CupScout

_The evolution of grinding and brewing methods–Coffee was first a
food, then a wine, a medicine, a devotional refreshment, a
confection, and finally a beverage–Brewing by boiling, infusion,
percolation, and filtration–Coffee making in Europe in the
nineteenth century–Early coffee making in the United
States–Latest developments in better coffee making–Various
aspects of scientific coffee brewing–Advice to coffee lovers on
how to buy coffee, and how to make it in perfection_

The coffee drink has had a curious evolution. It began, not as a drink,
but as a food ration. Its first use as a drink was as a kind of wine.
Civilization knew it first as a medicine. At one stage of its
development, before it became generally accepted as a liquid
refreshment, the berries found favor as a confection. As a beverage, its
use probably dates back about six hundred years.

The protein and fat content, that is, the food value, of coffee, so far
as civilized man is concerned, is an absolute waste. The only
constituents that are of value are those that are water soluble, and can
be extracted readily with hot water. When coffee is properly made, as by
the drip method, either by percolation or filtration, the ground coffee
comes in contact with the hot water for only a few minutes; so the major
portion of the protein, which is not only practically insoluble, but
coagulates on heating, remains in the unused part of the coffee, the
grounds. The coffee bean contains a large percent of protein–fourteen
percent. By comparing this figure with twenty-one percent of protein in
peas, twenty-three percent in lentils, twenty-six percent in beans,
twenty-four percent in peanuts, about eleven percent in wheat flour, and
less than nine percent in white bread, we learn how much of this
valuable food stuff is lost with the coffee grounds[373].

Though civilized man (excepting the inhabitants of the Isle de Groix off
the coast of Brittany) does not use this protein content of coffee, in
certain parts of Africa it has been put to use in a very ingenious and
effective manner “from time immemorial” down to the present day. James
Bruce, the Scottish explorer, in his travels to discover the source of
the Nile in 1768-73, found that this curious use of the coffee bean had
been known for centuries. He brought back accounts and specimens of its
use as a food in the shape of balls made of grease mixed with roasted
coffee finely ground between stones.

Other writers have told how the Galla, a wandering tribe of Africa–and
like most wandering tribes, a warlike one–find it necessary to carry
concentrated food on their long marches. Before starting on their
marauding excursions, each warrior equips himself with a number of food
balls. These prototypes of the modern food tablet are about the size of
a billiard ball, and consist of pulverized coffee held in shape with
fat. One ball constitutes a day’s ration; and although civilized man
might find it unpalatable, from the purely physiological standpoint it
is not only a concentrated and efficient food, but it also has the
additional advantage of containing a valuable stimulant in the caffein
content which spurs the warrior on to maximum effort. And so the savage
in the African jungle has apparently solved two problems; the
utilization of coffee’s protein, and the production of a concentrated
food.

Further research shows that perhaps as early as 800 A.D. this practise
started by crushing the whole ripe berries, beans and hulls, in mortars,
mixing them with fats, and rounding them into food balls. Later, the
dried berries were so used. The inhabitants of Groix, also, thrive on a
diet that includes roasted coffee beans.

About 900, a kind of aromatic wine was made in Africa from the fermented
juice of the hulls and pulp of the ripe berries[374].

Payen says that the first coffee drinkers did not think of roasting but,
impressed by the aroma of the dried beans, they put them in cold water
and drank the liquor saturated with their aromatic principles. Crushing
the raw beans and hulls, and steeping them in water, was a later
improvement.

It appears that boiled coffee (the name is anathema today) was invented
about the year 1000 A.D. Even then, the beans were not roasted. We read
of their use in medicine in the form of a decoction. The dried fruit,
beans and hulls, were boiled in stone or clay cauldrons. The custom of
using the sun-dried hulls, without roasting, still exists in Africa,
Arabia, and parts of southern Asia. The natives of Sumatra neglect the
fruit of the coffee tree and use the leaves to make a tea-like infusion.
Jardin relates that in Guiana an agreeable tea is made by drying the
young buds of the coffee tree, and rolling them on a copper plate
slightly heated. In Uganda, the natives eat the raw berries; from
bananas and coffee they make also a sweet, savory drink which is called
_menghai_.

About 1200, the practise was common of making a decoction from the dried
hulls alone. There followed the discovery that roasting improved the
flavor. Even today, this drink known as Sultan or Sultana coffee, _café
à la sultane_, or _kisher_, continues in favor in Arabia. Credit for the
invention of this beverage has been wrongfully given by various French
writers to Doctor Andry, director of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris.
Dr. Andry had his own recipe for making _café à la sultane_, which was
to boil the coffee hulls for half an hour. This gave a lemon-colored
liquid which was drunk with a little sugar.

[Illustration: EARLY COFFEE MAKING IN PERSIA

Showing leather bag for green beans, roasting plate, grinder, boiler,
and serving cups]

The Oriental procedure was to toast the hulls in an earthenware pot over
a charcoal fire, mixing in with them a small quantity of the silver
skins, and turning them over until they were slightly parched. The hulls
and silver skins, in proportions of four to one, were then thrown into
boiling water and well boiled again for at least a half-hour. The color
of the drink had some resemblance to the best English beer, La Roque
assures us, and it required no sweetening, “there being no bitterness to
correct.” This was still the coffee drink of the court of Yemen, and of
people of distinction in the Levant, when La Roque and his
fellow-travelers made their celebrated voyage to Arabia the Happy in
1711-13.

Some time in the thirteenth century, the practise began of roasting the
dried beans, after the hulling process. This was done first in crude
stone and earthenware trays, and later on metal plates, as described in
chapter XXXIV. A liquor was made from boiling the whole roasted beans.
The next step was to pound the roasted beans to a powder with a mortar
and pestle; and the decoction was then made by throwing the powder into
boiling water, the drink being swallowed in its entirety, grounds and
all. It was a decoction for the next four centuries.

When the long-handled Arabian metal boiler made its appearance in the
early part of the sixteenth century, the method of preparation and
service had much improved. The Arabs and the Turks had made it a social
adjunct, and its use was no longer confined to the physicians and the
churchmen. It had become a stimulating refreshment for all the people;
and at the same time, the Arabians and the Turks had developed a coffee
ceremony for the higher classes which was quite as wonderful as the tea
ceremony of Japan.

The common early method of preparation throughout the Levant was to
steep the powder in water for a day, to boil the liquor half away, to
strain it, and to keep it in earthen pots for use as wanted. In the
sixteenth century, the small coffee boiler, or _ibrik_, caused the
practise to be more of an instantaneous affair. The coffee was ground,
and the powder was dropped into the boiling water, to be withdrawn from
the fire several times as it boiled up to the rim. While still boiling,
cinnamon and cloves were sometimes added before pouring the liquid off
into the findjans, or little china cups, to be served with the addition
of a drop of essence of amber. Later, the Turks added sugar during the
boiling process.

From the first simple uncovered _ibrik_ there was developed, about the
middle of the seventeenth century, a larger-size covered coffee boiler,
the forerunner of the modern combination brewing and serving pot. This
was a copper-plated kettle patterned after the oriental ewer with a
broad base, bulbous body, and narrow neck. After having poured into it
one and a half times as much water as the dish (cup) in which the drink
was to be served would hold, the pot was placed on a lively fire. When
the water boiled, the powdered coffee was tossed into the pot; and, as
the liquid boiled up, it was taken from the fire and returned, probably
a dozen times. Then the pot was placed in hot ashes to permit the
grounds to settle. This done, the drink was served. Dufour, describing
this process as practised in Turkey and Arabia, says:

One ought not to drink coffee, but suck it in as hot as one can. In
order not to be burned, it is not necessary to place the tongue in
the cup but hold the edge against the tongue with the lips above
and below it, forcing it so little that the edges do not bear down,
and then suck in; that is to say, swallow it sip by sip. If one is
so delicate he can not stand the bitterness, he can temper it with
sugar. It is a mistake to stir the coffee in the pot, the grounds
being worth nothing. In the Levant it is only the scum of the
people who swallow the grounds.

La Roque says:

The Arabians, when they take their coffee off the fire, immediately
wrap the vessel in a wet cloth which fines the liquor instantly,
makes it cream at the top and occasion a more pungent steam, which
they take great pleasure in snuffing up as the coffee is pouring
into the cups. They, like all other nations of the East, drink
their coffee without sugar.

Some of the Orientals afterward modified the early coffee-making
procedure by pouring the boiling water on the powdered coffee in the
serving cups. They thus obtained “a foaming and perfumed beverage,” says
Jardin, “to which we (the French) could not accustom ourselves because
of the powder which remains in suspension. Nevertheless, clarified
coffee may be obtained in the Orient. In Mecca, in order to filter it,
they strain it through stopples of dried herbs, put into the opening of
a jar.”

Sugar seems to have been introduced into coffee in Cairo about 1625.
Veslingius records that the coffee drinkers in Cairo’s three thousand
coffee houses “did begin to put sugar in their coffee to correct the
bitterness of it”, and that “others made sugar plums of the coffee
berries”. This coffee confection later appeared in Paris, and about the
same time (1700) at Montpellier was introduced a coffee water, “a sort
of rosa-folis of an agreeable scent that has somewhat of the smell of
coffee roasted.” These novelties, however, were designed to please only
“the most nice lovers of coffee”; for _ennui_ and boredom demanded new
sensations then as now.

Boiling continued the favorite method of preparing the beverage until
well into the eighteenth century. Meanwhile, we learn from English
references that it was the custom to buy the beans of apothecaries, to
dry them in an oven, or to roast them in an old pudding dish or frying
pan before pounding them to a powder with mortar and pestle, to force
the powder through a lawn sieve, and then to boil it with spring water
for a quarter of an hour. The following recipe from a rare book
published in London, 1662, details the manner of making coffee in the
seventeenth century:

COFFEE MAKING IN 1662

To make the drink that is now much used called coffee.

The coffee-berries are to be bought at any Druggist, about three
shillings the pound; take what quantity you please, and over a
charcoal fire, in an old pudding-pan or frying-pan, keep them
always stirring until they be quite black, and when you crack one
with your teeth that it is black within as it is without; yet if
you exceed, then do you waste the Oyl, which only makes the drink;
and if less, then will it not deliver its Oyl, which must make the
drink; and if you should continue fire till it be white, it will
then make no coffee, but only give you its salt. The Berry prepared
as above, beaten and forced through a Lawn Sive, is then fit for
use.

Take clean water, and boil one-third of it away what quantity
soever it be, and it is fit for use. Take one quart of this
prepared Water, put in it one ounce of your prepared coffee, and
boil it gently one-quarter of an hour, and it is fit for your use;
drink one-quarter of a pint as hot as you can sip it.

In England, about this time, the coffee drink was not infrequently mixed
with sugar candy, and even with mustard. In the coffee houses, however,
it was usually served black, without sugar or milk.

About 1660, Nieuhoff, the Dutch ambassador to China, was the first to
make a trial of coffee with milk in imitation of tea with milk. In 1685,
Sieur Monin, a celebrated doctor of Grenoble, France, first recommended
_café au lait_ as a medicine. He prepared it thus: Place on the fire a
bowl of milk. When it begins to rise, throw in to it a bowl of powdered
coffee, a bowl of moist sugar, and let it boil for some time.

We read that in 1669 “coffee in France was a hot black decoction of
muddy grounds thickened with syrup.”

Angelo Rambaldi in his _Ambrosia Arabica_ thus describes coffee making
in Italy and other European countries in 1691:

DESCRIPTION OF THE VASE FOR MAKING THE
DECOCTION, DOSE OF POWDER AND OF THE
WATER NECESSARY AND TIME OF
BOILING IT.

Two such vessels having a large paunch to reach the fire, two
others with long necks and narrow, with a cover to restrain their
spirituous and volatile particles which when thrown off by the heat
are easily lost. These vessels are called Ibriq in Arabia. They are
made of copper–coated with white outside and inside. We, who do
not possess the art of making them should select an earth vitriate,
sulphate of copper, or any other material adapted for kitchen ware:
it might even be of silver.

The quantity of water and powder has no certain rule, by reason of
the difference of our nature and tastes, and each one after some
experience will use his own judgment to adjust it to his desire and
liking.

Maronita infused two ounces of powder in three litres of water.
Cotovico in his voyage to Jerusalem affirms that he has observed
six ounces of the former to 20 litres of the latter, boiled until
it was reduced to half the quantity. Thévenot asserts that the
Turks in three cups of water are contented with a good spoonful of
powder. I have observed however that in Africa, France and England,
into about six ounces of water (which with them is one cup) a dram
of the powder is infused and this agrees with my taste–but I have
wished at times to change the dose.

Others put the water into the vase and when it begins to boil add
the powder, but because it is full of spirit at the first contact
with the heat it rises and boils over the edge of the vase. Take it
away from the fire till the boiling ceases, then put it on the fire
again and let it stay a short time boiling with the cover on: Stand
it on warm ashes until it settles, after which slowly pour a little
of the decoction into an earthen vessel, or one of porcelain or any
other kind, as hot as can be borne, and drink a sip; if it pleases
your taste, add a portion of cardamom, cloves, nutmeg or cinnamon,
and dissolve a little sugar in the water; yet because these
substances will alter the taste of this simple, they are not prized
by many experts.

Modern Arabia, Bassa, Turkey, the Great Orient, those who are
travelling or in the army, infuse the powder in cold water, and
then boiling it as directed above, bear witness to its efficacy.
All times are opportune to take this salutary drink (beverage).
Among the Turks are those who take it even by night, nor is there a
business meeting or conversation, where coffee is not taken. Among
the Great it would be accounted an incivility, if with smoke,
coffee were not offered: and no one in the day is ashamed to
frequent the bazaars where it is sold. When I was in London, that
city of three million people, there were taverns for its special
use. It is a great stimulant. The sober take it to invigorate the
stomach. The scrofulous hated it because they thought it stirred up
the bile on an empty stomach–but experience proving the contrary
enjoy it as much as others.

In 1702, coffee in the American colonies was being used as a refreshment
between meals, “like spirituous liquors.”

