Mr. Coffee

Mr. Coffee

Type	subsidiary
Founded	Cleveland, Ohio U.S.
Founder(s)	Vincent Marotta, Sr. and Samuel Glazer
Headquarters	Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Products	coffee makers, espresso makers, iced tea makers
Parent	Jarden Consumer Solutions
Website	www.mrcoffee.com/

Mr. Coffee is a registered trademark of Sunbeam Products, Inc. d/b/a Jarden Consumer Solutions. The Mr. Coffee brand manufactures automatic-drip kitchen coffee machines as well as other products.

History

Vincent Marotta, Sr. and Samuel Glazer founded a company in Cleveland, Ohio^[1] focused on coffee delivery called North American Systems (NAS) in the early 70's^[2]. At this time, Marotta had an idea to create an automatic drip coffeemaker. Marotta and Glazer hired two former Westinghouse engineers, Edward Able and Edwin Schulze to engineer the idea^[3]. In 1972, the Mr. Coffee brand drip coffee maker was made available for home use^[4]. 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, identical to the percolator principle but without the endless recirculation and reheating of the coffee.

In 1973, Marotta convinced former baseball player Joe DiMaggio^[5] to become an advertising spokesman for the brand. This coffee maker revolutionized coffee and sold more than one million units by April 1974. 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 much better flavor.

A succession of products from 1992-1995, the Potato Perfect, the Mr. Coffee Juicer, Food Dehydrator by Mr. Coffee, Breadmaker 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. In the 1980’s, 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^[6].

In 1995, a variation was produced by the same company for tea called "Mrs. Tea". The machine 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 ^[7], although the result is often a darker, samovar type of tea.

In 1998 Sunbeam Corporation (eventually known as American Household, Inc.) purchased Signature Brands (Health o Meter and Mr. Coffee). In January 2005, Jarden acquired American Household, Inc^[8].

Popular culture

There have been several cultural references to the easily-parodied name. It has been parodied in the Back to the Future trilogy as Mr. Fusion (which was actually made for the movie from a Krups coffee maker), and in Spaceballs as Mr. Radar and Mr. Coffee itself. It was also 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." A Mr. Coffee branded appliance also appeared in a scene in the film Apollo 13. (However, a number of critics pointed out that this was technically inaccurate, since the film took place in 1970, and the Mr. Coffee branded appliance wouldn't be introduced until 1972.^[9]) 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. In Hoyle Card Games 2011, Rhett said "That's worse than Mr. Coffee"^[10].

Mr. Coffee Today

Recently, the Mr. Coffee product development team reinvented how a drip coffee maker works with their new Optimal Brew. This coffee maker does not use the traditional method of routing the water over a heating coil under the warming plate that Marotta, Able, and Schulze invented so long ago. Instead, a small flash boiling chamber flash heats the water to deliver the water to the beans within the ideal temperature range of 195-200 degrees F^[11]. This new way of heating the water allows 10 cups to be brewed in generally less than 8 minutes for a great tasting cup of coffee^[12]. Once brewed the coffee stays warm in a thermal carafe rather than sitting and possibly being burned by a heating plate. This coffee maker engineered and designed by TEAMS Design USA and the Jarden team, won a Red Star Award^[13] in 2010 and an Appliance Magazine EID Award ^[14]in 2011.

More recently, Mr. Coffee has licensed the Keurig K-cup technology^[15] to introduce a line of single serve hot beverage machines. Also recently introduced, the Mr. Coffee Cafe Latte brews coffee as well as whips in steamed milk in one step^[16].

References

1. ^ About Mr. Coffee
2. ^ History of NAS
3. ^ NAS hires engineers
4. ^ Mr. Coffee History
5. ^ NPR story on how DiMaggio became Mr. Coffee spokesman
6. ^ Detailed Company History
7. ^ Mrs. Tea Introduction
8. ^ Jarden acquisitions
9. ^ IMDB: Goofs for Apollo 13
10. ^ Download Hoyle Card Games 2011
11. ^ National Coffee Brewing Association
12. ^ Blogger reviews Optimal Brew
13. ^ 2010 Red Star Design Award
14. ^ 2011 Appliance Magazine EID Award
15. ^ Mr. Coffee licenses Keurig K-Cup technology
16. ^ Introducing Mr. Coffee Cafe Latte

External links

• Official website
• NPR Story on Mr. Coffee and Joe DiMaggio
• Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, Case Western Reserve University
• Mr. Coffee Keurig powered Single Serve Coffee Maker Review