The Drinking there of _Chockolat_, Can make a _Fool_ a _Sophie_, ’Tis thought the _Turkish Mahomet_ Was first Inspir’d with Coffee: By which his Powers did Over-flow The Land of _Palestine_; Then let us to the _Coffee-house_ go, ’Tis Cheaper farr than Wine. You shall know there, what Fashions are; How Perrywiggs are Curl’d; And for a Penny you shall heare All Novells in the World. Both Old and Young, and Great and Small, And Rich and Poore, you’ll see; Therefore let’s to the _Coffee_ all, Come All away with Mee. _Finis._” J. A. [Illustration] Different Sorts of Coffee—Its Enemies—Its Composition and Treatment—Methods of Making—Adulterations—Liberian Coffee—Date Coffee and other Substitutes. There are about twenty-two species of coffee, seven of them belonging to Asia, and fifteen to Africa, where it grows in districts widely apart, as in Angola and on the shores of the Victoria Nyanza; yet, although it is so widely disseminated, and comes from so many different places, it is getting commercially dearer without any present prospect of any reduction. Its value in the market is as follows—the first being the highest, and the last the lowest in price. Mocha, Jamaica, Ceylon, Honduras, Mysore, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil, New Grenada, and divers East Indian growths; and its consumption per head in Europe, ranks thus: Holland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Austria, Greece, Great Britain, Italy and Russia. Unfortunately the coffee plant has its enemies, in the shape of two fungi which have devastated the plantations of Ceylon and Mysore, one the _Hemileia Vastata_, and the other the _Pellicularia Kolerota_, whilst an insect called the coffee bug (_Lecanium Coffeæ_) causes great destruction, as does also the coffee, or Golunda rat. Indeed, these enemies so prevailed in Ceylon as to render coffee growing not only unprofitable, but almost impossible, so the planters took to growing tea, with the good results which we have seen. Raw coffee has very little scent, and a bitter taste, and no one would credit it with the delicious aroma which is developed—like the tea leaf—by roasting, an operation which increases the bulk of the berry, whilst diminishing its weight. Its commercial value is in proportion to its aroma; and it is found that, by keeping the raw berry, a chemical change takes place, which very much improves inferior qualities. But this aroma is extremely volatile, and ground coffee should be kept in scrupulously air-tight cases. Indeed, so fugitive is it, that coffee to be drank in perfection should be made from berries roasted freshly every day, as is frequently done in France.