The difference in taste of coffee as found in our markets is principally due to two causes: (1) the roasting to either a reddish-brown or a dark brown; (2) the picking of coffee when some berries are green, others red and still others a dark purple, the last being the ripe fruit. Thus we have three grades from each tree; add the difference in roasting, as men tioned, and we have six grades; then take the perfect berry, which is flattened on one side, and the spherical berry, the so-called mocha, and that gives 12 grades of coffee.
In Porto Rico coffee of excellent quality is raised. In the Hawaiian Islands also very good coffee is produced, and the orchards are increas ing in size and number. Hawaiian coffee brings the highest price of any on the Pacific Coast. The importation of coffee from Porto Rico and Hawaii has increased greatly within recent years. In 1914 the imports from Porto Rico were 2,793,052 pounds, as compared to 372,427 in 1894. In 1914 approximately 3,500,000 pounds of Hawaiian coffee was consumed in the United States. In the Philippines there are splendid orchards, especially in the southern islands of the archipelago known as the Sulu or Jolo group. On the island of Jolo are fine coffee-trees that bear much earlier after planting than those of Brazil. There are tracts of land in the Phil ippines which are as favorable for coffee grow ing as any in Brazil but the area that may be devoted to coffee farming is not so great.
The United States leads the world in the consumption of coffee. It is estimated that the people of the United States consume 10 pounds per capita, which is about three times as much as they consumed 50 years ago. The yearly con sumption in Great Britain declined steadily dur ing the last half of the 19th century. This is attributed to the adulterations which at one time were extensively practised. Probably few articles of food are subjected to so much adul teration as coffee. Substances of an entirely foreign nature are often palmed off as genuine coffee, or are offered as substitutes. Dandelion, parsnip, carrot and beet roots, beans, lupins, rice and various cereals, roasted and ground, have all been employed, and within recent years the manufacture of artificial coffee has been undertaken on a considerable scale, the material being mixed to a stiff paste and run through a machine for which patents have been granted, and from which it emerges in the shape of "coffee-beans,o which, after drying and roasting, are well calculated to deceive the eye, though not the nostrils or palate. These adulterations can be readily detected, for genuine roasted coffee may he soaked in cold water indefinitely without the bean losing its smooth surface or hard, tough consistency, nor will it impart its color to the water; whereas chicory and other imitations become soft and spongy and render the water muddy. As far back as the '80s it
was estimated that something like 18,000,000 pounds of various vegetable substances were annually sold as coffee.
In Medicine.— Many of the leading medical men of the day hold that the action of coffee on the body is due to two or three factors. If coffee is mixed with milk or cream, it gives a certain amount of nutritive matter; but its ac tion is usually due to the volatile oils, and to the caffeine contained. The volatile oil, like others in this class, stimulates peristalsis; but taken too often and in too large quantities the oil contributes to the causation of a certain amount of gastric indigestion. The more deli cate the aroma of coffee the less the oil, and the better from this standpoint. The action of caffeine is much more complex.
So far as coffee-drinking is concerned, the action of caffeine is that of a cardiac stimu lant, a nerve-muscle excitant, a diuretic and a cerebral excitant. Thus it may cause a sense of undue fullness in the blood vessels. It almost invariably causes a slight muscular tremor,, which is noted in those who use their hands for fine work, as artists, for example. It causes an increased flow of urine, and tends to prevent sleep. Time, custom, usage, dose and the individual's reaction all modify these gen eral laws; but these reactions occur, although none of them may be of sufficient grade to make the observer cognizant of the action. Thus many people are not kept awake by coffee. They have probably habituated themselves and require larger doses.
Hot coffee is one of the best heart tonics known, and it is sometimes administered in large quantities in cases of shock, opium poisoning, pneumonia, etc. Coffee is also valuable in many types of headache and in many cases of nausea. Its excessive use leads to great muscular irri tability, gastritis, restlessness and sleeplessness. It is held by many medical men that the effects of coffee as a beverage are wholly bad. They say that the caffeine in the coffee, or in other vegetable substances—tea, coffee, kola, guarana and mate, or Paraguay tea— is a stimulant to the brain, nerves, heart and kidneys. In small doses it helps to resist fatigue, increases mental power and promotes excretion of urine. Large 'doses or continued use, however, tend to make a person nervous, to induce irritability of the heart, with considerable depression, and to up set the stomach. The mildest results of an overdose are a tendency to wakefulness, but there are recorded a number of deaths from heart-failure due to its employment in large doses. It is used largely as a heart-stimulant and diuretic, hut its action is characterized by great variability. Individual susceptibility to it varies so greatly that what would be a poisonous dose to one person would scarcely affect an other. The usual dose is half a grain to three grains.