Packed fresh from the Mill.
We need scarcely say that the amount of nourishment contained in this abominable olio is infinitesimally small.
The Scientific American of New York, of a recent date, records the following fact: “The editor of the Baltimore American lately visited the commissary department of one of the large military hospitals, and noticed several barrels of dried coffee grounds, the purpose whereof excited his curiosity. The polite commissary informed him that they received twelve dollars a barrel for the grounds. ‘But what is it purchased for?’ he asked. ‘Well,’ said the commissary, hesitatingly, ‘it is re-aromatised by the transforming hand of modern chemistry, and put up in pound papers, which are decorated with attractive labels and high-sounding names.’”
About ten years ago, when the question of coffee adulteration was much agitated, I published a little treatise, entitled, “Coffee, as it is and as it ought to be,” in which, among other particulars, I pointed out the various sophistications practised. A compositor who was engaged in printing the work furnished me with a remarkable statement in confirmation of reports which I had previously heard.
He stated that in various parts of the metropolis, but more especially in the east, are to be found liver bakers. These men take the livers of oxen and horses, bake them, and grind them into a powder, which they sell to the low-priced coffee-shop keepers, at from 4d. to 6d. per pound; horse-liver coffee bearing the highest price. This adulterant may be known by allowing the coffee to stand until cold, when a thick pellicle or skin will be found on the top. It goes farther than coffee, and is generally mixed with chicory and other vegetable imitations of coffee.
According to the investigations of Dr. Hassall (“Food and its Adulterations”), the several adulterations of coffee may be distinguished by the following characters:
Chicory, by the size, form, and ready separation of the component cells of the root, as well as by the presence of an abundance of spiral vessels of the dotted form.
Roasted corn, by the size, form, and other characters of the starch granules, of which the grains are principally composed. Beans, also, by the form, &c., of the constituent granules of starch. Potato, by the large size, rounded form, and ready separation of the cells of the cellulose, as well as by the fibrous markings on their surfaces.
[Plate 3] shows a fragment of roasted coffee as seen under the microscope, magnified 140 diameters, and the structures in a sample of coffee adulterated with chicory.
Dr. Normandy, in his evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on the Adulteration of Food, &c., stated that he had met with roasted corn in coffee to an extent of from 25 to 30 per cent.; it is recognised by the size and character of the starch granules; consists of barley and rye, and is generally very easy to detect; it floats up. If coffee has been adulterated with roasted grain, when you pour boiling water upon it you will see rising against the sides of the cup portions of the ground grain, which you sometimes can separate in considerable quantities, by capillary attraction. If you pour such coffee from the coffee-pot, some of those grains will fall with the liquid in the cup, and they will climb up, as it were, the sides of the cup a quarter of an inch, or something of that kind, all round, and you can collect them very easily.