Cooling and Stoning

"Coffee which leaves the roaster beautifully uniform in appearance", says A.L. Burns, "may lose all uniformity by delayed or inadequate cooling. Separated beans of coffee will cool off by themselves; but when heaped together, the inner part of the mass will get hotter and even take fire.... Coffee must be spread over a considerable surface, or all kept moving, and have at the same time a lot of air forced through it. Otherwise, there will be some darkening and over-development of part of the coffee, and a loss of the uniformity which is the first requirement of good roasting."

The cooling apparatus consists of a movable, box-like metal car which can be brought up to the front of the roaster to the revolving cylinders. The car has a perforated false bottom, to which is attached a powerful exhaust-fan system that sucks the heat out of the coffee. In large plants, utilizing two or more floors, the tilting-type cooling car is favored. This car permits instant discharge through an opening in the floor into a receiving tank suspended from the ceiling below and connected with the stoning apparatus. Recently, a flexible-arm cooler has been invented that provides full fan suction to a cooler car at all points in its track travel from the roaster to the emptying position.

The stoner, an essential part of the modern roasting plant, has for its function the removal of stones and other foreign matter of which the green-coffee operations have failed to get rid. The stoner is usually built in direct combination with the cooling equipment, and does its work by means of a gravity separation in an upward-moving column of air. The coffee passes into the suction boot of the stoner, either directly from the cooler box or from a floor hopper into which the cooler dumps, and is carried up the stoner pipe, or "riser", by an air current of ample power which can be accurately regulated. This insures the carrying up of coffee only, the stones remaining at the bottom of the machine and being dumped at intervals into a pan underneath. The coffee, passing up the riser pipe, is delivered into a large "stoner hopper" which is usually hung to the ceiling of the roasting room. The correct construction of this hopper is of great importance, as the coffee must be deposited completely without breakage, and the air must pass on through the suction fan carrying nothing except bits of loose chaff.

A different type of cooler is in the form of an upright cylinder, consisting of two metal perforated drums, one set within the other. The inner drum is sufficiently small to allow the coffee to move freely between the drums. Inside the smaller one is an exhaust pipe which draws the heat and chaff out of the coffee. This device is recommended for use only in connection with wet roasted coffee.

Still another type consists of a single perforated cylinder set horizontal with the floor, and revolving alongside of an exhaust box which sucks out the heat and chaff as the coffee is tumbled about in the cylinder. A rocking type, that is not generally employed, is constructed on the principle of the screen used by housebuilders to separate coarse sand from the fine, and is pivoted at the middle so that it can be rocked end to end.

Finishing or Glazing

Finishing whole-bean roasted coffee, by giving it a friction polish while it is still moist, using a glaze solution or water only, is a practise not harmful if the proper solutions are employed. Roasted coffee dulls in ordinary handling, and it is claimed that coating not only improves its appearance, but serves also to preserve the natural flavor and aroma of the bean. A machine having flat-sided wooden cylinders with ventilated heads, and operated two-thirds full of coffee so as to get an effective rolling motion, is generally employed. Coatings composed of sugar and eggs are popular, but their use should be stated on the label.

Coffee roasters are divided on this question of coffee-coating. The best thought of the trade is undoubtedly opposed to the practise when it is done to conceal inferiority or abnormally to reduce shrinkage. Some New York coffee roasters, who made a thorough investigation of the matter, found coating coffee with a wholesome material not injurious and the coated coffee better in the cup. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley found, in the celebrated Ohio case against Arbuckle Brothers, that coating coffee with sugar and eggs produced beneficial results, and that the coating preserved the bean. The Bureau of Chemistry has never issued any ruling on the subject of coating coffee.

Blending Roasted Coffee

After cooling and stoning, unless it is to be polished or glazed, the coffee is ready for grinding and packing if it has been blended in the green state. Otherwise, the next step will be to mix the different varieties before grinding, although some packers blend the different kinds after they have been ground. To mix whole-bean roasted coffee without hurting its appearance is rather difficult, and there is no regular machine for such work.

