Part 5 (1/2)

Post's extraordinary inventiveness did not come without cost, however. By 1885 he had developed neurasthenia, a fas.h.i.+onable ”disease” of the era. Named and popularized by Dr. George Beard, neurasthenia supposedly involved an exhaustion of the body's limited supply of ”nervous energy.” Many overworked businessmen and oversensitive upper-cla.s.s women believed they suffered from this ailment. ”The combined effects of work with stimulants and narcotics,” Post said later, ”produced a nervous breakdown.”

After a brief recovery, Post took his wife, Ella, and young daughter, Marjorie, to California in 1888, then to Texas, where he took to a wheelchair owing to his supposedly weak nerves, while simultaneously managing a woolen mill, selling land and homes, and representing several electrical motor manufacturers. He also invented a player piano, an improved bicycle, and ”Scientific Suspenders,” which could not be seen when worn under a coat.

Despite his entrepreneurial fervor, Post hadn't yet made a decent living, and the financial strain caused digestive disorders and another breakdown in 1890. He moved his family to Battle Creek, Michigan, to seek care at the famed Sanitarium, or ”San,” of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.

Kellogg had turned the San into a national phenomenon. A diminutive, bearded dynamo, he made himself the impresario of health faddism, and one of his particular dislikes was coffee. ”The tea and coffee habit is a grave menace to the health of the American people,” he intoned, causing arteriosclerosis, Bright's disease, heart failure, apoplexy, and premature old age. ”Tea and coffee are baneful drugs and their sale and use and their sale and use ought to be prohibited by law ought to be prohibited by law.” He even alleged that ”insanity has been traced to the coffee habit.”

Mind Cure and Postum Post's nine months at the San failed to cure his indigestion or nervous disorder. ”I think you should know,” Dr. Kellogg gravely informed Ella Post, ”that C. W. has very little time left. He is not going to get well.” In desperation Ella took up the study of Christian Science with her cousin, Elizabeth Gregory. Mrs. Gregory told the ailing Post that he should simply deny his illness, that it was all in his mind, and that he could eat whatever he pleased. Obeying her suggestion, he began to feel better, left the San, and moved in with his new healing guru.

By 1892 Post had recovered sufficiently to open his own Battle Creek alternative to Kellogg's Sanitarium, which he christened La Vita Inn. Gregory provided mental treatments for a slight extra charge. A couple of years later Post published a book, The Modern Practice: Natural Suggestion, or, Scientia Vitae The Modern Practice: Natural Suggestion, or, Scientia Vitae, which he reissued the next year with the catchier and more egotistical t.i.tle I Am Well! I Am Well! In it Post claimed miraculous cures for himself and those who stayed at his inn, espousing ”New Thought” or ”mind cure.” All disease was simply the result of ”wrong thinking.” In it Post claimed miraculous cures for himself and those who stayed at his inn, espousing ”New Thought” or ”mind cure.” All disease was simply the result of ”wrong thinking.”

In 1895 Post first manufactured Postum, a grain-based coffee subst.i.tute that bore a suspicious resemblance to Kellogg's Caramel Coffee (served at the San).23 In October 1896 he transferred $37,000 of the inn's a.s.sets to provide start-up capital for Postum Ltd. When his new drink proved profitable, Post abandoned his therapeutic practice at the La Vita Inn and modified his views to fit his new product. In In October 1896 he transferred $37,000 of the inn's a.s.sets to provide start-up capital for Postum Ltd. When his new drink proved profitable, Post abandoned his therapeutic practice at the La Vita Inn and modified his views to fit his new product. In I Am Well! I Am Well! he had written that all disease stemmed from ”mental inharmony” and could be cured through right thinking. Soon, however, he was advertising an easier method: ”Remember, you can recover from any ordinary disease by discontinuing coffee and poor food, and using Postum Food Coffee.” he had written that all disease stemmed from ”mental inharmony” and could be cured through right thinking. Soon, however, he was advertising an easier method: ”Remember, you can recover from any ordinary disease by discontinuing coffee and poor food, and using Postum Food Coffee.”24 Post was a natural salesman. A tall, slim, square-shouldered man with chiseled good looks, he impressed both men and women with his charismatic, persuasive presentations. In 1895 he took a portable stove along with Postum samples to Michigan grocers. At each store he would prepare a pot, boiling the prescribed twenty minutes, all the while praising the drink's medicinal and mouthwatering properties. ”When well brewed,” he proclaimed, ”Postum has the deep seal brown of coffee and a flavor very like the milder brands of Java.”

