332 



COFFEE 



COFFERDAM 



is roasted at home by the consumer, the roasting is 

 carried to the dark-brown stage. The writer, who 

 has watched the domestic roasting of coffee in 

 many countries, attributes the superiority of the 

 pure infusion made in these countries mainly to 

 this and the use of the freshly roasted and ground 

 coffee. The Norwegian peasant usually adds a 

 very small quantity of butter to the beans while 

 roasting in the simple apparatus, like a covered 

 shovel or frying-pan, she uses ; always shaking >it 

 while over the fire. Every tourist praises the result. 



The important offices which coffee fulfils are, to 

 allay the sensation of hunger ; to produce an exhil- 

 arating and refreshing effect ; and, according to 

 some authorities, to diminish the amount of wear 

 and tear, or waste of the animal frame, which 

 proceeds more or less at every moment. See DIET, 

 DIGESTION, FOOD. 



An endless variety of apparatus have been con- 

 trived some of them of great complexity for 

 preparing coffee for the table. The chief object 

 aimed at is to obtain the liquor free from all sedi- 

 ment. The simplest and cheapest device is that 

 of placing a bag or metal strainer by means of a 

 suitable rim in the upper part of the coffee-pot, 

 placing the ground coffee in this, and pouring 

 boiling water through it. Or the ground coffee 

 may be simply placed in a saucepan or coffee-pot, 

 hot water poured upon it, and boiled for a few 

 minutes. After this the grounds will settle down, 

 and the coffee may be poured off fairly clear. 



Many forms of coffee-pot have been devised in 

 which atmospheric pressure is applied for forcing 

 the hot water through the ground coffee resting 

 upon a metal strainer, doing this in such a manner 

 that the water shall all pass through while just at 

 the boiling heat, and then shall leave it. 



The question whether coffee should be boiled at 

 all, or simply infused like tea by pouring boiling 

 water on it, has been much discussed. The writer 

 has observed that in countries where pure coffee is 

 used, boiling is practically in favour. This sug- 

 gested some experiments which have shown that 

 pure coffee is improved by two or three minutes' 

 boiling, while chicory is rendered bitter and un- 

 palatable by such treatment. We therefore recom- 

 mend that where a sufficient quantity of mixed 

 coffee is prepared to render it worth while to take 

 the trouble, the chicory should be separately 

 infused like tea, the coffee boiled, and the two 

 then mixed. Soyer recommends that, before the 

 boiling water is poured in, the saucepan should be 

 set dry on the fire, and the powder stirred till it is 

 quite hot, but not in the least burned. In France, 

 an equal measure of boiling milk is added to a very 

 strong infusion in making cafe au Icdt. The chief 

 effect of adding chicory to coffee is to deepen the 

 colour. When milk is added to coffee it should be 

 boiled ; cream may be used without boiling. The 

 Turks drink it thick with sediment ; some Arabs 

 make a tea-like beverage from the dried pulp ; the 

 Somali boil the berries in oil, and soak maize in 

 the mixture. Raw coffee beans are improved 

 by age. Essence of coffee is a highly concen- 

 trated infusion, mixed to the consistenc of treacle 

 with extract of chicory and burnt sugar, which 

 must be kept in well-corked bottles ; mixed with 

 boiling water, it makes a tolerable beverage. 

 Of a total world's production of 12,000,000 bags 

 in 1894-95 (each of 132 lb.), Brazil produced 

 7,500,000 bags, Java and the Dutch Indies 1,000,000. 

 The destructive coffee-bug is a Coccus (q.v.), specifi- 

 cally Coccus or Lecanium adonidum. 



See Lester Arnold, Coffee: its Cultivation and Profit 

 ( 1886 ) ; Lock, Coffee : its Culture and Commerce in all 

 Countries (1888) ; works by Hull (1877), Nietner (1880), 

 Thurber (1881), and A. Brown (1884). Also E. F. 

 Robinson's Early History of Coffee-houses (1893). 



