Here we have another illustration of the great results springing from trifling causes. Coffee soon became so extensively used that taxes were imposed upon it. In 1660 a duty of 4d. a gallon was imposed upon all coffee made and sold. Before 1732 the duty upon coffee was 2s. a pound; it was afterwards reduced to 1s. 6d., at which it yielded to the revenue, for many years, £10,000 per annum. The duty has been gradually reduced, and the consumption has gone on increasing, until at last above 25,000,000 of pounds are consumed annually! Fancy this great result springing from a "friendly coffee party" that assembled in the year 1652.
It is a cake prepared from the cocoa-nut. The nut is first roasted like coffee, then it is reduced to powder and mixed with water, the paste is then put into moulds and hardened. The properties are very healthful, but its consumption is very insignificant, as compared with tea or coffee. The cocoa tree grows chiefly in the West Indies and South America.
Cocoa is also a preparation from the seeds or beans of the cocoa tree. But the best form of cocoa for family use is to obtain the beans pure, as they are now commonly sold ready for use, and to break them and then grind them in a large coffee mill.
Chicory is the root of the common endive, dried and roasted as coffee, for which it is used as a substitute. Some persons prefer the flavour of chicory admixed with coffee. But very opposite opinions prevail respecting the qualities of chicory. We believe it to be perfectly healthful, and attribute the prejudice that prevails against it, to its having been used, from its cheapness, to adulterate coffee.
"He that tilleth the land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough."—Proverbs xxviii.