Chase & Sanborn’s Teas & Coffees, founded in 1878, was called “Seal Brand” by 1892 using the Chase family seal and Latin inscription, Ne cede malis. Do not yield to evil.
After Standard Brands purchased Chase & Sanborn in 1929, keeping the Seal Brand, they renamed the coffee product, Chase & Sanborn’s Dated Coffee.
What was Chase & Sanborn’s Dated Coffee?
The date the retail store received the coffee was printed in large numbers on the coffee can –a marvel not just of speed, but coffee-can printing and delivery systems. [see cans on eBay link, no affiliation] Dated Coffee was packaged “fresh from the roasting ovens” and delivered to stores twice per week. If the coffee was in the store 10 days after the date on the can, it was exchanged for fresh cans.
Print Advertising for Dated Coffee
Before 1929–before Standard Brands–Chase & Sanborn relied on a massive sales force, great distribution, and goodwill. But for print they only had booklets about the American Flag, Tricks and Puzzles for after dinner amusement, and other general booklets with just the smallest mention of Chase & Sanborn. There were also ink blotters. Nothing earth-shaking.
Advertising changed after the 1929 purchase. Standard Brands ran exciting full-page ads in national magazine and newspapers, although advertising wording seemed rocky at the beginning. The 1930 ad stated that Dated Coffee was “Direct from the roasting ovens… no storage stop overs…weeks fresher…” But the term “weeks fresher” posed a problem later, since in 1931, their magazine advertisements stated, “The development of rancidity in coffee is a matter of days, not months…” Even if it was dated and Chase & Sanborn Dated Coffee was the freshest roasted coffee in the marketplace–it could of concern if coffee became rancid after “a matter of days.”
Each “Dated” coffee–can held one pound. A peek under the top cover in a 1932 ad we see the coffee was ground. How many cups of coffee, or days, does it take to consume one pound of ground coffee? For drip coffee, it was about 30 cups [2 adults, 2 cups per day, about 1 week for one pound?] but percolated coffee reaped about 100 cups. The company recommended drinking up to 5 cups of coffee per day–perhaps that helped to use up the coffee can quicker before getting stale “in a matter of days.”
The 1931 “in a matter of days” set a time. No worries–by 1932 they dropped the “matter of days” phrase and wrote, “…in a comparatively short time after roasting, this oil begins to turn rancid.” Better, but still scary. Improving the ad again in 1933 they wrote that it was “the rancid oil in stale coffee.” In 1935 I found the first mention of it being “the perfect grind for drip, percolated and all other methods” and seemed to be their first year that the coffee was “put it in the inexpensive bag” because so fresh; and they passed the savings to the customer–getting the hang of it, there was finally no scary mention of rancidity. By 1941 they offered a new blend, and it was around then that “Dated” was dropped from the name.
By 1945 Chase & Sanborn’s Coffee was “pressure packed” for freshness, and you could test for freshness if the top of the can was in the shape of a dome. In 1946 an ad touted that the coffee was “shade-grown” which meant slow-grown, which meant mellow-grown, which meant flavor-grown. By 1949 it was still “shade-grown” and added that it was from pedigreed trees. The ground coffee was vacuum-packed with a little key attached to open the now flat top. In 1949 they also offered instant coffee. Being interested solely in Chase & Sanborn’s early history, my advertising research stopped there.
I recommend Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast [no affiliation] for Chase & Sanborn’s co.’s early history, along with other coffee companies.
Discussion at Reddit /CookingBOOKLETS