The first Grand Rapids grocer Post visited wasn't moved, since he had a large supply of Kellogg's Caramel Coffee on hand, gradually turning stale. Post convinced the grocer to take Postum on consignment, promising that advertising would create a demand. Then the industrious entrepreneur visited the editor of the Grand Rapids Evening Press Grand Rapids Evening Press, brewed more Postum, and served it. The editor remained dubious until he noticed Post's stationery, with a red dot in one corner and the legend below, ”It makes red blood.” Impressed by Postum's health claims, he gave Post $10,000 worth of advertising credit.

By mid-1895 Post was spending $1,250 a month on advertising. In 1897 the figure had risen to $20,000 a month. Over his career he spent well over $12 million to promote his products, 70 percent in local newspapers, the balance in national magazines. Post remained convinced that such gigantic advertising outlays were justified, creating demand for a ma.s.s-produced and widely distributed product. Through economies of scale he could lower the cost of goods to the consumer despite his ad expenditures.

Within a few years, the nondescript barn in which Post first brewed Postum was surrounded by pristine white factory buildings, known as the White City. The most impressive building served as his ”temple of propaganda,” as one journalist put it, where Post's advertising men dreamed up new slogans for him to approve or amend. It was, according to the writer, ”the most unique and sumptuously furnished office building in the world.”

Post's Fierce Attacks Post believed in appealing directly to the consumer rather than relying on salesmen to convince grocers and wholesalers to stock his product. With such ”pull” advertising, consumers would demand demand his products. his products.

The Postum ads ”must use plain words, homely ill.u.s.trations, and . . . the vocabulary of the customer vocabulary of the customer,” Post emphasized. One of his best-known advertising lines, ”If Coffee Don't Agree, Use Postum Food Coffee,” drove the coffee men and and grammarians wild, but it sold Postum. At the end of every ad Post added a tag line: ”There's a Reason.” It was never clear what this sentence meant. Regardless, the phrase found its way into the popular culture of the time. grammarians wild, but it sold Postum. At the end of every ad Post added a tag line: ”There's a Reason.” It was never clear what this sentence meant. Regardless, the phrase found its way into the popular culture of the time.

By May 1897 sales were booming, largely due to scare ads that depicted harried, desperate, and dissipated people hooked on caffeine. They warned of the hazards of ”coffee heart,” ”coffee neuralgia,” and ”brain f.a.g.” Abstaining from coffee and drinking Postum would effect the promised cure.

An interviewer told Post, ”Your advertising . . . has this element of combat in it. It always . . . goes straight for the other fellow's eyes.” Indeed, one Post headline blared, ”Lost Eyesight through Coffee Drinking.” Another announced, ”It is safe to say that one person in every three among coffee users has some incipient or advanced form of disease.” Coffee contained ”a poisonous drug-caffeine, which belongs in the same cla.s.s of alkaloids with cocaine, morphine, nicotine, and strychnine.” One ad featured coffee spilling slowly from a cup, accompanied by an alarming text: ”Constant dripping wears away the stone. Perhaps a hole has been started in you. . . . Try leaving off coffee for ten days and use Postum Food Coffee.”

Other ads resorted to personal intimidation. ”Is your yellow streak the coffee habit?” Post's copy asked. ”Does it reduce your work time, kill your energy, push you into the big crowd of mongrels, deaden what thorough-bred blood you may have and neutralize all your efforts to make money and fame?”

