328 Memoir upon Coffee. 



the whole time it coriluiues on the fire, and until it has ac- 

 quired a clear and uniform "brown colour. Some persons 

 are in the habit of adding, about the end of the operation, 

 a small quantity of beer; others use sugar, and it is heated 

 once more. The former assert that a fat body hinders the 

 coffee from transpiring, as they call it, or rather from losing 

 its aroma. The latter suppose that the sugar communicates 

 to the infusion of coffee a peculiar and pleasant taste, which 

 is in fact that of bailed or partly dcconiposed sugar. 



When properly roasted and cooled the cofl'ce is put into 

 tin boxes, which are well closed. The Dutch are also so pru- 

 dent as not to grind it or pulverize it, except as it is wanted j 

 because, when kept too long in a state of powder, it loses a 

 portion of its aromatic qualities, and does not furnish to 

 the infusions those globules of oil which we often perceive 

 swimming on the surface of the aqueous liquor, and which 

 are, as they say, a proof of its i;oodncss. 



Of all the kinds of coffee I have seen undergo the process 

 of roasting, none of them have furnished so ninth oil at ihe 

 surface of the grain, while roasting, as that of Java. 



If, as we have already observed, the Dutch and the 

 Flcmincrs employ too great a quantity of water in the pre- 

 paration of coffee, it is not less true that they are the only 

 people in Europe who retain the method of the antient 

 Greeks for manufacturing these infusions: they know very 

 well that the decoction, or the ebullition, of this roasted 

 grain, is not a convenient niethod, and that it deprives 

 the coffee of that peculiar flavour which epicures are so 

 ^ fond of. 



We may also remark that, besides the strong colour of 

 the decoctions, the bitter aiid disagreeable taste which we 

 distinguish in them, they are always dull, and difficult to 

 clarifv. The infusion, on the contrary, is an operation 

 which consists i.i pouring upon coffee, suj^ported by a filter 

 of paper not sized, and more conuTionly of a woollen stuff, 

 a sufficient quantity of water at S6 degrees of teni]>erature : 

 the funnel is generally furnished with a lid which fits exactly. 

 This precaution is necessary for two reasons equally essen- 

 tial : the first, in order to avoid the loss of a slight portion 



of 



