perfect an arrangement to condense the steam and the
essential oils and to return them to the infusion. In 1838, Antoni
Bencini, of Milton, N.C., was granted a similar patent in the United
States. Rowland, in 1844, and Waite and Sener, in their Old Dominion pot
of 1856, tried for the same result, namely, the condensation of the
steam in upper chambers.
[Illustration: EARLY AMERICAN COFFEE-MAKER PATENTS
Left, Waite & Sener's Old Dominion pot--Right, Bencini's steam
condenser]
The French meantime focused on coffee makers; and in 1827, Jacques
Augustin Gandais, a manufacturer of plated jewelry in Paris, produced a
really practicable pumping percolator. This machine had the ascending
steam tube on the exterior. The same year, 1827, Nicholas Felix Durant,
a manufacturer in Chalons-sur-Marne, was granted a French patent on a
percolator employing for the first time an inner tube for spraying the
boiling water over the ground coffee.
In 1828, Charles Parker, of Meriden, Conn., began work on the original
Parker coffee mill, which later was to bring him fame and fortune.
The next year, 1829, the first French patent on a coffee mill was issued
to Colaux & Cie. of Molsheim.
That same year, 1829, the Établissements Lauzaune, Paris, began to make
hand-turned iron-cylinder coffee-roasting machines.
In 1831, David Selden was granted a patent in England for a
coffee-grinding mill having cones of cast-iron.
The first Parker coffee-grinder patent for a household coffee and spice
mill was issued in the United States in 1832 to Edmund Parker and Herman
M. White of Meriden, Conn. The Charles Parker Company's business was
founded the same year. In 1832 and 1833, United States patents were
issued to Ammi Clark, of Berlin, Conn., also on improved coffee and
spice mills for home use.
Amos Ransom, Hartford, Conn., was granted a United States patent on a
coffee roaster in 1833.
The English began exporting coffee-roasting and coffee-grinding
machinery to the United States in 1833-34.
[Illustration: FRENCH COFFEE MAKERS, NINETEENTH CENTURY
1, 2--Improved French drip pots. 3--Persian design. 4--De Belloy pot.
5--Russian reversible pot. 6--New filter machine. 7--Glass filter pot.
8--Syphon machine. 9--Vienna Incomparable. 10--Double glass "balloon"
device]
[Illustration: FIRST ENGLISH COMMERCIAL COFFEE-ROASTER PATENT, 1824
Fig. 1--End elevation. Fig. 2--Front sectional view. Fig. 3--Front
elevation, showing how the roasting cylinder was turned completely over
to empty. Fig. 4--The examiner, or trier. Fig. 5--Tube (J) to be
inserted in H of Fig. 6 to prevent escape of aroma]
It was not until 1836 that the first French patent was issued on a
combined coffee-roaster-and-grinder to François Réné Lacoux of Paris.
The roaster was made of porcelain, because the inventor believed that
metal imparted a bad taste to the beans while roasting.
[Illustration: EARLY FRENCH COFFEE-ROASTING MACHINES
1--Delephine's coke machine. 2--Bernard's machine, 1841. 3--Circlet for
same. 4--Postulart's gas machine]
In 1839, James Vardy and Moritz Platow were granted an English patent on
a kind of urn percolator employing the vacuum process of coffee making,
the upper vessel being made of glass. The first French patent on a glass
coffee-making device, using the same principle, was granted to Madame
Vassieux, of Lyons, in 1842. These were the forerunners of the double
glass "balloons" for making coffee which later on, in the early part of
the twentieth century, attained much vogue in the United States. They
were very popular in Europe until the latter part of the nineteenth
century.
In 1839, John Rittenhouse, of Philadelphia, was granted a United States
patent on a cast-iron mill designed to handle the problem of nails and
stones in grinding coffee. His improvement was intended to prevent
injury to the grinding teeth by stopping the machine.
In 1840, Abel Stillman, Poland, N.Y., was granted a United States patent
on a family coffee roaster having a mica window to enable the operator
to observe the coffee while roasting. (See 10, page 630.)
In 1841, William Ward Andrews was granted an English patent on an
improved coffee pot employing a pump to force the boiling water upward
through the coffee, which was contained in a perforated cylinder screwed
to the bottom of the pot. This was Rabaut's idea of nineteen years
before. We find it again repeated in the United States in a machine
which appeared on the New York market in 1906.
[Illustration: BATTERY OF CARTER PULL-OUT MACHINES IN AN EARLY AMERICAN
PLANT]
In 1841, Claude Marie Victor Bernard, of Paris, was granted a French
patent on a coffee roaster, which was an improvement designed to bring
the roasting cylinder and the fire in closer contact. This was
accomplished, to quote the quaint language of the inventor, by applying
movable legs and "by superimposing a sheet iron circlet around the edge
of the furnace to get double the quantity of heat and it presents so
much advantage that it has seemed to me worthy of being patented." (See
4, page 627.)
But the French were only toying with the roaster, because roasting in
France was not yet a separate branch of business, as it had become in
England and the United States, where keen minds were already at work on
the purely commercial coffee-roasting machine. The application of
intensive thought in this direction was destined to bear fruit in
America in 1846, and in England in 1847.
French inventive genius continued to occupy itself with coffee making,
and in the invention of Edward Loysel de Santais, of Paris, in 1843,
produced the first of the ideas that were later incorporated in the
hydrostatic percolator for making "two thousand cups of coffee an
hour"[363] at the exposition of 1855, and that has since been improved
upon by the Italians in their rapid-filter machines. It should be noted
that Loysel's 2,000 cups were probably demi-tasses. The modern Italian
rapid-filter machine produces about 1,000 large coffee cups per hour.
James W. Carter, of Boston, was granted a United States patent in 1846
on his "pull-out" roaster; and this was the machine most generally
employed for trade roasting in America for the next twenty years. Carter
did not claim to have invented the combination of cylindrical roaster
and furnace; but he did claim priority for the combination, with the
furnace and roasting vessel, of the air space, or chamber, surrounding
it, "the same being for the purpose of preventing the too rapid escape
of heat from the furnace when the air chamber's induction and eduction
air openings or passages are closed."
The Carter "pull-out," was so called because the roasting cylinder of
sheet iron was pulled out from the furnace on a shaft supported by
standards, to be emptied or to be refilled from sliding doors in its
"sides." It was in use for many years in such old-time plants as that of
Dwinell-Wright Company, 25 Haverhill Street. Boston; by James H. Forbes
and William Schotten in St. Louis; and by D.Y. Harrison in Cincinnati.
The picture of a roasting room with Carter machines in operation,
reproduced here, recalled to George S. Wright, the present head of the
Dwinell-Wright Company's business, the scene as he saw it so many times
when, as a boy of ten or twelve, he occasionally spent a day in his
father's factory. "The only difference I notice," he wrote the author,
"is that, according to my recollection, there was no cooler box to
receive the roasted coffee, which was dumped on the floor where it was
spread out three or four inches deep with iron rakes and sprinkled with
a watering pot. The contact of water and hot coffee caused so much steam
that the roasting room was in a dense fog for several minutes after each
batch of coffee was drawn from the fire."
A.E. Forbes also thus recalled the Carter machine in his father's
factory in St. Louis in 1853, when he used to help after school; and
sometimes ran the roasters, after 1857:
It was barrel shaped, having a slide the full length of one side to
fill and empty. A heavy shaft ran through the centre, resting on
the wall of the furnace at the rear end and on an upright about
eight feet from the front wall. The fire was about sixteen to
eighteen inches below the cylinder and of soft coal. The cylinder
was not perforated, the theory being to keep the vapors from
escaping.[364] This of course was erroneous. The color of the smoke
bursting from the edge of the slide was our medium of telling when
the roasting process was nearing completion, and often the cylinder
was pulled out and opened for inspection several times before that
point was reached. When just right, the belt was shifted to a loose
pulley, stopping the cylinder, which, was pulled off the fire. A
handle was attached to the shaft, the slide drawn, and the coffee
was dumped into a wooden tray which had to be shoved under the
cylinder. The coffee was stirred around in the tray until cool
enough to sack.
The roaster man had to be a husky in those days to pick up a sack
of Rio weighing about one hundred, sixty to one hundred,
seventy-five pounds (not a hundred, thirty-two pounds, as now) and
to empty it in the cylinder. We had no overhead hoppers.
[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH AND AMERICAN COFFEE ROASTERS
1, 2--English charcoal machines. 3, 5, 8--American coal-stove
roasters. 4--Remington's wheel-of-buckets (American) roaster, 1841.
6--Wood's roaster. 7--Hyde's stove roaster. 9--Reversible stove
roaster. 10--Abel Stillman's stove roaster]
Later we built in the rear and put in two cylinders of the Chris
Abele type, having stationary fronts and filling and emptying from
the front end. We still used soft coal, with the fire sixteen to
eighteen inches under the cylinder.
We had other machines made locally from the Carter pattern. The
idea of the tight cylinder was to keep out smoke, as well as to
keep in the aroma. I think we were the first to use perforations,
because I remember old Jabez Burns coming along after we put in one
of his machines and remarking on it.... We had a kind of mechanical
genius for engineer at that time (he also did the roasting) and he
conceived the idea that we ought to get rid of the moisture in the
roasting coffee because it would cook quicker. When the holes
clogged up, he put in loose pieces of wire bent at the ends which
shook as the cylinder revolved and kept the holes open. Another
thing, he put a hole in the cylinder head and a stopper with a
string on it so he could get out a few grains at a time to note the
progress of the roasting--but he judged mostly by the smoke.
The cooling box was as I have described it, but later we put in a
perforated false bottom which let out some chaff and small stones.
On our first watering, we pulled out the slide and dashed in a
bucket of water, then closed the slide and let it revolve outside
the furnace. This was hard on the cylinder, so later we used the
sprinkling can and put on water sparingly.
Once we had a party that wanted to put in a soapstone lined
roaster, and another near us named Salzgerber patented a
superheated-steam roaster which was shaped like our modern milk
bottle. This was covered with asbestos and worked on a central
bearing so it could be depressed for emptying and elevated for
filling. It did good work.
Mr. Forbes' recollections of the early days of roasting and selling
coffee at retail in St. Louis are so illuminating, and paint so
interesting a picture of the period that they are printed here to
illustrate the conditions that prevailed generally at the time when the
commercial roasting machine of the United States was being developed
into the modern type. He says further:
Selling roasted coffee was uphill work, as every one roasted coffee
in the kitchen oven. People were buying, say, at twenty cents. Our
asking twenty-five cents "roasted" called for a lot of explanation
about shrinkage, tight cylinders so the strength and flavor could
not get away, etc.; while, when they roasted a pound in the oven
the flavor scented the whole house, thus losing so much strength to
say nothing of the unevenness of their roasts--part raw, part
roasted, producing an unpleasant taste. An occasional burned roast
at home helped some. They tell of a man who, going out in the back
yard and kicking over a clod by accident, uncovered some burned
coffee. He called to his wife and wanted an explanation. She
acknowledged she had burnt it, and hid it so he would not scold. He
said, "We had better buy it roasted in the future and avoid such
accidents."
We roasted in the cellar. We had an elaborately polished Reed &
Mann engine in one window, two brass hoppered mills in the other,
and our boiler was under the sidewalk. We had a mahogany-top
counter, oil paintings on the wall, and bin fronts of Chinamen,
etc., done by the celebrated artist, Mat Hastings (now dead); so
you see we started right.
The fight we had to introduce roasted coffee was fierce. Our
argument was on the saving of fuel, labor, temper, scorched faces,
and anything we could think of. We talked only three coffees, Rio,
Java, and Mocha. When Santos began to come, it was hard to change
them over from the rank Rio flavor to the more mild Santos. The
latter they claimed did not have the rough taste. They missed it
and longed for the wild tang of the Rio.
We did not import, but bought in New Orleans and from several local
wholesale grocers. No one delivered. Shipments were f.o.b. St.
Louis. Draying and packages were extra. Coffee was not cleaned or
stoned, but was sold as it came from the sack. However, we did not
use any very low grades then. If any one complained of the stones
hurting their mills, we advised them to buy ground coffee, showing
how it kept better ground as it was packed tight, whereas the
roasted was looser and the air could get through it. It was fully a
year or more before we began to sell in quantities to make it
profitable. In roasting for others, we got a cent per pound; and
after awhile, that became so much a business it paid all our
expenses. We were the first to roast coffee by steam power west of
the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains.
The tea department helped us to hold out until coffee got its hold
on the public; for in those days every one used tea and insisted on
having it good. Price was no object. How different now!
Five years later (1862) J. Nevison, an Englishman, drifted into
town and opened at 85 North Fourth Street. He got out a very
bombastic circular which caused us to put out the one I enclose
(illustration, page 436). Then came a party named Childs; and after
him, Hugh Menown, grand-uncle of the present Menown, of Menown &
Gregory; and Mat Hunt; all passed over to the Great Majority. After
the Civil War they multiplied pretty fast, coming and going until
now we have nineteen roasting establishments in the city.
The late Julius J. Schotten also wrote the author as follows concerning
the days of the Carter roaster and of the wholesale coffee-roasting
business founded by William Schotten in 1862:
In the early days, every wholesale grocer was selling coffee; the
wholesale grocer controlled ninety percent of the trade in the
country. It did not pay the coffee roaster to have men on the road
selling coffee in those days. Such being the case, seventy-five
percent of the roasting done by the coffee roasters was job
roasting, at one cent a pound.
In the beginning there were only two kinds of roasted coffee known
to the trade in this section of the country (St. Louis) and of
course one of these brands was "Rio"--the other; "Java". The former
was a genuine Rio, but the Java was mostly Jamaica coffee.
Roasted coffee then was packed (for city trade) in five and ten
pound packages, and this size package seemed to supply the wants of
the ordinary grocer for a week. Occasionally a twenty-five pound
package, and in a few instances as much as fifty pounds of one
grade was sold at a time.
The class of customers the coffee roasters sold in those days were
the smaller merchants; the larger stores, having their ideas as to
quality, bought their coffees green. As they had very little sale
for the roasted, they would send a half-sack, and sometimes a whole
sack to have it roasted. It took a number of years to induce the
larger grocers, and even the average grocers, to purchase their
coffee already roasted.
Coffees were roasted in the old style, "pull-out" roaster cylinder.
That is to say, it was necessary to stop the roaster and to pull
out the cylinder to sample the coffee in order to know when to take
the coffee off the fire. When the coffee was ready to take off, the
cylinder was pulled out its entire length. It was then turned over
and a slide nine inches wide, running the full length of the
cylinder, was opened and the contents were dumped in the cooling
box. When the coffee reached the cooling box, it took two men with
hoes or wooden shovels to stir and turn it until it was properly
cooled, there being no cooling arrangements then as we have
nowadays.
At that time there were no stoning or separating machines; and as a
bag of the ordinary green Jamaica coffee contained from three to
five pounds of stones and sticks, it was necessary to hand-pick the
coffee after it was roasted.
[Illustration: EARLY FOREIGN AND AMERICAN COFFEE-MAKING DEVICES
1--English adaptation of French boiler. 2--English coffee biggin.
3--Improved Rumford percolator. 4--Jones's exterior-tube percolator.
5--Parker's steam-fountain coffee maker. 6--Platow's filterer.
7--Brain's Vacuum, or pneumatic filter. 8--Beart's percolator.
9--American coffee biggin. 10--cloth-bag drip pot. 11--Vienna coffee
pot. 12--Le Brun's cafetière. 13--Reversible Potsdam cafetière. 14,
15--Gen. Hutchinson's percolator and urn. 16--Etruscan biggin]
After Carter, the next United States coffee-roaster patent was granted
to J.R. Remington, of Baltimore, on a roaster employing a wheel of
buckets to move the green coffee beans singly through a charcoal heated
trough. It never became a commercial success. (See 4, page 630.)
In 1847-48, William and Elizabeth Dakin were granted patents in England
on an apparatus for "cleaning and roasting coffee and for making
decoctions." The roaster specification covered a gold, silver, platinum,
or alloy-lined roasting cylinder and traversing carriage on an overhead
railway to move the roaster in and out of the roasting oven; and the
"decoction" specification covered an arrangement for twisting a
cloth-bag ground-coffee-container in a coffee biggin, or applied a screw
motion to a disk within a perforated cylinder containing the ground
coffee, so as to squeeze the liquid out of the grounds after infusion
had taken place.
The roaster has survived, but the coffee maker was not so fortunate. The
Dakin idea was that coffee was injuriously affected by coming in contact
with iron during the roasting process. The roasting cylinder was
enclosed in an oven instead of being directly exposed to the furnace
heat. The apparatus was provided also with a "taster," or sampler, the
first of its kind, to enable the operator to examine the roasting
berries without stopping the machine. As will be seen by referring to
the picture of the model shown, the apparatus was ingenious and not
without considerable merit. Dakin & Co. are still in existence in
London, operating a machine very like the original model.
In 1848, Thomas John Knowlys was granted a patent in England on a
perforated roasting cylinder coated with enamel.
It is to be noted in passing that this idea of handling the green bean
with extreme delicacy, evidently obtained from the French, was never
taken seriously in the United States, whose inventors chose to handle it
with rough courage.
[Illustration: THE DAKIN ROASTING MACHINE OF 1848]
The first English patent on a coffee grinder was granted to Luke
Herbert in 1848.
In 1849, Apoleoni Pierre Preterre, of Havre, was granted an English
patent on a coffee roaster mounted on a weighing apparatus to indicate
loss of weight in roasting and automatically stop the roasting process.
At the same time he secured an English patent on a vacuum percolator,
not unlike Durant's of 1827.
In 1849 also, Thomas R. Wood, of Cincinnati, was granted a United States
patent on a spherical coffee roaster for use on kitchen stoves. It
attained considerable popularity among housewives who preferred to do
their own roasting. (See 6, page 630.)
In 1852, Edward Gee secured a patent in England on a coffee roaster
fitted with inclined flanges for turning the beans while roasting.
C.W. Van Vliet, of Fishkill Landing, N.Y., was granted a United States
patent in 1855 on a household coffee mill employing upper breaking and
lower grinding cones. He assigned it to Charles Parker of Meriden, Conn.
In 1860-61 several United States patents were granted John and Edmund
Parker on coffee grinders for home use.
In 1862, E.J. Hyde, of Philadelphia, was granted a United States patent
on a combined coffee-roaster and stove fitted with a crane on which the
roasting cylinder was revolved and swung out horizontally for emptying
and refilling. This machine proved to be a commercial success. Benedickt
Fischer used one in his first roasting plant in New York. It is still
being manufactured by the Bramhall Deane Company of New York.
[Illustration: A GLOBULAR STOVE ROASTER OF 1860]
[Illustration: HYDE'S COMBINED ROASTER AND STOVE]
In 1864, Jabez Burns, of New York, was granted a United States patent on
the original Burns coffee roaster, the first machine which did not have
to be moved away from the fire for discharging the roasted coffee, and
one that marked a distinct advance in the manufacture of coffee-roasting
apparatus. It was a closed iron cylinder set in brickwork. (See
illustration, page 635.)
Jabez Burns had been a student of coffee roasting in New York for twenty
years before he produced the machine that was to revolutionize the
coffee business of the United States. He had brought with him from
England a knowledge of the trade in that country, where he first began
his business training by selling Java coffee at fourteen cents and
Sumatra at eleven cents to hotels, boarding-houses, and private
families.
Up to the time of the Civil War, the contrivances employed for roasting
coffee in every case necessitated the removal of the roasting
apparatus--whether pan, globe, or cylinder--from the fire. The process
of causing coffee to discharge from the end of the roasting cylinder at
the pleasure of the operator while the cylinder was still in motion was
new; and the double set of flanges to produce this effect, and at the
same time, during the process of roasting, to keep the coffee equally
distributed from end to end of the cylinder, was new. Some one suggested
this last improvement was simply an Archimedean screw placed in a
cylinder, but Mr. Burns replied: "It is a double screw, a thing never
suggested by the Archimedean screw. It is, in fact, a double right and
left augur, one within the other, firmly secured together and also to
the shell or cylinder, and when the cylinder revolves the desired
result is obtained--the idea being entirely original."
Mr. Burns had watched the development of the coffee business from the
time when the preparation of coffee was largely confined to the home,
where the approved roasting implements were hot stones, or tiles, iron
plates, skillets, and frying pans. Some of these were still in use
twenty years after he produced his first machine; and he often said that
coffee evenly roasted by such methods was just as good as if done by the
best mechanical device ever invented. He also said: "Coffee can be
roasted in very simple machinery. Some of the best we ever saw was done
in a corn popper. Patent portable roasters are almost as numerous as rat
traps or churns."
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL BURNS ROASTER, 1864]
He early saw the practise of domestic roasting falling into disuse, as
it was becoming possible to supply the consumer with roasted coffee for
only a trifle more than in the green state, with all the labor and
annoyance of roasting done away with--a talking point that John Arbuckle
was quick to seize upon in his first Ariosa advertising.
In almost every town of any size there were concerns engaged in the
roasting business. Within a few years, Burns machines were placed in all
the principal roasting centers. Pupke & Reid in New York; Flint, Evans &
Co., and James H. Forbes in St. Louis; Arbuckles & Co., in Pittsburgh;
the Weikel & Smith Spice Co. in Philadelphia; Theodore F. Johnson & Co.,
in Newark; Evans & Walker in Detroit; W. & J.G. Flint in Milwaukee; and
Parker & Harrison in Cincinnati, were among his first customers.
It is said that in 1845 there were facilities in and around New York to
roast as much coffee as was then consumed in Great Britain. Steam power
was being extensively used, and the roasting was done here for a large
part of the country. The habit was to buy roasted coffee from the coffee
and spice mills by the bag or larger quantity for country consumption;
and the grocers and small tea stores, for local consumption, bought from
twenty-five pounds upward at a time. This method cheapened the roasting
of coffee to half a cent a pound; and then good profits could be made,
for everything was cheap in those days. Even at that, it would have been
impossible for each tea dealer to have roasted his own coffee for
several times the amount, so the practise was generally adhered to all
over the country.
Jabez Burns wrote in 1874:
It is preposterous to suppose that household roasting will be
continued long in any part of this country, if coffee properly
prepared can be had. This is demonstrated by the remarkable
advances made in Pittsburgh and other places, where only a few
years ago the sales were chiefly in green coffee. Now the amount
roasted in Pittsburgh alone by those who make a business of it,
exceeds the entire consumption of coffee of any kind in the United
States fifty years ago. It will never pay for small stores to roast
if the large manufactories will do the work well, and if they will
not, small dealers will add proper machinery, and will eventually
become strong competing dealers. By doing the work with proper care
they will not only secure a reputation with large sales for
themselves, but will command the roasting for other parties.
Until the Burns roaster appeared, coffee roasters were usually cylinders
that revolved upon an axis; the other devices that were tried were not
successful. Jabez Burns thus describes the first roaster he ever saw at
Hull, England:
It consisted of a furnace, open at the top, and a perforated
cylinder with a slide door. The axis, or shaft, of the cylinder had
bearings on a frame which passed outside the furnace, while the
cylinder went down into the fire pit, the top of which could be
covered over. In this position it could be turned by means of a
crank on the end of a shaft The only means of testing was by the
escape of the steam or aroma, whichever predominated, passing out
through the perforations at the top; but so expert was the operator
and so quick to detect the aroma, that he seldom had to return the
cylinder to the fire to produce a satisfactory roast. This man
roasted fifty pounds or less in a batch for a number of retail
stores.
Globes, consisting of two hemispheres, made of cast-iron and so
arranged that they opened to fill and discharge, but operated
substantially as above, only with the method of lowering into the
fire changed somewhat, I have seen in use in Scotland in 1840. They
were called French roasters.
In this country a few years ago the use of the long sheet-iron
cylinder was almost universal, varying only in the method of
placing the cylinder over the fire--some sideways on a track,
others endwise, sliding on a long shaft or by turning on a crane,
in either case causing considerable labor and loss of time, which
often resulted in the hands of the inexperienced in more or less
spoiling the batch of coffee.
From his expert knowledge of coffee and coffee-roasting problems, Jabez
Burns quickly rose to a commanding position in the industry. He was a
trade teacher and a trade builder. He had very definite ideas on
roasting. He said:
The object of roasting is not attained until all the moisture
(water of vegetation) is driven off. Roast properly--uniformly and
sufficiently--and you will get all the aroma there is in the bean.
Coffees of various kinds can not be roasted to a uniform color.
Some will be of a light shade when sufficiently roasted while
others will have to be roasted dark to develop the aroma.
Therefore, appearance alone is not a proper test. Aroma-saving
devices have had their day. Coffee is of no use unless the aroma is
fully developed, and the more it is developed by roasting the
better it is. What passes off in the roasting process can not be
saved and is so small that if all of it in the country could be
collected and freed of all foreign matter, it would not weigh an
ounce.
Roast coffee over a slow fire so that it will be an hour before it
has the color of roasted coffee, and, in contrast, produce in
another batch of like quantity the same color in thirty minutes,
and it will be found for all intended purposes, either to grind,
sell or drink, that the latter will be, beyond all comparison, the
best. Coffee should be roasted uniform and as quickly as possible,
only it must not be scorched or spotted, otherwise it will have a
bitter burned taste. If roasted properly it will very considerably
increase its bulk and will be plump, swelled out and crisp; easily
crushed in the hand or between the fingers.
In his _Spice Mill Companion_, published in 1879, Jabez Burns said
further in regard to roasting:
All coffees do not roast alike; some will be a bright light color
when done, and others will be dark before done. There are two
infallible rules, which if properly appreciated and tried will
prove to be practically useful. One is, when the aroma is
sufficiently developed to produce a sharp, cutting, but aromatic
sensation in the nose. Those who practice that way do not need to
see the roast. The other rule is that when a berry is broken it is
crisp and uniform in color inside and out. Those who are accustomed
to this method may be good coffee roasters, albeit they may not
have any nose at all. But we must state in this connection, that a
man who has no smell and is color blind is not a fit candidate for
the coffee roasting profession; and, moreover, we affirm that any
person who can not roast coffee, so far as judgment is concerned,
after a few trials, will never make a good operator.
[Illustration: BURNS GRANULATING MILL, 1872-74]
In 1867, Jabez Burns was granted a United States patent on an improved
coffee cooler, mixer, and grinding mill, or granulator. Another
granulator patent was issued to him in 1872. Mr. Burns had also given
the subject of cooling coffees considerable study, and his cooler was
the result. He argued that it was necessary to cool quickly. Before his
day, various methods had been employed, such as placing the coffee in
revolving drums covered with wire cloth. Sometimes a draft of cold air
was applied to the cooling drums, and the dirt and chaff blown through
the wire cloth. It was also customary in wholesale establishments to
blow cold air up through a perforated bottom, and this had been found
effective when properly applied. The Burns idea was to cool by means of
suction, causing a downward draft through the coffee and wire-cloth
bottomed box, which was found to be more uniform and efficient for
cooling purposes, as well as in controlling smoke, heat, and dust, which
by this means could be blown out of the roasting room by any convenient
outlet.
On the subject of grinding, likewise, Mr. Burns had reached some
definite conclusions. The French and English lap and wall mills, the
English steel mills, and the Swift mills were all used in the United
States. Troemner's, the Enterprise, and others--to be mentioned later in
chronological order--were extending their use in a retail way; but Jabez
Burns confined his attention to a practicable mill for wholesale
grinding establishments.
For manufacturing purposes, burstone mills were for many years
exclusively employed, especially one first known as the Prentiss & Page,
and later as the Page mill. There was a time when all the coffee
establishments in New York sent their coffee to Prentiss & Page to be
ground. Some of the places roasted by hand, others by horse power; and
if by steam, it was limited, and they did not have enough to spare for
grinding.
With the march of improvement, burstone mills went into the discard. The
difficulty lay in finding men experienced in stone dressing to run them;
and the demand grew for a better style of grinding than could be done in
a mill out of face and balance. This demand was met in an altogether
different style of machine, which for twenty-five years was well known
as the Barbor mill. It was for improvements on this mill that Jabez
Burns in 1867, 1872, and 1874 obtained his granulator patents.
The mill comprised cutters in the form of an iron roller running in near
contact with a concave, also of iron, and a revolving cylinder provided
with sieves, or screens, that received the ground material, rolled it
over the wire surface, sifting out the fine and discharging the coarse
automatically into the cutter, to be again manipulated until it was fine
enough to pass through the meshes of the screen.
Jabez Burns patented an improved form of his roaster in 1881, and a
sample-coffee roaster in 1883, before he died in 1888; and since that
time his sons, who continue the business, have perfected a number of
improvements and brought out new machines which will be referred to in
chronological order.
James H. Nason, of Franklin, Mass., was granted a United States patent
in 1865 on a percolator with fluid joints.
P.H. Vanderweyde, of Philadelphia, was granted United States patents in
1866 on a percolator and a continuous coffee-filtering machine.
Raparlier was granted a French patent on a pocket coffee-making device
in 1867. In later years, his invention became very popular among French
coffee drinkers. It was one of the early practicable forms of
double-glass-globe filtration devices.
E.B. Manning of Middletown, Conn., was granted his first patent on a tea
and coffee pot in 1868. Others followed in 1870 and 1876. In the latter
year, John Bowman brought out the valve-type percolator which
subsequently attained great favor in American households.
Thomas Smith & Son (Elkington & Company, Ltd., successors) began to
manufacture at Glasgow, Scotland, about 1870, the Napierian vacuum
coffee machine which had been invented in 1840--but never patented--by
Robert Napier of the celebrated firm of Clyde shipbuilders. This machine
makes coffee by distillation and filtration. It employs a metal globe,
and a brewer from which the coffee is syphoned over into the globe
through a tube, around the strainer-end of which, as it rests in the
coffee liquid in the brewer, there is tied a filter cloth. It is still
being manufactured by Elkington & Company.
[Illustration: NAPIER'S VACUUM MACHINE, 1840]
Thomas Page, a New York millwright, began the manufacture of a pull-out
coffee roaster similar to the old Carter machine, in 1868. Later, Chris
Abele, who was foreman in the Page shop, succeeded to the business; and
in 1882, he was granted a United States patent on an improvement on a
coffee roaster similar to the original Burns machine (the patent had
then expired) which he marketed under the name of Knickerbocker.
_German Coffee Machinery_
The Germans first began to show an active interest in coffee machinery
in 1860. In that year, Alexius Van Gulpen, of Emmerich, produced a
green-coffee grader; and later (1868), in partnership with J.H. Lensing
and Theodore von Gimborn, began the manufacture of coffee-roasting
machines. From this start there developed in Emmerich quite an industry
in coffee-machinery building. In 1870, Alexius Van Gulpen introduced to
the German trade a globular coffee roaster employing wood and coke as
fuel and having perforations and an exhauster. Van Gulpen and von
Gimborn are the two names most often met with in the development of
German coffee-roasting machinery.
The first recorded German patent on a coffee roaster was issued to G.
Tubermann's Son in 1877, for "a coffee burner with vertically adjusted
stirring works." German patents were issued in 1878 to R. Muhlberg, of
Taucha, for coffee roasters with movable partitions and "screw-shaped
declining walls." Six roaster patents were issued to other inventors in
1878-79.
Peter Pearson, of Manchester, took out a German patent on a
coffee-roasting apparatus in 1880. Fleury & Barker, of London, were
granted a coffee-roaster patent in Germany in 1881.
After 1870, Van Gulpen devoted himself to the cylinder type of roaster,
on which he obtained several patents. The partnership between Messrs.
Van Gulpen, Lensing and von Gimborn was dissolved in 1906. They were
succeeded by the Emmericher Maschinenfabrik und Eissengiesserei, and Van
Gulpen & Co. Van Gulpen died in 1920. Among his inventions were a
circular air fan to supply fresh air to the beans while roasting; a
fire-dampening device; roasting and cooling exhausters; and a
"withdrawable" mixer remaining inside the cylinder during the roasting
process, but designed to be withdrawn at the end, discharging the
contents with a jerk into a circular cooler. These improvements are
featured in Van Gulpen & Co.'s latest Meteor machine. They make also the
Typhoon and Comet machines, and a line of globular roasters.
A dozen coffee-roaster patents were issued in Germany in 1880-82. Among
them was one to the Emmerich Machine Factory and Iron Foundry, Van
Gulpen, Lensing & von Gimborn, Emmerich, in 1882.
[Illustration: GERMAN GAS AND COAL ROASTING MACHINES
Left, Perfekt gas roaster--Right, Probat coal roaster]
Numerous coffee-cooling, coffee-grinding, and coffee-making devices were
patented in Germany from 1877 to 1885; among them Newstadt's
coffee-extract machine in 1882, safety attachments, rapid filters,
Vienna coffee makers, etc. The first Vienna coffee maker seems to have
been patented in Germany in 1879.
The Emmerich Machine Factory and Iron Foundry acquired certain Danish
and Austrian coffee-roaster patents in 1881, and in 1892 it was granted
a German patent on a ball roaster. In the eighties this concern began
the manufacture of a closed ball, or globular, roaster with gas-heater
attachment. It acquired, in 1889, the rights for Germany to manufacture
gas roasters under the Dutch Henneman patents of 1888. In 1892, Theodore
von Gimborn was granted French and English patents on a coffee roaster
employing a naked gas flame in a rotary cylinder. In 1897, the
Emmericher concern was granted a German patent on an automatic circular
tipping cooler with power drive. Today, this factory features the Probat
and Perfekt roasters, but manufactures a general line of cylinder and
ball machines for coal, coke, and gas.
Among others engaged in the manufacture of coffee machines in Germany
are G. W. Barth, Ludwigsburg, and Ferd. Gothot, Mulheim on Rhur. The
latter manufactures a coke or gas heated quick-roaster known as the
Ideal-Rapid, and a smaller hand-power machine, of the same type, called
Favour.
[Illustration: OTHER GERMAN COFFEE ROASTERS
Left, globular machine--Right, Meteor quick-roasting outfit]
_American, French, and British Machines_
In 1869, Élie Moneuse and L. Duparquet, of New York, were granted three
United States patents on a coffee pot or urn made of sheet copper and
lined with pure sheet block tin. These patents were the foundation of
the successful coffee-urn business afterward built up under the name of
the Duparquet, Huot & Moneuse Co.
Thomas Smith & Son (Elkington & Co., Ltd., successors) began, in 1870,
the manufacture of the Napierian coffee-making machine at Glasgow,
Scotland. This was a device for making coffee by distillation, employing
a metal globe syphon and brewer with filter cloth. The principle was
subsequently used in the Napier-List steam coffee machine for ships and
institutions, patented in England in 1891.
John Gulick Baker, of Philadelphia, one of the founders of the
Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania, was granted a United
States patent in 1870, on a coffee grinder introduced to the trade as
the Enterprise Champion No. 1 store mill. Another Baker patent was
granted in 1873, and this became known as the Enterprise Champion Globe
No. 0. These mills were the pioneer machines for store use.
In 1870, Delphine, Sr., of Marourme, France, was granted a French patent
on a tubular coffee roaster which turned over a flame.
In the sixties and seventies, French inventors became quite active on
coffee-roaster improvements. Many patents were granted, and quite a few
were for practical small-capacity machines that have survived, and are
in use today in France and on the continent. Some supplied inspiration
for inventors in neighboring countries. Among the more notable names,
mention should be made of Martin, of St. Quentin, who produced a
sheet-iron cylinder roaster with "interior gatherer" in 1860; Marchand,
of Paris, "fan roaster with movable fire box," 1866 and 1869; Lauzaune,
Paris, "rocking system of roasting coffee in a round stove," 1873;
Ittel's glass sphere, Lyons, 1874; and Marchand and Hignette, Paris,
1877, a ball coffee roaster.
_Evolution of the Gas Roaster_
According to the patent records, Roure, of Marseilles, appears to have
produced the original gas coffee roaster in 1877. The evolution of the
gas roasting-machine was as follows:
In 1879, H. Faulder, of Stockport, England, obtained an English patent
on an external air-blast burner applied to a cylinder gas machine, which
is still being manufactured by the Grocers Engineering and Whitmee,
Ltd., of London. Fleury and Barker, of London, followed with another
English gas machine in 1880, the heat being supplied from gas jets over
the roasting cylinder. In 1881, Peter Pearson, of Manchester, produced a
gas roaster which consisted of a wire-gauze cylinder revolving under a
metal plate heated by gas.
[Illustration: ORIGINAL ENTERPRISE MILL]
Beeston Tupholme, of London, was granted an English patent in 1887, on a
direct-flame gas roaster which he assigned to Joseph Baker & Sons.
Karel F. Henneman, the Hague, Netherlands, took out his first patent on
the Henneman direct-flame gas roaster in Spain in 1888; and the
following year, he obtained patents in Belgium, France, and England. His
United States patents were granted in 1893-95.
Postulart secured a patent in France for a gas coffee roaster in 1888.
The Germans also began, in the eighties, to take the quick gas coffee
roaster seriously. In 1889, Carl Alexander Otto, of Dresden, secured a
German patent on a spiral tubular machine to roast coffee in three and a
half minutes. It was first manufactured and sold by Max Thurmer, of
Dresden, in 1891-93.
[Illustration: MAX THURMER'S QUICK GAS ROASTER]
[Illustration: LOADING COFFEE ON ZAMBOEKS AT HODEIDA
These boats then transfer their cargoes to steamships lying in the
roads]
[Illustration: PICTURESQUE CAMEL AND BULLOCK CARTS
Used for local coffee transport in Aden and Hodeida]
[Illustration: PRIMITIVE TRANSPORTATION METHODS IN ARABIA]
The subject of quick roasting has greatly agitated German and French
coffee men. Otto found that coffee roasted in small quantities (say
fifty grams) on a sample-roaster produced a finer flavor and aroma than
that roasted in the big machines. He set out to produce a machine that
would roast continuous small quantities in the shortest time. He built
the first commercial machine under his patent in 1893. It was shown at
the International Food Exhibition in Dresden in 1894. The latest type
manufactured by Max Thurmer, Dresden, in which firm Otto is a partner,
has a spiral five meters long and an hourly production of about 450
pounds. The Thurmer machine, as it is called, has been sold to the trade
since 1914.
Quick roasting is gone in for quite extensively in Germany, even in the
big trade-roasting plants, where machines to roast in ten to seventeen
minutes are common. Natural, slow cooling is most necessary with quick
roasting, according to Thurmer. On the other hand, A. Mottant, of Paris,
who also manufactures a line of quick gas-roasting machines, called
Magic, argues that quick cooling is essential after quick roasting.
Three of the Mottant machines are illustrated on pages 642 and 644.
Other quick-roasting machines of German make are the Combinator,
Tornado, and Rekord.
In a lecture before the Society of Medical Officers of Health, London,
October 24, 1912, William Lawton demonstrated to the satisfaction of his
audience that coffee could be roasted in 3 minutes, using a perforated
gas-roaster of his own invention.[365]
The first direct-flame gas coffee roaster in America was installed in
the plant of the Potter-Parlin Co., New York, by F.T. Holmes, in 1893.
This was Tupholme's machine, patented in England in 1887, and in the
United States in 1896-97. The Potter-Parlin Co. subsequently placed the
Tupholme machines throughout the United States on a daily rental basis,
limiting its leases to one firm in a city, having obtained the exclusive
American rights from the Waygood, Tupholme Co., now the Grocers
Engineering and Whitmee, Ltd.
[Illustration: AN ENGLISH GAS COFFEE-ROASTING PLANT
The machines are the Morewood (Improved Faulder) sliding-burner indirect
type]
Natural gas was first used in the United States as fuel for roasting
coffee in 1896, when it was introduced under coal roasting cylinders in
Pennsylvania and Indiana by improvised gas burners.
[Illustration: FRENCH GLOBULAR ROASTER]
Edwin Crawley and W.T. Johnston, Newport, Ky., assignors to the
Potter-Parlin Co., New York, were granted four United States patents on
gas coffee-roasting machines.
In 1897, a special gas burner, not to be confused with the direct-flame
machine, was first attached to a regular Burns roaster in the United
States, and was made the basis of application for a patent.
In 1897-99, David B. Fraser, of New York, began to market in the United
States a central-heated gas-fuel machine with an inner wire-cloth
cylinder to keep the coffee from dropping into the flame, developed
under United States patents granted to Carl H. Duehring, of Hoboken, in
1897, and to D.B. Fraser in 1899.
M.F. Hamsley, of Brooklyn, was granted a United States patent on an
improved direct-flame gas roaster in 1898.
Ellis M. Potter, New York, was granted in 1899, a United States patent
on an improved direct-flame gas roaster in which the flame was spread
over a large area to avoid scorching and to insure a more thorough and
uniform roast. In the Tupholme machine, the gas flame entered at one
end, and the smoke and flame went out through a stack on top. In the
Potter machine, the stack was put on the end opposite the gas intake,
with a fan to pull the flame all the way through.
The Burns direct-flame gas roaster, with patented swing-gate head for
feeding and discharging, was introduced to the trade in 1900. The Burns
gas sample-roaster followed.
In 1901, Joseph Lambert, of Marshall, Mich., introduced to the trade one
of the earliest indirect gas roasting machines.
In 1901, also, T.C. Morewood, of Brentford, England, was granted an
English patent on a gas roaster fitted with a sliding burner and a
removable sampling tube. This machine is now being made by the Grocers
Engineering and Whitmee, Ltd.
In the same year, 1901, F.T. Holmes, formerly with the Potter-Parlin
Co., joined the Huntley Manufacturing Co., Silver Creek, N.Y., which
then began to build the Monitor direct-flame gas coffee roaster. Mr.
Holmes still further improved the Tupholme idea by putting gas burners
in both ends of the roasting cylinder, with the pipes bent down so as to
cause the gas flame to go first to the bottom and then up to the stack
on top. This improvement was never patented.
[Illustration: SIROCCO MACHINE (FRENCH)]
The Henneman direct-flame gas roaster was introduced to the United
States trade in 1905, by C.A. Cross & Co., wholesale grocers, of
Fitchburg, Mass. It was marketed here seven years, but was never a
great success.
[Illustration: ENGLISH ROASTING AND GRINDING EQUIPMENT
Showing one 168-pound Simplex gas roaster, with a Rapid disk grinding
machine having a capacity of 300 to 400 pounds per hour]
In 1906, F.T. Holmes was granted a United States patent on a coffee
roaster which he assigned to the Huntley Manufacturing Co.
J.C. Prims, of Battle Creek, Mich., was granted a United States patent
in 1908, on a corrugated cylinder improvement for a gas and coal roaster
designed for retail stores. The A.J. Deer Co., Hornell, N.Y., acquired
this machine in 1909, and began to market it as the Royal coffee
roaster. An improvement patented in 1915 by J.C. Prims was assigned to
the A.J. Deer Co.
In 1915, and again in 1919, Jabez Burns & Sons, New York, patented their
Jubilee roaster, an inner-heated machine in which the gas is burned
inside a revolving cylinder in a combustion chamber protected from
direct coffee contact. The heat is deflected downward and then passes
upward through the coffee.
In 1919, William Fullard (_d._ 1921), of Philadelphia, was granted a
United States patent on a "heated fresh air system" roaster, in which
the fresh air is forced by an electric fan through a pipe to a set of
coils over gas, coal, or oil flame. At the top of the coils is a
manifold, the hot air being forced through small holes to circulate in
and around a regulation perforated roasting cylinder; the vapors and
spent air are then drawn into an overhead exhaust pipe that connects
with a pipe provided with a fresh-air intake, the idea being to return
them to the roasting cylinder after being mixed with fresh air and
heated in the coils as before. This patent has not been successfully
marketed at the time of writing. The purpose is to roast by heated air
not mixed with any furnace gases. Whether this can be done with
sufficient fuel economy, and whether coffee thus roasted would have any
greater value, are questions that are raised by the coffee experts.
_Coffee-Grinding and Coffee-Making Chronology_
To return to our coffee-grinding and coffee-making chronology, it is to
be noted that in 1875-76-78, Turner Strowbridge, of New Brighton, Pa.,
was granted three United States patents on a box coffee mill, first made
by Logan & Strowbridge, later the Logan & Strowbridge Iron Company, the
latter being succeeded by the Wrightsville Hardware Co. in 1906.
[Illustration: MAGIC GAS MACHINE (FRENCH)]
In 1878, a United States patent was issued to Rudolphus L. Webb,
assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain, Conn., on an improved
box coffee grinder for home use.
In 1878, and in 1880, United States patents were issued to John C. Dell
of Philadelphia on a store coffee mill.
In 1879, and in 1880, United States patents were issued to Orson W.
Stowe, of the Peck, Stowe & Wilcox Co., Southington, Conn., on a
household coffee mill.
In 1879, Charles Halstead, of New York, was granted the first United
States patent on a metal coffee pot having a china interior. It was an
infuser for home use.
In 1880, coffee pots, with tops having muslin bottoms for clarifying and
straining, were first made in the United States by the Duparquet, Huot &
Moneuse Co., of New York.
The name Hungerford first appears in the United States patent records in
1880-81, in connection with patents granted to G.W. and G.S. Hungerford
on machines for cleaning, scouring, and polishing coffee. In 1882, the
Hungerfords, father and son, brought out a roaster. This machine and the
one patented by Chris Abele, of New York, already referred to, were
constructions resulting from the expiration of the original Burns patent
of 1864. In 1881, Jabez Burns patented the improved Burns roaster,
comprising a turn-over front head serving for both feeding and
discharging. Additional United States coffee-roaster patents were issued
to G.W. Hungerford in 1887-89. In the latter year, David Fraser, who
came to the United States from Glasgow in 1886, established the
Hungerford Co., succeeding the business of the Hungerfords, and later
being granted certain United States patents, already mentioned. In 1910,
the Hungerford Co. business was discontinued in New York; and David B.
Fraser moved to Jersey City, where he continued to operate as the Fraser
Manufacturing Co. This business was discontinued in 1918.
Chris Abele was an active competitor of the Hungerfords and of the
Fraser Manufacturing Co.; and his Knickerbocker roaster was sold over a
wide territory. He died in 1910; and his son-in-law, Gottfried Bay,
succeeded to the business.
[Illustration: BURNS JUBILEE GAS MACHINE]
In 1881, the Morgan Brothers, Edgar H. and Charles, began the
manufacture of household coffee mills, the business being acquired in
1885 by the Arcade Manufacturing Co., of Freeport, Ill. The latter
concern brought out the first pound coffee mill in 1889. Its mills
became very popular in the United States. In 1900, Charles Morgan was
granted a United States patent on a glass-jar coffee mill, with
removable glass measuring cup.
[Illustration: DOUBLE AROMATIC GAS ROASTING OUTFIT (FRENCH)]
In 1881, Harvey Ricker, of Brooklyn, later of Minneapolis, introduced to
the trade in the United States a "minute coffee pot" and urn known as
the Boss, the name being subsequently changed to Minute. He improved and
patented the device in 1901 as the Half-Minute coffee pot. It is a
filtration device employing a cotton sack with a thickened bottom.
In 1882, Chris Abele, of New York, patented an improvement on the
old-style Burns roaster, with openings cut in the front plate. It was
known as the Knickerbocker. As already noted, the machine was a
competitor of the Hungerford machine patented the same year.
In 1882, a German patent was granted to Emil Newstadt, of Berlin, on one
of the earliest coffee-extract machines.
In 1883, Jabez Burns was granted a United States patent on his improved
sample-coffee roaster.
In 1884, the Star coffee pot, later known as the Marion Harland, was
introduced to the trade. It employed a wire-gauze drip device, called a
"filter," which was fitted to a metal pot. It was extensively advertised
and attained considerable popularity. The same year, Finley Acker, of
Philadelphia, brought out an improved coffee pot for family trade.
Later, he produced his Mo-Kof-Fee pot and an individual porcelain drip
pot for testing-table use.
In 1885, F.A. Cauchois, New York, brought out an improved
porcelain-lined urn.
In 1887-88, the Etruscan coffee pot was invented and put on the market
by the Etruscan Coffee Pot Co., of Philadelphia. It employed a muslin
cylinder with metal ends and a mechanism for combining "agitation,
distillation and infusion." It was not unlike the Dakin device of 1848,
previously mentioned.
In 1890, A. Mottant, Bar-le-Duc, France, began to manufacture a line of
coffee-roasting machinery which included vertical ball-and-cylinder
machines, using wood, coal, coke, or gas for fuel. His best known makes
are Magic and Sirocco (see page 642).
Before 1895, the commercial roaster was little used in France. Since
then, the industry has developed, but without displacing the smaller
roaster for family use. Ball roasters are popular with shop-keepers,
especially the variety manufactured by the Établissements Lauzaune at
Paris, and known as Aromatic, being equipped with electric motors. This
firm builds also a larger machine known as Moderne.
Other makes of roasters that have attained prominence in France are the
Lambert, equipped with a steam condenser; Van den Brouck's, having the
roasting cylinder lined with wire gauze; and Resson's machine for
wholesale plants.
The French led off with glass-cylinder roasters for home use in the
early seventies. They are still popular. One of the developments of the
last decade was known as the Bijou, and was operated by clock work. A
similar automatic machine, made of glass, was manufactured and sold in
New York in 1908 under the name of the Home roaster. As late as 1914, an
American inventor produced a home roaster for use in a stove hole. This
device had a stirrer in the cover to be rotated by hand. A similar
device was sold in 1917 under the name Savo. Home roasting, however, has
become a lost art in America.
[Illustration: LAMBERT'S VICTORY GAS MACHINE]
In 1897, Joseph Lambert, of Vermont, began the manufacture and sale in
Battle Creek, Mich., of the Lambert self-contained coffee roaster
without the brick setting then required for coffee-roasting machines. In
1900, he was joined by A.P. Grohens. In 1901, the Lambert Food and
Machinery Co. was organized. In 1904, the company was reorganized. Since
then, many improvements have been made under Mr. Grohens' direction. The
Lambert gas roaster, one of the first machines employing gas as fuel for
indirect roasting, dates back to 1901, as previously mentioned. The
Economic roaster is Mr. Grohens' latest development for coal or coke
fuel. It is a compact self-contained equipment operating in connection
with a new-type rotary cooler. He has also recently (1922) brought out a
gas-fired, electrically operated 600-pound Victory roaster and a
fifty-pound miniature coffee-roasting plant designed for retail stores.
In 1897, the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania was the first
regularly to employ electric motors for driving commercial coffee mills
by means of belt-and-pulley attachments.
In 1898, the Hobart Manufacturing Co., of Troy, Ohio, introduced to the
trade another early coffee grinder connected with an electric motor and
driven by belt-and-pulley attachment.
In 1900, the first gear-driven electric coffee grinder was put on the
market by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania.
In 1902, the Coles Manufacturing Co., (Braun Co., successor) and Henry
Troemner, of Philadelphia, began the manufacture and sale of gear-driven
electric coffee grinders.
In 1905, the A.J. Deer Co., Buffalo, N.Y., (now at Hornell, N.Y.) began
to sell its Royal electric coffee mills direct to dealers on the
instalment plan, revolutionizing the former practise of selling coffee
mills through hardware jobbers.
In 1905, H.L. Johnston was granted a United States patent on a coffee
mill. He assigned the patent to the Hobart Manufacturing Co.
In 1900, Charles Lewis was granted a United States patent on an improved
reversible filtration coffee pot known as the Kin-Hee. This pot has
since been further improved, and the patent rights sold in several
foreign countries. It employs a filter cloth in place of the metal or
china strainer used in the French drip pot.
In 1901, Landers, Frary & Clark's improved Universal percolator was
patented in the United States. This pot has proved to be one of the most
popular percolators on the American market. This firm brought out the
Universal Cafenoira, a double glass filtration device, in 1916. It is
covered by design and structural patents issued in 1916 and 1917.
In 1900, the Burns swing-gate sample-roasting outfit was patented in the
United States.
In 1901, Robert Burns, of New York, was granted two United States
patents on a coffee roaster and cooler.
In 1901, Freidrich Kuchelmeister, Brux, Austria-Hungary, was granted a
United States patent on a coffee roaster having a double-walled drum,
the inner being of wire gauze, and the outer of solid iron, designed to
prevent scorching of the beans.
In 1902, W.M. Still & Sons, London, were granted an English patent on a
steam coffee-making machine employing twelve ounces of coffee to the
gallon.
In 1902, T.K. Baker, of Minneapolis, was granted two United States
patents on a cloth-filter coffee-making device.
In 1903, A.E. Bronson, Jr., assignor to the Bronson-Walton Company,
Cleveland, Ohio, was granted a United States patent on a coffee mill.
In 1903, John Arbuckle was granted a United States patent on a
coffee-roasting apparatus employing a fan to force the hot fire gases
into the roasting cylinder. From this was developed the Jumbo roaster,
now used in the Arbuckle plant, which roasts ten thousand pounds an
hour.
_Electric Coffee-Roasting_
In 1903, George C. Lester, of New York, was granted a United States
patent on an electric coffee roaster, that is, a machine to roast by
electric heat. There were two cylinders, the inner being of wire gauze,
and the outer of copper and asbestos. Between the two, four electric
heaters were placed.
There was demonstrated in Germany, in 1906, an electric coffee roaster
employing a number of resistance coils, consisting of strips of Krupp
metal two and one-half mm. thick, five mm. broad, and thirteen and
one-half mm. long, wound on porcelain tubes, which transmitted the heat
to the air within the roasting cylinder. Analysis showed that coffee
electrically roasted contained more substances soluble in water than
that roasted by coke, as well as considerably more material soluble in
ether. This machine was invented by Captain Carl Moegling about 1900.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE FIRST ELECTRIC COFFEE MILLS]
Another electric-fuel-machine patent was granted in the United States to
Robert H. Talbutt, of Baltimore, in 1911. This machine had the electric
heater in the center of the roasting cylinder. An electrically heated
machine called the Ben Franklin was demonstrated in New York in 1918.
In 1919, Everett T. Shortt, Dallas, Tex., was granted a United States
patent on an electrical roaster.
Up to the present writing, no great progress has been made in the United
States with the roasting of coffee by electric heat.
The Phoenix Electrical Heating Co. manufactured, and the Uno Company,
Ltd., of London, marketed an electrically heated roaster as far back as
1909. The machine was not altogether satisfactory, even to the makers;
and the Uno Company is now (1922) experimenting with a new type of
electric roaster which it expects will remedy the defects of the early
machine. The 1909 roaster was made of two concentric cylinders revolving
around a set of fixed heating elements, consisting of a series of
spiral wires held in position on fireproof clay insulators, these wires
being assembled, insulated, and brought out through the fixed center to
a terminal, or a set of terminals, at one end. In this way, no contact
brushes or rings were needed. The machine had a sampling device at one
end which threw out a few berries each time it was operated. It was not
possible to return these sample berries. Such an arrangement appeared
necessary, however, unless one was prepared to have the heating element
on the outside of the machine and to pick up the current by means of
rings or brushes. When the operator became accustomed to the coffee he
was roasting, this was not a matter of great moment, because in England,
at least, the average coffee roaster does not require a testing sample
until he is about ready to turn out and to cool the roast.
[Illustration: ENGLISH ELECTRIC-FUEL ROASTER]
The Uno machine had a capacity of seven pounds, and the time occupied in
roasting was from eight to ten minutes, depending on whether the roaster
had been freshly switched on or had been running for a few minutes. The
wattage was 5,520. The consumption per hundred-weight was under thirteen
units. The makers gave, as the most economical pressure on which to
work, 220 to 240 volts. The machine was operated for eighteen months in
the show window of a London retail grocer.
In 1921, a United States patent was granted to Mark T. Seymour, Stowe,
N.Y., on an electric coffee and peanut roaster, which has the heating
element embedded in a cement-lined cylinder that contains a roasting
cage.
In 1921, Fred J. Kuhlemeir and Ralph J. Quelle, of Burlington, Ia., were
granted a United States patent on a small household coffee roaster
electrically equipped, and roasting by electric heat.
_Other Machinery Patents_
In 1903, Luigi Giacomini, of Florence, Italy, was granted a United
States patent on a process for roasting coffee.
[Illustration: BEN FRANKLIN ELECTRIC COFFEE ROASTER]
In 1905, A.A. Warner, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New Britain,
Conn., was granted two United States patents on a coffee mill.
In 1906, Ludwig Schmidt, assignor to the Essmueller Mill Furnishing
Co., St. Louis, was granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster.
This company and the Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Co., also of St. Louis,
were making machines similar to the original Burns model. The
Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Co., in 1910, brought out a self-contained
gas roaster called the St. Louis, Jr. In 1913, at a receiver's sale,
A.P. Grohens, of the Lambert Machine Co., acquired all the machinery and
patent rights of the Reuter-Jones Manufacturing Company.
In 1904, J.W. Chapman and G.W. Kooman, assignors to Manning, Bowman &
Co., Meriden, Conn., were granted a United States patent on a coffee or
tea pot. The same year, George E. Savage and G.W. Hope were granted two
United States patents on coffee or tea pots, also assigned to Manning,
Bowman & Co.
In 1904, Sigmund Sternau, J.P. Steppe, and L. Strassberger, assignors to
S. Sternau & Co., New York, were granted a United States patent on a
percolator. Six others were granted to Charles Nelson, and assigned to
S. Sternau & Co., in 1912 and 1913, for a percolator, the manufacture
and sale of which were discontinued in 1915.
In 1905, a celebrated case was decided in Kansas City involving
litigation between William E. Baker, of Baker & Co., Minneapolis, and
the F.A. Duncombe Manufacturing Co., of St. Joseph, Mo., over Mr.
Baker's patent rights in a machine to produce steel-cut coffee. The suit
was brought in 1903, and Mr. Baker contended that his patent gave him
the exclusive right to the "uniformity of granules by means of the
sharply dressed mechanism" and by the use of a fan for blowing away the
silver skins, produced by his machine; while the defendant said he
obtained the same result (steel-cut coffee) by grading the granules
through screens or sieves. The defense was that Mr. Baker's process was
not a discovery; because, grinding coffee was as old as the world's
knowledge, and winnowing the chaff was equally ancient. The lower court
dismissed the bill, because the "patents sued upon are devoid of
patentable invention"; and the United States Court of Appeals confirmed
the decision.
[Illustration: ENTERPRISE HAND STORE MILL]
In 1905, Frederick A. Cauchois, of New York, brought out his Private
Estate coffee maker, a clever combination of the French drip and filter
processes, employing a thin layer of Japanese paper as a filtering
agent. The same year, Finley Acker, of Philadelphia, was granted a
United States patent on a percolator employing two cylinders, perforated
on the sides, with a sheet of percolator paper placed between them to
act as a filtering medium.
In 1906, George Savage and J.W. Chapman, assignors to Manning, Bowman &
Co. of Meriden, Conn., were granted a United States patent on a coffee
percolator.
In 1906, Alonzo A. Warner, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New
Britain, Conn., was granted a United States patent on a coffee
percolator.
In 1906, H.D. Kelly, Kansas City, was granted a United States patent on
the Kellum Automatic coffee urn, employing a coffee extractor in which
ground coffee is continually agitated before percolation by a vacuum
process. Sixteen patents followed.
[Illustration: LATEST TYPES OF ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN STORE MILLS]
In 1907, Desiderio Pavoni, of Milan, Italy, was granted a patent in
Italy for an improvement on the Bezzara system for preparing and serving
coffee as a rapid infusion of a single cup, first introduced in
1903-1904. It is known as the Ideale urn, and makes 150 cups per hour.
Among other Italian rapid coffee-making machines which, with this one,
have attained considerable prominence in Europe and South America,
mention should be made of La Victoria Arduino made by Pier Teresio
Arduino, of Turin, Italy, introduced in 1909, that makes 1000 cups per
hour. It was patented in the United States in 1920. There are, also,
L'Italiana Sovereign Filter Machine (1440 cups per hour) made by Bossi,
Vernetti & Bartolini, Turin, (subsequently merged with La Victoria
Arduino-Societa Anonima); and José Baro's Express, Buenos Aires, making
600 cups an hour.
[Illustration: THE IDEALE MACHINE (CENTER) MAKES 150 CUPS OF COFFEE AN
HOUR. THE MACHINE AT THE LEFT MAKES 1,000 CUPS AN HOUR
A MACHINE OF THE TYPE OF THE ONE AT THE RIGHT WILL PRODUCE FROM 1,440 TO
1,800 CUPS OF COFFEE AN HOUR
TYPES OF ITALIAN RAPID COFFEE-MAKING MACHINES]
In 1908, A.E. White, Chicago, was granted a United States patent on a
coffee urn. He assigned it to the James Heekin Co., of Cincinnati.
In 1908, I.D. Richheimer, Chicago, introduced his Tricolator to the
trade and the consumer. This is an aluminum device to fit any coffee
pot, combining French drip and filtration ideas, with Japanese paper as
the filtration medium.
In 1908, an improved type of Burns roaster was patented in the United
States. The improvement consisted of an open perforated cylinder with
flexible back-head and balanced front bearing. The following year, the
Burns tilting sample-roaster for gas or electric heating units was
patented.
In 1909, Frederick A. Cauchois, of New York, was granted a United States
patent on a coffee urn fitted with a centrifugal pump for repouring.
In 1909, C.F. Blanke, of St. Louis, was granted two United States
patents on a china coffee pot with a cloth filter, the sides tightly,
and the bottom loosely, woven.
In 1911, Edward Aborn, of New York, was granted a United States patent
on his Make-Right coffee-filter device. This was later incorporated with
improvements in a Tru-Bru coffee pot, on which he was granted another
patent in 1920.
In 1912, John E. King, of Detroit, was granted a United States patent on
an improved coffee percolator for restaurants, employing a sheet of
filter paper on a ring in a metal basket; the ring to be removed once
the filter paper was in position on the perforated bottom plate of the
percolator basket.
In 1913, F.F. Wear, Los Angeles, perfected a coffee-making device in
which a metal perforated clamp was employed to apply a filter paper to
the under-side of an English earthenware adaptation of the French drip
pot.
In 1912, William Lawton demonstrated in London a gas coffee roaster of
his own invention, by means of which he roasted coffee "in suspension"
to a light brown color in three minutes.
[Illustration: SHOWING HOW THE ITALIAN RAPID COFFEE MACHINE WORKS
Left, putting coffee in the filter--Center, applying filter to
faucet--Right, turning on water and steam to make the drink]
Herbert L. Johnston, assignor to the Hobart Electric Manufacturing Co.,
Troy, Ohio, was granted a United States patent on a machine for refining
coffee in 1913.
In 1914, the Phylax coffee maker, embodying an improvement on the French
drip principle, was introduced to the trade. The process was
demonstrated by Benjamin H. Calkin, of Detroit, in 1921, as "an art of
brewing coffee."
[Illustration: LA VICTORIA ARDUINO MIGNONNE
An electric rapid coffee maker]
In 1914, Robert Burns, assignor to Jabez Burns & Sons, New York, was
granted a United States patent on a coffee-granulating mill.
In 1914-15, Herbert Galt, of Chicago, was granted three United States
patents on the Gait coffee pot, made of aluminum, and having two parts,
a removable cylinder employing the French drip principle, and the
containing pot.
In 1915, the Burns Jubilee (inner-heated) gas coffee roaster was
patented in the United States and put on the market.
In 1915, the National Coffee Roasters Association Home coffee mill,
employing an improved set screw operating on a cog-and ratchet
principle, was introduced to the trade.
In 1916, a United States patent was granted to I.D. Richheimer, Chicago,
for an infuser improvement on his Tricolator.
In 1916, Saul Blickman, assignor to S. Blickman, New York, was granted a
United States patent on an apparatus for making and dispensing coffee.
In 1916, Orville W. Chamberlain, New Orleans, was granted a United
States patent on an automatic drip coffee pot.
In 1916, Jules Le Page, Darlington, Ind., obtained two United States
patents on cutting rolls to cut--and not to grind or crush--corn, wheat,
or coffee. These were subsequently incorporated in the Ideal steel-cut
coffee mill and marketed to the trade by the B.F. Gump Co., Chicago.
In 1917, Richard A. Greene and William G. Burns, assignors to Jabez
Burns & Sons, New York, were granted patents in the United States on
the Burns flexible-arm cooler (for roasted batches) providing full
fan-suction to a cooler box at all points in its track travel.
In 1919, Joseph F. Smart, assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark, New
Britain, Conn., was granted a United States patent on a percolator.
In 1919, Charles Morgan, assignor to the Arcade Manufacturing Co.,
Freeport, Ill., was granted a United States patent on an improved
grinding mill.
In 1919, Edward F. Schnuck, assignor to Jabez Burns & Sons, New York,
was granted a United States patent on an improvement for a gas coffee
roaster. In 1920, he was granted a United States patent on an improved
process of twice cutting coffee and removing the chaff after each
cutting.
In 1920, Natale de Mattei, of Turin, Italy, was granted a United States
patent on a rapid coffee-filtering machine.
In 1920, Frederick H. Muller, of Chicago, was granted a United States
patent on "an art of making coffee," and on an improved apparatus for
hotels and restaurants, which comprised a series of superposed metal
containers, or cartridges, of ground coffee placed in a perforated
bucket designed to rest in a coffee urn, the cartridges being lifted out
as the boiling water poured on them sinks with the drawing off of the
"decoction" at the faucet.
[Illustration: THE N.C.R.A. HOME COFFEE MILL]
[Illustration: THE MANTHEY-ZORN RAPID COFFEE INFUSER AND DISPENSER]
In 1920, Alfredo M. Salazar, of New York, was granted a United States
patent on a coffee urn in which the coffee is made at the time of
serving by using steam pressure to force the boiling water through
ground coffee held in a cloth sack attached to the faucet.
In 1920, William H. Bruning, Evansville, Ind., was granted a United
States patent on an improved French drip pot made of aluminum and
provided with a vacuum jacket in the dripper section, and a hot-water
jacket in the serving portion, to keep the beverage hot.
In 1921, the Manthey-Zorn Laboratories Co., of Cleveland, brought out a
rapid coffee-infuser and dispenser employing in the infuser a
centrifugal to make an extract in thirty-eight seconds, and designed to
deliver a gallon of concentrated liquid, or coffee base, every three
minutes. The dispenser automatically combines the coffee base with
boiling water in a differential faucet in the proportion desired,
usually one of base to four of water. The dispenser serves 600 cups per
hour. An additional faucet may be added which will double the capacity.
[Illustration: THE TRICOLETTE, A PAPER-FILTER DEVICE FOR A SINGLE CUP
Above; In position on cup--Below; opened, showing parts]
Among foreign coffee makers applying the French drip principle, the
Vienna coffee-making machine, known in the United States as the Bohemian
coffee pot, has met with much favor in this country. Elsewhere it is
known as the Carlsbad. It is made of china, and the European
manufacturer has a patent on the porcelain strainer, or grid, which is
provided with slits that are very fine on the inner side but that widen
on the outer side to permit careful straining and to facilitate
cleaning.
Some of the latest developments in coffee apparatus were shown at the
industrial exposition at the National Coffee Roasters Association, held
in New York, November 1-3, 1921. Among items of distinction not
heretofore included in this work, mention should be made of: an
American-French coffee biggin, being a French drip pot made of American
porcelain and fitted with a muslin strainer; a glass urn-liner, intended
to supplant the porcelain liner; and an electric repouring pump,
designed to be attached to any type of coffee urn.
Careful research of the records of the United States patent office
discloses that the number of patents relating to coffee apparatus and
coffee preparations, issued from 1789 to 1921, is as follows:
UNITED STATES COFFEE PATENTS
_Devices_ _Patents_
Coffee Mills 185
Coffee-roasting devices, and improvements thereon 312
Coffee-making devices 835
Coffee-cleaning, hulling, drying, polishing,
and plantation machinery in general 175
Miscellaneous patents (for coating, glazing, treated
coffees, substitutes, etc.) 300
________
Total 1,807
It must be borne in mind that there was a number of patents granted on
machines that were intended for, and used for, coffee, but that did not
mention coffee in the specifications. Many coffee driers were listed as
"grain driers," for instance. Also, many excellent devices have been
made that were never patented.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXXV
WORLD'S COFFEE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
_How coffee is roasted, prepared, and served in all the leading
civilized countries--The Arabian coffee ceremony--The present-day
coffee houses of Turkey--Twentieth-century improvements in Europe
and the United States_
Coffee manners and customs have shown little change in the Orient in the
six hundred-odd years since the coffee drink was discovered by Sheik
Omar in Arabia. As a beverage for western peoples, however, and more
particularly in America, there have been many improvements in making and
serving it.
A brief survey of the coffee conventions and coffee service in the
principal countries where coffee has become a fixed item in the dietary
is presented here, with a view to show how different peoples have
adapted the universal drink to their national needs and preferences.
To proceed in alphabetical order, and beginning with Africa, coffee
drinking is indulged in largely in Abyssinia, Algeria, Egypt, Portuguese
East Africa, and the Union of South Africa.
_Coffee Manners and Customs in Africa_
In Abyssinia and Somaliland, among the native population, the most
primitive methods of coffee making still obtain. Here the wandering
Galla still mix their pulverized coffee beans with fats as a food
ration, and others of the native tribes favor the _kisher_, or beverage
made from the toasted coffee hulls. An hour's boiling produces a
straw-colored decoction, of a slightly sweetish taste. Where the Arabian
customs have taken root, the drink is prepared from the roasted beans
after the Arabian and Turkish method. The white inhabitants usually
prepare and serve the beverage as in the homeland; so that it is
possible to obtain it after the English, French, German, Greek, or
Italian styles. Adaptations of the French sidewalk café, and of the
Turkish coffee house, may be seen in the larger towns.
In the equatorial provinces of Egypt, and in Uganda, the natives eat the
raw berries; or first cook them in boiling water, dry them in the sun,
and then eat them. It is a custom to exchange coffee beans in friendly
greeting.
Individual earthen vessels for making coffee, painted red and yellow,
are made by some of the native tribes in Abyssinia, and usually
accompany disciples of Islam when they journey to Mecca, where the
vessels find a ready sale among the pilgrims, most of whom are
coffee-devotees.
Turkish and Arabian coffee customs prevail in Algeria and Egypt,
modified to some extent by European contact. The Moorish cafés of Cairo,
Tunis, and Algiers have furnished inspiration and copy for writers,
artists, and travelers for several centuries. They change little with
the years. The _mazagran_--sweetened cold coffee to which water or ice
has been added--originated in Algeria. It probably took its name from
the fortress of the same name reserved to France by the treaty of the
Tafna in 1837. It is said that the French colonial troops were first
served with a drink made from coffee syrup and cold water on marches
near Mazagran, formerly spelled Masagran. Upon their return to the
French capital, they introduced the idea, with the added fillip of
service in tall glasses, in their favorite cafés, where it became known
as _café mazagran_. Variants are coffee syrup with seltzer, and with
hot water. "This fashion of serving coffee in glasses", says Jardin,
"has no _raison d'être_, and nothing can justify abandoning the cup for
coffee."
[Illustration: MOORISH COFFEE HOUSE IN ALGIERS]
In the principal streets and public squares of any town in Algeria it is
a common sight to find a group of Arabs squatting about a portable
stove, and a table on which cups are in readiness to receive the boiling
coffee. The thirsty Arab approaches the dealer, and for a modest sum he
gets his drink and goes his way; unless he prefers to go inside the
café, where he may get several drinks and linger over them, sitting on a
mat with his legs crossed and smoking his _chibouque_. Indeed, this is a
typical scene throughout the Near East, where sheds or coffee
tents--sketches of the more pretentious coffee houses--coffee shops, and
itinerant coffee-venders are to be met at almost every turn.
In an unpublished work, Baron Antoine Rousseau and Th. Roland de Bussy
have the following description of a typical Moorish café at Algiers:
We entered without ceremony into a narrow deep cave, decorated with
the name of the café. On the right and on the left, along its
length, were two benches covered with mats; notched cups, tongs, a
box of brown sugar, all placed near a small stove, completed the
furniture of the place. In the evening, the dim light from a lamp
hanging from the ceiling shows the indistinct figures of a double
row of natives listening to the nasal cadences of a band who play a
pizzicato accompaniment on small three-stringed violins.
Here, as in Europe, the cafés are the providential rendezvous for
idlers and gossips, exchanges for real-estate brokers and players
at cards.
Europeans recently arrived frequent them particularly. Some go only
to satisfy their curiosity; others out of an inborn scorn for the
customs of civilization. They go to sleep as Frenchmen, they awake
Mohammedans! Their love for "Turkish art" only leads them to haunt
the native shops and to affect oriental poses.
If we quit for a moment the interior of the city to follow between
two hedgerows of mastics or aloes, one of those capricious paths
which lead one, now up to the summit of a hill, now to the depths
of some ravine, very soon the tones of a rustic flute, the
modulations of the _Djou-wak_, will betray some cool and peaceful
retreat, some rustic café, easily recognized by its facade, pierced
with large openings. To my eyes, nothing equals the charm of these
little buildings scattered here and there along the edges of a
stream, sheltered under the thick foliage, and constantly enlivened
by the coming and going of the husbandmen of the neighborhood.
