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esteemed most highly, in others the yellow. The "West 

 Indian coffees often change colour when kept a few years. 



It is well known that the various sorts of coffee imported 

 into Europe from the several parts where the plant is culti- 

 vated differ widely in quality and flavour. Levantine or Mocha 

 still retains its old superiority in this respect, though the best 

 sorts imported from Ceylon, Bourbon, Mauritius, and other 

 Indian Islands are now generally considered to come very 

 near it. This difference in quality and flavour of the various 

 sorts of coffee is generally attributed to climatic and local 

 causes and influences, which are necessarily beyond the 

 power of remedy. This, however, is a great mistake. The 

 more or less advanced state of maturity to which the berry is 

 allowed to attain before picking, and, more particularly still, 

 the degree of dryness, and the longer or shorter period of 

 time for which it is kept before being sent into the market, 

 exercise a most powerful influence upon the quality and 

 flavour of the article. Berries gathered before they have at- 

 tained maturity, though they may be perfect in colour, will 

 always have a raw, herbaceous taste. If the drying berries 

 are heaped too thickly or closely, they are apt to heat and to 

 contract an unpleasantly bitter and harsh taste, and a dis- 

 agreeable smell ; this will frequently occur also where artificial 

 heat is had recourse to to expedite the drying. Keeping 

 tends to cure these serious defects in coffee. There are 

 instances on record where coffee of a most disagreeable flavour 

 and smell has been brought near perfection by being kept for 

 some years in a dry loft y and though it may be going too far 

 to assert, as has been^done by some high authorities on the 

 subject, that " the worst coffee produced in the West Indies 

 will, in a course of years not exceeding ten or fourteen, be as 

 good, parch and mix as well, and have as high a flavour as the 

 best we have now from Turkey," still there can be no doubt 

 that long keeping will most materially improve the quality of 



