All About Coffee Part 130

Night is the propitious season to visit these places: the glare of the sun, glancing on the waters, is pa.s.sed away; the company is then most numerous, for it is their favourite hour; the lamps, suspended from the slender pillars, are lighted; the Turks, in the various and brilliant colours of their costume, crowd the platform, some standing moveless as the pillars beside them, their long pipe in their hand--n.o.ble specimens of humanity, if intellect breathed within: some reclining against the rails, others seated in groups, or solitary as if buried in "lonely thoughts sublime"; while the rush of the falling waters is sweeter music than that of the pipe and the guitar, that faintly strive to be heard. The cataract in the plate is a very fine one; on its foam the moonlight was lovely: we pa.s.sed many an hour here on such a night, the clear waters of the Pharpar, as they rolled on, reflecting each pillar, each Damascene slowly moving by in his waving garments. The glare of the lamps mingled strangely with the moonlight, that rested with a soft and vivid glory on the waters, and fell beneath pillar and roof on the picturesque groups within.

The slender bra.s.s coffee grinders sometimes serve as a combination utensil in the equipment of the Turkish officer. Frequently they are made of silver. They might be called collapsible, convertible coffee kits, as they are made to serve as a combination coffee pot, mill, can, and cup. The green or roasted beans are kept in the lower section. It takes but a minute to unscrew the apparatus. To make a cup of coffee, the beans are dumped out and three or four of them are put in the middle section. The steel crank is fitted over the squared rod projecting from the middle section, which revolves, setting in motion the grinding apparatus inside. The ground coffee falls into the bottom section, and water is added. The pot is placed on the fire, and the contents brought to a boil. The coffee pot serves as a cup. The process requires but a few minutes. The cup is rinsed out, the beans replaced, the utensils put together, the whole thing is slipped into the officer's tunic, and he goes on, refreshed.

In Persia, where tea is mostly drunk, the Turkish-Arabian methods of making coffee are followed. In Ceylon and India, the same applies to the native population, but the whites follow the European practise. In India, many people look upon coffee as just a _bonne bouche_--a "chaser." A well known English tea firm has had some success in India with a tinned "French coffee", which is a blend of Indian coffee and chicory.

European methods obtain in making coffee in China and j.a.pan, and in the French and Dutch colonies. When traveling in the Far East one of the greatest hardships the coffee lover is called upon to endure is the European bottled coffee extract, which so often supplies lazy chefs with the makings of a most forbidding cup of coffee.

In Java, a favorite method is to make a strong extract by the French drip process and then to use a spoonful of the extract to a cup of hot milk--a good drink when the extract is freshly made for each service.

_Coffee Making in Europe_

In Europe, the coffee drink was first sold by lemonade venders. In Florence those who sold coffee, chocolate, and other beverages were not called _caffetieri_ (coffee sellers) but _limonaji_ (lemonade venders).

Pascal's first Paris coffee shop served other drinks as well as coffee; and Procope's cafe began as a lemonade shop. It was only when coffee, which was an afterthought, began to lead the other beverages, that he gave the name cafe to his whole refreshment place.

Today, nearly every country in Europe can supply the two extremes of coffee making. In Paris and Vienna, one may find it brewed and served in its highest perfection; but here too it is frequently found as badly done as in England, and that is saying a good deal. The princ.i.p.al difficulty seems to be in the chicory flavor, for which long years of use has cultivated a taste, with most people. Now coffee-and-chicory is not at all a bad drink; indeed the author confesses to have developed a certain liking for it after a time in France--but it is not coffee. In Europe, chicory is not regarded as an adulterant--it is an addition, or modifier, if you please. And so many people have acquired a coffee-and-chicory taste, that it is doubtful if they would appreciate a real cup of coffee should they ever meet it. This, of course, is a generalization; and like all generalizations, is dangerous, for it _is_ possible to obtain good coffee, properly made, in any European country, even England, in the homes of the people, but seldom in the hotels or restaurants.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE AL FRESCO IN JERUSALEM]

AUSTRIA. Coffee is made in Austria after the French style, usually by the drip method or in the pumping percolator device, commonly called the Vienna coffee machine. The restaurants employ a large-size urn fitted with a combination metal sieve and cloth sack. After the ground coffee has infused for about six minutes, a screw device raises the metal sieve, the pressure forcing the liquid through the cloth sack containing the ground coffee.

