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By WILLIAM H. UKERS, M.A. Editor THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL NEW YORK THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL COMPANY 1922 Copyright 1922 BY THE TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL COMPANY New York International Copyright Secured All Rights Reserved in U.S.A. and Foreign Countries PRINTED IN U.S.A. To My Wife HELEN DE GRAFF UKERS...
5 minute read
S eventeen years ago the author of this work made his first trip abroad to gather material for a book on coffee. Subsequently he spent a year in travel among the coffee-producing countries. After the initial surveys, correspondents were appointed to make researches in the principal European libraries and museums; and this phase of the work continued until April, 1922. Simultaneous researches were conducted in American libraries and historical museums up to the time of the return of the final proofs to the printer in June, 1922. Ten years ago the sorting and classification of the material was begun. The actual writing of the manuscript has extended over four years. Among the unique features of the book are the Coffee Thesaurus; the Coffee Chronology, containing 492 dates of historical importance; the Complete Reference Table of the Principal Kinds of Coffee Grown in the World; and the Coffee Bibliography, containing 1,380...
16 minute read
Some introductory remarks on the lure of coffee, its place in a rational dietary, its universal psychological appeal, its use and abuse C ivilization in its onward march has produced only three important non-alcoholic beverages—the extract of the tea plant, the extract of the cocoa bean, and the extract of the coffee bean. Leaves and beans—these are the vegetable sources of the world's favorite non-alcoholic table-beverages. Of the two, the tea leaves lead in total amount consumed; the coffee beans are second; and the cocoa beans are a distant third, although advancing steadily. But in international commerce the coffee beans occupy a far more important position than either of the others, being imported into non-producing countries to twice the extent of the tea leaves. All three enjoy a world-wide consumption, although not to the same extent in every nation; but where either the coffee bean or the tea leaf has...
2 minute read
Encomiums and descriptive phrases applied to the plant, the berry, and the beverage The Plant The precious plant This friendly plant Mocha's happy tree The gift of Heaven The plant with the jessamine-like flowers The most exquisite perfume of Araby the blest Given to the human race by the gift of the Gods The Berry The magic bean The divine fruit Fragrant berries Rich, royal berry Voluptuous berry The precious berry The healthful bean The Heavenly berry The marvelous berry This all-healing berry Yemen's fragrant berry The little aromatic berry Little brown Arabian berry Thought-inspiring bean of Arabia The smoking, ardent beans Aleppo sends That wild fruit which gives so beloved a drink The Beverage Nepenthe Festive cup Juice divine Nectar divine Ruddy mocha A man's drink Lovable liquor Delicious mocha The magic drink This rich cordial Its stream divine The family drink The festive drink Coffee is our gold...
14 minute read
Painted from nature by M.E. Eaton—Detail sketches show anther, pistil, and section of corolla...
9 minute read
Origin and translation of the word from the Arabian into various languages—Views of many writers T he history of the word coffee involves several phonetic difficulties. The European languages got the name of the beverage about 1600 from the original Arabic qahwah qahwah , not directly, but through its Turkish form, kahveh . This was the name, not of the plant, but the beverage made from its infusion, being originally one of the names employed for wine in Arabic. Sir James Murray, in the New English Dictionary , says that some have conjectured that the word is a foreign, perhaps African, word disguised, and have thought it connected with the name Kaffa, a town in Shoa, southwest Abyssinia, reputed native place of the coffee plant, but that of this there is no evidence, and the name qahwah is not given to the berry or plant, which is called bunn bunn...
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A brief account of the cultivation of the coffee plant in the Old World and its introduction into the New—A romantic coffee adventure T he history of the propagation of the coffee plant is closely interwoven with that of the early history of coffee drinking, but for the purposes of this chapter we shall consider only the story of the inception and growth of the cultivation of the coffee tree, or shrub, bearing the seeds, or berries, from which the drink, coffee, is made. Careful research discloses that most authorities agree that the coffee plant is indigenous to Abyssinia, and probably Arabia, whence its cultivation spread throughout the tropics. The first reliable mention of the properties and uses of the plant is by an Arabian physician toward the close of the ninth century A.D., and it is reasonable to suppose that before that time the plant was found growing wild...
