from
raspberry leaves. An advertisement of the day thus reads:

"The use of Hyperion or Labrador tea is every day coming into vogue
among people of all ranks. The virtues of the plant or shrub from
which this delicate Tea is gathered were first discovered by the
Aborigines, and from them the Canadians learned them. Before the
cession of Canada to Great Britain we knew little or nothing of
this most excellent herb, but since that we have been taught to
find it growing all over hill and dale between the Lat. 40 and 60.
It is found all over New England in great plenty and that of best
quality particularly on the banks of the Penobscot, Kennebec,
Nichewannock, and Merrimac."

The proportion of tea used in America is now less than in England, and
the proportion of coffee much larger. This is wholly the result of
national habits formed through patriotic abstinence from tea-drinking in
those glorious "Liberty Days."

The first mention of coffee, as given by Dr. Lyon, is in the record of
the license of Dorothy Jones, of Boston, in 1670, to sell "Coffe and
chuchaletto." At intervals of a few years other innkeepers were licensed
to sell it, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century coffee-houses
were established. Coffee dishes, coffee-pots, and coffee-mugs appear in
inventories, and show how quickly and eagerly the fragrant berry was
sought for in private families. As with tea, its method of preparation
as a beverage seemed somewhat uncertain in some minds; and it is said
that the whole beans were frequently boiled for some hours with not
wholly pleasing results in forming either food or drink. After a few
years "coffee-powder" was offered for sale.

Chocolate became equally popular. Sewall often drank it, once certainly
as early as 1697, at the Lieutenant-Governor's, with a breakfast of
venison. Winthrop says it was scarce in 1698. Madam Knight took it with
her on her journey in 1704. "I told her I had some chocolate if she
would prepare it, which, with the help of some milk and a little clean
brass kettle, she soon effected to my satisfaction." Mills to grind
cocoa were quickly established in Boston, and were advertised in the
_News Letter_.

Even in the early days of our Republic there were reformers who wished
to establish the use of temperance drinks, which were not, however,
exactly the same liquids now so called. A writer in the _Boston Evening
Post_ wrote forci