Aug. 2, 1886,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



1.20 



ADULTERATION OF COFFEE. 



Planters' Association of Ceylon, Kandy, 

 IHth July 1HS(;. 

 The Editors, thr Ci'ijlou Ohsei-vfr, Colombo. 



Sirs,— With reference to your editorial note in 

 regard to the leaflet on the subject of the adulter- 

 ation of coffee mentioned in Mr. Shand's letter 

 published in your issue of yesterday, 1 now beg to 

 enclose a copy of it. 



The Planters' Association and Chamber of Com- 

 merce were recently invited by Mr. Thomas Dickson, 

 Managing Director of the Scottish Trust and Tjoan 

 Company of Ceylon, Limited, to again move in the 

 matter, when it was decided that the subject be 

 brought before the Associated Chambers of Com- 

 merce of the British Empire by Mr. F. W. Rois, the 

 delegate of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, but 

 I think Mr. Shand's statement that the Planters' 

 Association of Ceylon was not asked to join in the 

 particular movement under remark is correct. — I am, 

 sirs, yours faithfully, A PHILIP, Si'crPtanj. 



{Printed viidcr the Aufhorifi/ of the hidiaii Coffee 



I'!(in/eis' Committee.) 



COLONIAL AND INDIAN EXHIBITION 



(LONDON, 1886). 



INDIAN COFFEE, ITS USE AND ADXILTEHATION. 



Samples of Indian Coffee, 230 in number, have been 

 arranged at the Exhibition, by the Indian Coffee 

 Planters' Committee, under the sanction of the Royal 

 Commissioners. These samples represent (1) the 

 " cherry " (that is, the coffee fruit as plucked from 

 the tree) ; (2) the " parchment " bean (that is, the 

 berry when pulped but enveloped in an outer skin 

 or husk, resembling parchment) ; and (3) the berries 

 stripped of this covering, and sized and sorted as 

 they come into the English market, before roast- 

 ing. The coffee thus exhibited is from the crop of 

 1885-6, produced by British planters in the foUow- 

 iug districts : — Mysore, Coorg, the Wynaad, the 

 Neilgherries and Travancore. Upon coffee estates 

 in these districts the investment of British capital 

 is annually increasing, and the linest coffee which 

 comes into the English market, fetching higher prices 

 in many cases than even Mocha coffee itself, is 

 grown in the districts above mentioned. 



Visitors are invited to test the quality of the coffee 

 by purchasing, in the coffee stalls of the Royal Com- 

 mission, cups of Indian coffee, or they uuiy buy at the 

 same stalls packcts^of roasted coffee, ground or ungrouud 

 which may, if they wish, be forwarded to any address 

 through the Parcels Post. If desired, unroawtcd coffee 

 will be supplied. 



Coffee, when carefully made, with asufticieut (|uant- 

 ity (say from an ounce and a half to two ounces to 

 a pint of water), is, perhaps, the most delicious and 

 refreshing of all non-alcoholic beverages. It produces 

 a buoyancy and exhilaration which arc not followed 

 by reaction or subsoqirent depression ; it acts as a 

 stimulus to the mental powers, lightens fatigue, sus- 

 tains the strength, whether under mental or phys- 

 ical exertion, and contains medicinal and restorative 

 properties long recognized as of the highest value. 

 No other beverage so amply repays, by its aroma 

 and fragrance, a little care and attention in prepar- 

 ing it. In every other civilized country, excepting 

 the United Kingdom and Russia, it is among non- 

 alcoholic beverages that which is most largely con- 

 sumed. 



In the United Kingdom its consumption, unfortun- 

 ately, has been hindered to a great extent by many 

 and shiinieful adulterations carried to such lengths 

 that large classes of the population hardly know 

 the flavour of genuine coffee. Chicory is the chief in- 

 gredient in the cheap mixtures, because it soon makes 

 hot water black, thick and bitter, and so little 

 It 



gives apparent strength to what may contain liLtlo 

 of the coffee berry. Among numerous other substances 

 used to adulterate coffee are burnt sugar, roasted and 

 ground roots of dandelion, carrot and parsnip, together 

 with beans, lupins and other seeds. Notwithstanding the 

 provisions of the Adulteration Act, and, indeed, under 

 cover of these provisions, the adulterants above- 

 mentioned are made up with coffee in different pro- 

 portions, andareeverydaysold,especially among the poor, 

 labelled as coffee mixtures. They are also sold under 

 various high-sounding names to consumers among the 

 middle and upper classes. 



