The herald., 1898-12-04
COFFEE TO BE
STILL CHEAPER
The Cause of the Decline In Price

|
| 1t is an erroneous idea that the cause Of
cheap coffee is on account of the fight be-
tween two large coffee-roasting concerns.
This fact has had some effect on prices, but
only incidentally. The real cause is the
enormous production. This year the
worlds output will be. approximately. 90
900. 900 bags of 1870 pounds each, worth at
wholesale about $3.50, 100000. That the con-
sumption of coffee has grown to such great
proportions is a rather startling condition
of things, and Is attracting the atten-
ton of very many of the brightest stu
dents of the world on hygienic matters.
| That the excessive use of coffee. or we
might say, the long continued use of It, Is
highly injurious, has been practically
proven without the aid of physicians, many
times. 1t is more than likely that at least
| one-third of all the coffee drinkers In the
world will admit to you without argument
that coffee injuries them. and they know 1t
! is only a questio of time until they will
| be Obliged to discontinue It's use. How
ever, the solving of this problem is much
more simple than generally considered. 1t
| is only for some one to find another drink
| that will be equally acceptable. and coffee
will be relega,ed to the rear, as other things
have been in ages past. Substitutes are
and always have been plenty, but to try
and arrive al a result by changing the or
iginal taste and natural characteristics of
foreign substance Is so far fetched that
drinks of this kind offered to the public
have not been winners. But the chemist
and the scientist are at work. and this re-
mark brings us back to our first statement
that coffee will be cheaper yet. and our
reason for making this statement is that
the time is ripe for the right thing TO come
to the front as an acceptable substitute
and this last assertion brings us to point
we have been aiming al from the start,
which is this: We have been shown an
article, and have drank 1t within the past
few days, that is the outgrowth Of many
years experimenting by highly-respected
and venerable physician now living in
Pasadena. He says 1t Is a product of
fruits and nuts, that he makes It himself
that he has been drinking II for years and
so have many of his friends, to whom he
has been giving it. 1t does not look unlike
roasted and ground coffee. except 1t is a
pleasant. or, we should say, seductive. You
imagine that you smell any one of many
things that are not there. One would say
that he detected the odor Of coffee, but an
other would insist that II was chocolate
and still another would call 1t vanilla.
However, 1t is said that none of these are
employed in the slightes. degree. The doc
tor calls it fruit coffee, and it goes without
saying that he is a frutarian. which fact
also partly accounts for his residence in
Southern California. The doctor says
there are over fifty thousand of them in
the United States, and if there is, We can't
California to live, where watermelons and
| strawberries can be had the year round
The United States is consuming 725, 900, 900
pounds of ordinary coffee annually. and If
We are a good judge, the doctor ought to
| be able 20 easily convert a reasonable per
| cent of them to fruit coffee, and when that
time comes. Los Angeles will need one of
the largest manufactures In this country
| to prepare 1t. and as it takes from seven 10
ten pounds of fresh fruit to make one
pound of fruit coffee (or Fruiton. as the
doctor calls IT., We will let our readers
figure out what this would mean in The
consumption of fresh fruit alone The doc.
tor says he is getting too old now to go into
the producing of an article of this kind n
large quantities. but we think there ar,
plenty of younger men who would be GLAD
| of the chance to take an interest in his
formula and put 1t on the market in q
proper manner. Science has been doina
much for us during the last quarter of a
century, and why should we not expect he,
to now furnish us with a true hygienic bev.
erage that will proong life instead OF
shortening il. 1t is almost inconcieva bic
TO imagine that certain of our fruits car
be so treated that the blending with IT q
preparation of the meats of nuts de.
licious drink can be made that will be
sought after by the strong and robust as
we'll as the dyspeptic and invalid But II
1t is SO let us go to making i, right here in
Los Angeles as soon as possible. so that we
may capture the world with X a Paris In
1900. In any event if it is not Fruiton II
Will be some other kind of coffee that will
take the place of ordinary coffee, for the
wheels of science are rolling on in that
direction mighty fast, and that is why we
predict that coffee is to be still cheaper in
the future than in the past.