6 
BULLETIN 30, PORTO RICO EXPERIMENT STATION. 
The bean is large, uniform, and very attractive in appearance, the color rang- 
ing from a light gray-blue to a dark greenish blue. The coffee makes a par- 
ticularly good roasted product, and has as heavy a body as the fanciest Col- 
ombians or Mexicans. It is not as rich in the cup as these two coffees, but it 
blends very satisfactorily with both of them, as well as with other growths, 
and in consequence is being used very much more extensively than heretofore. 8 
In a conversation with the writer, Mr. Harris, quoted above, said 
that Porto Rican coffee has a higher color value than any other kind. 
From various published reports it would appear that the amount of caffein 
in coffee may range from to 2.95 per cent. * * * The great majority of 
commercial coffees, however, have about 1.5 per cent caffein, more or less. 
♦ * * Certain coffees, as the Porto Rican, are known as mild coffees from 
the fact that they can be easily borne by persons who say they can not drink 
other coffee. As a rule (doubtless subject to exceptions), Porto Rican coffees 
contain less than 1 per cent of caffein, and therefore are naturally "caffein- 
poor." 10 
Determinations of caffein in three samples of Porto Rican coffee 
were supplied the author by W. J. McGee, chief, Food and Drug 
Inspection Station, United States Department of Agriculture, San 
Juan. The results are given in Table 5. 
Table 5. — Caffein content of three samples of Porto Rican coffee. 
Condition of coffee. 
Moisture. 
Caffein. 
Caffein 
(dry basis). 
Green 
Per cent. 
11.03 
2.55 
2.63 
Per cent. 
0.98 
1.31 
1.30 
Per cent. 
1.12 
Roasted 
1.35 
Do 
1.34 
From the data given in the above table it can readily be seen that 
Porto Rican coffee is comparatively low in caffein. This, coupled 
with its pronounced aroma and high color value, makes it a very 
desirable article of commerce where these characters are appreciated. 
COFFEES BOTANICALLY SIMILAR TO PORTO RICAN. 
Such coffees as Padang, Preanger, Menado, Kamerun, Philippine, 
Kona, Surinam. Guadeloupe, and Jamaican Blue Mountain so closely 
resemble Porto Rican in tree and fruit as to be indistinguishable 
from it in the field. The degree to which the quality of these coffees 
has been changed by change in location is not known. In 1913 
samples of Porto Rican grown Padang, Pantjoer, Preanger, Guade- 
loupe, Blue Mountain, Erecta, Columnaris, Maragogipe, Mocha, and 
Porto Rican coffees were sent to S. B. Morison, of New York, who 
had them tested and reported on them as follows : 
I had the samples tested by some of the best tasters in tlie city. On some 
things they agreed. One of them was that there is very little, if any, of the 
character of the seed left in the Mocha, Java, etc.. that you had grown in Porto 
Rico. They all had no trouble in picking out the genuine Mocha and Java, 
which I had drawn with your samples. In all cases, as is customary in tests 
of this kind, we had "blinded" the cups. As to the various samples of Porto 
Rican coffee, the highest-grown coffees 11 were, almost without exception, the 
Coffee characteristics, No. 7. — Porto Rican coffee, by W. B. Harris, coffee expert, U. S, 
Dept. Agr. In Tea and Coffee Trade Jour., vol. 27, No. 5 (1914), p. 423. 
10 Scientific analvses of coffee, bv O. W. Wilcox and M. J. Rentschler. Tea and Coffee 
Trade Jour. (1911), vol. 20, No. 1, p. 32, 33. 
11 Coffees grown at highest altitude. 