It was in 1711 that the infusion idea in coffee making appeared in
France. It came in the form of a fustian (cloth) bag which contained the
ground coffee in the coffee maker, and the boiling water was poured over
it. This was a decided French novelty, but it made slow headway in
England and America, where some people were still boiling the whole
roasted beans and drinking the liquor.

In England, as early as 1722, there arose a conscientious objector to
boiled coffee in the person of Humphrey Broadbent, a coffee merchant who
wrote a treatise on _the True Way of Preparing and Making Coffee_[375],
in which he condemned the “silly” practise of making coffee by “boiling
an ounce of the powder in a quart of water,” then common in the London
coffee houses, and urging the infusion method. He favored the following
procedure:

Put the quantity of powder you intend, into your pot (which should
be either of stone, or silver, being much better than tin or
copper, which takes from it much of its flavour and goodness) then
pour boiling-hot water upon the aforesaid powder, and let it stand
to infuse five minutes before the fire. This is an excellent way,
and far exceeds the common one of boiling, but whether you prepare
it by boiling or this way, it will sometimes remain thick and
troubled, after it is made, except you pour in a spoonful or two of
cold water, which immediately precipitates the more heavy parts at
the bottom, and makes it clear enough for drinking.

Some, make coffee with spring water, but it is not so good as
river, or _Thames_-water, because the former makes it hard, and
distasteful, and the other makes it smooth and pleasant, lying soft
on the stomach. If you have a desire to make good coffee in your
families, I cannot conceive how you can put less than two ounces of
powder to a quart, or one ounce to a pint of water; some put two
ounces and a quarter.

By 1760, the decoction, or boiling, method in France had been generally
replaced by the infusion, or steeping, method.

In 1763, Donmartin, a tinsmith of St. Bendit, France, invented a coffee
pot, the inside of which was “filled by a fine sack put in its
entirety,” and which had a tap to draw the coffee. Many inventions to
make coffee _sans ebullition_ (without boiling) appeared in France about
this time; but it was not until 1800 that De Belloy’s pot, employing the
original French drip method, appeared, signaling another step forward in
coffee making–percolation.

_De Belloy and Count Rumford_

De Belloy’s pot was probably made of iron or tin, afterward of
porcelain; and it has served as a model for all the percolation devices
that followed it for the next hundred years. It does not seem to have
been patented, and not much is known of the inventor. About this period,
it was the common practise in England to boil coffee in the good
old-fashioned way, and to “fine” (clarify) it with isinglass. This moved
Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson), an American-British scientist, then
living in Paris, to make a study of scientific coffee-making, and to
produce an improved drip device known as Rumford’s percolator. He has
been generally credited with the invention of the percolator; but, as
pointed out in a previous chapter, this honor seems to be De Belloy’s
and not Rumford’s.

Count Rumford embodied his observations and conclusions in a verbose
essay entitled _Of the excellent qualities of coffee and the art of
making it in the highest perfection_, published in London in 1812. In
this treatise he describes and illustrates the Rumford percolator.

Brillat-Savarin, the famous French gastronomist, who also wrote on
coffee in his _VIme Meditation_, said of the De Belloy pot:

I have tried, in the course of time, all methods and of all those
which have been suggested to me up to today (1825) and with a full
knowledge of the matter in hand. I prefer the De Belloy method,
which consists of pouring the boiling water upon the coffee which
has been placed in the vessel of porcelain or silver, pierced with
very small holes. I have attempted to make coffee in a boiler at
high pressure, but I have had as a result a coffee full of extracts
and bitterness which would scrape the throat of a Cossack.

Brillat-Savarin had something also to say on the subject of grinding
coffee, his conclusion being that it was “better to pound the coffee
than to grind it.”

He refers to M. Du Belloy, archbishop of Paris, “who loved good things
and was quite an epicure,” and says that Napoleon showed him deference
and respect. This may have been Jean Baptiste De Belloy, who, according
to Didot, was born in 1709 and died in 1808, and, it is thought likely,
was the inventor of the De Belloy pot.

Count Rumford was born in Woburn, Mass., in 1753. He was apprenticed to
a storekeeper in Salem in 1766. He became an object of distrust among
the friends of the cause of American freedom: and, on the evacuation of
Boston by the Royal troops in 1776, he was selected by Governor
Wentworth of New Hampshire to carry dispatches to England. He left
England in 1802, and resided in France from 1804 until his death in
1814. In 1772, he had married, or rather, as he put it, he was married
by, a wealthy widow, the daughter of a highly respectable minister and
one of the first settlers at Rumford, now called Concord, New Hampshire.
It was from this town that he took his title of Rumford when he was
created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1791. His first wife having
died, he married in Paris, the wealthy widow of the celebrated chemist,
Lavoisier; and with her he lived an extremely uncomfortable life until
they agreed to separate.

In his essay on coffee and coffee making, Count Rumford gives us a good
pen picture of the preparation of the beverage in England at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. He says:

Coffee is first roasted in an iron pan, or in a hollow cylinder,
made of sheet iron, over a brisk fire; and when, from the colour of
the grain, and the peculiar fragrance which it acquires in this
process, it is judged to be sufficiently roasted, it is taken from
the fire, and suffered to cool. When cold it is pounded in a
mortar; or ground in a hand-mill to a coarse powder, and preserved
for use.

Formerly, the ground Coffee being put into a coffee-pot, with a
sufficient quantity of water, the coffee-pot was put over the fire,
and after the water had been made to boil a certain time, the
coffee-pot was removed from the fire, and the grounds having had
time to settle, or having been fined down with isinglass, the clear
liquor was poured off, and immediately served up in cups.

Count Rumford thought it a mistake to agitate the coffee powder in the
brewing process, and in this he agreed with De Belloy. His improvement
on the latter’s pot is described in chapter XXXIV. He was a coffee
connoisseur; and as such was one of the first to advocate the use of
cream as well as sugar for making an ideal cup of the beverage. He
refers, though not by name, to De Belloy’s percolation method and says,
“Its usefulness is now universally acknowledged.”

_A Few Definitions_

Just here, in order to assure a better understanding of the subject, it
may be well to clear up sundry misconceptions regarding the words
percolation, filtration, decoction, infusion, etc., by the simple
expedient of definition.

A decoction is a liquid produced by boiling a substance until its
soluble properties are extracted. Thus the coffee drink was first a
decoction; and a decoction is what one gets today when coffee is boiled
in the good old-fashioned way–as “mother used to make it.”

Infusion is the process of steeping–extraction without boiling. It is
extraction accomplished at any temperature below boiling, and is a
general classification of procedure capable of sub-division. As
generally and correctly applied, it is the operation wherein hot water
is merely poured upon ground coffee loose in a pot, or in a container
resting on the bottom of the pot. In the strictest sense of the term, an
infusion is also produced by percolation and filtration, when the water
is not boiled in contact with the coffee.

Percolation means dripping through fine apertures in china or metal as
in De Belloy’s French drip pot.

Filtration means dripping through a porous substance, usually cloth or
paper.

Percolation and filtration are practically synonymous, although a shade
of distinction in their meaning has arisen so that often the latter is
considered as a step logically succeeding the former. Accomplishing
extraction of a material by permitting a liquid to pass slowly through
it is in fact percolation, whereas filtration of the resultant extract
is effected by interposing in its path some medium which will remove
solid or semi-solid material from it. Coffee-making practise has in
itself so applied these terms that each is considered a complete
process. Percolation is thus applied when the infusion is removed from
the grounds immediately by dripping through fine perforations in the
china or metal of which the device is constructed.

True percolation is not produced in the pumping “percolators” in which
the heated water is elevated and sprayed over the ground coffee held in
a metal basket in the upper part of the pot, the liquor being
recirculated until a satisfactory degree of extraction has been reached.
Rather, the process is midway between decoction and infusion, for the
weak liquor is boiled during the operation in order to furnish
sufficient steam to cause the pumping action.

Filtration is accomplished when the ground coffee is retained by cloth
or paper, generally supported by some portion of the brewing device, and
extraction effected by pouring water on the top of the mass, permitting
the liquid to percolate through, the filtering medium retaining the
grounds.

_Patents and Devices_

From the beginning, the French devoted more attention than any other
people to coffee brewing. The first French patent on a coffee maker was
granted in 1802 to Denobe, Henrion, and Rauch for “a
pharmacological-chemical coffee making device by infusion.”

In 1802, Charles Wyatt obtained a patent in London on an apparatus for
distilling coffee.

The first French patent on an improved French drip pot for making coffee
“by filtration without boiling” was granted to Hadrot in 1806. Strictly
speaking, this was not a filtering device, as it was fitted with a tin
composition strainer, or grid. It was very like Count Rumford’s
percolator announced six years later, as will be seen by comparing the
two in chapter XXXIV.

In 1815, Sené invented in France his _Cafetière Sené_, another device to
make coffee “without boiling.”

About the year 1817, the coffee biggin appeared in England. It was
simply a squat earthenware pot with an upper, movable, strainer part
made of tin, after the French drip pot pattern. Later models employed a
cloth bag suspended from the rim of the pot. It was said to have been
invented by a Mr. Biggin; and Dr. Murray, of dictionary fame, seems to
have become convinced of this gentleman’s existence, although others
have doubted it and thought the name was of Dutch origin, the article
having been first made for Holland. It has been suggested that, in all
probability, the name came from the Dutch word _beggelin_, to trickle,
or run down. One thing is certain, coffee biggins came originally from
France; so that if there was a Mr. Biggin, he merely introduced them
into England. The coffee biggin with which Americans are most familiar
is a pot containing a flannel bag or a cylindrical wire strainer to hold
the ground coffee through which the boiling water is poured. The Marion
Harland pot was an improved metal coffee biggin. The Triumph coffee
filter was a cloth-bag device which made any coffee pot a biggin.

In 1819, Morize, a Paris tinsmith, invented a double drip, reversible
coffee pot. The device had two movable “filters” and was placed bottom
up on the fire until the water boiled, when it was inverted to let the
coffee “filter” or drip through.

In 1819, Laurens was granted a French patent on the original
pumping-percolator device, in which the water was raised by steam
pressure and dripped over the ground coffee.

In 1820, Gaudet, another Paris tinsmith, invented a filtration device
that employed a cloth strainer.

In 1822, Louis Bernard Rabaut was granted an English patent on a
coffee-making device in which the usual French drip process was reversed
by the use of steam pressure to force the boiling water upward through
the coffee mass. Caseneuve, of Paris, was granted a patent on a similar
device in France in 1824.

In 1825, the first coffee-pot patent in the United States was granted to
Lewis Martelley on a machine “to condense the steam and essential oils
and return them to the infusion.”

In 1827, the first really practicable pumping percolator, as we
understand the meaning today, was invented by Jacques-Augustin Gandais,
a manufacturer of plated jewelry in Paris. The boiling water was raised
through a tube in the handle and sprayed over the ground coffee
suspended in a filter basket, but could not be returned for a further
spraying.

In 1827, Nicholas Felix Durant, a manufacturer of Chalons-sur-Marne, was
granted a French patent on a “percolator” employing, for the first time,
an inner tube to raise the boiling water for spraying over the ground
coffee.

In 1839, James Vardy and Moritz Platow were granted an English patent on
a kind of urn “percolator”, or filter, employing the vacuum process of
coffee making, the upper vessel being made of glass.

By this time, the pumping percolator, working by steam pressure and by
partial vacuum, was in general use in France, England, and Germany. And
then began the movement toward the next stage in coffee
making–filtration.

About this time (1840), Robert Napier (1791-1876) the Scottish marine
engineer, of the celebrated Clyde shipbuilding firm of Robert Napier &
Sons, invented a vacuum coffee machine to make coffee by distillation
and filtration. The device was never patented; but thirty years later,
it was being made in the works of Thomas Smith & Son (Elkington & Co.,
Ltd., successors) under the direction of Mr. Napier, the aged inventor.
The device consists of a silver globe, brewer syphon, and strainer, as
illustrated. It operates as follows: a half-cupful of water is put into
the globe, and the gas flame is lighted. The dry coffee is put into the
receiver, which is then filled up with boiling water. This will at once
become agitated, and will continue so for a few minutes. When it becomes
still, the gas flame is turned down, and clear coffee is syphoned over
into the globe through the syphon tube, on the end of which, as it rests
in the coffee liquid, there is a metal strainer covered with a filter
cloth.

[Illustration: NAPIER VACUUM COFFEE MAKER]

[Illustration: NAPIER-LIST STEAM COFFEE MACHINE]

The Napierian coffee machine has enjoyed great popularity in England.
The principle has in later years been incorporated in the Napier-List
steam coffee machine for use in hotels, ships, restaurants, etc. Steam
is used as a source of heat, but does not mix with the coffee. List’s
patent is for an improvement on the Napierian system and was granted in
1891.

It is related that shortly before he died, old Mr. Napier, at the
termination of a dispute in Smith & Co.’s factory at Glasgow, where the
device was being made under his instruction, said to old Mr. Smith:

“You may be a guid silversmith, but I am a better engineer.”

[Illustration: FINLEY ACKER'S FILTER-PAPER COFFEE POT

SHOWING METHOD OF OPERATION]

In 1841, William Ward Andrews was granted an English patent on an
improved pot employing a pump to force the boiling water through the
ground coffee while contained in a perforated cylinder screwed to the
bottom of the pot.

In 1842, the first French patent on a glass coffee-making device was
granted to Madame Vassieux of Lyons.

Following this, there were numerous patents issued in France and England
on double glass-globe coffee-making devices. They were first known as
double glass balloons, and most of them employed metal strainers.

After this, there were many “percolator” patents in France, England, and
the United States, some of which were for improved forms of the original
drip method of the De Belloy device. Others were for the type of machine
which came to be known as “percolators” because they employed the
principle of raising the heated water and spraying it over the ground
coffee in continuous fashion. The story is told in chronological order
in the chapter on the evolution of coffee apparatus; so it is not
necessary to repeat it here. Numerous filtration devices also were
produced abroad and in the United States.

