The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-29
Exhaustive Report Given by U. S.
Consul General.
INTERESTING HISTORICAL SKETCH
When the Bean Was First Converted into
Beverage Mexico Attracting Investors
and Settlers From the United States Part
One of Valuable Paper on Coffee, Etc.

port on Mexican coffee by the large
numeber of letters I am receiving from
every State in the Union upon that
subject, from persons seeking com
mercial information, from persons
seeking personal or community infOr
nation, contemplating removal to Mex
leo, and from persons engaged in the
historical investigation of the bean,
and Mexico in connection with the
bean
I will attempt in the rirst place, to
give history of the bean from it's dis
covery to the present time, for which
am largely indebted to a work styled
Cultivation and Preparation of Coffee,
by Gabriel Gomez. agricultural en-
gineer of Mexico, who, at the time of it's
composition, possibly had as compre
hensive knowledge of the berry as any
one who ever wrote on the subject. 1t
is due to the readers to say never saw
coffee growing until l came to Mexico
in 1898, that 1 know little Of it now,
that lam more of collector of facts
about it than an originator of ideas.
No one, without practical experience
in growing, cultivating and curing the
bean for market can have reliable in
formation about it. | have sought this
information from the best sources,
from those engaged in it's production,
and present it as it is impaired to me;
oh
waited in Mexico, in what parts of the
Republic, the kinds of coffee, and the
profits and sales of the same; third,
how it is prepared for market; fourth,
how it is prepared for table use, Civ
ing receipts from those who have had
large experience and can extract the
beverage from the bean so skillfully
as to make it most palatable The
question with ali classes of our people
is, how to obtain the best grades of
coffee at the least price. l shall at
tempt to answer these points in a
plain, simple way, so that even the
unlearned can thoroughly understand
what is said.
Heretofore, Mexico has not been con-
sidered by our merchants as an en-
large or promising field for coffee
production, because producers have
not shown much activity in presenting
the crop to the market. 1t is strange
to those of us viewing it from the pres
ent standpoint and acquaintanceship
with the bean that the Mexican coffee
should have remained so long un-
known to and unsolG IL cur market.
Since the government of this country
has passed to capable hands; since
the country has opened it's gates to
all home-seeking people: since the
world has become assured that finan-
ciaI investments, as well as life and
property. are as safe here as else
where, that large part of The cOun-
try is accessible by rail and water, a
new life, a greater stimulus, has been
given to the production of all kinds of
tropical fruits, as well by those ma
tive and to the manner born" as by
thousands of foreigners who have re-
moved to Mexico for agricultural pur-
poses. Mexico has shown its capacity
to produce the higher as wei as the
lower grades of the berry-from the
most delicate Uruapan to the rougher
and less tasteful on the higher eleya-
tions-and she become a greater pro-
Queer for the markets OF the world,
shrinking from no comparison with
the coffee OF Brazil and elsewhere.
There are already many agents from
New Orleans. New York, San Francis
co, and Baltimore located in the coffee
producing regions of Mexico, buying
larger or smaller lots for their employ
ers in the United States. [ am of the
opinion that Mexico has the capacity
to produce every pound of coffee re
quired in the United States, and as
it is a part of the North American
continent with our own country, its
proximity has much Iessened the cost
OF transportation over that from the
more distant South American and
Asiatic countries
The history of coffee is interesting,
and as it may not be generally known,
l will present some of the most i'm
pOrtant points pertaining to the be
verage. Its original home is supposed
to have been Upper Ethiopia, and it
was transplanted from there TO Ara
bia Felix 1t is still controverted
point with certain classes whether the
beverage was known to the Greeks and
Romans. The Persians adopted the
berry after the Etniopians, and the
Arabs are entitled to the credit for
it's more general introduction into Eu-s.
rope From Arabia. the use of coffee
passed to Egypt, reaching Cairo at the
OF the sixteenth century
From Egypt, it passed to Syria; from
thence, to Greece and ConstantinopIe, /
a D. 1854.
Coffee was introduced into England !
in 1862 by a Greek named PasquarOsse, !
who was familiar with its preparation. |