The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1879-02-12
ARTIFICIAL COFFEE.

AlOcft"'U tVott Wuulo hiblluR III lHt OtlCo
OF a large coffee and spice mill few
years ago, heard q clerk ask the manae er
whether an order for large quantity of
ground coffee could be filled within a
certain time. Before replying, the
manager stepped to a speaking-tube,
whistled, and then asked: Has that
cargo of peanuts arrived yet2" Hav-
ing received an answer apparently sat-
isfactory, he told the clerk that the
order could be filed in the time men,
toned. A not unnatural curiosity TO
learn what connection existed between
coffee and peanuts failed to obtain any
very definite response from the manager,
and it is only recently that the mystery
has been solved to the writer's satisfae-
tion. Peanuts for long time we're used
to adulterate ground coffee, until the
public, becoming distrustful of the
ground article, ceased buying any coffee
except that which was roasted whole, and
so sold. This practice greatly checked
the adulteration of coffe until very lately;
but so prodtRbly can coffee be adulterat-
ed that already there are several processes
in use for preparing coffee-bean out of a
variety Of foreign substances.
For example, in England, application
for patent has been made for pressing
Underground chiccory into molds OF
the exact shape of coffee beans. Under
what form of "useful" art this inven-
tion may be classed it would be difficult
to say. That it has been put into use in
this country, however, is evident from
an analysis made for the EUening Post.
DIR. William A. Hammond, formerly
surgeon-general of the United States,
told the writer that, during the war, he
found the coffee grounds in the large
government hospitals were regularly
bought by certain dealers, who then
sold them to coffee and spice mills. As
nearly as he could remember most of
the coffee-grounds from the Washington
hospitals went to Delaware. The trade
was SO openly carried on that the dealers
thought best TO account for il by saying
that the grounds we're used not for max
ing coffee second time, but for adul-
tering pepper and spices; but DR.. Ham
mond said that there were so many other
things equally available for those pur-
poses that he felt confident the spent
coffee was dried, worked over, and, after
being mixed with a certain proportion
of fresh ground coffee, offered for sale.
In the course of investigating this
subject, the EUeaSng Posts representa-
tive happened to meet an old acquaint-
ance formerly engaged in coffee and
spice mill. On being asked about some
of the tricks OF the trade, he said {:
"Now, look here, you think there's
nothing too bad to be done in one of
these mills, but / can tell you of trick
that beats any adulteration they ever
did clean out of sight"
Having obtained a promise that no
names should be used, he said that he
had been asked a couple of years ago if
he would like to undertake the manu-
facture of artificial coffee. Being of a
speculative turn of mind (and none too
scrupulous) he went into the business.
" We used to buy a very soft, fine
blue clay, grind it thoroughly and dry
out the water. It was then moisteued
to a molding consistency with extract
of chiccory and dandelion, moulded into
coffee bean shape and mixed with GER
tain proportion of pure coffee. When
roasted it had all the appearance of
genuine coffee, with the additional ad
vantage to us OF weighing more. Using
twenty five per centum OF clay beans,
which weighed about twenty five per
centum more than the real coffee. we
would get six and one-quarter per CEN
tum more weight out of given quanti-
ty by measure, and this additional
weight was enough to pay for the work
ing OF the clay into shape so that our
clay coffee gave us q clean profit of
twenty-five cents on the dollar, besides
the profit on the genuine coffee"
" Did you sell much of it p
"We did very large business. We
sould undersell any other house in the
market, but we never ran down our
prices so as to excite suspicion. By
keeping just enough below market rates
to secure sale for all we could handle,
We kept up good profits and a good re-
putation.
"Where did your clay come from?"
That 1 can't tell you. I've gone
out of the business myself for reasons OF
my own, but
There are others still engaged in It;
is that it %
swell, I reckon I've told you enough
for one day; suppose you hunt up some
body else"
uluRenb bShrcn through NeW IOrk
and Brooklyn failed to discover any more
trace of this business, and it is probably
carried on in Bostjn. Philadelphia or
the West.
That chiecory and cereals Oceans,
wheat or rye) are made to resemble the
native coffee bean is proven by the
analysis OF the samples bought in differ
ent New York groceries. The first
eight samples mentioned in DIR. Motifs
report were bought whole and ground in
the presence of the buyer. Unfortu.
nately no samples of the whole beans
were taken, but the fact that chiccory
was found in considerable quantities in
twenty-five per eentum of the samples
shows that it must have been pressed
into shape to resemble coffee. House
wives, therefore, who have heretofore
1ananHaH ,rvo,, 1,nusuD ooGoo