Douwe Egberts: A Legacy of Quality and Tradition in Coffee

Douwe Egberts, one of the world's most iconic coffee brands, has cultivated a legacy of excellence and innovation since its humble beginnings in 1753. Founded by Egbert Douwes and Akke Thijsses in the Dutch village of Joure, the business originated as a small grocery store named "De Witte Os" (The White Ox). The store specialized in products that "add to the pleasures of daily existence," including coffee, tea, and tobacco.

The business thrived locally, and in 1780, their son Douwe Egberts joined the enterprise, marking a pivotal moment in its history. Under Douwe's stewardship, the brand transitioned from a small-town operation to a regional player, laying the groundwork for future growth. By the early 20th century, Douwe Egberts had firmly established itself as a household name in the Netherlands.

A landmark moment came in 1925 when the brand introduced its now-famous red seal featuring the initials "D.E.," signifying quality and tradition. That same era saw the launch of the Douwe Egberts savings system, a loyalty program that resonated with Dutch consumers and bolstered brand loyalty.

Throughout the 20th century, Douwe Egberts demonstrated an uncanny ability to adapt and innovate. In 1978, the company launched Moccona, a premium brand of instant coffee, which quickly gained international acclaim. This expansion into the instant coffee market symbolized the company's ability to balance tradition with modern consumer demands.

The brand’s influence continued to grow globally, culminating in its acquisition by JAB Holding Company in 2013. Today, Douwe Egberts operates under JDE Peet’s, one of the largest coffee and tea companies worldwide, with a presence in over 100 countries. JDE Peet’s has prioritized sustainability, aligning Douwe Egberts with global efforts to combat climate change and support ethical coffee sourcing. Initiatives such as Rainforest Alliance certification and reduced carbon emissions underscore the brand’s commitment to a sustainable future.

Douwe Egberts remains a testament to its founders' vision of enhancing daily life through quality products. With over 270 years of heritage, it continues to evolve while preserving its rich traditions, resonating with coffee lovers across the globe.
Douwe Egberts: A Legacy of Quality and Tradition in Coffee

Maxwell House History

In 1892, a unique coffee blend specially crafted for the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, swiftly gained renown as Maxwell House™ coffee.

Back in 1884, Joel Owsley Cheek relocated to Nashville and serendipitously met Roger Nolley Smith, a celebrated British coffee broker known for his extraordinary ability to discern a coffee's origin merely by sniffing the green beans. Together, they collaborated over the following years to perfect the blend.

By 1892, Cheek approached the food buyer of the Maxwell House Hotel and generously offered him 20 pounds of his special blend without charge. The Maxwell House Hotel, constructed by Colonel John Overton Jr and named after his wife, Harriet Maxwell Overton, commenced construction in 1859 using slave labor and opened in the fall of 1869, at a cost of five hundred thousand dollars for the impressive five-story, 240-room establishment.

Within a few days, the hotel ran out of Cheek's coffee, prompting discontent among patrons when the hotel reverted to its previous coffee. The patrons unmistakably preferred Cheek's blend, prompting the hotel to decide on exclusively procuring Cheek's blend. After six months, the hotel agreed to allow Cheek to name his coffee after this momentous achievement.

Empowered by this triumph, Joel Cheek resigned from his position as a coffee broker and, in partnership with Maxwell Colbourne, founded the Nashville Coffee and Manufacturing Company. As one of the few individuals selling freshly roasted coffee, Cheek staunchly believed that his product surpassed other alternatives in terms of quality. To ensure its freshness and delightful flavor, he made sure the coffee reached customers within a week of being made.

As a result, the Nashville Coffee and Manufacturing Company underwent a name change and became known as the "Cheek-Neal Coffee Company."

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt stayed at the Maxwell House and reportedly praised the coffee as "good to the last drop."

During the era of World War II, the company expanded into producing instant coffee, rapidly becoming a significant supplier to soldiers and households across America.

In 1963, Maxwell House introduced a groundbreaking freeze-drying process that revolutionized the market, delivering a taste comparable to freshly brewed coffee, setting it apart from other instant coffee products.

