128 



COFFEE, 



to their perseverance, and tlie favorable conditions presented by 

 the constitution of their soil, the Brazilians have obtained a sort 

 of monopoly of coffee. More than half the coffee consumed in 

 the world is of Brazilian growth. And yet the coffee of Brazil 

 has little reputation, and is even greatly underrated. 

 "Why is this? 



" Simply because a great deal of the best produce of Brazilian 

 plantations is sold under the name of Java or Mocha, or as the 

 coffee of MartiniqiTe or Bourbon. Martinique only produces six 

 hundred sacks of coffee annually ; Guadaloupe, whose coffee is sold 

 under the name of the neighboring island, yields six thousand 

 sacks — not enough to provide the market of Eio de Janeiro for 

 twenty-four hours, and the island of Bourbon hardly more. A 

 great part of the coffee which is bought under these names, or 

 under that of Java coffee, is Brazilian, while the so-called Mocha 

 coffee is often nothing but the small round beans of the Brazilian 

 plant, found at the summits of the branches, and very carefully 

 selected. If the fazendeiros, like the Java planters, sold their 

 crops under a special mark, the great purchasers would learn with 

 what merchandise they have to deal, and the agriculture of Brazil 

 would be greatly benefited. But there intervene^ between the 

 fasendeiro and the exporter a class of merchants — ^half bankers, 

 half brokers — known as com/missarios, who, by mixing different 

 harvests, lower the standard crop, thus relieving the producer of 

 all responsibility, and depriving the product of its true character- 

 istics." 



The above remarks may be true with regard to that portion 

 of Brazilian coffee exported from Santos, and which finds a mar- 

 ket in Europe, but they are erroneous as regards the larger por- 

 tion of the Brazilian product. That known as Santos is produced 

 in the southern districts of the empire, and does not possess that 

 rank and peculiar flavor that is characteristic of the coffee ex- 

 ported from the port of Bio de Janeiro, and which is so marked 

 that it cannot be disguised. Selections of the choicest Kio beans 

 might, however, if stored properly for two or three years, lose this 

 peculiar smell and flavor, and become so mellowed by age as to 

 approach more closely in drinking qualities those produced in the 

 more northerly portions of South America. 



