Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-12-30


Coffee, which with tea and cocoa CON
tests for the supremacy of the world a.
a domestic beverage, and the chemical
virtues of whice are practically the same
as those of its two rivals, appears to be
making decided Roadway, juds ed by its
constantly increasing popularity. Thi.
is to be accounted for partly from the
steady increase in its production and con
sequent cheapness from this cause. 1t is
to be presumed, however, that the chief
reason for its increasing popularity is
the perfection that has been attained in
preparing it for use.
For many years after coffee began TO
be popular beverage, the householder
purchased it in its green state, roasted or
burned it more properly in the old fash
Toned dripping or frying pan, and either
pounded it in a mortar or ground 1t IN
hand-mill This involved hard work
tried tempers, and an aroma of scorched
coffee all through the house, without pro
ducing a uniformly satisfactory drink.
One housewife roasted it too little and
another too much, while still in another
Household no two roastings would be
alike. There was no means of determin
ing when the process of roasting had
reached the greatest state OF perfection,
and the general result was haphazard and
without any fixed standard. Within the
past twenty years, however, leading cof-
fee dealers have employed chemists and
reduced the process of coffee roasting to
an exact science. The coffee is now
sold either in bulk or pound packages all
ready for the mill, and the retail grocer
generally does the grinding, 50 that all
the housewife has TO do is to study the
preparing of the aromatic beverage for
the table. An the guesswork, burnt fingers,
scorched faces, tried tempers, and tired
arms attendant on the old process of
roasting and grinding are done away
with. From this more than any other
cause the use of coffee is constantly on
the increase.
Coffee. which is native of Abyssiuia
and other equatorial districts in Africa,
first came into notice about the fifteenth
century The esrliest written accounts
of its use are by Arabian writer's of that
period. In the city of Alden it became in
the latter part of that century very
popular drink, first with lawyers and other
studious persons whose occupations made
wakefulness desirable, and soon after
with all classes, From here its use ex
tended gradually TO the cities on the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and
from theAee into Europe. It was public
ly sold in Constantinople in 1864, and
reached Venice the great trade market of
Europe, III 1916 Burton, in his "Anato-
my of Melancholy" (162I, is supposed TO
be the first European writer TO mention it,
"The Turks he says, have a drink called
coffee (fOr they use no wine), so named of
berry as black as SCOT and rs bitter,
which they sip up as warm as they can
suffer, because they find by experience
that that kind of drink SO used helpeth
digestion and procureth alscrity.' The
first coffee house was opened in London
! in 1862 by the Greek servant of Turkish
merchant, Jew by the name of Jacob
having opened one in Oxford the year
previous. BY tie end of the century the
English consumption of coffee reached
one hundred tuns. The first cultivation
of coffee began in the province of Yemen.
Arabia from which the little real Mocha
coffee that finds its way to market at the
present day is derived. The Dutch trans
planted it from Arabia to Java about
1850, from which its culture soon extend
ed through the entire East Indies. 1t was
/
sterdam about 1872 that the seed was pro
cured from which the entire West Indian
and South American product, which now
amounts to four-ffths of all the coffee
grown in the world originated.
The finest favored coffee is undoubted-
Ily the Mocha, grown in Yemen, Arabia.
4 The Mocha berry is small, round ami of
dark brown color, the richness of the
color arising from its being allowed to
remain on the trees until 10 ripe that il
can be shaken off. There is very littlc
! Of this delicious coffee that ever reaches
the American or English markets, the
entire crop being consumed east aud
southwark of Constantinople. The or
binary Mocha coffee of commerce is the
selected berries of the Java and Brain
product. which resembles the Mocha in
size and shape, the higher price which
it commands, paying for the trouble OF
picking it out from the mass of ordinary
berries In flavor il IL no better than
the ordinary coffees from which it is
selected. Java coffee stands next on the
list in point of flavor, and the size and
color of the berries show a marked diff
/ ference from the American cOffees, there
il no great danger of an ordinary good
1 Judge of coffee being cheated in this ar
ticle The berry is larger than that of
the American coffees and Of color vary
ing from pale yellow to brown, while the
smaller berry of the Rio coffee has a
blush or gray tinge. The Java coffee
is chiefly exported to Holland and the
United States; England drawing its sup
plies from Ceylon and Brazil principal
ly.
Although coffee is widely distributed
and its use common in all civilized coun-
tries, the extent 10 which IL is consumed
varies greatly. The total production of
coffee for the year 1885 WIS estimated by
reliable authorities at 1,G45, 100000 pound
or tribe over one pound per capita for
the entire population OF the world. In
( China and Japan, where tea is the com
mon beverage the use of coffee is prac-
ticGlly unknown, and it is probable that
among the millions constituting the pop
ulatiou Of Eurooeau and Asiatic Russia
the consumption is merely nominal. Ths
same may be said Of equatorial and
southern Africa, where the plant grows
in its wild state, the natives neither know
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