Maxwell House coffee has changed ownership and been produced by several companies, beginning with Cheek's very own Nashville Coffee and Manufacturing Company, followed by General Foods, and Kraft Foods Inc.
Maxwell House History

Espresso - coffee-brewing method of Italian origin

Espresso is a process of brewing coffee and is made by forcing high-pressured hot water through very finely ground coffee beans.

In 1884, Angelo Moriondo submits a patent for the first machine to brew large batches of coffee using steam and water. It held a name of "New steam machinery for the economic and instantaneous confection of coffee beverage, method 'A. Moriondo”. Moriondo’s machine was never produced commercially and no examples survive.

The espresso was invented by Milanese inventor, back in the early 20th century. The drink was created by businessman Luigi Bezzera who was experimenting with coffee to see how he could make his brew faster. He patented an improved espresso machine in 1901

The name "caffé espresso" translates to "pressed out coffee", referring to the water being pushed through the finely ground coffee at a very high pressure.

In 1903, he owned a manufacturing business, and it was frustrating him that making a cup of coffee would take up so much time. Later, he discovered that adding steam pressure to the machine not only cut the time it took to create the brew, but it also created a much stronger drink.

In 1905, Bezzera’s patent was bought by a Desidero Pavoni who started to produce espresso machines and founding “La Pavoni” company. He commercialized the world’s first espresso machine.

Espresso makes its debut at the 1906 World’s Fair in Milano. Luigi Bezzera and Desidero Pavoni have taken Moriondo’s idea and created a machine with a vertical boiler that brews a single cup of coffee in seconds. It is the first time people experience coffee made expressly for them: espresso.

The first espresso machine was installed in the United States in 1927. It was a "La Pavoni" machine and was installed at Reggio's in New York. By the 1940s, the process of making espresso had been properly fine-tuned, creating the espresso known and used cross the world.
Espresso - coffee-brewing method of Italian origin

History of coffee mill (coffee grinder)

The grinder is a tool of great importance in extracting the aroma and taste from coffee beans, allowing for the brewing of delicious, high-quality coffee.

The concept of the mill was introduced by the Greeks sometime around 1350 B.C. The first coffee grinder, dating back to the origins of coffee, was the mortar and pestle. People in Ethiopia, the Middle East, and early coffee drinking countries would use the small club and bowl to grind up coffee beans for brewing.

In the days of old, those who craved caffeination had to use stones to grind their coffee beans. Later, in the 15th century, the spice grinder was used in place of stones as it was able to grind coffee finer than its predecessor. In the 1400s in Turkey and Persia (Iran), individual bean servings were roasted in small round perforated metal saucers and then ground in cylinder-shaped mills.

The earliest coffee mill was invented by Nicholas Book, an Englishman, in the latter part of the 17th century. Nicholas Book publicized himself as the only man known to make mills that could grind coffee to powder.

Coffee mills were used commercially in the 1660s in London, where coffeehouses were popular community gathering places.

In 1798, the first U.S. patent for a coffee grinder was issued to Thomas Bruff of Maryland, who was Thomas Jefferson’s dentist. His wall-mounted device ground beans between metal nuts with coarse and fine teeth.

In 1815, Archibald Kenrich was granted a patent in England on “mills for grinding coffee.” Coffee mill is of the box type, the interior of bowl is enamelled white, the handle has been replaced by a wooden cotton reel, the drawer has been replaced by one of folded and soldered tinplate.

Many other inventors and companies put out their own manual devices throughout the 18th century. These were household items until the late 1800s, when American company Hobart produced the first electrical coffee grinder, leading a shift towards the grinders known today.

In 1905 a Coffee Mill patent designed by William Bussinger was registered by the United States Patent Office which consisted of a novel means for mounting the grinders and a bucket for catching grounds.
History of coffee mill (coffee grinder)

Arbuckles’

In 1859 John Arbuckle, a Pittsburgh grocer entered the wholesale grocery business, McDonald and Arbuckle, begun by his brother Charles, his uncle Duncan McDonald, and his friend William Roseburg.

