  The coffee-tree—Coffea arabica, Linn.—is a plant belonging to the natural order CinchonaceÆ. It is a large erect bush, quite smooth in every part; leaves oblong lanceolate, acuminate, shining on the upper side, wavy, deep green above, paler below; stipules subulate, undivided. Peduncles axillary, short, clustered; corollas white, funnel-shaped, sweet-scented, with four or five oblong-spreading twisted lobes. Fruit a compressed drupe, furrowed along the side, crowned by the calyx. Seeds solitary, plano-convex, with a deep furrow along the flat side. Putamen like parchment. The generic name given to the plant by LinnÆus was taken, it is said, from Coffee, a province of Narea, in Africa where it grows in abundance. Plate 1 represents a branch of the coffee-tree in blossom A—The flower, cut open, to show the situation of the five filaments, with their summits lying upon them. B—Represents the flower cup, with its four small indentations enclosing the germ or embryo seed-vessel, from the middle of which arises the style, terminated by the two reflexed spongy tops. C—The fruit entire, marked at the top with a puncture like a navel. D—The fruit open, to show that it consists ordinarily of two seeds, which are surrounded by the pulp. E—The fruit cut horizontally, to show the seeds as they are placed erect, with their flat sides, together. F—One of the seeds taken out, with the membrane or parchment upon it. G—The same with the parchment torn open, to give a view of the seed. H—The seed without the parchment. Lindley and Paxton only enumerate two species: C. arabica, native of Yemen, and C. paniculata, indigenous to Guiana. Continental botanists, however, describe no less than eight other species: four inhabiting Peru, C. microcarpa, C. umbellata, C. acuminata, and C. subsessilis; two indigenous to the West Coast of Africa, C. laurina and C. racemosa; and two natives of the East Indies, C. bengalensis and C. Indica. Some of these are probably mere varieties. Whatever its origin may have been, there can be no doubt that there are three kinds or species now grown, differing materially from each other. The Arabian or Mocha coffee is characterised by having a small and more brittle leaf, with branches shorter, and more upright than the Jamaica and Ceylon coffee; and by its berry The Jamaica coffee-tree has a larger and more pliable leaf, longer and more drooping branches, and berries almost always containing two seeds. (The Ethiopian.) The great difference now existing between the two kinds, may possibly have originated in the change of soil, climate, and season, operating through a series of years; but this difference is so decided, and so strongly marked, that the veriest tyro can in a moment pronounce of either. The East India or Bengal coffee-tree differs much from all others, but is in every respect a veritable coffee. The leaf is smaller, and lighter green, than the foregoing variety; its berry is infinitely smaller, and when ripening, turns black instead of blood-red. Coffee made from it is of excellent flavour, and much liked. Within the tropics, coffee thrives best at an elevation of 1200 to 3000 feet, and rarely grows above 6000 feet. It may be cultivated as far as 36° north latitude, where the mean temperature is about 70°. In the western hemisphere coffee is grown in many of the West India Islands, in Central America, the northern republics of South America, Berbice, Cayenne, and Brazil. In Africa it is grown in Liberia and other parts of Western Africa, at St. Helena, in Egypt, and Mozambique, and a little in Natal. Passing eastward we find it in Arabia, one of the oldest seats of culture, the southern peninsula of India, Ceylon, Bourbon, Java, CÉlÈbes, and other parts of the Eastern Archipelago, Siam, and some of the Pacific Islands. Coffee-plants are able to bear an amount of cold which is little known or thought of. The high and cold regions of Jamaica near St. Catherine’s Peak, and the foot of the Great Blue Mountain Peak, both situated at some 6000 feet above Nothing can exceed the beauty of the rows or walks planted with coffee-trees, from their pyramidical shape and glossy dark leaves, amongst which are hanging the ripe, scarlet-coloured berries. A writer, in his “Impressions of the West Indies,” thus speaks: “Anything in the way of cultivation more beautiful or more fragrant than a coffee-plantation I had not conceived, and oft did I say to myself that if ever I became, from health or otherwise, a cultivator of the soil within the tropics, I would cultivate the coffee-plant, even though I did so irrespective altogether of the profit that might be derived from so doing. Much has been written, and not without justice, of the rich fragrance of an orange-grove, and at home we ofttimes hear of the sweet odours of a bean-field. I have, too, often enjoyed, in the Carse of Stirling and elsewhere in Scotland, the balmy breezes as they swept over the latter, particularly when the sun had burst out with unusual strength after a shower of rain. I have likewise in Martinique, Santa Cruz, Jamaica, and Cuba, inhaled the breezes wafted from the orangeries, but not for a moment would I compare either with the exquisite aromatic odours from a coffee-plantation in full bloom, when the hill-side—covered over with regular rows of the shrubs, with their millions of jasmine-like flowers—showers down upon you as you ride up between the plants a perfume of the most delicately delicious description. ’Tis worth going to the West Indies to see the sight and inhale the perfume.” Plate 2 represents a coffee plantation in Jamaica. In the culture of the tree there is a singular difference in the western and eastern hemispheres, inasmuch as in the former shade is considered injurious, whilst in the latter it is held to be desirable, if not absolutely necessary.
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| No. of lbs. consumed. | Duty on B. P. coffee. | Population of Great Britain. | Average consumption. | |
| s. d. | lbs. oz. | |||
| 1801 | 750,000 | 1 6 | 10,942,646 | 0 1·09 |
| 1811 | 6,390,122 | 0 7 | 12,596,803 | 0 8·12 |
| 1821 | 7,327,283 | 1 0 | 14,391,631 | 0 8·01 |
| 1831 | 21,862,264 | 0 6 | 16,262,301 | 1 5·49 |
| 1841 | 27,298,322 | 0 6 | 18,532,335 | 1 7·55 |
| 1851 | 32,504,545 | 0 3 | 21,000,000 | 1 4·98 |
| 1861 | 35,204,040 | 0 3 | 23,266,755 | 1 1·33 |
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 1½ lb., it has since been gradually declining, for last year (1863) the total consumption was, with an increased population, 2¼ million pounds below the quantity taken for consumption in 1861.
The following table shows the changes in our sources of
Coffee taken for Consumption in the United Kingdom.
| 1853. | 1862. | |
| lbs. | lbs. | |
| British India (including Ceylon) | 24,980,375 | 5,422,369 |
| Ceylon | — | 23,886,007 |
| British West Indies and Guiana | 2,742,913 | 2,380,683 |
| Central America | 4,948,848 | 2,087,638 |
| Brazil | 814,133 | 280,837 |
| Venezuela | 1,033,071 | — |
| Hayti | 862,254 | 20,701 |
| Java | 112,892 | — |
| Holland, &c. | 442,863 | 8,862 |
| Egypt | 112,360 | 90,932 |
| United States | 112,673 | 30,476 |
| New Granada | — | 133,144 |
| Chili | 379,930 | — |
| Mauritius | 61,884 | — |
| Portugal | — | 23,052 |
| Philippine Islands | — | 82,820 |
| Other parts | 487,574 | 216,650 |
| 37,091,770 | 34,664,135 | |
| Exported on drawback | 108,648 | 212,369 |
| 36,983,122 | 34,451,766 |
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.
Aden, alias Mocha, coffee is, along with the other coffees of the Red Sea, sent first to Bombay in Arab ships, where it is “garbelled” (picked), previously to its being exported to England. The bean is always broad and small, and the climate of India is supposed to improve its flavour. The seed of the Berbera (Abyssinian) plant is usually called long-berried Mocha.
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
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 (but curious from the very small size of the berry), 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
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
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 alkaloid caffeine, or theine, is found in one or two other plants besides tea and coffee. It occurs in the seeds of Paullinia sorbilis, a native of Brazil, and in the leaves of several species of holly, natives of South America, which furnish the Paraguay tea, or Yerba mate, so large an article of consumption in several of the South American republics. The leaves and young shoots, dried, parched, and pulverised, are used for a hot infusion. A kind of cake, called Guarana bread, is made from the seeds of the Paullinia, which is highly esteemed in Brazil and other countries when infused, like chocolate, for its nutritive and febrifuge properties, and is sold generally as a necessary for travellers, and as a cure for many diseases.
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:
1. That a decoction of coffee exercises two principal actions upon the organism, which are very diverse in character, viz. increasing the activity of the vascular and nervous system, while at the same time it retards the metamorphosis of plastic constituents.
2. That the influence of coffee upon the vascular and nervous system, its reinvigorating action, and the production of a general sense of cheerfulness and animation, is attributable solely to the mutual modification of the specific action of the empyreumatic oil and the caffeine contained in it.
3. That the retardation of the assimilative process brought about by the use of coffee is owing chiefly to the empyreumatic oil, and is caused by caffeine only when taken in large quantities.
4. That increased action of the heart, trembling, headache, &c., are effects of the caffeine.
5. That the increased activity of the kidneys, relaxation of the bowels, and an increased vigour of mental faculties, passing into congestion, restlessness, and inability to sleep, are effects of the empyreumatic oil.
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 ¾ lb. and 1¾ 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
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.
The chemical properties of the coffee-berry are altered by roasting, and it loses about twenty per cent. of weight, but increases in bulk one-third or one-half. Its peculiar aroma, and some of its other properties, are due to a small quantity of essential oil, only one five-thousandth part of its weight, which would be worth about 100l. an ounce in a separate state. Coffee is less rich in theine than tea, but contains more sugar and a good deal of cheese (casein).
