This is Coffee!: A 1961 Tribute to Our Favorite Stimulant

Water. Cof­fee. Time. It’s those three spe­cial ingre­di­ents that went into mak­ing the tra­di­tion­al cup of Amer­i­can cof­fee. In case you missed that, let me remind you: It’s water, cof­fee, and time. Don Drap­er had noth­ing to do with this 13-minute, nos­tal­gia-induc­ing infomer­cial from 1961. Rather, it’s the work of the Cof­fee Brew­ing Insti­tute, which turned the art of mak­ing cof­fee into a dis­mal sci­ence — that is, until glo­ri­ous Peet’s came around. This clip per­ma­nent­ly resides in the Prelinger Archive, and comes to us via The Atlantic.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Every­thing You Want­ed to Know About Cof­fee in Three Min­utes

Jim Henson’s Vio­lent Wilkins Cof­fee Com­mer­cials (1957–1961)

A Rol­lick­ing French Ani­ma­tion on the Per­ils of Drink­ing a Lit­tle Too Much Cof­fee


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Comments (5)
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  • Jessica says:

    Wow!! Cof­fee!! Cof­fee is a brewed bev­er­age with a bit­ter fla­vor pre­pared from the roast­ed seeds of the cof­fee plant. Cof­fee is known to be one of the most refresh­ing bev­er­ages through­out the world. Whether it is a black cof­fee, or a coffe,with eual amount of milk, it is always the best companion,when yo are wait­ing for some one, or any­thing like this.

  • Dan Colman says:

    Remem­ber: cof­fee, water AND time!

  • ArabianCoffees says:

    Absolute clas­sic! I love this vid, very kitsch, very cool. Why don’t we make films like this any­more?!

  • Sharon Wynne says:

    Great retro video. Shows how times have changed, Notice that a few of the shots show cig­ars and cig­a­rettes, don’t see that anymore.…and I pre­fer mine per­co­lat­ed and it was hard to find a per­co­la­tor these days. Thanks for post­ing.

  • Arjuna says:

    Awe­some video. Have you guys tried organo gold cof­fee?? http://mycapturepage.com/cp23.php?id=470

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Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.