ch coffee? In the first
place, then, the French coffee is coffee, and not chicory, or rye, or
beans, or peas. In the second place, it is freshly roasted, whenever
made,--roasted with great care and evenness in a little revolving
cylinder which makes part of the furniture of every kitchen, and which
keeps in the aroma of the berry. It is never overdone, so as to
destroy the coffee flavor, which is in nine cases out of ten the fault
of the coffee we meet with. Then it is ground, and placed in a
coffee-pot with a filter, through which it percolates in clear
drops--the coffee-pot standing on a heated stove to maintain the
temperature. The nose of the coffee-pot is stopped up to prevent the
escape of the aroma during this process. The extract thus obtained is
a perfectly clear, dark fluid, know as _cafe noir_, or black coffee.
It is black only because of its strength, being in fact almost the
very essential oil of coffee. A tablespoonful of this in boiled milk
would make what is ordinarily called a strong cup of coffee. The
boiled milk is prepared with no less care. It must be fresh and new,
not merely warmed or even brought to the boiling point, but slowly
simmered till it attains a thick, creamy richness. The coffee mixed
with this, and sweetened with that sparkling beet-root sugar which
ornaments a French table, is the celebrated _cafe-au-lait_, the name
of which has gone round the world.

As we look to France for the best coffee, so we must look to England
for the perfection of tea. The tea-kettle is as much an English
institution as aristocracy or the Prayer Book; and when one wants to
know exactly how tea should be made, one has only to ask how a fine
old English housekeeper makes it.

The first article of her faith is, that the water must not merely be
hot, not merely _have boiled_ a few moments since, but be actually
_boiling_ at the moment it touches the tea. Hence, though servants
in England are vastly better trained than with us, this delicate
mystery is seldom left to their hands. Tea making belongs to the
drawing-room, and high-born ladies preside at "the bubbling and
loud-hissing urn," and see that all due rites and solemnities are
properly performed,--that the cups are hot, and that the infused tea
waits the exact time before the libations commence. Oh, ye dear
old English tea-tables, resorts of the kindest-hearted hospitality
in the world! we still cherish your memory, even though you do not say
pleasant t