[Illustration: THE KIN-HEE POT IN OPERATION]

Among the percolators, those of Manning, Bowman & Co., and of Landers,
Frary & Clark, became well known here. In the filtration field, the
following attained considerable distinction: Harvey Ricker’s Half-Minute
pot, employing a cotton sack with re-inforced bottom, introduced about
1881; the Kin-Hee pot of 1900; Cauchois’ Private Estate coffee maker,
using Japanese filter paper, introduced in 1905; Finley Acker’s
percolator, introduced the same year, which also employed a filter paper
between two cylinders having side perforations; the Tricolator, 1908;
King’s percolator, using filter paper, in 1912; and the “Make-Right”,
1911, with its adaptation as presented in the Tru-Bru pot of 1920.

[Illustration: THE TRICOLATOR IN OPERATION]

The Make-Right was the invention of Edward Aborn, New York, and
comprised two telescoping open wire frames, or baskets, with a flat
piece of muslin between them. In the Tru-Bru pot, the same idea was
employed, except that the wire frames were so constructed as to furnish
four drip points to afford better distribution on the ground coffee and
to lessen the time of filtration. There was also a porcelain top, to
house and to raise the filtration device, above the brew with an opening
through which the boiling water could be poured without exposing the
ground coffee.

[Illustration: KING PERCOLATOR, AS APPLIED TO A HOTEL OR RESTAURANT URN]

Among later developments of the genuine percolator principle that have
attracted attention in this country, mention should be made of the
Phylax coffee maker, and the Galt pot.

In 1914-16, there was a revival of interest in the United States in the
double glass-globe method of making coffee, introduced into France as
“double glass balloons” in the first half of the nineteenth century.
American ingenuity produced several clever adaptations, and several
notable filter improvements. Advertising developed a great demand for
glass percolators, as they were first called; but although five attained
considerable prominence, only two survived and, at this writing, are
still being manufactured. Both are double glass-globe filters employing
a spirit lamp, gas, or electricity as heating agents.

[Illustration: THREE TYPES OF AMERICAN COFFEE MAKERS IN OPERATION

Left, Blanke's Cloth Filter--Center, Phylax--Right, Galt Vacuum device]

Within the last few years, it has become the fashion to obtain patents
in the United States on “the art of brewing coffee”, or the “art of
making coffee”. Instances are the patents issued to Messrs. Calkin and
Muller. In the Calkin patent (the Phylax device illustrated at the top
of this page) the “art” consists in controlling the flow of the boiling
water by means of the number and spacing of the holes in the
water-spreader, so as to restrict the volume and the speed, to effect a
quick initial extraction; and then, by means of a new spacing of holes
in the infuser, retarding the drip “to attain a prolonged extraction of
the tannin and other elements of slow extraction and combining the
liquids obtained during the initial and subsequent stages of the brew
for attaining a balanced liquid extract.”

[Illustration: HOW THE TRU-BRU POT OPERATES]

Muller’s “art” (the apparatus is described in chapter XXXIV) consisted
in so supplying and supporting the ground coffee in an urn that it is
never again subjected to the “decoction” after having been exposed to
the air and steam following the first application of the water.

In 1920, William G. Goldsworthy, San Francisco, was granted a United
States patent on a process for preparing the beans for making the
beverage. The process consisted of grinding the raw dried beans; then
packing the ground product in non-combustible and non-soluble porous
containers, which are securely closed to keep them unimpaired while the
contained coffee is being roasted; and, after cooling, sealing them with
gelatine. To brew, container and contents are dropped into a cup of hot
water.

[Illustration: COFFEE-MAKING DEVICES USED IN THE UNITED STATES

1--Marlon Harland Pot; 2--Universal Percolator; 3--Galt Vacuum Process
Coffee Maker; 4--Universal Electric Urn; 5--English Coffee Biggin
(Langley Ware); 6--Universal Cafenoira (Glass Filter); 7--Vienna
(Bohemian or Carlsbad) Coffee Machine; 8--Tru-Bru Pot; 9--Tricolator;
10--Manning-Bowman Percolator; 11--Blanke's Sanitary Coffee Pot;
12--Phylax Coffee Maker; 13--Private-Estate Coffee Maker; 14--American
French Drip Pot; 15--Kin-Hee Pot; 16--Silex Opalescent Glass Filter;
17--French Drip Pot (Langley Ware).]

This brief review of the evolution of coffee brews shows that coffee
making started with boiling, and next became an infusion. After that,
the best practise became divided between simple percolation and
filtration, which have continued to the present time. Boiling has also
continued to find advocates in every country, even in the United States,
where it seems to die hard, no matter how much is done to discredit it.
Percolation devices are subdivided into the simple drip pots and the
continuous percolation machines, as represented by numerous complicated
and high-priced contrivances on the market. Gradually, however, true
coffee lovers are realizing that the best results are to be obtained
through simple percolation or simple filtration. There are good
arguments for both methods.

_Coffee Making in Europe in the Nineteenth Century_

ENGLAND. We have noted Count Rumford’s efforts to reform coffee making
in England in the early part of the nineteenth century. Many other
scientific men joined the movement. Among them was Professor Donovan,
who in the _Dublin Philosophical Journal_ for May, 1826, told of his
experiments “to ascertain the best methods for extracting all the
virtues inherent in the berry.” The _Penny Magazine_ for June 14, 1834,
after deploring “the straw-colored fluid commonly introduced under the
misnomer of coffee in England”, thus digests Professor Donovan’s
findings:

Mr. Donovan found, that what we shall call the medicinal quality of
coffee resides in it independent of its aromatic flavor,–that it
is possible to obtain the exhilarating effect of the beverage
without gratifying the palate,–and, on the other hand, that all
the aromatic quality may be enjoyed without its producing any
effect upon the animal economy. His object was to combine the two.

The roasting of coffee is requisite for the production of both
these qualities; but, to secure them in their full degree, it is
necessary to conduct the process with some skill. The first thing
to be done is to expose the raw coffee to the heat of a gentle
fire, in an open vessel, stirring it continually until it assumes a
yellowish colour. It should then be roughly broken,–a thing very
easily done,–so that each berry is divided into about four or five
pieces, when it must be put into the roasting apparatus. This, as
most commonly used, is made of sheet-iron, and is of a cylindrical
shape: it no doubt answers the purpose well, and is by no means a
costly machine, but coffee may be very well roasted in a common
iron or earthenware pot, the main circumstances to be observed
being the degree to which the process is carried, and the
prevention of partial burning, by constant stirring. One of the
requisites for having good coffee is that it shall have been
recently roasted.

Coffee should be ground very fine for use, and only at the moment
when it is wanted, or the aromatic flavour will in some measure be
lost. To extract all its good qualities, the powder requires two
separate and somewhat opposite modes of treatment, but which do not
offer any difficulty when explained. On the one hand, the fine
flavour would be lost by boiling, while, on the other, it is
necessary to subject the coffee to that degree of heat in order to
extract its medicinal quality. The mode of proceeding, which, after
many experiments, Mr. Donovan found to be the most simple and
efficacious for attaining both these ends, was the following:–

The whole water to be used must be divided into two equal parts.
One half must be put first to the coffee “cold”, and this must be
placed over the fire until it “just comes to a boil”, when it must
be immediately removed. Allowing it then to subside for a few
moments the liquid must be poured off as clear as it will run. The
remaining half of the water, which during this time should have
been on the fire, must then be added “at a boiling heat” to the
grounds, and placed on the fire, where it must be kept “boiling”
for about three minutes. This will extract the medicinal virtue,
and if then the liquid be allowed again to subside, and the clear
fluid be added to the first portion, the preparation will be found
to combine all the good properties of the berry in as great
perfection as they can be obtained. If any fining ingredient is
used it should be mixed with the powder at the beginning of the
process.

Several kinds of apparatus, some of them very ingenious in their
construction, have been proposed for preparing coffee, but they are
all made upon the principle of extracting only the aromatic
flavour, while Professor Donovan’s suggestions not only enable us
to accomplish that desirable object, but superadd the less obvious
but equally essential matter of extracting and making our own all
the medicinal virtues.

When Webster and Parkes published their _Encyclopedia of Domestic
Economy_, London, 1844, they gave the following as “the most usual
method of making coffee in England”:

Put fresh ground coffee into a coffee-pot, with a sufficient
quantity of water, and set this on the fire till it boils for a
minute or two; then remove it from the fire, pour out a cupful,
which is to be returned into the coffee-pot to throw down the
grounds that may be floating; repeat this, and let the coffee-pot
stand near the fire, but not on too hot a place, until the grounds
have subsided to the bottom; in a few minutes the coffee will be
clear without any other preparation, and may be poured into cups;
in this manner, with good materials in sufficient quantity, and
proper care, excellent coffee may be made. The most valuable part
of the coffee is soon extracted, and it is certain that long
boiling dissipates the fine aroma and flavour. Some make it a rule
not to suffer the coffee to boil, but only to bring it just to the
boiling point; but it is said by Mr. Donovan that it requires
boiling for a little time to extract the whole of the bitter, in
which he conceives much of the exhilarating qualities of the coffee
reside.

This work had also the following to say on the clearing of coffee, which
was then a much-mooted question:

The clearing of coffee is a circumstance demanding particular
attention. After the heaviest parts of the grounds have settled,
there are still fine particles suspended for some time, and if the
coffee be poured off before these have subsided, the liquor is
deficient in that transparency which is one test of its perfection;
for coffee not well cleared has always an unpleasant bitter taste.
In general, the coffee becomes clear by simply remaining quiet for
a few minutes, as we have stated; but those who are anxious to have
it as clear as possible employ some artificial means of assisting
the clearing. The addition of a little isinglass, hartshorn
shavings, skins of eels or soles, white of eggs, egg shells, etc.,
has been recommended for clearing; but it is evident that these
substances, to produce their effect, which is upon the same
principle as the fining of beer or wine, should be dissolved
previously, for if put in without, it would require so much time to
dissolve, that the flavour of the coffee would vanish.

Coffee-making devices of this period in England, in addition to the
Rumford type of percolator and the popular coffee biggin, included
Evans’ machine provided with a tin air-float to which was attached a
filter bag containing the coffee; Jones’ apparatus, a pumping
percolator; Parker’s steam-fountain coffee maker, which forced the hot
water upward through the ground coffee; Platow’s patent filter,
previously mentioned, a single vacuum glass percolator in combination
with an urn; Brain’s vacuum or pneumatic filter employing a “muslin,
linen or shamoy leather filter” and an exhausting pump, designed for
kitchen use; and Palmer’s and Beart’s pneumatic filtering machines of
similar construction.

Cold infusions were common, the practise being to let them stand
overnight, to be filtered in the morning, and only heated, not boiled.

Coffee grinding for these various types of coffee makers was performed
by iron mills; the portable box mill being most favored for family use.
“It consisted of a square box either of mahogany or iron japanned,
containing in the interior a hollow cone of steel with sharp grooves on
the inside; into this fits a conical piece of hardened iron or steel
having spiral grooves cut upon its surface and capable of being turned
round by a handle.” There was a drawer to receive the finely ground
coffee. Larger wall-mills employed the same grinding mechanism.

In 1855, Dr. John Doran wrote in his “Table Traits”:

With regard to the making of coffee, there is no doubt that the
Turkish method of pounding the coffee in a mortar is infinitely
superior to grinding it in a mill, as with us. But after either
method the process recommended by M. Soyer may be advantageously
adopted; namely, “Put two ounces of ground coffee into a stew-pan,
which set upon the fire, stirring the coffee round with a spoon
until quite hot, then pour over a pint of boiling water; cover over
closely for five minutes, pass it through a cloth, warm again, and
serve.”

From observations by G.W. Poore, M.D., London, 1883, we are given a
glimpse of coffee making in England in the latter part of the nineteenth
century. He said:

Those who wish to enjoy really good coffee must have it fresh
roasted. On the Continent, in every well-regulated household, the
daily supply of coffee is roasted every morning. In England this is
rarely done.

If roasted coffee has to be kept, it must be kept in an air-tight
vessel. In France, coffee used to be kept in a wrapper of waxed
leather, which was always closely tied over the contained coffee.
In this way the coffee was kept from contact with any air.

The Viennese say that coffee should be kept in a glass bottle
closed with a bung, and that coffee should on no account be kept in
a tin canister.

The coffee having been roasted, it has to be reduced to a coarse
powder before the infusion is made. The grinding and powdering of
coffee should be done just before it is wanted, for if the whole
coffee seeds quickly lose their aroma, how much more quickly will
the aroma be dissipated from coffee which has been reduced to a
fine powder? Nothing need be said in the matter of coffee mills.
They are common enough, varied enough, and cheap enough to suit all
tastes.

To insure a really good cup of coffee attention must be given to
the following points:

1. Be sure that the coffee is good in quality, freshly roasted, and
fresh ground.

2. Use sufficient coffee. I have made some experiments on this
point, and I have come to the conclusions that one ounce of coffee
to a pint of water makes poor coffee, 1-1/2 ounces of coffee to a
pint of water makes fairly good coffee, two ounces of coffee to a
pint of water makes excellent coffee.

3. As to the form of coffee pot I have nothing to say. The
varieties of coffee machines are very numerous and many of them are
useless incumbrances. At the best, they can not be regarded as
absolutely necessary. The Brazilians insist that coffee pots should
on no account be made of metal, but that porcelain or earthenware
is alone permissible. I have been in the habit of late of having my
coffee made in a common jug provided with a strainer, and I believe
there is nothing better.

[Illustration: COFFEE-MAKING MACHINES POPULAR IN ENGLISH HOTELS AND
RESTAURANTS]

4. Warm the jug, put the coffee into it, boil the water, and pour
the boiling water on the coffee, and the thing is done.

5. Coffee must not be boiled, or at most it must be allowed just to
“come to a boil”, as cook says. If violent ebullition takes place,
the aroma of the coffee is dissipated, and the beverage is spoiled.

The most economical way of making coffee is to put the coffee into
a jug and pour cold water upon it. This should be done some hours
before the coffee is wanted–over night, for instance, if the
coffee be required for breakfast. The light particles of coffee
will imbibe the water and fall to the bottom of the jug in course
of time. When the coffee is to be used stand the jug in a saucepan
of water or a bainmarie and place the outer vessel over the fire
till the water contained in it boils. The coffee in this way is
gently brought to the boiling point without violent ebullition, and
we get the maximum extract without any loss of aroma.

Always make your coffee strong. _Café au lait_ is much better if
made with one-fourth strong coffee and three-fourths milk than if
made half-and-half with a weaker coffee; this is evident.

