The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-12-27
ADULTERATIONS.
The limitations of Coffee are
Cleverly Made.
CHICCORY AS A HEALTHFUL DRINK
Ninety Per Cent of the Samples of
"GPound Coffee" Bought at Retail
Stores Is Adulterated.

Stores Is Adulterated.
1t is interesting to know that the
Belgian people consider chicory a
healthful drink, and that they mix it
with their coffee on the advice of
native doctors; for, we receive from
Flanders every year 1000 tons of the
chicory root, which is mixed with our
coffee as means of increasing the
profits of the dealers in pure Mocha
and Java" In addition to this we get
large quantities of chicory from Ger
many and France. Many of the chic
CRY farmers of Belgium have factories
for treating the root in the United
States. These facts come to the State
Department at Washington from
Henry G. Morris, the Consul of the
United States at Client, who tells us
also that the export of chicory to the
United States has quadrupled in eigh-
teen months. OF the merits of the
chicory root as material for decocting
healthful drink, he says, sit is said to
be especially beneficial to persons
suffering from disorders of the stomach.
With this strong recommendation in
it's favor chicory is not much to be
feared as an adulterant Of coffee. We
do not like to have snapping-turtle sold
to us for terrapin; but so long as the
turtle is nutritious and of such fine
flavor that we cannot detect the fraud,
nothing but the moral sense of the deal
er is injured by the substitution. If
chicory were the only adulterant used
in American coffee there would be small
reason to complain on the score of the
nations health. But when decoctions
of bran, flour, molasses, and even saw
dust are served on our tables, there is
reason to believe that much injury may
arise from the fraud practiced. 1t is
not alone in cheap restaurants that
fraudulent coffee is found. 1t may be
served ON the tables of rich and poor
alike.
The careful housewife once had great
faith in the coffee which she roasted
and ground for herself. For many
years this was undoubtedly protec-
ton against fraud. All of the imita-
ton coffees at first were sold in ground
condition for mixture with the ground
coffees with which every little grocery
was supplied. Now the fraud has gone
further. The imitation ground coffee
is still made, and it furnishes the larg-
est contribution to fraud. But there is
also fraudulent coffee berry, imitat-
ing not only the roasted but the green
coffee. One concern makes a green
coffee berry of wheat or rye flour and
corn, and an imitation of roasted coffee
berries Of the same ingredients. An
other imitation Of the green berry is
made of ground coffee and wheat flour
mixed and moulded. Other imitation
coffee, and chicory. OF imitation
ground coffees, some are made of bran
and molasses, some of peas and mo.
lasses, and some of pea hulls and bran
The limitations of coffee are so clever
ly made that it requires an expert ex-
animation to detect the fraud. One
fairly good test of roasted coffees,
which can be applied by any one, is
the water test. Roasted coffee as
rule will float Coffee which has
been over-roasted will sometimes sink.
On the other hand, almost all imitation
cotfees will sink in water. Chicory in
ground imitation coffee will discolol
the water into which it is thrown,
while cereals in the mixture will sink
quickly to the bottom. Another test fol
the imitation coffee berry is ocular ex.
animation. In the cleft of the genuine
berry there is almost invariably 9
small part Of the membrane which
originally surrounded it; in the arti
fetal berry, of course, this is lacking
The artificial berry, too, is of very reg
ular formation.
The chemist of the Agricultural De
partnent at Washington made an in
vestigation into the adulteration o.
coffees some time ago, and reported
that very little pure ground coffee wal
put on the market. Ninety per cent
of the samples of "ground coffee
bought at retail stores in Washington
were found to be adulterated. Only
three out of sixty samples of Who'll,
roasted coffee were found to be in any
degree spurious; but the department
chemist believes that much of tn,
package coffee sold in small towns
especially in Kansas, is spurious il
whole or in part. No green coffees il
open market were found to be adulter
ated
1t has been suggested that some Law
be enacted requiring dealers to labe
imitation coffees. limitations of coffe,
are often what are known abroad al
coffee substitutes. :" They are no
necessarily unwholesome. In Brazil
where it would be supposed ever,
one could drink coffee freely and b,
sure of obtaining a pure article. tn,
poor use a substitute made from tn,
fruit of the wax palm, which is de
clared by authorities to be nutritious
Chicory and figs are declared by SOM
authorities to be very desirable substi
tutes for coffee. There are now SOM
substitute coffees sold as such in thi
country, but the great demand TO
coffee, and the consequent temptation
to adulterate, has led to widespread
fraud ON the coffee consumers of tn