Half of the present world's supply is said to come from Brazil. According to estimates, taken from the American Grocer of January 4, 1893, and based upon reports of the secretary of the United States treasury department, the total consumption of coffee in the United States for the trade and fiscal year ending January 30, 1891, was 511,041,459 pounds. For the year ending June 30, 1892, 623,769,046 pounds. The average price of the coffee imported, based upon the declared value at the point of export, has increased rapidly in the last few years. In 1889 it was thirteen cents; in 1890, sixteen cents; in 1891, ninteen cents; and in 1892, twenty cents. This record indicates a high purchasing power on the part of the people. These high prices and the large consumption have apparently encouraged the manufacture and sale of a large amount of coffee compounds, coffee substitutes, cereal coffees, imitation coffee beans, and other products. In the examination of coffees, as sold in the state, a large number of these adulterations have been detected, and are described more in detail in what follows. Nearly all of these compounds, substitutes, etc., should be considered frauds, especially those which are called or sold as coffee, and which usually contain very little or no real coffee. None of the substances that are used as coffee adulterants are poisonous, and probably none of them are injurious to the health. The following extracts, taken from the Philadelphia Times, and published in Bulletin No. 32, Division of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture, will describe the adulteration of coffee with an imitation bean, which contains usually no coffee: Counterfeit coffee is the latest addition to adulterants. It is a manufactured bean, identical in appearance with genuine green or roasted coffee, and dealers in this city (Philadelphia) have recently been flooded with it. It is almost impossible to detect the fraud with the eye. It is apparently a hard-baked composition, moulded by machinery in the same manner as druggists' pills. It is very hard and gritty, and not as easily broken as the genuine. Having little or no taste or odor, its sole mission is to increase the bulk and weight of the regulation article, and this it does admirably, its weight being more than double that of the legitimate bean. This is the bogus coffee bean, and now most widely used. It is of German manufacture, and is supplied by a Brooklyn agent. Other varieties, similar in appearance and differing but slightly in composition and taste, are manufactured in this city and in New Jersey. Quantities of the imported coffee substitute have been sent to Philadelphia dealers since the first of the year by the Brooklyn agent, whose name is M. Kliemand, and whose office is at 327 Degraw street. Mr. Kliemand, or a representative, made several trips to this city, and received orders for considerable amounts of his stuff. To those who didn't order it he sent generous samples, and few local dealers have not met with it. Its sales are reported by the agents of local wholesale coffee. dealers and roasters as enormous. As it is supplied at only eleven cents a pound, it leaves a big margin of profit to dealers who mix it with the genuine. Dealers who have not consented to use the counterfeit have been at a loss as to what defense to make against its encroachment on their trade, since it is not sold to wholesalers as coffee, but as "coffee substitute," dealers being left to their own discretion in the matter of mixing and reselling as the genuine article. One dealer, who feared that it would be a hopeless task to invoke the aid of the law, decided to draw public attention to the swindle by giving an exhibition of the samples. The following notice was posted in the window of Harkness & Dering, at 244 Chestnut street: "Beware of counterfeit coffee. A manufactured bean, made to resemble genuine roasted coffee, and generally sold to consumers mixed with the genuine." The window was filled with samples of the "coffee substitute," which another sign announced were not for sale, but to be given away. Naturally enough, there has not been much request for them, even on this basis, and the dealer has noticed that two or three persons who had the hardihood to take a little home to try have not returned for a further supply. Just what is claimed for the counterfeit coffee is shown by the following letter, received by the firm : M. KLIEMAND, COMMISSIONERS, AND MESSRS. HARKNESS & DERING: GENTLEMEN: I beg to mail to you a sample of a coffee substitute, called “Kunst Koffee," manufactured by Messrs. Erhorn & Dierchs, Hamburg, who appointed me general agent for the United States. Advantages: It is animating but not exciting, and very nutritious and wholesome, softening the taste of the inferior coffees; quality unimpaired for twelve months and longer. Roast Light, middle, and dark. Price: Eleven cents per pound, New York net, per Pennsylvania railroad. Packing: In bags of seventy-five ks. (161 pounds). I enclose the official analysis from Dr. Ules, sworn trade chemist, and hope to receive your kind order. Yours very truly, M. KLIEMAND. The enclosed analysis, to which Kliemand referred, gave a list of harmless ingredients, including water, carbon, etc. Mr. Harkness said: "The sale of the counterfeit beans in this city is tremendous. I should not be surprised to see a lot of manufactories starting up in this city, for there is so big a demand for the stuff that there is a quick fortune in making and selling it. I have heard that similar counterfeits are made in Trenton and other places in New Jersey, although there were some prosecutions there some time ago. Some parties must have been making the stuff in this city, too, as there are different varieties on the market. The counterfeit beans mix easily with the genuine, and the price, eleven cents a pound, leaves a big profit when the higher classes of coffee are so adulterated. Just what proportions are generally used in mixing I don't know-one half would probably be too much. The bogus bean outweighs the genuine more than two to one. The worst counterfeit of the lot is a bean made to resemble the green coffee. It is apparently a hard moulded paste of starch or flour, in which some coloring material has been used. Coffee Dealer Harkness, who has also seen specimens of the green counterfeit, said that he had heard that one of the ingredients was Paris green, and that a family had been made very sick from its use. Where it was made was a mystery, but he was inclined to believe it was procured not far from home, although it might be imported, like the burnt samples.- Philadelphia Times, April 30, 1891. And the following, from a later number of the same paper, is also quoted in the bulletin referred to: The imitation coffee bean now found in the market is harmless enough, being made for the most part of flour and water. The beans are manufactured by machinery which has a capacity for turning out immense quantities in a very short time. Most of the counterfeit coffee of local manufacture now on the market is said by dealers to have been made by the Dowling Manufacturing Company, which has an office on Fifteenth street. This firm manufactured coffee beans of flour and water, green and roasted, and sold them in packages labeled "Java coffee" in large letters, with the addition, in very small type, of the word "compound." The firm ceased doing business a short time ago. Immense quantities of the "Java coffee compound" were distributed throughout the city and New Jersey, and are still to be found in the market. The selling price was seven or eight cents a pound. An attempt was made to form a stock company, and it was claimed that about $150,000 of capital had been secured. North Dowling, the head of the company, is now associated with J. E. Burns & Co., spice dealers, on Front street, in the manufacture of "process coffee." This is also an imitation of the genuine coffee bean or berry, but it is not sold as the pure article, and the business is legitimately conducted and a patent applied for. The process coffee is composed of thirty-three per cent. of pure coffee mixed with rye, and bears the indorsement of Dr. Genth, of this city. The mixture is turned into the bean shape by machinery made and patented for the work. Mr. Burns said yesterday that he shipped the process coffee principally to the West and Southwest. He sold great quantities of it, and considered it superior to the poorer grades of coffee, sold generally as "siftings." The Dowling Manufacturing Company gave up its business because it did not pay to make an imitation absolutely free from coffee. There was, too, considerable trouble over the sale of the counterfeit in New Jersey, where the law against adulteration is very strict. Jobbers are anxious to check the sale of the counterfeit, because they are so widely used by dealers to mix with the genuine that less of the real article is sold than would otherwise be the case; but the manufacturers, as they do not label their production as pure coffee, cannot be proceeded against. |