Mr. Coffee

Last updated
Mr. Coffee
Type Subsidiary
Founded1970;53 years ago (1970) in Cleveland, Ohio U.S. [1]
Founder Samuel Glazer
Vincent Marotta
Headquarters
Cleveland, Ohio
,
United States
Products coffee makers, espresso makers, iced tea makers
Parent Newell Brands
Website mrcoffee.com

Mr. Coffee is a registered trademark of Newell Brands. The Mr. Coffee brand manufactures automatic-drip kitchen coffee machines, as well as other products. The brand was founded in the early 1970s. Mr. Coffee has often been referenced in popular culture and has been promoted by celebrities such as Joe DiMaggio and Dave Kovack.[ citation needed ]

Contents

History

Mr coffee-1970.svg
Mr. Coffee logo used from 1970 to 2015
A typical Mr. Coffee machine Mr. Coffee machine.jpg
A typical Mr. Coffee machine

Vincent Marotta and Samuel Glazer founded a company in Cleveland, Ohio [2] focused on coffee delivery called North American Systems (NAS) in the early 1970s. [3] At this time, Marotta had an idea to create an automatic drip coffeemaker. Marotta and Glazer hired two former Westinghouse engineers, Edmund Abel and Edwin Schulze, to engineer the idea. [4] [5] In 1972, the Mr. Coffee brand drip coffeemaker was made available for home use. [6] Prior to this machine, coffee was primarily made in a percolator, which often gave it a bitter and burned flavor. The new Mr. Coffee machine produced a much more uniform brewing temperature which resulted in a predictable flavor. Unlike later models, this original offering, with its distinctive yellow and white gingham decal, used gravity to immediately pull water through a heating section and allowed to drip freely into carafe below. Later units used thermosyphons (similar to the principle operating geysers) to carry water up from a reservoir as it reached boiling point in the lift tube. It was identical to the percolator principle but without the endless recirculation and reheating of the coffee.

In 1973, Marotta convinced former professional baseball player Joe DiMaggio [7] to become an advertising spokesman for the brand. This coffee maker sold more than one million units by April 1974. [8]

A succession of products from 1992 to 1995 — the Potato Perfect, the Mr. Coffee Juicer, Food Dehydrator by Mr. Coffee, Bread maker by Mr. Coffee, and Mrs. Tea Hot Tea Maker — contributed about one-third of Mr. Coffee's total annual sales of $174 million by 1995. The device variation for tea called Mrs. Tea differed from the Mr. Coffee branded appliance only in detail as the company claims the drip process works equally well for tea as for coffee, [9] although the result is often a darker, samovar type of tea.

In the 1980s, Mr. Coffee endured a leveraged buyout and two significant changes in ownership before being acquired by Health O Meter Products, Inc. (eventually known as Signature Brands USA) in 1994. [10] In 1998 Sunbeam Corporation (eventually known as American Household, Inc.) purchased Signature Brands. In January 2005, Jarden acquired American Household, Inc. [11]

Since 2009

Recently[ when? ], the Mr. Coffee product development team altered how their drip coffee maker works with a method dubbed "Optimal Brew." The coffee maker does not use the previously mentioned traditional method of routing the water over a heating coil under the warming plate. Instead, a small flash boiling chamber flash heats the water to deliver the water to the beans within a temperature range of 195–200 °F. [12] Heating the water this way allows 10 cups to be brewed in generally less than eight minutes, depending on the barometric pressure. [13] Once brewed the coffee stays warm in a thermal carafe without requiring a heating plate which could potentially burn the coffee.

2012 recall

In 2012, more than 600,000 Mr. Coffee Single Cup Brewing System models were voluntarily recalled in the United States and Canada. A malfunction caused the machines to build up steam and potentially spew water and grounds out of the brewing chamber. There was a 164 reports of the malfunction made, among which there were 61 injuries including facial and hand burns. [14]

The Mr. Coffee name is mentioned in The Bloodhound Gang's song "The Bad Touch", in the full version of the Cheers theme song, the Marah song "Christian St." and in the title of Raymond Carver's short story "Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit." Mr. Coffee is mentioned in the American TV sitcom Seinfeld ("The Maestro". Seinfeld. Season 7. Episode 3. 5 October 1995. NBC.) In Hoyle Card Games 2011, Rhett said "That's worse than Mr. Coffee". [15]

A Mr. Coffee branded appliance appears in a scene in the 1995 feature film Apollo 13 ; a number of critics pointed out that this was inaccurate as the film's story occurred in 1970 and the Mr. Coffee appliance was not introduced until 1972. [16] It also featured in a nostalgic discussion between the two main characters of the 2017 novel Entertaining Welsey Shaw.

