The berries are picked by hand, care being taken to select only those which are perfectly ripe. They are then thrown into large, open yards, paved with rock and stone, with a grade sufficient for the free drainage of water. After a few days' exposure to the sun, the berries being perfectly dry, they are put in the crusher to separate the berry from the husk. The coffee is then passed through large and small sieves, one under the other, with a fan at the back, by which means the husks are winnowed from the berry.
Grading follows next, according to the size of the grain. The best grade of coffee is Mocha, the next Java. The blending of various qualities is one of the most difficult accomplishments, without which, good coffee is almost an impossibility. Hence it is that retail dealers, who roast their own coffee, so often fail of success, since it requires skill, experience, and a knowledge of the properties of different growths to produce blendings which suit the palate.
As might be expected, numerous adulterations are found in ground coffees of inferior grades. Some of them, like venetian red to give color, are positively poisonous. Others, like chicory, an endive like the dandelion, are injurious. Tons of this root are annually consumed, many persons believing that it accentuates the flavor of the real article. Yet it has been proven that chicory produces heartburn, cramps, and, finally, total blindness.
Besides these, are less noxious mixtures of roasted corn, beans, peas, wheat, rye, dandelion, and various nuts. As long ago as 1850, 18,000 pounds of vegetable matter were sold for coffee in the United States. Professor Sharples, the State Assayer of Massachusetts, last year found that one favorite brand contained no coffee at all. It was made up of green peas, burnt molasses, and "an occasional grain of rye." Another French coffee was a concoction of peas, rye, and oats. Be sure of an honest grocer, is the moral, unless the coffee is burnt and ground at home. Some of these ingredients are harmless enough, but who wishes to be deceived and defrauded?
The adulterations of ground coffee can be easily detected. It must be premised here that the genuine coffee berry is extremely hard and tough. Every one knows the character of the grounds even after long soaking and boiling. "Now," says an expert, "a spoonful of pure coffee placed gently on the surface of a glass of cold water will float for some time and scarcely color the liquid. If it contains chicory it will rapidly absorb the water, and, sinking to the bottom of the glass, communicate a deep reddish brown tint as it falls. Again, shake a spoonful of the coffee with a wineglassful of water, then place the glass upon the table. If it is pure it will rise to the surface and scarcely color the liquid; if chicory is present it will sink to the bottom and the water will be tinged of a deep red as before."
Still again: "If, when a few pinches of the suspected coffee are placed upon water in a wineglass, part floats and part sinks, there is reason to believe it is adulterated either with chicory, roasted corn, or other substances. Coffee does not absorb the water; other substances do.... If the cold water becomes deeply colored, it is evidence of the presence of some roasted vegetable or burnt sugar. Or if, when a few grains of coffee, spread out on a piece of glass, are moistened with a few drops of water, we are enabled to pick out, by means of a needle, minute pieces of a soft substance, the coffee is adulterated, for the coffee particles are hard and resisting."
But, given coffee pure as pure can be, what are its effects upon the system?
Coffee owes its stimulating and refreshing qualities to caffeine. It also contains gum and sugar, fat, acids, casein and wood fibre. Like tea, it powerfully increases the respiration, but, unlike it, does not effect its depth. By its use the rate of the pulse is increased and the action of the skin diminished. It lessens the amount of blood sent to the organs of the body, distends the veins and contracts the capillaries, thus preventing waste of tissue. It is a mental stimulus of a high order, and one that is liable to great abuse. Through its fascinations the scholar burns the midnight oil, and too rapidly reduces his store of vital force. To some temperaments it may be called a poison. Carried to excess it produces abnormal wakefulness, indigestion, acidity, heartburn, tremors, debility, irritability of temper, trembling, irregular pulse, a kind of intoxication ending in delirium, and great injury to the spinal functions. Unfortunately, there are many coffee tipplers who depend upon it as a drunkard upon his dram.
On the other hand, coffee is of sovereign efficacy in tiding over the nervous system in emergencies. Soldiers in the late war declared they could march longer and endure more hardships under the stimulus of coffee than under that of liquor. During their long predatory excursions the tribes of Central Africa subsist for many days at a time on a mixture of coffee and butter. Made into balls an inch and a half in diameter, one lasts a man during twenty-four hours. The Belgian coal miners live on a less quantity of solid food than the French miners, who are furnished with a smaller amount of coffee.
Coffee is also, in its place, an excellent medicine. In typhoid fever its action is frequently prompt and decisive. It is indicated in the early stages before local complications arise. Coffee dispels stupor and lethargy, is an antidote for many kinds of poison, and is valuable in spasmodic asthma, hooping-cough, cholera infantum, and Asiatic cholera.