Sometimes I come across hundred-year-old advertisements for brands that have long vanished from the scene. For example, I recently found an advertisement for Barrington Hall coffee. According to the ad, it is “baker-ized” and “steel cut.”
What the heck is steel-cut coffee? It sounds like it should be a type of oats and not coffee. And, baker-ized sounds like cakes or cookies rather than coffee.
A Hundred Years Ago 
I don’t have a clue about “baker-ized,” but steel-cut coffee still has a following. The Folger company is introducing a new line of steel-cut coffee called “1850” that’s already available on Amazon and will be in stores in the future. As for steel-cut as a process, I found this interesting information that explains where it fits in the whole roasting and grinding process.
Wow, you’ve found a lot of absolutely fascinating information. It’s interesting that Folger’s is introducing an “old-fashioned” steel cut coffee. And the link to the 1922 book about coffee is a treasure-trove of information about coffee in the early 20th century. It’s amazing what sometimes pops up.
I was going to say something very similar to what Shoreacres said, and Pattyabr, too. I’ll add two things, though: I’ve read that when you grind coffee with blades – as you do in a typical coffee grinder – it creates heat that connoisseurs say damage the beans. Burr grinding doesn’t do that. To add to what Pattyabr said, bakerizing also means something particular to Florida residents – another undesirable meaning of that word.
Thanks for the info. It’s really interesting how some ways of grinding coffee might damage the beans and negatively affect the coffee quality. I’m quickly learning that bakerized is probably a term that I don’t want to use.
So I was wrong. Georgia and Minnesota ARE connected after all: “William Baker of Barrington Hall in Roswell, Georgia, had 3 sons who united in 1917 to form Baker and Co, Importers and Roasters of Coffee, in Minneapolis. Their speciality was “Barrington Hall Soluble Coffee.”
Viola! BTW the old Minneapolis coffee factory is being turned into a restaurant by Gavin Kaysen (his third opening). It will be called Demi.
It’s interesting that there were Barrington Hall Coffee companies in both Georgia and Minnesota.
I was really curious so I looked it up.
Miriam Webster dictionary: Steel-cut ground or crushed between rolls fitted with cutting teeth into granules of uniform size and freed of powder and chaff steel-cut coffee steel-cut oats
I found a similar advertisement when I Googled Bakerized. It seems to indicate the brand Baker’s Steel Cut coffee. It must indicate that this company specialized in this specific process of grinding coffee. Thereby coining the term Baker-ized.
I won’t relay to you the Urban dictionary definition of bakerized it’s crass even for me to put into writing but you could look it up 😉
Thanks for researching this. The definitions and information are really helpful. Your comment about the Urban Dictionary intrigued me, so of course I had to check it out. 🙂 I’m not going to quote it (I agree it’s crass), but it seems like it is basically says that bakerized means to really mess things up. I wonder how a term that apparently originally was about something related to a company (or a coffee) shifted so much in meaning across the years.
That’s quite correct.
“Steel cut” strikes us now as a “oh, what the heck” type of thing, but you’ll still find one brand of Irish oatmeal that advertises in that fashion. The point is, “cut in a really sanitary and modern way”.
It’s fascinating that a term that once suggested the use of modern grinding methods, now suggests an old-fashioned process.
It is odd. We seem to focus on the roasting part of the process.
I hadn’t thought about it until you mentioned it, but you’re absolutely right that we focus on roasting rather than the cut. I wonder if the shift in focus is just a shift in advertising copy – or if there has been an actual change over the past hundred years in what is considered the most important things to consider when purchasing coffee.
I don’t know if is was a good coffee ,but the can is pretty! The bakerized might be referred to the drying process of the bean to make sure it doesn’t have too much moisture before grinding.
It is a lovely can. It’s difficult to tell from the b&w photo, but it looks like the can might have been quite colorful compared to the typical coffee can back then. I hadn’t thought about it before I saw your comment, but it makes sense that the beans needed to have certain moisture levels to ensure that they didn’t spoil and had the right flavor. This reminds me of testing corn, wheat, soybeans and other grains to make sure that they don’t have too much moisture.
I wonder if anyone still uses that process.
Maybe . . .
Yes. If I understand it correctly, “steel-cut” is what people would today call “burr-grinding.” If you’re super into coffee – especially if you like to do things like pour-overs – you would probably purchase a burr grinder instead of a bladed coffee grinder. You’ll also find them in really high-end espresso/cappuccino machines.
I learned something new. I’m going to have to pay attention to the grinding methods the next time I get into a coffee shop that grinds its own coffee.
I adore that tagline. I don’t care how they produced the coffee, I just want to live in a world where every repast is successful.
I just learned the meaning of a new word – repast. I probably should have looked it up prior to posting this post – but I never got around to it. Your comment sent me to the dictionary. 🙂 I agree, I want to live in a world where every repast is successful.
Who knew? lol! Thanks for sharing! First time on your cool blog! Light and Love, Shona
Thanks for stopping by. It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed this blog. I have a lot of fun doing it.
It seems like it made a good cup of coffee. Here’s another explanation for the Baker-ized. https://www.flickr.com/photos/stgrundy/13080416453
Thanks for this flickr link. It’s fun to see what the coffee can looked like in color and to read about the Baker family (which led to the term baker-ized) that owned this company. When I clicked through the slides I was amazed to discover that there may be a home open to the public in Roswell Georgia on the national register of historic homes that is connected to this family (Barrington Hall) – though, based on a quick scan, I couldn’t find anything on its website about the coffee. https://www.roswellgov.com/discover-us/southern-trilogy-historic-house-museums/barrington-hall/buildings-grounds
That’s very interesting; yet no mention of the coffee.
I doubt there’s a connection between the Georgia Plantation and the Minneapolis coffee factory… there’s too much distance (days worth of travel in the 1800s).
BTW the Barrington Hall coffee factory is being reborn as a restaurant by Gavin Kaysen (his third) called Demi.
The whole thing is amusing.
And, I’m amazed how this post, which I quickly pulled together, is taking on a life of it’s own as we try to sort out a wide range of topics – word definitions (baker-ized, steel cut coffee, repast), the history of the family that owned the company that made this coffee and the historic home that they lived in, etc.
I was just going to say that – it is a well-known antebellum home north of Atlanta, GA: Barrington Hall is an 1839 Greek Revival-style mansion built as the residence of Barrington King who, along with his father Roswell King, was the founder of the town of Roswell, in northern Fulton County, Georgia.
Thanks for the additional information. It’s fascinating how there is an antebellum home that still exists which is associated with this long-forgotten brand of coffee. If I ever get to the Atlanta area and have a little spare time, I’ll have to visit it.
I rarely get up there, we are 50miles south of Roswell, but we have a good friend there who I remember took us to that home, and I remember they had the coffee cans on display.