It is a mistake to suppose that coffee can not be made without a
great deal of costly and cumbersome apparatus.

THE CONTINENT. Rossignon has given us a general view of coffee making on
the continent of Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. He
says:

Formerly small bags of baize were used to percolate coffee. The
water was poured on the coffee, and when they were new the coffee
percolated through them was pretty good, but when they had been
used a few times they became greasy and it was very difficult to
clean them by any means. The greasy baize altered the quality of
the coffee, and in spite of all efforts to keep it clean the coffee
had a tarnished appearance very disagreeable to the view. Very few
persons use them at present. The apparatus most in use for the
percolation of coffee is a tin coffee-pot composed of two parts.
The upper one has a filter or sieve on which the coffee powder is
placed and through which the filtered coffee must pass. Boiling
water is poured on the coffee. The liquor which percolates falls in
the second part. Then the upper part is removed and the coffee is
ready as a beverage. There are very many systems of coffee pots.
One of the best is the Russian one, which consists of a receptacle
composed of two parts resembling two halves of an egg screwed
together. One part contains the hot water and the other the ground
coffee. In the center there is a filter. Turning the pot upside
down the percolation takes place very slowly and no aroma is lost.

The tin plate which is generally used to make the coffee pot has
many drawbacks. One of them is the dissolution of iron which takes
place after it has been used for a short time.

The quality of coffee, as a beverage, depends principally on the
degree of heat of the water. Experience has shown that a medium
class of coffee prepared at a moderate heat gives a very good
liquor, while excellent coffee on which boiling water has been
poured did not give a very good liquor. Therefore, instead of
pouring boiling water at 100°C. in a porcelain or silver
coffee-pot, those who desire to make a perfect coffee must use
water heated from 60° to 75°C.

[Illustration: The Duparquet Still's machine The Kellum

THREE WELL KNOWN MAKES OF LARGE COFFEE URNS]

FRANCE. Also about the middle of the nineteenth century the French
naturalist, Du Tour, thus describes one manner of making coffee in
France:

Let the powder be poured into the coffee-pot filled with boiling
water, in the proportion of two ounces and a half to two pounds, or
two English pints of water. Let the mixture be stirred with a
spoon, and the coffee-pot be soon taken off the fire, but suffered
to remain closely shut, for about at least two hours, on the warm
ashes of a wood fire. During the infusion the liquor should be
several times agitated by a chocolate frother, or something of the
same kind, and be finally left for about a quarter of an hour to
settle.

_Café au lait_ was not made by boiling coffee and milk together, as milk
was not proper to extract the coffee; the coffee was first made as _café
noir_, only stronger; as much of this coffee was poured in the cup as
was required, and the cup was then filled up with _boiled_ milk. _Café a
la crème_, was made by adding boiled cream to strong clear coffee and
heating them together.

In France, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, coffee was
roasted over charcoal fires in earthenware dishes or saucepans, stirred
with a spatula or wooden spoon, or in small cylinder or globular
roasters of iron. Gas roasting was also practised. When roasted in large
batches, the beans were cooled in wicker baskets, tossed into the air.
The grinding was preferably done in mortars or in box mills of pyramid
shape with receiving drawers, and was not too fine.

The usual method of making coffee in France among the better classes at
this time was by means of improved De Belloy drip devices, double glass
vacuum filters, pumping percolators (double circulation devices), the
Russian egg-shaped pots, and the Viennese machines. The last-named were
metal pumping percolators with glass tops, usually swung between the
uprights of a carry arrangement, the base of which held a spirit lamp.

Among the numerous French machines which became well known were:
Reparlier’s glass “filter”; Egrot’s steam cloth-filter machine and
Malen’s percolator apparatus, both designed for barracks and ships,
where previously the coffee had been brewed in soup kettles; Bouillon
Muller’s steam percolator; Laurent’s whistling coffee pot, a steam
percolator which announced when the coffee was ready; Ed. Loysel’s rapid
filter, a hydrostatic percolator; and those pots to which Morize,
Lemare, Grandin, Crepaux, and Gandais gave their names.

In 1892, the French minister of war directed that, in the army roasting
and grinding operations, the coffee chaff should no longer be thrown
away, as it had been found that it was rich in caffein and aroma
constituents.

[Illustration: POPULAR GERMAN DRIP POT]

Coffee _à la minute_, which appeared in France in the nineteenth
century, was made by decoction or infusion through a funnel pierced with
holes and covered inside with blotting paper, or a woolen strainer
cloth. This system, says Jardin, suggested the economical coffee pot.

A popular German drip coffee maker of the late nineteenth century
employs a plug in the spout which provides air pressure to hold back the
infusion until the plug is removed.

Pierre Joseph Buc’hoz, physician to the king of Poland, in 1787, made a
business of supplying roasted coffee in small packets, each sufficient
for one cup. He built up quite a trade until one day he was caught
substituting roasted rye for coffee. This was the Buc’hoz method of
making coffee, much practised by the lower classes because he was looked
upon as an authority:

Boil the water in a coffee pot. When it boils, draw it from the
fire long enough to add an ounce of coffee powder to a pound of
water. Stir with a spoon. Return it to the fire and when it boils
move it back somewhat from the heat and let it simmer for eight
minutes. Clarify with sugar or deer horn powder.

_Early Coffee Making in the United States_

The coffee drink reached the colonies, first as a beverage for the
well-to-do, about 1668. When introduced to the general public through
the coffee houses about 1700, it was first sipped from small dishes as
in England; and no one inquired too closely as to how it was made. When,
half a century later, it had displaced beer and tea for breakfast, its
correct making became a matter of polite inquiry. It was not until well
into the nineteenth century that there was any suggestion of scientific
interest, and not until within the last decade was any real chemical
analysis of brewed coffee undertaken with a view to producing a
scientific cup of the beverage.

At first, owing to the great distances, and difficulties surrounding
communications, between the colonies, news of improvements in coffee
makers and coffee making traveled slowly, and coffee customs brought
from Europe by the early settlers became habits that were not easily
changed. Some of the worst have clung on, ignoring the march of
improvement, and seem as firmly entrenched in suburban and rural
communities today as they were two hundred years ago.

Indeed, despite the fact that the United States have been the largest
consumer of coffee among the nations for nearly half a century, it is
only within the last ten years that coffee properly prepared could be
obtained outside the principal cities. Even today, the average consumer
is sadly in need of education in correct coffee brewing. It would be an
excellent idea if all the coffee propaganda funds could be concentrated
on a study of this one phase of the coffee question for several years,
and the recommendations published in such fashion as firmly to fix in
the minds of the rising generation a knowledge of correct coffee
brewing. The facts of the case are that, generally speaking, coffee is
still prepared in slovenly fashion in the average American home.
However, with the good work done in recent years by organized trade
effort to correct this abuse of our national beverage, signs are
plentiful that the time is not far distant when a lasting reformation in
coffee making will have been accomplished.

In colonial times the coffee drink was mostly a decoction. Esther
Singleton tells us that in New Amsterdam coffee was boiled in a copper
pot lined with tin and drunk as hot as possible With sugar or honey and
spices. “Sometimes a pint of fresh milk was brought to the boiling point
and then as much drawn tincture of coffee was added, or the coffee was
put in cold water with the milk and both were boiled together and drunk.
Rich people mixed cloves, cinnamon or sugar with ambergris in the
coffee.[376]”

Ground cardamom seeds were also used to flavor the decoction.

In the early days of New England, the whole beans were frequently boiled
for hours with not wholly pleasing results in forming either food or
drink[377].

In New Orleans, the ground coffee was put into a tin or pewter coffee
dripper, and the infusion was made by slowly pouring the boiling water
over it after the French fashion. The coffee was not considered good
unless it actually stained the cup. This method still obtains among the
old Creole families.

Boiling coarsely pounded coffee for fifteen minutes to half an hour was
common practise in the colonies before 1800.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the best practise was to
roast the coffee in an iron cylinder that stood before the hearth fire.
It was either turned by a handle or wound up like a jack to go by
itself. The grinding was done in a lap or wall mill; and among the best
known makes were Kenrick’s, Wilson’s, Wolf’s, John Luther’s, George W.M.
Vandegrift’s, and Charles Parker’s Best Quality.

To make coffee “without boiling” the cookery books of the period advised
the housewife to obtain “a biggin, the best of which is what in France
is called a Grecque.”

In 1844, the _Kitchen Directory and American Housewife’s_ advice on the
subject of coffee making was the following:

Coffee should be put in an iron pot and dried near a moderate fire
for several hours before roasting (in pot over hot coals and
stirring constantly). It is sufficiently roasted when biting one of
the lightest colored kernels–if brittle the whole is done. A
coffee roaster is better than an open pot. Use a tablespoonful
ground to a pint of boiling water. Boil in tin pot twenty to
twenty-five minutes. If boiled longer it will not taste fresh and
lively. Let stand four or five minutes to settle, pour off grounds
into a coffee pot or urn. Put fish skin or isinglass size of a nine
pence in pot when put on to boil or else the white and shell of
half an egg to a couple of quarts of coffee. French coffee is made
in a German filter, the water is turned on boiling hot and
one-third more coffee is needed than when boiled in the common way.

In 1856 the _Ladies’ Home Magazine_ (now the _Ladies’ Home Journal_)
printed the following, which fairly sums up the coffee making customs of
that period:

Coffee, if you would have its best flavor, should be roasted at
home; but _not in an open pan_, for this permits a large amount of
aroma to escape. The roaster should be a closed sphere or
cylinder. The aroma, upon which the good taste of the coffee
depends, is only developed in the berry by the roasting process,
which also is necessary to diminish its toughness, and fit it for
grinding. While roasting, coffee loses from fifteen to twenty-five
percent of its weight, and gains from thirty to fifty percent in
bulk. More depends upon the proper roasting than upon the quality
of the coffee itself. One or two scorched or burned berries will
materially injure the flavor of several cupfuls. Even a slight
overheating diminishes the good taste.

The best mode of roasting, where it is done at home, is to dry the
coffee first, in an open vessel, until its color is slightly
changed. This allows the moisture to escape. Then cover it closely
and scorch it, keeping up a constant agitation, so that no portion
of a kernel may be unequally heated. Too low and too slow a heat
dries it up without producing the full aromatic flavor; while too
great heat dissipates the oily matter and leaves only bitter
charred kernels. It should be heated so as to acquire a uniform
deep cinnamon color, and an oily appearance, but never a deep, dark
brown color. It then should be taken from the fire and kept closely
covered until cold, and further until used. While unroasted coffee
improves by age, the roasted berries will very generally lose their
aroma if not covered very closely. The ground stuff kept on sale in
barrels, or boxes, or in papers, is not worthy the name of coffee.

Coffee should not be ground until just before using. If ground over
night, it should be covered: or, what is quite as well, put into
the boiler and covered with water. The water not only retains the
valuable oil and other aromatic elements, but also prepares it by
soaking for immediate boiling in the morning.

If the coffee pot (the “_Old Dominion_”, of course, for in a common
boiler this process would ruin the coffee by wasting the aroma) be
set on the range or stove, or near the fire, so as to be kept hot
all night preparatory to boiling in the morning, the beverage will
be found in the morning, rich, mellow, and of a most delicious
flavor.

Coffee used at supper time should be placed on or near the fire
immediately after dinner and kept hot or simmering–not
boiling–all the afternoon.

Try this method if you wish coffee in perfection.

Wood’s improved coffee roaster is acknowledged to be the best
article of the kind now in use.

This patent coffee roaster has been improved by the introduction of
a triangular flange inside of each of the hemispheres, as seen in
the cut. These flanges, as the roaster is turned, catch the coffee
and throw it from the inner surface, thus insuring a perfect
uniformity in the burning.

The Woods roaster (1849) and the Old Dominion Coffee Pot (1856) have
been referred to in chapter XXXIV.

From the _Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery_, we learn some more about
the customs prevailing “among the first cooks in the country” in
roasting and making coffee in the United States about the middle of the
nineteenth century. For example:

ROASTING COFFEE BEANS

Put the beans in the roaster, set this before a moderate fire, and
turn slowly until the Coffee takes a good brown colour; for this it
should require about twenty-five minutes. Open the cover to see
when it is done. If browned, transfer it to an earthen jar, cover
it tightly, and use when needed.

Or a more simple plan, and even more effectual, is to take a tin
baking-dish, butter well the bottom, put the Coffee in it, and set
it in a moderate oven until the beans take a strong golden colour,
twenty minutes sufficing for this. Toss them frequently with a
wooden spoon as they are cooking.

Another plan is to put in a small frying-pan 1 1b. of raw
Coffee-beans and set the pan on the fire, stirring and shaking
occasionally till the beans are yellow: then cover the frying-pan
and shake the Coffee about till it is a dark brown. Move the pan
off the fire, keep the cover on, and when the beans are a little
cool, break an egg over them and stir them until they are all well
coated with the egg. Then store the Coffee in tins or jars with
tight-fitting lids, and grind it as wanted for use.

Coffee should always be bought in the bean and ground as required,
otherwise it is liable to extensive adulteration with chicory (or
succory); some persons like the addition, but the epicure who is
really fond of Coffee would not admit of its introduction.

MAKING BREAKFAST COFFEE.

Allow 1 tablespoonful of Coffee to each person. The Coffee when
ground should be measured, put into the Coffee-pot, and boiling
water poured over it in the proportion of 3/4 pint to each
tablespoonful of Coffee, and the pot put on the fire; the instant
it boils, take the pot off, uncover it, and let it stand a minute
or two; then cover it again, put it back on the fire, and let it
boil up again. Take it from the fire and let it stand for five
minutes to settle. It is then ready to pour out.

This work recommended as among the latest and best devices for coffee
making, all those manufactured or sold in this country by Adams & Son;
the English coffee biggin; General Hutchinson’s coffee pot and urn,
combining De Belloy’s and Rumford’s ideas; Le Brun’s Cafetiére for
making coffee by distillation and by steam pressure, passing it directly
into the cup; a Vienna coffee-making machine, and a Russian coffee
reversible pot called the Potsdam.

