A CUP OF COFFEE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 44, 4 November 1893, Page 382

A CUP OF COFFEE.

The art of making good coffee has never become as widely known as lovers of the * black as night, strong as death, and sweet as love ’ drink would desire.

And now, sad to relate, complaints are more and more frequently beard as to the increasing difficulty of obtaining, even in France, a really good cup of coffee. Whether there is any ground for such complaints or not is at present a matter of opinion, but it would seem that persons must be very hard to please who cannot take pleasure in drinking their coffee in at least one of the many ways in which it is served in different places. English coffee, generally speaking, is not a speciality. Paris restaurants offer their patrons tbe choice of nearly the whole range.

Provincial France sets the coffee before you in a basin, from which you help yourself with a large tablespoon. Holland, Belgium, and Germany adhere to china cups, but these are of such a thickness as to require a special training before elegance and comfort can be counted upon in their use.

Russian waiters will bring a glass of coffee so hot that it has to be carefully wrapped up before you can touch it. Other nations have other customs, for which they claim certain advantages. At least, this much is certain—a good cup of coffee, whether black or with milk, is very pleasant to the taste and very refreshing.