The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-03
DRINKING LESS COFFEE,
The Consumption Of That Beverage
Is Falling or In Great
Britain.
The Daughters OF Albion Are the
Worst Coffee Makers In
the World.
ated-such Delicious Cups Are Pre-
pared ON the Continent.

pared on the Continent.
Absorbing to abatement presumably based
upon ths statistical returns issued by tho
customs department. in relation to imports,
the consumption OF coffee in the United
Kingdom has been steadily falling off for
some time past. although the duty on that
article has been considerably reduced, and
in spite OF tho Indispensable fact that coffee
Of tho very best quality il cheaper
In Great Britain than in any
other European country. A leading
medical contemporary points out that sew
eral theories have been rut forward with =
view to account for this perplexing anon
ally, says the London Telegraph. One 10
that coffee ID more adulterated here than on
the continent; another, Of still wider pro-
mitigation and acceptance than the former,
il that I'VE don't know how to make
good coffee in England" Our ron
temporary d%snouncss both these
assumptions az fsllacious and mis-
leading and does not hesitate
to qualify the latter as "a misstatsment in
terms" With regard to ths adulteration
theory. it positively asserted that pure
coffee 10 more easily to be obtained in this
country than in France, Austria, Italy or
Germany. Why this should be 80, however,
does not appear, and we confess ourselves
unprepared to place implicit faith in 10
sweeping an allegation while totally unsup-
ported by satisfactory evidence to its COR
rectness. Pure coffee may be moro expensive
abroad than II is here by isaaon of the heavy
= a s-x-.n~ -.~r - H. kn-n;-~ rA-n-y,
ments; but that ia no reason why 1t should
be less readily purchasable, at a price, in one
country than another. Even should it be
conclusively demonstrated that coffee is
purer in London than in Paris OF any other
continental capital, we should only be COM
PEELED to avow our preference for the Inn
pure article, inasmueh as il is unquastion-
ably much more palatable than the genuine
stuff as prepared for US IN Dur own dear
native land. This is a fact 80 thoroughly
ascsrtained and unanimously recognized by
travelled EnQlishmen that it carries CON-
viction with 1t az to the superiority Of the
French, Austrian and German methods Of
preparing coffee over our own. Yet the
British Medical Journal. which certainly
has the courage of its opinions, boldly
asserts not only that I'VE all know how to
make good ~coffee,'' which may be regarded
rs one of the most amazing statements ever
periodical, but that there is no
Having propoundsd these ire
mendous assertions. it straightway pro-
ceeds to disprove them by explaining why
foreigners make SO much better coffee than
English folk, and how IL ia. az q matter of
fact, that tho latter, through ignorance
and misrepresentation, are the worst coffee
makers In the world. Tbs exposition of
this great truth is at once luminous and
convincing. In the interest Of British COT
fea-drinksrs it canno be too generally dis
those persons who are daily charged with
the preparation of 'the fragrant bean" for
consumption at unnumbered breakfast
tables. O.. 49,.
All coffee-drinkinR races, observes our
contemporary-that ia to say. all the Latin
derstand very we'll that the infusion or de-
coction OF coffee ia not a fluid like tea to be
imbibed in copious draughts. A weak in
fusion Of coffee ID a comparatively tasteless
and, to a palates, an almost nauseous
beverage; the pulyerized berry loses
when dissipated in an ocean of boil
ing water. The only way to prepare
it for consumption In large draughts
that shall bs agreeable Rs we'll as refreshing
to the drinker is to brew a small quantity
of strong coffee. INT add to the decootion
Of this combination is what we all drink,
when abroad, with our first breakfast"
and justly pronounce to be excellent. In
Lngland, as a rule, we comply with none OF
4Ae conditions essential to the production
of the delicious blend known in France
as "cafe-au-lait," and in Germany
as "weiss-kaffee." Disregarding the
wholesale example set to us by
all the skilled coffee-makers of continental
Christcndom, we insist upon being supplied
every morning with a weak aqueous infu-
sion of coffee, which We swallow by the
mawkishness by dosing it literally with
cold milk. This il tho liquid which We
drink ~submissivoly, day after day, in our
own homes, and are accustomed to accept
without a murmur when it is served to US,
by no means i%ne1psnsively, at the
boarding houses and seaside lodg-
Cines. Considered as beverage
it is an apt illustration of 'ths way not to
do it," which is one of our most cherished
national institutions. and was smartly sig
|nalized BY an American satirist some years
ago as $50 English, you know" When our
medical contemporary saws that $50 long
|as the English coffee-drinker persists in
breathing coffee as if it were tea he will al
ways find that he gets something unpleas-
pug 10 nlb paluu0, ~ lb cloArly III
the right, although his assumed per-
|~sistcnce in that regard is scarcely recon
|cilable with the dogma previously laid
down, to-wit, that I'VE all know how to
make good coffee in this country. II evsry
|Englishman or woman is really in posses
sion Of this knowledge. and steadfastly re-
brains from giving it practical effect, the
pnly logical inference deduoibls from his
|or her surprising conduct il that, as a ma
|tion, VIC prefer bad coffee to good.
The fallaoy of both assertion and
Inference, however, is sufficiently dem
pnrtrated by the enthusiasm with
our ellow-countrymen, after So
iourning upon the continent, usually
expatiate upon the excellence of French or
herman coffee, compared with tho sickly
British decoction which goes by the name,
mot to speak of the vigorous language In
which they freely give expression to their
regret that they cannot, for love or money,
obtain as good coffee on this side of the
~''silver streak" ms on the other.
In all probability the real causes of the
falling-off in the British consumption of
coffee advertsd to by our contem porary are
precisely those which it positively repudi-
E.tes as baseless and deluslye, that is, the
too common adulteration Of tho article
efualf ruith ,binnr,, aud rthar ayap