May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



873 



the brain, calms the nei-ves, and supplies the waste of 

 tissue. Poets have sung of the wisdom it gives to polit- 

 icians, in strains whicli make us impatient of its too 

 sleniler use for that purpose. Like tobacco, it is a uni- 

 versal taste: ami. like that beneficent weed, it has been 

 proscribed and preached at as ungodly, poisonous, and 

 damnable — tending to sin, to sedition, and to heresy. In 

 Turkey it was made a point of orthodoxy to rail at 

 the new drink; in France, of fashion to discounage it. 

 "Racine and coft'ee will pass," wrote Madame de Sevigne. 

 TJnder Charles II. coffee-houses were to be put down as 

 "hotbeds of seditious talk" and incentives to "general 

 wagging of tongues." Coffee has risen superior to all 

 these perils ; and he would be a bold man now who .should 

 in the East or AA'est, attempt to suppress it use. There 

 is no article of those which furnish food for man on 

 the merits of which there is so perfect a consensus of 

 opinion. There is no beverage which unites in its favour 

 so completely the suffrages both of men of science and 

 of virtue; And when we con.sidcr what are the peculiar 

 and exquisite virtues possessed by coffee, and in a less 

 degree by its congeners tea and cocoa, we cannot help 

 wondering wh.at sort of a world it was which was as 

 yet uncheered by that divine essence, caffeine, theine, 

 or theobromine, which chemists tell us is the basis of 

 the healthful and exhilarating properties of coffee. As 

 mau is the creatui-e of what he eats and drinks, so man, 

 before the discovery of coffee and its sister-beverages, 

 must have been a duller, coarser, and less interesting 

 animal than now, when he has the benefit of these new 

 aids to jihysical and intellectual devi-lopment. 



Turning from the history and philosophy of coffee — a 

 subject which has scarcely yet been treated in any be- 

 coming manner — to the concrete berry and its uses, the 

 first thing which must strike us is the comparatively 

 small favour in which it is held in this country, in 

 spite of our unequalled opportunities of getting it in 

 perfection. The total consumption of coffee in Europe, 

 according to the latest authorities, is a little less than 

 400,000 tons annually. Of this quantity Great Britain took 

 in 18S0, for home consumption, 14,540 tons. The increase 

 during the last twelve years has been very small, in spite 

 of the reduction of the duty to l.Ul. a pound on the raw 

 and 2d. a pound on the roasted berry, in 1872. The 

 consumption of coffee per head in Great Ei-itain ha.s, in 

 fact declined from r34tb. in 1854, when it was at the 

 maximum, to a fraction less than a pound a head in ISSO. 

 At present the people of England use about five pounds of 

 tea a head every year to one pound of coffee. In France, 

 where the duty is about five times heavier, the average 

 annual consumption is about 41^1,000 tons, giving 2*23 lb. 

 a head. In Germany and in Holland the proportion is 

 5'3 lb. a head; in Switzerland, 668 lb. ; in Italy only 105 lb.; 

 while in Belgium it amomits to 9 lb. a head, which is the 

 highest figure reached by any European country. The 

 United States are very large coffee consumers taking in 

 the period 1876-80 an average of 156,482 tons a year. 

 The total annual consumption of coffee in the world it 

 is impossible to estimate with any approach to accuracy, 

 owing to the inii)erfeet returns of the quantities retained 

 for home cousiiini.tidn in the coffee-producing coimtries. 

 The total produetiuii, however, may be roughly estimated 

 at something less than 600,000 tons a year. Of this 

 quantity Brazil furnishes by far the largest pro])ortion — 

 indeed, nearly one-half of the whole. Java, in which is 

 included Sumatra and other Dutch possessions in Further 

 India, comes next with 00,000 tons. Oentr.Tl America is 

 third with an annual supply of 50,000 tons, Ceylon stands 

 for 43,000 tons, the West Indies for 40,000, Venezuela 

 and New Granada for 35,000, India for 16,000, Mexico 

 for 5,000 and Arabia for 4,(iOO. The general supply, we 

 may judge from the ruling prices of the article in the market 

 is fully equal to the demand; thoiigh if the leaf-disease 

 continues its ravages, it is pos.sible that in a few years we 

 may find this condition of things materially altered. 



Great Britain is in possession of the finest coffee es- 

 tates in the world. Epicures may brag of the flavour of 

 genuine Mocha, but the Arabian berry is a thing rather 

 of imagination than of fact, mort^ talked of than tasted. 

 The best Mocha is reserved liy thi' Tiu-ks and Arabs for 

 their private drinking, and does not coure to this country. 