42 minute read
Coffee in the Near East in the early centuries—Stories of its origin—Discovery by physicians and adoption by the Church—Its spread through Arabia, Persia and Turkey—Persecutions and intolerances—Early coffee manners and customs T he coffee drink had its rise in the classical period of Arabian medicine, which dates from Rhazes (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya El Razi) who followed the doctrines of Galen and sat at the feet of Hippocrates. Rhazes (850–922) was the first to treat medicine in an encyclopedic manner, and, according to some authorities, the first writer to mention coffee. He assumed the poetical name of Razi because he was a native of the city of Raj in Persian Irak. He was a great philosopher and astronomer, and at one time was superintendent of the hospital at Bagdad. He wrote many learned books on medicine and surgery, but his principal work is Al-Haiwi , or The Continent ,...
15 minute read
When the three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee, came to Europe—Coffee first mentioned by Rauwolf in 1582—Early days of coffee in Italy—How Pope Clement VIII baptized it and made it a truly Christian beverage—The first European coffee house, in Venice, 1645—The famous Caffè Florian—Other celebrated Venetian coffee houses of the eighteenth century—The romantic story of Pedrocchi, the poor lemonade-vender, who built the most beautiful coffee house in the world O f the world's three great temperance beverages, cocoa, tea, and coffee, cocoa was the first to be introduced into Europe, in 1528, by the Spanish. It was nearly a century later, in 1610, that the Dutch brought tea to Europe. Venetian traders introduced coffee into Europe in 1615. Europe's first knowledge of coffee was brought by travelers returning from the Far East and the Levant. Leonhard Rauwolf started on his famous journey into the Eastern countries from Marseilles...
9 minute read
What French travelers did for coffee—The introduction of coffee by P. de la Roque into Marseilles in 1644—The first commercial importation of coffee from Egypt—The first French coffee house—Failure of the attempt by physicians of Marseilles to discredit coffee—Soliman Aga introduces coffee into Paris—Cabarets à caffè—Celebrated works on coffee by French writers W e are indebted to three great French travelers for much valuable knowledge about coffee; and these gallant gentlemen first fired the imagination of the French people in regard to the beverage that was destined to play so important a part in the French revolution. They are Tavernier (1605–89), Thévenot (1633–67), and Bernier (1625–88). Then there is Jean La Roque (1661–1745), who made a famous "Voyage to Arabia the Happy" ( Voyage de l'Arabie Heureuse ) in 1708–13 and to whose father, P. de la Roque, is due the honor of having brought the first coffee into France...
17 minute read
The first printed reference to coffee in English—Early mention of coffee by noted English travelers and writers—The Lacedæmonian "black broth" controversy—How Conopios introduced coffee drinking at Oxford—The first English coffee house in Oxford—Two English botanists on coffee E nglish travelers and writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were quite as enterprising as their Continental contemporaries in telling about the coffee bean and the coffee drink. The first printed reference to coffee in English, however, appears as chaoua in a note by a Dutchman, Paludanus, in Linschoten's Travels , the title of an English translation from the Latin of a work first published in Holland in 1595 or 1596, the English edition appearing in London in 1598. A reproduction made from a photograph of the original work, with the quaint black-letter German text and the Paludanus notation in roman, is shown herewith. Hans Hugo (or John Huygen) Van Linschooten (1563–1611)...
3 minute read
How the enterprising Dutch traders captured the first world's market for coffee—Activities of the Netherlands East India Company—The first coffee house at the Hague—The first public auction at Amsterdam in 1711, when Java coffee brought forty-seven cents a pound, green T he Dutch had early knowledge of coffee because of their dealings with the Orient and with the Venetians, and of their nearness to Germany, where Rauwolf first wrote about it in 1582. They were familiar with Alpini's writings on the subject in 1592. Paludanus, in his coffee note on Linschoten's Travels , furnished further enlightenment in 1598. The Dutch were always great merchants and shrewd traders. Being of a practical turn of mind, they conceived an ambition to grow coffee in their colonial possessions, so as to make their home markets headquarters for a world's trade in the product. In considering modern coffee-trading, the Netherlands East India Company may...
