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, known as _caf
noir_, or black coffee. It is black only because of its strength,
being in fact almost the very essential oil of coffee. A table-spoonful
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 he made, one has only to ask how a fine
old English house-keeper 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.
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