 Like Imperial Tokay or caravan tea, it may be doubted 



whether its quality is equal to its reputation. The shriv- 

 elled Ix'ri'y actually gi-own on the hills of Yemen pro- 

 duces, when cooked in the native fashion, an ardent, 

 biting, nuuldy fluid, which only an educated ta.ste can 

 appreciate. The coffee of My.sore is perhaps superior to 

 it in delicacy and richness of aroma. The Blue Mountain 

 coffee of .lamaica is scarcely inferior. The pity of it is 

 that the arrangements which have turned that beautiful 

 island into a lu'gger Eden will not permit of any develop- 

 ment of this must valuable natural product. The coffee 

 of Ceylon, though it has lately been subject to much de- 

 pression, still coniiuands a more than average price in the 

 market, arrd is certainly .superior to what comes to us 

 from Java or from Central America. The Brazilian coffee, 

 though it forms so enornrous a pro]iortion of the total 

 supply, bears an ill reputatiim, which perh.aps it hardly 

 deserves. In the United States, where it is nrost largely 

 consumed, there are some varieties of Brazilian, such as 

 "Golden Rio," which commands almost as high a price 

 as the best growths from .Java; an<l it appears from the 

 excellent treatise of Mr. F. B. Thurber, a New York grocer 

 — to which we have been iirdebted for a good deal of 

 pleasant information — that gi-eat efforts are now being 

 made in Brazil, by improvements in the process of clean- 

 ing the ber-ries, to redi^em the character of Brazilian 

 coffee. That there is withiir the empire of Brazil a vast 

 extent of territory fitted for the growth of coffee, ivith 

 less difficulties in respect of labour than in most countries, 

 is certain ; and it may be that the future of cheap cott'ee 

 lies not in the direction of date-stones, but in the increased 

 supply from Brazil. At pi-esent the chief objection to the 

 coffee shipped from Bio Janeiro is a peculiar rankncss of 

 smell and rawness of flavour, which, however, oiu' Amer- 

 ican grocer tells us, disappear with keeping. The north- 

 ern States of South Ameiica, especially Colombia, produce 

 excellent coffee,and could supply more of it but for revol- 

 utions. The brand called Cucuta, gio%vn in M.aracaibo, is 

 much esteemed in America, and often passes for the 

 best Java. Costa Rica and Guatemala are among other 

 coffee-bearing States, whose produce only needs better 

 cultiv.ation and preparation to be favourably known in our 

 markets; and from Hayti and Porto Rico come berries 

 which have much vogire in Spain and Italy. Lastly, there 

 are the islands of Reunion and Mauritius, which produce 

 admirable coffee ; the latter to a very limited extent, the 

 former entii-ely for consumption in France, where it is 

 chiefly used at good tables in the .shape of the after- 

 dinner demi tasse. 



Such are the legitimate sources of coffee in the world. 

 But there are other and more questionable ways of filling 

 the coffee-cup, which Mi-. Thurber, with perhaps doid)tful 

 policy and .an excess of candour has revealed out of the 

 depths of his trade experience. Those who buy their 

 coffee ready ground " tread a path," he tells us, " beset 

 with .snares and delusions." They are lucky if they find 

 nothing worse in the cup than honest, harmless chicory. 

 They may have beans, saw-dust, Venetian red, acorns 

 mangel-wurzel, and baked horse-liver. Then there is coffee 

 essence, which may be a compound of " Black .Tack," or 

 the coarsest of molasses and chicory. A higher branch of 

 art, dealing with a supei-ior article, "is that which concerns 

 its('lf with "glossing." The glo.ss is made of "various 

 starches, glues, and mosses." and applied to the roasted 

 coffee-berry when hot, with the result of an abnoi-mal 

 shininess. This, observes our authority naively, " tends 

 rather to injure the flaiour than to improve it." Against 

 all these depredations on his pirrse and assaidts on his 

 stomach, the consumer has only one effective way of pi-o- 

 tecting him.self. Let him eschew the purchase o'f ground 

 coffee, and grind for himself. Or. if his grocer will insist 

 upon making him take cliicory— which, as being the least 

 harmful of all the ingredients which enter into the ground 

 coffee of commerce, has come to be accepted as ainmst 

 legitimate — let him do as M. Grevy did on a certain occa- 

 sion when benighted out hunting in a little wine-house in 

 till- cii\mtry. The Presi.lent of the French Republic 

 among his many claims to the respet't of mankind, is an 

 epicure in coffee. " Have you any chicory ? " said he to 

 the man of the house. "Yes, sir." "Bring me some" 

 The proprietor returned with a small can of chicory. " is 

 that all you have?" asked JI. Gre\'y. " We have a little 

 more." "Bring me the rest;" when ho came again wth 



