Industry and Brands

History of Coffee and Coffeehouses

Course 1 · Chapter 8 · Industry, Brands and Chains

In the twentieth century coffee became a mass-market product, sold in vacuum cans and jars and later served by international chains. This chapter looks at the industry's development: roasting at scale, instant coffee, advertising, commodity trading and the café chain. Dates and companies are flagged "check".

Key Ideas

Roasting at scale

Companies roasted and packaged coffee for sale in shops, replacing home roasting in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (check). Vacuum packing and cans kept it fresh longer.

Instant coffee

Instant coffee grew through the First World War and became widespread after Nescafé launched in 1938 (check). Armies on both sides supplied it to soldiers in the Second World War (check).

Chains

Starbucks was founded in Seattle in 1971 and was transformed in the 1980s under Howard Schultz, who drew on Italian espresso bars (check). Many national and local chains followed.

At a Glance

DevelopmentEffect (check each)
Commodity marketsCoffee is traded as a commodity, and price swings affect farmers.
International Coffee AgreementA 1962 agreement tried to stabilise prices; it broke down in 1989 (check).
SupermarketsBrand and price competition in a mass market.
Chains and podsConvenience and consistency; capsule machines grew from the 1970s onward (check).
Who captures the value? Most of the price of a cup in a chain goes to retail, labour and rent, with a small share to the growers. Look for reliable breakdowns before quoting a figure.

Further Points

  • Advertising. Coffee was marketed as a drink for energy, family and romance.
  • Britain. Britain was long a tea-drinking country; instant coffee dominated until the 1990s, and the high-street chain then changed habits (check).
  • Waste. Pods and cups raise environmental questions.
A British comparison In Britain, the shift from instant coffee and the Italian-style espresso bars of the 1950s to the national chains of the 1990s is a clear local example of this story (check).
Check the details Dates, names and figures here are from general knowledge and flagged "check". Verify them against specialist histories and primary sources, and label unproven stories as "claimed".

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain how instant coffee changed the market for coffee in the twentieth century.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

What does the International Coffee Agreement show about coffee as a commodity?

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Find a breakdown of where the price of a takeaway coffee goes and comment on its reliability.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Instant: Nescafé 1938 (check)
  • Agreement: 1962 to 1989 (check)
  • Starbucks: 1971; Schultz in the 1980s (check)
  • Question: who captures the value?