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.