By CHARLES M. GUTHRIE
of the editorial page staff
published by the StarTribune
February 20, 1960
UP TO NOW my coffee consumption has averaged about six pleasure-packed cups a day, but since reading a piece in Harper's magazine I'm close to swearing off the stuff. I've been drinking embalming fluid. I've never enjoyed a really good cup of coffee. To make coffee right you must have laboratory facilities and time on your hands.
My procedure has been to put the desired amount of water into a pot, bring it to a boil, throw in the coffee and shut off the burner. Admittedly this is old-fashioned, but since the resulting product always tasted as good as that yielded up by a thermostatically-controlled, silver-plated appliance, it seemed good enough.
BUT I NOTE that the true coffee connoisseur buys freshly-roasted coffee in the bean, grinds it only according to the needs of the moment, puts it into water that's not boiling but of precise heat, lets the grounds remain less than a moment, and then strains the contents through a cotton filter into another container. Only then is the brew fit to drink. Also, metal pots shouldn't be used. They impart a foreign flavor.
For this operation one needs a coffee grinder, filters, two non-metal containers, a thermometer, a funnel and patience. Without question a savory and unclouded coffee should result. But in the rush of the day's demands, with Pop having to hurry to work and Mom to the white goods sale, how many of us common folks can lavish such time on the morning beverage?
MY LATE father-in-law was a stickler for good coffee. He insisted that it be purchased in the bean and ground as needed. But once when his wife was away for two months and he had to rustle his own breakfast, things changed. We discovered the cupboard defiled with a can of ground coffee. He had sacrificed quality for convenience. He discovered that grinding coffee was a chore.
I'm sure of but a few things about coffee. It's no good when allowed to boil, no good when warmed up, and best when made in large quantities. Whenever entertaining a large group, we employ a 30-cup enamel pot and stir an egg into the coffee before consigning it to the steaming vat. This invariably makes a lordly drink.
BUT EVEN egg coffee cannot hold its bouquet overnight. My wife always makes more coffee than the guests can consume and I tell her to save the balance for breakfast. I'm too penurious to see it thrown into the sink.
I regret my thrift next morning. Also I'm the sole sufferer. My wife drinks coffee only as a bow to convention and makes no such bows to me. For breakfast she prefers cocoa, which I rate on a par with warmed-over coffee. For dinner we have tea, which some folks enjoy, including milady.
SOMETIME when I have a morning to kill I plan to make coffee as M.N. Stiles, who wrote the Harper's piece, suggests, if I think to buy some coffee beans and can induce my wife to remove the African violet from the old coffee grinder and can borrow a thermometer and a couple of glass or earthen receptacles.
If the coffee proves so good that it spoils me for any other, I'll have nothing to lose but the habit.
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