130 



THE TROPl-CAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Ave, 2, 1886. 



A Few Practical Hints to coffee-driukers : — * 



1. Raw coffee (the unroasted berry) if kept in a 

 dry place improves with age. 



2. Those who wish to enjoy coffee in perfection 

 should have it fresh roasted. 



o. If the usual rotating cylinders are not avail- 

 able, it is easy to roast coffee over a clear fire in an 

 earthenware pipkin, or a small frying-pan : it must 

 be kept constantly stirred to prevent burning ; the 

 time required is from 15 to 20 minutes. 



4. Roasted coft'ee should be kept in nn air-tight 

 vessel; the "S'ienuese prefer a glass bottle to a canister. 

 Coffee is very absorbent, and according to good au- 

 thorities, shcidd at no time come into contact with 

 metal. 



5. A mill, though convenient, is not esaential. The 

 Turks do not grind their coft'ee, but pound it in a 

 mortar with wooden pestles. Brillat Savarin, the 

 great French epicure, who tried both pounded and 

 ground coffee, preferred the former. 



6. One ounce of coffee to a pint of water makes 

 poor coffee ; an ounce and a half to a pint makes 

 fairly good coffee ; two ounces to a pint make ex- 

 cellent coffee. 



7. Such cort'ee niixed^with half, or even three parts, 

 its bulk of boiling milk, forms an ideal breakfast-food 

 for l>ody workers and brain workers. A very small 

 quantity without milk, taken after a full meal, stimul- 

 ates the stomach to the necessary effort of digestion, 

 and wards oft' the drowsiness which often follows 



saliefj'. 



8. This neat infusion is generally known as "black" 

 coffee. But genuine coft'ee, when infused is not very 

 black. An excessive black colour is given by means 

 of burnt .sugar, and is no sure indication of strength. 



9. It is a mistake to suppose that costly and cum- 

 bersome machines are necessary for making coffee. The 

 Brazilians insist that coffee-pots should be made of 

 porcelain or earthenware, not metal. Excellent coffee 

 may be made in a common jug provided with a 

 strainer. 



10. Warm the jug, put in the coffee, pour boiling- 

 water on it, and the thing is done. 



11. Coffee must not be boiled ; let it gently simmer ; 

 violent ebullition di.ssipates the aroma. 



12. If a quantity be wanted, good coffee can be 

 made .^ome hours beforehand, even overnight if necess- 

 ary. For this purpose use any large earthenware vessel; 

 heat it to receive the coffee ; fill up with boiling-water; 

 protect the contents from the air by a wet cloth over 

 the lid or other covering. When required, pour gently 

 off the clear infusion and heat it to the simmering 

 point. 



13. Complicated filters are unnecessary if your coffee 

 be pure ; if mixed with chicory, dandelion root, roasted 

 acorns, roasted cabbage stumps, or other forms of veget- 

 able offal, which on boiling disintegrate and yield a 

 thick, starchy, albuminous, sugary soup, you will then 

 want an ingenious filter. 



14. According to recent German analyses,the dietetic 

 value of a cup of coffee is more than twice that of a 

 cup of tea ; as a stimulant a cup of coft'ee has more 

 than three times the value of a cup of tea. 



MR. RUTHERFORD ON THE DETERIORATION 



OF CE"rLON TEA. 



10th July. 



Sib, — The following have been given me by various 

 tea planters as the causes which they consider have 

 brought about such a great fall in the price of Ceylon 

 teas this season : — 



No. 1 considers that the poor quality is because there 

 have been those conditions of heat and moisture to pro- 

 duce leaf flush, without the plant drawing upon the 

 minerals of the soil, and that on this account there is 

 a iioverty of cellular tissue^ 



* Most of these " hints " are condensed from " Coffee 

 and Tea," a lecture given by Dr. G. V. Poore, at the 

 J'arkes Museum, 74 (a) Margaret t^treet W., where 

 persons desiring to pursue the subject further may 

 obtain copies of this Uicture (price Id) or by writing to 

 th(* Secrttary. 



No. 2 does not believe in the deterioration of quality, 

 and attributes the low prices entirely to larger supplies 

 and a ilepressed trail e. 



No. 3 considers that, as a rule Ceylon estates are 

 plucking coarser leaf than they did in the days when 

 Mr. Cameron was among us. 



No. 4 considers that much better tea vpould have been 

 made had there not been such a lack of electricity in 

 the air this season — a fact which, he says, he has par- 

 ticularly noted. 



No. 5 considers we have been working our bushes too 

 hard, and that they are on many estates becoming 

 exhausted ; and if good quality is to be maintained 

 we /Hmt manure. 



No. 6 considers that low prices might to a certain 

 extent be averted if London brokers would not so 

 invariably sell icithoat reserve. 



None admit that tea-makers have become careless 

 in the manufacture of their teas, and none attribute a 

 deterioration from using any particular roller or 

 dryer. 



Tbe above expressions of opinion are from those who 

 have given some attention to tho subject ; and, 

 although none of them may have hit upon the 

 true reason for the great fall in price and alleged de- 

 terioration, their opinions may assist others in solving 

 tlie mystery. H. K RUTHERFORD. 



liocal " Times." 



CEYLON EEVOLUTIONIZING THE MARKETS 

 OF THE WOELD. 



IN EEKPKCT OV CINCIIONV E.\RK ANP C\BI>a:\[0-MS. 



IN FIVIO YEARS, MAY NOT THIS AliSO JilC THF. CASH 



WITH TEA ? 



The time was — not so long ago — when " New 

 Products " were the subject of contempt on the part 

 of a great many people in Ceylon. The old coffee 

 planter wedded to his staple andjustlyproud oi'aplant 

 that had so long been the mainstay of the colony, 

 for years poohpoohed the cry over " new pro- 

 ducts." Absent proprietors, as in the case of 

 Mr. Wm. Smith's partners in Craigie Lea, some 

 dozen years ago, would have nothing to say to 

 cinchona on their plantations. Who would devote 

 time andmoney to a "medicine plant ?" " Intelligent 

 natives " for a long time, thought ii a poor look-out 

 when they saw their European neighbours and 

 superiors given over to experimental nurseries 

 and gardens with a variety of new-tangled 

 notions about bark, rubber-juice, cacao-pods and 

 even the despised native cardamoms. Officials, 

 with one notable exception, generally looked upon 

 the "New Products" era as the beginning of the 

 end, and many of them rather chuckled over the 

 thought that Ceylon was in a fair way to re- 

 lapse into the paradise described by Mr. Wm. 

 Charles Gibson when there was no coffee planter 

 in the island to worry and disturb Her Majesty's 

 Civil Service. We have spoken of one notable ex- 

 ception. We refer to Governor Sir Wjt. Gregory 

 who was so far ahead of the Service and of the 

 generality of planters, as to devote special headings 

 and paragraphs in his Opening Speeches year by 

 year to Cinchona, Cacao, Tea, Rubber, &c., long 

 before those industries had been practically ap- 

 preciated on our plantations. 



But the day of small and despised things is 

 at end, and lo ! the little one has become a thousand. 

 Who would have believed in 18()1 (the year that 

 Clements Markham brought the lirst cinchona 

 plants to the East), or in 1871 when our 

 total export of bark was 80 pacakages valued at 

 R;5l3, or even in 1881 when it had reached 

 1,100,000 lb., that in 1884-5-0 it would be found 

 that Ceylon had completely revolutionized the an- 

 cient South American trade in cinchona bark and ac- 

 t|uired the complete control of the European market ? 