Schrader has analysed raw and roasted coffee, with the following result:
| raw. | roasted. | |
| Peculiar coffee principle | 17·58 | 12·50 |
| Gum and mucilage | 3·64 | 10·42 |
| Extractive | 0·62 | 4·80 |
| Resin | 0·41 | —2·08 |
| Fatty oil | 0·52 | |
| Solid residue | 66·66 | 68·75 |
| Loss | 10·57 | 1·45 |
| " 100·00 | ||
“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:
| Potash | 50·94 |
| Soda | 14·76 |
| Lime | 4·33 |
| Magnesia | 10·90 |
| Oxide of iron | 0·66 |
| Phosphoric acid | 13·59 |
| Sulphuric acid | trace |
| Chlorine | 1·22 |
| Silicic acid | 3·58 |
| 99·98 |
According to the analysis of Payen, the unroasted coffee-berry has the following composition:
| Moisture | 12·0 | |
| Glucose and dextrine | 15·5 | |
| Nitrogenous matters | 13·0 | |
| Chlorogenate of caffeine, &c. | 3·5 to | 5·8 |
| Fatty substances | 10 to | 13·0 |
| Cellulose and woody fibre | 34·0 | |
| Mineral substances in ash | 6·7 | |
| Essential oil | ·003 | |
| 100·0 |
Or to define the per-centage more closely, we may put it thus:
| Water | 12·000 |
| Caffeine, or theine | 1·750 |
| Casein | 13·000 |
| Aromatic oil | 0·002 |
| Sugar | 6·500 |
| Gum | 9·000 |
| Fat | 12·000 |
| Potash, with a peculiar acid | 4·000 |
| Woody fibre | 35·048 |
| Mineral matter | 6·700 |
| 100·000 |
In another form this shows us:
| Water | 12·00 |
| Flesh-formers | 14·75 |
| Heat-givers | 66·25 |
| Mineral matter | 7·00 |
| 100·00 |
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 | 1½ | |
| Gum | 1 | 192 |
| Sugar | 1 | 17 |
| Fat | 1 | 402 |
| Potash | 280 | |
| Woody fibre | 5 | 262 |
| Mineral matter | 1 | 31 |
The part roasted is the albumen, which is of a hard, horny consistence; and Lindley remarks that it is probable that the seeds of other plants of this or the stellate order, whose albumen is of the same texture, would serve as a substitute. This would not be the case with those with fleshy albumen.
Coffee loses in weight by roasting, but gains in bulk in proportion to the heat applied.
Payen found the following amount of nitrogen in 100 parts dried:
| nitrogen. | ash. | |
| Martinique | 2·46 | 5·00 |
| Bourbon | 2·54 | 4·66 |
| Mocha | 2·49 | 7·84 |
The coffee from Martinique lost 11·58 per cent. of its weight by drying. This description of coffee also afforded the following results:
| Unroasted. | Slightlyz reddened. | Chesnut brown. | Brown. | |
| Loss in roasting | — | 15 per cent. | 20 per cent. | 25 per cent. |
| Increase in bulk | — | 1·3 times | 1·53 times | — |
| Extract | 40 per cent. | 37 per cent. | 37·1 per ct. | 39·25 per ct. |
| Insoluble residue | 48·5 “ | — | — | — |
Coffee, as ordinarily prepared for beverage, contains only two-sevenths of the nitrogenous or nutritive matter of the fresh bean, but two-thirds of the roasted, and the mineral ingredients are all present.
M. Lebreton (“Agriculteur praticien”) has estimated the loss of weight of coffee in roasting at 18 to 20 per cent. in Porto Rico, Rio, and Martinique coffee; and at 16 to 18 per cent. in Malabar, Bourbon, Ceylon, and Guadaloupe coffees; while in Mocha coffee it amounts to only 14 or 16. The loss of weight depends upon the time of roasting and the degree of heat. Damp or damaged coffee loses more than dry sound coffee. He considers that these substances have the capability of rendering the individual insensible of a certain deficiency of food, in virtue of their retardation of the assimilative process. He thinks it probable, likewise, that these substances have a direct nutritive value, especially coffee as drank by the Turks and Arabs with the grounds.
Professor Lehmann considers that the singular preference for one or other of these beverages by particular nations, as well as the Eastern custom of drinking coffee with the grounds, are not accidental, but have some deeper reason. This reason, he thinks, is to be found in the different effects of the coffee, tea, &c., and the various requirements of the nations by whom they are used, and instances the use of tea
M. Payen, from elaborate experiments, shows that coffee slightly roasted is that which contains the maximum of aroma, weight, and nutrition. He declares coffee to be very nourishing, as it contains a large quantity of nitrogen, three times as much nutriment as tea, and more than twice the nourishment of soup. Chicory contains only half the nutriment of coffee.
COFFEE-LEAF TEA, &c.
Attention was some time ago drawn to the subject of coffee-leaf tea, which is used in Sumatra and other parts of the East, and a good deal of discussion ensued upon the matter, after the leaves were shown for the purpose at the International Exhibition of 1851. An infusion of roasted coffee-leaves is pronounced by those who have had an opportunity of tasting it, as superior to Bohea, and by some enthusiastic admirers is said to rival the flavour of the most delicate Pekoe. That an infusion of roasted coffee-leaves should imitate the flavour of tea is not to be wondered at, as the leaves of both shrubs contain in the main the same leading principles, more particularly theine or caffeine. There is no doubt that coffee-leaf tea would command a sale in England, but the question is how much could be collected to make it profitable, and it involves the necessity of apparatus and skilled labour for parching the leaves.
Coffee-leaves are not quite so thick as those of Vallambrosa, and a Malabar coolie would not in one day collect enough to pay the expense of picking, drying, packing, cartage, warehouse rent, freight, and other charges.
Moreover, no planter of any experience would think of stripping his trees of their breathing organs, and the quantity that might be collected from the suckers and prunings, &c., would never give more than a few bales, even on large plantations. Even were the fallen leaves supposed to be available, their removal would be as detrimental as the prac
The husks, pulp, and parchment in South America, the West Indies, Ceylon, and the other Indian islands, are regarded as mere waste, and thrown away. In Arabia and some parts of the East, however, this refuse is utilised, as the “miserables,” or husks of the cocoa-seed (Theobroma cacao), are in Ireland and the Continent. With it is prepared the famous kisher, or “CafÉ À la Sultane,” a light-coloured, bright infusion, which has all the agreeable flavour of coffee, with little of its strength and none of its bitterness; this is partaken of by the humbler classes in incredible quantities.
When quite dry and ripe these husks are bruised, and roasted in an earthen vessel over a charcoal fire, not as coffee usually is, but only until it assumes a light-brown colour. While hot it is thrown into a pot of boiling water, with a small proportion of the pellicle or parchment skin; all is boiled together for a few minutes, and then served hot and strong, but without sugar. Sometimes a drop of essence of amber is put into each cup; or cloves, aniseed, or cardamoms are boiled with it.
In Brazil, from the sweet pulp which envelopes the berry an excellent spirit has been made.
ADULTERANTS.
Great as the consumption of coffee is in Europe and the Americas, it has become so necessary in every household, that the demand continues to increase, and very full prices are maintained. The largely extended plantations in Brazil, in Ceylon, in India, in Java, and in other suitable localities, profitably opened up every day, altogether fail to keep down prices, and will long continue to offer the strong inducement of large profits!
Taking advantage of this great public want, the unscrupulous and fraudulent trader foists upon the easily-duped masses of consumers vast quantities of unwholesome and pernicious stuff, mixed in certain proportions with coffee; and, although the law has interposed in the case of chicory, forbidding, under penalties, its being sold mixed with coffee, unless especially so labelled and declared, yet who can tell the thousand and one mixtures that are still made and sold with it?
It may be said that all this can be prevented by purchasing only unground coffee, in a roasted state, ready for grinding; but there are those (to be reckoned by hundreds of thousands of families) who, having no means of grinding this roasted coffee, are compelled to buy that which is already ground, or go without altogether.
What abominations do these (in too many cases) not drink, then, under the much abused name of coffee?
These reflections are forced upon my mind every time I enter a coffee-house, and am called to put faith in the purity of the cup of coffee set before me.
Visitors to the establishments of coffee-grinders speak of
Finest Plantation Coffee,
Roasted and ground on the most approved principle by
Steam Machinery.
This coffee is with confidence highly recommended to the public, as the fine aroma, so much appreciated, is entirely preserved by its being
Packed fresh from the Mill.
We need scarcely say that the amount of nourishment contained in this abominable olio is infinitesimally small.
The Scientific American of New York, of a recent date, records the following fact: “The editor of the Baltimore American lately visited the commissary department of one
About ten years ago, when the question of coffee adulteration was much agitated, I published a little treatise, entitled, “Coffee, as it is and as it ought to be,” in which, among other particulars, I pointed out the various sophistications practised. A compositor who was engaged in printing the work furnished me with a remarkable statement in confirmation of reports which I had previously heard.
He stated that in various parts of the metropolis, but more especially in the east, are to be found liver bakers. These men take the livers of oxen and horses, bake them, and grind them into a powder, which they sell to the low-priced coffee-shop keepers, at from 4d. to 6d. per pound; horse-liver coffee bearing the highest price. This adulterant may be known by allowing the coffee to stand until cold, when a thick pellicle or skin will be found on the top. It goes farther than coffee, and is generally mixed with chicory and other vegetable imitations of coffee.
According to the investigations of Dr. Hassall (“Food and its Adulterations”), the several adulterations of coffee may be distinguished by the following characters:
Chicory, by the size, form, and ready separation of the component cells of the root, as well as by the presence of an abundance of spiral vessels of the dotted form.
Roasted corn, by the size, form, and other characters of the starch granules, of which the grains are principally composed. Beans, also, by the form, &c., of the constituent granules of starch. Potato, by the large size, rounded form,
Plate 3 shows a fragment of roasted coffee as seen under the microscope, magnified 140 diameters, and the structures in a sample of coffee adulterated with chicory.
Dr. Normandy, in his evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on the Adulteration of Food, &c., stated that he had met with roasted corn in coffee to an extent of from 25 to 30 per cent.; it is recognised by the size and character of the starch granules; consists of barley and rye, and is generally very easy to detect; it floats up. If coffee has been adulterated with roasted grain, when you pour boiling water upon it you will see rising against the sides of the cup portions of the ground grain, which you sometimes can separate in considerable quantities, by capillary attraction. If you pour such coffee from the coffee-pot, some of those grains will fall with the liquid in the cup, and they will climb up, as it were, the sides of the cup a quarter of an inch, or something of that kind, all round, and you can collect them very easily.