Vienna cafes are famous, but the World War has dimmed their glory. It used to be said that their equal could not be found for general excellence and moderate prices. From half-past eight to ten in the morning, large numbers of people were wont to breakfast in them on a cup of coffee or tea, with a roll and b.u.t.ter. _Melange_ is with milk; "brown" coffee is darker, and a _schwarzer_ is without milk. In all the cafes the visitor may obtain coffee, tea, liqueurs, ices, bottled beer, ham, eggs, etc. The Cafe Schrangl in the Graben is typical. Then there are the dairies, with coffee, a unique inst.i.tution. In the _Prater_ (public park) there are many interesting cafes.

Charles J. Rosebault says in the _New York Times_:

The cafe of Vienna has been imitated all over the world--but the result has never failed to be an imitation. The nearest approach to the genuine in my experience was the upstairs room of the old Fleischman Cafe in New York. That was because the average New Yorker knew it not and it remained sacred to the internationalists: the musicians, artists, writers, and other Bohemians to whom had been intrusted the secret of its existence. It is the spirit that counts, and it was the spirit of its frequenters that made the Vienna cafe. It was everyman's club, and everywoman's, too, where one went to relax and forget all the worries of existence, to look over papers and magazines from all parts of the world and printed in every known language, to play chess or skat or taracq, to chat with friends and to drink the inimitable Viennese coffee, the fragrance of which can no more be described than the perfume of last year's violets.

The cafe was filled after the noon meal, when busy men took their coffee and smoked; again around five o'clock, when all the world and his wife paraded along the Graben and the Karntner Stra.s.se, and then dropped into a favorite cafe for coffee or chocolate and cakes--horns and crescents of delicious dough filled with jam or, possibly, the wonderful Kugelhupf, in comparison with which our sponge is like unto lead; finally in the evening, when there were family parties and those returning from theatres and concerts and opera.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photograph by Burton Holmes

THE CAFe SCHRANGL IN THE GRABEN, VIENNA, THE CITY THAT COFFEE MADE FAMOUS]

While the cafe life of Vienna has been nearly killed by the World War, it is to be hoped that time will restore at least something of its former glory. In spite of the stories of plundering bands of Bolshevists that in the latter part of 1921 wrecked some of the better known places, we read that Oscar Straus, composer of _The Chocolate Soldier_, is living in comparative luxury in Vienna, and spends most of his time in the cafes, where he is to be found usually from two until five in the afternoon and from eleven o'clock at night until some early hour of the morning "surrounded by musicians of lesser note and wealth, whom, to a degree, he supports; also with him being many of the leading composers, librettists, actors, actresses, and singers of Vienna."

For Vienna coffee, the liquor is usually made in a pumping percolator or by the drip process. In normal times it is served two parts coffee to one of hot milk topped with whipped cream. During 1914-18 and the recent post-war period, however, the sparkling crown of delicious whipped cream gave way to condensed milk, and saccharine took the place of sugar.

BELGIUM. In Belgium, the French drip method is most generally employed.

Chicory is freely used as a modifier. The greatest coffee drinker among reigning monarchs is said to be the King of the Belgians. His majesty takes a cup of coffee before breakfast, after breakfast, at his noonday meal, in the afternoon, after dinner, and again in the evening.

BRITISH ISLES. In the British Isles coffee is still being boiled; although the infusion, true percolation (drip), and filtration methods have many advocates. A favorite device is the earthenware jug with or without the cotton sack that makes it a coffee biggin. When used without the sack, the best practise is first to warm the jug. For each pint of liquor, one ounce (three dessert-spoonfuls) of freshly ground coffee is put in the pot. Upon it is poured freshly boiling water--three-fourths of the amount required. After stirring with a wooden spoon, the remainder of the water is poured in, and the pot is returned to the "hob" to infuse, and to settle for from three to five minutes. Some stir it a second time before the final settling.

The best trade authorities stress home-grinding, and are opposed to boiling the beverage. They advocate also its use as a breakfast beverage, after lunch, and after the evening meal.