Among two score of coffee recipes for making various kinds of extracts,
ices, candies, cakes, etc., flavored with coffee, there is a curious one
for coffee beer, the invention of Frenchman named Pluehart. “The
ingredients and quantities in a thousand parts are–Strong coffee 300;
rum 300; syrup thickened with gum senegal 65; alcoholic extract of
orange peel 10; and water 325.”

“It does not appear to have reached any important degree of popularity”,
adds the editor.

In 1861, Godey’s _Lady’s Book and Magazine_ noted with approval the
growing custom of hotel and restaurant guests to order coffee instead of
wines or spirits with their dinners. On the subject of “How to make a
cup of coffee” it had this to say:

Which is the best way of making coffee? In this particular notions
differ. For example, the Turks do not trouble themselves to take
off the bitterness by sugar, nor do they seek to disguise the
flavor by milk, as is our custom. But they add to each dish a drop
of the essence of amber, or put a couple of cloves in it, during
the process of preparation. Such flavoring would not, we opine,
agree with western tastes. If a cup of the very best coffee,
prepared in the highest perfection and boiling hot, be placed on a
table in the middle of a room and suffered to cool, it will, in
cooling, fill the room with its fragrance: but becoming cold, it
will lose much of its flavor. Being again heated, its taste and
flavor will be still further impaired, and heated a third time, it
will be found vapid and nauseous. The aroma diffused through the
room proved that the coffee has been deprived of its most volatile
parts, and hence of its agreeableness and virtue. By pouring
boiling water on the coffee, and surrounding the containing vessel
with boiling water, the finer qualities of the coffee will be
preserved.

Boiling coffee in a coffee-pot is neither economical or judicious,
so much of the aroma being wasted by this method. Count Rumford (no
mean authority) states that one pound of good Mocha, when roasted
and ground, will make fifty-six cups of the very best coffee, but
it must be ground finely, or the surfaces of the particles only
will be acted upon by the hot water, and much of the essence will
be left in the grounds.

In the East, coffee is said to arouse, exhilarate, and keep awake,
allaying hunger, and giving to the weary renewed strength and
vigor, while it imparts a feeling of comfort and repose. The
Arabians, when they take their coffee off the fire, wrap the vessel
in a wet cloth, which fines the liquor instantly, and makes it
cream at the top. There is one great essential to be observed,
namely, that coffee should not be ground before it is required for
use, as in a powdered state its finer qualities evaporate.

We pass over the usual modes of making coffee, as being familiar to
every lady who presides over every household; and content ourselves
with the most modern and approved Parisian methods, though we may
add that a common recipe for good coffee is–two ounces of coffee
and one quart of water. Filter or boil ten minutes, and leave to
clear ten minutes.

The French make an extremely strong coffee. For breakfast, they
drink one-third of the infusion, and two-thirds of hot milk. The
_café noir_ used after dinner, is the very essence of the berry.
Only a small cup is taken, sweetened with white sugar or
sugar-candy, and sometimes a little _eau de vie_ is poured over the
sugar in a spoon held above the surface, and set on fire; or after
it, a very small glass of _liqueur_, called a _chasse-café_, is
immediately drunk. But the best method, prevalent in France, for
making coffee (and the infusion may be strong or otherwise as taste
may direct) is to take a large coffee-pot with an upper receptacle
made to fit close into it, the bottom of which is perforated with
small holes, containing in its interior two movable metal
strainers, over the second of which the powder is to be placed, and
immediately under the third. Upon this upper strainer pour boiling
water, and continue to do so gently; until it bubbles up through
the strainer: then shut the cover of the machine close down, place
it near the fire, and so soon as the water has drained through the
coffee, repeat the operation until the whole intended quantity be
passed. No finings are required. Thus all the fragrance of its
perfume will be retained with all the balsamic and stimulating
powers of its essence. This is a true Parisian mode, and _voila!_ a
cup of excellent coffee.

This article is most interesting in that it shows the revolt against
boiling coffee had started in the United States; also that the
importance of fine grinding was being recognized and emphasized by the
leaders of the best thought of the nation.

Probably the first scientific inquiry into the subject of coffee
roasting and brewing in the United States was that detailed by August T.
Dawson and Charles M. Wetherill, Ph.D., M.D., in the _Journal of the
Franklin Institute_ for July and August, 1855. The following is a
digest:

There are two classes of beverages: 1, alcoholic, and 2,
nitrogenized. Nitrogenized foods are effective to replace the
substance of the different organs of the body wasted away by the
process of vitality. Coffee is one of these.

Besides the tannin, the coffee berry contains two substances, one
the nitrogenized quality, caffeine, which is about one percent and
is not altered in roasting, and the other a volatile oil which is
developed in roasting and which gives the coffee its flavor. Dr.
Julius Lehmann (Liebig’s Annales LXXXVII. 205) says that coffee
retards the waste tissues of the body and diminishes the amount of
food necessary to preserve life. This effect is due to the oil.
Much of the nutritive portion of coffee is lost by European methods
of making.

Good coffee is very rare. These experiments were made to ascertain
whether a potable coffee could not be offered to the public at as
low a price as the raw or roasted now is. In order to be successful
we needed to extract a larger portion of the nutritive substance
than is extracted in the household. The experiments have proved
vain.

As a result of our experiments with different ways of roasting and
brewing coffee, we have found the following plan to be the most
convenient and the best: the coffee will taste the same every time
and it will taste good. If a good berry be properly roasted and the
infusion be of the proper strength, good coffee must result. A
Mocha berry should be selected and roasted seven or eight pounds at
a time in a cylindrical drum. After roasting it should be placed in
a stone jar with a mouth three inches in diameter. The jar should
be closed air-tight. This will furnish two cups of coffee daily for
six months. A quart should be taken from the jar at a time and
ground. The ground coffee should be kept in covered glass jars.

The best coffee pot was found to be the common biggin having an
upper compartment with a perforated bottom upon which to place the
coffee. To make one cup of this infusion, place half an ounce of
ground coffee in the upper compartment and six fluid ounces of
water into the bottom. Put the biggin over a gas lamp. After three
minutes the water will boil. When steam appears, take the biggin
from the fire and pour the water into a cup and thence immediately
into the top of the biggin where it will extract the berry by
replacement. (Here follows an experiment.)

This experiment shows that loss of weight is no criterion that
coffee is properly roasted, neither is the color (by itself) nor
the temperature, nor the time.

Next we experimented to ascertain whether the aroma developed by
roasting coffee and which is lost might not be collected and added
to the coffee at pleasure. An attempt was made to drive the
volatile oils from roasted coffee by steam and make a dried extract
of the residual coffee to which the oils were to be later added.
Two attempts were made and both failed. It appears that but a small
quantity of the aroma is lost in roasting and that is mixed with
bad smelling vapors from which it is impossible to free it.

Then we tried to make a potable coffee by making an aqueous extract
of raw coffee, evaporating to dryness and roasting the residue.
(Here follows the experiment.)

This also was unsuccessful. The great trouble here is a dark shiny
residue, which, while tasteless, is very disagreeable to look at.
In the preparation of coffee by boiling, two and a half times as
much matter is extracted as by biggin.

The proper method of roasting coffee is as follows: It should be
placed in a cylinder and turned constantly over a bright fire. When
white smoke begins to appear, the contents should be closely
watched. Keep testing the grains. As soon as a grain breaks easily
at a slight blow, at which time the color will be a light chestnut
brown, the coffee is done. Cool it by lifting some up and dropping
it back with a tin cup. If it be left to cool in a heap there is
great danger of over-roasting. Keep the coffee only in air-tight
vessels. _Measure_ the infusions, a half ounce of coffee to six
ounces of water per cup.

All “extracts of coffee” are worthless. Most of them are composed
of burned sugar, chicory, carrots, etc.

In 1883, an authority of that day, Francis B. Thurber, in his book,
_Coffee; from Plantation to Cup_, which he dedicated to the railroad
restaurant man at Poughkeepsie, because he served an “ideal cup of
coffee”, came out strongly for the good old boiling method with eggs,
shells included. This was the Thurber recipe:

Grind moderately fine a large cup or small bowl of coffee; break
into it one egg with shell; mix well, adding enough cold water to
thoroughly wet the grounds; upon this pour one pint of boiling
water: let it boil slowly for ten to fifteen minutes, according to
the variety of coffee used and the fineness to which it is ground.
Let it stand three minutes to settle, then pour through a fine
wire-sieve into a warm coffee pot; this will make enough for four
persons. At table, first put the sugar into the cup, then fill
half-full of boiling milk, add your coffee, and you have a
delicious beverage that will be a revelation to many poor mortals
who have an indistinct remembrance of, and an intense longing for,
an ideal cup of coffee. If cream can be procured so much the
better, and in that case boiling water can be added either in the
pot or cup to make up for the space occupied by the milk as above;
or condensed milk will be found a good substitute for cream.

In 1886, however, Jabez Burns, who knew something about the practical
making of the beverage as well as the roasting and grinding operations,
said:

Have boiling water handy. Take a clean dry pot and put in the
ground coffee. Place on fire to warm pot and coffee. Pour on
sufficient boiling water, not more than two-thirds full. As soon as
the water boils add a little cold water and remove from fire. To
extract the greatest virtue of coffee grind it fine and pour
scalding water over it.

John Cotton Dana, of the Newark Public Library, says he remembers how in
his old home in Woodstock, Vt., they had always, in the attic, a big
stone jar of green coffee. This was sacred to the great feast days,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Just before those anniversaries, the jar
was brought forward and the proper amount of coffee was taken out and
roasted in a flat sheet-iron pan on the top of the stove, being stirred
constantly and watched with great care. “As my memory seems to say that
this was not constantly done,” says Mr. Dana, “it would seem that, even
then, my father, who kept the general store in the village, bought
roasted coffee in Boston or New York.”

At the close of the century, there were still many advocates of boiling
coffee; but although the coffee trade was not quite ready to declare its
absolute independence in this direction, there were many leaders who
boldly proclaimed their freedom from the old prejudice. Arthur Gray, in
his _Over the Black Coffee_, as late as 1902, quoted “the largest coffee
importing house in the United States” as advocating the use of eggs and
egg-shells and boiling the mixture for ten minutes.

_Latest Developments in Better Coffee Making_

Better coffee making by co-operative trade effort got its initial
stimulus at the 1912 convention of the National Coffee Roasters
Association. As a result of discussions at that meeting and thereafter,
a Better Coffee Making Committee was created for investigation and
research.

The coffee trade’s declaration of independence in the matter of boiled
coffee was made at the 1913 convention of the National Coffee Roasters
Association, when, after hearing the report of the Better Coffee Making
Committee, presented by Edward Aborn of New York, it adopted a
resolution saying that the recommendations met with its approval and
ordering that they be printed and circulated.

The work done by the committee included “the first chemical analysis of
brewed coffee on record”, a study of grindings, and a comparison of the
results of four brewing methods. Its conclusions and recommendations
were embodied in a booklet published by the National Coffee Roasters
Association, entitled _From Tree to Cup with Coffee_, and were as
follows:

ROASTING

The Roaster or “Coffee Chef” is the only cook necessary to a good
cup of coffee. He sends it to the consumer a completely cooked
product.

In the roasting process the berries swell up by the liberation of
gases within their substance. The aromatic oils contained in the
cells are sufficiently developed or “cooked”, and made ready for
instantaneous solution with boiling water, when the cells are
thoroughly opened by grinding.

The roasting principles of different green coffees vary. Trained
study and a nice science in timing the roast and manipulating the
fire is necessary to a perfect development of aroma and flavor.

The drinking quality is largely dependent upon the experienced
knowledge of the coffee roaster and his scientific methods and
modern machinery, by which the coffee is not only roasted, but
cleaned, milled and completely manufactured to a high point of
perfection.

In their National Association work, the wholesale roasters are
giving the public new facts and valuable information, from
scientific researches, investigations, etc.

GRINDING. The roasted berry is constructed of fibrous tissues
formed into tiny cells visible only under the microscope, which are
the “packages” wherein are stored the whole value of coffee, the
aromatic oils. Like cutting open an orange, the grinding of coffee
is the opening of surrounding tissue and pulp, and the finer it is
cut the more easily are the “juices” released.

The fibrous tissue itself is waste material, yielding, by boiling
or too long percolations, a coffee colored liquid which is fibrous
and twangy in taste, has no aromatic character, and contains
undesirable elements.

The true strength and flavor of roasted coffee is ground out, not
boiled out. The finer coffee is ground, the more thoroughly are the
cells opened, the surfaces multiplied, and the aromatic oils made
ready for separation from their husks. Hence it follows that:

Coarse ground coffee is unopened coffee–coffee thrown away.

The finer the grind, the better and greater the yield. With
pulverized coffee (fine as corn meal) the fully released aromatic
oils are instantaneously soluble with boiling water.

In ground coffee the oils are standing in “open packages,” escaping
into the air and absorbing moisture, etc., necessitating quick use
or confinement in air proof and moisture proof protection.

BREWING. From scientific researches by the National Coffee
Roasters’ Association, including the first chemical analysis on
record of brewed coffee, produced by various brewing methods, the
fundamental principles of coffee making have been clearly
established. These principles are simple, and when once understood
equip any person to intelligently judge the merits and defects of
the various coffee making devices on the market. They constitute
the law of coffee brewing, and may be stated as follows:

Correct brewing is not “cooking.” It is a process of extraction of
the already cooked aromatic oils from the surrounding fibrous
tissue, which has no drinkable value. Boiling or stewing cooks in
the fibre, which should be wholly discarded as dregs, and damages
the flavor and purity of the liquid. Boiling coffee and water
together is ruin and waste.

The aromatic oils, constituting the whole true flavor, are
extracted instantly by boiling water when the cells are thoroughly
opened by fine grinding. The undesirable elements, being less
quickly soluble, are left in the grounds in a quick contact of
water and coffee. The coarser the grind the less accessible are the
oils to the water, thus the inability to get out the strength from
coffee not finely enough ground.

Too long contact of water and coffee causes twang and bitterness,
and the finer the grind the less the contact should be. The
infusion, when brewed, is injured by being boiled or overheated. It
is also damaged by being chilled, which breaks the fusion of oils
and water. It should be served immediately, or kept hot, as in a
double boiler.

