The Portland daily press., 1881-02-14
Coffee in France.
London Globe.1


The first coffee root was planted in France
in the gardens of the King, at Paris, in 1714,
where it speedily perished. 1t was imported
by M. de Resson, Lieutenant-General of the
Artillery. 1t is said that the berry was not
known in France till 1867, when the Vene-
tians imported it, to the great disgust of the
doctors, who thereupon prophesied evil things.
Nevertheless it had great vogue. In 1869
the Ambassadors of Mahomet II. brought
large quantity of coffee presumably in bulky,
which sold in Paris at 40 crowns a pound. 1t
was at the beginning of 100 that Sicilian
named Procope founded the celebrated cafe
bearing his name, in front of the Comedie
Fraucaise, which became the rendezvous of
lovers of the drama, the battlefield of literary
disputes, and was attended, as is certain lit
erary club in London, 'by gentlemen eminent
in their respective spheres" Here Voltaire
passed two hours every day. Madame de Sc
vigne put on bold front against the prevail
ing fashion, but struggled in vain, as may well
be imagined, when she foretold that Racine
and coffee and the cafe would perish together
on one and the same day.
The French housewife, than whom there is
no better preparer of the fragrant cup will tell
you that one of the essential conditions of cof-
fee being good is that it be old. When it is
new it is acrid and exciting. With age it loses
these defects, and thus may be compared to
wine. Mocha coffee is the best. In France it
is rarely found, even in the large grocers'
shops. But the Bourbon is nearly equal to it.
Coffee from Martinique is stronger and more
exciting than those already mentioned and
requires longer keeping. 1t is easy, of course,
to buy large quantity of the green bean at a
time, add to the stood year by year as it dimin-
ishes, taking care that the store room is dry,
and above all that no strong smelling condit
meLts are placed near the coffee jar, such as
Worcestershire sauce, pickles. Indian confec-
tions and the rest. Coffee has a wonderful
tendency to borrow the less fragrant perfume
of other delicacies to destroy its own.
Beware of roasting the bean too much. All
travelled Englishmen in France have seen gar
cons twirling the cylindeI-shaped organ con-
tanning the bean in process of being cooked,
and will have remarked how very few turns
serve to render it fit for the mill. A clever
cook, when such a machine is not available,
will obtain the same result by pouring sutfici-
ent sweet oil to cover the bottom of a frying
pan, and shaking the beans thereon for q min
ute or two, till they attain the slightest brown
tint, and letting them leap at once from the
frying-pan into the mill, thence into the
French humble double tin cafetter, in which
only true coffee is to be made. Above all, let
it be made by the lady of the house in the din
ing-room before her guests. 1t is very SIM
pie proposition to make, but kitchen coffee is
never SO good as when it is prepared by the
head of the establishment. Servants will
''just merely" keep back part of the brown
powder tor their own use, or will deluge the
cOffee-pot with water with the same view.
Moreover, it is the true beginning of the end"
if the guests have dined well; they have three
further pleasures before Them the elegance
with which their hostess manipulates her ket-
tie, her coffee-pots and cups; the delicious ar
oma that speedily fills the room and chases
away the too-long lingering fumes of "A cotelette
q Ia Soubise or the lingering fumes of a soup
la bonnie femme, and the final enjoyment of the
precious liquor that will render digestion easy
and therefore insure their success with the la
dies in the drawing-room after the perfumed
chdsse has been duly discussed.