8 minute read
The contributions made by German travelers and writers to the literature of the early history of coffee—The first coffee house in Hamburg opened by an English merchant—Famous coffee houses of old Berlin—The first coffee periodical, and the first kaffee-klatsch—Frederick the Great's coffee-roasting monopoly—Coffee persecutions—"Coffee-smellers"—The first coffee king A s we have already seen, Leonhard Rauwolf, in 1573, made his memorable trip to Aleppo and, in 1582, won for Germany the honor of being the first European country to make printed mention of the coffee drink. Adam Olearius (or Oelschlager), a German Orientalist (1599–1671), traveled in Persia as secretary to a German embassy in 1633–36. Upon his return he published an account of his journeys. In it, under date of 1637, he says of the Persians: They drink with their tobacco a certain black water, which they call cahwa , made of a fruit brought out of Egypt, and which is...
8 minute read
The romantic adventure of Franz George Kolschitzky, who carried "a message to Garcia" through the enemy's lines and won for himself the honor of being the first to teach the Viennese the art of making coffee, to say nothing of falling heir to the supplies of the green beans left behind by the Turks; also the gift of a house from a grateful municipality, and a statue after death—Affectionate regard in which "brother-heart" Kolschitzky is held as the patron saint of the Vienna kaffee-sieder—Life in the early Vienna cafés A romantic tale has been woven around the introduction of coffee into Austria. When Vienna was besieged by the Turks in 1683, so runs the legend, Franz George Kolschitzky, a native of Poland, formerly an interpreter in the Turkish army, saved the city and won for himself undying fame, with coffee as his principal reward. It is not known whether, in...
21 minute read
One of the most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee—The first coffee house in London—The first coffee handbill, and the first newspaper advertisement for coffee—Strange coffee mixtures—Fantastic coffee claims—Coffee prices and coffee licenses—Coffee club of the Rota—Early coffee-house manners and customs—Coffee-house keepers' tokens—Opposition to the coffee house—"Penny universities"—Weird coffee substitutes—The proposed coffee-house newspaper monopoly—Evolution of the club—Decline and fall of the coffee house—Pen pictures of coffee-house life—Famous coffee houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—Some Old World pleasure gardens—Locating the notable coffee houses T he two most picturesque chapters in the history of coffee have to do with the period of the old London and Paris coffee houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Much of the poetry and romance of coffee centers around this time. "The history of coffee houses," says D'Israeli, "ere the invention of clubs, was that of the manners, the morals and the politics of...
28 minute read
The introduction of coffee into Paris by Thévenot in 1657—How Soliman Aga established the custom of coffee drinking at the court of Louis XIV—Opening the first coffee houses—How the French adaptation of the Oriental coffee house first appeared in the real French café of François Procope—The important part played by the coffee houses in the development of French literature and the stage—Their association with the Revolution and the founding of the Republic—Quaint customs and patrons—Historic Parisian cafés I f we are to accept the authority of Jean La Roque, "before the year 1669 coffee had scarcely been seen in Paris, except at M. Thévenot's and at the homes of some of his friends. Nor had it been heard of except in the writings of travelers." As noted in chapter V, Jean de Thévenot brought coffee into Paris in 1657. One account says that a decoction, supposed to have been coffee,...
19 minute read
Captain John Smith, founder of the Colony of Virginia, is the first to bring to North America a knowledge of coffee in 1607—The coffee grinder on the Mayflower—Coffee drinking in 1668—William Penn's coffee purchase in 1683—Coffee in colonial New England—The psychology of the Boston "tea party," and why the United States became a nation of coffee drinkers instead of tea drinkers, like England—The first coffee license to Dorothy Jones in 1670—The first coffee house in New England—Notable coffee houses of old Boston—A skyscraper coffee house U ndoubtedly the first to bring a knowledge of coffee to North America was Captain John Smith, who founded the Colony of Virginia at Jamestown in 1607. Captain Smith became familiar with coffee in his travels in Turkey. Although the Dutch also had early knowledge of coffee, it does not appear that the Dutch West India Company brought any of it to the first permanent...