Dr. R. D. Thompson, F.R.S., another witness, stated that a large cargo of lupins from Egypt having been imported, which could not be made any use of in consequence of their bitter taste, he was asked to give a certificate in favour of their being equal to coffee, but declined, and recommended that, after steeping, to remove the bitter principle, they should be sold for cattle. He also added that he had seen an ingenious apparatus for making artificial coffee-berries from chicory and other substances; it was something like a bullet-mould, and patented by Messrs. Duckworth of Liverpool.
The chicory itself sold is not always pure. The Board of Inland Revenue have found, on chemical examination in different samples, beans, rye, oats (roasted and ground), caramel or burnt sugar, oxide of iron and orange berries.
The principle contained in coffee, remarks Dr. Letheby, may be considered as essential to life, inasmuch as all nations
use it; it prevents the wear and tear of the body. Now there is nothing in chicory which can do that. Chemically there is no difference between beetroot chicory and what is called real chicory; microscopically you can discover the difference. If genuine coffee is sprinkled upon the surface of a tumbler of water, it remains a considerable time floating, and when it sinks it only slightly colours the water; chicory, on the other hand, sinks quickly, and colours the water very deeply. Ground coffee is enveloped in an oily substance, which prevents the water absorbing; chicory has no such protection, and sinks immediately.
Mr. Phillips, the chemist to the Inland Board of Revenue, states that the average per-centage of chicory to coffee, when sold mixed, was found to range from 20½ to 16¾ per cent.
At a recent meeting of the British Association of Science, Mr. Horsley called attention to the use of bi-chromate of potash, in analysing adulterated samples of coffee. With diluted solutions of pure coffee, this salt produces an intense deep porter-brown coloration, whilst upon decoctions of chicory no effect is produced. He advised the following procedure: Take equal parts of chicory and coffee, and decoct them in different quantities of water. Filter, bottle, and label the liquids. Take a teaspoonful of the chicory, and dilute till it is of a brown sherry colour; boil it in a porcelain dish, with a fragment of crystallised bi-chrome. The colour will be scarcely deepened. If a similarly diluted solution of coffee is thus treated, a deep-brown tinge is obtained. By operating with mixed liquids a scale of colours may be obtained indicating the properties of the two substances. If a few grains of the sulphate of copper be added, both decoctions yield a precipitate; that from chicory being a clay yellow, and that from coffee a sepia brown. Mixed decoctions yield intermediate tints.
CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES AND AMERICA.
In 1720, a small coffee-plant, raised in the garden of the King at Paris, was transported to the Antilles by Captain Declieux, who, during a long passage, shared each day his small allowance of water with the young coffee plant. From this tree have sprung all those since cultivated in Martinique, Guadaloupe, Cayenne, St. Domingo, and the other islands. The fall of St. Domingo, in 1789, which formerly furnished 80,000,000 lbs., the disfavour the culture has fallen into in Martinique and Guadaloupe islands, which used to supply 16,000,000 or 17,000,000 lbs., together with the greater attention given to sugar cultivation in the West Indies, have transferred the production of coffee chiefly to Brazil, Ceylon, and Java.
In 1801, 526,000 cwts. of coffee were imported into Great Britain from the West Indies, and the average annual imports in the six years ending 1806 was 364,000 cwts. The decrease of production is shown by the following figures:
| 1829. | 1850. | 1860. | |
| lbs. | lbs. | lbs. | |
| Jamaica | 18,690,654 | 4,196,210 | 6,145,362 |
| British Guiana | 7,163,016 | 18,472 | — |
| Trinidad | 73,667 | 96,376 | — |
| Dominica | 942,113 | 792 | 10,000 |
| St. Lucia | 303,499 | 39 | — |
Jamaica.—The coffee-plant is said to have been first introduced into Jamaica by Sir Nicholas Lawes, in 1728, when
In the West Indies and Central America a nursery of young plants is usually raised from seed. At the age of six months these are transplanted into the field in squares of 8 to 9 feet apart. Beyond keeping the field clear of weeds, giving the plants a slight moulding, and freeing them of suckers or sprouts, they do not require any other attention for the first three years. At the expiry of this time they commence to bear fruit, and the coffee is cured either by drying the entire fruit in the sun, or by passing the fruit through what is called a pulping mill, which separates the outer pulp or covering from the beans. The beans are then subjected to a washing in a tank full of water, in order to remove the glutinous substance which adheres to them; this causes them to cure or dry more rapidly. They are then left in what is called the parchment husk, and exposed to the
British Guiana.—Coffee was for a length of time almost the only staple of Berbice and Demerara, but the cultivation of the sugar-cane has been substituted for it. The quantity of coffee, the produce of British Guiana, exported in 1830 was, 9,472,756 lbs.; in 1840, 3,357,300 lbs.; in 1849, 100,550 lbs.; and in 1850, 30,000 lbs.; since which it has almost ceased to be exported, scarcely sufficient being produced to supply the demand in the colony.
At one time there were about two hundred coffee plantations in the small island of Dominica, and four to five million of pounds of coffee were exported annually to Great Britain.
Porto Rico.—In proportion to its extent, this island is twice as productive as Cuba, and the quality of its coffee and other produce is of the highest class. There were, in 1862, fifty-three coffee plantations on the island, producing about 100,000 cwt. of coffee. The exports of coffee were, in
| lbs. | ||
| 1855 | . . . | 11,506,283 |
| 1856 | . . . | 9,935,000 |
| 1857 | . . . | 8,245,000 |
| 1858 | . . . | 9,814,000 |
| 1859 | . . . | 13,457,000 |
The exports of coffee from the island of Cuba, which were in 1840 upwards of 2,000,000 arrobas, were in 1858 but 21,000; and in 1859, 5000 or 6000.
Brazil.—The coffee-plant has been known in Brazil for many years; it is but about fifty years, however, since the first regular plantation was made by Mr. Moke, a Belgian, who brought the cultivation of coffee to great perfection. His plantation is still in the neighbourhood of the capital, and is carried on by his son with much success. It is astonishing to what an extent coffee has been cultivated since Mr. Moke first made his plantation. Two millions of bags of 160 lbs. each are annually exported from Rio de Janeiro, taking the average of the last seven years; 1862 was, however, short of this about half a million bags. At Barahyba do Sul, which is within a few miles of Rio, there are plantations employing six and seven hundred slaves.
The best plantations are those owned and conducted by foreigners—chiefly English, French, and Belgian—they have an air of neatness and comfort about them of which those owned by Brazilians and Portuguese are totally destitute. The foreigners use improved machinery also in preparing the berry for market, which the Brazilians, with some exceptions, do not. The coffee-berry contains two seeds, covered with a gummy, mucilaginous substance, and enclosed in a skin which is thick, sweet, and dark and red when ripe. The foreigners take off this skin by means of machinery, and the beans are washed until they are divested of the mucilage which covers them. They are then dried and put into bags ready for market.
The coffee-plant can be propagated from the seed, but the most prevalent method in Brazil is by young plants, which may be had by the thousand on old plantations. The young shrub is taken up in August—generally when it is about two years old—and planted in good soil. The fourth year it produces coffee, and the fifth year it commences to bear regular crops, the yield being from a pound and a half to three pounds per tree. Trees have been known to last for many years on good rich soil, and some on Mr. Moke’s plantation are still bearing which were planted forty years ago; on hill-sides, however, where the soil is light, the plant decays in the course of eight or ten years. The picking season commences in July, and in the low lands generally concludes by the end of August; among the hills, however, where there are frequent showers, and where there is much shade, the season does not close until some time in September.
The four coffee-growing provinces of Brazil, properly speaking, are Rio de Janeiro, San Paulo, Minas, and Bahia. In the two former the agriculturists have for some time past directed their attention almost exclusively to this article. In Bahia its cultivation is steadily, although slowly, increasing. Coffee is grown in the provinces of Maranham, Parana, and St. Catherine’s, but only to a very small extent, the amount
The following figures give the average quantity of coffee exported from the empire of Brazil during the undermentioned years, comprising a period previous and subsequent to the abolition of the slave trade in 1851, and showing a steady increase in the export since 1840:
| Annual average. | |
| arrobas. | |
| 1840-43 | 5,507,367 |
| 1843-46 | 6,519,380 |
| 1846-49 | 9,301,967 |
| 1849-52 | 8,542,965 |
| 1852-55 | 10,549,847 |
| 1855-58 | 11,465,719 |
| 1858-61 | 10,501,665 |
The yearly shipments from Rio in the last four years have been as follows:
| bags. | |
| 1859 | 2,064,837 |
| 1860 | 2,150,188 |
| 1861 | 2,085,974 |
| 1862 | 1,477,904 |
besides 200,000 to 300,000 bags annually from Santos. The bags contain rather more than six arrobas, or one cwt. and a half.
Costa Rica.—The quality of this coffee is recognised as excellent. In order to place it in a proper degree of estimation in foreign markets, some proprietors of plantations have not omitted getting it chemically analysed in Europe;
The following figures show the production of coffee in Costa Rica; the bulk of the crop is sent to Great Britain:
| cwts. | |
| 1854 | 70,000 |
| 1855 | 70,709 |
| 1856 | 83,000 |
| 1857 | 95,000 |
Venezuela.—Within the last thirty years Venezuela has made great progress in coffee culture. The exports, which were not more than 13,000,000 lbs. in 1833, had risen to 15,000,000 lbs. in 1850; but since then the culture has been much interfered with by civil war. The exports from La Guayra were, in 1855, 17,375,000 lbs.; in 1856, 12,357,000 lbs.; and in 1857, 16,031,000 lbs. Washed coffee sells there at 8s. per cwt. higher than the unwashed.
In Venezuela, the plan followed in drying the coffee is this. The berries are spread out upon hurdles in the sun, where they undergo the vinous fermentation from fourteen to twenty days, and then dry. The beans are freed from the pulpy husk by a mill in two operations, and from the parchment, &c., by winnowing. Although a single tree may bear as much as 10 to 20 lbs., the average in Venezuela is under 2 lbs. An acre planted with 2560 trees yields there an annual crop of about 1100 lbs. of dry beans.
