332 Memoir upon Coffee. 



some historians, are great coffee drinkers, it is doubtful, in 

 spite of their passion for this liquor, if they use it more fre- 

 quently than the Dutch, Without knowing any thing of 

 the processes of the Asiatics for preparing it, we may assert 

 that the Dutch generally drink it in a bad state : it may be 

 said that it is much less a refined taste which decides 

 their attachment to this beverage, than the habit they have 

 acquired of drenching themselves very frequently through 

 the dav with a water 'only coloured by its maceration with 

 the jrrain of roasted coffee, or any other vegetable substance 

 partly charred; for if, in reality, coffee were absolutely ne- 

 cessary for the people on account of the damp climate they 

 inhabit, as some assert, they surely would not have' em- 

 ployed a thousand methods of altering its goodness, and sup- 

 plying its place by other vegetables, as we shall presently see. 



Coffee, or an analogous infusion, is in such general use in 

 Holland and the Netherlands, that it extends to the poorest 

 classes of society : plenty of water, a hitlc coffee and a little 

 susrar, with some drops of milk, are all that a peaceful 

 Dutchman desires several tiu)es a day, and sometimes he 

 chooses the alternation of drinking some dishes of good tea 

 when he can procure it : but he must have coffee, or some 

 beverage resembling it, at all events; a necessity as imperious 

 upon him as that of eating bread : it is not rare to see the 

 simple mechanic, when coff^re becomes too dear, pass from 

 the true and solid alimentaiv nourishment, and exchange it 

 for the beverage to which his ancestors have been accus- 

 tomed. 



Let us examine, however, the substances they prepare as 

 substitutes for, or in order to mix with, true coffee. 



The root of wild succory * is the plant which first ap- 

 peared proper, when conveniently prepared, for furnishing, 

 by means oi water, infusions susceptible of supplying the 

 place of coffee ; and, for some years past, several manufac- 

 tories of this new kind of coffee have been established in 

 Holland. 



Havina' had occasion, during some time, to observe atten- 



* Cichirium e/itihis Linn. 



tively 