Certain old Moors from the neighboring districts, fleeing the
noises of the city, are the faithful habitués of these agreeable
retreats. Here they instal themselves at dawn, and know how to
enjoy every moment of their day with tales of their travels and
youthful adventures, and many a legend for which their imagination
takes all the responsibility.
[Illustration: COFFEE HOUSE IN CAIRO]
[Illustration: HULLING COFFEE IN ADEN, ARABIA]
Gérôme's painting of the "Coffee House at Cairo," which hangs in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gives one a good idea of the
atmosphere of the Egyptian café. The preparation and service is modified
Turkish-Arabian. The coffee is ground to a powder, boiled in an _ibrik_
with the addition of sugar, and served frothing in small cups.
Story-tellers, singers, and dancers furnish amusement as of yore. The
Oriental customs have not changed much in this respect. Trolley cars,
victorias, and taxis may have replaced the donkeys in the new sections
of the larger Egyptian cities; but in old Alexandria and Cairo, the
approach to the native coffee house is as dirty and as odorous as ever.
Coffee is always served in all business transactions. Nowadays, the
Egyptian women chew gum and the men smoke cigarettes, French department
stores offer bargain sales, and the hotels advertise tea dances; but the
Egyptian coffee drink is still the tiny cup of coffee grounds and sugar
that it was three hundred years ago, when sugar was first used to
sweeten coffee in Cairo.
[Illustration: COFFEE SERVICE AT A BARBER SHOP IN CAIRO]
In Portuguese East Africa, the natives prepare and drink coffee after
the approved African native fashion, but the white population follows
European customs. In the Union of South Africa, Dutch and English
customs prevail in making and serving the beverage.
_Manners and Customs in Asia_
"Arabia the Happy" deserves to be called "the Blest", if only for its
gift of coffee to the world. Here it was that the virtues of the drink
were first made known; here the plant first received intensive
cultivation. After centuries of habitual use of the beverage, we find
the Arabs, now as then, one of the strongest and noblest races of the
world, mentally superior to most of them, generally healthy, and growing
old so gracefully that the faculties of the mind seldom give way sooner
than those of the body. They are an ever living earnest of the
healthfulness of coffee.
The Arabs are proverbially hospitable; and the symbol of their
hospitality for a thousand years has been the great drink of
democracy--coffee. Their very houses are built around the cup of human
brotherhood. William Wallace,[366] writing on Arabian philosophy,
manners, and customs, says:
The principal feature of an Arab house is the _kahwah_ or coffee
room. It is a large apartment spread with mats, and sometimes
furnished with carpets and a few cushions. At one end is a small
furnace or fireplace for preparing coffee. In this room the men
congregate; here guests are received, and even lodged; women rarely
enter it, except at times when strangers are unlikely to be
present. Some of these apartments are very spacious and supported
by pillars; one wall is usually built transversely to the compass
direction of the _Ka'ba_ (sacred shrine of Mecca). It serves to
facilitate the performance of prayer by those who may happen to be
in the _kahwah_ at the appointed times.
Several rounds of coffee, without milk or sugar, but sometimes flavored
with cardamom seeds, are served to the guest at first welcome; and
coffee may be had at all hours between meals, or whenever the occasion
demands it. Always the beans are freshly roasted, pounded, and boiled.
The Arabs average twenty-five to thirty cups (findjans) a day.
Everywhere in Arabia there are to be found cafés where the beverage may
be bought.
[Illustration: SHIPS OF THE DESERT LADEN WITH COFFEE, ARABIA]
Those of the lower classes are thronged throughout the day. In front,
there is generally a porch or bench where one may sit. The rooms,
benches, and little chairs lack the cleanliness and elegance of the
one-time luxurious "_caffinets_" of cities like Damascus and
Constantinople, but the drink is the same. There is not in all Yemen a
single market town or hamlet where one does not find upon some simple
hut the legend, "Shed for drinking coffee".
The Arab drinks water before taking coffee, but never after it. "Once in
Syria", says a traveler, "I was recognized as a foreigner because I
asked for water just after I had taken my coffee. 'If you belonged
here', said the waiter, 'you would not spoil the taste of coffee in your
mouth by washing it away with water.'"
It is an adventure to partake of coffee prepared in the open, at a
roadside inn, or khan, in Arabia by an _araba_, or diligence driver. He
takes from his saddle-bag the ever-present coffee kit, containing his
supply of green beans, of which he roasts just sufficient on a little
perforated iron plate over an open fire, deftly taking off the beans,
one at a time, as they turn the right color. Then he pounds them in a
mortar, boils his water in the long, straight-handled open boiler, or
_ibrik_ (a sort of brass mug or _jezveh_), tosses in the coffee powder,
moving the vessel back and forth from the fire as it boils up to the
rim; and, after repeating this maneuver three times, pours the contents
foaming merrily into the little egg-like serving cups.
_Cafée sultan_, or _kisher_, the original decoction, made from dried and
toasted coffee hulls, is still being drunk in parts of Arabia and
Turkey.
Coffee in Arabia is part of the ritual of business, as in other Oriental
countries. Shop-keepers serve it to the customer before the argument
starts. Recently, a New York barber got some valuable publicity because
he regaled his customers with tea and music. It was "old stuff". The
Arabian and Turkish barber shops have been serving coffee, tobacco, and
sweetmeats to their customers for centuries.
[Illustration: AN ARABIAN COFFEE HOUSE]
For a faithful description of the ancient coffee ceremony of the Arabs,
which, with slight modification, is still observed in Arabian homes, we
turn to Palgrave. First he describes the dwelling and then the ceremony:
The K'hawah was a large oblong hall, about twenty feet in
height, fifty in length, and sixteen, or thereabouts, in breadth;
the walls were coloured in a rudely decorative manner with brown
and white wash, and sunk here and there into small triangular
recesses, destined to the reception of books, though of these
Ghafil at least had no over-abundance, lamps, and other such like
objects. The roof of timber, and flat; the floor was strewed with
fine clean sand, and garnished all round alongside of the walls
with long strips of carpet, upon which cushions, covered with faded
silk, were disposed at suitable intervals. In poorer houses felt
rugs usually take the place of carpets.
In one corner, namely, that furthest removed from the door, stood a
small fireplace, or, to speak more exactly, furnace, formed of a
large square block of granite, or some other hard stone, about
twenty inches each way; this is hollowed inwardly into a deep
funnel, open above, and communicating below with a small horizontal
tube or pipe-hole, through which the air passes, bellows-driven, to
the lighted charcoal piled up on a grating about half-way inside
the cone. In this manner the fuel is soon brought to a white heat,
and the water in the coffee-pot placed upon the funnel's mouth is
readily brought to boil. The system of coffee furnaces is universal
in Djowf and Djebel Shomer, but in Nejed itself, and indeed in
whatever other yet more distant regions of Arabia I visited to the
south and east, the furnace is replaced by an open fireplace
hollowed in the ground floor, with a raised stone border, and
dog-irons for the fuel, and so forth, like what may be yet seen in
Spain. This diversity of arrangement, so far as Arabia is
concerned, is due to the greater abundance of firewood in the
south, whereby the inhabitants are enabled to light up on a larger
scale; whereas throughout the Djowf and Djebel Shomer wood is very
scarce, and the only fuel at hand is bad charcoal, often brought
from a considerable distance, and carefully husbanded.
[Illustration: BREWING THE GUEST'S COFFEE IN A MOHAMMEDAN HOME]
This corner of the K'hawah is also the place of distinction
whence honour and coffee radiate by progressive degrees round the
apartment, and hereabouts accordingly sits the master of the house
himself, or the guests whom he more especially delighteth to
honour.
On the broad edge of the furnace or fireplace, as the case may be,
stands an ostentatious range of copper coffee-pots, varying in size
and form. Here in the Djowf their make resembles that in vogue at
Damascus; but in Nejed and the eastern districts they are of a
different and much more ornamental fashioning, very tall and
slender, with several ornamental circles and mouldings in elegant
relief, besides boasting long beak-shaped spouts and high steeples
for covers. The number of these utensils is often extravagantly
great. I have seen a dozen at a time in a row by one fireside,
though coffee-making requires, in fact, only three at most. Here in
the Djowf five or six are considered to be the thing; for the south
this number must be doubled; all this to indicate the riches and
munificence of their owner, by implying the frequency of his guests
and the large amount of coffee that he is in consequence obliged to
have made for them.
Behind this stove sits, at least in wealthy houses, a black slave,
whose name is generally a diminutive in token of familiarity or
affection; in the present case it was Soweylim, the diminutive of
Salim. His occupation is to make and pour out the coffee; where
there is no slave in the family, the master of the premises
himself, or perhaps one of his sons, performs that hospitable duty;
rather a tedious one, as we shall soon see.
We enter. On passing the threshold it is proper to say,
"_Bismillah_, _i.e._, in the name of God;" not to do so would be
looked on as a bad augury alike for him who enters and for those
within. The visitor next advances in silence, till on coming about
half-way across the room, he gives to all present, but looking
specially at the master of the house, the customary
"_Es-salamu'aleykum_," or "Peace be with you," literally, "on you."
All this while every one else in the room has kept his place,
motionless, and without saying a word. But on receiving the salaam
of etiquette, the master of the house rises, and if a strict
Wahhabee, or at any rate desirous of seeming such, replies with
the full-length traditionary formula. "_W' 'aleykumu-s-salamu,
w'rahmat' Ullahi w'barakátuh_," which is, as every one knows, "And
with (or, on) you be peace, and the mercy of God, and his
blessings." But should he happen to be of anti-Wahhabee
tendencies the odds are that he will say "_Marhaba_," or "_Ahlan w'
sahlan_," _i.e._, "welcome" or "worthy, and pleasurable," or the
like; for of such phrases there is an infinite, but elegant
variety.
All present follow the example thus given, by rising and saluting.
The guest then goes up to the master of the house, who has also
made a step or two forwards, and places his open hand in the palm
of his host's, but without grasping or shaking, which would hardly
pass for decorous, and at the same time each repeats once more his
greeting, followed by the set phrases of polite enquiry, "How are
you?" "How goes the world with you?" and so forth, all in a tone of
great interest, and to be gone over three or four times, till one
or other has the discretion to say "_El hamdu l'illah_," "Praise
be to God", or, in equivalent value, "all right," and this is a
signal for a seasonable diversion to the ceremonious interrogatory.
The guest then, after a little contest of courtesy, takes his seat
in the honoured post by the fireplace, after an apologetical
salutation to the black slave on the one side, and to his nearest
neighbour on the other. The best cushions and newest looking
carpets have been of course prepared for his honoured weight. Shoes
or sandals, for in truth the latter alone are used in Arabia, are
slipped off on the sand just before reaching the carpet, and there
they remain on the floor close by. But the riding stick or wand,
the inseparable companion of every true Arab, whether Bedouin or
townsman, rich or poor, gentle or simple, is to be retained in the
hand, and will serve for playing with during the pauses of
conversation, like the fan of our great-grandmothers in their days
of conquest.
Without delay Soweylim begins his preparations for coffee. These
open by about five minutes of blowing with the bellows and
arranging the charcoal till a sufficient heat has been produced.
Next he places the largest of the coffee-pots, a huge machine, and
about two-thirds full of clear water, close by the edge of the
glowing coal-pit, that its contents may become gradually warm while
other operations are in progress. He then takes a dirty knotted rag
out of a niche in the wall close by, and having untied it, empties
out of it three or four handfuls of unroasted coffee, the which he
places on a little trencher of platted grass, and picks carefully
out any blackened grains, or other non-homologous substances,
commonly to be found intermixed with the berries when purchased in
gross; then, after much cleansing and shaking, he pours the grain
so cleansed into a large open iron ladle, and places it over the
mouth of the funnel, at the same time blowing the bellows and
stirring the grains gently round and round till they crackle,
redden, and smoke a little, but carefully withdrawing them from the
heat long before they turn black or charred, after the erroneous
fashion of Turkey and Europe; after which he puts them to cool a
moment on the grass platter.
He then sets the warm water in the large coffee-pot over the fire
aperture, that it may be ready boiling at the right moment, and
draws in close between his own trouserless legs a large stone
mortar, with a narrow pit in the middle, just enough to admit the
large stone pestle of a foot long and an inch and a half thick,
which he now takes in hand. Next, pouring the half-roasted berries
into the mortar, he proceeds to pound them, striking right into the
narrow hollow with wonderful dexterity, nor ever missing his blow
till the beans are smashed, but not reduced into powder. He then
scoops them out, now reduced to a sort of coarse reddish grit, very
unlike the fine charcoal dust which passes in some countries for
coffee, and out of which every particle of real aroma has long
since been burnt or ground.
After all these operations, each performed with as intense a
seriousness and deliberate nicety as if the welfare of the entire
Djowf depended on it, he takes a smaller coffee-pot in hand, fills
it more than half with hot water from the larger vessel, and then
shaking the pounded coffee into it, sets it on the fire to boil,
occasionally stirring it with a small stick as the water rises to
check the ebullition and prevent overflowing. Nor is the boiling
stage to be long or vehement: on the contrary, it is and should be
as light as possible. In the interim he takes out of another
rag-knot a few aromatic seeds called heyl, an Indian product, but
of whose scientific name I regret to be wholly ignorant, or a
little saffron, and after slightly pounding these ingredients,
throws them into the simmering coffee to improve its flavour, for
such an additional spicing is held indispensable in Arabia though
often omitted elsewhere in the East. Sugar would be a totally
unheard of profanation. Last of all, he strains off the liquor
through some fibres of the inner palm-bark placed for that purpose
in the jug-spout, and gets ready the tray of delicate
parti-coloured grass, and the small coffee cups ready for pouring
out. All these preliminaries have taken up a good half-hour.
Meantime we have become engaged in active conversation with our
host and his friends. But our Sherarat guide, Suleyman, like a true
Bedouin, feels too awkward when among townsfolk to venture on the
upper places, though repeatedly invited, and accordingly has
squatted down on the sand near the entrance. Many of Ghafil's
relations are present; their silver-decorated swords proclaim the
importance of the family. Others, too, have come to receive us, for
our arrival, announced beforehand by those we had met at the
entrance pass, is a sort of event in the town; the dress of some
betokens poverty, others are better clad, but all have a very
polite and decorous manner. Many a question is asked about our
native land and town, that is to say, Syria and Damascus,
conformably to the disguise already adopted, and which it was
highly important to keep well up; then follow enquiries regarding
our journey, our business, what we have brought with us, about our
medicines, our goods and wares, etc., etc. From the very first it
is easy for us to perceive that patients and purchasers are likely
to abound. Very few travelling merchants, if any, visit the Djowf
at this time of year, for one must be mad, or next door to it, to
rush into the vast desert around during the heats of June and July;
I for one have certainly no intention of doing it again. Hence we
had small danger of competitors, and found the market almost at our
absolute disposal.
But before a quarter of an hour has passed, and while blacky is
still roasting or pounding his coffee, a tall thin lad, Ghafil's
eldest son, appears, charged with a large circular dish,
grass-platted like the rest, and throws it with a graceful jerk on
the sandy floor close before us. He then produces a large wooden
bowl full of dates, bearing in the midst of the heap a cup full of
melted butter; all this he places on the circular mat, and says,
"_Semmoo_," literally, "pronounce the Name", of God, understood;
this means "set to work at it." Hereon the master of the house
quits his place by the fireside and seats himself on the sand
opposite to us; we draw nearer to the dish, and four or five
others, after some respectful coyness, join the circle. Every one
then picks out a date or two from the juicy half-amalgamated mass,
dips them into the butter, and thus goes on eating till he has had
enough, when he rises and washes his hands.
By this time the coffee is ready, and Soweylim begins his round,
the coffee-pot in one hand; the tray and cups on the other. The
first pouring out he must in etiquette drink himself, by way of a
practical assurance that there is no "death in the pot;" the guests
are next served, beginning with those next the honourable fireside;
the master of the house receives his cup last of all. To refuse
would be a positive and unpardonable insult; but one has not much
to swallow at a time, for the coffee-cups, or finjans, are about
the size of a large egg-shell at most, and are never more than
half-filled. This is considered essential to good breeding, and a
brimmer would here imply exactly the reverse of what it does in
Europe; why it should be so I hardly know, unless perhaps the
rareness of cup-stands or "zarfs" (see Lane's "Modern Egyptians")
in Arabia, though these implements are universal in Egypt and
Syria, might render an over-full cup inconveniently hot for the
fingers that must grasp it without medium. Be that as it may, "fill
the cup for your enemy" is an adage common to all, Bedouins or
townsmen, throughout the Peninsula. The beverage itself is
singularly aromatic and refreshing, a real tonic, and very
different from the black mud sucked by the Levantine, or the watery
roast-bean preparations of France. When the slave or freeman,
according to circumstances, presents you with a cup, he never fails
to accompany it with a "_Semm'_," "say the name of God," nor must
you take it without answering "_Bismillah_."
When all have been thus served, a second round is poured out, but
in inverse order, for the host this time drinks first, and the
guests last. On special occasions, a first reception, for instance,
the ruddy liquor is a third time handed round; nay, a fourth cup is
sometimes added. But all these put together do not come up to
one-fourth of what a European imbibes in a single draught at
breakfast.
[Illustration: NATIVE CAFÉ, HARAR, ABYSSINIA]
[Illustration: EARLY MANNER OF SERVING COFFEE, TEA AND CHOCOLATE
From a drawing in Dufour's _Traités Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, du The
et du Chocolat_]
For a more recent pen picture of coffee manners and customs in Arabia,
we turn to Charles M. Daughty's "_Travels in Arabia Deserta_"[367]:
Hirfa ever demanded of her husband towards which part should "the
house" be built. "Dress the face". Zeyd would answer, "to this
part", showing her with his hands the south, for if his booth's
face be all day turned to the hot sun there will come in fewer
young loitering and parasitical fellows that would be his
coffee-drinkers. Since the _sheukh_, or heads, alone receive their
tribes' _surra_, it is not much that they should be to the arms [of
his] coffee-hosts. I have seen Zeyd avoid [them] as he saw them
approach, or even rise ungraciously upon such men's presenting
themselves (the half of every booth, namely the men's side, is at
all times open, and any enter there that will, in the free
desert), and they murmuring he tells them, _wellah_, his affairs do
call him forth, adieu; he must away to the _mejlis_; go they and
seek the coffee elsewhere. But were there any _sheykh_ with them, a
coffee lord, Zeyd could not honestly choose but abide and serve
them with coffee; and if he be absent himself, yet any _sheykhly_
man coming to a _sheykh's_ tent, coffee must be made for him,
except he gently protest "_billah_, he would not drink." Hirfa, a
_sheykh's_ daughter and his nigh kinswoman, was a faithful mate to
Zeyd in all his sparing policy.
Our _menzil_ now standing, the men step over to Zeyd's coffee-fire,
if the _sheykh_ be not gone forth to the _mejlis_ to drink his
mid-day cup there. A few gathered sticks are flung down beside the
hearth; with flint and steel one stoops and strikes fire in tinder,
he blows and cherishes those seeds of the cheerful flame in some
dry camel-dung, sets the burning shred under dry straws, and
powders over more dry camel-dung. As the fire kindles, the _sheykh_
reaches for his _dellàl_, coffee pots, which are carried in the
_fatya_, coffee-gear basket; this people of a nomad life bestow
each thing of theirs in a proper _beyt_; it would otherwise be lost
in their daily removings. One rises to go to fill up the pots at
the water-skins, or a bowl of water is handed over the curtain from
the woman's side; the pot at the fire, Hirfa reaches over her
little palm-ful of green coffee berries.... These are roasted and
brayed; as all is boiling he sets out his little cups, _fenjeyl_
(for fenjeyn). When, with a pleasant gravity, he has unbuckled his
_gutia_ or cup-box, we see the nomad has not above three or four
fenjeyns, wrapt in a rusty clout, with which he scours them busily,
as if this should make his cups clean. The roasted beans are
pounded amongst Arabs with a magnanimous rattle--and (as all their
labor) rhythmical--in brass of the town, or an old wooden mortar,
gaily studded with nails, the work of some nomad smith. The water
bubbling in the small _dellàl_, he casts in his fine coffee powder,
_el-bunn_, and withdraws the pot to simmer a moment. From a knot in
his kerchief he takes then a head of cloves, a piece of cinnamon or
other spice, _bahar_, and braying these he casts their dust in
after. Soon he pours out some hot drops to essay his coffee; if the
taste be to his liking, making dexterously a nest of all the cups
in his hand, with pleasant clattering, he is ready to pour out for
all the company, and begins upon his right hand; and first, if such
be present, to any considerable _sheykh_ and principal persons. The
_fenjeyn kahwah_ is but four sips; to fill it up to a guest, as in
the northern towns, were among Bedouins an injury, and of such
bitter meaning, "This drink thou and depart."
[Illustration: NUBIAN SLAVE GIRL WITH COFFEE SERVICE, PERSIA]
Then is often seen a contention in courtesy amongst them,
especially in any greater assemblies, who shall drink first. Some
man that receives the _fenjeyn_ in his turn will not drink yet--he
proffers it to one sitting in order under him, as to the more
honourable; but the other putting off with his hand will answer
_ebbeden_, "Nay, it shall never be, by Ullah! but do thou drink."
Thus licensed, the humble man is despatched in three sips, and
hands up his empty _fenjeyn_. But if he have much insisted, by this
he opens his willingness to be reconciled with one not his friend.
That neighbor, seeing the company of coffee-drinkers watching him,
may with an honest grace receive the cup, and let it seem not
willingly; but an hard man will sometimes rebut the other's gentle
proffer.
Some may have taken lower seats than becoming their _sheykhly_
blood, of which the nomads are jealous; entering untimely, they sat
down out of order, sooner than trouble all the company. A _sheykh_,
coming late and any business going forward, will often sit far out
in the assembly; and show himself a popular person in this kind of
honourable humility. The more inward in the booth is the higher
place; where also is, with the _sheykhs_, the seat of a stranger.
To sit in the loose circuit without and before the tent, is for the
common sort. A tribesman arriving presents himself at that part or
a little lower, where in the eyes of all men his pretension will be
well allowed; and in such observances of good nurture, is a nomad
man's honour among his tribesmen. And this is nigh all that serves
the nomad for a conscience, namely, that which men will hold of
him. A poor person, approaching from behind, stands obscurely,
wrapped in his tattered mantle, with grave ceremonial, until those
sitting indolently before him in the sand shall vouchsafe to take
notice of him; then they rise unwillingly, and giving back enlarge
the coffee-circle to receive him. But if there arrive a _sheykh_, a
coffee-host, a richard amongst them of a few cattle, all the
coxcomb companions within will hail him with their pleasant
adulation _taad henneyi_, "Step thou up hither."
The astute Fukara _sheukh_ surpass all men in their coffee-drinking
courtesy, and Zeyd himself was more than any large of this
gentlemen-like imposture: he was full of swaggering complacence and
compliments to an humbler person. With what suavity could he
encourage, and gently too compel a man, and rising himself yield
him parcel of another man's room! In such fashions Zeyd showed
himself a bountiful great man, who indeed was the greatest niggard.
The cups are drunk twice about, each one sipping after other's lips
without misliking; to the great coffee _sheykhs_ the cup may be
filled more times, but this is an adulation of the coffee-server.
There are some of the Fukara _sheukh_ so delicate Sybarites that of
those three bitter sips, to draw out all their joyance, twisting,
turning, and tossing again the cup, they could make ten. The
coffee-service ended, the grounds are poured out from the small
into the great store-pot that is reserved full of warm water; with
the bitter lye the nomads will make their next bever, and think
they spare coffee.
Here is an Arabian recipe[368] for making coffee as given by Kadhi
Hodhat, the best informed man of his time:
Tadj-Eddin-Aid-Almaknab-ben-Yacoub-Mekki Molki, chief of all the
cantons of Hedjaz, (May God have mercy on him!) I learned it when
once in his company at the time of the Holy Feasts.... He informed
me that nothing is more beneficial than to drink cold water before
coffee, because it lessens the dryness of the coffee and thus taken
it does not cause insomnia to the same degree. The poet did not
forget to explain this manner of taking coffee:
As with art 'tis prepared, one should drink it with art.
The mere commonplace drinks one absorbs with free heart;
But this--once with care from the bright flame removed,
And the lime set aside that its value has proved--
Take it first in deep draughts, meditative and slow,
Quit it now, now resume, thus imbibe with gusto;
While charming the palate it burns yet enchants,
In the hour of its triumph the virtue it grants
Penetrates every tissue; its powers condense.
Circulate cheering warmths, bring new life to each sense.
From the cauldron profound spiced aromas unseen
Mount to tease and delight your olfactories keen,
The while you inhale with felicity fraught,
The enchanting perfume that a zephyr has brought.
[Illustration: PERSIAN COFFEE SERVICE, 1737]
Gone are the "luxurious and magnificent" coffee houses of Constantinople
(if they ever existed--at least as we understand luxury and
magnificence) which first brought the beverage world-wide fame; such
_caffinets_ as the one pictured by Thomas Allom and described by the
Rev. Robert Walsh, in _Constantinople, Illustrated_:
The caffinet, or coffee-house, is something more splendid, and the
Turk expends all his notions of finery and elegance on this, his
favorite place of indulgence. The edifice is generally decorated in
a very gorgeous manner, supported on pillars, and open in front. It
is surrounded on the inside by a raised platform, covered with mats
or cushions, on which the Turks sit cross-legged. On one side are
musicians, generally Greeks, with mandolins and tambourines,
accompanying singers, whose melody consists in vociferation; and
the loud and obstreperous concert forms a strong contrast to the
stillness and taciturnity of Turkish meetings. On the opposite side
are men, generally of a respectable class, some of whom are found
here every day, and all day long, dozing under the double influence
of coffee and tobacco. The coffee is served in very small cups, not
larger than egg-cups, grounds and all, without cream or sugar, and
so black, thick, and bitter that it has been aptly compared to
"stewed soot". Besides the ordinary chibouk for tobacco, there is
another implement, called narghillai, used for smoking in a
caffinet, of a more elaborate construction. It consists of a glass
vase, filled with water, and often scented with distilled rose or
other flowers. This is surmounted with a silver or brazen head,
from which issues a long flexible tube; a pipe-bowl is placed on
the top, and so constructed that the smoke is drawn, and comes
bubbling up through the water, cool and fragrant to the mouth. A
peculiar kind of tobacco, grown at Shiraz in Persia, and resembling
small pieces of cut leather, is used with this instrument.
[Illustration: IN A TURKISH COFFEE HOUSE]
Certainly there never was any such thing as a coffee-house architecture.
It may be that up to the time of Abdul Hamid, when money was more
plentiful than it has been for the past fifty years, there were coffee
houses more comfortably appointed than now exist.
The coffee house in a modernized form is, however, quite as numerous in
Turkey as in the days of Amurath III and the notorious Kuprili.
H.G. Dwight[369] writing on the present day Turkish coffee house, says:
[Illustration: ROASTING COFFEE BEFORE A CAFÉ, TURKEY]
There are thoroughfares in any Turkish city that carry on almost no
other form of traffic. There is no quarter so miserable or so
remote as to be without one or two. They are the clubs of the
poorer classes. Men of a street, a trade, a province, or a
nationality--for a Turkish coffee-house may also be Albanian,
Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Kurd, almost anything you please--meet
regularly when their work is done, at coffee-houses kept by their
own people. So much are the humbler coffee-houses frequented by a
fixed clientèle that a student of types or dialects may realize for
himself how truly they used to be called Schools of Knowledge.
The arrangement of a Turkish coffee-house is of the simplest. The
essential is that the place should provide the beverage for which
it exists and room for enjoying the same. A sketch of a coffee-shop
may often be seen on the street, in a scrap of shade or sunshine
according to the season, where a stool or two invite the passer-by
to a moment of contemplation. Larger establishments, though they
are rarely very large, are most often installed in a room longer
than it is wide, having as many windows as possible at the street
end and what we would call the bar at the other. It is a bar that
always makes me regret I do not etch, with its pleasing curves, its
high lights of brass and porcelain striking out of deep shadow, and
its usually picturesque _kahvehji_.
You do not stand at it. You sit on one of the benches running down
the sides of the room. They are more or less comfortably cushioned,
though sometimes higher and broader than a foreigner finds to his
taste. In that case you slip off your shoes, if you would do as the
Romans do, and tuck your feet up under you. A table stands in front
of you to hold your coffee--and often in summer an aromatic pot of
basil to keep the flies away. Chairs or stools are scattered about.
Decorative Arabic texts, sometimes wonderful prints, adorn the
walls. There may even be hanging rugs and china to entertain your
eyes. And there you are.
The habit of the coffee-house is one that requires a certain
leisure. You must not bolt coffee as you bolt the fire-waters of
the West, without ceremony, in retreats withdrawn from the public
eye. Being a less violent and a less shameful passion, I suppose,
it is indulged in with more of the humanities. The etiquette of the
coffee-house, of those coffee-houses which have not been too much
infected by Europe, is one of their most characteristic features.
Something like it prevails in Italy, where you tip your hat on
entering and leaving a _caffè_. In Turkey, however, I have seen a
new-comer salute one after another each person in a crowded
coffee-room, once on entering the door and again after taking his
seat, and be so saluted in return--either by putting the right hand
to the heart and uttering the greeting _Merhabah_, or by making the
_temennah_, that triple sweep of the hand which is the most
graceful of salutes. I have also seen an entire company rise upon
the entrance of an old man, and yield him the corner of honor.
Such courtesies take time. Then you must wait for your coffee to be
made. To this end coffee, roasted fresh as required by turning in
an iron cylinder over a fire of sticks and ground to the fineness
of powder in a brass mill, is put into a small uncovered brass pot
with a long handle. There it is boiled to a froth three times on a
charcoal brazier, with or without sugar as you prefer. But to
desecrate it by the admixture of milk is an unheard of sacrilege.
Some _kahvehjis_ replace the pot in the embers with a smart rap in
order to settle the grounds. You in the meanwhile smoke. That also
takes time, particularly if you "drink" a _narguileh_, as the Turks
say. This is familiar enough in the West to require no great
description. It is a big carafe with a metal top for holding
tobacco and a long coil of leather tube for inhaling the
water-cooled fumes thereof. The effect is wonderfully soothing and
innocent at first, though wonderfully deadly in the end to the
novice. The tobacco used is not the ordinary weed, but a much
coarser and stronger one called _tunbeki_, which comes from Persia.
The same sort of tobacco used to be smoked a great deal in shallow
red earthenware pipes with long mouthpieces. They are now chiefly
seen in antiquity shops.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A TURKISH CAFFINET, EARLY NINETEENTH
CENTURY--AFTER ALLAN]
When your coffee is ready it is poured into an after-dinner
coffee-cup or into a miniature bowl, and brought to you on a tray
with a glass of water. A foreigner can almost always be spotted by
the manner in which he finally partakes of these refreshments. A
Turk sips his water first, partly to prepare the way for the
coffee, but also because he is a connoisseur of the former liquid
as other men are of stronger ones. And he lifts his coffee-cup by
the saucer, whether it possess a handle or no, managing the two
together in a dexterous way of his own. The current price for all
this, not including the water-pipe, is ten paras--a trifle over a
cent--for which the _kahvehji_ will cry you "Blessing". More
pretentious establishments charge twenty paras, while a giddy few
rise to a piaster--not quite five cents--or a piaster and a half.
That, however, begins to look like extortion. And mark that you do
not tip the waiter. I have often been surprised to be charged no
more than the tariff, although I gave a larger piece to be changed
and it was perfectly evident that I was a foreigner. That is an
experience which rarely befalls a traveller among his own
coreligionaries. It has even happened to me, which is rarer still,
to be charged nothing at all, nay, to be steadfastly refused when I
persisted in attempting to pay, simply because I was a foreigner,
and therefore a guest.
There is no reason, however, why you should go away when you have
had your coffee--or your glass of tea--and your smoke. On the
contrary, there are reasons why you should stay, particularly if
you happen into the coffee-house not too long after sunset. Then
coffee-houses of the most local color are at their best. Earlier in
the day their clients are likely to be at work. Later they will
have disappeared altogether. For Constantinople has not quite
forgotten the habits of the tent. Stamboul, except during the holy
month of Ramazan, is a deserted city at night. But just after dark
it is full of a life which an outsider is often content simply to
watch through the lighted windows of coffee-rooms. These are also
barber-shops, where men have shaved not only their chins, but
different parts of their heads according to their "countries". In
them likewise checkers, the Persian backgammon, and various games
of long narrow cards are played. They say that Bridge came from
Constantinople. Indeed, I believe a club of Pera claims the honor
of having communicated that passion to the Western World. But I
must confess that I have yet to see an open hand in a coffee-house
of the people.
[Illustration: COFFEE MAKING IN TURKEY]
One of the pleasantest forms of amusement to be obtained in
coffee-houses is unfortunately getting to be one of the rarest. It
is that afforded by itinerant story-tellers, who still carry on in
the East the tradition of the troubadours. The stories they tell
are more or less on the order of the Arabian Nights, though perhaps
even less suitable for mixed companies--which for the rest are
never found in coffee-shops. These men are sometimes wonderfully
clever at character monologue or dialogue. They collect their pay
at a crucial moment of the action, refusing to continue until the
audience has testified to the sincerity of its interest by some
token more substantial.
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.
The best coffee pot was found to be the common biggin having an
upper compartment with a perforated bottom upon which to place the
coffee. To make one cup of this infusion, place half an ounce of
ground coffee in the upper compartment and six fluid ounces of
water into the bottom. Put the biggin over a gas lamp. After three
minutes the water will boil. When steam appears, take the biggin
from the fire and pour the water into a cup and thence immediately
into the top of the biggin where it will extract the berry by
replacement. (Here follows an experiment.)
This experiment shows that loss of weight is no criterion that
coffee is properly roasted, neither is the color (by itself) nor
the temperature, nor the time.
Next we experimented to ascertain whether the aroma developed by
roasting coffee and which is lost might not be collected and added
to the coffee at pleasure. An attempt was made to drive the
volatile oils from roasted coffee by steam and make a dried extract
of the residual coffee to which the oils were to be later added.
Two attempts were made and both failed. It appears that but a small
quantity of the aroma is lost in roasting and that is mixed with
bad smelling vapors from which it is impossible to free it.
Then we tried to make a potable coffee by making an aqueous extract
of raw coffee, evaporating to dryness and roasting the residue.
(Here follows the experiment.)
This also was unsuccessful. The great trouble here is a dark shiny
residue, which, while tasteless, is very disagreeable to look at.
In the preparation of coffee by boiling, two and a half times as
much matter is extracted as by biggin.
The proper method of roasting coffee is as follows: It should be
placed in a cylinder and turned constantly over a bright fire. When
white smoke begins to appear, the contents should be closely
watched. Keep testing the grains. As soon as a grain breaks easily
at a slight blow, at which time the color will be a light chestnut
brown, the coffee is done. Cool it by lifting some up and dropping
it back with a tin cup. If it be left to cool in a heap there is
great danger of over-roasting. Keep the coffee only in air-tight
vessels. _Measure_ the infusions, a half ounce of coffee to six
ounces of water per cup.
All "extracts of coffee" are worthless. Most of them are composed
of burned sugar, chicory, carrots, etc.
In 1883, an authority of that day, Francis B. Thurber, in his book,
_Coffee; from Plantation to Cup_, which he dedicated to the railroad
restaurant man at Poughkeepsie, because he served an "ideal cup of
coffee", came out strongly for the good old boiling method with eggs,
shells included. This was the Thurber recipe:
Grind moderately fine a large cup or small bowl of coffee; break
into it one egg with shell; mix well, adding enough cold water to
thoroughly wet the grounds; upon this pour one pint of boiling
water: let it boil slowly for ten to fifteen minutes, according to
the variety of coffee used and the fineness to which it is ground.
Let it stand three minutes to settle, then pour through a fine
wire-sieve into a warm coffee pot; this will make enough for four
persons. At table, first put the sugar into the cup, then fill
half-full of boiling milk, add your coffee, and you have a
delicious beverage that will be a revelation to many poor mortals
who have an indistinct remembrance of, and an intense longing for,
an ideal cup of coffee. If cream can be procured so much the
better, and in that case boiling water can be added either in the
pot or cup to make up for the space occupied by the milk as above;
or condensed milk will be found a good substitute for cream.
In 1886, however, Jabez Burns, who knew something about the practical
making of the beverage as well as the roasting and grinding operations,
said:
Have boiling water handy. Take a clean dry pot and put in the
ground coffee. Place on fire to warm pot and coffee. Pour on
sufficient boiling water, not more than two-thirds full. As soon as
the water boils add a little cold water and remove from fire. To
extract the greatest virtue of coffee grind it fine and pour
scalding water over it.
John Cotton Dana, of the Newark Public Library, says he remembers how in
his old home in Woodstock, Vt., they had always, in the attic, a big
stone jar of green coffee. This was sacred to the great feast days,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Just before those anniversaries, the jar
was brought forward and the proper amount of coffee was taken out and
roasted in a flat sheet-iron pan on the top of the stove, being stirred
constantly and watched with great care. "As my memory seems to say that
this was not constantly done," says Mr. Dana, "it would seem that, even
then, my father, who kept the general store in the village, bought
roasted coffee in Boston or New York."
At the close of the century, there were still many advocates of boiling
coffee; but although the coffee trade was not quite ready to declare its
absolute independence in this direction, there were many leaders who
boldly proclaimed their freedom from the old prejudice. Arthur Gray, in
his _Over the Black Coffee_, as late as 1902, quoted "the largest coffee
importing house in the United States" as advocating the use of eggs and
egg-shells and boiling the mixture for ten minutes.
_Latest Developments in Better Coffee Making_
Better coffee making by co-operative trade effort got its initial
stimulus at the 1912 convention of the National Coffee Roasters
Association. As a result of discussions at that meeting and thereafter,
a Better Coffee Making Committee was created for investigation and
research.
The coffee trade's declaration of independence in the matter of boiled
coffee was made at the 1913 convention of the National Coffee Roasters
Association, when, after hearing the report of the Better Coffee Making
Committee, presented by Edward Aborn of New York, it adopted a
resolution saying that the recommendations met with its approval and
ordering that they be printed and circulated.
The work done by the committee included "the first chemical analysis of
brewed coffee on record", a study of grindings, and a comparison of the
results of four brewing methods. Its conclusions and recommendations
were embodied in a booklet published by the National Coffee Roasters
Association, entitled _From Tree to Cup with Coffee_, and were as
follows:
ROASTING
The Roaster or "Coffee Chef" is the only cook necessary to a good
cup of coffee. He sends it to the consumer a completely cooked
product.
In the roasting process the berries swell up by the liberation of
gases within their substance. The aromatic oils contained in the
cells are sufficiently developed or "cooked", and made ready for
instantaneous solution with boiling water, when the cells are
thoroughly opened by grinding.
The roasting principles of different green coffees vary. Trained
study and a nice science in timing the roast and manipulating the
fire is necessary to a perfect development of aroma and flavor.
The drinking quality is largely dependent upon the experienced
knowledge of the coffee roaster and his scientific methods and
modern machinery, by which the coffee is not only roasted, but
cleaned, milled and completely manufactured to a high point of
perfection.
In their National Association work, the wholesale roasters are
giving the public new facts and valuable information, from
scientific researches, investigations, etc.
GRINDING. The roasted berry is constructed of fibrous tissues
formed into tiny cells visible only under the microscope, which are
the "packages" wherein are stored the whole value of coffee, the
aromatic oils. Like cutting open an orange, the grinding of coffee
is the opening of surrounding tissue and pulp, and the finer it is
cut the more easily are the "juices" released.
The fibrous tissue itself is waste material, yielding, by boiling
or too long percolations, a coffee colored liquid which is fibrous
and twangy in taste, has no aromatic character, and contains
undesirable elements.
The true strength and flavor of roasted coffee is ground out, not
boiled out. The finer coffee is ground, the more thoroughly are the
cells opened, the surfaces multiplied, and the aromatic oils made
ready for separation from their husks. Hence it follows that:
Coarse ground coffee is unopened coffee--coffee thrown away.
The finer the grind, the better and greater the yield. With
pulverized coffee (fine as corn meal) the fully released aromatic
oils are instantaneously soluble with boiling water.
In ground coffee the oils are standing in "open packages," escaping
into the air and absorbing moisture, etc., necessitating quick use
or confinement in air proof and moisture proof protection.
BREWING. From scientific researches by the National Coffee
Roasters' Association, including the first chemical analysis on
record of brewed coffee, produced by various brewing methods, the
fundamental principles of coffee making have been clearly
established. These principles are simple, and when once understood
equip any person to intelligently judge the merits and defects of
the various coffee making devices on the market. They constitute
the law of coffee brewing, and may be stated as follows:
Correct brewing is not "cooking." It is a process of extraction of
the already cooked aromatic oils from the surrounding fibrous
tissue, which has no drinkable value. Boiling or stewing cooks in
the fibre, which should be wholly discarded as dregs, and damages
the flavor and purity of the liquid. Boiling coffee and water
together is ruin and waste.
The aromatic oils, constituting the whole true flavor, are
extracted instantly by boiling water when the cells are thoroughly
opened by fine grinding. The undesirable elements, being less
quickly soluble, are left in the grounds in a quick contact of
water and coffee. The coarser the grind the less accessible are the
oils to the water, thus the inability to get out the strength from
coffee not finely enough ground.
Too long contact of water and coffee causes twang and bitterness,
and the finer the grind the less the contact should be. The
infusion, when brewed, is injured by being boiled or overheated. It
is also damaged by being chilled, which breaks the fusion of oils
and water. It should be served immediately, or kept hot, as in a
double boiler.
Tests show that water under the boiling point, 212°, is
inefficient for coffee brewing, and does not extract the aromatic
oils[378]. Used under this temperature, it is a sure cause of weak
and insipid flavor. The effort to make up this deficiency by longer
contact of coffee and water, or repeated pouring through, results
in no extraction of the oils, but draws out undesirable elements,
such as coffee-tannin, which is soluble in water at any temperature
and is governed by the time of contact.
Coffee-tannin, which is not the commercial tannic acid, is
eliminated to practically nothing in the quick brewing methods.
The chemical analysis of brewed coffee shows the following:
Coffee Tannin Comparative
per Cup Proportions
Percolator method,[379] fine gran. 2.90 grains --------
5 minutes' steeping
Boiling Method, medium " 2.35 " ------
Steeping Method, " " 2.31 " -----
Filtration (or Drip) Method } 0.29 " -
Pulverized }
Brewing is the final manufacturing process of coffee. All previous
perfection is dependent upon it. Like food products which lose
nutritive value by bad cooking, coffee loses its best values by
wrong brewing. Brewed by the very simple correct methods, it is an
unfailingly clear, fragrant, taste-charming beverage, universally
loved and scientifically approved.
The committee made a further report in 1914, and some of the findings
were subsequently published in an association booklet called _The Coffee
Book_, used in connection with the second National Coffee Week campaign
in 1915. In it were these:
GRINDING DEFINITIONS
_Powdered_ _Pulverized_
Like--flour. Like--not coarser than
fine corn meal.
_Very Fine and Fine_ _Medium_
Like--from corn meal to Like--coarse granulated
fine granulated sugar. sugar.
Also, the committee emphasized its previous findings, particularly this
one: "Filter bags should be kept in cold water when not in use. Drying
causes decomposition. Keeps sweet if kept wet. Use muslin for filter bag
and pulverized granulation."
The association brought out this same year, on recommendation of the
committee, its Home coffee mill, an "ideal and standard coffee mill for
home use." It was a wall mill equipped with a glass-front metal hopper
and employing a ratchet spring-lock nut and double-action grinders. The
mill was later improved with an all-glass hopper and a tumbler bracket.
More than 20,000 of these mills have been sold.
At the suggestion of the author, the efficiency of nine different
coffee-making devices (including boiling and drip pots, pumping
percolators, cloth and paper filters) was investigated in the
laboratories of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research of the
University of Pittsburgh in 1915; and Dr. Raymond F. Bacon submitted a
report that showed that the boiling method produced the highest
percentage of caffetannic acid and caffein; the French drip process the
lowest. The investigation disclosed also a more palatable brew at 195°
to 200° F. than at the boiling point.
Another notable contribution to the science of coffee brewing was made
by the Home Economics Laboratories of the University of Kansas in 1916.
The experiments extended over one year. They showed that strength and
color in coffee brews are independent of blend and price and are most
fully obtained by pulverized granulation, which was found to be the most
efficient; that the consumer pays for flavor and that filtration yielded
the best brew. The French drip, or true percolator, did not figure in
these experiments.
At the 1915 convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association, Mr.
Aborn reported that 4,000 copies of the committee's findings on grinding
and brewing had been given away: and the facts were further circulated
in 2,000,000 booklets issued during two years. He told of tests which
showed that while there might be reasons of commercial expediency for
packing ground coffee, it could not be defended as a quality principle;
also that plate-grinders produced a more efficient drawing granulation
than roller grinders, and that the idea that the steel-cut process
eliminates dirt was an absurdity, as "the finest ground coffee is not
dirt but coffee in its most efficient drawing condition." He added, "I
have paid no attention to chaff removal in these tests as the
uselessness of such removal has been repeatedly shown up." The reference
here was to his 1914 and 1913 reports, in which it was stated that
"removing the chaff in the steel-cut process does not remove any of the
tannin, and for this purpose the steel-cut process is wholely futile,
and a wasteful and unnecessary tax upon cost", and that "the removal of
the chaff appreciably affects the flavor and depreciates the cup value."
This report repeated previous findings against the pumping percolator as
producing an inefficient brew and being a very faulty utensil. Mr.
Aborn concluded his report by saying:
The old time boiling method has fewer and fewer defenders and holds
its own only as a superstition. I therefore pass it over as a
discarded issue.... It is but repetition of former reports for me
to say that pulverized granulation is the most efficient
granulation; that it assures the highest quality of brew and the
lowest proportion of coffee to a given strength; that it is the
most saving and most satisfying grinding for all to use; that it
(the coffee) must be fresh ground; that the filtration method is
the most correct in fundamental principles and that used with a
muslin bag it assures the consumer coffee of the purest, finest
flavored quality, highest health value and sure economy.
The campaign of education was continued during 1916, producing
encouraging results among schools, colleges, the medical fraternity,
newspapers, with the trade and the consumer. It marked the first big
constructive work combining the practical and scientific phases of
grinding and brewing methods. In his report at the 1916 convention of
the National Coffee Roasters Association, Mr. Aborn reviewed the four
years work, and pointed out what had been accomplished. He told of a new
booklet, to be called the _True Book on Coffee Grinding and Brewing_,
and an educational exhibit box for schools about to be issued. Due to
opposition which developed from trade interests that were putting out
steel-cut and other grinds of coffee not favored by the committee, and
also because many members thought the association should not exploit any
particular method of grinding or brewing, it was decided to make no
further publication of the coffee grinding and brewing conclusions of
the committee until they had been confirmed by laboratory research.
Boiling and filtration tests in the mountains of the Yellowstone Park by
W.H. Aborn in 1916 showed that the limit of coffee brewing was reached
at an altitude of nine thousand feet.
At the 1916 meeting, Dr. Floyd W. Robison of the Detroit Testing
Laboratories, read a notable paper entitled "What do we know about
coffee?," which hailed coffee as a food product, warned the roasters to
beware of half-facts, and urged the importance of a research laboratory.
It was published and given distribution by the association.
The educational exhibit box showing samples of coffee from plantation to
cup, including five different grinds, was issued in 1917, and sold for
one dollar.
The Better Coffee Making Committee also published in this year a booklet
entitled _Coffee Grinding and Brewing_ in which it summarized its work
to date, and presented its special plea for cotton-cloth filters as the
ideal coffee-making device.
This booklet aroused considerable discussion, particularly between those
who favored the paper filter and those who, with Mr. Aborn, believed
cotton cloth, such as muslin, to be the most efficient strainer.
"Cotton", argued Mr. Aborn, "is an ideal sanitary strainer because it
contains no chemical or questionable manufacturing element."
It was pointed out by Dr. Floyd W. Robison that while cotton cloth, such
as muslin, does give a fairly clear coffee, it is not so clear as by the
methods where a filter paper is used. He said:
Both methods have serious objectionable features. The muslin bag,
particularly, is decidedly unsanitary, especially when used in
restaurants and hotels. It is rarely kept clean, and one who has
frequented restaurants and many hotel kitchens knows that it lends
itself to very unclean and unsightly methods of handling. The food
inspector has to check this up perhaps as often as any one feature
about a restaurant.
The objection to the filter paper is not at all on the ground of
sanitation. It is ideal in this respect. The claim is made, and at
least, in part, substantiated, that it does hold back valuable
features of the brew.
There are many points about the filter that have not been
considered at all. Mr. Calkin believes that the very best type of
filter is a bed of coffee itself, and I must say this has the
sanction of good laboratory experience.
I.D. Richheimer[380], attacking the cotton cloth filter, said:
It is a known fact that the fats in coffee are very dense and
represent twelve to fifteen percent of the coffee weight. These
fats--due to the simplest chemical action of contact with air,
moisture and continued heat--begin a fermentation in the completed
beverage. In the cloth-filtering process--due to the rapid passage
of water through grounds almost as quickly as poured--the largest
percentage of fats is carried into the beverage. Fat being lighter
than water rises to the top of water if given a certain amount of
time during the brewing process. Were there no fats (which ferment)
in coffee there would be no need for placing cloth-filtering
material under water, as suggested, to keep them from becoming
sour.
In the booklet referred to, Mr. Aborn expressed himself as follows on
the filtration method:
The filtration method is not new, but well tried, thoroughly proven
and long used, though often incorrectly. It is the method followed,
more or less correctly, by all of the first-class hotels in the
world. It is controlled by no patent or proprietary device, and
requires a most inexpensive equipment. For a perfect result it but
demands an accurate adherence to simple but vital principles.
Deviations from these fundamentals, though apparently slight, cause
failure. When they, and the necessary _exact_ following of them,
are clearly understood, any person, even a small child, can brew
coffee with unvarying success.
The first point to consider in filtration is the dimensions of the
filter bag, or container of the ground coffee, in relation to the
quantity of coffee used and the granulation of same. If the filter
be a muslin bag, free on all sides, the filtering surface is
considerable and permits the necessary quick passage of water
through the grounds, provided the bag is of a wide enough diameter
as to prevent too great a depth of grounds through which the water
cannot quickly penetrate. The error of too narrow a filter is a
common one. It causes a delayed filtration, which means undesirably
long contact of water and coffee and also the cooling of the liquid
which in a correct, undelayed filtration is smoking hot at
completion. The bag should also not be too long or be allowed to
hang or soak in the liquid. A filter bag set tightly into a pot
against its sides, thus surrounded with impenetrable walls, is
greatly reduced in filtering surface, and the filtration is thereby
slackened.
The filter material should not be too coarse in texture, like
cheese cloth, or too heavy and impenetrable, like very heavy
muslin. A moderate weight muslin, not too light, is efficient.
The degree of granulation also, of course, affects the rate of
flow. The coarser the grind the faster the flow, which permits a
larger quantity of coffee to a given diameter of filter bag.
A most frequent fault in the use of the filtration method is the
failure to understand the fine degree of grinding necessary to the
best results. When the grind is not sufficiently fine the
extraction is, of course, weak. A fine grind (like fine cornmeal)
is essential. It does not retard the flow if the filter is of right
dimensions. A powdered grind (like flour) is so fine that it is apt
to "mat" itself into a resisting floor.
Many users of the filtration method pour the liquid through more
than once. This gains some added color, but adds undesirable
element, depreciates flavor and is especially inadvisable when the
grind is sufficiently fine. _One pouring_ only is recommended for
the best results.
The chinaware, or glazed earthenware pot, sometimes called the
French drip pot, with a chinaware or earthenware sieve container
for the grounds at the top through which the water is poured, being
free of all metal, is inviting in purity and in hygienic merit.
Together with the filter bag, it is subject to the above remarks on
dimensions. A chinaware sieve cannot be made as fine as a metal
sieve and cannot of course hold very fine granulation as can cotton
cloth. More coffee for a given strength is, therefore, required.
The upper container should be wide enough, for a given quantity of
coffee, as to allow an unretarded flow, and the more openings the
strainer contains the better.
In any drip, filtration or percolating method the stirring of the
grounds causes an over-contact of water and coffee and results in
an overdrawn liquor of injured flavor. If the water does not pass
through the grounds readily, the fault is as above indicated and
cannot be corrected by stirring or agitation. Many complaints of
bitter taste are traced to this error in the use of the filtration
method.
It is not necessary to pour on the water in driblets. The water may
be poured slowly, but the grounds should be kept well covered. The
weight of the water helps the flow downward through the grounds.
Care should be taken to keep up the temperature of the water. Set
the kettle back on the stove when not pouring. If the water is
measured, use a small heated vessel, which fill and empty quickly
without allowing the water to cool.
In 1917, _The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_ made a comparative
coffee-brewing test with a regulation coffee pot for boiling, a pumping
percolator, a double glass filtration device, a cloth-filter device, and
a paper filter device. The cup tests were made by E.M. Frankel, Ph.D.;
and William B. Harris, coffee expert, United States Department of
Agriculture. The brews were judged for color, flavor (palatability,
smoothness), body (richness), and aroma. The test showed that the paper
filtration device produced the most superior brew. The cloth-filter,
glass-filter, percolator, and boiling pot followed in the order named.
At the 1917 convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association, John
E. King, of Detroit, announced that laboratory research which he had had
conducted for him showed that the finer the grind, the greater the loss
of aroma, and so he had selected a grind containing ninety percent of
very fine coffee and ten percent of a coarser nature, which seemed to
retain the aroma. He subsequently secured a United States patent for
this grind. Mr. King announced also at this meeting that his
investigations showed there was more than a strong likelihood that the
much-discussed caffetannic acid did not exist in coffee--that it most
probably was a mixture of chlorogenic and and coffalic acids.
The World War operated to interfere with the coffee roasters' plans for
a research bureau; and in the meantime the Brazil planters, in 1919,
started their million-dollar advertising campaign in the United States,
co-operating with a joint committee representing the green and roasted
coffee interests. In the following year (June, 1920), this committee
arranged with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to start
scientific research work on coffee, the literature of the roasters'
Better Coffee Making Committee being turned over to it; and the
Institute began to "test the results of the committee's work by purely
analytical methods."
The first report on the research work at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology was made by Professor S.C. Prescott to the Joint Coffee Trade
Publicity Committee in April, 1921. The committee gave out a statement
saying that Prof. Prescott's report stated that "caffein, the most
characteristic principle of coffee, is, in the moderate quantities
consumed by the average coffee drinker, a safe stimulant without harmful
after-effects."
There was no publication of experimental results; but the announced
findings were, in the main, a confirmation of the results of previous
workers, particularly of Hollingworth, with whose statement, that
"caffein, when taken with food in moderate amount is not in the least
deleterious," the report was quoted as being in entire agreement.
At the annual convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association,
November 2, 1921, Professor Prescott made a further report, in which he
stated that investigations on coffee brewing had disclosed that coffee
made with water between 185° and 200° was to be preferred to coffee made
with the water at actual boiling temperature (212°), that the chemical
action was far less vigorous, and that the resulting infusion retained
all the fine flavors and was freer from certain bitter or astringent
flavors than that made at the higher temperature. Professor Prescott
announced also that the best materials for coffee-making utensils were
glass (including agate-ware, vitrified ware, porcelain, etc.), aluminum,
nickel or silver plate, copper, and tin plate, in the order named[381].
The Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee's booklet on _Coffee and
Coffee Making_, issued in 1921, was very guarded in its observations on
grinding and brewing. It avoided all controversial points, but it did go
so far as to say on the general subject of brewing:
Chemists have analyzed the coffee bean and told us that the only
part of it which should go into our coffee cups for drinking is an
aromatic oil. This aromatic element is extracted most efficiently
only by fresh boiling water. The practice of soaking the grounds in
cold water, therefore, is to be condemned. It is a mistake also to
let the water and the grounds boil together after the real coffee
flavor is once extracted. This extraction takes place very quickly,
especially when the coffee is ground fine. The coarser the
granulation the longer it is necessary to let the grounds remain in
contact with the boiling water. Remember that flavor, the only
flavor worth having, is extracted by the _short_ contact of boiling
water and coffee grounds and that after this flavor is extracted,
the coffee grounds become valueless dregs.
The report contained also the following helpful generalities on coffee
service and the various methods of brewing in more or less common use in
the United States in 1921:
Although the above rules are absolutely fundamental to good Coffee
Making, their importance is so little appreciated that in some
households the lifeless grounds from the breakfast Coffee are left
in the pot and resteeped for the next meal, with the addition of a
small quantity of fresh coffee. Used coffee grounds are of no more
value in coffee making than ashes are in kindling a fire.
After the coffee is brewed the true coffee flavor, now extracted
from the bean, should be guarded carefully. When the brewed liquid
is left on the fire or overheated this flavor is cooked away and
the whole character of the beverage is changed. It is just as fatal
to let the brew grow cold. If possible, coffee should be served as
soon as it is made. If service is delayed, it should be kept hot
but not overheated. For this purpose careful cooks prefer a double
boiler over a slow flre. The cups should be warmed beforehand, and
the same is true of a serving pot, if one is used. Brewed coffee,
once injured by cooling, cannot be restored by reheating.
Unsatisfactory results in coffee brewing frequently can be traced
to a lack of care in keeping utensils clean. The fact that the
coffee pot is used only for coffee making is no excuse for setting
it away with a hasty rinse. Coffee making utensils should be
cleansed after each using with scrupulous care. If a percolator is
used pay special attention to the small tube through which the hot
water rises to spray over the grounds. This should be scrubbed with
the wire-handled brush that comes for the purpose.
In cleansing drip or filter bags use cool water. Hot water "cooks
in" the coffee stains. After the bag is rinsed keep it submerged in
cool water until time to use it again. Never let it dry. This
treatment protects the cloth from the germs in the air which cause
souring. New filter bags should be washed before using to remove
the starch or sizing.
DRIP (OR FILTER) COFFEE. The principle behind this method is the
quick contact of water at full boiling point with coffee ground as
fine as it is practical to use it. The filtering medium may be of
cloth or paper, or perforated chinaware or metal. The fineness of
the grind should be regulated by the nature of the filtering
medium, the grains being large enough not to slip through the
perforations.
The amount of ground coffee to use may vary from a heaping
teaspoonful to a rounded tablespoonful for each cup of coffee
desired, depending upon the granulation, the kind of apparatus used
and individual taste. A general rule is the finer the grind the
smaller the amount of dry coffee required.
The most satisfactory grind for a cloth drip bag has the
consistency of powdered sugar and shows a slight grit when rubbed
between thumb and finger. Unbleached muslin makes the best bag for
this granulation. For dripping coffee reduced to a powder, as fine
as flour or confectioner's sugar, use a bag of canton flannel with
the fuzzy side in. Powdered coffee, however, requires careful
manipulation and cannot be recommended for everyday household use.
Put the ground coffee in the bag or sieve. Bring fresh water to a
full boil and pour it through the coffee at a steady, gradual rate
of flow. If a cloth drip bag is used, with a very finely ground
coffee, one pouring should be enough. No special pot or device is
necessary. The liquid coffee may be dripped into any handy vessel
or directly into the cups. Dripping into the coffee cups, however,
is not to be recommended unless the dripper is moved from cup to
cup so that no one cup will get more than its share of the first
flow, which is the strongest and best.
The brew is complete when it drips from the grounds, and further
cooking or "heating up" injures the quality. Therefore, since it is
not necessary to put the brew over the fire, it is possible to make
use of the hygienic advantages of a glassware, porcelain or
earthenware serving pot.
BOILED (OR STEEPED) COFFEE. For boiling (or steeping) use a medium
grind. The recipe is a rounded tablespoonful for each cup of coffee
desired or--as some cooks prefer to remember it--a tablespoonful
for each cup and "one for the pot." Put the dry coffee in the pot
and pour over it fresh water _briskly boiling_. Steep for five
minutes or longer, according to taste, over a low fire. Settle with
a dash of cold water or strain through muslin or cheesecloth and
serve at once.
PERCOLATED COFFEE. Use a rounded tablespoonful of medium fine
ground coffee to each cupful of water. The water may be poured into
the percolator cold or at the boiling point. In the latter case,
percolation begins at once. Let the water percolate over the
grounds for five or ten minutes depending upon the intensity of the
heat and the flavor desired.
In response to a request by the author, Charles W. Trigg has contributed
the following discussion of coffee making:
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF SCIENTIFIC COFFEE BREWING
Before converting it into the beverage form, coffee must be
carefully selected and blended, and skillfully roasted, in order
thus far to assure obtaining a maximum efficiency of results. No
matter how accurately all this be done, improper brewing of the
roasted bean will nullify the previous efforts and spoil the drink;
for roasted coffee is a delicate material, very susceptible to
deterioration and of doubtful worth as the source of a beverage
unless properly handled.
There probably never was produced a drink which so fits into the
exacting desires of the human appetite as does coffee. Properly
prepared, it is a delightful beverage: but incorrectly made, it
becomes an imposition upon the palates of mankind. Sensitive though
coffee is to improper manipulation, the best procedure for brewing
it is also the easiest. Cheap coffee well made excels good coffee
poorly made.
CONSTITUENT CONCEPTS. The roasting of green coffee causes an
alteration in the constitution of its constituents, with the result
that some of the compounds present therein which were originally
water-soluble are rendered insoluble, and some which were insoluble
are converted into soluble ones. A portion of the original caffein
content is lost by sublimation. The aromatic conglomerate, caffeol,
is formed, and a considerable quantity of gas is produced, a
portion of which, developing pressure in the cells of the beans,
pops, or swells, them so as to increase the size of each individual
bean. The constituents which are water-soluble after the
torrefaction may be generally classified as heavy extractives and
light aromatic materials. The percentages and nature of these
materials in the roasted coffee will vary with the type of coffee
and with the roast which it is given. In general, and in particular
for purposes of comparison of methods of brewing, they may be
considered to be the same and to occur in about the same
proportions in all coffees.
The heavy extractives are caffein, mineral matter, proteins,
caramel and sugars, "caffetannic acid", and various organic
materials of uncertain composition. Some fat will also be found in
the average coffee brew, being present not by virtue of being water
soluble, but because it has been melted from the bean by the hot
water and carried along with the solution.
The caffein furnishes the stimulation for which coffee is generally
consumed. It has only a slightly bitter taste, and because of the
relatively small percentage in which it is present in a cup of
coffee, does not contribute to the cup value. The mineral matter,
together with certain decomposition and hydrolysis products of
crude fiber and chlorogenic acid, contribute toward the astringency
or bitterness of the cup. The proteins are present in such small
quantity that their only rôle is to raise somewhat the almost
negligible food value of a coffee infusion. The body, or what might
be called the licorice-like character of coffee, is due to the
presence of bodies of a glucosidic nature and to caramel.
As has been previously pointed out[382], the term "caffetannic
acid" is a misnomer; for the substances which are called by this
name are in all probability mainly coffalic and chlorogenic acids.
Neither is a true tannin, and they evince but few of the
characteristic reactions of tannic acid. Some neutral coffees will
show as high a "caffetannic acid" content as other acid-charactered
ones. Careful work by Warnier[383] showed the actual acidities of
some East Indian coffees to vary from 0.013 to 0.033 percent. These
figures may be taken as reliable examples of the true acid content
of coffee, and though they seem very low, it is not at all
incomprehensible that the acids which they indicate produce the
acidity in a cup of coffee. They probably are mainly volatile
organic acids together with other acidic-natured products of
roasting.
[Illustration: SECTION OF ROASTED BEAN MAGNIFIED 1,000 TIMES]
We know that very small quantities of acid are readily detected in
fruit juices and beer, and that variation in their percentages is
quickly noticed, while the neutralization of this small amount of
acidity leaves an insipid drink. Hence it seems quite likely that
this small acid content gives to the coffee brew its essential
acidity. A few minor experiments on neutralization have proven the
production of a very insipid beverage by thus treating a coffee
infusion. So that the acidity of certain coffees most apparently
should be attributed to such compounds, rather than to the misnamed
"caffetannic acid."
The light aromatic materials, and the other substances which are
steam-distillable, i.e. which are driven off when coffee is
concentrated by boiling, are the main determining factors in the
individuality of coffees. These compounds, which are collectively
called "caffeol", vary greatly in the percentages present in
different coffees, and thus are largely responsible for our ability
to distinguish coffees in the cup. It is these compounds which
supply the pleasingly aromatic and appetizing odor to coffee.
All of these compounds, with the possible exception of the
proteins, are easily soluble in both hot and cold water. The fact
that a clear coffee extract made with hot water does not show any
precipitate immediately upon cooling, proves that cold water will
give as complete an extraction as hot water. However, speed of
extraction is materially increased with rise in temperature, due to
the fact that the rate and degree of solubility of the substances
in water, and the diffusion of the water through the cell walls of
the coffee, are accelerated. Also, the resistance which the fat
content of the bean offers to the wetting of the coffee, and the
persistency of the "enfleurage" action of the fat in retaining the
caffeol, are less with hot than with cold water. Accordingly, the
speed of extraction is increased by using hot water, and the
efficiency of extraction procured per unit time of subjection to
water is higher.
Prolonged contact of coffee with water results in the hydrolysis of
some of the insoluble materials and subsequent extraction of the
substances thus formed. The rate of hydrolysis also increases with
temperature: and as these compounds are of an astringent or bitter
nature, the solution obtained upon boiling coffee is naturally
possessed of a flavor unpleasant to the palate of the connoisseur.
Boiling of the coffee infusion after it has been removed from the
grounds also has a deleterious effect, as the local overheating of
the solution at the point of application of the heat results in a
decomposition, particularly if the solution be converted into steam
at this point, leaving a thin film of solids temporarily exposed to
the destructive action of the heat. Some of the more delicate
constituents are unfavorably affected by such treatment, and
undergo hydrolysis and oxidation. The products thus formed are
thrown into relief in the flavor by the loss of the aromatic
properties through steam distillation which is incidental to
boiling.
It is a well known fact that re-warming a coffee brew has a
unfavorable effect upon it. This is probably due in part to a
precipitation of some of the water-soluble proteins upon standing,
and their subsequent decomposition when heat is applied directly to
them in reheating the solution. The absorption of air by the
solution upon cooling, with attendant oxidation, which is
accentuated by the application of heat in re-warming, must also be
considered, as well as the other effects of boiling as set forth,
and the action of the materials of which the coffee pot is
constructed upon the solution.
PHYSICAL CONCEPTION. The coffee bean is composed of a large number
of cells which function as natural containers and retainers of
coffee fat and of the aromatic flavoring substances. In order to
render the soluble solids fully accessible, the resistance which
these cells offer to the extracting water must be overcome by
grinding so as to break open all of them. In this manner a grind is
obtained which will give a maximum removal of the heavy
extractives. But when all of the cells are broken, great
opportunity is offered for the escape of the caffeol, which is
further enhanced by the slight heating which usually accompanies
such fine grinding. So much caffeol escapes that even our most
expert cup-testers would experience difficulty in identifying
powdered coffees in a blind test. What cup-testers, in fact, use
powdered coffees for making their cup selections?
Consider powdered coffee, compared with freshly ground coffee of a
coarser grind. Neither the former nor its brew possesses the amount
of characteristic flavor or aroma, attributable to caffeol,
evidenced by the latter. The explanation of this is that the finer
the grind, the more readily accessible are the soluble constituents
of the coffee to the extracting water. Caffeol, however, in
addition to being water-soluble, is extremely fugacious, so that
when the grinding is carried to such a fineness that every cell is
broken, the greater part of the caffeol volatilizes before the
water comes into contact with it. It is therefore highly desirable
that a grind be used wherein all of the cells are not broken, but a
grind that is sufficiently fine to permit efficient extraction. In
the light of this knowledge, the grind advocated by King[384] seems
to be logical, for with it--though neither a maximum of the
non-volatile extractives nor a maximum of caffeol is obtained--an
all-round maximum of cup quality is procured.
The escape, upon grinding, of these volatile aromatic and flavoring
constituents which lend individuality to coffees, makes it
essential that the roasted beans be ground immediately prior to
extraction.
DIFFERENT METHODS OF EXTRACTION. The methods employed for preparing
the coffee drink may be classified under the general headings of
boiling, steeping, percolation, and filtration. True percolation is
the simple process known by the trade as filtration; but in this
classification, the term indicates the style of extraction
exemplified by the pumping percolator.
Boiled coffee is usually cloudy, due to the suspension of fine
particles resulting from the disintegration of the grounds by the
violence of boiling. The usual procedure in clarifying the
decoction is to add the white of an egg or some egg-shells, the
albumen of which is coagulated upon the fine particles by the heat
of the solution, and the particles thus weighted sink to the
bottom. Even this procedure, requiring much attention, does not
give as clear a solution as some of the other extraction procedures
employed. The conditions to which coffee is subjected during
boiling are the worst possible, as both grounds and solution
undergo hydrolysis, oxidation, and local-overheating, while the
caffeol is steam-distilled from the brew. Many persons, who have
long been accustomed to drinking the relatively bitter beverage
thus produced, are not satisfied by coffee made in any other way;
but this is purely a perversion of taste, for none of the
properties are present which make coffee so prized by the epicure.
[Illustration: CROSS-SECTION OF ROASTED COFFEE BEAN MAGNIFIED 600
TIMES]
[Illustration: COARSE GRIND UNDER THE MICROSCOPE]
Steeping, in which cold water is added to the coffee, and the
mixture brought up to a boil, does not subject the coffee to so
strenuous conditions. Local overheating and hydrolysis occur, but
not to so great an extent as in boiling; and most of the effects of
oxidation and volatization of caffeol are absent. However,
extraction is rather incomplete, due to lack of thorough admixture
of the water and coffee.
When coffee is to be made under the best conditions, the
temperature of the water used and of the extract after it is made
should not fluctuate. In the pumping percolator, as in the steeping
method, the temperature varies greatly from the time the extraction
is started to the completion of the operation. This is deleterious.
Also, local overheating of the infusion occurs at the point of
application of the heat; and because of the manner in which the
water is brought into contact with the coffee, the degree of
extraction shows inefficiency. Spraying of the water over the
coffee never permits the grounds to be completely covered with
water at any one time, and the opportunity offered for channeling
is excessive. The principle of thorough extraction demands that, as
the substance being extracted becomes progressively more exhausted,
fresh solvent should be brought into contact with it. In the
pumping percolator the solution pumped over the grounds becomes
more concentrated as the grounds become exhausted; so that the time
taken to reach the degree of extraction desired is longer, and an
appreciable amount of relatively concentrated liquor is retained by
the grounds.
[Illustration: MEDIUM GRIND UNDER THE MICROSCOPE]
The simplest procedure to follow is that in which boiling water is
poured over ground coffee suspended on a filtering medium in such a
manner that the extracting water will slowly pass through the
coffee and be received in a containing vessel, which obviates
further contact of the beverage with the grounds. The water as it
comes into contact with the ground coffee extracts the soluble
material, and the solution is removed by gravity. Fresh water takes
its place; so that, if the filter medium be of the proper fineness,
the water flows through at the correct rate of speed, and complete
extraction is effected with the production of a clear solution.
Thus a maximum extraction of desirable materials is obtained in a
short time with a minimum of hydrolysis, oxidation, and loss of
caffeol; and if the infusion be consumed at once, or kept warm in a
contrivance embodying the double-boiler principle, the effects of
local overheating are avoided. Also, with the use of an appropriate
filter, a finer grind of coffee can be used than in the other
devices, without obtaining a turbid brew. All this works toward the
production of a desirable drink.
There are several devices on the market, some using paper, and some
cloth, as a filter, which operate on this principle and give very
good coffee. The use of paper presents the advantage of using a new
and clean filter for each brew, whereas the cloth must be carefully
kept immersed in water between brews to prevent its fouling.
Contrivances operating on the filtration principle have been
designed for use on a large scale in conjunction with coffee urns,
and have proven quite successful in causing all of the water to go
slowly through the coffee without channeling, thus accomplishing
practically complete extraction. The majority of urns are still
operated with bags, of which the ones with sides of heavier
material than the bottom obtain the most satisfactory results, as
the majority of the water must pass through the coffee instead of
out through the sides of the bag. Greatest efficiency, when bags
are used, is obtained by repouring until all of the liquid has
passed twice through the coffee; further repouring extracts too
much of the astringent hydrolysis products. The bags, when not in
use, should not be allowed to dry but should be kept in a jar of
cold water. The urns provided with water jackets keep the brew at
almost a constant temperature and avoid the deterioration incident
to temperature fluctuation.
