INTTiODUCTOEY. 3 



are best pleased with an infusion made by grinding the fragrant 

 bean with some foreign substance. Experience has demonstrated 

 that the beverage is one that speedily wins friends. I incline 

 to the belief, as often expressed, that coffee was designed for 

 man's sustenance and happiness as much as the golden grain, or 

 the delicious fruits of mother earth. Somewhere I have read of 

 the great surprise and delight manifested by the Indians on the 

 "Western plains when first made acquainted with the beverage. 

 Usually indifferent to new objects, they fail to restrain their de- 

 light over the comforting draught. It is a matter of record that 

 they have travelled several hundred miles in order to gratify their 

 taste for coffee. The story has bfeen told of an Indian chief who, 

 dressed in a robe of great beauty, came in contact with a trader, 

 who tried every means to secure the coveted garment. At last 

 the meeting terminated with the accustomed treat of coffee. The 

 chief was one of the first to gratify his palate with the beverage. It 

 seemed as if his spirits had been roused by some unseen power. 

 He pressed eagerly for more, and, delighted at receiving a second 

 supply, he threw upon the trader, as an expression of his joy, the 

 magnificent robe that money could not purchase. Similar ex- 

 periences attended the introduction of coffee into all the countries 

 where it is consumed, and if to-day thousands fail to find pleasure 

 in lingering over a cup of delicious coffee, it is due, probably, to a 

 lack of knowledge how to select and prepare the bean. My expe- 

 rience at home and abroad leads me to the belief that two-thirds 

 of the lovers of coffee are, from lack of knowledge, daily cheated 

 out of the solid enjoyment of an ideal cup of coffee. Especially 

 is this true on lines of travel and at places of refreshment. The 

 sort of coffee served in the average American restaurant or hotel 

 is not calculated to command the homage of either savage or civ- 

 ilized creatures. It is, then, my design to try and point out how 

 dealers may select and furnish, and how consumers may prepare 

 coffee which will satisfy the critical palate. 