From an American point of view, the princ.i.p.al defects in the English method of making coffee lie in the roasting, handling, and brewing. It has been charged that the beans are not properly cooked in the first place, and that they are too often stale before being ground. The English run to a light or cinnamon roast, whereas the best American practise requires a medium, high, or city roast. A fairly high shade of brown is favored on the South Downs with a light shade for Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the south of Scotland. The trade demands, for the most part, a ripe chestnut brown. Wholesale roasting is done by gas and c.o.ke machines; while retail dealers use mostly a small type of inner-heated gas machine. The large gas machines (with capacities running from twenty-five to seven hundred pounds) have external air-blast burners, direct and indirect burners, sliding burners, etc. The best known are the Faulder and Moorewood machines. In the Uno, a popular retail machine, roasting seven to fourteen pounds at a time, the coffee beans are placed in the s.p.a.ce between outer and inner concentric cylinders, one made of perforated steel, and the other of wire gauze, revolving together. A gas flame of the Bunsen type burns inside the inner cylinder, its heat traversing the outer, or coffee cylinder, while the fumes are driven off through the open ends. The roasting coffee may be viewed through a mica or wire-gauze panel inserted in the wall of the outer cylinder. The Faulder machine has an external flame, a capacity of from seven to fourteen pounds; and there are quick gas machines, with capacities ranging from three pounds to two hundred and twenty-four pounds, for the retail trade.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FAVORITE ENGLISH COFFEE-MAKING METHOD]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CAFe OF YE MECCA COMPANY, LONDON]

In recent years there has been a marked improvement in English coffee roasting, due to the intelligent study brought to bear upon the subject by leaders of the trade's thought, and by the retail distributer, who, in the person of the retail grocer, is, generally speaking, better educated to his business than the retail grocer in any other country.

Years ago, it was the practise to use b.u.t.ter or lard to improve the appearance of the bean in roasting; but this is not so common as formerly.

The British consumer, however, will need much instruction before the national character of the beverage shows a uniform improvement. While the coffee may be more carefully roasted, better "cooked" than it was formerly, it is still remaining too long unsold after roasting, or else it is being ground too long a time before making. These abuses are, however, being corrected; and the consumer is everywhere being urged to buy his coffee freshly roasted and to have it freshly ground. Another factor has undoubtedly contributed to give England a bad name among lovers of good coffee, and that is certain tinned "coffees," composed of ground coffee and chicory, mixtures that attained some vogue for a time as "French" coffee. They found favor, perhaps, because they were easily handled. Package coffees have not been developed in England as in America; but there is a more or less limited field for them, and there are several good brands of absolutely pure coffee on the market.

The demi-ta.s.se is a popular drink after luncheon, after dinner, and even during the day, especially in the cities. In London, there are cafes that make a specialty of it; places like Peel's, Groom's, and the Cafe Nero in the city; also the shops of the London Cafe Co., and Ye Mecca Co.

While, in the home, it is customary to steep the coffee; in hotels and restaurants some form of percolating apparatus, extractor, or steam machine is employed. There are the Criterion (employing a drip tray for making coffee in the Etzenberger style); Fountain; Platow; Syphon (Napier); and Verithing extractors, put out by Sumerling & Co. of London; and the well-known J. & S. rapid coffee-making machine, having an infuser, and producing coffee by steam pressure, manufactured by W.M.

Still & Sons, Ltd., London.

American visitors complain that coffee in England is too thick and syrupy for their liking. Coffee in restaurants is served "white" (with milk), or black, in earthen, stoneware, or silver pots. In chain restaurants, like Lyons' or the A.B.C., there is to be found on the tariff, "hot milk with a dash of coffee."

[Ill.u.s.tration: GROOM'S COFFEE HOUSE, FLEET STREET, LONDON]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAFe MONICO, PICCADILLY CIRCUS, LONDON]

As to the boiling method, this is already generally discredited in the countries of western Europe. The steeping method so much favored in England may be responsible for some of the unkind things said about English coffee; because it undoubtedly leads to the abuse of over-infusion, so that the net result is as bad as boiling.

The vast majority of the English people are, however, confirmed tea drinkers, and it is extremely doubtful if this national habit, ingrained through centuries of use of "the cup that cheers" at breakfast and at tea time in the afternoon can ever be changed.

As already mentioned in this work, the London coffee houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries gave way to a type of coffee house whose mainstay was its food rather than its drink. In time, these too began to yield to the changing influences of a civilization that demanded modern hotels, luxurious tea lounges, smart restaurants, chain shops, tea rooms, and cafes with and without coffee. A certain type of "coffee shop," with rough boarded stalls, sanded floors and "private rooms," frequented by lower cla.s.s workingmen, were to be found in England for a time; but because of their doubtful character, they were closed up by the police.

