Jefferson
and Coffee
In 1824 Thomas Jefferson deemed coffee "the favorite drink of the civilised world." Jefferson enjoyed the coffee houses of Williamsburg and Paris, and served coffee at the President's House, Poplar Forest, and Monticello. He preferred beans imported from the East and West Indies, and abhorred the "green" or unripe beans that were popular in America at the time.
Jefferson
estimated that a pound of coffee a day was consumed at Monticello
during his retirement. His cellar was stocked with unroasted beans
in barrels weighing as much as sixty pounds. Small quantities
of beans were roasted and ground in the Monticello kitchen, and
then prepared according to the recipe of Adrien Petit, Jefferson's
French maître d'hôtel: "On one measure of the coffee
ground into meal pour three measures of boiling water. Boil it
on hot ashes mixed with coal till the meal disappears from the
top, when it will be precipitated. Pour it three times through
a flannel strainer. It will yield 2 1/3 measures of clear coffee."
Coffee was served at breakfast, and likely after dinner, in a
silver coffee urn made to Jefferson's design.
--Ann M. Lucas, Monticello Research Department, June 1994
Photo of Monticello Coffee Urn by Edward Owen; more information on the Urn can be found in the Monticello Explorer.