24 COFFEE. 



then it is only after repeated failures, necessarily costly to the' 

 retailer, because, in addition to losing the coffee, his trade is 

 imperilled. Oftentimes a customer, whom it has taken years to 

 secure, has been lost during the experimental eifort to acquire 

 sufficient skill to properly roast coffee in a portable roaster. Some- 

 times there will be too much, and then, again, too little fire ; the 

 attention of the same person cannot always be conveniently given ; 

 the turning is not usually as steady and continuous by hand as 

 when done by steam-power, while it is manifestly impossible for 

 a person only roasting occasionally to attain the same degree of 

 skiU and experience that is acquired by a fit person who makes it 

 a business. 



These considerations, together with the occasional spoiling of 

 a roast through carelessness or by a novice ; losses in weight by * 

 roasting more than is necessary ; the expense of a machine, and 

 fuel, time and trouble, altogether make it doubtful whether it will 

 pay the average retail grocer to undertake this service himself. 

 It must also be borne in mind that the result of his work is liable 

 to come into competition with that of adepts in the art. There 

 may be cases where grocers are so far from any available market 

 that they cannot obtain regular and frequent supplies of roasted 

 coffee from the wholesale dealer, and in such cases they will, un- 

 doubtedly, find it better to undertake the roasting of coffee sold by 

 them, than to trust to the care and attention of the average con- 

 sumer, to whom it is an impossibility, with the facilities at command, 

 to roast properly, and who, nevertheless, is very apt, when the result 

 is unsatisfactory, to attribute the failure to the poor quality of the 

 coffee furnished. "Where parties attempt to roast their own coffee, 

 their object should be to produce a rich chestnut-brown; for 

 making " black " or French coffee, the bean should be roasted 

 higher than usual, but the first mentioned color will best suit the 

 majority of palates. As a rule, it will not pay consumers to roast 

 their own coffee where they are so situated that they can procure 

 frequent STipplies of the roasted article from the retail dealer; 

 and it will be found that retail dealers, as a rule, will in turn find 

 it to their interest to have their supplies roasted by professional 

 roasters, whose constant practice enables them, on the whole, to 

 turn out the best article. We believe that this policy is the most 



