All About Coffee

by William H. Ukers

It should be remembered that to make good coffee no special pot or device is necessary. Good coffee can be made with any china vessel and a piece of muslin. But to make it in perfection pains must be taken with every step in the process from roaster to cup.

Hollingworth[385] points out that through taste alone it is impossible to distinguish between quinine and coffee, or between apple and onion. There is something more to coffee than its caffein stimulus, its action on the taste-buds of the tongue and mouth. The sense of smell and the sense of sight play important rôles. To get all the joy there is in a cup of coffee, it must look good and smell good, before one can pronounce its taste good. It must woo us through the nostrils with the wonderful aroma that constitutes much of the lure of coffee.

And that is why, in the preparation of the beverage, the greatest possible care should be observed to preserve the aroma until the moment of its psychological release. This can only be done by having it appear at the same instant that the delicate flavor is extracted—roasting and grinding the bean much in advance of the actual making of the beverage will defeat this object. Boiling the extraction will perfume the house; but the lost fragrance will never return to the dead liquid called coffee, when served from the pot whence it was permitted to escape.

To recapitulate, with an added word on service, the correct way to make coffee is as follows:

1. Buy a good grade of freshly roasted coffee from a responsible dealer.

2. Grind it very fine, and at home, just before using.

3. Allow a rounded tablespoonful for each beverage cup.

4. Make it in a French drip pot or in some filtration device where freshly boiling water is poured through the grind but once. A piece of muslin and any china receptacle make an economical filter.

5. Avoid pumping percolators, or any device for heating water and forcing it repeatedly through the grounds. Never boil coffee.

6. Keep the beverage hot and serve it "black" with sugar and hot milk, or cream, or both.