Note 1 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
The term "coffee sure enough" was a negro term at that time for genuine coffee. Coffee had been an article extensively used in the South, and the want of it was one of the greatest privations endured by the people in consequence of the blockade, and many substitutes for it had been tried in the shape of corn, beans, peas, and different kinds of seeds, roasted and ground, and served as a beverage at breakfast under the name of coffee, but none approached the genuine article; and it was a common expression among the negroes, if on some rare occasion such as the arrival of a blockade runner, they had got a taste of the genuine article, they would boast to their friends that they had tasted "coffee sure enough"—hence the phrase became a general one.