PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMEES' CLUB. 239 



TEA AND COrrEE. 



Mr. Carpenter suggested that the price of tea and coffee was 

 rising so rapidly that the qnestion became important whether we 

 could not find a substitute. 



Dr. Trimble said the increased price was to support the Govern- 

 ment, and be hoped that would not be taken as a reason for find- 

 ing a substitute. On the contrary we should drink all the more. 



Mr. Pardee stated that a gentleman in Ohio had succeeded in 

 raising coffee very similar to the Rio, excepting that it seemed 

 young and green. It will produce about thirty bushels of coffee 

 to the acre. A great deal of the tea drank in this country is not 

 tea at all. There is no more tea about it than there is about a 

 load of hay : it is a manufactured article ; and even that which 

 is tea, is so adulterated that there is a very small proportion of 

 real tea in it. The Souchong tea is undoubtedly the best, and is 

 very wholesome. But not one woman in ten thousand knows how 

 to draw tea. The best tea that I ever drank, the lady told me, 

 was made in this way : I put the water on and heat it just as 

 quick as I can, and get it thoroughly boiling hot ; then I take a 

 teapot, entirely clean, and pour it full of the boiling water, and 

 throw into it a small teaspoonful of tea for every individual I 

 expect to sit down by the table. I close the lid and let it stand 

 upon the fire exactly ten minutes, then the tea-bell is rung, 

 and the tea is put upon the table. 



Mr. Carpenter. — Dr. Trimble pays nothing to the Government 

 for the tea and coffee he drinks, for they are manufactured in this 

 city. A great proportion of the tea and coffee sold here are not 

 fit for a dog to eat. Much of it is poisonous. Old material, 

 rejected twenty years ago, is now bought up and manufactured 

 into beautiful green tea. Green tea may be a slow, but it is a 

 sure poison. I think we should have something that we can fall 

 back upon, which is not detrimental to the health, 



Mr. Eobinson. — Upon the Atlantic coast, in Virginia, North 

 Carolina, and further south, there grows a common shrub known 

 by the old Indian name of Yupon. When well prepared it makes 

 a good, valuable and exhilarating tea. There is a slight bitter- 

 ness or astringency to it, which is a little offensive to a person 

 not used to it ; but not an iota more than our ordinary tea or 

 coffee would have to a person who had never drank either before. 



Dr. Trimble. — That is drank by people who are sick, and who 

 want to be made sicker. As to everything being adulterated, WQ 



