Evening star., 1928-11-21
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E.. TRACEWELL.

Kind offers to lead us to the "best
cup of coffee" in town have come pour
ing in since the printing here last week
Of an article on good and bad coffee
and the intensive search for the former
by the "connoisseur."
Men have rushed off trains to grasp
the writer by the hand and thank him
for the dissertation on light coffee"
and BLACK coffee" AS a sample of the
communications received on the sub
ject, we subjoin the following:
Dear Sir: would have been &C
cused of writing that article of yours
on the light coffee question did pos
sess the deftness of touch and grace
of style that gave it distinction. I am
an adherent of your school of thought
and you are only expressing my Sentt-
ments when you exhibit your own.
"I have found on my travels that the
stronger the coffee the weaker the
cream. When 1t gets so strong that it
is as bitter as I imagine pruSsic acid
tastes, then the cream is reduced to a
minimum in quantity and becomes most
aenemic in quality. Always the black
ness of coffee is in adverse ratio to the
paleness of the cream so that their con-
sistency approaches sirup and skim m1K
at their respective limits. It works out
as a case of being double-crossed' or
'Whipsawed.'
when I first came to this town. I
would order half a cup of coffee so that
the accompanying portionlet of cream
would have twice the modifying power
of the strong concoction served. AL
most invariably was given but half the
ordinary dose of cream served, on the
assumption that the proportionate in
adequacy was desired to be maintained.
It took much augmentation and con-
siderable persistency, worthy, OF course,
of the cause, to persuade the SerV1tor
that it was no act of compensation
to deny me the conventional measure
of cream merely because of my dis
claimer of the large portion OF the cof-
fee normally dispensed.
However, things have changed for
the better and permanently. I do not
want to gloat over the new situation,
but If you are inclined to have demon
strated the difference between this and
that in the coffee line I would be
very glad to steer you to the place
where the cupboard Is not bare ana
where you will be served in accordance
with the requirements OF q persistent
serious and sincere drinker OF light
coffee. Sincerely, w. l. W..
personal enjoyment of a cup of coffee
does not depend largely upon the per-
son drinking it.
No one-least of all the writer
would deny that coffee roasting is SCI
ence and that coffee making is an art.
Yet there is an elusive quality about
a cup of coffee-any cup Of coffee-that
does not permit of Jumping the whole
blame for a bad cup onto the shoul-
ders of others.
We, as champion of the Light Coffee
School, will admit that much does, in
deed, depend upon the mood of the
drinker.
Take music. The same thing holds
true in music.
Every one who is honest with himself
will admit that the state of his stom-
ach has a great deal to do with his
personal enjoyment of concert.
Lest any one be shocked, let it be
stated at once that perhaps the great
est violinist in the world some years
ago wrote and published an article in
which he asserted that no violinist
could play his best on an empty
stomach.