Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-05-27

Coffee grows wild in southern Abyssinia il
| great profusion among the rocks. 1t has there
been an article of domestic consumption from
very remote times. 1t grows wild also in Liberi;
1t is cultivated in various tropical regions, pre-
| ferring warm situations on hill slopes, with
soil noe very retentive of moisture, but constant
ly supplied by copiouS rainfall. 1t is the fruit
of a tree varying from eight to thirty feet il
height, with gray bark, and white flowers grow
ing in thick clusters. The leaves are oblOng-
ovate and pointed, arranged in pairs, smooth,
shining, and of dark green color. The tree be-
ing an evergreen its foliage is always fresh. II
is seldom destitute of blossoms, though at some
seasons they are more cOpiOus than at others
covering the branches like snow. The fruit, as
it ripens, becomes first red, and then dark pur-
pie. Its fleshy portion resembles that of the
cherry, and is very palatable. Two grains,
their fat sides together in the center of the
pulp, constitute the seed of the plant As the
fruit dries the pulp and its enclosing membrane
harden into pod, which is removed.
In the West Indies and in other rainy tropical
climates it is picked by hands at intervals to
prevent its being beaten down by the rains. In
Arabia, however, and in other arid regions
where it grows it is allowed to ripen on the tree,
when it is shaken down. This fact may account
for the superior market value of the Mocha and
Muscat coffees 1t is here dried in the shade
and the pulp removed by the hands. In the
East and West Indies and in South America the
curing takes place in the sun in layers several
inches deep, producing fermentation. After
drying the fruit is passed through a rolling ap-
paratus to remove the pods and the chaf win
moved out. Age is a wonderful element in the
quality of coffee. Ellis says that the Arabian
berry will attain its full ripening in three years.
The very poorest of our American coffeeS will,
after fourteen years keeping, equal the flavor of
the best Asiatic brands.
Coffee was introduced into Persia from Ethio-
pa as early as the ninth century, and into Ana.
bia in the fifteenth. The earliest mention of
the plant by Arabian writers dates from that pc
Rod. At Alden it became common drink, first
for StudiouS and sedentary persons, and then
for all classes of people. Its consumption grad
ually extended. In the middle of the sixteenth
century it was sold in Constantinople, and found
its way to Venice in 1915. Rawolf German,
is the first writer who mentions it. Of English
writers it is first alluded to by Burton in his
Anatomy of Melancholy" He says: The
Turks have drink called coffee, (lor they use
no wine,) so named of berry as black as SCOT
and as bitter, which they sip up as warm as
they can suffer, because they find by experience
that that kind of drink so used hepeth diges-
ton and procureth alacrity." A Greek, who
had been servant to Turkish merchant, opened
the first coffee house in London in 1852. In 1900
the annual consumption Of coffee in the king
dom had risen to 100 tons.
In Java, where it has attained a high COM
mercial character, it was introduced by the
Dutch from Arabia, near the close of the seven
tenth century. In 1715, Louis XIV. imported
into France fine coffee tree, bearing both
green and ripe fruit, and transplanted it to the
French colony of Hayti. This is said 10 have
been the origin of the coffee industry in the
West Indies, and the seed from which its i'm
mense growth sprang.
The raw coffee contains about thirty-four per
cent of woody fibre, twelve per cent of hydro
SCOPE water, thirteen per cent of volatile oil
fifteen per cent of glucore, and, according to
some authorities, six or eight per cent of cane
sugar, besides its peculiar principal of caffeic
acid. Roasting the berry produces important
changes, and should be carefully regulated
The sugar is converted into caramel; the oil is
dispersed through the solid substances, and is
entirely expelled if the process is carried too
far. Its microscopic water is exhaled and
should be permitted to escape into the atmos-
phere. After this the roasting vessel should be
closed to retain the aromatic principle. The
process should be stopped when the berries be-
come chestnut brown. They have then lost
twenty per cent in weight, and gained fifty per
cent in bulk