AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF CARAMEL
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF CARAMEL."-A com-
munication from abroad by Thaddeus Hyatt, of the City of New York,
in the United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th November 1865.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF CARAMEL,"
to be as follows:-
Caramel is better known by the name of "burnt sugar," though generally
made from molasses. It may be manufactured from any sort of sugar or
syrup, or from molasses or honey, its chief use being for coloring brandies,
and for the cuisine. Being of the same colour as coffee, and more wholesome
than chicory and other adulterating substances, it is used by some manu-
facturers to impart a rich colour to their coffee, which they do by roasting the
berry with sugar. By this mode of combining the two the caramel is formed

page_text: upon the coffee in the form of a glazing, but as it soon grows soft and sticky
on exposure to the air the practice is to grind it immediately while hard.
This plan is made necessary by the nature of caramel, which in the solid state
cannot be powdered, and in the liquid state must be used with the boiling
water which serves to make the beverage. But as coffee soon loses flavour
after the grains are broken some better mode of serving the caramel is
needed.
The present improvement consists in furnishing it with a dry base of its
own, which reduces it to a powdery condition, and protects it from the air.
It is then in proper shape for being mixed with coffee at any moment, and
the coffee need not be ground until wanted for use.
The use of caramel with coffee has thus far been only as a coloring material,
for the coffee has not been in a condition to require it. Like the perfumes of
flowers the aroma of coffee is in its oil. Coffee also contains caramel. The
beverage is practically coffee-caramel flavored by coffee-oil, each being the
correlative and auxiliary of the other. To develope this oil and this caramel
is hence the sole purpose of the roasting process, which is a sort of dry
distillation. The reason why coffee as commonly roasted is not in a condition
to allow the caramel to do anything more than colour it is because it is roasted
dry, or without any surplus oil. In this case there is but little more oil than
the caramel of the coffee requires, and to add more caramel under such
circumstances is merely to add colour and to tone down the sharp high flavour
or "goût acerbe" of the coffee; but when the whole of the oil is developed
it is so largely in excess of the wants of the contained caramel that a pound
of such coffee requires the addition of a pound of dry caramel, and then the
beverage obtained from the two in combination is more in quantity than three
pounds of ordinary coffee yields, and of better flavour. It is this new develop-
ment in coffee that gives value to caramel, and causes the mode of its
manufacture to be of the highest importance..
The present improvement, which consists, as already stated, in reducing
caramel to a powdery condition by means of a dry base, whereby it is protected
from the air, may be carried out in either of two ways; first, by glazing with
caramel a part of the material of which this base is formed, and then mixing
this with the unglazed portion; or, secondly, by combining the caramel
directly with the whole of the base by absorption. This may be effected also
in either of two ways; first, by using liquid caramel; secondly, by combining
the sweet material directly with the dry base, and roasting the two together.
The last is preferred, as less difficult, more certain, and producing superior
aramel. The following is the method:-With bran for a base take five

