Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1882 — A Hood Cup of Coffee. [ARTICLE]

A Hood Cup of Coffee.

Whether made in tho Eastern or. the Western method the precautions and most of the difficulties are the samo. The choice of the growth allows of latitude, as does tho choice of a vintage. The Turks prefer the Mocha and Martinique or Java mingled. It is indis-. peusable to roast your coffee, of whichever growth, and wise to get the best quality of its kind. The coffee growers follow an antiquated and barbarous method of preparation, stooping the berries in water until tho pulp is decomposed and rubs of! in a slimy mass, leaving tl.e berry naked. But the fermentation always damages the flavor of the coffee, and, if allowed to go too far, destroys it; so that many samples of coffee, apparently bright, mo already damaged. Ido not mention ground coffees, as these are anything but coffee—chicory, barley, bread crusts, any burned graminea, acorns, juniper cones, etc., enter in, aud 1 wan told last year at Kulumutu that the whole figeropof the Morea goon to Trieste to be turned into coffee. Coffue must be roasted slowly and evenly, kept in constant motion, till tho berry will crack crisply when pressed between thumb and finger. The Egyptian ntopn as soon as it will break anyway, but thin will have a Hlight tonto of the raw berry, which seems to mo a drawback. It should crack freely, but \ry no means crumble. Ninety-nine per cent, of tho people who roast their own coffee burn it and dentroy all its bent qualities. From this point Eastern and Western methods differ. Tho Turk lias slaves in pleuty and in no sparer of their labor. Ho ban his coffee pounded in a mortar to an impalpable powder (his imitators at Athens and elsewhoro fail here), and then a siHjouful of each cup is put into the ibrio, the water poured on hot, it is sot for a few seconds on the coal, not boiled, and is poured into the cup—if for himself without sugar, if for a Frank sweetened ; but X have always suspected that practices connected with Eastern politics had much to do with the exclusion of sugar, as enabling the drinker to detect certain doloterious agents sometimes introduced. Tho Western coffee-maker grinds the berry, and not too line, but the primitive ibric gives place to numerous contrivances, of which 1 have collected and tried many. For stupid housekeepers tho best is tho common Frenoh niter placed above the coffee-pot; for any one who has mechanical ingonuity enough to use it the balance cafetioro is the perfection of utensils and should always be placed like the samovar on tho tnblo. But in the hands of a fool it is unsafe. Coffee with milk—oafo au lait—comes not under gastronomy, but dietetics. It is a bilious article of food and better mado of chicory than coffee, as the latter is wastod when thus used. —Pall Mall Gazette.