COMPOSITION OF BREWS. The real tests of the comparative values of
different methods of brewing are the flavor and palatibility of the
drink, in conjunction with the number of cups of a given strength
which are produced, or the relative strengths of brews of the same
number of cups volume. Chemical analysis has not yet been developed
to a stage where the results obtained with it are valuably
indicative. Caffeol is present in quantities so small that no
comparative results can be obtained. "Caffetannic acid"
determinations are practically meaningless. This compound is of so
doubtful a composition and physiological action, and the methods
employed for its determination are so indefinite as to
interpretation, as to render valueless any attempts at comparison
of relative percentages. The only accurate analysis which can be
made is that for caffein.
Much advertising emphasis has been placed on the small amount of
caffein extracted by some devices. What is one of the main reasons
for the consumption of coffee? The caffein contained therein, of
course. So that if one device extracts less caffein than another,
that fact alone is nothing in favor of the former. If the consumer
does not want caffein in his drink there are caffein-free coffees
on the market.
[Illustration: FINE-MEAL GRIND UNDER THE MICROSCOPE]
The coffee liquor acts on metals in such a manner as to lower the
quality of the drink, so that metals of any sort, and by all
means, irons, should be avoided as far as possible. Instead,
earthenware or glass, preferably a good grade of the former, should
be employed as far as possible in the construction of coffee-making
devices.
Of the various metals, silver, aluminum, monel metal, and tin (in
the order named) are least attacked by coffee infusions; and
besides these, nickel, copper, and well enameled iron (absolutely
free from pin holes) may be used without much danger of
contamination. Rings for coffee-urn bags should be made of tinned
copper, monel metal, or aluminum. Even if coffee be made in metal
contrivances, the receptacles in which it stands should be made of
earthenware or of glass.
Painstaking care should be given to the preservation of the
coffee-makers in a state of cleanliness, as upon this depends the
value of the brew. Dirt, fine grounds, and fat (which will turn
rancid quickly) should not be allowed to collect on the sides,
bottom, or in angles of the device difficult of access. Nor should
any source of metallic or exterior contamination be allowed to go
uneliminated.
_The Perfect Cup of Coffee_
Lovers of coffee in the United States are in a better position to obtain
an ideal cup of the beverage than those in any other country. While
imports of green coffee are not so carefully guarded as tea imports,
there is a large measure of government inspection designed to protect
the consumer against impurities, and the Department of Agriculture is
zealous in applying the pure food laws to insure against misbranding and
substitution. The department has defined coffee as "a beverage resulting
from a water infusion of roasted coffee and nothing else."
Today no reputable merchant would think of selling even loose coffee for
other than what it is. And the consumer can feel that, in the case of
package coffee, the label tells the truth about the contents.
With a hundred different kinds of coffee coming to this market from
nineteen countries, so many combinations are possible, that there is
sure to be a straight coffee or a blend to suit any taste. And those who
may have been frightened into the belief that coffee is not for them
should do a little experimenting before exposing themselves to the
dangers of the coffee-substitute habit.
Once upon a time it was thought that Java and Mocha were the only
worthwhile blend, but now we know that a Bogota coffee from Colombia,
and a Bourbon Santos from Brazil, make a most satisfying drink. And if
the individual seeker should happen to be a caffein-sensitive, there are
coffees so low in caffein content, like some Porto Ricans, as to
overcome this objection; while there are other coffees from which the
caffein has been removed by a special treatment. There is no reason why
any person who is fond of coffee should forego its use. Paraphrasing
Makaroff, Be modest, be kind, eat less, and think more, live to serve,
work and play and laugh and love--it is enough! Do this and you may
drink coffee without danger to your immortal soul.
If you are accustomed to buying loose coffee, have your dealer do a
little experimental blending for you until you find a coffee to suit
your palate. Some expert blends are to be found among the leading
package brands. But you really can not do better than to trust your case
to a first-class grocer of known reputation. He will guide you right if
he knows his business; and if he doesn't, then he doesn't know his
business--try elsewhere. Test him out along this line:
Let us reason together, Mr. Grocer. Let us consider these facts about
coffee: green coffee improves with age? Granted. As soon as it is
roasted, it begins to lose in flavor and aroma? Certainly. Grinding
hastens the deterioration? Of course. Therefore, it is better to buy a
small quantity of freshly roasted coffee in the bean and grind it at the
time of purchase or at home just before using? Absolutely!
If your grocer reacts in this fashion, he need only supply you with a
quality coffee at fair price and you need only to make it properly to
obtain the utmost of coffee satisfaction.
Some connoisseurs still cling to the good old two-thirds Java and
one-third Mocha blend, but the author has for years found great pleasure
in a blend composed of half Medellin Bogota, one-quarter Mandheling
"Java", and one-quarter Mocha. However, this blend might not appeal to
another's taste, and the component parts are not always easy to get. The
retail cost (1922) is about fifty cents.
Another pleasing blend is composed of Bogota, washed Maracaibo, and
Santos, equal parts. This should retail from thirty to thirty-five
cents. Good drinking coffees are to be had for prices ranging from
twenty-five to thirty cents. In the stores of one of the large chain
systems an excellent blend composed of sixty percent Bourbon Santos,
and forty percent Bogota is to be had (1922) for 29 cents. All these
figures apply, of course, to normal times.
If you are epicurean, you will want to read up on, and to try, the fancy
Mexicans, Cobáns, Sumatra growths, Meridas, and some from the "Kona
side" of Hawaii.
In preparing the perfect cup of coffee, then, the coffee must be of good
grade, and freshly roasted. It should, if possible, be ground just
before using. The author has found a fine grind, about the consistency
of fine granulated sugar, the most satisfactory. For general home use, a
device that employs filter paper or filter cloth is best; for the
epicure an improved porcelain French percolator (drip pot) or an
improved cloth filter will yield the utmost of coffee's delights. Drink
it black, sweetened or unsweetened, with or without cream or hot milk,
as your fancy dictates.
It should be remembered that to make good coffee no special pot or
device is necessary. Good coffee can be made with any china vessel and a
piece of muslin. But to make it in perfection pains must be taken with
every step in the process from roaster to cup.
Hollingworth[385] points out that through taste alone it is impossible
to distinguish between quinine and coffee, or between apple and onion.
There is something more to coffee than its caffein stimulus, its action
on the taste-buds of the tongue and mouth. The sense of smell and the
sense of sight play important rôles. To get all the joy there is in a
cup of coffee, it must look good and smell good, before one can
pronounce its taste good. It must woo us through the nostrils with the
wonderful aroma that constitutes much of the lure of coffee.
And that is why, in the preparation of the beverage, the greatest
possible care should be observed to preserve the aroma until the moment
of its psychological release. This can only be done by having it appear
at the same instant that the delicate flavor is extracted--roasting and
grinding the bean much in advance of the actual making of the beverage
will defeat this object. Boiling the extraction will perfume the house;
but the lost fragrance will never return to the dead liquid called
coffee, when served from the pot whence it was permitted to escape.
To recapitulate, with an added word on service, the correct way to make
coffee is as follows:
1. Buy a good grade of freshly roasted coffee from a responsible dealer.
2. Grind it very fine, and at home, just before using.
3. Allow a rounded tablespoonful for each beverage cup.
4. Make it in a French drip pot or in some filtration device where
freshly boiling water is poured through the grind but once. A piece of
muslin and any china receptacle make an economical filter.
5. Avoid pumping percolators, or any device for heating water and
forcing it repeatedly through the grounds. Never boil coffee.
6. Keep the beverage hot and serve it "black" with sugar and hot milk,
or cream, or both.
_Some Coffee Recipes_
When Mrs. Ida C. Bailey Allen prepared a booklet of recipes for the
Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee, she introduced them with the
following remarks on the use of coffee as a flavoring agent:
Although coffee is our national beverage, comparatively few cooks
realize its possibilities as a flavoring agent. Coffee combines
deliciously with a great variety of food dishes and is especially
adapted to desserts, sauces and sweets. Thus used it appeals
particularly to men and to all who like a full-bodied pronounced
flavor.
For flavoring purposes coffee should be prepared just as carefully
as when it is intended for a beverage. The best results are
obtained by using freshly made coffee, but when, for reasons of
economy, it is desirable to utilize a surplus remaining from the
meal-time brew, care should be taken not to let it stand on the
grounds and become bitter.
When introducing made coffee into a recipe calling for other
liquid, decrease this liquid in proportion to the amount of coffee
that has been added. When using it in a cake or in cookies, instead
of milk, a tablespoonful less to the cup should be allowed, as
coffee does not have the same thickening properties.
In some cases, better results are gained if the coffee is
introduced into the dish by scalding or cooking the right
proportion of ground coffee with the liquid which is to form the
base. By this means the full coffee flavor is obtained, yet the
richness of the finished product is not impaired by the
introduction of water, as would be the case were the infused coffee
used. This method is advisable especially for various desserts
which have milk as a foundation, as those of the custard variety
and certain types of Bavarian Creams, Ice Cream, and the like. The
right proportion of ground coffee, which is generally a
tablespoonful to the cup, should be combined with the cold milk or
cream in the double-boiler top and should then be scalded over hot
water, when the mixture should be put through a very fine strainer
or cheese cloth, to remove all grounds.
Coffee can be used as a flavoring in almost any dessert or confection
where a flavoring agent is employed.
On iced coffee and the use of coffee in summer beverages in general,
Mrs. Allen writes as follows:
ICED COFFEE. This is not only a delicious summer drink, but it also
furnishes a mild stimulation that is particularly grateful on a
wilting hot day. It may be combined with fruit juices and other
ingredients in a variety of cooling beverages which are less sugary
and cloying than the average warm weather drink and for that reason
it is generally popular with men.
Coffee that is to be served cold should be made somewhat stronger
than usual. Brew it according to your favorite method and chill
before adding sugar and cream. If cracked ice is added make sure
the coffee is strong enough to compensate for the resulting
dilution. Mixing the ingredients in a shaker produces a smoother
beverage topped with an appetizing foam.
It is a convenience, however, to have on hand a concentrated syrup
from which any kind of coffee-flavored drink may be concocted on
short notice and without the necessity of lighting the stove.
Coffee left over from meals may be used for the same purpose, but
it should be kept in a covered glass or china dish and not allowed
to stand too long. A coffee syrup made after the following recipe
will keep indefinitely and may be used as a basis for many
delicious iced drinks:
COFFEE SYRUP. Two quarts of very strong coffee; 3-1/2 pounds sugar.
The coffee should be very strong, as the syrup will be largely
diluted. The proportion of a pound of coffee to one and
three-fourths quarts of water will be found satisfactory. This may
be made by any favorite method, cleared and strained, then combined
with the sugar, brought to boiling point, and boiled for two or
three minutes. It should be canned while boiling, in sterilized
bottles. Fill them to overflowing and seal as for grape juice or
for any other canned beverage.
[Illustration]
A COFFEE CHRONOLOGY
_Giving dates and events of historical interest in legend, travel,
literature, cultivation, plantation treatment, trading, and in the
preparation and use of coffee from the earliest time to the
present_
900[L]--Rhazes, famous Arabian physician, is first writer to
mention coffee under the name _bunca_ or _bunchum_.[M]
1000[L]--Avicenna, Mahommedan physician and philosopher, is the
first writer to explain the medicinal properties of the coffee
bean, which he also calls _bunchum_.[M]
1258[L]--Sheik Omar, disciple of Sheik Schadheli, patron saint and
legendary founder of Mocha, by chance discovers coffee as a
beverage at Ousab in Arabia.[M]
1300[L]--The coffee drink is a decoction made from roasted berries,
crushed in a mortar and pestle, the powder being placed in boiling
water, and the drink taken down, grounds and all.
1350[L]--Persian, Egyptian, and Turkish ewers made of pottery are
first used for serving coffee.
1400-1500--Earthenware or metal coffee-roasting plates with small
holes, rounded and shaped like a skimmer, come into use in Turkey
and Persia over braziers. Also about this time appears the familiar
Turkish cylinder coffee mill, and the original Turkish coffee
boiler of metal.
1428-48--Spice grinder to stand on four legs first invented;
subsequently used to grind coffee.
1454[L]--Sheik Gemaleddin, mufti of Aden, having discovered the
virtues of the berry on a journey to Abyssinia, sanctions the use
of coffee in Arabia Felix.
1470-1500--The use of coffee spreads to Mecca and Medina.
1500-1600--Shallow iron dippers with long handles and small
foot-rests come into use in Bagdad and in Mesopotamia for roasting
coffee.
1505[L]--The Arabs introduce the coffee plant into Ceylon.
1510--The coffee drink is introduced into Cairo.
1511--Kair Bey, governor of Mecca, after consultation with a
council of lawyers, physicians, and leading citizens, issues a
condemnation of coffee, and prohibits the use of the drink.
Prohibition subsequently ordered revoked by the sultan of Cairo.
1517--Sultan Selim I, after conquering Egypt, brings coffee to
Constantinople.
1524--The kadi of Mecca closes the public coffee houses because of
disorders, but permits coffee drinking at home and in private. His
successor allows them to re-open under license.
1530[L]--Coffee drinking introduced into Damascus.
1532[L]--Coffee drinking introduced into Aleppo.
1534--A religious fanatic denounces coffee in Cairo and leads a mob
against the coffee houses, many of which are wrecked. The city is
divided into two parties, for and against coffee; but the chief
judge, after consultation with the doctors, causes coffee to be
served to the meeting, drinks some himself, and thus settles the
controversy.
1542--Soliman II, at the solicitation of a favorite court lady,
forbids the use of coffee, but to no purpose.
1554--The first coffee houses are opened in Constantinople by
Shemsi of Damascus and Hekem of Aleppo.
1570[L]-80[L]--Religious zealots in Constantinople, jealous of the
increasing popularity of the coffee houses, claim roasted coffee to
be a kind of charcoal, and the mufti decides that it is forbidden
by the law. Amurath III subsequently orders the closing of all
coffee houses, on religious grounds, classing coffee with wine,
forbidden by the _Koran_. The order is not strictly observed, and
coffee drinking continues behind closed shop-doors and in private
houses.
1573--Rauwolf, German physician and botanist, first European to
mention coffee, makes a journey to the Levant.
1580--Prospero Alpini (Alpinus), Italian physician and botanist,
journeys to Egypt and brings back news of coffee.
1582-83--The first printed reference to coffee appears as _chaube_
in Rauwolf's _Travels_, published in German at Frankfort and
Lauingen.
1585--Gianfraneesco Morosini, city magistrate in Constantinople,
reports to the Venetian senate the use by the Turks "of a black
water, being the infusion of a bean called _cavee_."
1587--The first authentic account of the origin of coffee is
written by the Sheik Abd-al-Kâdir, in an Arabian manuscript
preserved in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris.
1592--The first printed description of the coffee plant (called
_bon_) and drink (called _caova_) appears in Prospero Alpini's work
_The Plants of Egypt_, written in Latin, and published in Venice.
1596[L]--Belli sends to the botanist de l'Écluse "seeds used by the
Egyptians to make a liquid they call _cave_."
1598--The first printed reference to coffee in English appears as
_chaoua_ in a note of Paludanus in _Linschoten's Travels_,
translated from the Dutch, and published in London.
1599--Sir Antony Sherley, first Englishman to refer to coffee
drinking in the Orient, sails from Venice for Aleppo.
1600[L]--Pewter serving-pots appear.
1600--Iron spiders on legs, designed to sit in open fires, are used
for roasting coffee.
1600[L]--Coffee cultivation introduced into southern India at
Chickmaglur, Mysore, by a Moslem pilgrim, Baba Budan.[M]
1600-32--Mortars and pestles of wood, and of metal (iron, bronze,
and brass) come into common use in Europe for making coffee powder.
1601--The first printed reference to coffee in English, employing
the more modern form of the word, appears in W. Parry's book,
_Sherley's Travels_, as "a certain liquor which they call coffe."
1603--Captain John Smith, English adventurer, and founder of the
colony of Virginia, in his book of travels published this year,
refers to the Turks' drink, "coffa."
1610--Sir George Sandys, the poet, visits Turkey, Egypt, and
Palestine, and records that the Turks "sip a drink called _coffa_
(of the berry that it is made of) in little china dishes, as hot as
they can suffer it."
1614--Dutch traders visit Aden to examine into the possibilities of
coffee cultivation and coffee trading.
1615--Pietro Della Valle writes a letter from Constantinople to his
friend Mario Schipano at Venice that when he returns he will bring
with him some coffee, which he believes "is a thing unknown in his
native country."
1615--Coffee is introduced into Venice.
1616--The first coffee is brought from Mocha to Holland by Pieter
Van dan Broecke.
1620--Peregrine White's wooden mortar and pestle (used for
"braying" coffee) is brought to America on the Mayflower by White's
parents.
1623-27--Francis Bacon, in his _Historia Vitae et Mortis_ (1623),
speaks of the Turks' "caphe"; and in his _Sylva Sylvarum_ (1627)
writes: "They have in Turkey a drink called _coffa_ made of a berry
of the same name, as black as soot, and of a strong scent ... this
drink comforteth the brain and heart, and helpeth digestion."
1625--Sugar is first used to sweeten coffee in Cairo.
1632--Burton in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_ says: "The Turks have a
drink called _coffa_, so named from a berry black as soot and as
bitter."
1634--Sir Henry Blount makes a voyage to the Levant, and is invited
to drink "cauphe" in Turkey.
1637--Adam Olearius, German traveler and Persian scholar, visits
Persia (1633-39); and on his return tells how in this year he
observed that the Persians drink _chawa_ in their coffee houses.
1637--Coffee drinking is introduced into England by Nathaniel
Conopios, a Cretan student at Balliol College, Oxford.
1640--Parkinson, in his _Theatrum Botanicum_, publishes the first
botanical description of the coffee plant in English--referred to
as "_Arbor Bon cum sua Buna_. The Turkes Berry Drinke."
1640--The Dutch merchant, Wurffbain, offers for sale in Amsterdam
the first commercial shipment of coffee from Mocha.
1644--Coffee is introduced into France at Marseilles by P. de la
Roque, who brought back also from Constantinople the instruments
and vessels for making it.
1645--Coffee comes into general use in Italy.
1645--The first coffee house is opened in Venice.
1647--Adam Olearius publishes in German his _Persian Voyage
Description_, containing an account of coffee manners and customs
in Persia in 1633-39.
1650[L]--Varnar, Dutch minister resident at the Ottoman Porte,
publishes a treatise on coffee.
1650[L]--The individual hand-turned metal (tin-plate or tinned
copper) roaster appears; shaped like the Turkish coffee grinder,
for use over open fires.
1650--The first coffee house in England is opened at Oxford by
Jacobs, a Jew.
1650--Coffee is introduced into Vienna.
1652--The first London coffee house is opened by Pasqua Rosée in
St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill.
1652--The first printed advertisement for coffee in English appears
in the form of a handbill issued by Pasqua Rosée, acclaiming "The
Vertue of the Coffee Drink."
1656--Grand Vizier Kuprili, during the war with Candia, and for
political reasons, suppresses the coffee houses and prohibits
coffee. For the first violation the punishment is cudgeling; for a
second, the offender is sewn up in a leather bag and thrown into
the Bosporus.
1657--The first newspaper advertisement for coffee appears in _The
Publick Adviser_ of London.
1657--Coffee is introduced privately into Paris by Jean de
Thévenot.
1658--The Dutch begin the cultivation of coffee in Ceylon.
1660[L]--The first French commercial importation of coffee arrives
in bales at Marseilles from Egypt.
1660--Coffee is first mentioned in the English statute books when a
duty of four pence is laid upon every gallon made and sold "to be
paid by the maker."
1660[L]--Nieuhoff, Dutch ambassador to China, is the first to make
a trial of coffee with milk, in imitation of tea with milk.
1660--Elford's "white iron" machine for roasting coffee is much
used in England, being "turned on a spit by a jack."
1662--Coffee is roasted in Europe over charcoal fires without
flame, in ovens, and on stoves; being "browned in uncovered
earthenware tart dishes, old pudding pans, fry pans."
1663--All English coffee houses are required to be licensed.
1663--Regular imports of Mocha coffee begin at Amsterdam.
1665--The improved Turkish long brass combination coffee grinder
with folding handle and cup receptacle for green beans, for boiling
and serving, is first made in Damascus. About this period the
Turkish coffee set, including long-handled boiler and porcelain
cups in brass holders, comes into vogue.
1668--Coffee is introduced into North America.
1669--Coffee is introduced publicly into Paris by Soliman Aga, the
Turkish ambassador.
1670--Coffee is roasted in larger quantities in small closed
sheet-iron cylinders having long iron handles designed to turn them
in open fireplaces. First used in Holland. Later, in France,
England, and the United States.
1670--The first attempt to grow coffee in Europe at Dijon, France,
results in failure.
1670--Coffee is introduced into Germany.
1670--Coffee is first sold in Boston.
1671--The first coffee house in France is opened in Marseilles in
the neighborhood of the Exchange.
1671--The first authoritative printed treatise devoted solely to
coffee, written in Latin by Faustus Nairon, professor of Oriental
languages, Rome, is published in that city.
1671--The first printed treatise in French, largely devoted to
coffee, _Concerning the Use of Coffee, Tea and Chocolate_, by
Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, purporting to be a translation from the
Latin, is published at Lyons.
1672--Pascal, an Armenian, first sells coffee publicly at St.
Germain's fair, Paris, and opens the first Parisian coffee house.
1672--Great silver coffee pots (with all the utensils belonging to
them of the same metal) are used at St.-Germain's fair, Paris.
1674--_The Women's Petition Against Coffee_ is published in London.
1674--Coffee is introduced into Sweden.
1675--Charles II issues a proclamation to close all London coffee
houses as places of sedition. Order revoked on petition of the
traders in 1676.
1679--An attempt by the physicians of Marseilles to discredit
coffee on purely dietetic grounds fails of effect; and consumption
increases at such a rate that traders in Lyons and Marseilles begin
to import the green bean by the ship-load from the Levant.
1679[L]--The first coffee house in Germany is opened by an English
merchant at Hamburg.
1683--Coffee is sold publicly in New York.
1683--Kolschitzky opens the first coffee house in Vienna.
1684--Dufour publishes at Lyons, France, the first work on _The
Manner of Making Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate_.
1685--_Café au lait_ is first recommended for use as a medicine by
Sieur Monin, a celebrated physician of Grenoble, France.
1686--John Ray, one of the first English botanists to extol the
virtues of coffee in a scientific treatise, publishes his
_Universal Botany of Plants_ in London.
1686--The first coffee house is opened in Regensburg, Germany.
1689--Café de Procope, the first real French café, is opened in
Paris by François Procope, a Sicilian, coming from Florence.
1689--The first coffee house is opened in Boston.
1691--Portable coffee-making outfits to fit the pocket find favor
in France.
1692--The "lantern" straight-line coffee pot with true cone lid,
thumb-piece, and handle fixed at right angle to the spout, is
introduced into England, succeeding the curved Oriental serving
pot.
1694--The first coffee house is opened in Leipzig, Germany.
1696--The first coffee house (The King's Arms) is opened in New
York.
1696--The first coffee seedlings are brought from Kananur, on the
Malabar coast, and introduced into Java at Kedawoeng, near Batavia,
but not long afterward are destroyed by flood.
1699--The second shipment of coffee plants from Malabar to Java by
Henricus Zwaardecroon becomes the progenitors of all the _arabica_
coffee trees in the Dutch East Indies.
1699--Galland's translation of the earliest Arabian manuscript on
coffee appears in Paris under the title, _Concerning the First Use
of Coffee and the Progress It Afterward Made_.
1700--Ye coffee house, the first in Philadelphia, is built by
Samuel Carpenter.
1700-1800--Small portable coke or charcoal stoves made of
sheet-iron, and fitted with horizontal revolving cylinders turned
by hand, come into use for family roasting.
1701--Coffee pots appear in England with perfect domes and bodies
less tapering.
1702--The first "London" coffee house is established in
Philadelphia.
1704--Bull's machine for roasting coffee, probably the first to use
coal for commercial roasting, is patented in England.
1706--The first samples of Java coffee, and a coffee plant grown in
Java, are received at the Amsterdam botanical gardens.
1707--The first coffee periodical, _The New and Curious Coffee
House_, is issued at Leipzig by Theophilo Georgi, as a kind of
organ of the first kaffee-klatsch.
1711--Java coffee is first sold at public auction in Amsterdam.
1711--A novelty in coffee-making is introduced into France by
infusing the ground beans in a fustian (linen) bag.
1712--The first coffee house is opened in Stuttgart, Germany.
1713--The first coffee house is opened in Augsburg, Germany.
1714--The thumb-piece on English coffee pots disappears, and the
handle is no longer set at a right angle to the spout.
1714--A coffee plant, raised from seed of the plant received at the
Amsterdam botanical gardens in 1706, is presented to Louis XIV of
France, and is nurtured in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.
1715--Jean La Roque publishes in Paris his _Voyage de l'Arabie
Heureuse_ (voyage to Arabia the Happy) containing much valuable
information on coffee in Arabia and its introduction into France.
1715--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Haiti and Santo
Domingo.
1715-17--Coffee cultivation is introduced into the Isle of Bourbon
(now Réunion) by a sea captain of St. Malo, who brings the plants
from Mocha by direction of the French Company of the Indies.
1718--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Surinam by the Dutch.
1718--Abbé Massieu's _Carmen Caffaeum_, the first and most notable
poem on coffee written in Latin, is composed, and is read before
the Academy of Inscriptions.
1720--Caffè Florian is opened in Venice by Floriono Francesconi.
1721--The first coffee house is opened in Berlin, Germany.
1721--Meisner publishes a treatise on coffee, tea, and chocolate.
1722--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Cayenne, from Surinam.
1723--The first coffee plantation started in the Portuguese colony
of Pará, Brazil, with plants brought from Cayenne (French Guiana)
results in failure.
1723--Gabriel de Clieu, Norman captain of infantry, sails from
France, accompanied by one of the seedlings of the Java tree
presented to Louis XIV, and with it shares his drinking water on a
protracted voyage to Martinique.
1730--The English bring the cultivation of coffee to Jamaica.
1732--The British Parliament seeks to encourage the cultivation of
coffee in British possessions in America by reducing the inland
duty.
1732--Bach's celebrated _Coffee Cantata_ is published in Leipzig.
1737--The Merchants' coffee house is established in New York; by
some called the true cradle of American liberty and the birthplace
of the Union.
1740--Coffee culture is introduced into the Philippines from Java
by Spanish missionaries.
1748--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Cuba by Don José
Antonio Gelabert.
1750--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Celebes from Java.
1750--The straight-line coffee pot in England begins to give way to
the reactionary movement in art favoring bulbous bodies and
serpentine spouts; the sides are nearly parallel, while the dome of
the lid is flattened to a slight elevation above the rim.
1752--Intensive coffee cultivation is resumed in the Portuguese
colonies in Pará and Amazonas, Brazil.
1754--A white-silver coffee roaster, eight inches high by four
inches in diameter, is mentioned as being among the deliveries made
to the army of Louis XV at Versailles.
1755--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Porto Rico from
Martinique.
1760--Decoction, or boiling, of coffee in France is generally
replaced by the infusion method.
1760--João Alberto Castello Branco plants in Rio de Janeiro the
first coffee tree brought to Brazil from Goa, Portuguese India.
1761--Brazil exempts coffee from export duty.
1763--Donmartin, a tinsmith of St. Benoit, France, invents a novel
coffee pot, the inside of which is "filled by a fine flannel sack
put in its entirety." It has a tap to draw the coffee.
1764--Count Pietro Verri publishes in Milan, Italy, a philosophic
and literary periodical, entitled _Il Caffè_ (the coffee house).
1765--Mme. de Pompadour's golden coffee mill is mentioned in her
inventory.
1770--Complete revolution in style of English serving pots; return
to the flowing lines of the Turkish ewer.
1770--Chicory is first used with coffee in Holland.
1770-73--Coffee cultivation begins in Rio, Minãs, and São Paulo.
1771--John Dring is granted a patent in England for a compound
coffee.
1774--Molke, a Belgian monk, introduces the coffee plant from
Surinam into the garden of the Capuchin monastery at Rio de
Janeiro.
1774--A letter is sent by the Committee of Correspondence from the
Merchants' coffee house, New York, to Boston, proposing the
American Union.
1777--King Frederick the Great of Prussia issues his celebrated
coffee and beer manifesto, recommending the use of the latter in
place of the former among the lower classes.
1779--Richard Dearman is granted an English patent for a new method
of making mills for grinding coffee.
1779--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Costa Rica from Cuba by
the Spanish voyager, Navarro.
1781--King Frederick the Great of Prussia establishes state
coffee-roasting plants in Germany, declares the coffee business a
government monopoly, and forbids the common people to roast their
own coffee. "Coffee-smellers" make life miserable for violators of
the law.
1784--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Venezuela by seed from
Martinique.
1784--A prohibition against the use of coffee, except by the rich,
is issued by Maximilian Frederick, elector of Cologne.
1785--Governor Bowdoin of Massachusetts introduces chicory to the
United States.
1789--The first import duty on coffee, two and a half cents a
pound, is levied by the United States.
1789--George Washington is officially greeted, April 23, as
president-elect of the U.S. at the Merchants coffee house in New
York.
1790--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Mexico from the West
Indies.
1790--The first wholesale coffee-roasting plant in the United
States begins operation at 4 Great Dock Street, New York.
1790--The first United States advertisement for coffee appears in
the _New York Daily Advertiser._
1790--The import duty on coffee in the United States is increased
to four cents a pound.
1790--The first crude package coffee is sold in "narrow mouthed
stoneware pots and jars," by a New York merchant.
1792--The Tontine coffee house is established in New York.
1794--The import duty on coffee in the United States is increased
to five cents a pound.
1798--The first United States patent for an improved
coffee-grinding mill is granted to Thomas Bruff, Sr.
1800[L]--Chicory comes into use in Holland as a substitute for
coffee.
1800[L]--De Belloy's coffee pot, made of tin, later of porcelain,
appears--the original French drip coffee pot.
1800[L]-1900[L]--There is a return in England to the style of
coffee-serving pot having the handle at right angle to the spout.
1802--The first French patent on a coffee maker is granted to
Denobe, Henrion, and Rouch for "a pharmacological-chemical coffee
making device by infusion."
1802--Charles Wyatt is granted a patent in London on an apparatus
for distilling coffee.
1804[L]--The first cargo of coffee--and other East Indian
produce--from Mocha, to be shipped in an American bottom, reaches
Salem, Mass.
1806--James Henckel is granted a patent in England on a coffee
dryer, "an invention communicated to him by a certain foreigner."
1806--The first French patent on an improved French drip coffee pot
for making coffee by filtration, without boiling, is granted to
Hadrot.
1806--The coffee percolator (really an improved French drip coffee
pot) is invented by Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson), an
expatriated American scientist, in Paris.
1809--The first importation of Brazil coffee by the United States
arrives at Salem, Mass.
1809--Coffee becomes an article of commerce in Brazil.
1811--Walter Rochfort, a London grocer and tea dealer, obtains a
patent in London on a compressed coffee tablet.
1812--Coffee in England is roasted in an iron pan or hollow
cylinder made of sheet iron; and then is pounded in a mortar, or
ground in a hand-mill.
1812--Anthony Schick is granted an English patent on a method, or
process, for roasting coffee, for which specifications were never
enrolled.
1812--Coffee is roasted in Italy in a glass flask with a loose
cork, held over a clear fire of burning coals and continually
agitated.
1812--The import duty, on coffee in the United States is increased
to ten cents a pound as a war-revenue measure.
1813--A United States patent is granted Alexander Duncan Moore, New
Haven, Conn., on a mill for grinding and pounding coffee.
1814--A war-time fever of speculation in tea and coffee causes the
citizens of Philadelphia to form a non-consumption association,
each member pledging himself not to pay more than twenty-five cents
a pound for coffee, and not to use tea unless it is already in the
country.
1816--The import duty on coffee in the United States is reduced to
five cents a pound.
1817[L]--The coffee biggin (said to have been invented by a man
named Biggin) comes into common use in England.
1818--The Havre coffee market for spot coffee and to arrive is
established.
1819--Morize, a Paris tinsmith, invents a double drip reversible
coffee pot.
1819--Laurens is granted a French patent on the original
pumping-percolator device in which the boiling water was raised by
steam pressure and sprayed over the ground coffee.
1820--Peregrine Williamson, Baltimore, is granted the first United
States patent for an improvement on a coffee roaster.
1820--Another early form of the French percolator is patented by
Gaudet, a Paris tinsmith.
1822--Nathan Reed, Belfast, Me., is granted a United States patent
on a coffee huller.
1824--Richard Evans is granted a patent in England for a commercial
method of roasting coffee, comprising a cylinder sheet-iron roaster
fitted with improved flanges for mixing, a hollow tube and trier
for sampling the coffee while roasting, and a means for turning the
roaster completely over to empty it.
1825--The pumping percolator, working by steam pressure and by
partial vacuum, comes into vogue in France, Germany, Austria, and
elsewhere.
1825--The first coffee-pot patent in the United States is issued to
Lewis Martelley, New York.
1825--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Hawaii from Rio de
Janeiro.
1827--The first patent for a really practicable French coffee
percolator is granted to Jacques Augustin Gandais, a manufacturer
of plated jewelry in Paris.
1828--Charles Parker, Meriden, Conn., begins work on the original
Charles Parker coffee mill.
1829--The first French patent on a coffee mill is granted Colaux et
Cie, Molsheim, France.
1829--Établissements Lauzaune begin the manufacture of hand-turned
cylinder coffee roasting machines in Paris.
1830--The import duty on coffee in the United States is reduced to
two cents a pound.
1831--David Selden is granted a patent in England for a
coffee-grinding mill having cones of cast-iron.
1831--John Whitmee & Co., England, begin the manufacture of
coffee-plantation machinery.
1831--The import duty on coffee in the United States is reduced to
one cent a pound.
1832--A United States patent is granted to Edmund Parker and Herman
M. White, Meriden, Conn., on a new household coffee and spice mill.
(Chas. Parker Co. business founded same year.)
1832--Government coffee cultivation by forced labor is introduced
into Java.
1832--Coffee is placed on the free list in the United States.
1832-33--United States patents are granted to Ammi Clark, Berlin,
Conn., on improved coffee and spice mills for household use.
1833--Amos Ransom, Hartford, Conn., is granted a United States
patent on a coffee roaster.
1833-34--A complete English coffee-roasting-and-grinding plant is
installed in New York by James Wild.
1834--John Chester Lyman is granted a patent in England on a coffee
huller employing circular wooden disks with wire teeth.
1835--Thomas Ditson, Boston, is granted a United States patent on a
coffee huller. Ten others follow.
1835--The first private coffee estates are started in Java and
Sumatra.
1836--The first French coffee-roaster patent is issued to François
Réné Lacoux, Paris, on a combination coffee roaster and grinder
made of porcelain.
1837--The first French coffee substitute is patented by François
Burlet, Lyons.
1839--James Vardy and Moritz Platow are granted an English patent
on a form of urn percolator employing the vacuum process of coffee
making, the upper vessel being made of glass.
1840--Central America begins shipping coffee to the United States.
1840[L]--Robert Napier, of the Clyde engineering firm of Robert
Napier & Sons, invents the Napierian vacuum coffee machine to make
coffee by distillation and filtration, but the idea is never
patented. (See 1870.)
1840--Abel Stillman, Poland, N.Y., is granted a United States
patent on a family coffee roaster having a mica window to enable
the operator to observe the coffee while roasting.
1840--The English begin to cultivate coffee in India.
1840--Wm. McKinnon & Co.. Aberdeen, Scotland, begin the manufacture
of plantation machinery. (Established 1798.)
1842--The first French patent on a glass coffee-making device is
granted to Mme. Vassieux of Lyons.
1843--Ed. Loysel de Santais, Paris, is granted a patent on an
improved coffee-making device, the principle of which is later
incorporated in a hydrostatic percolator making 2,000 cups an hour.
1846--James W. Carter, Boston, is granted a United States patent on
the Carter "pull-out" coffee roaster.
1847--J.R. Remington, Baltimore, is granted a United States patent
on a coffee roaster employing a wheel of buckets to move the green
coffee beans singly through a charcoal-heated trough in which they
are roasted while passing over the rotating wheel.
1847-48--William Dakin and Elizabeth Dakin are granted patents in
England for a roasting cylinder lined with gold, silver, platinum,
or alloy, and traversing carriage on a railway to move the roaster
in and out of the heating chamber.
1848--Thomas John Knowlys is granted a patent in England on a
perforated roasting cylinder coated with enamel.
1848--Luke Herbert is granted the first English patent on a
coffee-grinding machine.
1849--Apoleoni Preterre, Havre, is granted a patent in England on a
coffee roaster mounted on a weighing apparatus to indicate loss of
weight in roasting, and automatically to stop the roasting process.
1849--Thomas R. Wood of Cincinnati is granted a United States
patent on Wood's improved spherical coffee roaster for use on
kitchen stoves.
1850--John Gordon & Co. begin the manufacture of coffee-plantation
machinery in London.
1850[L]--The cultivation of coffee is introduced into Guatemala.
1850[L]--John Walker introduces his cylinder pulper for coffee
plantations.
1852--Edward Gee secures a patent in England for an improved
combination of apparatus for roasting coffee; having a perforated
cylinder fitted with inclined flanges for turning the beans while
roasting.
1852--Robert Bowman Tennent is granted a patent in England on a
two-cylinder machine for pulping coffee. Others follow.
1852--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Salvador from Cuba.
1852--Tavernier is granted a French patent on a coffee tablet.
1853--Lacassagne and Latchoud are granted a French patent on liquid
and solid extracts of coffee.
1855--C.W. Van Vliet, Fishkill Landing, N.Y., is granted a patent
on a household coffee mill employing upper breaking, and lower
grinding, cones. Assigned to Charles Parker, Meriden, Conn.
1856--Waite and Sener's Old Dominion pot is patented in the United
States.
1857--The Newell patents on coffee-cleaning machinery are issued in
America. Sixteen patents follow.
1857--George L. Squier, Buffalo, N.Y., begins the manufacture of
coffee-plantation machinery.
1859--John Gordon, London, is granted an English patent on a coffee
pulper.
1860[L]--Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java coffee, the pioneer
ground-coffee package, is put on the New York market by Lewis A.
Osborn.
1860--Marcus Mason, an American mechanical engineer in San José,
Costa Rica, invents the Mason pulper and cleaner.
1860--John Walker is granted a patent in England on a disk pulper
for pulping Arabian coffee.
1860--Alexius Van Gulpen begins the manufacture of a
green-coffee-grading machine at Emmerich, Germany.
1861--An import duty of four cents a pound on coffee is imposed by
the United States as a war-revenue measure.
1862--The import duty on coffee in the United States is increased
to five cents a pound.
1862--The first paper-bag factory in the United States, making bags
for loose coffee, begins operation in Brooklyn.
1862--E.J. Hyde, Philadelphia, is granted a United States patent
on a combined coffee roaster and stove, fitted with a crane on
which the roasting cylinder is revolved and swung out horizontally
from the stove.
1864--Jabez Burns, New York, is granted a United States patent on
the Burns coffee roaster, the first machine that did not have to be
moved away from the fire for discharging the roasted
coffee--marking a distinct advance in the manufacture of
coffee-roasting apparatus.
1864--James Henry Thompson. Hoboken, and John Lidgerwood,
Morristown, N.J., are granted an English patent on a coffee-hulling
machine.
1865--John Arbuckle introduces to the trade at Pittsburgh roasted
coffee in individual packages, the forerunner of the Ariosa
package.
1866--William Van Vleek Lidgerwood, American chargé d'affaires, Rio
de Janeiro, is granted an English patent on a
coffee-hulling-and-cleaning machine.
1867--Jabez Burns is granted United States patents on a coffee
cooler, a coffee mixer, and a grinding mill, or granulator.
1868--Thomas Page, New York, begins the manufacture of a pull-out
coffee roaster similar to the Carter machine.
1868--Alexius Van Gulpen, in partnership with J.H. Lensing and
Theodore von Gimborn, begins the manufacture of coffee-roasting
machines at Emmerich, Germany.
1868--E.B. Manning, Middletown, Conn., patents his tea-and-coffee
pot in the United States.
1868--John Arbuckle is granted a United States patent for a
roasted-coffee coating consisting of Irish moss, isinglass,
gelatin, sugar, and eggs.
1869--Élie Moneuse and L. Duparquet, New York, are granted three
United States patents on a coffee pot, or urn, formed of sheet
copper and lined with pure sheet block tin.
1869--B.G. Arnold, New York, engineers the first large green-coffee
speculation; his success as an operator winning for him the title
of King of the Coffee Trade.
1869--Henry E. Smyser, assignor to the Weikel & Smith Spice Co.,
Philadelphia, is granted his first United States patent on a spice
box used also for coffee.
1869--Licenses to sell coffee in London are abolished.
1869--The coffee-leaf disease is first noticed in Ceylon.
1870--John Gulick Baker, Philadelphia, one of the founders of the
Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania, is granted a patent
on a coffee grinder introduced to the trade by the Enterprise
Manufacturing Co. as its Champion No. 1 mill.
1870--Delephine, Sr., Marourme, is granted a French patent on a
tubular coffee roaster that turns over the flame.
1870--Alexius Van Gulpen, Emmerich, Germany, brings out a globular
coffee roaster having perforations and an exhauster.
1870--Thos. Smith & Son, Glasgow, Scotland, (Elkington & Co.,
successors), begin the manufacture of the Napierian vacuum
coffee-making machines for brewing coffee by distillation.
1870--First United States trade-mark for essence of coffee is
registered by Butler, Earhart & Co., Columbus, Ohio.
1870--The first coffee-valorization enterprise in Brazil results in
failure.
1871--J.W. Gillies, New York, is granted two patents in the United
States for roasting and treating coffee by subjecting it to an
intervening cooling operation.
1871--First United States trade-mark for coffee is issued to
Butler, Earhart & Co., Columbus, Ohio, for Buckeye, first used
1870.
1871--G.W. Hungerford is granted United States patents on
coffee-cleaning-and-polishing machines.
1871--The import duty on coffee in the United States is reduced to
three cents a pound.
1872--Jabez Burns, New York, is granted a United States patent on
an improved coffee-granulating mill. Another in 1874.
1872--J. Guardiola, Chocola, Guatemala, is granted his first United
States patents on a coffee pulper and a coffee drier.
1872--The import duty on coffee in the United States is repealed.
1872--Robert Hewitt, Jr., New York, publishes the first American
work on coffee, _Coffee: Its History, Cultivation, and Uses_.
1873--J.G. Baker, Philadelphia, assignor of the Enterprise
Manufacturing Co. of Pennsylvania, is granted a United States
patent on a grinding mill later known to the trade as Enterprise
Champion Globe No. 0.
1873--Marcus Mason begins the manufacture of coffee-plantation
machinery in the United States.
1873--Ariosa, first successful national brand of package coffee is
put on the United States market by John Arbuckle of Pittsburgh.
(Registered 1900.)
1873--H.C. Lockwood, Baltimore, is granted a United States patent
on a coffee package made of paper and lined with tin-foil, with
false bottom and top.
1873--The first international syndicate to control coffee is
organized in Frankfort, Germany, by the German Trading Company, and
operates successfully for eight years.
1873--The Jay Cooke stock-market panic causes the price of Rios in
the New York market to drop from twenty-four cents to fifteen cents
in one day.
1873--E. Dugdale, Griffin, Ga., is granted two United States
patents on coffee substitutes.
1873--The first "coffee palace," the Edinburgh Castle, designed to
replace public-houses for workingmen, is opened in London.
1874--John Arbuckle is granted a United States patent on a
coffee-cleaner-and-grader.
1875--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Guatemala.
1875-76-78--Turner Strowbridge, of New Brighton, Pa., is granted
three United States patents on a box coffee mill first made by
Logan & Strowbridge.
1876--John Manning brings out his valve-type percolator in the
United States.
1876-78--Henry B. Stevens, Buffalo, assignor to George L. Squier,
Buffalo, is granted important United States patents on
coffee-cleaning-and-grading machines.
1877--The first German patent on a commercial coffee roaster is
issued in Berlin to G. Tuberman's Son.
1877--A French patent is granted Marchand and Hignette, Paris, on a
sphere or ball coffee roaster.
1877--The first French patent on a gas coffee roaster is issued to
Roure of Marseilles.
1878--Coffee cultivation is introduced into British Central Africa.
1878--_The Spice Mill_, the first paper in America devoted to the
coffee and spice trades, is founded by Jabez Burns of New York.
1878--A United States patent is issued to Rudolphus L. Webb,
assignor to Landers, Frary & Clark of New Britain, Conn., on an
improved box coffee grinder for home use.
1878--Chase & Sanborn, the Boston coffee roasters, are the first to
pack and ship roasted coffee in sealed containers.
1878--John C. Dell, Philadelphia, is granted a United States patent
on a coffee mill for store use.
1879--H. Faulder, Stockport, Lancaster, Eng., is granted an English
patent on the first English gas coffee roaster, now made by the
Grocers Engineering & Whitmee, Ltd.
1879--A new gas coffee roaster is invented in England by Fleury &
Barker.
1879--C.F. Hargreaves, Rio de Janeiro, is granted an English patent
on machinery for hulling, polishing, and separating coffee.
1879--Charles Halstead, New York, is the first to bring out a metal
coffee pot with a china interior.
1879-80--Orson W. Stowe, of the Peck, Stowe & Wilcox Co.,
Southington, Conn., is granted United States patents on an improved
coffee and spice mill.
1880--Great failures in the American coffee trade as a result of
syndicate planting and buying of coffees in Brazil, Mexico, and
Central America.
1880--Coffee pots with tops, having muslin bottoms for clarifying
and straining, are first made by Duparquet, Huot & Moneuse Co. in
the United States.
1880--Peter Pearson, Manchester, Eng., is granted a patent in
England on a coffee roaster wherein gas is substituted for coke as
fuel.
1880--Henry E. Smyser, Philadelphia, is granted a United States
patent on a package-making-and-filling machine, forerunner of the
weighing-and-packing machine, the control of which by John Arbuckle
led to the coffee-sugar war with the Havemeyers.
1880--Fancy paper bags for coffee are first used in Germany.
1880-81--G.W. and G.S. Hungerford are granted United States patents
on machines for cleaning, scouring, and polishing coffee.
1880-81--The first big coffee-trade combination in North America,
known as the "trinity" (O.G. Kimball, B.G. Arnold and Bowie Dash,
all of New York), has a sensational collapse, its failure being the
result of syndicate planting and buying of coffees in Brazil,
Mexico, and Central America.
1881--Steele & Price, Chicago, are the first to introduce all-paper
cans (made of strawboard) for coffee.
1881--C.S. Phillips, Brooklyn, is granted three patents in the
United States for aging and maturing coffee.
1881--The Emmericher Machinenfabrik und Eisengiesserei at Emmerich,
Germany, begins the manufacture of a closed globular roaster with a
gas-heater attachment.
1881--Jabez Burns is granted a United States patent on an improved
construction of his roaster, comprising a turn-over front head,
serving for both feeding and discharging.
1881--The Morgan brothers, Edgar H. and Charles, begin the
manufacture of household coffee mills, subsequently acquired (1885)
by the Arcade Manufacturing Co., Freeport, Ill.
1881--Francis B. Thurber, New York, publishes the second important
American work on coffee, _Coffee from Plantation to Cup_.
1881--Harvey Ricker, Brooklyn, introduces to the trade a "minute"
coffee pot and urn, known as the Boss, name subsequently changed to
Minute, and later improved and patented (1901) as the Half Minute
coffee pot--a filtration device employing a cotton sack with a
thick bottom.
1881--New York Coffee Exchange is incorporated.
1882--Chris. Abele, New York, is granted a atent in the United
States on an improvement on a coffee roaster, similar to the
original Burns machine (on which the 1864 patent had expired) known
as the Knickerbocker.
1882--The Hungerfords, father and son, bring out a coffee roaster,
similar to the first Burns machine, in competition with Chris.
Abele.
1882--A German patent is granted to Emil Newstadt, Berlin, on one
of the earliest coffee-extract-making machines.
1882--The first French coffee exchange, or terminal market, is
opened at Havre.
1882--New York Coffee Exchange begins business.
1883--The Burns Improved Sample Coffee Roaster is patented in the
United States by Jabez Burns.
1884--The Star coffee pot, later known as the Marion Harland, is
introduced to the trade.
1884--The Chicago Liquid Sack Co. introduces the first combination
paper and tin-end can for coffee in the United States.
1885--F.A. Cauchois introduces into the United States market an
improved porcelain-lined coffee urn.
1885--Property of New York Coffee Exchange is transferred to the
Coffee Exchange, City of New York, incorporated by special charter.
1880--Walker, Sons & Co., Ltd., begin experiments in Ceylon with a
Liberian disk coffee pulper; fully perfected in 1898.
1886-88--The "great coffee boom" forces the price of Rio 7's from
seven and a half to twenty-two and a quarter cents, the subsequent
panic reducing the price to nine cents. Total sales on the New York
Coffee Exchange.
1887-88, amount to 47,868,750 bags; and prices advance 1,485
points during 1886-87.
1887--Beeston Tupholme, London, is granted a patent in England on a
direct-flame gas coffee roaster.
1887--Coffee cultivation is introduced into Tonkin, Indo-China.
1887--Coffee exchanges are opened in Amsterdam and Hamburg.
1888--Evaristo Conrado Engelberg, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil, is
granted a United States patent on a coffee-hulling machine
(invented in 1885); and the same year, the Engelberg Huller Co.,
Syracuse, N.Y., is organized for the purpose of manufacturing and
selling Engelberg machines.
1888--Karel F. Henneman, the Hague, Netherlands, is granted a
patent in Spain on a direct-flame gas coffee roaster.
1888--A French patent is granted to Postulart on a gas roaster.
1889--David Fraser, who came to the United States in 1886 from
Glasgow, Scotland, establishes the Hungerford Co., succeeding to
the business of the Hungerfords.
1889--The Arcade Manufacturing Co., Freeport, Ill., brings out the
first "pound" coffee mill.
1889--Karel F. Henneman, the Hague, Netherlands, is granted patents
in Belgium, France, and England, on his direct-flame gas coffee
roaster.
1889--C.A. Otto is granted a German patent on a spiral-coil gas
coffee machine to roast coffee in three and a half minutes.
1890--A. Mottant, Bar-le-Duc, France, begins the manufacture of
coffee-roasting machines.
1890[L]--Coffee exchanges are opened in Antwerp, London, and
Rotterdam.
1890--Sigmund Kraut begins the manufacture of fancy grease-proof
paper-lined coffee bags in Berlin.
1891--The New England Automatic Weighing Machine Co., Boston,
begins the manufacture of machines to weigh coffee into cartons and
other packages.
1891--R.F.E. O'Krassa; Antigua, Guatemala, is granted an important
English patent on a machine for pulping coffee.
1891--John List, Black Heath, Kent, Eng., is granted an English
patent on a steam coffee urn described as an improvement on the
Napierian system.
1892--T. von Gimborn, Emmerich, Germany, is granted an English
patent on a coffee roaster employing a naked gas flame in a rotary
cylinder.
1892--The Fried. Krupp A.G. Grusonwerk, Magdeburg-Buckau, Germany,
begins the manufacture of coffee-plantation machinery.
1893--Cirilo Mingo, New Orleans, is granted a United States patent
on a process for maturing, or aging, green coffee beans by
moistening the bags.
1893--The first direct-flame gas coffee roaster in America
(Tupholme's English machine) is installed by F.T. Holmes at the
plant of the Potter-Parlin Co., New York, which places similar
machines on daily rental basis throughout the United States,
limiting leases to one firm in a city, obtaining exclusive American
rights from the Waygood, Tupholme Co., now the Grocers Engineering
& Whitmee, Ltd., London.
1893--Karel F. Hennemann, the Hague, Netherlands, is granted a
United States patent on his direct-flame gas coffee roaster.
1894--The first automatic weighing machine to weigh goods in
cartons is installed in the plant of Chase & Sanborn, Boston.
1894--Joseph M. Walsh, Philadelphia, publishes his _Coffee; Its
History, Classification and Description_.
1895--Gerritt C. Otten and Karel F. Henneman, the Hague,
Netherlands, are granted a United States patent on a coffee
roaster.
1895--Adolph Kraut introduces German-made double (grease-proof
lined) paper bags for coffee in America.
1895--Marcus Mason, assignor to Marcus Mason & Co., New York, is
granted United States patents on machines for pulping and polishing
coffee.
1895--Thomas M. Royal, Philadelphia, is the first to manufacture in
the United States a fancy duplex-lined paper bag.
1895--Édelestan Jardin publishes in Paris a work on coffee,
entitled _Le Caféier et le Café_.
1895--The Electric Scale Co., Quincy, Mass., begins the manufacture
of pneumatic weighing machines; business continued by the Pneumatic
Scale Corp., Ltd., Norfolk Downs, Mass.
1896--Natural gas is first used in the United States as fuel for
roasting, being introduced under coal roasting cylinders in
Pennsylvania and Indiana by improvised gas-burners.
1896-1897--Beeston Tupholme is granted United States patents on his
direct-flame gas coffee roaster.
1897--Joseph Lambert of Vermont begins the manufacture and sale in
Battle Creek, Mich., of the Lambert self-contained coffee roaster
without the brick setting then required for coffee roasting
machines.
1897--A special gas burner (made the basis of application for
patent) is first attached to a regular Burns roaster.
1897--The Enterprise Manufacturing Co., Pennsylvania, is the first
regularly to employ electric motors for driving commercial coffee
mills by means of belt-and-pulley attachments.
1897--Carl H. Duehring, Hoboken, N.J., assignor to D.B. Fraser, New
York, is granted a United States patent on a coffee roaster.
1898--The Hobart Manufacturing Co., Troy, Ohio, puts on the market
one of the first coffee grinders connected with an electric motor
and driven by a belt-and-pulley attachment.
1898--Millard F. Hamsley, Brooklyn, is granted a United States
patent on an improved direct-flame gas coffee roaster.
1898--Edwin Norton of New York is granted a United States patent on
a vacuum process of canning foods, later applied to coffee. Others
follow.
1898--J.D. Olavarria, a distinguished Venezuelan, first advocates a
plan for restriction of coffee production, and for regulation of
coffee exports from countries suffering from overproduction.
1898--A bear campaign forces Rio 7's down to four and a half cents
on the New York Coffee Exchange.
1899--The bubonic-plague boom temporarily halts the downward trend
of coffee prices.
1899--The Canister Co., Phillipsburg, N.J., begins the manufacture
of square and oblong fiber-bodied tin-end cans for coffee.
1899--Soluble coffee is invented in Chicago by Dr. Sartori Kato, a
chemist of Tokio.
1899--David B. Fraser, New York, is granted two patents in the
United States, one for a coffee roaster and one for a coffee
cooler.
1899--Ellis M. Potter, New York, is granted a United States patent
on a direct-flame gas coffee roasting machine embodying certain
improvements on the Tupholme machine, whereby the gas flame is
spread over a large area, so avoiding scorching and securing a more
thorough and uniform roast.
1900--The Burns direct-flame gas coffee roaster with a patented
swing-gate head for feeding and discharging at the center, is first
introduced to the trade.
1900--First gear-driven electric coffee grinder is introduced into
the United States market by the Enterprise Manufacturing Co. of
Pennsylvania.
1900--The Burns swing-gate sample-coffee roasting outfit is
patented in the United States.
1900--Hills Bros., San Francisco, are the first to pack coffee in a
vacuum under the Norton patents.
1900--Charles Morgan, Freeport, Ill., is granted a United States
patent on a glass-jar coffee mill, with removable glass measuring
cup.
1900--R.F.E. O'Krassa, Antigua, Guatemala, is granted an English
and a United States patents on machines for shelling and drying
coffee.
1900--Chemically purified and neutralized rosin as a glaze
(_harz-glasur_) for roasted coffee, designed to keep it fresh and
palatable, is first discovered and applied in Germany.
1900--Charles Lewis is granted a United States patent on his Kin
Hee filter coffee pot.
1900-1901--A new era in coffee is inaugurated when Santos
permanently displaces Rio as the world's largest source of supply.
1901--Kato's soluble coffee is put on the United States market by
the Kato Coffee Company at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.
1901--American Can Co. begins the manufacture and sale of tin
coffee cans in the United States.
1901--Improved all-paper cans for coffee (made of strawboard or
chip-board, plain or manila-lined) are introduced into the United
States market by J.H. Kuechenmeister of St. Louis.
1901--The first issue of _The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_,
devoted to the interests of the tea and coffee trades, appears in
New York.
1901--Coffee cultivation is introduced into British East Africa
from Réunion Island.
1901--Robert Burns of New York is granted two United States patents
on a coffee roaster and cooler.
1901--Joseph Lambert of Marshall, Mich., introduces to the trade in
the United States a gas coffee roaster, one of the earliest
machines employing gas as fuel for indirect roasting.
1901--T.C. Morewood, Brentford, Middlesex, Eng., is granted an
English patent on a gas coffee roaster with a removable sampling
tube.
1901--F.T. Holmes joins the Huntley Manufacturing Co., Silver
Creek, N.Y., which then begins to build the Monitor coffee roaster
for the trade.
1901--Landers, Frary & Clark's Universal percolator is patented in
the United States.
1902--The Coles Manufacturing Co. (Braun Co., successors) and Henry
Troemner, Philadelphia, begin the manufacture and sale of
gear-driven electric coffee grinders.
1902--The Pan-American Congress, meeting in Mexico City, proposes
an international congress for the study of coffee, to meet in New
York, October, 1902.
1902--An international coffee congress is held in New York, October
1 to October 30.
1902--_Robusta_ coffee is introduced into Java from the Jardin
Botanique at Brussels.
1902--The first fancy duplex paper bag made by machinery from a
roll of paper is produced by the Union Bag & Paper Corp.
1902--The Jagenberg Machine Co. begins the introduction into the
United States of a line of German-made automatic
packaging-and-labeling machines for coffee.
1902--T.K. Baker, Minneapolis, is granted two United States patents
on a cloth-filter coffee maker.
1903--A United States patent on a coffee concentrate and process of
making the same (soluble coffee) is granted to Sartori Kato of
Chicago, assignor to the Kato Coffee Company of Chicago.
1903--F.A. Cauchois introduces Coffey's soluble coffee to the
United States coffee trade, the product being ground roasted coffee
mixed with sugar and reduced to a powder.
1903--Overproduction in Brazil causes Santos 4's to drop to 3.55
cents on the New York Exchange, the lowest price ever recorded for
coffee.
1903--John Arbuckle, New York, is granted a United States patent on
a coffee-roasting apparatus, employing a fan to force the "hot fire
gases" into the roasting cylinder.
1903--George C. Lester, New York, is granted a United States patent
on an electric coffee roaster.
1904--Dr. E. Denekamp is granted a United States patent on a rosin
glaze for roasted coffee, designed to preserve its flavor and
aroma.
1904--The so-called "cotton crowd," under the leadership of D.J.
Sully, forces green-coffee prices up to 11.85 cents, all records
for business on the New York Coffee Exchange being smashed by the
sale of over a million bags on February 5.
1904--Sigmund Sternau, J.P. Steppe, and L. Strassberger, assignors
to S. Sternau & Co., New York, are granted a United States patent
on a coffee percolator.
1904-05--Douglas Gordon, assignor to Marcus Mason & Co., New York,
is granted United States patents on a coffee pulper and a coffee
drier.
1905--The A.J. Deer Co., Buffalo (now at Hornell, N.Y.), begins
the sale of its Royal electric coffee mills direct to dealers, on
the instalment plan, revolutionizing the former practise of selling
coffee mills through the hardware jobbers.
1905--The Henneman direct-flame gas coffee roaster, a Dutch
machine, is introduced into the United States market by C.A. Cross,
Fitchburg, Mass.
1905--H.L. Johnston is granted a United States patent on a coffee
mill which he assigns to the Hobart Manufacturing Co., Troy, Ohio.
1905--Frederick A. Cauchois introduces his Private Estate coffee
maker, a filtration device employing Japanese filter paper.
1905--Finley Acker, Philadelphia, is granted a United States patent
on a coffee percolator, employing "porous or bibulous paper" as a
filtering medium and having side perforations.
1905--A coffee exchange is opened in Trieste, Austria-Hungary.
1905--The Kaffee-Handels Aktiengesellschaft, Bremen, is granted a
German patent on a process for freeing coffee from caffein.
1906--H.D. Kelly, Kansas City, Mo., is granted a United States
patent on the Kellum Thermo Automatic coffee urn, employing a
coffee extractor in which the ground coffee is continually agitated
before percolation by a vacuum process. Sixteen patents follow.
1906--G. Washington, an American chemist (born in Belgium of
English parents), living temporarily in Guatemala City, invents a
refined (soluble) coffee.
1906--Frank T. Holmes, Brooklyn (assignor to the Huntley
Manufacturing Co.), is granted a patent for an improvement on a
coffee-roasting machine.
1906--Captain Moegling's electric-fuel coffee roaster, invented in
1900, is given a practical demonstration in Germany.
1906--Ludwig Schmidt, assignor to the Essmueller Mill Furnishing
Co., St. Louis, is granted a United States patent on a coffee
roaster.
1906-07--Brazil produces a record-breaking crop of 20,190,000 bags,
and the State of São Paulo inaugurates a plan to valorize coffee.
1907--The Pure Food and Drugs Act comes into force in the United
States, making it obligatory to label all coffees correctly.
1907--Desiderio Pavoni, Milan, is granted a patent in Italy for an
improvement on the Bezzara system of preparing and serving coffee
as a rapid infusion of a single cup.
1907--P.E. Edtbauer (Mrs. E. Edtbauer), Chicago, is granted a
United States patent on a duplex automatic weighing machine, the
first simple, fast, accurate, and moderate-priced machine for
weighing coffee.
1908--Dr. John Friederick Meyer, Jr., Ludwig Roselius, and Karl
Heinrich Wimmer, are granted a United States patent on a process
for freeing coffee of caffein.
1908--Brazil begins a propaganda for coffee in England by
subsidizing an English company organized for that purpose.
1908--Porto Rico coffee planters present a memorial to the Congress
of the United States asking for a protective tariff of six cents a
pound on all foreign coffee.
1908--The revivification of the valorization coffee enterprise is
accomplished by a combination of bankers and the Brazil Government,
with a loan of $75,000,000 placed through Hermann Sielcken with
banking houses in England, Germany, France, Belgium, and the United
States.
1908--J.C. Prims, of Battle Creek. Mich., patents a
corrugated-cylinder improvement for a gas-and-coal coffee roaster
of small capacity (50 to 130 pounds) designed for retail stores.
1908--An improved type of Burns roaster, comprising an open
perforated cylinder with flexible back head and balanced front
bearing, is granted a patent in the United States.
1908--I.D. Richheimer, Chicago, introduces his Tricolator, an
improved device employing Japanese filter paper.
1908-11--R.F.E. O'Krassa, Antigua, Guatemala, is granted several
English patents on machines for hulling, washing, drying, and
separating coffee.
1909--The G. Washington refined (prepared) soluble coffee is put on
the United States market.
1909--The A.J. Deer Co. acquires the Prims coffee roaster and
re-introduces it to the trade as the Royal coffee roaster.
1909--The Burns tilting sample-coffee roaster is patented in the
United States for gas or electric heating units.
1909--Frederick A. Cauchois of New York is granted a United States
patent on a coffee urn fitted with a centrifugal pump for
repouring.
1909--C.F. Blanke, St. Louis, is granted two United States patents
on a china coffee pot with a dripper bag.
1910--The German caffein-free coffee is first introduced to the
trade of the United States by Merck & Co., New York, under the
brand name Dekafa, later changed to Dekofa.
1910--B. Belli publishes in Milan, Italy, a work on coffee entitled
_Il Caffè_.
1910--Frank Bartz, assignor to the A.J. Deer Co., Hornell, N.Y., is
granted two United States patents on flat and concave
coffee-grinding disks provided with concentric rows of inclined
teeth, used in electric coffee mills.
1911--All-fiber parchment-lined Damptite cans for coffee are
introduced by the American Can Company.
1911--The coffee roasters of the United States organize into a
national association.
1911--Robert H. Talbutt, Baltimore (assignor to J.E. Baines,
trustee, Washington) is granted a United States patent on an
electric coffee roaster.
1911--Edward Aborn, New York, introduces his Make-Right coffee
filter, and is granted a United States patent on it.
1912--Robert O'Krassa, Antigua, Guatemala, is granted four United
States patents on machines for washing, drying, separating,
hulling, and polishing coffee.
1912--The C.F. Blanke Tea & Coffee Co., St. Louis, brings out Magic
Cup, later known as Faust Soluble, coffee.
1912--The United States government brings suit to force the sale
of coffee stocks held in the United States under the valorization
agreement.
1912--John E. King, Detroit, is granted a United States patent on
an improved coffee percolator employing a filter-paper attachment.
1913--F.F. Wear, Los Angeles, Cal., perfects a coffee-making device
in which a metal perforated clamp is employed to apply a filter
paper to the under side of an English earthenware adaptation of the
French drip pot.
1913--F. Lehnhoff Wyld, Guatemala City, and E.T. Cabarrus organize
the "Société du Café Soluble Belna," Brussels, Belgium, to put on
the European market a refined soluble coffee under the brand name
Belna.
1913--Herbert L. Johnston, assignor to the Hobart Electric
Manufacturing Co., Troy, Ohio, is granted a United States patent on
a machine for refining coffee.
1914--The Association Nationale du Commerce des Cafés is
established at 5 Place Jules Ferry, Havre, to protect the interests
of the coffee trade of all France.
1914--The Kaffee Hag Corporation, capital $1,000,000, is organized
in New York to continue marketing in the United States the German
caffein-free coffee under its original German brand name.
1914--Robert Burns of New York, assignor to Jabez Burns & Sons, is
granted a United States patent on a coffee-granulating mill.
1914--The Phylax coffee maker, employing an improved French-drip
principle, is introduced to the trade by the Phylax Coffee Maker
Co., Detroit (succeeded in 1922 by the Phylax Company of
Pennsylvania).
1914--The first national coffee week is promoted in the United
States by the National Coffee Roasters Association.
1914-15--Herbert Galt, Chicago, is granted three United States
patents on the Galt coffee pot, all aluminum, having two parts, a
removable cylinder employing the French-drip principle, and the
containing pot.
1915--The Burns Jubilee (inner-heated) gas coffee roaster is
patented in the United States and put on the market.
1915--The National Coffee Roasters Association Home coffee mill,
employing a set screw operating on a cog-and-ratchet principle, is
introduced to the trade.
1915--The second national coffee week is held in the United States
under the auspices of the National Coffee Roasters Association.
1916--The Federal Tin Co. begins the manufacture of tin coffee
containers for use in connection with automatic packing machines.
1916--The National Paper Can Co., Milwaukee, introduces to the
United States trade a new hermetically sealed all-paper can for
coffee.
1916--A United States patent is granted to I.D. Richheimer,
Chicago, for an improvement on his Tricolator.
1916--The Coffee Trade Association, London, is formed to include
brokers, merchants, and wholesale dealers.
1916--The Coffee Exchange, City of New York, changes its name to
the New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange, admitting sugar trading.
1916--Saul Blickman, assignor to S. Blickman, New York, is granted
a United States patent on an apparatus for making and dispensing
coffee.
1916--Orville W. Chamberlain, New Orleans, is granted a United
States patent on an automatic drip coffee pot.
1916--Jules Le Page, Darlington, Ind., is granted two United States
patents on cutting-rolls to cut, and not to grind or crush, coffee,
later marketed by the B.F. Gump Co., Chicago, as the Ideal
steel-cut coffee mill.
1916-17--The first hermetically-sealed all-paper cans for coffee
are introduced to the United States trade, patented in 1919 by the
National Paper Can Co., Milwaukee.
1917--The Baker Importing Co., Minneapolis and New York, puts on
the United States market Barrington Hall soluble coffee.
1917--Richard A. Greene and William G. Burns, New York, assignors
to Jabez Burns & Sons, are granted patents in the United States on
the Burns flexible-arm cooler (for roasted batches), providing full
fan-suction connection to a cooler box at all points in its track
travel.
1918--John E. King, Detroit, Mich., is granted a United States
patent on an irregular-grind of coffee, consisting of coarsely
grinding ten percent of the product and finely grinding ninety
percent.
1918--The Charles G. Hires Co., Philadelphia, brings out Hires
soluble coffee.
1918--I.D. Richheimer, promoter of the original soluble coffee of
Kato, and the Kato patent, organizes the Soluble Coffee Company of
America to supply soluble coffee to the American army overseas;
after the armistice, licensing other merchants under the Kato
patents, or offering to process the merchants' own coffee for them,
if desired.
1918--The United States government places coffee importers,
brokers, jobbers, roasters, and wholesalers under a war-time
licensing system to control imports and prices.
1918-19--The United States government coffee control results in the
accumulation at Brazil ports of more than 9,000,000 bags; in spite
of which, Brazil speculators force Brazil grades up 75 to 100
percent., costing United States traders millions of dollars.
1919--The Kaffee Hag Corporation becomes Americanized by the sale
of 5,000 shares of its stock sold by the alien property custodian
and by the purchase of the remaining 5,000 shares by George Gund,
Cleveland, Ohio.
1919--William A. Hamor and Charles W. Trigg, Pittsburgh, Pa.,
assignors to John E. King, Detroit, Mich., are granted a United
States patent on a process for making a new soluble coffee. The
process consists in bringing the volatilized caffeol in contact
with a petrolatum absorbing medium, where it is held until needed
for combination with the evaporated coffee extract.
1919--Floyd W. Robison, Detroit, is granted a United States patent
on a process for aging green coffee by treating it with
micro-organisms to improve its flavor and to increase its
extractive value. The product is put on the market as Cultured
coffee.
1919--William Fullard, Philadelphia, is granted a United States
patent on a "heated fresh air system" for roasting coffee.
1919--A million-dollar propaganda for coffee is begun in the United
States by Brazil planters in co-operation with a joint coffee-trade
publicity committee.
1920--The third national coffee week is observed in the United
States, this time under the auspices of the Joint Coffee Trade
Publicity Committee.
1920--Edward Aborn, New York, is granted a United States patent on
a Tru-Bru coffee pot, a device embodying striking improvements on
the French filter principle.
1920--Alfredo M. Salazar, New York, is granted a United States
patent on a coffee urn in which the coffee is made at the time of
serving by using steam pressure to force the boiling water through
the ground coffee held in a cloth sack attached to the faucet.
1920--William H. Pisani, assignor to M.J. Brandenstein & Co., San
Francisco, is granted a United States patent on a vacuum process
for packing roasted coffee.
1921--The Comité Français du Café is founded in France to increase
the consumption of coffee.
1922--The São Paulo legislature at the solicitation of the
Sociedade Promotora da Defeza do Café passes a bill increasing the
export tax on coffee from Santos to 200 reis per bag to continue
the propaganda for coffee in the United States for three years.
[L] Approximate Date.
[M] Legendary.
[Illustration]
A COFFEE BIBLIOGRAPHY
_A list of references gathered from the principal general and
scientific libraries--Arranged in alphabetic order of topics_
TOPICS AND SUBDIVISIONS
ADULTERATION
BOARD OF HEALTH REGULATIONS
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
CHEMISTRY
ANALYSIS, GENERAL
CAFFEIN
CAFFEIN-FREE COFFEE
CAFFEOL
GREEN COFFEE
ROASTED COFFEE
CHICORY
CHICORY IN COFFEE
COFFEE HOUSES
CULTURE AND PREPARATION
GENERAL
REGIONAL
SOILS
DISEASES AND ENEMIES
GENERAL WORKS
LITERATURE, POETRY, ROMANCE
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
BREWING
GLAZING
MISCELLANEOUS
MODIFICATIONS
POLISHING AND COLORING
ROASTING AND GRINDING
MEDICINAL QUALITIES AND USES
ANTISEPTIC AND DISINFECTANT
GENERAL
PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
GENERAL USE AND MISUSE
OF CAFFEIN-FREE COFFEE
OF CHEWING COFFEE
OF DIFFERENT CONSTITUENTS
OF GREEN COFFEE
OF LEAVES OF COFFEE TREE
OF ROASTED COFFEE
OF SMOKING COFFEE
ON CHILDREN
ON DIFFERENT ORGANS AND SYSTEMS
SUBSTITUTES
GENERAL
MALT COFFEE
TAXATION, JURISPRUDENCE, ETC.
TRADE AND STATISTICS
EXCHANGE TABLES
GENERAL
REGIONAL
VALORIZATION
ADULTERATION
ADULTERATION of coffee. Report of the proceedings of a public
meeting held at the London Tavern, March 10, 1851. _London_, 1851.
DAFERT, FRANZ W. Las sustancias minerales del cafeto. _San José_,
1896. 33 pp. _Also_, Anales del Instituto médico nacional, 1897,
III: 25, 41, 62, 78.
GRAHAM, T. and others. Chemical report on the mode of detecting
vegetable substances mixed with coffee for purposes of
adulteration. _London_, 1852. 22 pp. (Board of Inland Revenue).
