Eight O'Clock Coffee

The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) opened its first store in 1859, and coffee was among the signature products of the supermarket chain. In 1919, A&P introduced the famous "Eight O'Clock Coffee" trademark. It is said that the company arrived at the name after conducting a survey as to what time of day most coffee was consumed; the most popular time was Eight O' Clock - both a.m. and p.m.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the coffee business in the United States was primarily whole bean, and Eight O'Clock Coffee was the best-selling coffee in the entire world. In the early 1930s, with distribution limited to the East Coast and parts of the Mid-West, Eight O'Clock coffees enjoyed a 25% share of the national coffee business. (One out of every four cups of coffee consumed in America was Eight O'Clock Coffee!)