CHAPTER Y. 



EOASTIKQ THE BEAIT. 



The most important of all the conditions necessary to be ob- 

 served in the production of a cup of good coffee is the process of 

 roasting the bean. The finest quality of coffee unskilfully roasted 

 ■will give a less satisfactory result in the cup than a poor quality 

 roasted in the best manner. It is no easy matter to acquire the 

 skill in manipulation and accuracy of judgment necessary to roast 

 coffee successfully. Among professional coffee roasters some are 

 bunglers, although their lives have been spent in the occupation, 

 while others seem to be peculiarly adapted to the business, and 

 ■with much less experience uniformly turn out good ■work. As in 

 a competitive trial of firemen for steam engines, a boy of sixteen 

 obtained more revolutions of the engine ■with a given amount of 

 fuel than the most experienced engineers, so -will special adapt- 

 ability for a certain work sometimes be developed where least ex- 

 pected. The skilful roaster can tell when the bean has been roasted 

 to the desired degree by the aroma which is carried away in the 

 smoke that arises during the process of roasting. 



The revolution which has taken place in the coffee-trade of 

 the United States during the last twenty years, is a striking con- 

 firmation of the principle that work can be done in the best and 

 cheapest manner on a large scale, where machinery is employed 

 that is controlled by the best available skill. It may safely be 

 said that twenty years ago there was not one pound of roasted 

 coffee sold in this country, where now there are twenty. Then 

 retail grocers bought and sold coffee green, and consumers roasted 

 it in an iron pot or skillet over an ordinary fire. "While this 

 method had its advantages so far as having coffee freshly roasted 

 was concerned, these advantages were heavily counterbalanced 



