Coffee in the 1850s Minnesota Bottineau Prairie Osseo Maple Grove

Coffee Mill
(pictured: Arbuckle Trade Card)

Despite the fact that tea was important enough during the American Revolution to incur the famous Boston Tea Party, coffee even during this period of our history was the drink of choice. Coffee became even more popular during the war of 1812 when access to tea was cut.

Typically coffee beans were bought while green, then roasted and ground just in time for use. Minnesota settlers and pioneers would have roasted their beans in a pan on a wood stove or over a fire while stirring for twenty minutes. Though constantly stirred the roast process did not yield even results. If there was a mill available the beans would then have been readied by grinding in a mill or with a mortar and pestal. The grounds would then have been boiled in water, and egg, fish or eel skins were added to “settle” them.

More often than not the beans would have been boiled whole. Timing was as important then as now, and it seems that cooking the grounds or beans just for the right amount of time was an art not cultivated by all who enjoyed the brew. It didn’t daunt anyone’s ability to drink. In 1859, the year following Minnesota’s independence, average coffee consumption per capital was eight pounds. During the Civil War, mainly in the North, soldiers coffee use rose to 36 pounds per person, per year.

Though the lowly paper bag in today’s society is often taken for granted, in 1862 when the first bags were created to hold peanuts it was a very clever idea indeed. Following on the bag’s heels came the invention by Jabez Carter of the self-emptying coffee roaster – and it wasn’t too much longer before roasters were popping up in every city and town across the U.S.A.

Now along came the Arbuckle family, who put the two inventions together—roasting and bagging the coffee, coated with an egg and sugar glaze—and voila! Arbuckle’s Ariosa, The People’s Coffee, was born! Many familiar names in the business followed—Chase, Sanborn, Folgers… but Arbuckle was the first to promote evenly roasted, ready-to-go coffee beans. (Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast, 1999.)

written by Mary Katherine May, owner of www.QualityMusicandBooks.com.