We last left off at the Industrial Revolution and the need for
coffee to keep workers awake.
Today we pick up at the Gold Rush. When people caught wind of gold
in the west, there was a race to the hills and of course they needed their
coffee to stay awake at the sluice box.
James Folger, the youngest of three brothers who had come west to
seek his fortune. He realized quickly, however, that he could make his fortune
by bringing coffee to the miners working day and night. He would roast and
grind coffee, then package and haul it by the pound to those at the mines. A
fresh egg would sell for as much as thirty cents on the trail during that time,
so as you might imagine, a whole pound of coffee brought a much higher
price.
On the tails of this increase in coffee consumption were rich
investors, trading in coffee as a family business. The Sandborne brothers were
up and coming coffee investors who developed the concept of pre-staled coffee.
Folgers and other companies like them, roasted and packaged their ground coffee
specifically for the consumer, but the Sandborne brothers went one step further
with their Mocha Java brand. This pre-staled product allowed for quicker packaging after
roasting, which meant more coffee on the shelves.
One of the Sandborne brothers took his daughter to their coffee plantation
in Brazil for a tour of the production. Upon seeing the great misfortune of the
farmers and how poorly they were treated, she wrote in her journal,
"Someone must do something."
It is no secret that fair market goods are dedicated to giving the
farmer or industrial worker a fair price for their labor. Sandborne's daughter
imagined a market in which this would be the normal treatment for each laborer,
whether in the field, the warehouse, or the office.
Join us next time when we discuss America's consumption during
wartime and how instant coffee got its start.
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