Coffee -houses were first heard of in Europe 

 at Constantinople, in the middle of the 16th cen- 

 tury, and are spoken of as among Turkish habits- 

 by Burton (1621) and Bacon (1627). They were 

 introduced at Venice in 1645. Jacobs, a Jew, 

 opened one at Oxford in 1650. The first in London 

 was set up about 1652 in St Michael's Alley, Corn- 

 hill, by Pasqua Rosee, a Ragusan. The Rainbow 

 was the second (1656). The first coffee-house in 

 France was opened at Marseilles in 1671, and some 

 years later an Armenian kept one in Paris. The 

 Cafe Procope (1725), the first of the Parisian 

 literary cafes, was founded by a Sicilian, Procopio 

 Cultelli. The Regence became favoured in after- 

 years by the romantiques. Coffee-houses were . 

 established in Sweden in 1674, at Hamburg in 

 1679, and at Vienna in 1683. In 1675 an attempt 

 was made by Charles II. to suppress them by pro- 

 clamation as the resort of political agitators. For 

 nearly a century they were in England much what 

 they have remained in France to the present day, 

 free and open clubs. Among the most famous 

 were Garraway's, where tea was first retailed, and 

 Jonathan's, both in Change Alley, the latter the 

 stock-jobbers' resort; Dick's; Lloyd's (q.v.); the 

 Jerusalem, one of the earliest city news-rooms ;. 

 Don Saltero's, at Chelsea, with an absurd museum 

 of curiosities ; St James's, the resort of the Whigs 

 from the reign of Queen Anne to the close of George 

 III. ; and Wills's, the predecessor of Button's, and 

 the resort of Dryden. Addison and Swift patron- 

 ised Button's. Other coffee-houses w r ere Tom's 

 in Birchin Lane, Cornhill ; the Bedford, Tom 

 King's, and the Piazza, in Covent Garden ; the 

 Chapter in Paternoster Row ; and Child's in St 

 Paul's Churchyard. Cocoa and chocolate houses 

 were coffee-houses under other names. The 

 modern philanthropic coffee-tavern system was 

 first promoted by Mr and Mrs Hind Smith in 

 1867. In 1875 a number of cocoa-houses were 

 started in Liverpool, and at the present time about 

 four hundred temperance coffee-houses, owned by 

 public companies, are prospering in various towns 

 of Great Britain. Modern coffee-houses are eating- 

 rooms without excise licenses, and French cafes- 

 chantants merely music-halls. 



Cofferdam, a watertight structure used in 

 engineering for excluding the water from the foun- 

 dations of bridges, quay Avails, &c., so as to allow 

 of their being built dry. Cofferdams are generally 

 formed of timber piles driven close together (called 

 sheeting) in two or more rows, according to the- 

 depth of water and the nature of the bottom ; the 

 space between the rows, which may vary from 4 to> 

 10 feet, being spooned out, down to the solid and 

 impervious bottom, and filled up with clay puddle. 

 Sometimes they are made of only one row of piles 

 of the full height, caulked above low- water, with a 

 low or dwarf row outside to confine the puddle up 

 to that level, or, where there is no wave or current, 

 with a mere bank of clay thrown against the out- 

 side ; and occasionally the upper work is formed of 

 horizontal planking, fixed on open main piles, and 

 caulked in the joints. When the bottom is rock, so 

 as to prevent piles being driven, and is not much 

 below low-water, cofferdams are occasionally formed 

 of two stone walls, with a space between filled with 

 clay. Cofferdams require to be strongly shored 

 within, to prevent their being forced inwards by 

 the pressure of the external water ; and the rows 

 of piles require to be strongly bolted together, ta 

 resist the pressure of the clay puddle, which other- 

 wise would burst them. This method of founding is. 

 now seldom practised ; it is costly and obstructive 

 to the stream. 



In the construction of the Victoria Embankment 

 on the river Thames, between Blackfriars and. 

 Westminster Bridges, 1J mile in length, the coffer- 



