WHO GETS MOCHA COFFEE?

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 503, 10 January 1906, Page 8

WHO GETS MOCHA COFFEE?

Host of It Te.\cn by Sheiks and Governors of Arabia—Little Is Ever Exported.

"I don't believe there is a pound «f genuine Mocha coffee on this continent." Mr. 0. T. Hilliglas, a coffee m reliant, informs me, says a writer in the St. Louis Globe Democrat, "or that 200 people in this country have ever tasted it, unless they have at some time visited Arabia and drunk it at the table of some sheik or governor.

"The true Mocha is the finest coffee grown; it has a delicious flavor that makes it as superior to the very best of other brands as silk is superior to cotton, but the crop is extremely limited, and hardly ever more than satisfies purely local demands. Some Arabian coffee may find its way to this country: it may even be called Mocha, but it is not the real article, I am sure, and none of us has ever had it here, though we get the best of other brands that are grown in Ceylon and Java, and that means some mighty fine coffee. It is not Mocha, however, for the whole of the true Mocha crop each year wouldn't supply the coffee demands of one ward in St. Louis alone for a period of six months. The best and plumpest berries of the Mocha growth, those with the most exquisite flavor, are eagerly _ taken by the governors and sheiks in the vicinity, and they have to get their orders In in advance, so that they may be sure of their annual supply. The spcond-grade berries go to the wealthier citizens, not of the governing class, and the third. or poorest, grade of berries, which are not much superior to the best Uava coffee, are sold to the people, and the demand invariably exceeds the supply. "Sometimes a few pounds o f this cheapest grade of Mocha finds its way to Constantinople, but if is very, very seldom, and I don't believe an ounce of it has ever got anyfurther west than that. I pro same that if. by some hook or crook, a pound of the real plnmn berried Mocha were landed in this country it would sell for a price that even a Rockefeller mifrht hes ! ! tate to pay. We fi;et the best cof?ee grown, apart from the Mocha, | but the local conditions which pre- | rail where that coffee is raised ! prevent us from obtaining any, | and T hardly think the real thing will ever be found in ourmarkets."