When he wasn't frightening his readers, Post b.u.t.tered them up, appealing to their egos. He addressed an ad to ”highly organized people,” telling them that they could perform much better on Postum than on nerve-racking coffee. Post also addressed the modern man, a.s.serting that Postum was ”the Scientific Way To Repair Brains and Rebuild Waste Tissues.” Coffee was not a food but a powerful drug. ”Sooner or later the steady drugging will tear down the strong man or woman, and the stomach, bowels, heart, kidneys, nerves, brain, or some other organ connected with the nervous system, will be attacked.”

Post has been given credit for first adapting patent medicine come-ons-with their exaggerated health claims, appeals to sn.o.bbery and fear, bogus scientific jargon, and repet.i.tive incantations-for a beverage, thus paving the way for modern consumer advertising. In fact, he may have learned from Coca-Cola, first offered in 1886 as a ”brain tonic,” and also destined to play an important role in coffee history.

Tapping the Paranoia Post, a man of his times, tapped into a fin-de-siecle American fear. The pace of change-with telegraphs, electricity, railroads, ticker tapes, and economic booms and busts-seemed overwhelming. In addition, the typical American diet, heavy with grease and meat, was guaranteed to cause indigestion-dyspepsia was the most frequent medical complaint of the age. This heavy food was usually washed down with an ocean of poorly prepared coffee. By the turn of the twentieth century, the typical U.S. citizen used an average of twelve pounds of coffee annually-nothing compared to the Dutch, the world leaders at sixteen pounds per capita, but a great deal of coffee nonetheless. People frequently sought drug-laced patent medicine remedies for their stomach problems.

Post's new national product advertising, cleverly adopting much of the scientific patter and overblown claims of the patent medicines, was extraordinarily effective. Regional coffee advertisers, with the exception of the Ariosa and Lion brands, could not compete. Their local messages, stressing familiar themes such as aroma and good taste, were no match for Post's sophisticated pitches. Worse, in the face of the Postum onslaught, many coffee ads became defensive, saying that their their coffee (as opposed to others) lacked poisonous substances and tannins. coffee (as opposed to others) lacked poisonous substances and tannins.

Post further infuriated coffee men by writing inflammatory, pseudo-scientific letters directly to consumers. ”Coffee frequently produces indigestion and causes functional disturbances of the nervous system,” he wrote in one such letter. He a.s.serted that caffeine attacked ”the pneumogastric nerve (the tenth cranial or wandering nerve, the longest and most widely distributed nerve of the brain),” often leading to paralysis. ”Coffee is an alkaloid poison and a certain disintegrator of brain tissues.”

The fact that Post himself continued to drink the evil brew did not soften his attacks on coffee. According to his daughter, Marjorie, Post would drink coffee ”for a few days and be sick, and he'd drink Postum for a few days and be well, and then he'd go back to coffee.” He even did so in public. One newspaper reporter noted that at a dinner, Post imbibed ”oh, horrors, some of that terrible, nerve-destroying beverage, the deadly coffee,” despite being ”the champion of the coffeeless nerve.”

Finding that Postum sales were seasonal-peaking in the winter-Post invented Grape-Nuts cereal in 1898 to round out the year, calling it ”the Most Scientific Food in the World.” Postum sales swelled, by 1900 reaching $425,196, nearly half of which was pure profit. In 1908 Postum accounted for over $1.5 million in sales, though it was topped by Grape-Nuts and Post Toasties by that time.

Monk's Brew and Other Ploys Post sold Postum boxes for 25 cents retail and a case of a dozen boxes to grocery wholesalers for $2, leaving a slim profit margin for retailers. The product was in such demand, however, that merchants had little choice but to carry it. Inevitably, compet.i.tors sprang up, offering a similar coffee subst.i.tute at a substantially reduced price. Post responded to these challenges by creating a new drink, Monk's Brew, pricing it at only a nickel a package, and marketing it aggressively in towns where underpriced compet.i.tors were making inroads. Once Monk's Brew wiped out the competing brands, Post withdrew it from the market. ”The imitators were ruined,” Post chortled. ”It was one of the most complete ma.s.sacres I have ever seen.” The wily Post took the returned Monk's Brew and repackaged it as Postum-quite legitimately, since it was was precisely the same product. precisely the same product.

