all kinds or grades of coffee should be 

 roasted alike. In order to develop 

 the highest aroma, Mocha coffee 

 should be roasted until it becomes a 

 reddish yellow, and has lost 15 per 

 cent of its weight. Martinique coffee 

 should be roasted to a chestnut brown, 

 with a loss of 20 percent in weight; 

 Bourbon to a light bronze and a loss 

 in weight of 18 percent. 



The various coffee drinks prepared 

 differ very widely in quality. This is 

 dependent upon the varying methods 

 employed in making them. The fol- 

 lowing method is highly recommended. 

 It is advised to purchase a good qual- 

 ity of the unroasted beans and proceed 

 as follows: 



1. Sorting Berries. — Carefully remove 

 bad berries, dirt, husks, stones, and 

 other foreign matter usually present in 

 larger or smaller quantities. 



2. Roasting. — Roast as indicated 

 above. Coat the hot beans with sugar 

 to retain the aromatic principles; cool 

 rapidly and keep in a dry place. 



3. Grinding. — Grind fine just before 

 the coffee is to be made. 



4. Preparing the Coffee. — Coffee is us- 

 ually made accordingto three methods; 

 by infiltration, by infusion, and by boil- 

 ing. Coffee by infiltration is made by 

 allowing boiling water to percolate 

 through the ground coffee. It is stated 

 that much of the aroma is lost by this 

 method. In the second process boil- 

 ing water is poured upon the ground 

 coffee and allowed to stand for some 

 time. This gives a highly aromatic but 

 comparatively weak coffee. In the 

 third process the coffee is boiled for 

 about five or ten minutes. This gives 

 a strong coffee, but much of the aroma 

 is lost. Since these methods do not 

 give an ideal coffee an eminent author- 

 ity recommends a fourth, as follows: 

 For three small cups of coffee take one 

 ounce of finely ground coffee. Place 

 three-fourths of this in the pot of boil- 

 ing water and boil for five or ten min- 

 utes; then throw in the remaining one- 

 fourth and remove from the fire at once, 

 stirring for one minute. The first por- 

 tion of the coffee gives strength, the 

 second the flavor. It is not advisable 

 to filter the coffee as it is apt to mod- 



ify the aroma. Allow it to stand until 

 the grounds have settled. 



Coffee is very frequently adulterated, 

 especially ground coffee. It is stated 

 that the beans have been adulterated 

 with artificial beans made of starch or of 

 clay. It is not uncommon to find peb- 

 bles which have been added to increase 

 the weight. Most commonly the beans 

 are not carefully hulled and sorted so 

 that a considerable percentage of spoiled 

 beans and hulls are present. The cof- 

 fee plant seems to be quite susceptible 

 to the attacks of various pests. The 

 coffee blight is a microscopic fungus 

 {Hemileia vastatrix) very common in 

 Ceylon which has on several occasions 

 almost entirely destroyed the coffee 

 plantations. The coffee borer is the 

 larva of a coleopter {Xylotrechus quad- 

 ripes')'wh{ch. injures and destroys the trees 

 by boring into the wood. The pest is 

 most abundant in India, while another 

 borer {Areocerus coffece) is common in 

 South Africa. Another destructive 

 pest is the so-called coffee bug {Le- 

 cafiium coffecB). 



Ground coffee is adulterated with a 

 great variety of substances. The 

 roasted and ground roots of chicory 

 {Cichorium intybus), carrot {Daucus car- 

 ota), beet {Beta vulgaris), are very 

 much used. The rush nut {Cyperus es- 

 culentus)., and peanut are also used. A 

 large number of seeds are used for 

 adulterating purposes, as corn, barley, 

 oats, wheat, rye, and other cereals; 

 further, yellow flag, gray pea, milk 

 vetch, astragalus, hibiscus, holly, Span- 

 ish broom,acorns, chestnuts, lupin, peas, 

 haricots, horse bean, sun flower, seeds of 

 gooseberry and grape. The seeds of 

 Cassia occidentalis known as "wild coffee" 

 are used as a substitute for coffee in 

 Dominica and are said to have a flavor 

 equal to that of true coffee. Sacca or 

 Sultan coffee consists of the husks of 

 the coffee berry, usually mixed with 

 coffee and said to improve its flavor. 

 In Sumatra an infusion is made of the 

 coffee leaves or the young twigs and 

 leaves. This is said to produce a re- 

 freshing drink having the taste and 

 aroma of a mixture of coffee and tea. 

 Efforts have been made, especially in 

 England, to introduce leaf coffee with 

 but little success. 



206 