Among other places in London where coffee may be had in English or continental style, mention should be made of the Cafe Monico, a good place to drop in for a coffee and liqueur, and one of the pioneers of the modern restaurant; Gatti's, where _cafe filtre_, or coffee produced by the filtration method, is a specialty; the cosmopolitan Savoy with its popular tea lounge (teas, sixty cents); the Piccadilly Hotel, with its Louis XIV restaurant catering to refined and luxurious tastes; the Waldorf Hotel, with its American clientele and its palm court (teas, thirty-six cents); the Cecil, with its palm court and tea balcony, also having a special attraction for Americans; Lyons' Popular Cafe (iced coffee, twelve cents); the Trocadero with its special Indian curries prepared by native cooks once each week; the Temple Bar restaurant, an attractive refectory owned by the semi-philanthropic Trust-Houses, Ltd., which runs some two hundred similar establishments throughout the country, serving alcoholic drinks but stressing non-intoxicating beverages, among them special Mocha at six and eight cents a cup; Slater's, Ltd., catering mostly to business folk in the city, there being about a score of restaurants and tea rooms under this name with retail shops attached; the British Tea Table a.s.sociation, like Slater's, a grown-up sister of the olden bun shop of Queen Victoria's day; and the Kardomah chain of cafes, where one is reasonably sure to get a satisfying cup of coffee and a cake.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GATTI'S, IN THE STRAND, LONDON]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TEA LOUNGE OF HOTEL SAVOY, LONDON]

Supplementing the above, Charles Cooper, some time editor of the _Epicure_ and _The Table_, has prepared for this work some notes on the evolution of the old-time London coffee houses into the present-day tea rooms, tea lounges, cafes, and restaurants for all comers. Mr. Cooper says of the transformation:

The old-fashioned London coffee-house that flourished forty to fifty years ago has within the past thirty years been completely extinguished by the modern tea rooms. These old-fashioned establishments were mainly situated in and about the Strand and Fleet Street, the neighborhood of the Inns of Court, etc. They did not sacrifice much to outside show and decoration. They were divided into boxes or pews, and were generally speaking clean and well ordered; the prices were moderate, and the fare simple but superlatively good. There is nothing to equal it now. Chops were cooked in the grill. The tea and coffee were of the best; the hams were York hams and the bacon the best Wiltshire; they were the last places where real b.u.t.tered toast was made. The art is now lost.

They catered exclusively to men; and their clientele consisted of journalists, artists, actors, men from the Inns of Court, students, _et al._ A man living in chambers could breakfast comfortably at one of these places, and read all the morning papers at his ease.

The most westerly perhaps of the old houses was Stone's in Panton Street, Haymarket, which has recently been sold. Groom's in Fleet Street, where a good cup of coffee may still be had, is princ.i.p.ally frequented by barristers about the luncheon hour. They are usually men who lunch lightly.

The tea rooms, as I have said, have killed the coffee houses. At the time the latter flourished, there were no facilities in London for a woman, unattended by a man, to obtain refreshment beyond a weak cup of tea at a few confectioners'. It mattered the less in the days when the girl clerk had not come into being. When the field of women's employment widened, fresh requirements were created which the coffee shops did not meet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LYONS' "POPULAR CAFe," PICCADILLY--ONE OF MANY OPERATED UNDER THAT NAME]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PALM COURT IN THE WALDORF HOTEL--A POPULAR RESORT FOR AMERICAN TRAVELERS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO POPULAR PLACES FOR COFFEE IN LONDON]

The tea room pioneers in London were the Aerated Bread Company, familiarly known as the A.B.C. I think that coffee palaces in provincial industrial centers had been started; but as part of a temperance propaganda, to counteract the attractions of the public house. The Aerated Bread Company was founded about the middle of the past century for the manufacture and sale of bread made under the patent aerated process of Dr. Daugleish. The shops were opened for the sale of bread to the public for home consumption; but to give people an opportunity of testing it, facilities were provided for obtaining a cup of tea, and bread and b.u.t.ter, on the premises.

This subsidiary object became in a short time the most important part of the company's business. It multiplied its shops, enlarged its bill of fare to include cooked foods; and while, nowadays, the A.B.C. and its rivals cater to many thousands daily, I doubt if anybody ever buys a loaf to take home.

The A.B.C. has many compet.i.tors, similar shops having been started by Lyons, Lipton, Slaters. Express Dairy Company, Cabin, Pioneer Cafes, and others. _Ex uno disce omnes._

[Ill.u.s.tration: TEMPLE BAR RESTAURANT, LONDON]