Although Post rolled in money, he was stingy with his own employees. The packing room women received 0.3 cents for each box of Postum they filled but were fined a full 25 cents for each box they accidentally tore. Even though they were paid on a piecework basis, workers' pay was still docked when they showed up late for work. In addition, Post was rabidly antiunion, spending much time and money in his latter years writing and distributing right-wing diatribes against the evils of organized labor.

Over time Post left the day-to-day manufacturing process to his managers, while he pursued a restless, nomadic life among homes in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., Texas, California, New York City, London, and at his married daughter's home in Greenwich, Connecticut. He conducted much of his business by mail. While delegating most aspects of his fabulously successful enterprise, however, Post continued to pay personal attention to advertising copy. He often kept a piece of copy in his pocket for weeks, adding a new touch daily, aware that each word would reach some 30 million readers. ”I have never been able to get anybody to write our advertising better than I do myself,” Post observed, ”and have never been able to teach anyone to write it my way.”25 He observed with satisfaction that dozens of Postum compet.i.tors had fallen by the wayside. ”It is fairly easy to make a good palatable and pure food and quite another thing to sell it.” Post was among the first advertisers to approach his subject psychologically. ”Observe the acts of men day by day,” he said, ”their habits, likes, dislikes, methods, hopes, disappointments, bravery, weakness, and particularly study their needs.”

Post solicited testimonial letters by placing ads in popular magazines, promising ”Many Greenbacks.” Post selected the best and rewrote them to make them more punchy. ”I was a coffee slave,” began one such edited letter. ”I had headaches every day.” When the woman quit coffee and imbibed Postum, all her troubles vanished. ”The rheumatism is gone entirely, blood is pure, nerves practically well and steady, digestion almost perfect, never have any more sick headaches.”

A nurse from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, wrote, ”I used to drink strong coffee myself, and suffered greatly”-until she switched to Postum, of course. ”Naturally, I have since used Postum among my patients, and have noticed a marked benefit where coffee has been left off and Postum used. I observe a curious fact about Postum used among mothers. It greatly helps the flow of milk.”

A St. Joseph, Missouri, man attested, ”About two years ago my knees began to stiffen and my feet and legs swell, so that I was scarcely able to walk, and then only with the greatest difficulty, for I was in constant pain.” His problem? Coffee. The solution? Postum.

The independent Post eventually fired his advertising broker and in 1903 created the Grandin Advertising Agency, named after Frank C. Grandin, his employee in charge of advertising. Grandin's only client was Postum. Later Post acquired his own newspaper in Battle Creek, which he used as a platform for disseminating his rather quirky views, as well as advertising Postum, Grape-Nuts, and Post Toasties.

The Coffee Merchants React C. W. Post had ama.s.sed a fortune more quickly than any other American of his era. At the beginning of 1895 he had just made his first batch of Postum. Seven years later he was a millionaire.

By 1906 resentment over the success of Postum had reached fever pitch among coffee men. William Ukers, editor of the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, wrote a nasty editorial upon the marriage of Marjorie Merriweather Post. ”It is interesting to note,” wrote Ukers, ”[that] it was announced . . . the fond father had settled $2,000,000 on his daughter and had carefully drilled her in business methods. . . . But what's $2,000,000 to Post, who every year spends a million and a half in advertising alone? My, what a commentary on the gullibility of the American public!”