Rarely is a single kind of coffee drunk straight. The common practise in all countries is to mix different varieties having opposing characteristics so as to obtain a smoother beverage. This is called blending, a process that has attained the standing of an art in the United States. Most package coffees are blends. In addition to other qualities, the practical coffee blender must have a natural aptitude for the work. He must also have long experience before he becomes proficient, and must be acquainted with the different properties of all the coffees grown, or at least of those that come to his market. Furthermore, he must know the variations in characteristics of current crops; for in most coffees no two crops are equal in trade values. Innumerable blends are possible with more than a hundred different coffees to draw upon.

A blend may consist of two or more kinds of coffee, but the general practise is to employ several kinds; so that, if at any time one can not be obtained, its absence from the blend will not be so noticeable as would be the case if only two or three kinds were used.

In blending coffees, consideration is given first to the shades of flavor in the cup and next to price. The blender describes flavors as, acidy, bitter, smooth, neutral, flat, wild, grassy, groundy, sour, fermented, and hidey; and he mixes the coffees accordingly to obtain the desired taste in the cup. Naturally the wild, sour, groundy, fermented, and hidey kinds are avoided as much as possible. Coffees with a Rio flavor are used only in the cheaper blends.

Generally speaking, a properly balanced blend should have a full rich body as a basis; and to this should be added a growth to give it some acid character, and one to give it increased aroma.

Personal preference is the determining factor in making up a blend. Some blenders prefer a coffee with plenty of acid taste; while others choose the non-acid cup. For the first-named kind, the blender will mix together the coffees that have an acidy characteristic; while for a non-acidy blend, he will mix an acidy growth with one having a neutral flavor.

This is a self-contained plant for one or two bags, and comprises a roaster, rotary cooler, elevator feed hopper, electric motor, and stoning and chaffing attachments. It may be equipped for gas]

Coffees can be divided into four great classes, the neutral-flavored, the sweet, the acidy, and the bitter. All East Indian coffees, except Ceylons, Malabars, and the other Hindoostan growths, are classified as bitter, as are old brown Bucaramangas, brown Bogotas, and brown Santos. The acid coffees are generally the new-crop washed varieties of the western hemisphere, such as Mexicans, Costa Ricas, Bogotas, Caracas, Guatemalas, Santos, etc. However, the acidity may be toned down by age so that they become sweet or sweet-bitter. Red Santos is generally a sweet coffee, and is prized by blenders. High-grade washed Santo Domingo and Haiti coffees are sweet both when new crop and when aged.

Practical coffee blenders do not mix two new-crop acid coffees, or two old-crop bitter kinds, unless their bitterness or acidity is counteracted by coffees with opposite flavors. One blender insists that every blend should contain three coffees.

Some Bourbon and flat-beaned Santos coffees are better when new, and some are better when old; but a blend of fine old-crop coffee with a snappy new-crop coffee gives a better result than either separately. A new-crop Bourbon and an old yellow flat bean make a better blend than a new-crop flat bean and an old-crop Bourbon. Probably the very best result in a low-priced blend may be obtained by using one-half old-crop Bourbon Santos with one-half new-crop Haiti or Santo Domingo of the cheaper grades.

Typical low-priced coffee blends in the United States may be made up of a good Santos, possibly a Bourbon, and some low-cost Mexican, Central American, Colombian, or Venezuelan coffee, the Santos counteracting these acidy Milds.

Going next higher in the scale of price, fancy old Bourbon Santos is used with one-third fancy old Cucuta or a good Trujillo.

For a blend costing about five cents more a pound retail, one-third fancy old Cucuta or Merida is blended with fancy old Bourbon Santos.

The highest-priced blend may contain two-thirds of a fine private estate Sumatra and one-third Mocha or Longberry Harari.