An aoalysis of forty-three samples of coffee and coffee 

 mixtures purchased in London during March and April 

 1886, shows an average proportion of coffee in these 

 .samples of just fifty per cent, added to fifny per cent 

 of burnt sugar and various vegetable substances. 'J'wenty- 

 two of the samples bear a label very cominonly used ; 

 and nine of those contain from sixty-two to ninety- 

 three per cent of chicory, ka., averaging seventy per 

 cent of other substances than coffee. These mixtures 

 are sold at prices ranging from lOd up to Is 4d per 

 pound. The price of the pure Indian coffee sold in 

 packets at the Royal Commission's stalls is Is 4d pel' 

 pound. Upon a moderate calculation the vendors of 

 many of the wretched compounds just mentioned must 

 be realizing profits of something like a lumdied per 

 cent, and the worse the mixture the greater the profit. 

 On this subject the Connnittee may cite the follow- 

 ing extract from the Annual Report of the local 

 Government Board for 1884-5 (pp. cvi, cvii : — 

 '' Coffee continues to be one of the chief 

 subjects of adulteration, and about one-fifth of the 

 samples examined were reported against. The peculi- 

 arity in one case was that the berries were actually 

 shown to the Inspector, and were ground in his pre- 

 sence, so that there ^.seemed to be no likelihood of 

 adulteration. Chicory, however, was found on analysis 

 to be present, and the vendor was fined. It is poss- 

 ible that this fraud was due to the revival of an old 

 practice of compressing chicory by machinery into the 

 size and shape of coffee-berries. These sham berries 

 are mixed with real ones, and the purchaser, who sees 

 what he believes to be coffee being ground before his 

 eyes, is hopelessly deceived. As chicory only costs 

 threepence or fourpeace per pound, the fraud is very 

 profitable. It is no rare thing for so-called ' coft'ee' 

 to be sold which proves on analysis to be composed of 

 one-fourth part of coft'ee added to three-fourths of 

 chicory." 



From an abstract of reports made by the public 

 analysts contained in the same official document (p. 298) 

 it appears that, out of 357 samples examined in thu 

 Metropolis during the year 1884, fifty-three, or abnu 

 fifteen per cent, were adulterated. In various countieK 

 of England and Wales adulteration was still more gen- 

 eral, for out of 981 samples examined 210 were adult- 

 ered, or about twenty-two per cent. And these were 

 not the coffee " mixtures," w'lich may be sold as such 

 if so labelled (see section 8 of Sale of ]''ood and Drugs 

 Act, 1875), but samples sold as pure coffee. 



Thus it appears that from the .sale of coffee 

 mixture enormous profits are realized by vendors 

 while the pubhc palate is depraved and genuine 

 coffee discredited. In the interest of consumers, as 

 well as of British producers and importers, the Indian 

 Coft'ee Planters' Committee wi.sli to point out that 

 pure and wholesome colfec may be bought at reason- 

 able prices, varying, of course, according to (juality, 

 but often little if at all exceeding the i)rices charged 

 for spurious fabrications. This Kxhihition, with its 

 samples of genuine products from the Colonies and 

 India, appears to offer a legitimate, opportunity for 

 pointing out the wholesale manufacture and retailing 

 of spurious compounds in the United Kingdom, 

 practices most prejudicially affecting consumers, and 

 also seriously discouraging British enterprise in the 

 growth and importation of coftee. Visitors are re- 

 .spectfully invited to note these facts, and not allow 

 themselves to be deluded into the belief that coffee 

 mixtures are aught but a miserable snbstit\it<! for 

 genuine coffee. 



