Read Ebook: Coffee and Chicory: Their culture chemical composition preparation for market and consumption with simple tests for detecting adulteration and practical hints for the producer and consumer by Simmonds P L Peter Lund

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There are now in London alone more than 1500 coffee-houses, besides confectioners' shops, and other places where coffee is vended.

For half a century at least Arabia furnished all the coffee that Europe consumed, which, therefore, must have been very trifling. It was, in fact, long the luxury of a few fashionable people, with whom, however, it must have been in general use sixty years after its introduction, as we find from the well-known passage of the "Rape of the Lock," published in 1712, in which politicians are described as seeing through it "with half-shut eyes."

Le Grand d'Aussy, in his "Vie Priv?e des Fran?ais," gives a curious and interesting account of the first introduction of the use of coffee in France. As early as 1658 some merchants of Marseilles introduced the use of coffee into that city, and Th?venot, after his return from his Eastern travels, about the year 1658, regaled his guests with coffee after dinner.

The extravagant price of coffee, notwithstanding that the fashion of drinking it was established, prevented it from coming into general use. It was only to be had, according to Le Grand, at Marseilles, and even there not in any quantity. Labat, quoted by him, states that the price at this time was the enormous one of forty crowns a pound. In 1672, an Armenian opened in Paris the first coffee-house, on the plan of those he had seen at Constantinople. Pascal was followed by a crowd of imitators, whose numbers became so great in 1676, that it was found necessary to form them into a society by statute.

The Mahomedans distinguish three kinds of k?hw?h--wine, or anything that inebriates; the extract from the pulp which contains the coffee-berry; and that from the berry itself. The deep brown colour of the liquor occasioned its being called the syrup of the Indian mulberry, under which specious name it first became fashionable in Europe; and some who imported the pulp called it the "flower of the coffee-tree," but it failed in use. Coffee is used in vast quantities by the Turks and Arabians, and with peculiar propriety, as it counteracts the narcotic effects of opium, to the use of which they are so much addicted.

The history of the cultivation of coffee by European nations in their colonies is singular. The old Dutch East India Company carried on some traffic with the Arabian ports in the Red Sea; and about the year 1690, the Dutch Governor-General of India, Van Hoorne, caused some ripe coffee-seeds to be brought to Java; they were planted, grew, and produced fruit. He sent a single plant home from. Batavia to Nicholas Witsen, the Governor of the East India Company, which arrived safe, was planted in the Botanic Gardens of Amsterdam, where it prospered, produced fruit, and the fruit young plants. From the Amsterdam garden plants were sent to the Dutch colony of Surinam, and the planters entered on the cultivation of coffee in 1718. The authority for this is the celebrated physician and botanist, Boerhaave, in his Index of the Leyden Garden. In ten years after its cultivation in Surinam it was introduced from that colony by the English into Jamaica. It was sent to Martinique from France in 1720. The first coffee-plant cultivated in Brazil, now the greatest producing country in the world, was reared by a Franciscan monk, of the name of Vellosa, in the garden of the convent of San Antonio, near Rio Janeiro; it throve, and the monk presented its ripe fruit to the viceroy, Lavrado. He judiciously distributed it to the planters, who commenced its cultivation in 1774. From Java the coffee-plant was conveyed to Sumatra, to C?l?bes, to the Philippines, and in our own times to Malabar, Mysore, and Ceylon. The few coffee-berries brought from Mocha to Batavia are the parents of the vast quantity now produced, all the coffee now consumed , save the trifle yielded by Arabia, has the same origin, and the great cultivation and commerce in coffee has all sprung up in less than one hundred and seventy-five years.

PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY.

The changes in the sources of supply of coffee within the last quarter of a century are very remarkable. The British possessions in the East, where land and labour is cheap, have taken the place which our Western possessions formerly occupied.