24 minute read
The burghers of New Amsterdam begin to substitute coffee for "must," or beer, at breakfast in 1668—William Penn makes his first purchase of coffee in the green bean from New York merchants in 1683—The King's Arms, the first coffee house—The historic Merchants, sometimes called the "Birthplace of our Union"—The coffee house as a civic forum—The Exchange, Whitehall, Burns, Tontine, and other celebrated coffee houses—The Vauxhall and Ranelagh pleasure gardens T he Dutch founders of New York seem to have introduced tea into New Amsterdam before they brought in coffee. This was somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth century. We find it recorded that about 1668 the burghers succumbed to coffee [91] . Coffee made its way slowly, first in the homes, where it replaced the "must", or beer, at breakfast. Chocolate came about the same time, but was more of a luxury than tea or coffee. After the surrender...
14 minute read
Ye Coffee House, Philadelphia's first coffee house, opened about 1700—The two London coffee houses—The City tavern, or Merchants coffee house—How these, and other celebrated resorts, dominated the social, political, and business life of the Quaker City in the eighteenth century W illiam Penn is generally credited with the introduction of coffee into the Quaker colony which he founded on the Delaware in 1682. He also brought to the "city of brotherly love" that other great drink of human brotherhood, tea. At first (1700), "like tea, coffee was only a drink for the well-to-do, except in sips." [93] As was the case in the other English colonies, coffee languished for a time while tea rose in favor, more especially in the home. Following the stamp act of 1765, and the tea tax of 1767, the Pennsylvania Colony joined hands with the others in a general tea boycott; and coffee received the...
28 minute read
Its complete classification by class, sub-class, order, family, genus, and species—How the Coffea arabica grows, flowers, and bears—Other species and hybrids described—Natural caffein-free coffee—Fungoid diseases of coffee T he coffee tree, scientifically known as Coffea arabica , is native to Abyssinia and Ethiopia, but grows well in Java, Sumatra, and other islands of the Dutch East Indies; in India, Arabia, equatorial Africa, the islands of the Pacific, in Mexico, Central and South America, and the West Indies. The plant belongs to the large sub-kingdom of plants known scientifically as the Angiosperms, or Angiospermæ , which means that the plant reproduces by seeds which are enclosed in a box-like compartment, known as the ovary, at the base of the flower. The word Angiosperm is derived from two Greek words, sperma , a seed, and aggeion , pronounced angeion, a box, the box referred to being the ovary. This large sub-kingdom is...
10 minute read
How the beans may be examined under the microscope, and what is revealed—Structure of the berry, the green, and the roasted bean—The coffee leaf disease under the microscope—Value of microscopic analysis in detecting adulteration T he microscopy of coffee is, on the whole, more important to the planter than to the consumer and the dealer; while, on the other hand, the microscopy is of paramount importance to the consumer and the dealer as furnishing the best means of determining whether the product offered is adulterated or not. Also, from this standpoint, the microscopy of the plant is less important than that of the bean. Fig. 331. Coffee (Coffea arabica). I—Cross-section of berry, natural size; Pk , outer pericarp; Mk , endocarp; Ek , spermoderm; Sa , hard endosperm; Sp, soft endosperm. II—Longitudinal section of berry, natural size; Dis , bordered disk; Se , remains of sepals; Em , embryo. III—Embryo,...
38 minute read
The exact effect which roasting with sugars has upon the flavor is not well understood; but it is known that it causes the beans to absorb more moisture, due to the hygroscopicity of the caramel formed. For instance, berries roasted with the addition of glucose syrup hold an additional 7 percent of water and give a darker infusion than normally roasted coffee. When the green coffee is glazed with cane sugar prior to roasting, the losses during the process are much higher than ordinarily, on account of the higher temperature required to attain the desired results. Losses for ordinary coffee taken to a 16-percent roast are 9.7 percent of the original fat and 21.1 percent of the original caffein; while for "sugar glazed" coffee the losses were 18.3 percent of the original fat and 44.3 percent of the original caffein, using 8 to 9 percent sugar with Java coffee. Grinding...
