The Truth About Coffee, Good For Your Health ? or Bad For You?

Coffee is a valuable restorative. Though coffee closely resembles tea in constitution, it has its own special charac- teristics and properties. From time immemorial it has been known and valued in Arabia, the native home of the coffee plant ; and the finest coffee still comes from Mocha. The Moors and Arabs of the Orient, who are forbidden by their religion to take alcohol, find in coffee a stimulating beverage. The first coffee-house was opened in London in 1652, and since that date the use of coffee has con- stantly increased, though owing, in a great measure, to the imperfect way in which it is made in England, it is not nearly so favourite a beverage here as in France.

The coffee plant and coffee berry. Coffee is the seed of the fruit of the coffee tree, a shrub-like plant which is cultivated with the greatest success in Arabia, Turkey, the West Indies, and Java. The only preparation the berries undergo is that of roasting, during which their peculiar aroma, taste, and flavour are brought out.

The constituents of coffee. Coffee, like tea, contains three active principles. These are the alkaloid caffeine, which is identical with, and has the same properties as theine ; secondly, an astringent substance resembling tannin is present in much smaller quantities than in tea ; and thirdly, a volatile oil developed in roasting, which gives the coffee its aromatic odour. Coffee, like tea, also con- tains a considerable amount of gluten, which is only slightly soluble in water.