LES FRAUDES du café dévoilées per un amateur. _Paris._
SIMMONDS, P.L. Coffee as it is and as it ought to be. _London_,
1850.
_Periodicals_
BERTARELLI, E. Su una sofisticazione del caffè torrefatto mediante
aggiunta di acqua e borace. Giornale di Farmacia, 1900, 338-343.
_Also_, Rivista d'Igiene e Sanità pubblica, 1900, XI: 467-472.
CABALLERO, F.G. Inconvenientes del uso del café puro y del que se
toma con léche; sofisticacion de los componentes de esta bebida,
etc. Boletin de Medicina y Cirugia, 1851, 2 ser. I: 177-185.
CASAÑA, J. Acerca del producto llamado legumina y sofisticaciones
del café. Anales de la real Academia de Medicina, 1905, XXX:
359-364.
CHIAPPELLA, A.R. Il caffè macinato che si consuma in
Firenze--Alcune sofisticazioni non ancora descritte. Annali
d'Igiene sperimentale, 1904, n. s. XIV: 427-448.
---- Le sofisticazioni del caffè che si consuma in Firenze. Società
toscana d'Igiene, 1905, n. s. V: 110-116.
CHEVALLIER, J.B. Café indigène. Annales d'Hygiène, 1853, XLIX:
408-412.
COFFEE and its adulterations. Lancet, 1851, I: 21, 465; 1853, I:
390, 477; 1857, I: 195. _Also_, Pharmaceutical Journal, 10:
394-396.
COLLIN, E. Del caffè e sue falsificazioni. Giornale di Farmacia, di
Chimica e di Scienze affini, 1879, XXVIII: 529-535; 1880, XXIX:
20-22.
CORIEL, F. Analyse d'un café artificiel torréfié. Journal de
Pharmacie et de Chimie, 1897, 6. ser. VI: 106-108.
CRIBB, C.H. Note on (1) samples of coffee containing added starch;
(2) a sample of artificial coffee berries. Analyst, 1902, XXVII:
114-116.
CROMBIE, S. Examination of ground coffee as found in shops.
Physician and Surgeon, _Ann Arbor_, 1882, IV: 401.
DOOLITTLE, R.E. Coffee sophistications. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1912, XXIII: Supplement to no. 6, 62-65.
DRAPER, J.C. Coffee and its adulterations. New York Academy of
Medicine. Bulletin, 1869, III: 210-218.
DUBRISAY. Falsifications des cafés, procédés employés à cet effet;
moyens de reconnaître et de reprimer la fraude. Recueil des travaux
du Comité consultatif d'Hygiène publique de France, 1888, XVIII:
19-33.
DUCROS, H.A. De quelques falsifications du café Moka. Institute
égypt. Bulletin, 1901, 4. ser. pp. 293-306.
EDSON, C. Report on colored imitation Java coffee. Sanitary
Engineer, 1883-4, IX: 614.
ESTUDIO del cafeto. Anales del Instituto médico nacional, 1897,
III: 139-144.
FALSIFICATION du café. Annales d'Hygiène, 1864, 2. ser. XXII:
437-443.
FRICKE, E. Neuere Kaffeeverfälschung. Zeitschrift für
Medizinalbeamte, 1889, II: 178.
GIRARDIN, J. Rapports sur un café avarié par l'eau de mer et sur
poudre destinée à remplacer le café. Annales d'Hygiène, 1834, XI:
87-103.
GRIEBEL, C. and BERGMANN, E. Ueber eine neue Kaffeeverfälschung.
Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1911,
XXI: 481-484.
HARNACK, E. Ueber die besonderen Eigenarten des Kaffeegetränkes und
das Thurmsche Verfahren zur Kaffeereinigung und verbesserung.
Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift, 1911, LVIII: 1868-1872.
HARRIS, WILLIAM B. Green and roast coffees, the adulteration and
misbranding thereof. American Grocer, 1913, Nov. 19, pp. 19-20.
HESSE, P. Ueber eine Kaffeefarbe. Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der
Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1911 XXI: 220.
JAMMES, L. Le café torréfié, en grains, factice. Revue d'Hygiène,
1890, XII: 1044-1050.
MOCHA coffee. Scientific American, 1903, LXXXIX: 81.
MUNITA, V. Apuntes acerca de las adulteraciones del café y medios
para reconocerlas. La Gaceta de Sanidad militar, 1883, IX: 286,
394.
NOTTBOHM, F.E. and KOCH, E. Arsenhaltige Kaffeeglasierungsmittel.
Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1911,
XXI: 288-290.
OTTOLENGHI, D. Sopra una frequente sofistcazione del caffé in
polyere. Atti della reale Accademia dei Fisiocritici di Siena,
1903, 4. ser. XV: 381-389.
PARECER do commissão encarregada pela Sociedade pharmaceutica
lusitana de investigar se uma determinada èspecie de café é
prejudicial á saude 185. _Also_, Correio medica de Lisboa, 1874,
III: 136, 147.
RAUMER, E. VON. Beobachtungen über Kaffeeglasuren seit dem
Inkrafttreten der Kaffeesteuer. Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der
Nahrungs-und Genussmittel, 1911, XXI: 102-109.
REISS, F. Ueber eine mechanische Verfälschung der Kaffeesahne.
Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1906,
XI: 391-393.
SOCCIANTI, L. Caffè adulteraro con sostanze nocive. Rivista
d'Igiene e Sanità pubblica, 1895, VI: 497-499.
SORMANI. Di un nuova falsificazione del caffè. Giornale della reale
Società italiana d'Igiene, 1882, IV: 401.
SPENCER, G.L. and EWELL, E.E. Tea, coffee, and cocoa preparations.
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Division of Chemistry. Bulletin, XIII,
pt. 7.
VARIOUS "coffees." Lancet, 1915, II: 1006.
VOGEL VON FERHEIM, A. Zur Frage der Zulässigkeit der Verwendung der
sagenannten tauben oder Strohfeigen bei der Feigen
Kaffeefabrikation. Oesterreichische Sanitätswesen, 1903, XV:
101-102.
WIECHMANN, F. Coffee and its adulterations. School of Mines
Quarterly, 1897-8, I: 8-15.
BOARD OF HEALTH REGULATIONS
SCHNEIDER. Der Kaffee, als Gegenstand der medicinischen Polizei.
Zeitschrift für die Staatsarzneikunde, 1829, IV: 303-327.
SCHÜTZE. Kaffee, Thee und Chocolade, als Nahrungsmittel und in
sanitäts-polizeilicher Hinsicht. Viertel jahrsschrift für
gerichtliche Medizin und öffentliches Sanitätswesen, 1860, XVII:
168-228.
WEITENWEBER, W.R. Medicinisch-poliseiliche Bemerkungen über den
Caffee. Medicinische Jahrbücher des kaiserl. königl.
österreichischen Staates, 1848, LXVI: 42, 151.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
COFFEA _stenophylla_. Royal Botanic Gardens, _Kew_, Bull. of Misc.
Information, 1898:27.
COOK, ORATOR FULLER. Dimorphic branches in tropical crop plants:
cotton, coffee, cacao, the Central American rubber tree, and the
banana. _Washington_, 1911. 64 pp. (U.S. Plant Industry Bureau.
Bulletin, 198.)
DAFERT, FRANZ W. Mittheilung aus dem Landwirthschaftsinstitut des
Staates São Paulo, Brasilien. Der Nahrstoff des Kaffeebaumes.
Landw. Jahrb. 1894, XXIII:27-45.
DOUGLAS, JAMES. Lilium sarniense: or, a description of the
Guernsay-lilly. To which is added the botanical dissection of the
coffee berry. _London_, 1725. 59 pp.
LAROQUE, JEAN. Voyage de l'arabie heureuse, par l'Ocean Oriental, &
le détroit de la Mer Rouge. Fait par les François dans les années
1708, 1709 and 1710. Avec la relation d'un voyage fait du port de
Moka à la cour du roy d'Yemen dans la 2. Expedition des années
1711, 1712 and 1713. Un mémoire concernant l'arbre et le fruit du
café. _Paris_, 1716. 403 pp. Also in English, _London_, 1726.
LA ROQUE. Gruendliche und sichere Nachricht vom Cafee- und
Cafee-Baum. _Leipzig_, 1717.
LIBERIAN coffee. Royal Botanic Gardens, _Kew_, Bull. of Misc.
Information, 1895:296-299.
MCCLELLAND, T.B. The botany of coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1912, XXII:28-35.
MARIANA, J. Les caféiers; structure anatomique de la feuille.
_Paris_, 1908.
NATURAL caffein-free coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1912,
XXIII:230-233.
NATURAL history of coffee, thee, chocolate, tobacco with a tract of
elder and juniper berries. _London_, 1682.
A NEW hybrid Ceylon coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1916,
XXX; 232-233.
SLOANE, Sir HANS. On the Bird the Cuntur of Peru and on the Coffee
Shrub. _London_, 1694.
WILDEMAN, É. DE. Notes sur quelques espèces du genre Coffea L.
Cong, internat. d. botanique. Actes, 1900, I:221-238.
CHEMISTRY
ANALYSIS, GENERAL
ALLEN, A.H. Commercial organic analysis. _London_, 1892, (v. 3 pt.
2 contains a chapter on vegetable alkaloids, including coffee.)
ANDALORI, ANDRÉ. Il café descritto ed esaminato. _Messine_, 1702.
BOUSSINGAULT, J.B.J.D. Sur les matières sucrées contenues dans le
fruit du caféier. Ann. Inst. Nat. Agron., 1878-79, IV: 1-4.
CAFFÈ DI GIRASOLE: analisi chemiche, consigli agronomici, etc.
_Padova_, 1881.
COFFEE and chicory. Science readers and diagrams. Ser. 6, no. 3.
GALEANO, JOSEPH. Il caffè, con piu diligenza esaminato. _Palerme_,
1674.
GRIEBEL, C. Ueber den Kaffeegerbstoff. _München_, 1903.
KÖNIG, J. Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel. 4th
ed. _Berlin_, 1904. See v. 2, index for Kaffee, Koffeïn.
LOCKE, EDWIN A. Food values. _New York_, 1911. Coffee analysed p.
54.
LYTHGOE, HERMANN CHARLES. Report on tea and coffee. _Washington_,
1905.
MARCHAND, N.L. Recherches organographiques et organogéniques sur le
Coffea arabica L. _Paris_, 1864.
SESTINI, J. Il caffé; lettura fatta nell' institutio tecnico di
Fochi. _Firenze_, 1868.
STANDARDS of purity for food products. Tea, coffee and cocoa
products. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Office of the Secretary. Circ.
19, p. 16.
THORPE, EDWARD. Dictionary of applied chemistry. _London and New
York_, 1912. See pp. 97-103.
WANKLYN, JAMES ALFRED. Tea, coffee, and cocoa: a practical treatise
on the analysis of tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, maté (Paraguay
tea). _London_, 1874. 59 pp.
WARNIER, W.L.A. Bijerage tot de kennis der koffie, mededeeling uit
het laboratorium van het Kolonial museum te Haarlem. _Amsterdam_,
1899. 23 pp.
WEYRICH, R. Ein Beitrag zur Chemie des Thees und Kaffees. _Dorpat_,
1872.
WILEY, H.W. Coffee and tea. In his, 1001 Tests of food, beverages
and toilet accessories, pp. 10-18.
WINTON, ANDREW L. The microscopy of coffee. In his, Microscopy of
vegetable foods, _New York_, 1916. 2 ed. pp. 427-438. Reprinted,
Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, XXI: 22-28.
_Periodicals_
ALLEN, A.H. Note on the examination of coffee. Analyst, 1880, V:
1-4.
BAU, A. The determination of oxalic acid in tea, coffee, marmalade,
vegetables and bread. Z. Nahr. Genussm, 1920, 40: 50-66.
BERTRAND, GABRIEL. Sur la composition chimique du café de la Grande
Comore. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, 1901, CXXXII:
162-164.
BINZ, C. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Kaffeebestandtheile. Archiv für
experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologie, 1878, IX: 31-51.
BÖTSCH, K. Zur Kenntniss der Saligeninderivate. Monatshefte für
Chemie (Sitzungs berichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der
Wissenschaften) 1880, I: 621-623.
CANADA (DOMINION). INLAND REVENUE DEPARTMENT LABORATORY. Coffee:
results of analysis. _Ottawa_, 1888. Bulletin, 3. 8 pp.; 1891,
Bulletin, 29. 19 pp.; 1892, Bulletin 31. 13 pp.
---- Ground coffee: results of analysis. _Ottawa_, 1904, Bulletin,
100. 7 pp.; 1909, Bulletin, 172. 37 pp.; 1910, Bulletin, 216. 22
pp.
CAZENEUVE, P. and HADDON. Sur l'acide cafétannique. Comptes rendus
de l'Académie des Sciences, 1897, CXXIV: 1458-1460.
CHARAUX, CHARLES. Sur l'acide chlorogénique. Fréquence et recherché
de cet acide dans les végétaux. Extraction de l'acide caféique et
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Pharmacie et de Chemie, 1900, 7. ser, II: 292-298.
THE CHEMISTRY of a cup of coffee. Lancet, 1913, II, no. 2:
1563-1565. Reviewed in, Journal of Economics, 1914, VI: 466-467;
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DOOLITTLE, R.E. and WRIGHT, B.B. Some effects of storage on coffee.
American Journal of Pharmacy, 1915, LXXXVII: 524-526.
EHRLICH, J. Coffee in the laboratory. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1916, XXX: 569-570.
ERNI, H. The chemico-physiological relations of tea, coffee and
alcohol. Nashville Monthly Record of Medical and Physical Science,
1858-9, I: 641-656.
FRANKEL, E.M. Coffee by-products. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1917, XXXIII: 43-44.
---- Coffee identification. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1916,
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FRANKEL, F. HULTON. Calories in a cup of coffee. Tea and Coffee
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GEISER, M. Welche Bestandteile des Kaffees sind die Träger der
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GORTER, K. Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Kaffees. Annalen der Chemie,
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GRAF, L. Ueber Bestandtheile der Kaffeesauen. Zeitschrift für
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---- Ueber den Zusammenhang von Coffeïngehalt und Qualität bei
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GUIGUES, P. Note sur l'origine du café. Bulletin des Sciences
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HANAUSEK, T.F. Bemerkung zu dem Aufsatz von F. Netolitzky: Ueber
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Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1911, XXI: 295.
---- Die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Frucht und des Samens von
Coffea arabica L. Zietschrift für Nahrungsmittel Untersuchung und
Hygiene, 1890, IV: 237-257.
HARRIS, WILLIAM B. Scientific study of coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade
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HEHNER, O. An analysis of coffee leaves. Analyst, 1879, IV: 84.
HOWARD, C.D. Report on tea and coffee. U.S. Chemistry Bureau.
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HUSSON, C. Étude sur le café, le thé, et les chicorées. Annales de
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JAFFA, M.E. Report on tea and coffee, 1910, with list of
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LANCET special analytical sanitary commission on the composition
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LEPPER, H.A. Report on coffee. Journal of the Association of
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LOOMIS, H.M. Report on tea and coffee. Journal of the Association
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MAZZA, C. Sull' esame batteriologico della polvere che si trova
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PALADINO, PIETRO. Sopra un nuovo alcaloide contenuto nel caffè.
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PARET, S.A. Quelques résultats obtenus par l'emploi du valerianate
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PAYEN, ÉDOUARD. Mémoire sur le café. Comptes vendus de l'Académie
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PRATT, DAVID S. The microscopy of tea and coffee. Tea and Coffee
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PRESCOTT, A. Chemistry of tea and coffee. Popular Science Monthly,
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ROBIQUET, VON, and BOUTRON. Ueber den Kaffee. Annalen der Chemie,
1837, XXIII: 93-95.
ROBISON, FLOYD W. What do we know about coffee? Tea and Coffee
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SAYRE, L.E. A pharmacologist on coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade
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---- Coffee, its standardization and application to pharmacy.
Merck's Report, 1907, XVI: 61-63.
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STREET, JOHN PHILLIPS. About hygienic coffees. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1916, XXXI: 52-54.
---- Hygienic coffee analyses. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1917,
XXXIII: 42-43.
---- Recent coffee analyses. Modern Hospital, 1916: 330-332.
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TATLOCK, R.R. and THOMSON, R.T. The analysis and composition of
coffee, chicory, and coffee and chicory "essences." Journal of the
Society of Chemical Industries, 1910, XXIX: 138-140.
TRIGG, CHARLES W. Caffetannic acid a bugaboo. Tea and Coffee Trade
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TUSINI, F. Sul riconoscimento delle varie specie di grani di caffè,
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VAUTIER, E. The wastes of coffee. Mitt. Lebensm. Hyg., 1921, 12:
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VAN DER WOLK, P.C. New researches into some statistics of Coffea.
Zeitschrift für induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungslehre, 1914,
XI: 355-359.
VLAANDEREN, C.L. and MULDER, G.J. Säuren des Kaffee's.
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WARNIER, W.L.A. Contributions à la connaissance du café. Recueil de
Travaux chimiques du Pays-Bas de la Belgique, 1899, 2. ser. III:
351-357.
WILLCOX, O.W. Coffee aroma secret out. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1913, XXV: 343-344.
---- Tannin in coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1913, XXV:
485.
WILLCOX, O.W. and RENTSCHLER, M.J. Scientific analysis of coffee.
Tea and Coffee Trade Journal. 1910. XIX: 440-443; 1911, XX: 30-34,
109-111, 194-195, 355-356.
WOODMAN, A.G. Report on tea, coffee, and cocoa products, 1909. U.S.
Chemistry Bureau. Bulletin, 1910, CXXXII: 134-136.
CAFFEIN
CLAUTRIAU, G. Nature et significatíon des alcaloides végétaux.
_Paris_, 190?: 113.
DRAGENDORFF, GEORG. Caffein und Theobromin. In his, Die
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FENDLER, G. and STÜBER, W. Coffeïnbestimmungen im Kaffee.
Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1914,
XXVIII: 9-20.
FISCHER, EMIL. Ueber das Caffeïn. Berichte der deutschen chemischen
Gesellschaft, 1882, XV, no. 5: 29-87.
FRANKEL, E.M. Caffeine and theine. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1916, XXXI: 260.
FRENCH, J.M. Caffein, its sources and uses. Merck's Archives, 1907,
IX: 208.
JOBST, CARL. Thein identisch mit Caffein. Annalen der Chemie, 1838,
XXV: 63-66.
LANGLOIS, P. Kola et caféine. La Science Illustrée, July, 1890.
LENDRICH, K. and NOTTBOHM, E. Verfahren zur Bestimmung des Coffeïns
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PAUL, B.H. and COWNLEY, A.J. The amount of caffeine in various
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PFAFF, C.H. Ueber die Darstellung des Coffeïns, über dessen
charakteristische Eigenschaften und dessen Mischung, über zwei
Säuren im Kaffee, so wie über das sogenannte Kaffee-Grün. Neues
Jahrbüch der Chemie und Physik, 1831, I: 487-503; II: 31-45.
POLSTORFF, KARL. Ueber das Vorkommen von Betainen und von Cholin in
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Zentralblatt, 1909, 5 ser. XIII: 2014-2015.
STEHLE, R.L. Caffeine, the alkaloid. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1917, XXXII: 46-47.
SULLIVAN, A.L. Determination of caffein in coffee, a comparison of
the Hilger and Fricke method with a modification of the Gomberg
method. Science, 1909, XXX: 255.
WILLCOX, O.W. Coffee and caffein. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1913, XXIV: 460-461.
CAFFEIN-FREE COFFEE
RABENHORST, W. and VARGES, J. Koffeïnfreier Kaffee; enthalt der
kaffeinfreie Kaffee fremde chemische Bestandteile, insbesondere
Ammoniak, Benzol, Salzsäure, Schwefelsäure? Medizinische Klinik,
1908, IV: 1612.
SALANT, WILLIAM, and RIEGER, J.B. Elimination of caffein: an
experimental study of herbivora and carnivora. U.S. Dept. of
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TRIGG, CHARLES W. About caffein-free coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1918, XXXIV: 233.
WILLCOX, O.W. "Caffein-free" coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1911, XX: 116.
CAFFEOL
BERNHEIMER, OSCAR. Zur Kenntniss der Röstproducte des Caffees.
Monatshefte für Chemie (Sitzungs-berichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie
der Wissenschaften) 1880, I: 456-457.
BERTRAND, G. and WEISWEILLER, G. Sur la composition de l'essence de
café; présence de la pyridine. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des
Sciences, 1913, CLVII: 212-213. _Also_, Bulletin des Sciences
pharmacologiques, 1905, XII: 152.
ERDMANN, ERNST. Ueber das Kaffeöl und die Physiologische Wirkung
des darin enthaltenen Furfuralkohols. Archiv für experimentelle
Pathologie und Pharmakologie, 1902, XLVIII: 233-261. _Also_,
Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, 1902, XXXV: 1846.
---- Beitrag zur kenntniss der kaffeeöles und des darin enthaltenen
furfuralkohols. _Halle_, 1902: 46.
GRAFE, V. Untersuchung über die Herkunft des Kaffeöls. Anzeiger der
Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1912, XLIX: 267-268.
JAEKLE, H. Studien über die Produkte der Kaffeeröstung ein Beiträge
zur Kenntniss des sogenannte Kaffeearomas (Caffeol.) Zeitschrift
für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1898, 457-472.
ORLOWSKI, A. Kilka slor o kawie palonéj. (Extract of Coffee).
Gazeta Lekarska, _Warsaw_, 1870, IX: 385-387.
THE CAFFEOL in roasted coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1913,
XXIV: 241.
TRIGG, CHARLES W. The aroma of coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade
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GREEN COFFEE
BITTÓ, BELA VON. Ueber die chemische Zusammensetzung der inneren
Fruchtschale der Kaffeefrucht. Jour. Landw. III: 93-95.
HERFELDT, E. and STUTZER, A. Untersuchungen über den Gehalt der
Kaffeebohnen an Fett, Zucker und Kaffeegerbsäure. Zeitschrift für
angewandte Chemie, 1895, 469-471.
MEYER, H. and ECKERT, A. Ueber das fette Ol und das Wachs der
Kaffeebohnen. Summarized in, Anzeiger der Kaiserlichen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 1910, XLVII: 320.
ROCHLEDER, F. Notiz über die Kaffeebohnen. Annalen der Chemie,
1844, L: 244-284; 1846, LIX: 300-310; 1852, LXXXII: 194.
TRIGG, CHARLES W. Aging green coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1920, XXXIX: 440.
ZWENGER, C. and SIEBERT, S. Ueber das Vorkommen der Chinasäure in
den Kaffeebohnen. Annalen der Chemie, 1861, 1 sup. pp. 77-85.
ROASTED COFFEE
BURMANNN, J. Recherches chimiques et physiologiques sur les
principes nocifs du café torréfié. Bulletin général de
Thérapeutique, 1913, CLXVI: 379-400.
EHRLICH, J. In a cup of coffee. A consideration of the constituents
of the roasted bean and of the sugar, milk or cream that goes with
it. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1916, XXX: 547-549.
GOBLET, L. Analyses comparées d'un café torréfié par des procédés
différents. Association Belge des Chimistes. Bulletin, 1899, XIII:
172-173.
GOULD, R.A. The gases evolved from roasted coffee, their
composition and origin. Eighth International Congress of Applied
Chemistry. Report, 1912, XXVI: 389.
LENDRICH, K. and NOTTBOHM, E. Ueber den Coffeïngehalt des Kaffees
und den Coffeïnverlust beim Rösten des Kaffees. Zeitschrift für
Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1909, XVIII: 299-308.
LYTHGOE, H. Chemical analyses of a few varieties of roasted coffee.
Technology Quarterly, 1905, XVII: 236-239.
MONARI, A. and SCOCCIANTI, L. La pyridine dans les produits de la
torréfaction du café. Congrès international d'Hygiène et de
Démographie. Comptes rendus, 1894, VIII: pt. 4, 211. _Also_,
Archives italiennes de Biologie, 1895, XXIII: 68-70; Chemisches
Zentralblatt, 1895, I: 750.
TRIGG, CHARLES W. Coffee roasting. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1919, XXXVII: 170-172.
---- Gases from roasted coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1920,
XXXIX: 318.
CHICORY
BACKER, P. La culture du witloof. _Thielt_, 1912: 22.
---- De teelt van witloof. _Thielt_, 1911: 23.
BORUTTAU, H. Die physiologische Wirkung des Absudes der gebrannten
Zichorie. Medizinische Klinik, 1907, III: 644-647.
FRIES, M. Praktische Anleitung zum Kaffee Cichorienbau.
_Stuttgart_, 1886.
KAINS, M.G. Chicory growing. _Washington_, 1900: 12.
---- Chicory growing as an addition to the resources of the
American farmer. _Washington_, 1898: 52.
SCHMIEDEBERG, OSWALD. Historische und experimentelle Untersuchungen
über die Zichorie und den Zichorienkaffee in diätetischer und
gesundheitlicher Beziehung. Archiv für Hygiene, 1912, LXXVI:
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WEISMANN, R. Ueber den schädlichen Einfluss von Zichorienaufguss.
Aerztliche Rundschau, 1908, XVIII: 183.
ZELLNER, H. Zichorie. Centralblatt für allgemeine
Gesundheitspflege, 1908, XXVII: 32-39.
CHICORY IN COFFEE
CAUVET. Sur l'examen et l'analyse des échantillons de café-chicorée
et de café moulu saisis chez divers marchands de Constantine.
Annales d'Hygiène, 1873, XI: 302-317.
CHEVALLIER, A. Notice historique et chronologique sur les
substances qui ont été proposées comme succédanées du café et sur
le café-chicorée en particulier. Moniteur d'Hôpitaux, 1853, I:
1129, 1161, 1171, 1185, 1193, 1217.
CLOÜET, J. Du café-chicorée; empoisonnement de quatre personnes par
l'usage de cette denrée. Mouvement médicale, 1875, XIII: 505.
FORSEY, C.B. The new coffee and chicory regulations. Analyst, 1882,
VII: 159.
GUILLOT, CAMILLE. La chicorée et divers produits de substitution du
café. _Lons-le-Saunier_, 1911. 352 pp.
Lawall, C.H. and FORMAN L. The detection of chicory in decoctions
of chicory and coffee. Journal of the American Pharmaceutical
Association, 1914, 111: 1669.
LEEBODY, J.R. Estimation of chicory in coffee. Chemical News, 1874,
XXX: 243.
MORIN. Quelques réflexions sur un des moyens employés pour
déterminer la présence du café chicorée dans le café normal.
_Rouen_, 1863. 5 pp. (Extrait des Mémoires de l'Académie de Caen.)
ON the adulteration of chicory and coffee. Lancet, 1861, 11: 18.
COFFEE HOUSES
BREWSTER, H. POMEROY. The coffee houses and tea gardens of old
London. _Rochester_, 1888.
CAFÉS de Paris par un flaneur patenté. 1849.
COFFEE public house, The. How to establish and manage it. _London_,
1878. 34 pp.
COFFEE stalls and taverns: hints on coffee stall management.
_London_, 1886. 40 pp.
COLMAN, GEORGE, and THORNTON, B. Survey of the town.... Garraway's,
Batson's St. Paul's, and the Chapter coffee houses. In their, the
Connoisseur. _Oxford._ 1757, I:1-10.
DAFERT, F.W. Erfahrungen über rationellen Kaffeebau. _Berlin_,
1896. 36 pp. 2nd ed., 1899. 60 pp.
DELVAU. Histoire anecdotique des cafés et cabaréts de Paris. 1861.
HAWES, C.W. Handbook to coffee taverns. _Uxbridge_, 1888. 17 pp.
MACAULAY, T.B. (Coffee houses in the 17th and 18th centuries.) In
his, History of England. I: 334-336.
MICHEL, FRANCISQUE, et FOURNIER, ÉDOUARD. Histoire des hôtelleries,
cabaréts et cafés. 1854.
REID, THOMAS WILSON, ed. Traits and stories of Ye Olde Cheshire
Cheese. _London_, 1886. 133 pp.
ROBINSON, EDWARD FORBES. Early history of coffee houses in England.
_London_, 1893. 240 pp.
SHELLEY, CHARLES HENRY. Inns and taverns of old London. _Boston_,
1909. 366 pp.
---- Old Paris. _Boston_, 1912.
TIMBS, J. Clubs and club life in London, with anecdotes of its
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_Periodicals_
ANDREWS, A. Coffee houses and their clubs in the 18th century.
Colburn's New Monthly Magazine, CVI: 107.
BETHEL CHRISTIAN MISSION, Providence. Annual report ...
constitution, bylaws, etc.
BUSS, GEORGE. Kaffee und Kaffeehäuser. Westerman's Monatshefte,
Sept. 1908: 805-821.
COFFEE house movement. Chambers' Journal, LVI: 143.
COFFEE house news. London Magazine, XX: 563.
COFFEE houses of old London. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1918, XXXV: 116-125.
COFFEE Houses of old New York. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1920, XXXVIII: 160-174.
COFFEE Houses of old Philadelphia. The Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1920, XXXVIII: 308-312.
COFFEE houses of the Restoration. Tait, n. s. XXII: 104;
Ecclesiastical Magazine, XXIV: 500.
COFFEE palaces. All-the-Year, LII: 520.
EARLY Parisian coffee houses. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1918, XXXV: 526-534.
FOX, S. Coffee club movement in California. Arena, XXXII:519.
GRAHAM, R. Coffee houses as a counter action to the saloon.
Charities Review, I: 215.
HALL, E.H. Coffee taverns. Leisure Hour, XXVIII: 301.
HILL, E. Coffee and coffee houses. Gentleman's Magazine, n. s.
LXXI: 47.
HOLLAND and the café Krasnapolsky at Amsterdam. Idler, 1899, XVI:
31-39.
HOPE, LADY. Coffee rooms for the people. Good Words, XXI: 749, 844.
HOWERTH, I.W. Coffee house as a rival of the saloon. American
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HUMPHREYS, J. Coffee houses. St. James Magazine, XLIII: 598.
JARVIS, A.W. Old London coffee houses. English Illustrated
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PAGE, H.A. Coffee palaces. Good Words, XVIII: 678.
RODENBERG, J. Die kaffeehæuser und clubs von London. Unsere
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SCHMITT, E. Volkskuechen und speiseanstalten fuer arbeiter;
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SIKES, W. English coffee palaces. Lippincott's Magazine, XXIV: 728.
SOME old London coffee houses. Cornhill Magazine, LVI: 527.
STEVENS, J.A. Coffee houses of old New York. Harper's Magazine,
LXIV: 481.
SWEETSER, ARTHUR LAWRENCE. The coffee house plan. Gunton's
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THOMAS, C. EDGAR. Some London coffee houses. Home Counties
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WAGNER, H. Shankstætten und speisewirtschaften; Kaffeehæuser und
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CULTURE AND PREPARATION
GENERAL
AMERICAN COFFEE GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. Coffee growing by proxy. _New
York_, 1895. 30 pp.
ARNOLD, EDWIN LESTER LINDEN. Coffee: its cultivation and profit.
_London_, 1886. 270 pp.
BOËRY, PASCAL. Les plantes oléagineuses et leurs produits; cacao,
café.... _Paris_, 1888.
BOURGOIN D'ORLI, P.H.F. Guide pratique de la culture du caféier et
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BROUGIER, A. Der Kaffee, dessen Kultur und Handel. 1897.
BROWN, ALEXANDER. The coffee planter's manual, with which is added
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BROWNE, D.J. On the cultivation of coffee. _Washington_, 1859. 12
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BURLAMAQUI, FREDERICO LEOPOLDO CÉSAR. Monographia do caféeiro e do
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CAMOUILLY. La plantation du café, en Nouvelle Calédonia. _Paris_,
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CIVINNI, G.D. Delle storiæ naturae del caffè. _Firenze_, 1731.
COOK, ORATOR FULLER. Shade in coffee culture. _Washington_, 1901.
79 pp.
CUEVAS, HILARIO. Estudio práctico sobre el cultivo del café.
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CUNHO, AGOSTINO RODRIGUEZ. De l'art de la culture du café et de sa
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D'ORLI, P.H.F. BOURGOIN. Culture du café, etc. _Paris_, 1874.
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FERGUSON, JOHN. The coffee planter's manual for both the Arabian
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GARVENS, WILHELM. Kaffee: Kultur, Handel und Bereitung im
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GREAT BRITAIN. Parliament, House of Commons. First report from the
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HERRERA, RAFAEL. Estudio sobre la producción del café. _México_,
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HUNTINGTON, L.M. Origin of oily coffee beans. The Tea and Coffee
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INTERNATIONAL BUREAU OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS, _Washington, D.C._
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JACOTOT, A. La culture du café, son avenir dans les colonies
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JOTAPEN, JOSÉ. Cultivation and preparation of coffee for the
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JUMELLE, HENRI. Plantes à sucre, café, cacao, thé, maté. In his,
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KRAMERS, J.G. Verslag omtrent de proeftuinen en andere
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LAERNE, C.F. VAN DELDEN. Brazil and Java. Report on coffee culture
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LASCELLES, ARTHUR ROWLEY WILLIAM. A treatise on the nature and
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LE COMTE, C.E.A. Culture et production du café dans les colonies.
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LECOMTE, HENRI. Le café: culture, manipulation, production.
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CENTRAL AMERICA
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GUATEMALA
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HAWAII
GREAT BRITAIN. FOREIGN OFFICE. Report on coffee culture in the
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HAITI AND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
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HONDURAS, BRITISH
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INDIA
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JAVA (_see_ EAST INDIES)
KAFFA
BIEBER, FREDERICK J. Die Kaffee- und Baumwolle-Kultur in Kaffa.
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KONGO FREE STATE
MANUEL pratique de la culture du caféier et du cacaoyer au Congo
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LAGOS
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LIBERIA
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MADAGASCAR
BUIS, J. L'Hémileia et L'avenir du caféier à Madagascar, et à la
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MEXICO
COOK, J.D. American coffee culture in Mexico. World Today, 1907,
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GÓMEZ, GABRIEL. Cultivo y beneficio del café. _México_, 1894. 136
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LUDEWIG, H. JAUN. Veinte años trabajos de colonización y el cultivo
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ROMERO, MATÍAS. Cultivo del café en la costa meridional de Chiapas.
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TORRES, J.T. Ensayo experimental sobre el café _México_, 1876.
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NATAL
NATAL. Commission appointed to inquire into and report upon matters
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STAINBANK, H.E. Coffee in Natal; its culture and preparation.
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NICARAGUA
SHEDD, W.J. The story of Matagalpa coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade
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PARAGUAY
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PORTO RICO
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PORTUGUESE COLONIES
SOCIEDADE DE GEOORAPHIADE LISBOA. Exposição colonial de algodão,
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SIERRA LEONE
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SOUTH AMERICA
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TRINIDAD
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UGANDA
BROWN, E. and HUNTER, H.H. Planting in Uganda; coffee, Pará rubber,
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COFFEE and tea from Uganda. Imperial Institute. Bulletin. _London_,
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SMALL, W. Coffee cultivation in Uganda. Imperial Institute.
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UNITED STATES
JONES, A.C. Thea viridis, or Chinese tea plant, and the
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KAINS, M.G. Chicory growing as an addition to the resources of the
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VENEZUELA
ERNST, A. El café de Liberia én Vénézuela. _Caracas_, 1878.
HUNTINGTON, L.M. The story of Tachira coffee. Tea and Coffee Trade
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JUNTA de aclimatacion cuestionario sobre el cultivo del café.
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PELACIOS, G. DELGADO. Contribución al estudio del café en
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WEST INDIES
LOWNDES, JOHN. The coffee-planter; or, An essay on the cultivation
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SOILS
CLARKE, T. On the management of soils under coffee in Madras.
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HUGHES, J. Ceylon coffee soils and manures. _London_, 1879.
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DISEASES AND ENEMIES
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Plagas del cafeto en México, por O. Téllez. _México_, 1907. 30 pp.
(Mexico, 1867-republic. Comisión de Parasitologia Agricola.
Circular 70.)
NEITNER, J. The coffee tree and its enemies in Ceylon. _Colombo_,
1880. 32 pp.
PEELEN, H.J.E. Eenige opmerkingen omtrent de koffie bladziekte.
1888.
PRINS, H.J. De oeret-plaag in de koffietuinen op Java. 1884.
SADEBECK, R. Beobachtungen und Bemerkungen über die durch Hemileia
vastatrix verursachte Blattfleckenkrankheiten der Kaffeebäume.
_München_, 1895. 9 pp.
SMITH, JARED G. Two plant diseases in Hawaii. _Honolulu_, 1904. 6
pp.
THIERRY, A.J. Notes sur le greffage du caféier, du cacaoyer et du
muscadier et la maladie vermiculaire du caféier. 1899. 77 pp.
Reprinted from Bulletin agricole de la Martinique.
TINS, H.J. De veret-plaag in de koffietuinen op Java. _Enschede_,
1885. 86 pp.
TONDUZ, ADOLFO. Informe sobre la enfermedad del cafeto. _San José_
(Costa Rica), 1893. 28 pp.
VAN ROMUNDE, R. Koffiebladziekte en koffie kultuur. _'s
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ZACHER, FRIEDRICH. Die wichtigsten Krankheiten und Schädlinge der
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ZIMMERMANN, ALBRECHT. De nematoden der koffiewortels. _Batavia_,
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_Periodicals_
BOTANICAL MAGAZINE, _London_, 1787-1904. Coffee arabica, XXXII,
tab. 1303; CXXII, tab. 7475; coffee benghalensis, LXXXII, tab.
4917; coffee stenophylla, CXXII, tab. 7475; coffee travacarensis,
coffee trifiora, CX, tab. 6749.
COOK, MELVILLE THURSTON. The coffee leaf miner. U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture. Bureau of Entomology. Bulletin, 1905, n. s. LII:
97-99.
COOK, M.T. and HORNE, W.T. Coffee leaf miner and other coffee
pests. _Santiago_, 1905. 21 pp. (Cuba, 1902-republic. Estación
central agronómica. Boletin 3. English and Spanish ed.)
FABER, F.C. VON. Die Krankheiten und Schädlinge des Kaffees.
Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Abteilung 2. 1908, XXI: 97-117.
FAWCETT, GEORGE L. Fungus diseases of coffee in Porto Rico. Porto
Rico Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 17.
GIARD, A. Sur deux cochenilles nouvelles Ortheziola fodiens nov.
spec, et Rhizoecus Eloti nov. spec., parasites des racines du
caféier a la Guadeloupe. Comptes rendus de la Société de Biologie,
1897.
GÖLDI, E.A. Relatorio sobre a molestia do caféeiro na provincia do
Rio de Janeiro. Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, 1892,
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MANN, B.P. Coffee leaf miner. American Naturalist, VI: 332-596.
MARCHAL, PAUL. Sur un nouvel ennemi du caféier; le "Xyleborus
coffeæ." Journal d'Agriculture tropicale, 1909, IX:227-228.
MORRIS, D. Coffee-leaf disease of Ceylon. Nature, XX: 557.
MORSTATT, HERMANN ALBERT. Die Schädlinge und Krankheiten des
Kaffeebaumes in Ostafrika. Zeitschrift für Land- und
Forstwirtschaft in Deutsch-Ostafrika, 1912, VIII, Juli.
TEA and coffee diseases. Royal gardens, _Kew_, Bulletin, 1899,
CLI-CLII: 89-133.
TUCKER, ELBERT STEPHEN. Some miscellaneous results of the work of
the Bureau of Entomology--IX. New breeding records of the
coffee-bean weevil. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of
Entomology. Bulletin, 1909, LXIV: 61-64.
VAN DER WEELE, H.W. Ein neuer javanischer kaffeeschälding.
Xyleborus coffeivorus nov. spec. East Indies, Dutch. Department van
Landbouw. Bulletin, 1910, XXXV. Zoologie 5. pp. 1-6.
ZIMMERMANN, ALBRECHT. De kanker (Rostellaziekte) van Coffea
arabica. Buitenzorg, Java. Jardin botanique. Mededeelingen uit 's
Lands plantentuin, 1900, XXXVII: 24-62.
GENERAL WORKS
DESCRIPTIVE, HISTORICAL, ETC.
ABBAL, L. Étude sur le café. _Montpellier_, 1885.
ABENDROTH, G.F. De coffea. _Lipsiae_, 1825.
ALCOTT, WILLIAM ALEXANDER. Tea and coffee. _Boston_, 1839. 174 pp.
ALVES DE LIMA, J.C. Some revelations about the cultivation, the
commerce and the use of coffee. _Syracuse, N.Y._, 1901, 16 pp.
BLOUNT (BLUNT), SIR HENRY. An epistle in praise of tobacco and
coffee, prefixed to a little treatise entitled Organum Salutis.
_London_, 1657.
BONTEKOS, C. Tractaat van het excellente kruyd thee. I. Van de
coffi. _'s Gravenhage_, 1679.
BRILL, MARBUGER. Dissertation sur le café. 1862.
BUC'HOZ, P.J. Dissertation sur le café _Paris_, 1787.
CHEVALLIER, ALPHONSE. Du café, son historique, son usage, son
utilité, ses altérations, ses succédanés et ses falsifications,
etc. _Paris_, 1862. 68 pp.
CORNAILLAC, G. El café, la vainilla, el cacao y el té, cultivo,
preparación, exportación, clasificación comercial, gastos,
rendimiento. _Barcelona_, 1903. 480 pp.
COUBARD D'AULNAY, G.E. Monographie du café, ou manuel de l'amateur
du café, ouvrage contenant la description et la culture du caféier,
l'histoire du café, ses caractères commierciaux, sa préparation et
ses propriétés. _Paris_, 1832.
CRIPET, DR. Histoire et physiologie du café. _Paris_, 1846.
DELRUE-SCHREVENS, L. Le café: étude historique et commerciale.
_Tournai_, 1886. 90 pp.
DE VAUX, ANTOINE ALEXIS FRANÇOIS, CADET. Dissertation sur le café;
son historique, ses propriétés, et le procédé pour en obtenir la
boisson la plus agréable, etc. _Paris_, 1807. 119 pp.
DOUGLAS, JAMES. Arbor yemensis fructum cofè ferens: or, A
description and history of the coffee tree. _London_, 1727. 60 pp.
DUCHARTRE, P. Plantes alimentaires. De l'usage du café, du thé, et
du chocolat. _Paris_, 1865.
DUFOUR, PHILIPPE S. Traitez nouveaux et curieux du café, du thé, et
du chocolat. _Lyons_, 1671, 1684; _La Haye_, 1693.
DUMAS, LEON. Le pays du café. 1885.
EGGERTH, J. De coffea. _Budæ_, 1833.
ELLIS, JOHN. An historical account of coffee. _London_, 1774. 71
pp.
ÉTRENNES à tous les amateurs de café; contenant l'histoire, la
description, la culture, les propriétés de ce végétal. _Paris_,
1790. 2 pts. in 1 v.
FRANKLIN, ALFRED. La vie privée d'autrefois. _Paris_, 1893.
FAUCHON, L.J. Sur le café, _Paris_, 1815.
GALLAND, A. De l'origine et du progrez du café. Sur un manuscrit
arabe de la Bibliothéque du Roy. _Paris_, 1699.
GALLAND, ANTOINE. A treatise upon the origin of coffee. _London_,
1695.
GENTIL, M. Dissertation sur le caffé. 1787. 180 pp.
GEORGIUS, J.C.S. De coffee. _Tubingæ_, 1752.
GIRARD, A.L. Les sucres, le café, le thé, le chocolat. _Paris_,
1907. 96 pp.
GMELIN, JOHN GEORGE. Dissertation de coffee. _Tubingæ_, 1752.
GRAY, ARTHUR, comp. Over the black coffee. _New York_, 1902. 108
pp.
GUBIAN, J.M.A. Sur le café. _Paris_, 1814.
GUILLOT, A. Le café. _Toulon_, 1883.
HEWITT, ROBERT, JR. Coffee: its history, cultivation, and uses.
_New York_, 1872. 102 pp.
HOUGHTON, JOHN. Account of coffee. 1699.
HULL, E.C.P. Coffee, its physiology, history and cultivation.
_Madras_, 1865.
JAMES, ROBERT. Treatise on tobacco, tea, coffee and chocolate.
_London_, 1745.
JARDIN, EDÉLESTAN.[386] Le caféier et le café, monographie
historique, scientifique et commerciale de cette rubiacée. _Paris_,
1895. 413 pp.
JOMAND, J. Du café. _Paris_, 1860.
KEABLE, B.B. Coffee from grower to consumer. _London_, 1910. 120
pp.
KOEBEL, ROTHERY AND TWENEY, editors. Enciclopedia de la America del
Sur. Coffee in South America, v. II: 14. _London_ and _Buenos
Aires._, 1913.
KRAMERS, J.G. Waarnemingen en beschouwingen naar aanleiding van
eene reis in de koffie. _Batavia_, 1898. 101 pp.
KRUGER, JOHN G. Gedanken, vom Kaffee, Thee und Taback. 1743.
LABAT, LE P. Traité de la culture du café, dans un nouveau voyage
aux iles de l'Amérique. _Paris_, 1722.
LALOU. Du café: son origine, le temps de sa découverte et celui ou
l'on commence à en faire usage. _Rouen_, 1843.
LAW, W. The history of coffee, including a chapter on chicory.
_London_, 1850.
LE PLE, A. Le café: histoire, science, hygiène. _Rouen_, 1877. 38
pp.
LOCK, CHARLES GEORGE WARNFORD. Coffee: its culture and commerce in
all countries. _London_, 1888. 264 pp.
LODGE, J.L. Coffee. _Birmingham_, 1894. 14 pp.
MAATSCHAPPIJ tot nut van't algemeen. Bijdragen tot de kennis van de
voornaamste voortbrengselen van Nederlandsch Indië. _Amsterdam_,
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MACÉ, C. Du café. _Paris_, 1853.
MARCUS, C.J. De coffea. _Leipzig_, 1837.
MARTÍNEZ, EMILIANO. Memoria sobre el café; su cultivo, beneficio,
maquinas en uso, escojida, exijencias de los mercados, y otros
conocimientos utiles. 2 ed. _Nueva Orleans_, 1887. 61 pp.
MEYNER. Traité sur le café. 1624.
MIEDAN, C. Du café. _Paris_, 1862.
MOREIRA, N.J. Breve consideraçoes sobre historia e cultura do
caféeiro e consume de seus productes. _Rio de Janeiro_, 1873.
NAIRON, ANTOINE FAUSTUS. De saluberrima potione cahue, seu café
nuncupata discursus. _Romae_, 1671.
---- A discourse on coffee; its description and vertues. (Tr. from
Latin by C.B.) _London_, 1710.
NATUR gemæssige Beschreibung der Coffee, etc. _Hamburg_, 1684.
NIEBUHR, KARSTENS. Description de l'Arabie. _Amsterdam_, 1774.
---- Travels through Arabia performed. _London_, 1792.
NEUBERT, J. Der Kaffee. _Würzburg_, 1838.
NOVI tractatus de potu caphé; de chinensium thé; et de chocolata.
_Genevæ_, 1699.
OLDMIXON, JOHN. Het Britannische ryk in Amerika, zynde eene
beschryving van de ontdekking, bevolking, inwoonders, het klimaat,
den koophandel, en tegenwoordigen staat van alle de Britannische
coloniën, in dat gedeelte der wereldt. Uit het Engelsch, als mede
een omstandig Berecht aangaande de koffy en koffy-plantery uit het
Fransch vertaald. _Amsterdam_, 1721. 2v.
PAN AMERICAN UNION. Coffee. _Washington_, D. C. 1901.
PAULLI, S. A treatise on tobacco, tea, coffee and chocolate....
(tr. by Dr. James) _London_, 1746.
PENILLEAU, AUGUSTE. Étude sur le café, au point de vue historique,
physiologique, hygiénique et alimentaire. _Paris_, 1864. 90 pp.
PENNETIER, G. Le café. _Paris_, 1878.
PETERS, F. De potu caffi. _Giessæ Hassorum_, 1666.
PRINGLE, W. Science and coffee. _Madras_, 1897. 66 pp.
QUÉLUS, DE. Histoire naturelle du cacao, et du café, etc.
_Amsterdam_, 1720.
RAMSEY (RUMSEY), WALTER. Organum salutis; or experiments on the
virtue of coffee and tobacco. _London_, 1657.
RAOUL, ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS ARMAND. Culture du caféier, semis,
plantations, taille, cueillette, de pulpation, décorticage,
expédition, commerce, espèces et races. 2 ed. _Paris_, 1897. 251
pp.
REICHENBACH, ANTON BENEDICT. Der Kaffeebaum, seine Verbreitung,
Kulturgeschichte und natürliche Beschaffenheit, der Kaffeehandel
und die Consumtion des Kaffee's, seine medicinische Anwendung, die
Kaffeesurrogate und der Anbau der gangbarsten Sorten. _Berlin_,
1867. 92 pp.
RENDLE, A.B. and W.G. FREEMAN. Encyclopedia Britannica. 11th ed. v.
6: 646.
ROBIN, L. Mémoire sur le café, sur sa culture, son commerce, ses
propriétés physiologiques, thérapeutiques et alimentaires.
_Abbeville_, 1864.
ROQUES, JOSEPH. Traité historique de l'origine et de progres du
café, tant dans l'Europe, de son introduction en France et de
l'etablissement de son usage à Paris. _Paris_, 1715.
RUMFORD, Count (BENJAMIN THOMPSON). Of the excellent qualities of
coffee, and the art of making it in the highest perfection. Essay
XVIII. pp. 155-207.
SPLITZERBER. Drey Tractate von Café, Thé und Chocolate. _Budissin_,
1688.
SPON, J. De l'usage du caphé, du thé, et du chocolat. _Paris_,
1671.
TARR, A. De coffea. _Pestini_, 1836. Hungarian text.
THOMPSON, BENJAMIN. (See RUMFORD, Count.)
THOMPSON, WILLIAM GILMAN. Coffee. Composition; method of
preparation; physiological action; adulteration; substitutes. In
his, Practical dietetics, 1909. pp. 252-257.
THURBER, FRANCIS BEATTY. Coffee: from plantation to cup. _New
York_, 1881. 416 pp.
TOGNI, M. Raccolta delle singolari qualitá del caffè. _Venetia_,
1675.
VAN DEN BERG, NORBERT PIETER. Historical-statistical notes on the
production and consumption of coffee. _Batavia_, 1880. 92 pp.
VILARDEBO, J. El tabaco y el café. _Barcelona_, 1888. 142 pp.
WALSH, JOSEPH M. Coffee: its history, classification and
description. _Philadelphia_, 1894. 309 pp.
WELTER, H. Essai sur l'histoire du café. _Paris_, 1868.
_Periodicals_
AHLENIUS, KARL. Kaffe, te och rörsocker, deras ursprungliga hem och
viktigaste produktionsområden. Ymer, 1903, XXIII: 242-268.
BANNISTER, RICHARD. Sugar, coffee, tea and cocoa, their origin,
preparation, and uses. Journal of the Society of Arts, XXXVIII:
1000-1014.
BRANSON, W.P. Coffee. Journal of the Society of Arts, 1874, XXII:
456-461.
COFFEE. Leisure Hour, 1882, XXXI: 45-48.
COFFEE King. Chambers' Journal, LXXXII: 23.
COFFEE infusion. Medical Standard, 1913, XXXVI: 52-56.
DE JUSSIEU. Histoire du café. Histoire de l'Académie Royal des
Sciences, 1713; Mémoires, 1716: 291.
DEWEY, STODDARD. How coffee came to Paris. English Illustrated
Magazine, 1898, XX: 312-315.
FERRIS, W.M. Coffee. Nation, XXXIV: 192; Leisure Hour, XXXI: 45.
GUÉRIN, P. Le café. Revue Scientifique, 1908, ser. 5. X: 486-494.
HARRIS, WILLIAM B. Some coffees of today. Good Housekeeping, 1913,
LVII: 264-268.
HERAUD, AUG. FRED. Le café. Science et Nature, Feb. 28, 1885, p.
209.
HISTORY and cultivation of coffee. Godey's Lady's Book, LIV: 51.
HOFFMAN, PAUL. Aus dem ersten Jahrhundert des Kaffees. Zeitschrift
für Kulturgeschichte, 1901, VIII: 405-441, IX: 90-104.
JACKSON, J.R. Coffee. Nature, 11: 126; Blackwells' Magazine, LXXV:
86; Household Words, V: 562; Penny Magazine, 1: 49.
LESSON, RENÉ-PRIMEVÈRE. Précis historique, botanique, médical et
agronomique sur le café. Annual Mar. et Col., 1820: 842.
MARSHALL, W.B. Coffee, its history and commerce; an outline.
American Journal of Pharmacy, 1902, LXXIV: 361-374.
OM Kaffe, dess historica och användning. Helsovännen, 1887, II:
157-163.
PICTORIAL History of coffee. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1918, XXXIV: 26-28; 124-127; XXXV: 116-125; 526-534; 1919, XXXVI:
322-324; 515-516; XXXVII: 140-145.
TUCKERMANN, C.K. Coffee drinking in eastern Europe. North American
Review, 1889, CXLVIII: 643-645.
UKERS, WILLIAM H. Better teas and coffees. Good Housekeeping, 1911,
LIII: 495-498. Reprinted, Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1911, XXI:
274-276.
---- A talk on coffee. Good Housekeeping, 1908, XLVI: 532-536.
---- Tea and coffee economies. Joe Chapple's News Letter, 1913, I:
9. Reprinted, Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1913, XXV: 476-477.
WORLD'S drink. Review of Reviews, 1909, XXXIX: 109-110.
LITERATURE, POETRY, ROMANCE
ABD-AL-KÂDIR, ANSÂRI DJEZERI HANBALI. Des preuves les plus fortes
en faveur de la légitimité de l'usage du café, in chréstomathie
arabe, par Sylvestre de Sacy. _Paris_, 1806.
BAROTTI, L. Il caffé (poem). Esprit des Journaux, 1681, 110-120.
BLONDEAU. Étrennes littéraires aux grands hommes ou l'empire du
café, poême en 10 chants. _Paris_, date unknown.
---- L'empire du café et le rapport de son influence sur l'esprit
les moeurs et l'économie animale, poême en 4 chants. _Paris_, 1824.
BOUQUET blanc et le bouquet noir, Le, poisie en 4 chants. 60 pp.
BRADY. CYRUS TOWNSEND. A corner in coffee. _New York_, 1904.
CAFFEE die schonste Panacee, in einem Lobgedicht über die wunder
baie Heikraft des nectarischen Caffeetranks. 1775. 23 pp.
CHARACTER of a coffee house, with the symptoms of a town-wit.
_London_, 1673; in Harleian Miscellany, VI: 429.
CHARACTER of coffee and coffee houses. Hazlitt's Handbook to
Popular Literature, 1661.
COFFEE and crumpets; a poem. Frasers' Magazine, XV: 316.
COFFEE houses vindicated: in answer to the late published character
of a coffee house. _London_, 1675; also in Harleian Miscellany, VI:
433.
COFFEE scuffle; occasioned by a contest between a learned knight
and a pitifull pedagogue, with the character of a coffee house.
Printed and are to be sold at the Salmon coffee house, neer the
stocks market, (London), 1662. Verses by Woolnoth or Sir J. Langham
and Evans, a school-master.
DE GOURCUFF, O. Le café, épître attribué a Senecé. _Nantes_, 1888.
19 pp.
DE MERY, C. Le café, poême: accompagné de documents historiques sur
le café, sur son origine, sur son commerce et sur les peuples
d'Orient qui font specialement usage du café. _Rennes_, 1837. 204
pp.
D'ISRAELI, ISAAC. Curiosities of literature. _London_, 1824.
Contains article on, Introduction of tea, coffee and chocolate, in
which the following items are mentioned: (1) An Arabic and English
pamphlet on The nature of the drink, kouhi or coffee, pub. at
_Oxford_, 1569; (2) A cup of coffee, or coffee in its colours, a
satirical poem (quoted), 1663; (3) A broadside against coffee or
the marriage of the Turk (quoted), 1672; (4) The women's petition
against coffee, 1674.
DRUMONT, E. Les cafés et les restaurants d'autrefois. Magasin
Littéraire, X: 264.
EXCELLENT virtue of that sober drink coffee, The. Popular ballad of
the 17th century. Broadsheet.
GEYER, E.E. An potus café dicti vestigia in Hebræos sacræ scripturæ
codice reperiantur? Dissertation. _Wittebergiæ_, 1740.
GOLDONI, CARLO. La bottega di caffè. _Venice_, 1750.
LAGUERRE, J.N. Essai sur le café. _Paris_, 1818.
LE PAGE, AUG. Les cafés politiques et littéraires de Paris. 1874.
MASSIEU, G. Carmen caffaeum. _Paris_, 1740.
MELAYE, S. Éloge du café. (A song.) _Paris_, 1852. 4 pp.
MILLER, JAMES. The coffee-house. A dramatick piece. _London_, 1737.
38 pp.
POEM in Latin, A, on coffee; is found in the Abbé Olivier's,
Collection of modern Latin poets; and in, Étrennes à tous les
amateurs du café, _Paris_, 1790, in which a French translation is
printed facing the Latin text; _also_ Il caffè, in Poemetti
Italiana, vol. 3, 1797.
REBELLIOUS antidote: or a dialogue between coffee and tea: _verse_,
1685.
ROSSEAU, J.B. Le caffé, comédie. 1695. 56 pp.
SCHOTEL, G.D.J. Letterkundige bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van den
tabak, de koffij en de thee. _'s Gravenhage_, 1848. 215 pp.
ST. SERFE, THOMAS. Taruga's wiles, or the coffee house; a comedy.
_London_, 1668.
SMYTH, PHILIP. The coffee house; a characteristic poem. _London_,
1795.
STEELE, SIR RICHARD. On characters in coffee houses. Spectator, No.
49.
VOLTAIRE, F.M.A. DE. The coffee-house; or, Fair fugitive. A comedy.
_London_, 1760.
WARD, EDWARD. The humours of a coffee house. _London_, 1714.
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
BREWING
ABORN, EDWARD. Better coffee making. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1912, Supplement to No. 6, XXIII: 49-52; 1913, XXV: 568-574; 1919,
XXIX: 553-556.
---- Better coffee for the army. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1918, XXXV: 622-624.
---- On boiling coffee. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1919,
XXXVI: 48-49.
---- Coffee-making developments. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1914, XXVII: 550-556.
---- On coffee grinding and brewing. Yesterday, today and tomorrow
in better coffee making. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1916, XXXI:
570-576.
BACON, RAYMOND F. Efficiency of coffee-making devices. Tea and
Coffee Trade Journal, 1915, XXIX: 427-429.
BEST method of making coffee. Journal of Home Economics, 1914, VI:
480-481.
BONNETTE. Préparation du café en campagne, filtré "en rognon"
adapté à une marmite de campement. Revue d'Hygiène, 1911, XXXIII:
459-462. _Also_, in Spanish, Revista de Sanidad militar, 1911, ser.
3, I: 427-429.
BOYES, E. How to obtain an ideal cup of coffee; its cost and value.
_London_, 1898. 16 pp.
BROADBENT, HUMPHREY. The domestick coffee man, shewing the true way
of preparing and making chocolate, coffee and tea. _London_, 1722.
COFFEE making questionnaire. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1917, XXXII: 31-34.
DUFOUR, PHILIPPE SYLVESTRE. Translation by John Chamberlayne. The
manner of making coffee, tea, and chocolate. As it is used in most
parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and Spanish America. Newly done out
of French and Spanish. _London_, 1685. 116 pp.
ELLIS, H.D. Notes on the earliest form of coffee-pot. Preceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1899, ser. 2, XVII:
390-394.
FOREST, L. L'art de faire le café du cuit a l'ancienne. _Paris._
FRANKEL, E.M. Coffee making comparisons. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1917, XXXII: 336-337.
FRANKEL, F. HULTON. Value of coffee brews. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1917, XXXIII: 238.
GENTIL, A.A.P. Dissertation sur le café et sur les moyens propres à
prevenir les effets qui resultant de sa préparation, communément
vicieuse, et en rendre la boisson plus agréable et plus salubre.
_Paris_, 1797.
GIRAUD, A. Cafés de Paris, procédés uniques pour la préparation du
café, glorias, grogs a l'americaine. _Paris_, 1853. 75 pp.
HARRIS, WILLIAM B. Coffee making comparisons. Tea and Coffee Trade
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How to make a cup of coffee. Godey's Lady's Book, LXIII: 107.
_Also_, Sharpe's London Magazine, XLIV: 259.
MASSON, Abbé. Le café, ses propriétés, manière nouvelles de la
préparer. _Epernay_, 1885. 24 pp.
MASSON, P. Le parfait limonadier, ou la manière de préparer le thé,
lecaffé, le chocolat. _Paris_, 1705.
MEITZKY, J.H. De vario coffeæ potum parandi modo. _Wittebergiæ_,
1782.
T., C. DE. Café français: recette économique. _Paris_, 1824.
WILHELM, R.C. "Drip" method the best. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1916, XXXI: 338-339.
WILLCOX, O.W. About coffee-making methods. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1913, XXV: 618-620.
WOODRUFF, SYBIL. Standard strength in coffee brews. Tea and Coffee
Trade Journal, 1916, XXXI: 133-137.
WORLD'S largest coffee brewery. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
1919, XXXVI: 230-233.
GLAZING
DANNEMILLER, A.J. Coffee coating upheld. Tea and Coffee Trade
Journal, 1914, XXVII: 556-557.
HARRIS, WILLIAM B. Green and roast coffees, the adulteration and
misbranding thereof. American Grocer, Nov. 19, 1913: 19-20.
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MISCELLANEOUS
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MODIFICATIONS, CAFFEIN-FREE, ETC.
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POLISHING AND COLORING
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ROASTING AND GRINDING
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MEDICINAL QUALITIES AND USES
AS ANTISEPTIC AND DISINFECTANT
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OF CAFFEIN-FREE COFFEE
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OF CHEWING COFFEE
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OF DIFFERENT CONSTITUENTS
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OF GREEN COFFEE
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OF LEAVES OF COFFEE TREE
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OF ROASTED COFFEE
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OF SMOKING COFFEE
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ON CHILDREN
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ON DIFFERENT ORGANS AND SYSTEMS
BLADDER
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CIRCULATION, HEART, ETC.
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FRENKEL, SOPHIE. Klinische Untersuchungen über die Wirkung von
Coffeïn, Morphium, Atropin, Secale cormetum und Digitalis auf den
arteriellen Blutdruck. Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medizin,
1890, XLVI: 542-582.
FÜRST. Die Gefahren des Kaffees bei Herz- und Arterien-leiden.
Deutsche medicinische Presse, 1905, IX: 91.
HEDBOM, KARL. Ueber die Einwirkung verschiedener Stoffe auf das
isolirte Säugethierherz. Skandinavisches Archiv für Physiologie,
1899, IX: 1-72.
HUCHARD, HENRI. De la caféine dans les affections du coeur.
Bulletin général de Thérapeutique, 1882, CIII: 145-154.
LANDERGREN, E., and TIGERSTEDT, R. Studien über die Blutvertheilung
im Körper. Skandinavisches Archiv für Physiologie, 1892-3, IV:
241-280.
LOEB, OSWALD. Ueber die Beeinflüssung des Koronarkreislaufs durch
einige Gifte. Archiv für experimentelle Pathologie und
Pharmakologie, 1904, LI: 64-83.
MIRANO, G.C. L'azione della caffeina sulla pressione del pulso. La
Riforma medica, 1906, XXI: No. 38. Reviewed in, Biochemisches
Centralblatt, 1906-7, V: 205.
PACHON, V., and PERROT, E. Sur l'action cardiovasculaire du café
vert, comparée à celle des doses correspondantes de caféine.
Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, 1910, CL: 1703-1705.
PHILLIPS, C.D.F., and BRADFORD, J.R. On the action of certain drugs
on the circulation and secretion of the kidney. Journal of
Physiology, 1887, VIII: 117-132.
PILCHER, J.D. The action of caffeine on the mammalian heart.
Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 1912, III:
609-624.
RABE. The action of coronary vessels to drugs. Zeitschrift für
experimentelle Pathologie, 1912, XI: 175.
REICHERT, E.T. Action de la caféine sur la circulation. Bulletin
général de Thérapeutique, CXIX: 86. _Also_ in English, Therapeutic
Gazette, 1890, n.s. VI: 294.
SANTESSON, C.G. Einige Versuche über die Wirkung des Coffeïns auf
das Herz des Kaninchens. Skandinavisches Archiv für Physiologie,
1901-2, XII: 259-296.
SOLLMANN, T., and PILCHER, J.D. The actions of caffeine on the
mammalian circulation. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental
Therapeutics, 1911, III: 19-92.
TRZECIESKI, A. Ueber die Wirkung der Antipyretica auf das Herz. II.
Ueber die Wirkung des Kaffeïns und Theobromins auf das Herz.
Jahresbericht der Thierchemie, 1909, XXXIX: 1268.
VAN LEEUWEN, W.S. Quantitative pharmakologische Untersuchungen über
die Reflexfunktionen des Ruckenmarkes an Warmblütern. Archiv für
die gesammte physiologie, 1913, CLIV: 307-342.
VINCI, G. Azione della caffeina sulla pressione sanguigna. Archivo
di Farmacologia e Terapeutica, 1895, 8. Reviewed, Revue des
Sciences médicales, 1896, XLVII: 80.
DIGESTIVE ORGANS
BIKFALVI, KARL. Ueber die Einwirkung von Alcohol, Bier, Wein,
Wasser von Borssik, schwarzem Kaffee, Tabak, Kochsalz und Alaun auf
die Verdauung. Jahresbericht der Thierchemie, 1885, XV: 273.
BURIAN, RICHARD, and SCHUR, HEINRICH. Ueber die Stellung der
Purinkörper im menschlichen Stoffwechsel. Archiv für die gesammte
Physiologie, 1900, LXXX: 241-343.
CRÄMER. Ueber den Einfluss des Nikotins, des Kaffees und des Thees
auf die Verdauung. Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift, 1907, LIV,
pt. 1, 929-931, 988-991.
EDER, MAX. Studien über den Wert und die Wirkung des Kaffees auf
die Tätigkeit der Wiederkäuermägen. Inaugural Dissertation,
_Giessen_, 1912. 88 pp. Summarized, Zentralblatt für Biochemie und
Biophysik, 1912, XIII: 504.
FARR, C.B., and WELKER, W.H. The effect of caffeine on nitrogenous
excretion and partition. American Journal of the Medical Sciences,
1912, CXLIII: 411-415.
FILEHNE, WILHELM. Ueber einige Wirkungen des Xanthins, des Caffeïns
und mehrerer mit ihnen verwandter Körper. Archiv für Anatomie und
Physiologie, 1886, 72-91.
GOTTLIEB, R., and MAGNUS, R. Ueber die Besiehungen der
Nierencirculation zur Diurese. Archiv für experimentelle Pathologie
und Pharmakologie, 1901, XLV: 223-247.
GUIMARAES, E.A.R. De l'action du café sur la consommation
d'aliments azotés et hydrocarbonés. Comptes rendus de la Société de
Biologie, 1883, ser. 7, V: 590-592.
GUIMARAES, E.A.R., and NIOBEY. De l'action du café sur la nutrition
et sur la composition du sang. Comptes rendus de la Société de
Biologie, 1883, ser. 7, IV: 546-550. _Also_, Comptes rendus de
l'Académie de Sciences, 1884, XCIV: 85-87.
HALE, WORTH. Influence of certain drugs upon the toxicity of
acetanilide and antipyrine. Public Health and Marine-Hospital
Service of the U.S. Hygienic Laboratory. Bulletin, No. 53, p. 43,
Experiments with caffeine citrate.
HEERLEIN, W. Das Coffeïn und das Kaffeedestillat in ihrer Beziehung
zum Stoffwechsel. Archiv für die gesammte Physiologie, 1892, LII:
165-185.
KOTAKE, Y. Ueber den Abbau des Coffeïns durch den Auszug aus der
Rinderleber. Zeitschrift für physologische Chemie, 1908, LVII:
378-381.
LIWSCHITZ, O. Ueber den Einfluss des Kaffees auf den
Eiweis-stoffwechsel beim Menschen. _Basel_, 1914.
MARCHAND, EUGENE. Le café du lait est une soupe au cuir. Revue de
Thérapeutique médico-chirurgicale, 1873, 261.
NAGEL. Die Wirkung des Café's auf eingeklemmte Darmparthien.
Allgemelner Wiener medizinische Zeitung, 1872, XVII: 391.
NAGASAKI, S., and MATSWUOKA, Z. Ueber den Abbau des Kaffeïns und
Theobromins durch den Rinderpankreas und Stierhodenauszug. Kyoto
Igaku-zashi, 1912, IX; H. 3. Summarized, Zentralblatt für Biochemie
und Biochemie und Biophysik, 1912-13, XIV: 743.
OGÁTA, MASANORI. Ueber den Einfluss der Genussmittel und
Magenverdauung. Archiv für Hygiene, 1885, III: 204-214.
PAWLOWSKY, I. Ueber den Einfluss von Tee, Kaffee und einigen
alkoholischen Getränken auf die quantitative Pepsinwirkung.
Jahresbericht der Thierchemie, 1903, XXXIII: 543.
PINCUSSOHN, LUDWIG. Die Wirkung des Kaffees und des Kakaos auf die
Magansaftsekretion. Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift, 1906,
LIII, pt. I, 1248-1249.
---- Ueber das sekretionsfordernde Prinzip des Kaffees. Zeitschrift
für physikalische und diätetische Therapie, 1907, XI: 261-263.
RABUTEAU. Recherches sur l'action des caféiques sur la nutrition.
Gazette médicale de Paris, 1870, XXV: 593. _Also_, Comptes rendus
de la Société de Biologie, 1872, ser. 5, II: 77-81.
RIBAUT, H. Influence de la caféine sur l'excrétion azotée. Comptes
rendus de la Société de Biologie, 1901, LIII, (ser. 2, III):
393-395.
SASAKI, TAKAOKI. Experimentelle Untersuchungen über den Einfluss
des Tees auf die Magensaftsekretion. Berliner klinische
Wochenschrift, 1905, XLII: 1526-1528.
SCHMIEDEBERG, OSWALD. Vergleichende Untersuchungen über die
pharmakologischen Wirkungen einiger Purinderivate. Berichte der
deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, 1901, XXXIV, No. 395, 2550-2559.
SCHULTZ-SCHULTZENSTEIN, C. Versuche über den Einfluss van
Caffee- und Thee-Abkochungen auf künstliche Verdauung. Zeitschrift
für physiologische Chemie, 1893-4, XVIII: 131.
STORY, W. Coffee as an absorbent. Lancet, 1873, II: 617.
TOGAMI, K. Ueber den Einfluss einiger Genussmittel auf die
Wirksamkeit der Verdauungsenzyme. Biochemisches Zeitschrift, 1908,
IX: 458-462.
TYRODE, M.V. Caffeine on the gastro-intestinal tract. Boston
Medical and Surgical Journal, 1911, CLXIV: 686.
EYES AND EARS
BULSON, A.E. Coffee amblyopia. American Journal of Ophthalmology,
1905, XXII: 55-64.
CROTHERS, T.D. Effects of coffee upon the eyes and ears. In his,
Disease of inebriety from alcohol, opium and other narcotic drugs,
_New York_, 1893. p. 309.
FRENCH, H.C. Coffee drinking and blindness. North American Review,
1888, CXLVII: 584-585.
HOLADAY, J.M. Coffee-drinking and blindness. North American Review,
CXLVII: 302.
WING, P.B. Report of a case of toxic amblyopia from coffee. Annals
of Ophthalmology, 1903, XII: 232-234.
LACTATION
FRANKL, J. Ueber die Anwendung von Kaffee bei den Krankheiten der
Säuglinge. Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift, 1872, XXII: 384.
OBIDENNIKOFF, E. O vlijanii kofe na kolichestvo i kolichestven
sostave moloka. (Influence of coffee on lactation). _St.
Petersburg_, 1871.
MUSCULAR SYSTEM
BENEDICENTI, A. Ergographische Untersuchungen über Kaffee, Thee,
Maté, Guarana und Coca. Moleschott's Untersuchungen zur Naturlehre,
1899, XVI: 170-186.
BUCHHEIM and EISENMENGER. Ueber den Einfluss einiger Gifte auf die
Zuckungscurve des Froschmuskels. III. Caffeïn. Beiträge zur
Anatomie und Physiologie, 1870, V: 113-118.
DESTRÉE, E. Effets immédiats et tardifs de la caféine sur le
travail. Journal médical de Bruxelles, 1897, II: 231, 577.
DRESER, H. Ueber die Messung der durch pharmakologische Agentien
Bedingten Veränderungen der Arbeitsgrösse und der
Elasticitatszustände des Skeletsmuskels. Archiv für experimentelle
Pathologie und Physiologie, 1904, XVI: 139-221.