Many coffee advertis.e.m.e.nts of the era only made matters worse. ”I TOLD YOU TO BRING ARBUCKLE'S PACKAGE,” one ad read, showing a wife socking her husband on the jaw and spilling a bag of coffee. ”Be real angry if they send you a subst.i.tute,” read the ad copy, ”which is not as good, and may in time ruin your digestion and nerves.” Such a come-on may have been good for Ariosa in the short run, but it conveyed the impression that most other coffee was harmful. Another ad for Dern Coffee a.s.serted that ”if coffee makes havoc with your nerves and digestion, it is because you are not using a fresh roasted, thoroughly cleansed, correctly cured coffee.” Consequently, Dern Coffee ”gives you the strength and aroma of the coffee without its nerve-destroying qualities.”

Similarly, many defensive articles on coffee wound up d.a.m.ning it. A May 1906 piece in the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal Tea & Coffee Trade Journal by John G. Keplinger t.i.tled ”The Healthfulness of Coffee” began with the a.s.sertion that ”almost any nonsense makes an impression on the public mind if only reiterated often enough in print.” But then Keplinger proceeded to admit that ”without doubt coffee has been the cause of much discomfort, headache, sour stomach, blurred vision, etc.” The reason? Coffee was harmful, according to this author, if diluted with milk and sugar; it should only be drunk black. by John G. Keplinger t.i.tled ”The Healthfulness of Coffee” began with the a.s.sertion that ”almost any nonsense makes an impression on the public mind if only reiterated often enough in print.” But then Keplinger proceeded to admit that ”without doubt coffee has been the cause of much discomfort, headache, sour stomach, blurred vision, etc.” The reason? Coffee was harmful, according to this author, if diluted with milk and sugar; it should only be drunk black.

Apparently unaware that he failed to practice what he preached, Keplinger went on to advise coffee advertisers to emphasize positive attributes, rather than stating that their their brand of coffee did not produce headache, constipation, dyspepsia, or nervous trouble. He then offered sample advertis.e.m.e.nts of which he approved. The very first headline was: ”Is Coffee Harmful?” His other ads approached the absurdity of vintage patent medicine claims. ”Coffee is a valuable remedial agent, or rather a preventive, when there are epidemics of typhoid fever, cholera, erysipelas, scarlet fever and the various types of malarial fever.” Another headline suggested that ”Good Coffee Soothes the Nerves” because it is ”a nonreactive stimulant, as has been proved time and again by the sphygmograph and as a brain stimulant it may be termed an intellectual drink.” brand of coffee did not produce headache, constipation, dyspepsia, or nervous trouble. He then offered sample advertis.e.m.e.nts of which he approved. The very first headline was: ”Is Coffee Harmful?” His other ads approached the absurdity of vintage patent medicine claims. ”Coffee is a valuable remedial agent, or rather a preventive, when there are epidemics of typhoid fever, cholera, erysipelas, scarlet fever and the various types of malarial fever.” Another headline suggested that ”Good Coffee Soothes the Nerves” because it is ”a nonreactive stimulant, as has been proved time and again by the sphygmograph and as a brain stimulant it may be termed an intellectual drink.”

One of the favorite ploys of coffee boosters throughout the first part of the twentieth century was to cite anecdotal stories to ill.u.s.trate the drink's beneficial effects on longevity. On her ninety-second birthday, for instance, Mrs. Hannah Lang nimbly performed a set of folk dances. ”It is the proud boast of Mrs. Lang that she has never been sick a day in her life. . . . About the only health rule she follows is to drink four cups of strong coffee every day.” Mrs. Christine Hedin of Ironwood, Michigan, celebrated her hundredth birthday by ”drinking coffee all day long,” as was her normal habit (from four to ten cups daily). A centenarian Frenchman was told that coffee, which he drank to excess, was a poison. ”If it is poison,” he said, ”I am a fine example of the fact that it is a very slow poison.”26 In July 1906 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal Tea & Coffee Trade Journal editor Ukers offered a call to arms: editor Ukers offered a call to arms: Here and there manufacturers and dealers are waking up to the fact that the subst.i.tute beverage-makers have stolen a march on them and now they are determined to regain the lost ground. . . . The Postum Company certainly have had a wonderful opportunity and have made the most of it. The retail coffee dealers of the country did nothing to upset their plans. . . . The advertising of this subst.i.tute for coffee has attacked coffee strenuously and bitterly and with consummate skill, and the result is that thousands of people who have been in the habit of drinking coffee regularly have given it up.

