14 Coffee Planting. 



for use as coffee-tea at the Great Exhibition ot 

 1851, and took out a patent to protect his method. 



" Coffee-tea," as the infusion of the leaves may 

 be called, is the common beverage of the natives 

 of Sumatra, and it can, therefore, hardly be un- 

 wholesome, even if deficient in nutritious properties. 

 Unfortunately, it does not appear to possess the 

 deliciously aromatic flavour of the decoctions made 

 from either the roasted coffee bean or from tea- 

 leaves ; rather, indeed, resembling, according to 

 my judgment, what might be expected as the 

 result of a mixture of both. In answer to this 

 objection, however, it must be borne in mind, that 

 the taste for some of the most valuable productions 

 of nature has been an acquired one in the first 

 instance, while in the end they rely for the favour 

 in which they are held upon their intrinsic good 

 qualities. When required for infusion the coffee 

 leaves should be gathered fresh off the trees, and 

 then dried in a pan over a slow fire until of a clear 

 brown colour ; during which process the Caffeine, 

 or volatile oily principle (which is almost identical 

 with that of the tea-plant, and known as Theine), 

 becomes fixed. The leaves may then be put in 

 the tea-pot, boiling water being poured over them, 

 and the infusion drunk with milk and sugar, in 

 the same manner as tea proper. 



Though possessing slightly tonic and stimulant 