There have been several parodies in popular media, such as in the Back to the Future trilogy as Mr. Fusion (which was actually made for the movie from a Krups coffee grinder), [17] and in Spaceballs as Mr. Radar, Mr. Rental, and Mr. Coffee itself. In the Futurama movie The Beast with a Billion Backs , one character can be seen using a Mr. Wino machine to make wine directly from grapes.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French press</span> Coffee brewing device

A French press, also known as a cafetière, cafetière à piston, caffettiera a stantuffo, press pot, coffee press, or coffee plunger, is a coffee brewing device, although it can also be used for other tasks. In 1923 Ugo Paolini, an Italian, filed patent documents relating to a tomato juice separator and he developed the idea of making a coffee pot with a press action and a filter. He assigned his 1928 patent to Italian designer Attilio Calimani and Giulio Moneta who filed it in 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brewed coffee</span> Drink made by pouring hot water onto ground coffee beans

Brewed coffee is made by pouring hot water onto ground coffee beans, then allowing to brew. There are several methods for doing this, including using a filter, a percolator, and a French press. Terms used for the resulting coffee often reflect the method used, such as drip brewed coffee, filtered coffee, pour-over coffee, immersion brewed coffee, or simply coffee. Water seeps through the ground coffee, absorbing its constituent chemical compounds, and then passes through a filter. The used coffee grounds are retained in the filter, while the brewed coffee is collected in a vessel such as a carafe or pot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coffee percolator</span> Coffee brewing device

A coffee percolator is a type of pot used for the brewing of coffee by continually cycling the boiling or nearly boiling brew through the grounds using gravity until the required strength is reached.

Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company is an American designer, marketer and distributor of home appliances and commercial restaurant equipment marketed primarily in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, including blenders, mixers, toasters, slow cookers, clothes irons, and air purifiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cup (unit)</span> Cooking measure of volume

The cup is a cooking measure of volume, commonly associated with cooking and serving sizes. In the US, it is traditionally equal to one-half US pint (236.6 ml). Because actual drinking cups may differ greatly from the size of this unit, standard measuring cups may be used, with a metric cup being 250 millilitres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neapolitan flip coffee pot</span> Flip-over coffeemaker that relies on gravity

The Neapolitan flip coffee pot is a drip brew coffeemaker for the stove top that was very popular in Italy until last century. Unlike a moka express, a napoletana does not use the pressure of steam to force the water through the coffee, relying instead on gravity.

Bunn-O-Matic Corporation is an American manufacturer of dispensed beverage equipment headquartered in Springfield, Illinois with a plant in Creston, Iowa. The company was founded in 1957 by George R. Bunn, who designed his own versions of equipment that had been in existence for nearly fifty years: paper coffee filters and pour-over drip coffee brewers. Today, the corporation's products are sold under the BUNN and Bunn-O-Matic brands. The company's home coffeemakers are used throughout the United States and Canada, but the company's primary customers are institutional foodservice providers worldwide. The company introduced their first automatic drip-brew coffee maker in 1963. The company introduced their first drip brewer for the home market in 1972. The current president and CEO is Arthur H. Bunn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tassimo</span> Single-serve coffee system

The Tassimo Hot Beverage System is a consumer single-serve coffee system that prepares one-cup servings of espresso, regular coffee, tea, hot chocolate and various other coffee drinks, notably those including milk such as latte or cappuccino. The brand is owned by JDE Peet's in most of the world and Kraft Heinz in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coffee preparation</span> Process of turning coffee beans into a beverage

Coffee preparation is the process of turning coffee beans into a beverage. While the particular steps vary with the type of coffee and with the raw materials, the process includes four basic steps: raw coffee beans must be roasted, the roasted coffee beans must then be ground, and the ground coffee must then be mixed with hot or cold water for a specific time (brewed), the liquid coffee extraction must be separated from the used grounds, and finally, if desired, the extracted coffee is combined with other elements of the desired beverage, such as sweeteners, dairy products, dairy alternatives, or toppings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vacuum coffee maker</span> Device used to brew coffee

A vacuum coffee maker brews coffee using two chambers where vapor pressure and gravity produce coffee. This type of coffee maker is also known as vac pot, siphon or syphon coffee maker, and was invented by Loeff of Berlin in the 1830s. These devices have since been used for more than a century in many parts of the world. Design and composition of the vacuum coffee maker varies. The chamber material is borosilicate glass, metal, or plastic, and the filter can be either a glass rod or a screen made of metal, cloth, paper, or nylon. The Napier Vacuum Machine, presented in 1840, was an early example of this technique. While vacuum coffee makers generally were excessively complex for everyday use, they were prized for producing a clear brew, and were quite popular until the middle of the twentieth century. Vacuum coffee makers remain popular in some parts of Asia, including Japan and Taiwan. The Bauhaus interpretation of this device can be seen in Gerhard Marcks' Sintrax coffee maker of 1925.

Keurig is a beverage brewing system for home and commercial use. The machines are manufactured by the American company Keurig Dr Pepper. The main Keurig products are: K-Cup pods, which are single-serve coffee containers; other beverage pods; and the proprietary machines that use these pods to make beverages.

