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Title: All About Coffee
Author: Ukers, William H. (William Harrison), 1873-1945
Language: English
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Transcriber's Note
The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully
preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
_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 bon