CONSUMPTION OF SUGAR, TEA, AND COFFEE IN BRITAIN.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 10, 23 June 1864, Page 2

CONSUMPTION OF SUGAR, TEA, AND COFFEE IN BRITAIN.

[From the Colombo (Ceylon) Observer]. The London Times, in. noticing an import of tea in 1863, of nearly 137 millions of lbs. (valued at nearly lpf millions sterling)/with a home consum^tipn oCnearly ßs£ millions, refers to old Cobbett'a impotent attempts to sneer kown the leafy non-mtoxic^tirig stimulant as "wishy-washy stuff." •A true instinct led the body •■wearied laborers and ■:bKiin-weariejl writera. of England to consume tea in. large quantities long before Liebeg and Johnstotr proved that instinct in this case had merely forecast the conclusions drawn by reason from the results of scientific, experiment. The principle (Theipe), which, give tea its value~and coffee also — ia pronounced to be in many respects similar to that which resides in beef. So that these articles (especially when used with plenty of fine sugar and good milk), are not only stimulative but nutritious. Encouraged by repeated reductions in the rate of duty — the disappearance of unfounded prejudice — and the increase of number, and far more in the means of the population, the demand has so increased that the import of 1863 was nearly three times as high aa that of 1848. Tea seems to suit the taste of the English, one of the causes probably being the ease with which "it is prepared. If the leaf is well-flavored, and the water boiling, ; tea ■ cannot well be spoiled. The preparation of coffee, on the other hand, v a matter of some science, and few of the English have attained to it. ; Tha French excel in coffeemaking, co do the Germans and Scandinavians, and hence the fact that coffee in other countries of Europe occupies the foremost place which tea takes and beeps in England. In lew than twenty years the consumption of tea in Great Britain has risen from a little over, lib. per head to . nearly 3lbs. The i consumption of sugar has kopfc pace with that of tea, rising in twenty years from 16^ lbs. per head to 3B^ lbs. Coffee alone, , as far as Britain i>T concerned, is the exception/; and were j we to look to the British market merely, we should j be mad in extending' cultivatibn'as we are doing, j But the advance in the -consumption of coffee on ] the Continent of Europe te«ps paoe with the ad- '