Alfred W. McCann, while advertising manager for Francis H. Leggett & Co., New York, in 1910, evolved a new coffee distinction based on the argument that certain coffees like Mochas, Mexicans, Bourbons, and Costa Ricas were developed in the cup through the action on them of cream or milk; while others, such as Bogotas, Javas, Maracaibos, etc., flattened out when cream or milk was added. He argued, accordingly, that breakfast coffees should be made up from the former, but that the latter should not be used except for after-dinner coffees, to be drunk black.[328] William B. Harris, then coffee expert for the United States Department of Agriculture, took issue with Mr. McCann, claiming that if a coffee is watery and lacks body, it will not take kindly to milk or cream, not because the chemical action of milk or cream flattens it out, but because there is nothing there in the first place. The strength of the brew being equal, all coffees will take cream or milk, Mr. Harris held.[329]

M.J. McGarty said in 1915 that he had tried out many coffees in the cup, and could not see that adding milk made any difference. However, he found that sometimes a line of coffees will contain a sample that flattens out at the drinking point (the point where the boiling water has cooled to permit of its being drunk); and he thought this was what Mr. McCann had in mind, as, by adding milk to such a coffee, it was brought back to the drinking point. In other words, it was Mr. McGarty's opinion that, in blending coffees, those coffees which hold their own from the start, or boiling point, until they become cold, or even improve right through, are more desirable for blending purposes; and that those that are best at the drinking point should be given the preference.[330]

Coffee Blends for Restaurants

William B. Harris[331] believes that the coffee of prime importance in preparing restaurant blends is Bogota. He advises the use of a full-bodied Bogota and an acid Bourbon Santos in the proportion of three-fourths Bogota to one-fourth Santos. Blends may also be made up from combinations of Bogota, Mexicans, and Guatemalas.

According to Mr. Harris, the average blend of good coffee when made up, two and one-half pounds of coffee to five gallons of water, will produce a liquor of good color and strength. For many hotels, however, this may not answer, as it is not heavy enough. More coffee must then be used, or ten percent of chicory added. A blend with chicory can be made by using two-thirds Bogota, one-third Bourbon Santos, and ten percent chicory. No steward, hotel man, or restaurant man should, however, advertise "coffee" on his menu, and then serve a drink employing chicory; because, while there is no federal law against such a practise, there are state laws against it. Chicory is all right in its place; and many prefer a drink made from coffee and chicory; but such a drink can not properly be called coffee.

Hotel men should purchase their coffee in the bean, and do their own grinding. Then they need never have cause to complain that their coffee man deceived them, or that some salesman misled them. The hotel steward wishing to furnish his patrons with a heavy-bodied coffee, particularly a black after-dinner coffee, without chicory, will use three, four, or even four and one-half pounds of ground coffee to five gallons of water.

With so wide a choice of coffees to choose from, a coffee blender can make up many combinations to meet the demands of his trade. Probably no two blenders use exactly the same varieties in exactly the same proportions to make up a blend to sell at the same price. However, they all follow the same general principles laid down in the foregoing flavor classification of the world's coffees.

Grinding and Packaging Coffee

Unless the coffee is to be sold in the bean, it is sent to the grinding and packing department, to be further prepared for the consumer. Since the federal food law has been in effect, the public has gained confidence in ground and bean coffee in packages; and today a large part of the coffee consumed in the United States is sold in one and two pound cartons and cans, already blended and ready for brewing.

A progressive coffee-packing house may have three different styles of grinding machines; one called the granulator for turning out the so-called "steel-cut" coffee; the second, a pulverizer for making a really fine grind; and the third, a grinding mill for general factory work and producing a medium-ground coffee.

Commercial coffee-grinding machines are alike in principle in all countries, the beans being crushed or broken between toothed or corrugated metal or stone members, one revolving and the other being stationary. While all grinding machines are alike in principle, they may vary in capacity and design. The average granulator will turn out about five hundred pounds of "steel-cut" coffee in an hour; the pulverizer, from seventy-five to two hundred pounds; and the average grinding mill from five hundred to six hundred pounds. Some types of grinding machines have chaff-removing attachments to remove, by air suction, the chaff from the coffee as it is being ground.