In Ecuador coffee has of late greatly engrossed the attention of planters, from its superior quality and the increased demand; it commands a higher price than any other product of the country in proportion. As the people are everywhere dedicating themselves to its culture, in a few years it is probable that this country will export a considerable quantity.
Guatemala.—Some twenty years ago considerable plantations of coffee were made in different parts of the republic of Guatemala, and had the undertaking been followed up with proper and steady constancy and attention, it might, perhaps, by this time, have become an important article of export. Unfortunately its culture was abandoned, owing to the insurrections of the Indian population. Some attempts have been made again to introduce its culture by making fresh plantations, but hitherto not to any extent worthy of mention. The exports of coffee in 1860 were about 63 tons. In the department of Vera Paz, there are said to be now about half a million of coffee plants in bearing, and nurseries of about a million more plants will soon be ready for transplanting. The greater part of the plantations are situated in the neighbourhood of Coban, where the vicinity of Teleman, on the river Polochec, which disembogues into the gulf of Dulce, affords a convenient channel for shipping the produce.
CULTURE IN ARABIA.
The culture of coffee is principally carried on in Yemen, towards the districts of Aden and Mocha. The nearest coffee plantations are about eighty miles from Aden.
The coffee-growing country in the Yemen is 300 miles to the south of Jeddah, being the districts about Tohira, Uodeida, and Tanaa. Of this, the Turks have but little, their authority only extending over the narrow slip called the Tehana, in which is little coffee. They had till lately the export dues of all the coffee grown in Western Arabia, but they have lost a great part of them, a large quantity of coffee being sent to Aden for exportation. Mocha, the ancient port and capital, has completely fallen, and is in ruins. Its place is taken by Uodeida, the seat of government of the Yemen, and a Pashalic under Jeddah. In 1860, coffee to the value of 14,268l. was imported into Aden by sea, of 55,710l. was brought by land, and 45,344l. was exported. An enormous quantity is consumed in Arabia. Very little genuine Yemen coffee is procurable in Europe. It is difficult to obtain even in Jeddah. It is first mixed in the Yemen with inferior Abyssinian coffee, then mixed at Jeddah with damaged coffee, and probably in Egypt it is again mixed. Alexandria and Cairo are notorious for bad coffee.
It has been understood for several years that much of the coffee which finds its way into England as genuine Mocha is, in reality, Malabar coffee, sent to ports on the Persian
The coffee is generally grown half way up the slopes of the hills, but some is cultivated on lower ground, surrounded by large trees for shade. The harvest is gathered at three periods of the year, the principal being in May. Cloths are spread under the trees, which are shaken, that the ripe fruit may drop. The berries are then collected and exposed to the sun on mats to dry. A heavy roller is afterwards passed over the berries, to break the envelopes, and the husk is winnowed away with a fan. The berries are further dried before being stored.
Arabian coffee was first cultivated by the Dutch, and some of their plants sent by the French to the West Indies, where it is now successfully cultivated. So that one has a difficulty in deciding where it is indigenous, as it is a much more important article of agriculture in the West Indies, Java, Ceylon, and Southern India, than in its native countries.
In Syria the coffee-plant is of natural growth; but as the European writers who were engaged in the Crusades do not mention it, it could not have been much used during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Bruce affirms that the qualities of it were well known in Africa, and that the Gallae, a wandering tribe, which was obliged to traverse the deserts, carried no other provision than balls compounded of coffee and butter, one of which would keep them in health and spirits through a day’s journey better than any other kind of food. In the Royal Library at Paris is an Arabian manuscript, containing a voluminous history of coffee, in which it is said that Gemaleddin-Ahou-Abdallah, Mufti of Aden, first introduced its use among the Turks, upon his return from Persia, where he had experienced the beneficial effects of it as a common beverage. The effendi, the kadi, and all the inferior officers of the government, followed the example of this chief of the law. The use of coffee descended through the harem to the house of every merchant, and the town of Aden set the example to the rest of Arabia.
CULTIVATION IN CEYLON.
In 1824, Sir Edward Barnes and Sir George Bird commenced coffee-planting in Ceylon on a large scale. Others followed gradually, but the real rush for land dates from 1833. There are now 250,000 acres owned by coffee-planters, of which 100,000 are cleared and cultivated.
In Ceylon coffee succeeds best at an elevation from 1200 to 4800 feet; the quantity, generally speaking, lessening, but the quality improving with the elevation. By the natives a little of inferior description is grown in the low country. In 1855 there were about 150 estates belonging to Europeans, comprising 30,000 acres of cultivated ground, to which considerable additions have since been made. 400,000 cwt. was exported in 1853, and 783,393 cwt. in 1863.
The railroad forming from Colombo to Kandy, and the opening up of new roads, have rendered more land accessible, and the large clearances made in the forest at the high elevations will probably so improve the climate of those localities that a still further addition to the available land will be obtained. It is, therefore, not too much to expect the export, which in the last five years has on the average exceeded 630,000 cwt. per annum, will in less than a quarter of a century be more than doubled. In the fourteen years ending with 1862, Ceylon has sent into the markets of the world the following quantity of coffee:
| cwts. | £ | ||
| Plantation | 4,625,995 | of the value of | 11,310,518 |
| Native growth | 1,945,623 | “ | 3,492,290 |
| 6,571,618 | 14,802,808 |
Elevation must ever be an important consideration; though we have no doubt that by the use of manures coffee might be made to do well and bear to a limited extent at the level of the sea in Ceylon. We believe this to be, however, so completely artificial, that it will never again be tried whilst land is available from 1500 feet and upwards of elevation, where the plant grows vigorously without more than ordinary care being bestowed. The general effect of elevation may be described very shortly; the lower ranges, with fair soil, produce the heaviest crops and the soonest after planting, whilst the plantations on higher elevations produce smaller crops, but a finer quality of produce, and take a longer time to come into full bearing. There are many circumstances which go to produce climate, besides differences of elevation. On a plantation formed in a large district of forest yet uncleared, the climate will be colder and more moist than when the formation of other estates has cleared away the forest around it. The proximity of a high mountain peak, or being situated on the shoulder of a mountain which towers to a great elevation above the level of the plantation, will also produce more cold and wet than if the garden were opened on a lower range and to the full height of such a position. Plate 4, for instance, shows such a locality in the view of Konda-galla estate, near Neura-ellia, Ceylon. At low elevations long continued dry weather is more frequent than on the higher ranges, inasmuch as the clouds are frequently broken by the distant hills before they reach; and when there is no rain about, estates on the higher ranges are less parched, and atmospherically enjoy a moisture of which the lower hills are destitute. Still these various conditions are only advantageous or hurtful under varying circumstances; high elevation, cold and wet, and low elevation, heat, and drought, are alike unfavourable as prevailing characteristics; it is their due and seasonable admixture
Plate 4.—Konda-galla Estate, near Neura-ellia, Ceylon.
which is found most favourable to the profitable production of the coffee-plant. Perhaps the least favourable localities are those high positions where the natural vegetation is of the alpine character; in such positions the plant will only struggle for an existence; it therefore follows that the land selected should be well under these extreme elevations.
Soil of all kinds has had its advocates, and in turn been condemned by all. Depth and freeness are perhaps its most favourable states; dark black mould is always good; but wherever there is sufficiency of depth found beneath a virgin forest, at the proper elevation and climate, coffee has come on successfully. The land which has by general opinion been condemned as unfit for continued production is that covered with small jungle after the original forest has been cut down, and the land made to produce a rich crop for the natives. Perhaps it may be the exposure of the soil to the sun, and exhaustion by the large weeds which it produces, which are so injurious to it. The modern system of manuring is rapidly equalising the value of all soils, though deep lands on a limestone bottom, or strewed with granite boulders, are always considered highly favourable for coffee cultivation. The proximity of land to roads is a point of great importance in its selection, both as directly and indirectly affecting the outlay in forming a plantation, and probably for a long time determining the large item of expense under the head of transport of produce.
Felling and clearing, as the name implies, is cutting down the jungle and burning it off, so as to leave the land clear for planting. It is conducted as follows. Beginning from the lower part of the land and working upwards, the undergrowth, or small jungle, is cut down with catties or bill-hooks, leaving the forest trees free and open for the labours of the axemen. Likewise beginning from the lowest part of the field, the labourers, generally village Singhalese, who are ex
Much argument has been held as to the proper distances at which coffee-trees should be planted; and in visiting the various districts it will be seen that all distances and all forms have been resorted to. The result of this extended experiment has produced a very general opinion in favour of close planting; that is, 6 feet by 6 feet, or 5 feet by 6 feet, or 4 feet 9 inches by 5 feet. The reasons in favour of close planting are these, that the extra number of plants to the acre is followed in the first two crops at least by a proportionate increase of crop. By close planting weeds are hindered from growing, and, what is of more consequence still, the ground is sooner covered by the growing plants, and therefore protected from the sun, exposure to which is found to impoverish more than anything else the surface soil, from which the plant chiefly seeks its nourishment. With an average good soil, and careful handling of the trees and manuring, it is found that closely-planted coffee may be made to continue to bear highly; that is, in proportion to the extra number of plants to the acre. Close planting is serviceable in enabling the plants to outlive the effect of exposure to high winds, which in some places are most destructive. The
BUILDINGS, PLANTING, &c., IN CEYLON.
These comprise a bungalow for the manager, lines, or huts, for the labourers, and pulping-house and store for the preparation and reception of the crop.
Plate 5 shows the main works and buildings at Messrs. Worms’ estates, Puselawa, Ceylon.
The position of the pulping-house should influence the selection of the spots for the other buildings, unless other circumstances determine it. The bungalow should, if possible, be an easy distance from the store, that the manager may without difficulty superintend the work, which at crop time is going on often at night as well as in the daytime. One set of lines for the labourers, for the same reason, should be near to the store, another set may be erected more centrically with reference to the field labour of the estate.
