After the Civil War was over two brothers, John and Charles Arbuckle of Pittsburgh, opened a new business. Until that time, if you liked to drink coffee, you purchased your coffee beans green, roasted them in a skillet over a fire or in a wood stove, and ground them up for brewing. The coffee you ended up with was only as good as the cook, and one burnt bean could ruin the whole batch.
The Arbuckle brothers, who were partners in a grocery business, had a great new idea. They glazed the green coffee beans with a mixture of egg and sugar to seal in the flavor, roasted the beans themselves, and sold it in convenient 1-lb bags, sealed to ensure freshness.
Both their roasting methods and their packaging processes were patented. Each bag contained a stick of peppermint candy which enterprising cooks used to bribe volunteers to grind the coffee. Each package also had coupons printed on it which could be redeemed for everything from handkerchiefs and razors to scissors and wedding rings. By the 1880s, the Arbuckle brothers were roasting over 800,000 pounds of coffee a day!
Chuckwagon cooks would set a coffee pot full of water on the fire and grind the beans while the water heated to a boil. Then they’d spoon in enough ground coffee to make a beverage “strong enough to put hair on a man’s chest.” My father used to tell me that after the coffee had brewed up nice and dark, they’d break an egg over the top. The egg spread out over the surface and boiled, then it would sink to the bottom of the pot, taking the grounds with it.
Ah! A good cup every time! Nothing better on a cold morning on the open range. 🙂
Arbuckles’ Ariosa Blend Coffee became so popular in the Old West that many cowboys would just ask for “a cup of Arbuckles’” as if there were no other coffee worth mentioning. Thus it was that Arbuckles’ became known as the Original Cowboy Coffee.
Teaching Tip:
It isn’t often that you get a chance to literally taste history, but you can still order Arbuckles’ Ariosa Blend online. It even still comes with a peppermint stick inside. You might try some! Whether you like it or not, it’ll be a distinctive taste of the Old West you’ll never forget. (Bonus points for trying the egg trick.)
