The Legacy of Johann Jacobs: From Rural Beginnings to a Coffee Empire

Johann Jacobs (1869-1958) was born in a rural community outside Bremen, Germany. In 1895, he established Jacobs Kaffee, which would become one of Europe's leading coffee companies. Jacobs initially opened a small coffee shop where he sold coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, and biscuits. Recognizing the potential of offering freshly roasted coffee, he began roasting his own beans. This innovation led to the Jacobs name becoming synonymous with quality coffee throughout much of Europe.

In 1930, Johann’s nephew, Walther Jacobs, joined the firm. Walther brought with him insights from the United States, particularly the importance of advertising. With his fresh perspective, the company adopted aggressive sales techniques, slick packaging, and memorable slogans like “Jacobs Kaffee – satisfaction Down to the Last Bean.” These strategies helped the company expand significantly, even during the challenging times of Hitler’s Third Reich.

The company's growth continued throughout the 20th century. In 1982, Jacobs Kaffee merged with the Swiss company Suchard-Tobler, forming Jacobs Suchard. This merger expanded Jacobs' reach further into the European market, combining their coffee expertise with Suchard's confectionery knowledge. Today, the legacy of Johann Jacobs lives on, with Jacobs Kaffee remaining a prominent brand in the global coffee market, known for its commitment to quality and innovation.
The Legacy of Johann Jacobs: From Rural Beginnings to a Coffee Empire

John Arbuckle

John Arbuckle was the son of a well to-do Scottish woolen-mill owner in Allegheny, Pa, where he was born, July 11, 1839.

He received a common school education in Pittsburgh and Allegheny.

In 1860, John Arbuckle entered the wholesale grocery business McDonald and Arbuckle, begun by his brother Charles, his uncle Duncan McDonald and his friend William Roseburg.

The uncle and friend left the business and John and Charles assumed charge.

Prior to the sixties coffee was not generally sold roasted or ground, ready for the coffee pot. Except in the big cities, most housewives bought their coffee green, and roasted it in their kitchen stoves as needed.

By 1865, John Arbuckle had satisfied himself at a carefully roasted coffee, packed while still warm in small individual containers would measurably overcome the objections to selling loose coffee in a roasted state. 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.

In 1868 he patented a process of glazing coffee, which had for its object the preservation of the flavor and aroma of coffee by sealing the pores of the coffee bean.

John Arbuckle was viewed as quite a trendsetter when he started selling his Ariosa brand coffee beans in brown paper bags.

Arbuckle was also the first coffee seller to realize the impact of sophisticated advertising.  His marketing campaigns emphasized the power of standard coffee and featured ads ridiculing the failed attempts of housewives at roasting their own beans.

In 1873, Arbuckle combined heart Rios and Santos beans to produce a blend called Ariosa. It was the first successful national brand of packaged coffee in the United States.

Ariosa became one of the best selling coffees in the United States, from the East Coast to as far as the western frontier, where cowboys boiled strong Ariosa coffee over their campfires and the Southwest, where Navajos built dwellings out of empty Ariosa wooden crates.

Arbuckles’ was so successful that in the 1880s the company established branches in New York, Kansas City and Chicago as well as ports in Brazil and Mexico. John Arbuckle died at his home Brooklyn home, March 27 1912.
John Arbuckle

Joel Cheek and Maxwell House

Joel Cheek the coffee’s originator was a former horseback salesman of wholesale groceries who has a remarkable gift for marketing research.

In 1873, at the age of 21, after college, he left his Burkesville, Ky., home and headed south to Nashville to seek his fortune.

He knew that America was ripe for a mild and uniform coffee flavor produced by blending several types.

Within a year he was peddling his own coffee in the area. Among his clients was the plush Maxwell House of Nashville, which catered to everybody from itinerant musicians to European nobility.

In 1892, he believed he had found the perfect blend. He approached and convinced the management of one of Nashville’s best hotels, the Maxwell House, to give his latest blend a try.

The reaction of Maxwell House guests to the new coffee as so enthusiastic that the hotel owner decreed that no other brand be served in his dining room, and Maxwell House brand coffee was born.

When Joel Cheek started his coffee business in Nashville, it was a modest business indeed.

But it was good coffee - so good that the Maxwell House, famed for food and hospitality, would serve no other brand.

Joel Cheek prospered, first as Joel Cheek & Sons, later as a partner in Cheek-Neal Co. Joel Cheek proved to be a promotional and advertising genius as his push to associate his coffee with socially prominent landmark indicated.

By 1914 the 61 year old Joel Cheek had become a very wealthy man. He was elected vice president of the National Coffee Roasters Association.

In 1928, Maxwell House was sold for the multimillion sums to Postum Co., late to become General Foods.
Joel Cheek and Maxwell House