1928 Maxwell House Ad With Mrs. Filibuster

The first time I saw this ad I thought to myself,"self, what is a winy coffee?"  Is this a coffee that sounds like Jerry Lewis?  Perhaps it complains too much about being ground up and thrown into hot water?  Perhaps it sounds like Al Sharpton whenever he's outraged over something.  Well you sort of get an answer is you read the ad itself.  Apparently "winy" coffees were the acidic coffee beans imported from Arabia.  Well that sort of explains it, winy in this sense must have been an older way of saying tannic, since this ad is from 1928.  Apparently Maxwell House was made of a mix of over 100 different coffees from tropical countries.  Quite the mix actually.  Also the artwork is quite interesting to spin a story off of.  Mrs. Filibuster has not been feeling well lately.  Her investments have taken quite the loss ever since the real estate market fell through in Florida.  "Never you mind Mrs. Filibuster," her account says, "We'll make up the loss in the stock market.  It's going up like a rocket and we just can't lose..."

Maxwell House coffee has been around since 1892, named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tenn.  The long running slogan "Good to the last drop" first appeared in 1917 and although it is currently being phased out in ads the company is still well known by this slogan.  I've been wanting to write about this ad for some time now because Maxwell House is literally close to home for me since one of their factories is located in Downtown Jacksonville, Fl.  Drive by there anytime during the work week and your senses are pleasantly assaulted with the smell of fresh ground coffee.  Unfortunately, no matter how good it smells in the factory by the time it hits store shelves it's lost that flavor into something that is best described as muddy.  I admit it, I'm a coffee snob of sorts, preferring to order my coffee from Community Coffee and grind it myself.  I'm also a fan of chicory in my coffee which you are extremely limited in the range of pre-ground coffees that include chicory so I add it in myself.

Maxwell House is currently owned by Kraft and although they have lost their top market share rating to Folgers they won't be going away anytime soon.

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