The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-01
A TALK ABoUT COFFEE.
The Enormous Production of Brazil,
Some AduItera

Some AduItera
From the New York Press.
An old friend asked the other day
what kind of coffee used and on be
ing informed that it was the usual
mixture of Arabian Mocha and Mand-
heling Java, half and half, at 40 cents
a pound, offered this amazing informa-
ton; Il am Obliged to have a strong
cup of good coffee in the morning.
Without it T am unable to attend to
business. / try to buy the best in the
market, and for years have paid from
40 to 40 cents pound for Mocha and
Java. Not long ago | learned a Sc
cret. A great deal of the alleged Java
we buy at big prices is Maracaibo.
which, under its real name, costs only
Is cents a pound"
A member of the Coffee Exchange
says: II am not surprised to hear
that Maracaibo Is often sold for Java.
In England it has been the rule rather
than the exception for a long time to
substitute the Guatemala product for
that of Java, and probably the con-
sumers never knew the difference. The
production of Java. is steadily falling
off. Indeed, the government is gradu-
ally giving up the cultivation Of coffee,
finding the profits small in comparison
with former years. and in the near III
ture the crop will be entirely in the
hands of private planters. OF late the
business has been so unremuneratiVe
that many coffee estates have been
turned into tea farms. We import
about 500, 900. 900 pounds of coffee, and
of this huge quantity only about a mill
lion and a quarter pounds are Java. IN
1898 our supply of Java was nearly
$500. 900 pounds"
This broker continues: 1.-The demand
for Java has been sustained by its
name. During the Civil War bag of
Old Government was worth its weight
in gold. While the army was making
coffee out of burnt potatoes the stay
at-homes were slipping small cups of
this treasure, which was measured out
as carefully as IF it were the rarest
wine. The name has lived in the mem
cries of the old folk, and its potency
has been the encouragement and eN-
cuse for much fraud. Even the cheap
est cross roads country store has pre-
tended to keep on hand a supply of
Old Government for customers who
would not think of drinking anything
else, and ] doubt if one of them ever
had an ounce of the genuine article in
! stock. There are coffees quite as good
as Java, and / am glad the people are
! beginning TO wean themselves from
Old Government
Because Maracaibo Is cheap i'm price
you must not believe it a cheap cof-
| fee, in the sense of inferiority We
| import about 43, 000,0 900 pounds annually
In 1899 it was invoiced to us at a frac'
! ton over 3 cents a pound. In 1900 the
price was about one cent higher. Ric
| will always be our cheap coffee | sup
| pose, because there is more Of it. and
| there will continue TO be more Of II.
The Brazilian crop iS over LOO 600, 900
pounds Think of it! Why il is 400.
000 900 pounds more than the United
States consumes Most of the Rio used
in public houses is mixed with chic
ory. which greatly improves the taste.
"Steady coffee drinkers who are not
able to obtain a satisfactory brand of
the bean become so fond of certain
adulterants that they demand them
Take chicory: IT has an injurious effect
on the bowels If taken in too large
quantities, but all cheap restaurants
that make a speciality of coffee use it,
and proprietors have told me in al
seriousness that should the chicory be
left out for a few days and only the
pure coffee fusion be used their GUS
toners win complain and threaten to
go elsewhere. The adulteration of
ground coffee is a fine subject for
Congress investigation Whew! If you
could only know what you get when
you buy It. The French use caramel or
burnt sugar. a cast-off product of the
refneries. And everybody brags about
French coffee Among other aduhera-
tons are roasted wheat and beans rye
and potato -four. acorns ground date
stones. etc. Coffee substitutes are flood
ing the market-cereals, essences, etc.
when Sir Thomas Upton goes into