Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-05-04
MOCHA HAS ONLY FAME
Little Remains of Flourishing Trade
Which Popuiarized Coffee Through
out World.

The National Geographic society of
Washington, in bulletin Just issued on
one of the important places mentioned in
the news of the day, relates the origin
of a popular fallacy. The bulletin says:
when the news reached America that
the eastern area of the world war had
embraced Arabia, concern was felt at the
breakfast table in thousands of American
homes. 1t was believed that Mocha. like
many other towns In the desert OF the
sea peninsula, would be affected.
Would this turn of events curtail
Americas supply OF "unrivaled mocha and
java" with it's wonderful bouquet and its
delightful aroma The question was on
many lips. prompted by epicurean palates
This appetite alarm will be dlsspated
when coffee drinkers realize that mocha
and java is merely n name and that the
scent of the berry which clings 70 the
cup Will he "a pleasing when called by
its right name-Brazilian, Porto Rican
Mexican, Hawaiian, Central or South
American coffee. AS a matter of statis-
tics, all the coffee imported into the Uni
ted States last year from the Far East
including the famed 'centers' of the in
dustry Mocha and Java, amounted to
the total billion pounds that went into the
| American percolator.
Coffee drinkers will not begrudge
Mocha her fame however, for that is all
remains to her Of a once fiourshing trade
which popularzed the beverage through
ont the world
Tradition tells MS that the uses of cof
fee We're discovered in Ahyssinia about
-,
upon his scheme to rca I'll the Indies and
the tea countries by sailing west across
/ the Atlantic. Correlative With this ira
dition are many legends about the man
ner of its discovery. one of tho most
picturesque being that of flock ot sheep
after browsing ON the indigenous coffee
shrub became unusually frisky, as n re-
suit of the stimulant and that this OK
citemcnt was followed by sloepless nights,
The Mohanmedans began to use coffee
as an antisoporific during their long re-
ligious vigls, Il practice frowned upon
| by orthodox Mussulmans who argued
that it savored of form of intoXication
| However, the habit spread. It reached
Egypt In the 18th century and Europe In
the eth, the first coffee houses being es-
tabliShed in Constantnopln and Venice
Some fifty wears after Sir Walter Raleigh
/ startled the maid who tried to extingush
{ him when she saw him putting away on
/ his American tobacco. the first London
: coffee house was established. Charles II
sought to abolish it as 1t was supposed to
4 be the place of meeting for disloyal sub
.iccts, but coffee drinking grew and COT
fee houses multiplied. The Arabian prov
/ inCe of Yemen, of which Mocha was the
chief seaport, supplied practically all the
berries used At the end of the Eth cen
fury the coffee plant was introduced into
lava and in short time mocha and
java became trade name of great pop
ulnrity.
! 1T was in IT'S that Jamaica received
her first consignment of coffee plants
| from Amsterdam, and from that time
dates the rapid growth of the industry
| in the western hemisphere until to-day
Brazil produces ihrce-fo urths of the
worlds supply.
Mocha. with its big white buildings,
presents an imposing appearance when
viewed from the decks of steamers pass
ing through the Red sea. but a closer
examination reveals that this grandeur
is a mirage and that the big buildings
are chiefly ruins The town is like the
berry has been taken. ships If deep
draft can no longer anchor in the bay
and shallow native vessels are ample to
handle the small percentage Of the com
merco of Yemen which reaches there. most
of the caravans now going TO Hodeida
and Aden.'