With reference to lines and bungalow, especially the latter, they will be erected according to the manager’s taste, and in a great measure depend upon the material to be obtained in the particular locality for constructing them. True economy will be practised in making permanent and substantial dwellings which will require only slight repairs occasionally.
The selection of the land for the pulping-house and stores and drying-ground is all important, and should only be attempted by a resident manager to whom a long residence on the plantation has afforded an intimate acquaintance with every feature of the land. The advantages which have to be
Plate 5.—Main Works at Messrs. Worms’ Estates, Puselawa, Ceylon.
Plate 6.—The Pulping House, Messrs. Worms’ Estate, Puselawa.
sought and combined are, availability of water power, both to drive the machinery and for a water-course to the pulper, on a site convenient to the fields from which the crop is to be brought, and so level that it may be fitted for its purposes at the least possible expense.
Water power is not always used, nor is it available on every estate; but as there may be often good reasons to adopt it afterwards, it should always be considered in the primary arrangements. It may be applied to so many economic objects—saw-mills, drying apparatus, &c.—that it should always be applied, if possible, to everything undertaken on the estate requiring a moving power.
Plate 6 is an exterior view of a pulping-house on Messrs. Worms’ estates, Puselawa.
Coffee when gathered from the tree fully ripe is like a rich scarlet cherry, out of which on being squeezed two coffee-berries break forth, each covered with a light skin resembling parchment, and moist, with a sweet mucilaginous fluid which rapidly decomposes. The machine called a pulper is for the purpose of removing the cherry skin or husk; this it does by passing it between a barrel armed with perforated copper, forming a grater, and a sharp-edged board called the chop, which by means of wedges or screws is placed at the proper distance from the barrel to ensure the greater part of the coffee being pressed against it, but not so close that any of the berries should be pricked through their parchment covering. As coffee is seldom uniform in size, much passes forward from which the husk, or pulp, as it is called, has not been completely removed; this, being separated by a sieve worked by the machinery, is returned by hand to the hopper. The coffee, deprived of its husk, goes forward by a channel prepared for it into a cistern, the pulps being thrown off behind; these latter are now generally saved to be carried to the manure pit. The coffee is left to soak in the cistern for the
Plate 7 gives a view of the interior lower floor of the pulping-house on Messrs. Worms’ estates, Puselawa.
In the pulping-house above the pulpers is a large floor called the cherry loft, into which the coffee in cherry from the field is measured, and from whence, through holes, it is made to fall into the pulpers, from the pulpers it is carried to the cisterns, and when washed is taken out by the labourers to be dried, which brings us to speak of the store and drying apparatus. Before doing so we may mention that the pulper, which is considered a very imperfect machine, is generally driven by four men at two handles, aided by a fly-wheel; the power is immediately applied to turn the barrel, to which is connected a large cog-wheel, which moves a pinion attached, to work a sieve or riddle.
Pulpers turned by water power, if properly erected to resist the strain of the connecting machinery, work with more equality of motion, and therefore do their work better than those worked by hand.
Many improvements in the pulping-machine have been suggested without success; the last, which is now very generally adopted, is called a crusher, and consists in a kind of shield instead of a chop, which presses the coffee against the barrel. This machine is said to do as much work in a given time as the pulper, and with less liability to cut or prick the berry.
It has been said that the pulper is an imperfect machine; it is so in respect to the incompleteness with which it performs the work for which it is constructed. The work
Plate 7.—Interior View of the Pulping House of Messrs. Worms’ Estates, Puselawa, Ceylon.
complete, would be to pass forward the whole of the cherry coffee from the hopper, as clean parchment coffee, into the cistern, and completely separate the pulp. Instead of this, not only is there much coffee passed forward unpulped, which has to be returned to the hopper, but much pulp comes forward with the coffee into the cistern. To overcome these imperfections, many hands are required attending the process of pulping; several with sieves receive all the coffee as it comes through the trough into the cistern, and remove all the pulp in it. The object of this is to please the sight by making the sample even, and to take away a material which both, renders the coffee difficult to dry, and, being decomposed vegetable matter of a saccharine nature, is liable by fermentation to injure the quality of the coffee itself. The coffee which is passed unpulped, having been returned to the hopper as it accumulates at the end of the pulper riddle, until the picking has all been pulped, is sometimes passed through another pulper, set closer, and what then remains is dried separately in the husk. The imperfections of the pulper have recently attracted much notice, and improvements are making in it.
We now arrive at the crowning operation of all—Planting. Economy should be studied in every part of the work, and to plant to the best advantage, nothing is more conducive than having the traces of the roads and paths through the clearings already opened if possible, so as to be available for bringing the plants from the nurseries. Plants and stumps are both used in forming plantations; the first are seedlings, reared in nurseries until they are about 8 to 10 inches high, or just crowned—that is, after the appearance of their first lateral branches; the second are the stock and roots of an older tree. Under varying circumstances there is much to be said in favour of each. If the weather is dry and the season advanced, stumps may be planted with less risk, and in less time; but
Nurseries of plants are variously made; much contention has existed on the merits of shade and no shade. Shade is not required, and the plants are best without it; yet it happens most nurseries are in some respects subject to shade, as they have to be formed frequently before any portion of the land is opened, and should be protected by a belt of forest from the fire of the clearing; the jungle being cleared off and carried to the sides of the ground selected. The soil is dug with hoes and picks about two spits deep, and the roots of the jungle carefully taken up, as these would afterwards
We must not omit to notice the necessity for carefully replacing, with as little delay as possible, all failures in the planting. The longer this is delayed the more difficult does it become to do it well; and when neglected, besides making the fields appear irregular and unsightly, the gaps left become weed beds, and so much of the bearing space of the acre being lost, the crop is affected in proportion.
When stumps are planted, a number of buds or suckers make their appearance on the root; one of these only should be left, and the others carefully rubbed off with the finger, as often as the weeding party goes over the field.
The sprout from the bud which is left grows up and becomes the stem of a tree, and throws out its laterals somewhat higher than the tree grown from a nursery plant. The stump generally produces its first crop a little out of season; for planting up failures stumps give the least trouble.
Next to lining and careful planting, nothing enhances the good appearance of a plantation so much as the workmanlike formation of the roads and buildings. It is, therefore, desirable, by the use of a theodolite, to trace the roads accurately before cutting them out. Formerly it was frequently the practice to take the road by the eye from point to point,
Plate 8 shows a coffee district near Puselawa, Ceylon.
HARVESTING THE CROP AND PREPARATION FOR MARKET.
The heavy blossom appears on the tree in August and September. The principal crop is picked from April to July. A small crop, chiefly from young coffee, is picked from September to December. The produce is sent down to Colombo, the shipping port, from April to September. If the estate be close to a carriage road this is done by carts, which can take from 60 to 80 bushels. The cost of transport is sometimes enormous. It is not unusual to see carts loaded with coffee lying at the bottom of a precipice, while the bullocks which had brought them have died from exhaustion. If not near a road, carrying coolies are employed, or pack bullocks, which take a load of 3 bushels, to transport it either to a store, from which a carriage will convey it to Colombo, or to the navigable point of one of the rivers. Of the various modes and facility, or the want of it, possessed by estates situated in different districts, some idea may be formed in the expense varying from 1s. to 12s. per cwt. for bringing the produce to Colombo.
There are now in Colombo upwards of thirty establishments for the preparation of coffee for shipment, ten or twelve of these employ steam power to drive the requisite machinery. To most of them large barbecues for drying are attached, and cooperages for the preparation of casks, and in the season, which lasts nearly three quarters of the year, from 10,000 to 15,000 women and 1000 to 2000 men are employed in the process.
Though the coffee has been sufficiently dried on the plantation to enable it to reach Colombo in safety, it is not sufficiently hard to part with the silver pellicle which envelops each berry under the parchment skin, and to resist the pressure of the peeler, without some additional drying in the more powerful sun at Colombo.
It is, therefore, again exposed on the barbecue, until it reaches a crisp dryness. (Plate 9 shows the barbecue or drying-floor on Messrs. Worms’ estate, Puselawa, in Ceylon, and the native labourers spreading the coffee to dry.) It is next submitted to the pressure of the peeler, which breaks the berry out of the parchment covering, and sets the silver skin at liberty. It may be noticed that the silver skin, though perhaps not adding two ounces to the weight of 112 lbs., gives the coffee an appearance considered to be unsightly in the London market, and, therefore, depreciates its value; its adherence to the coffee, though the cause is not known in the market, is supposed to be generally the result of bad drying on the plantation, being allowed to remain too long wet, or being permitted to heat after it is taken from the cisterns.
Several processes have to be gone through before the article known in commerce as coffee is produced. In the first place, the pulpy exterior of the berry, as we have seen, has to be removed by the process of pulping, which separates the seed and its thin covering, called the parchment, from the husk. When this pulping process is completed, we have the parchment by itself in a cistern, and the next process consists in getting rid of the mucilage with which it is covered. For this purpose the water is drained from the cistern, and fermentation is allowed to take place, which it readily does after a period of twenty-four hours, or even less on a low estate, where the climate is warm, though forty-eight hours are generally required on the highest estates.
Plate 9.—The Barbecue, or Drying-Floor, Messrs. Worms’ Estates, Puselawa.
Water is then admitted into the cistern, and the coffee being agitated by wooden rakes, the mucilage combines with the water and is drained off. After this the washed parchment coffee has to be dried to a hard stage, and as it frequently happens that during crop time there is a continuance of wet weather for weeks and months together, the chief difficulties which a planter has to contend with now present themselves.
The peeler, or machine for removing the parchment, consists of a circular trough, in which a wheel is made to travel; this is generally made of wood, and shod with copper sheeting, and is turned by central pressure, like the capstan of a ship, either by hand or by the gearing of machinery attached to a steam-engine. An improvement on this has been made by constructing the travelling wheels of iron, and the trough of plates of the same metal; these plates being serrated in one direction, so as to present a rough surface to the coffee, facilitate the fracture of the parchment. Two wheels are generally made to work in one trough, each of which is provided with a kind of scraper, to stir up the coffee in its path and cause it to present a new face to the pressure.
