Philippines.—Manilla coffee is one of the best of the Eastern kinds, and quite equal to Java. The average production is about 3,000,000 lbs. The beans are medium-sized, and of a pale greenish colour. The coffee is shipped in bags of about 150 lbs., or in cases or chests of 200 lbs. to 300 lbs.
Other Sources.—The cultivation of coffee is making rapid progress in the Sandwich Islands. There are now considerably more than half a million trees in bearing on the island, producing upwards of 2,000,000 lbs. annually—the largest proportion of which is shipped to California. Queensland and the northern districts of Australia could raise large quantities of coffee. It is much less laborious than cotton, more fitted for women and children, and, being adapted to the mountain ranges of tropical climates, of course more healthy and invigorating than the sultry plains. The range of mountains varying from twenty-five to thirty miles from the northern coast of Australia, towards Torres Straits, would be admirably suited to the culture.
SECTION XVI.
COFFEE AS A BEVERAGE.
It is remarkable that, much as coffee is used in this country, the proper mode of preparing it as a beverage should be so little understood. Perhaps it is that most people consider coffee-making as too easy a process to need any pains at all; and for this reason the coffee served at nine breakfast-tables out of ten, throughout the kingdom, is a miserable muddy infusion, which people seem to drink only because, as washerwomen say, it is “wet and warm.” The right way of making coffee is not less easy than the wrong one; there is no mystery about it. All that is required is the observance of a few simple rules:
1. The nature of coffee is such that it parts very easily with its aromatic, stimulating, and other properties; a small quantity of water will draw out all the goodness quite as effectually as a large quantity, and it will do this if the coffee-berries be only bruised or very coarsely ground. It is a grave mistake to suppose that coffee should be ground to a fine powder; extreme fineness is the great cause of “thick coffee” as prepared for breakfast. In Eastern countries, where people know what good coffee means, they always bruise the berries in a mortar. In fact, the goodness of coffee depends more on the roasting and the method of preparing afterwards, than on the quality of the berry, or any other particular.
2. Buy your coffee ready roasted, but not ground; that is, buy coffee-berries, and always choose such as are fresh roasted, in preference to stale. Observe, also, whether your grocer keeps the article properly shut up in tin canisters, or lets it lie about in open tubs or trays.
3. If possible, buy a coffee-mill, one that will grind very coarsely. The price varies from 2s. 6d. to 5s. This article is so essential to a good cup of coffee, that no one who can afford the outlay should hesitate to buy one. Those who have a pestle and mortar may try the method of bruising; but whether a mill or a mortar, no more should be ground or crushed than is wanted for use at the time.
4. Coffee requires to be kept in a very dry place; and, as it readily takes up the flavour of other articles near which it may be placed, it should be kept in an air-tight vessel. If you buy tea and coffee at the same time, do not pack them in one parcel or basket, or carry them in the same packet, for the true flavour of both will be injured. We presume that no one will be so careless as to keep either tea or coffee in paper only; a wooden box would be better than this, but a bottle or porcelain jar is best of all.
5. Have a clean, dry coffee-pot; it should always be rinsed out when put away, and turned down to drain.
6. To every half pint of water, allow half an ounce of coffee-powder; have your kettle of water boiling, put the necessary quantity of powder into the coffee-pot, and pour in as much water from the kettle as you require. Set the pot on the fire for a few seconds, but on no account let the contents boil up; then pour about half a pint of the liquor into a cup, and pour it back again into the pot, and stand it on the hob or on the fender to settle. If these directions have been properly followed, there will be in three or four minutes a pot of coffee as clear and well-tasted as any one could wish to drink. Should it be too strong, you have only to use less of the coffee-powder. All the goodness is extracted with the first boiling; and those who wish to drink good coffee must never boil the same grounds a second time.