McDonald and Roseburg retired from the firm a few years later leaving the business on the hands of the two yourthfull John and Charles assumed charge. Under the firm name Arbuckles & OC., soon made their firm one of the important wholesale grocery houses in Pennsylvania.

In 1864, John Arbuckle, then twenty one, bought a coffee roaster. He sold his coffee in little packages that were widely mocked by competitors due to their resemblance to peanut bags.

By 1868 John Arbuckle’s formula for a tasty roasted coffee and his keen business expertise had revolutionized the coffee industry.

A good cup of coffee meant daily roasting until 1868, when Arbuckle perfected a glutinous mixture made of Irish moss, gelatin, isinglass, white sugar and eggs for preserving the freshness of roast coffee.

Early in the seventies, the great business opportunities of New York City had attracted the two brothers and a branch was established in New York in charge of john Arbuckle, the main business in Pittsburg being left in the charge of his brother Charles.

Arbuckles’ was so successful that in the 1880s the company established branches in Kansas City and Chicago as well as ports in Brazil and Mexico.

In 1937 the General Foods Corporation acquired a number of Arbuckle Brothers brand names, including Yuban.
Arbuckles’

History of Coffee: Spreading of Coffee Consumption to England and France

History of Coffee: Spreading of Coffee Consumption to England and France
Around 1580 a physician and renowned botanist Prosper Alpin, who was director of a botanical garden of European plants in Padua (Italy) spent four years in Egypt where he accompanied the Consul of the Republic of Venice.

He studied Egyptian flora and described the coffee tree in his work Plants of Egypt published in Venice in 1592.

He noted that the coffee tree produces a fruit called bon or ban and “that Arabs and Egyptians use it to make a kind of infusion that is popular and that they drink in place of wine. This beverage is called caoua.”

In 1615, Venetian merchants who had come to appreciate the qualities of coffee in Istanbul imported from Mocha into Europe.

In 1660, the first shipment of coffee coming from Alexandria arrived in Marseille and the first coffeehouse there was opened in 1670.

For a short time, Marseille supplied the coffee for all of Europe.

The first coffeehouses were opened in Oxford, England in 1650, in London on 1652, and in Hamburg, Germany in 1677.

However, in 1643 there was already a tavern where coffee was consumed in North America, in the city of New Amsterdam at the site of the present Broadway of New York City.

This café was probably the most famous one in New York, the City Tavern which is presently the Fraunces Tavern.

Many coffeehouses were set up in North America during the 18th century.

In France, the ambassador of the Ottoman Empire, Soliman Aga, who arrived in Paris in 1669, offered coffee to all his guest and thus introduced it to the court and to the French High Society.

In Paris at the Saint-Germain Fair of 1672, an Armenian named Pascal opened the first public café which was called House of Caova that he later transferred to the quai du Lourve.

In 1689, an Italian named Procopio opened a deluxe café which is presently the Procope restaurant in the VIth district of Paris, 13 rue de l’Ancienne-Comedie.

Coffee consumption became widespread at Court during the reign of Louis the XVth. In order to please Madame Du Barry the King was said to have spent fifteen thousand pounds per year “for the good pleasure if these ladies”.

It is at this this time that coffee became popular throughout France.
History of Coffee: Spreading of Coffee Consumption to England and France

History of Coffee

Food History
The use of coffee as a refreshing beverage dates back at least 700 years although the first coffee house did not appear in London and Paris until about 1650. Its use as a food and as medicinal stimulant is lost in history. The roasting of coffee beans to give the aroma and flavor, which is universally recognized and appreciated, started during the 13th century and the quality of the aromatic profile is still a matter of expertise in carrying out this process.

Coffee is a large evergreen shrub of which Coffee Arabica, L. and C.robusta, L. are the most important commercial species existing in many varieties. Several other species are encountered but these are of less importance; the flavor of these beans is generally considered to be less coarse, bitter and much less acceptable than that of C.arabica.
Food History