Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-06-20
Fraud at the Breakfast Table.

To the average American, coffee is as
essential TO good breaks asst. rs is tea
to the Englishman. The frauds prac-
ticed by the makers of ground coffee,
are many and well known. These may
be readily avoided by the purchase Of
coffee that is not ground. 1t has been
supposed that one who purchased the
raw bean, and roasted and ground it
himself, would have pure coffee. While
this course avoids one set of adul-
terations, those which are only possible
with ground coffee, it may be but
change of evils. While raw coffee is
free from adulteration in the proper
sense of the term--the adding of
cheaper article to reduce its cost to the
seller the purchaser may fall upon what
is still worSe-poisoned raw coffee. 1t
has recently been discovered by the Of
ficers of the Board of Health of New
York city. that Maracaibo, Rio and 9TH
e. cheap coffees, are manipulated and
colored in their unroasted state, TO make
them resemble in appearance and color
the "Old Government Java" and that
in the process there are used various
coloring materials which are of n poi
sonous nature. and which one would
not, even in small quantities, willingly
take into his system. Among the col
oring matters are some, which, like UNI
Der, Venetian red, lamp black, soap
stone, ETC., are no more harmful than
the same quantity of any other kind of
dirt. On the other hand, there are en-
ployed compounds of arsenic and lead,
which one would not care to take with
his coffee in even minute quantities, be-
sides the prussiate of potash and
other chemicals not usually regard
ed as essential to good break
fast. The cheap coffees are green,
and the surface has dull APP
pearance, while Java has a yellow color,
and the surface of the bean is smooth
and polished The articles we have
mentioned are used to change the green
of cheap coffees to yellow. Sprinkling
powdered soapstone, and various color
ing materials, and placing it in hot
revolving iron cylinders7 the beans rub
against one another until they. &C luire
the desired color and polish. The coffee
brokers assert that more than half the
retail grocers sell cheap coffee that has
been colored to initiate Java. There are
large establishments for coloripg coffee
near New York, but they claim that
their processes are harmless. They,
however. do admit that there are some
wicked men in the same business in
Holland, and it may have been their
cOhees that were examined by the
Board of Health.
First-class retail grocers can procure
their stock from importers, and they
are in no danger of being served with
the colored stuff; but it is different with
the average dealer all over the country.
Soaking the suspecte coffee grains in
water. frequently stirring or shaking
them. in bottle, then carefully drying
them and comparing them with sam
pie not so treated. will show by diff
| terence in color If they have been
tempered with. Nearly all the .coloring
materials are insoluble in water. and il
the water in which the sample off coffee
has been soakedis allowed to stand in
a wine glass, the coloring matter viii
settle as fine powder at the bottom
american AgricHlturist.