All About Coffee Part 131

The fare in all these places is much alike, as are the general equipment, prices, and cla.s.s of customers. They cater for a cheap cla.s.s of business. In the busy centers they are frequented mostly by young men and girl clerks and shop a.s.sistants, by women in town, shopping, and such-like custom. Young employees can get a modest mid-day meal at a price to suit a shallow pocket. Before the war, the ruling price for a cup of tea, and a roll and b.u.t.ter, was fourpence, and the general tariff in proportion. Nowadays, the war has run up prices at least fifty percent. During the worst times of food control the fare was very scanty and very unappetizing. As a rule, it is plain and wholesome, with no pretense of being _recherche_. Tea is almost always very good; coffee not on the same level. Their tea rooms are all places designed for small, quick meals; and are in no sense lounges.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TEA BALCONY IN THE HOTEL CECIL, LONDON]

Lyons have refreshment-houses of different grades. The Popular Cafe is a cut above the tea rooms, and so are the Corner Houses. Two years ago, the A.B.C. amalgamated with Buzard's, an old established confectioner's in Oxford Street--a famous cake-house.

The Monico and Gatti's appeal to a quite different cla.s.s from that catered to by the tea shops, although perhaps not to what Mrs.

Boffin would call "the highfliers of fashion" who frequent the lounges of the fashionable hotels. Gatti's original cafe was under the arches of Charing Cross station.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SLATER'S, A BETTER-CLa.s.s CHAIN SHOP, LONDON]

I may add about the Savoy that it was an outcome of the successful Gilbert and Sullivan operas of the seventies, D'Oyly Carte having expended some of his profits on building the hotel on a piece of waste ground by the Savoy Theatre. He brought over M. Ritz from Monte Carlo to manage the hotel and restaurant, and Escoffier, the greatest chef of the day, to preside over the cuisine. They made the Savoy famous for its dinners, and it has always maintained a high reputation, although Escoffier, who has now retired, ruled later at the Carlton; and Ritz, at the hotel in Piccadilly which bears his name.

BULGARIA. In Bulgaria, Arabian-Turkish methods of making coffee prevail.

The accompanying ill.u.s.tration shows a group in a caravan of the faithful on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The venerable Moslem, who is ambitious of becoming a hadji, is attended by his guards, distinguished by their fantastic dress; their glittering golden-hafted _hanjars_, stuck in their shawl girdles; and their silver-mounted pistols; the grave turban replaced by a many-ta.s.seled cap. Their accommodation is the stable of a khan, or serai, shared with their camel. Their refreshment is coffee, thick, black and bitter, served by the khanji in tiny egg-shaped cups.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ST. JAMES'S RESTAURANT, PICCADILLY, LONDON]

In DENMARK and FINLAND coffee is made and served after the French and German fashion.

FRANCE. Were it not for the almost inevitable high roast and frequently the disconcerting chicory addition, coffee in France might be an unalloyed delight--at least this is how it appears to American eyes. One seldom, if ever, finds coffee improperly brewed in France--it is never boiled.

Second only to the United States, France consumes about two million bags of coffee annually. The varieties include coffee from the East Indies; Mocha; Haitian (a great favorite); Central American; Colombian; and Brazils.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN A.B.C. SHOP, LONDON]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HALT OF CARAVANERS AT A SERAI, BULGARIA]

Although there are many wholesale and retail coffee roasters in France, home roasting persists, particularly in the country districts. The little sheet-iron cylinder roasters, that are hand-turned over an iron box holding the charcoal fire, find a ready sale even in the modern department stores of the big cities. In any village or city in France it is a common sight on a pleasant day to find the householder turning his roaster on the curb in front of his home. Emmet G. Beeson, in _The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal_ gives us this vignette of rural coffee roasting in the south of France:

In a certain town in the south of France I saw an old man with an outfit a little larger than the home variety, a machine with a capacity of about ten pounds. Instead of a cylinder in which to roast his coffee, he had perched on a sheet-iron frame a hollow round ball made of sheet iron. In the top of this ball there was a little slide which was opened by the means of a metal tool. In the sheet-iron frame he had kindled his charcoal fire. Directly in front of his roaster was a home-made cooling pan, the sides of which were of wood, the bottom covered with a fine grade of wire screening.

On this particular afternoon, the old man had taken up his place on the curb; and a big black cat had taken advantage of the warmth offered by the charcoal fire and was curled up, sleeping peacefully in the pan nearest the fire. The old man paid no attention to the cat, but went on rotating his ball of coffee and puffing away pensively on his cigarette. When his coffee had become blackened and burned, and blackened and burned it was, he stopped rotating the ball, opened the slide in the top, turned it over, and the hot, burned coffee rolled out, and much to his delight, on the sleeping cat, which leaped out of the pan and scampered up the street and into a hole under an old building.

