All About Coffee, William H. Ukers [short story to read .txt] 📗

beverages must always be associated with rational living, with greater comfort, and with better cheer.

Like all good things in life, the drinking of coffee may be abused. Indeed, those having an idiosyncratic susceptibility to alkaloids should be temperate in the use of tea, coffee, or cocoa. In every high-tensioned country there is likely to be a small number of people who, because of certain individual characteristics, can not drink coffee at all. These belong to the abnormal minority of the human family. Some people can not eat strawberries; but that would not be a valid reason for a general condemnation of strawberries. One may be poisoned, says Thomas A. Edison, from too much food. Horace Fletcher was certain that over-feeding causes all our ills. Over-indulgence in meat is likely to spell trouble for the strongest of us. Coffee is, perhaps, less often abused than wrongly accused. It all depends. A little more tolerance!

Trading upon the credulity of the hypochondriac and the caffein-sensitive, in recent years there has appeared in America and abroad a curious collection of so-called coffee substitutes. They are "neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring." Most of them have been shown by official government analyses to be sadly deficient in food value—their only alleged virtue. One of our contemporary attackers of the national beverage bewails the fact that no palatable hot drink has been found to take the place of coffee. The reason is not hard to find. There can be no substitute for coffee. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley has ably summed up the matter by saying, "A substitute should be able to perform the functions of its principal. A substitute to a war must be able to fight. A bounty-jumper is not a substitute."

It has been the aim of the author to tell the whole coffee story for the general reader, yet with the technical accuracy that will make it valuable to the trade. The book is designed to be a work of useful reference covering all the salient points of coffee's origin, cultivation, preparation, and development, its place in the world's commerce and in a rational dietary.

Good coffee, carefully roasted and properly brewed, produces a natural beverage that, for tonic effect, can not be surpassed, even by its rivals, tea and cocoa. Here is a drink that ninety-seven percent of individuals find harmless and wholesome, and without which life would be drab indeed—a pure, safe, and helpful stimulant compounded in nature's own laboratory, and one of the chief joys of life!

CONTENTS

A COFFEE THESAURUS

Encomiums and descriptive phrases applied to the plant, the berry, and the beverage Page XXVII

THE EVOLUTION OF A CUP OF COFFEE

Showing the various steps through which the bean passes from plantation to cup Page XXIX

CHAPTER I

Dealling with the Etymology of Coffee

Origin and translation of the word from the Arabian into various languages—Views of many writers Page 1

CHAPTER II

History of Coffee Propagation

A brief account of the cultivation of the coffee plant in the Old World, and of its introduction into the New—A romantic coffee adventure Page 5

CHAPTER III

Early History of Coffee Drinking

Coffee in the Near East in the early centuries—Stories of its origin—Discovery by physicians and adoption by the Church—Its spread through Arabia, Persia, and Turkey—Persecutions and Intolerances—Early coffee manners and customs Page 11

CHAPTER IV

Introduction of Coffee into Western Europe

When the three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee, came to Europe—Coffee first mentioned by Rauwolf in 1582—Early days of coffee in Italy—How Pope Clement VIII baptized it and made it a truly Christian beverage—The first European coffee house, in Venice, 1645—The famous Caffè Florian—Other celebrated Venetian coffee houses of the eighteenth century—The romantic story of Pedrocchi, the poor lemonade-vender, who built the most beautiful coffee house in the world Page 25

CHAPTER V

The Beginnings of Coffee in France

What French travelers did for coffee—the introduction of coffee by P. de la Roque into Marseilles in 1644—The first commercial importation of coffee from Egypt—The first French coffee house—Failure of the attempt by physicians of Marseilles to discredit coffee—Soliman Aga introduces coffee into Paris—Cabarets à caffè—Celebrated works on coffee by French writers Page 31

CHAPTER VI

The Introduction of Coffee into England

The first printed reference to coffee in English—Early mention of coffee by noted English travelers and writers—The Lacedæmonian "black broth" controversy—How Conopios introduced coffee drinking at Oxford—The first English coffee house in Oxford—Two English botanists on coffee Page 35

CHAPTER VII

The Introduction of Coffee into Holland

How the enterprising Dutch traders captured the first world's market for coffee—Activities of the Netherlands East India Company—The first coffee house at the Hague—The first public auction at Amsterdam in 1711, when Java coffee brought forty-seven cents a pound, green Page 43

CHAPTER VIII

The Introduction of Coffee into Germany

The contributions made by German travelers and writers to the literature of the early history of coffee—The first coffee house in Hamburg opened by an English merchant—Famous coffee houses of old Berlin—The first coffee periodical and the first kaffee-klatsch—Frederick the Great's coffee roasting monopoly—Coffee persecutions—"Coffee-smellers"—The first coffee king Page 45

CHAPTER IX

Telling How Coffee Came to Vienna

The romantic adventure of Franz George Kolschitzky, who carried "a message to Garcia" through the enemy's lines and won for himself the honor of being the first to teach the Viennese the art of making coffee, to say nothing of falling heir to the supplies of the green beans left behind by the Turks; also the gift of a house from a grateful municipality, and a statue after death—Affectionate regard in which "Brother-heart" Kolschitzky is held as the patron saint of the Vienna Kaffee-sieder—Life in the early Vienna café's Page 49

CHAPTER X

The Coffee Houses of Old London

One of the most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee—The first coffee house in London—The first coffee handbill, and the first newspaper advertisement for coffee—Strange coffee mixtures—Fantastic coffee claims—Coffee prices and coffee licenses—Coffee club of the Rota—Early coffee-house manners and customs—Coffee-house keepers' tokens—Opposition to the coffee house—"Penny universities"—Weird coffee substitutes—The proposed coffee-house newspaper monopoly—Evolution of the club—Decline and fall of the coffee house—Pen pictures of coffee-house life—Famous coffee houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—Some Old World pleasure gardens—Locating the notable coffee houses Page 53

