The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-02-03
How New York Ladies Take Their Tea
and Coffee,

"H lady calls for hot tea or Coffee"
said Broadway druggist, =" we serve
her with = beverage of precisely the
same kind and quite as well prepared
as she can have made in her own kitchen.
We make it with hot Croton water, the
same as she would. The demand for
tea is new, but it is growing, and you
will find tea and coffee served in many
drug stores on Broadway and the ave-
nues. 1t has come to be an ordinary
incident of shopping tour for a lady
to alight from her carriage and refresh
herself with glass OF hot tea. Men,
too, especially elderly men. often call
fer tea. The demand for tea, however,
is not so great as for coffee. We reckon
tea as fall and winter beverage. In
summer there is, of course. very little
demand for hot drinks of any kind. and
there are few. comparatively, who drink
cold tea Nevertheless, we make tea
all summer to sell to those who want it
for its stimulating effects
No; you're right" said the druggist.
Well, of course, there are ladies who
occasionally request the addition of
little something stronger in the way of
stimulant, but they don't do it, even in
the case of soda water, as often as many
people suppose; and my experience is
that q person who takes tea or coffee as
stimulant doesn't generally take
spirits. Perhaps ought to put it the
other way and say that person who has
once accustomed herself to take spirits
as a stimulant doesn't want tea. OF
course don't keep spirits to dispense
in that way. I'm talking now of what
know of the business generally"
Another druggist said: 81 don serve
my tea to ladies in cups and saucers.
and with spoons, but I'm thinking of
doing so. They like to sip it. We use
glasses because we have been accus-
toned to serve all beverages in that
way over our counter. In the case of
cold coffee or tea we shall be obliged to
continue the use of glasses, because it
requires deep vessel to catch a jet of
soda water without spattering. When
the beverages are to be made hot. how
ever, we can pour hot Croton water into
cups and stir up the mixture with a
spoon. 1t is practically impossible to
use hot soda water. The carbonic acid
gas expands and cannot be kept in it. -
A third druggist explained how he
made his coffee and tea:
Tea" said he, "is made just as the
housewife makes it, only in much larger
| quantities and much stronger. 1t is
made very strong so. that we need not
put enough of 1t in a glass to cool the
hot water, and yet so that the glassful of
| liquid shall be of proper strength. When
the strong decoction is first made we
put the sugar in and thus make sirup
of it. The sugar operates to preserve
its freshness. When we make coffee
we put a large quantity of freshly ground
coffee into q vessel with a steam-tight
cover, but with q perforated bottom,
and then let steam in at the top. The
steam forces its way down through the
coffee. 1t is condensed in its passage
and trickles through the perforated bot
tom in the form of water. This is also
made into a sirup by the addition OF
sugar. 1t is so strong that little of it
will make glassful of splendid coffee,
with the addition of hot Croton water.
Some druggists fill strong vessel full
of ground coffee. The top and the bot
tom of the vessel are perforated. Hot
water is then allowed to percolate
through the coffee. As the coffee gets
wet it swells and since it cannot burst
the vessel it exerts a considerable press.
ure on itself. This method is slower
than the other. By means of steam we
get so much of the strength out of the
coffee that a quart of it afterward boiled
in a quart of water will hardly color the
water.-NeU York Sun.