1 Juz, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 475 
The time necessary for a satisfactory cooking will vary according to heat of 
fire, amount of coffee, and many other things, but very little experience will 
enable the operator to regulate these matters. A wood or charcoal fire should 
be used. Coffee when roasted is easily tainted; therefore great care should be 
exercised if it be found necessary to use a coal or coke fire or gas flames. Gas, 
if available, is more easily regulated, but a charcoal fire is safest and best. 
Coffee should never be allowed to cool in the roaster, but should be turned 
out as soon as it is done. It is frequently over-roasted. When properly done, 
the beans should be of a bright-brown or chestnut colour. Those beans that 
have become a dark-brown or black have lost most of their essential qualities, 
and make a liquor poor in every way but colour. Caffein is volatile, and over- 
roasting dispels just what should be retained. A properly roasted bean should 
be of as light-brown a colour as possible, while still brittle enough to pound into 
a powder. The roasting should be enough to just convert it from a horny state 
to a brittle one and no more. 
If unsufficiently roasted, the beans, on being broken, will look patchy and 
will retain the slightly damp feel and look that they have on being turned out of 
the roaster. If properly roasted, they will very quickly lose this Appearance 
and feel on being exposed to the air. The tray for receiving the newly roasted 
coffee should be kept in readiness, and the coffee spread out at once and not 
allowed to stand in a heap. <A brass wire gauze bottom to the tray is 
satisfactory, though not a necessity. A clean wooden tray will do, but cloth 
should be avoided. 
It must be borne in mind that coffee once roasted begins to lose its aroma, 
and also to absorb moisture and other deleterious substances which may be about. 
Tt should therefore be allowed to cool where no deleterious fumes can. touch it and 
taint it. Coffee should never be ground while still hot or warm. Iffor export, or 
if it has to be kept, it should be hermetically sealed up in boxes or tins. Roasted 
coffee, even while waiting a few hours before being ground, will be of better 
quality and strength if kept ina canister (as soon as cool) with a tight-fitting 
lid. 
COFFEE PRICES. 
Revorts of sales of East Indian coffee between the 9th and 17th ultimo (says 
Planting Opinion) contain some instructive information as to prices. ‘There 
has been some despondency of late in regard to values of coffee, especially among 
Mysore men. This, no doubt, has been partially due to a fall in prices of the 
Mysore berry, resulting from deterioration of quality. What can be done is 
shown by some of the prices lately realised, which afford testimony to the value 
that the home trade sets on parcels of exceptionally fine quality. A few 
leading figures will suffice to illustrate our meaning. The following sales are 
reported :— 
Coorg. 
P.B. T. 
Faith Hen on ere LLOR i 109s. 98s. 135s. 70s. 
Chisholms 5 112s. 50s.6 
Silpikadu J Abc pee OLS: | 76s. ae i s. 6d. 
‘A. B. Heroor ere O.LNe 75s. 6d. 48s. llls. 52s. 6d. 
Mangles ? Pre ' i ghd 
Allicutty Mountains 100s. 6d. to101ls. 76s. to77s. 49s. 111s. 50s. 
Mysore. 
Utollalu Mockett... ... LO7s. 90s. 69s. 123s. 6d. 65s. 
The “ Faith” figures are a splendid record—135s. for peaberry and 70s. for 
tryage ; in fact, any of the above sets of figures must surely show that profits 
are still to be made out of coffee. But we have, of course, given the pick of 
the bunch. Coorg figures go as low as 75s. No. A, and 98s. peaberry. Mysore 
50s. 6d. per bid and 75s. (bid); Nilgiri (of which very little was offered) 
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