(three dessert-spoonfuls) of freshly ground coffee is
put in the pot. Upon it is poured freshly boiling water--three-fourths
of the amount required. After stirring with a wooden spoon, the
remainder of the water is poured in, and the pot is returned to the
"hob" to infuse, and to settle for from three to five minutes. Some stir
it a second time before the final settling.

The best trade authorities stress home-grinding, and are opposed to
boiling the beverage. They advocate also its use as a breakfast
beverage, after lunch, and after the evening meal.

From an American point of view, the principal defects in the English
method of making coffee lie in the roasting, handling, and brewing. It
has been charged that the beans are not properly cooked in the first
place, and that they are too often stale before being ground. The
English run to a light or cinnamon roast, whereas the best American
practise requires a medium, high, or city roast. A fairly high shade of
brown is favored on the South Downs with a light shade for Lancashire,
the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the south of Scotland. The trade
demands, for the most part, a ripe chestnut brown. Wholesale roasting is
done by gas and coke machines; while retail dealers use mostly a small
type of inner-heated gas machine. The large gas machines (with
capacities running from twenty-five to seven hundred pounds) have
external air-blast burners, direct and indirect burners, sliding
burners, etc. The best known are the Faulder and Moorewood machines. In
the Uno, a popular retail machine, roasting seven to fourteen pounds at
a time, the coffee beans are placed in the space between outer and inner
concentric cylinders, one made of perforated steel, and the other of
wire gauze, revolving together. A gas flame of the Bunsen type burns
inside the inner cylinder, its heat traversing the outer, or coffee
cylinder, while the fumes are driven off through the open ends. The
roasting coffee may be viewed through a mica or wire-gauze panel
inserted in the wall of the outer cylinder. The Faulder machine has an
external flame, a capacity of from seven to fourteen pounds; and there
are quick gas machines, with capacities ranging from three pounds to two
hundred and twenty-four pounds, for the retail trade.

[Illustration: FAVORITE ENGLISH COFFEE-MAKING METHOD]

[Illustration: A CAFE OF YE MECCA COMPANY, LONDON]

In recent years there has been a marked improvement in English coffee
roast