In the little leaflet I found from Maxwell House which was probably given away in the 1950’s or 60’s with three free sachets of coffee, as well as recipes for cookies and biscuits, and for sandwiches, snacks and cakes, here is a suggestion of different ways coffee can be served.
These days we are so used to the variety of ways of serving coffee, with flavoured syrups, milks and cold options too, that we sometimes forget that trying to be different has always been what people want to do when entertaining their friends. The leaflet gives some friendly instruction:
In case you’ve always thought that instant coffee isn’t quite the real thing, we’re starting you off with these three free sachets of New Coffee-pot fresh Maxwell House instant coffee. It’s all good, real coffee. Only the bother;’s been taken out for you. use one sachet per cup, pour on boiling water, or milk just off the boil, add sugar if you want, and stir. That’s all. It’s delicious, made in a moment, and as fresh as though it were poured straight from the coffee-pot.
For larger gatherings: use four good teaspoonfuls to a pint of water and add hot milk or cream in the cup.
These days people are more likely to need instructions on how to make ‘real’ coffee, we’re all so used to instant. The leaflet also gave instructions for ‘exciting ways with coffee’:
Hot:
- Americano – top each cup of steaming of black coffee with a whirl of sweetened whipped cream and a fairly liberal sprinkling of cup chocolate
- Coffee Whisk – dissolve 2 heaped teaspoons instant coffee in 1 tablespoon boiling water. Beat in 1 small egg yolk. Whisk egg white until stiff. heat ½ pint milk and pour onto coffee. Divide egg white between two beakers or large cups; pour on the hot coffee and serve immediately
- Java Mocha – mix equal quantities of hot black coffee with hot milky chocolate or cocoa. Sweeten to taste. Pour into cups of mugs and float a marshmallow in each
- Chinatown – make up 1 pint of black coffee and mix in 1 level teaspoon ground ginger. Pour into cups and serve topped with a little cream and a sprinkling of ground nutmeg or cinnamon
Cold:
- Iced Coffee – make up 1 pint of strong black coffee. Pour it over a dozen ice cubes and add 1 pint milk. Chill in refrigerator, then serve in tall glasses. Provide straws for easy drinking.
- Viennese Milk Shake – whisk together 1 pint milk, 1 heaped dessertspoon instant coffee dissolved and cooled in a little water, and a family size brick of dairy vanilla ice cream. Pour into glasses, sprinkle with a little instant coffee and serve at once.
- Coolie – pour chilled black coffee into glasses and top with spoonfuls of vanilla or coffee flavoured ice cream and a little whipped cream
- Flip – whisk ½ pint sweetened cold white coffee with 1 egg. Pour into glasses and sprinkle with a little ground nutmeg. A dessertspoon of rum or brandy may be whisked in with the ingredients
Several things caught my eye as I was reading this; although mugs are mentioned, beakers are also used – I don’t think anyone but children would use beakers now and they would be plastic ones. Although we might sprinkle ground nutmeg or cinnamon on top of cream in coffee, i don’t think we would use ground ginger in the actual coffee, too ‘bitty’ – we would use ginger syrup; similarly because we now have coffee granules instead of powdered coffee, we wouldn’t sprinkle or dust it on anything. . Lastly, I’m not sure they still make bricks of ice cream – we would find it in tubs! However, some of these recipes look quite tempting; the Coffee Whisk and the Flip sounds a little like a coffee flavoured egg nog, and I think the Viennese Milk Shake might be quite delicious!
Lois Elsden 