Chocolat is made as a beverage by reducing the necessary quantity to a fine powder and placing it in a jug, or other receptacle, with u, little boiling water. Tbe whole is then well mixed and stirred up with a spoon into a thin paste, and the jug is filled up with boiling milk and water. Sugar may either be mixed in with the paste or added afterwards in proper quantity. The drink ought never to be prepared before it is required for the table, since, on reheating, it not only loses flavour, but the oil or butter separates and collects on the surface, which is generally the cause of the ill effects produced by chocolat on weak stomachs.
Cocoa is usually prepared for tho table by simply pouring boiling water upon the soluble powder. If the.flaked variety or nibs be used, they must be placed in boiling water and simmered gently for from four to six hours. Great care must be taken to see that the liquid does not boil, in order that the albumen may not be coagulated, and the cocoa thus prevented from thoroughly mixing with the water.
Cocoa beverage is an emulsion ; that is to say, it is a liquid which contains solid matter in suspension, and hence may be considered as food and drink combined. While the liquid portion of the beverage has almost as exhilarating an effect upon the system as tea and coffee, the solid portion, consisting of carbonaceous and nitrogenous matter, is highly nutritive.
Coffee. (Fn., Cafe ; GER. , 'rape.) Coffee is a decoction or infusion prepared from the roasted berries of the Coffea Arabica, a plant largely cultivated in Arabia Felix and in various other parts of the globe. Some notion of the importance of coffee as a beverage may be gained from the fact that forty millions of pounds are consumed annually in the United Kingdom, and it is said that the annual consumption of the entire world amounts to the enormous quantity of six hundred million pounds.
The chief constituent of coffee, to which it owes its peculiar effects, is caffeine, a powerful alkaloid identical with theine and closely resembling theobromine. It also contains tannic acid and small quantities of a bitter aromatic oil. The action of these constituents is stimulating, tonic, and ex hilarating, without producing any unpleasant after-effects. They promote digestion, raise the spirits, and are strongly anti-soporifle. Coffee berries undergo important changes durin,g the process of roasting. It is carried on until they have changed to a chestnut-brown colour and lost 18 per cent. in weight, but it should not be stopped before, or carried farther than, this point.
The object of the proceaa is to develop tbe aroma of the coffee and to render tho berries leas tough, in order that they may be easily ground in a mill. Too muoh heat removes the peculiar
principles which it is desired to retain, converting them into others of disagreeable flavour and odour ; too little heat, on the other hand, produces raw, green, and flavourlesa berries, the infusions of which are unpalatable and liable to cause vomiting.
Coffee is rarely made in a proper way in England. The chief characteristics of English-made coffee are weakness, and lack of flavour, owing to the fact that it is invariably made as a decoetion instead of an infusion ; that is to say, instead of' allowing the powder to digest, aimply, in hot water, it is ahnost always boiled, often for a considerable length of time. It must not be supposed, however, that the boiling is in itself objectionable ; that this is not the ease is sufficiently proved by the fact that the very best coffee is made by making a decoction of one half of the powder, and an infusion of the other half, and then mixing the two liquids ; bnt if the whole of the coffee is boiled in the pot, it loses its delicate flavour, becoming rank, and quite unpalatable.
The French proeeed far more intelligeutly in their methods of making thia infusion, and the superiority of the French eoffee over that made in England is everywhere acknowledged. The object is, by treating the powdered. coffee with boiling v,ater, to extract the whole of the soluble constituents of the berry, or those in which its peculiar flavour or aroma are contained. In the firat place, the French take much larger quautities of the coffee than ia customary in England ; the proportions used being about one ounce of the powder to each breakfast-cupful of water ; if the coffee be required very strong, thia proportion may be doubled ; the addition of a teaspoonful of freshly ground and roasted chicory ia thought by some to improve the flavour of the beverage. The coffee is generally both freahly roasted and ground. When the berriea have been will roasted, the product, after treatment with boiling water for a few minutes, ahould contain the whole of the flavoming, and a few other aoluble constituents. It ia the custom in France to improve the quality of the drink by pouring a little boiling water upon the exhausted " grounds," allowing it to rnaceiate until cold, then boiling tho aeparate liquid and using it for making infuaions of fresh coffee. In cafes, the grounds made dining the day are afterwards mixed together in a pot, and boiled witl; water ; tho decoction thus made ia added in small quantities to the infusions of fresh coffee and it much improves their quality.