The British West India Islands and Demerara have fallen off in their production of coffee from 30,000,000 lbs. to 4,000,000 lbs. San Domingo, Cuba, and the French West India colonies are also gradually giving up coffee culture in favour of other staples. It is chiefly Brazil, some of the Central American republics, Java, Ceylon, and British India, that are able to render coffee a profitable crop.

In 1760 the total quantity of coffee consumed in the United Kingdom was 262,000 lbs., or three-quarters of an ounce to each person in the population.

From 1801 to 1804 the average quantity of coffee consumed by each individual of the population was only about 1 oz., whilst 1 1/2 lbs. of tea per head was used. From 1805 to 1809 the consumption of coffee was 3 oz. per head. From 1810 to 1824, when the duty was reduced by about one-third, the consumption was 8 oz. After this, when the duty on British-grown coffee was further reduced to 9d. and 6d. the pound, the consumption rose to 1 lb., and by 1850 to 1 1/2 lbs. But this consumption was not uniform for the United Kingdom, for while in England 1 lb. 12 oz. was used, in Scotland only 6 oz. were consumed, and in Ireland but 2 oz.

The quantities of coffee consumed in Great Britain in each decennial period, comparing the consumption with the growth of the population, and exhibiting the influence of high and low duties, are shown by the following statement. The figures up to 1841 are from Porter's "Progress of the Nation." Those since are computed from official documents:

It appears from the foregoing figures, that, when the duty amounted to 1s. 6d. per lb., the use of coffee was confined altogether to the rich. The quantity then used throughout the kingdom scarcely exceeded on the average one ounce for each inhabitant in the year.

Although about a quarter of a century ago the average consumption rose to nearly 1 1/2 lb., it has since been gradually declining, for last year the total consumption was, with an increased population, 2 1/4 million pounds below the quantity taken for consumption in 1861.

The following table shows the changes in our sources of supply of coffee even in the last ten years, taking the quantities entered for consumption only.

COFFEE TAKEN FOR CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

There is imported into Europe annually about 270,000,000 pounds of coffee, of which France consumes one-sixth, the consumption there having increased fully fifty per cent. within a very brief period.

COMMERCIAL VARIETIES OF COFFEE.

The coffee-berry of Cayenne is rather convex, irregular, of a dull green, covered with a slight pellicle. It is analogous to Mocha, and of a pleasant aromatic flavour.

That of Guadaloupe is elongated, larger, of a dark greyish green, and nearly always without any pellicle.

The coffee-berry of Martinique is also large, oval, flat on one side, with the furrow deep and straight for the greater part of its length, but diverging at the ends. Its odour is agreeable, and the flavour strong when used alone, but it is generally mixed with Mocha.

The Mocha berry is very variable in form, size, and colour, but it is generally more round or compressed than other coffees; its odour is strong and agreeable, and very characteristic. Many of the seeds are often covered by the endocarp, while others are without the pellicle. A great number also are rounded, and the involuted edges form a deep furrow, differing from the ordinary one. The form of these seeds is due to the abortion of the other half of the fruit, which gives it this particular formation.

The Java and East Indian, next in quality, are larger, and of a paler yellow. The Ceylon berries are of irregular sizes, ill-shaped, and of a spotted dirty cream-colour. The terms "Plantation" and "Native" coffees, as applied to Ceylon berries, are distinctions arising from one being the cultivated coffee of the estates of the planters, which are better attended to and prepared for market, while the other is that grown in a wild or careless manner by the natives about their dwellings, and more rudely prepared. Java coffee is chiefly prized in the market for its delicacy of flavour, but in point of strength it falls short of the West Indian.

Of Bourbon coffee there are in commerce two qualities, fine and ordinary. The first is in small seeds, well selected for size, of a variable colour, yellow or green, with little pellicle, the furrow slightly indented, and it has a sweet odour. The second is badly assorted as regards form and colour, and its odour less agreeable.

