DATE COFFEE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6473, 25 November 1881, Page 6

DATE COFFEE.

At noon yesterday, Mr B. Walton, of the firm of Matson and 00., introduced to the notice of a number of journalists and leading grooers, some samples of date coffee. Tho mode of testing adopted was to prepare some ot the coffee pure and simple, some with cream and sugar, and some mixed with chicory or with ordinary coffee. Founding our opinion upon the unmixed date coffee, we have no hesitation in pronouncing it to be a most welcome novelty j and we feel assured that to large numbers of people it will prove more palatable and generally satisfactory than the totter known beverage. It possesses a fall, pleasing flavour, and a good aroma, both somewhat resembling tho beet Ceylon and other coffees; and tho novelty (in New Zealand) is backed up by the assurance of Dr Hassell, the great authority upon foods, and of other eminent men, that the date coffee is valuable for its nutritious qualities, and for the font that it is less exciting, and more easy of digestion than ordinary coffee or coffee and chicory. Thu coffee is prepared from tho stone* like seeds of the date palm (Phosnix daotyli* fora) j and the long list of products from this stately tree has thus been added to. That a date palm is more than ordinarily prolific may to readily imagined when it is stated that there are several bunches of flowers formed every season, each bunch producing sometimes as many os 200 dates; and that in Egypt four owt of dates have been obtained from a single palm daring - one season. Baron Mueller expresses the opinion that the cultivation of the date should be undertaken "in all parts of Australia, and in similar clime®,’’ especially as it ran to so easily raised from the seed. And to those who may be disposed to try an experiment with a few date stones, it may be intimated that the best dates are grown in oases, where water gushes from tho ground in abundance. It must not be supposed that this date coffee is literally a thing of yesterday. It has already wonno small degree of popularity in tho United Kingdom, much to the dismay of Ceylon planters. It is possible that the coffee Might which in 1876 prevailed in some coffee districts, induced people to look for other means for providing a palatable breakfast beverage j and all sorts of things have—either openly or as adulterating meani—been placed in the market. These substances included beans, dried beet and carrots, and roasted figs. Then came a “ palates ” coffee, which turned oat to be only baked and ground acorns; and still later a patent was obtained for " a preparation closely resembling Mocha coffee.” This was the fruit of Oeratonia Siliqua, alias oarob beans, alias locust pods, alias Bussian figs, roasted and ground to powder, and then mixed with a certain proportion of seeds of tares, also roasted and ground. The ooosignment of date coffees is being disposed of to merchants and others, so that within a few days at latest the general public will have an opportunity of testing for themselves the merits of this newer breakfast beverage.