21 minute read
General physiological action—Effect on children—Effect on longevity—Behavior in the alimentary régime—Place in dietary—Action on bacteria—Use in medicine—Physiological action of "caffetannic acid"—Of caffeol—Of caffein—Effect of caffein on mental and motor efficiency—Conclusions By Charles W. Trigg Industrial Fellow of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, Pittsburgh, 1916–1920 T he published information regarding the effects of coffee drinking on the human system is so contradictory in its nature that it is hazardous to make many generalizations about the physiological behavior of coffee. Most of the investigations that have been conducted to date have been characterized by incompleteness and a failure to be sufficiently comprehensive to eliminate the element of individual idiosyncrasy from the results obtained. Accordingly, it is possible to select statements from literature to the effect either that coffee is an "elixir of life," or even a poison. This is a deplorable state of affairs, not calculated to promote the dissemination of...
25 minute read
The geographical distribution of the coffees grown in North America, Central America, South America, the West India Islands, Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the East Indies—A statistical study of the distribution of the principal kinds—A commercial coffee chart of the world's leading growths, with market names and general trade characteristics A study of the geographical distribution of the coffee tree shows that it is grown in well-defined tropical limits. The coffee belt of the world lies between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn. The principal coffee consuming countries are nearly all to be found in the north temperate zone, between the tropic of cancer and the arctic circle. The leading commercial coffees of the world are listed in the accompanying commercial coffee chart, which shows at a glance their general trade character. The cultural methods of the producing countries are discussed in chapter XX; statistics in...
17 minute read
The early days of coffee culture in Abyssinia and Arabia—Coffee cultivation in general—Soil, climate, rainfall, altitude, propagation, preparing the plantation, shade and wind breaks, fertilizing, pruning, catch crops, pests, and diseases—How coffee is grown around the world—Cultivation in all the principal producing countries F or the beginnings of coffee culture we must go back to the Arabian colony of Harar in Abyssinia, for here it was, about the fifteenth century, that the Arabs, having found the plant growing wild in the Abyssinian highlands, first gave it intensive cultivation. The complete story of the early cultivation of coffee in the old and new worlds is told in chapter II, which deals with the history of the propagation of the coffee plant. La Roque [314] was the first to tell how the plant was cultivated and the berries prepared for market in Arabia, where it was brought from Abyssinia. The Arabs raised...
45 minute read
Early Arabian methods of preparation—How primitive devices were replaced by modern methods—A chronological story of the development of scientific plantation machinery, and the part played by British and American inventors—The marvelous coffee package, one of the most ingenious in all nature—How coffee is harvested—Picking—Preparation by the dry and the wet methods—Pulping—Fermentation and washing—Drying—Hulling; or peeling, and polishing—Sizing, or grading—Preparation methods of different countries L a Roque [316] , in his description of the ancient coffee culture, and the preparation methods as followed in Yemen, says that the berries were permitted to dry on the trees. When the outer covering began to shrivel, the trees were shaken, causing the fully matured fruits to drop upon cloths spread to receive them. They were next exposed to the sun on drying-mats, after which they were husked by means of wooden or stone rollers. The beans were given a further drying in the sun,...
32 minute read
A statistical study of world production of coffee by countries—Per capita figures of the leading consuming countries—Coffee-consumption figures compared with tea-consumption figures in the United States and the United Kingdom—Three centuries of coffee trading—Coffee drinking in the United States, past and present—Reviewing the 1921 trade in the United States T he world's yearly production of coffee is on the average considerably more than one million tons. If this were all made up into the refreshing drink we get at our breakfast tables, there would be enough to supply every inhabitant of the earth with some sixty cups a year, representing a total of more than ninety billion cups. In terms of pounds the annual world output amounts to about two and a quarter billions—an amount so large that if it were done up in the familiar one-pound paper packages; and if these packages were laid end to end in a...
