Etiquette for After Dinner Coffee

Some hostesses prefer to pour the coffee themselves and have the coffee pot and coffee cups brought to the drawing room on a tray. For a formal party, however, this is not generally done.

Black coffee is always served after a formal dinner. The men usually have it in the dining room as soon as the ladies withdraw. It is served to the ladies in the drawing room. The filled coffee cups, with a sugar bowl in which is loaf or crystal sugar, are passed on a silver tray, the waitress returning to the drawing room for the cups about fifteen minutes later.

At more informal or family dinners, the making of coffee is sometimes looked on as quite a rite and is prepared in the percolator by the host or the hostess. Again, some hostesses prefer to pour the coffee themselves and have the coffee pot and coffee cups brought to the drawing room on a tray. For a formal party, however, this is not generally done.— Eileen Cumming, 1923

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