New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-25
IDEAL CUP OF COFFEE.
Uncle Sam to Determine the Best
Method of Making Beverage.

human system depend to a great extent upon
It's mode of preparation the Agricultural De-
partment has decided to devote much time in
the coming winter to ascertaining the best
method to produce ideal cup of coffee. n
chemical expert who has made the subject of
coffee growing and making a special study, will
be employed for the purpose.
It is the contention of the department that
the production of cup of good coffee depends
more upon the way it is made than upon the
grade of coffee bean employed. Not only Will
all the known methods of coffee making be en-
ployed in the experiments, but scientific meas
ures will be used to determine with the utmost
exactness the effects produced upon the coffee
bean from the time it leaves the plantation,
through the process of roasting and grinding,
and lastly. in the brewing of the beverage.
What promises to be a most interesting feature
of the experiments will be the testing of the
method employed in the western part of Suma-
ira of using the leaves of the coffee plant in
stead of the berries. The method in vogue III
Cuba of making coffee by cold water infusion
though supposed to eliminate the undesirable
fannie element has been found by the depart
ment expert to contribute in reality little or
nothing to that effect. The process employed
by- the celebrated coffee makers OF Paris Vienna
and Constantinope will he used in so far as
they are known. It is a recognized fact how
ever, that some of these adopts possess secret
methods which they will not disclose, as, for
instance, the famous Egyptian coffee maker OF
the King of England
Like everything else. coffee has a history, and
if the accounts concerning it which originate
from the Orient, are trustworthy. it has an an
cient as we'll as interesting, though somewhat
checkered, career. The legend runs that coffee
was found growing wild in Arabia by Hadjl
Omar. a dervish 617 years ago. He was dying
OF hunger in the desert. when finding some
small round berries, ne tried to eat them. but
they were bitter After roasting them, he final
ly stepped them in some water held in the hol-
lew of his hand. finding the decOction as re-
freshug as if he had partaken of solid food.
He hurried back to Mocha. whence he had
been banished, and, inviting the wise men TO
partake of his discovery. they were so well
pleased with it that they proclaimed him
saint. In the Bibliotheque Rationale, Paris,
there is a manuscript near the end of the SIN
teenth century,. written by an Arab, Abdel-
cader. who declares that coffee was drunk for
the first time in Arabia in the middle of the
fifteenth century. Others think that certain
remarks in Persian writings imply that coffee
was used in Persia early the ninth cen-
fury; but most authors dispute these texts. 1t
Is commonly supposed that the of coffee
in it's earliest home. Abyssinia. and in its sec
ond home, Arabia. is only five to six centuries
old. \ legend says that the angel Gabriel once,
when Mahomet was ill., brought him cup OF
coffee. Another legend says that a MahOm-
etan monk discovered that his goats became
very lively and full OF fun after they had eaten
the fruit of the coffee tree. This observation
caused him to make the first cup of coffee. His
dervishes enjoyed the coffee, and ever after
ward drank ii at night to produce wakefulness
when they kept vigils. Cautious historians
laugh at these traditions and prefer to stand
by Abdelcaders manuscript This writer men
tions an Arab Gemalledin. a judge in Alden,
who. while travelling to Persia. or. the his
torians correct the manuscript. TO Abyssinia,
saw people coffee medicine. He used
it and was cured of a sickness. Later, becoming
a monk, he taught his brethren the use Of coffee.
1t was then, in Alden that coffee drinking origi-
mated. The fakirs even made coffee drinking
compulsory upon their neophytes. Public coffee
houses originated in Alden, and early in the his
tory of the use of the drink. No opposition to
the coffee can be found until the middle of the
sixteenth century. when the Egyptian Sultan
sent a new governor Chair Bey, to Mecca. This
Governor knew nothing about coffee, and was
greatly enraged when he saw the dervishes in
the mosque drinking coffee. He believed that
which they did was contrary to the teaching Of
the Koran. and that they became intoxicated.
He consulted two Persian physicians who were
opposed to coffee. They declared 1t was a sub
stitute for wine. which is prohibited by the
Koran, and hence coffee drinking was viola
ton of Mahomet's law. To prove that cof-
fee drinking made persons neglect religious
duties they pointed to the fact that while
coffee houses were multiplying. the mosques
were empty Chair Bey called a council of
physicians priests and lawyers. and, on their
advice forbade absolutely the use OF coffee.
The police gathered all coffee that could be
found and burned it in the marketplace. After
ward he reported to the Sultan what he had
done, and received the following note in reply:
Your physicians are asses. Our lawyers and
physicians in Cairo are better informed. They
recommend the use of coffee, and I declare that
no faithful will lose heaven because he drinks
coffee" Since then coffee drinking has been I'M
molested and it has become favored drink
everywhere.
While the honor of introducing tea may be
disputed between the English and the Dutch.
that of coffee seems to remain between the Eng
lish and the French Yet Italian intended to
have occupied the place of honor. That distin-
guished traveller. Pietro della Vale. writing
from ConstantinOple. in 1915. 10 Roman. says
that he would teach Europe in what manner
the Turks took what he calls ''cahue." or, as the
word is written in Arabic and English pam
phlet printed at oxford in 1869. the nature
of the drink. "kauhi. coffee 1t appears by
lie Grand's Vie Prives des FRANCOIS that the
celebrated Thevenot. in 1868. gave coffee after
dinner. but il considered the within of a
traveller; neither the thing itself its ap-
pearance was inviting. But ten years afterward
a Turkish ambassador at Paris made the bev-
erage highly fashionable. The elegance of the
equipage recommended il to the eye and
charmed the women; the brilliant porcelain cups,
in which il was poured the napkins fringed
with cold and tho Turkish slaves their Lneaa