368 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



(1877) provides about 8 pounds of coffee and 1$ pound of tea to 

 each inhabitant. The importation of coffee, in Europe, is stated to 

 furnish for each inhabitant, in France, 2^ pounds ; in Belgium, 13^ 

 pounds ; in Holland, 21 pounds ; in Sweden, 6 pounds ; in Norway, 9 

 pounds ; in Austria, 2 pounds ; in Russia, -\ pound ; in Italy, 1 pound. 

 In Great Britain, the consumption of coffee has been on a decrease for 

 the last thirty years. The tea consumption in that country amounts 

 to 2 pounds to each individual. The total amount of tea consumed on 

 the globe would give about pound to each of its inhabitants. 



The grades of coffee in the market come from different varieties of 

 the tree, and from different countries where it is cultivated. The vari- 

 ous kinds of tea result primarily from differences in the age of the 

 leaf when gathered. The choicest teas are from the younger and more 

 succulent leaves, the earliest leaf producing flowery pekoe, the next 

 orange pekoe, then pekoe and souchong, and from the oldest leaves 

 bohea proper. Differences of manufacture have already been noted 

 for black and green teas. The processes of manufacture in China and 

 India are necessarily modified to enable the tea to bear sea transporta- 

 tion without injury, and it must be accepted that the finest tea can 

 only be obtained in tea-growing lands. When American enterprise 

 shall have devised such means of preparation as may dispense with the 

 present lavish use of hand-labor in Asia, then we may have tea rank- 

 ing above tobacco in the products of the Southern United States. 



The adulterations of tea comprise mineral matters, foreign leaves, 

 and spent tea. The food-analysts of Great Britain have fixed the 

 maximum limit of eight per cent of mineral matter, including three 

 per cent to be soluble in water, and a minimum limit of thirty per 

 cent aqueous extract. The color-facing of turmeric, prussian-blue, 

 and gypsum, though not excluded as fraudulent, is characteristic of 

 poorer qualities of green teas. The adulterations of coffee, sold in 

 the ground condition, are multifarious, all sorts of roasted grains, nuts, 

 and shells having been taken for this use, but the chiccory-root has 

 been the most extensive admixture, and in Great Britain has been in 

 actual demand by the consumer. Even the entire coffee-berry is some- 

 times counterfeited a suggestion from the legendary wooden nutmegs 

 of New England invention. But we may trust that the great body of 

 tea and of unground coffee in commerce is nearly or quite innocent of 

 adulteration. No positively hurtful impurities are apt to be found, but 

 not the less all falsifications of these or other articles of food should 

 be severely punished. It is clearly a misdemeanor to tamper with the 

 food which any man may select by its distinctive name, in his own 

 discretion, for his personal use. 



Notwithstanding the adoption of theine-containing beverages by 

 mankind at large, we can not hesitate to commend that robust habit 

 which discards all dependence on adventitious food, even on so mild a 

 stimulus as that of the tea-cup, and preserves through life the fresh 