Tests show that water under the boiling point, 212°, is
inefficient for coffee brewing, and does not extract the aromatic
oils[378]. Used under this temperature, it is a sure cause of weak
and insipid flavor. The effort to make up this deficiency by longer
contact of coffee and water, or repeated pouring through, results
in no extraction of the oils, but draws out undesirable elements,
such as coffee-tannin, which is soluble in water at any temperature
and is governed by the time of contact.

Coffee-tannin, which is not the commercial tannic acid, is
eliminated to practically nothing in the quick brewing methods.

The chemical analysis of brewed coffee shows the following:

Coffee Tannin Comparative
per Cup Proportions

Percolator method,[379] fine gran. 2.90 grains ——–
5 minutes’ steeping

Boiling Method, medium ” 2.35 ” ——

Steeping Method, ” ” 2.31 ” —–

Filtration (or Drip) Method } 0.29 ” -
Pulverized }

Brewing is the final manufacturing process of coffee. All previous
perfection is dependent upon it. Like food products which lose
nutritive value by bad cooking, coffee loses its best values by
wrong brewing. Brewed by the very simple correct methods, it is an
unfailingly clear, fragrant, taste-charming beverage, universally
loved and scientifically approved.

The committee made a further report in 1914, and some of the findings
were subsequently published in an association booklet called _The Coffee
Book_, used in connection with the second National Coffee Week campaign
in 1915. In it were these:

GRINDING DEFINITIONS

_Powdered_ _Pulverized_
Like–flour. Like–not coarser than
fine corn meal.

_Very Fine and Fine_ _Medium_
Like–from corn meal to Like–coarse granulated
fine granulated sugar. sugar.

Also, the committee emphasized its previous findings, particularly this
one: “Filter bags should be kept in cold water when not in use. Drying
causes decomposition. Keeps sweet if kept wet. Use muslin for filter bag
and pulverized granulation.”

The association brought out this same year, on recommendation of the
committee, its Home coffee mill, an “ideal and standard coffee mill for
home use.” It was a wall mill equipped with a glass-front metal hopper
and employing a ratchet spring-lock nut and double-action grinders. The
mill was later improved with an all-glass hopper and a tumbler bracket.
More than 20,000 of these mills have been sold.

At the suggestion of the author, the efficiency of nine different
coffee-making devices (including boiling and drip pots, pumping
percolators, cloth and paper filters) was investigated in the
laboratories of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research of the
University of Pittsburgh in 1915; and Dr. Raymond F. Bacon submitted a
report that showed that the boiling method produced the highest
percentage of caffetannic acid and caffein; the French drip process the
lowest. The investigation disclosed also a more palatable brew at 195°
to 200° F. than at the boiling point.

Another notable contribution to the science of coffee brewing was made
by the Home Economics Laboratories of the University of Kansas in 1916.
The experiments extended over one year. They showed that strength and
color in coffee brews are independent of blend and price and are most
fully obtained by pulverized granulation, which was found to be the most
efficient; that the consumer pays for flavor and that filtration yielded
the best brew. The French drip, or true percolator, did not figure in
these experiments.

At the 1915 convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association, Mr.
Aborn reported that 4,000 copies of the committee’s findings on grinding
and brewing had been given away: and the facts were further circulated
in 2,000,000 booklets issued during two years. He told of tests which
showed that while there might be reasons of commercial expediency for
packing ground coffee, it could not be defended as a quality principle;
also that plate-grinders produced a more efficient drawing granulation
than roller grinders, and that the idea that the steel-cut process
eliminates dirt was an absurdity, as “the finest ground coffee is not
dirt but coffee in its most efficient drawing condition.” He added, “I
have paid no attention to chaff removal in these tests as the
uselessness of such removal has been repeatedly shown up.” The reference
here was to his 1914 and 1913 reports, in which it was stated that
“removing the chaff in the steel-cut process does not remove any of the
tannin, and for this purpose the steel-cut process is wholely futile,
and a wasteful and unnecessary tax upon cost”, and that “the removal of
the chaff appreciably affects the flavor and depreciates the cup value.”

This report repeated previous findings against the pumping percolator as
producing an inefficient brew and being a very faulty utensil. Mr.
Aborn concluded his report by saying:

The old time boiling method has fewer and fewer defenders and holds
its own only as a superstition. I therefore pass it over as a
discarded issue…. It is but repetition of former reports for me
to say that pulverized granulation is the most efficient
granulation; that it assures the highest quality of brew and the
lowest proportion of coffee to a given strength; that it is the
most saving and most satisfying grinding for all to use; that it
(the coffee) must be fresh ground; that the filtration method is
the most correct in fundamental principles and that used with a
muslin bag it assures the consumer coffee of the purest, finest
flavored quality, highest health value and sure economy.

The campaign of education was continued during 1916, producing
encouraging results among schools, colleges, the medical fraternity,
newspapers, with the trade and the consumer. It marked the first big
constructive work combining the practical and scientific phases of
grinding and brewing methods. In his report at the 1916 convention of
the National Coffee Roasters Association, Mr. Aborn reviewed the four
years work, and pointed out what had been accomplished. He told of a new
booklet, to be called the _True Book on Coffee Grinding and Brewing_,
and an educational exhibit box for schools about to be issued. Due to
opposition which developed from trade interests that were putting out
steel-cut and other grinds of coffee not favored by the committee, and
also because many members thought the association should not exploit any
particular method of grinding or brewing, it was decided to make no
further publication of the coffee grinding and brewing conclusions of
the committee until they had been confirmed by laboratory research.

Boiling and filtration tests in the mountains of the Yellowstone Park by
W.H. Aborn in 1916 showed that the limit of coffee brewing was reached
at an altitude of nine thousand feet.

At the 1916 meeting, Dr. Floyd W. Robison of the Detroit Testing
Laboratories, read a notable paper entitled “What do we know about
coffee?,” which hailed coffee as a food product, warned the roasters to
beware of half-facts, and urged the importance of a research laboratory.
It was published and given distribution by the association.

The educational exhibit box showing samples of coffee from plantation to
cup, including five different grinds, was issued in 1917, and sold for
one dollar.

The Better Coffee Making Committee also published in this year a booklet
entitled _Coffee Grinding and Brewing_ in which it summarized its work
to date, and presented its special plea for cotton-cloth filters as the
ideal coffee-making device.

This booklet aroused considerable discussion, particularly between those
who favored the paper filter and those who, with Mr. Aborn, believed
cotton cloth, such as muslin, to be the most efficient strainer.
“Cotton”, argued Mr. Aborn, “is an ideal sanitary strainer because it
contains no chemical or questionable manufacturing element.”

It was pointed out by Dr. Floyd W. Robison that while cotton cloth, such
as muslin, does give a fairly clear coffee, it is not so clear as by the
methods where a filter paper is used. He said:

Both methods have serious objectionable features. The muslin bag,
particularly, is decidedly unsanitary, especially when used in
restaurants and hotels. It is rarely kept clean, and one who has
frequented restaurants and many hotel kitchens knows that it lends
itself to very unclean and unsightly methods of handling. The food
inspector has to check this up perhaps as often as any one feature
about a restaurant.

The objection to the filter paper is not at all on the ground of
sanitation. It is ideal in this respect. The claim is made, and at
least, in part, substantiated, that it does hold back valuable
features of the brew.

There are many points about the filter that have not been
considered at all. Mr. Calkin believes that the very best type of
filter is a bed of coffee itself, and I must say this has the
sanction of good laboratory experience.

I.D. Richheimer[380], attacking the cotton cloth filter, said:

It is a known fact that the fats in coffee are very dense and
represent twelve to fifteen percent of the coffee weight. These
fats–due to the simplest chemical action of contact with air,
moisture and continued heat–begin a fermentation in the completed
beverage. In the cloth-filtering process–due to the rapid passage
of water through grounds almost as quickly as poured–the largest
percentage of fats is carried into the beverage. Fat being lighter
than water rises to the top of water if given a certain amount of
time during the brewing process. Were there no fats (which ferment)
in coffee there would be no need for placing cloth-filtering
material under water, as suggested, to keep them from becoming
sour.

In the booklet referred to, Mr. Aborn expressed himself as follows on
the filtration method:

The filtration method is not new, but well tried, thoroughly proven
and long used, though often incorrectly. It is the method followed,
more or less correctly, by all of the first-class hotels in the
world. It is controlled by no patent or proprietary device, and
requires a most inexpensive equipment. For a perfect result it but
demands an accurate adherence to simple but vital principles.
Deviations from these fundamentals, though apparently slight, cause
failure. When they, and the necessary _exact_ following of them,
are clearly understood, any person, even a small child, can brew
coffee with unvarying success.

The first point to consider in filtration is the dimensions of the
filter bag, or container of the ground coffee, in relation to the
quantity of coffee used and the granulation of same. If the filter
be a muslin bag, free on all sides, the filtering surface is
considerable and permits the necessary quick passage of water
through the grounds, provided the bag is of a wide enough diameter
as to prevent too great a depth of grounds through which the water
cannot quickly penetrate. The error of too narrow a filter is a
common one. It causes a delayed filtration, which means undesirably
long contact of water and coffee and also the cooling of the liquid
which in a correct, undelayed filtration is smoking hot at
completion. The bag should also not be too long or be allowed to
hang or soak in the liquid. A filter bag set tightly into a pot
against its sides, thus surrounded with impenetrable walls, is
greatly reduced in filtering surface, and the filtration is thereby
slackened.

The filter material should not be too coarse in texture, like
cheese cloth, or too heavy and impenetrable, like very heavy
muslin. A moderate weight muslin, not too light, is efficient.

The degree of granulation also, of course, affects the rate of
flow. The coarser the grind the faster the flow, which permits a
larger quantity of coffee to a given diameter of filter bag.

A most frequent fault in the use of the filtration method is the
failure to understand the fine degree of grinding necessary to the
best results. When the grind is not sufficiently fine the
extraction is, of course, weak. A fine grind (like fine cornmeal)
is essential. It does not retard the flow if the filter is of right
dimensions. A powdered grind (like flour) is so fine that it is apt
to “mat” itself into a resisting floor.

Many users of the filtration method pour the liquid through more
than once. This gains some added color, but adds undesirable
element, depreciates flavor and is especially inadvisable when the
grind is sufficiently fine. _One pouring_ only is recommended for
the best results.

The chinaware, or glazed earthenware pot, sometimes called the
French drip pot, with a chinaware or earthenware sieve container
for the grounds at the top through which the water is poured, being
free of all metal, is inviting in purity and in hygienic merit.
Together with the filter bag, it is subject to the above remarks on
dimensions. A chinaware sieve cannot be made as fine as a metal
sieve and cannot of course hold very fine granulation as can cotton
cloth. More coffee for a given strength is, therefore, required.
The upper container should be wide enough, for a given quantity of
coffee, as to allow an unretarded flow, and the more openings the
strainer contains the better.

In any drip, filtration or percolating method the stirring of the
grounds causes an over-contact of water and coffee and results in
an overdrawn liquor of injured flavor. If the water does not pass
through the grounds readily, the fault is as above indicated and
cannot be corrected by stirring or agitation. Many complaints of
bitter taste are traced to this error in the use of the filtration
method.

It is not necessary to pour on the water in driblets. The water may
be poured slowly, but the grounds should be kept well covered. The
weight of the water helps the flow downward through the grounds.
Care should be taken to keep up the temperature of the water. Set
the kettle back on the stove when not pouring. If the water is
measured, use a small heated vessel, which fill and empty quickly
without allowing the water to cool.

In 1917, _The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_ made a comparative
coffee-brewing test with a regulation coffee pot for boiling, a pumping
percolator, a double glass filtration device, a cloth-filter device, and
a paper filter device. The cup tests were made by E.M. Frankel, Ph.D.;
and William B. Harris, coffee expert, United States Department of
Agriculture. The brews were judged for color, flavor (palatability,
smoothness), body (richness), and aroma. The test showed that the paper
filtration device produced the most superior brew. The cloth-filter,
glass-filter, percolator, and boiling pot followed in the order named.

At the 1917 convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association, John
E. King, of Detroit, announced that laboratory research which he had had
conducted for him showed that the finer the grind, the greater the loss
of aroma, and so he had selected a grind containing ninety percent of
very fine coffee and ten percent of a coarser nature, which seemed to
retain the aroma. He subsequently secured a United States patent for
this grind. Mr. King announced also at this meeting that his
investigations showed there was more than a strong likelihood that the
much-discussed caffetannic acid did not exist in coffee–that it most
probably was a mixture of chlorogenic and and coffalic acids.

The World War operated to interfere with the coffee roasters’ plans for
a research bureau; and in the meantime the Brazil planters, in 1919,
started their million-dollar advertising campaign in the United States,
co-operating with a joint committee representing the green and roasted
coffee interests. In the following year (June, 1920), this committee
arranged with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to start
scientific research work on coffee, the literature of the roasters’
Better Coffee Making Committee being turned over to it; and the
Institute began to “test the results of the committee’s work by purely
analytical methods.”

The first report on the research work at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology was made by Professor S.C. Prescott to the Joint Coffee Trade
Publicity Committee in April, 1921. The committee gave out a statement
saying that Prof. Prescott’s report stated that “caffein, the most
characteristic principle of coffee, is, in the moderate quantities
consumed by the average coffee drinker, a safe stimulant without harmful
after-effects.”

There was no publication of experimental results; but the announced
findings were, in the main, a confirmation of the results of previous
workers, particularly of Hollingworth, with whose statement, that
“caffein, when taken with food in moderate amount is not in the least
deleterious,” the report was quoted as being in entire agreement.

At the annual convention of the National Coffee Roasters Association,
November 2, 1921, Professor Prescott made a further report, in which he
stated that investigations on coffee brewing had disclosed that coffee
made with water between 185° and 200° was to be preferred to coffee made
with the water at actual boiling temperature (212°), that the chemical
action was far less vigorous, and that the resulting infusion retained
all the fine flavors and was freer from certain bitter or astringent
flavors than that made at the higher temperature. Professor Prescott
announced also that the best materials for coffee-making utensils were
glass (including agate-ware, vitrified ware, porcelain, etc.), aluminum,
nickel or silver plate, copper, and tin plate, in the order named[381].

The Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee’s booklet on _Coffee and
Coffee Making_, issued in 1921, was very guarded in its observations on
grinding and brewing. It avoided all controversial points, but it did go
so far as to say on the general subject of brewing:

Chemists have analyzed the coffee bean and told us that the only
part of it which should go into our coffee cups for drinking is an
aromatic oil. This aromatic element is extracted most efficiently
only by fresh boiling water. The practice of soaking the grounds in
cold water, therefore, is to be condemned. It is a mistake also to
let the water and the grounds boil together after the real coffee
flavor is once extracted. This extraction takes place very quickly,
especially when the coffee is ground fine. The coarser the
granulation the longer it is necessary to let the grounds remain in
contact with the boiling water. Remember that flavor, the only
flavor worth having, is extracted by the _short_ contact of boiling
water and coffee grounds and that after this flavor is extracted,
the coffee grounds become valueless dregs.

The report contained also the following helpful generalities on coffee
service and the various methods of brewing in more or less common use in
the United States in 1921:

Although the above rules are absolutely fundamental to good Coffee
Making, their importance is so little appreciated that in some
households the lifeless grounds from the breakfast Coffee are left
in the pot and resteeped for the next meal, with the addition of a
small quantity of fresh coffee. Used coffee grounds are of no more
value in coffee making than ashes are in kindling a fire.

After the coffee is brewed the true coffee flavor, now extracted
from the bean, should be guarded carefully. When the brewed liquid
is left on the fire or overheated this flavor is cooked away and
the whole character of the beverage is changed. It is just as fatal
to let the brew grow cold. If possible, coffee should be served as
soon as it is made. If service is delayed, it should be kept hot
but not overheated. For this purpose careful cooks prefer a double
boiler over a slow flre. The cups should be warmed beforehand, and
the same is true of a serving pot, if one is used. Brewed coffee,
once injured by cooling, cannot be restored by reheating.

Unsatisfactory results in coffee brewing frequently can be traced
to a lack of care in keeping utensils clean. The fact that the
coffee pot is used only for coffee making is no excuse for setting
it away with a hasty rinse. Coffee making utensils should be
cleansed after each using with scrupulous care. If a percolator is
used pay special attention to the small tube through which the hot
water rises to spray over the grounds. This should be scrubbed with
the wire-handled brush that comes for the purpose.

In cleansing drip or filter bags use cool water. Hot water “cooks
in” the coffee stains. After the bag is rinsed keep it submerged in
cool water until time to use it again. Never let it dry. This
treatment protects the cloth from the germs in the air which cause
souring. New filter bags should be washed before using to remove
the starch or sizing.

DRIP (OR FILTER) COFFEE. The principle behind this method is the
quick contact of water at full boiling point with coffee ground as
fine as it is practical to use it. The filtering medium may be of
cloth or paper, or perforated chinaware or metal. The fineness of
the grind should be regulated by the nature of the filtering
medium, the grains being large enough not to slip through the
perforations.

The amount of ground coffee to use may vary from a heaping
teaspoonful to a rounded tablespoonful for each cup of coffee
desired, depending upon the granulation, the kind of apparatus used
and individual taste. A general rule is the finer the grind the
smaller the amount of dry coffee required.

The most satisfactory grind for a cloth drip bag has the
consistency of powdered sugar and shows a slight grit when rubbed
between thumb and finger. Unbleached muslin makes the best bag for
this granulation. For dripping coffee reduced to a powder, as fine
as flour or confectioner’s sugar, use a bag of canton flannel with
the fuzzy side in. Powdered coffee, however, requires careful
manipulation and cannot be recommended for everyday household use.

Put the ground coffee in the bag or sieve. Bring fresh water to a
full boil and pour it through the coffee at a steady, gradual rate
of flow. If a cloth drip bag is used, with a very finely ground
coffee, one pouring should be enough. No special pot or device is
necessary. The liquid coffee may be dripped into any handy vessel
or directly into the cups. Dripping into the coffee cups, however,
is not to be recommended unless the dripper is moved from cup to
cup so that no one cup will get more than its share of the first
flow, which is the strongest and best.

The brew is complete when it drips from the grounds, and further
cooking or “heating up” injures the quality. Therefore, since it is
not necessary to put the brew over the fire, it is possible to make
use of the hygienic advantages of a glassware, porcelain or
earthenware serving pot.

BOILED (OR STEEPED) COFFEE. For boiling (or steeping) use a medium
grind. The recipe is a rounded tablespoonful for each cup of coffee
desired or–as some cooks prefer to remember it–a tablespoonful
for each cup and “one for the pot.” Put the dry coffee in the pot
and pour over it fresh water _briskly boiling_. Steep for five
minutes or longer, according to taste, over a low fire. Settle with
a dash of cold water or strain through muslin or cheesecloth and
serve at once.

PERCOLATED COFFEE. Use a rounded tablespoonful of medium fine
ground coffee to each cupful of water. The water may be poured into
the percolator cold or at the boiling point. In the latter case,
percolation begins at once. Let the water percolate over the
grounds for five or ten minutes depending upon the intensity of the
heat and the flavor desired.

In response to a request by the author, Charles W. Trigg has contributed
the following discussion of coffee making:

VARIOUS ASPECTS OF SCIENTIFIC COFFEE BREWING

Before converting it into the beverage form, coffee must be
carefully selected and blended, and skillfully roasted, in order
thus far to assure obtaining a maximum efficiency of results. No
matter how accurately all this be done, improper brewing of the
roasted bean will nullify the previous efforts and spoil the drink;
for roasted coffee is a delicate material, very susceptible to
deterioration and of doubtful worth as the source of a beverage
unless properly handled.

There probably never was produced a drink which so fits into the
exacting desires of the human appetite as does coffee. Properly
prepared, it is a delightful beverage: but incorrectly made, it
becomes an imposition upon the palates of mankind. Sensitive though
coffee is to improper manipulation, the best procedure for brewing
it is also the easiest. Cheap coffee well made excels good coffee
poorly made.

CONSTITUENT CONCEPTS. The roasting of green coffee causes an
alteration in the constitution of its constituents, with the result
that some of the compounds present therein which were originally
water-soluble are rendered insoluble, and some which were insoluble
are converted into soluble ones. A portion of the original caffein
content is lost by sublimation. The aromatic conglomerate, caffeol,
is formed, and a considerable quantity of gas is produced, a
portion of which, developing pressure in the cells of the beans,
pops, or swells, them so as to increase the size of each individual
bean. The constituents which are water-soluble after the
torrefaction may be generally classified as heavy extractives and
light aromatic materials. The percentages and nature of these
materials in the roasted coffee will vary with the type of coffee
and with the roast which it is given. In general, and in particular
for purposes of comparison of methods of brewing, they may be
considered to be the same and to occur in about the same
proportions in all coffees.

The heavy extractives are caffein, mineral matter, proteins,
caramel and sugars, “caffetannic acid”, and various organic
materials of uncertain composition. Some fat will also be found in
the average coffee brew, being present not by virtue of being water
soluble, but because it has been melted from the bean by the hot
water and carried along with the solution.

The caffein furnishes the stimulation for which coffee is generally
consumed. It has only a slightly bitter taste, and because of the
relatively small percentage in which it is present in a cup of
coffee, does not contribute to the cup value. The mineral matter,
together with certain decomposition and hydrolysis products of
crude fiber and chlorogenic acid, contribute toward the astringency
or bitterness of the cup. The proteins are present in such small
quantity that their only rôle is to raise somewhat the almost
negligible food value of a coffee infusion. The body, or what might
be called the licorice-like character of coffee, is due to the
presence of bodies of a glucosidic nature and to caramel.

As has been previously pointed out[382], the term “caffetannic
acid” is a misnomer; for the substances which are called by this
name are in all probability mainly coffalic and chlorogenic acids.
Neither is a true tannin, and they evince but few of the
characteristic reactions of tannic acid. Some neutral coffees will
show as high a “caffetannic acid” content as other acid-charactered
ones. Careful work by Warnier[383] showed the actual acidities of
some East Indian coffees to vary from 0.013 to 0.033 percent. These
figures may be taken as reliable examples of the true acid content
of coffee, and though they seem very low, it is not at all
incomprehensible that the acids which they indicate produce the
acidity in a cup of coffee. They probably are mainly volatile
organic acids together with other acidic-natured products of
roasting.

[Illustration: SECTION OF ROASTED BEAN MAGNIFIED 1,000 TIMES]

We know that very small quantities of acid are readily detected in
fruit juices and beer, and that variation in their percentages is
quickly noticed, while the neutralization of this small amount of
acidity leaves an insipid drink. Hence it seems quite likely that
this small acid content gives to the coffee brew its essential
acidity. A few minor experiments on neutralization have proven the
production of a very insipid beverage by thus treating a coffee
infusion. So that the acidity of certain coffees most apparently
should be attributed to such compounds, rather than to the misnamed
“caffetannic acid.”

The light aromatic materials, and the other substances which are
steam-distillable, i.e. which are driven off when coffee is
concentrated by boiling, are the main determining factors in the
individuality of coffees. These compounds, which are collectively
called “caffeol”, vary greatly in the percentages present in
different coffees, and thus are largely responsible for our ability
to distinguish coffees in the cup. It is these compounds which
supply the pleasingly aromatic and appetizing odor to coffee.

All of these compounds, with the possible exception of the
proteins, are easily soluble in both hot and cold water. The fact
that a clear coffee extract made with hot water does not show any
precipitate immediately upon cooling, proves that cold water will
give as complete an extraction as hot water. However, speed of
extraction is materially increased with rise in temperature, due to
the fact that the rate and degree of solubility of the substances
in water, and the diffusion of the water through the cell walls of
the coffee, are accelerated. Also, the resistance which the fat
content of the bean offers to the wetting of the coffee, and the
persistency of the “enfleurage” action of the fat in retaining the
caffeol, are less with hot than with cold water. Accordingly, the
speed of extraction is increased by using hot water, and the
efficiency of extraction procured per unit time of subjection to
water is higher.

Prolonged contact of coffee with water results in the hydrolysis of
some of the insoluble materials and subsequent extraction of the
substances thus formed. The rate of hydrolysis also increases with
temperature: and as these compounds are of an astringent or bitter
nature, the solution obtained upon boiling coffee is naturally
possessed of a flavor unpleasant to the palate of the connoisseur.
Boiling of the coffee infusion after it has been removed from the
grounds also has a deleterious effect, as the local overheating of
the solution at the point of application of the heat results in a
decomposition, particularly if the solution be converted into steam
at this point, leaving a thin film of solids temporarily exposed to
the destructive action of the heat. Some of the more delicate
constituents are unfavorably affected by such treatment, and
undergo hydrolysis and oxidation. The products thus formed are
thrown into relief in the flavor by the loss of the aromatic
properties through steam distillation which is incidental to
boiling.

It is a well known fact that re-warming a coffee brew has a
unfavorable effect upon it. This is probably due in part to a
precipitation of some of the water-soluble proteins upon standing,
and their subsequent decomposition when heat is applied directly to
them in reheating the solution. The absorption of air by the
solution upon cooling, with attendant oxidation, which is
accentuated by the application of heat in re-warming, must also be
considered, as well as the other effects of boiling as set forth,
and the action of the materials of which the coffee pot is
constructed upon the solution.

PHYSICAL CONCEPTION. The coffee bean is composed of a large number
of cells which function as natural containers and retainers of
coffee fat and of the aromatic flavoring substances. In order to
render the soluble solids fully accessible, the resistance which
these cells offer to the extracting water must be overcome by
grinding so as to break open all of them. In this manner a grind is
obtained which will give a maximum removal of the heavy
extractives. But when all of the cells are broken, great
opportunity is offered for the escape of the caffeol, which is
further enhanced by the slight heating which usually accompanies
such fine grinding. So much caffeol escapes that even our most
expert cup-testers would experience difficulty in identifying
powdered coffees in a blind test. What cup-testers, in fact, use
powdered coffees for making their cup selections?

Consider powdered coffee, compared with freshly ground coffee of a
coarser grind. Neither the former nor its brew possesses the amount
of characteristic flavor or aroma, attributable to caffeol,
evidenced by the latter. The explanation of this is that the finer
the grind, the more readily accessible are the soluble constituents
of the coffee to the extracting water. Caffeol, however, in
addition to being water-soluble, is extremely fugacious, so that
when the grinding is carried to such a fineness that every cell is
broken, the greater part of the caffeol volatilizes before the
water comes into contact with it. It is therefore highly desirable
that a grind be used wherein all of the cells are not broken, but a
grind that is sufficiently fine to permit efficient extraction. In
the light of this knowledge, the grind advocated by King[384] seems
to be logical, for with it–though neither a maximum of the
non-volatile extractives nor a maximum of caffeol is obtained–an
all-round maximum of cup quality is procured.

The escape, upon grinding, of these volatile aromatic and flavoring
constituents which lend individuality to coffees, makes it
essential that the roasted beans be ground immediately prior to
extraction.

DIFFERENT METHODS OF EXTRACTION. The methods employed for preparing
the coffee drink may be classified under the general headings of
boiling, steeping, percolation, and filtration. True percolation is
the simple process known by the trade as filtration; but in this
classification, the term indicates the style of extraction
exemplified by the pumping percolator.

Boiled coffee is usually cloudy, due to the suspension of fine
particles resulting from the disintegration of the grounds by the
violence of boiling. The usual procedure in clarifying the
decoction is to add the white of an egg or some egg-shells, the
albumen of which is coagulated upon the fine particles by the heat
of the solution, and the particles thus weighted sink to the
bottom. Even this procedure, requiring much attention, does not
give as clear a solution as some of the other extraction procedures
employed. The conditions to which coffee is subjected during
boiling are the worst possible, as both grounds and solution
undergo hydrolysis, oxidation, and local-overheating, while the
caffeol is steam-distilled from the brew. Many persons, who have
long been accustomed to drinking the relatively bitter beverage
thus produced, are not satisfied by coffee made in any other way;
but this is purely a perversion of taste, for none of the
properties are present which make coffee so prized by the epicure.

