IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OR PREPARING COFFEE
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thérése Alexandrine Poncelin, of Paris, in the
Empire of France, and of 32, Essex Street, Strand, London, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OR PREPARING COFFEE."
Sealed the 18th January 1856, and dated the 26th July 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thérése Alexandrine
Poncelin at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 26th July 1855.
I, THERESE ALEXANDRINE PONCELIN, of Paris, in the Empire of France, and
of 32, Essex Street, Strand, London, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OR PREPARING COFFEE" to be as
follows, viz.
This Invention relates to a new mode of treating or preparing coffee, and to
the products obtained by said mode. These products are two-fold; the latter
being a liquid pale volatile aroma, and the other a solid fixed basis, which is
soluble in water, to which it gives the colour and partly the savour of coffee.
The former product is obtained by distilling roasted coffee in a cucurbit, alembic.
or still on an open fire, and by collecting the steam which the aforesaid aroma
is condensed from. The fixed basis is obtained as follows:-The water which
has been boiling with coffee on the first operation is filtered and evaporated in
a cup, in which it is stirred with a glass rod until it attains the consistency of

page_text: paste. The paste is lone sufficiently as soon as a strong flavour of roasted
coffee arises from it, and when being stirred with the glass rod it comes off
from the cup; it is then poured on a slab of marble, slightly rubbed over with
fresh butter, or with cocoa butter, or else with sweet almond oil, and the mass
being spread out may then be cut with a knife. The paste thus solidified and
afterwards reduced to powder forms the basis of a new kind of coffee without
grounds, ready to be used. This improved mode of preparation is also appli-
cable to chicory root, which is roasted, boiled with water, filtered, and evapo-
rated, so as to give a product similar to that obtained from coffee; and either
of these bases, as derived from coffee or chicory, when dissolved to saturation
in the liquid aroma of coffee, gives a concentrated liquid coffee, which is to be
preferred to any of those hitherto made.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thérése Alexandrine Poncelin in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THÉRÉSE
ALEXANDRINE PONCELIN, of Paris, in the Empire of France, and of 32, Essex
Street, Strand, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS er most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thérése Alexandrine Poncelin, Her special licence that I, the said Thérése
Alexandrine Poncelin, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Thérése Alexandrine Poncelin, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OR-PREPARING COFFEE," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Thérése Alexandrine Poneclin, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 date of the
said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thérése Alexandrine Poncelin, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
This Invention relates to a certain mode of distilling roasted coffee, either
ground or not, whereby products are obtained separated from all residuum or
grounds by two different ways, the wet or the dry process. These products are,
first, a liquid pale, limpid, volatile aroma, with a strong penetrative flavour;
second, a fixed solid basis, of deep brown colour, soluble, in water, to which it
gives the colour and savour of coffee, treated by ordinary means, and some
other products besides resulting from the aforesaid, viz., an essential oil, pale,
limpid, and spreading a stronger flavour than the aroma it results from; a
fatty, brown, solid substance, which I wish to be called coffee butter (beurre de
café); a liquid concentrated coffee, resulting from the basis above mentioned,
dissolved into the liquid aroma; and also lozenges, the ones containing the
liquid aroma, aud the others the colouring basis of coffee. It must be observed
that the aroma obtained through the wet process is inferior to that obtained by
the other way, the former having not the flavour and savour of new prepared
coffee.
The aroma is obtained through the wet process by having the roasted coffee
diluted with water, boiled in an alambic, the product being afterwards rectified
by a second distilling. In order to obtain the said aroma through the dry
process, it suffices to put into a glass or metal retort the new roasted coffee,
ground or not, perfectly dry, and to submit the same for twenty-four hours to
a heat of two hundred degrees at most by means of a hot-oil bath. The first
drops of aroma will only appear after two or three hours heating. This mode
requires the greatest care in order to prevent the formation of empyreumatic
oil, and therefore it would prove dangerous to substitute a sand bath for a hot-
oil bath. In this operation the above-mentioned coffee butter is seen congeal-
ing at the surface of the aroma. The liquid aroma thus prepared requires
being decanted after a fortnight, about, in order to be rid of a brown residuum,
that precipitates, and keeps adhering to the inside surface of the glass vessel.
Thus being rendered unalterable, the liquid aroma must be decanted into glass
vessels bernetically closed, in order to preserve the flavour and taste of coffee
obtained through the dry process, which result would still be more certain if
the product were slightly saturated with sugar.
The essential oil is obtained in rectifying by two or three successive distilla-
tions the product resulting from either of the two processes. The solid basis is
obtained by having the roasted coffee, ground or not, boiled in water, filtering

page_text: afterwards the liquid, and having it evaporated on open fire in large pans till
it gets a sirupous consistancy; it is then removed into a porcelain capsule, still
kept in open fire, and stirred with a glass rod till it is converted into a paste,
which, detaching itself from the inside surface of the capsule, spreads about an
odour of roasted coffee. In this state the paste is spread on a marble table
and cut into pieces.
This basis is to be crushed or ground to a brown powder, a very small quan-
tity of which dissolved in hot water is sufficient to yield a liquid of the same
colour as common coffee, and an additional drop of the liquid aroma will render
it similar, nay, superior to the best preparations obtained through the ordinary
ways. It is necessary to observe, that not to go beyond the fit quantity of
liquid aroma which would render the liquid unpleasant to taste, it is sufli-
cient to dip into the said liquid aroma a very small lump of sugar, and throw
it into the cup.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be distinctly understood
that what I claim as novel, and being secured to me by the herein-before
in parts recited Letters Patent, is, treating coffee so as to obtain first, a
fixed solid basis without residuum or grounds and perfectly soluble in water;
second, a liquid pale, limpid, volatile aroma; third, and also the following
products resulting from either the solid basis or the liquid aroma, viz., the
product I wish to be termed coffee butter (beurre de café), and the liquid
coffee, specially as has been described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thérèse Alexandrine Poncelin, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this 19th day of January, in the
year of Lord One thousand eight hundred & fifty-six.
T. A. PONCELIN. (L.S.)