A large number of trade terms for designating different grinds of coffee are used in the United States, some of them meaning the same thing, while similar names are sometimes contradictory. A canvass of the leading American coffee packers in 1917[332] discovered that there were fifteen terms in use, and that there were thirty-four different meanings attached to them. For the term "fine" there were five different definitions; "medium" had five; "coarse", seven; "pulverized", four; "steel-cut", seven; "ground", two; "powdered", one; "percolator", two; "steel-cut-chaff-removed", one; "Turkish ground", one; while "granulated", "Greek ground", "extra fine", "standard", and "regular" were not defined.

The term "steel-cut" is generally understood to mean that in the grinding process the chaff has been removed and an approximate uniformity of granules has been obtained by sifting. The term does not necessarily mean that the grinding mills have steel burrs. In fact, most firms employ burrs made of cast-iron or of a composition metal known as "burr metal", because of its combined hardness and toughness.

The "steel-cut" idea is another of those sophistries for which American advertising methods have been largely responsible in the development of the package-coffee business in the United States. The term "steel-cut" lost all its value as an advertising catchword for the original user when every other dealer began to use it, no matter how the ground coffee was produced. When the public has been taught that coffee should be "steel-cut", it is hard to sell it ground coffee unless it is called "steel-cut"; although a truer education of the consumer would have caused him to insist on buying whole bean coffee to be ground at home.

"Steel-cut" coffee, that is, a medium-ground coffee with the chaff blown out, does not compare in cup test with coffee that has been more scientifically ground and not given the chaff removal treatment that is largely associated in the public mind with the idea of the steel-cut process.

According to the results of the trade canvass previously referred to, it would appear that the terms most suited to convey the right idea of the different grades of grinding, and likely to be acceptable to the greatest number, would be "coarse" (for boiling, and including all the coarser grades); "medium" (for coffee made in the ordinary pot, including the so-called "steel-cut"); "fine" (like granulated sugar, and used for percolators); "very fine" (like cornmeal, and used for drip or filtration methods); "powdered" (like flour, and used for Turkish coffee).

Coffee begins to lose its strength immediately after roasting, the rate of loss increasing rapidly after grinding. In a test carried out by a Michigan coffee packer,[333] it was discovered that a mixture of a very fine with a coarse grind gives the best results in the cup. It was also determined that coarse ground coffee loses its strength more rapidly than the medium ground; while the latter deteriorates more quickly than a fine ground; and so on, down the scale. His conclusions were that the most satisfactory grind for putting into packages that are likely to stand for some time before being consumed is a mixture consisting of about ninety percent finely ground coffee and ten percent coarse. His theory is that the fine grind supplies sufficiently high body extraction; the coarse, the needful flavor and aroma. On this irregular grind a United States patent (No. 14,520) has been granted, in which the inventor claims that the ninety percent of fine eliminates the interstices—that allow too free ventilation in a coarse ground coffee—and consequently prevents the loss of the highly volatile constituents of the ten percent of coarse-ground particles, and at the same time gives a full-body extraction.

Making and Filling Containers

As stated before, a large proportion of the coffee sold in the United States is put up into packages, ready for brewing. Such containers are grouped under the name of the material of which they are made; such as tin, fiber, cardboard, paper, wood, and combinations of these materials, such as a fiber can with tin top and bottom. Generally, coffee containers are lined with chemically treated paper or foil to keep in the aroma and flavor, and to keep out moisture and contaminating odors.

As the package business grew in the United States, the machinery manufacturers kept pace; until now there are machines that, in one continuous operation, open up a "flat" paper carton, seal the bottom fold, line the carton with a protecting paper, weigh the coffee as it comes down from an overhead hopper into the carton, fold the top and seal it, and then wrap the whole package in a waxed or paraffined paper, delivering the package ready for shipment without having been touched by a human hand from the first operation to the last. Such a machine can put out fifteen to eighteen thousand packages a day.

