8(5 



SUMATRAN COFFEE LEAVES. 



1853. 



Native use. 



Rousting. 



Culture. 



" As a beverage the natives universally prefer the leaf to the 

 berry, giving as a reason that it contains more of the bitter 

 principle and is more nutritious. They are not unacquainted 

 with the extract in a half solid form obtained by decoction, but in 

 the lowlands I am not aware that they apply it to any particu- 

 lar purpose. The roasted leaf used to form an article of trade 

 betwixt the coffee districts of the interior and the lowlands of 

 the coast, but since the government monopolized the produce, 

 this trade has in a great measure ceased, the natives believing the 

 sale of the leaf as well as that of the berry forbidden. In the 

 lowlands, coffee is not planted for the berry, being not sufficiently 

 productive ; but the people plant about their houses for the 

 leaf for their own use, not however to the extent of the demand, 

 so that in the settlement of Padang they are obliged to have 

 recourse to the berry mixed with a portion of burnt rice, 

 without which the beverage would be too dear for them. It is 

 an undoubted fact, however, that everywhere they prefer the leaf 

 to the berry. 



" The sample I have the pleasure to send, is the produce of 

 my own ground, properly prepared by a native well acquainted 

 with the process. The best mode of roasting, he says, is by 

 holding the leaves over the clear flame of a fire made of dry 

 bamboo. The fireplace should be circular, of brick or other 

 material, two feet deep, two feet in diameter at bottom inside, 

 and one-and-a-half at top with a small door-place on one side for 

 introducing the fuel. The reason for using bamboo as fuel is, 

 that it produces but little smoke, and that little containing no 

 creosote, does not adhere to the leaf. When sufficiently roasted, 

 as described in the Singapore Free Press, the leaves have a 

 brownish buff colour, and are then separated from the stalks, 

 which are arranged in the slit of a stick afresh and roasted by 

 themselves. The natives pound the whole of these roasted 

 stalks in a mortar and mix them with the leaf for sale ; but as 

 the bark only contains extract, it is better to rub off this be- 

 twixt the hands and to reject the wood. 



***** 



" I have already remarked that whilst the culture of the 

 coffee-plant for its fruit is limited to particular soils and 

 elevated climates, it may be grown for the leaf wherever within 

 the tropics the soil is sufficiently fertile. This extensive habitat, 

 if I may so term it, added to its nutritive qualities and free- 

 dom from deleterious principles, points it out as the best 

 adapted of all the productions affording caffeine for general 



