PREPARING FOR USE. 239 



roast their own coffee is to put the requisite quantity — 

 usually about a quarter of a pound — in a thin glass flask 

 or bottle placed over a charcoal fire and shaking it well 

 during the process until completed. The non-conducting 

 power gives this material an advantage over the metal, 

 the coffee being less liable to burn in it and the coffee 

 can be better observed and regulated during the progress 

 of the process. But a simple iron pan may also be used 

 effectively for the purpose, if care be taken to keep the 

 coffee constantly agitated with a wooden knife or spoon, 

 as a single burnt bean will impair the aroma, and stopping 

 the operation as soon as the beans begin to crackle and 

 assume a light-brown color. Before grindingput the roasted 

 beans in an iron pan or plate and place on the range to heat 

 until the aroma developed in the coffee by the roasting 

 operation perfumes the room, after which grind in an 

 ordinary mill and prepare according to any of the fore- 

 going recipes. 



Many consumers connect the idea of the strength 

 of coffee with a dark or black color and fancy their coffee 

 to be thin and weak if it does not possess such color. 

 This is entirely erroneous, as good, pure coffee is never 

 so, the dark color being imparted by means of a little 

 burnt sugar or other ingredient. The true flavor of pure 

 coffee is so little known to some persons that many who 

 drink it for the first time doubt of its goodness because it 

 tastes of the natural flavor, forgetting that coffee which does 

 not possess the flavor of coffee is not coffee at all, but an 

 artificial concoction, for which many other things may be 

 substituted at pleasure. Hence it is that if to the vile decoc- 

 tions made from chicory, carrots and beets be added the 

 slightest quantity of pure coffee, such persons fail to 

 detect the difference, and which also accounts for the 

 enormous diffusion of such substitutes and adulterants; 



