COFFEE AND COACOA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 14 September 1907, Page 3

COFFEE AND COACOA.

Mr Horatio Bottomlcy's very outspoken journcl, John Bull, gives some interesting particulars of the manner in which coffee and cocoa are adulterated for the London retail trade. Its figures are taken, it says, from the cost books of a wholesale firm having branches in many parts of the country. First comes a brand of coffee advertised as "Nature's true liver tonic: a delicious and invigorating drink." The constituents and prices are:—2lb chicory at 31s 9d per ewt, 01b arrowroot at 3 ! /i't per 1J;, 31b linings at (Id per II), (lib coffee at S!)s !)d per ewt., (ill) coff-e at 132s (id per ewt; 1811) mixture. Cost about (i'/jd per lb. This coffee, packed in quarter -pounds, costs 2s s'/ 2 d per' dozen, nnd is sold at ss, showing a clear profit of 100 per cent. Of the 481b only 1511) are coffee. Cocoa, as sometimes sold to the public, may be a still more interesting production: 51b ground cocoa cocoa shells at 14s 6 per ewt., 251b sugar at lis lid per ewt., 1311) sugar at 18s 6d per ewt., 101b arrowroot at 3'/ 2 d per lb, 71b cocoa at 10y 2 d per lb, 71b cocoa at Is O'/jd per lb; 07'/ 2 lb mixtures. Packed cost about 3y 2 d per lb. In this case only 141b out of G7'/ 2 lb are cocoa, and the profit is slightly less than 100 per cent. "Ground cocoa shells" are au important ingredient, it seems, because they employ a factory to themselves. Chocolate powder differs from cocoa only in containing less real cocoa: 10!b ground cocoa shells at lis Gd per ewt., per lb, 3</ilb cocoa at la o'/ 2 d per Hi; 731b mixture. The cost per lb is 2 5-Gd and tip sale price is 4d. Less than 10 per cent, of the mixture is true cocoa. Tea, according to this authority, is too clieap to need adulteration, and butter, 281b sugar at lis lid per ewt., 141b sugar at 18s fld per ewt., 141b arrowroot at 3V 4 d per lb, 3'/ 2 lb cocoa at 10'/ 2 d milk, and lard are not adulterated because the inspection is too severe.