H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. founded 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

2 minute read

Half-page H. & H. Blend Coffee dealer ad on page 2 of the Brownwood Bulletin, 20 April 1923 — illustration of a bald, mustached man enjoying a cup of coffee with an H+H Coffee can visible on the shelf behind him, alongside a tin illustration and a list of Brownwood-area grocers selling the brand

This page-2 Brownwood Bulletin ad — published Friday, 20 April 1923 — documents Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co.’s regional retail distribution into Brownwood, Texas, roughly 200 miles northwest of the San Antonio plant. By spring 1923 the firm had moved into its new 331 Burnett Street facility (1923–1932); this ad shows H&H Blend was already cleared into the Central-Texas grocer channel under the “We roast it / others praise it” slogan and the Crystalvac-predecessor vacuum-pack can format. Fourteen Brownwood grocers are named as authorized dealers — a useful primary-source data point for mapping the brand’s regional retail footprint between the 1912 charter and the 1932 Delaware Street move.

Transcription

(Display ad copy, with image references in brackets.)

[Headline / framing illustration:] A man at a breakfast table, enjoying a cup of coffee from a steaming pot, with an H+H COFFEE / WE ROAST IT / OTHERS PRAISE IT display tin visible on the shelf behind him.

A Fortress for a Day’s Beginning

Grocers of Brownwood Sell and Recommend

H and H BLEND COFFEE

[Body copy — partly illegible from the ad cut; reads as a quality pitch on grind, freshness, and dealer recommendation; full transcription pending re-scan.]

[Vacuum-pack can illustration:] A tall metal can with H+H COFFEE / VACUUM PACKED prominent on the front face, HOFFMANN-HAYMAN / COFFEE CO. on the lower band, and the “We roast it / others praise it” slogan cartouche.

HOFFMANN-HAYMAN COFFEE CO., SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

For Sale in Brownwood by the following dealers:

G. H. LEE, Grocer · A. O. MILLER, Grocer · C. C. NANCE, Grocer · COLLIN ALLEN, Grocer · ENGLAND BROS., Groceries and Market · GILLIAM’S, Grocer · J. C. BAILEY, Groceries and Market · BRADY & WEBB, Groceries and Market · C. M. THORP, Grocer · R. L. HOLT, Grocer · T. J. PHILLIPS, Grocer · J. V. REED, Grocer · MITCHELL GROCERY · W. H. PARKE, Grocer

[Dealer-list transcription is best-effort from a degraded scan; a curator pass with the original Newspapers.com clip will confirm spellings — especially “Collin Allen,” “Brady & Webb,” “C. M. Thorp,” and “W. H. Parke,” which were partially illegible in the extracted bitmap.]

Significance

  • Regional retail reach in 1923: H&H Blend had moved into Brownwood — a city in Brown County, Central Texas, ~200 mi from the San Antonio plant — by April 1923. This ad sits between the 1922 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal references to H&H and the August 1923 Light “New Home of a Great Institution” multi-page feature that documents the Burnett Street factory; both anchor an aggressive 1922–1923 regional-distribution push.
  • Brand visuals: The “We roast it / others praise it” slogan (federal trademark No. 160,728, registered 10 April 1922) is prominent. The display can on the shelf and the standalone tin illustration both carry the slogan cartouche and the H+H VACUUM PACKED layout — the pack format that precedes the 1932 Crystalvac glass-jar program.
  • Dealer count: Fourteen named grocers. A future synthesis page could plot H&H’s documented regional dealer count across years.

Source

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