Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE PREPARATION OF TEA AND COFFEE 317 These sit at tables whereon a closed box with a tiny trapdoor permits a stream of berries to ooze out, at a rate which enables each to be passed under inspection. By this means inferior berries, fragments of stalk, and the like are picked out by hand. The term “berry” is applied to those seeds in which the two parts are joined together into one round seed, like a peppercorn ; the more usual form is known as the “ bean.” In this state coffee beans may be stored for years without injury to their qualities; indeed, for several years the essential principles of the coffee are improved by keeping, Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd, COFFEE ROASTING AND COOLING (MESSRS. W. FIELD AND SONS, SOUTHWARK). although there is a loss of weight. For this reason it is customary to pass the beans as rapidly as possible into consumption, and the destination of the bags or casks after being cleared from the Custom House is the roasting factory. The process of roasting introduces an element of skill and judgment such as is not demanded at any stage in the preparation of tea. The object of roasting is to liberate certain gaseous elements, and to develop the aromatic virtues contained in the essential oil, besides bringing the active alkaloid principle into a form suitable for easy infusion. French coffee, which is a more or less cunning mixture of coffee with a large proportion of chicory, is, in France, usually roasted by hand over the open fire by each grocer, or even by each house- holder. But there is a great advantage in the regularity and uniformity of torrefaction which the experienced overseer of a steam roasting machine is able to furnish, and the bulk of “ French ” coffee sold in England is manipulated in the following way. Sugar is added to the coffee during the process of roasting, with the result that the berry is coated with a glistening film of black, mixed with chicory, ground, and forthwith packed in tins; it is then ready for the grocer. The older roasting apparatus, which is still to be preferred for the finest results, consists of a malleable iron cylinder revolving over a coke fire, and with wire gauze ends through which the liberated gases escape. The beans are poured into the interior of the cylinder, and by an ingenious arrangement of eccentric bearings the coffee is thrown about from side to side of the cylinder, in order to secure a thorough roasting of the whole. The result is that the bean loses in weight and increases in bulk, and the fragments of the epidermis remaining upon the surface of the bean are burnt off, leaving it smooth and clean and brown. Too great haste in the roasting, or a few degrees of heat too much, will char the