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1981–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts. Formed in July 2018 with the merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Keurig Dr Pepper offers over 125 hot and cold beverages. The company's Canadian business unit subsidiary operates as Keurig Dr Pepper Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfonso Bialetti</span> Italian engineer (1888-1970)

Alfonso Bialetti was an Italian engineer who became famous for the invention of the Moka Express coffeemaker. Designed in 1933, the coffee pot has been a style icon since the 1950s. While many variations of the Moka have been developed, including the Bialetti cow-printed Mukka Express, the Moka Express is a time-honoured classic. Bialetti was also the founder of Bialetti Industries, the now giant Italian kitchen-ware company.

Russell Hobbs is a British manufacturer of household appliances. Formed in 1952 by William Russell and Peter Hobbs, it became the primary kettle maker in the United Kingdom marketplace in the 1960s. Subjected to many corporate acquisitions through its history, its head office is currently sited in Failsworth, England, having moved its manufacturing operation to East Asia.

Capresso markets high-end coffeemakers, espresso machines, grinders, electric water kettles, and frothers. The company is owned by Jura AG of Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coffeemaker</span> Cooking appliance used to brew coffee

A coffeemaker, coffee maker or coffee machine is a cooking appliance used to brew coffee. While there are many different types of coffeemakers, the two most common brewing principles use gravity or pressure to move hot water through coffee grounds. In the most common devices, coffee grounds are placed into a paper or metal filter inside a funnel, which is set over a glass or ceramic coffee pot, a cooking pot in the kettle family. Cold water is poured into a separate chamber, which is then boiled and directed into the funnel and allowed to drip through the grounds under gravity. This is also called automatic drip-brew. Coffee makers that use pressure to force water through the coffee grounds are called espresso makers, and they produce espresso coffee.

Samuel Lewis Glazer was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Glazer founded North American Systems with his business partner, Vincent Marotta Sr. and the two also co-developed Mr. Coffee, one of the first automatic drip coffee makers to be introduced to the American consumer market. Through their firm, Glazer and Marotta hired the engineers, Edmund Abel and Erwin Schulze of Westinghouse, whose research produced the first Mr. Coffee machines.

Edmund Angel Abel, Jr. was an American engineer and inventor who designed and patented the heating element for Mr. Coffee, one of the first automatic drip coffee makers to be introduced to the American consumer market. Mr. Coffee, which was first sold in 1972, soon became the dominant coffeemaker in the United States, reaching sales of approximately $150 million by the late 1970s. Abel's invention, the heating element, brewed a milder coffee than traditional methods, largely replaced the percolator in American homes. Home Furnishings News listed Mr. Coffee as one of the most important household consumer products introduced in the previous seventy-five years in a list published in 2002. Prior to his work on the coffeemaker, he held patents in film developing and aviation. Despite his role in the invention of the Mr. Coffee machine, Abel did not drink coffee.

Vincent George Marotta Sr. was an American businessman, investor and philanthropist. He was the co-creator of Mr. Coffee, one of the first automatic drip coffee makers to be introduced to the American consumer market. Marotta, who conceived the idea for the Mr. Coffee machine, developed it with his business partner, Samuel Glazer, to replace the slower, more challenging percolator for use in homes. Marotta and Glazer began marketing Mr. Coffee in 1972. Marotta, who was responsible for much of the company's marketing as chairman and CEO, recruited Joe DiMaggio to appear in a series of Mr. Coffee television commercials. By 1979, just seven years after its launch, sales of Mr. Coffee accounted for 50% of the U.S. consumer coffee maker market at $150 million.

References

  1. "Here’s to Mr. Coffee, Known to Some as Sam", The New York Times, March 21, 2012
  2. About Mr. Coffee Archived 2011-09-24 at the Wayback Machine at MrCoffee.com
  3. "Replacement Carafe Net: History of Mr. Coffee Coffeemakers". replacementcarafe.net.
  4. NAS hires engineers at TheGreatWorkPlace.com
  5. "North American Systems, Inc.". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. 20 June 1997. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  6. Mr. Coffee History Archived 2011-10-17 at the Wayback Machine at MrCoffee.com
  7. "Mr. Coffee and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio". NPR.org. 29 October 2005. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  8. "A History Of The Mr Coffee Brand – TheCommonsCafe" . Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  9. Mrs. Tea Introduction Archived 2011-10-17 at the Wayback Machine at MrCoffee.com
  10. Detailed Company History at answers.com
  11. Jarden acquisitions at JardenCS.com
  12. "How to Brew Coffee". www.ncausa.org.
  13. Blogger reviews Optimal Brew
  14. Barnett, Jim (31 August 2012). "Voluntary recall of 600,000 coffeemakers due to burn risk". CNN. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  15. Download Hoyle Card Games 2011 Archived 2011-09-01 at the Wayback Machine
  16. "Goofs for Apollo 13". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  17. DiManna, Aaron (2021-01-22). "Will We Ever See a Real Mr. Fusion?". The News Wheel. Retrieved 2022-06-16.

Further reading