SOPHISTICATION AND SUBSTITUTION 131 



burnt umber, Prussian Blue, ultramarine, Venetian red, chalk, talc, 

 etc. The coffee-beans are first moistened with water and a little 

 gum, resin, or shellac, and then shaken with the pigment. The pro- 

 duction of the desired color of the bean has resulted in as high as 

 seventy-five per cent profit. 



Formerly, many imitation coffee-beans were manufactured with 

 great care to resemble the genuine coffee-seed. The introduction and 

 extent of the previous use of spurious coffee-beans in the United 

 States trade can be best estimated from the contents of an article 

 which appeared in the New York World in 1890 as follows: — 



The average bulk of the genuine coffee imported into the United 

 States is 8,000,000 bags, or 130,000,000 pounds per annum. Experts 

 estimate that fully twenty per cent of the coffee sold to consumers is 

 bogus, which raises the consumption to 216,000,000 pounds. Taking 

 30 cents per pound as the average retail price, the people of America 

 pay 65,000,000 dollars every year for this one article of food, of which 

 13,000,000 dollars is paid for roasted and ground beans, peas, rye, or a 

 manufactured article in no way resembling the Brazilian berry. To 

 this must be added the production and sale of what are called "coffee 

 substitutes." So extensive is this business that it is quite safe to say 

 that consumers pay 12,000,000 dollars for what they believe to be cheap 

 coffee. This raises the total expenditure to 77,000,000 dollars, and it 

 represents a sale of 276,000,000 pounds, for the "substitute coffee" 

 usually sells at 20 cents per pound. It will thus be seen that 96,000,000 

 pounds of bogus coffee are sold in the United States every year, and 

 some estimates place it at 120,000,000 pounds. Taking the lowest fig- 

 ures, 25,000,000 dollars are received for substances which can be profit- 

 ably placed on the market at six cents a pound. The manufacturers, 

 therefore, receive 6,000,000 dollars for their goods, while the retailers 

 gain a profit of 18,000,000 dollars. There are two kinds of bogus 

 coffee, an imitation bean and the ground article. The bean is the most 

 difficult to produce, and it is only recently that actual success in this 

 direction has been attained. The bogus bean must not only look like 

 the genuine berry when raw, but it should be capable of taking a proper 

 colour when roasted. A very good specimen is now manufactured in 

 Philadelphia and Trenton, being composed of rye flour, glucose, and 

 water. The soft paste is then moulded and carefully dried. To the 

 eye of an expert, the presence of this imitation is easy of detection, and 

 it cannot be used to any great extent among wholesalers. But when 

 coffee goes to the retailer, adulteration begins. Sometimes the retailer 

 is deceived but nine times out of ten he is the one who introduces 

 adulteration. The ground article is very easily produced for a proper 

 colour and an aroma of coffee is assured by the addition of strong 

 decoctions of coffee essence. 



When mixed with real cofEee even the expert eye and tongue may be 

 deceived, while to the ordinary consumer it seems to be the genuine 