The Jamaica coffee-berry is medium-sized, of a greenish blue colour, rather oblong, and smooth to the touch. It has a strong, agreeable smell, and excellent flavour, and when carefully picked and sorted, fetches about the highest price of any kind.

Porto Rico is a middle-sized coffee, of a pure and agreeable flavour; the colour of the better sorts is a bluish green; and of the common, yellow.

The West Indian and Brazilian coffees have a bluish or greenish-grey tint. This grey-green shade of the Western coffees is entirely deficient in those of Asia. The value of the berry in our wholesale markets is not, therefore, a fictitious quality, as some imagine, but is real, and depends first upon the texture and form of the berry or seed, secondly on the colour, and thirdly the flavour. The texture of the berry and form, termed "style" by the coffee brokers, is so well defined and palpable to the initiated, that at one view they pronounce its value, from one hundred and thirty shillings per cwt. downwards, according to the two other qualities, colour and flavour.

The value of the coffees usually imported into this country stands in the following order: Mocha, fine Ceylon Plantation, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Java, Tellicherry, and St. Domingo.

Portugal produces coffee in several of her colonies. Ordinary description, yellowish berry, in St. Thomas; tolerably good in the Cape de Verdes; bad, yellow, in Timor; worse , growing wild, in Mozambique; good in Angola; and of excellent quality in Madeira and Porto Santo, but the production is limited.

Much of the coffee which finds its way into England as genuine Mocha is, in reality, Malabar coffee, sent to ports of the Persian Gulf from Bourbon, and when thus naturalised, finding its way to Europe. But the coffee of India even now competes successfully with that of Arabia, in Bussorah, and other local markets, which the latter had for centuries commanded as its own.

It is curious to watch the progress of English enterprise. The energetic and ubiquitous Anglo-Saxons hold India, and here we see coffee from India triumphing over the famous berry of Arabia. The cultivation of tea also is rapidly spreading over 30,000 square miles of the Sub-Himalayan ranges; and who knows but that Indian teas may yet compete with those of the flowery land in the markets of Shanghae?

Already the Assam teas are held in high estimation by good judges of tea in this country, whilst they fetch a high price in India for local consumption.

The colour of the berry is by no means a decisive criterion of excellence of quality; in some parts the bluish berry is esteemed most highly, in others the yellow. The West Indian coffees often change colour when kept a few years.

It is well known that the various sorts of coffee imported into Europe from the several parts where the plant is cultivated differ widely in quality and flavour. Levantine or Mocha still retains its old superiority in this respect, though the best sorts imported from Ceylon, Bourbon, Mauritius, and other Indian Islands are now generally considered to come very near it. This difference in quality and flavour of the various sorts of coffee is generally attributed to climatic and local causes and influences, which are necessarily beyond the power of remedy. This, however, is a great mistake. The more or less advanced state of maturity to which the berry is allowed to attain before picking, and, more particularly still, the degree of dryness, and the longer or shorter period of time for which it is kept before being sent into the market, exercise a most powerful influence upon the quality and flavour of the article. Berries gathered before they have attained maturity, though they may be perfect in colour, will always have a raw, herbaceous taste. If the drying berries are heaped too thickly or closely, they are apt to heat and to contract an unpleasantly bitter and harsh taste, and a disagreeable smell; this will frequently occur also where artificial heat is had recourse to expedite the drying. Keeping tends to cure these serious defects in coffee. There are instances on record where coffee of a most disagreeable flavour and smell has been brought near perfection by being kept for some years in a dry loft; and though it may be going too far to assert, as has been done by some high authorities on the subject, that "the worst coffee produced in the West Indies will, in a course of years not exceeding ten or fourteen, be as good, parch and mix as well, and have as high a flavour as the best we have now from Turkey," still there can be no doubt that long keeping will most materially improve the quality of even the worst sorts. Unfortunately, the difference of price between inferior and superior coffee is not sufficiently great to cover so many years' interest on the capital invested. It is for the same reason that planters, though they are perfectly aware that trees growing on a light soil, and in dry and elevated spots, produce smaller berries of very superior flavour to those grown in rich, flat, and moist soils, yet prefer cultivating the latter, simply because the production is double that of the better sort. Those who wish to improve the quality of their coffees by keeping, must bear in mind that perfect dryness of the loft or warehouse, moderate warmth, and gentle ventilation are the indispensable conditions of success; a strong draught of air is more particularly to be guarded against, as it tends to bleach the berries. Great care must be taken, also, to keep all strong-flavoured wares, such as pepper, pimento, ginger, cod-fish, herrings, rum, &c., as far as possible from the coffee, which has a powerful attraction for these scents, and gets thoroughly impregnated with them, to the great deterioration, of course, of its quality. This remark applies more particularly to the shipping of coffee from Jamaica and the other West India Islands. Want of proper ventilation in the holds in which a cargo of coffee is stowed on board ship, is equally injurious to the quality of the article. Coffee which has suffered damage by sea-water, or has been spoiled by the close vicinity of strong-scented wares, may, to some extent, be reclaimed by "rouncing" or putting it in a tub, pouring boiling water over it, stirring for a few minutes, then pouring the water off, repeating the same operation a second, or even a third time, if necessary, and most carefully drying the washed berries.