KOBERT, E.R. Ueber den Einfluss verschiedener pharmakologischer
Agentien auf die Muskelsubstanz. Archiv für experimentelle
Pathologie und Pharmakologie, 1882, XV: 22-79.
LUSINI, V. Biologische und toxische Wirkung der methylirten
Xanthine insbesondere ihr Einfluss auf die Muskelermüdung. L'Orosi,
XXI: 257-263.
MOSSO, UGOLINO. Action des principes actifs de la noix de kola sur
la contraction musculaire. Archives italiennes de Biologie, 1893,
XIX: 241-256.
OSERETZKOWSKY, A., and KRAEPELIN, E. Ueber die Beeinflüssung der
Muskelleistung durch verschiedene Arbeitsbedingungen. V. Der
Einfluss von Alkohol un Coffeïn. Psychologische Arbeiten, 1901,
III: 617-643.
PASCHKES, H., and PAL, J. Ueber die Muskelwirkung des Coffeïns,
Theobromins und Xanthins. Wiener medizinische Jahrbücher, 1886,
611-617.
RANSOM, F. The action of caffeine on muscle. Journal of Physiology,
1911, XLII: 144-155.
RIVERS, W.H.R., and WEBBER, H.N. The action of caffein on the
capacity for muscular work. Journal of Physiology, 1907-8, XXXVI:
33-47.
ROSSI, CESARE. Ricerche sperimentali sulla fatica dei muscoli
umani. Caffeina. Rivista sperimentale di Freniatria, 1894, XX:
458-462.
SACKUR. Ueber die todliche Nachwirkung der durch Kaffein erzengten
Muskelstarre. Virchow's Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und
Physiologie, 1895, CXLI: 479-484.
SCHUMBERG. Ueber die Bedeutung von Kola, Kaffee, Thee, Maté und
Alkohol für die Leistung der Muskeln. Archiv für Anatomie und
Physiologie, 1899, 289-313.
SOBIERANSKI, W. Ueber den Einfluss der pharmakologischen Mittel auf
die Muskelkraft der Menschen. Gazeta lekarska, 1896. Summarized,
Centralblatt für Physiologie, 1896, X: 126.
WOOD, H.C. The effects of caffeine on the circulatory and muscular
systems. Therapeutic Gazette, 1912, XXXVI, (ser. 3, XXVIII): 6-13.
NERVOUS SYSTEM, BRAIN, ETC.
ACH, NARZISS. Ueber die Beeinflüssung der Auffossungsfähigkeit.
Psychologische Arbeiten, 1901, III: 203-289.
DEHIO, HEINRICH. Untersuchungen über den Einfluss des Coffeïns und
Thees auf die Dauer einfacher psychischer Vorgänge. Inaugural
dissertation, _Dorpat_,1887. 55 pp.
DIETH, M.J., and VINTSCHGAU, M. VON. Das Verhakten der
physiologischen Reactionzeit unter dem Einfluss von Morphium,
Caffee und Wein. Archiv für gesammte Physiologie, 1878, XVI:
316-406.
DIXON, W.E. The paralysis of nerve cells and nerve endings with
special reference to the alkaloid apocodeine. Journal of
Physiology, 1904, XXX: 97-131.
HOCH, AUGUST, and KRAEPELIN, E. Ueber die Wirkung der
Theebestandtheile auf körperliche und geistige Arbeit.
Psychologische Arbeiten, 1896, I: 378-488.
HOLLINGWORTH, H.L. Influence of caffein on mental and motor
efficiency. Archives of Psychology, 1912, XXII: 166. _Also_,
Therapeutic Gazette, 1912, XXXVI: 1.
HOPPE, I. Des effets de la cofféine sur le système nerveux des
animaux. L'Écho médical, 1858, II: 449-460.
KIONKA, H. (Caffein and coffee as nerve poisons.) Grundriss der
Toxicologie, 1901: 331-336.
LE GRAND, DE SAULLE. De l'insalubrité de l'atmosphère des cafés et
de son influence sur le développement des maladies cérébrales.
Gazette des Hôpitaux, 1861; _also_ Academie des Sciences, 1861.
LESZYNSKY, W.M. Coffee as a beverage and its frequent deleterious
effects upon the nervous system; acute and chronic coffee
poisoning. Medical Record, 1901, LIX: 41-44.
MCMAKIN, A.L. Influence of coffee on brain workers. Good
Housekeeping, 1912, LIV: 381-382.
PALDANUS. Ein Paar Worte über Kaffee als Fiebermittel und
Medikament überhaupt. Neues Archiv für medizinische Erfahrung,
1809, XI: 318-322.
PETIT, H. De l'emploi préventif et curatif du café, notamment dans
les congestions cérébrales. Gazette des Hôpitaux, 1862, XXXV: 446.
DE SARLO, F., and BERNARDINI, C. Ricerche sulla circolazione
cérébrale. I. Ischemizzanti. Caffeici. Rivista sperimentale di
Freniatria, 1892, XVIII: 8-14.
SWIRSKI, G. Ueber dieBeeinflüssung des Vaguscentrums durch das
Coffeïn. Archiv für gesammte Physiologie, 1904, CIV: 260-292.
WILLIAMS, T.A. Coffee and the nervous system. Medical Summary,
1912.
RESPIRATION
ARCHANGELSKY, C.T. Die Wirkung des Destillats von Kaffee und von
Thee auf Athmung und Herz. Archives internationales de
Pharmacodynamie, 1900, VII: 405-424.
BINZ, C. Die Wirkung des Destillats von Kaffee und Thee auf Athmung
und Herz. Centralblatt für innere Medicin, 1900, XXI: 1169-1176.
CUSHNY, A.R. The action of drugs on the respiration. Proceedings of
the Royal Society of Medicine, 1912-3, VI, pt. 3: 130.
EDSALL, D.L., and MEANS, J.H. The effect of strychnine, caffeine,
atropin and camphor on the respiratory metabolism in normal human
subjects. Archives of Internal Medicine, 1914, XIV: 897-910.
LEHMANN, K.B., and ROHRER, G. Besitzen die flüchtigen Bestandteile
von Thee und Kaffee eine Wirkung auf die Respiration des Menschen?
Archiv für Hygiene, 1902, XLIV: 203.
SÉE, G., and LAPICQUE. Action de la caféine sur les fonctions
motrices et respiratoires, à l'état normal et à l'état d'inanition.
La Médicine moderne, 1890, I: 228-234.
SUBSTITUTES
GENERAL
BIBRA, BARON VON. Der kaffee und seine surrogate. _Munich_, 1858.
CHRIST, J.L. Der neueste und beste deutsche Stellvertretter des
indischen Caffè oder der Coffee von Erdmandeln; zu Ersparung vieler
Millionen Geldes für Deutschland und längeren Gesundheit Tausender
von Menschen. 2 ed. _Frankfurtam Mayn_, 1801.
FRANKE, ERWIN. Kaffee, Kaffeekonserven und Kaffeesurrogate. _Wien_,
1907. 221 pp.
FREEMAN, W.G. and CHANDLER, S.E. Coffee and coffee substitutes. In
their, the world's commercial products. _London_, 1907. pp.
174-198.
GERSTER, C. Kaffee und Kaffee-Surrogate. In ihrer, Bedeutung für
den praktischen Arzt. _Berlin_, 1894.
GUNDRIZER, R.F. O surrogatie kofe, prigotovly-ayemom iz
siemyan sinyavo lyupina (Lupinus angustifolius L.) (On a
substitute for coffee, from the seeds of....) _St. Petersburg_,
1892.
LEHMANN, K. Die Fabrikation des Surrogat kaffees und des
Tafelsenses. _Wien_, 1877. 128 pp.
LOCHNER, N.F. De novis et exoticis Thée et Café succeédanéis.
_Norimbergae_, 1717.
MENIER, E.J. Café: succédanés du café, cacao et chocolat, coca et
thé maté. _Paris_, 1867. 24 pp. (Jury report, Exposition
Universelle de 1867, à Paris.)
TRILLICH, HEINRICH. Die kaffee surrogate. _München_, 1889.
WEICHARDT, T.T. Succedaneorum coffeæ inveniendorum regulas
proponit. _Lipsiae_, 1774.
_Periodicals_
ACORN coffee. Pharmaceutical Journal, 1876, p. 772.
BASCH, ALBERT. Rapport sur le café de figue. Société de Géographie
d'Alger et de l'Afrique du Nord. Bulletin, 1901, VI: 604-607.
BOULLIER, G. De la préparation de la soupe destinée à remplacer le
café au réveil. Archives de médecine et de Pharmacie militaires,
1903, XLI: 465-473.
BRILL, HARVEY C. Ipel, a coffee substitute. The Tea and Coffee
Trade Journal, 1918, XXXV: 628-630.
DERIDDER, H. Sur un succédané du café. Archives médicales belges,
1896, 4 ser. VIII: 237-241.
DUCHACEK, F. Beiträge zur Kenntniss der chemischen Zusammensetzung
des Kaffees und der Kaffee-Ersatztoffe. Zeitschrift für
Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1904, VIII: 139-146.
FABER, E.E. Om kaffee, kaffesurrogater og koffeïnfri kaffe.
Ugeskrift for Laeger, 1909, LXXI: 841-847.
GRÄF, H. Ein neues Kaffee-Ersatzmittel. Deutsche medicinische
Presse, 1907, XI: 65-67.
GUILLOT, C. Étude comparative sommaire des principaux produits de
substitution du café. Gazette médicale de Paris, 1912, LXXXIII:
125.
HANAUSEK, T.F. Einige Bermerkungen zu den Kapiteln Kaffee und
Kaffee-Ersatzstoffe in den Vereinbarungen. Apotheker-Zeitung, 1902,
XVII: 657.
HANBURY, DANIEL. On the use of coffee leaves in Sumatra.
Pharmaceutical Journal, 1853, XIII: 207-209.
KORNAUTH, C. Beiträge zur chemischen und mikroskopischen
Untersuchung des Kaffee und der Kaffeesurrogate. Mittheilungen aus
dem pharmaceutischen Institute und Laboratorium für angewandte
Chemie der Universität Erlangen, 1890, III: 1-56.
KOTSIN, M.B. Kofe i yevo surrogatî (Coffee and its substitutes.)
Vestnik obshestvennoi higieny, sudebnoi i prakticheskoi meditsiny,
etc., 1894, XXIII: pt. 2. 36, 156, 226.
NICOLAI, H.F. Der Kaffee und seine Ersatzmittel. Deutsche
Vierteljahrsschrift für öffentliche Gesundheitspflege, 1901,
XXXIII: 294-346, 502-538.
NOTTBOHM, F.E. Verwendung von Steinnuss zur Herstellung von
Kaffeersatzmitteln. Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und
Genussmittel, 1913, XXV: pt. 3.
OELLER and GERLACH, VON. Ueber die Einwirkung von Gerstenkaffee und
Malzkaffee auf das Sehorgen. Therapeutische Monatshefte, 1912,
XXVI: 429-431.
RAMPOLD. Ueber Kaffeesurrogate. Journal der practischen Heilkunde,
1838, LXXXVII: pt. 4, 94-109.
RUEDY, J. Thee und Kaffee, deren Surrogate und Fälschungen. Blätter
für Gesundheitspflege, 1876, V: 183, 195, 203; 1877, VI: 19, 32,
42, 53.
SALE of dandelion coffee. Pharmaceutical Journal, 1860, II:
346-348, 357-358, 396.
STENHOUSE, J. On the dried coffee leaf of Sumatra, which is
employed in that and some of the adjacent islands as a substitute
for tea or for the coffee bean. Pharmaceutical Journal, 1854, XIII:
382-384.
TRILLICH, H. and GOCKEL, H. Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Kaffees und
der Kaffeesurrogate. Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und
Genussmittel, 1898, V: 101-106. _Also_, Forschungs-Berichte über
Lebensmittel, 1897, IV: 78; 1898, V: 101.
WEISSMAN. Ueber Kornkaffee. Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift,
1903, XXIX: 20.
WOODS, C.D. and MERRILL, L.H. Coffee substitutes. Maine
Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin, LXV: 101-116.
MALT COFFEE
DOEPMANN, F. Ueber Malzkaffee. Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der
Nahrungs- und Genussmittel, 1914, XXVII: 453-466.
JONGHAHN, A. Beiträge sur Chemie und Technologie des Malzkaffees.
Verhandlung der Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte,
1906, II, pt. 2, 382-386.
THELLICH, H. Welche Mindestforderungen sind an Malz für Malzkaffee
zu stellen? Zeitschrift für Untersuchung der Nahrungs- und
Genussmittel, 1905, X: 118-121.
TAXATION, JURISPRUDENCE, ETC.
BORDEAUX. CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE. Rapport fait à la Chambre par la
Commission spéciale chargée d'étudier la question de la réduction
des droits sur les sucres et les cafés. _Bordeaux_, 1858. 27 pp.
---- Second rapport fait à la Chambre par la Commission spéciale
chargée d'étudier la question de la réduction des droits sur les
sucres et les cafés. _Bordeaux_, 1859. 16 pp.
CORRIE, EDGAR. Letters on the subject of the duties on coffee.
_London_, 1808. 61 pp.
GREAT BRITAIN. STATUTES. Anno regni Georgii III. Regis Quadragesimo
nono. Cap. lxi. An act for making sugar and coffee of Martinique
and Mariegalante liable to duty on importation as sugar and coffee
not of the British plantations. _London_, 1809: pp. 437-438.
---- Anno regni Georgii II Regis vicesimo quinto. An act for
encouraging the growth of coffee in His Majesty's plantations in
America. _London_, 1752: pp. 723-734.
---- Anno regni Georgii II Regis quinto. An act for encouraging the
growth of coffee in His Majesty's plantations in America. _London_,
1732: pp. 411-415.
LARRINAGA, TULIO. Brief of Honorable Tulio Larrinaga, resident
commissioner from Porto Rico to the United States of America before
the Committee on ways and means. _Washington_, 1908. 9 pp.
MADRAS. STATUTES. The Madras coffee-stealing prevention act, 1878.
_Madras_, 1908. 9 pp.
NELSON, KNUTE. Export duty on coffee and tea. List of countries
levying an export duty on coffee and tea, with statistics from the
annual report on commerce and navigation for 1908. _Washington_,
1909. 6 pp. U.S. 61st Congress, 1st session. Senate Document, 120.
ORDONNANTIE, waar naar in de stad Utrecht en Amersfoort, en in de
vryheden van dien, by taxatie zal worden geheven de impost op de
koffy, cicers en thee. _Utrecht_, 1767. 6 pp.
PRODUCE CLEARING HOUSE. Regulations for coffee future delivery.
_London_, 1888. 12 pp.
VAN OOSTERWIJK BRUYN, PIETER ADOLF. Beschouwingen over eene
belasting op koffij. _Utrecht_, 1863. 78 pp.
TRADE AND STATISTICS
EXCHANGE TABLES
MÜLLER, VICTOR R. Comparative tables showing the parity of prices
of Havre good average and New York coffee exchange standard no. 7.
_New York_, 1887. 15 pp.
SELIGSBERG, LOUIS. Parity tables for quotations of coffee and sugar
on the various exchanges of Europe, converted into American
currency. _New York_, 1891. 23 pp.
ZOBEL, PAUL. Paritäts-Tabellen zum Kaffee-Termin-Markt nebst
Schnellrechunungs Tabellen, 1907. _Triest._
GENERAL
BELLI, B. Il caffè, il suo paese e la sua importanza. _Milano_,
1910. 395 pp.
BISIO, G. Il caffè. Le ioni date dal Prof. G. Bizio alla Reale
Scuola superiore di commercio, _Venezia_, 1870.
BROUGIER, A. Der Kaffee, dessen Kultur und Handel, 1897.
BURNS, JABEZ. The "Spice mill" companion: a collection of valuable
information, original and selected, suited to the requirements of
the present condition of the coffee and spice mill business. _New
York_, 1879. 102 pp.
DOWLER, J.S.O. & Co. Coffee calculator. _Saint Louis_, 1907. 31 pp.
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_Periodicals_
BACHE, L.S. How the exchange works. The Tea and Coffee Trade
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BRAND, CARL W. Co-operative competition. The Tea and Coffee Trade
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REGIONAL
BRAZIL
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BRAZIL and coffee; souvenir of the Louisiana purchase exposition.
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BRAZIL coffee in England. Bulletin of the Pan American Union, 1915,
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BRAZILIAN coffee propaganda, The. Commercial and Financial
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DA SILVA TELLES, A.E. O café e o estado de S. Paulo. _São Paulo_,
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EMPIRE of Brazil at the World's industrial and cotton centennial
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WARD, ROBERT DE C. A visit to the Brazilian coffee country.
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COLOMBIA
DICKSON, SPENCER S. Colombia. Report on the coffee trade of
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COSTA RICA
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EAST INDIES
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FINLAND
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FRANCE
ARREST DU CONSEIL D'ESTAT DU ROY, qui permet aux directeurs
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la vente du caffé. _Paris_, 1723. 4 pp.
---- Pour la prise de possession par la Compagnie des Indes du
privilege de la vente exclusive du caffé, sous le nom de Pierre le
Sueur. _Paris_, 1723. 7 pp.
---- Qui ordonne que les commis et employez de la Compagnie des
Indes pour l'exploitation des privileges du tabac et du café,
procederont aux visites et executions au sujet des toiles et
etoffes des Indes et du Levant. _Paris_, 1723. 7 pp.
---- Que declare commune en faveur des habitants de Cayenne et de
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---- Concernant les cafez provenant des plantations et culture, de
la Martinique et autres Isles Françoises de l'Amérique. Donnée a
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GERMANY
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GUIANA, DUTCH
ROEF-PRAATJE, tusschen verscheiden persoonen, over de
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HAWAII
HAWAII (Republic) LABOR COMMISSION. Report on the coffee industry.
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CLIFFORD, FREDERICK. Indian coffee: its present production and
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INDIA. COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT. Note on the production
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ELLIS, GEORGE W. Coffee industry in Liberia. U.S. Monthly Consular
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MEXICO
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NETHERLANDS
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JETS over de koffij-veilingen der Nederlandsche
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NETHERLANDS (KINGDOM) Laws, statutes, etc. Wij Willem, bij de
gratie Gods, konig der Nederlanden ... enz., enz., enz. Allen den
genen, die deze zullen zien ... salut! doen te weten: Alzoo wij,
tot stijving der inkomsten van den staat, noodzakelijk geoordeeld
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PORTO RICO
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ROTTACH, EDMOND. L'organisation économique de l'Indochine et le
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UNITED STATES
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CUNNINGHAM, E.S. Export of Mocha coffee to the United States. U.S.
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OUR fastest growing coffee port, including handling green coffee at
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RENAISSANCE of tea and coffee. The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal,
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VALORIZATION
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BRAZIL'S failure to control the price. American Geographic Society.
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CHANTLAND, WILLIAM T. Valorization of coffee. A detailed report of
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COFFEE combine at bay. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1912, XXII:
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COFFEE valorization and the Sherman law. Journal of Political
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DE CARVALHO, J.C. O café do Brazil, estudos a favor da propaganda
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---- O café, sua historia, des valorisação e propaganda pada o
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MACFARLANE, JOHN J. Coffee valorization analysed. Tea and Coffee
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MCKENNA, W.E. Cause of advance in price. Public, 1912, XV: 508.
OLAVARRIA, I.A. Liga de los paises cafeteros. _Caracas_, 1898. 20
pp.
PAYEN, ÉDOUARD. Au Brésil: la valorisation du café. Questions
diplomatique et coloniales, XXIV: 728-740.
RAISING prices by destruction. Nation, 1909. LXXXVIII: 520-521.
RAMOS, F. FERREIRA. La valorisation du café au Brésil. 1907.
RATZKA-ERNST, CLARA. Welthandelsartikel und ihre Preise. Eine
Studie zur Preisbewegung und Preisbildung. Der Zucker, der Kaffee
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---- A defense of valorization. Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, 1912,
XXIII, Supplement to no. 6: 17-21.
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XXIV: 194-205.
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1909, CLXXXI: 5-7.
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gedwongen koffie-cultuur op Java door een staatscultuur in vrijen
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[Illustration]
INDEX
NOTE. As this is a book about coffee, the entries in the Index
refer--unless otherwise specified--to that general subject, and more
particularly to _Coffea arabica_; other varieties are distinguished by
their scientific or trade names. Thus, "Adulteration" refers to the
adulteration of coffee; and "Adulterants," to the substances used for
that purpose.
_Abbreviations Used_
_bev._ signifies beverage
_biog._ " biography
C. or c. " coffee
_C._ " _Coffea_
_chk._ " coffee-house keeper
_d._ " died
_hyb._ " hybrid
_ill._ " illustration
_inv._ " invention
_newsp._ " newspaper
_pamph._ " pamphlet
_pat._ " patent, patentee
_per._ " periodical
_pseud._ " pseudonym
_q._ " quoted
_v._ " vessel, ship
Italicized words are either scientific terms or titles of publications.
Titles of books are followed by the name of the author, if known; other
publications are distinguished as broadsides, newspapers, pamphlets, or
periodicals.
Geographical names are distributed under various topics, such as
"Acreage," "Coffee houses," "Consumption," "Cultivation," "Exports,"
"Imports," "Production," and the like.
_A Mon Café_, Ducis, 548
Abbas, wife of, 21
Abbey, Charlotte, _q._, 177
Abbey, Roswell, _pat._, 245
Abbey, Freeman & Co., 482
Abd-al-Kâdir, 14, 431
Abd-al-Kâdir ms., 31, 431, 542, 543
Description, 541
Abele, Chris, _pat._, 630, 638, 644, 645;
_d._ (1910), 641
_Abeokutæ, C._, 142
Java, 216
_Abeokutæ_ × _liberica_, _hyb._, 146
Abigail, 13
Aborn, A.C., _q._,
Cost card for roasters, 392
Aborn, Edward, 439, 514, 651, 701, 713, 714, 716, _q._, 715
Aborn, W.H., 715
About, Edmund F.V., _q._, 685
Abraham, 18
Abyssinian c., 353, 376, 377
_Account of his Journeys, An_, Olearius, _q._, 22
Ach (chemist), 186
Ach, F.J., 488, 509, 511, 513, _q._, 408
Acidity, percentages in c., 719
Acid c.'s, 397
Acids, 159, 168
Acker, Finley, _pat._, 472, 645, 649, 701
Acker, Merrall & Condit Co., 478, 494, 498
Ackland, James, _chk._, 118
Acreage
Africa, British East, 230, 285
Argentina, 236
Australia, 238, 284
Brazil (sq. miles), 277
Ceylon, 236, 283
Ecuador, 236, 278
Federated Malay States, 238, 284
Guadeloupe, 233
Guatemala, 219
Guiana, British, 279
Haiti, 220, 281
Hawaii, 241
India, 226, 227, 282
Jamaica, 232, 281
Java, 215
Leeward Islands, 282
Mauritius, 285
Nyasaland, 230, 285
Philippines, 284
Porto Rico, 223
Salvador, 219, 280
Uganda, 230, 285
Venezuela, 212
Yemen, 230
Adams, _chk._, 559
Adams, Abigail, _q._, 467, 468
Adams, Isaac, _pat._, 245
Adams, John, 110, 113, 593
Adams, Pygan, 609
Adams & Son, 710
Addison, Joseph, 75, 80, 84, 557, 558, 560, 572, 575, 576, 577, 578, 593
_Addison, Life of_, Johnson, _q._, 561
Adjudication (N.Y. Exch.), 334
Adulterant Act, British, 404
Adulterants, 153, 169, 170, 404
Adulteration, 404
Italy, 686
Reasons for, 170
U.S. law affecting, 410
rulings against, 337
Advertisements
Arbuckle's (1861), 496
Boston (1748), 467
Cauchois's Private Estate, 498
Coffee-house
Boston, 112
New York (1781), 119, 120
Coffee mills (1665), 617
Divination by coffee grounds, 558
First (Abd-al-Kâdir's, 1587), 431
First American-newspaper, 468
First newspaper (1657), 56, 432
Of coffee only, _ill._, 434
First printed (1652), _q._, 54, 432, 459, 461
London coffee-house, _q._, 582
Newspaper and periodical, 432-434
Piazza coffee room, _q._, 581
Song by Zecchini, 549
Turks Head coffee house, 582
Advertising, 431-465
Booklets (J.C.T.P.C.), 455
Brands, 455, 462-465
Early history, 431-434
Evolution of, 434, 435
France, 680
Government propaganda, 444-459
Injudicious, 435, 537, 438, 461
Joint coffee trade, 439, 445-459, 514, 515
Lantern slides, 443
Motion pictures, 443, 445
Package-coffee, 440-443
Retail, 443, 444
Trade, 442
Trade journalists as experts, 431
United States, 434-465
Advertising charts, 440, 441
_Advice against the plague_, Harvey, 58
Advisory Board, C. (_see_ Gov't control)
_Affinis, C._, _hyb._, 146
Aga, Soliman, 33, 92
Aging
Artificial, 157, 158, 471, 474
Natural, 156, 157, 167, 342, 345, 353
Agriculture, U.S. Dept., 722
_Aigentliche Beschreibung der Raisis, etc._, Rauwolf, _q._, 12
Aiken, G., 612
Akers, Frederick, 498, 499
Alameda (brand), 441
Albanese, 185
Albertenghi, 558
Alcoholic beverages
Coffee replaces in Am. colonies, 696
Sold in London c. houses, 61, 78, 81
Alcholism, effect of c. on, 182
Aldhabani (_see_ Gemaleddin)
_Ale wives' complaint against c. houses_ (_pamph._), 72
Alexander, S.R., 485
Alexander & Baldwin, 488
Alhadrami, Muhammed, 16
_Al-Haiwi_ (_The Continent_), Rhazes, 11
Alison, Archibald, 102
Alkaloids in c., 159, 160, 161
All Souls' college, Oxford, 41
Allain, F.V., 487
Allanston, _q._, 179
Allen, _q._, 159
Allen, Ida C. Bailey, _q._, 723
Allen, James Lane, _q._, 564
Allom, Thomas, 663
Alpini (Alpinus), Prospero 43, 431, 541, 543;
_q._, 2, 12, 26, 41
_Alt und neu Wien_, Bermann, _q._, 51
Altenberg, Peter, _q._, 549
Altitudes
Best, 198, 200
Bolivia, 236
Brazil, 205
Colombia, 208
Costa Rica, 225
Guatemala, 219
Hawaii, 239
Honduras, 234
Indo-China, French, 237
Jamaica, 233
Java, 216
Mexico, 222
Nicaragua, 227
Peru, 236
Salvador, 217
Venezuela, 212, 263
Yemen, 231
_Alumini Etonenses_, Harwood, _q._, 581
_Amarella, C._, _hyb._, 140
Amber (essence of) in c., 695
Ambergris in c., 709
_Ambrosia Arabica, Caffè Discorso_, Rambaldi, 558, _q._, 696
American Can Co., 472, 473
_Am. Chem. Journal_, _q._, 165
American Coffee Co., 521
_American Grocer_, _per._, 526
_American Hist'l Register_, _q._, 126
_Am. Journ. Ophthalmology_, _q._, 182
American Legion, _v._, 316
American Mills, 502
American Sugar Refining Co., 689
Ames, Allan P., 448
Amman & Co., C., 477
Amsinck, Gustave, 479
Amsinck & Co., G., 479, 484, 485, 534
Amurath III, 20, 664
Amurath IV, 20, 38
_Analyst_, _per_, _q._, 165
_Anatomy of Melancholy, The_, Burton, _q._, 543, 38
Ancilloto, Marco, 27
_"----" and Other Poets_, Untermeyer, _q._, 553
Anderson, _pat._, 247
Anderson, Adam, _q._, 72, 73, 74
Anderson, E.D., 472
Anderson, Mrs. _chk._, 86
Andreas, A.T., _q._, 106
Andrews, William Ward, _pat._, 627, 700
Andrews & Co., C.E., 506
Andry, Doctor, 694
Anecdotes, 565-585
Addison, Joseph, 576
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 570
Bismarck, 565, 570
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 94, 593
Brillat-Savarin, 565
Champmeslé, 91
Cibber, Colley, 579
Compton, Bishop of London, 570
de Sévigné, Mme., 91, 565
Dryden, John, 574, 575
Fontenelle, 565
Foote, Samuel, 580, 581
Garrick, David 569, 579, 580
Goldsmith, Oliver, 573, 574
Grévy, Jules, 566
Hannes, Dr., 572
Hogarth, William, 580
Inchbald, Mrs., 576
Jeffreys, Judge, 570
Johnson, Samuel, 567, 568, 569
Kant, Immanuel, 562
Kemble, John, 581
London coffee-house, 567-585
Louis XIV and DuBarry, 566
Lowther, Sir James, 584
Macklin, Charles, 580, 581
Milton, John, 584
Napier, Robert, 700
Page, Judge, 570
Phipps, Sir William, 111
Pope, Alexander, 575, 576, 577, 578
Racine, 91
Radcliff, Dr., 572
Roach, Tiger, 579, 580
Roubiliac, 583
Saint-Foix, 566, 567
Savage, Richard, 570
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 581
Sloane, Sir Hans, 582
Steele, Sir Richard, 570
Swift, Jonathan, 570, 578, 579
Talleyrand, Prince, 565
Thurlow, Lord, 572
Voltaire, 178, 565
Ware (Brit. architect), 584
Anezi c., 351, 368
Angel & Co., A., 340
_Angustifolia, C._ _hyb._, 140
Ankola c., 355, 371
_Annales_, Liebig, _q._, 711
_Annales Politiques et Littéraires_, _per._, _q._, 175
_Annals_ (of Phila.), _q._, 120
_Annals on Applied Biology_, _q._, 155
Anne, Queen, 82
_Année Littéraire_, _q._, 6
Anstead, R.D., _q._, 155
Anthony, Frank M., 479
_Antiquarian Rambles in the Streets of London_, Smith, _q._, 569, 570
Antiseptic, C. as an, 180, 182
Apel, Paul E, 506
Apparatus (_see_ Machinery)
Appenzeller, John C., 503
Applegate, John, 492
Apples in c. (Russia), 686
Apreece, 581
Araba (driver), 658
_Arabia, Description of_, Niebuhr, _q._, 22
_Arabian Chrestomathy_, de Sacy _q._, 2
Arabian c. (_see_ Mocha)
_Arabian Nights, The_, 31
_Arabica, C._ (see note, p. 769)
Arbitration (N.Y. Exch.), 333
_Arbor yemensis fructum cofè ferens, etc., The_, Douglas, 42, 543
Arbuckle advertising, 462-465
Arbuckle, Charles, 521, 522
Arbuckle, Christina, 524
Arbuckle, John, 440, 469, 470, 496, 523, 524;
_biog._, 517, 521;
_d._, (1912) 524;
_pat._, 647
Arbuckle, John (Mrs.), 523
Arbuckle Brothers, 443, 470, 480, 482, 499, 502, 522, 523
Coating coffee, 396
Plant, 524-526
Business, 521-526
Arbuckle Farm, 524
Arbuckles, The, 519
Arbuckles & Co., 507, 522, 524, 635
Arbuthnot, Dr., 81, 84, 578, 579
Arcade Manufacturing Co., 645, 653
_Archives of Psychology_, _q._, 186
Arcularius, James L., 499
Arding, Dr. Charles, 118
Arduino, Pier Teresio, _pat._, 651
Arias, 220
Ariosa (brand), 440, 441, 469, 470, 524
Origin of name, 522
Ariza & Lombard, 488
Arkell, Bartlett, 538
Arkell, W.J., 538
Arlington, Earl of, 582
Arliss, George, 130;
_q._, 556
Armstrong, Dr., 578, 580 479, 491, 518, 527;
_biog._ 517
Arnold, Francis B., 477, 479, 491, 518
Arnold & Co., B.G., 479, 480 491, 528
Arnold, Dorr & Co., 479, 482, 518
Arnold, Hines & Co., 482
Arnold, Mackey & Co., 477, 479
Arnold, Sturgess & Co., 479
_Arnoldiana, C._, 142
Java, 216
Aroma
Advertising value, retail, 423
Best grinds to preserve, 719, 720
Cause of, 163, 165
Chaff rich in, 708
Cup-testing for, 356
Preservation of, 170, 712, 717
Aroma Coffee & Spice Co., 502
Aron & Co., J., 340
_Arroba_ (weight), 268
Art collections
Berlin museums, 46
Boston Mus. of Fine Arts, 612
Bostonian Society, 613
London
Beaufoy (Guildhall Mus.), 62, 582, 602
British Museum, 604
Guildhall Museum, 602, 603
Armstrong & Barnewall, 476
Arne, Dr., 579
Arnold, _q._, 136
Arnold, Benjamin Green, 469,
London
Victoria and Albert Museum, 601, 603
New York
Clearwater (Met. Mus.), 609
Halsey (Met. Mus.), 609
Metropolitan Museum
Pictures, 591
Service, artistic and historical, 599, 600, 607, 608, 612
Paris: Clunny Museum, 600
Portland: Maine Hist. Soc. 614
Potsdam museums, 46
Salem (Mass.): Essex Inst., 614
Sam Ireland's, 593
Vienna: Austrian Art Soc., 590
Washington
Peter (U.S. Nat'l Mus.), 599
Arthur, _chk._, 588
_Arthur's_, Lyons, _q._, 563
_Aruwimensis, C._, 144
Java, 216
Ashcroft, John, _pat._, 157
Trade mark, 470
Ashland, James, 477
Ashley, James, _chk._, 582
Astbury, 604, 612
Astor Library, 124
Atha, F.P., 509;
_q._, 422
_Athenae Oxiensis à Wood_, _q._, 41
Atlas Mills, 498
Attal (Arabian bale), 266
Atwood & Co., 509
Atwood & Holstad, 509
Aubrey, John, 557;
_q._, 40, 53, 56, 59, 60
Auctions
Amsterdam, 44
First (1711), 213
London, 327
Netherlands E. Indies, 312
Augagneuri, C., 147
Auger & Co., B.E., 487
Austin, Nichols & Co., 494, 499
Australian c., 355, 376
_Autobiography_, Haydon, _q._, 583
Autocrat (brand), 441
Automatic Weighing Machine Co., 470
Avicenna (Ibn Sina), 11, 17, 431;
_q._, 12
à Wood, Anthony, _q._, 41
Ayduis, 14
Ayer Bangies c., 355, 371
Ayer & Son, N.W., 448
Aymar & Co., 476
Babillard, _q._, 559
Bach, Johann Sebastian. 46;
_q._, 595-599
Bache, Theophylact, 475
Bacon, Francis, 543, 557;
_q._, 38
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 570
Bacon, Raymond F., _q._, 714
Bacon, Williamson, 480
Bacon & Co., Williamson, 480
Bacon, Stickney & Co., 508
Bacteria, Effect of c. on, 180, 181
"Bad" coffee, 22
Bagnell, 579
Bags, paper (_see_ Containers)
Bahias (c.), 341, 343, 367
Baillon, 558
Baiz, Jacob, 485
Baiz & Wakeman, 478
Baker (chemist), _q._, 165
Baker, John Gulick, _pat._, 469, 639
Baker, Roger, 117
Baker, T.K., _pat._, 647
Baker, William E., _pat._, 649
Baker & Co., 649
Baker & Sons, Joseph, 640
Baker & Young, 485
Baker Importing Co., 539
Baker _vs._ Duncombe (_pat._ suit), 649
Baldi, _q._, 184
Baldwin, Captain, 538
Baldy & Co., J.B., 506
Bales, Arabian, 266, 268
Balis (c.), 355, 374
Balliol college, Oxford, 40, 41
Ballot-box, origin of, 60
Ballou & Cosgrove, 488
Baltagi, 22
Balzac, Honoré de, 102, 556;
_q._, 557
_Balzac_, Lawton, _q._, 557
Ban, 26, 35
Bananas and c. (_bev._), 694
Banesius (_see_ Nairon)
Bangs, John Kendrick, _q._, 564
Bank of New York, 120
Bank of Pennsylvania, _ill._, 129
Banks, H.W., 479
Banks & Co., H.W., 478, 479, 485
Baptized by Clement VIII, 26
Barbados c., 351, 362
Barbaro, Angelo Maria, 28
Barbor, _inv._, 637
Barclay, Florence L., _q._, 563
Barclay & Hasson, 508
Barker, _pat._, 640
Barmaids, 75
Barnardini, _q._, 186
Barnes, Dr., _q._, 176
Barnes, Sir Edward, 237
Barnicle, Michael, 482
Baro, José, 651
Barotti, L., 548
Barquisimento, _v._, 349
Barr, Thomas T., 482
Barr & Co., T.M., 529
Barr & Co., T.T., 477, 482
Barr, Lally & Co., 482
Barrington Hall (brand), 441
Barrington Hall Soluble (brand), 539
Barrowby, Dr., _q._, 580
Barth, G.W., 639
Barthez, 566
Bartlett (artist), 668
Bartow, H., 497
Baruch & Co., 488
Batavia c., 355, 373
Baudelaire, 565
_Baukobensis, C._, 216
Bay, Gottfried, 644
Bayne, Daniel K., 478
Bayne, L.P., 478
Bayne, Jr., William, 448, 473, 478, 535
Bayne, Sr., William, 478
Bayne & Co., William, 485
Beach & Co., J.D., 508, 509
Beaham-Moffatt Mfg. Co., 508
Bean broth, Javanese, 11
Beans as friendly tokens, 655
Beard, Eli, 496
Beard, Samuel S., 496
Beard & Co., Samuel S., 482, 496
Beard & Cummings, 482, 494, 496, 507
Beard & Howell, 496
Beard, Sons & Co., S.M., 499
Beards & Cottrell, 482, 496
Beaufoy Catalogue, Burn, _q._, 583
Beaumarchais, 94
Beauvarlet, J., 587
Beccaria, Cesare, 30, 558
Becker, Joseph, 482
Beckley, S.W., 507
Beckmann, Alfred H., _q._, 418
Bedford, Duke of, 576, 593
Beecher, C. McCulloch, 491
Beede, N.B., 508
Beekmans, The, 475
Beer, _q._, 182
Beer, Coffee, 710, 711
Beeson, Emmet G., _q._, 679
Bégon, 6
Behrens & Co., A., 482
Belcher, Jonathan, _chk._, 112
Belgians, King of, 672
Bell & Co., J.H., 502
Bell, Conrad & Co., 485
Bell, Conrad & Webster, 502
Belli, 549, 557
Bello (Bellus), Onorio, 31
Belna (brand), 539
Bencini, Antoni, _pat._, 625
Benedicenti, _q._, 186
Benedict & Co., 485
Benedict & Gaffney, 494, 498, 499
Benedict & Thomas, 494, 501
_Bengalensis, C._, 146
Bengiazlah, 17;
_q._, 17
Bennet, Henry, 582
Bennett, J. Hughes, _q._, 181
Bennett, James, 482
Bennett, William, 482
Bennett & Becker, 482, 499
Bennett & Son, William Hosmer, 478, 482
Bennett, Schenck & Earle, 499
Bennett, Sloan & Co., 498, 499
Bentley, Benton & Co., 482
Berchoux, 548
Berg, Thomson & Davis, 502
Berhard, Charles, 505
Berkeley, Bishop, 550
Bermann, M., _q._, 51
Bernard, Claude M.V., _pat._, 629
Bernard (Dean of Derry), 573, 574
Bernhardt, Sarah, 565
Bernheimer, _q._, 163
Bernier, 31, 543, 594;
_q._, 616
Berry (_see_ Fruit)
Berry, Benjamin, 508
Berry & Sons, N., 501
Berthier, 102
Berytus (Beirut), Bishop of, _q._, 42
Besant, Sir Walter, _q._, 75, 78
Bethmont, 566
Betrand, _q._, 163
Better C.-making Com., 439
Recommendations, 713, 715
Better coffee-making publicity
Favored by N.C.R.A., 513
Beurre, Café avec, 683
Beverage
Buds as basis, 694
Chemical analysis, 714
Consumption in U.S., 689
Definition, U.S. Dep't of Agr., 722
Discovery (13th century), 655
Evolution of, 693
Fruit and bananas, 694
History, early, 11-23
Hull and pulp as basis, 15
Husks as basis, 26
Origin
First reliable date (1454), 16
Legendary, 11, 13, 16
_Beverages Past and Present_, Emerson, _q._, 566
Bey, Kair, 71
_Bible_, 12, 13
Bibliothéque Nationale, 16
Bichivili, _q._, 22
Bichivili manuscript, 542
Bickford, Clarence E., 487, 488
Bickford & Co., C.E., 488
Biddulph, William, _q._, 36, 543
Biggin, Coffee, 624
Origin of name, 699
(_See also_ Infusion devices)
Bill & Co., Alexander H., 501
Binz, _q._, 182, 183
_Biographic Universelle_, Michauds, _q._, 8
Bishop, J. Leander, _q._, 105, 115
Bishop, Nathaniel, _chk._, 109
Bisland & Brown, 497
Bismarck, Prince, 565, 566
Bitter (_see_ Flavors)
Bitter c.'s, 397
Bjorstjerne Bjornson, _v._, 316
Blackall, Alfred H., 501, 502
Blair, Henry, 496, 526
Blair, Henry B., 494
Blair, Sidney O., 502
Blake, Charles F., 482
Blake, Walter F., 535
Blake & Bullard, 482
Blakeman, C.R., 479
Blanc, Louis, 103
Blanchard & Bro., 501
Black bean, 329
Scale, 330
Black broth, Lacedemonian, 13, 36, 38, 40, 58
Blanco, Guzman, 529
Blaney, Henry R., _q._, 110
Blanke, C.F., _pat._, 651
Blanke Tea & Coffee Co., C.F., 502, 539
Blending, 396-400
Retail, 418-421
Blending machinery, 383, 385
Blends, 722, 723
French preferences, 680
Package coffees, 408
Restaurants, 399
Blickman, Saul, _pat._, 652
Bliss, Dallett & Co., 482
Blodgett, Albro, 507
Blodgett, Henry P., 507
Blodgett-Beckley Co., 507
Blohm & Co., 340
Blook & Varwig, 503
Bloom, Daniel, _chk._, 118
Bloom Bros., 488
Blossoms,
Bridal flowers in Antilles, 565
Chemistry of, 155
Blotting-paper filters, 708
Blount, Sir Henry, 40, 54, 543;
_q._, 13, 38, 56
Blue Mountain c., 350, 362
Blunt, Anne, _chk._, 56
Board of Experts favored, 513
Boardman, George, 508
Boardman, Howard F., 508
Boardman, Thomas J., 508
Boardman, William, 508
Boardman, William F.J., 508
Boardman & Sons, Wm., 508
Boardman & Sons Co., Wm., 508
Boaz, 13
Boconos c., 349, 350, 365
Bodanzky, Arthur, 597
Bodleian library, 53
Boekit Gompong c., 355, 372
Boengie c., 355, 374
Boerhaave, Prof., 543
Bogotas (c.), 348, 349, 363
Bohier & Weikel, 501
Boiling,
Discussed (Trigg), 720
N.C.R.A. recommendations, 721
Boindin, Abbie Alary, 554
Boinest, Walter B., 498
Bolivian c., 350, 367
Bon, 12, 26, 35, 41
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 94, 96, 100, 485;
_q._, 566
Bondzynski, 185
Bonifeur, Café (Guadeloupe), 257
Bonnard, 98
_Bonnieri, C._, 147
Caffein content, 161
Bontius, Jac., _q._, 2
Book, Nicholas, _inv._, 617
Booker, 69
Booklets, advertising, 455
Booms,
Ceylon (1845), 237
U.S. (1814), 468
Booms and Panics, 527-530
Booth, A.F., 508
Booth, Otis W., 480
Booth & Linsley, 477, 480
Boquette c., 348, 361
Borino & Bro., 486
Boscul (brand), 441
Bossi, Vernetti & Bartolini, 651
Boston coffee party, 467, 468
_Boston News Letter_, _newsp._, 433
Boston tea party, 106, 110, 689
Boswell, James, 81, 89;
_q._, 567, 568, 583
Botanical description, 12, 26, 41, 131-138, 248, 249
Classification, 132
Species, number of, 132
Microscopic, 149-152
Botanical gardens (_see_ Gardens)
Botanists disagree, 132
Botany of coffee, 131-148
_Bottega di caffé_ (comedy), Goldoni, 28
Bouche, Charles J., 505
Boucher, François, 588
Boulton & Co., H.L., 340
Boulton, Bliss & Dallett, 482
Bounties,
Guadeloupe, 234
Australia (proposed), 239
Bour, J.M., 507
Bour Co., 443, 506, 507
Bourai c., 351, 368
Bourbon c., 353, 378
Bourbon, Grand, c., 352, 353
Bourbon Le Roy c., 352, 353
Bourbon rond, 352, 353
Bourbon-Santos c., 260, 341, 342, 366
Bourdon, Isid, _q._, 565
Bourne, H.R. Fox, _q._, 54
Bovee & Co., Wm. H., 506
Bowdoin, Gov. (_see_ Chicory), 468
Bowers, B.O., 480
Bowman, _chk._, 53, 54
Bowman, John, _pat._, 637
Bown, W.J.H., 510
Bown & Bro., W.T., 507
Bowring & Co., 488
Boyd & Co., G., 501
Braas, Joseph, 507
Brancho, João Alberto C., 9
Bradford, Cornelius, _chk._, 119, 120
Bradford, John R. (Mrs.), 614
Bradford, Phebe C., 614
Bradford, William, _chk._, 127, 128, 129
Bradley, Prof. R., 42
Bradley, Richard, _q._, 58
Brady, Cyrus Townsend, 563
Brady, Dr., _q._, 177
Bramhall Deane Co., 634
Brand advertising, 455, 462-465
Brand, Carl W., 448, 507, 514
Brandenburg, Elector of, 45
Brandenstein, Edward, 506
Brandenstein, M.J., 506
Brandenstein, Manfred, 506
Brandenstein & Co., M.J., 471, 488, 506
Brands, 434, 435, 440, 441, 462, 465, 469, 470, 474, 496, 522-524, 538, 539
Brasher, Abraham, 609
Brasher, Ephraim, 609
Brass, Italico, 556
Braun Co., 472, 646
Brayley (topographer), 582
Brazil Coffee Co., 478
Brazil coffee delegation, 514
Brazil-grading, 331
Brazil Trading Co., 485
Brazils (c.), 341-345, 366
Breakfast (brand), 524
Bregolini, Ubaldo, 27
Brett, Colonel, 576
Breur, Moller & Co., 340
Brewing,
Altitude limit 9,000 feet, 715
Art of
Calkin's patent, 702
Muller's patent, 702
Below boiling point, 515, 707, 714, 717
Care in, 723
Chemistry of, 168, 718-720
Clarifying, 704, 705
Comparison of methods, 720, 721
Evolution of, 702, 704
Filtration _vs._ percolation, 515
Incorrect methods injurious, 179
N.C.R.A. recommendations, 717
Research, Un. of Kansas, 714
Scientific, 718-722
Thurber's method, 712
Brewing devices (1760-1855), 620-629
Acker's (1884), 645
American colonial, 709
Andrews' reversed Fr. drip (1841), 627
Best materials, 717, 721, 722
Blickman's (1916), 652
Care of, 722
Casseneuve's reversed Fr. drip, 623
Cauchois's porcelain-lined urn, 645
Cauchois's centrifugal pump, 651
Chapman's tea or coffee pot, 649
Chronology (1879-1921), 643-654
Combined making and serving pot, 616
Comparative test (1915), 714
(1917), 716
Criterion, 674
Earthenware, painted (Abyssinia), 655
First (boiler), 615, 616
First French patent (1802), 621, 699
First U.S. patent (1825), 469, 624, 625, 699
Fountain, 674
German patents (1877-85), 638
Levant (1691), 696
Le Brun's Cafetiére, 710
Manning's combined, 637
Martelley's patent (1825), 699
Moneuse's urn (1869), 639
Muller's Art of Making Coffee, 653
Napier-List machine, 700
Parker's steam-fountain, 705
Platow, 674
Rabaut's reversed Fr. drip (1822), 623
Savage's tea or coffee pot (1904), 649
Sené's, "without boiling" (1815), 623
Still's steam coffee-maker (1902), 647
Syphon (Napier), 674
Verithing (Summerling's), 674
White's urn (1908), 651
Wyatt's distillation apparatus, 699
Brewing methods,
Abyssinia, 655
American colonies, 708, 709
Arabia, 658-663, 695
Australia, 692
Austria, 671, 672
Belgium, 672
Brazil, 691
Bulgaria, 678
Canada, 686, 687
Ceylon, 670
China, 670
Cuba, 692
Denmark, 678
England (1662), 696;
(1722), 697;
(19th cent.), 704-707
Europe, 670-686
(19th century), 704-708
Finland, 678
France, 678-683
(1669), 696;
(1711-1812), 696-698;
(19th cent.), 707, 708
Buc'hoz's recipe, 708
Germany, 684, 685
Great Britain, 672-678
Greece, 685
India, 670
Italy, 686, 696
Japan, 670
Java, 670
Levant (1691), 696
Martinique, 692
Mexico, 687
Netherlands, 686
New Orleans, 689, 690
New York, 690
Hotel Ambassador, 691
Waldorf-Astoria, 690, 691
New Zealand, 692
Oriental, early, 31, 694, 695
Paris, 670
Panama, 692
Persia, 670
Philippines, 692
Portugal, 686
Scandinavia, 686
Roumania, 686
Russia, 686
Servia, 686
Spain, 686
Switzerland, 686
Turkey, 31, 665, 667, 668
U.S., 687, 691, 709-723
Jabez Burns' method, 712
Vienna, 670, 671, 672
Brewing process
Goldsworthy's (1920), 702
Brews, Composition of, 721
_Brief and merry history of England_, _q._, 77
_Brief description, etc., A_, _pamph._, _ill._, 70, 71
Briggs, James H., 477
Briggs & Meehan, 477
Brillat-Savarin, 565;
_q._, 557, 697
Brisbane, _v._, 316
British E. India Co., 75, 82, 106, 601
_British Pharmaceut. Codex_, _q._, 183
Broadbent, Humphrey, _q._, 293, 618, 697
Broadhurst, (tenor), 582
_Broad-side Against C., A; or, the Marriage of the Turk_, _q., ill._,
69, 70
Broad-sides and pamphlets, 58, 60, 61, 64, 66, 68, 69, 71, 72, 432,
433, 434
Brock, J., 503
Brokers
Abyssinia, 308, 310
Arabia, 310, 312
New York, 336, 337
(_see also_ Dealers, wholesale)
Bronson, Jr., A.E., _pat._, 647
Bronson, Zenos, _pat._, 245
Bronson-Walton Co., 647
Brougier, _pat._, 167
Brown, Agnes, 526
Brown, Arthur W., 482
Brown, James, 497
Brown, Tom, _q._, 75, 572, 574
Brown & Jones, 497
Brown & Scott, 497, 499
Brownejohn, William, _chk._, 118
Browning, Charles H., _q._, 126
Bruce, James, _q._, 693
Bruckman & Co., L., 496
"Bruderherz" (Kolschitzky), 51
Bruff, Sr., Thomas, _pat._, 468, 621
Brûleau, Café, 106
Bruning, William H., _pat._, 653
Bruno, Bishop Joachim, 9
Bubonic-plague boom (1899-1901), 529
Bucararamangas (c.), 348, 364
Buck, John H., _q._, 607
Buckeye (brand), 470
Buc'hoz, Pierre Joseph, _q._, 708
Budan, Baba, 5, 225
Budenbach, T.O., 497
Budgell, 576, 578
Buds, beverage from, 694
Buffon, 98
Buitzenzorg c., 355, 373
_Bukabensis, C._, 146
Bulfinch, Charles, 113
Bullard & Co., C.G., 485
_Bullata, C._, _hyb._, 140
Bulson, A.E.J., _q._, 182
Bun, 1, 3, 12
Bun safi (cleaned beans), 266
Buna, 41
Bunca, 12, 25
Buncha, 12
Bunchum, 11, 12, 25
Bunchy, 38
Bunge, Edouard, 532, 534
Bunn, 3, 12, 17, 35
Bunn, El, 662
Bunnu, 25, 38
Burbank, Luther, 161
Bureaus
Bus. research (_see_ Harvard)
Chemistry, U.S., 144
Burke, Edmund, 81, 574
Burke, Richard, 573, 574
Burman, _q._, 183
Burmester, H.W., 488
Burn, J.H., _q._, 62
Burns, A. Lincoln, 526, 527;
_q._, 391, 394
Burns, George, _chk._, 121
Burns, Henry, 508
Burns, Jabez., 494, 496, 630;
_biog._, 517, 526;
_d._ (1888), 526, 637;
_pat._, 469, 634, 644, 645;
_q._, 634, 635, 636, 637, 712
Starts _Spice Mill_, _per._, 470
Burns, Jabez (Mrs.), 526
Burns Jr., Jabez, 526, 527
Burns, Robert, 526, 527;
_pat._, 647, 652
Burns, William G., 526, 527;
_pat._, 652, 653
Burns & Brown, 495
Burns & Sons, Inc., Jabez, 526
Burr, Aaron, 123
Burstone mills, 637
Burton, Robert, 543, 557;
_q._, 13, 38
Bush Terminal Stores, _ill._, 322
Bute, Lord, 572
Butler, Dr., _q._, 179
Butler, Earhart & Co., 469, 508
Butler, Crawford & Co., 508
Button, _chk._, 575, 578
Buying
Abyssinia, 308, 310
Arabia, 310, 312
Brazil, 303-308
Netherlands E. Indies, 312
Buying and selling green c., 303-312
Byerly, Thomas, 585
Byerley, Sir John, 585
Cabarets à caffè, 33
(_See also_ Coffee houses)
Cabarrus, E.T., 538
Cable-break panic (1884), 528
Cadwallader, _pseud._, 581
Café
à la crème, 708
à la minute, 708
au lait, 691, 696
avec beurre, 683
bonifleur (Guadeloupe), 257
brûleau, 106
complet, 683
con léche, 691
de luxe (Guadeloupe), 257
en parché (Guadeloupe), 257
en pergamino (grade), 261
filtré, 675
gloria, 683
mazagran, 92, 655, 682
melangé, 671
nature, 683
sultan, 658
sultane, 694
_Café, The_, _per._, 34
_Café, literary, artistic, and commercial, The_, _per._ (French), 34
_Caféier et le Café, Le_, Jardin, _ill._, _q._, 2, 6, 14, 31 32, 33, 629
Cafés
Berlin
Admiral's, 684
Bauer, _ill._, 684
Des Westens, 684
"Groessenwahn", 684
Josty's, 684
Kranzler's, _ill._, 684
Victoria, 684
Hague, The
St. Joris, 686
London
Gatti's, _ill._, 675, 677
Kardomah (chain), 675
London Café Co., 674
Monico, _ill._, 675, 677
Nero, 674
Pioneer, 677
Popular, 675, 677
Ritz, 678
Trocadero, 657
Naples
Toledo, 686
New York
Fleischmann's, 690
Paris
Paix, de la, 683
Prévost, 683
Régence, de la, 683
Venice
Florian's, 686
(_See also_ Coffee houses; Hotels; Restaurants; Taverns)
Cafés chantants (_see_ Coffee houses)
Caffè, 3
_Caffè, Il_, Belli, 549
_Caffè, Il_ (almanac, 1829), 558
_Caffè, Il_, _per._, (1764-66), 30, 558
_Caffè, Il_, _per._, (1850-52), 558
_Caffè, Il_, _per._, (1884-89), 558
_Caffè Pedrocchi, Il_, _per._, (1885), 558
Caffearine, 159
Caffein, 159, 161, 162, 166, 167, 175, 176, 179, 182, 437, 711, 718, 721
Analyses for, 172
Chaff contains, 708
Harmless in moderation, 717
Hollingworth's experiments, 187, 188
Loss in roasting, 167
Physiological action, 183-188
_Robusta, C._, 145
Solubility, 160
Caffein content (_C. arabica_), 161
Caffein-free c., _ill._, 142, 404
Artificial, 161, 162, 163, 721
Natural, 161, 162, 721
Varieties, 147
Caffetannic acid, 158, 159, 166, 174, 721
Analysis for, 173
Lead number, 514
Misnomer, 716, 718, 719
Physiological action, 182
Caffinets (_see_ Coffee houses)
Caffeol, 163, 164, 719, 720
Physiological action, 183
Caffeone, 163
Cage, R.H., 505
Cage & Drew, 505
Cage, Drew & Co., Ltd., 505
Cahoa, 1, 2
Cahouah, 15
Cahove, 91
Cahua, 1, 38
Cahue, 1, 2
Cahve, 31
Cahwa, 45
Caleb, Negus, 5
Calkin, Benjamin H., _pat._, 652, 702
Calorific value of c., 180
Calvados, 682
_Campaigning with Grant_, Porter, _q._, 563
Campbell (chemist), _q._, 163
Campbell, _chk._, 576
Campbell, Charles, 482
Campbell's _Lives of the Lord Chancellors_, _q._, 570
Campen, Christopher, _q._, 12
Canadian Bank of Commerce, 488
Canby, Edward, 509
Canby, Frank L., 509
Canby, Ach & Canby, 508, 509
Candle, Sales by, 571
_Canephora, C._
Botanical description, 145
Caffein content, 161
Ceylon, 236
Java, 216
Varieties, 146
Cannon & Co., F., 485
Canova, 28, 29
Cans (_see_ Containers)
Cantatas
Bach's, _q._, _ill._, 595-599
Fuzelier's, music by Bernier, _q._, 594
Cantino, Cesare, 549
Caouhe, 2
Caova, 2, 26, 41
Caphe, 1, 38
Capodimonte c.-pot, 607
Capitazias, 306
(_See_ Porthandling charges)
Capuchin, Café, 683
Caracanda Frères, 338
Caracas c., 348, 364
Caracol (grade), 261
Caracollilo (grade), 264
Caramel in c., 718
Carazo, Padre, 225
Carbohydrates, 165
Cardamom in c., 657, 696, 709
Caret, _q._, 555
Carey, 80, 576
Carey & Co., 480
Cargoes
Damaged, 321, 322
Record (Brazil to U.S.), 315, 316
Carhart & Bro., 482
Carit & Co., S.A., 487
Carjat, 103
_Carmen Caffaeum_, Massieu, _q._, 543-547
Carne, John, _q._, 668-670
Carnegie, Andrew, 521
Carpenter, Samuel, 126
Carr, Chase & Raymond, 501
Carret & Co., J.E., 340
Carruthers, 549
Carson & Co., W.K., 485
Carte, D'Oyly, 678
Carter, James, _pat._, 469
Carter, James W., 494;
_pat._, _q._, 629
Carter Bros. & Co., 507
Carter, Macy & Co., 480
Carter, Mann & Co., 501
Cartons (_see_ Containers)
Casanas, Ben. C., 503, 513, 535;
_q._, 415
Case, Howard E., 496
Caseneuve, _pat._, 623, 699
Casilla (grade), 261
Castel, _q._, 548
Castle Bros., 488
Caswell, George W., 505, 506
Caswell Co., George W., 506
_Catalog, Hudson-Fulton Celebration_, _q._, 607, 609
_Catalogue of the Rarities to be seen at Adam's_, 559
_Catalogue of Traders' Tokens_, Burn, _q._, 62
Catch crops, 203
Cauchois, Frederick A., 498, 701;
_pat._, 472, 645, 649, 651
Cauphe, 38
Cavanaugh, Rearuck & Co., 502
Cave, 31
Caveah, 2
Cavee, 26
Cavekane, 32
Cazeneuve, _q._, 159
Celebes c., 355, 374
Centlivre, Susannah, _q._, 554
Central American coffee
San Francisco's fight for trade, 489-491
Central Americans (c.), 347, 359-361
Certified Java and Mocha (brand), 524
Ceylons (c.), 351, 352, 370
Chaa (tea), 35
Chabert, Josephine, 518
Chabraeus, 543
Chaff
Removal deprecated, 714
Rich in caffein and aroma, 708
Chain-stores, 415, 417, 418
Chamber of Commerce (New York), 119, 120
Chamberlain, George A., _q._, 563
Chamberlain, Orville W., _pat._, 652
Chamberlaine, John, _q._, 432
Champmeslé, 91
Champney, Elizabeth W., _q._, 563
Chaouah, 1, 2, 35
Chaova, 41
Chapin, Harold, 556, 563
Chapman, D.J., 501
Chapman, J.W., _pat._, 649
_Character of a coffee house, The_ (broadside) _q._, 66-68
Characteristics
Complete reference table, 358-378
Governing influences, 156
Green and roasted, 341-378
Leading growths (chart), 191
Charcoal, C. classed as, 20
Charles II, 20, 41, 59, 71, 72, 74, 82, 109, 554
Proclamation against c. houses, 73
Charlet, 593
Chase, Caleb, 501
Chase & Co., Geo. C., 499
Chase & Sanborn, 435, 470, 471, 485, 498, 501
Chase, Raymond & Ayer, 501
Chatfield-Taylor, H.C., _q._, 556
Chatterton, Thomas, 80, 85, 88
Chattopádhyáya Virendranath, _q._, 1, 2
Chaube, 2, 25, 41
Checking the roast, 387, 391
Cheek, Joel O., 509, 513, 515
Cheek-Neal Coffee Co., 443, 509
Cheek, Norton & Neal, 509
Cheetham, Jr., William H., 501
Chelsea bunhouse (London), 560
Chemical analysis
Bean, 171-173
Beverage, 714
Chemistry, 155-173
U.S. Bureau of, 338, 391, 396
Cheribon c., 355, 373
Chess in c. houses, 96, 98, 104
Chesterfield, Lord, 576
Chesterton, Gilbert K., 553
Chestnut, _q._, 155
Chevalier, Aug., 142
Cheyne, George, _q._, 59
Chiapas c., 345, 358
Chibouk, 663
Chicago Liquid Sack Co., 471
Chicago Theatre Society, 555
Chicory
Botanical description, 170
Chemical analysis, 170
Extracts of c., use in, 109
First use (Holland, 1750), 170
Introduced into U.S. (1785), 468
Microscopic exam., 152, 153
Substitute for c., 46
Chicory in coffee, 404
France, 678
Great Britain, 673
Paris and Vienna, 670, 671
Scandinavia, 686
Children, effect on, 177, 178
Childs (grocer, St. Louis), 631
China & Java Export Co., 488
Chlorogenic acid. 718, 719
Choate, Joseph H., 690
Chocolate
Discovery of, 12
Introduction into North Am., 106
Prices, London (1662), 59
Sold in London (1657), 56
Sold in London c. houses, 41, 61, 78, 80
Chocolate Cream (brand), 441
Chocolate houses (_see_ Coffee houses)
Chocolate pots, 609
Cholera, effect on, 181
Chops
Brazil, 306
New York, 321
_Chréstomathie Arabe_, de Sacy _q._, 2, 17, 663
Christian beverage, 26
Chronology, A coffee, 725-737
Chubuck & Saunders, 508
Churchill, 579, 580
Churchill & Co., Frederick A., 502
Cibber, Colley, 579;
_q._, 575, 577
Cinnamon in c., 105, 696, 709
Cinnamon roast, 388
Cincinnati, Society of the, 120
Cincinnati Spice Mills, 503
Cipriani, 84, 583
_City, The_, _q._, 86
City Coffee Works, 492
_City Directory, New York_ (1848, 1854), _q._, 494
(1861) _q._, 496
City Dock Co. (Santos, Brazil), 303
City roast, 388
Clarification, 704, 705
Clark, Ammi, _pat._, 625
Clark, Charles A., 506, 514
Clark & Host Co., 506
Clarke Bros. & Co., 508
Clay bowls, 616
Cleaning machinery, 246, 248, 257, 383, 385
Hungerford's patents, 644
Clearing Ass'n, N.Y. Exch., 331, 335
Clearwater, Judge, 609
Clement VIII, Pope, 26
Climate, Best for c., 198
Closset, Emile, 507
Closset, Joseph, 507
Closset & Devers, 507
Closset Bros., 507
Cloves in c., 696, 709
Clubs
Boston
First, 111
Merchants, 111
London
Court de Bone Compagnie, 60
Evolution of, 75
Hanover, 577
Literary, 583
London coffee-house
Bread Street, 60
Devil Tavern, 60
Friday Street, 60
Mermaid Tavern, 60
Rota, 59, 60, 583
Turk's Head, 81
Turk's Head Society, 583
White's, 87
New York
Coffee House, 690
South America, 690
Phila., supersede c. houses, 130
_Clubs and Club Life in London_, Timbs, _q._, 570-585
Coal roasting, 385, 386
Coarse (_see_ Grinds)
Coated c. Rulings (U.S.) against, 337
Coatepec c., 345, 358
Coating, 166, 396
Condemned by N.C.R.A., 513
Reasons for, 170
Coatzacoalcos c., 345, 358
Coava, 36
Cobáns (c.), 347, 359
Cobbett, William, _q._, 561, 562
Cochrane, _q._, 185
Cocoa, first used in Europe, 25
Coffa, 2, 36, 38
Coffalic acid, 719
Coffao, 2
Coffe, 2
_Coffee_, Keable, _q._, 181, 182
_Coffee, A short historical account of_, Bradley, 42
_Coffee and Repartee_, Bangs, _q._, 564, 565
_Coffee Book, The_, _q._, 714
_Coffee cantata_, Bach, 46
Coffee Club (U.S.), 453
_Coffee Club, The_, _per._, _q._, 177
_Coffee from Plantation to Cup_, Thurber, _q._, 182, 712
_Coffee Grinding and Brewing_, N.C.R.A., 715
Coffee house, most beautiful, 599
_Coffee house, The_ (comedy) Rosseau, 88
_Coffee house, The new and curious_, _per_, 45
_Coffee house or newsmongers' hall_, (broadside), 68, 69
Coffee-house keepers, London
Proposed newspaper monopoly, 74
Tokens, _ill._, 56, 62, 74, 89, 582, 602, 603
Coffee houses, 293
Advantages, 72
Algeria, 656
Arabia, 658
Augsburg, first (1713), 45
Berlin
Arnoldi, 45
City of Rome, 45
English, 45
Falck's (Jewish), 45
First (1721), 45
Miercke, 45
Royal, 45
Schmidt, 45
Widow Doebbert's, 45
Boston, 108-113
American, 108, 111
Auctions held in, 112
British, 108
Crown, _ill._, 108
Exchange, 112, 113
First, 108
Green Dragon, _ill._, 109, 110, 111
Gutteridge, 108
London, 108, 116, 467
North-End, 112
Royal Exchange, 112
Stage coaches start from, 110, 112
Washington, 110
Brazil, 691
Cairo, number (17th century), 26
Chicago
Exchange, 106
Lake Street, 106
Washington, 106
Constantinople, 663-667
Prices (1554), 19
Damascus, 668-670
First, 19
Gate of Salvation, 19
Roses, 19
Egypt, 656, 657
England
First (1650), 41, 53
Decline, 75
Ordered suppressed, 72, 73
Proclamation by Charles II, 73
Proclamation rescinded, 73
Europe, first, 27
Exeter (Devon)
Mol's, 42
France, 33, 682, 684
Germany, 683, 684
First (1675), 45
Hamburg, first (1675), 45
Italy, 27, 28
First, 27, 686
Leipzig, first (1694), 45
London, 53-89
Adam's (and museum), 559, 560
Baker's, 87
Baltic, 87
Batson's, 78
Bedford, 80, 84, 88, 576, 579, 580
Blue Hall, 575
Bowman's, 83
British, _ill._, 79, 86
Button's, _ill._, 80, 81, 83, 84, 570, 575, 576, 577, 578, 579, 593
Caledonien, _ill._, 84, 593
Chapter, 78, 80, 88, 582
Child's, 78, 88, 560, 582
Cocoa-Tree, 78, 79, 87, 560
Decline of, 61, 62, 81, 82, 674, 675
Dick's, _ill._, 87, 88, 555, 572
Dish of Coffee Boy, _ill._, 603
Don Saltero's, _ill._, 80, 86, 88, 558
Museum, 559
Edinburgh Castle, 75
Farr's, 54
Fire of 1666, 61, 62
First (1652), 42, 53, 54, 293
Folly (house-boat), 89
Garraway's (or Garway's) _ill._, 56, 77, 80, 83, 561, 570, 571, 572
Gaunt's, 588
George's, 584, 585
Giles's, 560
Grecian, _ill._, 61, 77, 80, 85, 560, 584
Groom's, 572
Hamlin's, 78
Jacob's, 42
Jamaica, 83
Jenny Man's, 560
Jerusalem, 88
Joe's, 571
Jonathan's, 88, 554, 560, 572
Little Man's, 79, 88
Lloyd's, _ill._, 75, 80, 85, 572
London 88, 582
Man's, 61, 88
Miles's, 583
Nando's, 80, 88, 572, 585
New England and North and South American, 88
New Lloyd's, 86
New Man's, 88
New Slaughter's, 84
News centers, use as, 77
North's, 78
Number (1715), 74
Old Man's, 77, 79, 88
Old Slaughter's, 84
"On the Pavement", 583
Rosée's, 42
Peele's, 80, 88, 585
"Penny universities", 3
Percy, 89, 585
Piazza, 80, 89, 581
Piazza coffee room, 580, 581
Rainbow, 62, 77, 89, 572
Read's, 74
Red Cow, 83, 574
Robins's, 63
Robinson's, 570
Rochford's, Mrs., 79
Rose, 84, 574
Royal Swan (and museum), 559
Second, 54
Shakespeare, 84
Slaughter's, _ill._, 80, 84, 85, 580, 583, 584, 593
Smyrna, 79, 80, 89, 573
Squire's, 86
St. James's, 75, 78, 79, 80, 88, 558, 560, 562, 573, 574, 588
Stone's, 675
Thomas's, 84
Tiltyard, 78
Tom King's, 89, 581
Tom's, _ill._, 80, 85, 575, 576, 579, 580, 593
Turk's Head, 56, 59, 80, 81, 89, 582, 583
Turk's Head, Canada and Bath, 583
Virginia, 83
Welch (Daniels), 78
White's, _ill._, 79, 87, 558, 587, 588
Burned (1733), 587
Widow Hambledon's, 575
Williams's, 78
Will's, 77, 79, 80, 83, 558, 560, 574, 575, 588
Young Man's, 78, 79, 88
Marseilles, first (1671), 32
Mecca
Opposition, 17
Relicensed, 18
Milan
Demetrio, 30
Netherlands, 44, 686
New England, 107-113
New Orleans, 106
New York, 115-124
Auctions held at, 118
Bank, 121, 124
Burns, _ill._, 117, 121
City, 119
Civic forums, use as, 115, 117, 118, 120
Directory, use as, 120
Double R., 690
Exchange, 118, 119
Exchange coffee room, 120
Exchanges, use as, 117, 118, 119, 120, 123
First (1696), 116
Decline, 123
Gentlemen's Exchange, 118
Keen and Lightfoot's, 120
King's Arms, _ill._, 116, 117, 118, 121, 467
Merchants, _ill._, 115, 118, 119, 122, 123, 593
Birthplace of Union (1774), 474
Congress of Deputies Suggested, 120
Memorial tablet (1914), 473, 474
Organizations meeting therein, 120
New, 117,118
New England and Quebec, 121
New York, 120
Pequot, 611
Social centers, use as, 115
Tontine, _ill._, 120, 121, 123, 593
Whitehall, 121
Nuremburg, first (1696), 45
Oxford
Jacob's, 41, 53
Jobson's, 41
Tillyard's, 41
Padua: Pedroechi, _ill._, 29, 30, 599
Paris, 91-104
Alcazar d'Hiver, 98
Anglais, 103
Bonnard's, 98
Beauvilliers', 102
Chartres, 102
Chat Noir, 104
Concert du XIX Siécle, 98
Concert Européen, 98
Des Mille Collonnes, _ill._, 99
Development of. 94, 96
Durand, 104
Dutch, 103
Eldorado, 98
English, 103
Février's, 102
First (1672), 291, 670
Folles Bobino, 98
Foy, _ill._, 97, 100
Gaieté, 98
Grand Commun, 102
Gregory's, 93
Guerbois, 104
Laurent, 103, 554
Lefévre's, 96
Le Gantois's, 93
Littéraire, 103
Madrid, 103
Magny's, 94, 96, 102
Maire's, 103
Maison Dorée, 103
Makara's, 93
Maliban's, 93
Mapinot, 102
Massé's, 102
Méot's, 102
Momus, 100
Number of, 93
(1843), 94
Paix, de la, 103
Pascal's (Fair of St. Germain), 33, 92
Paris, _ill._, 101, 103
Procope, _ill._, 94, 95, 98, 566
Rambuteau, 98
Régence, 96, 98
Riche, 103, 104
Rocher de Cancale, 104
Rotonde, 100, 102
Royal Drummer, _ill._, 94
Stephen's, 93
Terre's, 103
Tortoni, 103
Tour d'Argent, 94
Trois Frères Provençaux, 102
Vachette, 102
Venua's, 102
Véry, 102
Voisin, 103
Persia, 21
Philadelphia, 125-130
Decline of, 130
Exchange (proposed), 130
Scene from _Hamilton_, _ill._, 556
Exchanges, use as, 128
First (1700), 126
James, 127
London, _ill._, 125, 126
Slave auctions, _ill._, 128
Sunday closing, 129
Swearing, gaming, etc., prohibited, 128
London (2nd), _ill._, 127
Merchants, 125, 129, 130
Roberts', 127
Social centers, use as, 125, 130
Ye coffee house, 125, 126, 467
Post-office, use as, 126
Portugal, 686
Regensburg: first (1689), 45
