Chicory as a Coffee Substitute
During the American Civil War, Confederates who could not receive coffee shipments substituted it with chicory, a blend still used today. Coffee continued to be a favorite household item and an important ration for soldiers through many wars thereafter.
Growing Mocha Berries
The best coffee is imported from Mocha. It is said to owe much of its superior quality to being kept long; attention to the following circumstances is likewise necessary. The plant should be grown in a dry situation and climate.
The berries ought to be thoroughly ripe before they are gathered. They ought to be well dried in the sun, and kept at a distance from any substance, as spirits, spices, dried fish, etc. by which the taste and flavour of the berry may be injured.
Roasting Mocha Berries
To drink coffee in perfection, it should be made from the best Mocha berries, carefully roasted, and after cooling for a few minutes, reduced to powder, and immediately infused; the tincture will then be of a superior description. But for common use, the coffee of our own plantations [American] is, in general, of very good quality, and the following mode of preparing it may be adopted.
The berries should be carefully roasted, by a gradual application of heat, scorching, but not burning them. Grinding the coffee has been found preferable to pounding, because the latter process is thought to press out, and leave on the sides of the mortar, some of the richer oily substances, which are not lost by grinding.
Filtering Ground Mocha Berries
A filtration tin, or silver pot, with double sides, between which hot water must be poured, to prevent the coffee from cooling, as practised in Germany, is the best machine to be used. Simple infusion in this implement, with boiling water, is all that is required to make a cup of good coffee; and the use of isinglass, the white of eggs, etc. to fine the liquor is quite unnecessary. By this means also, coffee is made quicker than tea.
Benefits of Coffee
Coffee most certainly promotes watchfulness; or, in other words, it suspends the inclination to sleep. To those, therefore, who wish not to be subject to this inclination, coffee is undoubtedly preferable to wine, after dinner, or perhaps to any other liquor.
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