A FEW GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING COFFEE.
When good coffee is desired, let it be procured if possible of a first-rate London house[183] which can be depended on; and we would recommend that it should be of the finest quality that can be obtained; for there is no real economy in using that which is nominally cheaper, as a larger quantity will be required to give the same amount of strength, and the flavour will be very inferior. It should always be freshly roasted; but when a constant and large demand for it exists, 590it will be easy to have it so. When it has been stored for any length of time it will be much freshened and improved by being gently heated through, either in the oven or in a stewpan held high above the fire. It should be often turned while it is warming, and ground as soon as it is cold again. Never purchase it ready ground unless compelled to do so. When no proper mill for it is fitted up in the house, a small portable one, which may be had at a trifling expense, will answer tolerably well for grinding it, though it cannot be used with quite the same facility as those which are fastened firmly to a wall; but whatever form of mill may be used it should be arranged so as to reduce the berries to a moderately fine powder; for if it be too coarse the essence will be only partially extracted from it by filtering; and if it be extremely fine the water will not percolate through it, and it will not be clear.
183. We could indicate several houses where unadulterated coffee may be procured, but it is not always to be had from them so choice in quality as it might be; and it is in general too highly roasted. By far the finest we have ever tasted we had on two occasions, some years since, from Mr. Cobbett, of Pall Mall. The fragrance of it was too remarkable to be easily forgotten, and the flavour was exquisite; but it was apparently an accidental sample which he had met with in the market, for though very good, that with which we were supplied afterwards never equalled it. Messrs. Staniforth and Co., 138, Oxford-street, are deservedly noted for the excellence of their coffee. It is always ground at the instant of serving it to a customer; and they have the complaisance of roasting even so small a quantity as two pounds, to suit the taste of the purchaser: it may therefore be procured of them as pale-dried as it can be wished. The house of Messrs. Decastro and Peach, next door to Hatchett’s Hotel, Piccadilly, may likewise, we think, be quite depended on for supplying genuine coffee to the public; and they have an immense demand for it.
We say nothing about mingling chicory with it. Our directions are for making pure coffee; which, when not taken in excess, is, we believe, a wholesome as well as a most agreeable beverage. The effect of chicory is, we believe, to impart a slight bitter flavour to the infusion, and to deepen its colour so much as to make it appear much stronger than it really is. True connoisseurs, however, do not attach any importance to the dark hue of coffee, the very choicest that can be tasted being sometimes of quite a pale tint.
Always serve hot milk or cream, or hot milk and cold cream, if preferred, with breakfast coffee. In the evening, when milk is served at all with it, it should likewise be boiling.
Do not, in any way, make use of the residue of one day’s coffee in preparing that of the next; you would but injure the purity of its flavour by doing so, and effect next to nothing in the matter of economy.[184]
184. When the coffee has been filtered in a proper manner, water poured afterwards on the “grounds” as they are termed, will have scarcely any taste or colour; this is not the case when it has been boiled.