It is simple to make coffee. Of course, when proper-y made, with good berries, the liquor is good.

When good roasted coffee can be bought, it saves the trouble of roasting it, and is, or rather ought to be, cheaper than it can be done in a family.

If coffee is roasted a long time before being used it loses much of its aroma, therefore a family ought not to roast more than it can use in about a week, while twenty or twenty-five pounds can be roasted at one time and by one person.

Three or four different kinds, roasted separately, and properly mixed, make better coffee than one kind alone.

A good proportion is: to one pound of Java add about four ounces of Mocha, and four ounces of one or two other kinds.

Good coffee, as well as tea, is said to possess exhilarating properties.

Its use was not known in Europe before 1650. Neither was the use of sugar, tobacco, and brandy.

Good coffee cannot be made but by leaching.

The easiest utensil is what is called a filter, or coffee-pot, or biggin, according to locality, with a top to diffuse the water.

The coffee-pot called "the French balance" makes the best-flavored coffee, but it is an expensive one.

There are several good filters, but the great majority of the people find them too complicated for daily use.

The bottom of the filter should be of silvered brass-gauze instead of perforated tin, as it is generally.

Gauze-holes being much smaller than those of perforated tin, the coffee can be ground much finer, and therefore, all the strength and aroma can be had; while if ground coarse, it is utterly impossible.

Good coffee cannot be made in a utensil often but wrongly called a coffee-pot, which is nothing but a pot, and something like a tea-pot

With such a utensil, the grounds must be boiled; and as no liquor can be boiled without allowing the steam to escape (the steam made by boiling coffee being its aroma), therefore the best part of the coffee is evaporated before it is served.

Never grind your coffee until ready to make it.

No matter how air-tight you keep it, the aroma evaporates or is absorbed.

Coffee can be ground and made as soon as cool; but it is better to let it stand for about twenty-four hours after being roasted.

If kept as air-tight as possible in a tin-box, it will keep very well for about a week.

Never buy ground coffee except when you cannot help it

By taking a pinch of ground coffee and rolling it between wetted fingers, it will remain in grains, if pure; and will form in a ball if foreign matters are mixed with it

To Roast

In roasting, good coffee swells about thirty-three per cent, and loses about sixteen per cent in weight

Roast once a week or oftener.

Put coffee in the apparatus (cylinder, or drum, or roaster), the quantity to be according to the size of the roaster, or according to how much is needed. Have a rather slow fire at first; when the coffee has swollen, augment the fire, turning, shaking, tossing the roaster, some-3 times fast, sometimes slowly, and take from the fire a little before it is roasted enough; the roasting will be finished before the coffee gets cold and before taking it from the roaster, which you continue turning and shaking as if it were yet on the fire.

A charcoal fire is the handiest, and more easily regulated.

It is well roasted when it evaporates a pleasing odor and when of a brownish color.

Then take it from the roaster, spread it on a matting or on a piece of cloth, and put it in a tin-box as soon as cold.

It is exceedingly difficult, if not utterly impossible, to roast coffee properly by machinery, and for two reasons: in the first place, there is too much of it in the cylinder to roast evenly, some berries are burned, others not roasted enough; the other is, that being turned by machinery, the cylinder is turned regularly and is neither shaken nor tossed; and even if there were not too much coffee in it, some berries would be much more roasted than others.

To Make

Set a kettle of cold water on the fire. Place the ground coffee in the filter, and as soon as the water begins to boil, pour just enough of it over the coffee to wet it. Put the kettle back on the fire, and again, at the first boiling, pour it over the coffee rather slowly, and till you have poured enough water to furnish the quantity of coffee required.

If the water does not pass through fast enough, just stop pouring for a few seconds, that is, long enough to put the kettle back on the fire and start the boiling again. As soon as the water has passed through, the coffee is made. The quantity of coffee must be according to the strength you wish it, and the quantity wanted, or according to age and constitution.

Four teaspoonfuls make a quart of very good coffee for breakfast It would be rather strong for children, but can be diluted to a proper state with milk.

No matter what quantity of coffee is put in the filter, the liquor must be clear; the more is used, the blacker the substance is, but it must never be muddy. If muddy at all, be sure you have not used good coffee.

One pound of good coffee to a quart of water, should make black but clear coffee.