Frustrated and baffled, the coffee men even considered hiring Post clandestinely to write copy for them, though the plan never materialized, which was just as well, said Post. ”Could I advertise coffee as I advertise Postum? No! I believe in Postum, and have no such belief in coffee.”

It would take another decade or two before coffee advertisers learned Post's lesson that a positive image was at least as important as taste.

The Collier's Libel Flap A prominent national periodical, Collier's Weekly Collier's Weekly, pointedly refused questionable patent medicine ads after printing Samuel Hopkins Adams's widely read 1905 muckraking series, ”The Great American Fraud,” which lambasted misleading ads and contributed to the pa.s.sage of landmark food legislation the following year. Yet, as one outraged reader complained later that year, Collier's Collier's ran Post's ads, which invariably touted medicinal cures. Stung, the magazine's advertising manager wrote to Post, explaining that he could no longer print such ads. In 1907 the magazine published an editorial criticizing Grape-Nuts advertising for claiming that the breakfast cereal could cure appendicitis. ”This is lying, and potentially, deadly lying.” The article called Postum testimonials by physicians and health officials ”mythical.” ran Post's ads, which invariably touted medicinal cures. Stung, the magazine's advertising manager wrote to Post, explaining that he could no longer print such ads. In 1907 the magazine published an editorial criticizing Grape-Nuts advertising for claiming that the breakfast cereal could cure appendicitis. ”This is lying, and potentially, deadly lying.” The article called Postum testimonials by physicians and health officials ”mythical.”

Post responded with a venomous $18,000 article-advertis.e.m.e.nt campaign run in newspapers across the country in which he a.s.serted that the author of the Collier's Collier's article had ”curdled gray matter.” Post had the nerve to a.s.sert that it was article had ”curdled gray matter.” Post had the nerve to a.s.sert that it was he he who had refused to advertise in the magazine and that he had been attacked as a result. Moreover, he defended his testimonials. ”We have never yet published an advertis.e.m.e.nt announcing the opinion of a prominent physician or a health official on Postum or Grape-Nuts when we did not have the actual letter in our possession.” who had refused to advertise in the magazine and that he had been attacked as a result. Moreover, he defended his testimonials. ”We have never yet published an advertis.e.m.e.nt announcing the opinion of a prominent physician or a health official on Postum or Grape-Nuts when we did not have the actual letter in our possession.”

In 1907 Collier's Collier's filed a libel suit against Post. When it finally came to trial three years later, Post had to defend his earlier writings, such as filed a libel suit against Post. When it finally came to trial three years later, Post had to defend his earlier writings, such as I Am Well! I Am Well! in which he claimed miraculous healing powers for, among other things, a molar abscess and a wheelchair-bound invalid. ”And now you've reached the point where you propose to relieve pains, not by the use of mental suggestion, but by Grape-Nuts and Postum?” the prosecuting attorney asked. ”At fifteen cents a pound?” Post: ”Yes.” The lawyer got Post to admit that he gave prizes for good testimonials and that he did not have time to investigate whether all were genuine. in which he claimed miraculous healing powers for, among other things, a molar abscess and a wheelchair-bound invalid. ”And now you've reached the point where you propose to relieve pains, not by the use of mental suggestion, but by Grape-Nuts and Postum?” the prosecuting attorney asked. ”At fifteen cents a pound?” Post: ”Yes.” The lawyer got Post to admit that he gave prizes for good testimonials and that he did not have time to investigate whether all were genuine.

In his final arguments the plaintiff's attorney dramatically pointed at Post and begged the jury, ”Help us to make this man honest.” They complied, finding Post guilty of libel and fining him $50,000. Eventually the trial verdict was reversed by the New York Court of Appeals, but Post had learned his lesson. From then on he moderated his claims. Within a few years Postum was advertised to cure constipation rather than brain fatigue or appendicitis.

