524  Some  Effects  of  Storage  on  Coffee.  {VoVeSrfS™' 
SOME  EFFECTS  OF  STORAGE  ON  COFFEE  1 
BY   R.    E-.    DOOLITTLE   AND   BURNETT    B.  WRIGHT. 
This  investigation  was  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  determin- 
ing the  effect  of  storage  on  the  gain  or  loss  in  weight  of  freshly 
roasted  coffee,  prepared,  transported  and  stored  under  ordinary 
commercial  conditions.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  month  of  July, 
191 3,  847  packages,  each  containing  exactly  one  pound  of  freshly 
roasted  coffee,  were  packed  and  distributed  in  the  following  manner : 
One  hundred  and  sixty-eight  packages  to  New  Orleans,  La.,  by  the 
Southern  Pacific  Steamship  Co.,  168  packages  to  Chicago  by  railroad, 
168  packages  to  Denver  by  railroad,  343  packages  stored  in  an  un- 
heated  warehouse  in  New  York  City.  The  168  packages  shipped  to 
New  Orleans,  Chicago  and  Denver  were  identical  with  the  343 
packages  reserved  in  New  York  and  consisted  of  medium  roasted 
Santos  coffee.  Seventy-two  packages  in  each  instance  were  paper 
bags  with  paraffine  paper  lining,  36  of  which  contained  the  coffee  in 
the  whole  bean  and  36  in  the  medium  ground  condition.  Seventy-two 
packages  were  cardboard  cartons  inclosing  a  paraffine  paper  bag,  36 
of  which  were  filled  with  the  roasted  beans  and  36  with  the  medium 
ground  coffee.  Twenty-four  packages  were  tin  cans,  12  of  which 
contained  the  whole  beans  and  12  the  medium  ground  coffee.  The 
packages  shipped  to  New  Orleans,  Chicago  and  Denver  were  re- 
weighed  immediately  on  reaching  their  destination  and  approximately 
every  two  weeks  thereafter  until  the  month  of  December,  1913,  after 
which  they  were  weighed  once  each  month.  Similar  weighings  were 
made  on  the  samples  stored  in  New  York  City. 
The  results  are  well  illustrated  in  a  chart  prepared  from  the 
data  obtained  on  the  samples  stored  in  New  York  City. 
It  was  noted  in  the  first  place  that  there  was  an  increase  over 
the  original  weight  in  all  samples  and  at  all  weighings.  The  paper 
bags  and  pasteboard  cartons  show  a  very  rapid  increase  at  first,  the 
maximum  for  the  first  12  months  being  reached  within  14  weeks. 
As  would  be  expected,  the  coffee  contained  in  the  cardboard  cartons 
absorbs  moisture  a  little  slower  than  that  in  the  paper  bags  but,  in 
general,  the  results  on  these  two  forms  of  packages  show  very 
uniform  changes  throughout  the  experiment.    In  the  case  of  the  tin 
1  Paper  read  at  the  19th  annual  convention  of  the  Association  of  Ameri- 
can Dairy,  Food  and  Drug  Officials,  at  Berkeley,  Cal.,  Aug.  2-5,  1915. 
