COFFEE, is the name given to a liquor, made by a decoction, or an infusion of the seeds of the coffee berry, after they have undergone torrefaction, and have been ground to powder.
In treating this subject, we shall first direct the rea der's attention to the history of coffee ; secondly, to the method of cultivating the coffee plant ; thirdly, to the best modes of using it ; and, lastly, to a few commercial details of a general nature.
On the History of Cope.
The coffee plant does not appear to have been knows, to the Greeks or Romans, nor are there any facts on which we can rely, respecting its origin in the East. In a manuscript now deposited in the Bibliotheque Nationale. coffee is said to have been introduced into Arabia about the middle of the 15th century, by Megalcddin, Mufti 01 Ada, who met with it during a journey in Persia. From Ada the use of coffee rapidly extended to Mecca, Medina, and other Arabian towns, and in a short time public coffee houses were every where established in Persia At Grand Cairo, where it was speedily introduced, the use of it was prohibited in 1511, on the supposition that it produced intoxication, and excited improper feelings. This prohibition, however, was soon removed ; but 1523, when a second attempt was made to prohibit its use, a violent commotion took place in the city, and coffee was ever afterwards drunk with impunity.
A similar opposition was made to the use of coffee in Constantinople. Coal being one of the substances pro hibited by Mahomet as unfit for human food, the der vises pretended that roasted coffee must be included in this prohibition, and with the aid of the Mufti, who held the same opinion, all the coffee houses were shut up. Upon the accession of a more liberal Mufti- the coffee houses were again opened ; but it was found soon after wards, that these places of resort were the haunts of the vicious and disaffected, and upon this new plea they were again shut up.
The use of coffee, as a beverage, in the west of Eu rope, appears to have been known about the end of the 16th century. It was introduced into Marseilles, in
1644, by some gentlemen who accompanied Monsieur Dc la Ilaye to Constantinople. Several bales were brought from Egypt to Marseilles, in 1660, and in 1671 a coffee house was opened in that city. Thevcnot had already brought a small quantity of it to Paris, in 1657 ; but it was not generally introduced into that metropolis till 1669, by the ambassador from the Porte; and in 1672, a public coffee house was opened by one Pascal, an Ar menian, who afterwards went to London.
Nearly about the same time, coffee was introduced into London. So early as 1652, Daniel Edwards, a Turkish merchant, brought with him a Greek servant, who understood the method of roasting and preparing it, and who was the first who sold coffee publicly. In the vear 1660, a duty of four pence was laid upon every gal lon of coffee ; and in 1663 it was enacted, that all coffee houses should take out a licence at the quarter sessions.
We are informed by I3oerhaave, in his " Index to the Leyden Garden," that Nicolas \Vitsen, governor of the Dutch East India Company, instructed Van Hoorn, go. vernor of Batavia, to procure the coffee plant from Mo cha, and to cultivate it at Batavia ; and that this was ac complished in 1690. Many plants arc said to have been raised at that settlement, one of which was sent to Am sterdam, where it bore fruit. From Amsterdam a fine plant was sent to Louis XIV. in 1714, which is said to have been the parent of all that have since been cultiva ted in the Dutch and the French West India islands. The introduction of the coffee plant into Java is placed much later by Stavorinus, who asserts, that it was first introduced from Mocha into Batavia, in 1722, or 1723, by M. Zwardekrom, the governor general. In 1717, several coffee plants were sent to Martinique. In 1718, they were introduced from Arabia into the Isle of Bour bon, and in the same year into Cayenne, and in 1732 it was cultivated in Jamaica.