I afterward learned that this old fellow made a business of going about the town gathering up coffee from the houses along the way and roasting it at a few sous per kilo, much the same fashion as a scissors grinder plies his trade in an American town.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAFe DE LA PAIX, WHERE PARIS DRINKS ITS COFFEE OUTDOORS]

Quite a few grocers roast their own coffee in crude devices much like those described above; but the large coffee roasters are gradually eliminating this sort of procedure. There are at Havre several roasters, but only two of importance; one does a business of about two hundred and fifty bags a day, and the next largest has a capacity of about one hundred and sixty bags a day. In Paris, there are many coffee roasters, some quite large, comparatively speaking, one having a capacity of about seven hundred and fifty bags a day. Shop-keepers in Paris and other large cities roast their coffee fresh daily. The machines used are of the ball or cylinder type, employing gas fuel and turned by electric power. Invariably they stand where they may be seen from the street.

Sample-roasters, or testing tables, in France are conspicuous by their absence. Inquiry regarding this subject discloses that coffee is sold on description; and when the French trader is asked, "How do you know your delivery is up to description so far as cup quality is concerned?" he answers that this is arrived at from the general appearance and the smell of the coffee in the green. Perhaps one reason for the laxity in buying cup quality may be explained by the fact that coffee is roasted very high, in fact it is burned almost to a charred state; and unless the coffee is unusually bad in character, the burned taste eliminates any foreign flavor it may have.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SIDEWALK ANNEX, CAFe DE LA PAIX, PARIS, WITH OPERA HOUSE IN BACKGROUND--SUMMER OF 1918]

The fact that coffee was, and still is, quite generally sold to the consumer green, accounts for Central American coffees taking first place. Style takes preference over everything else when it comes to selling to a Frenchman.

To the American coffee merchant it seems that the French are carrying their artistic tastes to an unreasonable extreme when they apply them to coffee; for coffee is grown to drink and not to look at.

Since the coming of the large coffee roaster, who delivers roasted coffee right down the line to the consumer, Santos has come in for its share of the business. The roasters are getting good results out of Santos blends, up to fifty percent and sixty percent with West Indian and Central American coffees. Rio is as much in disfavor in France as it is in the United States, perhaps more so.

In Brittany the demand is for peaberry coffee, no matter of what variety. This comes about from the fact that the people of this section of the country still do a great deal of their roasting at home, and have become accustomed to the use of peaberry coffee because they do not have the improved hand roasters, and still do a great deal of their roasting in pans in the ovens of their stoves. The peaberry coffee rolls about so nicely in the pan that they get a much more uniform roast.

Nearly all the coffee is ground at home, which is not a bad practise for the consumer; but perhaps works hardship on the dealer, who can mix some grade grinders into his blends without doing them any material harm.

Where coffee mills are used in the stores, they are of the Strong-Arm family and of an ancient heritage. To get a growl out of the grocer in France, buy a kilo of coffee and ask him to grind it.

Package coffee and proprietary brands have not come into their own to the extent that they have in the United States, although there are at present two firms in Paris which have started in this business and are advertising extensively on billboards, in street cars, and in the subways. However, most coffee is still sold in bulk. The b.u.t.ter, egg, and cheese stores of France do a very large business in coffee. Prior to the war and high prices, there were some very large firms doing a premium business in coffee, tea, spices, etc. They still exist, and have a very fine trade; but since the high prices of coffees and premiums, the business has gone down very materially. They operate by the wagon-route and solicitor method, just as some of our American companies do. One very large firm in Paris has been in this business for more than thirty years, operating branches and wagons in every town, village, and hamlet in France.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAFe DE LA ReGENCE, PARIS, SHOWING THE TYPICAL CONTINENTAL ARRANGEMENT OF SEATS]

The consumption of coffee is increasing very materially in France; some say, on account of the high price of wine, others hold that coffee is simply growing in favor with the people. Among the ma.s.ses, French breakfast consists of a bowl or cup of _cafe au lait_, or half a cup or bowl of strong black coffee and chicory, and half a cup of hot milk, and a yard of bread. The workingman turns his bread on end and inserts it into his bowl of coffee, allowing it to soak up as much of the liquid as possible. Then he proceeds to suck this concoction into his system. His approval is demonstrated by the amount of noise he makes in the operation.

Among the better cla.s.ses, the breakfast is the same, _cafe au lait_, with rolls and b.u.t.ter, and sometimes fruit. The brew is prepared by the drip, or true percolator, method or by filtration. Boiling milk is poured into the cup from a pot held in one hand together with the brewed coffee from a pot held in the other, providing a simultaneous mixture.

The proportions vary from half-and-half to one part coffee and three parts milk. Sometimes, the service is by pouring into the cup a little coffee then the same quant.i.ty of milk and alternating in this way until the cup is filled.

