New York City's Caffe Reggio in Greenwich Village was opened in 1927 a mere five years after this accompanying text was penned. |
TOWARD A WORLD LESS DRAB THANKS TO COFFEE
Now through the end of the year,
PillartoPost.org’s regular Saturday morning postings under the title “Coffee
Beans & Beings” will take on a more historical mien by posting selected
items of interest
from the non-fiction opus “All About Coffee” by William H.
Ukers, which was first published in 1922 by the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal
Company, New York. The work has been
retranscribed to the Internet and the Public Domain by Project Gutenberg as an
e-book thanks to K.D. Thornton, Suzanne Lybarger, and Greg Bergquist, 2009.
The first All About
Coffee installment is remarkable that it was written 100 years ago. For its age it reads fairly contemporary.
Given how many changes the world has produced, it remains remarkable how the
story of coffee is so consistent even after so many years.
GUEST BLOG / By
William H. Ukers, Editor, The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, New York—Civilization
in its onward march has produced only three important non-alcoholic
beverages—the extract of the tea plant, the extract of the cocoa bean, and the
extract of the coffee bean.
Leaves and beans—these are the vegetable sources of the
world's favorite non-alcoholic table-beverages. Of the two, the tea leaves lead
in total amount consumed; the coffee beans are second; and the cocoa beans are
a distant third, although advancing steadily.
But in international commerce the coffee beans occupy a far
more important position than either of the others, being imported into
non-producing countries to twice the extent of the tea leaves. All three enjoy
a world-wide consumption, although not to the same extent in every nation; but
where either the coffee bean or the tea leaf has established itself in a given
country, the other gets comparatively little attention, and usually has great
difficulty in making any advance. The cocoa bean, on the other hand, has not
risen to the position of popular favorite in any important consuming country,
and so has not aroused the serious opposition of its two rivals.
Coffee is universal in its appeal. All nations do it homage.
It has become recognized as a human necessity. It is no longer a luxury or an
indulgence; it is a corollary of human energy and human efficiency. People love
coffee because of its two-fold effect—the pleasurable sensation and the
increased efficiency it produces.
Coffee has an important place in the rational dietary of all
the civilized peoples of earth. It is a democratic beverage. Not only is it the
drink of fashionable society, but it is also a favorite beverage of the men and
women who do the world's work, whether they toil with brain or brawn. It has
been acclaimed "the most grateful lubricant known to the human
machine," and "the most delightful taste in all nature."
No "food drink" has ever encountered so much
opposition as coffee. Given to the world by the church and dignified by the
medical profession, nevertheless it has had to suffer from religious
superstition and medical prejudice. During the thousand years of its
development it has experienced fierce political opposition, stupid fiscal
restrictions, unjust taxes, irksome duties; but, surviving all of these, it has
triumphantly moved on to a foremost place in the catalog of popular beverages.
San Francisco's Vesuvio's opened in 1948 and remains North Beach neighborhood's writer's den. |
But coffee is something more than a beverage. It is one of
the world's greatest adjuvant foods. There are other auxiliary foods, but none
that excels it for palatability and comforting effects, the psychology of which
is to be found in its unique flavor and aroma.
Men and women drink coffee because it adds to their sense of
well-being. It not only smells good and tastes good to all mankind, heathen or
civilized, but all respond to its wonderful stimulating properties. The chief
factors in coffee goodness are the caffein content and the caffeol. Caffein
supplies the principal stimulant. It increases the capacity for muscular and
mental work without harmful reaction. The caffeol supplies the flavor and the aroma—that
indescribable Oriental fragrance that wooes us through the nostrils, forming
one of the principal elements that make up the lure of coffee. There are
several other constituents, including certain innocuous so-called caffetannic
acids, that, in combination with the caffeol, give the beverage its rare
gustatory appeal.
You boys invited us over, so drink our coffee and eat our doughnuts |
The year 1919 awarded coffee one of its brightest honors. An
American general said that coffee shared with bread and bacon the distinction
of being one of the three nutritive essentials that helped win the World War I for
the Allies. So this symbol of human brotherhood has played a not inconspicuous
part in "making the world safe for democracy." The new age, ushered
in by the Peace of Versailles and the Washington Conference, has for its
hand-maidens temperance and self-control. It is to be a world democracy of
right-living and clear thinking; and among its most precious adjuncts are
coffee, tea, and cocoa—because these beverages must always be associated with
rational living, with greater comfort, and with better cheer.
Like all good things in life, the drinking of coffee may be
abused. Indeed, those having an idiosyncratic susceptibility to alkaloids
should be temperate in the use of tea, coffee, or cocoa. In every
high-tensioned country there is likely to be a small number of people who,
because of certain individual characteristics, can not drink coffee at all.
These belong to the abnormal minority of the human family. Some people can not
eat strawberries; but that would not be a valid reason for a general
condemnation of strawberries. One may be poisoned, says Thomas A. Edison, from
too much food. Horace Fletcher was certain that over-feeding causes all our
ills. Over-indulgence in meat is likely to spell trouble for the strongest of
us. Coffee is, perhaps, less often abused than wrongly accused. It all depends.
A little more tolerance!
Good morning! |
It has been the aim of the author to tell the whole coffee
story for the general reader, yet with the technical accuracy that will make it
valuable to the trade. The book is designed to be a work of useful reference
covering all the salient points of coffee's origin, cultivation, preparation,
and development, its place in the world's commerce and in a rational dietary.
Good coffee, carefully roasted and properly brewed, produces
a natural beverage that, for tonic effect, can not be surpassed, even by its
rivals, tea and cocoa. Here is a drink that ninety-seven percent of individuals
find harmless and wholesome, and without which life would be drab indeed—a
pure, safe, and helpful stimulant compounded in nature's own laboratory, and
one of the chief joys of life!
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