How coffee got quicker Moments of Vision 2 Jessica Oreck

In a Moment of Vision…

It’s 1849.

William H. Bovee leaves his job
at a coffee producer in New York City

to seek his fortune
in gold-fevered California.

But leaving behind the luxuries
of the city,

Bovee leaves behind a more expedient
cup of joe.

Out west, folks are still buying
their coffee beans green,

roasting the beans at home,

then grinding them with a hand crank,

all before actually brewing them.

Bovee builds California’s
first coffee mill,

packaging and selling pre-roasted beans.

And in a moment of vision,
he takes the process one step farther

making his mill the world’s first to grind
the already roasted beans

on a large scale,

then pack them conveniently
into small, consumer-friendly tins.

Only a few years later, however,
Bovee tires of the coffee business

and sells his shares of the company
to a young employee: James Folger.

Folger changes the name and grows
the company to a nationwide brand,

jumpstarting a race to find the quickest,
easiest way to that morning caffeine fix.

For the 64% of Americans that drink
coffee daily,

an expedient cup
is practically essential.