COFFEE.
There is no beverage which is held in more universal esteem than good coffee, and none in this country at least, which is obtained with greater difficulty (unless indeed it be pure wine). We hear constant and well-founded complaints both from foreigners and English people, of the wretched compounds so commonly served up here under its name, especially in many lodging houses, hotels, and railway refreshment rooms;[[182]] yet nothing can well be easier than to prepare it properly. Some elaborate and various fanciful modes of making it have been suggested at different times by writers fond of novelty, but they have in general nothing to recommend them beyond the more simple processes which follow, and of which we believe the result will seldom prove unsatisfactory to our readers, unless it be to such of them as may have been accustomed to the spiced or other peculiar Oriental preparations of the fragrant berry, or simply to the exquisite quality of it, which would appear to be obtainable only in the East; or which, at all events, is beyond the reach of the mass of English consumers, and of their near Continental neighbours.
[182]. At some of the principal stations on lines connected with the coast, by which an immense number of strangers pass and repass, the coffee is so bad, that great as the refreshment of it would be to them, particularly in night travelling, in very cold weather, they reject it as too nauseous to be swallowed. A little national pride ought surely to prevent this, if no higher principle interfered to do so; for to exact the full price of a good commodity, and habitually to supply only trash for it, is a commercial disgrace.