A coffee-peeler is usually made of durable wood or iron. The circumference of the machine is 36 feet; the breadth between the circles in the machine is 1 foot. The height of the wheel 6 feet; the thickness near the axle-tree 1 foot, and on the top 6 inches; twelve men or four bullocks can turn it. If turned by men 200 bushels of coffee, and if worked by bullocks 140 bushels, can be obtained in nine hours; if by steam about 800 or 1000 bushels. The cost of constructing a machine to be worked by men or bullocks is 25l., by steam 600l.
After undergoing this process, the coffee is passed into a winnower, which removes nearly the whole of the parchment and silver skin. It is now given to the women, in quantities of a bushel each, to be picked over by hand, who take out all
Sizers are variously made of perforated sheet zinc or wire gauze, with openings of three sizes, increasing from the top in the form of a long pipe, which, being slightly inclined and made to revolve, pass the coffee, poured in above into the bins constructed to receive the different sizes.
The coffee, now ready to be packed, is at once put into casks, containing 6 or 7 cwt. each, and sent away on board ship without delay. These processes are constantly improving and are now thoroughly understood—a remark which would seem uncalled for, but for the recollection of the bungling and conflicting systems which were in vogue a few years since.
PREPARATION FOR MARKET—(Continued).
Parchment Coffee, when in an unseasoned state, is prone to enter into decomposition from the time at which it is withdrawn from the protection of the living organism until it is thoroughly seasoned by drying, after which it may be kept for any length of time in a dry place.
The worth of coffee as an article of commerce is lessened in proportion to the extent to which these progressive changes are allowed to go on. If heating has taken place, the bean can never afterwards acquire the pellucid colour which is indicative of well-dried coffee, but partakes more or less of a dingy appearance. If mouldiness ensues, the aromatic properties, like those of tea, give place to an insipid flavour; and finally, if the bean undergoes putrefaction, it assumes a dull black colour, and becomes totally destitute of every valuable property.
When the crops ripen, they must be gathered and cured under all circumstances of weather; and as it generally happens that this has to be done during the prevalence of the periodical rains, the difficulties to be contended with are so much the greater. The extensive nature of the operations has also to be taken into account in forming an estimate of the difficulties to be provided for. During the busy season of crop upwards of 1000 bushels of cherries are daily gathered from some plantations, yielding an increase of 500 bushels of parchment coffee to be daily added to that which has already accumulated in the store.
Past experience having shown that coffee was most easily
Some years ago it occurred to Mr. Clerihew that it was possible, by means of fanners, working on the exhausting principle, so to withdraw air from an enclosed space as to establish a current of air through masses of coffee spread on perforated floors forming the top and bottom of that space. This plan he carried into execution at Rathoongodde plantation, and it has since been adopted by many planters.
The following is a detailed description of Mr. Clerihew’s invention, a model of which was shown at the International Exhibition of 1851:
The water-wheel is an overshot one, nine feet in diameter, and is of much smaller dimensions than any wheel that has hitherto been employed for pulping. It is, however, sufficient in power to work the fans and pulpers simultaneously, the excess of its power over that of other wheels being gained by the diminution of friction consequent on there being no intervening shafting and gearing. The entire wheel is constructed of wood, with the exception of the shaft, which is unusually light, as it has merely to serve as a support to the wheel. By means of a double band rim-bolted to the arms on each side, motion is given to the pulpers from the one and to the fans from the other.
The floors of the curing-house are laid with laths 1¼ inch square and 2 inches apart; these are covered with open coir
To derive the full benefit of natural heat, the roof is covered with felt or with sheet-iron, so that in fine weather the temperature of the air in the upper floor is raised considerably by contact with the hot roof, and its capacity for absorbing moisture much increased, preparatory to its being drawn down through the mass of coffee in the upper floor. Even in the cool climate of the district of Upper Hewahette, at an elevation of 4500 feet, in a fine day the temperature of the air under a felt roof is 120° when the fans are not working, so that a great drying power is thus made available at no expense.
The lower floor, on the other hand, is adapted for the application of artificial heat for the purpose of evaporating the surface water from each separate batch of coffee as it is taken from the washing cisterns preparatory to its being deposited in the upper floor. In wet weather this is essential, for the atmospheric air being then saturated with moisture, no drying can take place until its capacity for absorbing moisture is increased by an increase of temperature. One other reason for adopting this arrangement is, that when the coffee is first taken wet from the washing cisterns the interstices of the beans are more or less occupied with water, and thus present a medium less pervious to air than is the case when the surface water has been dried off. Consequently it is desirable that, until this has been done, the depth of the coffee should not exceed six inches, and, to be equal to every emergency, the heating power ought to be sufficient in the wettest weather to evaporate the surface water from the produce of a day’s picking (within twenty-four hours), so as to
The heating stove is square, has a waggon head with a semicircular opening in the centre for the passage of air, and is constructed of stout sheet-iron. It is placed within an arch, with a clearance of nine inches all round also for the passage of air, the guiding principle in its construction being to adapt it to the burning of wood, and to expose as much heating surface as possible to the air which flows past it into the air-chamber beneath the ground-floor. The stove opening is the only one which admits air to the coffee on the ground-floor. Consequently, when it is more or less closed by a damper, the power of the fans is exerted either in part or altogether on the mass of coffee in the upper floor.
In these applications of natural and artificial heat to the curing of coffee, the heat is conveyed by the air through the whole depth of coffee in such a manner that each bean feels its influence, whilst the watery products elicited by the heat are at the same time, and by the same means, carried off. It cannot be doubted that these applications are far more effectual than any of the modes hitherto in use; in some cases stoves were employed in the apartment containing the coffee, but it is obvious that their influence could not extend beyond the surface of the mass, and that, if the apartment was closed, there was no provision for carrying off the air that had become loaded with moisture due to its temperature; whilst, if the apartment was open, so as to afford a free draught of air, the greater portion of the heat given out by
The construction of Mr. Clerihew’s heating apparatus is simple, and a moderate supply of fuel has a considerable effect in raising the temperature of cold damp air before it is brought into contact with the coffee through which it is drawn by the aid of the fans. This heated air becomes diffused throughout the whole of the chamber, which extends beneath the ground-floor in such a manner that no portion of the coffee which is on that floor can be free from its influence.
The fans at Rathoongodde are much more powerful than those in common use, the peculiarity in the shape of the blade giving them a great advantage as air-moving machines, in so far as the indraught is concerned, whilst one-half of the periphery being open a ready exit is afforded for the discharge of air. In the ordinary fan, if a smoking match is applied to any part of the indraught opening, the air will be seen to flow towards a neutral point in the centre of the fan, following a spiral direction, and thence in the periphery of the fan.
In Mr. Clerihew’s modification of the blade each film of air, so to speak, flows into the fan directly, until it impinges on the curvilinear part of the blade, and from that point is thrown at a right angle towards the periphery. The column of air being thus less distorted in its progress, there is not only a greater quantity discharged, but much less power is consumed in effecting that discharge—in the common fan it
The enclosed space of the coffee-curing house at Rathoongodde has an area in the cross section of 100 superficial feet, it is 70 feet long, and a pair of fans are placed at one end. Repeated experiments have shown that, when the fans make 100 revolutions per minute, a cloud of smoke travels to them from the centre of the enclosed space (a distance of 35 feet) in precisely 15 seconds, hence we have 100 × 35 = 3500 cubic feet of air discharged in a quarter of a minute, or 14,000 cubic feet per minute; a screw of nearly seven feet in diameter would be required to discharge the same amount of air, and the cost of it in England is 84 guineas, whilst the pair of fans made and fitted up at Rathoongodde cost under 9l.
In the centre of the enclosed space, with a depth of four feet of coffee in the upper floor, the flame of a candle is blown to a right angle when the whole power of the fans is put on that floor; near to the fans it is extinguished, the air moving forward with a uniformly accelerated velocity from the farther end towards the fans, owing to the constant accessions made by the air entering the enclosed space throughout its whole length.
It has already been mentioned that the only entrance of air into the air-chamber beneath the ground-floor is by the opening in which the stove is placed, consequently, when this opening is closed by a damper, it is obvious that the whole power of the fans is exerted on the mass of coffee which is being cured on the upper floor, and that the divi
In having recourse to these practical modifications some little judgment and observation are of more service than precept. It will be found, for instance, that if the coffee in the upper floor approaches the dry stage, it is better in wet weather to shut the doors of that floor as well as the tops of the fans, so that only a small flittering of air sufficient to ward off the first stages of decomposition may pass through that coffee, whilst the wet coffee below has the full benefit of a more rapid circulation of absorbent air.
Attention may now be directed to the practical results which these arrangements have afforded in the curing of coffee.
The coffee in the upper floor, as the crop advanced, gra
A cold glass tumbler taken into the store in a warm day, when the fans were not in motion, became instantly dimmed and wet by the precipitation of moisture from the internal air. When another glass was taken into the store, one minute after the fans were put in motion, it remained clear, without a trace of moisture.
A very satisfactory result soon showed itself, viz. that whilst the temperature of the air as it entered the moist coffee was 80° in a warm day, the temperature of the coffee itself, as indicated by an immersed thermometer, was only 58°; the wet coffee being invariably coldest when the air that was made to pass through it was warmest. This paradox admitted of easy explanation, when it was considered that each bean of undried coffee was under similar circumstances to evaporating vessels of water placed in a draught of warm air for the purpose of cooling the water. The cold thus produced was, therefore, the necessary concomitant of the evaporation that was going on, and the difference between these temperatures afforded a measure of the drying power in different states of the weather. The circumstance of the
Every bushel of parchment coffee contains half a cubic foot of air, a fact ascertained by a bushel which took thirty-three measures of water to fill it. When full of newly-washed coffee it took thirteen of these measures of the water to displace the air from the interstices of the beans without overflowing, so that we have 13—33 of air in a bushel of coffee; in other words, half a cubic foot. Hence, the fans in use are capable of giving a fresh atmosphere to 28,000 bushels of coffee every minute, or in the same time four fresh atmospheres to 7000 bushels.
