7. The milk in all cases must be warmed, and used as hot as possible; and it should always be put into the cup with the sugar before the coffee is poured in. When a cup of coffee is taken after dinner, it should be drank without milk, and with little or no sugar.
8. But of all the preparations of coffee there is none equal to the French, known as café au lait, or milk coffee. We have drank it constantly for several years, and can pronounce it to excel all others as a breakfast beverage. In this there is more milk than water, and the coffee liquor is rather an essence than a decoction; it will be almost black in colour. The process to be followed is the same in most respects as described; but, instead of a quart or three pints, not more than a third of your usual quantity of water is to be poured on the full quantity of coffee-powder. After it has stood to settle, pour it carefully off the grounds into a jug or pitcher, which is to be kept hot by any convenient means. In this way the liquor, though black, will be perfectly clear. At the same time a quantity of milk, according to the wants of your party, must be heated in a saucepan with a spout or a lip. When this is ready, pour it into your breakfast-cups until they are three-parts full, or rather more, add the sugar, and then fill up with coffee from the jug, more or less, according as you prefer it strong or weak. Coffee made in this way will be found more nutritious, and to possess greater richness and smoothness, than can be attained by any other means.
Many persons are in the habit of keeping roasted coffee in vessels of tin, closely secured; this is a most improper mode, and the consequences of doing so may be pointed out. It is known that coffee contains gallic acid, a principle which has the property of acting on iron or tin, and it is therefore certain that in keeping coffee in these canisters the acid has such an effect in dissolving particles of the metal, as not only to affect the taste, but even the colour of the coffee. To convince one’s self of this, it is only necessary to leave some freshly-roasted coffee in a tinned vessel for a time, and it will soon be found to have imbibed a black colour and a most disagreeable taste.
It appears, therefore, to be necessary to avoid keeping coffee in these metal receptacles. The best mode of properly preserving the article is by using vessels of porcelain, or other similar material. With regard to the description of coffee-pot to be used in preparing the article, it should never be of tin or iron; nothing will so soon and so surely destroy the fine flavour of the beverage as these descriptions of coffee-pots. It has generally been the practice to make coffee either by boiling it, or by pouring boiling water on the ground coffee placed on a filter. Both of these methods are bad.
Experience has shown that boiling water destroys or sensibly alters the volatile parts of the berry, and dissolves those which are bitter and unpleasant. We ought not, therefore, to employ water heated to a greater temperature than to allow the finger being placed in it. But difficult as it may be to believe, there can be no doubt but that the best mode of preparing this beverage is with cold water. Coffee so made is not only more aromatic, more limpid, and more substantial, but it is far stronger than any made with hot water. The cold infusion takes from the coffee and communicates to the water all its aromatic qualities, while it does not imbibe much, if any, of the gallic acid; consequently this preparation is far less bitter than that which has been boiled, in which process the most minute particles are acted upon.
Coffee thus made is of a fine bright and dark colour; it requires far less sugar and much less care, because all that has to be done is to place the powder on the filter, drop on it a little water, and when well moistened to pour on it the proper quantity of water. The filtration will be completed in a moderately short space of time, and the liquor having run through, may be again poured on the coffee, so as to remove any further portion of flavour left in it; and when this has been done, the preparation will be so delicate and aromatic that those who taste it will adopt the mode in preference to any other. When the coffee thus made is to be warmed for use, it must not be heated to the boiling point, and take care that the vessel in which it is warmed be quite full. It may be here remarked that coffee thus made warm is always more pleasant than when drank at the time of its preparation, provided it be not made to boil, and that the coffee-pot be well closed. It is equally necessary with the above that the berry should be well and thoroughly roasted, and not ground in a mill or machine, but pounded and sifted, so as to secure the particles being of equal fineness.
To enter into an examination of the comparative merits and demerits of the several percolators and cafetières at present in use, would extend these observations to too great a length; but most of those generally adopted are worthless, or complicated, with the abominable bag-filter, which is seldom kept clean. There is ample room for inventors in the manufacture of a simple coffee-pot with a water-gauge at the side, which shall effect what is not now done—a passage of the hot water once only through the coffee, so as to have a bright infusion instead of a muddy decoction.
“Tea,” observes Dr. Sigmond, “as the morning beverage, when breakfast forms a good substantial meal, upon which the powers for the day of meeting the various chances and changes of life depend, provided it be not strong, is much to be recommended; but when individuals eat little, coffee certainly supports them in a more decided manner; and, besides this, tea without a certain quantity of solid aliment, is much more likely to influence the nervous system. Some persons, if they drink tea in the morning and coffee at night, suffer much in animal spirits and in power of enjoyment of the pleasure of society; but if they reverse the system, and take coffee in the morning and tea at night, they reap benefit from the change; for the coffee, which to them in the morning is nutrition, becomes a stimulus at night; and the tea, which acts as a dilutent at night, gives nothing for support during the day.”
The Turks drink their coffee very hot and strong, and without sugar; occasionally they put in, when boiling, a clove or two bruised, or a few seeds of star anise, or a drop of essence of amber.
The following quotations from recent travellers give the Turkish mode of making coffee: