American Coffee- History of Coffee in The United States of America

Now this video was a blast to make. Pairing my love of history, America, and coffee was an absolute joy for me. I did however mention that I was not able to get all the info in the video that I wanted. So here's a few more bit of facts that I did manage to find.



In 1793, a little coffee house called the Merchants Coffee house was born in New York City. It served as a meeting place for a bunch of stockbrokers. The coffee must have been quite good because it helped birth the Buttonwood Agreement. Now this agreement bound the people who signed it to only trade with each other. With this agreement, the once bunch of stockbrokers meeting for a cup of joe grew exponentially. To the point where they created their own board known as the New York Stock and Exchange Board, now known as the New York Stock Exchange. It is now the largest stock exchange in the world. Sadly, the birthplace of this Exchange had to be demolished in the 1850's.



Speaking of New Yorkians, the Burns coffee roaster was invented in 1864 by a New Yorker by the name of Jabez Burns. What he invented was essentially the grandfather of the current coffee roaster. It was the first coffee roaster that did not have to be moved away from a fire source in order to discharge the newly roasted coffee beans.



The first mass produced coffee in America was not Folgers or Maxwell House but a coffee called Arbuckles coffee. Founded by John Arbuckle in 1871, his coffee was the first paper packaged and mass produced coffee in America. He also was the first importer of American coffee by buying out all the South American merchant ships carrying coffee.



Jump WAY ahead to 1966 and you'll meet Albert Peet. He was the founder of Peet's coffee and is known as the 'grandfather' of the specialty coffee industry. Just 5 years later, he taught three of his buddies how to roast coffee. Those guys, Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker got broken into the coffee roasting business over the Christmas holiday that year. After learning the ropes, Albert gives them his blessing to start their own business, which we now know as Starbucks coffee. Of course we know how big Starbucks got, and in 1984, led by Jerry Baldwin, these owners of Starbucks buy their mentor's business, Peet's.



I hope you really enjoyed the read and that you check out the video along with my other videos on coffee around the world. If you have any thoughts or ideas for a video or a blog post, please comment down below. I'd love to explore new ideas! And go brew up some love for somebody!