This Is Coffee - 1961

[chuffle]

I enjoy my coffee, and brew it according to my mood. Sometimes, I use an electric percolator or a stove top pot. Other times, I use an auto drip machine (especially on work days) such as my Norelco Dial-a-Brew, Philips, or Cuisinart. I use vacuum sometimes, and other times a Chemex.

There is a really cool video out there, produced in 1961, titled "This Is Coffee." It has shots of different vintage brewing methods, and I thought that some folks here might enjoy seeing the video.

By the way, anyone here remember opening a can of coffee with a can key? I do, as once in a while, when I was a kid, my parents would purchase a can of coffee instead of their usual brand, which was Eight O'clock.

I hope you enjoy a vintage flick.

Joe

 

[perc-o-prince]

As a coffee lover....Thank you!!!!!

That was fun. I, too, will brew to my mood. Such great memories were brought back by watching her open the can with the key )

Thanks,
Rich

 

[danemodsandy]

Eight O'Clock - Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrh!

I was absolutely overjoyed when A & P sold off Eight O'Clock, making the coffee available to other grocery chains - I never could stand going into an A & P for any reason other than the coffee, and A & P pulled out of this area (Atlanta) some years ago anyway.

But does that mean you can find the Eight O'Clock coffee I like best - Bokar? It does not. The other blends are everywhere, but Bokar lovers just about have to order through the Internet.

I have complained to high Heaven, but no one at Eight O'Clock seems to care. The company is presently owned by the Tata Group, in India, the same people who own Jaguar and Land Rover now. I haven't had a cup of Bokar in quite a while now.

 

[laundromat]

8 O'Clock Coffee---

beans are my absolute favorite! i ,myself shopped at A&P for the soul reason of 8 O'Clock coffee beans and the great home made hamburgers the delli there made from fresh ground beef.Their homemade burgers were $.59 at that time back in the 70's.You can order Bokar on line at 8 O'clockcoffee.com!!

 

[danemodsandy]

Coffee Memories:

The Time: 1958

The Place: Mama Mac's kitchen, Washington Avenue, East Point, Georgia.

The Coffee: Chase & Sanborn

The Memory: The "whoosh" of a new can being opened with a key, releasing an aroma that drove me wild with desire - a desire that had to remain unrequited for a few more years, since I was six and wasn't allowed coffee yet. Even more heavenly than the grounds aroma was the smell of the Chase & Sanborn perking - even as a pre-pubescent child I knew this was one adult taste I would have no trouble acquiring. In another year or two, as a special treat for being good, I was allowed a little bit of Chase & Sanborn in a very large quantity of milk, with sugar. I liked it, liked it fine, but I stared thirstily at my mom's cup of black coffee. I knew in my heart of hearts that the brew in her cup was Coffee Rapture.

Today, I have my own percolator, and my own supply of Chase & Sanborn. Something isn't the same, and while I know coffee is not what it used to be, I suspect that being able to have all I want, any time I want, is half of what killed the magic. It doesn't help that the coffee aroma is no longer mixed with the smell of Rath bacon being fried and Mama Mac's biscuits baking and her scrambled eggs sizzling in butter, and the fragrance of home-grown canteloupe being cut up. There's not even much of a "whoosh" opening the can these days, and you don't get the fun of salvaging the key by unrolling the metal strip from it, giving your six-year-old self the means to unlock some magic castle.

At least I have the memories.

 

[danemodsandy]

laundromat:

Yes, I know I can order Bokar online. What I object to is that the other Eight O'Clock varieties are in the grocery store, instantly available, and no shipping fee added on to the purchase price. Only Bokar lovers are put through all that.

It stinketh.

 

[chuffle]

Bokar

I too have been looking for that darned coffee. Everywhere I go, if I find myself in a grocery store, I check the coffee aisle. Haven't found it yet. I know that I can order it online, but it galls me to have to pay the shipping charge on top of it all.

1958...What a wonderful story, thanks for sharing. It kind of made me go all bleary-eyed and fuzzy inside, causing me to remember those coffee aroma times at home when I was a kid.

Joe

 

[scott55405]

Thank you for posting this delightful video. I am going to post it at my cooking forum as well.

I had no idea 8 o'clock coffee started its life as an A&P brand, not that we ever had A&P where I lived. Learn something new every day. It is pretty good coffee.