Another type of machine automatically manufactures two and three-ply paper cans such as are used widely for cereal packages. It winds the ribbons of heavy paper in a spiral shape, automatically gluing the papers together to make a can that will not permit its contents to leak out. The machine turns out its product in long cylinders, like mailing tubes, which are cut into the desired lengths to make the cans. The paper or tin tops and bottoms are stamped out on a punch press.

Coffee cans are generally filled by hand; that is, the can is placed under the spout of an automatic filling and weighing machine by an operator who slips on the cover when the can is properly filled. The weighing machine has a hopper which lets the coffee down into a device that gauges the correct amount, say a pound or two pounds, and then pours it into the can. The machine weighs the can and its contents, and if they do not show the exact predetermined weight, the device automatically operates to supply the necessary quantity. After weighing, the can is carried on a traveling belt to the labeling machine, where the label is automatically applied and glued. Then the can is put through a drying compartment to make the label stick quickly.

Paper bags are filled much the same way as the tin and the fiber cans. In fact, some packers fill their paper and fiber cartons by the same system; although the tendency among the largest companies is to instal the complete automatic packaging equipment, because of its speed and economy in packaging. Frequently, the weighing machines are used in filling wooden and fiber drums holding twenty-five, fifty, and one hundred pounds of coffee, to be sold in bulk to the retailer.

Coffee Additions and Fillers

In all large coffee-consuming countries, coffee additions and fillers have always been used. Large numbers of French, Italian, Dutch, and German consumers insist on having chicory with their coffee, just as do many Southerners in the United States.

The chief commercial reason for using coffee additions and fillers is to keep down the cost of blends. For this purpose, chicory and many kinds of cooked cereals are most generally used; while frequently roasted and ground peas, beans, and other vegetables that will not impair the flavor or aroma of the brew, are employed in foreign countries. Before Parliament passed the Adulterant Act, some British coffee men used as fillers cacao husks, acorns, figs, and lupins, in addition to chicory and the other favorite fillers.

Up to the year 1907, when the United States Food and Drugs Act became effective, chicory and cereal additions were widely used by coffee packers and retailers in this country. With the enforcement of the law requiring the label of a package to state when a filler is employed, the use of additions gradually fell off in most sections.

In botanical description and chemical composition chicory, the most favored addition, has no relationship with coffee. When roasted and ground, it resembles coffee in appearance; but it has an entirely different flavor. However, many coffee-drinkers prefer their beverage when this alien flavor has been added to it.

Treated Coffees and Dry Extracts

The manufacture of prepared, or refined, coffees has become an important branch of the business in the United States and Europe. Prepared coffees can be divided into two general groups: treated coffees, from which the caffein has been removed to some degree; and dry coffee extracts (soluble coffee), which are readily dissolved in a cup of hot or cold water.

To decaffeinate coffee, the most common practise is to make the green beans soft by steaming under pressure, and then to apply benzol or chloroform or alcohol to the softened coffee to dissolve and to extract the caffein. Afterward, the extracting solvents are driven out of the coffee by re-steaming. However, chemists have not yet been able to expel all the caffein in treating coffee commercially, the best efforts resulting in from 0.3 to 0.07 percent remaining. After treatment, the coffee beans are then roasted, packed, and sold like ordinary coffee.

In manufacturing dry coffee extract in the form of a powder that is readily soluble in water, the general method is to extract the drinking properties from ground roasted coffee by means of water, and to evaporate the resulting liquid until only the coffee powder is left. Several methods have been developed and patented to prevent the valuable flavor elements from being evaporated with the water.