Santo Domingo, first (1738), 34
Spain, 686
St. Louis: Leonhard's, 105
Stuttgart: first (1712), 45
Turkey, 32, 663-670
Closed, 20
Reopened, 21
United States (1700), 708
Venice,
Abbondanza, 28
Angelo Custode, 28
Arabo-Piastrelle, 28
Arco Celeste, 28
Aurora Plante d'oro, 28
Buon genio-Doge, 28
Coraggio-Speranza, 28
Dame Venete, 28
Ducca di Toscana, 28
Florian, _ill._, 27, 28, 29, 555
Fontane di Diana, 28
Imperatore Imperatrice della Russia, 28
Menegazzo, 28
Orfeo, 28
Pace, 28
Pitt. l'eroe, 28
Ponte dell' Angelo, 27
Quadri, 28
Redentore, 28
Re di Francia, 28
Regina d'Ungheria, 28
Spaderia, 27
Tamerlano, 28
Venezia trionfante, 28
Vienna, 671, 672
Blue Bottle, 50, 590
First, 51, 590
Kolschitzky's, 50
Mosee's, Franz, 51
Number of (1839), 52
Sacher, 50
Schrangl, 671
_Coffee houses vindicated_, _pamph._, _q._, 71, 72
_Coffee, Its History, Cultivation and Uses_, Hewitt, 480
Coffee kings
First (Germany), 47
(U.S.), 517
Last (U.S.), 518
Coffee-makers' guild of Vienna, 51
_Coffee man's granado, The_ (Broad-side), 66
Coffee palaces (_see_ Coffee-houses)
Coffee Pep (brand), 539
Coffee pots (_see_ Service)
Coffee Roaster & Mill Mfg. Co., 497
Coffee Roasters Traffic and Pure Food Association, 473
Coffee rooms (Norway), 686
_Coffee scuffle, The_ (broadside), _q._, 64
Coffee shops (houses), London, 674
Coffee-smellers (Germany), 47
_Coffee, tea, and chocolate, Concerning the use of_, Dufour, 34
_Coffee, tea, and chocolate, The manner of making_, Dufour, 34
Coffee tree, Kentucky, 564
Coffee water (rosa-folis), 695
Coffey, 41
Coffi, 2
Cognac in c., 106, 686
Cogollo & Co., 34
Coho, 1, 2, 38
Cohoo, 2
Cohove, 91
Cohu, 2
Coit & Son, Henry, 476
Coke roasting, 385, 386
Colaux & Cie, _pat._, 625
Cole & Son, Stephen, 476
Coles Manufacturing Co., 472, 646
Colet M.H., _q._, 594
Colgate, Charles C., 492
Colgate, Samuel, 492
_Collection of Voyages and Travels, A_, _q._ 23
Collins, William, 580
Coloring substances, 170
Colombians (c.), 348-350, 363, 364
Colpani, 558
Columbia University, 186
_Columbian Centinel_, _newsp._, _q._, 434
_Columnaris, C._, _hyb._, 140
Comité Français du Café, 445
Commaille, _q._, 165
Commercial Ass'n, Santos, 314
Commercial coffee chart, 191
Commercial Coffee Co., 478
_Commercial Organic Analysis_, _q._, 159
Commissario, 303, 304, 305, 306, 312, 491
Commissions
New York, 334, 336
Santos, 304
Committee of Correspondence, 120, 474
Committee of One Hundred (1774), 120
Commonwealth and c., 54, 59
Competition, retail, 426
Complet, Café, 683
Compton (Bishop of London), 570
Condorcet, 94
Confectionery, C., 695
_Confessions_, Rousseau, 102
_Congensis, C._, 147
_Congensis var. Chalotii_, 147
_Congensis_ × _Ugandæ_, _hyb._, 146
Congo, Belgian, c., 353, 377
Congo coffee, caffein content, 161
Congress of Deputies, 120
Conkling & Lloyd, 476
Con léche, Café, 691
_Connoisseur_ (London), _per._, _q._, 579
Conopios, Nathaniel, 40, 41, 43
_Conquest of Granada_, Dryden's (censured by Rota), 60
Conrad & Co., J.H., 502
Consolidated Coffee Co., 508
Consortium of 1868, 476
Constantine, George, _chk._, 61, 84, 584
(_See_ Jennings, George)
_Constantinople, Illustrated_, Walsh, _q._, 663, 664
_Constantinople in 1657, Relation of a Journey to_, Rolamb, _q._, 23
_Constantinople, Old and New_, Dwight, _q._, 664-667
Constituents of c., Valuable, 693
_Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens_, Gilbert, _q._, 40
Consumo (grade), 261
Consumption, 285-302
Argentina, 279, 286, 287, 291
Australia, 286, 287, 291
Balkan States, 290
Belgium, 285, 287
Canada, 286, 287
Chile, 286, 287, 291
Colombia, 278
Cuba, 286, 287, 291
Denmark, 287, 290
Europe (19th Century), 295, 296
Federated Malay States, 284
France, 285, 287, 290
Average annual, 678
Germany, 285, 287, 290
Great Britain, 285, 287
Guiana, French, 279
Italy, 285, 287, 290
Mexico, 280
Netherlands, 285, 287, 290
New Zealand, 285, 287, 291
Norway, 287, 290
Peru, 278
Portugal (1919), 290
Russia, 285, 287, 291
Salvador, 280
San Francisco, 487
Scandinavia, 285, 290
Spain, 285, 287, 290
Sweden, 287, 290
Switzerland, 285, 287, 290, 291
Table of World, 287
Tea and c. comparisons, 288, 289
Union of South Africa, 286, 287, 291
United States, 106, 285, 287, 288, 293, 294
Popularity explained, 106
Prohibition; effect on, 689
World-war; effect on, 297
Venezuela, 278
Consumption per capita
Foreign countries, 288-290
Groix, Island of, 176
Tables, 288
United States, 298, 299, 476
Methods of computing, 302
Containers, 402-404, 408-412, 470, 471
First paper and tin-end, 471
First strawboard (1881), 471
Leather bags, greased (1710), 620
Pots of various sizes (1790), 491, 492
Standardizing, 410
Vacuum, 471
Conti, Prince de, 590
Contracts, 329, 331
Cost-and-freight, 513, 515
In-store, 331
N.Y. Exchange, 333-335
To arrive, 335
Controversies
England, 64-74
Commercial, U.S., 438
Medical, Eng., 58, 59
Political, Eng. (1666-72), 72, 73, 76
(_See also_ Opposition; Coffee houses)
Conway, Charles, 499
Cooling, 381, 636, 641
Cooling machinery, 394, 395
Cooling machines
Burns's flexible-arm, 652, 653
Emmerich automatic (1897), 639
German patents (1877-85), 638
Grohens's rotary, 646
Cook, O.F., _q._, 202, 223
Cooper, Charles, _q._, 675
Cooper, Cornelius, 492
Cooper, L.S., 495
Cooper & Co., Nathaniel, 476
Coorg c., 351, 379
Copha, 1, 2, 38
Cophie, 56, 58
Cophy, 56
Coppée, François, 565
Cordoba c., 347, 358
Corinchies c., 355, 371
_Corner in Coffee, The_, Brady, 563
Corners
Arnold's (1869-1881), 517, 518
Blanco's (1895), 529
Kaltenbach's (1891-92), 476, 529
United States (1901), 530
Corn-poppers for roasting, 635
Correa & Sons, F.A., 338
Corbett, Barney, 503
Corbett & Heekin, 503
Corbin, May & Co., 485
Corinna (Mrs. E. Thomas), 575
Cornell & Smith, 508
Cost card for roasters, 392
Cost analysis, 407, 408
Retail, 418
Cost and freight brokers, 336, 337
Cost and profits, retail, 426, 427
Chart 428
Costa Ricas (c.), 348, 361
Coste, Felix, 448, 457, 514
Cotovicus, 32, 696;
_q._, 20
Cottraux, E.P., 505
Cottrell, 496
Couha, 2
Couguet, Dr. A., _q._, 26
Coventry, Sir William, _q._, 72
Cowha, 2
Cowha, 2
Cowper, William, 88, 557;
_q._, 550, 572
Cradle of Am. liberty, 293
Cramer. P.J.S., _q._, 133, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 147, 345
Crampton, G.E., 501
Crawford, Thomas A., 505
Crawley, Edwin, _pat._, 642
Cream in c., 399, 698
Crébilon, 94
Credit policy, retail, 428, 429
Creighton, Clarence, 477
Creighton & Ashland, 477
Creighton, Morrison & Meehan, 477
Creme, Café à la, 708
Crepaux, 708
Cripps, _q._, 602
Crispe, Sir Nicholas, 54
Crocker, Nathaniel, 508
Cromwell, Henry, 575
Cromwell, Oliver, 72
Crooks & Co., Robert, 485
Crooks & Co., Samuel, 501
Cross & Co., C.A., 642
Crossman, George W., 482, 518, 519
Crossman, W.H., 482, 518, 519
Crossmnn & Bro., W.H., 482, 484, 518, 530
Crossman & Sielcken, 482, 519, 521
Crossman-Sielcken contract, 519
Crouse & Co., Jacob, 508
Cruger, Henry, 475
Cruger, John, 475
Crusade (brand), 435
Cubans (c.), 351, 361
Cucuras (c.), 348, 349, 364
Cuchaletto (chocolate), 107
Sold in Boston (1670), 107
Culapius, S., _pseud._, _q._, 181
Culbreth, _q._, 181
Cultivation, 197-243
Crop maturity, 138
Early, 197
Spread of, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
(_see also_ Propagation)
Cultivation (geographical)
Abyssinia, 1
Africa, British Central, 9
Africa, British East, 9
Amazonas (began 1752), 9
Angola, 229
Arabia, 2, 5, 230, 231
Began (A.D. 575), 5, 230
Argentina, 236
Australia, 9, 238, 239
Bolivia, 236
Bourbon (Réunion), 9
Brazil, 9, 74, 75, 204-208, 275
Profits (1900), 205
California, Southern, 9
Celebes (began 1750), 9, 217, 283
Ceylon, 236, 237
Begun by Arabs (before 1505), 6, 43
Begun by Dutch (1658), 6, 43
Systematic (1690), 282
Colombia, 208-212
Costa Rica, 9, 135, 225, 280
Cuba, 9, 231, 232
Dominican Republic, 232
Ecuador, 230
Federated Malay States, 238
Fiji Islands, 243
France, 6
Guadeloupe, 233, 234
Guam, 242, 243
Guatemala, 9, 135, 219, 220
Guiana, British, 235, 236, 279
Guiana, Dutch, 235, 236, 279
Guiana, French, 235, 236
Haiti, 9, 220
Hawaii, 9, 239, 241
Honduras, 234
Honduras, British, 234, 235
Indo-China, French, 9, 237
India, 5, 9, 225-227, 282
Jamaica, 9, 74, 233
Java, 9, 43, 74, 213, 293
Liberia, 230
Martinique, 6, 7, 8, 9, 233
Mexico, 9, 220, 221, 222, 280
U.S. interest, 221
Netherlands, 5, 6
Netherlands E. Indies, 6, 213-217, 283
New Caledonia, 243
Nicaragua, 227
Panama, 235
Pará, 9
Paraguay, 236
Peru, 236
Philippines, 9, 241, 242
Porto Rico, 9, 222, 223, 225
Queensland, 9
Rio de Janeiro, 9
Salvador, 217, 219, 279
Santo Domingo, 9
São Paulo, 205-208
South America (first), 279
Straits Settlements, 238
Sumatra, 216, 217, 283
Tahiti, 243
Tobago, 234
Tonkin, 9
Trinidad, 234
Uganda, 230
United States, 9
Venezuela, 9, 212, 213, 277
West Indies, 9
Western Hemisphere (first), 294
Cultured (brand), 474
Culver & Geiger, 509
Cumberland, _q._, 573, 574
Cummings, W.A., 496
Cunningham, 583
_Cup of c., or c. in its colours, A_ (broadside), _q._, 64
Cup-testing, 356, 357
San Francisco, 487, 488
Curaçoa c., 351, 363
Cure-all, 58
Cure for drunkenness, 58, 61
_Curiosities of Literature_, D'Israeli, _q._, 41
Curtis & Burnham, 508
Curtis Publishing Co., 441
Cushing, _q._, 179
_Customs and Fashions in Old New England_, Earle, _q._, 709
Custom-house procedure, New York, 319
Cutler, Benjamin, 492
Cuyler, Philip, 475
C.W. (brand), 441
Cyrill, Patriarch, 40, 41
da Ponte, Lorenzo, 28
Dagoty, 589, 590
Dahlman, Henry, 506
Dahlman, John, 506
_Daily Post_ (Lond.), _newsp._, _q._, 588
Dakin, Elizabeth, _pat._, 633
Dakin, William, _pat._, 633
Dakin & Co., 633
Dakotan, _v._, 316
D'Alembert, _q._, 3
Dally, Gifford, 128
Dana, John Cotton, _q._, 712
Dancourt, _q._, 554
Daney, Sidney, _q._, 8
Daniel, _chk._, 78
Dannemiller, A.J., _q._, 409
Coffee-selling chart, 409
Dannemillers & Co., 484
Danton, George Jaques, 94, 98
_Danvers' Letters_, _q._, 2
d'Argenson, De Voyer, 594
Dark roast, 356, 387
Darouf (Arabian bale), 266
d'Arvieux, Chevalier, _q._, 2
Dash, Bowie, 479, 497, 527
Dash, J. Bowie, 497
Dash & Co., Bowie, 469, 477, 528
Dater, Henry, 482
Dater, Philip, 482
Dater & Co., Philip, 482
Dauchet, 554
Daudet, Alphonse, 103
Daughty, Charles, M., _q._, 661-663
Daugleish, Dr., 677
Dauphine of France, 600
Davenant, Sir William, 80, 576
Davenport & Morris, 485
David, 13
Davies, Tom, 567, 568
Davies & Co., John L., 502
Davies & Co., Ltd., Theo. H., 488
Davis, S.L., 499
Davis & Co., Noah, 501
Dawson, August T., _q._, 711, 712
Dayton & Co., 480
Dayton Spice Mills, 443
Dayton Spice Mills Co., 508
De Belloy, Jean Baptiste, _inv._, 94, 621, 622, 697, 698
de Boze, _q._, 543
de Bussy, Th. Roland, _q._, 656
de Chirac, 6
de Clieu, Mathieu Gabriel, 6, 7, 8, 233, 550
Memorial to, 9
Verses about, 8
Voyage to Martinique, 6, 7
_De Constantinople à Bombay, Lettres_, Della Valle, _q._, 12
de Coverley, Sir Roger, 86
De Fremery & Co., 488
de Goncourt, Jules, 102, 103
de Gourcuff, O., 557
de Jour, Rouillé, 8
de Jussieu, Antoine, 6
_De la Café_, de Gourcuff, 557
de la Motte, Houdard, 554
De Lancey house, New York, 121
de Lannay, Count, 47
de Laval, Pyrard, _q._, 2
de l'Écluse, Charles, 31
De Lessert & Co., J.S., 476
De Lima, D.A., 482
De Lima, D.A. & J., 482
De Lima & Co., D.A., 482
De Luxe, Café (Guadeloupe), 257
de Mattei, Natale, _pat._, 653
De Mattia, _pat._, 166
De Mattia Bros., 686
de Maupassant, Guy, 565
de Mere, Mlle., 91
de Monteith, Fulbert, _q._, 22
de Musset, Alfred, 98, 102, 565;
_q._, 103
de Noailles, Duke, 567
de Nointel, 542
De Quincey, Thomas, _q._, 562
de Pompadour, _ill._, 588, 600
de Rabutin-Chantal, Marie, 91
de Sacy, Baron Antoine Isaac Silvestre, 17;
_q._, 2, 663
_De Saluberrimá Cahue seu Café_, etc., Nairon, 16
de Santais, Edward Loysel, _pat._, 629
De Sarlo, _q._, 186
de Saxe, Marie-Josephe, 600
de Sévigné, Madame, 91, 565
de Thévenot, Jean, 31, 91
de Tournemine, 591
de Wildman, M.E., _q._, 132
Dealers, Wholesale
New Orleans, 486, 487
New York, 475-482
Dearman, Richard, _pat._, 621
Decaffeinated (_see_ Caffein-free)
Declaration of Independence, 111
Decoction defined, 698
Decreuse, 589
Deep Sea Hotel (Arbuckle's), 524
Deer Co., A.J., 443, 472, 473, 643, 646
Defendorf, George, 492
Deffes, 594
Defoe, Daniel, 80;
_q._, 78, 79
Dehio, 186
del Castillo & Co., Rafael, 340
Delafield, Henry, 476
Delafield, William, 476
Delille, Jacques, _q._, 547
Dell, John C., _pat._, 644
Della Valle, Pierre (Pietro), 543;
_q._, 2, 12, 27
Delphine, Sr., _pat._, 639
Demidoff, Prince, 103
Democracy, Coffee and, 20, 21, 54, 72, 75, 293
Am. colonies, 107
Boston, 111
England, 59
France, 100
Italy, 28
Demonstrations, etc., Store, 425
Dennis, 575
Denobe, _pat._, 621
Deodorant, 58, 180
Department stores, 415
Des Arts & Henser, 476
_Des Dames du Temps Jadis_, Villon, _q._, 135
Descamps, 591
Desmoulins, Camille, 94, 100
Desserts, recipes, 723, 724
Destrée, _q._, 186
Desvignes, _pat._, 157
Detroit Testing Laboratories, 715
Developing point, 389
Deverall, R.R. & A. 501
Devers, A.H., 507
_Dewevrei, C._, 142
Java, 214
Diarrhea, effect of c. on, 181
_Diary_, Jourdain, _q._, 1
_Diary and Correspondence_, Evelyn, _q._, 40
Dickinson, Gilchrist, 476
_Dictionary_, d'Alembert, _q._, 3
_Dictionary_, d'Arvieux, _q._, 2
_Dictionary of Applied Chemistry_, _q._, 164
_Dictionary, New English_, Murray, _q._, 1
_Dictionary, Universal_, _q._, 176
Diderot, Denis, 94;
_q._, 96, 98
Dieckmann & Co., 488
Diefenthaler, Charles E., 497
Diefenthaler, T.F., 497
Dietl, 186
Dietz, F.C., 508
Digestion, effect of c. on, 175, 177, 178-180
Diligence (infusion device), 620
Dilworth & Co., J.S., 507
Dilworth Bros., 435, 507
Dimond & Gardes, 482
Dimond & Lally, 480, 482
Direct-flame roasting, 386, 641
Discovery of c. (_see_ Origin)
Diseases and pests, 147, 148, 152, 203, 204
C.-berry beetle, 203
C.-leaf miner, 147, 203
Eel-worm disease, 204
Fungoid, 147, 148, 203
_Hemileia vastatrix_, 148, 152, 203
Insects, 203
Leaf blight
Ceylon 203, 236, 237, 282, 283
Dominican Rep., 281
Hawaii (1855), 241
India, 226
Philippines (1889), 242
_Pellicularia tokeroga_, 148
Root disease, 148, 204
_Sphaerostilbe flavida_, 204
Spot of leaf and fruit, 148
D'Israeli, I., 557: _q._, 41, 53, 72, 91
Distillation devices
Napier-List (1891), 639
Napierian (1870), 639
Napier's vacuum (1840), 637
Wyatt's patent (1802), 621
Ditson, Thomas, _pat._, 245
Dittman, Charles, 486
Dittman, Jr., Charles, 487
Dittman Co., Chas., 486, 487
Divination by coffee grounds, 558
Divorce, C. and, 22
Doane & Co., J.W., 482, 484, 485
Dolton & Co., Wm., 508
_Domestick Coffee Man_, Broadbent, _q._, 293, 697
Dominguez, Andres, 221
Donaldson, 578
Donovan, Prof., _q._, 704
Donmartin, _inv._, 620, 697
Donns, _q._, 8
Doolittle, _q._, 167
Doran, John, _q._, 705
Dorn, R.H., 505
Dorr, S.H., 535
Dorsay, Benjamin, 468
Dorset, Earl of, 584
Double roasting, 387
Douglas, James (Bishop of Salisbury), 42, 543, 574
Downer, Samuel A., 502
Downer & Co., 501, 502
Downtown Association, New York, 517
Drake, Samuel Gardner, _q._, 108, 116
Drake & Co., W.D., 507
Dramatic Literature, C. in, 554-556
Draper & Co., John H., 482
Dressing machinery, 245
Drew, J.C., 505
Drink (_see_ Beverage)
Drinksum (brand), 524
Droste, H.R., 503
Drouais, François Hubert, 589, 599
Drug stores, C. sold in, 415
Drums (_see_ Containers)
Drupes (_see also_ Botany; Fruit), 136
Dry method, 136, 249, 251
Dry roast, 389, 391
Dryden, John, 60, 77, 78, 80, 84, 574, 575, 583, 584
Drying, 251
Drying grounds, 251, 254
Drying machinery, 254, 255
Du Barry, Madame, _ill._, 92, 563, 566, 588
Du Belloy, Archbishop, 697
Du Mont, 543
Du Tour, _q._, 707, 708
Dubard, Prof., _q._, 147
_Dublin Philosophical Journal_, _per._, _q._, 704
Ducis, 548
Duehring, Carl H., _pat._, 642
Dufour, Philippe Sylvestre, 34, 432, 543, 557;
_q._ 2, 11, 13, 74, 98
Dugdale, E., 470
Dumant, Pierre Étienne Louis, _q._, 13
Duncan, James, _q._, 59
Duncombe Mfg. Co., F.A., 649
Dunham, Charles A., 508
Dunks, John, 118
Duparquet, L., _pat._, 469, 639
Duparquet, Huot & Moneuse Co., 639, 644
Durand, Calvin, 502
Durand, H.C., 502
Durand, H.C. & C., 502
Durand & Co., 502
Durand & Kasper, 502
Durand & Kasper Co., 485
Durant, Nicholas Felix, _pat._, 625, 634, 699
Durieux, Elizabeth, 178
Duryee, P.S., _q._, 420
Dutch (_see_ Netherlands)
_Dutch New York_, Singleton, _q._, 105, 115, 125, 709
Duties, Export
Angola, 268
São Paulo, 315
Duties, Import
Abyssinia, 310
Belgium, removed (1904), 296
England (1692, 1732), 74
United States, 296, 468
Porto Rico requests, 472
(_See also_ Chronology)
Dwight, H.G., _q._, 664-667
Dwinell, James F., 501
Dwinell & Co., 501
Dwinell, Hayward & Co., 501
Dwinell, Wright & Co., 485, 501
Dwinell-Wright Co., 501, 629
_Dybowski, C._, 144
Java, 216
_Dybowski_ × _excelsa_, _hyb._, 146
Dyer & Co., 501
Dykes & Wilson, 480
Dymond & Gardes, 486
Eagle Coffee and Spice Mills, 503
Eagle Spice Co., 507
Eagle Spice Mills, 503
Eames, Wilberforce, 474
Earle, Alice Morse, _q._, 709
_Early History of Coffee Houses in England, The_, Robinson, _q._, 11
East Indies (c.), 350, 370-374
Eating coffee, 180, 615, 655, 693, 694
Eccles, William, 475
Eckert, _q._, 164
Eckhardt, _pat._, 167
Ecuadors (c.), 350, 367
Eddy & Co., L.B., 508
Eder, _q._, 179
Edmond, 102
Edtbauer, P.E. (Mrs. E.), _pat._, 472
Educational exhibits, 715
Edwards, Daniel, 53, 54, 459
Edwards, Hugh, 482
Edwards, J.M., 479
Edwards & Co., J.M., 479
Edwards & Maddux, 479
Edwards & Raworth, 482
Edwards, Townsend & Co., 507
Ekelund Charles, 509
Electric motors, 471, 646
Electric roasting, 386
Electric Scale Co., 471
Electric signs, 443
Elephant (grade), 258
Elers, 604, 612
Elford, _chk._, 83
Elford, _inv._, 616, 617
Elford the younger, _q._, 61
"Elixir of life", 174
Elkington & Co. Ltd., 637, 639, 699
Elliott, _chk._, 573
Ellis, Douglas, 557
Ellis, H.D., _q._, 602, 603, 604
Ellis Bros., 485
Elmenhorst & Co., 482
Ely & Co., D.J., 480
Ely & Co., D.J. & Z.S., 480
Emerson, E., 501
Emerson, Edward R., _q._, 566
Emmerich Machine Factory and Iron Foundry, _pat._, 638, 639
Emo, Angelo, 27
En pergamino (grade), 261
_Encyclopedia_, Diderot, 98
_Encyclopedia Britannica_, _q._, 11, 200, 657
_Encyclopedia der Therapie_, _q._, 185
_Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy_, _q._, 704
_Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery_, _q._, 710
Engelberg, Evaristo C., _pat._, 247
Engelberg, Huller Co., 247, 471
Engelhard, Albert, 505
Engelhard, Jr., Albert, 505
Engelhard, George, 505
Engelhard, R.W., 505
Engelhard, Victor H., 505
Engelhard, Jr., Victor H., 505
Engelhard & Sons, Inc., A., 505
English, Dr., _q._, 180
English c.-pots (1714-70), 620, 621
_English Factories in India_, Foster, _q._, 2
Ennis, Frank, 515
Ensaccador, 304
Enterprise Coffee Co., 485, 508
Enterprise Mfg. Co. of Pa., 469, 471, 639, 646
Eoff, Garrett, 612
_Epicure_, _per._, 675
Eppens, Frederick P., 482
Eppens, William H., 482
Eppens, Smith & Co., 482
Eppens, Smith & Wiemann, 482
Eppens Smith & Wiemann Co., 485, 496, 499
Eppens Smith Co., 494, 496, 499
Eppens-Smith Co., 496, 499
Erdmann, _q._, 163, 183
_Erecta, C._, _hyb._, 140
Esau, 13
Escoffier (chef), 678
Escott, _q._, 87
Esménard, 548;
_q._, 8
Esperanza Coffee Co., 497
Essential oil, 163, 164
Essmueller Mill Furnish'g Co., 649
Estienne, Jacques, 548
Estrado & Co., Pedro, 340
Établissements Lauzaune (_see_ Lauzaune)
Etherege, Sir George, 569, 570
Ethridge, Tuller & Co., 508
Etiquette
Arabia, 658-663
Paris (17th century), 91
Turkey, 664-670
(_See also_ Manners and Customs)
Etruscan Coffee Pot Co., 645
Etymology, 1, 2, 3, 27
"European fiasco" (1888), 529
Evans, _pat._, 158
Evans, David G., 503
Evans, Gwynne, 503
Evans, Richard, _pat._, 624
Evans & Co., David G., 502, 503
Evans & Walker, 508, 635
Evelyn, John, _q._, 2, 40
_Evening World_, New York, _q._, 553, 554
Ewé, 160
Ewell, _q._, 165
Ex-sailing ships, 316
_Excellent Qualities of Coffee and the Art of Making It,
The_, Rumford, 621, 622
_Excelsa, C._, 142
French Indo-China, 237
Java, 217
_Excelsa_ × _liberica_, _hyb._, 146
Excelsior Mills, 501, 502
Excelso (grade), 261
Excessive use, effect of, 179
Exchange, Foreign, 336
Exchanges, Coffee, 329-337
Amsterdam, 296, 491
Antwerp, 296, 491
Baltimore, 491
Hamburg, 296, 329, 491
Havre, 296, 329, 491
London, 296, 491
New York, 329-337, 471, 491
Change of name, 474
Clearing Ass'n, 331, 335
Contract, 321
Functions, 331-338
Incorporated (1881), 471
Initiation fee, 332
Membership, 333
Organized (1881), 528
Reincorporated (1885), 471
Rio gradings, 343
Robusta dealings prohibited, 341
Seats, Sales of, 332, 333
War-time suspension, 534-537
New Orleans, 491
Rotterdam, 296, 491
Royal (New York, 1752), 120
San Francisco, 491
Santos, 306, 308, 491
Trieste, 296, 491
_Excursions through Asia-Minor_, Fellows, _q._, 667, 668
Experimental gardens (_see_ Gardens)
Exports, 276, 277
Abyssinia, 228, 229, 276, 284, 285
Aden (1921), 276
Africa, British East, 276, 285
Arabia, 282
Borneo, Brit. North, 276, 284
Brazil, 190, 275-277, 295
First (1770), 204
Largest (1906-07), 275
Central America, first to U.S., 469
Ceylon (1741-1900), 283
First (1721), 236
Largest (1873), 237
Colombia, 192, 276, 278
Costa Rica, 193, 276, 280
Cuba, 233, 282
Dominican Republic, 194, 233, 276, 281
Ecuador, 276, 278
Federated Malay States, 284
France (1921), 290
Germany (1920), 290
Gold Coast (1916-17), 276
Grenada (1916), 282
Guadeloupe, 234, 276, 282
Guatemala, 192, 276, 280
Guiana, 276, 279
Haiti, 194, 276, 281
Hawaii, 194, 241, 276, 284
Honduras, 276, 280
India, 276, 282
Indo-China, French, 237
Jamaica, 193, 276, 281
Java, 283, 294
Leeward Islands, 282
Mauritius, 285
Mexico, 193, 220, 276, 280, 281
Netherlands, 290
Netherlands E. Indies, 195, 276, 283, 295
New Caledonia, 243
Nicaragua, 276, 280
Nigeria, 276, 285
Nyasaland, 276, 285
Peru, 276, 278, 279
Philippines, 242, 284
Porto Rico, 194, 222, 276, 281
Portugal, 290
Producing countries (table), 276
Réunion, 276, 285
Salvador, 193, 276, 279, 280
Santos (1900-01), 472
Sarawak, 284
Sierra Leone, 285
Somali Coast (French), 276, 285
Somaliland, 276, 285
Straits Settlements, 238, 284
St. Vincent (1917), 282
Sumatra, 283
Tobago, 282
Trinidad, 282
United States, 301, 302
Venezuela. 190, 276-278
Extra (grade), 261
Extracts, Coffee, 169, 670, 712
First U.S. trade-mark, 469
Eyre, Henry, 482
_Faba Arabica, Carmen_, Fellon, 543
Fair-price list (Phila., 1776), 467
Fairy Cup (brand), 539
Fakr-Eddln-Aboubeckr ben Abid Iesi, 543
Fancies (Sumatra), 355
Faneuil Hall, Boston, 612
Faneuil, Peter, 612
Fantasia (grade), 261
Fantastic claims for c., 58, 433
Advertising, 439
Faris, Charles, 612
Farquhar, _q._, 587
Farr, James, _chk._, 53, 54, 62
Farrell, C.P., 508
Farrington, Campbell & Co., 508
Fat content in c., 164, 693, 715, 718, 719
Loss in roasting, 167
"Father of English C. houses," (Blount), 56
Fatigue, effect of c. on, 186
Fauldier, H., _pat._, 640
Faunce process, _pat._, 160
Faust (brand), 441, 539
Fauvel, _q._, 176
Fazenda (brand), 445
Fazendas (_see_ Plantations)
Fazendeiros, 258, 303, 304
Federal Sugar Refining Co., 123, 473
Fell & Bro., C.J., 501
Fellon, 543
Fellows, _q._, 667
Fendler-Stüber method, 172
Fenjeyl (_see_ Findjan)
Fenjyn (_see_ Findjan)
Feré, _q._, 186
Fermentation, 254
Fermented (_see_ Flavors)
Ferrari, Mary, _chk._, 118, 119
Ferris, P.J., 508
Fertilizers
Ashes, 201
Chemical determination, 155, 156
Coffee pulp, 156
Fertilizing, 202
Salvador, 219
Fiber, crude, 718
Fidelity Trust Co., 112
Fielding, Henry, 80, 89, 554, 579, 580
Fielding, John, 579
Figueroa, 543
Filter bags, care of, 707, 714, 715, 717
Filter paper, 715
Filtration
Definition, 698
Methods, 715, 716, 721
N.C.R.A. recommendations, 718
Filtration devices
Acker's "percolator" (1905), 701
Baker's cloth (1902), 647
Beurt's pneumatic, 705
Blanke's cloth (1909), 651
Boss (1881), 645
Brain's vacuum, 705
Caseneuve's paper (1824), 623
Reversed Fr. drip (1824), 699
Double glass, 637, 701, 702
Egrot's steam cloth, 708
Evans's tin air-float, 705
Gaudet's cloth, 623, 699
Half-Minute, 645
King's, for restaurants, 651
"Percolator", 701
Kin-Hee, 646, 647
Make-Right, 651, 701
Minute, 645
Napier's vacuum, _ill._, 637, 699, 700
Parker's pneumatic, 705
Platow's vacuum glass, 705
Private Estate, 649, 701
Raparlier's pocket, 637
Rapid (_see_ Rapid)
Salazar's steam-pressure urn, 653
Tricolator, 445, 651, 652, 701
Tricolette, _ill._, 654
Tru-Bru, 651, 701
Vanderweyde's "continuous", 637
Wear's patent, 651
Filtré, Café, 675
Finch, William, _q._, 36
Findjans, 31, 36, 616, 661, 662
Findlay, Paul, _q._, 421
Fine; Very fine (_see_ Grinds)
Fine Arts, C. in relation to, 587-614
Fines (England), 59
Fin-ion (_see_ Findjans)
Finishing machinery, 396
Finjans (_see_ Findjans)
Fink & Nasse Co., 502
Finney, Samuel, 126
First
Authoritative treatise, 27
Comprenenslve treatise in German, Meisner's (1721), 46
Description in print, 26
Mention by European, 5, 541
Printed mention, 25, 45
America, 105
England, 35
As "Coffe", 36
Europe, 12
France, 31
Printed treatise, 543
Written mention in Mass. (1670), 107
Fischer, B., 497
Fischer, Benedickt, 634;
_biog._, 497
Fischer, Emil, 160
Fischer, William H., 497
Fischer & Co., B., 443, 485, 497, 499
Fischer & Lansing, 499
Fischer & Lehmann, 499
Fischer & Thurber, 499
Fischer, Kirby & Brown, 497, 499
Fishback, F.C., 509
Fishback, Frank S., 509
Fishback, John S., 509
Fishback Co., 509
Fisher, George, 497
Fitch & Howland, 484
Fitzgerald, 584
Fitzpatrick, Austin C., 496
Fitzpatrick & Case, 499
Fitzpatrick & Co., A.C., 496, 499
Flanders, Geo. W., 482, 491
Flanders & Co., Geo. W., 482
Flannel sack used for infusion, 620
_Flasks and Flagons_, Saltus, _q._, 552
Flat (_see_ Flavors)
Flat-bean Santos c., 260, 341, 342, 366
Flats, 1st, 2d, 3d (grades), 258
Flaubert, Gustave, 565
Flavoring, Use in, 723, 724
Flavors, 397
Fleury, _pat._, 640
Fleury & Barker, _pat._, 638
Flint, Austin B., _q._, 176
Flint, J.G., 485, 506
Flint, W.K., 506
Flint, Wyman, 506
Flint, W. & J.G., 506, 635
Flint Bros. & Co., 501
Flint Co., J.G., 506
Flint, Evans & Co., 502, 503, 635
Floor brokers, 336, 337
_Flora de las Antillas_, Tussac, _q._, 8
Florian, _chk._, 27, 28
(_See_ Francesconi)
Flower, Henry, 126
Flugel & Popp, 502, 503
Foley, John T., 478
Folger, J.A., 514
Folger & Co., J.A., 488, 505, 506, 509
Folger, Schilling & Co., 506, 507
Folkes, Martin, 578
Folkingham, 603
Fontenelle, 94, 98, 543, 554;
_q._, 565
Food Administration, U.S.
(_See_ Government Control)
_Food and Dietetics_, Hutchinson, _q._, 179
Food and Drugs Act, U.S., 404
Food and drugs inspection, 338
Food conservation show, 386
Food use, 136, 615, 655, 693
Food value, 174, 180, 711, 712
U.S. Army, 539
_Food Values_, Locke, _q._, 180
Foote, Samuel, 85, 89, 579, 580, 581, 584
Foote & Knevals, 485
Forbes, A.E., 503;
_q._, 629, 631
Forbes, James H., 502, 503, 629, 635
Forbes, Robert M., 503, 510, 514
Force & Co., W.H., 482
Force & Co., W.S., 482
Force & Co., William H., 484
Formaleoni, Vincenzo, 27
Forrester, George R., 508
Forster, _q._, 159
Forster's _Life of Goldsmith_, _q._, 573
Forster, E.S., 508
Forsythe & Co., James, 502
Fossi & Co., 340
Foster, _q._, 2
Foster, A.C., 479
Fowler, John A., _q._, 269
Fox, 583
Francesconi, Floriono, 27
Francis, Norman, 492
Franco-American (brand), 441
François, Damame, 34
Frankel, E.M., 716
Frankel, F. Hulton, _q._, 180, 693
Franklin, Alfred, _q._, 7, 557
Franklin, Benjamin, 94, 98, 126, 467
Franklin, Samuel, 475
Franklin, Walter, 475
Franklin Tea Warehouse, 503
Fraser, _q._, 179
Fraser, David B., _pat._, 642, 644
Fraser Manufacturing Co., 644
Frederick the Great, 45;
_q._ 46
Frederick William I, 45
Fredericq, _q._, 184
Freeman, W.G., _q._, 133
Freight forwarding bureau, 323
Freight rates
Brazil to U.S. (1917-18), 535, 536
War-time, 338
_French Color Prints of the XVIII Century_, Salaman, _q._, 589
French Company of the Indies, 9
French Revolution, 100, 102, 293
French roast, 356, 388
Freund, 158
Fricke, E., _q._, 161
Frisbie & Stephens, 507
Frisi, 558
_From Tree to Cup with Coffee_, N.C.B.A., _q._, 713, 714
Fromm & Co., 482
Fruit
Beverages from, 15, 694
Food use, 15, 693, 694
Fry & Co., Henry A., 501
Fryer, _q._, 2
Fuels, 385, 386
Coal, 620
Electricity, 647, 648
Gas, 640, 643
Natural, 642
Full city roast, 388
Full difference, 331
Fullard, William, _pat._, 643
Fulton Mills, 498
Funk, C., _q._, 180
Fustian bag used for infusion, 620
Future of coffee, 585
Futures market (New York), 329
Fuzelier, _q._, 594
G.G. (hall mark; _see_ Garthorne, G.)
Gaa Paa, _v._, 316
Gabriel, Angel, 15, 23
Legend, 38
Gaffney, Hugh, 497, 498
Gage, H.N., 505
Gainsborough, Thomas, 84, 583
Galen, 11
Galla (_see_ Eating coffee)
Galland, Antoine, 31, 543, 548, 557;
_q._, 2, 12, 16, 20, 22
_Gallienii, C._, 147
Caffein content, 161
Galt, Herbert, _pat._, 652
Galuppi, 556
Gambetta, 96
Gandais, J.A., _pat._, 625, 699, 708
Ganse, John H., 507
Garair (Arabian bale), 266
Gardell, Theodore, 85, 584
Gardens
Botanical
Amsterdam, 6, 44
Arabia, royal, 34
Paris (Jardin des plantes), 6
Martinique (Jardin Desclieux), 9
Experimental
Bangelan (Java), 138, 146, 345
Camayenne (Fr. Guinea), 146
Indo-China, French, 237
Java, 43, 215
Pleasure (New York), 121, 123, 124
Cherry, 124
Contoit's, 124
New York, 124
Niblo's, _ill._, 121, 124
Ranelagh, 124
Sans Souci, 124
Vauxhall, _ill._, 123, 124
Tea (London), 80, 82, 83
Adam and Eve, 83
Bagnigge Wells, 83
Bayswater, 83
Canonbury House, 83
Copenhagen House, 83
Cuper's, 82
Dog and Duck, 83
Highbury, 83
Hornsey, 83
Jews' Harp, 83
Marylebone, 82
New Spring Gardens, 82
Ranelagh, _ill._, 81, 82, 83
Spring Gardens, 82
Vauxhall, _ill._, 81, 82
White Conduit House, 83
Garrick, David, 80, 81, 85, 88, 569, 574, 579, 580, 583;
_q._, 573
Garrick, David (Mrs.), 579
Garrick, Westphal & Co., S.B., 476
Garrison, C.H., 508
Garrondona, J.L., 340
Garth, Sir Samuel, 576, 578
Garthorne, Francis, 601
Garthorne, George, 601, 602
Garway (_see_ Garraway)
Gas roasting, 385, 386
Gaskell, Mrs., 582
Gasser, M.H., 510, 511, 513, 514
_Gastronomy as a Fine Art_, Brillat-Savarin, _q._, 557
Gates, H., 505
Gates, John W., 519
Gates & Co., A.B., 508
Gaudet, _pat._, 623, 699
Gaudron, 543
Gautier, Théophile, 98, 102, 565
_Gazette_, London, _newsp._, 585
_Gazette de France_, _per._, _q._, 8
Gay, John, _q._, 575, 577
Gee, Edward, _pat._, 634
Geiger, Frank J., 509
Geiger-Fishback Co., 509
Geiger-Tinney Co., 508, 509
Gelabert, José Antonio, 9
Gemaleddin, Sheik, 16, 541
Genius fostered by c., 557
Geographical distribution, 189-195
George III, 106, 117, 583
George V, 601
George & Co., P.T., 485
Georgi, Theophilo, 45, 433
Gephart, _q._, 180
Gerard, (French minister), 130
German Trading Co., 527
Germicidal properties, 180
Germination, 5, 138
Gérôme, Jean Léon, 591, 656
Ghiradelli & Co., D., 505
Giacomini, Luigi, _pat._, 648
Gibbon, Edward, 81, 583
Gilbert, Colgate, 494
Gilbert & Co. Colgate, 498
Gillet, Frère, 144
Gillett, A.B., 508
Gilles, E.J., _q._, 408
Gillies, James W., 495;
_biog._, 494
Gillies, Wright, 497;
_biog._, 494
Gillies & Bro., Wright, 494, 495, 499
Gillies & Co. Inc., E.J., 495, 499, 501
Gillies Coffee Co., 494, 495, 499
Gilman, George F., 479, 485
Gimborn, Theo. von, 638;
_pat._, 639
Glazes and coatings, 170
Glazing
Arbuckle's patent, 522
Effects, 167
Italy, 686
Machinery, 396
Glines, J.T. & N., 501
Globe Mills, 496, 497, 499, 526
Gloria, Café, 683
Glover, Force & Co., 482
Glyceral as sweetening, 165
Glynn, Martin J., 482
Glynn & Co., Martin J., 482
_Godey's Lady's Book_, _per._, _q._, 711
Goed Vrouw, _v._, 317
Goetzinger, M.E., _q._, 521
Gold and Silversmiths' Soc., 609
Golden Gate (brand), 441
Golden Sun (brand), 441
Golden Wedding (brand), 441
Golden West (brand), 441
Goldoni Carlo, 28, 555, 588;
_q._, 556
Goldsmith, Oliver, 80, 81, 85, 88, 568, 574, 579, 582, 584
"Retaliation", 573
Goldtree, Liebes & Co., 488
Goldsworthy, William G., _pat._ 702
_Goodhousekeeping_, _per._, _q._, 175, 176, 182
Gomez, Juan Antonio, 9, 221
Gordon, Douglas, _pat._, 248
Gordon, Fred P., 478
Gordon, G.O., 485, 486
Gordon, John, _pat._, 246
Gordon & Co., Fred P., 478
Gordon & Co., Geo. O., 486
Gordon & Co., John, 246
Gorter, _q._, 156, 159, 160
Gothot, Ferd., 639
Gottlieb, 185
Gould (chemist), _q._, 167, 168
Gould, George J., 519
Gouverneur, Isaac, 475
Gouverneur, Nicholas, 475
Gourewitsch, _q._, 176
Gout, strange remedy for, 182
Government (brand), 434
Government control, War-time, 338, 474, 534-538
Government Monopoly
Java, 213, 214
Netherlands E. Ind., 44, 283, 312
Grace & Co., W.R., 442, 482, 488, 489
Grade, Basic (N.Y. Exch.), 329, 335
Graders (N.Y. Exch.), 333
Grades, 258
Colombia, 260
Mocha, 351
New York, 329
Porto Rico, 264
São Paulo, 260
U.S. (prohibited), 337
Grading
Brazil, 304, 306
Hand, 258
Machinery, 246-248, 258, 383
Machine (Van Gulpen's), 638
New York Exchange, 333
Santos, 304
Grafe, _q._, 164
Grafting (_see_ Propagation)
Gragé (_see_ Peaberry)
Graham, _q._, 153
Gram, _pat._, 158
_Grand concern of England explained_, _pamph._, 72
Grandin, 708
Granger & Co., 508
Granger & Hodge, 508
Grant, U.S., 563
Grassy (_see_ Flavors)
Gray, Arthur, _q._, 552, 553, 713
Gray, Louis R., 446
Gray, Thomas, 80
Great American Tea Co., 479, 499
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 417, 479, 485, 499
Premiums, 429
Great Boom (_see_ Booms), 528, 529
Great London Tea Co., 435
_Greeks of the Present Day_, About, _q._, 685
Green, William, 492
Green coffee marks, _ill._, 338, 340
Green Dragon c. urn, 613, 614
Greene, Richard A., _pat._, 652, 653
Greenwood, Paul, 71
Gregory, _chk._, 93
Grenier, Dufougeret, 9
Grever & Bro., 501
Grévy, François Paul Jules, 566
Griebel, _q._, 159
Griffiths & Co., J., 508
Grigor & Co., T.S., 508
Grinding
Arabia, 658-662
Australia, 692
Greece, 685
Household
England, 695, 696, 704, 705
Greece, 685
United States, 711
Steel cut, 714
New Zealand, 692
Grinding and packing, 167, 168
Grinding machinery, 400-402, 615-654
Chronology, 643-654
Commercial
Burstone Mills, 637
France, 680
Greece, 685
Household, 615-620
First French patent, 625
Grinding machines
Household
Book's (1665), 617
Bronson's patent (1903), 647
Bruff's patent (1798), 621
Clark's hand-mill (1832), 625
Colaux's patent (1829), 625
Dearman's patent (1779), 621
Electric (first, 1897), 471
First English patent, 634
First U.S. patent, 468, 621
Herbert's patent (1848), 634
Kenrich's mill (1815), 624
Lacoux' combined roaster and grinder, 625, 627
Moore's mill (1813), 623
Morgan's glass-Jar mill, 645
Hand mills, 644, 645
N.C.R.A. Home Mill (1915), _ill._, 652, 714
Parker's hand mill (1832), 625
Rittenhouse's hand-mill, 627
Selden's hand-mill (1831), 625
Stillman's "mica window", 627
Stowe's hand mill, 644
Strowbridge's box mill, 644
Turkish combination, 670
Van Vliet's hand mill, 634
Webb's box mill (1878), 644
Wilson's steel mill (1818), 623
Retail
Dell's store mill, 644
Morgan's patent (1919), 653
Wholesale
Barbor mill, 637
Burns's granulator, 637, 652
Ideal steel-cut mill (1916), 652
Knickerbocker (1882), 645
Grinds, 401, 402
Coarse and fine compared, 167
Comparative test (1917), 716
Definitions, 714
Greek preferences, 685
Irregular (King's patent), 167, 402, 474, 716
Griswold, H.F., 502
Grocer helps, 412
Grocers Engineering and Whitmee, Ltd., 640, 641, 642
Grocers, Retail, no. in U.S., 415
Grocery stores, 422, 423
Model c. departments, 415, 418
Groff & Co., Charles R., 508
Grohens, A.P., 646, 649
Gros, 589
Gross, March & Co., 479
Grossman, George A., 506
Grossman, William, 506
Grossman & Co., William, 506
Grossman Co., Wm., 506
Groundy (_see_ Flavors)
Growths, French preferences, 680
Gruner, Siegfried, 478
Gruner & Co., 530
Gruner & Co., S., 478
Gruppe, Charles P., 593
Guadeloupes (c.), 350, 363
Guam c., 355, 375
_Guardian_ (Lond.), _per._, 80;
_q._, 576
Guardiola, José, _pat._, 247
Guatemalas (c.), 347, 359, 360
Guildhall museum, 62, 602
Guillasse, Dr., _q._, 181
Guineas (c.), 353, 378
Gump Company, B.F., 474, 652
Gutteridge, Mary, _chk._, 108
Gutteridge, Robert _chk._, 108
Guy, Francis, 593
G. Washington's Prepared (brand), 538
Gwynn (architect), 584
Haas, Kalman, 482
Haas Bros, 482, 488
Haase, Heinrich, 484
Habit-forming: c. is not, 176, 186
Habitat, 133, 291
_Hacendado Mex. El_, _q._, 156
Haciendas (_see_ Plantations)
Hackfeld & Co., Ltd., H., 488
Haddon, _q._, 159
Hadrot, _pat._, 621, 622, 699
Haebler & Co., 485
Haehnlen Bros., 508
Haeussler, August, 480
Hagar, 18
Hahnemann, Samuel, _q._, 175
Haimi-Harazi c., 351, 368
Haitis (c.), 350, 362
Hakimani, 17
Hakluyt Society, 1, 2
Half difference, 321
Halifax, Lord, 577
Hall, G.M., 502
Hall, I.W., _q._, 184
Hall, Robert (Rev.), 556
Hall & Co., Martin L., 501
Halla, Wm., 488
Halley, Dr., 582
Halligan, T.F., 513
Hallmarks, 601, 602, 607
Hals, Frans, 587
Halsey, R.T. Haines, 607, 609
Halstead, Charles, _pat._, 470, 644
Hamakua c., 356, 375
Hamberger-Polhemus Co., 488
Hamill, David B., 509
Hamill, Smith, 509
Hamill & Co., S., 508, 509
Hamilton Alexander, 130;
duel, 123
Hamilton, Duke of, 572
Hamlin, Mary P., 130;
_q._, 556
Hamor, W.A., _pat._, 406, 539
Hamsley, M.F., _pat._, 642
Hanauer, Herman, 482
Hanauer, Moses G., 482
Hanausek, _q._, 147, 159
Handbills, 432-435
First (Rosée's, 1652), 54
_Handbook of Medical Science_, _q._, 182
_Handbuch der Physiologie_, _q._, 177
Hanley, John, 480
Hanley & Co., Geo. F., 508
Hanley & Kinsella, 480
Hanley & Kinsella Coffee and Spice Co., 485, 502
Hannes, Edward, 572
Harari c., 353, 376
Harari longberry c., 353
Hard, Anson Wales, 480
Hard & Rand, 477, 480, 484
Pacific Mail strs. chartered, 486
Harding, Warren G. (Mrs.), 567
Hare, _q._, 183
Hargreaves, C.F., _pat._, 247
Harkness, _q._, 176
Harley, 573
Harnack, 158
_Harper's Weekly_, _q._, 16
Harriman, E.H., 519
Harrington, Elizabeth, 614
Harrington, James, 60
Harris (actor), 574
Harris, Benj., 108
Harris, Samuel L., 492
Harris, Wm. B., 390, 492, 716
Harrison, D.Y., 503, 629
Harrison, W.H., 503
Harrison & Co., W.H., 503
Harrison & Wilson, 503
Harsh Santos c., 341
Hartford Steam Coffee & Spice Mills, 508
Hartwich, _q._, 147
Hart & Howell, 477
Harvard University
Bureau of Business Research 418, 428
Harvest time, 249, 250
Harvey, Eliab, 40
Harvey, Gideon, _q._, 58
Harvey, William, 40
Harwood, 581
Hassey, Cornelius, 492
Hatch & Jenks, 508
Hatches, Major, _chk._, 112
Hatfield c. pots, 607
Hatton, Edward, _q._, 54
Haulenbeek, Jr., John W., 497
Haulenbeek, Sr., John W., 497
Haulenbeek, Peter 494, 497, 499
Haulenbeek & Co., John W., 497
Haulenbeek & Mitchell, 499
Haulenbeek Roasting & Milling Co., 499
Havemeyer, Henry O., 506, 521, 523
Havemeyers, The, 470
Hawaiian c., 355, 375
Hawk, Philip B., _q._, 177, 182
Hawkins, Sir John, _q._, 579
Hawkins, Thomas, 505
Hawkins & Thornton, 505
Haworth & Dewhurst, 507
Haydon, 84, 583
Haye, de la, 31
Hayes, John (and Mrs.), 505
Hayman, 583
Hayward, George W., 508
Hayward, Martin, 501
Hayward & Co., 501
Hazlitt, Carew W., _q._, 28
Hazlitt, William, 557
Heading, 389
Health, Effect on, 174-188
Favorable 23, 38, 42, 72, 557, 558, 562
Unfavorable, 38, 46
_Health and longevity through Rational Diet_, Lorand, _q._, 182
Heart, Effect on, 181
Hébert, 94
Hedging, 329, 335
Heekin, Albert E., 503
Heekin, James, 503
Heekin, James J., 503
Heekin, Robert E., 503
Heekin & Co., James, 503
Heekin Co., 503
Heekin Co., James, 503, 651
Heekin Co., James J., 503
Heekin Spice Co., 503
Hekem, _chk._, 19
Hekteon, _q._, 178
Helen (of Troy), 12
Hellmann Bros. & Co., 487, 488
Hellsten, _q._, 186
_Hemileia vastatrix_ (_see_ Diseases)
Henckel, James, _pat._, 245
Hendershot, Peter, 508
Henneman, Karel F., _pat._, 639, 640
Henrici, F.H., 511
Henrion, _pat._, 621
Henry IV, 60
Hentz & Co., Henry, 482
_Herald_, New York, _newsp._, _q._, 185
_Herald of Health_, _per._, _q._, 181
Herbert, Luke, _pat._, 634
Herbert, Sir Thomas, 1, 2, 543;
_q._, 38
Herklotz, Corn & Co., 482
Hertford, Countess of, 570
Hess, H.P., 508
Hewitt, Jr., Robert, 557
Hewitt, Jr., Robert C., 480
Hewitt, H.H., 507
Hewitt & Phyfe, 480
Hickey, 574
Hidey (_see_ Flavors)
High roast, 388
Higgins & Co., Geo. W., 501
Hignette, _pat._, 640
Hildreth, A.G., 480
Hill, John (Dr.), 576, 580
Hill Bros., 471
Hill, Dwinell & Co., 501
Hill & Thornley, 501
Hillis Plantation Co., 501
Hinchman & Howard, 508
Hind, Rolph & Co., 488
Hinkle, Henry, 501
Hinz, F.W., 503
Hippocrates, 11, 12
Hire Co., Charles G., 539
Hires' Soluble (brand), 539
Hirsch, _q._, 186
_Historia Vitae et Mortis_, Bacon, _q._, 38, 543
_History and Antiquities of the City of Boston_, Drake, _q._, 108
_History and Reminiscences of Lower Wall Street_, Wakeman, 478
_Historical and chronological deduction of the origin of commerce_,
Anderson, 72
_History of Am. Manufactures_, Bishop, _q._, 105, 115, 125
_History of Literature_, Routh, _q._, 561
_History_ (of Phila.), Scharf & Westcott, _q._, 126
Hlasiwetz, _q._, 159, 165
Hobart Electric Mfg. Co., 646, 652
Hobart Mfg. Co., 646
Hobson-Jobson, _q._, 1, 2
Hoch, _q._, 186
Hodges, Alderman, 53, 54
Hodges, Dr., 58
Hodhat, Kadhi, _q._, 663
Hoepner, 472
Hoffman, Daniel H., 505
Hoffman, Lee & Co., 485
Hogarth, William, 80, 84, 576, 578, 579, 581, 583, 587, 593
Holbrook, E.F., 539
Holland (_see_ Netherlands)
Holland, Charles H., 501
Holland Coffee Co., 497, 501
Hollingworth, H.L., _q._, 176, 185, 186
Caffein investigations 187, 188
Holman & Co., 509
Holmes, F.T., 471, 472, 641, 642;
_pat._, 643
Holstad, S., 509
Holstad, S.H., 514
Holstad & Co., S., 509
Holstad & Co., S.H., 443
_Home_, Chamberlain, _q._, 563
Home Economics Laboratories, Un. of Kansas, 714
_Home, Life of_, Mackenzie, _q._, 86
Homer, 12
Homeyer, H.L., 510
Honduras c., 347, 360
Honey in c., 105
Hookah, 668
Hoole, 575
Hoopes, B.F., 508
Hoover, Herbert, 536, 537
Hope, G.W., _pat._, 649
Horace, 543
Horn, William L., 509
Horner & Co., Henry, 502
Horter, John, 506
Hotel Astor (brand), 441, 465
Hotels
London
Cecil, _ill._, 675
Piccadilly, 675
Richardson's, 576
Sabloniere, 583
Savoy, _ill._, 675, 677
Tavistock, 580
Waldorf, _ill._, 675
New York
Ambassador, 691
Astor House, 690
City, 121
Waldorf-Astoria, 690, 691
Philadelphia
Mansion House, 130
Houghton, _q._, 40
_Houghton's collection_ (1698), _q._, 54
House-boat coffee house, 89
Howard, _q._, 159
Howell, James, 40;
_q._, 58
Howell, Son & Co., B.H., 479
Howells, William Dean, _q._, 548, 549, 567
Howland & Aspinwall, 476
Hoyt & Co., W.M., 485, 502
Huatusco c., 345, 358
Huber & Stendel, 508
Hubner, _pat._, 162
Hudson, D.D., 507
Hudson, Thomas, 84, 584
Hudson & Co., H.C., 507
Hudson-Fulton celebration, 607
Hudson Mills, 497
Huestis & Hamilton, 508
Hughes, Charles E., 332
Hugo, Victor, 98, 565
Hull, John, 607
Hulling machinery, 245, 246, 247, 248, 255, 256
Bucket and beam crusher, 260
Costa Rica, 264
First U.S. patent, 245, 469
Smout's, 257
Hulls, beverage from, 655, 658, 694
(_See_ Husks)
Hulls and pulp, beverage from, 15
Hulman, H., 508
_Humboltiana, C._, 147
Caffein content, 161
Hume (_pseud._ of Voltaire), 556
Humphrey, _chk._, 121
Humphreys, H.M., 482
Humphry (appr. to Bowman), 54
Hungerford, G.S., _pat._, 644
Hungerford, G.W., _pat._, 644
Hungerford Co., 644
Hunt, Leigh, 550, 557;
_q._, 562, 578
Hunt, Mathew, 503, 631
Huntington, L.M., _q._, 155
Huntley Mfg. Co., 248, 472, 642, 643
Huntoon & Towner, 501
Hurd, Jacob, 612
Husks, beverage from, 26, 156, 231
(_see_ Hulls)
Husted, Ferguson & Titus, 482
Hutchins, John, _chk._, 116, 117
Hutchinson, _chk._, 109
Hutchinson, Edward, 112
Hutchinson, Gov., 109
Hutchinson, Jonathan, _q._, 175, 177, 179
Hutchinson, Woods, _q._, 176, 177, 180
Hybrids, 138, 140, 146, 236
Hyde, _chk._, 122
Hyde, E.J., _pat._, 634
Hydrolysis, 719
Ibrik, (boiler), 31, 615, 656, 658, 668, 695, 696
Ibriq (_see_ Ibrik)
Iced c., 724
Ichtoglan, 22
Ideals, Coffee, 585
_Illustrated History of English Plate_, Jackson, _q._, 601, 602, 603
Imbusch, J.F.W., 506
Importers
Baltimore (Brazil c., 1894), 485
New Orleans (no., 1900-20), 491
New York, 475-482
Brazil c. (1894), 484
Number (1900-20), 491
Phila. (number 1900-20), 491
U.S., Brazil branches, 304
San Francisco, 487, 488
Number (1900-20), 491
(_See_ Dealers, Wholesale)
Importing ports
Amsterdam, 327
Antwerp, 327
Baltimore, 482, 484
Hamburg, 327
Havre, 327
New Orleans, 296, 482, 484
New York, 296, 476, 482, 484
Rotterdam, 327
San Francisco, 296, 482, 484
Imports
Aden (for re-export), 282
Argentine (1919), 291
Australia, 239, 291
Austria-Hungary (1913-17,) 290
Ceylon, 282
Chile (1920), 291
Cuba, 281, 282, 291
Denmark (1921), 290
Fed. Malay States (1920), 284
Finland (1921), 290
France, 32, 33, 290, 291
Germany (1920), 290
Italy, 290
Martinique, 282
Netherlands, 290, 294
Early, 43, 44, 291
New Orleans, 482, 484-487
New York (1881), 528
(1900-20), 480, 484
New Zealand (1920), 291
Norway (1921), 290
Panama, 280
Portugal (1919), 290
San Francisco, 325, 482, 484, 488, 489
Spain (1920), 290
Straits Settlements (1920), 284
Sweden (1921), 290
Union of So. Africa (1920), 291
United States, 296, 299-302
Brazil c., 296, 468, 475
Early, 468, 475
First in Am. vessels, 468
Value (1919-21), 299-302
Venice, early, 27
Impotence, C. and, 23, 46, 71
Inchbald, Mrs., 578
Indiana Coffee Co., 485
Indias (c.), 351, 369
_Indigena, C._ (Maragogipe), 345
Indirect flame, 642, 646
Indo-China c., 352, 370, 371
Industrial exhibition (1921), 654
_Influence des cafés sur les moeurs politiques_, Salvandy, _q._, 100
_Influence of Alcohol and Other Drugs on Fatigue_, Rivers, _q._, 186
Infusion, defined, 698
Infusion devices
Bencini's condenser (1838), 625
Biggin (1817), 624, 699, 710, 712
Dakin's cloth-bag, 633, 645
Denobe's pharmacological-chemical (1802), 621, 699
Donmartin's flannel sack (1763), 620, 697
Duparquet's muslin strainer, 644
Etruscan (1887-88), 645
First French (1711), 696, 697
Halstead's china-lined metal, 644
L'Aine's Diligence (1763), 620
Martelley's condenser, 624, 625
Rapid (_see_ Rapid)
Old Dominion (1856), 625, 710
Rowland's condenser (1844), 625
Triumph, 699
Ingram, Margaret A., 593
Inner-heated roasting machines, 386
Insomnia caused by c., 176
_Inspector_, London, _per._, 579
Inspectors at ports of entry
Favored by N.C.R.A., 513
In-store contract, 331
Intellectual drink, The, 566
_Intelligence_, _per._, _q._, 59
International Coffee Congress (1902), 472
Internationalized by French, C., 585
Introduction, beverage
Aleppo (1532), 19
American colonies (1668), 708
Arabia, 11, 12
Austria (1693), 49
Cairo (1510), 16
Constantinople (1517), 19, 291
Damascus (1530), 19
England (1637), 35-42
Europe (1615), 25-30
France (1644), 31-34
Germany (1670), 45-47
Italy (1615), 25, 26
London, 58
Marseilles (1644), 31, 291
Mecca (1470-1500), 16
Medina (1470-1500), 16
Netherlands (1616), 43-44
New York (1668), 115-124
North America (1660-70), 105-113
Oxford (1637), 40
Paris (1657), 31, 91
Persia, 21
Philadelphia (1682), 125-130
Venice (1615), 25, 291
Vienna (1693), 49-52
Invisible supply (N.C.R.A.), 514
Ireland, Augustus, 479
Ireland, Sam, 81, 576, 578, 593
Irregular grind, King's patent, 167, 402, 716
Irrigation
Abyssinia, 197
Arabia, 197, 231
Mexico, 222
Irving, Washington, _q._, 317
Isenberg, Paul, 519
Ishmael, 18
Israel, Leon, 482, 532
Israel & Bros., Leon, 442, 482
Italian roast, 356, 388
Ittel, _pat._, 640
Jackson, Charles James, _q._, 600, 601, 602
Jackson, S., 486
Jackson, W.F., 485
Jackson & Co., 499
Jacob, _chk._, 41, 42, 53
Jacquand, 591
Jaeckle, _q._, 163
Jagenberg Machine Co., Inc., 472
Jalapa c., 345, 358
Jamaica c., 350, 362
James, James, _chk._, 127
James, Mrs., _chk._, 127
Jamison, Catherine Arbuckle, 524
Jamison, Robert, 524
Jamison, Wm. Arbuckle, 523, 524
Janney, Jr. & Co., B.S., 501
_Jardin Desclieux, Inauguration de_, _q._, 9
Fort de France, 9
Jardin des plantes, Paris, 6
Jardin, Edélestan, _q._, 2, 3, 6, 14, 16, 27, 32, 557, 565, 629, 695, 708
Jarvie, James N., 479, 523, 524
Java c., 353, 355, 373, 374
Jause, 50
Jay Cooke panic, 527
Jefferson, Thomas, 130
Jeffreys, Judge, 570
Jenkins & Bro., T.C., 507
Jennings, Constantine, _chk._, 61, 582
(_See_ Constantine, George)
Jewel Tea Co., 417
Jewett & Sherman, 506
Jewett, Sherman & Co., 506
Jobson, Cirques, _chk._, 41
Johns, Benjamin, _chk._, 112
Johnson, James D., 495
_Johnson, Life of_, Boswell, _q._, 567
Johnson, Samuel, 80, 81, 88, 89, 557, 567, 568, 569, 574, 577, 583, 585;
_q._, 561
Johnson & Co., Theo. F., 508, 635
Johnson Automatic Sealer Co., 472
Johnson-Locke Merc. Co., 488
Johnston, Herbert L., _pat._, 646, 652
Johnston, W.T., _pat._, 642
Johnston, William, 501
Johnston & Co., E., 445, 486
Johnston, Gordon & Co., 486
Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee, 489, 443, 445-459, 474
Booklets, 455
Brewing, 717, 718
Coffee Club, 453, 455
Information service, 453
Membership, 448
Organized (1919), 474, 514
Program, 514
Recipes, 723, 724
Scientific research, 453, 457
Jones, Dorothy, 107, 108, 467
Jones, J.F., 507
Jones, W.T., 505, 511, 513
Jones, Webster, 515
Jones & Co., S.L., 488
Jones Bros., 501
Jonson, Ben, 60
Joseph, _chk._, 93
_Joseph Andrews_, Fielding, 80
Joteyko, _q._, 186
Joubert, 96
Jourdain, John, _q._, 1, 2
_Journal Am. Chem. Soc._, _q._, 155, 160
_Journal Am. Med. Ass'n_, _per._, _q._, 175, 185
_Journal d' Antoine Galland_, _q._, 2
_Journal of Assoc. Agric. Chem._, _per._, _q._, 169
_Journal of the Franklin Institute_, _q._, 711, 712
_Journal of the Gen. Assembly of the Colony of New York_ (1709), _q._, 117
_Journal of Pharmachol._, _per._, _q._, 184
_Journal_, Revett, _q._, 2
_Journey through England_, Mackay, 75
Julian, sec. to the Muses, 574
Julien (of Gobelins), 567
Jurgens, _pat._, 167
Kadoe c., 355, 373
Kaffa, 3
Kaffa coffee, 228, 229
Kaffee Hag Corp., 473
Kaffee-klatsch (first), 45, 433, 683
Kaffee-sieder, 50, 51
Kahoueh, 3
Kahua, 3
Kahvedjibachi, 20, 22
Kahveji, 665
Kahwa, 3
Kahwah, 15
Kahwah (coffee-room), 657, 658, 662
Kahwe, 45
Kair Bey, 17
Kaldi, 14, 15
Kaltenbach, George, 476, 529
Kant, Immanuel, 562
Kaspar, Adam J., 502
Kato, Sartori, 471, 538
Kato Coffee Co., 538
Kavah, 2
Kaveh, 1
Kaveh kanes, 17
(_See also_ Coffee houses)
Kavveghi, 22
Kawih, 11
Keable, B.B., _q._, 181, 182
Keats, John, 549;
_q._, 550
Keen, William, _chk._, 120
Keen's Chop House, 498
Kelly, George, 501
Kelly, H.D., _pat._, 472, 649
Kemble, John, 581
Kendrick, F.G., 507
Kenny, C.D., 508
Kenrich, Archibald, _pat._, 624
Kentucky coffee tree, 564
_Kentucky Warbler, The_, Allen, _q._, 564
Kerr, Mary Alice, 523
Khawah (_see_ Kahwah)
_Kickleburys on the Rhine_, Thackeray, _q._, 563
Kidde, Frank, 479
Kidneys, effect on, 175, 181
Kilgour & Taylor, 503
Kimball, O.G., 527, 528
King, Dr., _q._, 584
King, John E., 513, 539, 701, 720;
_pat._, 167, 474, 651;
_q._, 168, 402, 716
(_See also_ Irregular grind)
King, Moll, _chk._, 581, 587
King, Thomas, _chk._, 581
King, Tom, _chk._, 587
King Coffee Products Corp., 539
King of American breakfast table, 107
King of perfumes, 565
_Kingdom's Intelligencer_, London, _per._, _q._, 433, 582
Kipfel, 50
Kirby, James H., 480
Kirby & Halstead, 480
Kirby, Halstead & Chapin, 480
Kirby, Halstead & Chapin Co., 485
Kirkland, A., 480
Kirkland, W.J., 480
Kirkland & von Sacks, 480
Kirkland Bros., 478, 480
Kisher, 231, 266, 655, 658
Method of preparing, 694
Kissing the cheeks, 387
Kitchen, James, _chk._, 130
_Kitchen Directory and American Housewife_, _q._, 709
Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 578
Knickerbocker & Cooke, 499
Knickerbocker Mills, 496
Knickerbocker Mills Co., 496
Knight, Eberman & Co., 507
Knowles, Cloyes & Co., 502
Knowlys, Thomas John, _pat._, 633
Knudsen & Co., P.J., 488
Koch, _q._, 186
Kock, Paul de, 565
Koenig & Co., J. Henry, 503
Kohwah, 12
Kolschitzky Franz George, _chk._, 49, 50, 51, 590
Introduces c. to Vienna, 50
Portrait, _ill._, 51
Statue, _ill._, 50, 599
Wife (Ursula), 51
Kolster & Co., 340
Kona c., 356, 375
Kooman, G.W., _pat._, 649
_Koran_, _q._, 15, 20
Kosmos Line, 489
Kraepelin, _q._, 186
Krag-Reynolds Co., 502
Kraut, Adolph, 471
Kreiser, Alexander W., 509
Kreissel, Fillip, 538
Kroberger, Charles, 501
Kroe c., 355, 371
Krout, J.M., 503
Krull, _pat._, 247
Krupp A.G. Grusonwerk, Fried, 247
Kuchelmeister, F., _pat._, 647
Kuhlemeir, Fred J., _pat._, 648
Kuhlke, George F., 482
Kunhardt, Henry, 482
Kunhardt & Co., 482
Kuprili, Grand Vizier, 20, 21 49, 71, 664
Labaree & Co., J.H., 480, 482, 484
Labeling machinery, 403
Labels, law affecting, 410
Labor
Angola, 268
Arabia, 266
Arbuckle business, 524, 525, 526
Brazil, 207, 260, 261, 293, 445, 530, 531
Colombia, 260
Guadeloupe, 233
Guatemala, 219
Guianas, 236
Honduras, 234
Java, 269, 271
Mexico, 263, 264
Nicaragua, 264
Netherlands E.I., 283, 293, 294
Salvador, 217
Sumatra, 269
Venezuela, 263
West Indies, 293
Lacedæmonian (_see_ Black broth), 13
La Chaussée, 94
La Coux, François Réné, _pat._, 627
La Guaira c., 348
La Roque, Jean, 31, 32, 34, 543, 557;
_q._, 5, 15, 33, 197, 245, 542, 565, 616, 694, 695
La Seine c.-pot, 607
Lactation, Effect on, 177, 178
_Ladies Home Journal_, _per._, 177;
_q._, 709
_Ladies Home Magazine_, _per._, _q._, 709, 710
Lahey, B., 480
L'Ainé, _inv._, 620
Lait, Café au, 691, 696
Lally, Albert V., _q._, 570
Lamb, Charles, _q._, 550
Lamb (Folger, Schilling & Co.), 506
Lambert, Joseph, 642, 646, 471, 472
Lambert Food & Machinery Co., 646
Lambert Machine Co., 649
_Lamboray, C._, 144
_Lancet_, _per._, _q._, 179
Landanabileo, _q._, 181
Landers, Frary & Clark, 472, 644, 647, 648, 649, 653, 701
Langfeld, 186
Langius, 543
Lantern Slides, 443
Lantern-shaped c.-pot, 602, 603, 604, 619
Lapicque, _q._, 184
Larousse, _q._, 91
Lascelles & Co., A.S., 482
Last-bag notice, New York, 321
Lastreto & Co., 488
Lathrop & Co., C.D., 484, 485
Laud, Archbishop, 41
Laughlin & Co., J.W., 508
Laurens, _pat._, 623, 694
Laurent, Emil, 144
_Laurentii, C. (robusta)_, 142, 144
_Laurentii Gillet, C._, 142
_Laurina, C._, _hyb._, 138
Lauzaune, _pat._, 640
Lauzaune, Établissements, 625, 646
Lavado (grade), 261
Lawrence, George W., 535, 537
Lawrence & Van Zandt, 476
Lawton, Frederick, _q._, 557
Lawton, William, _inv._, 641, 651
Lazear, Jesse, 508
Lead number, 159, 513
Leaf-blight (_see_ Diseases)
Leaves, beverage from, 133, 694
Le Candiot, _chk._, 93
Le Conte, _q._, 178
Le Gantois, _chk._, 93
Le Morgan Coffee Co., 508
Le Page, Jules, _pat._, 474, 652
Leclerc, 96
Lee, H.H., 508
Lee & Murbach, 502
Leech, John, 582
Lefévre, 96
Légal, 96
Legendary origin (_see_ Origin), 541
Leggett & Co., Francis H., 398, 480, 482, 494
Legislative com. on speculations, N.Y., 322
Lehmann, Julius, _q._, 70, 183
Lemare, 708
Lemierre, 94
Lemmon & Son, 507
Lemon in c. (Russia), 686
Lemonade venders, 670
(_See also_ Pedling)
Lensing, J.H., 638
Leo XIII, Pope, _q._, 549
Leone, 579
Leopold, Emperor, 49
Lepper, _q._, 145
L'Estrange, 59
Lester, George C., _pat._, 472, 647
_Lettre sur l'Origine et le Progres du Café_, Galland, _q._, 12
Leven, 185
Levering, William T., 484, 485
Levering & Co., E., 484, 485, 508
Levinthal, _q._, 185
Levy, Florence N., _q._, 607
Levy & Co., M.M., 485
Lewin-Meyer Co., 488
Lewis, Charles, 503;
_pat._, 646
Lewis, Teacle Wallace, 480
Lewis & Co., T.W., 480
Liberian c., 353, 378
_Liberica, C._
Allied Species, 142, 144
Botanical description, 140, 142
Colombia, 211
Dutch Guiana, 236
Federated Malay States, 238
French Indo-China, 237
Guadeloupe, 234
Java, 215, 216
Liberia, 229
Trees to acre, 230
Netherlands E.I. (1920), 283
United States imports, 341
Liberty Boys, 120
Licenses
Boston
Coffee-house, 108
First, Dorothy Jones, 107
England
Coffee-house, 59
First royal warrant, 59
France (first, 1692), 34
Germany, 46, 293
Mecca, coffee-house, 18
Philadelphia, coffee-house, 18
United States
First (1670), 467
War-time (1917-18), 338, 534
Württemberg, 47
Lichty, George E., 535
Lidgerwood, John, _pat._, 246
Lidgerwood, Wm. Van V., _pat._, 246, 247
Lidgerwood Mfg. Co., Ltd., 246
Liebig, Baron von, 682, 684, 685, 687;
_q._, 711
Liebreich, _q._, 185
Lievre, Frick & Co., 506
_Life of Addison_, Johnson, _q._, 561
_Life of Home_, Mackenzie, _q._, 86
_Life of Johnson_, Boswell, _q._, 567
Light roast, 356, 387, 388
Lightfoot, Alexander, _chk._, 120
Lilly (astrologer), 69
Limbird, John, 585
Limonáji, 670
Linn, A.R. & W.F., 508
Lins, Albuquerque, 531
_Linschoten's travels_, _ill._, 43;
_q._, 35, 37
Lion (brand), 523
Lion's head (Button's c. house), _ill._, 80, 576, 593
_Livre Commode_ (Paris, 1691), 433
Lippincott, Jesse H., 507
Lispenard, Anthony, 475
Lispenard, Leonard, 475
Literature of coffee, 541-585
Literature, Influence of c. on 552, 556
England, 60, 81
Paris, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 103
Littledo, L., _pseud._, _q._, 550, 551
_Lives of Eminent Men_, Aubrey, _q._, 40
_Lives of the Lord Chancellors_, Campbell, _q._, 570
_Lives of the Poets_, Johnson, 570
Livierato, B.A., 479
Livierato, Gregory B., 478
Livierato Frères (Bros.), 338, 478, 488
Livierato-Kidde Co., 479
Livingstons, The, 475
Lloyd, the law-student, 579;
_q._, 584
Lloyd, Edward, _chk._, 85, 86
Lloyd, John C., 480
Lloyd & Co., John C., 480
Lloyd's (London), 120
Register of shipping, 85
Loading, Santos, 312, 314
Loaiza & Co., W., 488
Locke (chemist), _q._, 180
Locket, Mrs., _chk._, 570
Lockier, Dean, _q._, 574
Lockwood, Dr., _q._, 176
Lockyer, Captain, 120
Loeven & Co., E., 505
Loew, Oscar, _q._, 156
Logan & Strowbridge, 644
Logan & Strowbridge Iron Co., 644
London
Fire (1666), 61, 62, 74, 83
(1748), _ill._, 76, 83
London, Paris & Am. Bank, Ltd., 488
_London Pleasure Gardens of the 18th Century, The_, Wroth, _q._, 82
Long, Mary, _chk._, 56
Long, William, _chk._, 56
Longe, W. Harry, 444
Longevity, Effect of c. on, 178
Longhi, Alessandro, 588
Longhi, Pietro, 556, 558
Lopez, Pedro, 220
Lopez & Co., P.A., 338
Lorand, _q._, 182
Lorimore Bros., 508
Lorraine, Prince of, 49
Lott & Low, 475
Loudon, Howard C., 495
Loudon, J. Carlyle, 495
Loudon & Johnson, 495, 499
Loudon & Son, 495
Loudon & Stellwag, 495
Louis XIII, 91
Louis XIV, 6, 33, 91, 92
Louis XV, 8, 92, 94, 563, 566
Love, N., _q._, 175
Low, Seth, 473
Low & Co., Adolphe, 487
Lowell, Ebenezer, 467
Lower Wall St. Bus. Men's Ass'n, 473
Lown Coffee Co., W.G., 508
Lowther, Sir James, 584
Loyal Association (London), 583
Lubricant to human machine, 585
Ludlow & Goold, 475
Ludolphus, _q._, 5
Lueder & Co., A., 485
Lure of coffee, 585
Lurman & Co., T.G., 484, 485
Lusk, _q._, 180
Luttrell, 579
Lyman, John Chester, _pat._, 245
Lyons, A. Neil, _q._, 563
Lytton, Lord, 102
Macassars (c.), 355, 374
Macaulay, Thomas B., _q._, 75, 77
_Macedoine Poetique_ (1824), 548
Machinery
Evolution of, 615-654
History of Manufacture, 468-474
Mackay, 75;
_q._, 79
Mackey, William D., 477, 491
Mackey & Co., 477
Mackey & Small, 477, 480
Mackintosh, Sir James, 556
Macklin, Charles, 89, 580, 581
Maclachlan, C.H., 527
Maclaine, Jemmy, 578
_Macrocarpa, C._, 146
MacVeagh & Co., Franklin, 485, 502
Madagascar c., 353, 378
_Madagascar, C._, 146
_Madagascariensis, C._, 146
Maddux, H. Clay, 479, 491
Magic Cup (brand), 539
Maguire, Charles, 479
Maguire, Joseph, 497, 498
Maguire & Gillespie, 508
Mahomet (_See also_ Mohammed), 38
Mahood, E.B., 507
Mahood, Samuel, 507
Mahood, W. James, 507
