House To House: Whatever Happened To Maxwell House?

I don’t have any memory of their adverts per se and as a man who didn’t drink coffee their influence on my life was non-existent. What I do remember is that back in the day (late 80’s/early 90’s) it was the thing to drink or know someone who drank Maxwell House. Although I don’t remember what their adverts were like I do remember they had adverts. Now I don’t see or hear of them anywhere. I wonder whatever happened to them.

Well you know how it goes, when something hits my interest peak I get online whenever I can and find out as much as I can about it. Sure enough one Google search later and this pops up. Evidently not dead or buried the question is although you can ‘spruce up your house today’ in America, what’s the deal with the UK product?

With further ‘reliable’ research, I was shocked to find out that not only is Maxwell House still going it’s going strong. Methinks there be a conspiracy surrounding its plight on these shores even though I’ve found that they can be purchased in bulk.

The real sign of established acceptance in the British consumer marketplace is that the product is a staple of the big stores like Sainsbury’s (which still sucks).

Well it just goes to show what little attention I pay to the market trends. There it is in Sainsbury’s costing either the extortionate £3.64 for the coffee powder or the outrageous £1.49 for the cappuccino knock-off effort. There you go, though, typical Sainsbury’s.

So after exhaustive research and a nostalgic trip down memory lane what has happened with Maxwell House? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There is no conspiracy in the UK. It’s still readily available. Apparently it’s still good to the last drop as it has been for over 100 years and I’ve just been ignorant in missing out on all the quality goodness in the product.

Following a conversation with the wise sage Simon Lovatt (my colleague at work who is the Man of Peace) I was also enlightened as to the reason for the apparent decline in public interest, which has little to do with the barmy prices. The deal is that due to the proliferation of coffee types and products on the market in the years proceeding ‘the day’ Maxwell just has not been such a force or pushed itself as much as they did when coffee drinking was a bigger deal.

One thing is for sure – I am not getting onto coffee – not at those prices!

da man cd