A typical dry-coffee-extract-making equipment consists of a battery of percolators, or "leachers", a vacuum evaporating device, and a vacuum drier. The leachers do not differ materially from the ordinary restaurant percolators, a battery usually including from three to seven units, each charge of water going through all the percolations. The resulting heavy liquid then goes to the evaporator to be concentrated into a thick liquor. The evaporator consists of a horizontal cylindrical vapor compartment connected with an inclined cylindrical steam chest in which are numerous tubes, or flues, that occupy almost the whole chest. These tubes are heated by steam. The coffee liquor is passed through the tubes at high speed and thrown with great force against a baffle plate at the opening to the vapor chest. The vapor passes around the baffle plate to a separator. The liquor drops to the lower part of the steam-chest (which is free from tubes), and is ready to be drawn out for the next process, the drying.

At this stage, the extract is a heavily concentrated syrup and is ready to be converted into powder. This is done in the vacuum drier, which consists of a hollow revolving drum surrounded by a tightly sealed cast-iron casing. The drum is heated by steam injected into its interior, and is revolved in a high vacuum. In operation, a coating of coffee liquor is applied automatically, by means of a special device, to the outside of the drum. The liquor is taken by gravity from the reservoir containing the liquid supply and is forced upward by means of a pump into the liquid supply pan, directly under the drum, with sufficient pressure to cause the liquid to adhere to the drum, the excess liquor overflowing from the pan into the reservoir. The coating on the drum is controlled or regulated by a spreader. The heat and the vacuum reduce the extract to a dry powder in less than one revolution of the drum. As the drum completes three-quarters of a turn, a scraper knife removes the coffee powder, which is delivered to a receiver below the drum. Modern vacuum-drum driers have a capacity of from twenty-five to five hundred pounds of dry soluble coffee per hour.

C.W. Trigg and W.A. Hamor were granted a patent in the United States in 1919 on a new process for making an aromatized coffee extract. In this process, the caffeol of the coffee is volatilized and is then brought into contact with an absorbing medium such as is used in the extraction of perfumes. The absorbing medium is then treated with a solvent of the caffeol, and the solution is separated from the petrolatum. Then the coffee solution is concentrated to an extract by evaporation; after which, the extract and the caffeol are combined into a soluble coffee. Five additional patents were granted on this same process in 1921.

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Chapter XXVI

WHOLESALE MERCHANDISING OF COFFEE

Coffee is sold at wholesale in the United States chiefly by about 4,000 wholesale grocers, who handle also many other items of food; and by roasters, who make a specialty of preparing the green coffee for consumption, and who feature either bulk or trade-marked package goods.

Much the largest proportion of the wholesale coffee trade today is made up of roasted coffees, though some wholesalers still sell the green bean to retail distributers who do their own roasting. Most of the roasted coffee sold is ground; although in some parts of the United States there is at present a growing consumer demand for coffee in the bean. Of the coffee sold in trade-marked packages in 1919 in the United States, about seventy-five percent was ground ready for brewing.

The larger wholesale houses generally confine their operations to the section of the country in which they are located, but some of the biggest coffee-packing firms seek national distribution. In both cases, branch houses are usually established at strategic points to facilitate the serving of retail customers with freshly roasted coffee at all times.

In recent years, too, it has become a general practise for the home offices, or main headquarters, to advertise their product in magazines, newspapers, street cars, and by mail and on billboards; while the branches solicit trade in their territories by means of traveling salesmen, local newspaper advertisements, booklets, circulars, and demonstrations at food shows.

The Wholesale Salesman

The traveling salesman is probably the most effective agency in securing the retailer's orders for coffee. A good coffee salesman not only sells coffee, but he teaches his customer how he can best build up and hold his coffee trade. He acquaints the retailer with all the talking points about the coffee he handles, how to feature it in store displays and advertisements, how to stage demonstrations and to work up special sales.

