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LIV-. Second Exlract of M. Paysse's AIS. Memoir upon 

 Coffee. By M. Pakmentiek *. 



Method of preparing Coffee as a Beverage. 



Although coffee berries do not seem to possess either a 

 smell or taste which is absolutely agreeable before or after 

 torrefiiction, mankind have nevertheless found in the water 

 which is saturated with the principles they contain, partly 

 disorganized by the action of the fire, something savoury 

 and delicate : this is the reason why the use of coffee has 

 been general among every people known. The use of it 

 was at first established among the Persians, Arabian:, Egyp- 

 tians, Turks, &c.: but it was very difficult to establish the 

 practice of drinking coffee in Europe, where it was long con- 

 sidered to be dangerous, and contrary to health : many me- 

 moirs were written against it; but time, or rather the good 

 effects of this beverage, have buried them in merited obli- 

 vion. 



The antiquity of its use, the great nui^ibers who continue 

 it, and no doubt find themselves better for it, are certainly 

 respectable testimonies in its favour. 



The English and Dutch among the Europeans are those by 

 whom the use of coffee seems to be most generally adopted ; 

 the Dutch, as well as the inhabitants of the ci-devant Low 

 Countries, where the beverage is in great use, do not, how- 

 ever, prepare it well, although their process admits of some 

 advantages. 



The. best kind of coffee is generally employed in the above 

 country ; the roasting is carefully mauiiged, and never car- 

 ried too far; the grinding of it, as well as the infusion, is 

 equally well attended to : it is not so with the quantity of 

 water; this vehicle is employed in great profusion, and we 

 may assert, vi,ithout being accused of exaggeration, that the 

 quantity of coffee employed in Holland for making si.\ 

 dishes of this beverage, by their method, is what is used in 



* From Anna'.a 'if Chim't, torn. lii. p. tP3.— .See p. 18 of our present 



France 