CHEMICAL ANALYSIS.

Coffee has been analysed by several chemists, and though the results obtained differ in some slight degree, yet it seems pretty clear that the principal constituents to which its hygienic and medicinal properties are due are caffeine, a peculiar volatile oil generated in the roasting, and a kind of tannic acid.

The nutritive and medicinal virtues of all these plants must certainly be attributed in a great degree to the presence of this chemical principle, and to the tannic acid which they also contain.

The use of coffee as a beverage has been examined in a chemical and physiological point of view by Professor Lehmann. The general results of his investigations are:

Professor Lehmann considers it, therefore, necessary to regard the action of coffee, and, in a less degree, that of tea, cocoa, alcohol, &c., upon the organism, as constituting an exception to the general law, that increased bodily and mental activity involves increased consumption of plastic material.

Caffeine, on careful analysis, has been found to contain in 100 parts, 49?80 of carbon, 5?08 of hydrogen, 28?83 of nitrogen, and 16?29 of oxygen. It is inodorous, but has a slightly bitter taste. The proportion in which this principle is found to be present in coffee varies between 3/4 lb. and 1 3/4 lbs. in 100 lbs. of berries.

The peculiar essential oil which is generated in coffee in the process of roasting, by the action of heat upon some yet unascertained principle contained in the berry, is also very similar to the volatile oil in tea; but the quantity of it in coffee appears to be comparatively very small; for whilst 100 lbs. of tea-leaves contain 1 lb. of volatile oil, it takes 500 cwts. of roasted coffee to give a similar quantity; and yet it is upon the presence of this oil that the flavour and value of the several varieties of coffee mainly depend.

The tannic acid is, by some chemists, also said to be generated only in the process of roasting; others maintain that it is present in the raw bean.

Schrader has analysed raw and roasted coffee, with the following result:

"The examination of coffee," observes Dr. F. Knapp, "has led to interesting results, although they are still defective in pointing out the quantitative composition of the berry."

The following is the composition of the ash according to Levi:

According to the analysis of Payen, the unroasted coffee-berry has the following composition:

Or to define the per-centage more closely, we may put it thus:

In another form this shows us:

As gluten is only very sparingly soluble in boiling water, in the usual way of making coffee the flesh-formers are thrown away with the dregs; the addition of a little soda to the water partly prevents this waste.

The various components in one pound of coffee will be--

oz. grs. Water 1 407 Caffeine, or theine 122 Casein, or cheese 2 35 Aromatic oil 1 1/2 Gum 1 192 Sugar 1 17 Fat 1 402 Potash 280 Woody fibre 5 262 Mineral matter 1 31

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