CHAPTER XI

History of the Early Parisian Coffee Houses

The introduction of coffee into Paris by Thévenot in 1657—How Soliman Aga established the custom of coffee drinking at the court of Louis XIV—Opening of the first coffee houses—How the French adaptation of the Oriental coffee house first appeared in the real French café of François Procope—Important part played by the coffee houses in the development of French literature and the stage—Their association with the Revolution and the founding of the Republic—Quaint customs and patrons—Historic Parisian café's Page 91

CHAPTER XII

Introduction of Coffee into North America

Captain John Smith, founder of the Colony of Virginia, is the first to bring to North America a knowledge of coffee in 1607—The coffee grinder on the Mayflower—Coffee drinking in 1668—William Penn's coffee purchase in 1683—Coffee in colonial New England—The psychology of the Boston "tea party," and why the United States became a nation of coffee drinkers instead of tea drinkers, like England—The first coffee license to Dorothy Jones in 1670—The first coffee house in New England—Notable coffee houses of old Boston—A skyscraper coffee-house Page 105

CHAPTER XIII

History of Coffee in Old New York

The burghers of New Amsterdam begin to substitute coffee for "must," or beer, for breakfast in 1668—William Penn makes his first purchase of coffee in the green bean from New York merchants in 1683—The King's Arms, the first coffee house—The historic Merchants, sometimes called the "Birthplace of our Union"—The coffee house as a civic forum—The Exchange, Whitehall, Burns, Tontine, and other celebrated coffee houses—The Vauxhall and Ranelagh pleasure gardens Page 115

CHAPTER XIV

Coffee Houses of Old Philadelphia

Ye Coffee House, Philadelphia's first coffee house, opened about 1700—The two London coffee houses—The City tavern, or Merchants coffee house—How these, and other celebrated resorts, dominated the social, political, and business life of the Quaker City in the eighteenth century Page 125

CHAPTER XV

The Botany of the Coffee Plant

Its complete classification by class, sub-class, order, family, genus, and species—How the Coffea arabica grows, flowers, and bears—Other species and hybrids described—Natural caffein-free coffee—Fungoid diseases of coffee Page 131

CHAPTER XVI

The Microscopy of the Coffee Fruit

How the beans may be examined under the microscope, and what is revealed—Structure of the berry, the green, and the roasted beans—The coffee-leaf disease under the microscope—Value of microscopic analysis in detecting adulteration Page 149

CHAPTER XVII

The Chemistry of the Coffee Bean
By Charles W. Trigg.

Chemistry of the preparation and treatment of the green bean—Artificial aging—Renovating damaged coffees—Extracts—"Caffetannic acid"—Caffein, caffein-free coffee—Caffeol—Fats and oils—Carbohydrates—Roasting—Scientific aspects of grinding and packaging—The coffee brew—Soluble coffee—Adulterants and substitutes—Official methods of analysis Page 155

CHAPTER XVIII

Pharmacology of the Coffee Drink
By Charles W. Trigg

General physiological action—Effect on children—Effect on longevity—Behavior in the alimentary régime—Place in dietary—Action on bacteria—Use in medicine—Physiological action of "caffetannic acid"—Of caffeol—Of caffein—Effect of caffein on mental and motor efficiency—Conclusions Page 174

CHAPTER XIX

The Commercial Coffees of the World

The geographical distribution of the coffees grown in North America, Central America, South America, the West India Islands, Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the East Indies—A statistical study of the distribution of the principal kinds—A commercial coffee chart of the world's leading growths, with market names and general trade characteristics Page 189

CHAPTER XX

Cultivation of the Coffee Plant

The early days of coffee culture in Abyssinia and Arabia—Coffee cultivation in general—Soil, climate, rainfall, altitude, propagation, preparing the plantation, shade, wind breaks, fertilizing, pruning, catch crops, pests, and diseases—How coffee is grown around the world—Cultivation in all the principal producing countries Page 197

CHAPTER XXI

Preparing Green Coffee for Market

Early Arabian methods of preparation—How primitive devices were replaced by modern methods—A chronological story of the development of scientific plantation machinery, and the part played by English and American inventors—The marvelous coffee package, one of the most ingenious in all nature—How coffee is harvested—Picking—Preparation by the dry and the wet methods—Pulping—Fermentation and washing—Drying—Hulling, or peeling, and polishing—Sizing, or grading—Preparation methods of different countries Page 245

CHAPTER XXII

The Production and Consumption of Coffee

A statistical study of world production of coffee by countries—Per capita figures of the leading consuming countries—Coffee-consumption figures compared with tea-consumption figures in the United States and the United Kingdom—Three centuries of coffee trading—Coffee drinking in the United States, past and present—Reviewing the 1921 trade in the United States Page 273

CHAPTER XXIII

How Green Coffees Are Bought and Sold

Buying coffee in the producing countries—Transporting coffee to the consuming markets—Some record coffee cargoes shipped to the United States—Transport over seas—Java coffee "ex-sailing vessels"—Handling coffee at New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco—The coffee exchanges of Europe and the United States—Commission men and brokers—Trade and exchange contracts for delivery—Important rulings affecting coffee trading—Some well-known green coffee marks Page 303

CHAPTER XXIV

Green and Roasted Coffee Characteristics

The trade values, bean characteristics, and cup merits of the leading coffees of commerce, with a "Complete Reference Table of the Principal Kinds of Coffee Grown in the World"—Appearance, aroma, and flavor in cup-testing—How experts test coffee—A typical sample-roasting and cup-testing outfit Page 341

CHAPTER XXV