17 minute read
Buying coffee in the producing countries—Transporting coffee to the consuming markets—Some record coffee cargoes shipped to the United States—Transport over seas—Java coffee "ex-sailing vessels"—Handling coffee at New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco—The coffee exchanges of Europe and the United States—Commission men and brokers—Trade and exchange contracts for delivery—Important rulings affecting coffee trading—Some well known green coffee marks I n moving green coffee from the plantations to the consuming countries, the shipments pass through much the same trade channels as other foreign-grown food products. In general, the coffee goes from planter to trader in the shipping ports; thence to the exporter, who sells it to an importer in the consuming country; he in turn passing it on, to a roaster, to be prepared for consumption. The system varies in some respects in the different countries, according to the development of economic and transportation methods; but, broadly considered, this is the...
15 minute read
The trade values, bean characteristics, and cup merits of the leading coffees of commerce, with a "Complete Reference Table of the Principal Kinds of Coffee Grown in the World"—Appearance, aroma, and flavor in cup-testing—How experts test coffee—A typical sample-roasting and cup-testing outfit M ore than a hundred different kinds of coffee are bought and sold in the United States. All of them belong to the same botanical genus, and practically all to the same species, the Coffea arabica ; but each has distinguishing characteristics which determine its commercial value in the eyes of the importers, roasters, and distributers. The American trade deals almost exclusively in Coffea arabica , although in the latter years of the World War increasing quantities of robusta and liberica growths were imported, largely because of the scarcity of Brazilian stocks and the improvement in the preparation methods, especially in the case of robustas . Considerable quantities...
56 minute read
Coffee roasting as a business—Wholesale coffee-roasting machinery—Separating, milling, and mixing or blending green coffee, and roasting by coal, coke, gas, and electricity—Facts about coffee roasting—Cost of roasting—Green-coffee shrinkage table—"Dry" and "wet" roasts—On roasting coffee efficiently—A typical coal roaster—Cooling and stoning—Finishing or glazing—Blending roasted coffees—Blends for restaurants—Grinding and packaging—Coffee additions and fillers—Treated coffees, and dry extracts T he coffee bean is not ready for beverage purposes until it has been properly "manufactured", that is, roasted, or "cooked". Only in this way can all the stimulating, flavoring, and aromatic principles concealed in the minute cells of the bean be extracted at one time. An infusion from green coffee has a decidedly unpleasant taste and hardly any color. Likewise, an underdone roast has a disagreeable "grassy" flavor; while an overdone roast gives a charred taste that is unpalatable to the average citizen of the United States. Coffee Roasting as a Business In spite...
26 minute read
How coffees are sold at wholesale—The wholesale salesman's place in merchandising—Some coffee costs analyzed—Handy coffee-selling chart—Terms and credits—About package coffees—Various types of coffee containers—Coffee package labels—Coffee package economies—Practical grocer helps—Coffee sampling—Premium method of sales promotion C offee is sold at wholesale in the United States chiefly by about 4,000 wholesale grocers, who handle also many other items of food; and by roasters, who make a specialty of preparing the green coffee for consumption, and who feature either bulk or trade-marked package goods. Much the largest proportion of the wholesale coffee trade today is made up of roasted coffees, though some wholesalers still sell the green bean to retail distributers who do their own roasting. Most of the roasted coffee sold is ground; although in some parts of the United States there is at present a growing consumer demand for coffee in the bean. Of the coffee sold in trade-marked packages...
31 minute read
How coffees are sold at retail—The place of the grocer, the tea and coffee dealer, the chain store, and the wagon-route distributer in the scheme of distribution—Starting in the retail coffee business—Small roasters for retail dealers—Model coffee departments—Creating a coffee trade—Meeting competition—Splitting nickels—Figuring costs and profits—A credit policy for retailers—Premiums C offee is sold at retail in the United States through seven distinct channels of trade; the independent retail grocers (about 350,000) handling about forty percent of the 1,300,000,000 pounds sold annually; and the other sixty percent being sold by chain stores, mail-order houses, house-to-house wagon-route distributers, specialty tea and coffee stores, department stores, and drug stores. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the independent grocers' monopoly in retail coffee-merchandising has been dwindling at a rate that has seriously alarmed those interests and their friends. B.C. Casanas of New Orleans, addressing a convention of the National Association of Retail...
