Americans drink billions of cups of coffee annually, according to the National Coffee Association. But coffee has a role not only in the United States at large but in St. Louis specifically. Deborah Reinhardt, author of "St. Louis Coffee: A Stimulating History" tells KMOX that coffee has been a part of the city's history ever since St. Louis was a center for French-colonial trading.
"The beans would come from up river from New Orleans, and then women had to roast them and skillets and grind them by hand and then boil them in water," Reinhardt explained. "It was very labor intensive. But it really wasn't until the middle of the 18th century, when coffee, commercial coffee roasting kind of came into its own, where it became more of an everyday kind of a drink then."
Back when it first started coming to St. Louis in the mid-19th century, coffee was only available to the wealthy who could afford to have someone roast it for them. But then, as St. Louis welcomed travelers heading West, more people realized it might be worth investing in coffee roasting equipment.
"People stopped in St. Louis to outfit their wagons as they were heading west to pick up the various staples, and coffee was one of them," Reinhardt said. "Eventually, it caught on by the early 1850s — I think it was 1853 was the first commercial roaster in town; it was called Minoans Coffee, Tea and Spice." That was the first company to start roasting coffee full-time.
Deborah Reinhardt explained how coffee grew from that first company into the business it is here today. Listen to her full conversation:
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