Scanning Around With Gene: Coffee in My Cup

Originally published January 8, 2010

I’m a latecomer to the whole coffee thing, having taken up the beverage in my thirties, mostly out of boredom after meals as I sat playing with my napkin while others enjoyed their hot drink.

But after the slow beginning I was hooked, and soon I lined up at Starbucks for my daily coffee fix along with everyone else. In honor of us addicts, today’s column surveys coffee advertising from 1942 to 1963 that I’ve culled from various magazines. Click on any image for a larger version.

At the beginning of this period, coffee was still being presented pretty much as a stimulant, which was pitched as a good thing. If you needed a little extra boost to get the housework done or plow through a tedious day, there was nothing like a good cup of coffee.

Coffee has always been pitched as a social drink, as well, as seen in this series from the early 1960s.

We like to think that it’s only recently that you can get a really good cup of coffee, but before the ’50s and the advent of “convenience” supermarket-style products, most coffee was sold locally and was of decent quality. Many coffee ads focused on quality, and some of the coffee-growing regions began promoting the benefits of their own beans. Below, for example, is an ad from 1946 promoting shade-grown coffee beans.

Like most other kitchen-related activities, making coffee was seen as women’s work, though when instant coffee first came around it was pitched as easy enough that even a man could make a cup.

By the late ’40s, the stimulant qualities of coffee were beginning to be a drag on some people, so a whole movement started around decaf and the benefits it brought. Suddenly caffeine was the devil.

There were a few interesting coffee missteps, such as coffee in the form of tea bags, the toaster/coffee pot, Pream milk substitute, and something called Kaffee Hag that was probably suppose to sound exotic, but instead came out as plain unappealing.

I’m afraid I’ve become a bit of a coffee snob, though when desperate I’m not adverse to microwaving day-old coffee that’s been sitting in the pot. Despite all the advertising and pretense that coffee is a beverage we drink for enjoyment, I sometimes have to face that it’s just another addiction. But at least now I have something to do after meals with friends.