All About Coffee Part 80

The Turks drink at meals and other times, is usually _Water_, and their Dyet consists much of _Fruit_, the _Crudities_ whereof are very much corrected by this Drink.

The quality of this Drink is cold and Dry; and though it be a Dryer, yet It neither _heats_, nor _inflames_ more then _hot Posset_.

It so closeth the Orifice of the Stomack, and fortifies the heat within, that it's very good to help digestion, and therefore of great use to be taken about 3 or 4 a Clock afternoon, as well as in the morning.

It much quickens the _Spirits_, and makes the Heart _Lightsome_. It is good against sore Eys, and the better if you hold your Head over it, and take in the Steem that way.

It suppresseth Fumes exceedingly, and therefore good against the _Head-ach_, and will very much stop any _Defluxion of Rheums_, that distil from the _Head_ upon the _Stomack_, and so prevent and help _Consumptions_; and the _Cough of the Lungs_.

It is excellent to prevent and cure the _Dropsy_, _Gout_, and _Scurvy_.

It is known by experience to be better than any other Drying Drink for _People in years_, or _Children_ that have any _running humors_ upon them, as the _Kings Evil_,&c.

It is very good to prevent _Mis-carryings_ in _Child-bearing Women_.

It is a most excellent Remedy against the _Spleen_, _Hypocondriack Winds_, or the like.

It will prevent _Drowsiness_, and make one fit for business, if one have occasion to _Watch_; and therefore you are not to Drink of it _after Supper_, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will hinder sleep for 3 or 4 hours.

_It is observed that in Turkey, where this is generally drunk, that they are not trobled with the Stone, Gout, Dropsie, or Scurvey, and that their Skins are exceedingly cleer and white._

It is neither _Laxative_ nor _Restringent_.

Made and sold in St. _Michaels Alley_ in _Cornhill_, by Pasqua Rosee, at the Signe of his own Head.

The noteworthy thing about this advertis.e.m.e.nt is, that in comparison with the best copy of today, it has high merit. For this early advertis.e.m.e.nt seems to have embodied in it superbly well those qualifications which modern advertising experts agree are essential requirements for success--measured in terms of sales to the consumer. We shall return to it later.

The first newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nt for coffee appeared in the form of a "reader" in the issue of _The Publick Adviser_, London, for the week of Tuesday, May 19, to Tuesday, May 26, 1657. _The Publick Adviser_ was a weekly pamphlet partaking of the nature of a commercial news-letter. The advertis.e.m.e.nt was sandwiched between a reader advertising a doctor of physick and one for an "artificer," the latter being a ladies'

hair-dresser. It was as follows:

In _Bartholomew_ Lane on the back side of the Old Exchange, the drink called _Coffee_, (which is a very wholesom and Physical drink, having many excellent vertues, closes the Orifice of the Stomack, fortifies the heat within, helpeth Digestion, quickneth the Spirits, maketh the heart lightsom, is good against Eye-sores, Coughs, or Colds, Rhumes, Consumptions, Head-ach, Dropsie, Gout, Scurvy, Kings Evil, and many others is to be sold both in the morning, and at three of the clock in the afternoon.)

About the time that Pascal opened the first coffee house in Paris in 1672, the Paris shop-keepers began to advertise coffee by broadsides. A good example is the following,[345] the text of which closely resembles the original by Pasqua Rosee:

_The most excellent Virtue of the Berry called_ Coffee.

_Coffee_ is a Berry which only grows in the desert of _Arabia_, from whence it is transported into all the Dominions of the Grand Seigniour, which being drunk dries up all the cold and moist humours, disperses the wind, fortifies the Liver, eases the dropsie by its purifying quality, 'tis a Sovereign medicine against the itch, and corruptions of the blood, refreshes the heart, and the vital beating thereof, it relieves those that have pains in their Stomach, and cannot eat; It is good also against the indispositions of the brain, cold, moist, and heavy, the steam which rises out of it is good against the _Rheums_ of the eyes, and drumming in the ears: 'Tis excellent also against the shortness of the breath, against _Rheums_ which trouble the Liver, and the pains of the Spleen; It is an extraordinary ease against the Worms: After having eat or drunk too much: Nothing is better for those that eat much Fruit.

The daily use hereof in a little while will manifest the aforesaid effect to those, that being indisposed shall use it from time to time.

The following are typical London trade advertis.e.m.e.nts of 1662 and 1663.

The first is from the _Kingdom's Intelligencer_ of June 5, 1662, and reads as follows:

At the Exchange Ally from Cornhill into Lumber Street neer the Conduit, at the Musick-Room belonging to the Palsgrave's Hall, is sold by retayle the right coffee powder; likewise that termed the Turkey Berry, well cleansed at 30d. per pound ... the East India berry (so called) of the best sorts at 20d. per pound, of which at present in divers places there is very bad, which the ignorant for cheapness do buy, and is the chief cause of the now bad coffee drunk in many plaies (sic).

The _Intelligencer_ for December 21, 1663, contained the following advertis.e.m.e.nt:

There is a Parcel of Coffee-Berry to be put to publique sale upon Wednesday, the 23, instant, at 6 a clock in the evening at the Globe Coffee-house at the end of St. Bartholomew Lane, over against the North Gate of the Royall Exchange.... And if any desire to be further informed they may repair to Mr. Brigg, Publique Notary at the said Globe Coffee-house.

Dufour's treatise on _The Manner of Making Coffee, Tea and Chocolate_, published in Lyons, 1684, was generally regarded as propaganda for the beverage; and, indeed, it proved an excellent advertis.e.m.e.nt, being quickly translated into English and several other languages.