page_text: pounds of molasses dissolved in hot water sufficient to thoroughly soak ten
pounds of bran, and then dry it evenly. Then roast this sweetened bran to a
chocolate colour, in the same way as coffee is roasted, after which it is fit for
use. Dry bread may be reduced to a coarse powder and treated in a similar
way. When flour is used as the base it is preferred to make it into bread,
using molasses in the same proportion as with bran, and mixing it into the
dough. This bread is then baked in the ordinary way, and afterwards cut up
and dried, and reduced to a coarse powder, in which condition it is roasted
precisely as stated when bran is the material. Sugar cane, or sorghum cane,
or any of their equivalents may be roasted in the same manner substantially,
and with like results. The "bagasse" may also be used for the same
purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 16th May 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRed
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special licence that I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF CARAMEL," being a commu-
nication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under ny, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the_dato
of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say) :-
Caramel is better known by the name of "burnt sugar," though generally
made from molasses. It may be manufactured from any sort of sugar or
syrup, or from molasses or honey. Its chief use is for coloring brandies and
for the cuisine. Being of the same color as coffee, and more wholesome than
chicory and other adulterating substances, it is used by some manufacturers to
impart a rich color to their coffee, which they do by roasting the berry with
sugar. By this mode of combining the two the caramel is formed upon the
coffee in the form of a glazing, but as it soon grows soft and sticky on exposure
to the air the practice is to grind it immediately while hard. This plan is
made necessary by the nature of caramel, which in the solid state cannot
be powdered, and in the liquid state must be used with the boiling water,
which serves to make the beverage. But as coffee soon loses flavor after the
grains are broken some better mode of serving the caramel is needed.
The present improvement consists in furnishing it with a dry base of its
own which reduces it to a powdery condition, and protects it from the air.
It is then in proper shape for being mixed with coffee at any moment, and
the coffee need not be ground until wanted for use. The use of caramel with
coffee has thus far been only as a coloring material, for the coffee has not been
in a condition to require it. Like the perfumes of flowers, the aroma of coffee
is in its oil. Coffee also contains caramel. The beverage is practically coffee-
caramel flavored by coffee-oil, each being the correlative and auxiliary of the
other. To develop this oil and this caramel is hence the sole purpose of the
roasting process, which is a sort of dry distillation. The reason why coffee
as commonly roasted is not in a condition to allow the caramel to do anything
more than color, it is because it is roasted dry or without any surplus oil. In
this case there is but little more oil than the caramel of the coffee requires,
and to add more caramel under such circumstances is merely to add color, and
to tone down the sharp high flavor or gout acerbe" of the coffee; but
when the whole of the oil is developed it is so largely in excess of the wants of
the caramel that a pound of such coffee requires the addition of a pound of
dry caramel, and then the beverage obtained from the two in combination is
more in quantity than three pounds of ordinary coffee yields, and of better
flavor. It is this new development in coffee that gives value to caramel and
causes the mode of its manufacture to be of the highest importance.
In carrying out this Invention, which consists, as already stated, in reducing

page_text: caramel to a powdery condition by means of a dry base, whereby it is pro-
tected from the air, either of the two following ways may be adopted :—
First, glazing with caramel a part of the material of which this base is formed,
and then mixing this with the unglazed portion; or, secondly, combining the
caramel directly with the whole of the base by absorption. This may be
effected also in either of two ways; first, by using liquid caramel; secondly,
by combining the sweet material directly with the dry base and roasting the
two together. The latter is preferred as being the less difficult, the more
certain, and producing superior caramel. The following is the method :-
With bran for a base, take of molasses five pounds and dissolve it in hot water
sufficient to thoroughly soak ten pounds of bran, immerse the bran in this
solution, and when saturated dry it evenly. Then roast this sweetened bran
to a chocolate color in the same way as coffee is roasted, after which it is fit
for use. Dry bread may be reduced to a coarse powder and treated in a
similar way, but when using flour as the base it is preferred to make it into
bread, using molasses in the same proportion as with bran, and mixing it into
the dough. This bread is then baked in the ordinary way and afterwards cut
up and dried and reduced to a coarse powder, in which condition it is roasted
precisely as stated when bran is the material. Sugar cane, or sorghum cane,
or any of their equivalents may be roasted in the same manner substantially
and with like results. The "bagasse" may also be used for the same purpose;
but dry caramel must not be confounded with roasted beets, carrots, chicory,
sweet peas, and other sugary substances from which "coffee substitutes " are
selected, for the oils of these, like that of coffee, are developed along with
their caramels, and their caramels like that of coffee are corelative to their
oils, hence the quality of each is marked by the peculiar oil of the substance
which produces it. These oleaginous dry caramels differ from coffee
therefore only in the nature of their inferior oils, and they are "adulterating
substances" on account of these. Of course no free pure caramel exists in
their compositions, and consequently they are incapable of serving as
auxiliaries to the oil of the coffee.
But although prominence has been given to dry caramel as an analogue of
one of the elements of coffee, I do not wish to be understood as limiting its
application to this use, for it is applicable wherever ordinary caramel is
employed either as a brandy colorer, or combined with onions, as an article of
the cuisine for the "pot au feu."
Having thus fully made known the nature of caramel and its uses, the
character of sugar, roasted coffee, the nature of oleaginous dry caramels, and
the nature and modes of preparing the dry caramels forming the subject of

page_text: the present Invention, I wish it to be understood that without limiting myself
to the precise things, or to the precise proportions herein specified, but giving
them only as practical illustrations of the principle they represent, I claim
under the above in part recited Letters Patent as the improved manufacture of
caramel, communicated to me from abroad, the manufacture of dry caramel,
'substantially as and for the purposes herein mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.s.)