Maidi c., 351, 368
Mail-order houses, 415
Maine & Eckerenkotter, 505
Mairobert, _q._, 566
Maitland, Coppell & Co., 482
Maitland, Phelps & Co., 482
Makara, _chk._, 93
Makonnen, Ras, 310
Malabars (c.), 351, 369
Malang c., 355, 373
Malaria, Effect of c. on, 181
Maldonado & Co., 488
Maliban _chk._, 93
Mallet, J.W., _q._, 176
Malone, _q._, 61, 574
Man, Alexander, _chk._, 59, 88
Mandelsloh, Joh. A. von, _q._, 45
Mandheling c., 355, 371
Manet, Edouard, 103, 104
Manipulated Java, 338
Manizales c., 348, 364
_Manner of Making C., Tea and Chocolate_, Dufour, 543
Manners and Customs, 655-692
Abyssinia, 655
Africa, 655-657
Africa, Portuguese E., 657
Algeria, 655, 656
Arabia, 657-663
Argentina, 691
Asia, 657-663
Brazil, 691
Chile, 691
Constantinople, 19, 22, 23, 663-670
Damascus (c.-house), 668-670
England (c.-house), 60, 75-89
Egypt, 655-657
France, 33, 680-683
Germany, 683-685
Italy, 686
London (c.-house), 73
Mexico, 687
Netherlands, 686
New Orleans, 690
North America, 686-691
Norway, 686
Oriental, Early, 17, 19, 22, 23
Paraguay, 691
Paris, 91, 96, 98, 100, 102, 103, 104, 554, 683
Persia (c.-house), 22
Philadelphia (c.-house), 128
Saxony, 684
Somaliland, 655
Sweden, 686
Thuringia, 684
Turkey, 20, 27, 36, 38, 663-670
Uganda, 655
United States, 687-691
Uruguay, 691
Vienna (c.-house), 562, 671, 672
(_See also_ Coffee-houses)
Manning, E.B., _pat._, 637
Manning, Bowman & Co., 649, 701
Manthey-Zorn Laboratories, 653
Mantsaka c., _ill._, 142
_Manual of Pharmacology_, Sollman, _q._, 182
Manufacture, U.S., 298
Many, Daniel, 507
Marac, 682
Maracaibo c., 348, 349, 365
Maragogipe c., 345, 367
_Maragogipe, C._, _hyb._, 140
India, 227
Marat, 94
Marchand, _pat._, 640
M'Ardell (mezzotinter), 84, 584
Marden & Folger, 506, 507
Marden & Myrick, 505
Margins, 329, 333, 335
Mariahalden, 519, 520
Marie Antoinette, 96
Marilhat, 591
Marion Harland c.-pot., 645, 699
Market names, 191
(_See also_ Characteristics)
Marlborough, Earl of, 109
Marmontel, 98
Marquis de Someruelas, _v._, 468
Marshall, _q._, 183
Martelley, Lewis, _pat._, 624, 699
Martin, _pat._, 485, 640
Martin & Co., N., 485
Martinique c., 350, 363
_Martinique, Histoire de la_, Daney, _q._, 8
_Martinique, La_, Pardon, _q._, 8
Marvell, 60
Mary, Queen, 601
Mason, Fred, 689
Mason, L.F., 479
Mason, Marcus, _pat._, 246, 248, 469
Mason & Co., Marcus, 248, 469
Mason & Thompson, 476
Mason machines, 264
Masons, Grand Lodge, 110
Masons, St. Andrew's Lodge, 111
Mass. Inst. of Technology
Scientific research, 453, 457, 515, 714, 717
Massieu, Abbé Gulllaume, _q._, 14, 544
Matagalpa c., 347, 360
_Materia Medica and Pharmacology_, Culbreth, _q._, 181
_Materia Medica, Pharmacy and Therapeutics_, Potter, _q._, 181
_Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacology_, Butler, _q._, 179
Matheson, S., 482
Matheson, Jr. & Co., S., 482
Mattari, c., 351, 368
Mattei, _q._, 180
Maumenet, _q._, 548
Mauran, C.S., 502
_Mauritiana, C._, 138, 146
Caffein content, 147, 161
Maury, Joseph E., 515
Maximilian Frederick, Elector, _q._, 47
Maxwell, _q._, 165
Maxwell House (brand), 441
Mayer Bros. & Co., 482
Mayflower, _v._, 108, 616
Mortar and pestle, _ill._, 105
Mayne, 585
Mayot, 96
Mazagran, Café, 92, 655, 682
Mazerolles, S., 591
McBride, R.P., 482, 499
McCann, Alfred W., 398, 399
McCarthy Bros., 488
McChesney & Sons, 488
McClean, Jemmy (_see_ Maclaine)
McCord, Brady Co., 508
McCready, William, 479
McCreery, Henry F., 480
McCreery, R.W., 511;
_q._, 427
McDonald, Duncan, 521, 522
McDonald & Arbuckle, 521
McDonald & Arbuckles, 522
McDonald & Glynn, 482
McFadden, J.M., 513
McFadden & Bro., George H., 480
McFarland, A., 508
McGarty, M.J., 399
McGill. A., _q._, 687
McKinnon, William, 245
McKinnon & Co., Ltd., Wm., 245
McLaughlin, Frederick, 502
McLaughlin, George D., 502
McLaughlin, William F., 502
McLaughlin & Co., W.F., 443, 502
McLaughlin & Co., W.H., 484
McMaster, John Bach, _q._, 468
McMullin, John, 612
McNeil & Higgins, 502
McNeil & Higgins Co., 502
McNeil, Thomas, 494
McNulty, John R., 479, 491
McNulty & Co., J.R., 479
McReynolds, Attorney General, 533
Meacock, James, _pat._, 245
Mead, Dr., 582
Meal Market, New York, 119
Meat-packers in c. trade, 514
_Mechanic's Magazine_, London, 585
Medellins (c.), 348, 364
_Medical News_, _per._, _q._, 183
_Medical Record_, _per._, _q._, 185
_Medical Times_, _per._, _q._, 176
Medicinal properties of c., 12, 26, 27, 38, 45, 56, 58, 71, 72, 173-188
Due to caffein content, 182
Medicine
C. first used as, 693
Café au lait used as, 696
_Meditations_, Brillat-Savarin, _q._, 697
Medium (_see_ Grinds)
Medium roast, 336, 388
Meehan, Charles L., 535
Meehan, P.C., 476, 477
Meehan & Co., P.C., 477
Meehan & Schramm, 477
Meidinger, _q._, 565
Meilhat, 594
Meisner, Leonhard Ferdinand, 46, 543
Meith, Hugo, 591
Mejia, E., 488
Melangé, Café, 671
Melaye, S., 548
Mellon Inst. of Industrial Research, 714
_Memoirs_, Diderot, 98
_Memoirs_, Sherman, _q._, 563
Menado c., 355, 374
Menda & Co., 340
Mendel, _q._, 185
Menezes, T. Langgaard de, _ill._, 446
Mengai, 694
Menico, 28
Menier, 566
_Menosperma, C._, _hyb._, 138
Menown, Hugh, 631
Menown, H. & J., 502
Menown & Gregory, 631
_Men's Answer to Women's Petition, The_, _pamph._, 71
_Menslichen Genussmittel_, _q._, 147
Mental and Motor Efficiency
Effect of caffein on, 186
Effect of tea on, 186
Menzel, Adolph, 591
Merchants Coffee Co. of N.O., Ltd., 505
Merchants Exchange (New York), 123
Merck & Co., 473
_Mercure de France_, _q._, 8
Meridas (c.), 349, 365
Merrill & Co., S.C., 487
Merritt & Ronaldson, 499
Merwin & Co., Geo. A., 499
Mery, C.D., 548
Messenger & Co., Thomas H., 480
Metchnikoff, _q._, 178
Metropolitan Mills, 494, 495
Mexicans (c.), 345, 338, 359
Meyer (chemist), 164
Meyer, B., 535
Meyer, Fred W., 502
Meyer, Robert, 510, 511, 513
Meyerheim, Paul, 591
M'Ginley, Joseph, 492
M'Gregor, Coll., 476
Michaud, I.F. and L.G., _q._, 8
Michelet, _q._, 98
Microscopy of c., 149-153
Analysis, value, 152
_Microscopy of Vegetable Foods_, Winton, _q._, 150
Midland Spice Co., 508
Milde, 591
Milds (market name), 341, 345
(_See also_ Characteristics)
Milk in coffee, 38, 58, 399, 665
Effect of, 178
First used by Nieuhoff (1660), 696
Millar & Co., E.B., 502
Millar Spice Co., E.B., 502
Miller, Chas. A., 480
Miller, Harry, 480
Miller, Rev. James, 555;
_q_., 554
Miller, R.O., 501, 514
Miller, Watts, 480
Miller, W.H., 488
Miller & Walbridge, 480
Miller, Smith & Co., 485
Milling (_see also_ Cleaning), 383
Milreis, 336
Milton, John, 60;
_q._, 549
Miner, W.H., 505
Minerva, _v._, 128
Minford, Thomas, 479
Minford & Co., L.W., 479, 485
Minford, Lueder & Co., 477, 479
Minford, Thompson & Co., 479
Mingo, Cirilo, _pat._, 471
Minkowski, 185
Minor, W.H., 485
Minott, Samuel, 609
Minute (brand), 539
Minute, Café à la, 708
_Mirror_, London, _per._, 585
Misbranding
Condemned by N.C.R.A., 513
Rulings (U.S.), 337, 338
Mitchell, George, 478
Mitchell, William L., 478
Mitchell Bros., 478
Mixing (_see_ Blending)
Mixtures, Strange c., 56, 57
_Moat With the Crimson Stains, The_, Champney, _q._, 563, 564
Mocengio, 27
Mocha c., 230, 351, 353, 368, 369
Mocha longberry c., 228
Mocha-seed Bourbon-Santos c., 341, 366
Mocha-seed Santos (grade), 260
_Modern Italian Poets_, Howells, _q._, 548, 549
Moegling, Carl, _inv._, 647
_Mogeneti, C._ (caffein content), 147, 161
Mohammed, 14, 15, 19, 20, 38, 54
Mohammed IV, 49, 50, 91
Mohedano, José Antonio, 9
Mohns-Frese Com. Co., 488
Moir, John R., 535
Mokaska Mfg. Co., 485, 508
_Mokkæ, C._, _hyb._, 138
Molded beans, 170
Molke, 9
Molmenti, Pompeo, _q._, 27, 28
Moncrieff (dramatist), 572
Moncrieff, Alexander, _chk._, 572
Moneuse, Élie, _pat._, 469, 639
Monin, Sieur, _q._, 696
Monitor machines, 248
Monk, General, 59, 69
Monkey coffee, 136
Monroe, James (Pres.), 113
Monstruo (grade), 261
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 573
Montague, _q._, 551
Monte Carmelo c., 350, 365
Montealegre & Co., 487, 488
Montesquieu, 100
Montuori, _q._, 176
Moore, Alexander Duncan, _pat._, 623
Moore, C.T., 508
Moore, Dr., _q._, 179
Moore & Co., Geo. A., 488
Mopsy, 579
Moréas, Jean, _chk._, 102
Morewood, T.C., _pat._, 642
Morey Mercantile Co., C.S., 508
Morgan, Charles, 644;
_pat._, 645, 653
Morgan, Edward H., 644
Morgan Brothers, 644
Morize, _pat._, 623, 699, 708
Morley, W.T., 513
_Morning Advertiser_, Lond., _newsp._, 585
_Morning Chronicle_, London, _newsp._, 585
_Morning Herald_, Lond., _newsp._, 585
_Morning Post_, Lond., _newsp._, 585
Morosini, Gianfrancesco, 26
Morrison, S.B., 497
Morrison, Wm. J., 498
Morrison & Bolnest Co., 498
Morton, Robert, 69
Mosely, Dr. Benjamin, _q._, 2, 38
Moser (artist), 584
Mosso, Ugolino, _q._, 186
_Most excellent virtues of the mulberry called coffee_ (1671), 34
Mother (grade), 258
Mother of cafés (Vienna), 50
Motion pictures, 443, 455, 514
Mott & Williams, 494
Mottant, A., 641, 645
Muddiman, 59
Mudiford, 58
Muhlberg, R. _pat._, 638
Muller, Frederick H., _pat._, 653, 702
Munden, Admiral, 86, 559
Murdock, Charles A., 506
Murdock & Co., C.A., 508
Murdock Mfg. Co., C.A., 506
Murger, Henry, 98
Murphy, Arthur, 584;
_q._, 579
Murray, Sir James, 699;
_q._, 1
Murray, James H., 496
Murray, Robert, 475
_Murta, C._, _hyb._ 138
Musgrave, James, 612
Music, C. in, 593-599
Music in coffee houses, 656, 666, 667, 669
Mustapha, Kara, 49, 50
Mustard in c., 58, 696
Myer, _pat._, 162, 473
Myers, Myer, 612
Mylne (architect), 584
Mysore c., 351, 369
Myrtle c. (Mexico), 222
Nabob (brand), 441
Nairon, Antoine Faustus, 16, 27, 543
Nakhel douin (palm), 266
Nalpasse, Valentin, _q._, 175, 176, 177, 179
Names for c. (English and foreign), 1, 2, 3
Names of places (_see_ Note, p. 769)
Nancy (tea ship) _v._, 120
Naphew, Charles, 479
Napier, Robert, _inv._, 637, 699, 700
Napier & Co., 486
Napier & Sons, Robert, 699
Narcotism, Effect of c. on, 181
Narghil (palm), 266
Narghillai, 663, 664, 665, 668
(_Also_ nargile, narguileh)
Nash Grocery Co., George, 503
Nash, Smith & Co., 502
Nash-Smith Tea & Coffee Co., 503
Nashville Coffee & Mfg. Co., 509
Nason, James H., _pat._, 637
Nat'l Ass'n of Retail Grocers of the U.S., 428
Nat'l Chain Store Grocers' Ass'n., 417, 418
National coffee day, 513
Nat'l C. Roasters Ass'n., 323, 439, 448, 473, 474, 509-515
Better c. making com., 713-717
Brewing recommendations, 717
Conventions, 512-515
Dues, 514
Freight forwarding bureau, 323
Home mill, 652
Industrial Expositions, 514, 515, 654
Membership, 511-514
National C. Roasters Traffic and Pure Food Ass'n., 510, 511
National Coffee Week, 439, 455, 473, 474, 514
Nat'l Packaging Machinery Co., 443, 472
Nat'l Retail Tea and Coffee Merchants' Ass'n., 417
_National Review_, _per._, _q._, 74
Nature, Café, 683
_Nature of the Drink Kauhi, The_, Pocoke's trans. _q._, 12, 38
_Nature, quality and most excellent virtues of c.,
The_ (broadside), _ill._, 69, 70
Navarro, Francisco Xavier, 9, 225
Nave & McCord Merc. Co., 485
Nave-McCord Mfg. Co., 508
Negro plot (New York, 1737), 118
Neidlinger & Schmidt, 499
Nelson, Charles, _pat._, 649
Nepenthe, 12
Nervous system, Effect of c. on, 174, 175
Netherlands E. India Co., 43, 44, 283, 291, 294
Netherlands West India Co., 105
Neutral (_see_ Flavors)
Nevers, George J., 479
Nevill, 60
Nevison, J., 631
_New and curious coffee-house, etc., The_, _per._, 45, 433
New Caledonia c., 356, 374
New Guinea c., 355, 374
_New Discoveries, etc._, Paschius, _q._, 13
New England Automatic Weighing Machine Co., 471
Newbold, William, 479
Newell, _pat._, 246
Newhall, H.B., 501
Newmark, H., 509
Newmark, Maurice H., 509
Newmark & Co., H., 509
Newmark & Co., M.A., 509
New Orleans Coffee Co., 485, 505
New uses for c., 457
_New View of London_ (1708), Hatton, 54
New York
Coffee and Sugar Exchange (_See_ Exchanges)
_Daily Advertiser_, _q._, 434, 468
Dock Co., 319, 532
_Gazette_, _per._, _q._, 118
Historical Soc., 474, 591
Hospital, 124
_Journal_, _per._ (1775) _q._, 115
Stock and Exchange Board, 123
_News from the coffee house_ (broadside) _q._, _ill._, 68, 69
Newstadt, Emil, _pat._, 645
Niblo, William, _chk._, 121, 124
(_See also_ Gardens)
Nicaraguas (c.), 347, 360, 361
Nicholson, David, 502
Niemuhr, Karstens, 543;
_q._, 22
Nielsen, Thorlief S.B., 520
Niessen, von, _pat._, 158, 167
Nieuhoff, 543, 696
Niles, G.M., _q._, 175
Nonnenbruch, _q._, 185
Nordlinger, Henry, 482
Nordlinger & Co., Henry, 482
Norris, G.W., 532, 533
North, Roger, _q._, 72, 570
Norton, Edward, 471
Norton, Weyl & Beven, 482
Norton & Holyoke, 434
Nossack & Co., 340
_Notes and Queries_, _per._, _q._, 1
Nurseries, 200, 205
Nutmeg in c., 696
Nutrio Mfg. Co., 501
Nutt, Jr., F.T., 535
Oaxaca c., 345, 358
Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson, _q._, 125
O'Brien, 579
O'Brien, E.H., 455, 488
O'Brien, Jonas P., 482
O'Brien, Joseph A., 482, 491
_Oceana_, Harrington, 60
O'Donohue, Charles A., 123
O'Donohue, John, 480, 498
O'Donohue, John B., 123, 498
O'Donohue, Joseph J., 480
O'Donohue, Peter, 480, 498
O'Donohue & Co., J.B., 485
O'Dononue & Sons, John, 480
O'Donohue & Sons, Joseph J., 477, 480
O'Donohue & Stewart, 498
O'Donohue Coffee Co., 498
O'Donohue's Sons, John, 338, 485, 498
Oelschlager (_see_ Olearius)
_Of the Excellent Qualities_, etc., Rumford, _q._, 697, 698
Ogden & Co., George, 501
Ogilby, 571
Ohio Coffee & Spice Co., 508
Oils, Coffee, 164, 711, 712
O'Krassa, R.F.E., _pat._, 247, 248
Olavarria, J.D., 471
Old Dutch Mills, 482
Old Ground Coffee Works, 492
Old Judge (brand), 441
Old Homestead (brand), 441
Old Master (brand), 441
Old Reserve (brand), 441
Oldys, William, _q._, 53
Olearius, Adam, _q._, 22, 45, 543
Olendorf, Case & Gillespie, 478
Olivier, Abbé, 548
Omar, Sheik, 13, 14, 655
Opera: _Le Café du Roi_, Meilhat and Deffes, 594
Opposition
Commercial
England, 64, 74
Medical
Cairo, 19
Germany, 46
Marseilles, 32, 33
Mecca, 17
Political
Constantinople, 293
England (c. houses), 72, 293
Proclamation, Charles II, 73
Germany, 46, 47
London, 293
Religious
Cairo, 19
Constantinople, 20, 21
Mecca, 17, 18
Venice, 29
(_See also_ Controversies; Coffee-houses)
Options, 329
Orange Juice, peel, in c., 106
Ordinaries (_see_ Taverns)
O'Reilly, Count, _q._, 222
_Organon salutis_ (1657), Rumsey's, _q._, 56, 58
_Oriental Trip_, Mandelsloh, _q._, 45
Origin of c., 5, 11, 13-16, 541-542
Orizaba c., 345, 358
Orleans, Regent of, 96, 98
Osborn, Lewis A., 434, 469, 496, 522
Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java (brand), 434, 469, 496, 522
Oseretzkowsky, _q._, 186
O'Shaughnessy, John W., 480
O'Shaughnessy & Co., John W., 480
O'Shaughnessy & Sorley, 480
Ostrander, Loomis & Co., 508
O'Sullivan, Eugene, 479
O'Sullivan, James, 479
O'Sullivan & Co., Eugene, 479
Otis, James, 110, 111
Otis, McAllister & Co., 488
Otter _v._, 127
Otto, Carl Alexander, _pat._, 640, 641
Outlandish drink, 59
_Over the Black Coffee_, Gray, _q._, 713
Overton, John B., 479
Ovington, _q._, 2
Oxford Coffee Club, 41
Oxford, Lord, 584
Pacific Mail Co., 489, 490
Package coffees
Advantages, disadvantages, 408, 409
Deterioration, 168
Early (U.S.), 469, 470, 522
First crude (1791), 491, 492
France, 680
Great Britain, 673
Packaging economics, 410, 412
Packaging machinery, 383, 402-404
United States patents, 470
Packard & James, 494
Padang, _v._, 317
Padang Interior c., 355, 371
Page, Judge, _q._, 570
Page, Thomas, _pat._, 637
Painter, John (_see_ Paynter)
Pal, _q._, 184
Palaces, C. (_see_ Coffee houses)
Paladino, _q._, 159
Palais Royal (Paris), 96, 102
Palambang c., 355, 372
Palatability aid to digestion, 180
Palgrave, _q._, 658-661
Palmer, David, 480
Palmer, Harvey H., 480
Palmer & Co., H.H., 480
Palmer, Warner & Co., 508
Paludanus, Bernard Ten Broeke, _q._, 2, 35, 41
_Pamela_, Richardson, 80
Pamphlets (_see_ Broad-sides)
Panamas (c.), 348, 361
Pan-American Congress, 472
Panics, U.S., 528-530
(_See also_ Booms and panics)
Panter, William, _pat._, 245
_Paradise Lost_, Milton, 584
Parché, Café, en (Guadeloupe), 257
Parchment, 136, 138, 149, 150
Pardon, _q._, 8
Parent & Co., J.A., 508
Parini, Guiseppe, _q._, 548, 549
Park, Fellowes & Co., 508
Park & Tilford, 484, 499
Parker, Charles, _inv._, 469, 625
Parker, Edmund, _pat._, 625, 636
Parker, Gilman L., 501
Parker, John, _pat._, 634
Parker & Dixon, 503
Parker & Harrison, 503, 635
Parker Co., Charles, 625
Parkes, _q._, 704
Parkinson, John, 534;
_q._, 41
Parlin, Charles Coolidge, 441
Parmentier, 8
Parr, 557
Parrott & Co., 487, 488
Parry (Welsh harper), 85, 584
Parry, 543;
_q._, 36
Parson, 557
Pascal, _chk._, 33, 92, 94, 554, 619, 670;
_q._, 432
Paschius, George, _q._, 13
Patents, U.S., 654
Patrick (lexicographer), 576
Patterson, Robert W., _q._, 106
Pavoni, Desiderio, _pat._, 649
Pawinski, _q._, 185
Payen, _q._, 694
Paynter, Jonathan, 53, 54
Peabody, B.F., 535
Peaberry, 136, 249
Botanical description, 149
Peaberries, 1st and 2d (grades), 258
Pears in c. (Russia), 686
Pearson, George, 507
Pearson, Peter, _pat._, 638, 640
Pechey, 543
Peck, Edwin H., 477
Peck, Walter J., 477
Peck, E.H. & W.J., 477, 484
Peck & Co., Edwin H., 477, 479
Peck & Kellum, Benj., 508
Peck, Stowe & Wilcox Co., 644
Pedling
Constantinople, 21
Florence, 670
Italy, 27, 29, 670
Padua, 29
Paris, 92, 93, 94, 96
Vienna, 51
Pedrocchi, Antonio, _chk._, 29, 599
Peeling (_see_ Hulling)
_Pellicularia tokeroga_ (_see_ Diseases)
Pemberton, John, 128, 129
Penn, John, 127, 129
Penn, Letitia, 128
Penn, William, 105, 115, 125, 126, 467
_Pennsylvania Gazette_, _newsp._, _q._, 126, 127
_Pennsylvania Journal_, _newsp._, 127, 128
Penny-change plan, 427
_Penny Magazine_, _per._, _q._, 704
Penny universities, 73
Peonage (_see_ Labor)
Pepion, John, 508
Pepys, Samuel, _q._, 59, 554, 561, 574, 582
_Percolator, The_, _per._, _q._, 521
Percolators
Acker's Mo-Kof-Fee, 645
testing-table, 649
two cylinder (1905), 645
Andrews's pumping (1841), 700
Bohemian, 654
Bouillon Muller's steam, 708
Bowman's valve-type (1876), 637
Bruning's vacuum jacket (1920), 653
Cafetière Sené (1815), 699
Carlsbad, 654
Chamberlain's automatic, 652
De Belloy's (1800), 621, 622, 697, 708
De Santais' hydrostatic, 629
Durant's pumping, 625, 699
First French patent (1806), 699
Galt (1914), 652, 701
Gandais' pumping, 625, 699
German (plug in spout), 708
Glass "balloons", 627
Hadrot's "filter", 621, 699
Half-minute (1881), 701
Hutchinson's, 710
Jones's pumping, 704
Kellum (1906), 649
Kin-Hee (1900), 701
Laurens' pumping, 623, 699
Laurent's steam "whistling," 708
Malen's, 708
Marion Harland, 645, 696
Mo-Kof-Fee (Acker's), 645
Morize's reversible, 623, 699
Nason's fluid-joint (1865), 637
Nelson's patents (1912-13), 649
Phylax (1914), 652, 701, 702
Potsdam, 710
Preterre's vacuum (1849), 634
Pumping discussed, 714, 715
(first, 1819), 623
Rabauts reversed (1822), 699
Raparlier's glass "filter", 708
Reversible double drip, 623
Rumford's (1806-12), 621, 622, 623, 697, 698
Rumford type, 705
Russian egg-shaped, 708
Savage's patent (1906), 649
Smart's patent (1919), 653
Star (1886), 645
Sternau's patent (1904), 649
Universal (1901), 647
Vanderweyde's patent (1866), 637
Vardy's vacuum urn, 627, 699
Vassieux' glass (1842), 627, 700
Vienna, 638, 639
Viennese type, 708
Warner's patent (1906), 649
Percolation
Defined, 621, 698
Discussed (Trigg), 720, 721
N.C.R.A. recommendations, 718
Percy, Reuben, _pseud._, 585
Percy, Sholto, _pseud._, 585
Perez & Sons, Juan Pablo, 340
Perfect cup of c., 721-723
Perfect Vacuum Canning Co., 471
Perfumed c., 59, 695
Pergamino, Café en (grade), 261
_Perieri, C._, 146
Persecution (_see_ Opposition)
_Persian letters_, Montesquieu, _q._, 109
Perus (c.), 350, 367
Pests (_see_ Diseases)
Peters, J., _q._, 467
Petit, _q._, 12
Petring, G.H., 510
Petty, Sir William, 60
_Pharmaceutical Journal_, _per._, _q._, 156
_Pharmaceutice Rationalis_, Willis, _q._, 58
Pharmacological-chemical brewing device, 699
_Pharmacology_, Cushing, _q._, 179
Pharmacology of c., 174-188
Phelps, Jr., Edward A., 495, 499
Philadelphia Commission of Inspection, 467
Philidor, 96, 98
Philipp, John, 591
Philippines (c.), 355, 375
Philios, Ambrose, 80, 576, 577, 578
Phillipi, Peter, 591
Phillips, Sir Richard, 578, 585
Phillips & Co., M., 488
Philology (_see_ Etymology)
Phipps, Sir William, 111
Phipps & Co., J.L., 476, 482, 484, 486
Phoenix, John, 482
Phoenix & Co., J.W., 482
Phoenix Electrical Heating Co., 647
Phyfe, James W., 480
Phyfe & Co., Jas. W., 480
Phonetic difficulties, 1
_Physique Sacrée, on Histoire Naturelle de la Bible_, Scheuzer, _q._,
13, 16
Piccander, _q._, 595
Picking c., 250
Colombia, 260
Pickslay, Joseph D., 477, 535
Pictures
Afternoon in the court gardens, Munich, Walle's, 591
Afternoon at the coffee table, Meith's, 591
Button's coffee house, Shepherd's, _ill._, 593
Café en Asia Mineure, De Ternamine's, 591
Café sur un route de Syrie, Marilhat's, 591
Café Turc, Descamp's, 591
Coffee comes to the aid of the Muse, Ruffio's, _ill._, 591
Coffee house at Cairo, Gérôme's, _ill._, 591, 656
Decorative panel for Paris House, Mazerolles', 591
Dutch coffee house of 1650, Van Ostade's, _ill._, 587
First coffee house in Vienna, Schams', _ill._, 590
Four times of the day, Hogarth's, _ill._, 587
French coffee house, Rowlandson's, 593
Goldoni in a Venetian café, Longhi's, _ill._, 588
Kaffeebesuch Phillipi's, _ill._, 591
Lion's head at Button's, Shepherd's, _ill._, 591
Mad dog in a coffee house, Rowlandson's, _ill._, 593
Manager Classen and his family, Milde's, 591
Mme. de Pompadour, Van Loo's, _ill._, 588
Mme. Du Barry at Versailles, Decreuse's, _ill._, 589, 590
Napoleon and the curé, Charlet's, _ill._, 593
Old woman with coffee cup, Philipp's, 591
Oriental coffee house, Meyerhelm's, 591
Parisian boulevard café, Menzel's, 591
Pastor Rautenberg and his Family, Milde's, 591
Petit déjeuner, Boucher's, _ill._, 588
Rake's progress, Hogarth's, _ill._, 587
Slaughter's coffee house, Shepherd's, _ill._, 593
Sweets shop of Josty in Berlin, Schmidt's, 591
Tom's coffee house, Shepherd's, _ill._, 593
Tontine coffee house, Guy's, 593
Washington's official welcome to New York, Gruppe's, _ill._, 593
Pictures, C. in, 587-593
Pierce, Jr., O.W., 509
Pierce, Sr., Oliver Webster, 509
Pierce & Co., O.W., 509
Piers, steel-roofed (N.O.), 325
Pilcher, _q._, 184
Pinzon & Co., 338
Pioneer Mills, 508
Pique, R., _q._, 156
Piron, 94
Pitt, William, 580
Pitt & Sons, C.F., 485
Place, E.B., 482
Place, J.K., 482
Places, names of (_see_ Note, p. 769)
Plantation machinery, 245-248
Brazil, 207
Salvador, 217
Plantation machines
Guardiola drier, 255
Planet Junior, 207
Plantation preparation, 201
Arabia, 197
Plantation processes, 245-271
Abyssinia, 268
Angola, 268
Arabia, 245, 264, 266, 268
Brazil, 258-261
Colombia, 260
Guatemala, 263
Haiti, 264
Java, 268, 269, 271
Mexico, 263
Netherlands E. Indies, 268, 269, 271
Nicaragua, 264
Porto Rico, 264
Salvador, 263
Sumatra, 268, 269
Venezuela, 261, 263
Plantations
Abyssinia, yield per acre, 228
Angola
Cazengo, 230
Australia, yield per acre, 239
Brazil (fazendas)
Araqua, 208
Azevedo, L. de O., 208
Caféeria São Paulo, 208
Capital invested, 207
do Val, F.S., 208
Dumont, _ill._, 205, 208, 258
Ellis, Alfredo, 208
Irmaos, Alves, 208
Oliveira, 208
Principal, 208
Ribeirao Preto, _ill._, 208
São Martinho, 208
São Paulo Coffee Co., 208
Schmidt, 208, 258
Ceylon, first British, (1825) 237
Colombia, 211, 212
Namay, 212
Cuba, number, 282
Guadeloupe, yield per acre, 233
Hawaii, yield per acre, 241
India
Cannon's Baloor, 227
Hoskahn, 227
Mylemoney, 227
Santaverre, 227
Sumpigay Kahn, 227
Yield per acre, 227
Java
Jakatra, 44
Kedawoeng estate, 6
Typical, A., 269, 271
Mexico
Orduna, 220
Porto Rico
Capital invested, 223
Yield per acre, 223, 225
Salvador, first (1876), 217
Sumatra
Gadoeng Batoe, _ill._, 217
Venezuela (haciendas)
Altamira, _ill._, 212
Carmen, _ill._, 213
Yield per acre, 213
Planting (_see also_ Propagation), 200
_Plants of Egypt_, Alpini, 26
Plants, Roasting, _ill._, 379, 381, 383, 385
Platow, Moritz, _pat._, 627, 699
Platt, Jr., James, _q._, 1
Plays
_Autocrat of the Coffee Stall, The_, Chapin, 556, 563
_Beaux' Stratagem_, Farquhar, _q._, 587, 588
_Bold Stroke for a Wife, A_, Centlivre, _q._, 554
Boston, first performed in, 111
_Bottega di Caffè, La_, Goldoni, 555
_Café; ou, l'Ecossaise, Le_, Voltaire, 556
_Caffè, Le_, Rosseau, 554, 555
_Caffè di Campagna, Il_, Galuppi, 556
_Caffettiéra da Spirito, La_, 556
_Coffee House, The_, Rosseau, 88
_Coffee House; or, Fair Fugitive, The_, Voltaire, _q._, 556
_Coffee-House Politician, The_, Fielding, _q._, 554, 555
_Devin du Village_, Rousseau, 102
"English comedy," _q._, 61
_Foire St. Germain, La_, Dancourt (1696), _q._, 554
_Hamilton_, Hamlin and Arliss, _q_., _ill._, 556
_Persian Wife, The_, Goldoni, _q._, 556
_Socrates_, Voltaire, 556
_Tarugo's Wiles; or, the Coffee House_, St. Serf, _q._, 554
Pleasure gardens (_see_ Gardens)
Pletzer, _q._, 185
Pluehart, _inv._, 710
Plunket (highwayman), 578
Pneumatic Scale Corp., 471, 472
Pneumatic Scale Corp., Ltd., 471
Pocoke, Edward, _q._, 12, 38
Pods, 329
_Poemata Didascalia_, d'Olivet, 543
Poems
"_As long as Mocha's happy tree_," Pope's, _q._, 549
_Ballad of the South Sea Scheme_, Swift, _q._, 571
_Bouquet Blanc et le Bouquet Noir, Le_, Mery, 548
_Café, Le_ (anon.), 548
_Café, Le_, Berchoux, 548
_Caffè, Il_, Barotti, 548
_Cap and Bells_, Keats, _q._, 550
_Carmen Caffaeum_, Massieu, _q._, 14, 544-547
_City Mouse and Country Mouse_, Prior and Montague, _q._, 551
_Coffee_, Saltus, _q._, 552
_Coffee--a Chanson_ (music by Colet), _ill._, 594, 595
_Coffee and Crumpets_, "Littledo," _q._, 550, 551
_C. Companion_ (from Arabic), _q._, 543
_Coffee Slips, The_, Hood, _q._, 550
_Comus_, Milton, _q._, 549
_de Clieu_, Esménard, _q._, 8, 548
_Flogé du Café_, L'Estienne, 548
_Frugality_, Pope Leo XIII, _q._, 549
_Gilbert K. Chesterton Rises to the Toast of C._, Untermeyer, _q._, 553
_Giorno, Il_, Parini, _q._, 548, 549
_Grandeur de Dieu dans les Merveilles de la Nature, La_, 548
_In Praise of C._ (from Arabic), _q._, 542
_Like His Mother Used to Make_, Riley, _q._, 552
_Lines_ (appended to broadside) Morton, _ill._, 69
_Lines on C._ (_from_ French), 548
_Long Story, A_, Gray, _q._, 576
_Ode to Coffee_, Price, _q._, 553
_Over the Black Coffee_, Gray, _q._, 552, 553
_Pity for Poor Africans_, Cowper, _q._, 550
_Plantes, Les_, Castel, _q._, 548
_Rape of the Lock_, Pope, _q._, 550
_Recipe for Making C._, Hodhat, _q._, 663
_Royal Drummer_ (Paris) _q._, 96
_Rules and orders of the C. house_ (broadside) _q._, 60, 61
_Song_ from _The Coffee House_, Fielding, _q._, _ill._, 555
_Three Reigns of Nature_, Delille, _q._, 547
_To the Mighty Monarch, King Kauhee_, Sephton, _q._, 552
_To the Coffee House_, Altenberg, _q._, 549
_To Pasqua Rosée_, _q._, 54
(Unnamed), Belighi, 547
(Unnamed), Lloyd, _q._, 584
_Verses_, Maumenet, _q._, 548
_Wealthy Shopkeeper; or, Charitable Christian_, _q._, 572
_What Every Wife Knows_, Rowland, _q._, 553-554
Poetry, C. in, 542-554
Poffenberger, Jr., A.T., _q._, 723
Poison, C. a, 58, 174
Polished C., rulings (U.S.), 337, 338
Polishing machinery, 247, 248, 257
Political liberty; England's won in coffee houses, 74
Politics, C. and, 59, 62
Polli, Pietro, 558
Pollitzer, _q._, 176
Polstorff, K., 159, 160
Ponfold, Schuyler & Co., 482
Poore, G.W., _q._, 705, 707
Pop open, 389
Pope, Alexander, 78, 80, 81, 575, 576, 577, 578, 583;
_q._, 549, 550
_Life of_, Carruthers, _q._, 549
Popularity of c. in U.S.; reasons for, 106
Portable c. making devices
French (1691-1754), 618
Turkish, 615, 616, 617
Portable grinding machines, 685
Portal, Antoine, _q._, 58
Porthandling charges
Brazil, 306, 315
New York, 323
Porthandling methods, U.S., 513
Porter, David (Capt.), 112
Porter, David D. (Admiral), 112
Porter, Horace, Gen., _q._, 563
Porter & Co., W.J., 480
Porto Rico Coffee Co., 488
Porto Rico Planters' Protective Ass'n, 444, 445
Porto Ricos (c.), 350, 362
Posadas, J.Z., 488
_Postman_, London, _per._, 560
Postulart, _pat._, 640
_Pot and Kettle, The_, Lally, _q._, 570
Potter, _pat._, 167
Potter, Dr., _q._, 181
Potter, Ellis M., 498;
_pat._, 642
Potter & Parlin, 503
Potter Coffee Co., 498
Potter-Parlin Co., 471, 641, 642
Potter-Parlin Spice Mills, 498
Potter, Sloan, O'Donohue Co., 498
Pounding c., 697, 705
Poursine & Co., P., 486
Poursini & Co., R., 505
Powdered (_see_ Grinds)
Power, _q._, 155
Power-Chestnut method, 172
Prado, Paulo da Silva, 532, 534
_Praedium Rusticum_, Vaniére, 543
Pratt, A.H., 502
Pratt, David S., _pat._, 539
Preanger c., 355, 373
Pregnancy, Effect of c. on, 177
Premium for early shipping (Santos), 314
Premium distribution, retail, 429
Premiums, 412, 413
Arbuckle, 522, 525
Prendergast Bros., 482
Prentiss & Page, 637
Prepared Coffee, 404
Prescott, Prof. S.C., 515, 714;
_q._, 717
Preterre, Apoleoni P., _pat._, 634
Price, William A., _q._, 553
Prices
Advance notice of change, 514
Beverage
Constantinople, 665
London, 675, 677
(1662), 582
(1677), 73
Blends, retail, U.S. (1922), 722, 723
Green
American colonies, 467, 475
Amsterdam (1810-12), 468
England (1719), 74
New York (1670), 105
(1683), 125
(1898), 471
(1903), 472
(1919), 474
Netherlands (early), 44
Netherlands E. Indies, 312
United States
Early, 475
(1814), 468
(1880-93), 527, 530
(1911), 532
(1913), 538
(1921), 299, 330
War-time, 536-538
Guaranteeing, 514
Roasted
New York (1791), 492
Roasting (1885), 509
Prideaux, W.F., _q._, 1, 2
Priest, William, 612
Primera (grade), 261
Primero (grade), 264
Prims, J.C., _pat._, 473, 643
Prior 89;
_q._, 551, 575
Pritchard, George W., 480
Pritchard & Sons, Geo. W., 480
Private Estate (brand), 496
Private estates
Java, 214, 215
Netherlands E. Indies, 283, 312
Probst & Co., F., 482
_Proceedings, Society of Antiquaries_ (1889), _q._, 602, 603
Procope, François, _chk._, 94
Proctor, Charles E., 538
Producing countries, leading, 191
Production
Abyssinia, 284
Africa, British E., 229, 285
German E. (1913), 229
Angola (1913), 229
Arabia, 282
Argentina, 279
Australia, 284
Bolivia, 279
Brazil, 273, 275, 277
(1850), 205
(1887-1902), 528-530
(1903, 1906), 472
(1906-07), 534
Santos passes Rio (1900-01), 530
Cape Verde Islands (1916), 229
Celebes, 217, 283
Ceylon, 236, 282, 283
Chile, 279
Colombia, 211, 278
Congo, Belgian, 229
Costa Rica, 225, 280
Cuba, 282
Dominican Republic, 281
Ecuador, 278
Eritrea (1918), 229
Federated Malay States, 284
Gold Coast, 285
Guadeloupe, 281, 282
Guam, 284
Guatemala, 219, 225, 280
Guiana, British and French, 279
Dutch, 236, 279
Haiti, 220, 281
Hawaii, 239, 284
Honduras, 234, 280
British, 235, 280
India, 282
Jamaica, 281
Java, 215, 283
Liberia (1917), 229
Madagascar (1918), 229
Martinique, 282
Mauritius, 285
Mexico, 280, 281
Netherlands E. Indies, 283
Nicaragua, 280
Nigeria, 285
Nyasaland, 285
Oaxaca (Mex.), 220
Panama, 235, 280
Paraguay, 236, 279
Peru, 278
Philippines, 284
Porto Rico, 281
Réunion (Bourbon), 285
Salvador, 225, 279, 280
Sierra Leone, 285
Somali Coast (French), 285
Somaliland (Fr. and It.), 229
(British), 285
St. Thomas and Princes I.'s, 229
Sumatra, 217
Uganda, 229, 285
Uruguay, 279
Venezuela, 212
World (1883-1921), 273
(1901-02), 531
(Statistical Table), 274
Production and Consumption, 273-285
Prohibition, U.S.
Effect on consumption, 288, 689
_Prolongation of Life_, Metchnikoff, _q._, 178
Propagation
Cuttings, 138, 200
Grafting, 200
Seeds, 138, 200
Arabia, 231
Proteins in c., 693, 718, 719
Dearth in beverage, 180
Provang, 56
Pruning, 133, 202, 203
Angola, 230
_Publick Adviser_, _per._, _q._, _ill._, 56, 432, 581
_Public Ledger_, London, _per._, 327
Publicity, National campaign, 513
Publishers' Information Bureau, 441
Puerto Cabello c., 348, 364
Puhl, John, 502
Puhl-Webb Co., 502
Pulp, uses, 136, 156
Pulping, 250, 251
Pulping machinery, 245, 246, 247, 248, 252, 254
Puna c., 356, 375
Pupke, John F., 482, 496
Pupke & Reid, 482, 496, 499, 635
Pupke, Reid & Phelps, 496
Purcell, Alexander H., 477
Purcell, Joseph, 477, 480, 535
Purcell & Co., Alex. H., 477
Purser (artist), 668
_Purchas his pilgrimes_, _q._, 36
Purchas, Samuel, 36
Purdy, L.J., 479
Pure Food and Drugs Act, 337, 338, 410, 472, 722
_Purin Bodies of Food Stuffs_, Hall, _q._, 184
Purity Dried Fruits Cleansing Co., 471
_Purpurescens, C._, _hyb._, 140
Pyriform c.-pot, 604
Pythagoras, 13
Qahvah, 2
Qahwah, 1
Quadri, Giorgio, 28
Quakers (imperfections), 329
Quarry, Col., 126
Queen Anne, 82
Queen Mary, 601
Queensberry, Duchess of, 572
Quelle, Ralph J., _pat._, 648
Quick roast, 387, 388
_Quillou, C._, 146
Java, 216
_Quillouensis, C._, 146
Quin, James, 580, 583
Quinby & Co., W.S., 501
Quincy, Dr., 543
Quotation relationship (table), 330
Quotations
Daily, how determined, 335
Foreign, 336
Rabaut, L.B., _pat._, 623, 627, 699
Racine, 91, 565
Radcliffe, John, 77, 572
Rainfall requirements, 198
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 42
Rambaldi, Angelo, 558;
_q._, 696
_Rameau's Nephew_, Diderot, _q._, 96
Ramos, Augusto, 531
Ramos, Francisco F., 534
Ramponaux, Jean, _chk._, 94, 96
Rand, George, 480
Randall, John, 479
Ranelagh (_see_ Gardens)
Ransom, Amos, _pat._, 625
Raparlier, _pat._, 637
_Rape of the lock_, Pope, 80
Rapid-filtration devices
de Mattel's patent (1920), 653
Express, 651
Italiana Sovereign, L., 651
J. & S. (Still's), 674
Victoria Arduino, La, (1909-20), 651
Rapid-infusion devices
Bezzara system, 649, 651
Ideale, _ill._, 651
Malthey-Zorn centrif., 653, 654
Rapid-percolation device
Loysel's hydrostatic, 708
Rasch, Anthony, 612
Rasis ad Almans (_see_ Rhazes)
Rauwolf, Leonhard, 43, 45, 431, 541, 543;
_q._, 2, 12, 25
Ray, John, 42, 543
Ray & Co., Winthrop G., 478, 479, 480
Razi, El (_see_ Rhazes)
_Ready and easy way to establish a free commonwealth_, Milton, 60
Reamer, Sr., Abraham, 480
Reamer, Turner & Co., 480
Rebagging
New York, 322, 338
Santos, 304, 306
Rebellious antidote (broadside), _q._, 58
Recipes, dessert's, etc., 723, 724
Reconditioning, 322
Recovery, _v._, 468
Red Can (brand), 441
Red D Line, 482
Red E (brand), 538
Red pottage, 13
Red Ribbon (brand), 441
Reed, Charles, 127
Reed, Charles B., _q._, 557
Reed, Nathan, _pat._, 245, 469
Reeve, Daniel, 482
Reeve & Van Riper, 482
Reeve, Case & Banks, 479
Re-exports
London, 327
United States (1921), 299, 301, 302
Refining device
Johnston's patent (1913), 652
Reichert, E.T., _q._, 183
Reid, Thomas, 469, 482, 494, 496, 497, 522, 526
Reid & Co., Thomas, 499
Reid, Murdoch & Fischer, 480, 502
Reiger, _q._, 184, 185
Reimers & Meyer, 485
Religious associations
Christian, 26
Mohammedan, 15, 16, 17, 22
Remi c., 351, 368
Remington, J.R., _pat._, 633
Remington, Mortimer, 445
Remmer, Oscar, 502
Renan, 102
Renovating, 158
Renshaw, William, _chk._, 130
Rentschler, _q._, 161
Repassing machine, 252
Research, Scientific
Brewing, comparative test, 714, 716
Dawson and Wetherill (1855), 711, 712
Grinds, comparative test, 716
University of Kansas, 714
Mass. Inst. of Technology, 515, 716-718
Mellon Institute, 539
N.C.R.A., 513-515, 539, 713-718
Prescott, 515, 714, 716-718
Robison, 715
Trigg, 539
Restaurants
London
A, B, C (chain), _ill._, 674, 677
Brit. Tea Table Ass'n., 675
Buzard's cake house, 677
Cabin, 677
Carlton, 678
Corner Houses (chain), 677
Express Dairy Co., 677
Groom's, _ill._, 674
Lipton's, 677
Lyons (chain), _ill._, 674, 675, 677
Peel's, 674
Slater's, 675, 677
Temple Bar, _ill._, 675
Trust-houses, Ltd., 675
Ye Mecca Co., _ill._, 674
New York
Childs (chain), 691
Dorlon's, 690
Thompson (chain), 691
Restrepo, Dr., _q._, 181
Retailing, 415-429
Blending, 722
Channels of distribution, 415
_Retaliation_, Goldsmith, 573, 574
Reuter-Jones Mfg. Co., 649
Revere, Paul, 110, 609, 611;
_biog._, 612, 613
Revett, William, _q._, 2
Revolution
American, 110, 125, 128
French, 100, 102, 293
Revolution, C. and, 18, 20, 31
(_See also_ Democracy: Politics)
Rewards, 50, 51
Reynolds, J. B, 506
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 81, 88, 574, 580, 585
Reynolds, Hatcher & Pierce, 509
Rhazes, _q._, 11, 12, 25, 431, 541
Rheumatism, remedy, 182
Rhodes, Benjamin, 477
Rice, W.S., 502
Richards, Charles, 508
Richardson, Charles, 80, 576;
_q._, 584
Richardson & Lane, 501
Richelieu, Duke of, 96, 98
Richheimer, I.D., 538, 539;
_pat._, 651, 652;
_q._, 715
Richter, _q._, 159
Ricker, Harvey, 701;
_pat._, 645
Ridenour, Baker Gro. Co., 485
Riechelmann, _q._, 159
Ries, Maurice, 338
Riggs, J. H, 508
Riley, James Whitcomb, _q._, 552
Rinehart & Stevens, 507
Rios (c.), 341, 343, 366
Ripley, D.C., 497
Risley, Christopher, 479
Risley, Leander S., 479
Risley & Co., C., 479, 480, 528
Rittenhouse, John, _pat._, 627
Ritz, 678
Rivarol, 98
Rivers, 186;
_q._, 187
Roach, Tiger, 579
Roasters
Baltimore, 507, 508
Boston, 501
Chicago, 501, 502
Cleveland, 507
Detroit, 508
Louisville, 505
Milwaukee, 506
New Orleans, 505
New York (1790-94), 475, 476
(1805-1922), 492-501
Philadelphia, 501
Pittsburgh, 507
San Francisco, 505, 506
St. Louis, 502, 503
Toledo, 506, 507
Other cities, 508, 509
United States, 492-509
(_See also_ Dealers, wholesale)
Roasting
Arabia, 658-662
Australia, 692
Great Britain, 673
(18th century), 695, 696
(19th century), 704, 705, 707
France, 679
Greece, 685
Netherlands, 686
New Zealand, 692
United States, 709, 710, 712
Roasting, Chemistry of, 165-167, 388, 389
Roasting economies, 513
Roasting, Household
Decline of, 635
Devices
Braziers, 615
Clay dishes, 615
Corn-poppers, 635
Cylinder, 619
Earthenware, 615, 620
Extemporized, 617, 635, 695, 696
Glass flasks (Italy), 623
Iron dippers, spiders, 616
Metal plates, 615
Stirrers (spatula), 616
Roasting machinery, 381-386, 615-654
Coal, 391, 392
Development of, 629
Direct-flame, 386
French, 678-680
Glass cylinder, 646
Gas, 386, 640-643
German (1860-1897), 638, 639
Imports from Gt. Brit., 625
Indirect-flame, 642, 646
Inner-heated, 386
Retail, 420, 421
Sample (France), 679
Wholesale,
Burns, J.; improvements, 634-637, 644
French patents, 639, 640
German patent, first, 683
Fullard's heated fresh air, 643
Steam-power, 631, 635
Roasting machines
Household
Bernard's cylinder (1841), 629
Bull's coal (1704), 620
Elford's white iron (1660), 616, 617
Gee's (1852), 634
Home (1908), 646
Hyde's combined (1862), 634
Ittel's glass sphere (1874), 640
Kuhlemann's electric, 648
Lacoux's combined, 625, 627
Lauzaune's cylinder (1829), 625
Lauzaune's "rocking" (1873), 640
Lawton's perforated, gas (1912), 641
Lawton's quick gas (1912), 651, 652
Marchand's fan roaster (1866), 640
Martin's cylinder (1860), 640
Preterre's weighing (1849), 634
Ransom's (1833), 625
Remington's wheel of buckets, 633
Savo (1917), 646
Schick's method (1812), 623
Williamson's (1820), 624
Wood's spherical (1849), 634, 710
Retail
Lambert's 50-pound, 646
Lester's electric (1903), 647
Moegling's electric (1906), 647
Sales promotion value, 423
Seymour's electric (1921), 648
St. Louis, Jr., 649
Talbutt's electric (1911), 647
Uno electric (1909-20), 647, 648
Warner's mill (1905), 648
Sample roasting
Burns, 642
Improved (1883), 645
Swing-gate (1900), 647
Tilting (1909), 651
Wholesale, 646
Arbuckle's first (1903), 647
Aromatic (electric power), 646
Burns Balanced-front (1908), 651
Coal, 391, 392
Direct-flame (1900), 642
First patent (1864), 634
Special gas (1897), 642
Carter Pull-out (1846), 469, 629
Combination (quick gas), 641
Comet, 638
Crawley patents, 642
Dakin (1848), 633
Delphine tubular (1870), 639
Economic, 646
Evans cylindrical (1824), 624
Faulder, 640, 673
First direct flame (U.S.), 471
Fleury gas (1880-81), 638, 640
Fraser gas (1897-98), 642
Giacomini process (1903), 648
Hamsley direct-flame (1898), 642
Henneman direct-flame (1888), 640, 642, 643
Holmes patent (1906), 643
Hungerford patent (1882), 644
Hyde combined (1862), 634
Ideal-Rapid, 639
Johnston patent (1905), 646
Jubilee (1915-19), 643, 652
Jumbo, 522, 524, 647
Knickerbocker, 638, 644
Knowlys's cylinder (1848), 633
Kuchelmeister drum, 647
Lambert indirect-flame (1901), 642, 646
Self-contained, 646
Lambert (French), 646
Magic, 646
Marchand ball (1877), 640
Meteor, 638
Moderne, 646
Monitor direct-flame, 642
Morewood sliding-burner (1901), 642, 673
Muhlberg patents (1878), 638
Otto spiral-tubular (1889), 640, 641
Page Pull-out (1868), 637, 638
Pearson patents, 638, 640
Perfekt, 639
Postulart gas (1888), 640
Potter direct-flame (1899), 642
Probat, 639
Rekord (quick gas), 641
Resson, 646
Royal (1905), 643, 646
Schmidt patent (1906), 649
Schnuck gas (1919), 653
Shortt electric (1919), 647
Sirocco, 641, 646
Thurmer quirk-gas (1891-93), 640, 641
Tornado quick-gas, 641
Tubermann (1877), 638
Tupholme direct-flame (1887), 640, 641
Typhoon, 638
Uno, 673
Van den Brouck cylinder, 646
von Gumborn gas (1892), 639
Van Gulpen (1870), 638
Roasting methods
Automatic control, 166
Better C.-making com., 713, 714
Burns, Jabez; views on, 636
Butter; use in Gt. Brit., 673
Early, 694, 695
Electric, 386
Goldsworthy's process, 702
Lard; use in Gt. Brit., 673
Natural gas, 642
Quick _vs._ slow, 640, 641
Roasting plants
France, 679
United States
Arbuckle, 524, 525
First and second, 468
New York
Number (1914-1919), 515, 516
Early (1790-95), 491
Number (1855-56), 496
Roasting trade
France, 678, 679
Italy, 686
United States, 379-406, 491-515
Beginning of, 522
Methods and prices (1845), 635
Retail, 418
St. Louis (1857), 629-633
Roasts, 356
Brazilian preferences, 691
British preferences, 673
French preferences, 680
Greek preferences, 685
Italian preferences, 686
Roberts, Mrs., _chk._, 127
Robertson, Joseph C., 585
Robespierre, 94, 96, 102
_Robinson Crusoe_, Defoe, 80
Robinson, Dr., _q._, 176
Robinson, Edward Forbes, 557;
_q._, 11, 54, 56, 59, 62, 72, 73, 107
Robinson, Tanered, 584
Robinson & Co., N., 501
Robison, Floyd W., _pat._, 158, 474;
_q._, 715
_Robusta, C._
Botanical description, 144
Ceylon, 236
Cup-tests, 145
Guadeloupe, 234
India, 227
Indo-China, French, 237
Java, 215, 216
Netherlands E. Indies, 283
New Caledonia, 243
New York, Exchange excludes, 329, 338
Sumatra, 217
Trees; height (Java), 215
yield (Java), 216
Uganda, 353
United States, imports, 341
Varieties, 146
_Robusta-achtigen_ (robusta-like), 216
_Robusta_ hybrid (Ceylon), 236
_Robusta_ × _Maragogipe_, _hyb._, 146
Rochester, Earl of, 575
Rodney, William, 126
Roe, Sir T., _q._, 2
Roettier, John, 62, 582
Rogers, _chk._, 121
Rolamb, Nicholas, _q._ 23
Rollins, Thornton, 485
_Romance of Trade_, Bourne, _q._, 54
Romero, _q._, 198
Ronan, James, 508
_Roodbessige, C._ (Java), 216
Roome, Luke, _chk._, 118
Roome, William P., 478, 498
Roome & Co., William P., 478, 498
Rooney, John, 475
Roosevelt family, 690
Ropes, Joseph, 468
Ropes, Ripley, 482
Roque, P. de la, 31, 543
_Rosary, The_, Barclay, _q._, 563
Rosebault, Charles J., _q._, 671
Roseburg, William, 521, 522
Rosée, Pasqua, 42, 43, 53, 54, 58, 69, 462, 543;
_q._, 432
Handbill, _ill._, 459, 461
Roselius, Ludwig, _pat._, 162, 473
Ross, C.J., _q._, 230
Rossbach & Bro., 485
Rosseau, Jean Baptiste, 88, 554
Rosseter, J.H., 490
Rossi, _q._, 186
Rossignon, _q._, 707
Rossini, 103
Rota (_see_ Clubs, C.-house)
Roth, 510
Roth Grocery Co., Adam, 485
Rothschilds, 531
Roubiliac, 84, 583, 584
Rouch, _pat._, 621
Roure, _pat._, 640
Rousseau, Baron Antoine, _q._, 656
Rousseau, J.J., 94, 98, 102, 566
Routh, Harold, _q._, 561
Rowland, _pat._, 625
Rowland, Helen, _q._, 553, 554
Rowland & Humphreys, 482
Rowland, Humphreys & Co., 480
Rowland, Terry & Humphreys, 482
Rowlandson, Thomas, 75, 593
Rowley, Levi, 494, 499
Roxbury "hourlies", 10
Royal Exchange Lloyd's, 85
Royal Exchange (London), 86
Royal Exchange (New York, 1752), 120
Royal Scarlet (brand), 441
Royal Society, 41
Royal, Thomas M., 471
Rubia Mills, 434, 496
Ruffio, P.A., 591
Ruffner, W.R., 538
Rule & Bro., Robert J., 501
Ruliff, Clark & Co., 505
Rulings (U.S.), 337, 338
Rumford, Count, _inv._, 557, 621, 622, 699, 704;
_biog._, 697;
_q._, 698
Rumsey, Walter, _q._, 56
Runkle & Co., J.C., 479, 482
Rupert, Prince, 69
Russell, Edward C., 495
Russell, Frank C., 478, 499
Russell, Robert, 482
Russell, Robert S., 499
Russell & Co., 482, 494, 499
Russell & Fessenden, 501
Ruth, 13
Ruth, Sylvester, 507
Rutter & Co., Thomas, 480
Ryan & Co., James, 506
Saccharin in c., 165
Saffron in c., 660
Saint-Foix, 566, 567
Saint-Victor, 102
Salaman, Malcolm C., _q._, 589
Salant, _q._, 184
Salazar, Alfredo M., _pat._, 653
Salazar c., 349, 365
Sales by candle, 571
Salesmanship, 407
Sales promotion
Retail, 423-426
Wholesale, 412, 413
Saltero, Don, 559, 560
Saltus, Francis S., 541;
_q._, 552
Salvadors (c.), 347, 360
Salvandy, Narcisse-Achille, _q._, 100
Samoa c., 355, 375
Sample distribution, 412
Samplers (N.Y. Exch.), 333
Sampling
Brazil, 303, 304, 306
New York, 319, 321
San Francisco, 327
Santos, 303, 304, 306, 312, 316
Sanani c., 351, 368
Sanborn, Chas. E., 501
Sanborn, James S., 501
Sandys, Sir George, 12, 38, 543;
_q._, 36
_Sandys's Travels_, _q._, 36
Sand, George, 565
Sanger, Abraham, 480
Sanger, Beers & Fisher, 480, 497
Sanger & Wells, 480
Santa Ana c., 350, 365
Santa Cecilia, _v._, 316
Santo Domingos (c.), 350, 362
Santos c., 341, 342, 366
Saportas Bros., 482
_Saturday Evening Post_, _per._, _q._, 177
Sauvage c., _ill._, 142
Savage, 578
Savage, George E., _pat._, 649
Savage, Richard, 570
Saxe, Marshall, 98
Saxon Coffee Co., 508
Sayre, _q._, 163, 164, 166, 183
Schadheli, Sheik, 13, 14
Schaefer, Henry, 478, 535
Schaefer, J.H., _q._, 428
Schams, Franz, 590
Schanne, Alexandre, _q._, 102
Scharf, _q._, 126
Schemsi, _chk._, 19, 668
Scheuzer, J.J., _q._, 13, 16
Schick, Anthony, _pat._, 623
Schierenberg, A., 535
Schilling, A., 506
Schilling & Co., A., 505, 506, 507
Schipano, Mario, 27
Schittenhelm, _q._, 182
Schmelzel, James H., 495
Schmidt, C., 591
Schmidt, Francisco, 208
Schmidt, Ludwig, _pat._, 649
Schmidt & Ziegler, 486
Schmiedeberg, Dr. Oswald, _q._, 185
Schnuck, Edward F., _pat._, 653
Schnull & Krag, 508
Schoepffwasser, Lorentz, _pseud._, 45
School of Oratory, Macklin's, 580
Schools, information for, 513
Schools of the wise, 19
Schotten, Christian, 503
Schotten, Hubertus, 503
Schotten, Jerome J., 503
Schotten, Julius J., 503, 510, 631
Schotten, William, 503, 629, 631, 633
Schotten & Bro., William, 503
Schotten & Co., Wm., 485, 502, 503
Schotten Coffee Co., Wm., 503
Schramm, Arnold, 477
Schramm, Inc., Arnold, 477
Schroeder, Bruno, 532, 534
Schroeder & Co., J. Henry, 532, 534
Schuler, John G., 508
Schulte, A., _q._, 156
Schultz & Ruckgaber, 482
Schultze, _q._, 165
_Schumaniana, C._, 146
Schumberg, _q._, 186
Schürhoff, _q._, 185
Schurtzkwer, 185
Schwartz, Joseph M., 521
Schwartz Bros., 488
Schweitzer & Co., M., 488
Scialdi, 14
Scolfield, Henry, _pat._, 247
Scott, Andrew, _q._, 85
Scott, Edwin, 499
Scott, Sir Walter, _q._, 573, 574, 579
Scott, William, 479
Scott & Dash, 479
Scott & Meiser, 479
Scott & Sons, William, 479
Scott, Dash & Co., 479
Scott, Meiser & Co., 479
Scott's Sons & Co., William, 479
Scotty, C. (chef), 691
Scriba, Schroppel & Starmen, 475
_Scribner's Magazine_, _q._, 664
Scudder, Gale Gro. Co., 485
Scull, William S., 509
Scull & Co., W.S., 508
Scull Co., William S., 509
Sculpture, C. in, 599
Seal (brand), 435, 441, 465
Secchi, 558
Seelye, Frank R., 511, 513
Segundo (grade), 261, 264
Seidell, _q._, 160
Seifert, _q._, 185
Selby, Thomas, _chk._, 112
Selden, David, _pat._, 625
Seligsberg, Louis, 478
Selim I, 18, 19, 49
Selling chart, 409
Semarang c., 355, 373
Sencial, _q._, 156
Sené, _pat._, 623, 625, 699
_Sense of Taste, The_, Hollingworth and Poffenberger, _q._, 723
Separating machinery, 383
Sephton, Geoffrey, _q._, 552
Service, C., 31
Arabia, 658-663, 695
Artistic and historic, 599-614, 619, 620, 621
Britannia ware, etc., 619
Clay bowls, first, 616
English, c.-pots (1714-70), 620, 621
Lantern c.-pots, 602, 619
Sèvres c.-pots, 607
Sheffield-plate c.-pots, 607
Silver c.-pots (18th cent.), 619
Sino-Lowestoft c.-pot, 607
London cafés and restaurants, 674
Oriental c.-pots, 619
Netherlands, 686
New York hotels, 691
Paris (Pascal's, 1672), 619
Turkish, 602, 617, 621, 695
_Seven Truths to Teach the Young in Regard to Life and Sex_, Abbey, _q._,
177
Sèvres c.-pots, 607
Seymour, Mark T., _pat._, 648
Shade, C.-growing under, 133
Arabia, 197
Guam, 242
Guatemala, 219
Hawaii, 241
Requirements, 201
Shadli, Shaomer (_see_ Schadheli), 2
Shami c., 351, 368
Shapleigh Coffee Co., 501
Sharki c., 351, 368
Shaw, Daniel A., 480
Shaw, John W., 492
Shaw, William, 612
Shaw's Louisiana Coffee and Spice Mills, 505
Sheaff, Henry, 475
Sheffield plate c.-pots, 607
Sheldon, Henry, 479
Sheldon & Co., Henry, 478, 479
Sheldon Banks & Co., 479
Shemsi, _chk._, 19, 668
Shenstone, _q._, 584
Shephard, Fleetwood, _q._, 584
Shepherd, T.H., 593
Sheppard, Alexander, 501
Sheppard & Sons, Inc., Alex., 501
Sherbet, 562
London c. houses sell, 61
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 80;
_q._, 581
Sherif-Eddin-Omar-ben-Faredh, _q._, 543
Sherley, Sir Anthony, 35, 543
Sherman, Fred, 506
Sherman, Fred T., 477, 482
Sherman, Henry B., 506
Sherman, Lewis, 506, 514
Sherman, Jr., Lewis, 506
Sherman, Milo P., 506
Sherman, S.S., 506
Sherman, William, 506
Sherman, William H., 506
Sherman, William M., 506
Sherman, William T. (Gen.), 563
Sherman & Taylor, 477
Sherman Bros. & Co., 485, 502, 506
Shewbert, John, _chk._, 126
Shewbert, Mrs., _chk._, 126
Shields & Boucher, 507
Shihâb-ad-Dîn manuscript, 542
Shinkle, Wilson & Kreis Co., 484, 485
Shipping Board, U.S., 338
Shipping c., 312-327
Brazil, 306
American vessels, 515
Colombia, 314, 315
Iron steamships (1868), 476
Longest voyage, 316
Santos, 312, 314
Time-table, port to port, 316
Shipping ports, principal, 191
Shope, W.C., 502
Shortt, Everett T., _pat._, 647
Shrinkage, 389, 391
Roasting, 388
Table (green c.), 393
Shubert (_see_ Shewbert)
Sias, Charles D., 501
Siddons, Mrs., 569
Siegfried, John C., 506
Siegfried & Brandenstein, 505, 506
Siegman, John G., 507
Sielcken, Hermann, 473, 482, 511, 518, 519, 520, 523, 531;
_biog._, 517, 521
Valorization, 530-534
Woolson Spice Co., 506
Sielcken, Hermann (Mrs.), 518
Sielcken-Crossman contract, 519
Sierra c., 345, 359
Signs, Coffee-house
London, 602, 603
Bowman's, 54
Morat (Amurath), 62
Rosée's, 54
Soliman, 62
New York, 117, 124
King's Arms, 124
Signs, Grocers'
Lowell, Ebenezer (New York), 467
Richards, Smith (New York), 124
Silver c.-pots, 619
Silver skin, 136, 138
Silversmiths, American, 609, 612
Silversmiths Society, 612
Simmonds, W. Lee, 478
Simmonds & Bayne, 478
Simmonds & Co., H., 478
Simmonds & Co., W. Lee, 478
Simmonds & Newton, 478
Simon, Jr., M., _pat._, 167
Simonds H., 478
Sinclair, Evans & Elliot, 508
Singleton, Esther, _q._, 105, 115, 709
Sinnot, J.B., 505
Sino-Lowestoft c.-pot, 607
Sion & Co., 340
_Sir Antoine Shirlies Trauelles_, Parry, _q._, _ill._, 38
Sirups (_see_ Syrups)
Sizing (_see_ Grading), 258
Skiddy, Francis, 479
Skiddy, Minford & Co., 479, 485, 530
Skinner, Cyriac, 60
"Skyscraper" coffee house, 112, 113
Slacks, 322
Slave auctions, Phila., _ill._, 128
Slemmons & Conkling, 508
Sloane, Sir Hans, 86, 543, 582
Sloss, Robert, _q._, 531
Slow roast, 387
Small, C.K., 477, 480
Small, John, 480
Small Bros. & Co., 477, 479, 480
Smalls & Bacon, 480
Smart, Joseph F., _pat._, 653
Smith, Adam, 81, 583
Smith, Clarence 480
Smith, Daniel, _chk._, 129
Smith, Frank, 499
Smith, George H., 501
Smith, John (Capt.), 105, 543,;
_q._, 36
Smith, John Thomas, 583;
_q._, 569
Smith, Michael E., 503
Smith, Mrs., _chk._, 119
Smith, Nathaniel, 584
Smith, Robert, 501
Smith, Robert A., 501
Smith, Sidney, _q._, 567
Smith, William T., 501
Smith, William V.R., 523, 524
Smith & Co., D., 476
Smith & Co., Thomas, 700
Smith & Curtis, 507
Smith & McKenna, 505
Smith & McNell, 494
Smith & Schipper, 485
Smith & Son, Robert, 501
Smith & Son, Thomas, 637, 639, 699
Smith & Sons, Robert, 501
Smith Bros. & Co., 505
Smith Bros., 486
Smith Bros. & Co. Ltd., 505
Smith's Sons, M.V.R., 480
Smith's Sons, Robert, 501
Smoke screens (Guatemala), 219
Smollett, 559
Smooth (_see_ Flavors)
Smout, Jules, _pat._, 248
Smyser, Henry L., 523;
_pat._, 470
Sobieranski, _q._, 186
Sobieski, King John, 49
Sociedade Promotora da Defesa do Café, 446
Société de Café Soluble Belna, 539
Société Generale, 532, 534
Society of Antiquaries, 602
Society of the Friends of Music, 597
Soda fountains, 689
Soils
Australia, 238
Best, 198, 201
Brazil, 198, 205
Costa Rica, 225
Federated Malay States, 238
Venezuela, 212
Soliman Aga, 91
Soliman the Great, 18, 19
Sollmann, _q._, 182, 183
Soluble coffee, 404, 406
Brands, 470, 538, 539
History of, 538, 539
Kato's patent, 471
Processes, 169
U.S. Army war needs, 539
Washington's patent, 471
Soluble Coffee Co., 539
Somers, A.L., 507
_Songs of Brittany_, 548
Sons of Liberty, 120
Sorenson, John S., 520
Sorenson & Nielson, 482, 520
Sorley, William, 480, 491
Sorting machinery, 245
Sorver, Damon & Co., 485
Soulie, 102
Soup, Coffee, 177
Sour (_see_ Flavors)
South Sea bubble, 571, 572
Southern boom (1904), 530
Southern Coffee Mills, Inc., 505
Southern Coffee Polishing Mills, 505
Southern Cross, _v._, 316
Southern Pacific Co., 489
Souvestre, Emile, _q._, 565
Spatula (_see_ Roasting machinery), 616
Specialty stores, 415, 421
_Spectator_, _per._, 75, 80, 85, 88, 558, 573, 584;
_q._, 86, 87, 560, 561, 572, 575, 582
Spencer, G.L., _q._, 165
Sperry Flour Co., 488
_Spice Mill_, _per._, 470, 526, 527
_Spice-Mill Companion_, 427
Splitting nickels, 427
Spot brokers, 336, 337
Spot of leaf and fruit (_see_ Diseases)
Spot Market, New York, 329, 330
Spot quotation committee (N.Y. Exch.), 334
Sprague, Albert A., 502
Sprague, Irvin A., 477
Sprague, O.S.A., 502
Sprague & Rhodes, 477
Sprague & Stetson, 502
Sprague & Warner, 502
Sprague, Warner & Co., 483, 502
Sprague, Warner & Griswold, 502
Spreckels & Bros. Co., J.D., 488
Spring Garden Iron Works, 245
Spruce, Richard, _q._, 200
Squier, George L., 246
Squier Mfg. Co., Geo. L., 246, 247, 469
St. Germain's Fair (_see_ Coffee houses, Paris)
St. Serf, Thomas, _q._, 554
Stachan, John, _chk._, 119
Stacie, _chk._, 579, 580;
_q._, 581
Stadium (circus), New York, 124
Stage coaches, Boston, 110, 112
Stamp Act (1765), 120, 125, 128
Stamps, Trading, 429
Stanton, Sheldon & Co., 479
Star Coffee and Spice Mills, 506
_Star_, London, _newsp._, 585
Star Mills, 494, 499
Starhemberg, Rudiger von, 49, 50
State of São Paulo Pure C. Co. Ltd., 445
_Statistical Abstract, U.S._, _q._, 299
Statue of Kolschitzky, 599
Steam power for roasting, 631, 635
Steel-cut, 401, 714
Baker-Duncombe suit, 649
Steele, Mrs., _chk._, 121
Steele, Sir Richard, 75, 80, 84, 557, 570, 572, 576, 577, 578, 579;
_q._, 558, 559
Steele & Co., E.L.G.S., 487
Steele & Emery, 508
Steele & Price, 470
Steele, Wedeles Co., 485
Steele-Wedeles Co., 502
Steeping, 720
Ste.-Foix, 94
Steinwender, Julius, 482
Steinwender, Stoffregen, 485
Steinwender, Stoffregen & Co., 338, 340, 482, 502
Steinwender, Stoffregen Co., 484
Stella (Esther Vanhomrigh), 562
Stenhouse, _q._, 163
_Stenophylla, C._, 216
Botanical description, 140
_Stenophylla_ × _Abeokutæ_, _hyb._, 146
_Stenophylla Paris, C._, 146
Stephen, _chk._, 93
Stephens, Alvan, 507
Stephens, Henry A., 507
Stephens Samuel R., 507
Stephens & Co., A., 502
Stephens & Sons, A., 507
Stephens & Widlar, 507
Steppe, J.P., _pat._, 649
Sterility, C. and, 23, 46
Sternau, Sigmund, _pat._, 649
Sternau & Co., S., 649
Sterne, Richard, 601
Stetson, Z.B., 502
Stevens, Alfred, 103
Stevens, Henry B., _pat._, 247
Stevens, W. & S., 508
Stevens & Armstrong, 480
Stevens, Armstrong & Hartshorn, 480
Stevens Bros. & Co., 480
Stewart, C.H., _q._, 349
Stewart, James, 478
Stewart, Robert C., 477, 498
Stewart & Co., C.M., 485
Stewart & Co., R.C., 477
Stewart & Walker, 478
Stickney & Poor, 501
Still & Sons, W.M., 647, 674
Stillman, Abel, _pat._, 627
Stiner & Co., Joseph, 409
Stitt, William J., 494, 497
Stitt & Co., W.J., 497, 499
Stock Exchange, New York, 122
Stofffregen, Carl H., 448, 511, 535
Stokes, John, 129
Stoning machinery, 381, 394, 395
Storage
Havre, 327
New York, 319, 321
Santos, 303
Venezuela, 315
_Storia di Venezia nella Vita Privata, La_, Molmenti, _q._, 27
Storm, Walter, 482
Storm, Smith & Co., 482
Story, Rufus G., 479, 496
Story & Co., R.G., 496
Story-tellers in c. houses, 666, 669
Stoufs, Joseph, 590
Stowe, Orson W., _pat._, 644
Strassberger, L., _pat._, 649
Straus, Oscar, 672
Strauss & Sons, L., 518
Street brokers, 337
Stringer, Mary, _chk._, 56
Strong, Joseph, 508
Strowbridge, Turner, _pat._, 644
Stuart, Alexander, 503
Stump, Aug., 482, 484
Stumpp & Co., August, 482
_Suakurensis, C._ (Java), 216
Substitute, C., advertising, 437, 438
Charts, 440, 441
Substitute-fakers, 435
Substitutes, 170
Barley, 13, 46
Betony, 74
Bocket, 74
Cereal (harmful to diabetics), 165
Chicory, 46
Corn, 46
Figs, dried, 46
Russia, 686
Saloop (sassafras and sugar), 73, 74
United States (1st patent), 470
Wheat, 46
Succory (_see_ Chicory)
Succop & Lips, 503
Sucrose, 165
Suess-Oppenheimer, Joseph, 47
Sugar in c., 26, 58, 91, 98, 106, 667
Cairo (first use, 1625), 657, 695
Consumption (U.S.), 689
Great Britain (17th cent.), 696
Greece, 685
North America, 105
Sugar of c., 165
Sugar Trust fight, 521-523
Sullivan, Luke, 85, 584
Sully, D.J., 530, 572
Sultan, Café, 658
Sultane, Café, 694
Sumatras (c.), 355, 370-372
Sumerling & Co., 674
Sun, London, _newsp._, 578
_Sun_, New York, _newsp._, _q._, 175
_Sunshine_, _per._, 524
Sutton & Vansant, 485
Swain, Earle & Co., 501
Swaythling, Lord, 604
Swazey, S.L., 479
Sweated c., 316, 317
Artificial (U.S. rulings), 337
Sailing vessels, 353
Sweeney, John, 492
Sweet (_see_ Flavors)
Sweet c.'s, 397
Sweet-bitter c.'s, 397
Swett, E.H., 501
Swift, Jonathan, 80, 84, 88, 89, 557, 562, 570, 573, 577, 578, 579, 587;
_q._, 571, 575
Swift & Co., H.H., 482
Swift, Billings & Co., 485
_Sylva Sylvarum_, Bacon, _q._, 38, 543
Syndicates
Arnold-Dash-Kimball, 527, 528
German Trading Co., 528
_Syria, The Holy Land_, Carne, _q._, 668-670
Syrups, Coffee; recipe for, 724
Szekacs, _q._, 185
Szyszka, _q._, 185
Tabasco c., 345, 358
Taber & Place, 434, 496
_Table, The_, _per._, 675
_Table Traits_, Doran, _q._, 705
Tachiras (c.), 349, 365
Tackaberry, William, 509
Tackaberry Co., Wm., 509
Taine, 102
Talbot, Winslow & Co., 507
Talbutt, Robert H., _pat._, 647
Talleyrand, Prince, 103;
_q._, 565
Tampico c., 345, 359
Tannin, 160, 182, 711
Tapachula c., 345, 358
Tapperi, David, _q._, 11
Tapping hands (Arabia), 312
_Tatler_, _per._, 75, 80, 85, 86, 561, 572;
_q._, 558, 559, 571, 573, 575, 584
Tatlock, _q._, 159
Tavernier, 31, 543;
_q._, 2
Taverns
Boston
Blue Anchor (inn), 109
Bunch of Grapes, 111
Cole's (Inn), 109
First, 108
Green Dragon, 613
Indian Queen, 109, 110
King's Head, 109
Ship, 109
Sun, 109, 110
Red Lyon (inn), 109
London
Barn, 584
Golden, 583
Locket's Ordinary, 569
Mermaid, 60
Rose, 56
Shakespeare's Head, 576
New York
Atlantic Garden House, 117, 121
Black Horse, 118
Fighting Cocks, 118
Fraunces', 121
Jamaica Pilot Boat, 118
King's Head, 117
Queen's Head, 119
White Lion, 117
Philadelphia, 125
Blue Anchor (first), 126
City, 125, 128, 129, 130
Globe (inn), 126
New, 129
Smith's, 129
Taxation
Arabia, 231
England (1714), 59
Germany, 47
Royal monopoly (1781), 46
Porto Rico (exemptions), 222
São Paulo (valorization), 534
Turkey, 20
(_See also_ Duties; Fines; Licenses; Pure food, etc.)
