Chapter XXXVI: Preparation of the Universal Beverage (2)

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

THREE WELL KNOWN MAKES OF LARGE COFFEE URNS]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Early Coffee Making in the United States_

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

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

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

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

Ground cardamom seeds were also used to flavor the decoction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Try this method if you wish coffee in perfection.

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

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

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

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

ROASTING COFFEE BEANS

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

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

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

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

MAKING BREAKFAST COFFEE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Latest Developments in Better Coffee Making_

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

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

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

ROASTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coarse ground coffee is unopened coffee--coffee thrown away.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The chemical analysis of brewed coffee shows the following:

Coffee Tannin Comparative
per Cup Proportions

Percolator method,[379] fine gran. 2.90 grains --------
5 minutes' steeping

Boiling Method, medium " 2.35 " ------

Steeping Method, " " 2.31 " -----

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

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

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

GRINDING DEFINITIONS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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