Mocha, or Turkey, coffee (namely, in a raw or unroasted state) should be chosen of a greenish olive hue, fresh and new, free from any musty smell, the berries of a middling size, and clean and plump. Good West-Indian coffee should also be of a greenish cast, fresh, free from mouldy smells, and the berry small. East-Indian coffee is of a pale, and partly of a deep yellow colour. Java coffee is distinguished by its being a large, light, yellow berry.
These are the general tests or methods for ascertaining the quality of raw coffee; those for roasted are similar as to the size of the berry: the other criteria are that it should not be too much roasted, but of a bright chestnut colour, and of a fresh fragrant smell.
I cannot, I apprehend, close this article more appropriately and serviceably, than by exhorting my readers to recollect that the presence of any of the adulterating ingredients in coffee is of the greatest prejudice to health, and is apt to cause a distressing weight on the stomach if the adulterated coffee be used daily for some time. The detail of the beneficial and injurious effects is ably stated in “The Oracle of Health and Long Life.”
CHOCOLATE.
Chocolate is frequently adulterated with noxious ingredients, particularly vanilla and castile soap; the first article is used for giving it a fragrant odour, and the second for causing it to froth when it is dissolved in the water: a large proportion of flour, also, instead of the kernel of the cocoa-nut, makes up the composition.
Chocolate, to be good, should be of a brown colour, inclining to red; when broken, it should appear of a smooth and uniform consistence in the fracture, without any granulated particles, and should melt easily in the mouth, leaving no roughness or astringency, but rather a cooling sensation upon the tongue; which last quality is the most decisive criterion of its genuineness.
SUGAR.
Considerable ingenuity is exerted in the adulteration of sugar. The moist sugars are mixed up with sand, salt, flour, and a variety of other ingredients of little or no cost. The loaf, or lump sugar receives the addition of lime, chalk, gypsum, plaster of paris, or any white material which will save expense to the “refiner.”
Lump, or loaf sugar, to be good, should be close, heavy, and shining: though, by the bye, some of the craft have lately contrived to introduce some sparkling particles of marble, to produce the shining appearance. That which easily breaks, and appears porous or spongy and of a dull cast, has not been properly manufactured, and has an undue proportion of lime, &c. in its composition. Of the moist kind, chuse that which is distinguished by the sharpness, brightness, and loose texture of the grain, and which, when rubbed between the finger and the thumb, is not easily pulverized: those kinds are to be preferred which have a peculiar grey hue, in conjunction with the brightness and other criteria just mentioned. The soft and close grained sugars, though of a good colour, should be rejected as saturated with too much earthy matter. The East India varieties do not contain so much saccharine matter as the produce of the West India colonies. Neither is the crush-lump, which is manufactured from treacle and employed by grocers for mixing with the common sorts of brown sugar, equal to the West India produce in sweetening power. Adulterated sugar is readily discovered by the taste and sediment left at the bottom of the vessel in which it is dissolved. The presence of crush-lump may be recognized by the uniformity of the appearance of moist sugar.
Rules for the choice of currants, raisins, rice, and other articles of grocery, are detailed in “Domestic Comforts and Economy,” a work containing a store of information for the economizing and skilful management of household expenditure.