Coffee cup

“ For a good many years, the keenest wits of the coffee merchants, not only of the United States but of Europe as well, have been at work to refine the beverage as it comes to the consumer's cup; and their success has been striking. Now the consumer can have his favorite brand not only roasted but packed air-tight to preserve its flavor; and made up, moreover, of growths brought from the four corners of the earth and blended to suit the most exacting taste. He can buy it already ground, or he can have it in the form of a soluble powder ”

“ Since sugar is so necessary to our enjoyment of this popular beverage, it is obvious that a considerable part of all the sugar we consume must find its way into the national coffee cup. The stupendous amount of 40,000,000,000 cups of coffee is consumed in this country each year. Taking two teaspoonfuls or two lumps as a fair average per cup, we find that about 800,000,000 pounds of sugar, almost one-tenth of our total annual consumption, are required to sweeten Uncle Sam's coffee cup. ”

“ Old-crop Kona coffee is said by some trade authorities to be equal to either Mocha or Old Government Java.
Appearance, Aroma, and Flavor in Cup-Testing
Before the beginning of the twentieth century, practically all the coffees bought and sold in the United States were judged for merit simply by the appearance of the green or of the roasted bean. Since that time, the importance of testing the drinking qualities has become generally recognized; and today every progressive coffee buyer has his sample-roasting and testing outfit with which to carry out painstaking cup tests. ”

“ Making coffee in filters or percolaters does away with the necessity of using isinglass, white of egg, and various other preparations to clear it. Coffee should always be served very hot, and, if possible, in the same vessel in which it is made, as pouring it from one pot to another cools, and consequently spoils it. Many persons may think that the proportion of water we have given for each oz. of coffee is rather small; it is so, and the coffee produced from it will be very strong; 1/3 of a cup will be found quite sufficient, which should be filled with nice hot milk, or milk and cream mixed. ”

“ This will serve twenty five persons with one coffee cup each, and forty persons with after-dinner cups. The better way to make a large quantity of coffee without an urn is to purchase a new wash boiler. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The unpalatable sediment which fills a good third of the cup must on no account be stirred up. Many a stranger has found to his cost that the coffee is served exceedingly hot; and it is a necessity as well as a sign of good breeding to keep the lips from quite touching the surface and to suck up the drink with a loud hissing noise. In a private house, this formality should by no means be neglected, even if the coffee has become cooled, as the omission would be equivalent to a criticism of the host. ”

“ For general home use, a device that employs filter paper or filter cloth is best; for the epicure an improved porcelain French percolator (drip pot) or an improved cloth filter will yield the utmost of coffee's delights. Drink it black, sweetened or unsweetened, with or without cream or hot milk, as your fancy dictates.
It should be remembered that to make good coffee no special pot or device is necessary. Good coffee can be made with any china vessel and a piece of muslin. But to make it in perfection pains must be taken with every step in the process from roaster to cup. ”

“ If you live in a city, this is the real expense; but a cup of such coffee is far more nourishing than the usual weak coffee just clouded with milk. For instance: If you put a pint of water on a tablespoonful of coffee, you get two cups of coffee too weak to allow much milk. If you put one-half pint of water to a tablespoonful of coffee, you get two half cups, rich and strong, each of which will allow being filled up with boiling milk. Therefore, you get the same quantity [32] of the beverage in one way as the other; but one will be fragrant and nourishing, the other will be neither. ”

“ An old Bourbon proverb says: "To an old man a cup of coffee is like the door post of an old house—it sustains and strengthens him."
Jardin says that in the Antilles, instead of orange blossoms, the brides carry a spray of coffee blossoms; and when a woman remains unmarried, they say she has lost her coffee branch. ”

“ I have learned that the aluminum mess-cup draws the heat from the hot coffee so that it is impossible to drink out of one until the liquid has become half-way cold, and that it is most unappetizing to have to wash one’s mess-kit afterwards in a pail of greasy soap suds in which a hundred odd other mess-kits have already been bathed. ”

“ It is not much to say that nine-tenths of that decoction which passes under the name of coffee, is unworthy to be so called, and that many persons live and die without ever tasting a really good cup of that delicious beverage.
As a nation, the American people want the best of everything, and intend to have that best. Furthermore, they are very properly and intelligently eager to turn it to the greatest advantage. ”

“ After-dinner coffee cups, when all are of different patterns, give a remarkably pretty effect. Indeed, there is so much that is beautiful in table-ware nowadays that one can have a handsome service with means either large or limited. ”

“ A teaspoonful is put in for every cup required, and the water is gently brought to a simmer over a slow fire. The coffee is allowed to rise thrice, and after resting the pot for a minute for the grounds to settle, it is poured out into the cups and drunk while quite hot, with or without sugar. ”

“ Tiny cups of strong black coffee accompanied by sugar, and sometimes by cream, are handed on a tray to the ladies in the drawing-room. Sometimes the servant takes in the silver coffee-pot and asks each person if she will have a cup, filling it for her if she desires. One or two kinds of cordial are offered, the servant asking the ladies in turn which kind they prefer, and then pouring it into tiny liqueur-glasses. Cigarettes are offered to the women at some houses, although the custom is by no means general. ”

