192 ROASTING AND GLAZING. 



coffee contains a crystaline substance termed caffeine 

 (identical with the theine of tea), which is volatile in 

 its nature, and every care must be taken to retain this 

 principle in the coffee, for which reason the beans should 

 be roasted only until they are of a pale-brown color; 

 again, if they are roasted too dark this essential property 

 is destroyed. 



The proper cooling of coffee after roasting is also an 

 operation of great importance. If the coffee has been 

 properly roasted and the beans well developed, it must be 

 cooled quickly to prevent them from becoming too dark- 

 colored or mottled in appearance. When the coffee has 

 been cooled and cleaned it is then packed, the operations 

 of roasting, cooling and rebagging occupying altogether 

 about one hour. 



In France and other European countries it is the cus- 

 tom to roast coffee in small quantities, so that the whole 

 " charge " is well under the control of the operator dur- 

 ing the process, while in this country large roasts are the 

 rule, in dealing with which much difficulty is experienced 

 in producing uniform torrefaction as well as in stopping 

 the process at the proper moment. A novel method 

 for roasting coffee in use in France is to put it in an 

 iron globe, suspended over a brisk fire, and containing 

 a tubular shaft perforated with holes smaller than the 

 beans, through which passes the vapor generated from 

 the coffee in the process of roasting and issuing out 

 of either end of the shaft or axis of the globe. As 

 these openings are small, but a limited amount of the 

 vapor escapes, thus confining the aroma within the globe 

 and securing the retention of the volatile or essential 

 element of the coffee to a greater degree than is possible 

 by the cylindrical method of roasting. When the globe 

 is filled and suspended over the fire an iron cap is placed 



