132 COFFEE 



product. Bogus coffee-beans have only a slight resemblance to the 

 natural berry, for though they possess the proper form, the cicatrice on 

 the inner surface is too smooth. Then again the grey colour of the 

 raw bean is not quite up to the mark, but when these manufactured 

 beans are roasted with S per cent of genuine coffee, they find a ready 

 sale. These bogus beans can be made at a cost of 30 dollars per 1,000 

 pounds, and when mixed with 50 pounds of pure coffee the whole 1,000 

 pounds cost 37.50 dollars, or 3^ cents per pound, so that a profit of 

 nearly 100 per cent is the result. There are any number of "coffee 

 substitutes," the Hillis variety being the most successful. This com- 

 pany is already manufacturing 10,000 pounds per week, it being sold 

 by the barrel to retailers in nearly all of the New England, Middle, 

 and Western States. The profits of this concern are supposed to be 

 300 dollars per day, and its operations have reached such a scale that 

 the stockholders were offered nearly 1,000,000 dollars for their secret 

 and business, but it was declined. No one accustomed to coffee-drinking 

 would imagine that a decoction of this stuff was like either Mocha or 

 Rio, but when mixed with four times its bulk of genuine coffee only an 

 expert could detect the imposition. The manufacturers of these "coffee 

 substitutes" claim that they are not violating the law of adulterating 

 of food products because they do not sell their goods as coffee, but 

 simply as a substitute. While this may be true, it does not apply to 

 the retailer who mixes the bogus stuff with good coffee, and sells the 

 whole as the genuine article. Though manufactories may be beyond the 

 penalties of the adulteration law, they should be suppressed; for without 

 them, coffee-adulteration by retailers would be impossible. When it is 

 to be remembered that the American people are compelled to pay 

 25,000,000 dollars for ingredients that can be manufactured for one-fifth 

 the sum received by coffee-growers, the necessity for the suppression of 

 this nefarious trade is apparent. Oleomargarme cannot be sold as 

 butter, neither should "coffee substitutes" be made to masquerade under 

 the name of Java, Mocha, or Rio. 



The French government seized a factory at Lille which was 

 manufacturing daily forty to fifty kilogrammes of beans which proved 

 to be composed of chicory, flour, and ferrous sulphate. Imitation 

 beans in England were formerly made of chicory. A sample from 

 Roumania consisted of coffee-grounds, chicory, and peas. American 

 factitious beans frequently consisted of wheat flour, chicory, bran, 

 and some coffee; or rye flour, glucose, and water. Rehnstrom's 

 English Patent 14,970 in 1889 gives a preparation for substitute 

 coffee which consists in boiling down milk in a vacuum to a paste 

 which w^as formed into cakes, dried below 100°, cut into pieces 

 like coffee-beans, and roasted. Other factitious beans have been 

 composed of peas, acorns, beans, lupines, fire clay, peanuts, etc., as 

 listed on subsequent pages. 