Coffee is never drunk with any meal but breakfast, but is invariably served _en demi-ta.s.se_ after the noon and the evening meals. In the home, the usual thing after luncheon or dinner is to go into the _salon_ and have your demi-ta.s.se and liqueur and cigarettes before a cosy grate fire. A Frenchman's idea of after-dinner coffee is a brew that is unusually thick and black, and he invariably takes with it his liqueur, no matter if he has had a c.o.c.ktail for an appetizer, a bottle of red wine with his meat course, and a bottle of white wine with the salad and dessert course. When the demi-ta.s.se comes along, with it must be served his cordial in the shape of cognac, benedictine, or creme de menthe. He can not conceive of a man not taking a little alcohol with his after-dinner coffee, as an aid, he says, to digestion.

In Normandy, there prevails a custom in connection with coffee drinking that is unique. They produce in this province great quant.i.ties of what is known as _cidre_, made from a particular variety of apple grown there--in other words, just plain hard cider. However, they distil this hard cider, and from the distillation they get a drink called _calvados_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAFe DE LA ReGENCE IN 1922]

The man from Normandy takes half a cup of coffee, and fills the cup with _calvados_, sweetened with sugar, and drinks it with seeming relish.

Ice-cold coffee will almost sizzle when _calvados_ is poured into it. It tastes like a corkscrew, and one drink has the same effect as a crack on the head with a hammer. From the toddling age up, the Norman takes his _calvados_ and coffee.

In the south of France they make a concoction from the residue of grapes. They boil the residue down in water, and get a drink called _marc_; and it is used in much the same way as the Norman in the north uses _calvados_. Then there is also the very popular summertime drink known as _mazagran_, which in that region means seltzer water and cold coffee, or what Americans might call a coffee highball.

Making coffee in France has been, and always will be, by the drip and the filtration methods. The large hotels and cafes follow these methods almost entirely, and so does the housewife. When company comes, and something unusual in coffee is to be served, Mr. Beeson says he has known the cook to drip the coffee, using a spoonful of hot water at a time, pouring it over tightly packed, finely ground coffee, allowing the water to percolate through to extract every particle of oil. They use more ground coffee in bulk than they get liquid in the cup, and sometimes spend an hour producing four or five demi-ta.s.ses. It is needless to say that it is more like mola.s.ses than coffee when ready for drinking.

It is not unusual in some parts of France to save the coffee grounds for a second or even a third infusion, but this is not considered good practise.

Von Liebig's idea of correct coffee making has been adapted to French practise in some instances after this fashion: put used coffee grounds in the bottom chamber of a drip coffee pot. Put freshly ground coffee in the upper chamber. Pour on boiling water. The theory is that the old coffee furnishes body and strength, and the fresh coffee the aroma.

The cafes that line the boulevards of Paris and the larger cities of France all serve coffee, either plain or with milk, and almost always with liqueur. The coffee house in France may be said to be the wine house; or the wine house may be said to be the coffee house. They are inseparable. In the smallest or the largest of these establishments coffee can be had at any time of day or night. The proprietor of a very large cafe in Paris says his coffee sales during the day almost equal his wine sales.

The French, young or old, take a great deal of pleasure in sitting out on the sidewalk in front of a cafe, sipping coffee or liqueur. Here they love to idle away the time just watching the pa.s.sing show.

In Paris, there are hundreds of these cafes lining the boulevards, where one may sit for hours before the small tables reading the newspapers, writing letters, or merely idling. In the morning, from eight to eleven, employees, men-about-town, tourists, and provincials throng the cafes for _cafe au lait_. The waiters are coldly polite. They bring the papers, and brush the table--twice for _cafe creme_ (milk), and three times for _cafe complet_ (with bread and b.u.t.ter).

In the afternoon, _cafe_ means a small cup or gla.s.s of _cafe noir_, or _cafe nature_. It is double the usual amount of coffee dripped by percolator or filtration device, the process consuming eight to ten minutes. Some understand _cafe noir_ to mean equal parts of coffee and brandy with sugar and vanilla to taste. When _cafe noir_ is mixed with an equal quant.i.ty of cognac alone it becomes _cafe gloria_. _Cafe mazagran_ is also much in demand in the summertime. The coffee base is made as for _cafe noir_, and it is served in a tall gla.s.s with water to dilute it to one's taste.

Few of the cafes that made Paris famous in the eighteenth century survive. Among those that are notable for their coffee service are the Cafe de la Paix; the Cafe de la Regence, founded in 1718; and the Cafe Prevost, noted also for chocolate after the theater.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE OF THE BIARD CAFeS

There are about 200 of these coffee and wine shops in Paris. They are frequented mostly by laborers, clerks, and midinettes]

[Ill.u.s.tration: RESTAURANT PROCOPE, 1922

Successor to the famous "Cave" of 1689]

GERMANY. Germany originated the afternoon coffee function known as the kaffee-klatsch. Even today, the German family's reunion takes place around the coffee table on Sunday afternoons. In summer, when weather permits, the family will take a walk into the suburbs, and stop at a garden where coffee is sold in pots. The proprietor furnishes the coffee, the cups, the spoons and, in normal times, the sugar, two pieces to each cup; and the patrons bring their own cake. They put one piece of sugar into each cup and take the other pieces home to the "canary bird,"