21 minute read
Early coffee advertising—The first coffee advertisement in 1587 was frank propaganda for the legitimate use of coffee—The first printed advertisement in English—The first newspaper advertisement—Early advertisements in colonial America—Evolution of advertising—Package coffee advertising—Advertising to the trade—Advertising by means of newspapers, magazines, billboards, electric signs, motion pictures, demonstrations, and by samples—Advertising for retailers—Advertising by government propaganda—The Joint Coffee Trade publicity campaign in the United States—Coffee advertising efficiency I n a work of this character the chapter on advertising must of necessity be in story form. It may tell what has been accomplished in advertising coffee, and perhaps point the way to greater achievement. In so far as possible, the story is supplemented by illustrations, which here tell the story even better than words. Advertising to the trade or the consumer calls for expert advice. There are successful trade journalists who are competent to supply such advertising counsel; and new-comers in the...
21 minute read
The coffee business started by Dorothy Jones of Boston—Some early sales—Taxes imposed by Congress in war and peace—The first coffee plantation-machine, coffee-roaster, coffee-grinder, and coffee-pot patents—Early trade marks for coffee—Beginnings of the coffee urn, the coffee container, and the soluble-coffee business—Statistics of distribution of coffee-roasting establishments in the trade from the eighteenth century to the twentieth I t appears from the best evidence obtainable that the coffee trade of the United States was started by a woman, one Dorothy Jones of Boston. At least, Dorothy Jones was the first person in the colonies to whom a license was issued, in 1670, to sell coffee. It is not clear whether she sold the product in the green bean, roasted, "garbled" (ground), or "ungarbled". Soon after the introduction of the coffee drink into the New England, New York, and Pennsylvania colonies, trading began in the raw product. William Penn bought his green...
41 minute read
A brief history of the growth of coffee trading—Notable firms and personalities that have played important parts in green coffee in the principal coffee centers—Green coffee trade organizations—Growth of the wholesale coffee-roasting trade, and names of those who have made history in it—The National Coffee Roasters Association—Statistics of distribution of coffee-roasting establishments in the United States C offee trading in the American colonies probably had its beginnings about the middle of the seventeenth century. Tea seems to have preceded coffee as an article of merchandise. Several merchants in the New England and New York settlements imported small quantities of coffee with other foodstuffs toward the close of the seventeenth century. The early supplies of the green bean were brought from the Dutch East Indies, Arabia, Haiti, and Jamaica. About 1787, the French opened Mauritius and Bourbon to American ships, which then began to bring back coffee and tea to the...
26 minute read
B.G. Arnold, the first, and Hermann Sielcken, the last of the American "coffee kings"—John Arbuckle, the original package-coffee man—Jabez Burns, the man who revolutionized the roasted coffee business by his contributions as inventor, manufacturer, and writer—Coffee-trade booms and panics—Brazil's first valorization enterprise—War-time government control of coffee—The story of soluble coffee I n the history of the coffee trade of the United States, several names stand out because of sensational accomplishments, and because of notable contributions made to the development of the industry. In green coffee, we have B.G. Arnold, the first, and Hermann Sielcken the last, of the "coffee kings"; in the roasting business, there was John Arbuckle, the original national-package-coffee man; and in the coffee-roasting machinery business, Jabez Burns, inventor, manufacturer, and writer. The First "Coffee King" Benjamin Green Arnold came to New York from Rhode Island in 1836 and took a job as accountant with an east-side grocer....
