84 COFFEE. 



■weight and style as the genuine Java and Sumatra coffee. Im- 

 porters generally sell these various kinds, and also the inferior 

 kinds grown on the islands of Java and Sumatra, for what they 

 really are and at prices considerably helow those obtained for the 

 finest kinds. The wholesale and retail dealers, however, through 

 whose hands such kinds afterwards pass may not care to remember 

 the place of production, or the fact that the price which they paid 

 was below the market price for fine goods ; so, under the pressure 

 of excessive competition, and the necessity of in some way carving 

 out a profit, the article is fijially represented to be what it is not, 

 and the consumer is swindled. 



In the producing islands the coffee is transported by contract 

 to the warehouses, where, at stated periods, it is sold at auction by 

 the Maatschappy, generally in lots of two hundred piouls. The 

 two islands are divided into districts, Java having twenty-three, 

 with Batavia as the principal shipping port ; Sumatra is divided 

 into " residences," which are subdivided into districts. Padang 

 is the chief port from which the United States, receives its sup^ 

 plies ; Benkoelen is the principal shipping port for Holland. The 

 coffee takes its name from the di3trict in which it is grown, and 

 varies greatly in quality. Upon the mats there is branded the 

 initial letter of the importing house, and also a letter or letters 

 designating the district where grown, as ^ for Ayer Bangles. 

 The peculiar, slightly musty smell that marks Padang Java is 

 acquired on the voyage. The passage through the tropics and 

 the sweating the coffee undergoes is believed to improve the 

 quality. The true Java bean is not, on an average, quite as large 

 and in color not as brown as the Sumatra, although both become 

 darker and more mellow with age. At the time of shipment all 

 Java coffee is of a light green shade, but during the long voyage 

 through the tropics this gradually changes to a yellowish brown, 

 and the deeper this color the higher the price it commands. For 

 most consumers age improves the drinking qualities, and as color 

 is popularly regarded as an indication of age, that coffee which 

 is the brownest in color is generally regarded as the best. Some 

 of the best judges, however, regard the drinking qualities of the 

 light Javas as fully equal to those of the very dark brown,. 



As the Java, crop varies in quality from year to year, it is im- 



