5. Have a clean, dry coffee-pot; it should always be rinsed out when put away, and turned down to drain.
6. To every half pint of water, allow half an ounce of coffee-powder; have your kettle of water boiling, put the necessary quantity of powder into the coffee-pot, and pour in as much water from the kettle as you require. Set the pot on the fire for a few seconds, but on no account let the contents boil up; then pour about half a pint of the liquor into a cup, and pour it back again into the pot, and stand it on the hob or on the fender to settle. If these directions have been properly followed, there will be in three or four minutes a pot of coffee as clear and well-tasted as any one could wish to drink. Should it be too strong, you have only to use less of the coffee-powder. All the goodness is extracted with the first boiling; and those who wish to drink good coffee must never boil the same grounds a second time.
7. The milk in all cases must be warmed, and used as hot as possible; and it should always be put into the cup with the sugar before the coffee is poured in. When a cup of coffee is taken after dinner, it should be drank without milk, and with little or no sugar.
8. But of all the preparations of coffee there is none equal to the French, known as _café au lait_, or milk coffee. We have drank it constantly for several years, and can pronounce it to excel all others as a breakfast beverage. In this there is more milk than water, and the coffee liquor is rather an essence than a decoction; it will be almost black in colour. The process to be followed is the same in most respects as described; but, instead of a quart or three pints, not more than a third of your usual quantity of water is to be poured on the full quantity of coffee-powder. After it has stood to settle, pour it carefully off the grounds into a jug or pitcher, which is to be kept hot by any convenient means. In this way the liquor, though black, will be perfectly clear. At the same time a quantity of milk, according to the wants of your party, must be heated in a saucepan with a spout or a lip. When this is ready, pour it into your breakfast-cups until they are three-parts full, or rather more, add the sugar, and then fill up with coffee from the jug, more or less, according as you prefer it strong or weak. Coffee made in this way will be found more nutritious, and to possess greater richness and smoothness, than can be attained by any other means.