During a continuance of nearly three months of wet weather which occurred at one crop time, the coffee in the curing-house dried very slowly, but was kept in a perfectly fresh and sweet state without the intervention of any manual labour, further than in depositing each day’s increase in the lower floor to dry off the surface water, and removing that of each previous day to the upper floor, where it was spread on the top of all the coffee that had previously accumulated. These three months of wet weather were succeeded by a fortnight of very dry weather, and, on examining the coffee at the end of that period, it was found to have reached the dry horny stage at which it is usual to despatch it from the estate to Colombo, for the purpose of being peeled and shipped. On examining the beans they were found to be of that clear colour which distinguishes coffee carefully cured in small quantities, with the advantage of the most favourable weather. Under like circumstances, viz. during such a continuation of wet weather, it would have been impossible to preserve the coffee free from more or less mustiness of smell, by manual labour employed in the usual way, whilst at the
Every planter knows that when coffee is spread out in a single layer on the floor of his store, it becomes dry after a time, and is well cured without any further attention on his part; but it is impossible to devote sufficient space for this purpose without incurring an expense which would be quite incompatible with his circumstances. When, however, coffee is thus spread out in a single layer, it is obvious that the reason why it requires no attention is, because the beans being freely exposed to the atmosphere, there is naturally a constant change of the air by which they are surrounded; the same air is not sufficiently long in contact with the beans to excite the first action of decomposition, and the absorption of oxygen is not accomplished. Presuming, however, that it were so, the subsequent actions could not take place, for the products of the first action, viz. carbonic acid, heat and watery vapour, would immediately make their escape and be dissipated by the atmosphere, which is precisely what takes place when, by mechanical means, a draught of air is carried through a mass of coffee. Hence, it is evident that the requirements of space are overcome by the adoption of this plan, and that a great mass of coffee is placed under conditions similar to those by which a single layer is influenced when exposed to a natural draught of atmospheric air.
CULTIVATION IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
Southern India is becoming as celebrated for its coffee, as Northern India for its tea. We find that the exports of coffee from Madras have increased considerably during the last five years, and there is every reason for supposing that Southern India will shortly become the chief coffee-producing country of the world. We have no idea of the number of acres of land under coffee cultivation in the Madras Presidency, but it must be very large, for after its local wants have been supplied, coffee to the value of half a million sterling is exported.
In 1858-59 the shipments were 7,288,421 lbs. to foreign ports, and 4,083,917 lbs. to Indian ports. In 1862-63 the shipments were 16,292,238 lbs. to foreign ports, and 3,976,766 lbs. to Indian ports.
Though some parts of India are well adapted to the culture, it is not yet so extensively cultivated as might have been expected from the vicinity of its Arabian sites to the Malabar coast. There, however, some excellent coffee is grown, as well as in the hilly regions of Mysore and on the slopes of the Neilgherries, and some of these are of such good quality, and so carefully prepared, as to bring the same price as Mocha coffee. Some very good specimens of coffee have also been produced in the interior of India, as in the district of Chota Nagpore, where the culture might apparently be greatly extended, and be of great benefit for consumption in that part of the country.
According to local tradition, the coffee-plant was introduced into Mysore by a Mussulman pilgrim, named Baba Booden, who came from Arabia about two hundred years ago, and took up his abode as a hermit in the uninhabited hills in the Nuggur Division named after him, and where he established a college, which still exists, endowed by government. It is said that he brought some coffee-berries from Mocha, which he planted near to his hermitage, about which there are now to be seen some very old coffee-trees. However this may be, there is no doubt that the coffee-plant has been known in that neighbourhood from time immemorial, but the berry has never come into general use among the people for a beverage. It is only of late years that the coffee trade of these districts has become of any magnitude, or that planting has been carried to any important extent. The export of coffee from British India, which in 1851 was only 3239 tons, had increased in 1861 to 8535 tons; about one-fourth of this is shipped from Bombay, and nearly all the remainder from Madras.
More than thirty years ago a few Europeans were engaged in coffee planting near Chickmoogloor, a few miles from the Bababooden Hills. About twenty years ago the plantation producing the well-known coffee called “Cannon’s Mysore,” and others, on the Memzera, or “Bad Mountain,” was commenced by two enterprising gentlemen. The success of these has induced many more Europeans to plant coffee there, and the consequence is that the coffee trade of Mysore bids fair to emulate that of Ceylon. It has given, also, an example to other parts of India, and the plant originally taken from the Bababooden Muth is now extending over tens of thousands of acres in Coorg, the Wynaad district, the Neilgherry Hills, and along the Western Ghauts, north and south.
In Mysore the number of European coffee-planters has in
The average produce per acre in Mysore is probably not half that of Ceylon. Some attempts have been made to cultivate coffee in the open country, but without success; it seems to require forest land and considerable elevation and moisture. “Cannon’s Mysore” is grown on a range of hills from 3500 to 4000 feet above the sea, having the benefit of the south-west monsoon, which very seldom fails at all, never entirely, and of the tail-end of the north-east monsoon. This elevation gives a pleasant climate, well suited to Europeans.
Several species of the genus Coffea (C. alpestris, C. grumeloides, and C. Wightiana) are indigenous to the Neilgherry Hills.
A berry, generally one which has itself fallen ripe from the tree, is put into the ground, usually in a nursery plot, though some planters prefer to place the seed in the identical hole which is to be its future situation. The nursery plan is, however, generally adopted, and here the young plant, which shoots up in about a month after it is sown, is allowed to remain until about sixteen months old. It, or rather we will say they, for hundreds and thousands are generally dealt with at once, are transplanted to holes which have been carefully prepared for them on the soil which is to be their future location. These holes are generally two feet cube, and many good planters prefer them even deeper; in this the plant is carefully placed and covered around, and in eighteen months from that time, i.e. about three years from the time the berry was first planted, our small coffee-tree begins to bear fruit, the first crop being of course very scanty.
The berry is picked from November to the end of February, by any number of men, women, and boys which can be collected, and who are paid by the quantity they pick, some expert hands earning a good deal.
The berry collected is carried to the house of the estate, and there having been weighed, is thrown into what is called a cherry loft, a wooden chamber, alongside of, but a little higher, than the place containing the pulper. From this cherry loft to the pulper the coffee is washed by a stream of water, which carries it along a trough so arranged as to catch and impede any stones or heavier materials from entering the pulping machine. These heavier materials sink to the bottom of the trough, and the buoyant coffee-berry, floating on the surface, is borne to its destination.
The object of the pulper is to remove the fleshy capsule from the berry, and this being accomplished, the coffee passes on in one direction, whilst the pulp, by a clever arrangement of the mechanism of the instrument, is pushed away in another. The berry is now thrown into a vat and allowed to ferment, until the remaining mucilaginous substance adherent to the parchment covering is easily washed away by water.
This accomplished, it is thrown on open exposed places, called barbecues, and allowed to dry in the sun. This takes about twelve days, when it is packed in gunny (jute) bags, placed upon bullocks, and despatched to the coast.
There it is what is called garbled, that is, having been once more exposed to the sun and thoroughly dried, it is placed in circular troughs, and over it large heavy wheels, shod with iron nails, are made to revolve. This removes what is called the parchment skin, leaving the berry now covered only with a beautifully fine coating, the silver skin.
It is then, by a number of women employed for the purpose, carefully sized; after this, passed through a pea-berry mill, the object being to separate the round pea-shaped berry from the flatter, the former being much more prized, and fetching a higher price in the market, though why, it is difficult to say, as it makes no better coffee than the other; and as it has to be deprived of its form by roasting and
There is likewise separated from the rest what is called “triage,” the broken and otherwise defective beans, which are also packed by themselves, and which again, we believe, though selling more cheaply, are found to make quite as good an infusion for a beverage as their more aristocratic friends the pea-berries. However, pea-berries, flats, and triage, are all ultimately packed in square wooden boxes and shipped to England, where it is sold, roasted, ground, and drank.
In Wynaad, in the close of 1863, there were 93 coffee estates, covering 50,000 acres, of which about 15,000 acres were planted; 6100 acres had trees over two years old on them. There were also about 3600 acres under culture with coffee by the natives. Wynaad is an elevated plateau, rising somewhat abruptly from the western or Malabar side, but sloping more towards the Mysore or easterly side.
The quantity of coffee exported from Tellicherry during the official year ending April, 1862, was 58,500 cwt., of which about 30,000 cwt. is supposed to have come from Wynaad, the rest from Coorg. 8 cwt. of coffee per acre is considered an average yield in Wynaad, 10 cwt. a good crop.
BOURBON, JAVA, AND THE EAST.
It was from Beit-el-Faguil, the European factory near Mocha, that the coffee-tree was transported to the island of Bourbon, in the year 1718, and it is remarkable that the islanders recognised the plant as natural to their own country, and brought the astonished importers abundance from their native mountains. In Bourbon they distinguish four varieties of the coffee-plant.
1. The Mocha, which is very delicate, for the plants degenerate and often perish after a good crop.
2. The Levoy, which is more hardy, but the coffee is inferior in quality.
3. The Myrtle, a variety of the Mocha, very hardy, and yielding abundant crops.
4. The Marron, or wild coffee, with such bitter and narcotic properties that it can only be used by admixture with the berries of one of the other varieties.
Java.—In Java, coffee is a government monopoly, and the planters bring their coffee to a central government depÔt for sale at a fixed price. The island exports about 1,250,000 cwts. of coffee annually. Java coffee has lost much of its former repute from being largely saturated with moisture, artificially to the extent of 14 per cent.; this increases the weight, but must injure the quality in transport.
