One of the most successful private label brands in the annals of grocery history, the Eight O'clock Coffee brand was introduced by the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company in 1859 and was sold there until 2015 when A&P finally went out of business.
Interestingly (at least to me) the brand was named based on several 19th century focus groups (or whatever they were called at the time) that said consumers had their first cup of coffee of the day at eight o'clock. Considering life expectancy in 1859 was around 51, this sounds a little late in the day to me or just maybe, the gunslingers and bandoleros of the time were just waking up after a night of rotgut whiskey at the saloon.
Currently, the brand is sold via e-commerce and select grocery channels (Walmart) by Tata Consumer Products of India who is the second largest producer of tea and coffee in the world.
For those who may be too young to remember, A&P was the nation's largest mid-century grocery chain and was particularly prominent in the New York metropolitan area meaning, a bag of Eight O'clock Coffee was always around my home growing up as no one in the swinging 70's cared a wit about gourmet coffee and viewed it largely as a functional beverage on par with Maxwell House and Folgers.
Today of course, when toddlers are weaned on double espressos and daily twelve dollar lattes are the ruination of countless credit ratings, Eight O'clock now offers "Barista Blends" and Keurig versions to keep our nervous systems permanently jangled.
Just for fun, I tried Eight O'clock again recently and found it to be a very decent cup of coffee but honestly, I won't be going out of my way to stockpile the brand. Coffee's not my thing but any brand that has the stamina to survive 165 years, has to be worth an automatic five stars for lifetime achievement. My toddler agrees. read more