“ Moreover, he could make a more palatable cup for himself than the cooks made for him; for too often their handiwork betrayed some of the other uses of the mess kettles to which I have made reference. Then, again, some men liked their coffee strong, others weak; some liked it sweet, others wished little or no sweetening; and this latter class could and did save their sugar for other purposes. I shall give other particulars about this when I take up the subject of Army Rations. ”

“ For nearly two decades, many coffee men and chemists have been seeking a soluble coffee, or dried coffee extract, that would simplify the preparation of the beverage. Thus far, all the products that have appeared on the market are somewhat deficient in aroma and in the more delicate flavors of coffee. A satisfying average cup of coffee can be prepared from the better brands; the chief advantages of which are rapidity of preparation, absence of any grounds, and uniformity of drink. ”

“ 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. ”

“ From its cordial and gently stimulating effect, Western nations may well join in the panegyric pronounced upon coffee by an Arabian, translated thus: "O Coffee, thou dispellest the cares of the great; thou bringest back those who wander from the paths of knowledge! Coffee is our gold, and in the place of its libations we are in the enjoyment of the best and noblest [50] society. Every care vanishes when the cup-bearer presents the delicious chalice ”

“ The steeping method so much favored in England may be responsible for some of the unkind things said about English coffee; because it undoubtedly leads to the abuse of over-infusion, so that the net result is as bad as boiling.
The vast majority of the English people are, however, confirmed tea drinkers, and it is extremely doubtful if this national habit, ingrained through centuries of use of "the cup that cheers" at breakfast and at tea time in the afternoon can ever be changed. ”

“ When company comes, and something unusual in coffee is to be served, Mr. Beeson says he has known the cook to drip the coffee, using a spoonful of hot water at a time, pouring it over tightly packed, finely ground coffee, allowing the water to percolate through to extract every particle of oil. They use more ground coffee in bulk than they get liquid in the cup, and sometimes spend an hour producing four or five demi-tasses. It is needless to say that it is more like molasses than coffee when ready for drinking. ”

“ The brew is complete when it drips from the grounds, and further cooking or "heating up" injures the quality. Therefore, since it is not necessary to put the brew over the fire, it is possible to make use of the hygienic advantages of a glassware, porcelain or earthenware serving pot.
Boiled (or Steeped) Coffee. For boiling (or steeping) use a medium grind. The recipe is a rounded tablespoonful for each cup of coffee desired or—as some cooks prefer to remember it—a tablespoonful for each cup and "one for the pot." Put the dry coffee in the pot and pour over it fresh water briskly boiling. ”

“ European methods obtain in making coffee in China and Japan, and in the French and Dutch colonies. When traveling in the Far East one of the greatest hardships the coffee lover is called upon to endure is the European bottled coffee extract, which so often supplies lazy chefs with the makings of a most forbidding cup of coffee.
In Java, a favorite method is to make a strong extract by the French drip process and then to use a spoonful of the extract to a cup of hot milk—a good drink when the extract is freshly made for each service. ”

“ The caffein furnishes the stimulation for which coffee is generally consumed. It has only a slightly bitter taste, and because of the relatively small percentage in which it is present in a cup of coffee, does not contribute to the cup value. The mineral matter, together with certain decomposition and hydrolysis products of crude fiber and chlorogenic acid, contribute toward the astringency or bitterness of the cup. The proteins are present in such small quantity that their only rôle is to raise somewhat the almost negligible food value of a coffee infusion. ”

“ Good drinking coffees are to be had for prices ranging from twenty-five to thirty cents. In the stores of one of the large chain systems an excellent blend composed of sixty percent Bourbon Santos, [Pg 723] and forty percent Bogota is to be had (1922) for 29 cents. All these figures apply, of course, to normal times.
If you are epicurean, you will want to read up on, and to try, the fancy Mexicans, Cobáns, Sumatra growths, Meridas, and some from the "Kona side" of Hawaii.
In preparing the perfect cup of coffee, then, the coffee must be of good grade, and freshly roasted. ”

“ The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce. ”

“ The other was to percolate a similar quantity to get the needed caffeol. By combining the decoction and the infusion, a finished beverage rich in body and aroma might be had. Most Canadians continue to drink tea, however, although coffee consumption is increasing.
Sidewalk Café, Lisbon
Mexico. In Mexico, the natives have a custom peculiarly their own. The roasted beans are pounded to a powder in a cloth bag which is then immersed in a pot of boiling water and milk. The vaquero, however, pours boiling water on the powdered coffee in his drinking cup, and sweetens it with a brown sugar stick. ”

“ I shall be glad of a cup of coffee as soon as possible. ”

“ The perfection of coffee, to my way of thinking, is made in the "Vienna coffee-pot." A tea-kettle of copper, brass, or plated silver, full of boiling water, is set over a spirit lamp. Into it is fitted a tube attached to a glass receptacle for the finely-ground coffee, which is kept from entering the tube by a wire sieve. A tight stopper prevents the escape through the kettle-spout of the steam generated by the lamp. It is thus forced upward through the tube and sieve into the dry coffee. The globe has a brass cover that keeps in the heat. ”