 

[scott55405]

oh yes, I do just vaguely remember some coffee cans opened by key as a child.

 

[veroroger]

Bokar

I, too, am a Bokar lover and was devastated when the local A&P in Fort Pierce closed years ago. No Bokar and no Jane Parker Fruit Cake for Christmas!
However, I've found that Albertson's markets carry Bokar as a regular item so I have that joy back. Now, if someone could get Jane Parker Fruit Cake..... I didn't even know you could get it online. Hopefully, you have an Albertson's somewhere in your area.
Roger

 

[chuffle]

Glad...

that you have enjoyed it!

Joe

 

[kqkenmore]

No Bokar and no Jane Parker Fruit Cake for Christmas!

I miss the Jane Parker Iced cinnaimon Rasin bread from the A&P in Memphis Tn.Are there any A&P stores any where now? I miss them.

 

[chuffle]

Jane Parker

Spanish Bar Cake, and Pecan Danish Ring (Entenmann's Pecan Danish Ring is an acceptable substitute) always found their way into our breadbox.

Glad to see other Bokar lovers out there!

J

 

[jeffg]

Van de Kamp's chocolate frosted angel food cake

Anyone remember this cake? I think it was Van de Kamp's brand. My mom used to buy them at Von's Supermarkets in southern Calif during the 1970's and 80's.

The frosting is what I really miss, it was a light chocolate color and (I think) whipped. Very light and airy, but it wasn't sticky like a marshmallow frosting.

If anyone remembers this cake, or better yet, has a recipe that would approximate it, please share.

 

[volvoguy87]

A&P still exists!

They are in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut regions.

I have never shopped in one because there has never been one even close to near where I have lived.
Dave

 

[polkanut]

A brand that I can't find around here is Chock Full O' Nuts. I love the aroma of it. Is it available where the rest of you live?

 

[scott55405]

Chock Full O Nuts

Yes, we have that here, and we had it in Minnesota too. I have tried because I had a coupon, and it was pretty good. I believe I've also been served it in people's homes in the past as well.

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Does anybody else think that may have been

Captain Kirk narrating?

 

[polkanut]

Another brand that I can't find anymore is Maryland Club Butter-Nut Coffee. My Grandma Wilde, and her sister Helen, drank nothing else for years. Now, I can't find it in stores to save my life.

 

[mixfinder]

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Wal-Mart Superstores are the propietary distributer of 8 O'Clock Brand Coffee in the Northwest. Is very expensive. $4.99 looks like a great price until you look closer and realize its an 8 ounce bag. After driving 30 miles to a South King country hotbed of drive by shootings and grocery parking lots filled with gangs, 8 O'Clock didn't taste as good as I'd remembered.

 

[danemodsandy]

Scott:

"I had no idea 8 o'clock coffee started its life as an A&P brand, not that we ever had A&P where I lived."

"A & P" was short for "The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company," begun in 1859 as a purveyor of teas, the most popular beverage at that time. They expanded over the years, and in 1912, branched out into groceries, eventually becoming one of the planet's largest retaillers, with a whopping 16,000 stores in the early 1930s, including one in a building at Colonial Williamsburg (where the Craft House is today). It was all downhill from there, slowly at first, then faster and faster. By 1970 they were down to 4,000 stores; today it's only 460.

For many years, A & P was the most reliable grocery for many U.S. communities, with national brands at fair prices, store brands (including those Eight O'Clock coffees) that were consistently good, and a distribution setup that guaranteed fresh merchandise. Those things are givens now, but they were not in the first half of the twentieth century.

Here's a Wikipedia link if you ever want to know the whole story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Atlantic_and_Pacific_Tea_Company

 

[alr2903]

We are Maxwell house fans, Master blend, mild. Thanks for the video. Does anyone remember the Coffee Mate commercial in 1960 San Francisco the guy rides the street car the friend is not home, he looks for cream and finds coffee mate. this is as close as i could find

 

[danemodsandy]

A & Ps Were Everywhere:

Scott: If you don't think you ever had A & P where you are, keep your eyes peeled in the older parts of town. You will often see old early-'50s A & Ps that have been re-purposed, often as thrift stores or auto-parts places, that kind of thing. The stores from this era are usually fronted in yellow brick, and the plate-glass windows in front usually have some glass brick above them. A modest-size parking lot was originally adjacent to most stores; A & P understood the suburban lifestyle before most grocers did. In their day, these were extremely modern stores, air-conditioned and very clean. Here's one that was in Gainesville, GA, a place that hasn't seen an A & P probably in decades:

 

[danemodsandy]

Also Look For:

This "Colonial" style of A & P store; the company replaced a lot of older stores with this type in the late '50s and the '60s. You see these re-purposed all over Atlanta, usually with the cupola shorn off. This example has the current A & P logo on it; when these were new, they had a logo more in keeping with the Colonial architecture:

 

[jamiel]

A&P was definitely in Los Angeles until the mid 60s. They covered the entire country east of the Mississippi and were in Missouri/Kansas as well. Don't believe they had anything until you got out to LA/Seattle. They reached their peak in about 1960 or so and it's been a long decline from there. They were slow to move out of their first generation supermarkets and got caught in declining parts of cities with an increasingly obsolescent store base. At the same time, they really ramped up their private label business so were trying to sell more and more private label stuff as mass consumption/television ramped up. They started retreating in the mid-70s (oddly, leaving St. Louis Missouri much earlier than leaving Kansas City) and performed their last retreat 2 years ago (leaving Detroit and New Orleans) to be focused on the Washington-Boston corridor.

 

[chuffle]

Our A & P

left town in the mid 1970s, as I recall that they were still here while I was in high school (and I was graduated in 1974). The chain was running their WEO promotion, and we were wearing the WEO give-away buttons to our classes.

In a different time (the 1960s), I do remember my parents taking their glass gallon jug to the store, as in the back corner stood a large barrel with a pump on the top. The barrel contained cider vinegar, and one filled their own container, then paid for it at the register with other purchases.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911360,00.html

 

[norgeway]

A and P

I remember well our A@p store in Lenoir N.C. when I was A child,Oh to get a Jane Parker fruitcake again,there has never been another one as good,I also remember the coffee isle, with those big red commercial grinders, and hearing them run while grinding coffee for my grandmother,the store is gone now,but I have 8 o clock beans in my coffee grinder as we speak, strangely enough,I cant stand coffee in any form, but I love to make it for company because it smells so good,my mom used a Corning Electromatic percolator for years....But I use a Westinghouse.

 

[veroroger]

Maryland Club/Chock Full 'O Nuts

Polkanut: Last I was up there, Maryland Club/Butternut was available in the Super Valu stores as well as IGA. Of course, that was over 10 years ago but it was a big seller then and may still be available. I'm a Yooper by birth.
As far as Chock Full 'O Nuts, it's available everywhere down here EXCEPT WalMart. In fact, I just bought a can a few weeks ago on sale.

Alan: I do remember that Coffee Mate commercial. Didn't it run for several years and then, later, come back in another promotion?

Oh, I forgot about the Cinamon Raison rolls and Spanish Bar Cake! All these memories of the past pleasures....now I'll have to find someone in the northeast who shops at A&P to get these for me if they are still available.

 

[scott55405]

Thanks, Danemodsandy for all the info. I did read the Wikipedia article as well. Jamiel, I did learn there were stores in LA that later became Safeways. I can think of any number of them going by the article that could have been an A&P. I'll have to keep an eye open for any of those former small ones.

I grew up in Minneapolis area, where national chains did not generally do well or last long because for whatever reason we had several very dominant local chains.

 

[danemodsandy]

WEO:

Stood for Where Economy Originates. It was a recessionista ad campaign designed to lure shoppers who were hit hard by the steep inflation of the mid-'70. Most people today don't know, or they forget, but those wonderful '70s we remember were marked by a steep, stubborn recession, and an energy crisis. Gasoline was so scarce at times that many late-model luxury cars were sold for a song and replaced with smaller cars; the gas for a big car just might not be there. The inflation was so bad that there is a reference to it in the opening credits of later seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show; Mary is shown grocery-shopping, and in the meat department, she looks at a roast's price tag and rolls her eyes in frustration. At the time, everyone knew what that meant - the price had climbed way up since Mary's previous visit.

Scott: You're welcome, and if you ever see an older store building fronted in a strange, creamy yellow-tan brick, you'll know you're looking at an old A & P location. For some reason, Advance Auto Parts loves to remodel those buildings for their locations.