[Illustration: CROSS-SECTION OF ROASTED COFFEE BEAN MAGNIFIED 600
TIMES]

[Illustration: COARSE GRIND UNDER THE MICROSCOPE]

Steeping, in which cold water is added to the coffee, and the
mixture brought up to a boil, does not subject the coffee to so
strenuous conditions. Local overheating and hydrolysis occur, but
not to so great an extent as in boiling; and most of the effects of
oxidation and volatization of caffeol are absent. However,
extraction is rather incomplete, due to lack of thorough admixture
of the water and coffee.

When coffee is to be made under the best conditions, the
temperature of the water used and of the extract after it is made
should not fluctuate. In the pumping percolator, as in the steeping
method, the temperature varies greatly from the time the extraction
is started to the completion of the operation. This is deleterious.
Also, local overheating of the infusion occurs at the point of
application of the heat; and because of the manner in which the
water is brought into contact with the coffee, the degree of
extraction shows inefficiency. Spraying of the water over the
coffee never permits the grounds to be completely covered with
water at any one time, and the opportunity offered for channeling
is excessive. The principle of thorough extraction demands that, as
the substance being extracted becomes progressively more exhausted,
fresh solvent should be brought into contact with it. In the
pumping percolator the solution pumped over the grounds becomes
more concentrated as the grounds become exhausted; so that the time
taken to reach the degree of extraction desired is longer, and an
appreciable amount of relatively concentrated liquor is retained by
the grounds.

[Illustration: MEDIUM GRIND UNDER THE MICROSCOPE]

The simplest procedure to follow is that in which boiling water is
poured over ground coffee suspended on a filtering medium in such a
manner that the extracting water will slowly pass through the
coffee and be received in a containing vessel, which obviates
further contact of the beverage with the grounds. The water as it
comes into contact with the ground coffee extracts the soluble
material, and the solution is removed by gravity. Fresh water takes
its place; so that, if the filter medium be of the proper fineness,
the water flows through at the correct rate of speed, and complete
extraction is effected with the production of a clear solution.
Thus a maximum extraction of desirable materials is obtained in a
short time with a minimum of hydrolysis, oxidation, and loss of
caffeol; and if the infusion be consumed at once, or kept warm in a
contrivance embodying the double-boiler principle, the effects of
local overheating are avoided. Also, with the use of an appropriate
filter, a finer grind of coffee can be used than in the other
devices, without obtaining a turbid brew. All this works toward the
production of a desirable drink.

There are several devices on the market, some using paper, and some
cloth, as a filter, which operate on this principle and give very
good coffee. The use of paper presents the advantage of using a new
and clean filter for each brew, whereas the cloth must be carefully
kept immersed in water between brews to prevent its fouling.

Contrivances operating on the filtration principle have been
designed for use on a large scale in conjunction with coffee urns,
and have proven quite successful in causing all of the water to go
slowly through the coffee without channeling, thus accomplishing
practically complete extraction. The majority of urns are still
operated with bags, of which the ones with sides of heavier
material than the bottom obtain the most satisfactory results, as
the majority of the water must pass through the coffee instead of
out through the sides of the bag. Greatest efficiency, when bags
are used, is obtained by repouring until all of the liquid has
passed twice through the coffee; further repouring extracts too
much of the astringent hydrolysis products. The bags, when not in
use, should not be allowed to dry but should be kept in a jar of
cold water. The urns provided with water jackets keep the brew at
almost a constant temperature and avoid the deterioration incident
to temperature fluctuation.

COMPOSITION OF BREWS. The real tests of the comparative values of
different methods of brewing are the flavor and palatibility of the
drink, in conjunction with the number of cups of a given strength
which are produced, or the relative strengths of brews of the same
number of cups volume. Chemical analysis has not yet been developed
to a stage where the results obtained with it are valuably
indicative. Caffeol is present in quantities so small that no
comparative results can be obtained. “Caffetannic acid”
determinations are practically meaningless. This compound is of so
doubtful a composition and physiological action, and the methods
employed for its determination are so indefinite as to
interpretation, as to render valueless any attempts at comparison
of relative percentages. The only accurate analysis which can be
made is that for caffein.

Much advertising emphasis has been placed on the small amount of
caffein extracted by some devices. What is one of the main reasons
for the consumption of coffee? The caffein contained therein, of
course. So that if one device extracts less caffein than another,
that fact alone is nothing in favor of the former. If the consumer
does not want caffein in his drink there are caffein-free coffees
on the market.

[Illustration: FINE-MEAL GRIND UNDER THE MICROSCOPE]

The coffee liquor acts on metals in such a manner as to lower the
quality of the drink, so that metals of any sort, and by all
means, irons, should be avoided as far as possible. Instead,
earthenware or glass, preferably a good grade of the former, should
be employed as far as possible in the construction of coffee-making
devices.

Of the various metals, silver, aluminum, monel metal, and tin (in
the order named) are least attacked by coffee infusions; and
besides these, nickel, copper, and well enameled iron (absolutely
free from pin holes) may be used without much danger of
contamination. Rings for coffee-urn bags should be made of tinned
copper, monel metal, or aluminum. Even if coffee be made in metal
contrivances, the receptacles in which it stands should be made of
earthenware or of glass.

Painstaking care should be given to the preservation of the
coffee-makers in a state of cleanliness, as upon this depends the
value of the brew. Dirt, fine grounds, and fat (which will turn
rancid quickly) should not be allowed to collect on the sides,
bottom, or in angles of the device difficult of access. Nor should
any source of metallic or exterior contamination be allowed to go
uneliminated.

_The Perfect Cup of Coffee_

Lovers of coffee in the United States are in a better position to obtain
an ideal cup of the beverage than those in any other country. While
imports of green coffee are not so carefully guarded as tea imports,
there is a large measure of government inspection designed to protect
the consumer against impurities, and the Department of Agriculture is
zealous in applying the pure food laws to insure against misbranding and
substitution. The department has defined coffee as “a beverage resulting
from a water infusion of roasted coffee and nothing else.”

Today no reputable merchant would think of selling even loose coffee for
other than what it is. And the consumer can feel that, in the case of
package coffee, the label tells the truth about the contents.

With a hundred different kinds of coffee coming to this market from
nineteen countries, so many combinations are possible, that there is
sure to be a straight coffee or a blend to suit any taste. And those who
may have been frightened into the belief that coffee is not for them
should do a little experimenting before exposing themselves to the
dangers of the coffee-substitute habit.

Once upon a time it was thought that Java and Mocha were the only
worthwhile blend, but now we know that a Bogota coffee from Colombia,
and a Bourbon Santos from Brazil, make a most satisfying drink. And if
the individual seeker should happen to be a caffein-sensitive, there are
coffees so low in caffein content, like some Porto Ricans, as to
overcome this objection; while there are other coffees from which the
caffein has been removed by a special treatment. There is no reason why
any person who is fond of coffee should forego its use. Paraphrasing
Makaroff, Be modest, be kind, eat less, and think more, live to serve,
work and play and laugh and love–it is enough! Do this and you may
drink coffee without danger to your immortal soul.

If you are accustomed to buying loose coffee, have your dealer do a
little experimental blending for you until you find a coffee to suit
your palate. Some expert blends are to be found among the leading
package brands. But you really can not do better than to trust your case
to a first-class grocer of known reputation. He will guide you right if
he knows his business; and if he doesn’t, then he doesn’t know his
business–try elsewhere. Test him out along this line:

Let us reason together, Mr. Grocer. Let us consider these facts about
coffee: green coffee improves with age? Granted. As soon as it is
roasted, it begins to lose in flavor and aroma? Certainly. Grinding
hastens the deterioration? Of course. Therefore, it is better to buy a
small quantity of freshly roasted coffee in the bean and grind it at the
time of purchase or at home just before using? Absolutely!

If your grocer reacts in this fashion, he need only supply you with a
quality coffee at fair price and you need only to make it properly to
obtain the utmost of coffee satisfaction.

Some connoisseurs still cling to the good old two-thirds Java and
one-third Mocha blend, but the author has for years found great pleasure
in a blend composed of half Medellin Bogota, one-quarter Mandheling
“Java”, and one-quarter Mocha. However, this blend might not appeal to
another’s taste, and the component parts are not always easy to get. The
retail cost (1922) is about fifty cents.

Another pleasing blend is composed of Bogota, washed Maracaibo, and
Santos, equal parts. This should retail from thirty to thirty-five
cents. Good drinking coffees are to be had for prices ranging from
twenty-five to thirty cents. In the stores of one of the large chain
systems an excellent blend composed of sixty percent Bourbon Santos,
and forty percent Bogota is to be had (1922) for 29 cents. All these
figures apply, of course, to normal times.

If you are epicurean, you will want to read up on, and to try, the fancy
Mexicans, Cobáns, Sumatra growths, Meridas, and some from the “Kona
side” of Hawaii.

In preparing the perfect cup of coffee, then, the coffee must be of good
grade, and freshly roasted. It should, if possible, be ground just
before using. The author has found a fine grind, about the consistency
of fine granulated sugar, the most satisfactory. For general home use, a
device that employs filter paper or filter cloth is best; for the
epicure an improved porcelain French percolator (drip pot) or an
improved cloth filter will yield the utmost of coffee’s delights. Drink
it black, sweetened or unsweetened, with or without cream or hot milk,
as your fancy dictates.

It should be remembered that to make good coffee no special pot or
device is necessary. Good coffee can be made with any china vessel and a
piece of muslin. But to make it in perfection pains must be taken with
every step in the process from roaster to cup.

Hollingworth[385] points out that through taste alone it is impossible
to distinguish between quinine and coffee, or between apple and onion.
There is something more to coffee than its caffein stimulus, its action
on the taste-buds of the tongue and mouth. The sense of smell and the
sense of sight play important rôles. To get all the joy there is in a
cup of coffee, it must look good and smell good, before one can
pronounce its taste good. It must woo us through the nostrils with the
wonderful aroma that constitutes much of the lure of coffee.

And that is why, in the preparation of the beverage, the greatest
possible care should be observed to preserve the aroma until the moment
of its psychological release. This can only be done by having it appear
at the same instant that the delicate flavor is extracted–roasting and
grinding the bean much in advance of the actual making of the beverage
will defeat this object. Boiling the extraction will perfume the house;
but the lost fragrance will never return to the dead liquid called
coffee, when served from the pot whence it was permitted to escape.

To recapitulate, with an added word on service, the correct way to make
coffee is as follows:

1. Buy a good grade of freshly roasted coffee from a responsible dealer.

2. Grind it very fine, and at home, just before using.

3. Allow a rounded tablespoonful for each beverage cup.

4. Make it in a French drip pot or in some filtration device where
freshly boiling water is poured through the grind but once. A piece of
muslin and any china receptacle make an economical filter.

5. Avoid pumping percolators, or any device for heating water and
forcing it repeatedly through the grounds. Never boil coffee.

6. Keep the beverage hot and serve it “black” with sugar and hot milk,
or cream, or both.

_Some Coffee Recipes_

When Mrs. Ida C. Bailey Allen prepared a booklet of recipes for the
Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee, she introduced them with the
following remarks on the use of coffee as a flavoring agent:

Although coffee is our national beverage, comparatively few cooks
realize its possibilities as a flavoring agent. Coffee combines
deliciously with a great variety of food dishes and is especially
adapted to desserts, sauces and sweets. Thus used it appeals
particularly to men and to all who like a full-bodied pronounced
flavor.

For flavoring purposes coffee should be prepared just as carefully
as when it is intended for a beverage. The best results are
obtained by using freshly made coffee, but when, for reasons of
economy, it is desirable to utilize a surplus remaining from the
meal-time brew, care should be taken not to let it stand on the
grounds and become bitter.

When introducing made coffee into a recipe calling for other
liquid, decrease this liquid in proportion to the amount of coffee
that has been added. When using it in a cake or in cookies, instead
of milk, a tablespoonful less to the cup should be allowed, as
coffee does not have the same thickening properties.

In some cases, better results are gained if the coffee is
introduced into the dish by scalding or cooking the right
proportion of ground coffee with the liquid which is to form the
base. By this means the full coffee flavor is obtained, yet the
richness of the finished product is not impaired by the
introduction of water, as would be the case were the infused coffee
used. This method is advisable especially for various desserts
which have milk as a foundation, as those of the custard variety
and certain types of Bavarian Creams, Ice Cream, and the like. The
right proportion of ground coffee, which is generally a
tablespoonful to the cup, should be combined with the cold milk or
cream in the double-boiler top and should then be scalded over hot
water, when the mixture should be put through a very fine strainer
or cheese cloth, to remove all grounds.

Coffee can be used as a flavoring in almost any dessert or confection
where a flavoring agent is employed.

On iced coffee and the use of coffee in summer beverages in general,
Mrs. Allen writes as follows:

ICED COFFEE. This is not only a delicious summer drink, but it also
furnishes a mild stimulation that is particularly grateful on a
wilting hot day. It may be combined with fruit juices and other
ingredients in a variety of cooling beverages which are less sugary
and cloying than the average warm weather drink and for that reason
it is generally popular with men.

Coffee that is to be served cold should be made somewhat stronger
than usual. Brew it according to your favorite method and chill
before adding sugar and cream. If cracked ice is added make sure
the coffee is strong enough to compensate for the resulting
dilution. Mixing the ingredients in a shaker produces a smoother
beverage topped with an appetizing foam.

It is a convenience, however, to have on hand a concentrated syrup
from which any kind of coffee-flavored drink may be concocted on
short notice and without the necessity of lighting the stove.
Coffee left over from meals may be used for the same purpose, but
it should be kept in a covered glass or china dish and not allowed
to stand too long. A coffee syrup made after the following recipe
will keep indefinitely and may be used as a basis for many
delicious iced drinks:

COFFEE SYRUP. Two quarts of very strong coffee; 3-1/2 pounds sugar.
The coffee should be very strong, as the syrup will be largely
diluted. The proportion of a pound of coffee to one and
three-fourths quarts of water will be found satisfactory. This may
be made by any favorite method, cleared and strained, then combined
with the sugar, brought to boiling point, and boiled for two or
three minutes. It should be canned while boiling, in sterilized
bottles. Fill them to overflowing and seal as for grape juice or
for any other canned beverage.

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