It was not until well
into the nineteenth century that there was any suggestion of scientific
interest, and not until within the last decade was any real chemical
analysis of brewed coffee undertaken with a view to producing a
scientific cup of the beverage.

At first, owing to the great distances, and difficulties surrounding
communications, between the colonies, news of improvements in coffee
makers and coffee making traveled slowly, and coffee customs brought
from Europe by the early settlers became habits that were not easily
changed. Some of the worst have clung on, ignoring the march of
improvement, and seem as firmly entrenched in suburban and rural
communities today as they were two hundred years ago.

Indeed, despite the fact that the United States have been the largest
consumer of coffee among the nations for nearly half a century, it is
only within the last ten years that coffee properly prepared could be
obtained outside the principal cities. Even today, the average consumer
is sadly in need of education in correct coffee brewing. It would be an
excellent idea if all the coffee propaganda funds could be concentrated
on a study of this one phase of the coffee question for several years,
and the recommendations published in such fashion as firmly to fix in
the minds of the rising generation a knowledge of correct coffee
brewing. The facts of the case are that, generally speaking, coffee is
still prepared in slovenly fashion in the average American home.
However, with the good work done in recent years by organized trade
effort to correct this abuse of our national beverage, signs are
plentiful that the time is not far distant when a lasting reformation in
coffee making will have been accomplished.

In colonial times the coffee drink was mostly a decoction. Esther
Singleton tells us that in New Amsterdam coffee was boiled in a copper
pot lined with tin and drunk as hot as possible With sugar or honey and
spices. "Sometimes a pint of fresh milk was brought to the boiling point
and then as much drawn tincture of coffee was added, or the coffee was
put in cold water with the milk and both were boiled together and drunk.
Rich people mixed cloves, cinnamon or sugar with ambergris in the
coffee.[376]"

Ground cardamom seeds were also used to flavor the decoction.

In the early days of New England, the whole beans were frequently boiled
for hours with not wholly pleasing results in forming either food or
drink[3