Dr. Wiley's Ambivalence ”If some isolated case is found where a man has sold roasted peas and chicory as coffee, a terrible howl goes up,” editor William Ukers observed in spring 1906. ”And yet when Millionaire Post proceeds to offer burnt cereals as coffee n.o.body says a word. And where is Dr. Wiley all this time?” Harvey Wiley, who was then lobbying hard for the new pure food act that would pa.s.s soon, had become an enormously influential spokesman for truth in advertising and labeling. Wiley mounted a moral moral crusade against fraud and vice. ”The injury to public health,” he said, ”is the least important question . . . [and] should be considered last of all. The real evil of food adulteration is deception of the consumer.” crusade against fraud and vice. ”The injury to public health,” he said, ”is the least important question . . . [and] should be considered last of all. The real evil of food adulteration is deception of the consumer.”

Wiley's obsession with deceit rather than health issues was reflected in his legislation. The Pure Food and Drugs Act did not make poisonous substances illegal; it simply said they had to be identified on the label. Caffeine was not placed on the list of poisonous substances that had to be so labeled. With twelve pounds consumed by every man, woman, and child, coffee was the most popular beverage in America; most coffee men therefore must have felt they were relatively safe and hoped that Wiley would direct his attention to the mislabeling of products such as Postum.

Eventually he did, forcing Post to remove the word coffee coffee from his label and advertising. But the pure food law also caused trouble for coffee men. If government agents found chicory or other subst.i.tutes in coffee, they prosecuted. If they found ”black jack” beans-that is, discolored or moldy from blights or improper processing-being imported, they put a stop to it. Over the next few years, scores of coffee prosecutions cleaned up the coffee and coffee-subst.i.tute industry. from his label and advertising. But the pure food law also caused trouble for coffee men. If government agents found chicory or other subst.i.tutes in coffee, they prosecuted. If they found ”black jack” beans-that is, discolored or moldy from blights or improper processing-being imported, they put a stop to it. Over the next few years, scores of coffee prosecutions cleaned up the coffee and coffee-subst.i.tute industry.

Though such enforcements were salutary, other prosecutions seemed merely bureaucratic, malicious, or stupid. Although Brazilian and Central American beans had been widely misrepresented as Java coffees, this term was traditionally and correctly applied to coffee coming not only from the island of Java itself but any of fourteen nearby islands. Nonetheless, the Board of Food and Drug Inspection ruled the same year that coffee grown in Sumatra had to be labeled Sumatra coffee rather than Java. No one in the industry could see the harm in such long-standing practices, but the government did.

Since Harvey Wiley had championed the pure food law that had helped police their industry, Ukers and other coffee experts wanted to believe that Wiley was on their side. Yet in 1910 the crusading chemist got carried away in a speech reported by the newspapers. Wiley a.s.serted that ”this country is full of tea and coffee drunkards. The most common drug in this country is caffeine.”

Soon after the pure food law pa.s.sed, Wiley inst.i.tuted an attack on Coca-Cola. He disapproved of caffeinated beverages but felt that coffee and tea were safe from legal a.s.sault since they naturally naturally contain caffeine, just as peaches and almonds naturally contain hydrocyanic acid. Coca-Cola, however, was consumed regularly by both children and adults, and caffeine was deliberately added to it. Wiley therefore persuaded his reluctant superiors to allow him to seize forty barrels and twenty kegs of Coca-Cola syrup that had crossed the state line between Georgia and Tennessee. contain caffeine, just as peaches and almonds naturally contain hydrocyanic acid. Coca-Cola, however, was consumed regularly by both children and adults, and caffeine was deliberately added to it. Wiley therefore persuaded his reluctant superiors to allow him to seize forty barrels and twenty kegs of Coca-Cola syrup that had crossed the state line between Georgia and Tennessee.