50 minute read
The romance of coffee, and its influence on the discourse, poetry, history, drama, philosophic writing, and fiction of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and on the writers of today—Coffee quips and anecdotes A ny study of the literature of coffee comprehends a survey of selections from the best thought of civilized nations, from the time of Rhazes (850–922) to Francis Saltus. We have seen in chapter III how Rhazes, the physician-philosopher, appears to have been the first writer to mention coffee; and was followed by other great physicians, like Bengiazlah, a contemporary, and Avicenna (980–1037). Then arose many legends about coffee, that served as inspiration for Arabian, French, Italian, and English poets. Sheik Gemaleddin, mufti of Mocha, is said to have discovered the virtues of coffee about 1454, and to have promoted the use of the drink in Arabia. Knowledge of the new beverage was given to Europeans by the...
43 minute read
How coffee and coffee drinking have been celebrated in painting, engraving, sculpture, caricature, lithography, and music—Epics, rhapsodies, and cantatas in praise of coffee—Beautiful specimens of the art of the potter and the silversmith as shown in the coffee service of various periods in the world's history—Some historical relics C offee has inspired the imagination of many poets, musicians, and painters. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries those whose genius was dedicated to the fine arts seem to have fallen under its spell and to have produced much of great beauty that has endured. To the painters, engravers, and caricaturists of that period we are particularly indebted for pictures that have added greatly to our knowledge of early coffee customs and manners. Adriaen Van Ostade (1610–1685), the Dutch genre painter and etcher, pupil of Frans Hals, in his "Dutch Coffee House" (1650), shows the genesis of the coffee house of western...
16 minute read
Showing the development of coffee-roasting, coffee-grinding, coffee-making, and coffee-serving devices from the earliest time to the present day—The original coffee grinder, the first coffee roaster, and the first coffee pot—The original French drip pot, the De Belloy percolator—Count Rumford's improvement—How the commercial coffee roaster was developed—The evolution of filtration devices—The old Carter "pull-out" roaster—Trade customs in New York and St. Louis in the sixties and seventies—The story of the evolution of the Burns roaster—How the gas roaster was developed in France, Great Britain, and the United States A book could be written on the subject of this chapter. We shall have to be content to touch briefly upon the important developments in the devices employed. The changes that have taken place in the preparation of the drink itself will be discussed in chapter XXXVI . In the beginning, that is, in Ethiopia, about 800 A.D., coffee was looked upon as...
39 minute read
How coffee is roasted, prepared, and served in all the leading civilized countries—The Arabian coffee ceremony—The present-day coffee houses of Turkey—Twentieth-century improvements in Europe and the United States C offee manners and customs have shown little change in the Orient in the six hundred-odd years since the coffee drink was discovered by Sheik Omar in Arabia. As a beverage for western peoples, however, and more particularly in America, there have been many improvements in making and serving it. A brief survey of the coffee conventions and coffee service in the principal countries where coffee has become a fixed item in the dietary is presented here, with a view to show how different peoples have adapted the universal drink to their national needs and preferences. To proceed in alphabetical order, and beginning with Africa, coffee drinking is indulged in largely in Abyssinia, Algeria, Egypt, Portuguese East Africa, and the Union of...
41 minute read
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 T he 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...
2 hour read
Giving dates and events of historical interest in legend, travel, literature, cultivation, plantation treatment, trading, and in the preparation and use of coffee from the earliest time to the present 900[L]—Rhazes, famous Arabian physician, is first writer to mention coffee under the name bunca or bunchum .[M] 1000[L]—Avicenna, Mahommedan physician and philosopher, is the first writer to explain the medicinal properties of the coffee bean, which he also calls bunchum .[M] 1258[L]—Sheik Omar, disciple of Sheik Schadheli, patron saint and legendary founder of Mocha, by chance discovers coffee as a beverage at Ousab in Arabia.[M] 1300[L]—The coffee drink is a decoction made from roasted berries, crushed in a mortar and pestle, the powder being placed in boiling water, and the drink taken down, grounds and all. 1350[L]—Persian, Egyptian, and Turkish ewers made of pottery are first used for serving coffee. 1400–1500—Earthenware or metal coffee-roasting plates with small holes, rounded and...
1 minute read
A list of references gathered from the principal general and scientific libraries—Arranged in alphabetic order of topics...