Die-hard Coffee Drinkers Beware

Postum is a roasted wheat bran and molasses beverage in powder form that can be used instead of coffee. It is described by some as having a malty, slightly nutty, and roasted grain flavor, or a liquid version of toasted brown sugar or burnt toast with molasses. It can be an acquired taste. Unlike black coffee, it is significantly milder and sweeter and lacks the dry bitterness and acidity inherent in coffee. In addition to the original flavor, coffee-flavored and cocoa-flavored versions have been introduced. Die-hard coffee fans will not be impressed.

Post Cereal Company founder, C. W. Post, developed the caffeine-free beverage in 1895. As a student of Dr. John H. Kellogg, who deemed caffeine to be unhealthy, Postum was marketed as an alternative to coffee. Some religions did not recognize coffee as a healthy beverage because of the dangers of caffeine addiction. Postum to the rescue. Decaffeinated coffee was nearly unheard of after its initial circa 1910 introduction to America. The drink was a common staple for many in the early twentieth century, and it was the closest thing to coffee available during the 1940s. 

Eventually, Post Cereal Company became General Foods and merged into Kraft Foods Inc. Eliza's Quest Foods assumed the trademark rights and secret recipe in 2012 and is still touted as a trendy, wholesome beverage for those who have never darkened the door of a Starbucks. Sold in select food stores nationwide, the drink is pricey and hard to find on a top shelf.

Acting for Beans

Below are four Hollywood personalities (and one dummy) who served as spokespersons for four popular coffee brands from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Virginia Christine

San Francisco's Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills was the original name behind Folgers of 1850. Employed as a teenager, James A. Folger eventually became a full partner in the company by 1865. By 1972, Folger bought out the partners and renamed the company, J.A. Folger & Co. Skipping ahead about a century, supporting actress Virginia Christine played "Mrs. Olson," a Swedish neighbor who recommended a cup of Folgers coffee as a break from the character's hectic day in television commercials. Beginning in 1965, she played the character for twenty-one years. In 1971, Christine's hometown of Stanton, Iowa, honored her by transforming the city water tower to resemble a giant Swedish-style coffee pot.

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy

Chase & Sanborn Coffee was created by the coffee roasting and tea and coffee importing company of the same name in 1864 in Boston, Massachusetts. Named for Caleb Chase (1831-1908) and James Sanborn (1835-1903). They were the first to sell ground coffee in sealed cans. When Standard Brands was formed in 1929, it acquired Chase & Sanborn until 1981 when the company merged into Nabisco. Nabisco sold Chase & Sanborn to Colombian, Alberto Duque in 1982. The Chase & Sanborn Hour/Program was a radio variety show that featured ventriloquist pioneer Edgar Bergen and sidekick Charlie McCarthy. Though their contract was not renewed after a decade on the program, their radio career continued until 1956 before breaking into television.

Margaret Hamilton
Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Cheek, Maxwell House Coffee was named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, its first major customer. The blended coffee was so well-received, it became the hotel's house brew. In 1915, Cheek and Partner began advertising with the now-famous "Good to the last drop" slogan. Along this timeline, Maxwell House introduced its iconic coffee cans to seal in freshness. A 1970s campaign for Maxwell House featured actress Margaret Hamilton, famous for her role in the original, The Wizard of Oz. She played Cora, the general store owner who proudly announced that Maxwell House was the only brand she sold. 

John Zaremba
Hills Bros. has its origins with the two sons of a Maine shipbuilder, Austin Hills and Reuben Hills, aka R.J. Hills. In 1898, Edward Norton, of New York, used his United States patent on a vacuum process for canning foods, which was subsequently applied to coffee. By 1900, Hills Brothers of San Francisco were the first to pack roast coffee in vacuum-sealed cans. Late in his career, character actor John Zaremba was the primary spokesperson for Hills Bros. in the 1970s and 1980s. His character was a fictional, senior globe-hoping coffee bean buyer, hardly recognizable to those who knew him from the 1950s. But the voice was unmistakable. Zaremba was a busy actor, noted for science fiction films, but television made up the bulk of his career with numerous supporting roles. He may be best remembered as a doctor in the 1960s series, Ben Casey, and for thirty episodes as a scientist on Time Tunnel. 

Endorsed by Marcus Welby

As one of the earliest decaffeinated coffee varieties, Sanka (derived from the French words sans caféine) was first marketed initially in 1923 only at two Sanka Coffee Houses in New York. They soon went into retail and over decades their advertising soared to new heights. From 1976 to 1982, veteran actor Robert Young, coming off his popular character on Marcus Welby, M.D., was a Sanka television spokesman. During the mid-1980s, Lena Horne was featured in Sanka's television commercials. More about Sanka's ad campaigns and product placement here.

The Maxwell House Hotel

 

Maxwell House, an American brand of coffee was introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek and British coffee broker, Roger Nolley Smith. It was named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Colonel John Overton Jr. decided to build Nashville's largest hotel in 1859 and would name it for his wife, Harriet (Maxwell) Overton. Because of its stature, seven US Presidents and other prominent guests stayed there over the years. The hotel became the first major customer of the coffee. The hotel was demolished in 1961.

The Maxwell House slogan, "Good to the last drop," originated in 1915 and became one of the most familiar advertising slogans of the Twentieth Century. For nearly 100 years, until the late 1980s, it was the highest-selling coffee brand in the United States.

The Typical Time to Drink Coffee

 

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (known in the twentieth century simply as A&P) created the Eight O'Clock Breakfast Coffee brand in 1859. Originally established as Gilman & Company, they began selling bags of whole-bean coffee on their own. But their coffee was not given a true official name until 1919. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States and, until 1965, the largest US retailer of any kind. The Walmart of their day with popular low prices. Their survey reported that the majority of those typically drank coffee at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. A&P then took out the word "Breakfast" from the name, rebranding its signature coffee as simply Eight O'Clock Coffee. It became the most popular brand of coffee in the United States by 1930. A&P began closing their original, narrow, inner-city stores in the 1950s, and started opening modern supermarkets instead.

A&P continued to sell Eight O'Clock Coffee in its family of stores until the supermarkets closed in late 2015. Eight O'Clock is now sold in other supermarkets across the country. The Eight O'Clock Coffee Company is a subsidiary of Tata Consumer Products, which is headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey with its production plant in Landover, Maryland. Tata Global Beverages has owned Eight O'Clock Coffee since 2006.