If he is a good salesman, he does not permit the merchant to buy more coffee than he can dispose of while it is still fresh. And he shows the dealer the folly of handling too many brands of package coffees. If he sells coffee in bulk, the efficient salesman has also a sound working knowledge of blending principles, and is able to suggest the kinds of coffee to blend to suit the particular requirements of each grocer's trade. In short, he takes an intelligent interest in his customer's business, and co-operates with him in building up a local coffee trade.

Some Coffee Costs Analyzed

In estimating the price at which he must sell his coffee to make a fair profit, the wholesale coffee merchant has many items of expense to consider. To the cost of the green coffee he must add: the cost of transportation to his plant; the loss in shrinkage in roasting, which ranges from fifteen to twenty percent; packaging costs, if he is a packer; the items of expense in doing business, such as wages and salaries, advertising, buying and selling, freight, express, warehouse and cartage, postage and office supplies, telephone and telegraph, credit and collection; and the fixed overhead charges for interest, heat, light, power, insurance, taxes, repairs, equipment, depreciation, losses from bad debts, and miscellaneous items.[334] The average loss for bad debts among grocers in 1916 was 0.03 percent of the total sales, according to the director of business research, Harvard University, who estimated also that the common figure for credit and collection expense was 0.06 percent. The total cost of doing business has been estimated as ranging between twelve and twenty percent of the total annual sales, so that a bag of green coffee costing $16 in New York or New Orleans costs the coffee packer in the Middle West from $22.33 to $24.56, according to the expense of carrying on his business.

Terms and Credits

Wholesale coffee trade contract terms and credits are not dissimilar from those in other lines of commerce. The wholesaler helps the retailer finance his business to the extent of granting him thirty to sixty days in which to pay his bill, offering him a cash discount if the invoice is paid within ten days of date of sale. Until recent years, these terms were frequently abused, the customer demanding much longer credits and often taking a ten-day cash discount after thirty or more days had elapsed. This abuse was particularly prevalent from 1907 to 1913, when coffee prices were low and competition was especially keen.[335] In addition, the retailers often demanded special deliveries of supplies, which added to the wholesalers' costs; and some retailers refused to pay the cost of cartage from the cars to their stores.

With the coming of high prices after the close of the World War, the wholesalers showed a tendency to tighten up their credit and discount terms, the National Coffee Roasters Association especially recommending thirty days' credit, or at most sixty days, and a maximum cash discount rate of two percent.

Another trade abuse which has been corrected almost altogether was the practise of "selling coffee to be billed as shipped"; that is, the wholesaler held coffee on order, and billed only when delivered, even though several weeks or months had passed before shipment.

About Package Coffees

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the sale of coffee in packages has increased steadily until now (1922) this form of distribution competes strongly with bulk coffee sales. While bulk coffee is still preferred in some eastern sections of the United States, coffee packers are making deep inroads there, to the extent that practically all high and medium grade retailers feature package coffees, either under their own brand name, or that of a coffee specialty house.

The prime requisite for success in any package coffee is the composition of the blend. One of the leaders in the field, which we will call Y, is said to be composed of Bogota, Bourbon Santos, and Mexican. In March, 1922, it was being sold at retail in New York for 42 cents. A competing brand, which we will call Z, is said to be a blend of Bogota and Bourbon Santos. It was being sold at retail in New York, at the same period for the same price. Simultaneously, in the retail stores of a well known chain system, a bulk blend composed of sixty percent Bourbon Santos and forty percent Bogota was to be had loose for 29 cents.

The second important factor that contributes to package coffee success is the container. It must be of such a character as will best preserve the freshness—the flavor and the aroma of the coffee—until it reaches the consumer.

Package coffee has not yet won universal favor. Some of the arguments used against it are: that the price is generally higher than the same grade in bulk; that it leads to price-cutting by stores that can afford to sell it at about cost as a leader for other articles; that the margin of profit is frequently too close for some retailers: that when the market advances, some packers change their blends to keep down cost and to maintain the advertised price; and that, when packed ground, there is a rapid loss of flavor, aroma, and strength.