try
extending north and south for more than 1,200 miles. The berry alluded
to is produced along the range of high hills to the westward of Bahia
and extending north toward the Parnahiba. It has never arrested
attention as a distinct grade of the article, but it contains more
coffee or caffein to the pound than any berry known to commerce. It is
the smallest, heaviest and darkest green of any coffee that comes to
our market from Brazil and may be known by these traits. I have tested
it in the land where it is grown and also at home, for the past sixteen
years and I place it at the head of the list, with Mocha next. Either
will make perfect coffee, if treated as follows: of the berry, browned
and ground, take six heaping tablespoonfuls and add three pints of cold
water; place the kettle over the fire and bring to a sharp boil; set it
a little aside where it will bubble and simmer until wanted, and just
before pouring, drip in a half gill of cold water to settle it. That is
all there is to it. The quantity of berry is about twice as much as
usually given in recipes: but if you want coffee, you had better add
two spoonfuls than cut off one.

In 1867 and again in 1870, I bad occasion to visit the West India
Islands and Brazil. In common with most coffee topers, I had heard much
of the super-excellence ascribed to "West India coffee" and "Brazilian
coffee." I concluded to investigate, I had rooms at the Hotel d'Europe,
Para, North Brazil. There were six of us, English and American
boarders. Every morning, before we were out of our hammocks, a
barefooted, half naked Mina negress came around and served each of us
with a small cup of strong, black coffee and sugar ad libitum. There
was not enough of it for a drink; it was rather in the nature of a
medicine, and so intended--"To kill the biscos," they said. The coffee
was above criticism.

I went, in the dark of a tropical morning with Senor Joao, to the
coffee factory where they browned the berry and saw him buy a pound,
smoking hot, for which he paid twenty-five cents, or quite as much as
it would cost in New York. In ten minutes the coffee was at the hotel
and ground. This is the way they brewed it: A round-bottomed kettle was
sitting on the brick range, with a half gallon of boiling water in it.
Over the kettle a square piece of white flannel was suspended, caught
up at the corners like a dip net. In this the coffee was placed and a
small darky put in his time steadily with