Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-12-11
Cold Weather Increases Con-
sumption 20 Per Cent and
Local Plant Is Busy.
SOMETHING OF THE INDUSTRY
An Interesting Story of the Preparation
of Your Morning Drink from the
Time the Berry Leaves It's Far Away
Plantation Till It Reaches Your Ia
bIe-its Purchase Interesting.

Increased the consumption OF coffe
| fully twenty per cent, and as resul
the Spencer Let's Coffee Company, Q
this city, the largest roasting concer
| in the state, is more than rushed in 1T
attempt to supply the demand OF IN
various branch houses of the Western
Grocer Company, to which they fur
nish almost all of the c.ffee handled
A visit to the roasting plant VIII reVea
much of interest to many who love thi
popular beverage, but to whom tn
processes through which the COFFEE
berry passes from the time 1t Leaves
the plantations in distant Brazil, o.
Africa until it is poured steaming int
china at ones plate, is almost wholly
unknown.
How 1t Is Prepared.
The process thru which the coffet
passes at the roasting plant is only
such as will prepare the green bear
ready for the table. 1t goes thru
several evolutions Of cleaning, grading
roasting and packing before it is read!
to be shipped and sold to the retailer
While yet green it comes to the rooster
in the original packages into when
it was placed at the plantation that
produced it. and these packages vary
in size from bags containing 1872 pounds
to mats from Java holding sixtyfive
pounds. The green berries are then
taken, with all the varied kinds OF
chaff, dirt and imperfect grains, and
passed thru grading machine, similar
In construction to tanning mill, where
the various sizes are graded. Into
one bin falls the small and broken
pieces, into another the next in size,
and into the third the larger or perfect
ones. If it is desired to make a blend
of two different grades for instance
Mocha and Java, the proper propor-
lions of each are dumped into a re-
cepticle where they are carried by end
less chain buckets to large perforated
cylinder which revolves inside an outer
case This device is set in motion while
a strong current of air is played up
on it's contents which rids the beans
of much of the lighter refuse. This
same machine mixes the different kinds
of coffee placed therein and when they
emerge they are again dumped into
a bin, and another endless row of lit
tie metal buckets takes them up and
carries them to the roasters where they
are ready to be Drowned. The rooster
is another perforated cylinder, which
when the coffee is turned into 1T, re-
wolves rapidly over hard coal fire I'M
til each bean is done to the proper
shade. The Drowned and steaming
are then run into a car, with
the bottom SO perforated that when
strong draught of air is turned onto it
they may not only be rapidly cooled
but what refuse remains is blown away.
During the process Of roasting the
coffee shrinks in weight about fifteen
per cent, or one hundred pounds of
green coffee after being roasted will
weigh but eighty-five pounds. The
beans are again picked UP by never
ceasing buckets that dump them into
/ last cleaning device where the lleav-
other cleaning apparatus would not
remove are separated from the grains
Curious articles are often found by
his cleaning process, such as bits OF
ron, wood and stone and piece Of
Brazilian money was brought to light
oy this device not long ago. After its
asst cleansing it is again picked up by
endless buckets that take it into
moving car, the track for which Is
quilt over the various bins of the pack.
ng room below. From the car it is
'un, according to the grade or blend
o which 1t belongs, into funnel shaped
pockets, from which it is drawn by an
automatic Weighing machine that
lnows what a pound is to a single
Jerry, and is packed into little cartoons,
r. placed into larger packages, ready
or shipment.
The Output.
The Spencer-Letts Coffee Company |
casts every working day in the year
nless delayed on account of needed |
epairs to machinery. The two roast
RS with which the plant is equipped |
ave capacity of about 10000 pounds
ach day, and the company carries in
took continually between 1000 and
900 bags part of which is either in
ne house or in transit to this city. This
liant was established and is main
aimed for the purpose of supplying the
tx branch houses of the Western Gro
er Company with their various brands
bulk and package coffees. 1t does
OF sell to others than members of
ne corporation.
Where the Product Comes From.
Brazil furnishes nine tenths of the
offee consumed in the United States
nd It's product is, of course, known as
brazilian coffee. The Dutch East In
les produce the Java, while the vari-
us kinds of African coffee are grown
pom the western coast of that CONT
eht. AFRICAN Java is the product of
1rlcan seed, planted in southern In
la, While Mocha is grown in Arabia
interior Africa the coffee plant grows
lid, but the bean is not fit for use, and
is only thru the cultivation of the
lants that the various kinds of Afri-
IN coffees are produced. |
Gomez as Whole is divided into two
reat commercial classes known as i
razilian and mild. The latter term is
lther misleading, as it includes all
asses other than Brazilian, some l
which, especially African. is the
rongest coffee grown. The higher the L
titude the better the coffee produced,
wing to the colder climate. For that u
JASON the Santos variety, grown in
,uthern Brazil, is much superior to
ietorias, which is produced near the
luator
How Named and Shipped.
The various varieties of coffee are
amed in peculiar manner. All coffee /
own in Brazil is named after the sea-
'rt from which 1t is shipped. Thus +
intos IS exported from the port of the,