H and H Coffee

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

The house blend in metal — the most common H and H tin form in the collection, spanning half a century of litho and paper-label evolution.

Quick ID:

  • Red and cream litho (or paper label on plain tin for pre-1920s examples)
  • “We Roast It / Others Praise It” embossed on lid or as label copy on most examples
  • Burnett Street address → pre-1932; Delaware Street → 1932 onward
  • Keywind strip on bottom rim → post-c.1930; slip/friction lid → pre-c.1930
  • “Light Housekeepers Size” callout → ½ lb tin, 1920s–1930s

Form

Standard round cylindrical coffee tin with friction or keywind lid. Lithographed in the H and H red-and-cream house colors; earlier examples use paper labels over plain tinplate. The “We Roast It / Others Praise It” slogan (USPTO Reg. 160,728, 1922) appears on most label eras as embossed lid text or label copy.

Size variants

Size Label name Notes
½ lb “Light Housekeepers Size” Distinctive small litho tin; 1920s–1930s era; two examples in collection
1 lb Standard / Regular Most common form; keywind from 1930s onward
2.5 lb Unlabeled size description Paper-label era only; one example (Comfort, 2014)
3 lb Three-pound Round and rectangular forms; paper-label and litho eras
~28 oz “Family size” Houston-address variant; keywind; one example

Label eras and dating

Paper-label era (c.1910s–1920s): Plain tinplate with applied paper label. Look for “Perc-O-Drip” grind callout on 1920s–1930s labels; “High Grade” name on pre-H&H-Blend transition tins. Address reads Burnett Street.

Early litho era (c.1920s–1930s): Red and cream lithography applied directly to the tin body. Rectangular three-pound tins in the collection carry the painted “We roast it — Others praise it” slogan. Address transitions from Burnett to Delaware Street after 1932.

Keywind era (c.1930s–1960s): Keywind opening strip replaces slip-lid. Grind callouts (Drip, Regular, Medium Ground) appear on the label panel. One-pound keywind with lid is the most common surviving form.

Grind callouts

Documented on collection tins: Regular Grind, Medium Ground, Drip, Perc-O-Drip. The grind system was standardized with the Crystalvac/glass-brewer era of the 1930s.

Manufacturer

Container: New Orleans Can Company (documented cooperative ad partner, 1923 — see companies/new-orleans-can-company.md); American Can Company for later examples. Can company attribution varies by era and cannot always be confirmed from inspection alone.

Label / lithography: Simpson & Doeller Co., San Antonio TX — directly documented on the blend tin via a bottom-panel marking visible in HH-COLL-0000-0062. Simpson & Doeller were the primary H and H lithographer through the keywind era.

Artifacts

In the collection

Reference

Wanted

None documented.

Open questions

  • Does the “Family Size” (~28 oz) Houston-address tin predate or postdate the Delaware Street standard keywind era?
  • Are paper-label tins from the Burnett Street address documented in sources other than the Comfort 2014 lot?
  • Was New Orleans Can Company the sole can supplier through the 1930s, or did American Can take over earlier?

See also