In 1691 we find advertised in the _Livre Commode_ of Paris a portable coffee-making outfit to fit the pocket.

The first coffee periodical, _The New and Curious Coffee House_, was issued at Leipzig by Theophilo Georgi in 1707, being a kind of house organ for what was, perhaps, the first kaffee-klatsch; the publisher-proprietor, however, admitted that the idea of making his coffee salon a resort for the literati was obtained from Italy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST NEWSPAPER ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT SOLELY FOR COFFEE IN THE UNITED STATES

_New York Daily Advertiser_, February 9, 1790]

In chapter X we have described a number of broadsides, handbills, and pamphlets having to do with the introduction of the coffee drink into London between 1652 and 1675. The advertising student would do well to refer to them because they serve to show how completely the true merits of the beverage were lost sight of by those who urged its more fantastic claims. It is interesting to note, however, that this early copy was of a high order of typographical excellence; indeed, the display letter used for the word coffee is often like that found in copy in the United States two hundred and fifty years after. Also, it should be noted that "apt 'ill.u.s.tration's' artful aid" was first employed in 1674. Again, note this curious contrast. Two hundred and sixty-nine years ago all the resources of advertising were being laid under contribution to make propaganda for coffee as the great _cure_ for many ailments of which nowadays the enemies of coffee would have us believe coffee is the cause! Those who have possessed themselves of the facts about coffee know that both arguments are equally fantastic.

Coffee was mentioned in shop-keepers' announcements appearing in the _Boston News Letter_ as early as 1714, and in other newspapers of the colonies during the eighteenth century, usually being offered for sale at retail with strange companions. In 1748 "tea, coffee, indigo, nutmegs, sugar, etc.," were advertised for sale at a shop in Dock Square, Boston. The following advertis.e.m.e.nt from the _Columbian Centinel_, Boston, April 26, 1794, is typical:

GROCERIES AT NO. 44 _CORNHILL_ Norton and Holyoke Respectfully inform their friends and the publick, that they have for sale, at their Shop, No. 44 _Cornhill_, formerly the Post-Office.

A GENERAL a.s.sORTMENT OF GROCERIES among which are the following articles: Teas, Spices, Coffee, Cotton, Indigo, Starch, Chocolate, Raisins, Figs, Almonds, and Olives; West India Rum, best French Brandy, excellent Cherry Wine, pure as imported, etc., etc., all which they will sell as low as any store in Boston.

_Any article not liked will be taken again, and the money returned._

It appears that the first advertis.e.m.e.nt dealing with coffee alone was published in the _New York Daily Advertiser_ for February 9, 1790; and this was primarily an advertis.e.m.e.nt of a wholesale coffee roasting factory rather than an advertis.e.m.e.nt of coffee per se.

This advertis.e.m.e.nt, and a later one published in Loudon's _New York Packet_ for January 1, 1791, also of a coffee manufactory, are reproduced herewith.

Not until package coffee began to come into vogue in the sixties was there any change in the stereotyped business-card form followed by all dealers in coffee. And even then the monotony was varied only by inserting the brand name, such as "Osborn's Celebrated Prepared Java Coffee. Put up only by Lewis A. Osborn"; "Government coffee in tin foil pound papers put out by Taber & Place's Rubia Mills."

_Evolution of Coffee Advertising_

Real progress in coffee advertising, as in publicity for other lines of trade and industry, began in the United States. Here too, it has been brought to its lowest degradation and to its highest efficiency. The entire process has taken something less than fifty years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARLY COFFEE ADVERTISING IN UNITED STATES

Printed in the _New York Packet_, January 1, 1791]

The first step forward was the picture handbill. The handbill, or dodger, had been common enough in England and on the Continent, where, for upward of two hundred years it had served as an advertising medium, in company with the more robust broadside, and in compet.i.tion with the pamphlet and newspaper. It remained for America, however, to glorify the handbill by means of colored pictures; and one of the earliest and best specimens of the picture handbill is the Arbuckle circular here ill.u.s.trated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST HANDBILL IN COLORS FOR PACKAGE COFFEE ABOUT 1872]

Soon the handbill copy began to appear in the newspapers, but mostly without the ill.u.s.trations. Later newspaper developments were to introduce more of the picture element, decorative border, and design.

The ideas of European artists were freely drawn upon, but put to so utilitarian uses that their originators would scarce have recognized them.

In the _Ladies Home Journal_ for December, 1888, the Great London Tea Company, Boston, an early mail-order house, advertised, "We have made a specialty since 1877 of giving premiums to those who buy tea and coffee in large quant.i.ties." In the same issue, there was an advertis.e.m.e.nt of Seal Brand and Crusade Brand coffee by Chase & Sanborn, Boston. Dilworth Bros., Pittsburgh, were also among the early users of magazine s.p.a.ce.

The menace of the cereal coffee-subst.i.tute evil had grown to such proportions at the beginning of the twentieth century, that the coffee men began to be concerned about it. Misleading and untruthful "subst.i.tute" copy was freely accepted by nearly all media. The package labels were as bad, if not worse. With the advent of the pure food law of 1906, the cereal label abuse was reformed; but not until the "truth in advertising" movement became a power to be reckoned with, nearly ten years later, were the coffee men granted a substantial measure of protection in the magazines and newspapers. Meanwhile, many coffee men, lacking organization and a knowledge of the facts about coffee, unwittingly played into the hands of the subst.i.tute-fakers by publishing unfortunate defensive copy which made confusion worse confounded in the consumer's mind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REVERSE SIDE OF THE ARBUCKLE HANDBILL (IN COLORS) OF 1872]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ST. LOUIS HANDBILL OF 1854]