Taylor, C.K., _q._, 177
Taylor, James H., 477
Taylor, John, 578
Taylor, William, 475
Taylor & Co., James H., 477, 479, 485
Taylor & Co., Moses, 476
Taylor & Levering, 484, 485
Tea, 35
Action in stomach, 178
American colonies
Introduction, 105, 106
Stamp act (1765) increases consumption, 106
Smuggled from Netherlands, 106
Antiquity, 15
Canada, 687
Discovery, 12
Great Britain
Consumption compared with c., 288, 289
First sold in London (1657), 56
Imports (1700-57), 75
Introduced at Court, 582
National beverage, 75
Preferred to c., 674
Prices (1662, 1714), 582
Sold in c. houses, 61, 78, 80
Taxation, 59
Eulogized by Mosely, 38
Johnson, Sam'l, 568
Europe (first used, 1610), 23
Literary stimulus, 357, 358
Mental efficiency, Effect on, 186
Philadelphia (introduction), 125
Russia, 686
United States
Consumption per capita (1783), 468
Consump. comp. with c., 288, 289
Imports (1783), 468
Laws affecting, 337
Tea and coffee pots, 609
_Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_, _per._, 138, 402;
_q._, 34, 147, 155, 160, 161, 168, 175, 176, 177, 178,
179, 180, 181, 186, 387, 388, 399, 410, 418, 421, 422,
427, 439, 527, 558, 679, 689, 693, 715, 717, 720
Begins publication (1901), 472
Ukers assumes editorship (1904), 527
Urges nat'l organization of roasters, 511
Tea gardens (_see_ Gardens)
Tea party (_see_ Boston; New York)
Tea-rooms (London), 675, 677
Teeth, Effects of c. on, 175
Tegals (_c._), 355, 373
T'eh (tea), 35
Teixelra, Pedro, _q._, 2
Telephone in retail stores, 424
Tellicherry c., 351, 369
Temperance, C. and, 61
Tennent, Robert Bowman, _pat._, 246
Terminology, 168
Terms and credits, 403, 513-515
Terms and discounts (Brazil), 306
Terry, Edward, _q._, 36
Testing (France), 679, 680
_Text Book of Physiology_, Flint, _q._, 176
Teyssonnier, 146
Thackeray, W.M., 103;
_q._, 563
Thannhauser & Co., 488
Thayer, Byron T., 501
_Theatrum botanicum_, Parkinson, 543;
_q._, 41
Thebaud, Joseph, 476
Thein, 160
Theobromin, 160
_Therapeutic Gazette_, _per._, _q._, 176
Thery, _q._, 543
Thévenot, 543
Thomas, C., 501
Thomas, Elizabeth, 575
Thomas, Gov., 127
Thomas, R.G., 494
Thomas Co., R.G., 494
Thomas & Son, J.W., 508
Thomas & Turner, 494
Thompson, Benjamin, _inv._, 621;
_q._, 163
(_See also_ Rumford)
Thompson, Dr., _q._, 159, 181
Thompson, James, 492
Thompson, James Henry, _pat._, 246
Thompson, Patience, 492
Thompson, W.D., 479
Thompson & Bowers, 478, 480
Thompson & Davis, 479
Thompson Bros., 479
Thompson Co., J. Walter, 445
Thompson, Shortridge & Co., 478, 479
Thomsen & Co., 479
Thomson, A.M., 502
Thomson, James, 502
Thomson, James (poet), 574
Thomson, A.M. & James, 502
Thomson & Taylor, 502
Thomson & Taylor Co., 502
Thomson & Taylor Spice Co., 484, 502, 509
Thorn, A.B., 499
Thornley, Jesse, 501
Thornley & Bro., 501
Thornley & Ryan, 501
Thornton, Richard J., 505
Thornton, Richard J. (Mrs.), 505
Thornton & Co., R.J., 505
Thornton & Hawkins, 505
Thorpe, _q._, 159, 164
_Thousand and One Nights_ (_see Arabian Nights_)
_Three Reigns of Nature_, Delille, _q._, 547
Thum, _pat._, 158, 164
Thumb-piece on English c. pots, 620
Thurber, A.D., 499
Thurber, Francis B., 557;
_q._, 182, 712
Thurber, H.K., 482
Thurber & Co., H.K., 499
Thurber & Co., H.K. & F.B., 482
Thurlow, Lord, 80, 88, 572
Thurmer, Max, 640, 641
Tibiriçá, Jorge, 531
_Times_, London, _newsp._ 585;
_q._, 175
_Times_, New York, _newsp._, 671, 672
Tilloch, Dr., 585
Tillyard, Arthur, 41
Timbs, John, 557;
_q._, 53, 69, 555, 570-585
Timby, _pat._, _q._, 157
Timor c., 355, 376
Tinned coffee (Great Britain), 673
Tinney, Henry C., 509
Tipping, origin of, 74
To arrive, 330
San Francisco, 327
Tobacco
In c. houses, 42, 77, 78, 84, 98
Intoxication, 182
Todd, Robert, 118
Togami, K., _q._, 179
Toledo & Co., Filipe S., 340
Tolimas (c.), 348, 364
Tolman Co., J.A., 485
Tomkyns, _chk._, 576
Toms, G.W., 513
Tone, Isaac E., 509
Tone, Jay E., 508, 509
Tone, Jekiel, 509
Tone, W.E., 509, 510, 511
Tone Bros., 509
Tonkin c., 352, 370
Tonti, Lorenzo, 122
Torner, Richard, _chk._, 572
Torro & Co., Louis M., 340
Totten & Bro., W.W., 508
Touches, Vicomte des, 532, 534
Tovars (c.), 349, 350, 365
_Town Eclogues_, Montagu, 573
Townsend, 496
Tractors, electric (Bush Co.), 322
Tracy & Avery Co., 485
Trade
New Orleans, 485-487
Overproduction disturbs (1898), 471
San Francisco, 487-491
Shifting currents, 293, 294, 295, 296
United States, 475-515
(1921), 299-302
Aden and, 301
Brazil and, 300
Tariff preferentials, 296
Booms, 468, 469
Central Am. and, 296, 300
Chronological review, 467-474
Colombia and, 300
Development (1865-1922), 297-299
Mexico and, 301
Netherlands E. Ind. and, 301
Panic (1880), 470
Venezuela and, 300
West Indies and, 301
Trade and Statistics Committee (N.Y. Exch.), 334
Trade Marks, U.S., 413, 469, 470
Trade names of c.'s (_see_ Characteristics)
Trading, 291-302
Amsterdam (1640), 105
Brazil, 295
Early, 293
Europe, 327-340
Germany (begins 1670), 293
Havre, 327
Netherlands, 293, 294
First cargo sold (1640), 43
New York (early), 115
U.S. rulings, 337, 338
San Francisco and Central Am., 325
Sweden (begins 1674), 293
Trading stamps, 429
Traffic Assn. of St. Louis Coffee Importers (1910), 510
Trafton, C.K., _q._, 527
_Traités Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, etc._, Dufour, _q._, 2, 11, 432, 433
Transhipping ports, Europe, 289
Transportation, Inland
Abyssinia, 228, 229, 308, 310
Arabia, 266, 282, 293
Bolivia, 279
Brazil, 303
Central America, 308
Colombia, 308, 316
Nicaragua, 280
Venezuela, 308
Transportation, Seven stages of, 323
Travancore c., 351, 369
_Travels_, Herbert, _q._, 36
_Travels_, Rauwolf, _q._, 25
_Travels_, Teixeira, _q._, 2
_Travels and Adventure_, Smith, _q._, 36
_Travels in Arabia Deserts_, Daughty, _q._, 661
_Travels in India and Persia_, Della Valle, 27
_Travels of Certayne Englishmen, etc., The_, Biddulph, _q._, _ill._, 36
Travers & Son, Joseph, 445
_Treatise in Latin_, Meisner, 543
_Treatise on Modern Stimulants_, Balzac, _q._, 557
Tree, Coffee
Age, 203, 211, 213, 222
Salvador, 219
Chemistry of, 155
Height, 133, 142, 202
Arabia, 231
Indigenous to Abyssinia, 1, 5
Origin, 5
Wood, uses for, 138
Yield, 136, 203
Bolivia, 236
Brazil, 138
Colombia, 211
Mexico, 222
Nicaragua, 227
São Paulo, 208
Trees, Coffee
Number of
Brazil, 207, 208
Ecuador, 236, 278
Indo-China, French, 237
Guatemala, 219
Pernambuco, 205
São Paulo, 205, 207, 208
Venezuela, 212
Number to acre, 201
Colombia, 211
Haiti, 220
Porto Rico, 223
Venezuela, 213
Tremont Coffee & Spice Mills, 501
Trentman & Bro., C.A., 508
Trentman & Son, B., 508
Triage (grade), 258
_Tribune_, New York, _newsp._, _q._, 553
Tricolator, 168, 445, 651, 652, 701
Tricolette, 654
Triers, 321, 389
Trigg, C.W., _pat._, 406, 539;
_q._, 155, 174, 718-722
Trillado (grade), 260, 263
Trillo (grade), 264
Trinidad c., 351, 362
_Triumph of C._, Fakr-Eddin-Aboubeckr, 543
Troemner, Henry, 646, 472
_True Way of Making and Preparing C._, Broadbent, _q._, 697
Trujillos (c.), 350, 365
Trusdell & Phelps, 495
"Truth in advertising" movement, 435
Truxtun, Scott, 444
Tubermann's Son, G., _pat._, 638
Tupholme, Beeston, _pat._, 640
Turguenieff, 102
Turkey gruel, 70
Turkish ewer, 602, 603, 621
Turkish pocket cylinder mill, 615, 616, 617
Turner, A., 508
Turner, Robert, _chk._, 109
Turner (or Torner) Richard, _chk._, 572
Turner, William F., 480
Tussac, 8
Twitchell, Champlin & Co., 508
Tyler, George C., 556
Tyler, Henry D., 480
Typhoid fever, Effects of c. on, 181
Typografia Pizzolato, 558
Uganda c., 353, 377
_Ugandæ_, _C._, 146
Ceylon, 236
Java, 216
_Ungandae_ x _Congensis_, _hyb._, 146
Ukers, William H., 527
Ulman, Lewis & Co., 485
Umber, _q._, 182
Union Bag & Paper Corp., 472
Union Coffee Co., 477
Union Pacific Tea Co., 482, 501
_Universal history of plants_, Ray, 42, 543
University of Kansas, 714
University of Pittsburgh, 714
Unloading, 317-327
New Orleans, 323-325
New York, 317-323
San Francisco, 325-327
Unloading machinery, 325, 327
Uno Co., Ltd., 647
Untermeyer, Louis, _q._, 553
Urioste & Co., 488
Urruella & Urioste, 487
Urwin, William, _chk._, 84, 574
_U.S. Dispensatory_, _q._, 164, 184
Uses for c., New, 457
Utter, J.W., 503
Utter, Adams & Ellen, 503
Vacuum-packed c., 410
(_see also_ Containers)
Vacuum-packing, Effect of, 168
Valentijn, _q._, 2
Valorization (Brazil), 473, 530-534
N.C.R.A., 511
Norris, Senator, 532, 533
São Paulo, 295, 472, 534
Surtax, 315
Sielcken, H., 521, 531-534
U.S. gov't action, 534
Van Cortlandt museum, 122
Van Dam, Anthony, 475
Van dan Broeck, Pieter, 43
Van den Bosch, Gov., 214
Van Dessel, Rodo & Co., 340
Van Essen, 43
Van Etten, E., 538
Van Gulpen, Alexius, 246, 638
Van Gulpen & Co., 638
Van Gulpen, Lensing & von Gimborn, 638
Van Linschooten, Hans Hugo (John Huygen), _q._, _ill._, 35
Van Loan, Thomas, 497, 498
Van Loan & Co., 498
Van Loan, Maguire & Gaffney, 497, 498, 499
Van Loo, 588
Van Ommen, Adrian, 6, 43
Van Ostade, Adriaen, 44, 587
Van Outshoorn, 6
Van Vliet, C.W., _pat._, 634
Van Zandt & Co., M.N., 508
Vancouver, 239
Vanderhoef, George W., 479
Vanderhoef & Co., George W., 479
Vanderweyde, P.H., _pat._, 637
Vane, Gov., 109
Vanessa (_see_ Vanhomrigh)
Vanhomrigh, Esther, 562
Vaniére, 543
Vankorn, Guggenheimer & Co., 501
Vardy, James, _pat._, 627, 699
_Variegata, C._, _hyb._, 140
Varnar, 43
Vassieux, Madame, _pat._, 627, 700
Vatel, Charles, _q._, 566
Vaughn, V.C., _q._, 176, 177
Vauxhall garden, _ill._, 81, 82, 83
Velloni, _chk._, 103
Venard, G., 505
_Venetian Republic, The_, Hazlitt, _q._, 28
Venezuelas (c.), 348, 364, 365
Verborg, Henry, 503
Verdier & Closset, 507
Verlaine, Paul, 94
Verri, Alexander, 558
Verri, Pietro, 30, 558
_Vertu and use of c._, Bradley, _q._, 293
Vesling (Veslingius), _q._, 12, 26
Vickers. T.L., 498
Victoria Arduino-Societa Anonima, 651
Victorias (c.), 341, 343, 367
_Vie privée d'autrefois, La_, Franklin, _q._, 6
Viehoever, A., 160;
_q._, 144, 145
Vienna
Besieged by Turks (1693), 49
Coffee-makers' guild, 50
_Vienna, Relation of the siege of_, Vulcaren, _q._, 50
Villon, François, _q._, 135
Vilain, 594
Vincent c.-pot, 604
Vintschgau, 186
Virey, _q._, 20
Virgil, 543
Visconti, 558
Vitamins, 180
_Vitamines, The_, Funk, _q._, 180
Viviani, Count, _ill._, 578
Voit, Carl V., _q._, 177, 179
Volkman, George, 506
Voltaire, 94, 98, 178, 556, 557;
_q._, 554, 565
_Voyage de l' Arabie Heureuse_, La Roque, 543;
_q._ 15, 31, 32, 34, 197
_Voyage into the Levant, A_, Blount, _q._, 38
Vulcaren, John P.A., _q._, 50
Vyal, John, _chk._, 109
Wagama, _v._, 316
Wagner & Co., H.M., 485
Wagon-route distributers
United States, 415, 416, 417
France, 681
Wagstaff, David, 476
Wahibis, 542
Waite, _pat._, 625
Waite, Creighton & Morrison, 477
Wakeful monastery, 14
Wakeman, Abram, 473, 478
Walbridge, Augustus, 480
Walbridge Inc., Augustus M., 480
Wales, Henry, 508
Walker, John, _pat._, 245, 246
Walker, Joshua, 478
Walker Sons & Co. Ltd., 246, 247
Wall, Dr., 579
Wallace, Alexander, 475
Wallace, Alfred Russel, _q._, 200
Wallace, C.L.H. (Mrs.), _q._, 181
Wallace, Hugh, 475
Wallace, John William, _q._, 126
Wallace, William, _q._, 657
Walle, Friedrich, 591
Wallen, Geo. S., 482
Wallen & Co., Geo S., 482
Walpole, Sir Edward, 583
Walpole, Horace, 578, 580, 584
Walsh, Rev. Robert, _q._, 557, 663-664
Walton, William, 475
_Wanni Rukula, C._, 144
Ward, Ned, _q._, 77, 84, 575
Wardell, _q._, 185
Ware (architect), 583, 584
Warfield, John D., 502
Warfield. W.S., 502
Warne, E., 508
Warner, Alonzo A., _pat._, 648, 649
Warner, C.M., 538
Warner, Ezra J., 502
Warnier, _q._, 164, 169, 719
Warren, 110
Warren & Bedwell, 506
Warren & Co., 482
Warton, Joseph, 573
Warwick, Lady, 575, 576
Wascana, _v._, 316
Wash-brew, 58
Washed _vs._ Unwashed, 250, 251
Washing machinery, 247
Washington, G., _pat._, 471, 538
Washington, George (Gen.), 120, 130, 468
Official welcome, New York, _ill._, 593
Washington, Martha, 130
Washington Refining Co., George, 538
Washington and Jefferson college, 521
Washington's Prepared C., G., 538
Wastell, 603
Water extract, 168, 169
Water power, Nicaragua, 264
Waterbury & Force, 482
Water-supply requirements, 198
Watering, Excessive, 513
Watjen, Toel & Co., 482
Watson, _q._, 126
Waygood, Tupholme Co., 641
Wear F.F., _pat._, 651
Webb, James R., 501
Webb, Rudolphus L., _pat._, 644
Webb, Thomas J., 502, 511
Webb & Son, James R., 501
Webb, Cheek & Co., 509
Webb, Hughes & Co., 509
Webb-Puhl Co., 443
Webber, _q._, 186
Webster, _q._, 704
Webster, Daniel, 110
Webster, George, 124
Wedding Breakfast (brand), 441
Wedgwood, 607, 612
Wedmeyer, _q._, 187
Weighing machinery, 403, 471
Weighmasters (N.Y. Exch.), 333
Weikel & Smith, 501
Weikel & Smith Spice Co., 470, 501, 635
Weir, J.B., 499
Weir, Ross W., 466, 448, 499, 511, 513, 514;
_q._, 424
Weir & Co., Ross W., 495, 499
Weir, Inc., Ross W., 495, 499
Weissman, John, 488
Weisweiller, _q._, 163
Weitzmann, _pat._, 158
Welch, Amos S., 492
Welch & Co., 488
Wellman, C.P., _q._, 410
Wells, D. Henderson, 482
Wells, John, 482
Wells Bros., 482, 485
Welsh, Ebenezer, 495
Wendroth, Clara, 519
Wessels & Bros., C., 482
Wessels, Kulenkampff & Co., 482
West Indies (c.), 350, 351, 361, 362, 363
West & Melchers, 485
Westcott, _q._, 126
Westen T. & S. Co., Edw., 485
Westfal, J.R., 496
Westfeldt Bros., 485, 486
Weston & Gray, 482
Westphal, _pat._, 167
Wet method, 136, 249, 252, 254
Wet roast, 389, 391
Wetherill, Charles M., _q._, 711, 712
Weyl & Co., G., 482
Weyl & Norton, 482
Wheeler & Co., Ezra, 478, 479
Whieldon, 607, 612
White coffee, 674
White, A.E., _pat._, 651
White, Francis, _chk._, 87
White, Herman M., _pat._, 625
White, Peregrine, 616
White House (brand), 441, 465
White Rose (brand), 441
Whitefoord, Caleb, 573
Whiting & Taylor, 502
Whiting, Goeble & Co., 502
Whitmarsh, Theodore F., 535
Wholesale Grocers Corp., 502
Wholesaling roasted c., 407-413
Capital invested, U.S., 415
Sales, annual, U.S., 415
_Wholesome advice against the abuse of hot liquors_, Duncan, _q._, 59
Wickersham, Att'ney Gen., 593
Widlar, Francis, 507
Widlar & Co., F., 507
Widlar Co., 507
Wiji Kawih, 11
Wilcox, O.W., _q._, 147
Wild (_see_ Flavors)
Wild c. (Abyssinia), 284
Wild, James, 469, 492
Wilde, Herbert W., 492
Wilde, John, 492
Wilde, Joseph, 492
Wilde, Samuel, 482;
_biog._, 492
Wilde, Jr., Samuel, 492
Wilde & Sons, Samuel, 492
Wilde's Sons, Samuel, 494, 499
Wilde's Sons Co., Samuel, 492
Wiley, Harvey W., _q._, 175, 176, 180, 182, 396
Wilhelm, R.C., _q._, 387, 393
Wilke, 579
Wilkie, 583
Willcox, O.W., _q._, 161, 388
Wille, Theodor, 532, 534
William III, 601
Williams, Frank, 477, 498
Williams & Co., R.C., 494
Williams & Potter, 494
Williams & Taft, 507
Williams, Chapin & Russell, 478
Williams, Dimmond & Co., 488
Williams, Russell & Co., 477, 478, 535
Williamson, C.G., _q._, 62
Williamson, Peregrine, _pat._, 468, 624
Williamson, S.H., 498
Willis, Thomas, _q._, 58
Wills & Co., Alexander, 508
Willson, Wm. B., 485
Wilson, Increase, _pat._, 623
Wilson, Woodrow, 534, 535
Wilson & Bowers, 480
Wilson & Co., J.W., 480
Wimmer, _pat._, 162, 473
Windbreaks, 201
Window-displays, 425
Window-trimming contest, 455
Wine
C. classed as, 1, 17, 20
C. a substitute for, 15, 42
Made from fruit, 15
Made from hulls and pulp, 693
Wing Bros. & Hart, 498
Winter, H., _pat._, 158, 167
Winter & Smilie, 482
Winthrop, Gov., 109
Winton, Andrew L., _q._, 150
Wise, Capt., 128
Withington, Elijah, _biog._, 492
Withington & Pine, 492
Withington & Wilde, 492
Withington, Francis & Welch, 492
Withington, Wilde & Welch., 494
Witsen, Nicolaas, 6, 43
Wittenagemott, 582
Wogan, Sir Charles, 575
Wolf & Seligsberg, 478
Wolff. L., 485
Wolseley, Viscountess, 604
Women as coffee sellers, 56
_Women's petition against c., The_, _pamph._, _ill._, 70, 71
Wood, Jr., H.C., _q._, 176, 185
Wood, Jarvis A., _q._, 431
Woods, Rufus, 485
Wood, Thomas R., _pat._, 634
Wood & Co., Thomas, 501
Woodward (actor), 579, 580
Woolson, A.M., 506, 523
Woolson Spice Co., 503, 506, 521, 523
World War effects
Arabia, 268
Consumption, 289
Guatemala, 219
Mexico, 222
United States trade, 534-538
Imports, 286
San Francisco, 325
World trade, 190-195, 294, 296
_World's Commercial Products, The_, Freeman, _q._, 133
_World's Work_, _per._, _q._, 531, 532
Worth, J.G., 499
Wright, _q._, 167
Wright, George C., 501
Wright, George S., 448, 501, 629
Wright, John S., 482, 491
Wright, John T., 488
Wright, Warren M., 501
Wright Hard & Co., 482
Wrightsville Hardware Co., 644
Wroth, Warwick, _q._, 82, 83
Wurffbain, 43
Württemberg, Duke of, 47
Wyatt, Charles, _pat._, 621, 699
Wycherly, 575
Wyld, F. Lehnhoff, 538
XXXX (brand), 44
Yaffey c., 351, 368
Yarrow, Mrs., _chk._, 555
Yates & Dudley, 508
Yellow fever, effect of c. on, 182
Yemeni c., 351, 368
Yorke, Duke of, 554
Young, Arthur, _q._, 100
Young, D.K., 482
Young, Samuel, 507
Young, Mahood & Co., 507
Young-Mahood Co., 507
Youngs & Amman, 477
Yuban (brand), 441, 462, 524
Yuban advertising, 462-465
Yuengling, D.G., 508
Yungas c., 350, 367
Zamore, 590
Zamzam, 18
Zanzibar c., 353, 377
Zarf (cup-stand), 661
Zecchini, G.B., 549
Zenetz, _q._, 185
Ziegler Arctic expedition, 538
Zilmore & Co., A.G., 508
Zinmeister Sr., Frank, 505
Zinsmeister, Jacob, 505
Zinsmeister, L.G., _q._, 389
Zinmeister & Son, Frank, 505
Zinmeister & Sons, J., 505
Zola, Emile, 103, 565
Zoller & Little, 508
Zwaardecroon, Henrious, 6
Zwick, Charles, 505
FOOTNOTES:
[1] First written about tea; improperly claimed to have been written of
coffee.
[2] First written about tea; improperly claimed to have been written of
coffee.
[3] Jardin, Édelestan. _Le Caféier et le Café._ Paris, 1895 (p. 55).
[4] Dufour, Philippe Sylvestre. _Traités Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, du
Thé, et du Chocolat._ Lyons, 1684.
[5] Coffee covered with the skin is called _boun_, and the coffee-tree,
_boun_-tree (_sejar et boun_).
[6] These four dialects are spoken in Hindustan.
[7] Notice must be taken of the similarity in the names of coffee in
Hindustan and Abyssinia, and of the name of the coffee-tree as given by
ancient authors.
[8] These four dialects are spoken in Hindustan.
[9] These four dialects are spoken in Hindustan.
[10] These four dialects are spoken in Hindustan.
[11] See note 3 above.
[12] _Legal_ and _Houri_ mean tree.
[13] _Legal_ and _Houri_ mean tree.
[14] North-American Indian.
[15] La Roque, Jean. _Voyage de l'Arabie Heureuse._ Paris, 1716.
[16] Jardin, Édelestan. _Le Caféier et le Café._ Paris, 1895. (p. 102).
[17] _Année Littéraire._ Paris, 1774 (vol. vi: p. 217).
[18] Franklin, Alfred. _La Vie Privée d'Autrefois._ Paris, 1893.
[19] Michaud, I.F. and L.G. _Biographie Universelle._ Paris.
[20] Daney, Sidney. _Histoire de la Martinique._ Fort Royal, 1846.
[21] _Inauguration du Jardin Desclicux._ Fort de France, 1918.
[22] Dufour, Philippe Sylvestre. _Traités Nouveaux et Curieux du Café,
du Thé, et du Chocolat._ Lyons, 1684. (Title page has _Traitez_;
elsewhere, _Traités_.)
[23] Robinson, Edward Forbes. _The Early History of Coffee Houses in
England._ London, 1893.
[24] _Encyclopedia Britannica._ 1910. (vol. xv: p. 291.)
[25] Galland, Antoine. _Lettre sur l'Origine et le Progres du Café._
Paris, 1699.
[26] The Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript is described and illustrated in chapter
XXXII.
[27] Rauwolf, Leonhard. _Aigentliche beschreibung der Raisis so er vor
diser zeit gegen auffgang inn die morgenlaender volbracht._ Lauwingen,
1582-83.
[28] Della Valle, Pierre (Pietro). _De Constantinople à Bombay,
Lettres._ 1615. (vol. i: p. 90.)
[29] "She mingled with the wine the wondrous juice of a plant which
banishes sadness and wrath from the heart and brings with it
forgetfulness of every woe."
[30] Scheuzer, J.J. _Physique Sacrée, ou Histoire Naturelle de la
Bible._ Amsterdam, 1732, 1737.
[31] Jardin, Édelestan. _Le Caféier et le Café._ Paris, 1895.
[32] La Roque, Jean. _Voyage dans l'Arabie Heureuse, de 1708 à 1713, et
Traité Historique du Café._ Paris, 1715. (pp. 247, 251.)
[33] _Adjam_, by many writers wrongly rendered Persia.
[34] Scheuzer, J.J. _Physique Sacrée, ou Histoire Naturelle de la
Bible._ Amsterdam, 1732, 1737.
[35] _Harper's Weekly._ New York, 1911. (Jan. 21.)
[36] Nairon, Antoine Faustus. _De Saluberrimá Cahue seu Café nuncupata
Discursus._ Rome, 1671.
[37] de Sacy, Baron Antoine Isaac Silvestre. _Chresto-nathie Arabe._
Paris, 1806. (vol. ii: p. 224.)
[38] Olearius, Adam. _An Account of His Journeys._ London, 1669.
[39] Niebuhr, Karstens. _Description of Arabia._ Amsterdam, 1774. (Heron
trans., London, 1792: p. 266.)
[40] _A Collection of Voyages and Travels._ London, 1745. (vol. iv: p.
690.)
[41] Molmenti, Pompeo. _La Storia di Venezia nella Vita Privata._
Bergamo, 1908. (pt. 3: p. 245.)
[42] Goldoni, Carlo. _La Bottega di Caffè._ 1750.
[43] Hazlitt, W. Carew. _The Venetian Republic._ London, 1905, (vol. 2:
pp. 1012-15.)
[44] Jardin, Édelestan. _Le Caféier et le Café._ Paris, 1895. (p. 16.)
[45] "Drop by drop they take it in," said Cotovicus.
[46] Misprinted thus in the original Dutch and here. Read _Chaoua_,
i.e., Arabic _qahwah_.
[47] Laurel berry, of which the taste is bitter and disagreeable. From
Latin _bacca lauri_.
[48] Arabic, _bunn_; coffee berries.
[49] _Brandewijn_ in original Dutch.
[50] Mead.
[51] _Purchas His Pilgrimes._ London, 1625.
[52] Sandys, Sir George. _Sandys' Travels._ London, 1673. (p. 66.)
[53] Bacon, Francis. _Sylva Sylvarum._ London, 1627. (vol. v: p. 26.)
[54] Burton, Robert. _The Anatomy of Melancholy._ Oxford, 1632. (pt. 2:
sec. 5: p. 397.) This reference does not appear in the earlier editions
of 1621, 24, 28.
[55] Herbert, Sir T. _Travels._ London, ed. 1638. (p. 241.)
[56] Blount, Sir Henry. _A Voyage Into the Levant._ London. 1671. (pp.
20, 21, 54, 55, 138, 139.)
[57] Gilbert, Gustav. _The Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and
Athens._ London, 1895. (p. 69.)
[58] Aubrey, John. _Lives of Eminent Men._ London, 1813. (vol. ii: pt.
2: pp. 384-85.)
[59] _Works._ (vol. iv: p. 389.)
[60] à Wood, Anthony. _Athenae Oxonienses._ London, 1692. (vol. ii: col.
658.)
[61] Parkinson, John. _Theatrum Botanicum._ London, 1640. (p. 1622.)
[62] D'Israeli, I. _Curiosities of Literature._ London, 1798. (vol. i:
p. 345.)
[63] A weight of from 133 to 140 pounds.
[64] See chapter XXXII.
[65] Vulcaren,. John Peter A. _Relation of the Siege of Vienna._ 1684.
[66] Bermann, M. _Alt und Neu Wien._ Vienna, 1880. (p. 964.)
[67] Manuscript in the Bodleian Library.
[68] See also chapter XXVIII.
[69] _The Romance of Trade._ London. (chap. ii; p. 31.)
[70] Pasqua Rosée's sign. Kitt's (or Bowman's) sign was a coffee pot.
[71] Hatton, Edward. _New View of London._ London, 1708. (vol. i: p.
30.)
[72] The prosecution came under the heading, "Disorders and Annoys."
[73] Rumsey (or Ramsey), W. _Organon Salutis._ London, 1657.
[74] Also given as Sir James Muddiford, Murford, Mudford, Moundeford,
and Modyford.
[75] The Dutch admiral who, in June, 1667, dashed into the Downs with a
fleet of eighty "sail", and many "fire-ships", blocked up the mouths of
the Medway and Thames, destroyed the fortifications at Sheerness, cut
away the paltry defenses of booms and chains drawn across the rivers,
and got to Chatham, on the one side, and nearly to Gravesend on the
other, the king having spent in debauchery the money voted by Parliament
for the proper support of the English navy.
[76] General Monk and Prince Rupert were at this time commanders of the
English fleet.
[77] Lillie (Lilly) was the celebrated astrologer of the Protectorate,
who earned great fame at that time by predicting, in June, 1645, "if now
we fight, a victory stealeth upon us;" a lucky guess, signally verified
in the King's defeat at Naseby. Lilly thenceforth always saw the stars
favourable to the Puritans.
[78] This man was originally a fishing-tackle maker in Tower Street
during the reign of Charles I; but turning enthusiast, he went about
prognosticating "the downfall of the King and Popery;" and as he and his
predictions were all on the popular side, he became a great man with the
superstitious "godly brethren" of that day.
[79] Turnball, or Turnbull-street, as it is still called, had been for a
century previous of infamous repute. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play,
the _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, one of the ladies who is undergoing
penance at the barber's, has her character sufficiently pointed out to
the audience, in her declaration, that she had been "stolen from her
friends in Turnball-street."
[80] Anderson. Adam. _Historical and Chronological Deduction of the
Origin of Commerce._ London. 1787.
[81] See chapter III.
[82] More fully described in chapter XXXII.
[83] See chapter XXXII.
[84] Wroth, Warwick. _The London Pleasure Gardens of the 18th Century._
London, 1896.
[85] There were six places, all told, bearing the name "Man's".
Alexander Man was coffee maker to William III.
[86] Salvandy, Narcisse-Achille. _Influence des Cafés sur les Moeurs
Politiques._
[87] Singleton, Esther. _Dutch New York._ New York, 1909. (p. 132.)
[88] Bishop, J. Leander. _A History of American Manufactures, 1608 to
1860._ New York, 1864. (Vol. 1; p. 259.)
[89] Patterson, Robert W. _Early Society in Southern Illinois._ Chicago,
1881.
[90] Andreas, A.T. _History of Chicago._ Chicago, 1884.
[91] Singleton, Esther. _Dutch New York._ 1909. (p. 133.)
[92] Bishop, J. Leander. _A History of American Manufactures, 1608 to
1860._ New York.
[93] Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. _Philadelphia: a history of the city and
its people._ Philadelphia, 1912. (vol. 1: p. 106.)
[94] Freeman, W.G. _The World's Commercial Products._ Boston, (p. 176.)
[95] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1918. (vol. xxxv: no. 4.)
[96] Dr. Cramer considers _C. Maragogipe_ "the finest coffee known; it
has a highly developed, splendid flavor."
[97] _Journal of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists_,
Nov. 15, 1921. (vol. v: no. 2: pp. 274-288.)
[98] _The Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1912. (vol. xxiii: no. 3.)
[99] _Die Menschlichen Genussmittel_, 1911. (p. 300.)
[100] See chapter XVI.
[101] These and all other numbered drawings in this chapter are from
Andrew L. Winton's _The Microscopy of Vegetable Foods_, copyright 1916,
and reprinted by permission.
[102] _Jour. Am. Chem. Soc._, 1919 (vol. xli: p. 1306).
[103] Anstead, R.D. _Annals on Applied Biology_, 1915 (vol. i: pp.
299-302).
[104] Huntington, L.M. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1917 (vol. xxxiii:
p. 228).
[105] Gorter, _Ann._ (vol. ccclxxii: pp. 237-46).
Schulte, A. _Z. Nahr. Genussm._ (vol. xxvii: pp. 200-25).
Loew, Oscar. _Ann. Rep. P.R. Agr. Expt. Sta._, 1907 (pp. 41-55).
[106] Sencial. _El Hacendado Mex._ (vol. ix: p. 191).
[107] Pique, R. _Bull. Assoc. Chim. sucr. dist._ (vol. xxiv: pp.
1210-13).
[108] _Pharm. Jour._, 1886 (vol. xvii: p. 656).
[109] U.S. Pat., 113,832, April 18, 1871.
[110] U.S. Pat., 660,602, Oct. 30, 1900.
[111] French Pat., 379,036, Aug. 28, 1906.
[112] French Pat., 359,451, Nov. 15, 1905.
[113] British Pat., 26,905, Dec. 9, 1904.
[114] U.S. Pat., 843,530, Feb. 5, 1907.
[115] U.S. Pat., 1,313,209, Aug. 12, 1919.
[116] U.S. Pat., 134,792, Jan. 14, 1873.
[117] British Pat., 7,427, Mar. 24, 1910.
[118] U.S. Pat., 997,431, July 11, 1911.
[119] British Pat., 23,087, Oct. 9, 1912.
French Pat., 449,343, Oct. 12, 1912.
[120] British Pat., 21,397, Sept. 26, 1907.
French Pat., 382,238, Sept. 26, 1907.
U.S. Pat., 982,902, Jan. 31, 1911.
[121] _Pharm. Zentralhalle_, 1915 (vol. lvi: pp. 343-48).
[122] _Münch. Med. Wochschr._, (vol. lviii: pp. 1868-72).
[123] _Commercial Organic Analysis._
[124] _Ann. Chem. Pharm._ 1867 (vol. cxlii: p. 230).
[125] _Inaugural Diss._, Munich. 1903.
[126] _Comptes Rendus_, 1897 (vol. cxxiv: p. 1458).
[127] _Dict. App. Chem._, 1913 (vol. v: p. 393).
[128] U.S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Chem. _Bull._ 105, 1907. (p. 42).
[129] _Ann._ (vol. cccviii: pp. 327-348).
_Ibid._ (vol. ccclxxii: pp. 237, 246).
_Arch. Pharm._ (vol. ccxlvii: pp. 184-196).
[130] _Jour. Soc. Chem., Ind._, 1910 (vol. xxix: p. 138).
[131] _Z. Nahr. Genussm._ (vol. xxi: p. 295).
[132] Paladino, _Gazetta_, 1895 (vol. xxv: no. 1: p. 104).
Forster & Riechelmann, _Zeitsch. öffent. Chem._, 1897 (vol. iii: p.
129).
Polstorff, K. _Wallach-Festschrift_, 1909 (pp. 569-83).
[133] Private communication.
[134] U.S. Pat., 716,878, Dec. 30, 1902.
[135] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1920 (vol. xxxviii: pp. 321-22).
[136] _Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc._, 1907 (vol. xxix: p. 1091).
[137] _Ber._, 1895 (vol. xxviii: p. 3137); 1899 (vol. xxxii: p. 435);
1900 (vol. xxxiii: p. 3035).
[138] Willcox & Rentschler. _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1910 (vol. xix:
p. 440).
[139] Fricke, E. _Zeits. f. angew. Chemie._, 1889 (pp. 121-122).
[140] Willcox & Rentschler. _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1911 (vol. xx:
p. 355).
[141] U.S. Pat., 897,840, Sept. 1, 1908.
[142] British Pat., 144,988, March 19, 1920.
[143] French Pat., 412,550, Feb. 12, 1910.
[144] U.S. Pat., 947,577, Jan. 25, 1910.
[145] _Jour. Chem. Soc._, 1857 (vol. ix: p. 34).
[146] _Wien. Akad. Ber._ (_2 Abth._) (vol. lxxxi: pp. 1032-1043).
_Monatsh, f. Chem._, 1880 (vol. i: p. 456).
[147] _Zeits. f. Untersuch. d. Nahr. u. Genussm._, 1898 (vol. vii: pp.
457-472)
[148] _Ber._, 1901 (vol. xxxv: pp. 1846-1854).
[149] _Compt. rend._ (vol. clvii: pp. 212-13).
[150] _Bull. Pharm._, 1916 (vol. xxx: pp. 276-78).
[151] _Dict. App. Chem._, 1913 (vol. ii: p. 99).
[152] _U.S. Dispensatory, 19th Ed._, 1907 (p. 145).
[153] _Monatsh. f. Chem._ (vol. xxxiii: pp. 1389-1406).
[154] _Bull. Pharm._, 1916 (vol. xxx: pp. 276-78).
[155] _Apoth. Ztg._ (vol. xxii: pp. 919-20).
_Pharm. Weekbl._, 1907 (vol. xxxvii).
[156] _Monatsh. f. Chem._ (vol. xxxi: p. 1227).
[157] _Jour. Landw._, 1904 (vol. lii: p. 93).
[158] _Amer. Chem. Jour._, 1892 (vol. xiv: p. 473).
[159] _Analyst_, 1902 (vol. xxvi: p. 116).
[160] 58 _Mon. Sci._ (vol. iii: no. 6: p. 779).
[161] _J.P.C._, 1867 (p. 307).
[162] _Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci._, 1918 (vol. xxviii: pp. 136-141).
[163] Feitler, S.: Eng. Pat., 19,845, Aug. 28, 1897.
[164] U.S. Pat., 33,453, Oct. 8, 1861.
U.S. Pat., 75,829, March 24, 1868.
U.S. Pat., 701,750, June 3, 1902.
[165] U.S. Pat., 943,238, Dec. 14, 1909.
[166] U.S. Pat., 703,508, July 1, 1902.
U.S. Pat., 865,203, Sept. 3, 1907.
[167] Winter, H.: U.S. Pat., 997,431, Aug. 28, 1897.
[168] Simon, M., Jr.: Ger. Pat., 253,419, Feb. 19, 1911.
[169] Von Niessen: British Pat., 7,427, Mar. 24, 1910.
[170] Eng. Pat., 5,776, Mar. 19, 1895.
[171] U.S. Pat., 832,322.
[172] Eng. Pat., 8,270, April 24, 1893.
[173] U.S. Pat., 994,785, June 13, 1911.
[174] _Am. J. Pharm._, 1915 (vol. lxxxvii: pp. 524-26).
[175] _Orig. Com. 8th Intern. Cong. Appl. Chem. (Appen.)_ (vol. xxvi: p.
389)
[176] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1920 (vol. xxxix: pp. 318-19).
[177] King, J.E.: U.S. Pat. 1,263,434.
[178] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1917 (vol. xxxiii: pp. 552-55).
[179] _Loc. cit._ (see 175).
[180] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1911 (vol. xx: p. 34).
[181] _Pharm. Weekbl. voor Nederl._, 1899 (no. 13).
_Apoth. Ztg._, 1899 (p. 14).
[182] _Jour. Assoc. Off. Agri. Chem._, 1920 (vol. iii: p. 501).
[183] Blyth, Wynter. _Foods_, 1909 (p. 359).
[184] Petermann. _Bied. Zentr._, 1899 (vol. ii: p. 211).
[185] Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. Sept., 1920.
[186] Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, Sept., 1920.
[187] U.S. Dept. Agri., Div. of Chem. _Bull. 13_ (pt. 7: p. 908).
[188] Niles. G.M. _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1910 (vol. xix: no. 1: p.
27).
[189] Through _The Sun_, New York, July 17, 1910.
[190] _Annales Politiques et Littéraires_, through _Tea & Coffee Trade
Jour._, 1906 (vol. x: p. 303).
[191] _Jour. Am. Med. Assoc._, 1891 (vol. xvi).
[192] _The Times_, London, Oct. 1, 1904; through _Tea & Coffee Trade
Jour._, 1911 (vol. xxi: p. 36).
[193] _Good Housekeeping_, through _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1912
(vol. xxiii: p. 237).
[194] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1913 (vol. xxiv: p. 455).
[195] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1912 (vol. xxiii: p. 356).
[196] _Good Housekeeping_, through _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1915
(vol. xxviii: p. 533).
[197] _Good Housekeeping_, through _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1915
(vol. xxviii: p. 533).
[198] _Atti. accad. Lincei_, 1915 (vol. xxiv: no. 2: pp. 543-48).
[199] Nalpasse, Dr. Valentin, _loc. cit._ (see 190).
Flint, Dr. Austin B. _Text Book of Physiology_.
Wood, H.C., Jr. _Therapeutic Gazette_, 1912 (vol. xxxvi: p. 13).
[200] _Compt. rend._ (vol. cxlviii: p. 1541).
[201] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1914 (vol. xxvi: p. 539).
[202] _Arch. exp. Path. Pharm._, 1907 (vol. lvii: p. 214).
[203] _Universal Dictionary_, 1897 (vol. i: p. 1097).
[204] _Handbuch der Physiologie_, 1881 (vol. vi: p. 435).
[205] _The Coffee Club_, 1921 (vol. i: p. 4).
[206] _Saturday Evening Post_, through _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1914
(vol. xxvii: p. 586).
[207] _Loc. cit._ (see 192).
[208] _Seven Truths to Teach the Young in Regard to Life and Sex_, No.
2.
[209] _Loc. cit._ (see 190).
[210] _Ladies' Home Journal_, Dec., 1916 (p. 37).
[211] _Loc. cit._ (see 194).
[212] _Psych. Clin._ (vol. vi: pp. 56-58).
[213] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, June, 1905 (p. 274).
[214] _Ladies' Home Journal_, Dec., 1916 (p. 37).
[215] _The Prolongation of Life._
[216] Hekteon and LeConte.
[217] Through _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1914 (vol. xxvi: pp. 29-32).
[218] _Old Age Deferred_, 1910.
[219] _Loc. cit._ (see 190).
[220] _Practical Dietetics_, 1917 (p. 254).
[221] _Zentr. Biochem Biophys._, 1912 (vol. xiii: p. 504).
[222] _Jour. Anat. & Physi._, through _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1913
(vol. xxv: p. 345).
[223] _Lancet_, Dec. 2, 1911.
[224] _Pharmacology_, 1913 (p. 258).
[225] Butler, _Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacology_, 1906 (p.
256).
[226] Togami, K. _Biochem. Zeit._, 1908 (vol. ix: p. 453).
[227] _Münch. Med. Wochenschr._ (vol. lx: pp. 281-85, 357-61).
_Naturwiss. Umschau. d. Chem., Ztg._ 1913 (p. 4).
_Schweiz. Wochenschr._ (vol. li: pp. 490-92).
[228] _Loc. cit._ (see 197).
[229] Through _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1916 (vol. xxx: p. 443).
[230] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1909 (vol. xvi: p. 271).
[231] Frankel, F.H. _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1910 (vol. xxxi: p.
446).
[232] _Food Values_, 1914 (p. 54).
[233] _Policlin._, 1920 (no. 27: p. 1011).
[234] Funk, C. _The Vitamines_, 1922 (p. 270).
[235] Potter. _Materia Medica, Pharmacy and Therapeutics_, 10th ed.,
1906 (p. 187).
Culbreth. _Materia Medica and Pharmacology_, 2nd ed. (p. 520).
[236] Nineteenth ed. (p. 254).
[237] _Loc. cit._ (see 220).
[238] Keable, B.B. _Coffee_ (p. 97).
[239] Wallace, Mrs. C.L.H. "Cholera: Its Cause and Cure." _The Herald of
Health_, through _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1908 (vol. xiv: p. 22).
[240] "S. Culapius", _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1913 (vol. xxv: p.
239).
[241] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1913 (vol. xxv: p. 458).
[242] Thurber, F.B. _Coffee from Plantation to Cup_ (p. 182).
[243] _Health and Longevity Through Rational Diet._
[244] Keable, B.B. _Coffee_ (p. 98).
[245] Bulson, A.E.J. _Am. Jour. Opthal._, 1905 (vol. xxii: pp 55-64)
_Handbook of Medical Science_ (vol. iii: p. 190).
[246] Keable, B.B. _Coffee_ (p. 98).
[247] _A Manual of Pharmacology_ (pp. 137, 215).
[248] Hawk, Philip B. _Loc. cit._ (see 196).
[249] _Good Housekeeping_, Oct., 1917 (p. 144).
[250] _Med. News_, 1886 (p. 52).
[251] _Med. News_, 1890 (p. 56).
[252] _Centr. In. Med._, 1900 (p. 21).
[253] _Loc. cit._ (see 220).
[254] _Arch. Exper. Path. Pharm._, 1902 (bd. 48).
[255] _Bull. gen. therap._ (vol. clxvi: p. 379).
_Zentr. Biochem. Biophys._ (vol. xvi: p. 79).
[256] _Bull. Pharm._, 1916 (vol. xxx: pp. 276-78).
[257] 1907 (p. 176).
[258] _U.S. Dispensatory_, 19th ed. (p. 253).
[259] Hall. I.W. _The Purin Bodies of Food Stuffs_, 1904 (p. 98).
[260] _Terapia moderna_, Dec., 1891.
[261] _Arch. intern. physiol._ (vol. xiii: pp. 107-14).
[262] _J. Pharmachol._ (vol. iii: p. 609).
[263] _J. Pharmachol._ (vol. iii: p. 468).
[264] _J. Pharmachol._ (vol. iii: p. 455).
[265] _Wien. Deut. med. Wochenschr._ (vol. xxxviii: pp. 1774-76).
[266] _Comp. rend. soc. biol._ (vol. lxxiv: p. 32).
[267] _D.A. Apoth.-Ztg._, 1911-12 (vol. xxxii: p. 4).
[268] _Med. Record, N.Y._, 1916 (vol. xxx: p. 68).
[269] _Therap. Gazette._ 1912 (vol. xxxvi: pp. 6-13).
[270] _Deut. Arch. Klin. Med._, 1920 (vol. cxxxiv: pp. 174-84).
[271] _Z. physiol. Chem._ (vol. lxxvii: p. 259).
[272] _Bull. Bur. of Chem._ (no. 157).
[273] _Pharm. J._, Mar. 31, 1900, through _Brit. Med. J._, _Epit._, 1900
(vol. i: p. 35).
[274] _Arch. f. exper. Path. u. Pharmakol._, 1895 (vol. xxxv: p. 449).
[275] _Ibid._, 1895 (vol. xxxvi: p. 45). _Ibid._, 1896 (vol. xxxvii: p.
385).
[276] _Arch. de physiol. norm. et path._, 1868 (vol. i: p. 179).
[277] _Inaug. Diss._, Königsberg, 1882.
[278] _Arch. f. exper. Path. u. Pharmakol._, 1898 (vol. xli: p. 375).
[279] _Jour. Am. Med. Assoc._, 1917 (vol. lxviii: pp. 1805-07).
[280] _Berliner Klin. Wochenschrift_, 1889 (no. 40).
[281] _Encyc. der Therapie_, 1896 (vol. i).
[282] Pester, _Med.-Chir. Presse_, 1885 (no. 39). _Orvosi Hetilap_, 1885
(nos. 32-33).
[283] _Zeitschrift f. Klin. Med._, 1893 (vol. xxiii).
[284] _Mitt. aus der Würzburger Med. Klinik_, 1885 (vol. 1).
[285] _New York Herald_, Mar. 24. 1912.
[286] _Tea & Coffee Trade Jour._, 1914 (vol. xxvi: pp. 537-41).
[287] _The Influence of Alcohol and Other Drugs on Fatigue._
[288] "The Influence of Caffeine on Mental and Motor Efficiency."
_Archives of Psychology_, 1912 (no. 22).
[289] _Revista sper. di. Freniatria_ (vol. xviii: p. 1).
[290] _Archiv. ital. de Biol._, 1893 (vol. xix: p. 241).
[291] _Inaug. Diss._, Marburg, 1894.
[292] _Revista sper. di Freniatria_, 1894 (vol. xx: p. 458).
[293] _Centralbl. f. Physiol._, 1896 (vol. x: p. 126).
[294] _Psychol. Arbeit._, 1896 (vol. i: p. 378).
[295] _Jour. Med. de Bruxelles_, 1897.
[296] _Molcschott's Untersuchungen_, 1899 (vol. xvi: p. 170).
[297] _Archiv. f. Anat. u. Physiol. (Physiol. Abth.), Suppl. Bd._, 1899
(p. 289).
[298] _Skand. Arch. f. Physiol._, 1904 (vol. xvi: p. 197).
[299] _Travaux du Lab. de Physiol. Inst. Solray_, 1904 (vol. vi: p.
361).
[300] _Psychol. Arbeit._, 1901 (vol. iii: p. 617).
[301] _C.R. de la Soc. de Biol. Paris_, 1901 (pp. 593-627).
[302] _Op. Cit._ (p. 38). (See 285.)
[303] _Pflügers Archiv._, 1877 (vol. xvi: p. 316).
[304] _Diss._, Dorpat., 1887.
[305] _Psychol. Arbeit._, 1896 (vol. i: p. 431).
[306] _Psychol. Arbeit._, 1901 (pp. 203-289).
[307] _Psychol. Rev._, 1911 (vol. xviii: p. 424).
[308] _Op. Cit._ (see 285).
[309] _Ueber die Beeinflüssung einfacher psychischer Vorgünge durch
einige Arzeneimittel_ (p. 224).
[310] _Arch, exp. Path. Pharm._, 1920 (vol. lxxxv: pp. 339-58).
[311] _Op. cit._ (p. 50). (See 287.)
[312] _Loc. cit._ (see 285).
[313] See chapter XXX.
[314] La Roque, Jean, _Voyage de l'Arabic Heureuse_, Paris, 1715. (p.
280.)
[315] _Encyclopedia Britannica_, 11 ed., Cambridge, 1910. (vol. i: p.
118.)
[316] La Roque, Jean. _Voyage de l'Arabie Heureuse_, Paris, 1715 (p.
285).
[317] The 1921 figures for all countries given are preliminary.
[318] Broadbent, Humphrey. _The Domestick Coffee Man._ London, 1720.
Bradley, Richard. _The vertu and use of coffee with regard to the plague
and other infectious distempers._ London, 1721.
[319] Since changed. There is now a Clearing Association.
[320] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1911 (vol. xx: no. 4: p. 284).
[321] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, July, 1911 (vol. xxiii: no. 1; p.
28).
[322] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, Nov., 1910 (vol. xix: no. 5: p.
380).
[323] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, Nov., 1914 (vol. xxv; no. 5: p.
397).
[324] Stewart, C.H. "The Coffee Status of Venezuela." _Tea and Coffee
Trade Jour._ Jan. 1922 (vol. xlii: no. 1: pp. 29-35.)
[325] Wilhelm, R.C. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1916 (vol. xxxi: no.
5: p. 429).
[326] Willcox. O.W. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1914 (vol. xxvi: no.
2: p. 38).
[327] Zinsmeister, L.G. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1914 (vol. xxvii:
no. 6: pp. 558-562).
[328] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1910 (vol. xviii: no. 2: p. 161; and
no. 4: p. 319).
[329] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1910 (vol. xvii: no. 8: p. 242).
[330] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1915 (vol. xxviii: pp. 415-416).
[331] "Making Coffee for the Consumer", _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._,
1914 (vol. xxvi: pp. 335-338).
[332] "Coffee-Making Questionnaire", _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1917
(vol. xxx: no. 1: pp. 31-34).
[333] King, John E., _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1917 (vol. xxxiii:
no. 6: pp. 552-555).
[334] Ach, F.J., _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1912, 1919 (vol. xxiii:
no. 4: pp. 133-135; vol. xxxvi: no. 4: pp. 344-345).
[335] Gillies, E.J., _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1913 (vol. xxv: pp.
574-576).
[336] Wellman, C.P., _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1918 (vol. xxxiv: no.
6: p. 560).
[337] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1922 (vol. xlii: no. 1: pp. 75, 76).
[338] Bureau of Business Research, Harvard University.
[339] Duryee, P.S. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1911 (Vol. xxi: no. 2:
pp. 106-110).
[340] Findlay, Paul. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1916 (vol. xxx: no.
1: pp. 72-74).
[341] Atha, F.P. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1919 (vol. xxxvii: no. 1:
p. 50).
[342] Weir, Ross W. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1913 (vol. xxv: pp.
566-568).
[343] McCreery, R.W. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1913 (vol. xxv: no.
6: pp. 603-604).
[344] Schaefer, J.H. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._,1917 (vol. xxxiii: no.
1: p. 72).
[345] Chamberliane, John, translation, London, 1685, from Dufour's
_Traitez Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, du Thé, et du Chocolat_.
[346] The agreement with the São Paulo planters comprehended their
furnishing yearly the proceeds of a tax of 100 reis per bag. This
actually amounted to $20,000 per month up to January, 1921. During 1921,
by reason of a short crop and the advance rate of exchange, the
remittances were reduced almost half. In January, 1922, the São Paulo
legislature on petition of the _Sociedade_ increased the tax to 200 reis
per bag to run for 3 years. In spite of this, the probability is that
another short crop and a continued low rate of exchange will keep the
Brazil contribution in 1922 down to about $180,000 net. By November,
1921, a total of $671,000 was expended on advertising. Of this, $551,000
was contributed by the planters of São Paulo, and $120,000 by the coffee
trade of the United States.
[347] About this time, the country was flooded with paper money, worth
about 1 to 75, forcing the price of commodities to unheard-of heights,
shoes for instance, being sold at £20 per pair.
[348] Much of the information that follows is from an article by M.E.
Goetzinger in the _Percolator_, February, 1921.
[349] What follows on "Trade Brooms and Panics" is from an article
prepared, under the author's direction, by C.K. Trafton, and published
in _The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_, Nov., 1920 (vol. xxxix: no. 5: p.
563).
[350] Kauhee (or _kahvé_) is the Turkish for coffee.
[351] Copyright, 1913. Used by special permission of the publishers, the
Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
[352] Copyright, 1916, by Henry Holt & Co., New York. Reprinted by
permission.
[353] Chatfield-Taylor, II. C. _Goldoni._ New York, 1916 (p. 607).
[354] Copyright, 1903, by G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York. Used by courtesy
of the author and the publisher.
[355] Copyright, 1893, by Harper Bros., and 1921, by John Kendrick
Bangs. Reprinted by permission.
[356] _Beverages Past and Present_, New York, copyright 1908. By
courtesy of G.P. Putnam's, Sons, Publishers.
[357] _The Pot and Kettle_, Boston, 1920 (vol. iii: no. 2).
[358] See Chapter XXXIII.
[359] See chapter X.
[360] See chapter X.
[361] _Proceedings: Second Series_, 1899 (vol. xvii: no. 2; p. 390).
[362] A mechanical contrivance that took the place of a boy.
[363] Jardin, Édelestan. _Le Caféier et Le Café_, Paris, 1895 (p. 290).
[364] In his patent specification, Mr. Carter said on this point: "Small
holes should be made through the roaster in sufficient number to allow
of the escape of the vapors and volatile matters which escape from the
coffee while undergoing the process of being roasted."
[365] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1912 (vol. xxiii: no. 6: p. 592).
[366] _Encyclopedia Britannica_, 11th Ed. (vol. 11: p. 285).
[367] London; 1888 (vol. 1: pp. 222, 224).
[368] de Sacy. Baron Antoine Isaac Silvestre. _Chréstomathie Arabe._
Paris, 1806, (vol. 2).
[369] _Scribner's Magazine_, 1918 (vol. liii: no. 5: p. 620); and
Dwight, H.G., _Constantinople, Old and New_, New York, 1915. Copyright
by Charles Scribner's Sons.
[370] Carne, John. _Syria, the Holy Land._ London, 1836 (p. 69).
[371] New York, 1857 (p. 276).
[372] "The Coffee Cup and the Sugar Bowl." _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._,
1921 (vol. xli: no. 6: p. 809).
[373] Frankel, F. Hulton, Ph.D. _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1917 (vol.
xxxii: p. 142).
[374] See chapter III.
[375] Broadbent, Humphrey. _The Domestick Coffee Man_, London, 1722.
[376] _Dutch New York_, 1909 (p. 132).
[377] Earle. Alice Morse. _Customs and Fashions in Old New England_,
1909.
[378] In 1921, Professor S.C. Prescott, in charge of the research work
for the Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, said that a brew made with the water
considerably below the boiling point, was preferable.
[379] Meaning the pumping percolator.
[380] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1917 (vol. xxxiii: no. 5: pp.
339-40).
[381] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1921 (vol. xli: no. 5: p. 688).
[382] See chapter XVII.
[383] _Pharm. Weekbl. voor Nederl._, No. 13, 1899. _Apoth. Ztg._, 1899
(p. 14).
[384] _Tea and Coffee Trade Jour._, 1917 (vol. xxxiii: pp. 552-55).
[385] Hollingworth, H.L. and Poffenberger, A.T., Jr. _The Sense of
Taste_, 1917 (p. 13).
[386] _Not Édelestan as elsewhere in the volume_.
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