Chapter XXXVI: Preparation of the Universal Beverage (1)

_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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.