At the Paris Exhibition of 1855, the Netherlands Commercial Association contributed a very varied collection of two dozen varieties of coffees from the Dutch government possessions in Java, under the following classification: Brown, clear brown, deep yellow, yellow, yellowish, white,
The following were the exports of coffee from Java in 1862:
| piculs. | |
| To Holland on private account | 128,047 |
| To other countries | 165,116 |
| By the Netherlands Trading Company | 877,241 |
| 1,170,404 |
The position of the coffee trade of Java is shown in the figures annexed, for five years:
| EXPORT AND VALUE OF COFFEE. | ||||
| tons. | value. | |||
| 1858 | 66,575 | £2,614,505 | ||
| 1859 | 59,769 | 2,565,137 | ||
| 1860 | 54,638 | 2,486,115 | ||
| 1861 | 61,783 | 2,850,518 | ||
| 1862 | 63,286 | 3,465,747 | ||
Three kinds of Java coffee are commonly brought to Europe—Jacatra (usually sold as Java), Cheribou, and Samarang. The first is the best, the second is generally a little lighter colour and of somewhat inferior quality, and the third has yellowish brown, or green, flattened beans. What is generally sold in the Dutch markets as Samarang is, however, simply a kind of “triage,” with black beans of a coarse flavour.
Siam.—On the hilly districts of the east coast of the Gulf of Siam the cultivation of coffee is carried on to a limited ex
Sumatra is one of the worst kinds of coffee received from the Eastern Archipelago. The beans are large, dark yellow or brown, and occasionally even black, and the flavour varies considerably. The production in Sumatra averages about 5 to 6,000,000 lbs., but has often been double that amount.
Celebes.—With the exception of Menado, which has large beans of a pale greenish or yellow colour, Celebes coffee is greatly inferior to Java, and it is questionable whether the colour when brought to market is not given by artificial means. The production is about 1,000,000 lbs.
Philippines.—Manilla coffee is one of the best of the Eastern kinds, and quite equal to Java. The average production is about 3,000,000 lbs. The beans are medium-sized, and of a pale greenish colour. The coffee is shipped in bags of about 150 lbs., or in cases or chests of 200 lbs. to 300 lbs.
Other Sources.—The cultivation of coffee is making rapid progress in the Sandwich Islands. There are now considerably more than half a million trees in bearing on the island, producing upwards of 2,000,000 lbs. annually—the largest proportion of which is shipped to California. Queensland and the northern districts of Australia could raise large quantities of coffee. It is much less laborious than cotton, more fitted for women and children, and, being adapted to the mountain ranges of tropical climates, of course more healthy and invigorating than the sultry plains. The range of mountains varying from twenty-five to thirty miles from the northern coast of Australia, towards Torres Straits, would be admirably suited to the culture.
COFFEE AS A BEVERAGE.
It is remarkable that, much as coffee is used in this country, the proper mode of preparing it as a beverage should be so little understood. Perhaps it is that most people consider coffee-making as too easy a process to need any pains at all; and for this reason the coffee served at nine breakfast-tables out of ten, throughout the kingdom, is a miserable muddy infusion, which people seem to drink only because, as washerwomen say, it is “wet and warm.” The right way of making coffee is not less easy than the wrong one; there is no mystery about it. All that is required is the observance of a few simple rules:
1. The nature of coffee is such that it parts very easily with its aromatic, stimulating, and other properties; a small quantity of water will draw out all the goodness quite as effectually as a large quantity, and it will do this if the coffee-berries be only bruised or very coarsely ground. It is a grave mistake to suppose that coffee should be ground to a fine powder; extreme fineness is the great cause of “thick coffee” as prepared for breakfast. In Eastern countries, where people know what good coffee means, they always bruise the berries in a mortar. In fact, the goodness of coffee depends more on the roasting and the method of preparing afterwards, than on the quality of the berry, or any other particular.
2. Buy your coffee ready roasted, but not ground; that is, buy coffee-berries, and always choose such as are fresh
3. If possible, buy a coffee-mill, one that will grind very coarsely. The price varies from 2s. 6d. to 5s. This article is so essential to a good cup of coffee, that no one who can afford the outlay should hesitate to buy one. Those who have a pestle and mortar may try the method of bruising; but whether a mill or a mortar, no more should be ground or crushed than is wanted for use at the time.
4. Coffee requires to be kept in a very dry place; and, as it readily takes up the flavour of other articles near which it may be placed, it should be kept in an air-tight vessel. If you buy tea and coffee at the same time, do not pack them in one parcel or basket, or carry them in the same packet, for the true flavour of both will be injured. We presume that no one will be so careless as to keep either tea or coffee in paper only; a wooden box would be better than this, but a bottle or porcelain jar is best of all.
5. Have a clean, dry coffee-pot; it should always be rinsed out when put away, and turned down to drain.
6. To every half pint of water, allow half an ounce of coffee-powder; have your kettle of water boiling, put the necessary quantity of powder into the coffee-pot, and pour in as much water from the kettle as you require. Set the pot on the fire for a few seconds, but on no account let the contents boil up; then pour about half a pint of the liquor into a cup, and pour it back again into the pot, and stand it on the hob or on the fender to settle. If these directions have been properly followed, there will be in three or four minutes a pot of coffee as clear and well-tasted as any one could wish to drink. Should it be too strong, you have only to use less of the coffee-powder. All the goodness is extracted with the first boiling; and those who wish to drink
7. The milk in all cases must be warmed, and used as hot as possible; and it should always be put into the cup with the sugar before the coffee is poured in. When a cup of coffee is taken after dinner, it should be drank without milk, and with little or no sugar.
8. But of all the preparations of coffee there is none equal to the French, known as cafÉ au lait, or milk coffee. We have drank it constantly for several years, and can pronounce it to excel all others as a breakfast beverage. In this there is more milk than water, and the coffee liquor is rather an essence than a decoction; it will be almost black in colour. The process to be followed is the same in most respects as described; but, instead of a quart or three pints, not more than a third of your usual quantity of water is to be poured on the full quantity of coffee-powder. After it has stood to settle, pour it carefully off the grounds into a jug or pitcher, which is to be kept hot by any convenient means. In this way the liquor, though black, will be perfectly clear. At the same time a quantity of milk, according to the wants of your party, must be heated in a saucepan with a spout or a lip. When this is ready, pour it into your breakfast-cups until they are three-parts full, or rather more, add the sugar, and then fill up with coffee from the jug, more or less, according as you prefer it strong or weak. Coffee made in this way will be found more nutritious, and to possess greater richness and smoothness, than can be attained by any other means.
Many persons are in the habit of keeping roasted coffee in vessels of tin, closely secured; this is a most improper mode, and the consequences of doing so may be pointed out. It is known that coffee contains gallic acid, a principle which has the property of acting on iron or tin, and it is therefore
It appears, therefore, to be necessary to avoid keeping coffee in these metal receptacles. The best mode of properly preserving the article is by using vessels of porcelain, or other similar material. With regard to the description of coffee-pot to be used in preparing the article, it should never be of tin or iron; nothing will so soon and so surely destroy the fine flavour of the beverage as these descriptions of coffee-pots. It has generally been the practice to make coffee either by boiling it, or by pouring boiling water on the ground coffee placed on a filter. Both of these methods are bad.
Experience has shown that boiling water destroys or sensibly alters the volatile parts of the berry, and dissolves those which are bitter and unpleasant. We ought not, therefore, to employ water heated to a greater temperature than to allow the finger being placed in it. But difficult as it may be to believe, there can be no doubt but that the best mode of preparing this beverage is with cold water. Coffee so made is not only more aromatic, more limpid, and more substantial, but it is far stronger than any made with hot water. The cold infusion takes from the coffee and communicates to the water all its aromatic qualities, while it does not imbibe much, if any, of the gallic acid; consequently this preparation is far less bitter than that which has been boiled, in which process the most minute particles are acted upon.
Coffee thus made is of a fine bright and dark colour; it requires far less sugar and much less care, because all that
To enter into an examination of the comparative merits and demerits of the several percolators and cafetiÈres at present in use, would extend these observations to too great a length; but most of those generally adopted are worthless, or complicated, with the abominable bag-filter, which is seldom kept clean. There is ample room for inventors in the manufacture of a simple coffee-pot with a water-gauge at the side, which shall effect what is not now done—a passage of the hot water once only through the coffee, so as to have a bright infusion instead of a muddy decoction.
“Tea,” observes Dr. Sigmond, “as the morning beverage, when breakfast forms a good substantial meal, upon which the powers for the day of meeting the various chances and changes of life depend, provided it be not strong, is much to be recommended; but when individuals eat little, coffee certainly supports them in a more decided manner; and, be
The Turks drink their coffee very hot and strong, and without sugar; occasionally they put in, when boiling, a clove or two bruised, or a few seeds of star anise, or a drop of essence of amber.
The following quotations from recent travellers give the Turkish mode of making coffee:
“The bruised or ground beans are thrown into a small brass or copper saucepan; sufficient water, scalding hot, is poured upon them, and, after being allowed to simmer for a few seconds, the liquid is poured into small cups, without refining or straining. Persons unaccustomed to this way of making coffee find it unpalatable. Those who have overcome the first introduction prefer it to that made after the French fashion, whereby the aroma is lost or deteriorated. A well made cup of good Turkish coffee is indeed the most delectable beverage, that can be well imagined, being grateful to the senses and refreshingly stimulant to the nerves. Those who have long resided in the East can alone estimate its merits.”—White’s Three Years in Constantinople.
“The Turkish way of making coffee produces a very different result from that to which we are accustomed. A small conical saucepan, with a long handle, and calculated to hold about two table-spoonfuls of water, is the instrument used. The fresh roasted berry is pounded, not ground,
“A small vessel, containing about a wine-glass of water, is placed on the fire, and, when boiling, a teaspoonful of ground coffee is put into it, stirred up, and it is suffered to boil and ‘bubble’ a few seconds longer, when it is poured (grounds and all) into a cup about the size of an egg-shell, encased in gold or silver filigree-work, to protect the finger from the heat; and the liquid, in its scalding, black, thick, and troubled state, is imbibed with the greatest relish. Like smoking, it must be quite an acquired taste.”—Maxwell’s Shores of the Mediterranean.
