How to Make Cold-Brewed Coffee, 1850

Coffee plant (c. 1823)

"Take four ounces of good coffee, properly roasted and ground. Dilute it in two glasses of cold water with a spoon. Let it steep all night, covering the vessel which contains it. Next day, pour the pap with care on fine linen placed in a glass funnel in a bottle... One part of this infusion, and two parts of pure water... gives a coffee of a superb colour and perfect taste... How can cold water draw from coffee all that can be obtained from it? I answer, yes! approved by experience... I am astonished that so simple a process has not been adopted."  

P. L. Simmons, Coffee as it is, and as it ought to be

The artisanal, cold-steeped, linen-filtered coffee of your dreams has been around since 1850? I answer, yes!

How to Make Fake Coffee, 1868

"Nutritive Coffee," 1862, Library of Congress

Coffee Substitutes. 

The love of coffee is an acquired taste. Perhaps nine tenths of the families using it ‘burn’ it almost to a coal, so that, in reality, any other burnt bitter would answer quite as well. In fact, multitudes in the far West, removed from markets, have become accustomed to use burnt bread-crust as a substitute... The following substitutes for coffee have been collected, in all of which it is suggested, first, that the substitute be mixed with the genuine article, half-and-half; second, that in order to know what you are really drinking, roast and grind your own coffee. In this way only can you know that you are not imposed upon, or may not be drinking some cheap material, either filthy or poisonous... 

Rye Coffee... Take some rye; first, scald it; second, dry it; third, brown it, and then mix it with one third coffee and two thirds rye, and then you will have as good a cup of coffee as you ever drank. 

Sweet-Potato Coffee. – Take sweet potatoes, cut them fine enough to dry conveniently, and when dried, grind in a coffee-mill; dry them by the fire or stove, at this season of the year, or by the sun, when that will do it; grind and use one and a half tea-cupfuls for six persons, or mixed with coffee in such proportions as you like. Some omit half of the coffee, some more. 

Barley Coffee. – Take common barley, or the skinless, if it can be obtained, roast as you would coffee, and mix in such proportion as suits your taste. It is very good. 

Pea Coffee. – It is probably known to many that a very large per cent of the ground coffee sold at the stores is common field-peas, roasted and ground with the coffee. There are hundreds of thousands of bushels of peas annually used for that purpose. Those who are in the habit of purchasing ground coffee can do better to buy their own peas, burn and grind them, and mix to suit themselves. 

Carrot Coffee... Cut up, dry and grind, and mix with coffee in quantities to suit the taste. 

Chestnut Coffee. – Chestnuts, also, are said to make excellent coffee. 

Dandelion root, dried and slightly scorched, never burned. 

Chicory Coffee. – Equal weights of chicory and coffee, dried and roasted in the usual manner. The chicory root is raised as easily as carrots, and in exactly the same manner. To prepare the root, wash it clean, slice it lengthwise in four to six pieces, according to size, cut in two-inch lengths, dry and keep in a dry place until wanted. Chicory is largely used to adulterate coffee...

W. W. Hall, Hall's Health Tracts

  Don't pretend you've never run out of coffee and tried to drink burnt bread-crust juice instead.

How to Make Good Coffee, 1895

Currier & Ives, 1881 (Library of Congress)

"COFFEE THAT IS GOOD. To make good coffee is apparently not so simple as it may seem, if general results count for anything... There is no better stimulant in the morning than a delicious cup of coffee, and there is no better way of preparing it than according to the following recipe: Do not buy the coffee already ground, for it loses its fine flavor more rapidly when in the ground form than when whole. Have a small coffee mill and grind it yourself. A mixture of two or more kinds of coffee will give the most satisfactory result. Two thirds Java, with one third Mocha, will make a rich, smooth coffee. Now for the recipe: Put one cupful of roasted coffee into a small fryingpan, and stir it over the fire until hot, being careful not to burn it. Grind the coffee rather coarse and put it in a common coffeepot. Beat one egg well, and add three tablespoonfuls of cold water to it. Stir this mixture into the coffee. Pour one quart of boiling water on the coffee, and place the pot on the fire. Stir the coffee until it boils, being careful not to let it boil over; then place on the back of the stove, where it will just bubble, for ten minutes... After it has stood for five minutes, strain it into a hot coffeepot, and send to the table at once." 

C. F. Lawlor, The Mixicologist

Breakfast shortcut: just stir the egg into the coffee!

How to Make Instant Coffee, 1883

That's the caffeine talking.
Currier & Ives, 1881

"Procure one-half pound of the choicest roasted coffee berries you can command, let the same be ground under your own immediate eye, to prevent the opportunity of chicory or any other spurious drug being introduced among the genuine material. Submit the coffee to a clean saucepan, containing one quart of boiling water, stir it round twice or thrice with a suitably-sized spoon, adding, at the same time, two pieces of fresh white ginger. Place the saucepan over a slow fire, and let it simmer until the quantity of liquor is reduced to one pint; then strain the latter off into a smaller saucepan, and allow the liquor to simmer gently, adding to it at intervals as much white sugar as will qualify the character of a thick consistent syrup, when it may be taken up, and when thoroughly cold poured into jars or bottles, stopped closely down for use. It will keep for any length of time in any climate. An individual, possessing the above confection, may command a cup of strong, genuine coffee at a minute's notice; it is necessary only to introduce two or three teaspoonfuls of the essence into a coffeecup, and fill with boiling water." 

S. Annie Frost, Our New Cook Book (1883)

Handcrafted, slow-cooked instant coffee can be yours! Just make sure that unscrupulous coffee grinders don't slip any spurious drugs into your beans. That can make for a rough morning.

How to Make Coffee, 1685

"We must now particularize the preparation of this Drink made with Coffee... The Grain... is put into an Iron Instrument firmly shut together with the coverlid; through this Instrument they thrust a Spit, by the means whereof they turn it before the Fire, till it shall be well rosted; after which having beaten it into very fine Powder, you may make use thereof... and put it into a glass of boyling Water, putting a little Sugar thereto: And after having let it boyl a small time, you must pour it into little dishes of porcelain or any other sort, and so let it be drunk by little and little, as hot as it can possibly be indur'd."

John Chamberlayn, The Manner of Making Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate (1685)

The barista will be charmed when you outline the requirements for your morning order of seventeenth-century spit-roasted coffee. For clarity, bring along a diagram of The Instrument.