Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1910-04-29
COFFEE FRAUDS
ROB NATION
Dr.. Wiley says Millions
are Stolen Each Year
FHE ADUlTERATORS AT WORK
Pamous Government Chemist
Charoes Housewives that they
arc Being Defrauded Daily by
tho Purchase OF Ground Co..
fee.-kes Gays Buy the Whole
Been and Roast and Grind II
YousoSlf."

fee.-he says Buy the Whole
Boon and Roast and Grind II
Youseol1"
According to DR.. Harvey w. Wiley, not
fifteen per cent of the coffee sold in the
United States is of the quality guaran-
teed.
Millions each year, says the Doctor, are
being stolen from the American people
by the adulterators and misbranders who
are selling their fraudulent products in
the guise of the genuine article. DR..
Wiley sounds a note of warning, and his
warnings so far have, as is well known to
the country, been based upon sound rea-
soning. He tells the American housewife
that she alone is responsible if she buys
poor or fraudulent coffee from this time,
and states openly that not a fraction of
the ground roasted coffees sold as spe-
iciai blends are worth the bother of pre-
pairing. He says further, that the only
way in which pure coffee can be obtained
is by purchasing the original green"
brazilian bean by the bag and roasting
and grinding it in the household.
One of the chief coffee frauds is in
the classification of coffee" says DR..
Wiley. Nearly all coffee in the United
States is sold as either Mocha or Java,
while as a matter of fact, fully eighty
five per cent. of all American coffee i'm
ports are from Brazil. There is very
little real Mocha or Java brought here
now, for the Brazilian coffee has driven
it from the market, not only because of
quality, but because it lies closer to hand.
The American people are using a billion
pounds of coffee a year at present, and
the majority of it is the long berry San
tos which seems to nave the demand be-
hind it."
Ground Coffee At Fault.
"The great trouble with the coffee
business is the deceit practiced in the
preparation of so-called ground coffee.
The makers of these blends are in many
instances grossly deceiving the public, for
they are using the very cheapest grades
of coffee berry-something they can pur-
chase for from three to four cents per
pound, and this, in addition to the husks,
scrapings, dustings and broken bits, are
ground up together, and placed in cans
with a fancy label and sold at from
thirty-hve to forty cents a pound, as a
highly superior special brand with a lot
more buncombe Of the same sort. The
facts of the case are absolutely just as l
have said, and the curious feature of the
Illicit traffic is that first class Brazilian
coffee is 50 cheap that it is a wonder that
anyone could find 1t worth while to adul-
terate It at all.
In Europe, there are some 1000 fac
tories that are turning out hundreds of
millions of pounds OF imitation coffee
made from pits of olives, pulverized shells
OF nuts, and some cereal husks all mixed
together with molasses as q binder,
pressed into moulds and roasted. The
resultant bean is sold as coffee. Since
the enactment of the pure food law in
this country, there are not, l believe, any
factories of that sort, but we have to
exercise constant vigilance to keep those
European frauds out. AS a matter of
fact, no one is really safe in buying
ground or roasted coffee, for while it is
not permitted to import broken beans or
s~iftings, somehow, they do get into bags
and-and they are not thrown away"
How to Save Expenses.
"The best grades of Brazilian coffee
may be purchased for say ten cents per
pound in the bag. This is the green
berry. The housewife may store this
away in her pantry and when she wants
coffee, use the small home r~oasters and
grinders which are sold to prepare the
green bean. Having the merit of being
fresh, less coffee is required to say moth
ing of the difference in cost between the
sack and the prepared can. It would be
a great step forward in household econ
omy, and to a small extent at least would
aid in the solution of the higher cost of
living.
"There are undoubtedly excellent cof-
fees sold ready ground and roasted, but
in the vast aggregate of fraudulent goods
that are now upon the market, it is next
to impossible to distinguish the good from
the bad. There is SO much fraud that it
is only possible to class such genuine
material with the false, for they are like
the good dog who was hanged because
he was found in bad company"
Coffee Absolutely Harmless
A to the statement SO frequently and
s~peciously made that coffee is injurious,
to excess will do harm. So will milk or
any other substance. There are veritable
coffee and tea drunkards, and because
these suffer from the abuse of nutritious
foods must we class these foods as PERM
cious and dangerous? The business Of
trying to sell a cereal mixture by pictur-
ing the awful effects supposed to follow
the use of coffee is all %tommyrot. No one
who knows anything of food values would
want the stuff in the first place, and !
personally have no patience with the
charlatans who are disposing Of a cereal
mixture at eight or nine cents a pound
as a substitute for coffee. 1t is nothing
less than a plain lie to claim that it is a
substitute, for it positively has none Of
the essential principles of coffee, and to
say it has on the label is plain misbrand-
ing. It is claimed hat for one cent, two
cups of excellent genuine coffee can be
made from the Brazilian berry, and this
being so would seem to make the cereal
imitation very dear indeed" l
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