According to investigations made by the United States Agriculture Experiment Station, cereal coffees are made of parched grains. A few contain a little true coffee, but for the most part they are made of parched wheat, barley, etc., or of grain mixed with wheat middlings, pea hulls, or corn cobs. There is no objection to any of these mixtures providing they are clean. The cereal coffees, as seen by the following table, contain no more nourishment than the true coffee, but they are probably more easily digested; only a very little of the soluble starch passes into the water. Coffee and tea are not taken for their nutrition, but for their stimulating effect upon the nerves; and, if stimulation is desired, the cereal coffees fall short. TABLE VII. _Composition of cereal-coffee infusion and other beverages._ ————————————————————————————————————+—————+———————+———+————————+————— | | | |Carbo- | Fuel Kind of Beverage |Water|Protein|Fat|hydrates|Value | | | | | per | | | | |Pound ————————————————————————————————————+—————+———————+———+————————+————— Commercial cereal coffee (0.5 ounce | | | | | to 1 pint water) | 98.2| 0.2 | | 1.4 | 30 Parched-corn coffee (1.6 ounces to 1| | | | | pint water) | 99.5| 0.2 | | .5 | 13 Oatmeal water (1 ounce to 1 pint | | | | | water) | 99.7| 0.3 | | .3 | 11 Coffee (1 ounce to 1 pint water) | 98.9| .2 | | .7 | 16 Tea (0.5 ounce to 1 pint water) | 99.5| .2 | | .6 | 15 Chocolate (0.5 ounce to 1 pint milk)| 84.5| 3.8 |4.7| 6.0 | 365 Cocoa (0.5 ounce to 1 pint water) | 97.1| .6 | .9| 1.1 | 65 Skimmed milk | 88.8| 4.0 |1.8| 5.4 | 170 ————————————————————————————————————+—————+———————+———+————————+————— By reference to table VII it will be seen that cocoa and skimmed milk contain much more nutrition than any of the coffees. Their chief value is that they furnish a _warm_ drink with the meal. They should not be too hot. Barley or wheat, mixed with a little molasses, parched in the oven, and then ground, makes about the same mixture as the cereal coffee. The old fashioned crust coffee, made from bread crusts, toasted in the oven, is just as nutritious as any of the coffees and has the advantage of being cheaper. Barley water and oat water, made by boiling the grain thoroughly and then straining, are nourishing foods for invalids and children. They are often used as drinks by athletes and manual laborers, as they have the advantage of both quenching thirst and supplying energy.